with me to Romans chapter 8. I'm going to be reading from verse 16 all the way to verse 25. Romans chapter 8 verse 16 to 25. Okay, reading out of the ESV, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then 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. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the Creator, but we ourselves who have the first fruit of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption, as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we are saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope for we, for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that You would anoint Your Word, and that as it goes forth, that it would reveal, minister to, encourage, and shape our own hearts and our lives according to Your will and purpose.

We pray, Lord God, as we come in weakness, that Your Spirit, Lord God, would make us strong. Help us to be resolved more than just hearing, but that our very lives will be changed as a result of what we know of You. Help us, Lord God, to see a greater glimpse of Christ and His glory, that we would be changed, Lord God, day to day.

We entrust this time to You, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, as I mentioned to you before, we're studying the book of Romans, and if there was any one particular book that, to me, not that any other passages in the Bible is not as great, and obviously every part of the Bible is inspired by God, but if there's one book that I would commend to you to really dive into and study and to know it well, it would be the book of Romans.

Because the book of Romans is not written to deal with any one particular problem. Paul writes to the Galatians and Philippians, and he has many things that he covers in these things, but they all deal with a particular thing that was on Paul's mind, and he deals with that.

And so the Gospel message is mentioned, but it's mentioned with certain emphasis. The book of Romans is really Christianity in a nutshell, all of it. There's no one particular thing that he mentions above everything else. It's all of it is mentioned, all of it he dives into. So I would say, you know, if there's any one book that we really should know well what it has to say, it would be the book of Romans.

But in the book of Romans, if we were to pick a chapter that really summarizes the thoughts and intentions and theology of the whole book of Romans, it would be chapter eight. So if we were to take time and really want to dive into it, I mean, we really could, and I'm not trying to milk it, we really could spend probably months and months and maybe a half a year just studying the book of Romans chapter eight alone, because so much is contained in this chapter.

And so I hesitate to go through it too fast, even three or four verses at a time, because we have to skim through a lot of these things, the meaning behind all of these things, in order for us to be able to cover it in a reasonable amount of time.

So I just commend this book to you. I commend this particular chapter to you. If you were to memorize any chapter in the book, this is the chapter that I really would commend to you to know it by heart, let it shape your thought, let it shape your thinking, and it'll affect the way you praise God, how you view the universe and what God is doing.

I want to see what we're talking about today. The subject that we're talking about is Christian suffering. I think it is relevant, no matter when I preach this, when this is preached, this is relevant at all times, because I can't remember a single time, whether our church was small, we had 30 or 40 people, or larger than, large as our church has become, I can't think of any particular time that I've ever been in ministry where there wasn't somebody in church that was suffering because something going on.

Some of it I'm aware of, some of it you guys are aware of, and some of it you guys are not aware of. But this idea of Christian suffering, it is so relevant, so important to us that we have a proper understanding in the context of what Paul says, in particular in this text.

So before I dive into it, I want you to understand that we don't deal with this separately from what Paul is saying. Paul, I'm not going to go through all of it, but remember in chapter 6, Paul begins to answer the question, if salvation is by grace alone, if you say that it's not by your works, not what you do, but simply by the grace of God that we're saved, isn't that going to lead to a generation of people who are going to say, "Well, let sin that grace may abound, it doesn't matter, that's how great our God is, that no matter what He does, He loves us and we can do whatever we want." Isn't it going to lead to a life of licentiousness?

And Paul says, "Absolutely not." By no means. If an individual has truly been united with Christ, he died with Christ, he was resurrected with Christ, and the Holy Spirit has been put into him. So it wasn't simply that, that our sins were forgiven, but we've also been delivered from the power of sin.

And that's why the Bible often talks about redemption and deliverance, right? Not simply for the penalty of sin, but the power of sin has been broken because of the presence of the Holy Spirit. So Paul has been talking about in chapter 7 how the power of the Holy Spirit has caused us to be delivered from bondage, but not only did we get delivered from bondage, we were made to be children of God, sons of God, to call Him our Abba Father, and as a result of that, we have become co-heirs with Christ.

So again, up to that point, the Holy Spirit, He didn't just nullify our sins, He elevated us to be co-heirs, that we have access to this Father. Now having said all of that, all of that is all orthodox, right? We agree on all of that. But how do we understand this salvation?

