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00:05 Wow. Thank you so much the worship team. Thank you so much Jackie and your team.
00:10 How many of you going to buy tickets? Is that all? Bring your friends. I I
00:16 think it's going to be a wonderful time where, you know, music draws people. If
00:22 you ask your friends, you know, we come and listen to preacher. Nobody will come. If they're non-Christian, at least
00:28 if they have a musical presentation, most folk will come and at the end of that musical presentation,
00:35 uh, and they'll talk to you about the prodical son. What was that all about? So, that's a wonderful opportunity. Can
00:41 we sort the sound out? I feel I'm still at home in bed.
00:47 Okay. Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 11.
00:54 Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask this morning. We worship you now
01:00 with your word that this word will receive its place in our hearts and will
01:07 do its work and it surely will because it never returns void. It will do a work that will bring glory to your name and
01:15 it will transform our souls. We ask this in faith in the name of our Lord Jesus
01:21 Christ. Amen. Couple of weeks, two weeks ago, Arnold preached to us um
01:29 about faith. Romans chapter 4 and we understood what faith is, what it
01:35 looks like, what it feels like, what its hopes are. In chapter 5, Paul turns on
01:42 to what happens when you have this faith. What happens? What should happen to your
01:48 life? So I've entitled the talk return to Eden, life after the cross. What is
01:54 life after the cross like? Well, it'll be return to where things were before
02:00 sin came in. So therefore, it's a return to England to not Eden, not England.
02:08 That's too fast. You know why? Uh if you look at this um some of you might have been there before. If you go gone gone
02:14 to the UK, it's a Cornwall as a series of domes. Uh and they call this place
02:21 Eden, the garden of Eden. Because with technology nowadays, we can recreate the
02:26 most perfect conditions where flowers will bloom in abundance. The temperature
02:32 is tightly controlled. It'll be like Eden before the world began. It's
02:38 wonderful, isn't it? And with technology, we can reverse all the effects of sin as it were.
02:46 In um 18 92 there was a gentleman called Edvat
02:52 Munchch who was in Oslo and there was a beautiful sunset. As everybody else
02:58 walked along the bridge and des and then took in this wonderful sunset. He took
03:04 it in and produced a wonderful painting. And about this painting he wrote, "I was
03:09 walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting. I felt a breath of
03:17 melancholy. Suddenly, the sky turned blood red. I stopped and leaned against the railing, deathly tired. I looked out
03:25 across the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over blue black fjord
03:30 and a town. My friends walked on. I stood there trembling with fear and I sensed a great infinite scream passed
03:37 through nature. And he drew this. and he's called this painting the
03:44 scream. This is the sixth most expensive painting in the world. It retails for $119 million US
03:56 and and at what much? The modern version is this one.
04:02 This one you can get for 20 cents. But why does uh the painting like this
04:08 that that describes some horror? A man looks at a beautiful sunset and instead
04:13 of seeing roses and romance and and hope and optimism, he he screams. He feels a
04:19 scream that goes through his being goes through nature. And what munch lived
04:26 during a time where there was a great revolution in philosophy where we got people like Niti that tells you that God
04:33 is dead. For a long time in the world, the world view was such that there is a god that there's not a question. Nobody
04:39 ever debated it. But in 1892 and around that time a lot of philosophers were coming out and say look you know this is
04:46 oldfashioned. This is what your mom taught you in school and it doesn't quite work out and you know in real life
04:52 God is dead. It's and then when they abandon God then they begin to feel a
04:58 great problem. John Paul Sache says a philosopher indeed everything is permissible of God does not exist and as
05:05 a result man is for lawn because neither within him nor without does he find
05:11 anything to cling to. Once you throw God out of the mix there's nothing to cling to and somehow when you stand at the
05:17 edge of a bridge and a beautiful sunset there's an existential anxiety there's a
05:23 pain there's a anguish because you got nothing to hang your hopes on. This is man alienated from God. There's a news
05:31 week that was this month's news week that came out and talked about a suicide epidemic. Not only in the US
05:39 but all over the world. If you look all over the world, how we die by suicide is
05:47 number one. We're now the most technologically advanced people on the face of the earth.
05:53 Everybody else carries an iPad rather than a Bible, isn't it? It's all
05:58 technology. We're at the peak. And yet, why is it that at no time in history do
06:05 we more kill ourselves than today? This is suicide's grizzly toll all over.
06:11 Suicide accounts for more death in this world than war, murder, forces of
06:16 nature. There's something going on because we can't find the answer through
06:22 technology. Now in this Newsweek article they came out a new theory called joinerous theory
06:30 of suicide. Suicide when does it happen? It happens according to this theory when
06:35 there are three circles that coincide. One when we have a feeling of being
06:43 alone. two, when we feel that we are a burden.
