The privilege of suffering

So can you please turn with me to Romans 8?

I'm going to give you a chance to turn there because I want you

to see it in your own Bible so you can see I'm not lying to

you. It's the truth.

If you don't have your Bible yet, open your phone app so you

can highlight it so you can go read it again this week.

Romans 8 verse 16. The Spirit himself testifies

Romans 8:16

with our spirit that we are God's children.

Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and Co

heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order

that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth

comparing with the glory that will be revealed in US.

Lovely topic to get to preach on the first time you preach.

Hey, I'm going to talk a bit about suffering today and I

think in the in the last few weeks Taryn and Chad and Mitch

have spoke so beautifully about our adoption in Christ.

Hey, how we are children of God. How everything of Romans 8 has

been bracketed by this, no condemnation and no separation.

And I mean, it's amazing. I feel like this beautiful

platform has been laid for us as Christians to know that no

matter what we hear from the pulpit, we have this foundation

to stand on that everything that's preached.

Then when we start preaching about the things that we need to

do to mature as Christians, that we don't go back to condemnation

and we don't go back to separation.

But we actually that's settled. You know, if it's not settled

for you yet, go listen to the preachers that have been

preached for the last two months.

And, and I'm and I'm asking you that when you listen to what I'm

saying today and you feel that little voice condemning or then

you just say no, no, no, no, no, actually it's bracketed by no

condemnation and no separation. So we actually want to walk,

want to talk about maturity maturing in our walk with God

today. And I think that we've heard, so

Mitchell referred to this very briefly in his sermon last week

when he spoke about our inheritance, what our

inheritance means, and that one of our inherent or part of our

inheritance is suffering. And I know some of you might

think today, you know, like that's a part of the inheritance

you can keep, you know, like put it back in there, you know, and

divide it again amongst the other siblings.

You know, it's fine. I'm, I'm good, I'm good without

that part. But I'm hoping today that as I

share with you what God's been sharing with me about suffering,

that I'll actually be able to change your mind about

suffering, that I'm I'm able to change the way you see suffering

and the way you view suffering. And that I can give you a new

lens today that when, when those challenging times come and they

will come, that you'll be able to actually look at it with a

different with a different view. So I think if if we read that,

if I can read that verse again in in verse 17 where it says

that if we if indeed we share and so as we cohee with Christ,

if indeed we share in his sufferings in order order that

we may also share in his glory. I think that obviously that

Scripture will be fulfilled in full one day when we get to

heaven. Obviously one day when we get to

heaven, we will share in his glory even as we share in some

of the suffering here. But I firmly believe that in

part we can already live in that year on earth now year in the

year. And now I believe that Scripture

is not only for one day when we get to heaven.

I believe that we that the glory of God should be shining through

us because that is our testimony to the world.

I believe that us as Christians should be able to go through

tough times and go through suffering in a way that brings

glory to God. And people should look at us

when we go through tough times and they should be like, there's

something different about you. Why are you going through this

difficult time like this? And I believe that can be one of

the most powerful testimonies to unbelievers is the way we as

believers walk through suffering.

And if we if we walk through suffering exactly the same way

the world does, full of bitterness and unforgiveness and

negativity, what kind of a testimony does we have?

How do we show the gospel to the world?

How do we show them something different?

So my journey with God about the developing AI, call it

developing a theology of suffering, started a few years

ago when we were actually preaching in three CI through

the book of Acts. And as we preached through the

book of Acts, I was reading the book of Acts.

And, and you know, I think all of us in life, we'd love for

everything to go well all the time, wouldn't we?

We'd love for everything to just work out all the time.

You know, everything will just be the way we wanted it to be.

And, and I started realising that, you know, if you read the

book of Acts, that's not how it was in the book of Acts, you

know, and I mean, those were the disciples, Those were the people

who walked on earth with Jesus. And I started to realize that if

we ever want to mature as Christians, we need to develop

an understanding of how suffering fits into the gospel.

