The Village Church
Suffering - Audio
And so as we come to your word, we preach word, I pray that you would do this, that your Holy Spirit would shape us into Christ. Ode us more into the image of Christ. Hold us. Hold us. That your word is powerful, is more than just a book, for Lord it is life, for those who know Him, is food to us, Father, spiritually. So Holy Spirit, make Christ known, make His name great during this time, Christ in my prayer. Amen. I figured I'd take a break from talking about relationships. I figured I hadn't had enough of that. Well, I like reading poetry. And so, especially old poetry, and here's a line for one of my favorite poems. It says, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that made all the difference. I took the road less traveled by, and that made all the difference." See, there's a road in life that none of us like to travel, but we all do, because you can't avoid this road, you can't avoid this reality. What is it? Do you know? Some of you are traveling this road now. Some of you have traveled it in the past. It's a road marked with trials, hardships, pain, brokenness. It's the road of suffering. And suffering, for all people, is unavoidable. But man, I wish I could avoid it. I wish I didn't have to go through it. I wish I didn't have to travel this road. I would love to travel the easiest and safest road possible. To go through life without going through any bumps, driving over any potholes, I wish I could just have a nice clean road throughout life, where everything was safe, and everything was easy. You see, all of us here, in different moments in our lives, you would travel this road of suffering. I don't care what you do. I don't care what kind of GPS system you have. You cannot avoid it. You cannot take a detour. We all travel it. But what do you do when you feel like the world is crashing in on you? What do you do when you feel like you're hanging on just about thread? What do you do? Where do you go? How do you cope? You see, our pain in suffering can be so great, so painful. And all you can say is why God? Why God? Why God? If you're good, why? Why? What difference does it make in my life that I have to suffer? What good can I get out of it? I've asked myself those questions many times. I've been a Christian for over ten years. I'm still a baby in the faith. But I ask those questions many times. All of us have had dark nights of the soul. All of us have. And we ask God to do hard questions. Why God? This morning James is going to help us answer that question. He does this by shepherding us to a better understanding of our suffering. He shows us what difference it makes in our life. And if you have your bowels, open them to James 1. We're going to get the first verse 2 through 4. James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your fate produces steadfastness. And that steadfastness have its fully faked, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." So according to James, we should expect to suffer. We should. I'm sure a lot of you today are going to celebrate Valentine's Day with your special someone. And if life, if life was a person, let's just say life was a man. Life would have two lovers. He would buy two gifts, two sets of flowers for Valentine's Day. If life was a person, he would have two lovers. What do you mean by that, Alex? Life shows us two faces. Those good times, when life is good, or we have so much fun, but the other lovers suffering, when times are hard, when times are bad. The two lovers of life, pain and good times, you can't get one without the other. You have to accept it. That's just life. If you are a Christian, or if you're not a Christian, you go in and out of good times and bad times, all the days of our life. And it's almost like you are in a game of tug of war, you are the rope, being pulled back and forth. That's how it feels. You've been pulled over here. You've been pulled over there. That's how I felt. And James understands this. He says, "When you meet trials of various kinds, he knows that you cannot live life without suffering. Live life long enough, you will." First Peter says, "We shouldn't be surprised by it. We shouldn't be surprised that we struggle. We should expect to." In these trials, there are various kinds of trials. It could be losing your job. It could be medical problems, financial problems. You could be a victim of some kind of abuse or crime. Various kinds of trials, various kinds of ways in which you suffer, losing a loved one, having a loved one go through difficult times. You see, we, big and small sufferings, we all go through them, past sufferings and present sufferings. You see, suffering, it doesn't discriminate. It's not a hater. It comes to all people, all colors, all races, rich or poor. We all do battle with suffering. And I have a friend who, still to this day, is dealing with some of the effects of his past sufferings. You see, he grew up in a violent home. On the outside, his family was normal. But on the inside of the house, it was chaotic and it was a violence all the time. And still to this day, he deals with fear and anxiety from that. He always feels the hammer is getting ready to drop in any moment. In any moment, things are going to fall apart. And he's in his fifties now. Still dealing with that. Still dealing with the effects of his past sufferings. What about you? What about