How Long, O Lord?

If you would, please remain standing. You might have noticed we changed up a few things this morning in our order of service.

One of the reasons why we sing a song this week before I come up here is so that you would still be standing by the time I got here,

so that you can remain standing while we read the Word of God together as a sign of reverence for the Word.

So if you would, I do want you to take your Bibles and open them to Psalm chapter 6.

Psalms 6 · chapter mention

We'll read Psalm chapter 6 together as our sermon text this morning.

Psalms 6 · chapter mention

David writes,

O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing.

Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.

My soul also is greatly troubled.

But you, O Lord, how long?

Turn, O Lord, deliver my life.

Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

For in death there is no remembrance of you.

In Sheol, who will give you praise?

I am weary with my moaning.

Every night I flood my bed with tears.

I drench my couch with my weeping.

My eye wastes away because of grief.

It grows weak because of all my foes.

Depart from me, all you workers of evil.

For the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

The Lord has heard my plea.

The Lord accepts my prayer.

All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled.

They shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

Amen.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever.

You may be seated.

Let's pray.

Lord, we have heard your word and now we pray that you would make it clear to us.

Help us to hear it not just with our ears, but now with our hearts.

Lord, we ask, even as we've already prayed, Lord, would you comfort those who are discouraged this morning?

Would you challenge those who are idle this morning?

And would you call us all to deeper trust in Christ, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I was recently asked to share something that was encouraging to me about Seawee Bay.

About the ministry that's going on here.

And thankfully, I didn't have to think long and hard about that question.

Several answers came quickly to mind.

But a few events over the past few weeks have given me a new answer.

I am encouraged by the way that you suffer.

I'm not encouraged that you suffer.

Don't get me wrong.

I'm encouraged by the way that you suffer.

I want to share a story with you of someone that you know.

I won't tell you her name.

But if you know her, then you know exactly who I'm talking about.

This woman has suffered maybe more than anyone I know.

Especially so over the past few years.

She had a heart transplant years ago and now is in need of a new heart.

She had a kidney transplant years ago and now is on constant dialysis treatments.

She's had constant unexplained bleeding that keeps her in and out of the hospital.

And the doctors really have no clear path forward.

Not sure what to do.

It has rained and it has poured on this woman's life.

And I went to go see her in the hospital a few weeks ago.

And at this point, when I went to go visit her, at this point in her suffering, she thought she was at the point of death.

In fact, everyone in the room thought that she was at the point of death.

Her family had gathered there.

They called in a doctor there to hear what she wanted to do.

Nobody had great options.

And I'll tell you what she said.

She sat up in her bed as best as she could and she said,

You know, I have had a wonderful life.

And the Lord has given me 20 years on a borrowed heart.

He's cared for me in so many ways.

I love Jesus and I am ready to be with him.

And the doctor's just sitting there listening to her.

I tell you, there's not a dry eye in the room.

And you know what she did?

She kept quoting to herself and to everybody else there in the room out loud.

Psalm 23, she said,

I know that surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.

I know that surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.

I know that surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And I thought, that is how a believer suffers.

That, I pray, is how I will suffer.

The next time affliction comes my way.

What I want to do this morning from Psalm chapter 6 is to convince you,

Psalms 6 · chapter mention

to let David convince you that this is how all believers must suffer in this life.

Psalm chapter 6, it teaches us that God's people face remarkable affliction

Psalms 6 · chapter mention

with unshakable assurance.

This is the big idea here for us this morning.

This is actually going to be our outline.

We'll look at each part.

God's people face remarkable affliction with unshakable assurance.

First, we see that God's people face remarkable affliction.

You know, some people would tell you that being a Christian exempts you from suffering.

And I hope that we've seen over the past six weeks in the Psalms that those people are very wrong.

Being a Christian does not exempt you from suffering.

On the contrary, believers face all sorts of trials in this life.

And we saw last week, it's worth mentioning here again this morning,

that over a third of the book of Psalms are Psalms of lament.

They're complaints.

They're lamenting to God about some trial, some issue, some affliction,

some discouraging event in the psalmist's life.

This is normal for the life of the believer.

But aren't you thankful that the Bible gives us an honest perspective on life?

It gives us an honest look at the life of a believer,

that life on this side of eternity is difficult for everybody, believer or not.

But the way a believer faces affliction is completely different from the rest of the world.

Look here at all the afflictions that David is facing.

