Sorrowful Yet Always Rejoicing: Suffering, Future Glory, and the Goodness of God | Mark Griffin

God wants you to be a millionaire. Actually, a billionaire. You know, if you follow Jesus, you will have good health the rest of your life because sickness is not God's plan for you. God wants you to live your best life now. These are the lies, the deceptions and the deformities brought by the prosperity gospel.

And they are a cancer to true vibrant biblical Christianity. And then you throw into the mix the so called American dream. I just want a good job, a good marriage, good kids, a lot of savings and retire early because I deserve this. I worked hard for this. No pain, no sickness, no grief.

Give me that and I will be content. For the unbeliever, that is a wasted life. But for the Christian who believes in this, that is a tragedy of eternal proportions. Because suffering, afflictions, trials are necessary parts of the Christian life. And I'll go further.

Suffering as a Christian isn't just necessary. It's good. Because it is through the furnace of affliction that our old desires, our old affections, our old loves are melted away. We lose that which is perishing anyway, and we gain that which is eternal and so much better. We get God.

We get more and more of God in our suffering, beholding new facets of his glory and power and sovereignty. And yes, experiencing greater depth of his compassion, mercy, and care that you just cannot know without going through trials or affliction or pain. Suffering prepares us for glory. Suffering prepares us for heaven where we will enjoy God forever. Now in our time, there are many false gospels.

There are many false teachers and false hope, But we must have a biblical understanding of what it means for Christians to suffer. Because when those trials do come, when that tragedy hits you out of nowhere when you're least expecting it, I don't want you you to have a crisis of faith. I don't want you to turn your back on God or doubt his goodness or faithfulness when those tragedies come your way. I don't want you shaking your fist at God in anger and saying, where are you? I sacrificed everything for you and I'm going through this.

No. I want your faith. I want my faith to grow stronger, to sink its roots deeper as we lean and depend and fall on God and rest in him because that is where true rest is found in any trial, in any affliction, and in any suffering. So my goal today is to show you through scripture that for the Christian, we will face suffering. But when we do it, when we face it, we go through it with purpose.

And it is a good purpose. We go through it with a reason, and it's a good reason. And we can go through suffering with hope and, yes, with joy. So I invite you to turn with me in your bibles to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, we'll begin at verse 16 and read through verse 18.

Romans chapter eight sixteen. The Apostle Paul says, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Father, help us now.

Lord, as we deal and look at this weighty issue in your word, father, I pray for our hearts that you will soften them, make them receptive to hear from your Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray for your comfort as those who hear are going through trials and afflictions that they will see your goodness. They will rest on your faithfulness through their trials and their suffering. Lord, help us to behold you in these verses. Help us to glory glorify you in what we read.

And father, help me. Lord, you choose the weak and the inadequate and the foolish things of this world to glorify your son. And and Lord, we do that today through the preaching of your word. May your son be glorified and may your people be filled with joy. In Jesus' name, amen.

As we talk today and as we follow the apostle Paul's reasoning in these verses, I wanna break this up into three points. Three points. The presence of suffering, the reason for suffering, and our hope in suffering. So the presence of suffering. Romans eight sixteen, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and of children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

The first thing to see is that Paul is talking to and about Christians, children of God, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, true believers. He says, one of the marks of a true Christian is suffering. Look at that word there, provided. Provided is a conditional word. In the Greek, it's the same word that the apostle uses just a couple verses earlier.

So look at Romans eight nine. He says, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you. Same Greek word. So what he's saying in verse sixteen and seventeen is you are an heir if in fact you suffer with Christ.

Suffering is a necessary component of being a Christian. Now we must not fall onto the ditch on the other side. Right? The Christian life is not completely about suffering. There is celebration.

There is peace. There is contentment. There is rejoicing and there is happiness. Our sins are forgiven. If you are a Christian today, you are justified.

You have been brought from death until life. That's something to worship and glory and be glad about. Yes. There is the valley of the shadow of death, but there are also green pastures and still waters. Yeah.