Otherwise everything, something, every time something bad

happens, our wheels fall off and we question whether God loves us

and whether we love him and whether we should be doing this.

We need to actually, if we want to mature, we need to have

understand how suffering fits into the gospel.

So as I was reading the book of Acts, I realized that we have an

amazing example in the book of Acts of how it actually works.

And so brace yourself, put on your seat belt.

I'm going to give you a quick rundown summary of the whole

book of Acts. Are you ready for it?

So here we go. Listen quickly, listen quickly,

I'll speak fast. Acts 1 Jesus is taken up to

heaven and Matthias replaces Jesus.

Acts 2 they filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter, Peter preachers

and 3000 people are saved. Whoo Hoo, Acts 3 Peter heals the

lame beggar. Awesome.

Acts 4 Peter and John is thrown in jail.

Oh, the number of men who believed grew to 5000, and the

believers shared everything and there was no needy among them.

Awesome. And now as the Sephora lie and

die, more believers are added to their number daily.

The apostles are arrested and put in jail.

The Lord opens the jail doors. The apostles are flogged again.

The number of disciples were increasing.

Acts 6. They appointed men to take care

of the widows and the orphans. The word of God spread.

Priests became obedient to the faith and Stephen has ceased.

Acts 7. Stephen is stoned.

Acts 8. Persecution breaks out and the

church scatters. They preached everywhere they

went. Simon gets saved.

Philip meets the Ethiopian and he is saved and baptized.

Acts 9. Saul gets saved.

Guess what? Guess who wrote Romans 8?

Saul gets saved. Acts 9.

The Jews want to kill him. So I think he had some

understanding of suffering when he wrote Romans 8.

But the church enjoyed a time of peace and increased in numbers.

And Nias is healed. Everybody who lived in leather

and Sharon turned to the Lord. Dawkas is raised from the dead.

Hallelujah. Many people believed in the

Lord. Acts 10.

Peter has a vision and goes to Cornelius's house, and the Holy

Spirit pours out on the Gentiles for the first time.

Acts 11. The gospel is preached in

Antioch. A great number of people are

believed, and Barnabas is sent to Antioch.

Acts 12. James is killed, Peter is in

jail, the Angel opens the jail door, Herod dies, and the word

continues to spread. And then I got to Acts 13 and

God literally stopped me in my tracks in Acts 13.

And, and God really just, you know, when you read a verse and

you, I've been reading the Bible from when I was 16 years old and

you're like, how have I not seen this verse before?

I've read through the Bible so many times.

And I'm so when I got to Acts 13, I actually stopped and I

went and I counted. And you know that there's 26

times in the book of Acts where it talks about all these great

things happening to disciples, the church growing, people

getting saved, people getting raised from the dead, people

getting healed, lame people walking for the first time.

I mean, that's awesome. That's the kind of life I want

to live, you know, and, and I think if when those things

happen, that'll encourage us to keep doing this, you know, let's

keep serving God. Let's keep going for the gospel.

It's amazing. But do you know there's 21

places in the book of Acts where they are flogged, thrown in

jail, stoned, shipwrecked, killed.

And this is part of part of their story.

And you can imagine when you read that you think like, but

how does this work? No matter how much good they

were doing, they were still suffering.

Things were still, these things were still happening to him,

like, how does that work? And this started this whole

whole thing in my mind of, of suffering.

And then I got to Acts 13 verse 48 and Acts 13 verse 48 to 52.

Acts 13:48 Acts 13:48–52

It says when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and honored

the word of the Lord and all who were appointed for eternal life

believed the word of the Lord spread throughout the whole

region. But the Jewish leaders incited

the God fearing women of high standing and the leading men of

the city. They stirred up persecution

against Paul and Barnabas Paul that wrote Romans 8 and expelled

them from their region. So they shipped the dust off

their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium and the

disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

I mean, come on, come on. Did you read that?

Is that what you do when you go through suffering?

Are you filled with joy and the Holy Spirit?

