Coming to Terms with Suffering

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Transcript:

I’ve wondered for days what I was going to say to you this morning. Still not entirely sure. And my wife encouraged me to take the day off today.

But I told her as hard as it would be to be here, the only thing harder would be not being here. And I guess I want to start out by thanking you all for your prayers and your calls and your texts and everything else. it’s been an encouragement to know that there were so many people lifting us up in prayer.

Wednesday was a long, hard day. Tuesday, Charla had been in the city helping her mother with a project, cooking a dinner for prayer and financial supporters in the city for her brother, who’s a missionary in Hawaii. and I encouraged her to stay the night there knowing she’d get back late.

And I got a call about 3 o’clock Wednesday morning saying she was bleeding. I had been graphic and telling me what all happened, but telling me she was bleeding. That’s nothing new that’s been going on through the whole pregnancy.

She said there’s a lot and she sounded scared. I said, well, get your mom up. have her drive you, I’ll meet you in Ada.

I called my mom and woke her up, had to wait until she could get to Seminole to stay with the kids, and we met up there about the same time, about 4. 30 in Ada. They did a little ultrasound thing, his heartbeat was great.

They waited until 7 o’clock, when ultrasound got there, got a big ultrasound, baby was moving around, heartbeat sounded good and all that, they were still worried about some of the blood clots, and so they waited until her normal doctor got in, And then Adrian came to see her and said, you know, the baby looks good. One of two things will happen with these blood clots. Either they’ll stabilize and go away or it’ll cause a miscarriage.

And he said we should know within 24 to 48 hours which direction it’s going to go. After that, she started having some, I don’t know, just right after he left the room, started talking to the nurses and said she’s having some severe stomach cramps. They just thought she needed to use the restroom, and so she went in there.

And a couple hours later, sometime between 12 and noon, another doctor came in to examine her with an ultrasound machine and everything else that they do could not find the baby anywhere. And we realized then at that time that she had miscarried sometime between 9 and 10 o’clock, and we hadn’t even known about it. Which in all honesty probably made it easier that if she was going to miscarry, at least it happened quickly, we weren’t aware of it.

She didn’t have to suffer through all that. The bleeding slowed way down where they were able to send her home. It was very scary early in the morning.

When I first got there, they were already talking about it. If it didn’t slow down, it was so significant that they were talking transfusion and they had gone down to visit the blood bank. and just thankful to God that it didn’t progress to that point.

She’s doing better physically. She’s not here this morning though. She may be back next week.

She’s just not ready to see people, not ready to answer questions and I know you are understanding of that. But I appreciate your prayers. I appreciate your grace and your compassion toward us.

Just didn’t expect this to happen. And I’ve been thinking a lot the last few days about many of the hard times that I’ve been through in life. And I know many others have had it worse.

But a lot of times we think, oh, the man who stands in the pulpit, his life is all together. Everything just comes up roses for him. And I know that’s what I thought.

The way my life has turned out is not the way I pictured it. I had this picture in mind of how life was going to be, and I was going to pastor a church and take care of my people, had the perfect little family, lots of kids, white picket fence, and everybody lives happily ever after. And it just hadn’t turned out that way.

And I think back over the last 10 years or so, some of the things that I’ve struggled through. And many of you all know some of these stories, but the first church I pastored, I was associate pastor there for several years, And about nine months after they called me to be their pastor, they got together in a secret business meeting and decided to let me go because they wanted fire and brimstone. And that’s, I don’t know, I probably wouldn’t yell if I was on fire.

So that happened. There was a miscarriage years ago. A stillbirth years ago.

And a house flood. A couple tornadoes. Both of my kids that y’all have seen now were born preemies.

So early they had to stay in the hospital. Faced an unfaithful spouse who left their own kids. More tornadoes. Job layoffs as schools kept closing where I was working.

And I’ve never been angry at God. I’ve never been angry with him, but there have been times I’ve wondered why. there have been times I’ve wondered why does this keep happening to me and I tell you all this this morning not because I want to ride along and tell you my whole life story I’ll read the book about it if you’re that interested you could get it for two dollars and save yourself some time it’s not so I can tell you my whole life story it’s because I know we live in a world where there’s pain and sadness all around us and even when things are going great.

In a moment, we can get a phone call that changes everything. And some of you may be facing some of these same circumstances. Some of you may be this morning in a position in a place in your life where you find yourself thinking, why?

Why is this happening to me? Or I don’t know how I get through this. I don’t know how I get through the next hour, let alone the next couple weeks.

And what I can tell you is that what I have learned over the years through the things that have happened to me, is that the circumstances we suffer through are not necessarily an indicator of where we stand with God. Let me explain to you what I mean by that. The Bible says that he causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And I haven’t quite decided whether the rain there in that passage is a good thing or a bad thing.

