How to Keep from Losing Heart in Suffering

The following message may be offensive to some audiences. These audiences may include but are not limited to professing Christians who never read their Bible, sissies, sodomites, men with man buns, those who approve of men with man buns, man bun enablers, white knights for men with man buns, homemakers who have finished Netflix but don't know how to meal plan, and people who refer to their pets as fur babies.

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The World’s Doom-and-Despair Problem and Christ Alone

People are tired of hearing nothing but doom and despair on the radio.

The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone, and any who reject Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of almighty God is hanging over our heads.

They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed and they will perish.

God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he sits now to make intercession for us.

Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words,.

They will act upon them,.

And when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

Reading Ephesians 3:11-13 and the Question of Suffering

If you do have a Bible, turn to Ephesians 3, and we're going to be reading Ephesians 3, 11 -13. As we've been reading through Ephesians 3, this is a section of Scripture that's been building towards one specific point of application, and that application is found specifically in verse 13.

Now there's obviously many applications that you can find through Scripture, but it's all building towards a certain point that Paul is going to be applying directly to the Ephesians. And that point is essentially to teach them how to keep from losing heart in the midst of suffering.

And so today we're going to be walking through Ephesians 3, 11 -13, and focusing on answering this question, how do I keep from losing heart in suffering? So Ephesians 3, 11. This was according to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Now when you think about the Christian life, you think about a life that's filled in many ways with suffering, and suffering is not really unique to being a Christian at all.

We do live in a world that's dominated by suffering that's a result of sin in general. So suffering in general comes to us in the midst of a fallen world as a result of the fact that our first forefather Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So suffering is a part of life, and you're living in a culture and society that's really talking incessantly about how to handle suffering, particularly Christian culture. You can think about the songs we sing and the music that we play that's all geared towards answering this question.

But then if there's anything that seems to me that the Christian has a stunted understanding of, is a stunted understanding of the purpose of suffering in general, what are we to do with it, why is it happening, and how are we to handle it?

So we talk incessantly about how to handle it, but most of what we're saying is wrong. So most of what you're going to hear when you're listening to church music culture, which is where most people get their theology from, is geared towards handling the difficulties and the trials of life.

But as I'm saying, almost everything they're saying at that point is a wrong interpretation of why these things are happening, a wrong interpretation of what we should be doing, and a wrong interpretation of what suffering is in general, which is odd because suffering is such a distinct part of life that really is inescapable.

Now, for the vast majority of us, when you live in a culture and a society like ours, we don't experience suffering in the same way that the Apostle Paul experienced suffering. In fact, most of what we're suffering is just the normal difficulties and trials that come with living life in a fallen world.

So most of what we're experiencing as it relates to this idea of suffering is just the difficulty of living in an embodied world that is subject to futility, is subject to decay. Now, we're living in a time right now that is becoming increasingly hostile to the church.

It's becoming increasingly hostile to the things of God. But for the most part, for most of us, as it relates to most of our life, you could be a person who goes to church every week. You can come. You can sit down in your chair every week.

The vast majority of professing Christians in America aren't even really doing that. But you have the freedom to do that. So you have the freedom to come and to sit in your chair without any threat of persecution, without any threat of wondering if you're going to be dragged off into some dark room somewhere where you're going to be interrogated and have your fingernails pulled out or something like that.

So most of you can come. You can do this. You can be a Christian at your job even. So you can go to work every day, kind of keep your head down, keep your mouth shut, not really say much of anything related to what it means to be a Christian.

So you can go to work. And for most people, you're not facing some sort of decision point between whether or not you need to stand for Christ or lose your job. And then I think for the vast majority of us, if you actually are in that kind of situation, you're prepared in your mind to rationalize all sorts of ways in which you don't actually have to say much of anything.

You can just kind of be quiet and follow the rules and keep your head down because after all, we have to work and we have to eat and we have to provide for your family and everything else. And so as I'm saying, for most of us, we experience suffering in a fairly limited way related to the basic trials of living life in a fallen world like sick and disease.

