The Suffering Saint | Sermon 06/02/2024

The Suffering Saint and the Reading of 2 Corinthians 4

Alright, if you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 4. We're going to look at verses 7 through 18. The title of the sermon today, church, is The Suffering Saint. The Suffering Saint, starting in verse 7 of the second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, therefore we also speak.

Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. And for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Thus ends the reading of the word of God.

Let's pray once more as God's people. Lord, we come before you today. God, we pray that you would show us your word, that you would, God, help us to challenge our presuppositions about suffering and what it means to be afflicted and what that produces.

Lord, we come to your word with so many ideas. We come to you, Lord, with things in our past, and past hurts and current hurts, and even in the future, things are going to happen to us. We know, Lord, it's inescapable.

And so God, help us to put all these things in subjection to your word, Lord. God, I pray that your people would be encouraged today. I pray, Lord, that this wouldn't be a moment of solemnity, but this would be a moment of, God, just so much joy knowing how you're redeeming every little thing.

Not one thing won't be redeemed. And so, Lord, please build us up, encourage us, and help us to be focused on your word today. Please help me, Lord, as the preacher, and to deliver this word with power and with the Holy Spirit.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, church, as you know, Pastor Andrew was going to preach on a biblical apologetic for family integration, but today I am preaching on suffering. It was a last-minute topic.

It was something that I just had on my heart that the Lord was working in me, even in my prayers, even before yesterday night when I was working on this. So, let's talk about it. We've been seeing a lot of suffering in our body.

We've been seeing a lot of different afflictions and trials in various ways. And we get these questions that we ask ourselves, why? Why is this happening? How could this thing benefit my life or my spiritual walk with Christ?

Lord, how can this one turn out for good this time? Surely this one won't turn out for good. What's this all doing? And we have these questions in our mind. Maybe you've thought that when the Messiah became the suffering servant, there would no longer be any suffering.

If there's a suffering servant, why are there suffering saints? I remember when Christ rescued me and saved my soul, I was at the lowest, one of the lowest parts of my life, and I had this terrible back injury.

I had this herniated disc from shoulder to foot, you know, my sciatica nerve was just lit up. I could barely move in my bed. I could barely take a shower, lift my arms. I could barely go to the bathroom without needing help.

I was, you know, I don't know, 25 or 26 years old. This was, you know, 13 years ago, 12 years ago, and one of the worst times of my life. I really thought like surgery was my future. I was even thinking, goodness, do I have like a disability?

What's going on here? And the point is, when Jesus saved me in the middle of that with that terrible injury, it wasn't just like poof. You're healed. It's gone. It didn't just go away. I still had it, and I had to reconcile with the fact that in my past, I grew up in going to a charismatic church, and people would come around in a circle and pray for you, which that's good, but then there was this expectation that once they spoke tongues over me in that prayer, that all of a sudden my ailment would be gone, and if my ailment wasn't gone, then I was the problem, right, and I didn't have enough faith.

Things like that, and so I was wondering as a new believer, what's going on? Some of you, I've shared this with a few of you, years ago, again, at the beginning of being a believer, I had debilitating anxiety.

I had these panic attacks. In fact, I was so unaware. Everyone talks about anxiety every day now. Everyone's an expert on anxiety. Everyone's got anxiety. This kid has anxiety. I'm sure a lot of it's true.

There's a lot of stimuli and a lot of hard things going on in the world. A lot of it is probably true, but it was so bizarre to me that all of a sudden my heart could just rev up, and all of a sudden I was thinking that I was about to die.

It was such a strange sensation, but I had that even after the Lord saved me, and that just didn't go away either. That took time, and that took leaning on God, and it was really, honestly, learning the sovereignty of God over everything that helped me to get through that, and it is gone.

It is gone for me, and I praise God for that, but that took time. I've seen since then hardships in my family's life, in my extended family, in friends, and in my church. I've seen those close to me suffering.

