Gospel Strength That Endures - [2 Timothy 1:11-12]

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Praise the Lord for His grace and mercy in calling me into ministry.
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I was talking with somebody earlier, were it not for grace, I would be useless. And so, every minute is truly borrowed from the
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Lord Jesus Christ and His merits even as I stand here this morning. But I also thank the
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Lord for just the relationships that He's built with the family of God and the family of God here.
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You guys have been holding the ropes for us for over 20 years. It's hard to imagine.
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I feel like I'm only 20, but you guys have been with us in God's work.
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And even as I was sharing this morning, it truly is God's work. It's not ours. And as the days go by, we realize that more and more.
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Because if it were ours, it would have crashed and burned a long time ago. But because He's in it and He is building
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His church, the gates of hell will not stand against it. It seems like in our generation especially, it doesn't matter whether you're here in the
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United States, which is a so -called Christian nation, but those of you that live here know that's not true anymore.
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Or even across the nations, the foment and the animosity against the
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Lord Jesus Christ just seems to be growing more and more. I was taking my daughter along with our family to a library.
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Her favorite place in the world is libraries. And so we went into the children's section thinking that's going to be innocent and okay.
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And the LGBTQ agenda just is stronger there than anywhere else in the library.
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And they're trying to indoctrinate the kids. And if you try to say anything to her, even the attendance will bristle against you.
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And you can sense that to be a believer following the values of the King of Kings is going to be more and more hated.
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But it's always been like that. And it's always been
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Christ's plan to show us that even though the nations rage Psalm 2, the
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King of Kings laughs. And He uses His instruments, even in that war, to enable us to know two things.
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One, that we are weak and we can't stand against this kind of fight and opposition.
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If we try to do it in our own strength, we'll definitely fail. But two, that He is strong.
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And He's always stronger than anything that can come against Him. We act like we're surprised when we face opposition, but throughout church history, true believers have always faced suffering.
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And I think the more and more you stand for Jesus in your own family, or even in your community, you're going to face suffering.
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And they've always done that throughout history. Christians have suffered in hope, not in hopelessness.
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In the hope that their life is eternally secure in Christ and nothing can take that away.
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In the early church, right after the Reformation, there were many incidents that showed this kind of battle going on between the
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Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world. But one that stands out is the Huguenot persecution.
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The Huguenots were spiritual descendants of John Calvin spiritually. In 1572, because of their stand for Jesus, they faced a persecution like never before from the
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Catholic Church. And in one day, called Bartholomew's Day Massacre, 70 ,000
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Huguenots, men, women and children, were massacred across France under the direction of Queen Catherine.
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And we look at those incidents and we say, how do those Christians stand in that time? Do you know that that is nothing compared to the persecution and the hatred that exists in our generation?
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The 20th and the 21st century has seen the greatest amount of persecution more than any other time in church history.
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And it's going on right now, even as I speak, there's probably 6 or 7 Christians that are being martyred somewhere in the world.
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But all of that reminds us we're doing something right. Because if we were at peace with this world, then we're not with Christ.
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How do we work through situations like that? I'm not here to tell you that I have the secret.
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Because the secret is not in me. I think if we begin to believe that the secret is in something we do or something we have externally, that is going to cause us to fall on our faces very soon.
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But it's not what we do that makes us strong. But it's what he has done and how we depend upon him that makes us strong.
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And it's because of that that I want to turn your attention this morning as the saints of God to 2nd
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Timothy. I've been working through this book in our chapel series as we train our men.
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And as you know, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy and Titus make up the pastoral epistles.
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But 2nd Timothy, more than any of the other pastoral epistles, is a very personal letter.
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I think there's a couple of reasons for this. One of them is because it is the last book that Paul writes before he goes to meet his savior.
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It is, in a sense, his last words, his last will and testament. And they're addressed for that reason in a very personal way to his son and protege,
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Timothy. It's 8067. And most church historians would say that probably a few weeks after penning these words,
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Paul would have been beheaded on the Austrian way 3 miles outside of Rome. That was the only way to get him to stop preaching
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Christ. But as he writes these words, inspired by the
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Holy Spirit, Paul is in a very different situation than he normally was.
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He will never again preach to crowds. He will never evangelize at Athens. He will never travel on missionary journeys.
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And he's done many of them. He will never plant churches because Paul's world, in this moment, has shrunk down to a jail cell.
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To the Marmatine prison in Rome. It wasn't actually even a jail cell. It was a sewer that was converted into a jail cell.
