Sermon

Peace in the Midst of Pain

February 11, 2018 Trinity Baptist Church - Sermons

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗

be with you this morning grateful for the leadership in the church
and thank you brothers and sisters for the privilege to share god's word with you this
morning last monday i came from mission conference in california we have and before that another
mission conference mission fist in vancouver british columbia where i have the privilege to
share about the ministry and to speak and god willing it's use day this coming begun for almost
a month to jordan and gaza and in my way have a few days to speak in holland and share about the
ministry so appreciate your prayers um i like if i may uh read a few verses from philippians well-known
verses philippians 4 verse 6 to 9 i'm reading from niv

Philippians 4:6–9
don't be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving
present your request to god and the and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard
your hearts and your minds in christ jesus finally brothers and sisters whatever is it true whatever
is noble whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is admirable if anything
is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things whatever you have learned or received
or heard from me or seen in me but it into practice and the god of peace will be with you may god bless his
word let us pray just ask god indeed to open our hearts and our minds this morning lord this is uh our
prayer this morning and thank you for the blessing to share and the blessing to listen to your word we just
pray to pray to open our hearts our minds we pray uh to give us the freedom as uh
uh we share and as we listen we pray protection on the meeting and over every one of us forgive us our
weaknesses lord jesus our sins cover it under your precious blood and we give you all the honor and all
the praise in jesus name amen um i want to share with you this morning about how to maintain
or keep god's peace in the midst of pain i was reading uh tim killer book uh walking uh with god um
in pain and suffering through pain and suffering and uh there's things i i learned and uh things we went
through in our life and ministry and i like to share with you how to maintain god peace
in the midst of pain i feel loved one if we lost god's peace in our life i think not much left for us
i remember uh as a new believer as a young believer um more uh experienced the peace of god at that time
to be honest with you later in life uh when uh more challenges uh more difficulties uh sometimes uh
i miss uh for one reason or another god peace and uh i struggled with that and seek the lord and uh
i hope what i share with you this morning will help us all uh how to maintain this precious thing in our life
different cultures have really to deal with pain and suffering otherwise people will turn to become
angry and become bitter if they didn't have answers i'm not saying here we have all the answers
about pain and suffering even in our life even as a christian there is no immunity for pain and
suffering for the christian our lord jesus um told us in advance and warned us um that there will be
cross and there will be tribulation and there will be suffering for those who want to live a godly life
um with with the lord uh i want to share with you about uh some of the sources um of pain and the
concept of pain in different uh culture and the misconception of pain and suffering why god allow
pain and suffering in our life and hopefully how together by the grace of god be able to maintain
uh god peace um in the midst of pain uh there is different sources uh of pain and suffering in our life
you know so uh prophets 19 talks about laziness where it could cause hunger could be the call one of the
cause and also um prophets 11 talks about bad relationships or bad friendship could cause pain and suffering
i myself could be the cause uh of that if there's um unwise decisions i made that will cause um
pain in my pain in my life um sometimes unfortunately uh in the u.s we hear people enter a school
where's kids and uh with a gun and they kill and injured uh many many many students uh sometimes of
course if we break the laws of the lord um that will cause suffering in our life sometimes things out of
our control if there is a horrible disease unexpected uh could cause pain in our life regardless what is the
source um i want to say probably not all of us this morning here uh at at present time experience pain and
suffering but maybe in the past you you did uh and maybe some of us now experience pain and some of us
probably in the future so all of us in way or another loved one experience this kind of pain what is the
concept of pain you know um in buddhism will say the cause of pain it's because we live in materialistic
a word and that is a natural result of the world we live in um that people experience pain
uh hundurism will say karma which um the pain that you experience now in your life it's because as a result