And we're all ultimately one day facing the day where we're going to die. And so you face that kind of difficulties and those kind of temptations. But then the Bible is written in the midst of a time where persecution was a very real thing.

In fact, it was such a real thing that the Christian faith, it started with an act of persecution. OK, so Jesus came to this earth and he was put to death by evil and wicked men. And all of his disciples at that moment when he was being put to death, except for one, they all fled because they knew that if they identified themselves with him, they may be next.

And, you know, church history and tradition tells us that, you know, of the 12 apostles, all of them were martyred except for one who was exiled. And so Jesus tells us before the end of his ministry that all those who desire to live righteously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

And this is a section in the Bible that's responding to how to really keep from losing heart in the midst of something like that. And when the Bible says that all those who desire to live righteously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, all means all there.

So, you know, everyone who desires to live righteously in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It may be that we're not at this place in a fairly nominal Christian society going to suffer quite yet. It may be soon that we suffer this kind of persecution where you're being asked to get thrown in jail for your convictions.

But there's a lot of lessons that we can find in this kind of passage about dealing with suffering well. And it's suffering of the kind that most of us really have no experience with at all. So, you know, by the time Paul wrote this letter, he had been in prison for about three or four years at this point.

And we don't know a lot about Paul's persecution in prison. I mean, we don't know if it was filled with beatings and everything else. We don't know a whole lot, but we do know a little bit. So we know that Paul was constantly chained to a soldier in the midst of his imprisonment.

None of us have any experience with here. And you probably can't imagine what that would be like to be chained to another human being all day long. I mean, now, if you're a mother, maybe you understand a little bit what that's like.

But you do have some opportunity to escape at times. But then Paul, he's for the sake of the gospel, he's chained constantly to a soldier. We learn in Philippians that he's not sure whether or not he's going to live or die.

So, you know, he's under house arrest. Essentially, he's under house arrest in Rome. Acts tells us that basically that was paid for by his own expense. So, you know, there wasn't socialism to take care of that for him in that kind of environment.

He had to actually pay for his own imprisonment. And, you know, because he had to pay for his own imprisonment, what that probably meant is that he was in, you know, a small third-story apartment of which there's thousands in Rome at that time that he would have to pay for.

And he's constantly being chained to a different soldier. But he had some sort of limited freedom to entertain guests and, you know, to read, which is why he asked people to bring him books and parchments.

But functionally, his traveling days are at an end for that time being, and he's chained to a Roman guard. And, you know, as I'm saying, when we're thinking about this subject of how to keep from losing heart and suffering, you know, for all the ladies in the room, I mean, I don't know if you can really imagine what that would be like if, you know, the police came in today and took your husband away, like your source of provision took your husband away for three years.

What that would radically mean for your life, you know, there's trials that we can undergo personally. But then when you have a loved one who is undergoing a trial like the one that Paul is going through, there's a lot more temptation to lose heart in the midst of those kind of situations in which, you know, a loved one who you're dependent upon, just like the church was dependent upon Paul in many ways, is being in prison and you don't know the outcome of this situation.

And not only do you not know the outcome, you don't know the outcome for three years. You don't know the outcome. So you have a form of persecution that's happening that's indefinite, and you're not sure how this is all going to end, and there's great temptation and trial.

There's great temptations in situations like this to get discouraged, and we're going to talk about how to deal with some of these things. Now, when you think about how our passage begins in Ephesians 3, 11, it begins with these words.

This was according to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we're talking about how to keep from losing heart in suffering. And the first thing that we want to do is to remember God's purpose for the church.

So notice how it starts. This was according to the eternal purpose he realized in Christ. What is the this referring to? Well, the this is referring to the church, which is declaring the manifold, as Marcus talked about last week, the manifold wisdom of God, which as you read through this passage, you read through the whole chapter 3.

I know the verse divisions here aren't inspired, but as you read through the whole chapter, what you're going to find is there's this frequent discussion of this mystery, which was hidden from the beginning of the ages.

And so there's a mystery that was made known to Paul as a form of revelation, and it's a mystery into Christ. And the content of this mystery is now that the Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews, and they're coming together to form one body, which is the church.