06:48 And number three, when you've got a capability for suicide. That's why a lot of servicemen, a lot of soldiers will be
06:55 the ones that kill themselves because they have the third circle. When all these three circles coincide,
07:01 it have you actually have a recipe for the perfect storm. And people kill themselves. And one of the main things
07:08 here we want to point out is I'm alone. an alienation that we feel an
07:14 existential alienation because we have dumped God. Uh there a man was walking
07:20 on the Golden uh Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It was a suicide note and he
07:25 wrote in this suicide note, if there's just one person that would give me a
07:30 smile, I won't jump off the bridge. And he jumped off the bridge. He walked all
07:36 along the golden bridge and not a single person gave him a smile. And that illustrates the aloneeness that we
07:43 actually feel in the world. And that's why the suicide rates are the highest for divorced, for singles, people who
07:49 are alone. Uh we are alienated. And for those who don't believe so, Charter says
07:55 there are many who indeed show no such anxiety, but we affirm that they are merely disguising their anguish or in
08:01 flight from it. That means if you don't think, if you abandon God and you're not alone, uh you are running from the
08:08 truth. The state of the sinner is that we are an enemy of God. We deserve his
08:13 wrath. We are alienated. We're under judgment. And no matter how
08:18 hard you try, you really can't get get rid of this feeling of being alone and
08:24 this anxiety and this pain. Imagine you are condemned to die and they give you
08:30 the best meal possible and you order steak, you order potatoes, you order you
08:35 know hen me and whatever you order but you how do you feel when you eat it?
08:41 I don't think it's much fun because you've got judgment hanging over you and that's where mankind is. U so Romans 5
08:50 addresses this. Our first blessing that we as Christians should experience is peace. Therefore, because we have been
08:57 justified by faith and we receive this justification from God, we have peace
09:04 with God through our lost Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have obtained access by faith in this grace in which
09:09 we stand. We got this lifting of this existential worry. We are no longer living under the
09:18 cloud of the wrath of God. We no longer face the judgment of sin and then
09:23 progression to hell. We have peace with God and not only that we have through
09:28 him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Not only we have peace peace is not what is
09:35 peace peace is not just sessation of hostilities. Here is a restoration of reconciliation
09:42 restoration to where we formally were. This is a straight times cutting many
09:49 many years ago when they offered $250,000 for this man called Chinping. If you
09:55 know in the 1940s to 60s, Malaysia went
10:00 through 10 years of emergency because of this man. This man is public enemy
10:06 number one. He has killed thousands of Malaysians. He started the Communist Party of Malaysia and they fought a war
10:12 with the British forces who were colonial powers in this nation. and it been public enemy number one. And he
10:19 actually wrote a book, My Side of History, recently. And he was on his
10:24 dead bed when he wrote this in 2011. They had peace with the Communist Party
10:30 because they were defeated in this country. In 1989, there was a peace
10:35 accord where Malaysian government officials went and signed with the top leaders of the Malaysian Communist Party
10:42 outside this country. And as a result of this, they were supposed to be reconciled. But till this day, I don't
10:50 know whether Chinping is alive or not. Chinping was never allowed to come back into this country. In fact, the exigp
10:57 Rahim No, went on TV and said, "This is not right. We signed a peace accord and the peace accord grants the rights and
11:05 privileges of Chinping, public enemy number one, through total reconciliation, to come back and stay in
11:11 this nation." Many of Chinping's colleagues who were of other races have now come back and be totally reconciled
11:17 in this country. But Chinping was never allowed. Uh we don't know why. But you see when God reconciles us to himself,
11:26 it is complete. The peace is not just absence of hostility.
11:31 Uh it is a total return to Eden to turn to the side of God where instead of God
11:37 being against us, God is then for us. Let's read scripture. For while we were
11:43 enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of the son. Much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by
11:50 his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received
11:55 reconciliation. Now we don't walk and live in enmity on
12:03 alienation from God. We walk with him and he stands with us and for us.
12:11 Now peace has two dimensions. One an objective dimension and two a subjective
12:17 dimension. Romans 5 talks about peace with God. Peace with God is the a legal
12:25 status that there is no outstanding lawsuits. There's no ext outstanding
12:30 judgment. We have peace with God. Philippians talks about the peace of
12:35 God. When you receive peace with God, you will automatically receive peace of
12:42 God. It is a subjective feeling of being at peace in your heart. U it is
12:47 independent of circumstances. This Philippians chapter 4, it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in
12:53 everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God
12:59 which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
13:06 What is the secret of peace? The secret of peace is actually written out here by
13:11 Paul. It says do not be anxious about anything but in everything of praying supplication with thanksgiving.
13:18 You know, when you come to God and when you ask for something, the secret of
13:23 having God's peace take over your heart and mind is that you have thanksgiving. That means you thank God for the answer
13:31 before you get it. It's like coming up to your father if you're a teenager. Dad, can I have the keys to the car
13:37 today? Going out for a hot date. Thanks. And before the answer comes out, it's
13:43 thanks, Dad. It's okay. It's cool. I got the loan. Um well dad could say no but
13:50 still thanks. See that's the secret. If you've trusted the outcome to God then
13:57 you have the peace. Now if you are going to if you feel that you can be thankful for God only when you get the outcome
14:02 that you want. You'll never be thankful and you'll never have the peace because it'll be something as if God's
14:08 withholding something wonderful for you. But if you believe that God is a sovereign, powerful God, that everything
14:14 he gives you, whether it's a yes or a no, is the best for you, then you've got thankfulness. Imagine
14:20 how many girlfriends some of you must have had before you married your wife. Arnold,
14:30 imagine God had answered all your prayers. You wouldn't have wound up with your hand today and there's no Amanda. You
14:36 know, life will be tough. maybe you'll still be in the band.