of a previous life or sinful life you lived before and now you're paying the price of your previous uh sins
islam will say um don't ask just if god want to do it you know submit and um just take it don't question
it even uh other people will say the cause of pain uh sometimes because of certain desires in your life
and that uh disappointment which you experience because these desires is not fulfilled that cause
this kind of pain in the west they say because we live in a material world and naturally this is the
result but they didn't see unfortunately the spiritual uh extent of uh the pain and suffering in
christianity we see the cause of pain start in genesis 3 um where verse 15 to verse uh 19 because of sin
and we see that the land or the earth will produce start to produce thorns and the man will go through
a pain as he provide for his own family and mothers will experience pain as they give birth but there's
misconception about uh about pain um you remember in the life of job the first thing
his friends told him when they saw the pain and the suffering in the life of jail of job they said job you must did
something horrible that these things happened to you and we know what they what they said wasn't right
if you remember in john 9 when um the disciple asked jesus when you they saw the boy who born blind
and they asked uh the question uh the question who have sinned that this boy born blind and of course jesus
respond neither not the boy not the parents that sinned that the boy born the blind because there's
misconception and bad heresy at that time in the tradition the jewish tradition they think that the baby
in his mother womb could even sin this is why i asked jesus the question who have sinned you know the
boy or his mothers and we see the response of jesus that the lord will be glorified in all of that
even paul who wrote almost half of the new testament by the power of the holy spirit
he experienced some pain and suffering or some disability in his own life and some um uh theologians see
maybe it's like in his walk or in his sight so i cannot say you know that um the things um we see
that always because of uh certain sin why god allow suffering in our life again we didn't really have
all the answers and sometimes we have more questions than answer why god allow pain and suffering in our
life somebody give this illustration why as a parent you allow your um your child who is two years old to take
a painful shot and you allow him to do that of course simply because um your concept and your maturity as a parent
who's 30 years old or 40 years old is much more than your uh child who's two years old how much more our heavenly father
um who's um whose all wisdom that he allow us sometimes to go through pain and suffering veganism will say
pain will not bring you closer to god but christianity teach us pain is essential to our faith the scripture
said in philippians chapter one we're not only called to believe in him but to suffer for him and as i said
our lord jesus many times warned us that there will be a cross and there will be suffering c.s lewis said
god whisper to us in our pleasures god whisper to us in our pleasures speak to our conscious but he scream
or shout if you will in our pain
and we know loved one our faith will be tested not when everything is going fine but our faith will
be tested in the most difficult time of our life this is why james chapter one verse two he said consider
it all joy loved one when you go through different kind of tribulation because he said the testing of
your faith and the word testing at the time of james is used to examine the coin if it's genuine or false
and this is the time when my faith and your faith will be tested to see if it's real or not and then
he said the testing of your faith will produce perseverance and if perseverance you pass that test
you will have this virtue of patience and then you'll be lacking nothing and you become more
like a man or woman of god and also pain and suffering will build our character
and this is what romans five said that suffering produce perseverance and perseverance will produce
character that you become the man of character that the lord want you to be a man of integrity honesty
relationship with other and to be the person he wants you to be and then he's a character will produce hope
and hope will never disappoint you because the love of god is born in our life
why the lord allow pain and suffering because in the time of pain and suffering if we handle it in the way that the lord want us to do
to do that we will discover the treasure of darkness and this is what we see in isaiah 45 verse 3

Isaiah 45:3
and maybe you wonder if there is a treasure in darkness i want to say in that difficult time when you go
through you will see the lord in a way probably you didn't see him before or you experience him in a way it's very unique and you will learn lessons that