When the Jewish leaders, which is the religious leaders of

those times? So basically Stephen and Rory

and all the leading men of the city, all the big businessmen

and the big guys and this and the God fearing women actually

chase you away and say food sack, get out of my city.

Is that your reaction? Are you filled with joy and the

Holy Spirit? Because I tell you, that

certainly is not my reaction when I go through difficult

times and you know, this didn't happen.

It doesn't say they were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit when

5000 got saved or when someone got raised from the dead.

They were actually filled with joy in the Holy Spirit after

they went through a very, very challenging situation, a very

difficult situation. And you see, the only way we can

do this, the only way we can be filled with joy and the Holy

Spirit when we go through suffering is if you understand

how suffering fits into the gospel.

Beautiful. So as I mentioned, the big part

of my understanding of suffering, I'm started with my

journey as a mother and a wife. Now don't.

It's not like you think. It's not because I suffer as a

mother and a wife. It's actually because it's

actually because I've seen how God has developed my character

and my husbands character and my children's character through

through this journey of, of doing life together as a family.

And so, you know, as a parent, I think, I think all of you who

are parents here today can agree with me that as a parent, we

always want everything to go right for our children.

Isn't it like that? We want them to get A's for

every subject. We want them to always make a

team. We want them to be friends with

everybody. We want them to be invited to

every birthday party because that's that's what we want for

our kids. But you know, one day God spoke

to me so clearly about through through Romans 5, as I was

thinking, I'm praying for my kids and obviously feeling their

pain. And God spoke to me so clearly

out of Romans of Romans 5 verse 3 to 4.

Romans 5:3–4

And it says, not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings

because we know that suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance, character and character hope.

And I felt God say to me, so clearly, you want your children

to live with hope. Don't we all?

We want our kids to have hope. You know, this world feels so

hopeless sometimes. It's hard to get into

university. It's hard to find a job.

It's hard to find a life partner that's actually, you know, going

to going to love them in the way they they need to be loved.

And, and we want our kids to have hope.

But you know what, where does hope come from?

You know, let's put that scripture up again.

Let's backtrack a little bit. Where does hope come from?

So hope comes from character. You want your kids to have hope.

They need to have godly character to have hope.

Where does character come from? Character comes from

perseverance. Do you allow your kids to

persevere? Or do you help them get out of

their difficult situations every time?

Do you make excuses every time they struggle with something and

they quit and they give up? And where does perseverance come

from? What produces perseverance?

Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance character and

character hope. Recently I also read another

verse in in James one verse 2 to 4.

It says it's a very similar verse and it says considerate

peer joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face

trials of many kinds, because you know that suffering pretty

that testing of faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work that you may be mature and

complete, not lacking anything. What are we going after today?

We're going after being mature Christians.

Where does it come from comes from perseverance and

perseverance come from the testing, the trials that we face

every day. And so do you want to have an

easy life or do you want to have godly character?

What is what is the goal as Christians?

Where where is the goal? Where are we going with this?

You know, and I felt God said, you know, and I want to say to

you today, what do you need hope for today?

Do you need hope for your marriage today?

Very good girl. Do you need hope for your job

situation today? Do you need hope for your

children today? What do you need hope for today?

Where does it come from? You knew when you're facing a

difficult situation and you need hope for it, You just say, God,

what are you busy doing in me? What are you busy doing in my

character? Develop perseverance in me, God,

so I can walk through this time with you.

I can learn to be more like you, Jesus.

That's where it comes from. So as I look back on my own

children's lives and it's lovely to be a pastor's child because

your, your stories always get used as examples for church

preachers. I apologize in advance to my

kids, but we have two kids. They're 21 and 2323 years old

now. Amazing, amazing children.

They are really just, they're such a blessing to us.

But they've been through some stuff, they've had to face some

things. And when we moved to Pretoria,

is it 10 years ago now? I think 10 years ago, my kids

were in grade 6 and grade 8. And I'm not going to go into

details of that, but through a whole series of things, we, we

decided to put them in Afrikaans schools for the first time in

their life. They'd been in English schools

their whole life. And this wasn't easy.