And this mystery, this church, is going to be the manifold wisdom of God, like the multifaceted wisdom of God, which is displayed for the entire creation, for the world here that we live in right now, people that exist right now, and for even the angelic host who are going to look into this mystery.

So here's the point. God has a purpose for the church. And understanding that God has a purpose for the church, that's meant to help you understand how you are to not get discouraged and lose heart in the midst of suffering in general, and suffering in particular as it relates to the church.

Now, as I said, you're living in a society right now that one of the most offensive things that you can say, like in the church culture right now, is that it may not be possible for individuals just to have a high degree of confidence that they are Christians and utterly forsake the assembly of the saints indefinitely, forever, particularly during college football season and hunting season.

So if you're an individual who comes along and says that God has a plan for this world, and this plan is centered on the church, and if you're an individual who thinks that you can somehow be right with God and utterly isolate yourself from this primary plan that God has for this age, it may be possible that you're self-deceived.

Now, I mean, I've said this kind of thing online, and you can imagine that this is one of the most outrageous things that I've possibly said, and you get the most kind of crazy, angry interactions that you can imagine with saying something along these lines, because you're living in a society right now that doesn't understand the centrality of the church to God's plan in the world, and we've cheapened what it means to be a Christian to such a degree that all it means in the minds of many people to be a Christian is that you just pray a prayer at some point, walk an aisle, you ask Jesus into your heart, and then you're good.

You can basically just do whatever you want forever with no accountability to anyone outside of yourself, and functionally you don't have to do actually anything that God says in the Bible because you're trusting by faith in the sacrifice of Christ on your behalf.

But here's the thing. Salvation is by grace through faith. It does involve trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus on your behalf, but an individual who actually does that, their language of this passage, there's this eternal purpose that has been realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

They're declaring that Jesus is their Lord, and if Jesus is your Lord, that means you have to do what he says, and part of the problem with that, like hear me out, part of the problem with that is that if you actually read the Bible, you're going to realize that the whole second part of it, the whole New Testament, what is it?

What is in there? What is in there is a collection of letters written to churches, and most of what's in there, you know, Jesus says, if you'll love me, you'll keep my commands. The whole New Testament is a bunch of letters written to churches to tell them what God's purposes are for them in this age, and if you think, like here's the point, if you think that you can ignore that whole part of the Bible, the whole New Testament, not do anything it says, because you feel closer to God in nature when you're hunting or when you're going to college football with your season tickets every week, instead of going to church, you've missed out on the whole thing.

Do you understand? Like the whole thing. Like that's what it is. Like the New Testament is written to tell you about this manifold plan, this multifaceted plan that God has for this age, and if you think that you can just ignore everything that it says, I have some sad news for you.

It's possible that you're going to be one of the many people in the last day who say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these wonderful things for you? And he's going to look at you and he's going to say, what?

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. What does that mean? The kind of people who are going to be deceived are the kind of people who have callously and cavalierly laid aside all that Jesus did because they thought that they could just pray some prayer one day and be fine and then ignore everything that their quote-unquote Lord said to him.

But why am I saying this? Why am I bringing this up? Because we're talking about how to keep from losing heart in the midst of suffering, and the way to do that is to remember God's purpose for the church.

And when you're thinking about it in that kind of context, then you realize that God has a plan for you, and he has a plan for this life, and he has a plan for the difficulties and the trials that you're going to go through, and this plan is centered around a building project that he started at the beginning of this age.

And if you want to make sense of your life, of what's happening in your life, you're only going to make sense of that as you connect your life with this greater plan that God has for you in the church.

Do you understand? And most people are confused at this point when suffering happens. They don't understand why suffering happens. They don't understand why difficulties are happening. They have no idea what's going on.

They're constantly asking God, why me? Why is this happening? How could you let this happen? And the reason why they're asking all those things is because they don't know their place in the broader story, and they're not connecting those events to this multifaceted plan that God has for this age.

