Finding Peace and Meaning in the Suffering
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Men when you were dating your wife or when some guys date, why would you take your date on a scary ride or to a scary movie? In hopes your date would scoot closer to you. You desired to be close to them and wanted them to know they were safe close to you. In other words you brought her into a situation to draw her closer to you.
Are not trials like that? Life gets scary, but God allows us in these scary situations to draw us in closer to him and to teach us we can trust in him.
This morning I want to talk about suffering and how do we find peace and meaning in it
Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
Light Affliction
Light Affliction
“outer self is wasting away”
Is life ever free of problems? No
We have all lost someone to cancer
We have lost family members
We have had friends and family betray us
We have faced various sickness
We have faced financial hardship
We could go on and on of the hardships we face
Thank God for the pain though, pain lets you know something is wrong
the pain of this world lets us know their is something deeply wrong.
If the world was not full of pain, would we realize our need for a savior?
Their is no denying the world is full of pain and suffering, Paul acknowledged it, but it is not what defines us
Matthew West Truth Be Told
Paul goes on to say “light momentary affliction”
How is loosing someone light, how is suffering from cancer light, how is betrayal light, how is death light etc.
Paul in no way is belittling the things we go through
Paul had experienced much suffering himself, blindness, shipwrecked, beaten, snake bitten, imprisoned, etc.
he called it affliction
which is pain and suffering
the Gospel does not wash away affliction in this world, if you read the Gospels it becomes clear it rather intensifies the affliction we face
If you truly follow the Gospel you will be afflicted for it
“light”
in other words it is incapable of crushing you and does not define you
the cancer does not define you, the death does not define you, Jesus defines you
“momentary”
The suffering only last for a short time for you, at the most 100 years
Earth has been here about 6,000 years so your life takes up 1.6% percent of earths timeline
When you pass from this timeline to eternity how small does a 100 years seem?
What do we do with this affliction? do we just grin and bear it until we step into eternity? No, God does not attend for us to suffer without purpose, god desires to us it because the “affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
Our affliction gives us the opportunity to:
love God despite the circumstances
gives us a platform to shine His glory in unique ways, so more may experience His glory
Walking with Purpose in the Suffering
Walking with Purpose in the Suffering
Knowing all this is not going to make it easy or fear free
I think back to loosing my grandma and her journal
In her journal their is fear, but as the end got closer peace came in her journal
I got saved 6 months after her passing
Suffering will never be easy, but God can put purpose in our suffering
First thing first is you must have a relationship with Christ
If you don’t you will live a life making no sense of pain and seeking peace in sources that will fail you and leave you more broken
Their is no amount of empty bottles to erase the pains of the world
their is no amount of pills that will take the pain of suffering away
their is no amount of women that will take the hurt away
But if you come to Jesus, he will not numb you to the pain or necessarily erase it, but he will use it, he will give you peace
This morning I want to give you some words from verses 8 and 9 to help you carry through the pain, for you to allow God to use you in the hurt
“afflicted in every way, but not crushed”
we have already made it clear life attacks us in so many ways
No matter though how much hits us none of it is heavy enough to crush us
This is where the peace mentioned in Philippians 4:7 comes in. It is a peace beyond all understanding
“perplexed, but not driven to despair”
You will not be able to make sense of so much that happens to you and others
Your peace and purpose though is not found in the affliction
you are not driven to despair because you cling to the promises of God
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
We can say amen to the suffering, to the cancer, to the persecution because God is moving a mighty way in the pain that we don’t have to understand, but we can know in the light of eternity it will all make sense
“persecuted, but not forsaken”
Everyone in the world may be against you, you could be thrown in a jail cell for your faith and forgotten by everybody, but you could still rest knowing you are not forsaken
The Lord has not and will not leave His child
He will give you a peace, and you will find yourself worshipping him in unexplainable ways
Someone in the world is always watching, and waiting for you to fall, so they can say see you don’t really believe in this God you talk of
example of job
“struck down but not destroyed”
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
The world can beat the body, the world can take your wealth and health, but it cannot take your soul
Outroduction
Outroduction
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Know you can look at the promises of God and walk in him
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”