There's sickness. There's diseases. There are injuries, depression, persecution, betrayal, times of financial sorrows. There's poverty, baby miscarriages, barrenness, loneliness, despair. Many saints in the world go hungry even to this day, and we'll see even in two weeks when we go over Ruth that you have women whose husbands have died.

People are made widows today. There's a pastor who just died recently, and he leaves behind his whole family and his.

Wife.

Faithful people are left widows, and these things happen, you know, death of all kinds. Death of a child, death of a parent, death of a spouse, death of a friend, death of a sibling, death of unsaved loved ones.

Boy, is that hard. That's difficult. Pain accompanies all these things. You have physical, emotional, spiritual pain. Many Christians, like I said, believe that these occurrences are happening to them as a result of lack of faith, a punishment.

You're being punished for not trusting God. And where does that come from? If that's true every time, if that's an ultimate truth, that suffering comes from punishment from God, then you look at the life of the Apostle Paul, one of the most faithful brothers in history who was afflicted in so many ways, and we would have to look at him and say, you're afflicted, Paul, for all your sin, for all your lack of faith, one of the most faithful men in existence.

And so that's not true, right? That can't be true. Suffering and prosperity have never been the ultimate measures of God's favor toward anyone. Sure, they can be an indicator, but they're not the ultimate indicator, prosperity and suffering.

The Bible says the wicked prosper on the earth, but their end will come.

Job.

Job is a case study of someone who is righteous and yet suffers greatly. You of course know the Luke 16 parable where the rich man and Lazarus, you have the rich man whose storehouses were completely full.

Prosperity, wealth, good health, he had everything. He had every luxury that life could offer. While Lazarus, it says, begged. He was covered in sores. He laid there and stray dogs would come up and lick his sores and he would beg for alms.

And that was Lazarus' life and those two lives are contrasted in Luke 16. But we know that while the rich man, when he died, was in Hades, in agony, Lazarus was taken to Abraham's bosom, paradise, and he experienced blessing.

You see, some of us are somehow so sure that when we're suffering, it's a result of our.

Sin.

And that can be true. Hebrews 12 talks about that. But some of us always come to that, God, I must have done something. God, this is negative. God, you're doing something negative to me because I've done something negative to You or against You or to someone.

And a lot of us default to that, right? And honestly, we've got to examine ourselves daily. But how can we be so confident to say that? How can we be so confident to say that suffering is always because of a negative reaction of God towards a negative sin that we've committed?

What we have a hard time with saying, actually, is this is happening to me because God does love me and I am enduring this because of His favor. We have a hard time saying that, Lord, I'm going through this.

I know because You love me, I'm enduring this trial because You have favor over me. And that's not the way the world views things, does it? The modern American believes in a karma-like system. They're like Job's friends.

Evil befell you because you've committed evil. Apply that to Jesus and His suffering on the cross and you have blasphemy. You have a recipe for blasphemy. Oh, Jesus must have done evil. That's blasphemy.

And so obviously, that's not the correct barometer. That's not always a reliable barometer. The modern atheist will look at suffering and say, it's meaningless. It's just cells and these things bouncing against each other.

It's meaningless. It's futile. It's vain. It really does nothing. It's survival of the fittest. It ultimately means nothing, suffering or prosperity. But the Christian can turn to God's Word and see good comes out of affliction.

But we often lose sight of that. We think bad is always bad. So the question is, why doesn't suffering stop as soon as salvation comes to each of us? And what does suffering accomplish according to the Bible and how can we get through it?

Let's answer those questions together now, brothers and sisters. What we first must understand is that suffering is a normal occurrence for the Christian. You can look in your Bible with me or you can go to your printout there.

But 1 Peter 4 .12 says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. Peter's like, this isn't out of the ordinary. This is part of the Christian life.

In fact, we talked about this quite a bit when Jesus gave that private and loving instruction to his disciples. John 16 .33, he says, These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace.

He says, In the world you'll have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. And that's in the indicative form. It's a statement of fact. While still in the world you and I will have trouble.

He says it.

We'll have tribulation. And we have various forms of tribulation and trouble. And here's a radical one. After Paul has been discussing his imprisonment and potential pending death, he tells the brethren at Philippi in Philippians 1 .29, get this, he says, For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.

