Faithful Suffering - Sunday Sermon

in I'd like to I'd like to pray because

what we're going to be dealing with

today is heavy and heavy for a reason.

And so let me pray and then we'll get

into God's word. Heavenly Father, thank

you for this opportunity to gather

again. Thank you for the opportunity to

consider what your word has to say about

grief. And we are grieving today and we

need your comfort. and we pray that you

would speak to our very inner persons,

to our spirits today through your word

in Jesus name. Amen.

I have the some very sad news for you

guys. Uh you may uh know and have known

Betty Camp well or you may be hearing

about this for the first time. Um but

she passed away just yesterday at 240

after having been taken off of life

support. And uh I know that for some of

you that had grown close in the

disciplehip communities or we have uh a

lot of her family here with us today

that this has been a very grievous time

and a time of mourning and sadness. And

so uh normally when we're not in Esther,

we're taking a little just a one Sunday

break from Esther. We'll be back in

Esther next week. Um I've been doing

these mentorship sermons. I felt

redirected on that to talk about our

relationship to suffering and God's

relationship to our suffering. And I've

gotten permission from Ralph to talk

some about my experience with the family

at Emanuel

um in the waiting room and also in the

hospital room uh when when Betty was

still on life support. Um,

but what what I'm hoping to accomplish,

what I believe God is hoping to

accomplish today is uh to comfort us, to

teach us about uh his sovereignty over

suffering, his purpose in suffering, how

good it is, and how we should respond.

Uh we're going to be talking about four

questions really. Is God truly sovereign

over all forms of suffering? And I'll

take you to a couple verses about that

because that is a question that is going

to come up in your heart naturally when

uh grief knocks on your door. Whether

that's grief as a result of your own

illness,

the loss of a beloved one or any kind of

grief, uh knowing that God is sovereign

over it is already such a huge comfort.

It is a wonderful comfort. Um, secondly,

does he have a purpose in it? That'll be

the second question that we that we ask.

And I'll show you some verses about his

purposes around suffering. Thirdly, is

are his purposes in suffering good? Are

they good? We need to know that. We need

to know that he's in control of our

suffering. We need to know that he has a

purpose for it. We need to know in our

hearts that the purpose is good. And

then we also need to know how we ought

to respond. what is a faithful response

to grief? And um I want to thank Ralph

in particularly for giving in particular

for giving me permission to share about

um my witness of his grief uh in the

hours we spent together at the hospital

because um

I don't know if it's a rare example but

in my experience it's a rare example of

faithfulness and real pain. And so I

want to share that with you. and and he

he actually wants me to share this with

you for your benefit. Um which is

something scripture actually says God

means our suffering for the benefit of

others as well. Uh that's one of his

purposes. So, um,

we're going to go ahead and throw up the

first question,

and I won't be really telling you my

main point till the very end of the

sermon because I want to prove to you

from scripture how it's true. And I want

the Holy Spirit to prove to your heart

uh that this is true and that this is is

right and from God in relationship to

our suffering and his relationship to

our suffering. Um, so our very first

question is, is God sovereign over our

suffering? If I may seem a little low

energy today or uh it's it's not just

that I'm grieving as well, but I'm uh

I'm feeling quite sick and so you can be

praying for me. I'm uh speaking a little

bit more quietly because I'm concerned

my my wife's voice has gone up. I'm

concerned my voice will go out as well.

I'm I'm okay. But um you could pray for

mental focus because that's uh what I

feel like I'm lacking right now. Um so I

also forgot to turn my phone on do not

uh do not go off and I'm using it for my

notes here. So

just one second.

Of course.

So, is God sovereign over your

suffering?

My autolock is locked from changing

because my battery thing is uh on low

battery mode. Just one second. There we

go. Today has been somewhat of a comedy

of errors already, at least in my

morning. Um but sorry for the delay

here. All right, there we go.

So, is God sovereign over our suffering?

And we're going to go to honestly some

of the hardest scripture about suffering

starting in Lamentations. But I want you

to know that the answer that we get from

the author of Lamentations who are not

sure who it is may have been Jeremiah.

That's my best guess and that seems to

be the best guess of trustworthy

scholars.

However, um it is in the context of

suffering related to God's discipline of

the nation of Israel. Um and it's severe

discipline. Other nations come in and

take them into exile and destroy

Jerusalem. And so they're experiencing

death and loss of loved ones and and

grievous sorrow. Um, but it's important

to remember that what is said here is in

the context of suffering God brings into

the lives of Israelites at that time.

Uh, because he's disciplining them.