I count five here, at least.

And I'd be willing to bet that as we go through these five afflictions,

that you can find yourself in at least one or two of them.

Number one is the affliction of our own sin.

We got everybody in the room already, didn't we?

And number one is the affliction of our own sin.

Look there to verse one.

David says,

Oh Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath.

Be gracious to me, oh Lord, for I am languishing.

What's the cause?

What's the source of God's anger towards David?

What's the source of his hard hand of discipline and his wrath against him?

It's David's own sin.

You may remember some of the context of this section of Psalms that we're in.

David is on the run from his son Absalom.

Absalom has ripped the kingdom away from David.

He's stolen away the hearts of the people.

And now he's coming to kill him.

And he's bringing a couple thousand men with him.

Some of y'all thought that your family situations were difficult.

This is more difficult.

But the cause of this, David knows all of it, all of it can be traced back to his sin.

2 Samuel 12, you can mark this down for later.

Nathan the prophet confronts David and he tells him that he has sinned against the Lord.

He says, you are the man.

The Lord has made David king.

He's given him everything he could possibly ever need.

And yet, David wasn't satisfied.

He stole away Bathsheba from Uriah the Hittite.

He made her his wife.

And then he had Uriah killed to cover it up.

David, the king of Israel, has sinned greatly against the Lord.

And as is the case with all sin, his sin came with consequence.

Listen to what 2 Samuel 12 says.

Nathan says,

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house.

Because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife,

thus says the Lord,

Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.

It's clear that this is the source of David's trouble.

It's his own sin.

This is why David's asking for the Lord's grace.

This is why he's asking for the Lord to relieve him of his discipline.

Because David knows at the root of his trouble,

at the root of his suffering,

is his own sin.

Now unfortunately,

it's not always this clear for us in our own lives, is it?

And we have the advantage of being able to have God's own commentary on this event in David's life,

but we don't have that same level of clarity and certainty in our own lives.

And so I want to be clear.

Not all suffering is directly related to a particular sin in your life.

Now I'll say that again.

Not all suffering in your life can be directly connected to a particular sin in your life.

You might think of Job as an example,

of someone who suffered in innocence.

Not all suffering is directly related to a particular sin in your life,

but it might be.

It might be.

We need to have this category in our minds.

It might be that the Lord,

as your heavenly Father,

is disciplining you for a particular sin in your life.

David is clearly an example of this, isn't he?

We often, I think we want God to do whatever he needs to do to make us comfortable,

when in reality,

God is committed to do whatever it takes

to make us conform more into his holy image.

This is what Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

He says,

He disciplines us, children of God,

for our good that we may share in his holiness.

For the moment,

all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.

Who enjoys discipline?

No one.

But later,

it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness

to those who have been trained by it.

You know,

if we are suffering,

if we're experiencing some affliction,

whether or not we know for certain

that it's related to a particular sin in our life,

we would be wise to seek out

what the Lord might be doing in our affliction.

We would be wise to ask the Lord to reveal to us any sin in our lives

so that it might be confessed and repented of.

We would be wise to do as David does here

and seek the Lord's gracious relief through prayer and repentance.

Sometimes affliction is a result of our own personal sin,

but often, you know,

it's simply a result of living in a sin-cursed world.

Sometimes we face some trial,

some affliction,

some difficulty,

and we just have no answer for it.

All we can do is look at it and say,

that's not how things should be.

That's sin.

We should know that all brokenness,

all affliction,

all suffering,

all sickness,

all decay,

all the stresses and issues that we face every single week,

all of it are the consequence of sin in the world.

And one of those consequences,

it says we see affliction number two here is sickness.

Sickness.

Treg prayed earlier.

I look around the room.

I see several that are not here,

and I know it's because of physical ailments that are plaguing our bodies.

He says there in verse two,

look there.

He says,

I'm languishing.

Heal me,

oh Lord,

for my bones are troubled.

Do you know what it's like to have sick bones?

Now you're so sick that you feel like you can count every single bone in your body.

They ache.

You don't want to move.

You don't want to think.

You don't want to do anything.

You just want to lay there.

And it never comes at a good time,

does it?

I can't imagine a worse time for David to get sick than right now.

Can you?

He's on the run.

Armies are coming after him.

He needs to be alert.

He needs to be ready.

He needs his strength.

And now sickness comes.