I think for most people in the West, the error usually falls on the other side. We don't have a theology of suffering. We don't have an understanding of its role in the Christian life. So when it hits us, we flail around or we fight it and get angry with it or we just give up. But hear the words of Christ in the gospels, and you don't have to turn there.

You can just listen. This is what Jesus says in Matthew seven fourteen. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Or Luke chapter nine verse 23. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Daily taking up the cross. Daily taking up a means of execution. It it includes all kinds of suffering across the spectrum. Yes.

The eye roll from your coworker or classmate when they find out you're a Christian, you're one of those evangelicals. All the way to losing your life for your faith and everything in between. And it's not just persecution, but the sufferings we face as a Christian include sickness and disability and loneliness, loss of relationships, death of a loved one, mental anguish, everything. Look at Romans eight again, you're still there. Scroll down to verse number 22.

Paul says, for we know that the whole creation from natural disasters to cancer cells has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, our own pain, our own sickness and grief and despondency and anguish. We ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. We must not believe the false preachers of the prosperity gospel or the sometimes more accepted and insidious whisperings of the American gospel. Comfort, health, money, safety, material goods are not these signs.

They are not the proof of God's love, faithfulness in favor to you, to his children. Because if that were true brothers and sisters, then God must have hated the apostle Paul. Turn with me to second Corinthians chapter 11 to see this. You're probably familiar with this, but it bears looking at because the apostle Paul suffered more than I guarantee anybody in this room. Second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 24.

He says five times, I received at the hand of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day, I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Think about what that means. Think about this man, this apostle chosen by God for a specific mission. His back is a constellation of scar tissues, deformities, pain, arthritis, plus all of the mental suffering from being in constant danger around him. Every time this man moved, it is not beyond the imagination.

Probably, it's actually very likely. Every time this man moved, something hurt. The prosperity preachers don't have an answer for this. The first Peter, the apostle says, just listen to this. First Peter chapter four verses twelve and thirteen.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice. Insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Peter sounds a lot like the apostle Paul, who sounds a lot like Jesus in the Gospels because it's one author. Peter says trials as a Christian are not strange. They're not out of the ordinary.

So don't be surprised when they come your way. In fact, expect them. Now as a Christian, you can try with all of your might to avoid suffering, to avoid trials. Some people, they obsess over money. They work and work and save and save to build bigger barns because money is their source of security and safety.

They hate not being in control of everything around them. And so they neglect the weightier things of life. Others, they obsess over health. Your main life focus is on working out or researching the latest health foods and supplements because you're afraid of sickness. You're afraid of physical pain.

These people, they read more nutrition labels and ingredient lists than they do the word of God. And there are some Christians who avoid suffering by hiding their Christianity. No insults because you're just like everyone else around you. Yes, there will be no persecution. There will be no prejudice, no eye rolls or snide comments, let alone beatings, imprisonments, and executions because you hide your faith.

You don't share the gospel. You don't declare your allegiance to Christ, whether it's because you're ashamed or you're afraid or you just don't care. To all of these people, I lovingly plead with you today. I urgently plead with you today. Reject all of that.

Reject that way of thinking. Reject that way of living. Take up your cross. And with it, everything that comes with it, and follow Christ with all of your heart. He doesn't promise you an easy life.

He doesn't promise you a comfortable life, but he does promise you an abundant life. Now the presence of suffering in the lives of Christians is just the first part. Let's move on to point number two, the reason for suffering. Because when you suffer as a believer, it is never in vain. Your suffering as a Christian is never without meaning or purpose or reason.

Our verse Romans eight seventeen, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. There's the reason right there. Suffering brings us to glory. Hardship is the road that leads to eternal life. No suffering, no glory.

No hardship, no heaven. God has purpose in whatever you go through. So your suffering is not by chance. Your suffering is not by chaos or randomness. Christian, we don't knock on wood as some kind of weird protection against our suffering because our suffering gets us to glory.

Our suffering gets us to our heavenly home, our true home. And Paul explains how suffering is the means of our glorification. How is it that suffering gets us to glory? He says it here. Our identity with Christ is how it all works together.