And so then their suffering just feels like isolated and disconnected nonsensical difficulties that they have no way of understanding. So the first point here is just to say if you want to keep from losing heart in your suffering, then you need to realize, or even suffering on the path of other people, remember that God has a purpose for the church, and we're going to talk about that today.

How do you learn to connect whatever moment of suffering you have with God's broader purpose for humanity? But then before we get there, realize that God's purpose is eternal. So notice what Ephesians 3 .11 says.

This was according to the eternal purpose that he's realized in Christ Jesus as the Lord. So God has a purpose. Step one, remember God has a purpose for the church. What kind of purpose is it? It's an eternal purpose.

Now when God makes plans, he makes plans in a very different way than we make plans. And so as individuals, we can be very unreliable. How often have you had a loved one tell you that they're going to do something, promise that they're going to do something, only to realize that when it's time for them to follow through with what they said, when it's time for that, they're nowhere to be found.

You can't get in touch with them. They refuse to answer the phone. They refuse to, you know, show up and do what they're saying. But God's not like us. God has a purpose. He had a purpose that he made for the church that helps us, that was made before the foundation of the world.

So God's purpose is an eternal purpose. And it was a purpose that was made that he's going to follow through with and keep. Because God's not a man like us that he should lie. Whatever God says, goes.

And God's prepared a certain plan for the world before the foundation of the world. It involves, as we read through in the opening chapters of Ephesians, choosing us and him before the foundation of the world.

As we've seen in chapter 2, that he has prepared, for by grace you've been saved through faith, not of your own doing, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

So God has chosen the church before the foundation of the world. He's prepared good works before the foundation of the world that we should walk in. And he has a broader plan for the church itself. He has a plan for you in the midst of this bigger plan.

But he has a broader plan for the church itself to declare the manifold wisdom of God. And this plan that God has is an eternal plan. It's going to happen, okay? So your life is a reflection of the fact that God is slowly working out this plan throughout history.

And everything that he says will happen, and they will come to pass. And not only is it an eternal purpose, but it's been realized, it's been accomplished in the work of Jesus. Meaning, what Jesus did on the cross is the most significant event that has ever happened throughout the history of the world.

It's so significant that, you know, our calendar systems reflect this climactic moment in history. And the way that we even divide up the way that the world works. But that's just a reflection of our acknowledgment of what's true in general.

God's plan for the world was a plan that took some time, right? So you read through the Old Testament, you realize that God had an eternal plan. It's centering in on Christ. But then as you're reading through the Old Testament, one of the things you'll find is it didn't look at the very beginning like that was what was happening.

But that was exactly what was happening. So in the very beginning of the Bible, in the midst of Adam and Eve sinning, in the midst of a fallen creation, God pronouncing cursings upon the human race and cursings upon the serpent.

In the midst of all that, there's this message of hope that the seed of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent. And there was this hope that they had that someone, you know, maybe it would be Noah, would give them relief from the hard toil with which they toiled in the ground.

So there's this seed of the woman who's going to come, who's going to fix this problem. The problem is that sin has corrupted this world in general. It's brought difficulty in the world. It's set humanity at enmity with each other.

The hope of the world would come through the seed of the woman. When you read through the Abrahamic blessing in Genesis 12 and 15 and 18, you'll realize that Abraham was going to have offspring. And in that offspring, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

You know, you keep on going. So you realize like some human is going to come and fix this problem. This human is going to be from Abraham's line at that point. The 12 tribes of Israel, that seed is going to come through Judah.

It's going to be offspring of David. You know, in the language of the Pentateuch, it's going to be a prophet like Moses. It's going to be a greater high priest. So you read through the Old Testament and you see that there's this plan that God had to redeem the world through Jesus.

And you see shadows and types in the Old Testament. But once you get to the New Testament, you'll see that it's all going to be fulfilled and accomplished in Christ. And why does that matter? Well, that matters because God has a plan for this world.

You're included in that plan, but Jesus has already accomplished that plan. And with the same power that God worked, as we've seen in Ephesians, when he rose Jesus from the dead, that same power was at work with you if you're a Christian, raising you from the dead and redeeming you and giving you new life.