That's important. So remember that when

we read through it. Um, I also want you

to notice beyond just the fact that the

author of Lamentation shows just how

sovereign God is over uh, disciplinary

suffering, which by the way, I'll just

disclaimer this right from the

beginning. I uh am not insinuating in

any way that what the camp uh family is

experiencing in the loss of Betty is in

the category of disciplinary suffering.

I'm simply uh surveying just how

sovereign God is over all forms of

suffering. Okay. Um but just a little

side note that you might consider while

you're reading this. Um one important

aspect of processing your grief is being

honest to God in prayer about how you

feel. And Lamentations most certainly

gives us permission to do that. Just

listen how honest the author of

Lamentations chapter 3 starting in verse

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

15 is with God about his suffering.

He's saying about God when he says he he

has filled me with bitterness. He has

saded me with wormwood. He has made my

teeth grind on gravel and made me co and

and made me cower in ashes. My soul is

barereft of peace. I have forgotten what

happiness is. You've forgotten what

happiness is. I just want to stop there

for a second. Have you ever been in such

deep grief that you feel like you've

forgotten what happiness is?

It's been a while for me since I've been

in grief like that, but I have

experienced that before in my life. Um,

everything's gray.

The the purpose of life seems like it's

diminished and you begin to forget.

And if it wasn't for God, it's like

despair is knocking on your door and you

know you don't want to open that door

and God's helping you keep it closed and

not oh go open that door to despair. But

despair is knocking on their your door.

You've forgotten what happiness is.

Verse 18. So I say my endurance has

perished. That's going to be important.

We're going to be talking about

endurance in the time of grief. But he

is admitting that his endurance has

perished and even admit so has my hope

from the Lord.

Now, if this was the prophet Jeremiah,

this is a very faithful man, a

spiritually battleh hardened man. I

think I've used this metaphor before,

but I remember seeing

a face of a mountain mountaineer on the

National Geographic u probably on the

web page, might have been on the

magazine, and it was a guy who had

summited uh Mount Everest multiple

times. And his faith I faith I call like

National Geographic weathered looked

leathery grooves in his line in his in

his eyes so tan because there's so much

bright sun reflecting off the snow when

you're when you're mountaineering like

that. And also you have to be very tough

to climb with oxygen deprivation. Very

tough. And uh anybody that's climbed

Mount Everest as many times as this man

has has seen people lost to the

mountain. didn't make it back down. And

so there's suffering involved in

mountaineering. And you can see it in

the face. Although you could see a glint

in his eye. You know what I'm talking

about? Like there was still a desire and

a passion as a mountaineer. But his face

was weathered. I think of that

spiritually in the sense of uh

what happens to us when we suffer is it

weathers us in a way. Even spiritually,

there's a diminishment of our endurance

that happens and there's a diminishment

of our hope in the Lord when we're

suffering to that degree. And when that

happens, we need to admit it. When that

happens, we need to actually admit it.

It's not the same thing as opening the

door to despair. And you'll see that

very clearly uh because God will

strengthen your endurance and he'll

bring far greater hope than you can

imagine. But he's being honest. This uh

this weathered prophet or weathered

author of scripture is being honest that

he doesn't feel like he's got any

endurance left and he does not feel like

he has any more hope from the Lord.

Remember my affliction and my

wanderings, the wormwood and the gall.

My soul continually remembers it and is

bowed down within me. I want to stop

there again. Suffering, certain grief is

so deep. It's a suffering of your

spirit, of your soul, of your innermost

person. It's not just your emotions.

It's not just your mind. It's not just

your body. It's something far deeper.

You may not have considered that,

that your soul is processing grief, that

it's that deep.

It's important to remember that it

really is that deep, and to recognize

that it's that deep. Verse 21, but this

I call to mind and therefore I have

hope.

So he's just admitted and he's not

contradicting himself. And if you've

grieved, you know how there can be these

swings of feeling hopeless and you're in

the pit and then this sense of light

that God's offering you hope and you're

going to go ahead and cling to the rope

he's throwing you.

But this I call to mind and therefore I

have hope. The steadfast love of the

Lord never ceases. His mercies never

come to an end. They are new every

morning. Great is your faithfulness.

You can tell this author is faithful in

his grief. There's no question about it.