you this morning? Where are you? What are you dealing with? Do you even notice the effects of your past sufferings in your life, in your present situation? Our past sufferings impact the way we respond to our present sufferings. They do. They have a way of changing us. They have a way of molding us. Shaping us. When you see an experienced great pain, it's like a punch in the gut. It's like someone that's kicked you right here. It's like someone throwing a bucket of ice cold water on your soul and wakes you up to the reality. And man, we live in a fallen world. You know what happened on the campus of UAE just on Friday and wakes you up. It reminds you where we live, brokenness, fallenness. Last week, you had a ninth grader in Madison shot a classmate. Ninth graders, babies. Those families are suffering right now. Both six parents are suffering. What do you do? What do you say to them? The teachers, the kids who witness their crime are suffering because of where we live. The folks down in Haiti. Suffering, struggling. Even some of the people you know, family members, suffering, hurting, struggling. And what happens to us is that we start to develop certain symptoms when we go through painful things. And these symptoms become indicators to let us know that we're getting ready to go into the battle. We're getting ready to go into some kind of difficult situation. And for some of us, what are these symptoms? It's guilt. Some of us feel guilty. There's anger, there's fear, there's worry, there's confusion, there's depression, there's despair. You can be into now distrust of others, distrust of God, shame, regret, terror, rage, withdrawal. You lose your sense of control when you go through something very painful. And so you have to create ways of dealing. You have to create a way to handle the pain. You begin to look to other things to help you. You keep yourself busy so you don't have to think about it. You've got to flee. You've got to do something to help you not remember. Wherever that may be, it could be shopping. It could be gambling. It could be whatever you got to do to help you not think and cope. You just don't want to think about it. You just don't want to go there. And see, there are no quick fixes in life. There are no quick ways to recover when you've been hurt deeply. Dr. Phil can't help you. Watching Oprah constantly ain't going to help either. When you've been hurt deeply, there are no quick fixes. There are no easy solutions. It's a process. And sometimes it takes time. And as believers, when you suffer greatly, it will challenge your faith. And if you never suffer greatly, you will. And it will challenge you. It will make you ask questions about your faith, your questions about God. It will. I read a book in a book called Trauma in Recovery. An author has a quote from a veteran of Vietnam War. And he talks about how he lost his faith, how it challenges his faith when he was over in Vietnam. And listen to what he said to a priest. He said, "I could not rationalize in my mind how God that good men died. I had gone to several priests. I was sitting there with one priest and said, "Father, I don't understand this. How does God allow small children to be killed? What is this thing? This war? This blank blank? I can't say what he said there." I got all these friends who are dead. The priests, that priest looked at me and looked me in the eye and said, "I don't know, son. I've never been in war. I said to that priest, I didn't ask you about war. I asked you about God." Isn't that the larger question when you're in pain? Where is God? How could God allow something like this to happen? Where is God? Where is he? Where was God when those bad things happened to you? Where was he? Does he even care? Do you ever feel that way? Does he even care? He does care. He does care. You see, in a real sense, in a real sense, we live in a counterfeit world. What do you mean by that, Alex? What I mean is that you were never meant to suffer the way that you suffered. You were never created for that. You were never created to suffer. We were never created to be abused. We were never created to help people hurt us badly. We were never created for those things. You were created to be in a perfect relationship with God. That's why he created us. That's why the cause of the fall, the cause of Adam and Eve, the cause of sin, there's child abuse. The cause of the fall and sin professors killed one another. A ninth grader would kill his classmate. The cause of the fall and sin, you have natural disasters. But when God created the world, there was never meant for that. You were never meant for that. Never. And so, because of the fall day in and day out, we live with the consequences of it. The fall has fallen on all of us, every single one of you, and include myself included. But the good news is this. In Romans 5, 8, Paul says that God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You see, because of the fall, in our own personal sin, people do heinous things to one another. That's why. And Jesus came and hung on that tree for my sins and for the sins of those who sin against me. You got to see that. Jesus came and hung on the tree for your sins and for the sins of people who would sin against you, no matter how heinous. Think about this. You have God, a creator of the universe. That's the most supreme being in all, being in all creation. He