239 ~ THE KINGDOM LIFE ~ Part 9

Hi and welcome to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a local church based here in Chennai, India.

We are so glad you are with us and hope that this will

encourage, inspire and instill fresh faith in you.

We have started a series called The Kingdom Life based on the

life and teachings of Jesus from the Gospel according to Mark.

We look at how we must live our lives on this earth as followers

of Jesus in a way that is countercultural yet powerfully

impactful. As you listen in, our hope is

that you will be motivated to live, love, lead, and serve just

like Jesus. Morning, everyone, morning.

So we are continuing with our Kingdom series.

We are doing Kingdom principles from this week and the principle

we're looking at today is a little different. 1 So there

was, I think it, I'm not sure if this joke was said at our

engagement or someone else's, but the pastor was saying how

for the people getting married, there are three kinds of rings.

We have our engagement ring, our wedding ring, and then

suffering. And so today's Kingdom principle

is suffering well. And my prayer when I started

preparing last Sunday was Lord, please don't test me because

before a sermon is preached, He will give us 6 days of training.

So I said please don't test me for the next 6 days.

I want a bit of a break from all the training.

And it was amazing how God cumulatively gave me a word for

today from over 40 years of her life.

He said, I want you to teach from your life, 40 years.

You have walked through different seasons.

A lot of them were dark and I want you to teach from your

life. So whatever I share today is

stuff that I have tried my best to live out, my parents and my

husband, that evidence or some of it, and I hope I stay true to

what God has spoken to me. Saint Augustine said this.

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without

suffering. God had one son on earth without

sin, but never one without suffering.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this. To endure the cross is not

tragedy. It is a suffering which is the

fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.

Right. And we have to come down to

brass tacks with this. Let us not kid ourselves that

God causes our suffering. This is the fact we live in a

broken world. The enemy has penetrated every

area of our lives. We live in a broken world.

All and any suffering is from the hand of the enemy.

God allows it, and out of that, because he's a Redeemer,

whatever is allowed into our life becomes something good.

But the cause of sin and suffering is not God.

I love what the psalmist says. God is good and he does good.

That is who he is. That is the bottom line.

We will learn from this position.

The enemy is the perpetrator of suffering, not God.

And God who is sovereign allows it.

And I think he allows it because he can see the end from the

beginning. He knows that even this terrible

thing that's going to happen at this point of life, I'll bring

in tremendous good out of it. And that's why he allows it.

And Jesus himself said this in the book of John.

John chapter 16 verse 33 says I have told you these things so

John 16:33

that in me you may have peace in this world.

You will have trouble, but take heart.

I have overcome the world. It's imperative.

It's an imperative tense. He's saying you will have there

is no negotiation. None of us are going to be

exempt. In another translation he

expands on that and amplified. He says you will have

tribulation, trials, distress, frustration, but be of good

cheer, meaning take courage, be confident, certain, undaunted.

I have deprived the world of power to harm you and have

conquered it for you. What an assurance.

So what is the the gist of it? You will have suffering, I will

have suffering. It is part of our lives.

But there are two precautions we must take when we talk about

suffering, especially when you walk in community.

There will be people who are going through hardship.

And there are two things I believe we should be very

careful of. The first thing is that we

mustn't minimize other sufferings and maximize our own.

You know, we have this problem of saying, oh, you've not walked

my shoes. You don't know my trauma, you

don't know my abuse. You don't haven't grieved like I

have grieved. But that's a huge mistake

because we cannot quantify suffering.

My suffering is not yours. Yours is not mine.

So let's not minimize someone else's suffering just to

maximize our own. To each his own, he says.

Each man is called to bear a burden, right?

So that's the first precaution we must take.

So each one of us are fighting a battle.

Let's be kind to each other. The second precaution is not to

draw conclusions between sin and suffering.

A lot of times you want a cause and effect or they're going

through this because they didn't.

They were not in the Lord or they didn't do this.

They didn't do that. Sin and suffering is not so

direct. It's not so linked.