Rain can be either way, can’t it? When our land is dry and our crops are dying, rain is a good thing. Sometimes the blessings fall on the just and on the unjust. And then there are some days where you’re just so saturated with rain you can’t bear the sight of another dark cloud.

And in those days, rain is suffering. And suffering comes to the just and the unjust. I’ve learned in my experience that you can be disobeying God, and sometimes suffering happens as a way for God to kind of knock you upside the head and get your attention, as any loving parent would do to a child who’s about to hurt himself. And other times, suffering can happen just because we live in a sinful, fallen world.

It doesn’t mean God’s punishing us. It doesn’t mean God caused it. Now, anything that happens, God allowed to happen.

It may not be a punishment. It may not be because we’re in disobedience. Sometimes we can be right exactly where God wants us to be and still suffer for it.

We see example after example from the Bible of people who were right exactly where God told them to be and they suffered for it. Elijah, who we’ve been talking about on Sunday mornings. The Apostle Paul was beheaded doing what God told him to do.

Peter was crucified doing what God told him to do. So we can suffer even when we’re doing right, and we can suffer when we’re doing wrong. Folks, it’s not that the test of our faithfulness or the test of our standing with God is not in whether or not we suffer.

The test of our standing and our faithfulness to God is how we respond to that suffering. When we get angry with God, we can throw a temper tantrum that sometimes we’re tempted to do, or we can look to Him to walk through it with us. And we can say, as Job said, that the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. I posted that verse on Facebook with the initial prayer request after we found out about the miscarriage. And a well-meaning friend of mine pointed out, and by the way, when somebody is suffering through a serious loss like that, it’s not really the time for theological education.

But pointed out to me, a very well-meaning friend, said, you know, Job was wrong. Not that the Bible was wrong. The Bible accurately reported what Job said, but he said Job was wrong.

He said God took away, and really it was Satan. He didn’t understand that and went into this long discourse, and I thought, I was really more beginning at Job’s attitude. God allowed Job’s family and possessions to be taken away.

It didn’t mean God took it away. So Job might have been confused, but the reason for me posting that was more than I liked Job’s attitude. Which is that whether we suffer in this life or whether we prosper, we’re going to praise God.

That’s a decision I made a long time ago. that whether I suffer or whether I prosper, I’m going to praise God. Because when you get right down to it, ladies and gentlemen, we don’t deserve anything from God.

I really like to think, well, a loving God wouldn’t do this, He wouldn’t do that. Because we’ve all sinned against God. We’ve all disobeyed Him in some way.

We’re born sinners, and we don’t know it any better. We just, it’s our nature. We can’t help ourselves.

Why does a dog bark? It’s in His nature. Why does a cow move?

It’s in his nature. Why does a sinner sin? It’s in our nature.

We’ve all sinned against God. We’ve all broken his laws. We’ve all defied him and rebelled against him.

And so the only thing that we deserve from God is death and separation from human hell. And yet God is gracious enough to give us the gift not only of life here on earth. I don’t deserve this heartbeat that just took place.

I don’t deserve the breath that I just drew. I don’t deserve the strength to stand on two legs before you. I don’t deserve any of it, but God’s been good enough and gracious enough to give it to me.

And beyond that, beyond the blessings of life, he gives us the hope of eternal life. Again, we deserve nothing but death and hell and separation from God. And if God had said, enjoy your sin and enjoy your time in hell, because I’m done with you, he would have been absolutely right to do that.

and yet God looked on us and not because we were good or wonderful or lovely or lovable God looked on us just because he was loving he loved us enough to send his son Jesus Christ to shed his blood and die on the cross as the payment for our sins when he did that he paid for every sin that you and I ever committed the penalty that I owed or every lie I’ve ever told every angry thought I’ve ever had everything else I’ve ever done or father said Jesus Christ shed his blood and died to pay for that and he did the same thing for you and now God offers us a blessing amazingly beyond what we can ever ask or deserve he offers us forgiveness he offers us a relationship with him and he offers us eternal life with him in heaven not because I’ve been good enough I’ve done enough good things in my life I can never do enough good to change the fact that I’ve done wrong but because Jesus Christ took each of those sins that we’ve committed took responsibility for him and paid for him and now God offers this salvation is a free gift.

We just believe that He’s done everything necessary for it. And we’re willing to take hold of it. We’re willing to believe that and ask God’s forgiveness.

It really is as simple as that. There’s no amount of good that you can do. The church won’t get you to heaven, sorry to say.

