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Free in Suffering

In this sermon Pastor Floyd uses Romans 8:18-27 to explore how to be free even during the deepest of suffering and hardship.

$6.00 — $12.00

When you go through temporary afflictions, or present trouble, you are experiencing what is called suffering. The Apostle Paul who wrote much of the New Testament under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, he understood suffering. In fact, you might would say, and could categorize him as having a, a life PhD in suffering.

The unique thing about the apostle was is that he was able to be a foot soldier in the suffering, but he was also able to rise above that suffering to the point where he was able to see what God wanted him to see. And when he was able to do that, God so riveted his heart with truth that he wrote down so much of it for us today, and what we call the Holy Scripture.

In fact I am reminded of one of the great words that he gave about suffering over in 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, verse 9 and 10. “But he said to me my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses,” listen to this statement, “so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So because of Christ I am pleased in weaknesses.” Now let’s just stop.

So because of Christ I am pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in catastrophes, in persecutions, and in pressures. For when I am weak then I am strong. What a testimony. But you know the apostle didn’t let it lie there, he understood it from even a death perspective. He made a bold declaration over in the first chapter of Philippians when he said, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.”

You see the way we deal with setbacks in life, the way we deal with losses, the way we deal with trouble, the way we deal with afflictions, the way we deal with adversity, the way we deal with pain, the way we deal with suffering, because it’s all under that category of suffering today, we must understand that the most important thing about that is our perspective. The way we’re able to see the suffering that we are encountering in life.

John Piper is a popular author in our day. In his writing, Don’t Waste Your Life he writes the following, and I quote, he says, “No one has ever said that they learned their deepest lessons of life, or had their sweetest encounters with God on the sunny days. People go deep with God when they drought comes. And this is the way God designed it. Christ aims to be magnified most clearly by the way we experience Him in our losses.”

I love that entire section, but let me make it real clear today, I tell you, any of you guys that have ever preached, what a statement when he said, “People go deep with God when the drought comes.” That is a profound statement in life. Somehow, someway we have got to gain the wisdom and the insight and the perspective to see suffering not as our enemy, but to see suffering as a welcome friend. That takes a miracle of God, and that miracle of God can only happen ladies and gentlemen when we see things the way we need to see them.

I’m talking this morning about being “Free in Suffering.” In fact, when I think about that statement I follow that up with a quick question: Is that possible? I mean, usually when we’re suffering and we’re walking through tough times in adversity, we’re feeling restrained. We’re feeling like the load is upon us, and adversity has wrecked our lives, and we feel like we’re filled with injustice, and almost like God is picking on us, if you may. But is it even possible I ask you today to experience freedom and peace when you walk through the most difficult times of your life?

In preparing to teach this text, which is a very difficult text I might add, I had to come to the point to ask myself, and I’m going to ask you what I asked myself earlier in the week. What is it that I must see, and what is it that I must understand in order to sense a freedom and peace when I walk through pain, suffering, adversity, challenges, tragedies, disappointments, hurts? What is it that I must see? What is it that I must understand? All of us, we’ve been foot soldiers in the midst of trouble. But few of us have ever gotten high enough to understand God is working. God is doing something.

What a powerful passage he writes in the 8th of Romans, and this morning I want you to grab a hold of the greatest book I’ve ever read, the Bible. And I want you to look with me to Romans 8, and let me read a section of scripture for you today. Romans 8, verse 18 through verse 27. “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly awaits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected,” notice in this phrase, “to futility. Not willingly but because of Him who subjected it. In the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption, and the glory is freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now, and not only that, but we ourselves who had the spirit of the firstfruits, we also groan within ourselves eagerly awaiting for adoption, the redemption of our body. Now when this whole we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience. In the same way, the Spirit.” Oh, you talk about a passage. “In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weaknesses because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. And he who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mindset because He, the Spirit, intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

This text is filled with a lot of insights that will help us to gain a freedom and a peace and a perspective that is absolutely imperative if we’re going to have any contentedness, any joy, any hope, any rest, any peace in life. What are some of these insights? Try this one on.

1. Everyone and everything experiences suffering. That is a pretty profound statement so don’t miss it. Everyone, but not only everyone, according to Romans 8, everything experiences suffering. Do you realize that when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden their fall into sin had major impact not only upon them as persons, but it had major impact upon all of God’s creation, because that which was once perfect is no longer perfect but it is not imperfect. And the Scripture says according to verses 20 through 23 that their fall moved them into, but not only them, creation itself into futility.

Since that time all true followers of Jesus and God’s creation, according to Romans 8, they are groaning for the end of time to come. Can you imagine that? You are groaning for the end of time to come, and you don’t even know it. And all of creation is groaning for the end of time to come. Why is that? So that once again creation knows even better than we know. Creation is yearning to once again experience the glory of God that will come one day when Christ comes again.

The environment we hear a lot about in our news today. We read a lot about it in periodicals. It is a hot button issue politically, socially, and even some would say morally. But the environment is an issue because of one reason, because of the fallen nature of man. Disorder and imbalance, and abuse on our planet have contributed to the problem that we face with our environment. Now we have problems with our environment. And you listen carefully; this may not fly in Washington, D.C., but it flies right here. We will have problems with our environment on this world as long as we have a sin problem! That’s right.

