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00:00 It's really great to be here. As Pastor Mark said, uh this isn't my first time
00:06 to your campus, but it's my first time here on a Sunday morning, and what a
00:11 beautiful gathered church. I'm most familiar with the Globe Cafe and occasional walk to the Tondas, and uh
00:18 it's nice to see a bit more of of the campus. So, you've got a a wonderful facility here, and just to hear over the
00:26 past several months how God is using it to make an impact for his kingdom and in Sububong and and Ko and surrounding
00:33 lands is is very encouraging to me. So, I'm I'm very glad to to be here with you
00:39 this morning. Uh it's not been the easiest time for me
00:44 in in Malaysia the past year. Uh yesterday I found myself at the the
00:50 clinic once again in Bandar Shrier Mastery where I live and something uh
00:56 happened there that caused me to pause. I walked in and they said, "Oh, hey,
01:02 Anthony, you're back." And I thought, "Do do you really want the clinic to
01:07 know your know you by name and to uh immediately greet you like you're one of the family?" And it it reminded me of a
01:15 show that was uh older in the US called Cheers. And it was a a local um pub,
01:21 basically community hangout place. And the theme song was uh don't you want to
01:26 be where everybody knows your name? And yeah, unless it's the dentist or the or the doctor, right? So I go in and I meet
01:35 with with uh Dr. uh uh Rahm, who's who's my my best friend now, and I sit down in
01:43 the chair and he says, "Oh, uh is it is it the same old thing?"
01:48 And I I said, "Uh, actually, no, this time I think something's wrong with my
01:53 eye." And he started to assess me and I felt like I was in a Sherlock Holmes
01:59 movie. He looks at my face and he says, "Ah, have you have you been losing
02:05 weight?" And I said, "That's funny you would say that. Uh, lots of people in Malaysia have asked me over the past
02:11 year if I've lost weight." And I didn't know if if this was a real observation
02:16 or if they, you know, thought Americans are typically large people, and if they're going to go one direction or the
02:22 other with weight, it's never to a smaller weight. And I said, "Well, I don't I don't think I've lost weight,
02:29 but I've not weighed myself in a year. Do you have a scale?" He says, "Yes, I do." I said, "I would love to weigh
02:35 myself." So, before I got on the scale, I said, "This is about the the range that I ought to be in." And I gave him a
02:41 about a one uh one one or two kilogram spectrum. You know, I I was a wrestler
02:46 most of my growing up years and weighed myself two to six times a day every day
02:52 for about 15 years. I I'm very in tune with my weight, or so I thought. I get on the scale and what do you know? I I
03:00 appear to be a good five kilograms less than I was a year ago. and I'm not a
03:07 huge man, so that's a pretty significant percentage of my body weight. So, he was
03:12 right. I've lost weight. And then I go sit back down and he starts to look at
03:19 me and he says, "What are all those spots all over your body?" And I said, "Yeah, I I forgot to mention those the
03:26 last time I was here, but uh lots of bugs have been biting me."
03:32 He says, "Okay." So he starts to look and and you know my my mattress I
03:37 believe is infested with dust mites and uh I've I've struggled with you know
03:43 personal bodily infestation apparently and they've been biting me a lot and I've tried to treat the mattress. You
03:48 know we moved into a fully furnished apartment and apparently this is this is common. And I said why doesn't my wife
03:55 get bitten like me? and he said, 'Well, it's because these little bugs are attracted to the the warmest uh body in
04:03 the room. And if you know, I I come from a long line of gen generational and
04:09 genetic sweaters, the Casey family. So, I'm a very hot individual.
04:15 This is why my wife uh wanted to marry me, right? So, they come and they bite me because I'm
04:22 warmer than my wife. So he he sees these spots all over my my body, which I've struggled with. And then when he's
04:29 looking at the spots, he says, "Do you sweat a lot?" And I said, "Well, yes, I do. How do you know this?" And he said,
04:35 "Well, under your shirt, on your shoulders and your chest and your back, everywhere that you know your clothes
04:41 hang on you, your skin is of a degrading condition that probably comes from
04:47 excessive sweating and clothes hanging on you." I said, "You've got it." you know, again, Sherlock Holmes. I hadn't
04:53 say a word. And uh you know, I I sweat heavily all the time in Malaysia and
04:59 apparently it's damaging my skin. And as he's continuing to look at me, he says, "You know what? Uh do you often roll up
05:06 your sleeves at work?" I said, "In fact, I do. Why would you ask?" and he said,
05:13 "Well, I can clearly see parts of your body where your shirt doesn't hang on you that's affected by cold air
05:20 conditioning and it's drying out your skin and damaging it in a different way." I was like, "Boy, that's that's
05:26 wonderful." So, I have dry skin. I have sweaty skin. Uh
05:31 I've lost weight. I've been uh eaten regularly by microscopic bugs. And uh
05:39 I've been sick continuously for several months and that's why I'm always at the
05:45 clinic. In fact, the last time I was at the clinic, which was only a week ago, uh the doctor suggested I have my tonsil
05:51 surgically removed and I said, "Really?" Uh and I'm not sure if that's the best
05:56 prognosis, but I've I've been there a lot. And then we get to the reason why I was at the clinic. Uh my eye had become
06:03 excessively matted shut the night before and was red and infected. Isn't that
06:08 wonderful? So yes, I have some kind of pink eye. I don't know what you call it here in in Malaysia. So uh he gave me
06:15 some some eye drops for that and that was just yesterday and then I wake up today and my other eye is matted shut.