We don't know the depths of it. There's a huge amount of mystery

to it, and I believe that we have to look at it very simply.

There's a pressing before the promise, and the pressing is

what we call suffering. There is a struggle before the

breakthrough. That struggle is the suffering.

Some of these things happen to refine as he allows the fiery

experiences of life so that the drawer smells of the impurities

are melted off and so that the pure version is brought forth

and so we cannot draw direct conclusions.

Don't go tell someone, oh, you've not had this happen for

you because of that is not in our hands to judge.

So these are two precautions. But now I'm coming to what James

said the brother of Jesus wrote this.

He said consider it a sheer gift friends, when tests and

challenges come at you. I don't know whether James was

in a in a type of denial he says considered pure joy.

When you undergo trials and testings of all kinds and then

look at what he says I'm reading from message, he says.

You know that under pressure your faith life is forced into

the open and shows its true colours.

So don't try to get out of anything prematurely.

Let it do. Let it do its work so you become

mature and well developed, not deficient in any way.

A lot of times when we're going through a hard season, our

tendency is to be like kids on a road trip.

Are we there yet? Have we reached God?

Are you done with me? Can I short circuit this

process? But he's saying don't try to get

out of it prematurely. Let it do its work in you.

When we were studying, we, I did a side paper, an ancillary paper

called in zoology. And the, the teacher, I still

remember this like it was yesterday.

She taught us about metamorphosis and how the

butterfly has to go from Caterpillar to pupa and then to

butterfly, right? And what happens is when the

crystal is, or the pupa is just hanging on the underside of a

leaf. And we would actually observe it

in the lab when they're trying to come out of the pupil stage.

It's a very pivotal stage because the little butterfly is

emerging from a pupil condition, from a cocoon.

It's been cocooned safely for a few weeks and the minute it

starts emerging, we'll all go to the lab and it's almost an

entire day's process when the butterfly pushes through the

cocoon and comes out. But when it's pushing, some

researchers tried a different thing.

They cut the pupil layer to free it out.

But you know what happened? The butterfly limped and fell

out and died within a few hours. But when we allow nature to do

its thing, the butterfly kept pushing, pushing, pushing for

the next few hours. And what was actually happening

with the wings were getting stronger because it was pushing

through such a tough membrane. And within a few hours it was

ready. It emerged and it lived its

lifespan as planned by God. And the teacher told us that

that process of shoving and pushing through the pupil cocoon

was very important for the strength needed for the next

season as a butterfly, because it was a Caterpillar a few weeks

back, it needed to go through the birthing process, the

birthing pain to emerge into that beautiful creature.

Some of us are trying to short circuit the suffering.

Some of us are trying to cut it short.

No, I want out of this marriage. I can't do this.

I, I, I'll check out of parenting this kid.

It's too hard. But God is saying you can't

check out too soon because the breakthrough may be just around

the corner, but I want you to go through it.

And so it's so important to look at what James is saying.

That is why it's important to consider it all joy, because at

the end of the trial, something beautiful awaits.

But we must walk through the trials.

And so the common thread, if you look at all of humanity

struggles, you look at the Bible from beginning to end, there is

something about God growing us into maturity.

And growth happens with pain. There is suffering which comes

before we move into the next level of our life, the next

level of our faith, the next level of our blessing.

And so remember this, suffering is not punishment, it's process.

You're human, you're going through a process, suffering is

part of it. I was talking to Pastor Vasu

this at Goa this week. I had a bit of free time with

him. So we both just were talking and

we were talking about spiritual warfare and he said you know

what, I believe in spiritual warfare.

But the problem with it is we sometimes when we put it on

spiritual warfare, we blame the devil for anything and don't

take responsibility for anything.

He said when you're walking through suffering, be very aware

of God and not the enemy. The enemy is working 100%, but

he said keep your eyes on Jesus during suffering.

Don't take your eyes off him. Don't give the enemy the benefit

of putting all the focus on him, right?