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There was a single hole in the ceiling to let in light and air. And it was cold there.
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That's why I love the practical request that he has even in the end, 2 Timothy 4 .13.
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He tells Timothy, when you come, would you please bring warm clothes, the cloak, which
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I left in Troas with carpets and the books and the parchments. And the reason for this request is because Rome, where he was imprisoned, now catch this, he was on the outside, but just in general,
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Rome, during the winter, which is probably when he was in prison, was 55 degrees during the day and below 37 during the night.
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Now, for me, who has only 5 % body fat, I can't think or survive in that kind of weather.
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And therefore, Paul is even freezing to death besides all the physical discomfort.
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Prisoners were awaiting execution when they went to this jail cell. They were only put in this jail cell when it was the end.
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They were lured 12 feet, because it was formerly a sewer, into the dark, into this filthy hole that measured only 30 by 22 feet.
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About 25 to 30 prisoners were thrown in there at a time, mostly men. And oftentimes, they would die of starvation and the bad conditions there.
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And the Romans would open the sluice gates, let the sewage in and let it clean out the dead bodies.
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And this is what Paul was seeing day in and day out. The cell inside,
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I think I said this measured only 30 by 22 feet. And the height of the ceiling was 6 foot 6 inches.
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Some of you, if you stand up, that's not enough for you. When Paul was put into this prison, it was already an ancient seven -year -old structure that was carved into the rock.
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And besides his imprisonment, as you read 2 Timothy, you find out that most of his former associates and friends that had worked with him for many years had actually gotten frightened of the fact that if you associate with Paul at this moment, you're probably going to be thrown in the same jail cell.
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And so, he was abandoned, except for a few men like Onesiphorus and Dr.
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Luke. Praise the Lord for Dr. Luke. He was probably spending most of his time just putting bandages on our brother
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Paul, even as he was getting ready for his death. His charges?
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Preaching Christ. 2 Timothy 1 .8, He has to say this, See again, it's according to the power of God.
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And because Paul is depending on the power of God, this epistle, this is just introduction by the way, is not about,
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Oh poor me, Paul, would you please send me, you know, some comfort food, whatever that is,
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Chick -fil -A or In -N -Out and get me out of this misery. Will you, you know, get me the earthly needs that I have.
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The whole epistle is absent of a sense of his neediness, even though he had needs.
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And the whole epistle is focused on meeting the needs of Timothy, because Paul knows his life is at an end, he knows where he's going, and he's saying,
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Timothy, you're filled with fear and doubt, and before I leave, the last few words that I want to spend is discipling you and mentoring you, so that even as I go to heaven, you may stand.
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In the midst of these same trials that you will face because you are a pastor, you are a worker of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tap into that kind of strength.
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I don't know what gives a man the ability to stand in a dungeon like this and not think about himself and think about others.
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That's truly being dependent on the vine, isn't it? And so he writes to Timothy.
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One of the main goals of this epistle is to strengthen him in Christ. And he wants to strengthen
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Timothy because Timothy is like me, he's like you, he's weak. And there are three particular weaknesses that we know about Timothy.
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Number one, and this is just a natural weakness, he can't do anything about this, he's young. He may be about 33 years old, and therefore
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Paul has to write in 1 Timothy 4 .12, let no one look down on your youthfulness.
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Because that was one of his main fears and obstacles, even getting out of the gate.
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A second weakness, not only was he young, but he was fearful. So this is internal.
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Maybe it's rooted with his youth, but it's also a part of just his psyche. Some people are bold and they can go into the lion's den, but I think most of them, like you and me, we get frightened of the smallest danger.
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And so 2 Timothy 1 .7, he has to remind
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Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of timidity, Timothy, but of power and love and discipline.
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A third weakness is, if this wasn't enough, the poor guy, is he was constantly sickly.
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And some of us even struggle with those kinds of things, it's beyond us, but we just get sick all the time.
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And Timothy particularly had a problem with his stomach.
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It was always giving way. And so Paul reminds him in 1 Timothy 5 .23, no longer drink water exclusively, that may be why you're getting sick, but use a little wine, this is like go to the drugstore and get some medicine in those days, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
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And as Paul writes this letter to strengthen this young man, church history tells us that he grew to a man who had a backbone of steel through the
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Lord Jesus Christ, because he died at the ripe old age of 80. And the way he died as he was pastoring a church in Ephesus, faithfully serving, even after his father had gone to heaven, was he was dragged through the streets under the reign of Domitian in 89
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AD, as an 80 -year -old man, Timothy was stoned to death by angry followers of the pagan goddess
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Diana. But he stayed firm to the end. I think a large part of that is 2
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Timothy, which shows us that the roots of our strength is not in ourself, but it's in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. But what is that strength specifically? I think that leads us to,
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I think, look at a key, we can't go through the whole book today, otherwise we'll be here for a few days, but a key passage in 2
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Timothy chapter 1 and verses 11 and 12, this is what we're going to focus on, enduring through gospel strength, enduring in a strength that is not in ourselves, but a strength that is in our
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Savior, even in the midst of the furnace, we can make it. Some of you may be suffering this morning.