And he's not forgetting who God is. But

he's being honest about how he actually

feels. And he continues, "The Lord is my

portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will

hope in him. The Lord is good to those

who wait for him, for the soul who seeks

him. It is good that one should wait

quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

It is good for a man that he bear the

yoke of bear the yoke in his youth. Let

him sit alone in silence when it is laid

on him. Let him put his mouth in the

dust. There may yet be hope. I don't

believe that the author of Lamentations

is saying that you ought to isolate

yourself in a time of grief. But there

will be times when you are alone and no

one else is around and there are things

that you will have to process in silence

and alone between you and your Lord and

you will not be able to process some of

those things uh with other people. It

will have to be between you and the Lord

alone. I believe that is what he's

talking about.

Let him give his cheek to the one who

strikes, and let him be filled with

insults. For the Lord will not cast off

forever. But though he cause grief, he

will have compassion according to the

abundance of his steadfast love. For he

does not afflict from his heart or

grieve the children of men.

This is where this passage gets very

difficult. But I have resolved something

about this type of suffering in my heart

because the author says it right here.

It says in verse 32, "But though he

caused grief,"

do you have room in your faith to

believe

and accept that God does cause grief,

not just allow it, says cause causes. as

good students of the Bible and wanting

to rightly divide the word here. This

grief that he's causing is disciplinary.

Israel has done great wrong. They've

abandoned the Lord. They've worshiped

idols and they've sinned in grievous

ways. And the grief that he's causing is

similar to a father disciplining their

child.

Although when you actually read the

kinds of discipline God's brought into

the life of Israel through siege

warfare,

it's far worse than some kind of

spanking.

It leaves far greater grooves of pain.

You know what I mean by grooves of pain?

Let me give you a metaphor that might

stick in your mind. Because these

grooves that God carves into our heart

at times in a disciplinary way when

we've been walking the wrong way are

also loving grooves coming from him.

Something has to be carved out of our

lives.

Something wrong, something that it seems

only pain will remove.

And we're not going to spend even most

of our time talking about suffering

related to discipline. We're going to

move on from that. But I do want to talk

about this. And it's not as though I

know that you're suffering because

you're being disciplined. But you may

be. It is a thing that God does.

I have this creek, a named creek running

right through the middle of my property

in the very bottom of the five acres

called Thimble Creek. And it has cut its

groove through the dirt and clay. And

it's been monsooning recently. I don't

know if you've noticed, but flood

warnings, right? And uh so it's still

just a creek even when it's flooded, but

it's a rushing creek. There's a lot of

water. It's surprising how long it

lasts, too. It seems like days after the

rain, it's still rushing. It's probably

because the saturation of the ground and

all of the water flowing into it, you

know, but it's rushing down there. And

as it rushes, it cuts steeper grooves.

So keep that thought in mind because God

will pour his love into our hearts in

times of suffering. We're going to go to

that passage in Romans 5. But sometimes

he will cut grooves so that he can pour

more love into our hearts. You ever felt

hollowed out through pain?

I have.

Keep that thought in mind. What if God's

the one doing the hollowing?

Let's continue here because there's

something so precious even in his

sovereignty to cause grief in a

disciplinary way. Listen to what it

says.

Verse 32. But though he caused grief, he

will have compassion according to the

abundance of his steadfast love. For he

does not afflict from his heart or

grieve the children of men.

You may just intuitively know what that

means.

But what does it mean that he causes

grief, but he doesn't afflict from the

heart?

He He's sovereign. He's controlling it.

He brings it into your life in in this

case in a disciplinary way, but he

doesn't afflict from the heart. And I I

wanted to give you kind of a nonverbal

expression because it's not easy to

explain that in words. One way to put it

in words is that his affliction is not

heartless. Um, but I want you to

consider,

and this is, you know, this is just a

sense that I have about what it means. I

think it might help you. But as God, an

anthropomorphism, a human way of

explaining God.

So imagine God stretching out his hand

to cause you grief. And imagine him

doing while looking at you with an eye

of joy and satisfaction in his heart

that he's causing you grief.

Is that the way he's doing it?

The Germans had a word for that. It's

called shodenfo. Happiness in other

people's pain.

Turns out, I don't know if you've ever

experienced it, but part of our flesh

takes pleasure in other people's pain.

This is not the way God causes grief in

a disciplinary way. The way I think

about it intuitively is more like a

father who loves you so much and it's

almost he looks away

like it causes him grief to cause you

grief.

There are times where

one of my kids has maybe been acting up

and Christine's feeling overwhelmed and

she's all upset on the ride home in the

sprinter and she'll be coming in and and

and say, "Mate, you need to deal with so

and so." And I didn't experience

anything they did wrong in that moment.

