Dale Partridge - How the Gospel Overcomes Our Suffering - Romans 8_18

00:00:00.720 What a blessing it is to preach through this passage of Scripture.

00:00:04.920 This passage of Scripture is actually special to me as someone who has experienced a degree of suffering,

00:00:12.840 which I will talk about a bit during my sermon.

00:00:19.360 The text is Romans 8, 18. I couldn't even get to 19.

00:00:24.520 And so we're going to be going through one verse of Scripture.

00:00:27.680 It's typical that I would go through three to four, maybe even five passages or five

00:00:31.820 verses of scripture, but today I'm only going to get through one.

00:00:35.140 Last week, we closed out Paul's exhortation on the matter of divine adoption.

00:00:43.880 Speaking to our identity, he reminded us that we should not be walking in our pre-adoptive

00:00:50.660 state.

00:00:51.520 We should not be walking in the flesh, but in the spirit.

00:00:55.400 and he emphasized how our new father does not dominate us by fear or by sinfulness and lead us

00:01:04.040 into wickedness, but rather we've been adopted into a family with a benevolent father who loves

00:01:10.340 us, who we get to call Abba Father and who leads us into righteousness. But with adoption comes

00:01:18.380 inheritance. And for the son or daughter of God, the inheritance is immense. It includes what I

00:01:28.000 would say intangible assets like peace with God. It would include eternal life with God.

00:01:37.540 And it would include glory. But it also includes tangible assets, which would be like our new

00:01:44.820 resurrected bodies, a kingdom, and a new earth. But with adoption also comes association. So we have

00:01:54.160 one part of adoption comes with inheritance. The other part of adoption comes with association.

00:02:00.400 You become part of the family. You now bear the name Christian. And in a world system that

00:02:09.020 abhors your father and murdered his only begotten son. You as an adopted child of this new family

00:02:19.460 should not expect to live in this world system without some form of resistance.

00:02:26.820 If they persecuted him, they should persecute you. Now you're going to notice that I keep saying the

00:02:33.980 word world or the phrase world system and not just world. And I want to talk about that for a second.

00:02:40.900 I do that because many Christians in the church today, they understand the scriptures like John

00:02:46.940 12, 31 that says, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast

00:02:53.880 out. Or they'll look at scriptures like 2 Corinthians 4, 4 that says, in their case,

00:02:58.060 the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Or Ephesians 2, 2 that says,

00:03:02.680 that calls Satan the prince and the power of the air, or when Jesus in John 18, 36 says,

00:03:09.060 my kingdom is not of this world. We need to understand the context of world

00:03:15.680 that is different from earth.

00:03:20.920 Many Christians believe that Satan is the ruler of this world while Christ is the ruler of the

00:03:27.620 next world. That is just flat false. That is incorrect. Satan is the ruler of this world

00:03:35.440 system, of this worldly system, the fallenness of this world. Jesus does not receive his

00:03:44.000 authority from this world system. So when Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world,

00:03:48.540 he's saying my kingdom does not derive its authority from this world system of which

00:03:54.560 he is speaking to Pilate. He's saying, no, my authority comes from the heavenly world,

00:04:01.100 from a greater world, from the dominating world.

00:04:09.420 The earth is God's. Psalm 24.1 says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

00:04:17.380 It is his earth. The great commission in Matthew 28, Jesus says, all authority has been given to me

00:04:24.360 in heaven and on earth. So this world, this earth is the Lord's. It's not Satan's. He's not ruling

00:04:40.100 this world. He's ruling this world system. All those that are fallen, all those who have not

00:04:45.180 been regenerate. But I'll tell you what, the kingdom of Christ will overcome this world.

00:04:50.580 Jesus even says the gates of hell will not prevail against his church, against his kingdom.

00:05:00.500 So allow me to get back to my point where we're talking about association and we're

00:05:05.900 talking about inheritance.

00:05:07.380 We are now bearing the name, and this is context that we need for this discussion around the

00:05:12.980 world, but our association with Christ is that we will be hated by this world system.

00:05:20.580 You're not going to be hated by the kingdom, but you will be hated by the world.

00:05:26.920 Jesus tells us in John 15, 18 through 20, it says,

00:05:30.080 If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

00:05:36.220 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

00:05:41.800 But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,

00:05:46.260 therefore the world hates you.