06:22 So, I've I've sanitized myself repeatedly, but if you've touched me today, uh please do not get around small
06:28 children, elderly people, and anything you don't want infested with fleas, ticks, and and bed bugs, and whatever
06:35 else is living on me. Um, you know, you mentioned the the blood drive, and at
06:40 first I thought you were going to talk about the the Malaysian Air Force, which are the hordes of mosquitoes that come to us as well, and, you know, take the
06:47 blood. So I say all this to uh to say that I I'm standing here this morning and my
06:54 voice may give out over the course of this sermon or you're fortunate at the ser the first sermon my the next sermon
07:01 we're going to resort to sign language probably uh I'm not doing very well and
07:07 neither is my family. They're not here because my my two boys are sick and have fevers and and etc etc etc. So, it's
07:16 fitting for me at least, if not maybe someone else in the room that we're talking about suffering this morning. It
07:23 is a fact of life and it's uh something that profoundly shapes our experience
07:32 and our view of God and is something that is very polarizing for some people.
07:38 Some people experience suffering and they get very angry at God. Why God
07:43 would you make me, you know, put me through this? Where are you? Right? Are
07:49 you good? And it can drive us away from God or as I hope we see this morning
07:55 from our passage, it can drive us to God and be the means that God uses to
08:03 sanctify us to make us more like Jesus and hones us to be an instrument in the
08:09 redeemer's hands to comfort others with the comfort that we ourselves have uh
08:14 have received from God. So you can see our outline of the
08:21 passage here as as I give a just a minute of background. Um, second
08:26 Corinthians was it's the second letter that is officially included in in the
08:31 Bible as official scripture, but it's thought that Paul had probably written one or two other letters to the
08:38 Corinthian church. Um, because it was a church that, as we see from Acts 18,
08:43 that Paul had helped plant himself some time ago and he was intimately involved
08:49 with the church at Corenth. He knew the people there. From first Corinthians, we clearly see he he knew of their
08:55 struggles and their issues with sin. He deeply cared for them. He starts second
09:03 Corinthians by putting forth his credentials. Paul, an
09:08 apostle of Christ Jesus, which is something that not everybody could claim by the will of God and
09:15 Timothy our brother. So Timothy was often with Paul. They did ministry as a as a team to the church of God that is
09:21 at Corenth. And he establishes immediately who he is. He's an apostle
09:27 of of the Lord Jesus commissioned by God. And he has credentials to speak to
09:33 the church with the authority of the holy spirit and he has authority to get
09:39 into these difficult issues that the church in Corenth was experiencing. So
09:44 he he gives us this greeting by means of a welcome, but also establishing his authority as an apostle to speak to his
09:53 church. And it's that same authority as a an apostle in the word of the Holy Spirit that allows us this morning to
09:60 teach God's word in a way that comes right to the very core of who we are and how we view ourselves, our suffering,
10:06 and and our Lord. So Paul already had a relationship with the Corinthian church.
10:12 So it's not surprising that by verse three he jumps right in to the first issue which is this issue of of
10:19 suffering.
10:26 And the first thing that I want us to see is that suffering begins with God.
10:31 And as we experience suffering we ought to begin with God as well. It's easy to
10:37 want to focus on our pain and our problems right away, but Paul begins
10:43 with God. And I think that our passage teaches us that that suffering itself begins with God. We see right away in
10:50 verse three, he launches into this this praise or this traditional Jewish blessing. And I don't think it's by
10:56 accident. He says, "Blessed be the God." This God is worthy of our praise. He's
11:03 worthy of our adoration, of our worship. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies
11:12 and the God of all comfort. And that is good news that the sovereign Lord of the
11:19 whole universe, past, present, future, that spoke the wonder of what we see
11:24 with the Hubble telescope and with the a neutron microscope, the wonders of what
11:30 we can see and the wonders of what we can't see. This sovereign Lord is a tender Lord who's the father of mercies
11:37 and the God of all comfort. And for people that are suffering, we we need to
11:42 hear this that the sovereign Lord is not just sovereign over the orbit of the earth around the sun, but he's sovereign
11:49 over our suffering. And when we know that, we can praise him and worship God
11:54 that he's sovereign over that. That he is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. So this is good news for us
12:02 and where we need to start. So Paul tells us that right away to set our hearts in the right place before he
12:10 engages suffering. So this God of all comfort in verse four who comforts us in
12:16 all our affliction. Why? This is the key point. So that why why do we suffer? Why
12:24 are we comforted? Is it for our own sake or or not? Verse four, he he comforts us
12:30 so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the
12:35 comfort by which we ourselves are comforted by God. And this is a
12:41 perspective on suffering that I think we need to have. And it's not a normal natural one, which is why the the
12:46 scripture speaks to our heart with this. Part of the reason that we suffer, not not the only reason, but part of the
12:52 reason that we suffer is so that we can be equipped to help others who suffer.
