Sermon Tone Analysis

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

It is an honor and privilege to preach the Word of God to this church.

I want to begin this morning by telling you the story of Min-Jae as told by the publication from The Voice of the Martyrs.

Min-Jae grew up in North Korea.

In 2004, he took a business trip to China.

While in China, he actually visited a friend’s church and loved all of the weird and new Bible stories he was told.

It wouldn’t be long before Min-Jae put his faith in Jesus Christ.

He was baptized and given his very own Korean Bible.

While he was getting ready to head back to North Korea, someone asked him if he would be willing to accept a shipment when he returned home.

In that shipment would be 10 hidden Bibles.

This is a big ask!

He was a new Christian and already nervous about sneaking in just the one Bible for himself.

“If border guards caught him with even a few pages, he could be tortured or killed.”

He knew that if he received the shipment of Bibles that it could result in being placed in one of North Korea’s concentration camps.

He labored much over the decision and made up his mind when he remembered that his life was no longer his own, but that it belonged to Christ.

He decided to trust God and accept the package.

A few months later, the package would arrive.

“At 1 am, he approached a boat along the bank of the Yalu River, praying for God’s protection and guidance with every step.”

He then got three large duffle bags and ran home.

He tore through the contents of the duffle bags and wrapped in all of the various, tightly packed clothing were 10 Bibles.

He wasn’t sure what to do with the books at the time so he kept them hidden until God made it clear who they should be given to.

One day months later, he heard a man whistling a hymn that Min-Jae had learned while he was at church back in China.

After midnight, that evening, he wrapped eight of the Bibles up and delivered them to that man’s front door.

Some time later, Min-Jae decided to return to China with hopes of defecting from North Korea.

During this attempt, he was arrested and extradited to North Korea.

I’ll read to you exactly what was reported to have happened next:

“In prison, he met a former friend who had been arrested because of his Christian faith.

And as they talked, Min-jae realized that his friend was a nephew of the man he had given the Bibles.

That man had also been arrested and was being held in the

same prison.

Min-jae's friend told him that his uncle had given the eight Bibles to relatives, who had then committed their lives to Christ.

The entire family of 27 people began to gather secretly at night to worship God and to read and discuss the Scriptures.

But one night a neighbor overheard the believers singing hymns and reported them to authorities.

The secret police raided their home and arrested everyone.

Although he wasn't able to interact with them in prison, Min-jae often heard some of the family members praying in their cells.

He never told his friend that he was the one who had left the eight Bibles on his uncle's doorstep; it was still too risky for anyone to know.

A month later, all 27 family members, including Min-jae's friend and his friend's uncle, were sent to a concentration camp.”

Min-Jae would eventually be released from prison and successfully defected to South Korea.

He remains concerned about the Christian family that is suffering in that North Korean Concentration Camp.

He knows that he is the one who provided the families with the Bibles that helped lead to their imprisonment.

However, he also knows that it was ultimately God who provided the family with the Bibles and that God is with that family as they suffer in his name.

There are Christian brothers and sisters all across this globe that are going through trials that are almost unfathomable for us.

Let us take a moment and pray for them:

PRAY

Today we are going to talk about faithfulness amidst affliction.

If you would, open your Bibles to Psalm 119.

We are going to be looking at the 11th stanza of this psalm today.

This is an emotionally difficult passage.

One commentary said, “[in this] stanza the poet’s sense of depression from the current attack of the insolent ment reaches its [greatest depths]” (Broadman).

We’ve talked about trial and affliction through the other parts of psalm 119 and it will be a continuous theme throughout, but in verses 80-88 we see the deepest and most anxious depression of the psalmist.

There is still hope, hope centered on the goodness of God’s Word, but our psalmist describes being at wit’s end as he waits for God’s deliverance.

I know that many of us are going through difficult times.

We have battles with our health.

We have familial difficulties.

We are surrounded by the effects of sin and see the consequences thereof as people are hurt all around us.

False versions of Christianity have given the impression that a life lived for Jesus is an easy life.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Jesus warned that those who follow Him would be afflicted.

The trials that we go through here in America are trials indeed, but they pale in comparison to our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are imprisoned, beaten, and put to death for their beliefs.

I don’t say this to make light of the trials you are going through or have gone through.

But rather to highlight the fact that even with the glorious hope there is in Christ Jesus, we should not expect for this life to be easy.

With the glorious hope there is in Christ Jesus, we are given the endurance to press on for the glory of God!

As we look at the Word of God today, we will see three phases of affliction for the one who has been reconciled to God.

The first phase is:

The Anchor

Before we get to the specifics of the psalmist’s trials we see where his life is anchored:

I am not much of a sailor but I do know that every boat has an anchor.

The purpose of an anchor is to keep a boat in place when the conditions of the water would see it moved.

Not only does a boat need an anchor, but it needs an effective anchor!

If the anchor doesn’t keep the boat in place, then it’s pointless!

I found myself on a boating forum this week and the very first post was a person noting how many 60-100 thousand dollar sailboats they had witnessed the weekend before using $25 anchors from Walmart.

The little anchors were ineffective!

The boats were being tossed all about and most of the people had to give up on their adventure because of the winds that weekend.

An ineffective anchor is worthless!

So why then that when it comes to our lives we are so quick to tie on a cheap, ineffective anchor!

We cling to hope of a politician.

We cling to the hope of pulling up our own bootstraps.

We cling to the hope of a sexual relationship with another sinful person.

We put our hope in just about anything and everything except for the true anchor of Jesus Christ as revealed to us in God’s Word!

The steadfast anchor of the soul, is the hope there is in Jesus!

Jesus is the Great High Priest who made atonement for the sins of those who believe in Him.

He has gone beyond the holy of holies.

He is the God-man who enters into the Father’s presence on our behalf!

At the time Psalm 119 was written Jesus had not yet come, but He was alluded and promised all throughout the Old Testament.

The psalmist knows that God is going to provide salvation and his life in anchored in the expectation of that salvation.

Look back at verse 81 once more.

The Psalmist desires the Lord and hopes in God’s Word with all of his being.

You may see in other translations that it says “My soul faints for your salvation.”

He is desperate for the Lord to the very core of his being, and though desperate, he is not despairing.

He still sees the hope there is in God.

No matter what you are going through.

No matter the concentration camps our brothers and sisters are in around the world, they can still be heard praying from their cells, because in our deepest desperation, there is not despair when you are reconciled to the God who is in control of all things.

Paul said it like this:

This only happens when you are anchored in the Lord as revealed in God’s Word.

The anchor of Hope in God is seen all throughout our psalm.

As he is asking the Lord when comfort will come, look at where his eyes are focussed!

Other translations more accurately state this verse as saying “My eyes fail from searching Your Word.”

This shows us that the psalmist is fixated upon searching God’s Word.

He’s studied so hard his eyes hurt!

God does not promise us immediate gratification.