Working For and With God (Part 3)

Someone once said that there are three sides to every story – your version, my version, and the truth. And while that quaint thought is amusing, it also carries a little bit of a sting.

In God’s perfect and awesome timing and providence, the Sunday sermons, the weekday Facebook Live devotions, and the Wednesday study in the Book of Daniel have all been dealing with the theme of God’s truth versus Satan’s lies, in either a very prominent way or as a side issue. And while that has been wonderful in allowing such a foundational truth to sink down into my soul and consciousness, it can also be a bit confusing for you as you listen to me teach or preach because I may at times assume that I have already covered certain issues with you when it was part of one of these other teachings. So, unless you have been following all three of these various lessons, forgive me if I make a faulty assumption or two, and thus say something that is puzzling to you.

God’s truth is God’s truth. There is no such thing as God’s truth to you versus God’s truth to me. There may be various applications of God’s truth to each of us individually, but God’s truth does not change nor is it different to each of us. None of us get to determine what truth is.

But sometimes, truth is not comfortable or convenient or what we want to hear. Sometimes the truth of God will turn our world and our paradigm upside-down. Sometimes God’s truth will puzzle and perplex us, especially when our lives are seemingly on an unending roller coaster ride.

One example that I want you to grasp is contained in the account of Job. So, before we go to our passage in 2 Corinthians, turn with me in your Bible to the Book of Job.

Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6

Those are somewhat familiar passages, and some of you were here when I preached through the Book of Job several years ago. But when I preached these passages, I completely missed a very important aspect of what happened in Job’s life at this time. We know that Job was never privy to these cosmic conversations between Yahweh and Satan, but let me ask you a question: Who initiated these conversations?

Satan did not come to God on either occasion desiring to attack Job. God mentioned His servant Job to Satan, both times. God challenged Satan to have his way with Job, within certain limits each time, to not only test the faith of Job but to rub Satan’s nose in the eventual outcome – an outcome that God knew beforehand.

As we begin to consider the trials and tribulations of the Apostle Paul this morning, please know before we even read about them, that not only did none of these struggles happen to Paul by chance, but that God used each one to purify Paul, to expedite His spiritual growth, to confirm and solidify his testimony, and to further God’s own glory among the nations through Paul’s life.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Let’s pray.

Last week, we saw the essential part that endurance plays in our spiritual growth, and we saw that endurance is only possible through the experience of difficulty and struggle and trial and persecution. Spiritual growth to the level that God has ordained for each of us cannot happen only through what we consider to be blessing after blessing. True growth only comes through the struggle if we can get over ourselves and begin to consider all joy when you experience various trials.

In our passage, Paul wrote about this endurance to open his own personal experience to us, which is as far as we got last week, but he immediately fills is with some of the things that he was put in a position to endure – none of which were mistakes, none of which that God somehow missed and failed to protect Paul from, and none of which did not have a purposed and intended goal in Paul’s life and the lives of those that Paul would minister to.

2 Corinthians 6:4b-5

The first condition that Paul lists for his own journey with God in working for and with Him for the sake of the kingdom, is afflictions.

Flip back a page and let’s refresh our memories with what we studied a while back that Paul has already revealed to us about his life of ministry.

2 Corinthians 4:8-11

Paul’s faith never wavered; his hope never diminished; his joy never faded. He never lost sight of the reality that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). This same attitude is also expressed in the next verses of this chapter (4:16–18), but also in Acts 20:24 and Philippians 3:8, among many others.

2 Corinthians 6:4b

So, back to our current passage, the list that follows defines the various general elements of endurance, beginning with afflictions. One of the church fathers, Chrysostom, calls this list a “blizzard of troubles”, and I believe we can all understand that in our own experiences and at our own measure.

The Greek word translated as afflictions, refers to spiritual, physical, social, economic, and/or emotional suffering. It is a very broad term that encompasses all manner of suffering. It is highly likely that any suffering that you might be experiencing right now, have recently experienced, or will be experiencing at some future time, falls under the definition and sense of this word.

In Acts 14:22, Luke records the words of Paul when he says, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” The word in that verse, tribulation, is the same Greek word translated as afflictions in our current verse. Then in Acts 20:23, Paul says, “the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.” Again, the same Greek word.

And we must note that Paul speaks of these tribulations and afflictions with the sense that there is no way around them and no way out. All of these things are part and parcel to being a believer, to being a minister of reconciliation, to being an ambassador for Jesus Christ, to working together with our Lord, to receiving the grace of God in all of its fullness and not in vain.

Paul then mentions hardships that built godly endurance in his life. This is a word that describes the general difficulties of living in a fallen and sin-cursed world. In Matthew 18:7 it is translated as inevitable. So, the sense of these hardships is also one of which there is no way around them and no way out. As believers, living in this fallen and sin-cursed world, we are definitely not immune to these hardships. As I mentioned last week, it is a lie of Satan that we are supposed to live a life with what we consider to be blessings after blessing with no end in sight – that will be our eternal state in heaven but not here in our physical existence on earth.

The next general struggle that built godly endurance into Paul’s life, was distresses, and it refers to being confined in a small and narrow place hemmed in on all sides, so the sense is one of feeling pressure, of being weighed down by the troubles and stresses of life, of being in a stressful situation. Some translators suggest that distresses could also be considered as anxieties.

Paul is sharing from his experiences, but he is also revealing to each of us that these things are to be expected in the life of a believer. The false-teaching hooligans on TV want you to believe that your life can be almost perfect with no health problems, no money problems, no relationship problems, and no emotional problems if you just follow their 5-steps to prosperous living and send a generous donation to their ministry, but such is not the teaching of God’s Word.

