How to Keep from Losing Heart in Suffering

Warning, 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. Viewer discretion is advised. 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.

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 knowledge, good and evil, and so suffering is a part of life and you're living in a culture and a 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, I mean, 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, I mean, 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.

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 church history and tradition tells us that 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 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 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, 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 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 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 because he had to pay for his own imprisonment, what that probably meant is that he was in a small third -story apartment, of which there was 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 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. As I'm saying, when we're thinking about this subject of how to keep from losing heart and suffering, for all the ladies in the room,

I don't know if you can really imagine what that would be like if 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.

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 a loved one who you're dependent upon, just like the church was dependent upon Paul in many ways, is being imprisoned, 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 and 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, for the people that exist right now, and for even the angelic host who are going to look into this mystery.

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 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'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, the 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, 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 the

Lord. So God has a purpose. Step one, remember God has a purpose for the church. And 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, and 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. Now, 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.

And so in the very beginning of the Bible, in the midst of, you know, 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 on the ground.

So there's this seed of the woman who's going to come, who's going to fix this problem. Problem is that sin has corrupted this world in general.

It's brought difficulty in the world. It set humanity at enmity with each other. The hope of the world would come through 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's 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. 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, okay?

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, and 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 nauseam.

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?

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 ourself towards this kind of thinking.

We may not be as crass as them as, you know, quote -unquote, name it and 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 gonna do this and when the baby comes, we're gonna do that.

And when the baby comes, you know, this, 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 gonna come and be healthy and everything's gonna be okay and we're gonna 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, all right, 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, gone to 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, 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? 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 gonna like you and that all the financial doors that you want opened up are gonna 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 gonna do with that access? That's the point. Like, 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, you know, 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.

And if you know that God hears you, you know that you'll have the things that you ask of him. And what are the kind of things that you should be asking?

Well, there's things according to his will. What is his will in this life? His will in this life is to make you more like him so that you can spread the good news to everyone around you.

That's his plan. That's his agenda. And you know what? Like the only reason you should be praying for health and safety is so that you can be about that plan.

It's not just so that your life can be easy and so that you don't have to worry and you don't have to be stressed out. The reason why you pray for health and safety and things like that is not an end in and of itself.

You're praying that so you can be on mission to accomplish the things that God has called you to do. He wants you to spread the knowledge of him through all creation.

He's using trials and difficulties to make you a picture of the same kind of suffering that he suffered in this life.

He wants you to be a contrast to this fallen world. And all you're doing is trying to say, get rid of all the difficulties.

Get rid of all the trials so that I don't have to be stressed. But that's like the very thing. Like if you handle those things well, you're gonna be a witness to the world around you.

And that's the whole point. The whole point is that you're not living just for yourself. You're living this life as part of this plan that's centered around God's church, which is a building project that he's accomplished.

And what you should be using this bold, confident access that you have is you're supposed to be using it to be about the business that he has for you in this age.

And the sooner you realize that he has a different plan and you use this access that you have to accomplish that plan, the more everything will make sense in your life.

You understand? So in this passage, it says, we're talking about confidently using the access of the father of Jesus is one for you.

There's three words in this section right here for confidence. So you have this word boldness, which is parasean, which may be better translated freedom.

Like you're not supposed to impudently or arrogantly march into the heavenly throne room and declare your sovereign will before the maker of all creation, which is essentially what the charismatics are training you to do.

It's more just you have freedom of access. You can do so without fear. You can approach your heavenly father without fear.

And you do so in a confident manner. And so this confidence is the word epithese, which essentially is just describing the kind of attitude that you should have before God.

You should have this kind of attitude where you can pray confidently because you know what God is doing, okay?

So most of the time we don't pray very confidently because we're not as confident as we should be in what

God's actual will is for the world. So we pray somewhat sheepishly and we pray expecting

God not to act because a lot of the things that we're praying for are just things that are just normal trials in life and we're asking

God to rid us from all those. And then big shock, you know, He doesn't do it. And I mean, I remember growing up, like there's certain things

I wanted. And just to give you an example of how this could work, when we were in high school, my dad lost his job.

And we really loved, like the high school we were at, we were in Port Charlotte, Florida at that time, we really loved the place we were at.

Marcus and I in particular were working our way up in the basketball kind of system and we'd done our time and now it was time for us to kind of, you know, be basketball superstars in high school, you know, of all the important things to do.

But then we had friends, you know, popular, you know, everyone knew us and we just, we liked where we were at.

Dad lost his job. And I remember, I mean, I prayed over and over again that God would open up a door for my dad to get a job where we were.

And I prayed over and over and over again because it was an extended period of time where we didn't really know what was gonna happen.

And you know what? God didn't answer it. And you know what I thought? What's the point in praying, right?

Like what's the point in praying? It doesn't work. God tells us to ask for things. I'm asking,

He's not doing it. What was my problem? I had a different plan than God had. My plan was all about me and what

I wanted. God has a plan. It's all about His kingdom coming and His will being done. And if you wanna pray confidently, the point is you need to get on board with His plan.

And so I said there's three words of confidence. First is boldness. And then there's confidence. And then finally, faith, deus deus.

And faith essentially is trusting God to do what He says He's going to do. Jerry Bridges, a former

Christian author, described faith in this way. He says that faith is not a passive state of mind but a vigorous act of the soul whereby we choose to lay hold of the promises of God despite our ever -changing mood.

So we have these three words, boldness, confidence, and faith. They're all pointing at the same thing, that trusting God to do what

He's promised to do. And if you wanna pray confidently, you wanna approach God confidently, know what His plan is, and know what

His promises are, and you'll be able to pray confidently instead of praying sheepishly or frustratingly.

The problem is that for most people, suffering is a time of confusion and not a time of confidence.