14:43 So the secret of peace is basically thanking God. So Lord, no matter what the answer,
14:50 you know, that's it. And so therefore, peace comes in and will guard you. The word guard is a military term. You
14:58 you're like the president of the USA. He drives a big huge uh uh they call it the beast, isn't it? He's got like one foot
15:04 armor and he's got all these guys who stand around him. They actually guard him. He must be the safest guy on the
15:10 face of the earth, right? Safest guy. All right, that's the military term. When Jesus talks about guard, uh Paul
15:17 calls guard. That term is a military term. It's as if an entire army is
15:22 guarding you. So if you pray and bring your requests to God and regard them as
15:28 already yours, peace of God will guard your heart. It's also an active mental
15:34 process, isn't it? And Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
15:41 you because he trusts you." Uh Colossians says, "And the peace of Christ will rule in your heart." That's
15:46 an active process which you actually have to appropriate. Which means when you are one in Christ,
15:54 life after the cross is that you already have peace with God. How do you
15:59 appropriate that peace of God is another story that means you must keep your mind
16:05 on him? You trust him. Let the peace of God which is within your heart rule you
16:11 mean it comes out and it establishes control over what you think and what you
16:16 feel. Um many of us when you watch the movies and you come to a difficult part
16:22 and and and the hero and a heroine has to decide and there's this cliche that comes out of Hollywood and I hate this
16:28 and always say listen to your heart. Listen to your heart. If you listen to your heart you'll die because the heart
16:33 is always worried about this. You wake up in the morning the first thing you worry about am I going to look good enough for church and uh am I going to
16:40 have enough money for lunch? And you worry about all sorts of things. So you listen to your heart,
16:46 it'll be very very difficult. Your heart is usually anxious. So what the Bible prescribes for the peace of God is that
16:51 you actually have to lecture your heart. This is what Psalm 42
16:56 um says says David, why are you cast down,
17:02 oh my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again
17:07 praise him my salvation and my God. Why do we sing these songs? We sing these
17:12 songs when on Sunday because we encourage each other. So when your heart is telling you, "Oh, I'm so worried
17:17 about my exam. I'm so worried. I've got no job for 8 months. I'm unemployed. The economy is looking worse. The numbers
17:23 are no good this morning." And every time you switch on CNN or CNBC, it gets worse, not better. And you read this and
17:31 and and and David, what he does is that he lectures his heart. He tells his heart, "Why are you cast down? Why you
17:38 in turmoil? Hope in God. Hope in God. Hope in God." So you you give your heart a talking too and the peace of God takes
17:46 over. And then Paul says, "Not that I am speaking of being in need for I have
17:51 learned in whatever situation to be content." So if he's talking about peace, peace comes in a process with
17:58 actively mental where you actually lecture your heart. And number three, you actually have to learn to have the
18:06 peace of God to learn in whatever situation to be content. It's a process. When you're walking with God and and in
18:13 every day when you're facing the stress and difficulties of life, you learn to
18:18 cope. You learn to have God's peace rule your heart. Our second blessing is joy.
18:24 We rejoice in the hope of glory. Not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering. Some of your Bibles will talk
18:31 uh will translate this as we boast or we exalt. The word is a very funny word.
18:37 And so therefore, I'm going to go into a little bit about it. The the original word means you exalt, you boast. There's
18:46 a triumphant rejoicing confidence. And I very hard for me in English to describe
18:51 this. So I'll show you in pictures and I have got an advantage over Paul. I've got pictures. Kamay means this fellow.
18:59 Have you seen him on the couch of Oprah Winfrey? Anybody know why he was jumping on the
19:04 pouch? couch of Oprah Winfrey. He just met his new girlfriend, right? What was
19:11 her name? Sandy Holmes or somebody can't remember. Huh. Oh, okay. Katie Holmes. All right.
19:16 So, he met this girl and he's really besotted. He's totally enamored. And in
19:22 describing his love for this girl and he wasn't acting, you know, this wasn't Mission Impossible, you know, it's real.
19:28 And he was so full of love, so full of exalting uh uh uh confidence. is jumping
19:34 up and nobody ever jumps up on Oprah's pouch. They have to change it after that. Uh this is kami it this is how you
19:40 should feel uh when you actually have God's peace in you. Uh another one like
19:46 that Nadal I should put Serena Williams because she won yesterday right she would be doing that. So whenever you
19:53 think look at Serena or you look at Nadal is a triumphant boast it's full of
19:59 joy that's kcomami. All right, that's a picture is worth a thousand words, you know. So remember that. So we as
20:06 Christians ought to feel like that for two reasons. Now if you look at the reasons first, we rejoice in hope of the
20:15 the we we we rejoice in the hope of glory and not only that we rejoice in our suffering. It's a bit tough. What is
20:24 glory? Glory is the public display of the infinite worth and beauty of God. Uh
20:32 Bible talks about the glory of woman. What is the glory of woman? Her hair,
20:38 right? Some of you have very little hair. You Well, ladies, you're missing out. Bible
20:44 says it's your hair. Have you ever seen these shampoo ads when the girl will sauna down and she just swings and the
20:51 hair goes like a helicopter
20:56 and then the boy nearby gets a whiff of that and he he suddenly transfixs with the glory of the woman. He he rushes
21:03 across the road you know uh he avoids all these cars that zooming across. He grabs a rose and and on bended knee he
21:09 gives it to her. Right? That's a glory because the public display of the of the beauty of the woman is so great that you
21:16 actually prompts you to action, prompts you to to get attracted and to worship.