If you misapply your understanding of salvation, if we project my understanding of salvation to this Gospel message, a lot of strange doctrines and practices come out of misapplying what we think salvation is. Years ago, when the Charismatic Movement was in full swing, probably about 20-25 years ago, probably more than that, maybe closer to 30 years ago, the Charismatic Movement was called the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit.

And there was a, the Charismatic Movement, the modern day, the singing and praising and band and all of this, this all came in during that period. Because prior to that, it was, if you were contemporary, you had one guy playing guitar, right? Typically it was an organ or a piano, and that would be a traditional, and then contemporary would be one guy playing guitar.

But during the Charismatic Movement, the worship style changed drastically. Now all of that stuff is just a matter of style, whether you play organ or full praise team, that has nothing to do with genuine worship. But one of the things that was being taught at that time during this Charismatic Movement was that if you genuinely believe in God, God will and can heal you, whatever disease you have.

So there was these healing services that were going on, even in conservative Presbyterian churches, Baptist churches, all of a sudden were having these healing services because, again, the central figure during this time was a man named John Wimber, who was the leader of the Vineyard Movement. The Vineyard Church still exists today, but the leader of the Vineyard Movement basically was teaching that if you believe, if you have genuine faith, that whatever ails you, God can heal.

So they would have traditional worship. Today we have, you know, we have the regular worship, and you have the contemporary worship. Well, during that time you had the contemporary worship, and then healing service, right? All of a sudden healing services were popping up left and right. But the problem with this movement was that John Wimber, who was the chief proponent of this theology, got cancer.

So everybody was watching. Well, he was telling everybody that if you really believe, and people would say, "Well, I went to a healing service. I didn't get healed." It was because you didn't have true faith. If you really had true faith, you would have been healed. So the problem is with you, not me, right?

Well, he got cancer, and so obviously people were watching and praying, and years went by, and there were periods where they said, "Oh, he's better. He's not better." But eventually he passed away because of his cancer. And so that confused a lot of people who were fully 100% in this movement, and there was no big turnaround saying, "That was wrong." It was just kind of fizzled out.

And that's why it's just not, you know, these days you don't hear a lot about it, but about 20, 30 years ago, it was just as popular as anything that you would see today. It's because in their mind, even though they had the correct gospel, their application, what salvation meant.

Salvation meant that you're going to be physically healed. Something I think a little bit more relevant today that's been around for a long time is the health and wealth gospel. I remember years ago, there was a popular speaker, and again, this man named Fred Price was a pastor of a very large church, a mega church in LA, and his church was called the Faith Dome.

And it used to be a sports arena that he turned it into his church, and he had tens of thousands of people meeting there. And then every Sunday morning he would preach. And I didn't know his theology. I just thought, "Oh, this guy's a really good communicator." So I would listen to him every once in a while.

But I remember one Sunday he had people stand up and he said, "Anybody here who's on welfare stand up." And people very reluctantly stood up. And when they stood up, he just ripped into them. And he said, "The reason why you guys are on welfare is because you don't have enough faith.

God can deliver you from poverty." And he would just rip on them. And obviously, you know, I'm watching this, I'm cringing. And then the next thing he would have them sit down. And then he said, "Those of you who used to be on welfare, who used to be poor, didn't have a job, but now you do." And then you get up.

And everybody gets up and people start clapping. It's because these people believed. And God delivered them from poverty. And whatever sickness they had, God delivered them. And people would all clap, and then he would begin to share about his wealth. You know, and that's why, because if you have faith like his, you can have this wealth yourself.

Right? Now you guys are at a Bible teaching church, so we look at that and say, "That's ridiculous. Why would people even fall for that?" Right? We don't believe it on paper. We never signed a doctrinal statement. But if we examine ourselves carefully, you will find just how prominent this health and wealth gospel is, even in your life.

How often do we equate the love of God and his grace with a good job? How often do we question his goodness when we pray for good health and it doesn't come? How often do we celebrate and thank God when God answers our prayer and we get a raise?

And when that doesn't happen, we question, "Why didn't God answer?" Because suddenly, we would never say we're part of the health and wealth gospel movement. But when something is not the way that you think it ought to be, you think something is wrong. I must have done something wrong.