probably you will not learn in any other way why the lord allow us to go through that i want to say
because he know you very well when the lord allow job to go through all the difficulties as you know where he lost his wealth and health and family
he knew job very well more than we knew ourselves and he see that what how much job will bear
um um and also the lord see how job will be after he will go through that fire
he knew how much he can handle and how much he cannot
and simply also that the lord allow us to go through that because
then we able to comfort others who will go through similar things that we went through and we experience
that that the people who can really understand our pain the one who really went through something
similar or the same thing we went through and also i want to say suffering that the lord allow it because
it will teach us even how to pray if you remember in romans 8 it said there is time we didn't know how to pray
there is time we didn't know what to say especially if we go through agony and this it says romans 8 that the
holy spirit which lives inside of us will take that groaning that agony that pain that hurt that
grief the holy spirit will take that and put it in front of the loving god who understand the language of the spirit
and he respond according to our need also suffering i want to say prepare us to heaven
romans 8 17 if we share in his suffering we will share in his glory
the present suffering is no way to compare with the glory which will be revealed in us second
corinthians 4 16 to 17 therefore we don't lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away yet
unworldly we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them all again the question how loved one to keep god's peace in the midst of suffering
i know some of us went through a lot of life and if we have a chance this morning to share
many of you only god knows what you went through but i want to say loved one what you went through or what i
went through it's about consider 10 percent
90 percent but 90 percent it depends how i deal with the things which happened to me which is more
important do i become a better person do i start to complain or i seek the lord in the midst of pain
what you want to show me lord i want to pose i want to kneel i want to throw myself in your presence i want to listen to you
in spite of the pain help me how to deal with it how to become a better servant how to become a better man
we as a christian loved one not only believe infinitive god you know other religion stop there that they believe in infinitive god god is there far away
but we as a christian and only we see it in christianity we believe not only infinitive god but we believe in personal god
what if we believe in god
what if we believe in god who just have all the authority
and he can do anything and everything he's so powerful but he didn't feel with us
what about if we believe just got a god who's really feel with us as a human being
but he's not able not capable to do not powerful enough we see in the christianity the god we
believe in not only have all the authority all the power to do but also he is god who suffer
i like sometimes to talk about god who serve
a servant god if you will and we see god is not with all the authority but god also
who suffer with us
only in christianity
in veganism they didn't see they didn't believe divinity can be unite with the human bodies but only
just
in christ the logos the eternal word of god
the son who's always in the true and father son and holy spirit one being three person
only
in christ that eternal word of god became a flesh and it will among us
yes john 1 and john 1 14 i want to say jesus experienced pain
in the cross the suffering god
when jesus was on the cross loved one for the first time ever
where is the true god always united
on the cross
there was i didn't want to say separation between the son and the father but there's
were kind of a crack in the relationship in the fellowship of the father and the son where jesus said this
word
my god my god why you have forsaken me for the first time the son experienced this
emotional pain which is so deep and for the first time for a while the son
lost his peace
with the father he lost that peace to give you and give me that peace in the darkest hour of our life
life
and jesus
became
not only bear our sins on the cross but he became sin for us can you imagine that he took our iniquities and
give us
his forgiveness took our sin and give us
his righteousness
his forgiveness
how to keep
the peace of god
in the midst of pain
i want to say as a christian if we lost
god the presence
if we lost god peace in the midst of
pain and the challenges and suffering and persecution
i didn't know what how much left for us
and my prayer for you and for me god help me give me the discipline
give me the trust give me it train my mind the train my heart
how in the darkest hour of my life
to continue to experience your peace and your presence which is the most precious thing for me
