Sunday Service Notes 9-2-2012

The Rebels Guide to Joy

Part 3 “Suffering”

Philippians 1:12-18

When we speak of suffering, we speak primarily of a theology of suffering. I believe that our culture today, including church culture, has a great emphasis on a therapy of suffering, how to help encourage those who are suffering, but what is, often times, lacking is a rigorous, Biblically based Jesus centered, Gospel honoring, passion encouraging theology of suffering. And our theology of suffering must precede our therapy of suffering. We must understand suffering and how God is in the midst of our suffering and what he intends to accomplish through it, if we are to have any appropriate therapy of suffering.

·         The Bible takes our suffering very real. And the Bible tells us that suffering is the result of sin entering the world

·         We begin causing suffering before we’re even born

To be alive means that you will suffer

·         Physically

·         Emotionally

·         Spiritually

·         Mentally

·         Relationally

The Bible and Lamenting

·         One third of the Psalms in lamenting

·         Lamentations

·         Ecclesiastes

·         Jesus himself lamented over Jerusalem and wept over the death of his friend

·         Job and Jeremiah

This is God’s people, they are groaning, they are struggling, they are wrestling, in a lamenting fashion with the difficulty of sin.

Human suffering is so real, and so raw, and so replete that there are, occasionally, those in Scripture who, despite their great love of God, question why they were even born, cursed the day of their own birth.

It’s all over and around us!!

Some people want to hide from the suffering, to close off their world so they don’t see it, feel it, read about it, and they just close off, but human suffering is all around us!!

This Week in the news!! (PULL THE NEWS THAT MORNING)

You and I can only handle seeing so much suffering, and hearing so much suffering, and we reach a point where we simply cannot continue to see it or hear of it.

What about God???

·         God see’s everything

o   That means that God sees all injustice, evil, sin, atrocity, pain and suffering. He sees all of it. There is never a moment that God is not seeing suffering. Unlike you and I, God never has a moment of respite

·         God hears everything

o   There is never a moment that God does not hear those who are weeping, and wailing, and screaming, and shouting, and crying, and moaning in agony, and pain, and suffering

God endures this continually, unendingly, unceasingly. And the Bible says that God is good, that God is loving, that God is merciful and That God is compassionate. You and I, when we see suffering in our life or the life of others we are overwhelmed, and for God, this is continual and it encompasses every human being on the earth.

The Question??

The question is not, “Will I suffer?” That is not the question. To be human and alive is, by definition, to suffer. The question is, “When will I suffer? How will I suffer? How bad will it be? How long will it hurt? And will it kill me?” That is the question.

You and I will suffer, but will we suffer in a way that is purposeful that God might do something in us or through us, or will we suffer in a way that is purposeless, that nothing good would be accomplished in us and that nothing good would be accomplished through us?

Don’t take it from me, take it from Paul!!

You may believe that the suffering that you have endured so supersedes any suffering that I have endured, that I am not a man of merit to speak of suffering to someone who has suffered as much as you. So let’s look at just some of Paul’s suffering in:

·         2 Corinthians 11:23-29 and 12:7-10

Paul is a man who understands what it means to suffer. And in the Book of Philippians, he is in a dreadful situation that includes great suffering.

It’s important that you know the man, know the life that he has lived so that he might have some credibility with you; that you might trust him in your own suffering as a good teacher to instruct you.

PAINT THE PICTURE OF THE BOOK OF PHILIPPIANS

·         11 years old

·         4 years since he was there

·         Planted in suffering

·         He was there pastor

·         Sent money and supplies

·         Almost lost their elder

·         From Paul’s imprisonment he writes them a letter of Joy!

Philippians Verse 12-14

Purposeful of Purposeless

·         You and I will suffer.

·         Paul is exemplifying for us is that there is a way to suffer as a Christian so that our suffering is purposeful and not purposeless

·         Will you suffer in a way that God could do a good thing in you?

·         It’s called sanctification, it’s where through suffering, and hardship, and pain and mourning, and loss and strife, and struggling, we are made to be more and more patterned after the character of Jesus Christ.

·         Or will suffering, for you, become an opportunity that you allow to pass you by so that God is not able, because of your stubbornness to do anything good in you?

