“COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS: The blessing of suffering.” - 8-8-21
INTRODUCTION
Blessings
God carries our burdens daily.
God meets our needs.
God blesses us with spiritual blessings in Christ.
God forgives all our sins.
God heals all our diseases.
God redeems your life from the pit.
God crowns us with love and compassion.
God satisfies your desires with good things.
God works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
God offers unseen blessings.
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”
Psalms 103:1-6 NIV
“What seems to us bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” Oscar Wilde
“Blessings sometimes show up in unrecognizable disguises.”
Janette Oke
“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.” Eric Hoffer
““We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.”
Acts 14:22b NIV
I. SUFFERING IS MULTIFACETED
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
Helen Keller quoted in: Barbara Rowes, The book of Quotes
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV
1. Mental
2. Physical
3. Emotional
4. Spiritual
II. SUFFERING HAPPENS IN COMMUNITY
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
Galatians 6:2 NIV
A. We don’t suffer alone.
B. We all have experience in suffering.
III. SUFFERING EQUIPS US FOR MINISTRY
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
A. Suffering prepares us for ministry.
B. God’s comfort gives us something to offer those suffering.
“But when you’ve passed through your own fiery trials, and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain; he reshaped you more into his image. You’ve found that what this entire hymn says is true. What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and the clarity necessary to help sanctify another person’s deepest distress.”
“Suffering and the Sovereignty of God” edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor, p. 166.
IV. SUFFERING IS A BATTLEGROUND
“His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!” He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.”
Job 2:9-10 NIV
1. Curse
2. Praise
V. SUFFERING PREPARES US FOR MORE GLORY
“A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.”
Mildred Witte Struven, in Bits and Pieces, September 19, 1991, p. 6.
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NIV
1. Counterintuitive
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;”
Proverbs 3:5 NIV
2. Suffering focuses us on the eternal.
“Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my 75 years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my experience, has been through affliction and not through happiness.”
Malcolm Muggeridge, in Homemade, July, 1990
CONCLUSION
Billie Wilcox, on the lessons of a disaster: While my husband Frank and I were living in Pakistan many years ago, our six-month-old baby died. An old Punjabi who heard of our grief came to comfort us. "A tragedy like this is similar to being plunged into boiling water," he explained. "If you are an egg, your affliction will make you hard-boiled and unresponsive. If you are a potato, you will emerge soft and pliable, resilient and adaptable." It may sound funny to God, but there have been times when I have prayed, "O Lord, let me be a potato."
Guideposts Magazine
Suffering is multifaceted. Suffering happens in community. Suffering equips us for ministry. Suffering is a battleground. Suffering prepares us for more glory.
CHALLENGE
Our challenge will remain the same each week of this sermon series. I just ask that you keep in mind the topic of each week’s message as you write down your weekly 3-2-1. The topic this week is the blessing of suffering.
Write down 3 ways God bears your burdens daily. Write down 2 needs God has met this week. Write down 1 spiritual blessing in Christ that you cherish most. Acknowledge God’s blessings.
INVITATION
It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word. You may want to follow Jesus. You may want to proclaim your faith. You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things). Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church. If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now. If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.
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