21:21 The same doesn't apply for men either.
21:26 So if you keep a ponytail,
21:33 not not use. Now, if you're talking about man's
21:39 glory, uh my son is uh my sons are obsessed with this. You know, they work out in the gym, you know, couple hours a
21:46 week just to see that you talk about the glory of man. Well, that's that's the glory of man, you know, uh our abs, our
21:53 muscles because it it it somehow shows our our worth as it were that the abs reflect our intrinsic worth. You know,
21:59 they don't. But all glory that we have is actually
22:06 I would describe what what was what's glory? Glory is a things that take your breath away. That's a modern
22:11 translation. Things that take your breath away. And everything that takes the breath away is actually a reflection of God's glory. If you think the man's
22:19 abs are great or the woman's hair is fantastic, where do you look at God? So
22:24 everything we actually have like when you look at the the sun, the moon, you
22:29 praise the sun. You don't praise the moon because this the the the beauty is reflected. You look at man or woman and
22:35 you just praise God because she's beautiful because he is beautiful. So So
22:40 we talk about the glory of man is actually uh uh the reflection of God and glory of man doesn't last long. You wait
22:47 long after a while your hair will wither and and your skin will wither isn't it?
22:52 So, so be very very careful or many of us look like that or we have a big tummy
22:58 like me and you know it doesn't last if you look for the glory of man. What we
23:04 should be looking for is a glory of God and actually we rejoice because we will have the glory of God. The glory of God
23:10 is like the Olympic medal. This is our national hero who won the silver medal
23:16 for bminton at the last Olympics. This is uh Dat Lee
23:21 and and and if you actually think about it, what is he holding up that makes it all worthwhile suffering for four whole
23:29 years? It's a piece of metal. It's not even completely gold or silver. It's just plated. You know, if you dig right
23:35 deep inside, you know, it's just plated, right? But why is he Why does that
23:40 change the the put the smile on his face? Put the a jump in his his walk.
23:46 Why does it change the color of his day? Because that piece of metal is a promise
23:52 of what future he will have. Because he's an Olympic champion. Wherever he goes, the shampoo people want to have
23:58 him act in their ad. The people who sell houses want him to sell houses. People want to sell cars want him sell cars
24:03 because he's assured of a future. Um, this is a procession over the streets of
24:09 London of the recent Olympics. all the champions to put on the on the cars and and the and the crowds were there. It
24:16 was great time of exaltation. They were the champions. They were the best the nation had. Then if you look at one of
24:23 the chariots or the cars, they had these people, a different bunch of heroes. They were
24:32 the parolympic heroes. They're not the same like the normal Olympics. They were
24:37 on wheelchairs. They were dwarves. They were disabled and yet they actually had
24:44 gold medals. You know, the second one applies to us. We're horrible sinners.
24:51 We're nothing in the face of God. We don't have that much glory. The glory that we have will fade. And yet God puts
25:00 within us a gold medal. Enough. a gold belt in the shape of the cross, in the
25:06 shape of the of of God's promises that tell us you hang on to this gospel and
25:11 one day you will receive and be part of my glory. Our future glorification is is
25:18 an extension of the expression of God's glory one day. Not that we deserve it.
25:24 We're like the parolympic guys. We're not exactly the fastest people on earth.
25:29 We don't deserve it, but God gives it to us. That's why we're so excited.
25:35 The second thing of which we are excited is a bit more difficult now this morning. Pay a bit more attention. Not
25:41 only that, we rejoice in our suffering. Now, that's the difficult part. So, I can understand you're jumping up a dial
25:46 because one day you look better than Katie Holmes, but how are you going to rejoice triumphantly when we actually
25:54 suffer? This is very, very difficult. First thing when you get to suffering is
26:01 why all of us are trying to avoid and when we get suffering why you know I have
26:08 just joined the alpha class I came to know Christ why you know um our response
26:14 to suffering is usually twofold one is grin and bear it and two uh if you're a
26:22 massochist I love it give me more suffering you know uh there are two ways Now in western society you're you're
26:29 more affected by stoicism which is a Greek philosophy. You're supposed to
26:34 rejoice in spite of our suffering. This is uh Epictitus who is Greek. He says
26:42 man is affected not by the events but the view he takes of them. So it doesn't
26:48 matter if they burn down your house. If you just change your attitude it's okay. It's cool. It burned down my house. I
26:53 got another house. That's right. Um, so you've got icons
26:58 like this in western culture. For example, my hero was uh John Wayne. Some
27:04 of you grew up in the Star Trek generation and you know Mr. Spock has got no emotions. Are you burning? It's
27:11 all right. It's cool. There's the only recent one was if you
27:16 watch uh Star Trek 9, I think the recent one, he actually sheds a tear. I've never seen a Vulcan shed a tear. We're
27:23 not supposed to because they they they they have this stoism uh philosophy. Um
27:28 you if you are crying your father will come up and say man up. A man doesn't
27:35 cry. Is that right? I was brought up a man doesn't cry. So no matter what you
27:40 don't cry and to your wife skulls you you're like a cold fish. You know you got no emotions at all. Uh so if you're
27:46 a Christian you don't cry, you don't moan. You don't show your your vulnerability. You harden your heart.