It has been granted to you, for to you it has been given to suffer for Christ's sake.

That's radical.

Paul's saying it's like a gift. In fact, this word granted in the Greek has the same root word for the word grace. Same root word for grace. And so the connotation behind this is that it has been graciously bestowed upon you to suffer for Christ's sake.

It's a privilege. It's been given to you. Meaning the same grace that saved you from eternal torment and eternal suffering is the same grace that allows you to experience suffering while still in this world.

That's radical. The grace that saved you from eternal suffering is the grace that allows you to go through temporal suffering.

Unbelievable.

And it says here, hupere autu, on behalf of, your suffering is on behalf of Jesus. It's for Christ's sake. And that's the first clue to some of our questions. Going through trials is like an offering to Jesus Christ.

But do we solely that offering? Do we spoil that offering? Do we mix it with sin? We'll go through that a bit more later. The point is, church, you and your suffering, it's not unique. It's not unique.

It's not even rare. We always think we're the only ones going through what we're going through. Sure, no one can experience what you're experiencing. But we're not the only ones suffering. Suffering is not even rare.

But what that also means is that you're not alone in it. You're not alone in it. If you suffer, you're in good company. You're in the company of Abraham, who suffered. You have Joseph, who was thrown into the pit, and he was thrown into the prison for years.

And he gave that prophetic interpretation to Pharaoh's cupbearer and the baker. And he's like, hey, by the way, tell Pharaoh when you get back up there that I can do this. And it's like God didn't have the guard come back down the next day and bring him up.

Joseph was in the prison for years and years. And we just moved past that because it's just one verse. And it's like, oh, he got out. He suffered. You have the Jews who were in bondage for 430 years. Job in losing his children and his health.

You're in the company of most of the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament. You have Jeremiah, who's faithfully giving the Word of the Lord, and he was thrown into a cistern. Prophets and priests faithful to God, killed for speaking the truth.

If you suffer, you're in the company of the apostles. If you suffer, you're in the company of the disciples. And even so, most of all, if you have ever hurt, if you've ever bled, if you've ever been reviled, if you've ever been betrayed, if one day you die, which you will, you are in the company of Jesus Christ the righteous.

If you suffer, know that Christ suffered too. Don't think it's strange, Peter says. Don't think it's strange. Don't think it peculiar when the fiery ordeal comes to you and it tries you. It's normal in the Christian life on the path of faithfulness.

Why Suffering Is Normal and Why It Comes

So now that we know that we do suffer, you know, there's the guy who's like, no, my life is great. It's like, no, if it's not hitting you now, it's going to hit you later. But now the why question is coming to the picture.

And so why do we suffer? First thing I have to say is, you must know, it's kind of like our catechism question today. Suffering of any kind was not part of God's original creation. When he said, let there be light, there was no intention for suffering then.

We can talk about sovereign decree and stuff like that another time. But at least in that moment, everything he created, he said, was what?

Good.

And then he said, nay, very good. Very good. This is a very good creation. We are shown that the sin of Adam and Eve brought about corruption to the world. And not only is the world fallen, but humans are too.

And we add to this already existing fallenness with our rebellion, with our selfishness, with our terrible decisions. It's like a ripple effect, right? You have this earthquake out at sea, and all of a sudden the ripple effect happens and tsunamis are headed in every direction.

That's what happened with original sin. It impacted everyone. No one escaped the fallenness of sin that impacted our world. Being a follower of Christ doesn't insulate us from the negative effects around our world and the people in it.

Do you get that? We're not insulated from the evil that takes place in this world. Now we're saved in a different way. We'll talk about that. But you and I will feel it. We'll get it. Calamity can come our way.

Death can come our way. Persecution can come our way. It can happen. Remember the son said to the father, he prayed in John 17, Father, I do not ask that you remove them or take them out of the world, but that you would keep them in it, but keep them from the evil one.