is God. He allowed himself to be a victim of a life and a fallen broken world. Do you know that? God, through Christ, became a victim of a fallen world, through his own suffering, through his own death. When Christ was tortured, when Christ hung on that tree, God himself suffered. Do you see what kind of God we have? Do you understand that? It was our fault that sin came, but God said, "I'm going to take the blame for it. I'm going to be beaten. I'm going to be hung. I'm going to stand on that cross for your sins because I love you." And so now we have a God who knows what it means to suffer. And so when we're suffering, he's suffering with us. He's right there with you. He's comforting you because he knows what it's like to lose a sign. He knows what it's like to be wrongfully executed for nothing, to have friends bell you when you need them. The disciples, three years with them. And when he needed them, they ran. Peter denied him three times. So betrayal. One of the disciples, Jude, is turn his back on and turn him in. So what kind of Jesus we know? Suffering Jesus. And so when you suffer, he says, "My child, I know. I know. And I'm here with you." And so Hebrews 2 says that Jesus had to be made like us in every way so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest and service to God to make a torment for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when tempted. He is able to help those who are being tempted. That's Jesus. And that's our Savior. Do you know this? Are you longing for healing? Jesus offers that to you. He offers that to you. And if you don't know him this morning, he wants to know you. There is healing and there is forgiveness in the gospel if you receive it, if you ask for it. You see, God promises us many things in life, but never a life free from pain, hurt, loss and disappointment. Instead, he comforts and shepherds us through those things because he himself, through Christ, knows what it means to struggle. And here's this thing about God. He handles our suffering faultless lead. He handles your suffering faultless lead. He's not the blame for it, but he uses it in your life faultless lead. And it's hard to accept that, especially when you have suffered greatly. It's hard to accept it. See, there is a greater purpose for our suffering. And James shows us that in the rest of our passage. What does he say? "Before you know, the testing of your fate produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." I've shared with you guys before in my battle with depression when I was in college. And that was a dark night of my soul, those three to four months. I burned out from doing campus ministry. I didn't want -- I felt like I wasn't a Christian anymore. I was down in the valley. And every day was a battle just to get up and go to class. I started to isolate myself from friends. I started to become a loner. I had to go to counseling. I had to go out to the present. I was at a crossroads in my faith. Either God was going to pull me out or I was going to walk away. That's how bad it was for me. And so I had to come up with ways to cope. So I did run to unhealthy things to try to numb myself. From the pain I was going through. And I looking back and God eventually healed me. Through a friend, through reading this word, but it took time to bring me out of that. And looking back, looking back at that, it was good for me. It was good for me to have been broken. Because I didn't love people well when I first became a believer. I was self-righteous. I was arrogant. I know those things now, but I didn't know them back then. And so God had to break me of that. And so he used the hardship to shape me and mold me. And it was good for my soul. You see, the sufferances we go through do, they do test our faith. They do. And when you come to know Jesus, nothing challenges and strengthens your faith like suffering. You see, one Christian writer says, "In our trials, our faith is proven to be genuine." And when you think about it, you know, when a person goes to refine gold, gold is never refined in water. It's refined in fire. And so is our faith. The fire of suffering refines our faith. It shapes our faith. And God uses it. See, comfort, easiness, those things don't challenge your faith. They don't shape your faith. They don't refine your faith. But the fire of suffering does. It does. But here's the caution. Because what do you tell someone who's been abused? Do you grow up and say, "Well, your faith's been refined. Just suck it up." Do you tell that person that? What do you tell a mom who just lost their child? Or do you tell the spouses who just lost their spouse on Friday? Do you get your bobbins and say, "Well, this is what James says. You can count it all joy." Is that what you tell them? No. You don't tell them that stuff. You don't tell them that. That is very unloving. Do not ever tell anyone that. That is unloving. You see, the majority of the time the verse we use can cause more damage than help, even if it is the truth. The majority of the time we should just be there as a friend and just comfort them. Remember, God handles our suffering faultlessly. And there's one more thing to consider when you're thinking about life in the fallen world. There's other forces at play here. Our sin, the devil, and the fall. Those things are at play as well. And these are the things that lead people to hurt