27:53 You deaden your feelings. Is that the Christian stand? Is that the Christian stand? Or perhaps, well, they stole they
28:00 they robbed me in my house, but at least they didn't hurt me. They robbed my car, but they didn't take my safe. They took
28:06 my safe, but they didn't take my life. You find a silver lining. Is that the Christian response? Um, and it's so
28:13 different from other cultures. If you look, I was a intern in in in Prince
28:19 Henry Hospital in Sydney many many years ago and we're having a bit of conversation. And you know my Australian
28:24 colleagues brought up western culture all of the stoic philosophy and then
28:29 they describe treating a Lebanese patient and then what happens Lebanese patient they have all this uh uh uh
28:35 Lebanese the relatives were in the room on the first floor well the ground floor
28:40 and and the doctor came in and just said look um your mom's got cancer
28:46 immediately the whole room erupted in screams and wailings and people jumping one fell jumped out the window. He
28:53 actually jumped out the window by his first floor. All right. The ground floor. But and then they
28:59 started to say, "Wow, you know, why do people react like that?" Because in Lebanese culture, you know, in Arabic
29:04 culture, they actually tear their clothes, they tear their hair, they jump. It's their response. But that
29:10 response to to to to to bad news or to anguish is not necessarily a wrong one. It's the
29:17 western response who says, "No, we tell you your mom's going to die. Okay, suck it up. suck it up. It's okay. She's
29:22 going to die. She's going to die anyway. That's not the right response either. I don't think either response is correct.
29:28 If you look at the Bible, Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus openly wept.
29:38 How many of us who are pastors or leaders go to a uh tomb or a wake and
29:44 cry? When we go there, we suck it up. We suck it up. We can't cry. We didn't the
29:50 feeling. We don't have to show. If we show the feeling means we're less than men. Is that a biblical approach? Jesus
29:56 wept because he loved Lazarus. He saw the enormity of death and pain and
30:02 suffering. Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. Every time he go, he
30:07 condemned them, but he cried. Uh you look at Job. Job suffered so much. He ripped his clothes. He screamed in
30:13 anguish. But he didn't sin. So emotionalism is not necessarily
30:20 wrong. The Bible describes it. You don't have to suck it up. The other one is the massochist. Uh you rejoice in your
30:27 suffering. You you get the whip and you whip yourself. Oh, more pain. Great. I love this. You know, and and and and
30:34 some have you ever when I was young and I was um one one of the my older mentors
30:39 in in scripture, you really scared me. He says, "Oh, you know, uh, you only
30:45 grow through trials." So when you sit down and you pray, you ask for God for more trials.
30:51 How how many of you have had Christians teachers teach you that? That's the stupidest thing you ever heard in your
30:57 life. All right. I feel like throttling him now. Uh, yes, you grow through trials, but you
31:03 never ask for those trials. You never ask for the suffering. You only if you do ask for it, you are a massochist.
31:10 This is Elizabeth Worel who wrote a very powerful novel called the uh the the
31:15 Prozac nation. How the whole nation is depressed and she was depressed and look at her how she writes in a strange way.
31:20 I had fallen in love with my depression. Dr. Sterling was right about that. I loved it because I thought it was all I
31:27 had. I thought depression was part of my character that made me worthwhile. I thought so little of myself and felt
31:33 that I that I had such scant offerings to give the world that the one thing that justified my existence was my
31:39 agony. Isn't that sad that you you find some purpose to your to to to all I want
31:46 in life is for this pain to seem purposeful. She embraces her pain and it's good. Uh that's not how the Bible
31:55 views suffering. Now you want to look at the biblical view. The biblical view is rejoicing in our suffering.
32:03 Right? So that we've got two processes happening at the same time. You've got
32:08 suffering and the pain is real as the nails that d were driven into the palms
32:13 of of Jesus. That's one. You scream when Jesus on the cross. He screamed. He
32:19 actually screamed. U but on the other hand at the same time there is a
32:24 rejoicing. Blessed for you who weep now for you shall laugh. So there there is a
32:30 rejoicing based on an anticipated outcome.