He's reminded yet again,

he's not as strong,

not as self-sufficient,

not as self-reliant as he thinks he is.

But not only is his body sick,

he says his soul is wearing out as well.

He says,

my bones are troubled and my soul also is greatly troubled.

David is both in physical and spiritual turmoil,

body and soul.

They are interconnected.

And David says,

both here are feeling the effects of sin.

Both body and soul are in distress with no end in sight.

And so he prays,

he can hardly get out a sentence.

Oh,

you,

oh Lord,

but you,

oh Lord,

how long?

Have you ever asked that question?

How long,

oh Lord,

will I deal with this trial?

How long,

oh Lord,

will I deal with this sickness?

How long,

oh Lord,

will I deal with this sin?

How long,

oh Lord,

until you will bring me some relief?

All of us at some point or another,

because we live in a sin-sick world,

we've all experienced the affliction of sickness.

For David,

it seems like his sickness is bad enough,

it seems to be closing in to the point of death.

Death,

death,

this is affliction number three,

that all of us face.

Look there to verse four.

It's the affliction of death.

He says,

turn,

oh Lord,

deliver my life.

Save me for the sake of your steadfast love,

for in death,

there is no remembrance of you.

In Sheol,

who will give you praise?

David is facing death.

And Romans three tells us that the wages of sin is death.

All of us have sinned.

All of us live in a sin-sick world.

And so all of us face the grim reality of death.

No one will escape it.

And with the presence of sickness,

with the presence of death,

you likely have experienced affliction number four,

grief.

Look there to verse six.

Just look at the depth of David's grief here.

He says,

I am weary with my moaning.

Every night I flood my bed with tears.

I drench my couch with my weeping.

My eye wastes away because of grief.

It grows weak because of all of my foes.

Are you depressed yet?

This doesn't sound too encouraging,

does it?

You know what?

I have never heard an attractional,

seeker-sensitive pastor preach on Psalm chapter six.

Have you?

Well, there's a reason for that.

It's because passages like this are not attractive.

We're talking about real life here.

We're talking about suffering and sickness and grief and death.

This isn't things that we want to hear,

but the Bible knows this is our honest experience,

and so it's things that we need to hear,

and we need to hear them from God himself.

Grief, despair, sadness, groaning, crying,

are all part of the believer's experience on this side of eternity.

The Christian life is not always happy.

There are seasons of deep and dark and intense grief,

sadness, isolation, loneliness, sickness.

And you know what?

As I read through this psalm,

what stood out to me was

that the church of all places

ought to be where we can be honest about this truth.

We read this as David's individual prayer,

vertically him in isolation,

individually praying to the Lord,

expressing his grief to the Lord,

and that's true,

but also all of us are reading this account right now, aren't we?

This book of the Psalms is shared with all of God's people.

David is opening up about his grief,

not just individually to the Lord,

but corporately to all of God's people.

We should feel the freedom

to walk through seasons of darkness and grief together.

And not be ashamed that we're struggling.

You know, part of our commitments to one another

in our church covenant,

we are called to rejoice with those who rejoice

and to what?

To weep with those who weep.

We've made this commitment to one another.

And what an opportunity we have

to share the love of God

with our brothers and sisters who are struggling.

I think of an older lady who,

I served in North Myrtle Beach,

and she's with the Lord now.

And she would just come into my office,

and this happened more than once,

she would just come into my office

and sit down with no explanation whatsoever

and start crying.

And I couldn't get an answer out of her.

I would try to prod her as best I could.

What's going on?

What's wrong?

She had no answer to give.

All she had was tears.

And you know what?

When the Lord brought us down here

and we moved,

for all the sermons that I preached,

all the lessons that I taught,

all the tasks that I accomplished there at the church,

the thing that stood out to her most,

what she thanked me for on my way out the door,

was that she could come in my office and cry.

I don't want to say that to pat myself on the back

because my part was easy.

I didn't do a thing.

All I did was sit and listen.

Her part, her part was difficult.

She had to open up about her grief

and let others be the ministering spirit of Christ

to her in the midst of her darkness.

And so must we, church.

Don't hold your grief in to yourself.

The body is here to care for those who are afflicted among us.

One more affliction here.

Affliction number five that all of us face.

We face harm from other sinners.

Why is David weak from crying?

What's going on in his life?

Verse seven, he says,

I am worn out because of all of my foes.

It's interesting, isn't it,

that out of all of these afflictions, five of them,

this is the only one that's outside of us.