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You can praise the Lord for that suffering, not because the suffering is good, because the Lord is able through that suffering to make your faith strong.
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How can we grow in having a strength that is beyond us, that can enable us to make it through the fires of the suffering of this world?
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Let's read together 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 11 and 12. It reads like this. Actually, let's start in verse 10, because I think that sets the context.
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So verse 10. But now, Paul speaking about the gospel, has been manifested by the appearing of our
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Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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And then here's the roots of Paul's strength, even in this moment, in this dungeon. Verse 11.
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I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
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For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed.
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Maybe some of you have memorized these verses. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what
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I have entrusted to Him until that day. Paul, in his weakest moment, is at his strongest.
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That's the contradiction of the gospel. That's 2 Corinthians 12, right? In fact, in those moments when you think you're strong, you actually are not a person that is able to rely on Christ like you should.
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Those are some of our worst moments, aren't they? When we think we have everything in ourselves. But Paul, here, is able to write one of the most strong epistles of faith, because he is weak.
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And his strength is found only in these 2 verbs, right? Which shows the roots of how he leans on the gospel.
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He talks about in verse 11, For which I was appointed. That's not something we do, but that's something
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Christ has done. That's the first aspect of strength. And then that leads us to his commitment that we find in verse 12.
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But I am not ashamed. I will not shirk back. I will not give up.
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No matter what I face. Because Christ is enough for me.
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So, let's look at these 2 roots of gospel strength. The strength that we have is in Calvary.
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The strength that we have is in Christ. And I know you believe that, but sometimes it needs to be worked out.
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Especially through a man that is not thinking about it theoretically, but is living it out. Paul teaches us how to lean on the vine in these 2 ways.
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And the first is going to sound sort of counterintuitive, but hang on with me, because we got to start with this.
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As he looks at his dependence on Christ, he starts by saying, For which I was, what?
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What's the first idea here? I was appointed. Nothing that happens in my life is because of my choice.
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You know, we think about the doctrine of election, and I've thought through this many times, not sufficiently enough as just encapsulating salvation.
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And that's true. But did you know that the doctrine of election really grabs a hold of every minute of your life?
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Nothing in your life, praise the Lord, as a child of God especially, is because of what you choose.
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Because if you chose something, you would choose the wrong thing. Even as a believer. Praise the
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Lord. He rules over my choices. And He appoints me to things that I don't even want to do.
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And that's what makes my life more strong and purposeful. Paul says,
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I was appointed. I think many of you remember, if I can share a personal illustration of our dear team members that you had supported,
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Jeremy and Andrea, for several years. And the horrible car accident that they got into on the field.
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This was over a decade ago, where Jeremy had multiple skull fractures. He left parts of his brain, we joked with him, back in our country on the road.
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And after that brain damage, Andrea had internal brain swelling. Each of their three kids had fractures over themselves.
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And I don't want to dwell on that so much, because what I want to think about, and what always sticks in my head, is six months later.
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I thought they were going to get off the field. Six months later, he came back. And said,
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I want to serve you even more. And he preached a sermon that stuck in my head, from Psalm 131.
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My soul is like a weaned child. I don't know what God is doing, but I know that He is good.
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And Jeremy said to us in that sermon, I think I told him, you preach better with brain damage than when your brain was intact.
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You know, that's what God does. But he said to us, don't call it an accident.
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There are no accidents. There are only appointments. Because Christ is sovereign over our lives.
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And so, the first thing that helps us to be strong, no matter what we're going through, maybe you're facing personal suffering, maybe you're facing cancer,
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I don't know what it is, but I want you to realize that there is nothing in your life, particularly the valleys, that is not there, apart from the appointment of your loving
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Savior in your life. And the first way we can grow in strength is this, through a submission to God's purposes.
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Our life is a life of submission to God's purposes. When Paul says, for which
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I was appointed, he's starting by saying, Timothy, this Marmatine prison is not
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Caesar that has placed me here. It's Christ that has placed me here.