I trust my wife and I said, "Okay, what

should the con consequence be?" And um

in that moment, if she's overwhelmed or

just feeling like, can you please deal

with this? I think that's fine for

fathers to do. It's a way we can bear

each other's burdens, you know. Um and

she said, well, he he should get a

spanking for this. He needs a serious

consequence. That's how bad it was.

Well, um

imagine no one offended me. I'm not

upset. They did nothing wrong towards

me. I totally trust my wife, though. But

now you have to go into discipline in

this case one of your sons

without having any experienced it

yourself. Right?

I don't I know it's right for me to

discipline my children. I know that

that's biblically commanded and each

each father and each mother each

parenting

couple

has to decide the way they want to

discipline their children. I affirm your

authority in deciding that. But I do

think there are biblical commands around

it and I want to follow those. So I know

I should do it, but I don't want to. I

don't want to. I don't want to cause my

child discomfort to help him learn not

to behave a certain way.

But I do it. I think that's another way

of explaining that God even in times of

disciplinary suffering

doesn't do it from the heart. Not that

way.

Okay. So that I mean I don't I don't see

any other way to read that than though

he caused grief in disciplinary settings

he does. Okay. What about in situations

where the person has not done anything

wrong biblically? Um uh are there times

where actually God will bring suffering

into your life for righteousness sake?

Okay. Let's go to Acts chapter 9 verse

Acts 9:15–16

15-16.

The Lord speaking to Ananas

who has heard about all of the horrible

things that Paul had been doing

breathing out murderous threats against

the saints.

But God, the Lord showed up in blinding

light Jesus and brought Paul to his

knees in repentance. And God has a plan

for him. Listen what it says. But the

Lord said to him to Ananas who was

afraid of of going and ministering to

Paul, go for he is my chosen instrument.

He is a chosen instrument of mine to

carry my name before the Gentiles and

kings and the children of Israel. For I

will show him how much he must suffer

for the sake of my name. This is

suffering for righteousness sake. Had

Paul done a lot of uh prideful things

stemming from a heart of hypocritical

legalism? Yeah, he admits that. He

admits that. But that's not why God says

he must suffer. God and he must. There's

no way out of it. He's got to suffer for

the sake of God's name. So, it can't

happen any other way, which means that

God is bringing the suffering into his

life. And it's a type of suffering that

we ought not to connect directly

to something that Paul did wrong.

When he gets stoned basically to death,

seems like he's being resurrected from

the stoning. He was being stoned because

he was being faithful. And that's just

one of the many types of sufferings he

had to suffer.

Okay?

So in this situation, God is prophesying

suffering and he's in charge of that

future. It can't happen any other way

for righteousness sake. That's another

type of suffering.

But there's even one more type of

suffering that I wonder if you have ever

even considered. This is a famous

passage, so I think you've probably been

there. Um but uh if you guys can put up

the very next passage I gave you under

the question. 2 Corinthians 12

7-10.

It has one of the most famous verses in

all the Bible attached to it. 2

Corinthians 12 7-10.

Okay. Paul says, "So to keep me from

being conceited because of the

surpassing greatness of the revelations,

a thorn was given me in the flesh, a

messenger from Satan to harass me to

keep me from becoming conceited." Three

times I pleaded with the Lord about this

that it should leave me. But he said to

me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for

my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more

gladly of my weakness, so that the power

of Christ may rest upon me.

to keep me from being conceited. So,

he's not conceited yet.

Why might he become conceited? Because

God has revealed things to him that he

seems to have not revealed to any other

person.

Sans Jesus maybe, not maybe, for sure.

But Paul has these exceeding

revelations. And

it wasn't sinful for him to get those

revelations. And he received them

humbly. and God decides to give him this

thorn in the flesh. And so it seems to

me a physical ailment of some kind. We

don't know what, but it also has

spiritual ramifications. And Satan is

harassing him. Okay. It's like Satan's

using that physical issue, the thorn in

the flesh, to harass Paul. And God, he

pleads with God to take it away. and God

will not

because God loves Paul enough to stop

him from becoming conceited. I think

this is very different than disciplinary

suffering, very different than suffering

for righteousness sake.

It's a suffering that God brings to keep

somebody that's being humble humble.

Have you ever considered that? Because

your future pride is kind of out of

sight, out of mind, isn't it?

I have not recently thought about the

ways I might be prideful in the future.