Two words. Look at look at it here. With him. Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Suffering with Christ means we are united.

We we are joined together with him in his life and in his death so that we are united with him in his resurrection. Remembered Christ humbled himself and took on the form of a human being. He knew pain. He knew hardship. He knew anguish.

He was abandoned and betrayed. He felt weariness and sickness and hunger and weakness. He experienced sorrow and grief and he bled and died. He joined us in our humanity. He became like us so that we may join him in his sorrow.

Yes. In his suffering. Yes. And in his glory. What Paul is saying here is what he says in Philippians chapter three verse 10.

He says in Philippians, you can you don't have to turn there. Just He says in Philippians chapter three verse 10, that I may know him, who Christ and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Or Romans six five, Paul says, for if we have been united with him, with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. And suffering with Christ also means that we are being changed into his image. God uses suffering to change us.

He changes our desires. He changes our priorities. He changes the inner man to be like whom? To be like Christ, our fellow heir, our older brother, the firstborn of all creation who is preeminent over everything. Suffering changes us to be more like Christ.

You see, we are naturally as human beings, sinful human beings, we are naturally self reliant. You know that. We are naturally prideful and arrogant and we want our own way. And we easily forget how frail and how fragile we truly are. But you know what?

Afflictions strip all of that away. When you get that diagnosis or lose that job or mourn the death of that loved one or you face the choice, renounce Jesus Christ or die. When you face those things, you can't depend on our yourself. We can't depend on ourselves. All of our crutches, all of our props are ripped away from us.

And as Christians, we fall on God. Suffering blows away the facade of self of control. It blows away the facade of self reliance and self sufficiency. And you know what it also does? It also sobers us up real quickly from the intoxicating effects of entertainment, of sex, and money, and success, and the simple drifting of a wasted life.

Second Corinthians chapter four verse sixteen and seventeen. Turn there with me and look at this yourselves. Second Corinthians four sixteen and seventeen. The apostle says, so we do not lose heart though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. It's the same here.

Affliction is preparing us for glory. That affliction is inseparably connected. You can draw a line there. That light momentary affliction is connected to our inner self being renewed day by day, being renewed day by day, being renewed day by day, being renewed to be like Christ. And we see day, being renewed to be like Christ.

And we see from this verse that in the midst of your suffering, remember this, in the midst of your suffering, there's not one second that is meaningless in your suffering. Because Paul says here, what is it doing? It's preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. We also see this connection in the Old Testament. In in the Psalms, turn to Psalm one nineteen to to see this repeatedly.

Psalm one nineteen will start at verse 67. The psalmist says in verse 67 of Psalm one nineteen, before I was afflicted, I went astray. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. I did my own thing. I rebelled against God, but now I keep your word.

You are good and you do good. Teach me your statutes. Verse 71. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Verse 75. I know, oh Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness, you have afflicted me. The Psalmist recognizes that God uses afflictions to mold us. We discard old worthless affections for far greater ones. Look at that.

Thousands of gold pieces, thousands of silver pieces, all the money in the world, all the possessions in the world are no longer seen as the greatest treasure. God is seen as the greatest treasure. And suffering with Christ also means we depend on and receive his strength and power. You still in Romans chapter eight? Let's go back there.

Romans chapter eight. Let's look at verse 35. A very familiar passage, but something that is is exploding with with the glorious reason of our suffering. Romans eight thirty five, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation, suffering.

Shall distress, suffering. Or persecution, suffering, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. This is all suffering the apostle is talking about. As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are with Christ in our sufferings, but you know what that also means? Christ is with us in our sufferings. Nothing can separate us from Christ in his love.

And we see here in verse seven in 27, the apostle says, look, in all of these things, in all of these sufferings, not without them, not in the absence of them, but in them, we are with Christ. But what does it mean when he says that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us? You know, when I think of what it means to be a conqueror, well, you can think what it means. It means victorious. It means that you triumphed over your enemy.