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And even as I'm here, God is using me. Because that's what he does. In fact,
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I think he uses the suffering in our life more than the blessings in our life. Because usually when I'm blessed, I forget my
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Lord. And so, just knowing my own sin, I think the suffering is a place that actually becomes a better pulpit.
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It's dangerous to even preach this sermon because God is going to make me live it. But that's what God does in our lives.
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And there's two ways in which this submission works out in Paul's heart that I want us to just meditate on.
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And it's all rooted back in Calvary. It's all rooted back in the cross. As Paul says, for which, you got to think about the context, that's why
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I read verse 10, right? What causes me to be appointed in my life and in the purposes of my life, whether it's my marriage, whether it's my ministry, whether it's my job, whatever it is, none of those are my choices.
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I think they're my choices, but they're not. They're all part of the appointment of God. And what causes that?
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And Paul has to think back to the cross. You know, because when he says, for which, he's talking about what?
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That last phrase in verse 10, the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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What's the greatest example of the sovereignty of God over the forces of darkness?
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It's Calvary. And if you ever doubt that Jesus is sovereign, just look at it when the whole force of the world and the
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Romans and the Jews and everybody came against Christ, he turned that into a moment of victory where he didn't get defeated, but he defeated death.
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And the first thing that causes me to submit to God is just by being driven by the cross's power.
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We have a powerful cross. We have a cross that shows us that nothing can defeat our
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Lord. And what's the greatest enemy that comes against the Lord that we fear?
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It's death, isn't it? And I like how Paul speaks about it. He doesn't say, Jesus just weakened death.
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What does he say? Look at it. Even in the English, I think the translators are just struggling for words. They say, he abolished death.
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In fact, the Greek is, he broke and he smashed death. I love reading
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John chapter 11 when Jesus is at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. And we all focus on the emotion that is commonly emphasized,
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Jesus wept. But there's actually twice in the text another emotion that B .B.
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Warfield helped me to understand for the first time that's even more dominant. It says in John 11, 33 that Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit as he saw
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Martha weeping, as he saw the people broken by death. And that word even,
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B .B. Warfield translates as he groaned like a lion. I don't know if you've ever been around lions.
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They don't growl in ways that are passive. I mean, there's even a sense of fear as you listen to that throaty growl.
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Somehow, Jesus even as he was at the tomb, was doing what? He was displaying his righteous anger against this enemy that had come against this people.
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And even as he was looking in a few days where he was gonna crush it, he expressed this fact that I wanna take away death completely from my people so that it only becomes sleep.
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And I am grieved by the way that death hurts my people. That was one of the motivations that took him to the cross for you and me.
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You know, I know this seems counterintuitive but we can't talk about our strength until we talk about Christ's strength.
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Right? Our strength leans on his strength. We are able to submit because of what he has done that enables us even to laugh at death.
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I love John Owen. Those Puritans, they didn't know how to write titles of books that would sell, right?
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They would just write... Their titles were like sermons. But I know he's hard to read but you should at least read this one treatise of his called
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The Death of Death and The Death of Christ. It's a mouthful but it's wonderful because it expresses what
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Jesus has done. That death is no longer a reality for you and me.
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One of my... I know this is a weird pastoral thing but one of my favorite things to do is to spend time around dying
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Christians because sometimes they counsel me instead of me counseling them. They have a stronger sense of the power and the sovereignty of Christ than I do, that I need to have.
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And this is what we need to have as we walk into life whether it's external persecution or our personal suffering.
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Brothers and sisters, don't be afraid of death because your savior is greater and he's already defeated it.
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He has conquered it. And this will enable you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death like Spurgeon said and just recognize it's only a shadow.
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The substance is gone because Christ took it upon his own body for you and me.
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We submit to God's purposes through the cross's power. We submit to God's purposes by being directed by the cross's proclamation.
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Look at what happens to Paul in the rest of this verse. He says, For which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
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Do you sense the sense of excitement? He says, I don't want my life to be about anything else except to be speaking and living
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Jesus. What else matters? If he's the Lord of death, he's the
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Lord of life, he's the Lord of heaven and earth, all authority has been given to him because of what he has done in Calvary, then why would
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I be talking about the stock market or anything else mundane, right? And wasting time with the elections or politics or whatever it is that we waste our time with.
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I want everything that I am to be about, even as I talk about those things, to be about Christ.
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I don't want people to ever leave a conversation with me without knowing about my Savior. And that makes life more exciting too, isn't it?