Or maybe God isn't even real. How much of the application of what we consider to be Orthodox Christian faith is mixed in with this ideology of what I think salvation means. Now, why do I say all of this? It's because Paul qualifies that by the Holy Spirit, we have become co-heirs with Christ.

Well, if I'm co-heir with Christ, if I become a child of the living God who created the universe, then all things is mine. No more suffering. No more hunger. So Paul, again, he's been arguing now, in case that you get a wrong understanding what salvation is, he says in verse 17, "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." It's kind of like, you know, build them up.

You've been delivered, you're a child of God, call him Abba Father, you're co-heirs with Christ, as long as you continue to suffer with him. Wah, wah, wah. So all this build up to make sure that you don't misapply what it means to be saved. Today we're going to be looking at, I think, three principles that Paul teaches about suffering in this particular text.

That we have a biblical ideology, biblical application, what it means to be saved. And where suffering plays a role. The first thing that we need to understand is that Paul, in this particular context, is talking about suffering of all the world. Suffering is a state of all the fallen world.

That's the first principle that we want to look at. Now, he does start in verse 17 by specifically mentioning Christian suffering. He says, "Provided that we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." Suffering here is, again, he begins with Christian suffering, but Christian suffering is within the context of the larger suffering that he mentions about the creation.

He says, "Of the creation," Romans 8.20, "the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it." Now, the creation isn't suffering because of persecution. Creation's not suffering because it's obedience to the Word of God. He's talking about creation and its suffering because we all live in this fallen world, universally.

Every single human being experiences this suffering, Christian or non-Christian alike. You know, when we go through suffering, we have a tendency to isolate ourselves, to think that nobody understands me. Nobody understands. Nobody understands what I've gone through. Nobody has seen, nobody knows what my family is like. Nobody knows the financial problems.

Nobody knows the health issues. Nobody knows the relationship that we have. And when we begin to isolate ourselves, you make your suffering unique that nobody else knows but you. But the Scripture clearly says, and again, for 28, 27 years of ministry, I can guarantee you, whether you are old or whether you are young, whether you are rich, whether you come from a broken family or a together family, whatever your background may be, your brothers and sisters who are sitting around you are suffering the same.

They're suffering the same. The loneliness that you feel, even in the large context, that's not unique to you. That's not unique to you. Feeling like you don't belong, that's not unique to you. Feeling like you've been chipped in life, that's not unique to you. Your inability to communicate with your husband and wife, that's not unique to you.

Whatever struggles that you may have experienced, the Scripture clearly tells us that this is the experience of mankind because we've all fallen. Paul says in Romans 8, 20, of all the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. He says all of creation has experienced this.

See in Genesis chapter 3, 17 to 19, when the Bible talks about the corruption and the suffering that was going to come upon man, it wasn't just man he isolates. He says in verse 17, "Cursed is the ground because of you." If you remember, all of creation was created first and then God created Adam and Eve the very last.

He created life. He created food. All of it to sustain man on the sixth day. And then he told man to rule over his creation. So his job was to rule over it, to subdue it, to be caretakers. So when Adam and Eve fell, not only did Adam and Eve fall, everything that God created for Adam and Eve also became corrupt.

He says, "Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you." This is a common experience of all mankind. "You shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." All of mankind, all of mankind, Christian and non-Christian alike, rich or poor, whether you are born in this country or in the Middle East or anywhere else, the scripture says life is going to be difficult.

Suffering is going to come as a result of this fall. And as a result of that, in Romans 8.20, he says, "In hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage and decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." So restoration is not simply mankind being restored and him being saved.

He says, "With the restoration of mankind, all of creation will also be restored." In Isaiah 65.25, "The wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountains, says the Lord." So when he describes salvation and restoration, he describes not only the salvation of Adam and Eve, mankind, but through them all the other things that were corrupt, all the other things that were condemned will also be restored.

So when Isaiah says in Isaiah 65.25, "The wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox." Basically what he's saying is that's not how God created the universe. The way, what you and I see, the reason why a lion doesn't walk in the midst of us, all of that happened because of the fall.

He said, "We live in danger." If you've ever read statistics about the dangerous animals of how many people get killed by lions or elephants or mosquitoes or sharks, and always in the top of that list is man killing man. See this corruption came in because of the fall, not just human beings, but all of creation.