00:05:48.580 Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

00:05:53.300 If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you, end quote.

00:05:58.320 He closes in verse 23, a couple of verses later, he says, whoever hates me, hates my

00:06:04.320 father also.

00:06:05.160 So truly, this is a prime example of what our culture might call ancestral hatred.

00:06:14.440 It's a real version of that, a real form of ancestral hatred.

00:06:18.220 They hate us because of who we come from.

00:06:22.100 Our presence to the world system is noxious.

00:06:26.880 It's toxic to them.

00:06:28.880 They absolutely hate it.

00:06:30.820 John 3, 19 through 20 says, the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness

00:06:38.300 rather than the light because their works were evil.

00:06:43.440 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

00:06:47.400 and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.

00:06:51.640 The reason that people hate the light

00:06:55.180 is because the light reveals their sinfulness.

00:07:00.120 And as children of light, they hate our presence.

00:07:05.980 They hate our presence.

00:07:07.120 2 Timothy 3.12 says,

00:07:12.420 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

00:07:19.980 At some degree, you will be persecuted if you agree to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.

00:07:27.840 Your very presence will threaten their love affair with sin.

00:07:34.480 The man who says, no, I'm not going to put pronouns in my email.

00:07:38.300 I'm not going to do it.

00:07:39.480 that is just one small example that your very presence will threaten their desire for selfishness

00:07:49.080 and for sinfulness and for wickedness and for worldliness first Peter 4 12 through 13 says

00:07:56.620 beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though

00:08:02.600 something strange were happening to you but rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings

00:08:08.480 that you may also rejoice and be glad

00:08:11.680 when his glory is revealed, end quote.

00:08:15.820 Acts 14, 21 through 22, lots of scripture today, guys.

00:08:19.920 It says, when we heard the gospel preached in that city

00:08:23.660 and made many disciples, they returned,

00:08:27.080 strengthening the souls of the disciples,

00:08:29.000 encouraging them to continue in the faith

00:08:30.840 and saying that through many tribulations,

00:08:34.000 we must enter the kingdom of God.

00:08:38.480 does your life reflect that at all? 0.99

00:08:45.720 Do you have any resistance or are you a coward? 0.79

00:08:53.640 We have many people in the church today that are so quiet. 0.97

00:09:00.280 They love costless Christianity.

00:09:05.560 They do not want to stand up. 0.63

00:09:07.400 they do not want to ruffle feathers. They do not want to introduce righteousness into this world

00:09:14.200 system. They're afraid. The way of Christ runs contrary to the world. Therefore, as the family

00:09:28.040 of Christ, as sons and daughters of God, as children of light, as children who no longer

00:09:33.480 have the spiritual DNA of this world system, but have the spiritual DNA of heaven, we should not

00:09:40.860 expect a life of peace in this world. In fact, if you have a life of peace in this world, it's because

00:09:46.400 you are either too quiet, you are either not saved, or you are sinning. A mark of the Christian life 1.00

00:09:58.520 should be standing for righteousness. We live in this very strange era of Christian mediocrity. 0.99

00:10:09.000 It is the reason we have the world that we have today. America used to be a wonderful 1.00

00:10:14.040 Christian nation. You used to have, you used to be required to have a Christian confession 1.00

00:10:21.300 of faith to serve in almost every portion of the government.

00:10:27.480 Schools used to preach the Ten Commandments every single morning and preach the Word of

00:10:32.800 God and pray public schools.

00:10:37.820 But we have made small compromises of quietness over long periods of time.

00:10:45.500 we should expect conflict with this world we should expect conflict with our flesh

00:10:54.620 if you're saved you'll have conflict with your flesh 0.96

00:10:58.080 unconverted people don't have conflict they love the world the world loves them they have no

00:11:06.880 conviction over the sinfulness in their flesh because they do not see it as sin

00:11:09.980 If you are living a life of peace, that's a very strange and opposite life that Christ lived.

00:11:18.860 That should concern you.

00:11:22.380 But as Christians, we should expect temptation from the enemy.

00:11:27.740 We should expect disease because of sin. 0.99

00:11:33.500 We should expect hatred from our city and our unconverted neighbors.

00:11:39.380 We should expect that life in this fallen state will be difficult at some degree.