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I was talking in the first service about one of our church families that just lost their 8 -year -old daughter and they're still working through it.
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I don't know. Only Christ can help them. But one of the things that the mom, Angie, said that enables her to make it is she says,
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I don't know all that Jesus is doing through this situation, but I know that he took my daughter,
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Avia, home. And she said, one of the things that I see him doing right now is even as we had the funeral, for the first time, some of my unbelieving relatives have come to hear the gospel and they want to talk to us about how we make it through this situation.
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And I think one thing, the story isn't over yet, but one thing that Jesus is doing is he's drawing my unsaved loved ones to the
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Savior. And we don't wish those things upon ourselves, right?
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But Jesus can take the worst of the situations in life and work them for gospel good when we're oriented around the cross.
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If we think it's just about having, you know, the milk of human kindness and just fun times with each other, there's no joy in that.
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But when everything is oriented around the cross, it gives you a sense of joy in the darkest times in life.
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Paul says, I was. There's an emphatic sense in the Greek of personal wonder.
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I don't know why my life is given to this mission to speak of Jesus. I don't know why, but it's amazing.
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You know, he's just amazed. And he says, I was appointed. I was appointed.
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This is the same word that is used in John 15, 16. You remember? We're not just speaking about election here.
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We're speaking about every minute of our life. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you for what?
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That you should go and bear fruit. Some of us are not experiencing the fullness of the
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Christian life because we're using Christianity to just do earthly things. We're just resting instead of running for Christ.
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He's appointed us not to just sit around on our gifts under a bushel, but to do much for Him.
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I've appointed you that you should bear fruit. And there's three offices that Paul speaks about that he's excited about.
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They're not necessarily the gifts that we've received. We're not apostles. Praise the Lord for that. We're not preachers, all of us.
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But I think there's a sense in which we can understand some of the attitude and the ethos of how
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Paul speaks God's word because that's the only thing that matters in our lives and in our conversation.
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Three things about Paul's attitude in these three offices. He says, first, I was appointed to be a preacher. And that speaks about a caruso or a herald, somebody that speaks for the king and doesn't get in the way and add all his own ideas, but speaks with authority when we speak because we're speaking the words of heaven.
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Do you realize that? This book that we have, it's from heaven inspired by the
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Spirit. So, he has an authority. He not only says, I'm a preacher, but he says, I'm an apostle. And that's, you know, sometimes we glorify this office, but basically it means sent one.
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The whole atmosphere of this passage is not just one of authority, but one of humility. I don't appoint myself.
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I don't try to figure out how I may be big in Jesus' kingdom.
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I just want to be a servant. Cleaning toilets, if that's what he calls me to be.
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I am just a sent one. You know, the most dangerous people in the church are people who send themselves.
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You need to get them out of ministry as fast as you can. We want people that are sent.
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And part of that is submitting to Jesus, but it's also submitting to the church, isn't it? So that we would do the work that God has given us rather than the work that we want to do.
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I think that's why some of us are burning out. We're doing what we like to do instead of what Christ wants us to do.
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And if you're struggling to figure that out, I know you talk to the elders in this church and they'll help you to understand.
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Usually the ministries that we think we're good at, we're not good at. And the best way you know is, you know, if you're counseling somebody and they want to commit suicide after that, you're not gifted, okay?
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With counseling. Do something else. You think you're good at something, but you need to find out from others in the church who are appointed by God around you to find what you're sent for.
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There needs to be a sense of humility. Not pride in our service. Authority, humility, and finally, he says,
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I'm appointed to be a teacher. There's a sense of clarity that enables us to disciple people and guide them and give them light.
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Have you ever had those experiences where people are confused and you bring them the word of God in their marriage or in their work or in their decisions in their education and the light goes on.
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Why? Because thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
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Isn't the gospel amazing? It strengthens us when we submit to it. It strengthens us when we say, thy will be done rather than my will.
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But not only does Paul have strength through submitting to God's purposes, but look at verse 12.
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See, this is the dangerous thing about preaching the inspired word of God. We could preach for hours on just two verses.
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But look at verse 12 when Paul says, I am not ashamed. And I think there's a further sense in which
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God's sovereignty that we've talked about in verse 11 begins to be a real encouragement to Paul in a practical way.
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As he says, I am not ashamed, there's a sense in which Paul is saying, literally, I am strengthened in my inner man which is tempted to panic and become anxious and get divided.
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Isn't that our reaction naturally when we go through trials? How am I gonna make it through this cancer treatment?