So where we've been, we've talked about how to not lose heart in the midst of suffering, remember God's purpose for the church, confidently use the access to the

Father that Jesus is one for you, and three, understand that suffering is for your glory, okay?

Verse 13, I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

So when Paul says that his suffering is for their glory, he's not saying that his suffering has any atoning power in their life in the way that Jesus' suffering on the cross did.

So when Jesus suffered on the cross, He did so in order to give us forgiveness, right? To give

His people forgiveness. So Jesus paid the debt that you could never pay on the cross by virtue of His sacrificial death.

So His suffering paid for your sins, right? So He atoned for your sin. So when Paul's saying

His suffering is for their glory, he's not saying His suffering, Paul's suffering, is atoning for their sins in any way like that.

He's also not saying that His suffering is for their glory. He's not saying it's substitutionary in the same way that Jesus was, right?

So when Jesus died on the cross for us, He suffered on the cross for us, He did so in our place, meaning we deserve that punishment.

And He was standing in the way, right? He was taking the bullet for us, to use a common metaphor today. He said, you know, take me, right?

I volunteer as tribute, right? That's what Jesus said essentially, like He's the one, right? He stood in our place and His suffering was substitutionary.

So Paul's not saying His suffering atoned for them. It was also not substitutionary in that way. But what

He is saying, there's a specific amount of suffering, and you may not have thought about this before, but there's a specific amount of suffering which

God requires in the world, which is a necessary prelude to His return. So God's appointed a specific amount of suffering, specifically of His people who are accomplishing

His purpose. There's a specific amount of suffering which He has allotted that Paul is a part of, which is ultimately going to be a prelude to His return.

Now, in order to explain what I mean by this, like it's just important to take a step back and realize that suffering has always been a part of God's plan, okay?

So Jesus tells us essentially that all those who desire to be righteous in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Do not think I've come to bring peace on the earth, I didn't come to bring peace with a sword set, you know, father against mother, sister against brother.

A man's enemies will be those of his own household. So suffering is a part of life in general. 1 Thessalonians 3, 1 says,

Therefore, when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind in Athens alone. And we sent Timothy, our brother, and God's co -worker in the gospel of Christ to establish you in faith, that no one be moved by these afflictions, for you yourself know that we are destined for affliction.

So God has already promised that suffering is a part of His plan in this life in general. And it's a plan for His people, they suffer, you know, specifically persecution.

It's always been a part of plan, but it's also a necessary prelude to the glory that awaits us.

Meaning, you know, I'm going to read some passages and think about what I'm trying to talk about here. Romans 8, 18,

I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed in us.

So this age, right, is characterized by suffering, and there's a glory that awaits us on the other side.

So these sufferings, they're a prelude to that. 2 Corinthians 4, 17, For this light and momentary affliction, what is it doing, this light suffering, this light and momentary affliction?

It's preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison, as we look not to the things which are seen, but the things which are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Timothy 2, 10,

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

So Paul is saying, he's enduring everything, all the suffering that he's enduring, he's doing so for the sake of the elect, right, that they also may obtain salvation that's in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1, 24, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body.

Meaning, the church one day will be glorified. You know, one day, like when you get to the end of this life, you see

Jesus face to face. When you see him, you're gonna be like him. And we're all awaiting the day, when he returns in history, that we get our glorified bodies, which are not subject to futility and decay and death and suffering and everything else.

But God has appointed suffering as a feature of this life. And not only is it a feature of life in general, it's a feature of life for the church.

And Paul's talking about filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body. There's a lot of suffering that God has appointed in this life for the church.

That's part of his plan and part of his purpose that he will not come back until we get to the end of all that suffering.

And what Paul is saying is that, his suffering in jail is a prelude to the glory that awaits for us.

So here's the point, you wanna know how to keep from losing heart in the midst of suffering. You need to remember

God's purpose for the church. He has a plan for the world centered around the church and the mission the church is on, to be a light unto the world, to spread the gospel everywhere and incorporate them into Christ's body, which at the end of time is gonna be presented to Christ as a gift, right?

So we're gonna be the bride of Christ, corporately presented to Christ as a gift, enjoying the marriage supper of the lamb.

Like God has a plan for this age that's centered around purifying for himself in the context of a church, a people for his own treasured possession.

As a result of that, then confidently use the access that Christ has won for you to the Father. You can now boldly come to the

Father and pray confidently that God will help you to be useful to his kingdom and he will give you everything that you need to accomplish his purposes in this world and that he will withhold no good gift from you.

God is a good heavenly Father that likes to give his children good gifts when they ask him. And when we pray according to his will, we know that we have the very things that we need.

Ephesians 1 tells us that he's given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ and we have access to all of that.

We have access to the Father who is the source of all blessings. And if there's something we need in order to accomplish his will in this world, he will not withhold it if it's good for us and necessary for us.

And we can come boldly and ask him for that. And then understanding that the sufferings of this present time are a prelude to what is going to be the glory that's going to be revealed in all of us.

You know, most of us, like when we're living this life, we're trying to figure out some way to get all that glory here and now.

We're trying to find some way just to be exalted above our brothers and sisters, to somehow get some sort of significance, to be told that we're unique and that we're special, and to have everything go the way we want.

Like most of us are engaged, not intentionally in our mind, but subconsciously on a project that's basically designed at getting ease and comfort, safety, and all these things.

But these are the things that God's promised to his people, but he's not promised all of these things to his people here and now.

And the more that we set our minds on the things to come, the more you pray in light of the things that come, the more that you invest in your life in the task of making friends that will greet you into your eternal and heavenly dwelling place, you realize that every good thing that your heart longs for right now will be fulfilled one day.

That'll help you deal with the trials and difficulties that you experience here and now.

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