It was quite an adjustment. And, and I think more so for my

son, who's more of an introvert than my daughter, who's just

friends with everybody and the dog and everything else.

So it was, it was, it was a bigger adjustment for him.

And, and so, so, and he also arrived in the school in grade

6. Now, for those of you who have,

who've had kids, that's quite a difficult year.

You know, everybody's vying to be prefixed and play first team.

And it's quite a difficult year to come into school and make

friends. And even more so for a child

who's that one friend child who only wants that one deep friend.

And so he got into school and he was there for a couple of

months. And then the hockey coach came

to me and she said to me the Northerns Trials for hockey

actually happened before the season starts.

It starts already. And the hockey coach identifies

a few boys to go there. And they had the first practice

and she didn't realize actually what a good hockey player my son

was. So she said, actually the

Northerns trials are over. They're having the final trials

on on Saturday, but she wants to try and see if she can get Jaden

to go and play. He probably won't get chosen

because I haven't really seen him, but she'd like to just get

him to at least go and have the the experience is it will we

will be OK. And we like, well, you know

what? So we were preparing him because

we'd moved here from Namibia where you play 4 matches in a

year and then the season's over because that's the amount of

schools that they are to play against.

So he had very actually had very little experience playing

hockey. And so she organized.

We went on the Saturday at Ritz. What's that?

Ritz Fontaine, Ritz Fontaine. I mean, absolutely horrible.

The gross is like this and in Namibia they play on sand

because there is no grass. And so, so it was, it was, it

was a very interesting experience.

But he played 2 short little games.

And then the next week we were notified that, oh, by the way,

he's made northern. So we were just like, OK.

And so when we went to the to the evening where they now

actually anointed, announced these teams, anointed the teams

they, they, he was actually chosen for the northern side

team and actually chosen as the captain of the northern side

team. And this was so amazing for him

to help him with this transition in Pretoria.

I just saw how God, suddenly people knew who he were.

He was noticed, people made friends with him.

And this was just such an incredible blessing.

Wasn't about the Northerns for us, we just not those kind of

type of people. But it was just about how this

actually helped him with this transition to actually get into

the school and make friends and all of that.

Then the next year off he goes to Northerns trials again.

And guess what? He doesn't even make the C team.

And everybody was up in arms. The coach was upset, the parents

at school were upset. The parents of the people who

played northerns with him the previous year were upset.

And we were just like, you know what?

It's not important. And now I saw God do something

so deep in my son that year. I saw God teaching him that

actually, he can still love his hockey even if he doesn't make

make northerns. I saw God teach him that he was

still just as good at it even though he didn't make northerns.

I saw God actually taking a little boy of 13 and actually

making sure that his identity is not in his hockey before he goes

to high school. And you know, I saw God do so

much more in my son that year not making northerns than he did

the previous year when he was the captain of the 18.

And, and you know, he went into high school and in high school

he had many ups and downs with his hockey.

He made northerns again the next year in grade 11, he got chosen

for the first team and at the preseason tournament he saw his

ankle ligaments completely had to have it surgically replaced.

Now for any of you who have kids who are very much into sport,

for some kids when they get chosen for first team and

something like that happens, it can be absolutely the end of

their world. And I saw my son go through

this. So OK, because this whole

identity wasn't established in his hockey.

And then we had the where it's surgically replaced and we went

through the whole rehab. And in grade 12, he got chosen

for the first team again. And at the 1st preseason

tournament, you ripped that ligament out, the one they

replaced the year before. So you had to have a second

operation and, and put the and, and do the ligament replacement

again. And you know what?