That is to say, they're going to go through suffering, but God, but my Father, don't let the evil one take them. Don't let them apostatize. Cause them to persevere. And that's what Jesus prayed. We're going to feel it.

And so if we aren't removed from the world, and this world has sin, and sin causes suffering, then suffering is going to impact even the Christian. So, one of the first reasons why we suffer is that we would need God.

That you would recognize your dependence on Him. Jesus said in John 15, 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

God wants you to see your need. If anyone is to think they are self-sufficient, they are blind, they are ignorant, and they're often godless. The Bible says only of God, that He did not make the world and all that is in it in such a way as if He needed anything.

God is the only one that has what's called self-aseity. He needs nothing outside of Himself. He didn't need to create anything.

We need, though, we need, and we need Him.

If we think we don't need spiritually, emotionally, physically, then we are our own gods. In your current suffering, you may see your need, and therefore go to God who gives generously without reproach.

That's what the Bible says. Think about it this way. Most of you are parents. You're sitting there, your kids are outside. Junior is running, and then all of a sudden he trips and he falls, and he skins his knee, and there's blood coming down his leg, and he runs up to Mom, and he's crying, Mom, I hurt myself, right?

And Mom picks up Junior and gives him a hug and reassures him that everything will be alright. Well, you know what? That consolation would not otherwise happen in that moment if he didn't suffer. It's like, well, Pastor Wade, the mom still loves the son.

Yeah, but what he experienced there was something that he wouldn't otherwise receive. He received nurture. He received reassurance. This builds trust. When I get hurt, there's someone there for me. And that's what happens in our suffering, right?

You have a son or a daughter who's getting bullied at school, or a lot of us are homeschoolers, I don't know, in some sort of Reach Kids event or whatever. That would be horrible. It's probably going to happen though, I'm going to be honest.

You have this bullying happen, and this kid comes home and says, they all targeted me, they all made fun of me, they all did this. And the father this time goes to the child and gives advice. It's going to be okay.

And not only that, I'll do my best to give you protection. And I'll give you reassurance. And now this child gets to see a side of their father that they've never seen before. Wow, when people go against me, I've got someone there who's got my back.

And if that never happened, they could go their whole life without being bullied. And maybe, of course, they have this built up in them that their father protects them and loves them. But do you see what I'm saying?

If it's never tried, if it's never stressed, then ultimately you never fully know completely. This experience builds that. That means that every time you suffer, and you see your need, and you go to God, you will experience Him in a new way, a deeper way.

If you do it that way, if you see your need and you go to God, and He reassures you, you will see a side of the Heavenly Father that you have not seen before. There are so many different needs that we find that we have in life.

You see, if you never saw death, or one day experienced death, why would you long for eternal life? If you've never cried, then God would never be able to wipe away every tear. If you never knew loss, there would be no such thing as gain.

You would just have. If you never got hungry, you would never know the taste of delicious food. You wouldn't need it. If you never had questions, you'd never receive the answers. If you never saw a storm, you'd never see a rainbow that comes after, right?

If a woman never went through labor pains, she'd never receive the joy and relief of her baby who arrived. I've been reading through Exodus in my morning devotion, and so I'm thinking of even the Israelites when they needed water in the wilderness.

And you know what's interesting is God didn't provide them water until they were first thirsty. God didn't provide them water until they were thirsty first. They experienced the suffering first, right?

You know, and what mom tells you all the time, if you're already thirsty, it's too late. You're dehydrated. I hear that in Utah all the time too, by the way. It must be the elevation thing. The arid dryness or something, right?

If you're already thirsty, you're dehydrated. And God let the Israelites suffer first before He provided the water. Unfortunately, when they cried out to God for water, they grumbled, they complained in their need, and the Lord wasn't pleased with that.

The crying out to God, absolutely just fine. The grumbling along with the suffering, He doesn't want it. And when we grumble over our suffering, we're making ourselves the judge, and we're pointing back to the Lord and saying, I'm not sure if what you did was good here.

I'm putting you on trial, God. Let me determine whether your choices here were right or wrong. We become the judge. When you're in your need and you go to the Lord, go expecting good and go believing the need was good.