00:11:45.060 I'm not saying that we're masochists, that we go out there looking for fights and try to make our life difficult for Christ.

00:11:52.300 I'm just saying live and live for Christ and see what happens.

00:11:58.280 God may bless you with a life of peace.

00:12:01.120 but to this sobering reality paul says to us in romans 8 18 that was my introduction by the way

00:12:12.360 for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared

00:12:18.520 with the glory that is to be revealed to us so first i want you to notice the statement of

00:12:24.100 explanation in this first verse okay we are smart bible interpreters i say this often

00:12:29.700 We are smart Bible interpreters.

00:12:31.480 You should not be 10 years into your Christian faith and not know how to read your Bible well.

00:12:35.380 You should be a grammarian.

00:12:36.800 You should understand language.

00:12:38.240 You should understand every word because Jesus says that man should not live by bread alone,

00:12:43.800 but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

00:12:47.640 We should learn how to interpret and see words for what they are.

00:12:52.400 It says for.

00:12:54.000 For is often a statement of explanation.

00:12:57.080 and it's explaining the verse prior to it.

00:13:00.680 It says, Paul is essentially saying in verse 17,

00:13:03.540 and since we are his children, we are his heirs.

00:13:05.860 In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God.

00:13:08.400 And if we share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

00:13:12.800 That's basically what's being said in verses 17.

00:13:16.860 So the context in Christ is that we have a massive inheritance,

00:13:22.660 a massive inheritance in Christ.

00:13:27.080 and we share in God's glory. But we cannot expect to share in the family glory with also

00:13:34.640 not sharing in the family suffering. You have a spiritual family. Unfortunately,

00:13:40.780 we live in a time in America where church history has been absent. We just think that we're a leaf

00:13:46.680 that's not a part of a tree, that all of a sudden we're just reinventing the way that the church

00:13:52.620 should gather instead of looking at 2000 years of church history and go, how have they been doing

00:13:58.640 this? If you look back at your spiritual family, you will see a people marked with a fight against

00:14:10.240 the world. And Paul here has concluded that from the truth of the gospel, that those sufferings

00:14:23.120 The persecution, the disease, the fallenness, the temptations,

00:14:29.440 all of those things for our association with Christ and being a member of his family,

00:14:36.540 they're not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us in eternity.

00:14:47.480 Now, as someone who has, again, experienced some degree of suffering,

00:14:52.220 I have been chronically ill for going on five years, and I have also experienced my fair

00:15:01.300 share of hatred from death threats to probably 10,000 people that have personally mocked

00:15:11.580 me over the years.

00:15:16.360 I believe from that experience that a theology of suffering

00:15:21.180 should be formed prior to its need.

00:15:27.220 I think it's essential that we ought to have

00:15:30.480 scripture's position on how the Christian

00:15:33.500 should view suffering while we are in peace.

00:15:38.140 So that when the tragedies come

00:15:39.880 and when the trials do come,

00:15:41.360 that you have a way to appropriately interpret them.

00:15:46.360 does that make sense let me make a few points suffering is a result of sin

00:15:55.880 now if you have not suffered you will suffer every one of us is going to die tragically every one of

00:16:01.400 us is going to have some sort of disease that debilitates us we have a neighbor in our street

00:16:06.040 who is dealing with dementia and she walks around and she's often lost and we pray for her and feel

00:16:11.160 bad for her life riddles us because of sin with tragedy you will suffer it's coming for you

00:16:21.400 miscarriages and stillborns and suicides and friends who pass away and adultery and divorces

00:16:28.600 they are in everyone's future maybe not ours directly but a friend a family member

00:16:37.560 they are coming

00:16:41.160 Now, we already discussed how suffering and persecution is a result of sin

00:16:47.640 because it's rooted in the hatred of the light.

00:16:52.100 But I want to just briefly discuss on suffering as sickness and tragedy.

00:16:57.100 Romans 5.12 says,

00:16:58.100 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, Adam,

00:17:03.640 and death through sin,

00:17:05.920 And so death spread to all men because all had sinned.

00:17:11.320 The reason people die is because of sin.

00:17:15.660 The reason you'll die is because of sin.

00:17:19.880 Now sickness and tragedies or trials are a byproduct of sin.

00:17:27.900 They are.

00:17:29.700 The world, including our bodies, do not function as they should.