You know, all these other ones are internal.

We experience them internally.

They're personal.

Our greatest enemy is our sin

and all of its consequences in our life.

But living in a fallen world,

we also face affliction from other people,

other sinners.

And sometimes, like David,

sometimes it comes from those who are closest to us.

Does this sound familiar to any of you?

Can you relate to David at all?

The truth is,

all of us, believer, non-believer alike,

all of us face all sorts of afflictions in this life.

But, for the believer,

the good news is, like David,

we don't stop at verse seven.

The believer faces remarkable affliction

with unshakable assurance.

That's what we see in verses eight through 10.

Look there with me.

This is our second point this morning.

Second, God's people face remarkable affliction

with unshakable assurance.

You know, the difference between a believer

and a non-believer

and our experience on this side of eternity

is not a difference of suffering.

It's not that they suffer and we don't.

In fact, oftentimes, to our eye,

it seems like the wicked are doing just fine.

They seem like they're doing well for themselves.

The difference is that

in the midst of our suffering, believer,

we cling to the promises of God.

That's our assurance.

That's our confidence.

In the midst of any trial, any affliction,

our assurance is the steadfast love of the Lord.

This is what I want you to remember.

This is the main message here from Psalm chapter six.

The only way to endure the trials of this life

is by clinging to the promises of God.

If you're suffering right now

and you are just in the middle of it,

do everything you can

to hammer the promises of God

into your weary soul.

And if you're not,

if everything's going well for you,

you're doing just fine,

you would be wise

to do everything you can

to soak your roots deep down

into the word of God

before the storm comes your way.

What are those promises?

We've seen David's requests.

He's given seven of them.

I don't know if you're counting.

Don't rebuke me.

Don't discipline me in your wrath.

Be gracious to me.

Heal me.

Turn, O Lord.

Deliver my life.

Save me.

Seven requests that he makes.

But what's the basis of his request?

What's at the root?

What's his assurance that God will act,

that this will be done?

What grounds does he have

to make these requests before God?

He has three unshakable truths here.

Three promises here

that give David assurance

in the face of remarkable affliction.

Number one.

Number one.

Our assurance in the face of affliction

is that no matter what happens,

God will act for the good of his people

and the glory of his name.

I'll say that again.

I would love for you to write this down.

Our assurance in the face of affliction

is that no matter what happens,

our God will act for the good of his people

and the glory of his name.

Look there again to verses four and five.

David prays,

Lord, deliver my life.

Save me.

Why?

For the sake of your steadfast love.

Save me.

Why?

For in death there is no remembrance of you.

And Sheol, who will give you praise?

And David knows that God's greatest motivator,

the greatest motivator for God to act

is the praise of his name.

Everything comes back to this.

God will always act for the glory of his name.

And so David recognizes that there is an issue here.

Do you see what it is?

Do you see the issue here?

The issue is that God's glory is at stake.

God's reputation is at stake.

His praise is at stake in David's suffering.

The steadfast love of God is on trial in David's suffering.

Do you see this?

Despite his sin,

David was God's anointed king, right?

And more than that,

God had promised David,

what had he promised David?

A son from his line to sit on the throne forever.

So here's the issue.

How can God stay true to his word

and allow David to die and suffer?

What would the nation say about a God

that turned his back on his promises?

What would this say about the character of God

if he turned his back on his plan

to lead his people through his anointed king?

What would that say about the character of God?

David prays that God would act

because his own glory and praise is at stake.

So he says,

Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.

We need to realize God's greatest motivator

in all that he does,

God's greatest motivation

in all of his actions and creation and redemption

is the glory of his name.

And here's the good news for us, church.

If we put our trust in the Lord,

then our good is tied up with his glory.

Let me give you an example.

If I tell my boys that we're going on a trip,

I've got three boys.

If I tell them we're going on a trip,

maybe we're going to the Grand Canyon, okay?

Cross-country trip.

First of all, could you imagine the length of that trip?

We went to Georgia a couple weeks ago.

I kid you not, 20 minutes into the drive,

they were asking,

Are we there?

Are we there?

Are we there?

How long?

How long?

How long?

Thankfully, they're pretty good riders.

Most of the time,

we've never tried cross-country,

but all the stops,

all the inconveniences,

all the wrecks,

all the hazards along the way

to the mind of a child,

that probably seems like it's an eternity,

that they're never going to get there.