Because it brought you to Him. The need brings you to God. And some of us have been walking away from God, and some of us have been neglecting His Word, and some of us have been just going on with life, like we don't need Him.

Watch, if you're His, He'll bring you to your need one day. You're walking away, you're just fine, you're going through the motions, you're complacent, one day you're going to see your need, and that's good.

And God will bring that. It brings you to Him. Next, we suffer so that we'd long for eternity. We suffer so that we'd long for eternity. We suffer so we would not become so attached to this world and the so-called comforts it presents us.

Sometimes we worship money, and so the best thing for us to have happen is that we would lose it. When we make success and idol in our lives, oh, my job is my everything. I love the accolades and the honor I get, and I love the appreciation.

I love even working hard. A lot of that's good stuff. But if we can make our success an idol, watch us lose that career. Sometimes when we always want things to go our own way, the best thing that can happen is for us to not get our way.

And these things show us that it's folly to take eternal stock in temporary things. We're putting eternal stock in temporary things, expecting eternal results. In fact, the Apostle Paul saw losing temporal things as a key to desiring heavenly things.

Go to your printout or go to your Bible. Philippians 3 .7 -11.

It says,.

But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, and that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul says, If there's anything keeping me from gaining Christ, let they be gone. Let them be lost. He says, I count them as rubbish. If your health is more important to you than Christ, if your wealth is more important to you than Christ, if your family or your own life is more important to you than Christ, then you don't realize the true treasure of the Christian life.

It's not those things. It's worth it to lose everything in order to gain Christ. It's worth it to lose everything in order to gain Christ. It's worth losing the temporal and all it contains for the eternal.

Verse 10 said that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the participation in His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order that I may lay hold of the resurrection of the dead. There it is again.

Your suffering is for Christ's sake. Your suffering is participating in Christ's suffering. And all of it will bring you to the point of your own resurrection. Christ suffered. Christ died and He rose again.

And don't we get that? We get to share in the sufferings it says. We get to share in His death. And for these reasons, because we share in His suffering, because we share in His death, we will share in His life.

In fact, His life is now our life. Now by the way, this is not to be mistaken for longing for death. Some Christians have thought,.

Well, good.

My release from these issues is death. That's not what this is saying. That's not true. Your suffering, participating in Christ's suffering, is not just longing for death. It's longing for life. Our hope isn't in death.

I can't take this anymore. Release me. Bring me to death, God. Hope isn't in life ending. It's in Christ. You think of Paul in Philippians 1.

When he says,.

To live is Christ and to die is gain. You know that text? To live is Christ and to die is gain. And he didn't mean that death was the gain. What makes death gain for the believer? And he says it a verse later.

He says death is departing to be with Christ. And that is very much better. So to live is Christ and to die is Christ. It's Him. This life is Christ. This life is giving ourselves to Christ. And what makes it gain is that we gain the presence of Christ, the salvation of Christ, the glory of Christ.

Let me give you an example. Think about this. When King Saul was on the battlefield with the Israelites, he saw that the battle was waning. They were losing. They were about to be defeated. And what does Saul do?

King Saul asked for his armor bearer to thrust him through with the sword. And it said that the armor bearer was too afraid to thrust a king through with his blade. And so it says that Saul propped up his own sword and it says he fell on it and he thrust himself through.

He committed suicide. His hope wasn't in God. His hope was in death. It was in leaving. What's Paul saying? His hope is in the God who conquered death. Not in death itself. Now, why do we suffer? So that we would need God and that we would want to be with Him in eternity.

Another reason why we suffer is so that we would be able to comfort those who likewise suffer. You look at that especially in 2 Corinthians 1. Pastor Andrew preached on this last year. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it's also for your comfort.

Now, while we don't always have the same experiences and suffer in the same exact way, it says here that because of what Christ has done, we'll be able to comfort one another. You ever meet someone like that?

You ever meet someone who's going through a specific type of suffering and they're like, look, I get your advice, but you'll never know what I'm going through. It's like according to this, as Christians, yeah, I may not know exactly what it's like.