in my journey of life and in my journey of faith
tim color
share a few things i think very helpful
don't ever
put your ultimate hope
in this life in anything which will be out of your control
our ultimate hope
in the living god
but if i
shift and just put my ultimate hope in things in this life that i don't have control over
that's easy if something happen to these things i will lose god peace
all of us
love
love
our families
very dear to our hearts
we're willing to do everything and anything for our families
but i want if i put my ultimate hope
in my family
and god forbid if something happened to them
that out of my control
which i cannot control
and if it's happened then i very easily be
leave
or lose god peace
in my life
same thing with your profession or your career
your success
if you're able in this life
to accomplish certain things
things
and you have certain success
but
you're not always able to keep
that accomplishment and that success
so if your ultimate hope
in your profession or in your career
god forbid if something happen
then very easy you will lose
god peace in your life
tim color talks about two men young men in his church
and he said both of these two young men
engaged
of course each engaged to a lady
and what's happened to both of them
his fiance each one said no i cannot continue
the first one it was very difficult for him because he put all his dreams ultimate hope in this young lady
he engaged to that one day they will get married and have their family they have and when she said no i cannot continue
he wasn't able to accept that
because he put all his hopes in this
and it was very difficult for him
it destroyed him
and turned to drugs
and become addicted
but the other person
it was very painful for him
too but
because his ultimate hope it was in the living god
he was able to handle it
it will be okay yes it hurts
yes it's painful
but god will help me
he walk alongside of me in the midst of my pain and suffering
and then he talks about another two young men
both of them pursue
want to pursue to become actors
and their dream that they will get this interview where hopefully they be involved in a certain film
and that film will be the stage that probably after that they become popular
and the story said
both of them went to the interview and unfortunately both of them been rejected
one of them again it was very difficult and destroyed him because his ultimate hope was
if i get that
the other person
again was able to overcome
because his ultimate hope was in the living god
how to keep god peace in the midst of pain
we need to rearrange our priorities in life loved one
our faith in the living god first
our family
then
to know the lord better and to make him
known
and i try to remind myself
when i go through tough time and maybe you heard me saying this before
hannah which is bigger your problem
or your god
which is
more difficult
the challenge you facing
now
or your faith
you know loved one
if i make my problem bigger than my god
i'm in trouble
but if i see things in the right perspective
everything will be okay
to know who's my god is
his purpose in my life
his will in my life
and who i am as the child of god
in the midst
of pain
i never forget the story
of maybe you heard it
spofford
who is
american lawyer
in 1871 he lost all his business
in chicago fire
and after two hours he was able to get some of his business back and
he sent his wife anna and his four little girls to london
and the story said
why we are in the atlantic ocean
their ship it's hit by another ship
and their ship start to be to sink
down
what this godly mother did
she hold
the hands
of her four daughters
and she start to pray
as the ship going down
and the waves scattered
the family
the four daughters
the four daughters
drawn
and died
they found anna the mother unconscious
floating
on the water
and rescued
by a ship
they brought her to london
and then
she sent very short message to her husband
in two words
saved alone
saved alone
the grieving father
took a ship from the states
through the atlantic
went
to pick up
his wife anna
to bring her back home
when the ship he was on
getting close
to the international water
in france
the captain of that ship
said
to the father
here
was your four daughters
drawn
and died
the godly man
start to wrote
the song
where he said
the peace of god
is running
like a river
all my sins
all my sins
been nailed
on the cross
and the question
what makes this man
write
a song
like this
any person
in his position
either
he will feel
guilty
that what's
happened to him
and to his family
as a punishment
of god
this is why
he
cried out
that all
my sins
nailed on
the cross
and also
he could
turn bitter
against god
why are you doing
this to me
but he say
the peace of god
is coming
like a river
on my
life
i want
to say
when you go
through a tough time
speak to your soul
and this is what
psalm 42
says
why
my soul
you are
casting
down
why you
the agony
why you groaning
in me
my hope
in the living god
speak to your soul