“In this world you will have tribulation”, is straight from the mouth of Jesus, and the Apostle Paul is living proof of that. So, never allow yourself to doubt God or doubt His watchful care of you when struggles and trials blindside you. God knows exactly what you are going through, and He knows that the end result will be for your ultimate good if you will embrace His sovereign rule over your life, also knowing that this life is temporary, and our afflictions are for but a moment in the scope of eternity.

2 Corinthians 6:5

Paul now adds a few specific issues that he had to endure. Afflictions, hardships, and distresses were very general and can be applied to each of us in that sense, but now he gets specific with issues that we may or may not also be called to endure.

The first one for Paul in this list is beatings. As of yet, have any of you been beaten because of your faith or for simply stating that you are a Christian or for proclaiming the Gospel to someone else? The Apostle Paul was on numerous occasions. We will study this together eventually, but in 11:24-25, Paul relates more details about his experiences as a minister for Christ – “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten by rods, once I was stoned…”

This was a common occurrence for Paul. His body must have been severely scarred. I know that I feel the effects of growing older with all manner of stiffness and minor pain when sitting in the car for too long and trying to get out, I can’t imagine what Paul felt as a much younger man from the punishment his body took from beatings and from the hundreds if not thousands of miles that he walked in his ministry journeys.

But again, remember that none of this brutality that he endured was a mistake, none of it was outside of God’s design, God’s purposes, or God’s permission – and all of it was good, all of it was a divine form of blessing, all of it produced benefit in Paul’s life, benefit for the church, and benefit for the spread of the Gospel.

Then Paul speaks of the imprisonments that built godly endurance into his life.

The frequency that Paul was imprisoned for proclaiming the message of Christ, was such that he quite possibly could have checked out the prisons as he entered each town, to get a feel for his likely future accommodations. Paul essentially had a prison ministry without purposely creating a prison ministry. But his ministry including eating, sleeping, and being chained with prisoners for however long each stay was.

And here is the great lesson for us in this attitude that Paul had – stop fretting over everything not being perfect in the ministry opportunities that are before you and instead simply embrace each ministry opportunity – and beloved, every situation you face, every struggle you endure, and every set of circumstances that you find yourself in, is a ministry opportunity.

And do you know what else Paul did in prison? He wrote 13 and possibly 14 of the 27 Books in the New Testament. It is very possible that Paul looked forward to and welcomed being thrown into prison, it gave him time to write. While out of prison, he didn’t waste any of his time with writing, but instead focused on teaching, preaching, witnessing, and discipling every person he came into contact with.

That is the consider it all joy attitude that we must aspire to.

The next specific struggle that Paul viewed as building godly endurance into his life was tumults. Tumults refers to the riots, mob disturbances, civil upheavals, and such that pretty much followed Paul wherever he went. Satan would inevitably stir up unbelievers and apostates to oppose Paul with community violence against him at almost every turn in his ministry. There were some brief periods of time when he was allowed to minister in relative peace, but they were few and far between.

Next were labors. Paul viewed the hard and exhausting work that he was required to engage in to earn a living and travel from town to town so he could evangelize and start churches and minister to everyone, as building godly endurance into his life. He never complained when there was a lack of financial support, but always picked up his skills in working with leather and tent-making to provide for his needs.

Paul speaks even of his sleeplessness as building godly endurance into his life. Paul’s sleeplessness was most likely due to the frantic pace of ministry and from his own words, redeeming the time because the days are evil, but I would have to assume that at least some of his sleeplessness was due to the pain he must have been in almost around the clock from the abuse inflicted on his body.

Lastly, Paul even viewed hunger as a tool that was used to build godly endurance into his life. The sense here is that there were times when Paul had no food on his journeys. To list hunger must mean that he would sometimes go days without food, not knowing when his next meal would come. Yet we are never given the impression that he ever questioned God or complained that it would be nice to have some food.

Paul endured all of these specifics struggles along with the many that could be covered in the general aspects of afflictions, hardships, and distresses, for the sake of the ministry and for the glory of God.

But not everything that Paul experienced for building godly endurance into his life was negative experiences. Yes, we can and typically do learn more from the trials and tribulations, but there are also victories and kindnesses and all manner of joyous experiences that also build godly endurance into our lives, which we will consider next week.

With what we have looked at today, I trust that you have either been encouraged or have had your view of the struggles that we face realigned. When God called us to His glorious salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone, He called us to be comprehensively His. The reason that Paul teaches that salvation comes by confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, is because we have then been bought with His blood and we are no longer our own, but His.

For any of us to complain about our circumstances or be disappointed that God has not paved the way for us to have a fairy tale life on earth, with nothing but happy experiences, pain-free bodies, stress-free relationships, and all the money and possessions that we could dream of, is not only unrealistic, it is unbiblical.

God’s work in us to make us like Jesus Christ, is a series of life experiences that build godly endurance into our lives. Heaven will be pain-free and stress-free and unending joy, but we have responsibilities in this world to grow in Christ, to be His witnesses and make disciples, which Satan will oppose at every turn.

The beauty is that every time that we embrace the affliction, the hardships, and the distresses and develop another layer of godly endurance into our lives, it is another slap to Satan’s face instead of giving him the victory and the last laugh every time that we complain and moan and cry about our imperfect circumstances.

I choose to frustrate Satan and grow through the struggles.

Let’s pray.