Boldly Using the Access to the Father

So how do you keep from losing heart and suffering? First, remember God has this purpose for the church. Secondly, confidently use the access to the Father that Jesus has won for you. So I'll say that again, confidently use the access to the Father that Jesus has won for you.

Verse 12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. As I said, I mean, if you listen to Christian music to any length of time, you'll realize that, you know, listen to Christian music on the radio.

I don't really necessarily recommend that. But if you do, you'll realize that basically the charismatics have hijacked this topic of suffering, like how to handle suffering in life. And then they've also hijacked what it means to approach God with boldness, too, OK?

And so if you listen to the standard music that's out there, one of the things you'll realize is most of it's about victory and overcoming, right, all the songs that you'll hear. And just pay attention.

Next time you listen to the radio, you'll hear the same themes over and over and over again. It's about conquering. It's about victory. It's about self-esteem. So there's a big, strong self-esteem point in there that you're enough and you're worth it and all that.

But the charismatics have basically told us that we all realize that there's problems in life, right? There's problems in life. So the problems that we face in life are obvious, like we face suffering, right?

Discouragement, difficulties, trials. You're living in a world where there's only a certain amount of resources. Everyone's competing over those resources. You have people who are mean to you, people who say rude things to you.

You have people who don't like you, you know, who don't affirm you. Like you have all these problems that exist in the world. And you have the charismatic movement basically come along and tell Christians that the response to all that is to realize that basically God, you know, he's a rich God, right?

You have a big, beautiful daddy in the sky who loves you and he owns everything. And so then if you're a Christian, all you have to do is just name it and claim it. So you have some problem, you just name it and claim it.

You need some money, name it and claim it. That's what it means to have faith. That's what it means to approach God with boldness and with confidence that anything that you want, right, or anything that you think you need, you essentially just assert it.

As God, like, spoke the world into existence with words of power, if you're a Christian, essentially what you need to do is you need to speak your blessings into existence. You name it and claim it. You speak those words of power.

And a lot of the songs that you listen to on the radio are basically just recycling the same point over and over and over again ad nauseum. You have a difficulty, you have a trial, what do you do? You just name it and claim it, right?

You just confidently, like, in a crass way, in the word of faith movement kind of way, you have to give God permission to act, right, and you speak those words of power. But then for the vast majority of Christians, they're not quite there with it.

But then they do believe that, like, you're suffering, right? You're suffering? You're sick? You confidently name it and claim it. Claim victory. You don't let anyone hold you back, right? And so the Charismatics have basically hijacked this idea of confidently using your access to the Father that Jesus has won for you.

But the problem is that they have a different plan, right? So the first thing we talked about as we're talking about this, how to keep from losing heart and suffering, is to remember God's purpose for the church.

So God has a plan for the world that's centered around the church. But then what is the Charismatic plan, right? The Charismatic plan is a different plan than that. So the Charismatic plan is just to say that every time you're sick, you know, every time you're struggling, God's here.

God exists to give you financial blessings in the here and now. God exists primarily just to give you material and physical safety and well-being now. And here's the thing. Like, most of us, like, without thinking it, we subconsciously orient ourselves towards this kind of thinking.

We may not be as crass as them, as, you know, quote-unquote, name it, claim it, word of faith prosperity people. But think about the things you pray for in your life in general. Lord, give us health.

Give us peace. Give us safety, right? Give us comfort. Help us to get a good night's rest, right? Every time any one of your children gets sick, what do you do? What do you do? Get a cold? Lord, please, you know?

Like, you probably go online and ask everyone to pray for your kid to get better from the cold that they have, like this common trial in life. And you know what? Like, I know it's just something you say, right?

Help them to get better. Can everyone pray they get better? And you probably don't even pray it yourself because it's just something you're saying because that's something you've been trained to do. Because there's some sort of expectation in your mind that Jesus just exists to make everything okay, right?

To keep your kids from getting grumpy, right? To help them to be well-rested. To keep you safe everywhere you go. And so, like, the point is just not to say that it's always wrong to pray for, like, that God would physically heal you.

The point is just to say what plan are you on, okay?