So when we look at today how we are going to suffer, well, the

Kingdom principle is suffering. Well, the fact is all of us are

going to suffer. But how do I suffer?

Well, that's what we're going to be looking at today.

And here's the deal. Suffering or struggling is a

process. It's painful.

It could be long winded, it could be unexpected.

It comes out of left field. But suffering well means you

don't waste the suffering. You don't waste the suffering.

You don't languish, you don't go into hiding, you don't disappear

off the face of the planet, but you embrace it and you make it

work for you. That is what it looks like to

suffer well. And I just have three things I

want to leave with you. The first thing is if you want

to learn how to suffer, well, the first thing is it's OK to

groan, but you must grow. First thing, it's OK to groan,

feel your pain, feel it, feel every inch of it.

Groan out to God, scream and say Lord, this is so unfair right

now, but don't forget to grow. What does that look like?

Romans 8 VS 18 to 23. If you can turn to that, Romans

818 to 23, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth

comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

For the creation waits and eager expectation for the children of

God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected

to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the

one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be

liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the

freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning, as in the

pains of childbirth right after the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the

spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to

sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

How many of you have actually seen growth pains in children,

little babies, as they grow month on month, they stretch,

and you can feel, you can see the pain on their faces as

they're stretching their little bodies.

Growth pains happens in all our life.

As we get older, as we enter new seasons, there are growth pains.

He stretches our business, he stretches our marriages, he

stretches our children, he stretches everything.

And it's important to remember in seasons of suffering, not to

stop growing. It is so important that we are

moving from point A to at least point A to if not B.

And I'm not saying that you only make it about growth.

Feel what you're feeling, but don't get stuck in that place.

It is so important that if you're in a hospital bed, you're

lying there, but your mind is actively engaged with God and

you're saying, God, what can I do right now?

You're making me rest. What next?

Maybe you're in a season of separation and you're so alone.

You're so lonely, you don't know what to do.

But keep talking to God, read his word, be soaked in the

spirit. Growth is important in the midst

of suffering. And you know, sometimes feels

like the the struggle is too much.

You know, sometimes when the suffering will be so great that

it'll feel like whiplash, constant whiplash from your body

just being yanked around. It'll feel like you're, you've

just been bruised and battered emotionally, physically and

mentally. You're like, God, when will this

battering stop? But in the midst of it, growth

happens when you change the question from when and why?

What are you bringing out of this card?

How can I use this to bring you glory?

That's when growth starts. Romans chapter 5, verses three

Romans 5 · chapter mention

to five says not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings

because we know that suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance, character, and character hope.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has

been poured out into our hearts to the Holy Spirit who has been

giving us. You see this, there's an

incremental change. You're changing, moving from

suffering to perseverance, perseverance, character,

character, hope. There is change, something is

changing. I remember 2 weeks, I don't know

where I shared this, but we had gone through a particular

difficult moment with someone and I was just so down in the

spirit, but I knew that God was allowing it for a reason.

And so we were just kind of, you know, we were kind of surfing

through it, like emotionally I was coasting through it.

And then we met one of our friends.

He came home and we were just talking and we shared with him

the season we are in and he said this very interesting thing.

He said, Ananaka, it's so weird. You have the joy of the Lord on

your faces. I would have never guessed

you're going through this. That's growth.

He said, because he saw us three years back when we had been

battered similarly, but we were just couldn't lift us up.

But he's saying in three years I've seen a difference.

You are so joyful in the midst of this.

Amazing. And that's when I was like, oh

wow, thank you, God, for you have brought good out of the

trials. You have taught us to grow in

the midst of suffering. It's so important because the

word perseverance, there is fortitude, endurance.

Some of us are so caught up in our physical health, in the

pursuit of excellent health by eating right, by doing the right

things for our body. But have you been doing that for

your spirit? Because suffering has a way of

pulling your spirit down and there's no lifting that up

easily. But it's important that you

build your spirit, which means you are so soaked in the Word.