So when God restores, he says he will restore all that was lost in creation. Suffering characterizes mankind and all its creation. Revelation 21.1-2, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Just like in the Lord's prayer, our prayer is, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." That what was lost in creation will be restored.

So the Lord's prayer is the restoration of mankind, what God desired. You know, sometimes you see on Facebook or news where people talking about, you know, we have to save the planet and we have, you know, and all of these things are true. We need to be good stewards of what God has given us.

But we forget, sometimes even as Christians, the reason why the earth and the creation is in the state that it's in is not because we're burning plastic. That's what the world says. The problem is that if we were just a little bit more careful, if we rode electric cars, that we can fix this universe.

The scripture says all of that happened in the beginning. The decay happened as a result of the fall of man. So restoration is going to happen when man is restored to what God intended. You know, being overly concerned about our planet is kind of like coming from a broken home and your primary concern is if the dog is eating.

We're arguing about, "Did the dog get the right food? Is he walking enough while your husband and wife isn't eating, while your kids aren't eating?" See, the scriptures tells us that all of creation is eagerly waiting. And as a result of all of this, Romans 8.22, "For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." All of creation since the fall has been groaning.

What does groaning mean? Like when do you groan? When there's a deep-seated suffering, emotions that you can't express with words. We groan. All of creation, and it is not just you. It is not your circumstance. It is not simply you. Even though at times when you're going through suffering, you think like you're the only person in this universe that knows what you're going through.

The whole world, all of creation is groaning. You know, in Ecclesiastes, as you know, King Solomon, everything that you and I can possibly imagine, King Solomon had opportunity to do. If he wanted to travel, he could go anywhere he wanted. For food, concubines, all the wealth that you can possibly, anything that you can possibly imagine that you and I sometimes entertain.

Winning the lottery for King Solomon would be a joke to him. That's how much money he had. He experienced all of that, and the end conclusion of all of it, as you guys know, he says, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." Nothing is new under the sun. Ever since before him, ever since after him, everybody has been pursuing thinking the answer is in something else.

But the end result is, it is empty. It is empty. All he found was more groaning. More groaning. This is the state of all mankind. It is because of this groaning Christ came. It is to relieve us from this groaning why Christ was crucified on the cross. But here's what's unique about us, the number two, right?

This suffering isn't necessarily unique to Christians, but it is unique to us in this sense. Suffering reveals the genuineness of our faith, okay? Number two. Second principle. Suffering reveals for Christians the genuineness of our faith. In Romans 8, 17, "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." He says, "Well, how do you know the Holy Spirit is in you?

How do you know that you're a child of God?" He says, "Suffering. Suffering does." When suffering comes, where does relief come for you? When suffering comes in your life, what is your answer? Who do you seek? Where do you find your comfort? There's a reason why the scripture tells us not to be hasty in laying hands, to take time to test, to test a man.

Well, what does it mean to test a man? Does he take a test? Right? Is there an exam that he takes? And it's sad to say in our generation, you know, if you want to get ordained, go to school, learn your theology, and take a test. And if you pass a test, you become a pastor.

Right? And I always thought that was strange. Like somebody becomes a pastor like you become a lawyer. If you know these facts, you become a pastor. Well, that's not what testing means in scripture. Testing means some men, since they're obvious, some men since trail behind them. Let time and circumstance and trials test them to see the genuineness of their faith.

You probably heard this before, but it's like a sponge. In your kitchen you have a sponge and whoever washed dishes before, if they did a good job cleaning that sponge before they left, and you really don't know what's in that sponge until you take it and you squeeze it.

And then you find all this brown water coming out because whoever washed dishes before didn't thoroughly clean it. And you didn't know what was in there until you squeezed it. In the same way, suffering reveals. Suffering reveals where you turn to why you two people can experience the same kind of suffering where one person comes out praising God and thanking him that the suffering caused them to get closer to God.

Where the other person that even a little bit of suffering causes them to be bitter and angry toward God and everybody else. What was the difference? It was their faith. Believing that a sovereign God who loves them is sovereignly in control causes that individual to seek a greater glimpse of his glory.