00:17:33.480 this is not a perfect world. And too often we resent suffering because we don't understand

00:17:44.360 the gravity of sin. And I want you to pay attention to this for a second. We resent

00:17:48.540 suffering because we don't understand the gravity of sin. And think about this for a second. Every

00:17:55.560 Every time we complain, every time we complain about our suffering, we are essentially stating

00:18:04.700 that we don't deserve this.

00:18:09.520 I don't deserve this, God.

00:18:12.180 I don't deserve this suffering.

00:18:14.040 I don't deserve this sickness.

00:18:15.640 I don't deserve this marriage.

00:18:17.280 I don't deserve that husband.

00:18:19.040 I don't deserve that boss.

00:18:22.180 You're right.

00:18:23.500 You don't deserve it. 1.00

00:18:25.020 What you deserve is an immediate physical death and eternal hell. 1.00

00:18:30.200 That's what you deserve. 1.00

00:18:33.640 You have to get to there.

00:18:35.860 You have to get to that place.

00:18:41.220 Our suffering must be viewed through the sobriety of our sin.

00:18:49.600 Self-love is blinding.

00:18:50.540 We think far too highly of ourselves.

00:18:52.900 we don't deserve this. How ridiculous. How ridiculous in the face of our sins against 0.99

00:19:00.560 a holy God that we say we don't deserve dementia. We don't deserve 0.97

00:19:07.820 the miscarriage. We don't deserve this suffering. No, we deserve far worse.

00:19:17.200 by God's grace he allowed you to live for many years without dementia

00:19:22.960 and he allowed you to have another three children

00:19:26.600 these are mercies of God blessings of God

00:19:34.260 when we can arrive here and only Christians can arrive here only a Christian can arrive at this

00:19:46.060 understanding, then our sufferings become what? Well, if we understand that we don't deserve 0.83

00:19:51.060 anything great, and actually we only deserve wrath, then our afflictions, our sufferings,

00:19:57.500 they're going to be viewed as light consequences in light of what we deserve.

00:20:05.660 In addition to that, our blessings become a reason for acclamations of praise.

00:20:11.080 Do you wake up in the morning and go, praise God that I'm up?

00:20:13.720 Do you drink a cup of water and say, oh, praise the Lord that you gave me good water to drink?

00:20:21.100 Do you look at your children and your spouse and you go, oh, praise God for these things.

00:20:27.020 Until you can get to that place, you will be a complainer.

00:20:31.940 You will not experience the blessing of the Lord.

00:20:38.760 Biblical self-awareness is the lens by which we must view life.

00:20:43.720 think low 0.54

00:20:49.480 of yourself

00:20:51.460 number two God works all things

00:20:57.680 for the Christians suffering

00:21:00.020 together for their good

00:21:01.900 and for his suffering 1.00

00:21:03.420 Romans

00:21:05.900 8 28 says

00:21:07.180 quote and we know

00:21:09.520 that for those who love God

00:21:12.460 All things work together for good

00:21:14.580 for those who are called according to his purpose.

00:21:19.280 Ephesians 1.11 says,

00:21:20.520 In him we have obtained an inheritance,

00:21:22.960 having been predestined according to the purpose of him

00:21:25.300 who works all things together

00:21:27.360 according to the counsel of his will.

00:21:32.340 I often sit and think about that verse.

00:21:35.400 That he works all things together.

00:21:37.700 He works the structure and the design of the anthill together.

00:21:48.220 He works together the pattern of flower petals together.

00:21:56.300 He works every molecule in DNA and every asteroid and every star to the counsel of his will.

00:22:05.920 John Piper said he would often sit and look at his sprite

00:22:09.800 and watch every single bubble pop and say,

00:22:13.060 God is ordaining the order of every one of these bubbles

00:22:16.360 to pop at their according time.

00:22:21.340 Do you think that way?

00:22:24.340 Do you understand the ramifications

00:22:26.200 of what these words are saying in the scriptures?

00:22:29.600 without Christ suffering is merely a foretaste of hell

00:22:36.920 if you're not a Christian and you suffer it's just an appetizer for what's to come 1.00

00:22:46.100 but for the Christian suffering is preparation it's sanctification for heaven

00:22:54.560 Thomas Boston once wrote,

00:22:56.800 trials wean us from this world and woo us to heaven.

