Finding Hope in Suffering
Romans Series
CCCAG March 15th, 2020
Scripture- Romans 5:1-19
Cramming for exams- what 2020 is for the Christian
For us, started with Pastor Roger’s death
Then COVID
Then the lockdowns, including this church
Various shortages- including toilet paper of all things
Then the easing of the lockdowns,
Then a few stories about murder hornets coming- that one didn’t pan out at least.
Then the country erupt into riots and the worst civil unrest I’ve seen in my lifetime which began over racism, but now has morphed into a serious threat to our country as Marxists hiding within the protests are doing their best to topple our country.
Then a giant cloud of dust come sweeping in from Africa, covering the southern parts of the country- which I believe gave COVID something new to lock onto and spread it.
Followed by report of huge outbreaks of COVID in those southern states.
Does anyone feel like we are living in Egypt around the time of Moses?
2020 feels like one gut punch after another, and with the political leaders ramping up their attacks, it’s only going to get uglier, potentially, and I don’t say this lightly, to a civil war without our borders.
As God’s people, we better be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have.
Hope- a funny thing to cling to when it’s the darkest. When a tornado is bearing down on you, the last thing in our mind is hope- it’s to take shelter and pray it misses us.
This storm we are in now will affect every single person here.
That’s why we need to cling to hope.
But lets be honest- the American church is ill prepared for this season.
But our God is merciful. He is issuing a call right now to his church to prepare for a new season that’s coming- one that will challenge each of us in our dedication to the truth of the Gospel and our reliance on Jesus.
Welcome to God’s classroom. Today’s lesson will be on finding hope in suffering. We will be in Romans 5:1-19
Before we delve into subjects that might not be as comfortable for us to get into, lets focus on our hope for a moment.
One of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible is found in this chapter. It's such a beautiful verse I want to just quote it to you right now-
Close your eyes for a moment and just drink this verse in allow it to penetrate into the deepest parts of your spirit your soul and your mind because this versus soul life changing for people
Romans 5 verse 8-
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
I don't know about you but for me this is one of those “wow” scriptures. It's a scripture that when I sit and think about it, tears come to my eyes about the awesomeness of God. I wish I had the words to properly express the incredible width and height and depth of what this verse means for all of us.
This verse brings hope to me personally but even more so brings hope for all those around me and even our nation that's in such turmoil right now-that even we as Americans who are yet sinners Christ died for us also.
We can look at social media, we can read news articles, we can listen to the radio or watch the evening newscast and think that we have no hope as a people.
But this verse should assure us that God is still in control, that God still loves us , and that God still has a plan to work out his will not only in our personal lives but in the lives of this country called the United States of America, no matter what it might look like in the future.
Read Romans 5 one through 19. we are going to leave the last two verses off until next week because it flows better within the whole of the book of Romans that way.
Scripture-
Rom 5:1-19
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Prayer
This morning we are going to look at one of the ways that God is going to help us during this time. It’s going to show us that he is still intimately in control, and wants to bring us to the finish line in HIM- not as a person gasping their last breath, collapsing as we cross it- but full of HIS power and strength- sprinting into His arms.
We’ll call this first part this morning-
I. The Pilgrims Progress (Verses 1-5) (our focus for this AM)
When we think of pilgrims we often have images that pop into our minds of people with bonnets and big black hats that journeyed in the Mayflower from England to America so that they could worship in the way that they felt God was leading them.
The dictionary definition of a Pilgrim is one who sets out on a journey of faith to a spiritual destination.
I thought that was a great way to start our digging in to chapter 5 of Romans.
Verses 1 through 5 shows us how God uses the everything in our lives to bring us into deeper relationship with HIMSELF.
Our human existence is a pilgrimage toward a spiritual Kingdom.
One of the books that shaped my views about the various things we will experience in life, and helped me understand the bible better is a book called The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
It’s an allegory, meaning a book that tells a story meant to emphasis a greater truth.
In this book the main character named Christian takes a journey that leads him from his hometown named City of Destruction, a symbolic name for earth in it’s fallen state, to the celestial Kingdom representing heaven. During this journey, Christian is carrying a huge burden with him- the weight of his sin which has been revealed to him by a book he discovers (the bible). The book describes all of the pitfalls awaiting Christian along the way, things like Temptation, fear, doubt, unbelief. All of these things are put before him to take him off of the path toward the celestial city.
It's a great book, and describes what Paul is telling us here in Romans.
We are all pilgrims on this earth. One of the mistakes many of us have made is to focus too much on our lives here, and forgot that this is not our home. Because of this, we are either in a season where events, and situations in life are going to want to grab our attention and try to draw us off the path that God has for us.
Many of these events that we go through will produce suffering. It may be mental or emotional, or even physical if you come across a protest and get caught up in other people trying to harm you.
Suffering can come in many different forms. The devil is sneaky with it sometimes.
You ever have something that seems like an incredible blessing, only to discover that it really wasn’t?
In reality it was a distraction to try to draw you off the path that God has for you. Having discernment and perceiving what God's will is for you to turn aside from that blessing is difficult and produce a suffering.
Other times, we could be suffering because of a mistake we made and now a consequence comes that is very unpleasant.