Jesus doesn't physically know what it's like to miscarry a baby. But He can comfort someone who's miscarried their baby. We have the ability to comfort one another. And of course that's there. But also, I'm not saying that it's not also sometimes a wonderful benefit when someone's going through the same exact thing as you.

That can be very helpful as well. That can be very helpful. It's very powerful. Think about the ways that you've suffered. In your specific type of suffering, are you able to go to people who have suffered likewise?

That may be something that God could be calling you to. Another reason why we suffer is for the furtherance of the Gospel. You could say the Gospel came by the suffering of Jesus Christ, and it is carried by the suffering of the church.

All to the resurrection of both. Everyone knows that famous quote from Tertullian typically, right? Have you heard this before? The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. A Christian's willingness to suffer or even die for their faith can lead to the conversion of many all throughout the Gospels.

Jesus says, you will be hated for My namesake. You will be killed for My namesake. In Revelation, Jesus says, you've been bearing all things for My namesake. We are seeking to make Christ's name known and our trials can do that.

It's for His sake. I think of the times that the apostles and even the disciples throughout the centuries have been wrongly imprisoned and while suffering, more prisoners and even guards come to faith in Christ.

You hear it all the time. You could go to any generation. There are people who have been persecuted for their faith, thrown in prison, and all of a sudden, more prisoners turn to faith in Christ. I was reading a couple of years ago that Romanian pastor Wernbrand and him suffering for Christ and how so many people came to faith because he was in that prison.

In fact, there's been so many different missionaries who've called their cell their church. And boy, the rats even join in they've said. But they share the Gospel. People come to faith in Christ. And it's incredible.

God uses suffering that way. God redeems it. And not only... Paul says similarly in Philippians, he says that my imprisonment turned out for the greater progress of the Gospel. And not only did people come to faith, but he says that Christians who used to fear imprisonment became more courageous to speak the truth and word of God without fear.

Paul would be the chosen instrument of God to reach the Gentiles. And the Lord Jesus said, I will show you how much you have to suffer for My namesake. He says that to Paul on the road to Damascus. And for all that Paul suffered, all the more the Gospel went out through him.

You know, Christians in Utah could have a lot easier time if we just left Utah. We could go somewhere, I don't know, Texas or Kentucky. Maybe go to one of those places where you could get an acre and a big house for $2.

We could go there and no one would be as hard on us as we are. We wouldn't be the minority. We could do all that, but it wouldn't work out for the furtherance of the Gospel here in Utah. We were to bring the Gospel everywhere, even to the places where it is difficult.

And everything you do here can work out to the furtherance of the Gospel. Every conversation. Your job. Your interactions. Things with your neighbor. We are in this ripe opportunity. Jesus looks out in Samaria and He tells the disciples, the fields are white.

They're ripe. Ready for the harvest. And we only have to act. God's saving people left and right here. Every opportunity of suffering. Notice I just called it an opportunity. Every moment of suffering is an opportunity to show that we have a peace that surpasses all comprehension.

That we have a Savior that is with us and will not forsake us. Church, do you and I suffer like the world? When COVID was happening, I saw Christians who were so fearful of death. I saw Christians who didn't suffer well.

And I get it. I've been there too. But do we suffer like the world? Do we suffer in complete despair? Or do you suffer like a Christian should? Full of hope. Full of expectation. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4 .13, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as the rest do who have no hope.

This is the word for distress. Don't be in hopeless distress. This is not saying don't grieve, by the way. Oh, Christians don't grieve. Christians pretend it's all fine. No, that's not true either. But we are hopeless in our grief.

My own rendition of this would be don't suffer as those who don't have eternal life. We have every single sin forgiven us. What can man do? What can move me? What can move you? What can take you and me from the Good Shepherd's hands?

He said, no one will snatch you out of My hands. No one will cause you to perish. Let your suffering further the Gospel and not hinder it. And to do this, we need the right perspective on suffering. So let's go back to the passage we started with.