Where a person who doesn't have faith, all they see is darkness and they don't see hope. Suffering reveals the genuineness of our faith. See Matthew 16, 24, Jesus said, from the very get-go, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." It is not because God doesn't want us to be happy or is it kill joy?

Our very idea, our very impulse for life has been corrupted. You ever wonder why all the things that we crave usually for food are bad for us? Wouldn't it be awesome if you were born with a craving for only good stuff? Why do we have to resist candy and stuff?

I have too many things on my head to share all at once. Why is it, I mean, think about even the lust that God intended for your wife and your husband. Why is it not romantic in the world? Why is it whenever they have sexual context on television or movies it's always, always outside of the wedding?

Pornography is sex that has been corrupted. All our senses have been corrupted. So when he says, "If you want to live, you need to first deny yourself because yourself, your very senses have been corrupted." Suffering comes into our lives and he puts pressure to reveal that we've been chasing after things that are corrupted.

He takes our eyes off of these things that we easily get distracted in to focus on him. John 12, 25, 26, "Whoever loves his life, loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am, there will my servant be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." Our very desire to live and what we think is going to bring life has been corrupted. So God oftentimes will bring suffering in our lives to force us, to cause us to take our eyes off of whatever it is that we have been distracted by.

Whatever it is that you have convinced yourself is going to bring joy and satisfaction and to fix our eyes upon him. I mean, what James says in chapter 1, 2-4, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." It's another thing to endure it, to persevere in it.

But he says to rejoice in it. How can you possibly expect people to rejoice when suffering comes? But here's the reason why he says, "Rejoice, for you know that the testing of your faith, the proving of your faith produces steadfastness. And steadfastness has its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." In other words, he's saying God has bringing various kinds of suffering in our lives to bring us to completion.

And what is this completion? What is this end goal of salvation? Isn't it to bring us to him? Isn't that what we talked about? The Holy Spirit was deposited in us to embrace us, to carry us on his shoulder and bring us to him. So when he says, "When various trials have come in and produces endurance and steadfastness and the end result is completeness," what is this completeness?

Isn't that another way of saying to bring us to him? That God's avenue to bring us salvation is through suffering? And the reason why it's suffering is because our idea of peace produces death. Our idea of joy in this world produces death and condemnation. Our idea of comfort and who we run to produces condemnation.

That's why he brings suffering. He puts pressure so that we may take our eyes off of whatever it is that we have been distracted by and to remind us salvation is in him and him alone. Third principle, ultimately suffering and glory go hand in hand. Suffering and glory go hand in hand.

Again, Romans 8.16, it says, "The Spirit of himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." To be glorified with him.

He brings suffering into our lives, ultimately not to bring affliction, but to bring glory. 2 Corinthians 4.17, "For this slight momentary affliction," and again, when Paul says momentary affliction, this slight momentary affliction, we're talking about, again, understanding the context of Apostle Paul being beaten, shipwrecked. People who are preaching the gospel to put pressure on him within the church, questioning his apostleship, possibly dying because of his faith.

So when he says slight momentary affliction, we're talking about risking his life, possibly ending any day. But the reason why he says slight momentary affliction, because of what it produces, in light of what God is trying to do, is preparing for us eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

It is in comparison that even risking his life, he says it calls it slight momentary affliction, in light of the glory that is waiting. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

When affliction comes into our lives, and it can come through relationships, it can be financial, it can be health, whatever it may be, when affliction comes to our life, our immediate response, our fleshly response, is to find an alternative. That's why, you know, when you're young, when something goes wrong, you start to think, maybe if I was with somebody else, right?

And if you're in a job that you don't like, and something happens, and I'm not saying there isn't a good time to move on, but our immediate thought is, change our circumstance, change the people that are around us. But after a while, after you've made significant changes, after you've done that four, five, six, seven times, you realize that everybody sucks.

Okay, excuse my language. Right? And some of you guys are sitting here thinking that. I've been there. They suck too. You know? We do that with churches. We do that with people, circumstance, whatever it may be. You know? Whenever affliction or trials and we're uncomfortable, we just think that, oh, maybe if we change this, we change that, it'll fix that.

But after a while, you realize all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, including you. See, God brings afflictions in our lives not to cause us to look for better circumstance. God brings pressure into our lives so that we could take our eyes off of whatever it is that you've placed your hope in and to look to him.