You killed your enemy. You defeated your enemy. That's clear. But what does it mean when he says that we are more than conquerors? How can you be more than a conqueror?

Well, here's here's one answer. In light of everything the apostle has said in this whole chapter, more than conquerors means that through Christ, all of these afflictions, tribulations, distress, persecutions, nakedness, danger, sword, everything, all of these sufferings and persecutions that would otherwise destroy you, destroy your faith, destroy your life in your body, they are now not only defeated in Christ, but they actually serve you in Christ. They are present for your good. How? Because they get you to glory.

Instead of being weapons against us, Christ turns them into into tools for us. That's what it means to be more than conquerors. So when you are in the midst of trials and tribulations, remember this. As a Christian, see everything as ultimately coming from the hand of God for your good. You want the strength to make it through that dark night of the soul?

Then lean on Christ. Stand firm on Christ. Because when you do, you realize it's not your strength that gets you through anyway. It's Christ's. He's holding you.

He's guiding you. You are not alone and he will see you through all the way to glory. He who began a good work on you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And Paul encapsulates this in second Corinthians chapter 12. And Paul encapsulates this in second Corinthians chapter 12.

And Paul encapsulates this in second Corinthians chapter 12. And Paul encapsulates this in in second Corinthians chapter 12. Second Corinthians chapter 12 verse number nine. Let's look at this one together too. It's it's so good.

Second Corinthians twelve nine he says, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Paul was suffering. He had the thorn in his flesh and he didn't go to God once or twice. Three times he went to God, take this from me, please. The Lord answered him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

And Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. The presence of suffering. The reason for suffering.

Lastly, for the Christian, there is always hope in suffering. Romans eight sixteen, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. First, we need to see our hope and suffering arises from the fact that we are sons and daughters of God. Make no mistake, not everyone is a child of God. You will hear that around the world.

There are 7,000,000,000 children of God. No, they're they're not. They're not. Only the Christian is a child of God. And with that, look at verse 15 of chapter eight.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba father. Have you have you ever thought about that? That that we are not only justified that that in and of itself would be spectacular but it gets so much better. We are adopted as children of God with all the rights, the privileges and the responsibilities of children. Look at it like this.

Justification by itself would be you're in a courtroom, a judge says, you are not guilty. Someone has paid your price. There is no penalty for you. You are not condemned. Go your way.

Go your way. You're responsible for your own housing, your own food, everything, but you're not guilty. Is that good news? Yeah. It's good news.

But there's a far greater aspect to, our salvation and that's adoption. That's the judge saying, you're not guilty. Now come live with me. I will take care of you. I will clothe you.

I will feed you. I will protect you. I will be a father to you that you never had. That's what adoption says. And we must not we must not neglect that glorious doctrine when we are thinking about this.

You have God the Holy Spirit living inside of you because you are a child of God. The Holy spirit testifies with our spirit now and in our suffering, it means we can go to God as children, not as strangers, not as outcasts, not even as petitioners. We cry to him, father, help me. With a child like faith, we go to him, help me in this. I don't understand what's going on.

I'm hurting and I need you. And now when we say that God is our father, I don't know what kind of father you had growing up. Because there's a lot of fathers out there who are uncaring, who are unloving or abusive or just not present. Brother, sister, that is not your heavenly father. Your heavenly father is perfect.

He provides the perfect protection as a father should. He provides the perfect assurance as a father should and the perfect affection. You can always go to him and he is glad to hear from you. Look at how God is our father in just Romans chapter eight. Look, we could look at the whole Bible, but let's look at just Romans chapter eight, how it describes our heavenly father.

And it says, don't be afraid. The apostle says, don't be afraid. You're not in bondage. Our heavenly father says, I do not condemn you. I am for you.

I give you everything in Christ and I will never leave you or abandon you. And nothing will separate you from my love. That's our father and that's our hope in suffering. But there's more. There's always more.

There's always good news in the Christian life. As children, we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. That means we are legitimate children and we have an inheritance. We share in Christ's inheritance. What does Christ inherit?