00:23:03.800 2 Corinthians 4.17 says,

00:23:06.020 for this light momentary affliction,

00:23:08.940 you cannot say that without this perspective

00:23:11.000 that I'm talking about.

00:23:12.960 Paul said that.

00:23:14.720 Do you know his life?

00:23:19.860 For this light momentary affliction,

00:23:23.560 is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory

00:23:27.900 beyond all comparison, end quote.

00:23:32.600 Romans 5, 3 through 5 says,

00:23:35.620 not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings

00:23:37.500 knowing that suffering produces endurance

00:23:39.080 and endurance produces character

00:23:40.320 and character produces hope

00:23:41.440 and hope does not put us to shame.

00:23:46.900 You see, pain, pain often brings people back to God.

00:23:53.560 I don't know about you, but that is absolutely true.

00:23:57.900 In fact, I've actually shared this story.

00:23:59.960 Being chronically ill, I will have seasons where I am absolutely chained to the bed.

00:24:08.760 The seasons where I actually feel like I am an animal with so much desire, but I'm chained to a pole.

00:24:20.860 and I remember starting to feel better

00:24:26.860 and starting to feel like I was breaking free 1.00

00:24:30.400 from that pole and from that chain 0.94

00:24:32.240 and I realized that that pole was Christ

00:24:36.340 that through my suffering

00:24:40.520 I was linked up to Christ

00:24:44.900 in a way that I was not

00:24:46.180 when I was well

00:24:48.480 and so pain brings people back to god suffering removes our own desire for self-sufficiency

00:25:00.160 it truly does and it puts our desire back on the mercy and need of god and trials may be used as

00:25:09.340 discipline but for the christians suffering is never pointless and that's my central point here

00:25:17.160 suffering is never pointless. Adoniram Judson, the great missionary, once wrote,

00:25:26.920 if I had not felt certain that every trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy,

00:25:34.080 I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.

00:25:39.920 Some of you will have a life of significant suffering.

00:25:43.740 we don't know but statistically speaking

00:25:49.580 somebody will in this room

00:25:54.080 if you don't have a rich strong anchored understanding in the word of god on this

00:26:05.380 matter. You will flounder. You will toil. Have you heard the phrase, the death throws

00:26:13.960 as your body thrashes in death? That'll be your soul without this understanding

00:26:24.540 of God's purpose in suffering. Number three, Christ is our comfort in suffering.

00:26:32.060 2 Corinthians 1.5, it's one of those verses that I feel like I never knew was there

00:26:39.800 until I read it this week. It says, for just as the sufferings of Christ

00:26:45.500 are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

00:26:54.420 And this really gets to the heart of our text today. Paul says, when you weigh your suffering,

00:27:02.060 against the weight of Christ there will be no deficit in Christ when you weigh

00:27:09.260 the two together when you weigh your suffering against the weight of the

00:27:12.920 comfort of Christ there will never be a deficit in Christ this applies to every

00:27:19.460 trial every affliction every tragedy for the mother that dies at 36 with five

00:27:24.500 children to the elderly couple who lost the son to the father who lost his job

00:27:32.060 to the teenager mocked for modesty,

00:27:34.600 to the pastor that struggles with chronic illness

00:27:36.660 and can't seem to feel well.

00:27:38.580 It applies in every possible situation

00:27:40.960 that the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance,

00:27:43.500 but so also the comfort as abundant in Christ.

00:27:49.020 And this is why Paul can say,

00:27:52.160 for I consider that the sufferings of this present time

00:27:55.220 are not worthy to be compared

00:27:57.260 with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

00:28:02.060 Now, this term present time, that should give you a lot of comfort, okay?

00:28:09.880 Because our sufferings, while they are present, are not permanent.

00:28:14.460 It's about this present time.

00:28:17.660 They will pass.

00:28:19.800 Revelation 21, verses 3 through 4.

00:28:25.020 Why don't you turn there?

00:28:26.260 It's one of the most glorious passages of Scripture in the entire Bible.

00:28:31.060 Revelation 21, three through four.

00:28:39.640 It describes the Christian's future.

00:28:44.700 Revelation 21, three through four.

00:28:47.920 It says, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

00:28:52.040 behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

00:28:56.840 He will dwell with them and they will be his people.