I remember years back when I was a younger pastor, one of the things that would really frustrate me is I underestimated the suffering of people. You know? I spent a lot of time in LA, so I thought suffering was in LA, not in Irvine. You know? So I remember the very first Bible study that I led at Irvine Baptist.

I sat around and I prepared this Bible study about, you know, about bad relationship with parents and, you know, and drugs. You know, all the stuff that I prepared. And so I sat down with the youth group and I asked them, how many of you have good relationship with your parents that you can actually talk to them?

95% said, yeah, we have a good relationship. And I remember thinking, this Bible study is not going to be relevant, you know, to this group. Right? But again, that's superficial, very superficial. There's a tendency to think, well, if you live in a rich area, you know, where everybody's have it together, suffering is not there.

Right? Absolutely false. You know, all the years that I've been here, suffering is, it looks different here. You know, it's various kinds is different. But I remember sitting in front of people who were sharing with me all kinds of trials. I mean, just some of these things are shocking things that I've heard and just feeling so inadequate because what I learned in seminary was how to exposit the Bible.

Basically, that's it. That's what I learned how to do. Exposit the Bible, right? How to use commentaries and look at the Greek and the Hebrew and the culture. And I've done that. Even preaching, I get one class. You just kind of figure that out on your own. You know, in the communion, I just figured I just kind of winged it.

Baptism. I saw my friends do it, so I did it the way he did it. You know, we were taught how to exposit the Bible. That's what we were taught. And I remember just coming out of these counseling meetings just frustrated, thinking like, I need to go back to school and get a counseling degree.

You know, I need to go back to school and learn psychology or something because it just doesn't seem enough. And they're frustrated. I'm frustrated. And I remember just thinking through all of the frustration. Is that the way it was meant to be? And the more I searched through scripture, the solution came only one way.

There's only one answer given in the scripture for all the problem of mankind. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. That every problem, every family problem, every marriage, every problem that is revealed in scripture, the answer was Christ and Christ alone. And I realized that if I give solution to any human problem, to anything else but Christ, eventually you're going to be frustrated.

I can find you the right people to meet up with on a regular basis. But if you think that finding the right people in your life is going to solve your problem, eventually you're going to be frustrated. Finding the right church, a right job, learning how to say the right things, eventually all of those things are going to fail.

Here's what it says in 1 Peter 5.10. "And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." Who's going to strengthen you? Not other people. Not your wife, not your husband, not your pastor, not your church, not your friends, not your small group leader, not your discipler.

Christ, he himself will restore you. He will confirm you. He will strengthen you. He will establish you. God brings suffering in our lives to press things in our lives, to remind us why he came. He didn't come to point us to the right direction. He came and he says, "I am the way and the truth and the life.

I am the way and the truth and the life." C.S. Lewis says of pain, "Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world." That's why in Romans 8, 18, it says, "For I consider the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." For Christians, suffering reminds us this is not our home.

When things aren't going right in your life, it reminds us this is not your home. Your retirement is not your destiny. Right investment is not your destiny. See, when the world suffers, they're in despair because there's no hope in their suffering. But Christian suffering is unique in that a sovereign and loving God is absolutely is in control.

And that's why in Philippines 1, 29, it says, "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake." Because it is in our suffering that we see Christ the clearest. See, the Lord is near to those who are brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Let me conclude with this in 2 Corinthians 4. Knowing what we know of suffering, knowing what we know about Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 16 to 18, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension.

As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4, 7. "But we have this treasure in charge of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed." Let's pray. As our worship team comes up, again, I want to invite you to come to the Lord. And I know some of you may be in anguish this morning.

Maybe you've been in anguish for a long time. Come to the Lord. Cast all your anxiety before Him because He cares for you. The whole benefit of salvation is that we have this access to our Abba Father who hears our groanings. And if what I'm saying to you is not you, if you are oblivious to the sufferings of the people around you, you need to wake up too.

That your life is content with all the people, Christians and non-Christians alike are groaning and you've become insensitive to their groaning. You need to wake up too. Let's take some time as we come before the Lord, the condemnation that this world is in, that we may be His ambassadors of this life.

So let's take some time to pray as we come before the Lord. (laughs)