other people. So this means in any situation and in any circumstance, you are always faced with two things. Either trial or attemptation. In any situation, in any circumstance, you will be faced with a trial and attemptation at the same time. The same situation can lead you down one or two paths, a trial or attemptation. What do I mean by that? A good friend of mine, he answers that question for us. He says, "We must come to the conclusion that according to the Bible, a trial constitutes at the same time, attemptation, and temptation at the same time of trial." This is to say, any interaction or confrontation externally with any person, word, action, event, or circumstance, or eternally with one's own makeup, which God plans as a trial, Satan exploits the same thing as attemptation. What God, you want, what God plans as a trial, Satan uses as attemptation. Satan and God enlist the same means and at the same time and in the same ways, the same thing. What God always means for your good, Satan means evil for you because of sin and because of the false. What do you mean by that, Alex? This is what I mean. A relationship between a father and daughter is a good thing. But Satan can take that same relationship and make it evil when the father oversteps his balance. You see what I'm saying? The relationships we have are meant for our good, but Satan can use those same relationships for evil. Do you see what I'm talking about? The same thing for evil. And so, God is not a blame for the things that we go through. Sometimes as our own sin, sometimes it's a devil, sometimes it's just a consequence to living in the following world. James says later on in James, he says, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast in a trial. But when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, that I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. And he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. That desire when he has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. God tests us for our own good, Satan tempts us to our doom. He wants to destroy us, your relationships, your families, your career. And he uses your sin and desires against you to do it. That's the battle. It's a battle. This is a war. A war, Ephesians 6, what does Paul say we are in the spiritual war? And this is the war that we are going through. But I can go into any situation with good intentions. In that same situation, Satan can use against me. My sin can use against me for evil. And you have to be mindful of that. Spiritually mindful of that. Now, don't give him too much power because he is a defeated enemy, but don't underestimate him either. Don't underestimate him either. Don't underestimate him either. Most of you know the story of Job. How Satan said, "Well God, once you start blessing Job, Job will curse you to your face." So Job lost everything. But God eventually healed Job and gave him more instead. Remember Joseph and his brothers. How they sold him into slavery. And what did he tell his brothers years later? What did Joseph tell his brothers? What you meant for evil to me, God meant it for good. God is in control. Never lose sight of that. Romans 5, Romans 8 and 8 says God works all things to the good of those who love him. Even the most heinous things and worst things that have ever happened to you. God will work that to your good. Now I don't know how all that works itself out, but his word says it so I believe it. And Romans 8 goes on to say that nothing and all creation can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Because he will hold you through life. No matter what you go through. If you know him, you will always know him. He is going to hold you. He will shepherd you through. He is holding you in the flames of suffering and it will bring you through. You see last year I foolishly let Mark and Thor talk me into joining them into some new workout program called CrossFit. And if you don't have anything about CrossFit, you know God out of shape like me have no business doing it. And so I went in there and I was like you know what I can do this. It's 20 minutes. I can handle 20 minutes. And I'm telling you it's intense 20 minutes. We had a drill sergeant that's hounded me. Come on Alex. Come on Alex you can do it. After each session I was dying. I feel like my heart was going to come out of my chest. I mean I was passed out on the mats. I was like what have I done to myself. I didn't have any stamina. No physical stamina to be doing those types of exercises. You see some of us need physical. We need spiritual stamina and suffering gives it to us. Our hardships gives us the spiritual stamina that we need. And God uses our suffering to do that. So Jamie says it says to know your fate produces static fastness and let staff fastness have its full effect. That you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. Staff fastness is perseverance. That's what it is. It's perseverance. It's endurance. It's staying power. It's being committed. Single minded. Uncompromising. It is to endure unpleasant things without giving up. And God uses our hardships to build us in that. We're not like that when you first become a Christian. You grow into that through the things you go through. God is building up your physical stamina. You see Paul and a lot of the Bible writers that compare the Christian life to a race is running