00:29:00.200 And God himself will be with them as their God.

00:29:04.220 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

00:29:07.360 And death shall be no more.

00:29:09.900 Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.

00:29:15.420 For the former things have passed away.

00:29:19.180 End quote.

00:29:20.820 Amen.

00:29:21.080 Amen.

00:29:22.980 That moment.

00:29:25.780 That moment. 0.96

00:29:27.140 That declaration of Christian eternity, it's so grand, it's so colossal, it's so glorious

00:29:35.520 that it's not worthy to be compared to our temporal and carnal sufferings.

00:29:43.960 It's not worthy to be compared.

00:29:47.940 Our glory, that is our wholeness, our completeness,

00:29:51.880 is not worthy to be compared with our current fallenness.

00:29:57.140 they're radically different.

00:30:01.280 It's not worthy to compare the infinite with the finite.

00:30:04.460 It's not worthy to compare Mount Everest

00:30:07.180 with the grain of sand.

00:30:08.240 It's not worthy to compare the galaxies with the molecules.

00:30:13.840 Okay, they are a mismatch.

00:30:16.720 They're not worthy opponents.

00:30:17.960 They're unsuitable for comparison.

00:30:19.600 That's what Paul's saying.

00:30:23.340 The restoration of your soul and body

00:30:25.520 in the face of a new world, in the presence of your God will be so opulent that cancer will look

00:30:31.420 small, that stillborns will look small, that dementia will look small, that martyrdom will

00:30:37.380 look small. Now, this passage is not intended to just minimize our suffering. It's not intended

00:30:47.780 to just minimize those things as if they're nothing. It's to assure us that our glorification

00:30:55.180 will be so great that what looks enormous to us now

00:31:01.240 will at one point in our time look very small.

00:31:11.200 Now, physically speaking, Paul does not say that knowing this truth

00:31:15.420 will make suffering any less painful.

00:31:19.100 That's not what he's saying.

00:31:21.340 He's not telling us that we should not mourn or we should not grieve

00:31:24.840 or we should not treat our pain.

00:31:27.920 Ultimately, this passage is intended to alter our perspective.

00:31:33.500 This is the root.

00:31:36.260 This is the root.

00:31:39.080 Perspective alters the way that we view our circumstances.

00:31:44.620 You need to have a changed perspective. 0.97

00:31:47.380 Your perspective must be biblical. 0.98

00:31:49.800 Perspective will make our suffering less difficult and correctly interpreted.

00:32:00.880 Colossians 3.2 exhorts Christians on perspective. 0.92

00:32:04.600 It says, set your minds on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.

00:32:10.900 The lesson is that we need to develop the spiritual discipline of having our feet on

00:32:16.700 the earth and our heads and minds in heaven.

00:32:19.800 Our feet need to be in the world while our mind needs to be in the Bible.

00:32:33.000 E.M. Bounds once wrote, quote, safety is in heaven.

00:32:40.100 Put your values there only.

00:32:43.460 Put your heart there.

00:32:45.460 No tears are there to flood your heart.

00:32:47.780 No sorrows there to break it.

00:32:49.800 No loss is there to grieve and embitter it, end quote.

00:32:54.940 We must remember that in God's economy,

00:32:58.040 an economy where the first is last and the last is first,

00:33:02.680 where weakness reveals strength,

00:33:05.020 and when losing your life for Christ is actually finding it,

00:33:08.680 in this upside-down, counterintuitive economy,

00:33:12.380 we need a different perspective.

00:33:15.100 perspective. We need a heavenly perspective, the ability to shift our eyes from the carnal

00:33:23.600 to the eternal. And you need to be able to do this at any given moment. It should be

00:33:32.420 the very structure of the way you think.

00:33:41.640 We have to realize that our trials,

00:33:47.000 shockingly, counterintuitively,

00:33:50.060 become a fantastic testimony.

00:33:54.980 How can my suffering bring such light?

00:34:00.140 We must see, as one pastor said,

00:34:02.000 the best sermons are not preached from pulpits, but from sickbeds.

00:34:07.300 That doesn't make sense to the flesh.

00:34:12.800 You're telling me that my testimony is more powerful in a jail cell than it is on a beach?

00:34:19.660 Yes, that's exactly what the kingdom is like.