12:58 And we see this here. We are comforted so that we may be able to comfort
13:04 others. So what's the end goal for our suffering? You know, why why do we
13:10 suffer? I is the end goal just alleviation?
13:15 Is God a God of comfort simply so that we as an individual can stop suffering and get on with the good life? Well,
13:23 sometimes I think that the God of comfort does comfort us by alleviating our suffering. But it's not just
13:30 alleviation that's the end goal for our suffering. It is to transform us into
13:35 disciples who rely on God, who lean on him, and who are equipped to love and
13:41 comfort those around us who suffer, which is everybody, is it not? At some
13:46 point, we all suffer. Some of us suffer more than others.
13:53 So, the the end goal isn't just to stop suffering, but it's it's to be equipped for ministry to others who who suffer.
14:01 So I want to take a minute and ask you to think, you know, h how have you suffered? Are you suffering now?
14:08 How have you suffered in life? What what bad things, what traumas have you experienced in life growing up? U maybe
14:16 with uh having having children or not being able to have children because of
14:21 of infertility. Maybe you're the parent of young kids as as I am. And some days
14:27 you love them and you thank God for them, but often you're ashamed of yourself for the thoughts that you have
14:35 because of what they do to your life. Now they take away your freedom and your comfort and make life difficult. And you
14:42 find yourself thinking things that you're later ashamed of of your own children. Maybe you're jobless now or
14:49 you've been jobless or you've been chronically undermployed and you've just not been able to have the financial
14:54 security to live as you would have liked.
14:59 How how have you suffered? Or maybe a better way to think of it is how have you been equipped to comfort those
15:07 around you? So, if you've suffered in any way, uh, then then you know, right?
15:13 If you encounter someone else that that has suffered as you've suffered, you don't even have to really talk a lot
15:19 with that person. You just know what it's like to have been through that difficulty. And often people don't want
15:27 someone who doesn't understand them to talk about their problems and just give them a list of, well, do this, do this,
15:33 and do this or you must not be walking with God. Well, are you reading your Bible? uh you know if if if only you
15:40 were a better Christian maybe you wouldn't suffer or well here's the problem you just need to rearrange this
15:47 or this or well just read this book on parenting and maybe you wouldn't have these issues with your kids right this
15:54 sounds like Job's friends in the book of Job they give good worldly advice and at
15:60 the end God says be quiet you don't know what you're talking about you've
16:05 completely missed the purpose of of Job's suffering. So when we've suffered,
16:13 we can relate in a way that others can't to people that are suffering. And
16:18 sometimes it it doesn't have to be a specific suffering. Any suffering will do. Those who have been downtrodden and
16:25 and trampled. uh we we know what it's like to not be uh winners in life, you
16:31 know, and we can comfort those with a different kind of comfort than just a
16:37 simple, well, just do these things and you'll be okay. So, first thing we see
16:43 in our passage is when we suffer, we need to remember that suffering begins with God. He's sovereign over it. He is
16:51 the God of all comfort and the father of mercies. He loves us and it doesn't mean
16:56 that he's far from us when we suffer. We we experience suffering for several reasons as we'll see. But but one of
17:02 them and and the first thing right off the bat in our passage is we suffer so that we can be equipped to comfort
17:09 others. And that begins to change our perspective of of suffering.
17:14 The next thing we see in verses 5-7 is that suffering is one of the tools that
17:20 God uses to build our witness to the gospel. So we suffer so that we can
17:26 comfort others. And God uses our suffering sometimes to build our
17:31 witness. We see in verse 5, for as we share abundantly,
17:38 not occasionally, abundantly in Christ's sufferings,
17:43 so through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort, too. So, we see right away
17:49 we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. If you read the Bible uh
17:55 with a holistic view, now of course you can pick out a few passages, but if you read it holistically, uh God's people
18:01 suffer. That's the nature of life. That's the nature of the fallen world. And occasionally I see writings or I
18:08 hear uh teaching from from people who call themselves Christians that say that
18:14 that true Christians are victorious in the Holy Spirit. They're victorious in the gospel. They should not experience
18:22 suffering. I have a friend in the US that believes this and I love the guy, but he he thinks anytime he's sick that
18:29 he ought to just be able to cast that sickness immediately out of his body and be healthy, wealthy, and wise and walk
18:36 through life in that fashion. But that just doesn't match with the whole view
18:41 of suffering that we get in the scriptures. Christians are not exempt from suffering.