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How am I gonna make it through the loss of this loved one? And we begin to panic. Maybe it's even something mundane.
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How am I gonna make it through losing my job? And God says, when you begin to realize that your life is appointed, it moves away that sense of your divided heart and gives you a sense of stability.
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That's what Paul is talking about. That literally the sovereignty of God becomes a pillow that you can lay your head on to work through the tough times of life.
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Sovereignty of God sometimes is a doctrine that threatens a lot of people. It's because they don't understand it properly.
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I can't live without the sovereignty of God. And so not only does
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Paul say, I have a submission to God's purposes, but he says, I have a solace. What is he not ashamed in?
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I am not ashamed, not in myself, but I'm not ashamed in knowing Him who
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I have believed that He's able. There is a solace, secondly. This is the second root of gospel strength.
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The first is a submission to God's purposes. The second is a solace in Christ's unfailing power.
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A solace in Christ's unfailing power and faithfulness. There's two truths about Christ's power and faithfulness that strengthen us.
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The first is when we find Paul saying, I also suffer continually these things.
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He's literally taking the worst in his life. And when he uses this word suffering, he's using a word for pain that affects you physically and emotionally.
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Probably talking about the dungeon that he was in. And he says, I suffer and I go through this suffering with a lack of instability, but with comfort and joy.
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Why? Because first of all, he says, I'm comforted by the fact that God's plan is good.
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God's plan is good. When God sends me suffering, it always has a reason.
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His reason, not my reason. And His reasons are not always comfortable, but they're good.
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When we realize that there is no randomness in life, especially in the suffering, we realize that God is working all things for good.
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Romans 8, 28 is so often misunderstood by us, right? We tend to translate it in our minds even though we know better, as God is working only good.
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You know, the verse doesn't promise that. It actually says, God is working all things for good, which actually, most of the time, is suffering and calamity and being beaten down.
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But we have such a great God who is able to take the suffering of our life and make it good.
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And that becomes the first source of our solace and our comfort. God has a reason, a good reason.
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Book of Job teaches us this, right? I can't imagine. I think under the Lord Jesus, there's nobody that suffered like Job.
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Losing all his children, losing everything that he had, losing even his wife to a certain extent because she actually started pushing him in non -Christlike ways until the end when there was repentance.
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How did he make it through that? I know my Redeemer lives.
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Look at Jeremiah, the weeping prophet who spent most of his days crying.
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And he said, God, what can you do in my life? Lord, why would you send more suffering in the believer's life than in the unbeliever?
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Don't you see that to be true? You look at unbelievers and they're riding, you know, three different SUVs and living in these six -bedroom or ten -bedroom houses and you have a one -room apartment and you're feeling the pain and you're saying,
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Lord, why? Like Psalm 73. It's a good question to ask. Sometimes we lose heart because we don't meditate on this issue enough of what good is
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God doing in my life or in your life through suffering. Let me give you six possible things that God is doing.
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You can probably think about 50 as you keep pursuing this. But let me start the juices flowing by giving you six.
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I think one of the first reasons why God sends suffering into my life and your life is to restrain sin.
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I'm speaking about God's children here, okay? To restrain sin. You know, 2 Corinthians 12.
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I've meditated on this chapter so many times about the thorn in the flesh. You know why Paul was sent the thorn in the flesh?
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It's because of the excessive visions that he had about heaven where he saw the
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Lord. And unlike people today when they have so -called visions of heaven, he didn't make a movie out of it or write a book on it.
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But he was actually told by the Lord that you're forbidden to speak about this because it produces what?
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Pride. And just to make sure, because Paul still struggled with pride, he was sent this...
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We're not supposed to figure out what the thorn in the flesh is, okay? Don't worry about that. But we're supposed to understand the purpose of the thorn in the flesh is because Paul struggled with pride.
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2 Corinthians 12 .7 Because of the greatness of my revelation to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh to keep me from exalting myself.
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He said it twice, just in case you didn't get the point. If Paul struggled with sin, what do you think you struggle with?
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And how much do you think God needs to refine you? So, this is one of the first loving purposes of God sending us suffering.
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I think another reason is to grow us in perseverance. James 1 .3
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Our church members are memorizing James. It's a great book. If you're struggling with suffering, memorize James.
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Especially chapter 1. That he sends us suffering so that he may test our faith and produce what?
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The spiritual muscles of endurance. Some of you like to go to the gym and keep doing it. But more than the physical gym, you need to go to the spiritual gym that produces endurance and faith.
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And you know what that's called? The gym of suffering. Because God loves you.
