Christian, If You're Suffering... Watch this:

Paul and his own weakness when he says, look, I prayed three times to the Lord that he would hear me. Will you remove whatever was causing the angst in Paul, whatever was causing that suffering? And Jesus' response to him was, my grace is sufficient, for when you are weak, then I am strong.

And I think it's, I just wanna encourage my brothers and sisters that if you're feeling the frailty of your flesh, where you at times feel a stranger in your own body, you feel like your body is constantly attacking you, your mind, your emotions are warring against the truth you know that's in your head, that there is something significant that you're fighting, and this is the body of death that Paul is speaking of in Romans 7.

We learn together to trust Christ in the midst of pain. We learn together to see and know the love of Christ in the midst of weakness. Together, we learn this in the midst of the struggle.

When you walk into a child's room and they're afraid of the dark, you can't tell them to stop being afraid of the dark. You have to give them a power that's stronger than the darkness, right? When my presence walks in, I'm actually stronger than the darkness because they're no longer afraid because I'm in the room.

I'm safe now.

Right, that's an objective protection for them. That's the gospel. So I love that our God and our Savior and our friend and our King is sympathetic to this. This is why he is told to be called a sympathetic high priest.

Because at times our emotions can take over because we think something else is in control and not God. That's what's happening. First Peter 5, he says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God.

He's saying, you can give your life over to a God whose power is sufficient. Like humble means I put myself out of control into his control, why? Because of the next verse, he says, cast your anxieties, the things that you're worried about controlling, cast your anxieties on him.

Why?

Because it's sin? No, he says, because he cares for you. Whoa, it's like, he's powerful, he cares for you. And then here's where it's important. He says, be sober minded, be watchful because there's an adversary who wants to trick you to do the opposite.

He wants to devour your faith and your hope. Resist him firm in what? Your faith, not your obedience, not your performance, not your health, Justin. Sometimes we equate no pain, good health with good faith.

He cares for you, he is powerful, he cares for you and he's sympathetic. So when you feel this way, you shouldn't go away and make yourself stronger. You actually fall into the arms of your savior and he actually can care for you.

Simple by even just a simple prayer of Lord, I don't like the way I feel and I don't wanna carry this anxiety. As simple as that at times.

And he is called a man of sorrows. I mean, he knew what it was like to suffer. He knew what it was like to feel alone and to be abandoned by all of his earthly companions. He knew pain and he knew what it was to be afraid.

I mean, in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he stared down the barrel of the wrath of God that he would bear in the place of all of his people. So he can identify with us in all of those things.

To the listener that's out there that you feel like you've either entered into this stage or you've been in a lifelong battle and suffering with something, there's something wrong with you. You're right, there is something wrong with you.

That's why we long for the hope of his return so that he makes all things new. The promise is to come. He's restored your faith, he has captured your soul and he will restore your body when he returns and it's healthy to remember we are not home yet.

No, we're not.

So the Passover, you know it well, it's the 10th plague. The Lord says, I'm gonna do this in the land of Egypt. They're to put the blood of the lamb on the lentil of the door, the posts of the door. And the Lord says that when I pass through that night to put to death all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

And of course, we know that that points to Jesus in magnificent ways and how the blood of Jesus Christ shields us from the wrath of God, amen. But Passover's happening tonight. The 10th plague's coming tonight and they're talking to each other.

And one guy says, hey man, how do you feel? All the stuff that the Lord's told us to do and the blood on the doorposts and firstborn being put to death,.

How do you feel about all this?

And the guy's like, bro, I mean, I'm terrified. And the guy who asked the question says, what do you mean you're afraid? The Lord's already told us how this is gonna turn out and the other guy's like, yeah, I just don't know, man.

I mean, this is frightening stuff. I'm just not, I'm not sure I'm gonna do what the Lord says but I don't know how this is gonna go. One's confident, one's terrified. Well, they both, they go, they have the meal, they both put the blood of the lamb on the post of their door and they go to sleep.

And the question is this, when the angel of the Lord comes through the land of Egypt that night to put the firstborn to death, which one of those men lost his son? And the answer to that is neither one because it is the blood of the lamb that makes the difference, not the strength of the faith.