32:35 It's like watching a um movie when you
32:41 know the end. How many of you watch revenge? Oh, a few. Or or any series. And if you
32:48 know the end, it's quite cool when you watch it because you already know the end. All right. So and and here we are
32:54 able to rejoice because you anticipate the future. Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh. So therefore whilst
33:02 you're going through the suffering there's an anticipated outcome. In so far as you share Christ's suffering you
33:08 may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. So this is anticipating the future and the fact
33:14 that you suffer. You are just like Jesus. You are suffering for your faith.
33:19 And the secret of our joy is not only that but we rejoice in our suffering knowing that suffering produces
33:26 endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. So what happens
33:32 here is that suffering demonstrates to us tangible evidence of our
33:38 faith. It if you endure suffering, it tells you that your faith is real. If
33:45 you're never tested, you will never know that your faith is real. So not only that, it strengthens your faith. This is
33:52 I I I um before we go to this, I actually uh uh um operate in quite a
33:60 number of elderly men and we do a particular prostate surgery where we
34:05 stick something into the very delicate part of his anatomy and we, you know, we laser out his prostate gland and we sit
34:12 him down for a uh consultation and get a consent. And the first thing you tell
34:18 him, you have to tell him all the perils and all the dangers and all the suffering he'll be going through if he
34:23 were to consent to this operation. The first thing you tell him, look, uh um unfortunately after the operation, you
34:29 will never ever ever have children anymore.
34:35 And then he starts laughing. Well, well, it's if you don't have
34:40 children, it's suffering. But not if you're 95 or not if you're 85 or all my guys uh are above the age of 50. So if
34:48 you take something away which a person has no hold on, has no hope on doesn't rest on, it's not suffering, is it
34:56 right? If I tell tell Pandora, I'm going to take away your house that you don't have,
35:02 it's not going to bother you. All right? So what happens in life? What is suffering? Suffering is when you remove
35:08 things in your life that you depend upon. And if you are actually very very
35:14 honest in your heart there will be many hopes which you've put your hopes on.
35:19 And if I remove them one by one it will bring a great deal of suffering. And if you look at this slide, many things that
35:27 we hope on are our spouse, our children, our friends, our house, our wealth,
35:34 helping people, our relatives, car, status, comfort, Jesus. If you're a Christian, right? What happens when you
35:41 have suffering? I remove the hope. I take away the friends. I take away the wealth. If I take the pay the wealth,
35:48 the power is gone and the friends are gone. You don't have many circles left, right?
35:56 What if I took the house, the car, and the status away. You got even less, more suffering. What
36:03 if I took your health and your relatives and your comfort because because now you you come out with a skin disease. Your
36:08 relatives don't want to be around you, right? And you only got left a couple of more things. What does this do? What
36:16 suffering does is that gradually remove all the props in your life from which you place your weight. So that your
36:23 weight is only distributed on the few that really matter and the most important prop that matters is Jesus.
36:31 That's why when Job was tortured by the devil, what the devil did was to take away all
36:38 the props, took away family, the wealth, everything else, even the spouse and the children. And what was left? Only one
36:46 prop, isn't it? Jesus Christ. So what does suffering do to us?
36:52 Suffering causes us to stay off the bad leg and put the leg on the good good the
36:59 put the weight on the good leg so that your strength your faith in Jesus Christ
37:04 is accentuated. That's why Peter describes suffering as
37:10 smelting of gold of he metal. When you've got impurities in your life,
37:16 you've got emotionalism, self-interest, wealth, success, all these other things that they're embedded in you. Only but
37:23 when you go through the furnace, the slag, the dross comes out. All the horrible unimportant stuff comes out and
37:30 that's skimmed away and the solid metal is there. So what suffering does is that
37:36 when you go through suffering, it actually purifies. It actually strengthens your faith. It puts your
37:43 strength more your weight more on Jesus Christ. This is Nick Vichek. Now you you
37:50 can't have somebody who has had more circles removed from his life. He's born
37:55 without an arm, two arms, and without two legs.
38:00 And and and he's got nothing in his life. And he described a situation in his life where at 10 years old, he threw
38:08 himself in a bathtub full of water and kept his head under
38:13 water for as long as possible because he wanted to kill himself. What good is a boy with no arms, no legs, no future.
38:21 And he had perfect opportunity. If you look at Joiner's theory for suicide, you got three uh uh circles. He had the
38:29 ability to kill himself. He felt burdensome and the last thing is whether he was alone. He didn't have the last
38:34 circle because his father rescued him. His father told him that no matter what
38:40 we love you, Jesus loves you. And so this boy went on
38:46 uh became a Christian. His faith was fully rested. He didn't have any legs,
38:53 but his faith rested on Jesus Christ alone. And and you know many of you here
38:58 have two arms and two legs. Anybody who doesn't have or missing one, this guy
39:04 has all four limbs gone. And you know what he did? In 2008, he preached to
39:09 350,000 people in India with 80,000 decisions for Christ. How many of you
39:15 have ever done that with arms, legs, abs, hair?
39:23 We're more endowed than him. But he has learned to step stand on the one good
39:28 leg which is his Jesus Christ. How many of you girls here would you like to
39:34 marry him? No way. Right? He got married recently.