But when I look at this, I think, wow,

maybe some of the suffering that God

brings into my life is to keep me from

being conceited in the future, even

though I may not be conceited in that

way right now.

and that out of sight of like you don't

know how conceited you might have become

if God hadn't brought suffering that he

won't take away chronic

right but do you want to become

conceited and would you entrust that to

the Lord so those are just three

different types of suffering

but I believe that God is in control of

all types of suffering and we could

continue on that and I believe you

should too and I believe that starts a

healthy and pure process of grief where

you trust trust completely that God is

in charge of your suffering. And you've

already seen how in those very passages,

God has a purpose for that suffering.

But I want to go to another place in

scripture

for to explain exactly what that purpose

is. So, we've covered this idea that God

is in control of your suffering.

Sometimes he causes it and uh for for

his purpose and they're more than just

discipline. Sometimes it's for

righteousness sake and sometimes it's

for the sake of keeping you from

becoming sinful in some way.

Does he have a purpose for it? Let's go

to Romans 5

1-6.

And Paul says, "Therefore, since we have

been justified by faith, we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have also obtained access

by faith into his grace in which we

stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the

glory of God. Why therefore but because

God through the death and resurrection

of Jesus Christ through the atoning

sacrifice he made to pay the penalty for

our sin through that and that work alone

has justified us who believe. And so

it's apart from any kind of works of the

law. Anything good you could do

completely free. Even the faith to

believe that is a gift from the Lord.

And so if you believe that, you've been

justified. That means you are in right

relationship to God. And because of

that, you have peace with God through

the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't

believe, you do not have peace with the

Lord. And you're in fact, even if you at

times don't feel this way, hostile and

alienated from him because of sin in

your life. And so that justification is

more valuable than anything. When we

talk about the joy of salvation, that is

the joy of salvation and that's what we

rejoice in. It's the hope of the glory

of God.

But Paul says in verse three, not only

that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.

Have you ever rejoiced in your

suffering? Does that not sound like a

contradiction? How is it possible to

rejoice in our sufferings? Didn't we

just see that the author of Lamentations

is honest and clear and direct about how

he feels?

My endurance is gone. My hope is gone.

I'm at this terrible low point.

Seems like God has filled me with

bitterness. He's caused this grief in my

life. And yet, he has this hopeful

attitude about it. He even though he

seems to be at the end of his own

endurance, at the end of his line in

terms of hope, he still clings to the

hope of the Lord, but he's honest first.

But is is this honest? Is is this some

kind of weird hyperspiritual nonsense?

Can we really really rejoice in our

suffering? I think this passage gets

misunderstood quite often to mean that

it's the suffering itself that we ought

to be happy about.

I don't know if you have ever heard

someone say that. I It's not necessary

that I've heard that, but I think we

sort of slip into that thought that we

are to but then why should we rejoice

with those who joep with those who weep?

And you think what what does it mean to

rejoice in suffering? Well, let's read

on because Paul tells us knowing that

suffering produces endurance. Endurance

produces character and character

produces hope. And hope does not put us

to shame because God's love has been

poured into our hearts through the Holy

Spirit who has been given to us.

If all we had was a fragment of Romans 5

and it says, "Not only that, but we

rejoice in our suffering." We wouldn't

really know exactly what Paul means. And

we might conclude wrongly that what Paul

means is be happy about your suffering.

What he really means is rejoice in what

your suffering will produce.

So why should you rejoice in your

suffering? Because you know something.

What do you know? You know that

suffering produces endurance.

Remember we just got done hearing the

author of Lamentations talking about how

he feels no like he has no endurance.

If if we're talking about running,

I've recently started getting into

longer periods of cardiovascular

exercise and especially when you're

first getting into that back that kind

of shape. If you've ever done it,

especially if you're doing it in a cold

environment, it's almost like you can

taste blood in the back of your throat.

Your lungs are hurting. I don't know if

you've especially if you go really hard,

you know? I don't actually know exactly

what's happening there, but but

endurance running. In fact, my brother

is an ultramarathoner, 100 mile races,

15 uh thousand or 14,000 uh feet peaks

in the Rockies, right? So, huge amount

of elevation gain. And he talked to me.

I said, "You know what? What do you

think really separates the great

ultramarathoners from the um from the

rest of the pack that's also great?"

And he said, you know, it's not actually

in this case sort of otherworldly talent

that helps. Strong bodies, lean

physique, that all helps. But it's

basically I've come to the conclusion is

a willingness to suffer more.

The best ultramarathoners are just

willing to suffer more.

And they have just about the greatest

endurance you can humanly achieve in a

physical sense.

So suffering produces endurance. an

endurance you wouldn't have without it.

And that endurance produces character.

And that character produces hope.

You can't get this kind of endurance.