18:48 Why else would Paul say, "For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering," so Christians are not exempt from
18:54 suffering? This is a false gospel. If you hear people say that Christians should not
18:60 suffer, they shouldn't be sick. This isn't the victorious Christian life. Uh that's just not what Paul is is getting
19:07 at here in our in our passage. So So we need to see that that we not we are not
19:12 exempt from suffering. Jesus was afflicted. Now he was afflicted so that
19:18 we might find salvation and we we are afflicted as well so that
19:23 we might share in his sufferings and share in the ministry of reconciliation.
19:29 So we see in verse 5 for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings so
19:34 through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted it is for your comfort and salvation. So there
19:42 is something in this passage where Paul is saying that as an apostle as a
19:48 missionary the sufferings and the affliction that he experienced in some way resulted in the Corinthians
19:55 salvation. Now, not in the same way that Jesus sufferings resulted in our salvation, but the proclamation of the
20:01 gospel is something that Satan hates, right? You know, you read the a gospel
20:07 track for God loves the world. He loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, guess what else is true?
20:13 Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life, right? So, there is resistance to the spread of the gospel
20:19 and it and it will only go forth through suffering. But Paul understood the purpose of
20:27 suffering and willingly endured it for the sake of the Corinthians, for the sake of their salvation, and for the
20:32 sake of their comfort. So in some ways, suffering does build
20:40 our witness. Paul says in verse six that as we are afflicted, it is for your
20:45 comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted comforted, it is for your comfort which you experience when you
20:51 patiently endure. Right? When you endure something, it takes a long time. When
20:58 you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. And we'll see later in verse 10 that Paul calls us to set our
21:04 hope upon God as we endure suffering.
21:10 When you suffer, the the world is watching you, right? Because everybody suffers. And they want to see what is
21:16 your response to suffering? Where is your hope? What are you looking for when you suffer? And when they see that your
21:23 hope is set firmly on the gospel and on Jesus,
21:30 it gives you an opportunity to witness. One of the most powerful stories of this
21:36 I ever heard. Sorry, I'm going to begin coughing a lot here. Uh
21:41 my friend Mark told me, and Mark had had been a missionary in Afghanistan and
21:47 Pakistan for about 15 years. and these aren't uh the friendliest environments
21:52 to uh share the the good news. And uh he was in charge of several other regions
21:58 and oversaw a lot of the the work there. And he told me one day about a story that his friend shared from a small
22:05 village in Afghanistan that would have the rig religious climate that you might think a small village in Afghanistan
22:11 would have. And this this foreign for foreigner
22:16 this foreign missionary had lived in this village for uh more than a year and had tried to
22:23 befriend the locals and live with them you know not above them and they just
22:29 weren't receptive to the gospel message. He he was a foreigner. They didn't trust him until something happened. This was a
22:38 some years back when the Taliban was known to drive through these villages
22:43 and uh terrorize locals into growing
22:48 poppy plants so that they could make heroin and export heroin around the
22:54 world and make millions and millions of dollars. Same thing happens in Colombia, Peru. Uh
23:00 these militant groups come through and terrorize farmers to get them to grow drugs and and traffic drugs. So what
23:06 would happen in this part of Afghanistan is the Taliban would give notice on like a Tuesday. We're coming through on
23:13 Saturday and you better be out of this village otherwise you're dead. And they
23:19 did this to show that they had the ability to terrorize people and then get them to do what they wanted. So
23:24 everybody who could left the village immediately. But most people were so poor they didn't own any car they
23:31 couldn't get out. So they had to stay and pray that they would be spared.
23:37 Well, they all thought that the white guy was going to, you know, be helicoptered out by the United Nations or whatever. Of course, white people
23:43 overseas, they never suffer. They have so much money they can do whatever they want and leave. I mean, a jet could come
23:48 and get them. And in some some ways, this might be true. But this missionary prayed a long
23:56 time about what he should do. He felt strongly strongly and through the council of many others that God was
24:02 having him stay in that village through this attack. So when Saturday came he found himself in a dugout cellar
24:08 underneath a building with about 30 to 40 local people and they were under
24:14 there and they heard the jeeps roll into town. They heard the the motors roar. They heard yelling and then they heard
24:20 machine gun fire and screaming. And this went on for about 10 minutes and they
24:25 were under there praying just waiting to be found and to be slaughtered. This was their fate they they were certain of.
24:35 But suddenly the noise quieted down and the screaming stopped and about 15 minutes later they came out to chaos
24:41 above. But they were spared. And you know what? Because of that man's
24:47 faithfulness to endure that terror with those villagers, every single one of
24:53 them placed their faith and hope in his God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it took an event like that to show what
25:01 this man believes is true and it's real in his life. He could have left. He could have avoided this suffering. He he
25:08 could have been the first one out of here, but he didn't. He chose to stay and endure this with us. And that was
25:15 what God used to bring the rest of the village to Jesus. So in a very real way,
25:21 our suffering builds our witness. People look at your life when you suffer. And if you point to the hope of the Lord
25:28 Jesus and that your faith is secure in the gospel, that is powerful in a way
25:33 that it's not when everything goes well for you.