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Restrain sin to grow us in perseverance. I think a third reason why God sends us suffering is to remind us that this isn't it.
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Sometimes we think, oh, there's a new iPad coming out. This is probably the millennium now, you know. We're living in a perfect world because of all the technology and all the buildings that man can do and accomplish.
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And God wants to remind us that this is a fallen world. And we don't see it.
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But it's groaning. And we need to groan with creation sometimes just to understand that this world is not our home.
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That there's a better world to come that Christ is going to bring. And don't get settled here.
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Romans 8 .22 The whole creation groans. And sometimes believers groan with creation just to remember that our heart needs to be at home which is still to come.
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So to constantly remind us that we live in a fallen world. The fourth reason, to advance the gospel.
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Philippians 1 .12 As Paul is in prison in another situation, people are even slandering him.
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He says, I just want you to know, brethren, that all this nonsense from a human perspective because of the sovereign
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Christ has turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. That's all that matters. Who cares if Paul is slandered?
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Paul doesn't matter. I must decrease. Christ must increase. So we praise the
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Lord when his gospel advances. Think of the fifth reason why God sends us suffering. And you may not like this, but this is good.
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Is to equip us to counsel others. You know, people come to me all the time and say, what university,
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ACBC, CCF, it's like all these different rock groups that we can join to learn counseling. And I say, the best school of counseling.
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So you can go to those schools. There's nothing harmful about them. But actually, the best school of counseling is suffering.
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The university of suffering. We talked about the gym of suffering. Now you talk about the university of suffering. We've had so many funerals in our church in this last year.
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And one of the neat things that God does through that, two widows, lost faithful husbands, is to even see how these widows, one of the widows is a little bit more spiritually mature than the other, can counsel one another better than I can counsel them.
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And that's what God does in His church, is He puts people through similar trials and situations so that they can become the arm of the great shepherd in His church.
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I think the sixth reason why God sends suffering is to show us who the elect really are. Sometimes God sends suffering upon the church as a whole.
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And we've seen this many times to cause church growth by subtraction where you begin to see who really knows
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Christ and is able to stand for Christ. Because even standing in the fires is not you, it's
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Him. And if you don't have a relationship with Him, you'll quickly fall away. Well, Paul knows the reason why he's suffering.
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He says in verse 12 again, if you look back at it, it's because I have faithfully preached the gospel.
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I've been a preacher, I've been an apostle, I've been a teacher. What's one of the main reasons why unbelieving men hate us so much?
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It's because they hate the gospel. Admit it, you hated the gospel till the spirit broke you.
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And we gotta preach grace so strongly that it causes people to even hate us.
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People hate a gospel that teaches them that they can earn their way into heaven. Because we love our own merit.
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We love our own righteousness. And when you start preaching against that, you're gonna get a whole lot of hate, brothers and sisters.
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I don't know if you knew you signed up for this, but you did. And that explains some of what's going on in your families.
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But keep pressing on. Because one day
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God will break those people as you pray. I had a lady that 10 years was married to an unbelieving husband that did everything that he could to be super mean to her.
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10 years. And she continued to just faithfully, just humbly submit to him. Only Jesus gave her the strength.
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And after 10 years, he just broke down. He said, I don't know, dear. What enables you to continue to be kind to me when
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I've been so bad? And she said, It's Jesus. And he gave his life to that same savior.
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And he joined the seminary and he's a pastor now. That's the power of grace. That's the power of grace.
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For by grace you've been saved. Not of yourselves. Right? So that no one should boast.
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So Paul says, I find solace in knowing God's plan is good. Especially when
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I suffer. There's a greater sense of knowing God's plan in my life.
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But not only is God's plan good, but Paul continues to find solace in understanding that Christ's faithfulness governs my life.
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Christ's faithfulness governs my life. Look at the end of verse 12. For I know whom
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I have believed. I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed.
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There's a sense in which Christians that suffer and Christians that are at death's door know greater the presence of Jesus Christ than any other kind of Christian.
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That's why I said earlier, as a pastor, I love spending time with dying Christians. I know that sounds weird.
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But it's biblical. Because they see Christ more than I see
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Christ. And particularly his faithfulness. You know, when Paul is saying, I know whom
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I have believed, this is a continual sense of assurance that is indicating that Christianity has gone beyond what
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I have believed to whom I have believed. And there is a great graduation. Most of us are just at the point of, yeah,
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I know the doctrines of grace, 5 points of Calvinism, 50 verses, you know. And it's all this knowledge that's just puffing you up like a frog.