He didn't flinch. Everybody kept saying to me, is

your son OK? And I'm like, he's so OK because

of a very unfair and difficult situation God put him through

when he was 12. When he was 12, God actually

taught him that his identity is not in his hockey, that he

actually is not OK or good good enough because of the way he

plays hockey. And I'm so grateful for God for

that. And you know, we could have

interfered with the process that God was doing, but we actually,

we actually trusted God that he was in control.

So as part of our pre marriage course that myself and Eugene

does, we always talk about the purpose of marriage.

What is the purpose of marriage? And you know, the youngsters,

the eyes always go this big when we tell them, you know, that the

purpose of marriage is not to make you happy.

What you know, if you think the purpose of marriage is to make

you happy, good luck. But you know that actually the

purpose of marriage is to make you holy.

The purpose of marriage is to make you holy.

Because actually God uses us. God uses us to build each

other's character. And you know what?

When we become holy, we become happy.

Because when I treat my husband in a godly way with godly

character, and he treats me in a godly way with godly character,

then happiness comes, you know, but the purpose of marriage is

not to be happy. God uses our difficult times in

our marriages to actually develop our character, to make

us look more like Jesus. That's the purpose of it.

Very good girl. So we have to become mature

Christians. And I love a little cliche,

sorry. Forgive me if you don't.

But I always say to my kids, you know, smooth seas don't make

good sailors. You know, we want to grow in our

walk with God. Smooth seas don't make good

sailors. How many of you have ever felt

God really developing your character in the times where

everything was just going so well?

Yeah, he can do it. But it's usually in the times

that it's tough that God really develops our character.

And so good girl, I want to read this.

This what I wrote here because I said we have to be able to like

the apostles in verse in verse 52, walk through challenging

times in our lives filled with joy and the Holy Spirit because

we trust a good Father who is sovereign and promises in his

word that he makes all things work together for the good of

those to love him. And I truly believe this is the

key to living life and life in abundance even when our

circumstances are not perfect. You know, the Bible says that we

should have life and life in abundance.

So how do we have life in abundance in this broken world

that we have where all these things are happening that are so

difficult to understand and deal with?

Actually, I believe the key of that is actually having an

understanding. So for those of you who know me,

I'm a very practical person. So I'm like, God, this is great,

fantastic. You've now shown me that

suffering is a part of life and it's good for us.

But now what do I do when I'm suffering?

Like give me some tools, you know, left brain dominance.

You know, I want my three steps, three steps to living in

abundance in terms of suffering. And you know, I, I, as I

mentioned earlier, I've always loved reading the word of God.

And every time that I've faced a difficult situation in my life,

that's where I turn to, I turn to the word of God.

And I can honestly tell you, if you take my Bible and you see

how many verses are underlined in there and there's little

things written in the size, you'll see that this is the

verse God gave me when I prayed about whether I should marry

Eugene or not. And that's the verse God gave me

when I prayed about whether I should should go study OT or

not. And that's the verse God gave us

when we prayed about whether we should go to Namibia or not.

Because that's actually how I live my life.

When I face a difficult situation or when I have to make

a big a big decision, I ask God to speak to me in his word.

Eugene always jokes and says I'm God's blue eyed girl because God

always gives me scriptures. But you know what if God's given

you a scripture, when that tough time hits, that's what you hold

on to. You know when God's, when God

gave you a scripture to say this is the man you want to marry

when you go through a difficult time.

I'm not wondering whether I made a mistake.

God said, this is the man I need to marry.

So what are we going to do to get to the good times again?

How are we going to walk through this?

How am I going to change? How are we going to how are we

going to learn how to love each other better?

If God gave you a scripture, you can hold on to that in the

difficult times. And so I said to God, OK God, so

now you've shown me that suffering is good for us.

What do we do when we suffer? And I and I thought God give me

Romans 12 verse 12 and Romans 12 verse 12 says be joyful in hope,

Romans 12:12 Romans 12:12

patience in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Very good girl. Be joyful in hope, patience and

affliction, faithful in prayer, in prayer.

Recently I read a very similar verse in one Thessalonians 5

verse 16 to 7. I love God's word.