Do you understand?

If you're on the plan that God wants to make everything safe and healthy and difficulty-free and God wants to make everything easy, right, and not stressful for you, and that's why you ask everyone to pray for your kid to get over their cold.

The reason why you do that is not because, like, you're really scared of them dying or something along those lines. It's just because you don't want to have to deal with it, right? Because it's a trial and you think that God exists to make everything easy.

And instead of thinking about in that moment how God is trying to work on your character in order to make you more like him, the most pressing need in your heart is if you make everything easy for me, then I won't have to stress out, right?

Like, if you make it all easy, like, you give me as much money as I need, I won't have to be stressed. And if you get my kids to be well-behaved, I won't have to be stressed. And if you get them to be well-rested, you know what?

They won't be difficult, and then I won't be tempted to be irritated, right? Like, here's the thing. Like, what plan are you after? So most people, when suffering happens, when a trial happens in their lives, most people, what do they say?

They say, I don't know why God's doing this. And what that reflects is the fact that they have no idea what God's plan is for the world, right? They're on a different plan. Like, you're on a different plan.

Your plan is like prosperity plan. You may not think you're a prosperity person, but your plan is a prosperity plan. Your plan is that God exists to make everything easy for you in this life, but that's not God's plan, okay?

God's plan is not to make everything easy for you in this life. God has introduced suffering into this world.

It's a feature.

It's a point that a man wants to die, and after that, a judgment, you know? And I remember our first birth with Gavin. He ended up, like, before we had Gavin, we kept on talking about, like, you know, when the baby comes, we're going to do this, and when the baby comes, we're going to do that, and when the baby comes, you know, this, this, this, this, this, all the plans that we had, when the baby would come.

And at some point, I just looked at Elizabeth and I said, we need to stop talking like this, because we have no idea if the baby's going to come and be healthy and everything's going to be okay and we're going to do all this stuff that we're...

Like, we have no idea. Like, why do we think that we might not be one of those individuals who, like, the baby dies in the midst of childbearing. Why do we think that somehow we're, like, exempt from that, that that couldn't happen to us?

So let's stop talking like that. And what was actually funny was when Gavin was born, his cord was wrapped around... This wasn't funny, but, I mean, it was ironic. It was ironic, okay? That we stopped talking about it that way.

The cord was wrapped around his neck. He swallowed meconium, and they were concerned he may have severe brain damage, and he would end up in the hospital for a week on a cooling bed. And you know what?

Like, this isn't, like, pat myself on the back or something. This is just to say that trial came. I had budgeted for it in my mind. A trial could come. When the trial came, I wasn't sitting there saying, how could this happen?

Because I already knew what... I knew that that's part of life. Many people have to experience those kind of things. There are women who die in childbirth. Why do I think that my wife won't die in childbirth?

Why do I think that all my babies will be healthy? Why do I think that all of my kids are exempt from dying before I die? Why do I think that? That's nonsense. Like, a lot of people go through those trials.

You're not promised that. None of us are promised that. And the sooner right now you get your mind around the fact that that could be you and figure out why God would do that, you know what? But if He does do that, you'll know what you're doing when that happens.

You understand? So God's not promised you safety. He's not promised you kids who aren't grumpy when they don't take a nap. He's not promised you ease and safety and everyone's going to like you and that all the financial doors that you want open up are going to open up.

God has a plan, okay? He has a plan for you that's centered around His purposes to spread the gospel to all nations by means of church. He has a plan for you with that. And you know what? Like, what He's done, what He has done incorporating you into His body, into His bride, the church, is now like you used to be a Gentile who were far off with no access to God, as I talked about last time I spoke.

You didn't have any access to God. Now you have access to God. And what are you going to do with that access? That's the point. What are you going to do with this access that Jesus has won for you on the cross?

And you have a lot of charismatics who are coming along and telling you the reason why Jesus won that access is so that you don't have to have kids who are grumpy. You can just pray for those naps, right?

That's not the point. The point is that God has given you access to the Father, and now you can ask anything according to the will of God. And if you ask anything according to God's will, you know that God hears you.