25:43 So we see this in the passage and then in verse 7 Paul can say in the midst of
25:49 people who suffer our hope for you is unshaken for we know that as you share in our
25:55 sufferings you will share in our comfort. Paul knows that his hope can be
26:00 unshaken in these people because he knows the holding power of the gospel. And when you suffer, as we'll see next,
26:07 suffering pushes us to God. It pushes us to God in a way that we just don't see
26:14 when everything goes well in our life. And it it builds in us an assurance on
26:19 the power of the gospel to keep us. So suffering is uh it begins with God. It's
26:26 it's a tool that God uses in our lives to comfort others. It also builds our witness as people
26:33 look at our lives as we're in pain. Where is our hope? And next we see that it pushes us to
26:41 God. And we see this in 8-10.
26:47 Paul says, "For we do not want you to be ignorant or unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.
26:53 For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despared of life itself." And this was beatings,
26:59 stonings, shipwrecks, lashings, mocking, humiliations.
27:05 Um he he says at one point that he was attacked by wild animals. I mean this,
27:12 you know, these are these are lots of things.
27:17 We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despared of life itself.
27:23 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who
27:30 raises the dead. Paul says, "Look, suffering, it's not pleasant."
27:38 But you know what it does? It makes us rely not on ourselves but on God. When
27:43 everything is going well in your life, it's easy to forget about God and to
27:50 think that, you know, you're so smart, you're so good at your job, you're such
27:55 a good speaker, presenter, man, you're God's gift to the business uh analysis
28:01 world and so on. But when you lose your job and when things crash down and
28:08 you're sick or someone dies that's close to you or you find yourself suffering
28:13 especially suffering badly where you can say something like we were so utterly
28:19 burdened beyond our strengths that we despared of life itself where are you going to go you know your PhD doesn't
28:27 matter it's not the kind of doctor that can help anybody right and it's at the
28:32 lowest point in suffering that that you see that you cannot rely on yourself,
28:37 but you must rely on God.
28:43 And it's interesting here that Paul juxtaposes these ideas. He said, "We we suffered so badly that we felt we had
28:51 received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." And in
28:58 in 1 Corinthians 15 and in Paul's ministry in general, he talks about the resurrection a lot and the hope that it
29:05 ought to give us. Now, we don't ever often think about the hope of the resurrection, but when your body is
29:11 broken and it's worn out and you're hurting, uh the sure knowledge of the
29:17 resurrection and a glorified body when all of this will cease is a tremendous
29:22 boost to your ability to endure. And Paul says that the the hope of the
29:27 resurrection, the sovereignty of the of the Lord God over our bodies and our
29:33 pain and our suffering, the hope of the resurrection is the hope is our hope in the midst of suffering. So we need to we
29:42 need to to know this that there is hope. We cling to God with the hope of the
29:49 resurrection. It will not always be this way. I won't always feel like this.
29:54 There won't always be pain and suffering and tears in the world.
29:60 But while it's here, what is God's purpose for it? Right? He has a purpose
30:06 and much good can come from our suffering.
30:11 We see in our passage, we we see things like patiently endure. So, we don't know
30:17 the length of the trial that we're in, but we we know the outcome, right? We know its purpose and we know the
30:23 outcome. So, let's just very briefly go to James, Jesus, brother. See what he has to say
30:30 about trials and suffering. He starts out in verse two with a an
30:35 amazing statement. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet
30:41 trials of various kinds. Wow. Right? He has a different perspective on suffering
30:47 than most of us. Do you count it joy when you find yourself going through hardships? Well, James says that we
30:53 ought to count it joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. Why?
30:59 What's the purpose of trials in our life? For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. This
31:06 is an endurance to stand firm in the hope of the gospel. Steadfastness.
31:12 And let uh Yeah. and let steadfastness have its full effect, which means it takes time for it to have its full
31:17 effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So, James
31:24 says, look, you don't know how long this trial is going to last, but if you have the right perspective on suffering, uh
31:30 you can count it joy when you meet trials of various kinds. And I think this is good news to us when we don't
31:37 know the length of the trial, but we know the outcome and we know that there's hope and that God has a purpose for suffering. Um, we have a better
31:45 perspective on it and we're more likely to be used by God to help others.
31:55 So sometimes, and you know this would get me thrown out of town in some places, but the best thing for us, the
32:02 best thing for me might be to suffer. It's not what I
32:07 would ask for. It's not what I would want. It's not what I would hope or wish on anyone else. But in God's sovereign
32:15 wisdom, it might be the best thing for us to suffer. It makes us slow down. It
32:21 gives us time to think about our lives and to set our priorities where they ought to be on God.