Isn't it just amazing how you feel?

I was like, oh wow, this one is almost the same.

It says rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all

circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

How many of you have you said, if only I knew what God's will

for my life was. You want to know what God's will

for your life is? Rejoice always, pray continually

give thanks in all circumstances for, for this is God's will for

you in Christ Jesus. Not actually that hard.

It's actually in the Bible. And so I felt God give me 3

handles and #1 is be joyful and hope or rejoice always.

You know that I decided a long time ago that I am going to be

joyful. I am going to be happy.

I've just made a decision. I am going to live with joy.

Why not? Because I'm one of those fake

people. You know.

I know. I know someone who every time

you ask them how are they, they go.

I'll take truth. Always.

Well. And it irritates the living

daylights out of him because it doesn't go always well with

anybody. Sorry.

My bad. Did I just say that out loud

inside boys? Yeah.

Sorry, someone did one say to me, you're not a typical

pastor's wife, are you? My bad.

But but you know what? It doesn't go always well with

anybody, you know, And I'm not talking about being fake and

pretending that everything is well when inside you're actually

struggling and going through a difficult time.

I'm just saying it says be joyful in hope.

So what is our hope in? My hope is in Christ.

So if my hope is in Christ, I can be joyful even when I go

through difficult circumstances because my hope is not set on my

circumstances or my suffering or the situation I'm facing.

My hope is set on Christ and Christ is in control and He's

sovereign and He promises He will make everything work

together for the good for those who love Him.

So I choose to be joyful, whereas my husband always says I

don't sing in the shower because I'm happy.

I'm happy because I sing in the shower.

So I loved being joyful is a is a choice As Christians, we

should be joyful. We should not be looking like

we're sucking lemons when we're Christians.

So so my hope isn't him and therefore I can be joyful in

difficult circumstances. So I'm going to give you a short

little testimony of my own life here.

When I come from a family that has a family history of

depression. And so my grandfather had

depression his whole life and had to be on medication.

My mum's had depression her whole life and have had to be on

medication and it's a chemical imbalance.

And so it, it's, yeah, I'm not going to go in there.

I, I, I want to just say before I share this, I'm not saying

today, don't go on medication. Please don't hear what I'm not

saying. I'm not saying don't leave your

medication if you're on medication.

I'm just, I'm just telling you a story about my life and my walk

with God with, with depression. And, and so when I was, when I

was at my final year at varsity, I'm 21 years old, I really

started to struggle with depression and I was walking

with God already. And I said to God, God, if I

have to go onto medication, I will because I understand it has

a place. And I understand that my

grandfather's been on medication his whole life and my mom has

had to have medication. And my mom's had actually had an

incredible testimony of how even on medication, God's walked with

her and taught her how to deal with her depression.

Because you know, the medication doesn't take the depression

away. It just it just makes you able

to actually deal with it. And how God's helped her over

the years actually in a beautiful testimony how God's

taught her over the years to to deal with her with her own

depression. And I said to God, if I, if I

don't have to go on medication, I prefer not to go.

If you can give me something to, to help me deal with this

without it, then, then I will. If I have to go on, I will.

And, and once once again, one day I was reading my Bible and I

was reading Isaiah 61 verse 3. And it says that it's obviously

Isaiah 61:3

talking about Jesus, but it says to control, to console those who

mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy

for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of

heaviness. And I felt God say to me, what

does that say? Did it give you for the spirit

of heaviness, the garment of praise?

What is a garment, something you put on?

If I have 10 jerseys in my cupboard and I'm standing here

and I'm cold, am I going to get warm?

I have to go and put it on. I have to take my jersey and put

it on. And it says God's given us a

garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

So I felt God said to me, when you start feeling that spread of

heaviness, start praising me. Now for those of you who've ever

felt depression, that is the last thing you feel like doing

when you're feeling depressed is praising God.

Isn't it like that? And you know, I started just

doing it. I started just walking and I

just go, God, I praise you. I praise you because you are

worthy to be praised. You are the alpha and Omega.