39:41 Very beautiful young lady. Very beautiful young lady. This is the blessing of the Lord. I'm not saying if
39:47 you become a Christian you marry a beautiful young lady.
39:53 But it's an illustration that what is important is actually your
39:59 faith standing and despite all the suffering if he knew
40:04 this end. Imagine if Nick Vichek at the age of 10 just before he he dipped his
40:11 face into the bathtub if God had a crystal ball and showed him what his life would be. You think he'd be trying
40:17 to kill himself? He wouldn't. But if God did that, you
40:23 wouldn't have faith, right? Your faith wouldn't have grown. And so therefore, the future must remain unknown. And when
40:29 we exercise our faith, we exercise the belief that in our suffering, when
40:35 you're having no arms and no legs, you can still rejoice because God is going
40:41 to use you very, very powerfully. and that the suffering that you go through,
40:46 even though you go through the suffering this day, you will anticipate a great end. Many of us this morning
40:54 are better off than Nick. We have our two arms and two legs, but inside we may
41:01 be hurting. We're going through a trial where some of those things have been removed from our lives. It could be a job. It could be a loved one. It could
41:07 be health. But you must understand that there's nothing that comes to you that is not in
41:15 God's perfect will. Um if you look at Shadrach, Mach, and
41:22 Ebeneg, these were three Jews in the book of Daniel. They were thrown into the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar.
41:29 And do you know in the furnace they found there were not three people there were four.
41:36 Why? The fourth person is Jesus Christ. That in your trial this morning not only
41:42 you're going through a difficulty of having your hopes removed but Jesus is there with you. The other thing about
41:48 suffering is that suffering increases uh the gospel increases our capacity for sadness. Uh we are now a people not with
41:56 hearts of stones. So, if you are a Christian today, you ought to be afraid of crying.
42:03 Even you're a man, you don't have to be afraid of showing your emotions. I'm not asking you to jump out the first floor window when you get bad news, but it's
42:10 okay to cry and be vulnerable because we can actually rejoice and exalt in our
42:17 suffering. We may be suffering now, but we actually have a hope. The fact that you cry or you wail, you scream, doesn't
42:24 mean you have no hope. It's an expression of your emotion. And we as Christians are the ones with the
42:31 hope. We are the ones who understand that we have Jesus. We are the ones who have the greatest capacity for pain.
42:38 That's why when we suffer, we increase our own capacity to embrace others who
42:44 are similarly suffering. And they will in the world doesn't understand evil.
42:50 The world doesn't understand pain and suffering. The first question the world will ask is why? But we and Christians
42:56 understand what the eternal realities are and we're able to help. So true faith is indestructible. We're afflicted
43:03 in every way but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not
43:10 destroyed. Did you know that we're indestructible? True faith is absolutely
43:16 indestructible. The more you you heap on the heat, the purer it becomes, the
43:23 greater it becomes. So remember that when you're going through trials this morning, that it is a time where God is
43:31 refining you. It is a time where God is showing you wonderful things that will happen in the future. So rejoice.
43:38 The third and last blessing before we end this morning is that it is God's love.
43:43 Uh because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us. For while we were weak, still weak, at the right
43:51 time, Christ died for the ungodly. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are
43:58 here because God's love has been poured out. The tense in this uh verse is uh
44:05 indicates is a past event. There was an event in history and when Jesus Christ out on the cross when God's love was
44:12 poured out. The word poured out is is is not just given you one tablet at a time. You know, it's absolutely poured out.
44:20 So, it's full. It's overrunning. God's love is described as as overflowing love
44:25 that's poured into your heart until it it comes right out and it spreads all over the place. While we were yet
44:32 sinners, we the Christ died for the ungodly. So therefore, we have been
44:38 justified by his blood. Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For while we were sinners, we were
44:43 reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more now that we're reconciled, shall we be saved by his
44:48 life. And Paul is just saying, how many of you here, if you were to approach
44:54 your father-in-law tomorrow and ask him to borrow to ask him to give you his
44:60 car, how many of you think, how many of you have fathers-in-law? Put your hands up.
45:05 Father-in-laws put your hands up now. Nobody. Okay. How many of your father-in-law will give you this car?
45:12 Put your hands up if you ask nicely. Put your hands up. Only s. Oh, only the one,
45:20 two. So few. Very stingy. Father-in-law. Why do you think Yan if you ask your
45:27 father-in-law for the car that he would give you?
45:33 Yeah. Well, if you were a girl, if you were a man, you asked your father-in-law
45:40 for the car, he'd surely give you know why he gave you his daughter. He gave you his daughter, the most
45:46 precious person in his family. Especially one daughter, you not think he's going to give you his car? Yeah.
45:53 And the house if you wanted to as well. And this is what Jesus did. He g God gave us his son. And now you're worried.
46:02 Oh, God, can you give me a job? And you're worried and you're depressed
46:07 and you're downtrodden. Isn't that ridiculous? The God who gave us his son
46:13 and you're also worried about everything else. If he's given you his son, he's given you everything else. Let me close
46:20 with this story. Harold Abrahams immortalized
46:27 in a wonderful movie called The Chariots of Fire. A true story about a Scottish missionary called Eric Little who
46:34 astounded the world when he wouldn't run on a Sunday because he wanted to keep a Sabbath day. He competed against people
46:41 like Harold Abrahams. Helper Abram Harold Abrahams was didn't know Jesus.