Their assurance,

despite the long, difficult, hazard-wrought journey,

their assurance that we're going to get there

is that mom and dad told them

they're going to get there.

And they know

that if mom and dad turn back on their word

and don't take them on the trip to the Grand Canyon,

guess what?

That's not only bad for them,

that brings shame upon mom and dad.

Because our word has bound them up.

Our glory, our praise in their good are now one.

For us to do them good is to our praise.

For us to go back on our word brings us shame

and brings them harm.

Now, mom and dad aren't perfect

on this side of eternity, are we?

Sometimes things happen that we can't control.

Sometimes stuff comes up

that's beyond our ability to control.

But the Lord God never turns back on his word.

The Lord God, by his own grace,

has graciously chosen

to tie up our good with his glory.

David's confidence in the face of death

is that God will bring praise to his name.

But you know what?

It's also his reason to go on living.

He says,

For in death there is no remembrance of you

and Sheol who will bring you praise.

It is fascinating to me.

David, he doesn't just pray to be made well, does he?

There's a reason here for his prayer.

He grounds it in a greater purpose.

He doesn't just pray,

Lord, make me well so I can go back to being king.

Lord, make me well so I'm more comfortable.

Lord, make me well so I feel better.

He roots his request that good might come to him

in the greater purpose of the praise and glory of God.

Do we pray like this?

Do we realize that the purpose of our life

is to glorify God and enjoy him forever?

That the purpose of your life is to bring him praise?

You know, you were made to honor and delight in him

and bring glory to him.

And so David prays,

I want to live so that you might be praised.

I want to be made well again

so that in the face of wickedness of this world

you would have a witness.

He prays,

please heal me, O Lord,

so that you would have yet another reason

to give me so I could give you praise.

You know, I've heard a lot of prayers for healing,

but I'll be honest,

I have not heard a lot of prayers that sound like this.

David wants to be healed

so that he might bring glory to the Lord.

Do you pray like this in our suffering?

And maybe we don't pray like this in our suffering

because we don't live like this

when we're well.

The purpose of our being made well again

is for the glory of God.

If you were sick

and now your mind is no longer foggy,

use it to think clear thoughts about God.

If your body was ailing and weak

and now has regained strength,

use it.

Use your mobility now

to go out and serve him.

If your throat is no longer sore,

use your voice now

to sing his praises

and to speak of him.

That's what they're there for.

Here's our assurance, church,

in the face of affliction.

Our present circumstances

do not change eternal promises.

God has spoken.

Our assurance in the face of any trial

is that God will fulfill his promises

for our good and his glory.

But not only this,

assurance number two,

no matter what happens,

our God hears our prayers.

Our God hears our prayers.

You know, something shocking happens

here in verse eight.

Do you see it?

There is a major shift.

David moves from vertical prayer,

his groaning,

his weeping,

to now horizontal proclamation

in shocking confidence.

In fact, this shift is so drastic

that there's some critical scholars

that say,

well, this must be a mistake.

There must be two different psalms

happening here

that are somehow smashed together.

This sounds like two different people here.

Look there to verse eight.

He just got done saying

how his eyes were wasting away

from grief because of his foes.

But now in verse eight,

he says,

depart from me,

all you workers of evil.

Why?

What's his assurance?

For the Lord has heard

the sound of my weeping.

Depart from me

because the Lord has heard my plea.

The Lord accepts my prayer.

This is the confidence of God's people.

We go from pouring out our heart

to God in prayer,

letting him hear all of our growing,

all of our lamenting,

crying out to him for help.

And then we get up out of the closet

and we walk into this sin-marked world

with confidence.

Why?

Because we know that

even when things are beyond our control,

they're never beyond his control.

Even when things are beyond our understanding,

they are never beyond his understanding.

Even when we can't do anything at all

to change our circumstances,

the Lord is always at work

and he hears our prayers.

In fact,

we know that

even when we don't have the words to say,

like David,

we know

the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For we do not know

what to pray for as we ought,

but the Spirit himself

intercedes for us

with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts

knows what is the mind of the Spirit,

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints

according to the will of God.

And we know that

for those who love God,

all things work together for good

for those who are called

according to his purpose.

Church,

we are called to pray

to the King of all the earth

with confidence

because he hears us.

He uses our prayers

to accomplish his eternal purposes.

But not only this,

third,

our assurance

in the face of suffering

is that

no matter what happens,

our God

will bring

justice.