You are worthy to be praised. You, you actually Jesus, I

praise you because you died for my sin and it would be dead

inside of me. I'd really, I mean, it's fake,

you're faking it. You don't feel it.

You just say it because you believe it, not because you're

feeling it. And I'd start, I'd start

praising God. And as I praise God, I'd feel my

spirit start rising up. And you know what, I think all

of us would love to come to the front after the service for the,

for the, for the pastor to pray for us and God to set us free

from our depression and anxiety like that.

I mean, that's the dream. And I, I really believe God can

do it, but you know that most of the time he doesn't.

So this became a walk for me and, and, and I had to do this

over many years, actually over quite a few years, every time I

started feeling depressed, I would do it.

I would start praising God and saying, God, I praise you, I

praise you, you're worthy to be praised.

And I, and I'd fight my depression with, with the

garment of praise. And then one day probably I, I

don't know, because, you know, when something happens, you

don't always realize until quite a bit later it's happened.

But probably, you know, maybe 10 years later, actually, actually

I can't remember the last time I've had to do that.

I can't actually remember the last time I've had to actually

put on that garment of praise for that spirit of heaviness.

And I can honestly say to you, it's it's 25 years later now is

that I've never, ever struggled with depression again.

Yeah. And then and you're, I mean,

like all of us, I've been down. I've been down because of

situations I'm going through or difficulties I'm facing.

I'm not saying that I've been so happy, Hallelujah, all the time

I've been down. I've had sometimes that I've had

just that I've never felt depressed again.

I've never gone to that place of depression again.

But it wasn't an instant overnight zapped by the Holy

Spirit. It was a walk with God and, and

being obedient and applying what God showed me what to do.

You know, I was just listening to the songs.

Did you did you take notice of some of the songs we were

singing today? I mean, have you ever noticed

that you can come into church feeling so down or anxious and

then in worship, you're just like, you don't, You're like,

wow, I feel so much better, you know, and, and some of the songs

we were singing today said I traded my sorrow for something

to sing. Where do you think that lyric

comes from? You know, one of the other ones

said, I'll praise you when I feel it and I'll praise you when

I don't. You know, we sing these songs,

but we don't do it. You know, in our in life, I'll

praise you when I feel it and I'll praise you when I don't

because that's actually a weapon you've given me God to, to

actually fight the spirit of heaviness.

It's the garment of praise. And so I choose to be, to be, to

be joyful. I choose joy because my joy

isn't God. You know, part of choosing joy

is like 1 Thessalonians 5 sees that, that I have to be that I

have to be thankful. Give thanks in all, give thanks

in all circumstances. So we know we don't only give

thanks when things are going right.

We give thanks when things are not going right as well, because

we're not facing it alone. God is with us, He's with us,

He's protecting us. He's walking this, this journey

with us. And we always have something to

be thankful for. If you, if you struggle to be

joyful, do yourself a favour, go buy yourself a little book.

And every morning when you wake up, before you do anything else,

before you make your first cup of coffee, write down 5 things

you have to be thankful for and see what God does in your

spirit. When you actually start focusing

on what you have, what you have to be thankful for, rather than

focusing about everything that's wrong in your life.

So, so point #1 be joyful. I choose to be joyful, I choose

joy. Point #2 be patient in

affliction. We're so good at patience.

Hey, my patience is based on my trust in God.

It's not based on my circumstances.

And you know what? I've decided that I will not

make plans to get out of my own suffering.

I'm not going to make plans to get my children out of their

suffering or out of the tough things they're facing.

I'm not going to take the consequences of their choices

away. I'm not going to make plans to

make sure they're so protected they never have to face anything

difficult. I'm actually going to allow God

to be God and do what He needs to do.

And I said, God, I'm going to trust you and I'm going to be

patient until you show me what to do or what you say.

What do I do? What do I do while I wait, while

I'm patient? Point #3 be faithful and pray.