32:31 So I think in a real way a purpose of suffering is to point us to God because
32:37 we need him. Now uh just let me briefly say uh sometimes we suffer because of
32:44 our sin, right? I mean, if if you are a habitual alcoholic and your liver is
32:50 failing and you're experiencing a lot of pain and suffering because of liver issues,
32:57 uh it might be because of your habitual sin of excessive drinking and
33:03 alcoholism, right? I mean, if if you drive twice the speed limit constantly
33:10 and you get in an accident because you can't control your car and you break your back and you find yourself
33:16 suffering in the hospital, you know, it might be because you were doing something foolish and sinful. But we
33:23 need to to know from especially from Job that all suffering is not a direct
33:29 result of our sin by any means. And sometimes the most holy and righteous
33:34 Christians, the most godly people are the very ones that God inflicts
33:39 suffering on. And it's not because he doesn't like you. There's anything wrong with you. But it is the best thing for
33:46 us sometimes to suffer. It makes us an instrument in the redeemer's hand to comfort others. It very much can uh
33:54 magnify our witness and it and it makes us turn to him and rely even more closely on him. I think Paul, the
33:60 Apostle Paul, was was a godly man. I I wish that I had the faith that he had.
34:09 He suffered mightily, but it was for the sake of the kingdom. And he said that it was to make him rely not on himself, but
34:16 on God. So suffering definitely points us to God or it should.
34:26 Finally, we see verse 11 that prayer has a purpose in suffering. Prayer's purpose
34:33 in suffering. So he tells the church there that he knew well, you must you also must help
34:41 us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many.
34:49 And we see in this passage that prayer has a purpose in suffering. And Paul says that we we need to be sure that
34:55 we're praising the one who heals, not the one uttering the peti petition. So
35:00 he says, "Help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf to the
35:06 Lord." Have you found yourself or have you heard of anybody who uh talks about
35:13 God's blessings and how great God is and all that he's done but in a way that seems to magnify their faith, their
35:20 prayer themselves rather than the giver. I think sometimes this is a a a
35:26 temptation for us or if we meet a missionary or we read of someone with
35:32 great faith, we we can put our praise on that person and their faith and their
35:37 endurance rather than on the Lord that gave them the ability to endure and and that healed them. So Paul says here that
35:44 that we need to pray. Prayer has a role in suffering. But as we do that, pray for people and God answers, right? which
35:52 he does. We need to uh make sure that we put the blessings on the one who heals,
35:57 not on the one uttering the petition. And I I think the reason that he puts this here, it's not just a tag at the
36:04 end, but prayer is a means that God uses to connect the one suffering to the greater Christian community. Uh church,
36:11 church in general, it it's it's not something that you go to, but it's something that you are. And throughout
36:17 scripture, it has a a community aspect to it.
36:22 uh New Testament writers often begin to the church gathered at something like that. So it's church is is a community.
36:29 It's a gathering of of believers and we need each other. You're in a
36:35 series on Galatians. Galatians 6 talks about this same idea that we're to bear
36:40 one another's burdens as we suffer together and encourage one another. And
36:45 that is exactly the same theme we see here with why should we pray u for each
36:52 other? Well, prayer is a is a means group prayer. Communal prayer is a means that God uses to connect the the one
36:60 suffering to the Christian community. So that is another purpose of prayer. We're to know each other in a suffering
37:06 community and to be there for one another as you'll see in Galatians 6.
37:14 All right, let's uh think of a few points of general application from our our message today.
37:24 First, as we've said, when you suffer, you you might be be suffering now or there may
37:31 be someone that you know that's suffering. You may enter into a time of suffering soon. So, when you suffer,
37:36 when we suffer, when I suffer, begin with God. It's easy to focus on your
37:43 problems, your pain, the situation that you're encountering, but that's not the right place to begin. Begin with God,
37:50 the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. The Lord is sovereign over your
37:56 suffering. And we need to begin with him and realize why are we suffering? You
38:03 may not have the exact answer why, but we know from this passage the the what God does
38:10 in the midst of our suffering. So, when you suffer, when you're lonely, uh when
38:16 your marriage isn't well, when things aren't going well in your life, begin with God,
38:23 not alcohol, right? Some people, they turn to to, you know, excessive drinking
38:29 or not even excessive drinking. Every single day when I come home from teaching, I ride the train and I pass uh
38:37 several um Chinese copy tiums coffee shops and there's always someone sitting
38:44 at the table with a large ice cold bottle of beer, right? And often he's by
38:50 himself. Now, I'm not extending judgment on this man, and you know, he's certainly doesn't appear to be, you
38:56 know, in a drunken stouper, but I think it's easy for some of us to look forward
39:01 to the comfort of, you know, an ice cold uh glass of beer at night or something like that. There's nothing wrong with
39:06 that. But we sometimes we we can look for things in our life to bring us comfort when we ought to be starting
39:13 with God. Some people look to alcohol, other people look to pain pills, some
39:18 people look to food, right? uh comfort food. We even have a name for it. You know, I teach I teach
39:25 anthropology at Methodist College and I ask students, you know, when you're gone from Malaysia for a long time, what what
39:32 food? What's the first food that you just long for when you come back? And we all start in this time of salivation and
39:39 stomach rumbling. And we name all these foods that just make us feel home and they make us feel good, right? And
39:46 again, nothing wrong with that. God created all things clean for our enjoyment. But if you're not careful,
39:52 you can look to food for comfort when you ought to be looking to God. Sometimes we look to work, right?