And you can't get this kind of

character. And you can't get this kind

of hope without the suffering.

But then when you gain the hope and man,

some of you have gained hope that is

tempered by suffering. And it's

unshakable.

It is so deep because those grooves of

suffering that God's cut into your

heart, he's poured his love into more

love.

Why do we have that hope? And why does

that hope not put us to shame? Because

God's love has been poured into our

hearts through the Holy Spirit who's

been given to us.

What if God's suffering?

No matter why,

in this case with the camps, I believe

it's simply the result of the fallen

world. We die as a result of the fall.

Was not God's original plan. It is now.

And so I I I believe it would be like

being a Job's counselor to be like,

"God's doing this because you did

something wrong." It's really harmful in

the grieving process to assume that the

suffering that someone's experiencing is

because they did something wrong. Um, I

don't know all of God's reasons for why,

but I know his purpose and the ends of

it is to bring far greater hope. And it

will bring a process of endurance that

produces character that produces that

far greater hope.

And like I said, it's not an endurance

you gain without that kind of suffering.

Not a character you gain without that

endurance. And not a hope you gain

without that character. Do you want that

kind of hope that is just so much deeper

than it was before? I want that kind of

hope. And what does a family need that's

grieving the loss of a wife and a

grandmother and a beloved Christian

sister more than hope? What do you need

more than hope when you're grieving?

I don't know all your grief. God knows

all your grief. What do you need more

than hope?

Isn't hope the thing at stake? Isn't

hope the very thing that the author of

Lamentations was saying he had run out

of?

How does God bring that hope? He pours

his love through the Holy Spirit into

the heart. He hollowed out with all the

pain.

For those of you that suffered, you just

you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And so, yeah, he has a purpose for it.

And already in a way, we've answered, is

that purpose good? But it's even better

than what I've been able to communicate.

So, God is sovereign over all your

suffering. He's sovereign over all your

suffering. Settle it. Settle it today.

And that will be the first step of being

able to grieve in a faithful manner. He

is. And he has a purpose

and it's for greater hope and for your

experience of his love in your heart

and it comes through pain.

Is his purpose really good? Is his

purpose really good? Well, let's go to 2

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

Corinthians 4:16-18.

I'm going to read it. I guess we don't

have the confidence monitor. I think I

have it marked. So 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

4:16-18.

I could have asked how good is this

purpose? This is how good his purpose

is. 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

chapter 4

verse 16-18. So we do not lose heart.

Losing heart is what's at stake in this

suffering.

The author of Lamentations was losing

heart. He felt like he was losing heart.

He was telling God, "I'm losing heart.

I'm losing heart is so painful."

Paul says, "We do not lose heart. Though

our outer self is wasting away, our

inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light and momentary affliction,

is preparing for us an eternal weight of

glory beyond all comparison. as we look

not to the things that are seen, but to

the things that are unseen. For the

things that are seen are transient, but

the things that are unseen are eternal.

Is Paul making light of suffering by

calling it light and momentary

affliction? No. He's saying

that the glory that God is preparing for

us, the weight of that makes what we're

experiencing now, though real and deep

and painful and grievous,

seem light and momentary.

Have you ever considered

that there is a glory that you can bring

in suffering faithfully grieving

faithfully being in pain faithfully

that you can only bring to the Lord in

this life?

Betty

was with the Lord the very moment she

passed

and she will never suffer again ever.

And right now because of what Paul said

and because that is perfectly true in

her heart now and she was already so

faithful before so it was true in her

heart before but it's perfectly true

now. She's looking back at any suffering

she may have experienced and she's

realizing how light and momentary it was

and how the weight of glory of the Lord

that she's experiencing right now is

beyond comparison to any suffering she

experienced.

And she's seeing that by sight.

And we believe it by faith. We don't see

it yet.

But could there be a greater purpose for

your suffering than glorifying God with

it?

I know with all my heart there is no

greater purpose for any suffering for

any reason than to bring God glory for

it. And you have this life

maybe at absolute maximum

120 years. Garing men live to their mid

80s

and they die usually of some kind of

heart failure usually in their sleep.

That's over and over again. My dad had

nine siblings.

I've been to a lot

of death beds in hospitals.

So,

is God's purpose good for his suffering?

Yes, it is.

It doesn't make our pain easy.

Paul's not actually saying your

suffering's easy. No. No.

But by faith, you know how great God's

glory is.

So, it's not fakey or weird to say, "I'm

going to rejoice in my suffering." If

you rightly mean, I'm going to res

rejoice

in the hope that God brings to my heart

and the glory that he brings to himself

through it.