Look there to verse 10.

David closes here in verse 10

with the assurance that

all my enemies

shall be ashamed

and greatly troubled.

They shall turn back

and be put to shame

in a moment.

His assurance is that

the God who hears

his prayers,

the God who works

for his good,

the God who will bring

praise to his name,

his God will bring

justice.

On this side of eternity,

the wicked may seem like

they've won.

And the curse of sin

and all its effects

may seem to have won the day,

but David's confidence

is that in a moment,

in the blink of an eye,

all will be made right.

The king of the earth

will do what is right.

The wicked will be judged

and God will right

every wrong.

That's our hope, church.

In all the afflictions

of a sin-cursed world,

we trust with David

that the judge

of all the earth

will do

what is right.

Those were David's assurances.

But we have a fourth,

don't we?

David clung to the promises

of God as clearly

as he knew them,

but we know with much

greater clarity,

don't we,

that all the promises

of God are fulfilled,

are true,

are extended to us

in Jesus Christ.

Blessed assurance,

Jesus is mine.

That's our assurance.

It's likely that

David's trials

are far greater

than ours,

but it's certain

that our assurance

is far more powerful

than his.

We know with absolute certainty

that in all things,

God works for our good

and for his glory.

Why?

Because he who gave up

his own son for us,

how will he not also

along with him

graciously give us

all things?

We know that God

has tied up our good

with his glory.

Why?

Because he sent

his own son

to live

and to die

and to rise

on our behalf

that no one

who trusts in him

will be put to shame

that no matter

what happens

in this life,

if we suffer

with him,

we will also

certainly be glorified

with him.

If we die

with him,

certainly we shall

also live,

be raised with him

that no matter

what happens,

neither death

nor life

nor angels

nor rulers

nor things present

nor things to come

nor powers

nor height

nor depth

nor anything else

in all creation

will be able

to separate us

from the love of God

in Christ Jesus

our Lord.

if the afflictions

of this life

ever feel like

it's too much

to bear,

church,

look to Christ

who was afflicted

for us.

If the sorrows

of this life

feel too much

to bear,

look to Christ

the man of sorrows

well acquainted

with grief.

If we should ever

doubt in the midst

of our trial

that the Lord

cares about us,

look to Christ

on the cross

who came

and suffered

in our place

that any who

trust in him

might be brought

to full healing,

full restoration,

not now,

but in the time

to come.

You will suffer

in this life,

but Christian,

we suffer

with assurance

that Christ

has purchased

for us

a glorious future.

Free from sin,

free from death,

free from sickness,

free from grief,

free from every

affliction,

safe and secure

in the presence

of God.

That's our assurance.

As I left the hospital

from visiting

our friend,

I actually ran into

the palliative care doctor.

He was coming back

from lunch

and I was leaving

to head to the parking lot

and I got to speak

with him for a moment

and he commented

how remarkable

it was

to see someone

suffer so much

and yet speak

so confidently

about their hope

in the Lord.

And I said,

you know what?

She's not afraid

to die.

And he almost

stopped me.

He said,

no, no, no, no,

no, we don't,

that's a bad word

around here.

We don't say

that word.

I had the opportunity

to say,

you know,

a doctor,

she's a Christian.

We talk about death

all the time.

She's not afraid

to die

because she knows

Christ

who has delivered

her soul from death

so that no matter

what happens

in this life,

she has assurance

in the Lord.

Do you have

that same assurance?

Let's pray.

Lord,

you know

the afflictions

that we face.

Father,

you sent Christ

to suffer

and to die

on our behalf

and we know

that all who

follow him,

Lord,

we will walk

through many trials

in this life

but we take heart,

Father,

that Christ

has overcome

the world

and we take heart

knowing

that the certain

future

that he's purchased

for us.

We pray

that you would

comfort those

who are afflicted

this morning

with the gospel

of Christ.

We pray this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

What we're going

to do now

is respond

to the Lord.

Respond to the word

that we've just heard.

We'll stand

and sing our last song

together in just a moment

but what I want to do

and Miss Priscilla

is going to play

through a verse.

I want you to just

sit and respond now

in silent prayer

to the Lord.

What truth stood out

to you today

that you need to

praise God for

and what application

is there for you

to take away?

What sin is there

to be repented of?

Take a moment right now

before we close

and pray to the Lord

in response.

Let's pray.