39:60 There's been times in my life when it's really hard to be a parent. It's really
40:05 hard to be a husband. And work isn't easy, but it's easier than being a
40:10 parent, right? and I found myself uh maybe working longer than I really
40:15 needed to to escape difficulties at home. Well, that's no good at all,
40:20 right? And uh when you begin to look to work for your fulfillment, for your comfort as an escape from other
40:27 hardships in your life, uh you you need to rethink your priority there where you're where you're looking to your
40:33 comfort. You know, other people look to TV, internet, sex, gambling.
40:39 I could go on and on. There's a million things in life that that we we look to when we suffer, but uh we need to begin
40:46 with God when we suffer because that's where our perspective must start.
40:53 Number two, we need to have a gospel- centered view of the purpose of suffering. Right? This is what this
40:59 whole passage is about. We begin with God and we realize that he's sovereign over our suffering. And we see that a
41:08 real purpose for our suffering is to be equipped to comfort others. That's the gospel- centered view. To be a light in
41:15 a dark world, to be a minister of reconciliation. Suffering builds our witness when people
41:20 look to us and see where our hope is. And it magnifies the power of the gospel and we say, "Jesus is enough. The gospel
41:29 is real. It's true. And yes, I'm suffering. Yes, I'm in pain. and life
41:35 isn't as I would want it, but I serve a good God. And that that is a is a very
41:40 uh gospel- centered view of suffering. Suffering helps us rely on God. It points us to God. It it makes us rely on
41:47 God in a way that we may not when life is good. So have a have a gospel-
41:52 centered view of suffering, the purpose of suffering. Uh here we go.
41:58 It equips us to comfort others, builds our witness, helps us rely on God. So
42:06 don't be afraid of suffering. It's it's okay to have some fear before
42:12 an operation or something that you know is coming. But you don't have to be
42:18 irrationally afraid or paralyzed or or irrationally avoid every circumstance in
42:24 life that might bring about pain. You know, some people never get married. They never get in a serious relationship
42:29 because they're afraid of the pain that it might cause. Right?
42:35 Well, don't irrationally avoid suffering. God uses it in our lives for
42:40 good things. Don't be irrationally afraid of missions. If your son or
42:47 daughter feels called to missions, uh that's okay, right? God God's a big God
42:54 and he's sovereign over their life. When I was maybe 19 years old and I I
42:59 began to feel called to missions and I shared this with my parents, the first thing that they thought was, "Oh, I'm
43:06 going to go to some country where my head's going to get cut off, right?" And they didn't want me to go. And they wanted to do everything they could to
43:11 dissuade me from that. And uh you know, not not every missionary gets his or her
43:17 head cut off, but some do. And God's sovereign over that. And he uses that to build his kingdom. So, you
43:25 know, there's there's there's things in life that are more important than life itself, right? And Paul Paul knew this
43:32 and he he was a missionary and willingly and continually walked into suffering
43:38 and dangerous situations. Now, not as a total idiot, right? But he knew that suffering awaited him. But he did it for
43:44 the glory of the god the gospel. So, don't be afraid of suffering or irrationally avoid it. Know uh the
43:52 purpose of it in our lives. have a gospel- centered view.
43:57 And number three, know others well enough to talk about suffering with them. We see in verse 8,
44:05 Paul says, "For we do not want you to be ignorant or unaware of the affliction
44:10 that we experienced." Sometimes in our culture, you know, in Chinese culture, maybe, we don't want to share how we
44:18 failed. We don't want to be embarrassed that we're not good enough, that we haven't made it, that we're in pain,
44:24 that we're suffering, that life isn't well, we're not prosperous, you know, things just aren't going well. Well, we
44:30 need to get over that and and be in a community, church, a community where we
44:37 know each other's lives well enough to be real and honest about thoughts we've had about our kids that we're ashamed
44:43 of, uh, intimate ways that we're suffering. We need to know each other. So, please don't suffer alone. That is
44:50 one of the loneliest places that you can be when you're suffering and you don't want to tell anyone about it. Uh, Satan
44:57 will jump all over that and attempt to destroy your life through that kind of isolation. So, please don't suffer
45:03 alone. You have a church family here that I know from personal experience is there for you. They're not going to
45:09 judge you. They're not going to look for some sin in your life that's the cause of your suffering. They're going to walk
45:15 alongside of you. They're going to love you. They're going to support you. They're going to pray with you. They're going to be there for you and with you.