I will. Even if I'm really sick, I will

still get into the Word today. Because God, you will have a

word for me today. I will not give up till I hear

from you, Lord. I'll keep reading the scripture

till you speak to me. Fortitude is built in the midst

of suffering character. He will show you areas in which

you are lacking. Before He shows you anything

about anyone else, He'll first show you and you realize that in

the midst of this. God, if you're humbling me, I'm

good with it. If you're taking away the pride

that has been so fitted in with my life, it's OK, you can remove

it. It's beautiful what suffering

does to us. The problem is that when we are

suffering, many of us have a problem of stagnation.

I meet people who week in week out, same complaint.

When are you going to move from stagnation to growth?

When are people around you going to say this is not holding them

down, they are moving. I love hearing stories of people

saying Akka. Last week I was like this.

This week God came through in a very subtle way.

It won't be a huge thing, but they saw it.

They saw God move and so they moved.

God is calling us into growth. I want to ask you to reflect on

this. What has your suffering taught

you? Did it bring you closer to God?

Did you start to know more about God's heart and mind for

humanity for you? Have you developed deeper

relationships? Did you bring people into it so

that you could journey with them?

Have you developed a stoic resilience in the face of

storms? Have you grown in your

integrity? Has your faith gotten more

grounded in Jesus? These are the questions we need

to ask. The answers to that will show

whether you've grown or you've stagnated.

And it's never too late. It's never too late to say,

Lord, I'm ready to grow. This problem has been there for

a while, but I'm ready to grow the second thing.

First thing was you can groan, but remember to remember to

second thing. Feel the pain, but declare God's

promises. You can be in the midst of the

most physically depleting season of your life, but your mouth

still works, right? Instead of using your mouth to

complain, to grumble, start declaring the promises of God.

There were seasons when I didn't have the strength to declare, so

I would write it and stick it on the wall.

But what I found was that that faded with age.

And many times when we painted the house, everything was

removed and then it just left my mind.

So God taught me that you need to put the promises in your

heart more than on a wall. It can be on your wall, but if

it's not in your heart, there's no point.

What are you declaring? Simple things.

A lot of times we talk to ourselves.

How many of you talk to yourself?

Yes. The rest of you are lying.

Good. All of us talk to myself at some

point. What we speak to ourself

matters. Oh, I'm so tired.

Oh, I can't do this. But what if I changed it to God?

I know I, I'm, I'm tired. I'm physically exhausted.

But I know I'll get through this because you are with me.

Spirit of God, this is your temple.

I know you will heal it. I thank you that I'm healed and

whole. It is what I speak to myself

which changes the game. The game changer is the

declarations. Your feelings are real, but

they're only indicators. They're not the compass.

What you declare with your mouth matters.

I love Psalm 119. I was reading the IT this whole

week, was just meditating on Psalm 119.

And it blew my mind because I always thought this was a Psalm

where the psalmist talked about the statutes and the, you know,

commandments. But it's actually a little

deeper than that. So I want to read a couple of

verses for you. Psalm 119 versus 147 to 148.

I rise before dawn and cry for help.

I have put my hope, Indiana, your word, my eyes stay open

through the watches of the night that I may meditate on your

promises. When we are especially

struggling in certain areas, some of us lose sleep, am I

right? There's some ailments which will

keep you up at night, pain, chronic pain, skin ailments,

headaches, insomnia. I think the psalmist had a

problem and he says I woke up in the watches of the night.

I put my hope, Indiana, your word, my eyes stayed open that I

might meditate on your promises. He goes on in verses 153 to 154.

Look on my suffering and deliver me, for I have not forgotten

your law. Defend my cause and redeem me.

Preserve my life according to your promise, not according to

my desire according to your promise.

He says in verse 162 I rejoice in your promise like one who

finds great spoil. Verse 170 may my supplication

come before you deliver me according to your promise.

And verse 172 may my tongue sing of your word, for all your

commands are righteous. This is a man who is suffering

but is rooted in God's word. Because the minute I start

speaking my desires out, it may not be in alignment for that

season. I might say, I know I'm healed,

but if God is saying, sweetheart, you need to go

through this a little longer, I'll say, Lord, I know you're

building character in me. I know you're building strength

in me. I can do all things through

Christ who strengthens me. I know you have plans not to end

my life, but to prosper it and bring hope and future.