the race with presidents, endurance. And your hardships gives you that endurance to get to the end. You got to see the goal for the Christian is on the other side of this life. That's where we're going toward. This is not your home. This life is not your home. The house that you live in is not your house. Well, I tell folks, everything, the church and every other building that have one thing in common is all going to burn at the last day. We all are moving toward heaven. And a good friend of mine, back in Greenville, he says life is God teaching you that Christ is all you need and Christ is all you have. And hardships teach us that. Because when you're suffering, you're longing for heaven. Like, I don't like this place. And suffering does that to it. It makes us long more for the kingdom. If you never suffered, you were you long for heaven? No, you were never long for it. Ever. You were like, I love it here. I want you to come, Jesus, but just not now. I'm having too much fun. But God gives us moments of suffering to remind us life is something much better than this on the other side. And it's been in my presence for all eternity. That's it. And so, what does it mean when steadfastness has been perfect and complete? It means you become mature. It means you're growing in your faith. Romans 5 says, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given to us. We grow a lot from suffering. My faith has been increased the most during the hardships in my life. Not my life is so easy. It's when I'm in the flames. Because when I'm in the flames, I'm on my knees. I'm crying out more. I'm in the scriptures more. When I'm suffering. And it makes us more sensitive. Our suffering does. It makes us more compassionate to others who suffer. And my mother always told me, you know, you see that Alex? You can't never help anybody if it never been for nothing. I didn't understand what that meant when she was telling me that when I was a kid. But I understand it now. If I've never struggled, I can't help anybody who's struggling because I can't relate. But I'm starting to see God has let me grow through certain things in my life. That when I come across someone else who's going through the same thing, I'm able to be compassionate. I'm able to share with them what Jesus has done, meaning through my situation. I'm able to help someone else who's struggling. And sometimes God will use your own suffering so you can help another person who's suffering in the same way. The greater purpose of it. The greater purpose of it. And so James goes on to say, we should count it all joy. Now I'm not to that place yet. Now I'm going to say I'm joyful because of the suffering I'm going through. But I want to be to that place. And I believe he wants us to get to that place. That's why he went through this process of telling us the greater purpose of our suffering. And see as Lewis says, what good is any painful experience for the sufferer is submission to the will of God. See, suffering in itself is not good. But when you submit to the will of God through it, that's what's good about it. What did Jesus do in the garden of God's enemy before he went to the cross? Crime tears of blood. What did he ask the Father? Father, I wish he'd take this cup from me. What else did he say? Not my will be done. Your will be done. That's the prayer of us submitting to the will of God in our life. Not my will be done, but your will for me be done in my life. That's what it means to kind of all joy, submitting to the will of God. In 1871, there was a successful Chicago businessman who lost all of his real estate in a fire in Chicago. And as a result, he planned to move his wife and four daughters to Jerusalem. So he booked his family on the ship from New York to France, but he was called back to Chicago to tie up some loose ends. And so his family went without him. And he was going to meet up with him in a couple of weeks. And so as the ship made its way across the Atlantic, it collided with another ship and sunk within minutes. The businessman lost his four daughters in the accident. Its wife survived, and she sent him a telegram that said, "Survive alone. Survived alone." And as he sailed to meet his wife and contemplated the loss of his girls, he was inspired to write these words. "When peace, like a river, attaining my way. When cell rolls, like sea bellows roll, whatever my lot that has taught me to say, it is well, it is well, it is well with my soul." Let's pray. Father God, I wish it would be well with my soul if I have lost one of my kids. And I don't like thinking about that stuff, but in the world we live in, anything can happen at any moment and any day. It's his life in the fallen world. But Lord, I pray that you will help us to have a better understanding of the things that we go through. That you will shepherd us through that. You remind us that you are faithful and good despite the evil that we see. And I pray that you will use one another, us here to help one another when we're struggling. And we feel like we're dying, that you will use your church to help others, Father. So, Lord, I thank you, Father, that you know what it means to suffer, for you to suffer, that you are perfect and good high priests. And so, you're able to sympathize with us and comfort us in our great times and needs. So, thank you, Father, praise for all this in Christ's name. Amen. [silence]