Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
It is a pleasure to be before you again.
I looked forward to the day I would be able to come before you and speak.
I’m sure that all of us are in the midst of the busyness of life, but I praise God that he has put it in your hearts for you to be here today.
Today, I want to talk to you about something that has been placed on my heart in the last couple of weeks and that is the idea of dying.
Illustration: In the United States during the year 2019 there will be 42,030 cases of liver cancer.
Of those people, I did not think my dad would be one.
It says of that number, about 31,780 will die from liver cancer.
Worldwide approximately 90% will die because of the cancer.
This is the news that was given to me.
I went through some of the stages of grief right away: Denial and anger.
In one sense, I wanted to deny that this could happen to my dad.
I wanted to think that they made some mistake.
But when it became clear that this was true, I became angry.
Angry at the medical system for not finding out earlier.
Angry at the world we live in for having such a terrible disease.
I was even tempted to be angry at God.
But I remembered the many mercies he has given me.
I remembered the times I have been able to spend with my dad when others have not, and I know that I was not right in justifying myself more than others.
So I began to look at God’s word on how to cope with knowing the person who you loved, who taught you, who disciplined you, who fed you, who worked his life for you, was one day going to be gone.
What I hope you take away here is two things:
That you would consider the compassion God has for those who are suffering.
That you would be able to deal with loss in the way that Jesus dealt with it.
God will have compassion for your suffering
Let’s read the text this morning once more, but I am going to start a little earlier in the text.
Many of us already know about Jesus feeding the five thousand, but many of you probably didn’t know that this follows the news of John the Baptist’s death.
Let’s read:
Matthew 14:12
The news of John the Baptist’s death hit Jesus hard.
This was not an honorific death, it was a death by beheading.
His head was literally brought to the king on a platter.
The king himself regretted his decision…though I am sure for far more selfish reasons.
Respectfully we read that the disciples came and took care of the body of John the Baptist.
When Jesus came to earth, he never gave up his divine abilities, but he did add his human nature.
So although Jesus knew this was going to happen, his human nature responded directly as anyone who loves somebody would.
Jesus wisely does something that I think most people with grief do at first: isolation.
Why would the Son of God, the divine being need to do this?
It is because his human nature felt the same way we felt when we encounter loss.
We see that when Jesus went out to desolate places it was to pray:
When you encounter suffering, you need to pray.
Who can comfort you, but the God of miracles himself?
This is something that I did.
I clearly remember the day, I woke up and begrudgingly decided to spend time with God.
But as I did, I felt his hand come upon me.
Later that morning, I received a text message from a good friend who wanted to speak with me about something.
I told him that I was unable to speak with him because I wanted to speak with my father who had just gotten out of the hospital.
My friend responded and said that early that morning he was prompted to pray specifically for me.
He did not know the reason why until after I told him the news.
Students and teachers, God has already taken care of you before you even seek him.
Paul reminds us:
Rom 8:
Is that not a beautiful picture of how God helps us in our suffering?
We don’t even know what to say, but the Spirit speaks on our behalf.
Back to the story of Jesus, we read that there is a crowd that follows him out to his desolate place.
He is not allowed a moment to grieve at this point, he is in the midst of ministry and he cannot stop.
What does Jesus do?
Mat 14:
He is in spiritual anguish and he uses that in a positive way to heal others.
I don’t know about you, but I think I would be angry that God was not allowing me time to grieve.
Jesus instead uses this opportunity to serve others.
Illustration: My initial reaction to the news of my father made me think many things.
Maybe I should stop serving in church, maybe I should drop activities at my school, maybe I should hop on a plane and leave Korea for good.
All these thoughts went through my head, but then I read this beautiful passage.
All these thoughts went through my head, but then I read this beautiful passage.
Jesus says in the midst of suffering, consider the suffering of others instead of yourself.
It is complete reversal to how we actually think.
Our culture today says that we should take care of ourselves, better ourselves, make you the best you that you can be!
Yet Jesus teaches us to consider ourselves nothing, and everyone else as more important.
And without God in your life, you will be unable to do this.
God has compassion on us during the time of our need.
I began to hear more clearly from God that the powers of this world and even Satan himself were beginning to use the situation of my father’s cancer against me.
The devil knows that he cannot make someone an unbeliever, but he can make you ineffective at ministry.
How tempting it is for me to want to give up proclaiming the Gospel so I can simply go and be with my father.
God knows what a struggle it is for me, yet I can relate to what happens next in the story.
Mat 14:15-
Jesus did not want to send these sufferers away.
He does not disregard us either when we are suffering.
He wants to take care of us where we are at.
Remember that God has compassion for the suffering.
God will bless you in your suffering
The next point I want to make is that in your suffering God will seek to bless you.
I want to be cautious here because there are many people who will preach this message and tell you that if you suffer God is going to give you lots of money and a nice home and a better job.
That is plain false teaching.
Do not listen to that.
But it is true that when you face trials, you are blessed, just not in the way you may think.
Listen to what the book of James says:
So this trial that I am having with my father, I am supposed to somehow count it as joy.
Surely, I do count some of it as joy.
I know my father believes that he is a sinner and needs a savior.
I know that one day we will be united again in heaven.
There is joy in that, but God says there is a joy to be found in what suffering does to you.
Suffering produces a kind of faith that is not as easily broken.
When you meet someone who is a believer and they have experienced much heart-ache, it is incredible to see what kind of person they become.
Illustration: Many of you probably don’t know the name Horatio Spafford.
He wrote an old hymn that many of you actually might now called “It is well with my soul.”
He wrote the hymn after a series of terrible event in his life.
He first lost his son at the age of two during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
This ruined him financially.
The economy dropped significantly after that point.
He had already planned a trip to Europe but decided to stay back and meet the rest of his family later.
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