This is how you bring the promises of God into your inner

dialect. You have to change the script of

your life with the declarations from your mouth.

Your pain, which is physically emotional, mental, everything is

legit. Nobody's denouncing that.

But you have to come to a place where you press pause on that

and say now I'm going to declare the word of God.

Now I'm going to step it up and say the word of God is going to

save my life. I'm going to hold on to it like

an anchor. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 13 says it is written.

2 Corinthians 4:13

I believed, therefore I have spoken.

Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe, and

therefore. Speak.

It is not enough to believe it. We have to speak it out.

Our children need to hear us speak the word of God.

Lisa Bivier always writes this. She says if you look at the fool

and the child, the fool will stand up.

But if you call out the the king and the child, the king will

stand up. What I speak over my husband,

what I speak over my children is all important.

What I speak over myself is very important.

Maybe yourself worth has been suffering because you've been

talking to yourself at this level.

When God says I have called you, you're a you're a Princess, you

are my daughter, you are my son. You're an heir apparent.

You have everything at your disposal, but you're living like

a pauper because of the way you speak to yourself, because of

the way you speak to your children, the way you speak to

those who help you, bosses. How do you treat the ones who

work with you? We look at them like this and we

treat them like they're inferior.

What if I started treating them because they're image, image

bearers? How I treat them matters.

What I speak over them matters. Romans 10/17 says faith comes by

hearing and hearing the word of God.

The word of God has to be spoken, period.

Teach your children psalms. Teach them to speak it out in

the night seasons when they're sick.

Teach them. Call on Jesus, He's with you.

Ask them to claim the blood of Jesus for in it, if there's

power, every other religion teaches their children.

I'm sure that some of you will attest to this.

They teach the Vedas from their infancy.

We are the ones who missed out. But it's not too late.

Let's put the word of God in our families.

Let's start declaring it because it's interesting.

When we start declaring it with your mouth, something changes.

Biologically, our mind starts to believe what we're speaking

because the minute you say you're inferior, you're useless.

Your mind believes it, right? Why not?

I say I'm a masterpiece created in advance to do good works.

When I start saying that, my mind starts to believe it.

My heart follows. I start to believe it and live

like it. Careful what you declare in the

heart seasons. Every word that you speak is

accounted for. I tell this, both of us say this

a lot to couples who come to us for marriage counselling.

Don't use the word divorce even as a joke.

What you speak matters. Don't call your children names

without thinking it true because that's not how God looks at

them. We have this joke in our family.

I was telling Anita about it, How we don't say you are, you're

foolish. We say you're acting foolish and

then they'll say, but you said we're not.

You're acting like one, you're not one.

But then I'm realizing every single word matters because

these things get embedded into our spirits.

Every single thing. And God is saying, will you

start speaking scripture over yourself?

If you're in a very dark season, play music, sing with it.

I love certain songs from our childhood which has scripture

embedded in it. Start singing it over yourself.

Start speaking it over yourself. Worship and the Word of God have

to be staples in our lives. I was reading that day.

There's some research which has come out which says that

Christians tend to live longer and better when they sing

because apparently only our belief system has this thing of

corporate singing out loud like this, and it's supposed to be

really good for the spirit and soul.

So what is stopping us? You don't want to read the Word

of God. Start singing it.

There's so many hymns, there's so many choruses which have the

Word of God. Begin to speak the Word of God

over yourself. What you speak matters as you

start to make these declarations.

This is what I've seen in my life.

When I started to make these declarations out loud, I started

building hope internally. Something in me would change.

There would be a subtle shift because I started believing that

hope never disappoints because the one who I'm hoping in

doesn't disappoint. You see, declaring the

scriptures. We're not saying speak positive

affirmations over yourself. That's not what I'm saying.