00:34:26.020 So a heavenly perspective, the ability to shift our eyes to the carnal, to the eternal.

00:34:30.060 in the midst of suffering is an incredibly powerful tool for the Christian.

00:34:38.200 I would say more than that, it's an incredibly powerful tool to the unconverted. 0.99

00:34:45.320 It's a staggering sight to them.

00:34:51.000 Can you see the terminally ill 28-year-old mother singing

00:34:55.960 Good, Good Father in her hospital bed?

00:35:00.060 The contrast, the counterintuitive nature, we don't know how to deal with that in the

00:35:09.020 flesh.

00:35:12.020 It rocks the pagan mind when we see people who have joy in trials. 1.00

00:35:19.440 It highlights what they lack. 0.99

00:35:23.260 It shows them what they need.

00:35:27.620 Wesley, when he thought he was saved, he thought that he was a Christian. He was an ordained

00:35:34.860 minister in the Church of England. He was a missionary to the Americas. He went to Oxford

00:35:41.720 to study theology, and he was lost. He was not yet born again. And on his way back, there was a storm

00:35:50.980 on the sea. It was way back to England. And in that storm, the Moravians, which is a group

00:35:59.040 of Christians that were on the boat, had a degree of peace that was supernatural. It

00:36:08.340 was beyond his comprehension. He could not grasp how they were about to die, but yet

00:36:13.680 they were at peace. And that shocked him. In fact, that was the very moment that he

00:36:23.820 knew he was lost. And he went home, spent a significant amount of time in sorrow, until

00:36:33.320 all of a sudden, he went to a Bible study of those same Moravian Christians, heard the

00:36:40.940 gospel preached and was, as he said, altogether born again.

00:36:48.760 It highlights what they need.

00:36:51.740 I'm almost done here.

00:36:55.160 Our trials, as difficult as they are, are some of the kingdom's most valuable assets.

00:37:02.800 They are tools that not only train us for heaven, but they proclaim heaven to others.

00:37:07.840 How you act in that terminal disease in your future will be very important for many people, for your children, for your family, for those that the Lord might bring to see joy in the midst of trials.

00:37:30.220 Trials are means for us to share Christ's sufferings, but also to share Christ.

00:37:41.200 Let me close with a poem.

00:37:47.380 It was written in the 1700s.

00:37:49.700 It says, Jesus, the glory take, afflicted and oppressed, reviled and hated for thy sake.

00:37:56.660 Thou hast pronounced me blessed.

00:37:58.300 The blessing we receive, we all are seal set to.

00:38:03.860 Now, Lord, we freeingly believe and own that thou art true.

00:38:08.840 Faithful and good thou art, we taste the heavenly powers.

00:38:13.720 The glorious earnest in our heart ensures the kingdom is ours.

00:38:18.780 Exceeding glad we are, our ravished bosoms swell,

00:38:23.240 with ecstasy too strong to bear, with joy unspeakable.

00:38:26.780 through persecutions bold to thee our songs we raise thee in the furnace we behold thee in the

00:38:36.060 fires we praise we know we now know the promise sufficiency is thy love to bear us through the

00:38:45.980 storms below and land us safe above to suffer now is sweet for thou the strength has given

00:38:53.940 and oh how infinitely great is our reward in heaven. We shall be surely there. The fight

00:39:01.640 will soon be won. The cross we now bear with Jesus shall shift us and lift us to the throne.

00:39:09.300 Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for

00:39:15.020 giving us word in the scriptures to shift our perspective on suffering.

00:39:23.940 Lord, that you have gifted us with an understanding and comprehension of how we might view suffering.

00:39:32.900 Lord, that we not wallow in it, but that we find joy in it.

00:39:40.300 Lord, we pray that you would help us to compare our sufferings not to the glory.

00:39:50.440 Lord, that we would remember the heavenly world to come.

00:39:53.940 this restored earth where we will dwell with you.

00:39:59.040 And Father, that you would give us that vision

00:40:00.960 in the midst of our difficult times.

00:40:05.480 We pray for your help in this,

00:40:07.800 that your spirit would remind us in the middle of the week.

00:40:12.100 In Jesus' name, amen.

00:40:15.540 Amen.

Dale Partridge - February 01, 2024

How the Gospel Overcomes Our Suffering - Romans 8_18

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