Suffering Part 2

Introduction (5min)

Recap

Suffering destroys the illusion of self-sufficiency and keeps us totally dependent upon God

Suffering teaches us to pray

Suffering causes us to study the Bible

1. Suffering makes a sympathetic and gives us credibility ministering to others needs (13 min)

2 Cor 1:1-7 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.”

How has God, changed us in suffering? Have you seen if your behavior has changed?

2. Suffering draws families and friends together (13 min)

Rom 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

Job 30:25 ““Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?”

Hebrews 13:3 “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.”

1 Cor 12:25-26 “so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

3. Suffering corrects priorities causing us to distinguish the eternal from this transitory the important from the non essential (13 min)

2 Cor 4:17-18 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

1 John 2:16-17 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”