Speak the scripture so that you start building hope.

That's the second thing. Feel the pain, but declare God's

promises. The third thing, the 3rd and

final thing, you will suffer alone but must bring

encouragement to others. Our suffering is never for

ourselves. To make suffering work, it has

to be used to bless someone else.

Have you been going through a season of infertility?

Encourage someone else in the same season.

Have you been going through grief over the loss of a loved

one? You're the best one who can

encourage someone else who's going through that.

Each of us have got pain and anguish that is tailor made to

help someone else in the room. You are not meant to suffer

alone and end it alone. You are meant to take that and

encourage someone else. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

three to seven says this. Praise be to the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God

of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we

can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves

receive from God. For just as we share abundantly

in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through

Christ. If we are distressed, it is for

your comfort and salvation if we are comforted.

For it is for your comfort which produces a new patient endurance

of the same sufferings we suffer.

And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you

share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Our suffering is never for ourselves.

The beautiful thing is once we come into the family of God, we

start to hear other people's stories.

And there'll be moments when you can totally relate with someone

else because you've been there, you've walked there.

And your job is to then say, hey, I can journey with you

through this. I've been there.

I know the mistakes I've made. I'll help you not make the same

mistakes. A person who has walked through

cancer is the best person who can help someone else currently

walking through cancer. A person who has lost a business

will be able to help someone else going through a financial

loss. I remember we had lost a sum of

money in in looking for a place for church and only a few people

had been journeying with us on that.

They've been playing with us. Fast forward two years down the

line, one of our guys from church called us up and he and

his wife sat on this call with us and shared their from our old

church and they were just talking to us.

And they said we we just wanted, we didn't know who to tell us.

We thought we'd call you both up.

We know you won't judge us, but we've lost a huge sum of money

and we feel like idiots. We got conned and both of us

didn't know whether to laugh or cry because we were listening to

them and saying we feel you, we feel you, we know what you're

going through. And they were shocked because

they didn't know. And so it was such a beautiful

moment of connecting over suffering, but also walking them

towards healing and telling them, forgive yourselves, God

will come through for you. And the beautiful thing was he

was talking to us recently and said how God has not let them go

even a minute. They've not got back the money,

but God has not let his hand off them.

They've not lacked. They've been doing so well.

God has just been enlarging their territory.

And so this is what happens when we journey with someone else in

a space where we understand what they're walking through.

Someone once said I'll never trust someone without a limp.

Meaning Jacob got touched by the hand of God, right?

It marked him. Suffering will mark us in the

best way possible. My closest friends have all

suffered a lot. They've lost marriages, they've

lost children. These are the ones I trust with

my life because they have seen the darkest bits of hell and

they've come out and they've not come out bitter.

That's the joke. They've not come out angry.

They've come out better than before.

They've come out like gold. They can look back and find joy

and even that and those are the people you should walk with,

identify with someone's suffering not to, you know, have

a pity party for yourself. No, it moves you to this place

of hey, I grew through it. I want you to grow as well.

You walk through depression. I walked through it.

I'll hold your hand through it. Suffering is not wasted when we

use it to bless someone else. The comfort I have received from

God I will bring to you and that's the calling on each of

us. When when Tabita asked us to put

our hands Isaiah 61 to set the captives free, we were captives

who are now set free. We have the keys of the Kingdom

in our hands. We have to be setting others

free. If you received your healing,

don't leave it be there. Take it to someone else.

If you're still in the throes of the wait, wait alongside others.

The waiting room with believers is the best place because all of

us have hope. Hey, I'm waiting for you.

I'm praying for you. I know at the right time God

will come through. Suffering cannot be wasted when

it's used for others. You must have heard about

survivors from the world from World War 2, Viktor Frankel and

Corrie Tenbum. These were people who were

suffering in the concentration camps themselves.

And yet in the midst of the darkest time of history, they

were found helping someone else. Viktor Frankel turned out to be

one of the greatest psychiatrist of our time because he studied

humanity, suffering, and then brought hope to people after the

Holocaust. It didn't end with him.