Be faithful and pray while we waiting, while we choosing joy,

while we patient and we waiting for God to speak.

We pray. And you know, I think Rory's as

often spoken about how he prays scripture and, and Stephen

actually spoke about it the other day, how he's actually

changed the way he prays. But that's something that God

has really changed in me over the over the last couple of

years is the way I pray. And I, I love praying and, and

I, and I've always been someone who pray and I, I, I always

joke, I say, I've got my permanent prayer list and then

I've got my other one. And so the permanent prayer list

is this list of people I pray for every day and, and it's

family members who are unsaved and, and situations that I pray

over every day. But I found that sometimes when

I've prayed through that whole list, I can feel quite anxious.

You know, it's like I start, I get up in the morning, I read my

word, I pray through this list. And now I've just actually

saturated my mind with all the things that are all the people

who aren't saved, the people whose marriages are in trouble.

And I actually feel quite anxious.

And so I did the same thing. I started praying scriptures and

I'm almost done. But I wanted to just give you a

few examples quickly of how I, how I pray now.

And so, so I've got a little bookie and it's got, it's got

the people. I've pray for his names at the

top. And then I pray scriptures over

them. And so I'll start with myself

first. You know, one of the scriptures

I pray over myself every day is Ephesians 4 verse 29, which says

Ephesians 4:29

God, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of my mouth, but

only what is helpful for building others up according to

their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

As you can see, I have a mouth, you know, it's a ghost.

You know, the petrol works a bit better than the brakes.

And I'm so, so, so I wake up in the morning and I say, God,

please don't let any unwholesome talk come out of my mouth today.

Please, Lord, help me that I will say things that will build

others up. Do I always get it right?

Nope. But do I have better success

when I do this than other times? Definitely.

One of the scriptures I pray over my husband every day comes

out of Psalm 20. It says, may the Lord answer you

when you're in distress. May the name of the God of Jacob

protect you. God.

I say, God, if my husband needs help today, will you answer him?

Father God, will you protect him wherever he goes?

May you send your help from the sanctuary and grant you support

from Zion. Lord, if he needs help today,

will you send it to him? Will you send godly men to help

him? If he needs help today?

Then it says, may you remember all your sacrifices and accept

your burnt offerings. May He give you the desires of

your heart and make all your plans succeed.

God, will you see the sacrifices He made and will you?

Will you make His plans succeed today?

And will you give him the desires of his heart?

May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up a banner of

the name of of our God. May the Lord grant you all your

requests. God, will you help my husband

today. That's when he's finished doing

what he needs today that actually your name will be

lifted up like a banner. That's that's a scripture.

I pray over him. And I've got a 21 and a 23 year

old For those of you have kids those ages, it's real stuff gets

real. And and this is one of the

scriptures that I've been praying every day over my kids

for, for, for quite a few years now.

And it's entitled to, it says for the grace of God has

appeared that offers salvation to all people.

It so the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness and

worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and

godly lives in this present age. And I go, God, you know what

this age look like. You know what this world looks

like this present age. God, you chose to put my kids in

this world right now in this present age.

Will you will you, will you actually give them such a

revelation of your grace that it will teach them to say no, no to

ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled,

upright and godly lives in this present age.

And I prayed over them every day and then other scriptures as

well, specifically for each child.

And so that's when I walk out of my prayer closet.

When I've done that, I feel encouraged, I feel built up.

I feel that God's got this, He's got this.

He's walking with them. And I don't walk out of there

full of anxiety in that situation.

So I'll send with, I'll end with one of my another cliche

favorite sayings today. And it says the same sun that

melts the wax hardens the clay. I'm going to say it again, the

same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

What are you going to allow your suffering to do to your heart?

The same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay?

Are you going to allow your suffering to cause bitterness

and unforgiveness and make you negative scrunched or prune one

day? Or you're actually going to

allow your suffering to build godly character in you, to

create perseverance in you, and help you to live with hope in

Jesus name.