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And you don't have any sense of who Jesus is. And Paul is saying,
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I haven't just read about Jesus, I've actually gone to Him in times of need.
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And experienced His mercy. I've known the power of His blood cleansing me from sin.
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I've known in my times of perplexity and confusion, His wisdom. I've known
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His keeping power. I've known He has a throne of grace. I've known
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Him. And that's so much richer than just knowing about Him.
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I think there's several aspects of the way in which Paul knows Paul that I just want to conclude with.
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I think he says, I know Him as powerful. Look at verse 12, he says, I know whom
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I believe and I'm convinced that He's able. That He's able. That word dunatos or the dunamai group in the
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Bible is speaking about the power of God. That He can constantly keep me.
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He's able to keep me. I know that I didn't choose Him, that He appointed me and therefore
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I can't unchoose Him. He keeps me. He won't allow me to fall out of the
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Father's hand through the strongest temptation, through the lowest depression, through the greatest suffering.
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I know that I will endure because He endures. He will keep me. The power that calmed the storm that raised
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Jesus from the dead is if He could do that great thing, He will keep me. That's the same power that keeps me.
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Not only do I know Him as powerful, but I know Him as faithful. I know that what
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I've entrusted will be kept until that day. Now the context makes it clear as you're thinking about this and we need to clarify this.
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Does Paul think that his life is entrusted to the Lord Jesus Christ, his physical life?
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No. Because if you look at verse 14 and following, he knows he's gonna die. He knows his race is finished.
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So when he says, I know that what I've entrusted to Him will be kept until that day.
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What's he talking about? I think he's talking more than about his physical life.
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I think he's talking about the truth that endures even beyond us.
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At the end of time, people aren't gonna remember our names. They're gonna remember the Christ that we preached and the
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Christ that we named. And because Christ is protecting and building
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His church, He will protect His ministers in as much as we're proclaiming
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Him. That's all that endures. That's why when we do the work of the Lord, we're steadfast and unmovable knowing that the work and the toil that we do for Him is not in vain.
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We will fade away, but Christ won't through us.
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You know, that gives you a better hope than just hoping that Christ will save you physically. To know that Christ keeps only that which we do for Him.
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I was ministering with one of our graduates that his father was a pastor of a church in a remote part of our country.
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And he had started that church because 10 years ago, he had given up idols.
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First Thessalonians 1 and received the Lord as his King and Savior. And immediately the community, the village government kicked him out of his home that they had owned for generations and said, if you refuse to worship idols, we're gonna kick you out of this village.
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And so they packed everything on a bullock cart and they just kept moving till they got to a remote piece of dirt and they started a village there.
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Which eventually grew into a local church. And they call that village Peace Village, Prasanthi Giri.
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And what happened over the last decade or so is different Christian refugees, again, that went through the same experience as them, kept flocking to this village.
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And now there's two villages. They ran out of space in Peace Village, so they had to start a second village. Because so many people were leaving idols and coming to worship
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Christ. And they started Hope Village, Nirikshana Giri, which they're just working through the fruit of the
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Spirit, you know, in terms of all these villages. And what they're saying as I met them there is, the more we give up in this world for Christ, the more we gain.
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His work can never be defeated. We can, but His work can never be defeated. That's what gives you an excitement about this life.
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When you suffer for the Gospel, you experience the love of Christ more than ever before.
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Francis Schaeffer reminded us from many years ago, he said, the Gospel of the Church today is not the
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Gospel of the Bible. It's a Gospel of peace and affluence. That's not found in the
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Scriptures. The Gospel of Paul is a Gospel that is a strong Gospel.
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A Gospel even of suffering. But within that, a Gospel of joy.
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May that be your strength, brothers and sisters. As you serve, whether it's here in this place or across the nations, it's only as we depend on the vine that we can live and see
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Him do great things through us. Amen? Let's pray. Father God, we thank You so much for Your Word and Your power even expressed through the example of the
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Apostle Paul. We're so far, Lord, from even experiencing some of the suffering that he experienced.
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But as You give us different demonstrations, and You know what each one of us can bear, we praise
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You for that. Lord, help us to continuously die to ourselves. Who are we that we would think that we have any strength?
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And especially as we grow in Christ, Lord, help us to continue to decrease so that Christ may increase in our lives.
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And through that, give us a strength that goes beyond us, that can become an aroma, that can cause many to come from death to life.
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Use us, Lord, we pray to that end for Jesus' fame. And we ask these things in His precious name.