His suffering didn't just become a personal wallowing of, you

know, self pity, but he took it to help others.

You should read some of his books.

It will change your life. CS Lewis.

He wanted to understand pain. God took his wife away and he

wrote the book The Problem of Pain, and through that he has

helped countless understand why God allows suffering.

How does a good God allow suffering?

Well, the good God didn't 'cause it, but he will carry you

through it. He will redeem it.

We have to understand that suffering is not punishment,

it's process and it's required. So don't run from it.

Consider it pure joy, friends, He says consider it pure joy.

So even as I close, I want to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4

2 Corinthians 4:7–9

verse 7 to 9. If any of you have been

thinking, why this suffering? Why do I have to go through this

God? I want us to bring ourselves

back to a very humbling knowledge of our lives.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this

all surpassing power is from God and not from us.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.

Persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.

It says perplexed, but not in despair.

We are just jars of clay, holes and all, and there is going to

be the process of the crushing of the persecution, of being

struck down. But the beautiful thing is, when

you were hard pressed, did you notice that new wine was being

brought out of you? Did you notice that when you

were perplexed, the mind of Christ started developing,

started thinking like God? Did you notice that when you

were persecuted and slandered, the Spirit of God was with you

and in you? He heard everything, You were

never alone. Did you realize that when you

were struck down that the resurrection power of God raised

you back? Every time people wondered how

did they come back from that? It was the power of God in you.

2 Corinthians 4 verses 17 to 18 says for our light and momentary

2 Corinthians 4:17–18

troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory.

Nothing that you are suffering through or going through is

wasted. It is getting for you glory.

We so we fix our eyes on not what is seen, but what is on

what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is

unseen is eternal. I was teaching them in youth

this Today what we behold is what we become.

If I keep beholding the suffering, I could easily become

a martyr, but when I start beholding the Saviour, I

experience salvation on another level.

I may not get the answer to the prayer immediately, but I

receive His power in so many other ways.

What are you beholding today? Is only your suffering in front

of you? Is only your hardship in front

of your eyes? Is only the setbacks All you

focus on God is calling you to greater vision.

Don't look at what you can see. Look at what you cannot see.

Look at what I'm doing in you. Look at what I'm doing around

you. Open your eyes.

What you behold is what you become.

Become. You behold your problems.

You're the picture of misery. People can see it on your face.

You behold your magnificent God and his promises.

Something changes, people are attracted to you.

You're like a magnet. So this is my suggestion to all

of us to keep your chin up and push through the pain.

Don't let that stagnate you. Don't hold yourself back.

Don't avoid community. Keep choosing it.

Keep coming back to God. Grow through through what you go

through. Growth is everything.

Growth is symbol, symbolic of life.

If you're alive, you should be growing.

Don't give in to the urge to give up, to stagnate.

Instead, meditate on God's Word and start declaring it out loud.

I can do all things. I am more than a conqueror.

Begin to help others with the comfort you have received.

Begin to comfort others. That is Our Calling.

That is the anointing. So even as the worship team

comes up, we're going to sing the song Sovereign because this

is a song that has carried Geshram and me through many

seasons. When there was number words to

it, you couldn't articulate the pain.

You cannot. You can't tell anyone you

personally struggle. The only consolation and those

moments has been God. You're sovereign.

You know what you're doing. I don't know what you're doing,

but you are enough. You are good and you do good.

So as we worship with this song, can we just believe that Lord,

you have not forgotten us? Can we just close our eyes?

Maybe you feel forgotten. Maybe you're like God, how long?

How long these closed doors, how long this physical ailment,

Lord, how long that financial crisis, how long that relational

emptiness? But he's saying, will you hold

on? Don't cut it short.

Don't short circuit my process. You are not forgotten.

What the enemy planned for evil, He will turn it to good, for He

is our Redeemer. He redeems everything.

Nothing is wasted. Let's just worship God together.

Thanks. For listening to this message,

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Remember, whoever finds Jesus finds life.