What if that wasn't the purpose? And

what if it wasn't that good? And what if

God wasn't suffer sovereign over your

suffering?

I I want to repeat. I asked Ralph I

could share all these things but I

talked to Ralph and asked him how he's

doing. He said I'm not doing well. I'm

in pain

and I told him about the sermon that I

was going to preach just this morning.

Asked I just wanted permission to share

these stories and uh and he said you

know I don't know I read him Romans 5

and I don't know

if I could go on without that hope. I

have that hope. I'm certain about that

hope. But without it, I don't I don't

think I'd make it.

So, if God's purpose wasn't a good

purpose to pour love into our hearts by

the Holy Spirit and and increase and

deepen our hope beyond what it can be

seems to be able to be deepened in any

other way than through some kind of

suffering.

And if it wasn't ultimately for his

glory, which is the greatest end to all

things, him being glorified,

uh, what will we have?

What will we have? And that brings me to

my final question

regarding this. And this is really the

entire application.

How should we respond and why? How

should we respond and why? And I want to

I want to tell you about what I

witnessed about the camps and how they

were responding.

So I got to a a manual uh and man that

is a gigantic hospital. I got lost three

times just trying to find the parking

garage.

And uh I was like one entrance and one

oneway street to get on it. And I just,

you know, process of elimination finally

found it.

And uh Siri wasn't helping at all.

I also got lost on the way out of the

hospital.

Siri, stop responding.

Okay, did you hear her?

H I don't even know how to turn that off

right now. But

so I got lost on the way and got lost

the way out. I was laugh pouring rain

just laughing to myself like I don't

know if I'm supposed to go left to get

back. I It's just a gigantic hospital.

So, I get in there and I walked in

through the children's hospital and

finally found my way to the place I was

supposed to go, room 320. And uh picked

up the phone and Ralph came out and more

of the family members were showing up.

Drew and Elise and um and other other uh

direct relatives and

Anna Lisa was there as well who had

grown really close to Betty.

and Ralph ushered us over to the uh the

waiting room and we sat down kind of in

a round and uh we'd started talking a

little bit um Ralph had asked a little

bit about you know what the process of a

memorial service might might be like and

and when that conversation sort of ended

I started asking about Betty and I never

heard how they met for example and they

were set up on a blind date went on a

blind date it was a snowy nights and

immediately after um and Betty wasn't in

the car for this, but Ralph crashed the

car into a ditch. So I so I asked him

and I'm assuming he didn't tell Betty

and he goes, "Oh no, she knew." And

everyone was laughing. And then a little

bit further into the conversation, um he

was coaching us on uh bedside manner,

which by the way, no matter how many

times I've been, uh graveside or death

bedside, uh I don't feel like I've

become any more competent in knowing

how. I just rely on the Lord to know how

to care for people who are grieving.

That's bas basically the best lesson is

I'm desperate for the Lord to help me to

listen or to say anything or to just be

there in encouraging way. Um but Ralph

has learned some things about that and

he said you know I think hearing is the

last thing to go

and so let's not talk about any kind of

memorial service or things like that

because we don't know what she's

hearing. Let's be mindful. And I said

that's uh really good. Can we talk about

how you crashed the car? And everybody

laughed. And Ralph though took it as

though I was trying to dramatically

change the conversation. And he goes,

"Oh yeah, we could talk about that." And

started telling the story about he

crashed the car. And I tell that story

to illustrate there wasn't a dry eye in

the room. There wasn't a face that

wasn't read with tears. And yet there

was this aorious laughter at different

jokes people were making and funny

stories that were being told.

God has designed your spirit in a way

that it can in one moment be weeping and

another moment laughing from the belly.

It's really not a contradiction to

rejoice in suffering, is it?

And you need it.

I don't know if you've been to modern

hospitals lately, but there's no hope

there.

They're dark institutions. I feel my

spirit in my spirit when I walk into

those

hospital rooms. How lost and forlorn and

gloomy without any light.

And yet there wasn't a single camp or

related person that was grieving without

hope in that room.

One of the things that touched me most

about the way that Ralph is grieving

faithfully is that he freely admits just

how much pain he is in. He has no doubt

in God's goodness and purpose in it.

And I had been driving there and praying

God, you know, I had the sense that God

wanted me to bring that kind of joy. Not

a flippant joy,

not a self focused joy, but just not not

a stoic joy either, but I wanted to be

strong for the family. And I I wanted

him to fill me with his joy. Not some

kind of weird fakey joy, but like the

joy of the Lord. It's our strength. and

maybe I could have that joy of the Lord

in greater measure and maybe that'd be a

strength for the family.