Everything. The world, the universe, everything. Our inheritance, yes, is redemption. Yes, it is salvation and eternal life with God in heaven. And it is also the right to rule and reign over everything with Jesus Christ.

You want a glimpse of our inheritance? Well, I wanna show you a glimpse of our inheritance. Revelation chapter two and three. We've looked at this in detail, but let's just do an overview. Turn with me to Revelation chapter two, just so you can get a small picture of what's in store for us, Christian.

Revelation two starting at verse number seven. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in which is in the paradise of God. Verse 11. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. Verse 17.

To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows, except the one who receives it. Verse 26. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him, I will give authority over the nations. Chapter three verse five. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments.

And I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Verse 12. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven and my own new name.

In verse 21, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. That, all of that is for us. Can you wrap your mind around that? I can't. How magnificent and spectacular and glorious that is going to be.

It is almost beyond all comprehension. In fact, in first Corinthians two nine, Paul says this, but as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. That's why Paul can say without exaggeration, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And it was not that Paul failed to appreciate the greatness or the magnitude of his sufferings. We've read it.

This man went through everything. And is not that he is diminishing the pain and the heartache that believers go through. He understands the sorrow. He understands the the the affliction and the anguish that you are going through. These sufferings are small.

Just toughen up and grind through it. That's not what he's saying in these verses. He's saying that these sufferings, they're big. They can be huge and and and beyond comprehension even. He says the whole creation groans.

Everything groans. We groan to the point where we don't even know how or what to pray. But he says, there is something far greater, longer lasting, so magnificent that all of our sufferings, so all of it put together in one big bucket don't even belong on the same scale as the inheritance that awaits for us in glory. His focus, and may this be our focus today, his per our perspective, our longing, may it be so directed at eternity, at glory, at everlasting life with Christ that nothing else on this earth, nothing we experience here on this earth will compare. Our hope and suffering.

And lastly, we have hope and suffering because of God's good sovereign plan. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because this could be a sermon in and of itself. But sovereignty, remember, is the right, the power and the authority to do what you will. But is it good For the Christian, for you, Christian, God's plan, his providence, his using his sovereignty for his plan is always good because God is always good. Romans eight twenty eight, you all know this.

And for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. All things. What things? The creation groaning. The saints groanings.

The sufferings and the weakness, they are for our good. But look at this verse from a different perspective. It takes an infinitely good God to make that promise. In other words, if the result is all good, then it must come from a source that is all good. And ultimately, you're not in control.

That's good. I'm not in control. That's even better. Terrorists, politicians, nations, rulers are not in control and that is good. Satan, as powerful as he is and all of his forces combined are not in control.

The triune God, creator, sustainer holds the universe in the palm of his hand. He's infinite. He's beyond us. All knowing, all powerful and gracious and loving and forgiving and merciful. He is in control.

Do you love God today? Do you truly love him today? Then you have nothing to fear. No trial, no suffering, no persecution. You have nothing to fear.

Yes, we will face sorrow in this world, but because of God, suffering is momentary and it leads to glory that lasts forever. Because of God, our sorrow will turn into joy. And because of God, as second Corinthians six ten says, we Christians are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. So make no mistake, we are not talking today about some kind of chipper, fake or fleeting feeling, Fake smiles. That's not what we're talking about today.

What God gives us is a deep and abiding joy so that we can say through our tears, through our grief, through our anguish, you are good and you do good. I trust you. My hope is in you alone. And I wanna end our time today with a modern day example of how Christians have hope in suffering by telling you about a missionary couple that I know. April 2001.

Flying over the jungles of Peru in a small Cessna airplane, missionaries Jim and Veronica Bowers along with their six year old son Corey and seven month old daughter Charity were headed home. You see their their home was a tiny houseboat on the Amazon River where they would travel up and down the Amazon River preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the tribes along the shore. The plane was being piloted by a man named Kevin Donaldson, who was an experienced missionary pilot. And as they were flying, a Peruvian military aircraft came up behind them. You see, at that time, the the CIA and the Peruvian government were conducting a joint operation investigating drug cartels in the region.