46:47 And this is how he feels. In one hour's time, I'll be out there again. I will raise my eyes and look down from that
46:54 corridor 4T wide, 10 lonely seconds to justify my existence. But will I? I'm
47:01 24. I've never known it. I'm forever in pursuit. I don't even know what I'm
47:06 chasing. Here's a man without God, without peace, without the love,
47:12 and in pain because he doesn't know whether he'll justify his existence. So he gets on the starting block and he
47:19 runs and his face is down and towards the finishing line and he's just running
47:24 and running and using all the resources, all the training, all the planning that
47:29 he has put into his life and he's running for his dear life because that four 10 lonely seconds will determine
47:37 what his life is worth. on the other hand was Eric Little and Eric Little's
47:42 sister gave an interview some years ago and people ask her you know why is it
47:48 that your father your brother when he runs it's a very funny way running everybody runs like this he runs with
47:53 his head up and he's and his hands are shaking you know uh and he's got a very unique
48:00 style and say and the sister say you know in the movie he never came out when he's doing that you know what he's
48:06 worshiping he's worshiping That's why he's up there. Hallelujah. He's running.
48:13 And it makes sense, isn't it? The other guy's life depends on his own efforts.
48:18 And he's got all this existential worry and pain and anxiety. Doesn't know whether he's worth all this. And here's
48:26 Eric Little. He's already won. He's already won. The peace through the love
48:31 of Jesus Christ is whatever suffering he goes through, he knows it's going to be great in the end. He's got the love of
48:37 God poured into his heart. So what is he running for? He's running because he's worshiping God. He's having a great
48:43 time. You know, brothers and sisters in Christ this morning. We're all running.
48:52 We're all running. We we can either run it like Harold Abrahams back to our
48:57 default mode as if we were non-Christians and all the life our money that we earn
49:03 our family all depends on us and the burden is too great and and and too terrible or we could run the race of
49:11 life like Eric Little when we know that our eternal security
49:17 is there and when we run we just feel his pleasure.
49:22 Because we know Eric Little said, "When I run, I feel his pleasure." Why? Because he made me to be fast.
49:30 And when you're doing what God has created you to do, you feel his pleasure and you just
49:36 worship him. And that's how life has to be lived. And if you live life like
49:41 that, the peace of God, the joy of God and the love of God will come forth in
49:48 your life. And people around you will see that funny stance that you do and
49:53 they'll ask you why. And you'll tell them because I know the love of Jesus. You know, some of you here this morning
49:60 do not know Jesus yet. This morning, I want to challenge you.
50:06 Why would you not want to have peace with God? Why would you
50:13 not want to switch off your lights when you go to sleep, secure in the knowledge
50:18 that no matter what happens tomorrow? Jesus is on your side. He's rooting for
50:26 you, going to make a difference in your life. And he wants and Jesus is standing there and he's got his love and he's
50:33 going to pour his love into your life. God is telling you this morning, all you
50:38 have to do is to take my son Jesus into your life. That's all it takes. Very,
50:46 very simple. And you will experience, you'll go back to Eden. You don't have to build plastic bubbles that don't
50:52 work. You don't have to. God is wanting to bring you back into his fellowship
50:58 this morning. And if you are a Christian, do you have God's peace?
51:05 God's joy and God's love. Do you feel it? Maybe it's because you haven't
51:11 focused. You haven't had a talking to, you haven't lectured your soul. You haven't
51:17 gone back to put your one leg, the one good leg on Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
51:29 Some of you who don't know our Lord Jesus Christ yet,
51:34 let me challenge you this morning that God's spirit is here in our midst.
51:44 He wants to bring you home. There's no need to stand alone.
51:50 There's no need to be alienated. You know Jesus is going to be closer to you than your mother, than your father,
51:59 than your brother. When times are are bad, he'll be the
52:04 only one at your corner. This is what Jesus is. And this morning,
52:10 this Jesus is asking you, come to me. Come to me so that I could fill your
52:17 life with my love. And the cross of Jesus Christ shows us that he loves us.
52:23 And there's no sin that's too great, no pain that's too deep, no distance that's
52:30 too far for our God to cover through the love of Jesus Christ.
52:36 And if you'd like to give your life to Jesus and turn away from the life of sin, just quietly with your heads bowed
52:42 and no one's looking, just slip up your hands um just between you and God.
52:48 Has anybody just take this time to just meditate
52:55 or come and speak to me after the sermon? And for the rest of us, Lord, this morning, we're going to pray.
53:03 Father, Lord, we we are your children. Therefore,
53:08 being justified, therefore, being set right by the love of Christ,
53:16 we have peace with you, Lord. We praise you for this peace.
53:21 We're so grateful for this love. And we rejoice that we as your people are
53:26 indestructible. That no matter what trials come upon our lives, we will
53:33 share in your glory. We will be with you. We will overcome.
53:39 We praise you for Jesus' sake. Amen.