You will suffer. Will you suffer well? Will you suffer in such a way that God, through Jesus Christ, could do something good in you; grow you in love, and mercy, and patience, and kindness, and faith, and humility, and Christ-likeness.

(READ) Verse 12-14

Question you must ask yourself while you suffer

1.    Will your suffering compel you to love Jesus more?

2.    Will your suffering purify your motives?

3.    Will your suffering reorient your priorities toward the Gospel, the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Will your suffering inspire the Gospel??

Will you partner with God on your suffering?? Will you allow God to work on you and through you??? The question is not if, but when you will suffer, so will it be purposeful or purposeless?

I am begging you not to waste your suffering. Your tears should not be in vain. Your struggle should not be in vain. Your hardship should not be in vain. It should not be wasted. It should not be neglected. It should not be abandoned. It should be embraced as Gospel centered, Jesus given, divine opportunity. Paul is demonstrating that for us.

·         Will your chains of suffering become opportunities to speak of Jesus and to suffer well as an example of how Jesus suffered?

o   Paul chained to the Guard 24/7

·         Will the Christians who watch you suffer, and hear you suffer grow in their faith? Will they become bolder?

o   Verse 14, will you inspire people to be more outspoken, inspire them to want to praise Jesus for your suffering

·         Will non-Christians become Christians as a result of your suffering?

o   Paul infected 9000 guards with the Gospel,

o   Will people see you and see Jesus and be inspired but was Jesus can do with you and through you during your suffering ??

You will suffer. Will you suffer well? Will you suffer purposefully or purposelessly? Will you suffer in such a way that God does a work in you and through you or will you waste it?  It would be a shame if you wasted it!

Bad Theology!!!!

I think a theology of suffering is so important because it is the theology of suffering which supports the witness while suffering.

Bad Theology:

·         Suffering is not avoided by you having a lot of faith

·         Suffering is not necessarily a punishment for a sin

·         Suffering is not to be pursued

·         Suffering is not to be avoided at all cost

·         Suffering is, for us, not an act of atonement, but an act of sanctification.

·         Suffering is not to be fully understood in this life

·         Suffering is not beyond the goodness of a sovereign God

o   Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Philippians Verse 15-17

READ!!!!

Bible preachers and teachers sometimes work from very dark and corrupted motivations

·         Often times it’s not all about the glory of God

·         Sometimes, it is about rivalry, jealousy, selfish ambition

·         When Paul went into prison, they were glad. They rejoiced. They gloated. They were thrilled

·         you and I must always be careful that we do not celebrate when others suffer

When a politician falls, when a religious leader falls, When a celebrity falls, There is a sickness in our culture, our sin nature that causes us to be glad to celebrate suffering.

Paul says, “There is that sickness in us, that diseased part of our sin nature which has a depraved celebration of suffering.

There were teachers (pastors) saying, “Why follow Paul?”

·         He’s sick and I’m healthy

·         he’s poor and I’m rich

·         he’s in prison and I’m free

·         he’s dying and I’m living

·         Who do you think God’s blessing resides upon? Obviously, not that man.

·          

They failed to look at Jesus and see that their savior was a man who suffered, and it was not because he was not faithful. It was not because God the Father did not love him.

Conclusion:

How then, are we to respond in suffering?

Read Verse 18

·         What then should our theology of suffering dictate?

o   Christ is proclaimed and in that, I rejoice

o   Paul says, we should rejoice, As long as the truth about the death, and the burial and the resurrection is ringing forth, that in that, I rejoice!

o   Paul tells us that in suffering, the key is to rejoice.

Throughout the Scriptures, particularly in the Psalms, we’re told repeatedly, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice in the Lord always. So, joy is a choice. Joy is a lifestyle, and rejoicing is something that is possible in the midst of suffering. And it is not rejoicing that we are suffering. It is rejoicing that in our suffering there is a purpose that God would do something great in us and that God, in his grace, would so something great through us. That we would know and love trust Jesus more, and that others would be compelled to become Christians and that Christians would be compelled to be better Christians and that our suffering would not be purposeless, that it would be purposeful.