So, I was in keeping my composure

intentionally.

And then

Betty was laying on life support on the

bed right in front of me. And to my

right, Ralph sits down.

His aris sits down, puts his arm around

him,

and Ralph just breaks down weeping.

I could not keep my composure in that

moment.

It's very painful to watch a faithful

man suffer like that.

And I thought about my wife whom I love

very much

and whom I too without the hope of the

Lord would feel like I wouldn't be able

to go on.

Ralph is suffering faithfully

and he's an example to us and he's been

an example to me.

And I want to show you what God can do

through you when you're willing to

suffer faithfully.

This is from 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

You'll probably have heard this as

redemptive suffering, redemptive

affliction.

Listen to 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 starting in verse three.

Blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies

and God of all comfort, who comforts us

in all our affliction,

so that we may be able to comfort those

who are in any affliction with the

comfort with which we ourselves are

comforted by God. For as we are, we

share abundantly in Christ's sufferings,

so so through Christ, we share

abundantly in comfort, too. If we are

inflicted, it is for your comfort and

salvation. And if we are comforted, it

is for your comfort, which you

experience when you patiently endure the

same sufferings we suffer.

Have you ever experienced the comfort of

a brother or sister in Christ

that you know has suffered?

You know they know.

You know they know what it's like.

And so their comfort

it's deeper.

It's weathered.

It's strong.

Do you want to be that kind of person

for someone who is suffering, who's

afflicted, who's in grief, who's in

pain?

That kind of comfort

doesn't come without suffering in your

life.

I don't know. I know Ralph is suffering

faithfully.

I don't know if you have had times of

suffering where maybe you haven't

suffered faithfully. There have been

times in my life, seasons where I've

suffered

and then withdrawn from God.

You know what's worse than suffering?

Suffering without God close.

Suffering comes whether you're close to

God or not.

But why? And this is the last thing I

want to talk to you about. Why would we

withdraw from God while we're suffering?

Because in the depths of our heart, we

know he's sovereign over it. You know,

he's in control.

you know, he brought it into your life

and that he could have decided not to.

And the enemy will come and your flesh

will tend to agree with him

that either God is not sovereign

or God is not good.

And if you don't reconcile that from the

very beginning that yes, he's in control

and yes, he's good and yes, he has a

purpose and yes, his purpose is good.

If you don't anchor those things from

the word in your heart,

the enemy through the undermining will

of your flesh can peel you away from

God, too. I do not mean that you'll lose

your salvation. I mean that the felt

experience closeness of his love will be

diminished because that's poured into

our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And when

we start doubting God and when we start

distancing ourselves from him, it

grieves the Holy Spirit and it quenches

his work.

I don't want to say what I'm going to

say next, but I have to.

The only way back to the Lord

when you've suffered

and allowed it to diminish your trust in

him

is to repent of having done that.

And then you can walk to the cross.

You may be convinced that I understand

pain to a certain degree. You may be

convinced that there's some people in

your life that have been hollowed out

and allowed God to do it faithfully and

have so much love of his in their heart

and they offer you so much comfort. But

there is no one

who knows suffering like Jesus Christ.

No one who knows suffering like Jesus

Christ. And so when you return, when you

come to the table, when you by faith

realize

I was wrong to walk away from you, Lord,

and then I suffered by myself. And oh,

man, how much that will warp you.

I have seen some people who were

faithful Christians who now are so

warped because they allowed their grief

to peel them away from the Lord. They

did not cling to him during that time.

And the only only thing you can do to

return from that is to admit that that

was sinful.

which will be painful too. And that the

Lord is sovereign, that he has a

purpose, that his purpose is good, and

that he's worthy of every experience you

ever will have that causes grief.

He's worthy because he died

for your sin, though he was perfect.

So if you need healing of any kind, if

you need comfort of any measure, if you

need forgiveness of any depth,

come to the foot of the cross

and we'll heal together.

Let me pray.

Father,

Oh,

you said rejoice in our suffering.

So we will rejoice

in the suffering you've brought into our

church because we know

that it'll produce endurance and that

endurance will produce character and

that character will produce hope.

I pray that you would bring hope to the

camp family, hope to others who were

particularly close to Betty, and hope to

heart every heart that is here today by

faith in Jesus Christ and what he

accomplished on the cross so that we

might not bear our pain, our grief, or

our suffering apart from you in Jesus

name. Amen.