Giving money to the church, giving money to charity, giving money, it won’t get you to heaven.

being a nice person following the law obeying the statement that these things won’t get you to heaven but if you believe that Jesus Christ died to pay for every one of your sins the Bible says it’s by his grace by his kindness that we’re saved through faith through believing in what he did through believing in his sacrifice and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 there’s no amount of good we can do it’s all because of what he’s done we don’t deserve that from God we don’t deserve that offer we don’t offer that forgiveness we don’t deserve that forgiveness but he offers it freely because he’s good and because he’s loving and I know the world likes to look at God and say he’s got these rules and he’s got those rules and he’s so harsh he stands for this and he stands against this, and God just doesn’t understand.

I don’t care what they say about God. When I look at God and see what I deserve, when I look at God and see the suffering I deserve, and I contrast that with what minute I have had to suffer, and with the abundance of blessings that he’s given me that I don’t deserve, And most of all, look at the blessing that he gives us of eternal life in Jesus Christ. How could I look at a God like that and not praise him in the good times and in the bad times? How could we look at a God who loves us like that?

How could we look at a God who is willing to sacrifice his own son for a bunch of rebellious, ungrateful sinners? and not be amazed by the love and the grace that he shows. How could we look at a God like that and not say, whether he gives or takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

I’ve got a whole page here of notes. I worked on yesterday and Friday on this series on Elijah. We’re not going to get to him this morning.

I’m going to leave you first of all with a very simple invitation to leave stock of your own life look at all the wrong you’ve done and I’m not saying I’m going to do that don’t look at your neighbor and say what have they done wrong look at your own life and see what wrong you’ve done and see what it is you really deserve from God. As I assure you, it’s not pretty. What I deserve from God is not pretty.

And when you look at the offer, He makes you a forgiveness. Take all that wrong and all that sin and forgive it in Jesus Christ. And if you have never trusted Jesus Christ before as your Savior, it is as simple as understanding that you’ve sinned and need a Savior. Realizing He’s the only one who can do it.

Realize that he paid for all your sins in full and now offers you eternal life in heaven. And then ask God to forgive you because of what Jesus Christ did. Ask him to save you because of what Jesus Christ did.

And we have the promise from his word that he’ll do just that. And this morning, if you are a believer, then I want you to I want you to consider what I’ve said. But it’s not.

We look through these stories all throughout the scriptures. And I wish I had time to. Look them up and take you there.

But I’ve mentioned a few of them. Elijah, Paul, Peter. We look at some others who suffered.

Because they were doing exactly what God called them to do. And realize that. It’s not suffering.

that it’s not the suffering that you may be going through or maybe have just gone through or just about to go through that proves whether you’re faithful to God or unfaithful. It’s the response to it. Just because I suffer doesn’t mean God’s mad at me.

But my relationship with God, your relationship with God is demonstrated by the way you respond to the suffering you face. You see, in Job chapter 1, talked about Job’s response and said, in all this, Job sinned not. It doesn’t mean that Job was sinless or that he was perfect, but in his response to the suffering that he endured, in that response, he was right with God.

In that response, he was correct because he looked at it and said, whether he gives or whether he takes away, whether I prosper or whether I suffer, I will praise God. And so if nothing else this morning, if you’re a believer and you’re going through a trial or you’re just about to, and I want my words, if you’re a believer, you’re either going through a trial or you’ll have just been through a trial or you’re about to go through one. And I want to encourage you not to focus on the circumstances you’re in, not to focus on the size of a storm, Let’s focus on the goodness and the faithfulness of God.

I’ve said many times that the storms in life are like standing in the eye of a hurricane, which thankfully I’ve not had the opportunity to do. But you see video, sometimes they’ll have newscasters go down to the coast and they’re crazy enough to go outside and they’re little reindeer like that’s going to do anything. In the middle of the hurricane and they take video and you look around you for miles and all you can see is this big dark cloud here in the center of the hurricane.

And when you’re in the center of it and all the clouds are around you, it looks like the whole world is a hurricane. The whole world is a storm. When in reality you can drive 50, 100 miles, you can drive to Oklahoma, and that hurricane’s not even a factor.

Sometimes the storms and the suffering of life look so massive because we’re in the middle of it and that’s all we can see. When you’re in the eye of the hurricane, you don’t look around at the clouds around you, you look up. So I want to encourage you as believers, if you’re in the middle of suffering, if you’re in the middle of hard circumstances or you’re about to be, don’t look at your suffering and your circumstances and allow them to cause you to despair, to make you angry, to make you doubt God, to make you run from Him.

Instead, look at the goodness and the kindness of the God we serve. Trust him. And lean on him.

He will carry you through whatever it is you face. We have a promise from his word in Philippians chapter 4 that says, My God shall supply all your needs through his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. It’s not a promise that you’ll give us everything we want.

It’s not a promise that everything will always feel nice and the sun will always be shining. but it’s a promise that God will always take care of the needs of His people, and God knows better what those needs are than we do.