And finally sometimes life just happens- we live in a fallen world and sometimes that world rises up an hits us where it hurts. We have no idea what we did to deserve this or why we are in a situation that is uncomfortable.
So let's answer the question- “Why does God allow suffering to come into our lives?”
After all we just talked about the wonderful love of God and the incredible grace and forgiveness that he has shown us. This idea that fills our hearts with gratitude and love for our Savior is sometimes clouded by the fact that even though we have this incredible gift we still suffer in life.
Regardless of why we are in a situation that produces suffering, God wants to use it if we will trust him and if we will let him.
Let me use a personal example to explain a possible benefit of suffering. I use this just to help steer our thinking from thinking that an unpleasant circumstance is always a punishment of some type.
When I was a teenager in high school it was around or right after the 4th of July that we would start football practice. Not only did we start football practice, but we started two a day football practice. That means we had two, three to four-hour workout and practice sessions per day.
Summers here in Trempealeau County are generally dry in that we don’t have a ton of humidity. This last week was an exception in that it actually felt like a Summer where I grew up in Kenosha being next to Lake Michigan and experiencing that heavy humidity again with 90+ degree heat.
Louisiana hot.
Now put on a full football uniform and do heavy exercise. I was on defense for most of my high school football career, and our defensive coach was a bit of a sadist in that he believed in working us so hard that he didn’t stop until one of us threw up or passed out.
His saying was, “The more you sweat in practice, the less you’ll bleed during the game”
Our coach used suffering to produce a result- we wouldn’t be tired on game day, even if we were on the field more than the offense. That would allow us to win football games.
Our coach knew that we were going to be playing against teams that would be unrelenting in their attempts to crush us. Therefore, he made us suffer to produce within us a mental and physical toughness that would enable us to rise above the conflict and triumph.
In the spiritual realm, God uses suffering to do the same thing with us. That mental, physical, and spiritual toughness and more importantly- dependency on God that suffering, placed under God’s control and will, produces something called perseverance.
Perseverance can be summed up like this-
“When the going gets tough- you will stand your ground. You’re not a quitter”
This willingness to stand when others flee is what character is all about.
Suffering reveals character. Godly Character can only be developed through perseverance in the midst of suffering.
Does everyone here know what a Navy SEAL is? The Navy SEALS are considered to be the top tier special forces operators in our country.
The Army has the Green Berets, Rangers, and Delta Force
The Airforce has it’s Special Operations Branch
The Marines have force recon
And the Navy has the SEAL teams. It was the SEALS that raided and killed Osama Bin Laden.
SEAL Training begins with something called the “Basic Underwater Demolition-SEALS or BUDS. Over its 24 weeks of incredible harsh training, BUDS has a 75-80% failure or dropout rate.
I was listening to a podcast recently in which a Retired Navy SEAL Andy Stumpf was describing the purpose of BUDS.
He said BUDS isn't about who's toughest, who's the best, or who's the smartest. He said BUDS is all about revealing the character of the person going through it, and if they can persevere in the midst of suffering.
The instructors use intense physical, mental, and psychological methods to produce the maximum amount of suffering they can. Most of the dropouts occur during a phase called “Hell Week”- 5 to 7 days of no sleep, no rest, very little food, and constant torment, like sitting for hours in a cold ocean doing exercises.
If you don’t have character to not be a quitter going in, BUDS will quickly reveal it, and determine that you don’t have what it takes to wear the trident of the NAVY SEALS.
You could look at the instructors of that school as cruel, malicious, and evil men.
Or you could see them as people who have gone through the same training, and understand that if they let the wrong person on the teams, it will result in their deaths, and possibility the deaths of the team and countless others if the mission fails.
Imagine if the SEALS failed in their mission to take out OBL. We might have had further terror attacks on our own soil, or the wars in the middle east might have grown.
I give you this perspective so that you can see suffering in a different light. Instead of seeing suffering as an evil, see it as a training. Instead of doing everything possible to avoid discomfort and suffering, learn to stop and ask yourself and then ask God- what are you trying to do in me or teach me through this situation?
Most of us want to live with the final product of suffering- which is an unshakable hope.
It’s like wanting an incredible amount of physical fitness but you can’t discipline yourself to diet and exercise.
Most people shrink from suffering. But often, suffering is God’s tool to produce in us the character necessary to carry future blessing.
That blessing Paul is talking about here is an unshakable hope- peace in the midst of any storm that life can throw at us.
So what is this hope that Paul is talking about here?
It’s our salvation.
But salvation is not just being saved from the fires of hell.
It is closely tied in with sanctification. Santification is about being made holy- or maturing us as Christians so that we reflect Jesus to a fallen world.
This is what Paul is talking about when he wrote the church in Phillipi when he said to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
All Rise
I’m not going to sugar coat this- we are going to enter into a season that might be very trying for some. There is a key verse found later in Roman’s that can help us during this time-
Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Do you trust him?
I want us to be a people whose hope is in heaven, and allowing God to do whatever it takes, including allowing suffering in our lives, to perfect us as a living bride of Christ that shines HIS light into this ever darkening world.
Amen?
Communion