And they thought that the missionary plane carrying the Bowers and their children was just a drug smuggling flight. So the military plane tried to hail the Bowers but they were using the wrong frequency. And that despite some doubts and some questions, the military opened fire. Later investigation would show that there were 76 bullet holes in that Cessna airplane. One of the bullets struck Veronica, Ronnie, passed through her body and struck the baby sitting on her lap.

Both were killed instantly. The pilot's legs were shot out from under him, but he still managed to make a controlled crash into the Amazon River. Jim and Corey and Kevin, they swam to safety and survived, but Veronica and Charity did not. For Jim Bowers, his life changed in an instant. You wanna talk about suffering?

You wanna talk about trials and afflictions? Here they are on full display. Now there was a memorial service for Ronnie and Charity a couple days later in Muskegon, Michigan. And I want to read some excerpts, just a couple excerpts of what Jim Bowers said that night to the packed auditorium that was televised throughout the world. After thanking different people and telling everyone of his deep love for his wife and his daughter and how much he would greatly miss them.

This is what he said. He said, most of all, I wanna thank my God. He's a sovereign God. Some of you might ask, why thank God? Could this really be God's plan for Ronnie and Charity?

God's plan for Corey and me and our family? Humanly speaking, Ronnie and Charity's death were absolutely senseless. Wouldn't you think they should be one of the last ones to be shot to death? I know and I'm learning God's ways are sometimes and even often not human ways. These people who fired at the plane simply were used by God.

Whether you want to believe it or not, I believe it. They were used by him, by God to accomplish his purpose in this. I believe the truth. Many good things have happened and many more are to come. Some might be wondering what good has happened and what good is there to come out of this.

There's nothing good about this. Although in my ministry experience, I found that God gets most people's attention by allowing them to experience some kind of crisis. It wakes us up. He said, I'm convinced that God directly intervened to spare Kevin and Corey and me because he still has some kind of work for us to accomplish. I don't feel equipped to do this ministry, whatever it might be, but I'm glad for it.

Because that's when God can really use me his way. And I'm looking forward to it. I think he did that also to wake up sleeping Christians, including myself, and maybe most of all, to wake up those who have no or little interest in God. And I say to you tonight, wake up. Jim Bowers, he got it.

He got it. He understood that there is pain and hardship and suffering in the Christian life, but he understood so much more than that. He understood that God is sovereign and he is good and nothing happens as a surprise to God. No death, no diagnosis, no danger, no bullet. Everything for the Christian is for our good in whatever circumstance we are in.

Even if you can't see it, especially when we cannot see it. God sees the good. He knows the good because he planned it and he will carry you through it. He is your light in your darkest hour and he promised you that he will see you all the way to glory. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Do you believe that? Settle this in your heart today. No matter your circumstance. No matter the trial or pain or affliction. No matter the suffering.

Settle this in your heart today so that you may know and experience the peace of Christ in your suffering. So that you may know and experience the hope of Christ in your suffering. And so that you may know and experience the joy of Christ in your suffering. Let's pray. Father, we thank you.

Lord, we thank you for the anchor that you are in in the midst of the storms of this life. Father, we thank you that you are our good shepherd, that you lead us beside still waters. Make us lie down in green pastures and the good shepherd that safely sees us through the valley of the shadow of death. Father, help us for those who are in the midst of a trial and affliction in a storm in their life. Help them that they might see you and cling to you with all of their might knowing that you hold them fast to yourself.

Father for us who are about to go through trials or sufferings or persecutions, father enliven us, enliven our faith, Deepen our faith and our confidence in you. Make it rock solid. So when the storm throws us on the rock there, it is throwing us on you and we can cling to that with all our might. And may we find joy in our suffering. May we find joy in our pain because we know it is for our good and it comes from you who are good and it is leading us to glory.

May we as Christians be sorrowful yet always rejoicing. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. As the praise team is coming up, I invite you to stand and respond to the goodness of our God through your singing. To the goodness of our God through your singing.