45:23 They're not going to have all the answers. They might not be able to fix anything, but you can lean on them and trust on trust in them and the God that
45:30 they believe. And and that's what the church is is to be. So don't suffer alone and know that you're not weak to
45:37 speak up about it. If you're suffering, please share your burdens with somebody in this church.
45:44 And I always encourage everybody to get in some kind of a small group. I know that there's small group ministries at
45:49 this church and other churches. These are the kinds of places where you live life together and you know each other.
45:55 It's great to come together on on Sunday morning like this. We see a model of
46:00 church in Acts 2 42-47. And they do gather together corporately for the
46:05 reading of God's word, the proclamation of it, for praying. But then they gathered together in their homes for the
46:11 breaking of bread and the sharing of fellowship. There's something about the intimacy of your home where you can be
46:17 real and honest when you can't in the church building. Even even a a Bible
46:23 study or a small group that meets at the church building, sometimes it's it's it's a sterilized environment. But when
46:29 you're in your own home, it's a place where intimacy can can occur. So I encourage you to get in a
46:35 small group of some kind to have a place to feel comfortable to know each other and to be known. People are afraid to be
46:42 known, aren't they? Nobody wants to be exposed as a fraud, as a cheat, as
46:48 someone with weak faith. But Jesus already knows you. He already knows that. And the gospel is more than enough
46:55 to overcome that. You don't have to live performance-driven Christianity. We are never expected to have it all together
47:02 to come before God. And I know you look around church and you see, man, these these guys, they look successful. I bet
47:09 they don't struggle with this. I bet their life's going well. That's a lie. None of our lives are going well. Let me
47:16 be the first to admit that, right? My life is not going well. All right? I mess up. Uh I'm not perfect. I'm not the
47:24 best dad. I'm not the best husband. I'm not the best. Uh what any you name it,
47:30 right? But we don't live performance-driven Christianity. We don't have to get it right to be accepted before God. Jesus provides all
47:38 that he requires for us to come before him. The pressure is off. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to
47:45 have it together. You just have to be real and aware of your own sin. And when
47:52 we all do that together, that's a place where we can grow and share and love. So
47:57 get in a group where you can be real with people and you can be honest. You can take the mask off. You can let go of
48:04 the burden of performancriven Christianity. Nobody has it together.
48:09 That is the biggest lie in the church that harms people. Nobody has it together. So be real and and and get in
48:17 a in a group so we can comfort one another. You know, make it a priority to know somebody so
48:24 you can walk with them when they're they're hurting. Now, it's it's draining and it's exhausting, but this is what
48:30 the ministry of reconciliation is. This is what we're called to do. And the Holy Spirit will give us power to
48:37 walk with people who are difficult, who are suffering, and who are hard. Right?
48:43 So, we need to make a a real effort to comfort one another, make time for one another and and love one another and to
48:50 know one another. And as we see in verse 11, we need to pray for one another. Uh
48:57 we suffer and it might be that we suffer for a long
49:02 time. We don't know God's plan specifically for our suffering, but we know, I think, from this passage, God's
49:09 plan generally for why we suffer and what what attitude we ought to have in
49:14 the middle of it. And uh it may be that we pray for someone who's suffering and
49:20 God in his mercy alleviates them of that suffering. But it may also be that that
49:26 prayer is the very thing that God uses to in help them endure, magnify their
49:32 witness, help them comfort others and draw them to God. So pray for one
49:38 another. And we need to know each other. Be in community. And this is how we are to suffer as the church. And it's
49:46 fitting that you're in Galatians again. And you'll see in chapter 6 that it's, you know, the gospel isn't, I mean, the
49:51 the Bible isn't fragmented. There's a beautiful theme throughout the scripture. And uh is as strange as it
49:60 sounds, the the suffering of the saints is one of the beautiful themes we see throughout scripture because of God's
50:06 purposes behind it. So, let's think about this as we close.
50:13 And and I pray as Christians, we should see suffering as a as a gift
50:20 actually that points us to Jesus and equips us to extend his grace and mercy
50:27 to others in need. If you're not a Christian, God may be
50:33 speaking to you in the middle of your suffering now that you need him. If if our hope is in Jesus, if your hope
50:39 is in Jesus, we can be more willing instruments in the redeemer's hands to minister to the
50:46 broken world around us because suffering is real. It's a fact of life. Everybody
50:51 experiences it. So the the question is is where is your hope in the midst of
50:57 it? And if your hope is in the gospel, uh suffering, as strange as it seems,
51:03 can be a beautiful thing and could be received with joy, as James says, as a gift from God to be used for the good of
51:10 his kingdom. So, let's pray for the ability to live
51:15 out these hard truths in our life.