and don't allow
your soul
speak to you
but speak
god
word
god
promises
to your soul
and you can
express
your emotions
and your tears
in the presence
of god
and we see
this is in the life
of jesus
where at least
the scripture
mentioned three times
where jesus
cried
as we know
in the front of
lazarus tomb
when he was in
gethsemane
before he went
to the cross
and also
over jerusalem
the words
i just read
to you
in philippians
4
6
to 9
i call
this is
a divine
prescription
for our
souls
and our
spirits
where he
say
don't be
anxious
about
anything
i want
to say
when the lord
gives this
kind of
order
because he
is the
one
who
created
us
he's
the one
who
designed
us
he knows
what is
good
for us
and he
whisper
to everyone
of us
my son
don't allow
anxiety
don't allow
anxious
or worries
control
your life
lord what
you want
me to do
there is a
replacement
instead of
anxious
anxiety
he said
by a
prayer
handle
handle
handle
your
anxiety
handle
your
worries
through
prayer
even if
you pray
the scripture
in the
presence
of god
the two
things
anxious
or worries
and prayer
is contradict
but
this is how
we need
to handle
it
life is
so fragile
handle it
with a
prayer
prayer
and
thanksgiving
and then
he said
the result
will be
the peace
of god
which
more than
you can
comprehend
will guard
your heart
and the
word
guard
in the
greek
here
it's
used
to
protect
the city
from the
attacks
of the
enemy
because
as you
know
this is
the battle
where the
evil one
can
attack
us
through
our
thoughts
and
through
our
minds
but
the
lord
will
siege
and
protect
your
mind
and
your
thought
as
you
handle
it
with
prayer
and
thanksgiving
before
the
lord
and
then
we
see
what
the
lord
wants
us
to
think
about
to
overcome
and
to
keep
the
peace
to
think
in
like
what
it
say
is
noble
whatever
right
what's
pure
what's
lovely
admirable
praiseworthy
one of
the
things
was
difficult
for
us
and
we
need
to
deal
with
it
reconstruct
our
thoughts
sometimes
and if
you
will
to
reconstruct
our
minds
all
of
us
believe
certain
things
and
we
heard
if
you
didn't
meet
the
criteria
or
if
you
didn't
meet
the
standard
there
is
something
wrong
on
you
you
know
we
believe
certain
things
but
when
we
come
to
real
life
to
implement
it
sometimes
maybe
we
feel
shortcoming
and
then
we
feel
we
are
not
good
enough
and
then
we
start
to
feel
guilty
and
the
anxiety
to
come
over
us
this
is
why
I
say
we
need
to
evaluate
certain
things
certain
thoughts
in the
presence
of
God
as
we
seek
him
I
just
want
to
end
with
just
a
couple
of
minutes
about
Job
I
want
to
say
for
Job
we
see
the
grace
of
God
even
Job
sometimes
he
crossed
the
line
have
doubts
but
in
the
same
time
we
see
the
grace
of
God
that
God
didn't
turn
away
from
Job
in spite
of
his
doubt
and
his
difficult
questions
sometimes
but
we
see
the
grace
of
God
where
God
embraced
Job
another
thing
about
Job
Job
didn't
allow
pain
and
suffering
to
push
him
away
from
God
rather
he
allowed
pain
to
push
him
to
run
toward
God
and
this
is
my
prayer
for
you
and
for
me
this
morning
if
you
go
through
pain
anxiety
or
suffering
may
these
things
will
help
you
to
run
toward
God
and
I
just
want
to
say
in
the
end
Job
didn't
have
answers
for
all
his
questions
why
God
allowed
this
to
happen
to
me
there
are
things
in
life
we
didn't
have
enough
answers
maybe
have
more
questions
but
only
then
when
Job
saying
in the
presence
of
God
I
didn't
understand
why
I
didn't
have
answers
for
all
my
questions
but
I
trust
you
you
are
good
God
and
only
then
when
he
threw
himself
in
the
presence
of
God
when
he
threw
himself
in
the
bosom
of
God
only
then
he
able
to
experience
the
peace
and
the
presence
of
God
and
felt
contentment
inside
and
this
is
my
prayer
for
all
of
us
if
we
didn't
have
an
answer
but
I
believe
you
are
good
God
you
are
the
one
who
created
me
in
his
image
the
one
who
breathed
life
in
me
the
one
who
redeemed
me
I
trust
you
I
throw
myself
in
your
presence
and
his
peace
and
his
presence
will
give
us
the
real
contentment
and
the
real
meaning
of
life
that
you
continue
by
his
grace
to
move
forward
and
to
live
life
for
him
and
not
to
allow
anything
is
more
or
big
in
this
life
is
steal
or
take
God
peace
from
our
life
let's
pray
Lord
we
bow
before
you
we
thank
you
Lord
for
your
presence
in
our
life
Lord
you
see
the
struggles
we
went
through
or
my
brothers
and
sisters
going
through
now
Lord
I
pray
to
help
us
all
whatever
we
going
through
help
us
not
to
lose
your
peace
your
presence
Lord
God
thank
you
for
the
honor
and
the
privilege
which
you
give
us
sometimes
to
go
through
the
fire
you
know
us
more
than
we
know
ourselves
and
we
trust
you
I
pray
for
my
brothers
and
sister
and
for
myself
whatever
we
go
through
help
us
to
learn
help
us
to
grow
help
us
to be
more
like
you
and
for
the
things
what
you
teach
us
help
us
to
share
it
and
to
use
it
to
be
blessings
for
others
help
us
to
be
like
Job
that
not
allow
pain
to push
us
away
but
rather
to run
toward
you
and
to
throw
ourselves
in
your
presence
we
love
you
help
us
to
live
the
rest
of
our
life
Lord
Jesus
for
you
in
Jesus
name
we
pray
amen