But even as much as I say that with great conviction, I say also with almost as great a conviction that we need to do what we need to do, and we need to take actions necessary to preserve the environment that we have today.

But when you go back to the first eleven verses of Romans 8, you understand why all this has happened, because you see when you look back and you review the first eleven verses of the same chapter it tells you why all that’s happened. Why? Because when we make sinful choices of the flesh, did you hear what it said? It leads to 2 things: sin and death. And then the scripture says when we make good choices of righteousness it leads to 2 things: life and peace.

When people go through difficult times some, especially those that are not of a Christ mindset, they would say in their minds and their hearts and this is definitely the way people feel, this proves that God does not exist. Some would say well that proves that God is not worthy of my worship so why should I even trust this God that you talk about? But you see the reason people think that way in the American culture is because we do not understand something, and we have forgotten it if we’ve ever learned it, and surely we’ve learned it, but we do not understand the nature of our sin, and the devastation, and the devastating impact of sin in life.

The church has gone silent about the problem. But the problems that we face personally, and the problems we even face globally is because of the fallen nature of man. Therefore, man is not in the process of getting better, man is in the process of getting worse. Creation is not in the process of getting better; creation is in the process of getting worse. Therefore, we must understand when we walk through adversity and suffering, and pain, and challenges, and disappointments, and obstacles, and trouble, and suffering, we’ve got to understand that it’s not God picking on us! So many of us who have grown up even in church life, we have this perspective that when we walk through adversity, I mean, God’s picking on me. God’s blaming me. God’s going to get me back for some of my choices I made, so when I go through baptizes, I’ve got to ask myself, “Okay what did I do wrong cause I’ve got this big old bad God who’s coming after me.”

Now I want to just stop here a moment. We need to start there. Is there something in my life that God’s not pleased with? But that’s not the only reason God sends suffering into our lives. You see, you’ll get out of the mentality that God is picking on me when you understand that everyone and everything experiences suffering.

Well try this one on today:

2. All suffering is temporary. All suffering is temporary. In the 18th verse, the Bible talks about how the sufferings we experience right now do not balance out or even able to compare with the glory of God to come. And I’m going to talk about that later on today in the message. Verse 19 through verse 22 it talks about even how creation awaits and groans, listen to this ladies, creation, listen, your husband may not identify with you, but creation does. Listen to this, even creation awaits and groans as a woman in travail over the delivery of a child.

But you know what creation is waiting for? Do you know what creation is travailing over? They want, creation wants the sons of God to be revealed, meaning what? Meaning that creation knows that there is going to come a day when all Christ-followers who are sons, plural, of God, daughters of God, even though they have died, they will be raised from the dead. And creation yearns for the day when all are raised from the dead who know the Lord because there will come a time where Jesus will reign for 1000 years on this earth, and everything’s going to be full of peace in the millennium reign of Jesus Christ.

A prophetic word right here in Romans 8. So the next time you’re driving by looking at the beautiful leaves understand as beautiful as those leaves may be, they’re right now dying, and they are know falling off, and we’re about to enter into that distinctive look of winter. Please understand ladies and gentlemen that all of that creation is yearning for a day when they don’t lose their leaves anymore, because there is coming a day when all will be well again.

Verse 25 says we are expecting that which we do not see at this present time. But we’re going to wait for what we do not see with patient endurance. Why is that? Why am I going to be patient when I’m in the midst of a storm? Why is it that I’m going to be patient when I face trouble, suffering, ridicule, abuse, persecution, challenges, sickness, pain, adversity, financial challenges, suffering? How can I patiently endure in all that? Here’s why? Get it folks! Here it is! Listen to what he’s saying! Because all suffering is temporary. That’s why. This too shall pass. All suffering shall pass.

You see across from this wonderful location is a hospital, the saddest person in that hospital today are the most grieved person sitting beside the body of a loved one who is now gone, has to be encouraged to know that all suffering is temporary. While hurt and devastation may appear to dominate your mind today, we must remember that as Christ-followers all suffering is temporary. In heaven there will be, are you listening today? No more mourning, no more crying, and no more pain. These things will pass away!

So I’ve got to understand if I’m going to have peace in the midst of my suffering, I’m going to have this sense that I can be free in the middle of my challenges when all hell’s breaking loose. How am I going to get that? How am I going to know that everyone and everything experiences suffering? God’s not picking on me. And I’ve got to understand that all suffering is temporary.

But let me tell you what else I have to understand. I have to:

3. Eagerly expect the resurrection of my body. Paul talked about that. He talked about how we need to eagerly expect the redemption of my body. The redemption of my body. Look at verse 23. Verse 23 is telling us that we have the Spirit of God in us as the firstfruits. Now as followers of Jesus Christ the moment you gave your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit came to live within you. Do you understand that? At salvation, you received the Holy Spirit. The scripture here says that the Holy Spirit, He is the firstfruits, meaning that He is the first thing that God has given to you, meaning that there is more to come! Firstfruits meaning more fruit to come. Are you following?

The scripture also says that He is the earnest payment. He is the down payment, meaning that He has been given to you while you’re on this earth as a down payment to insure that there is more to come. He provides hope that one day we will be like Jesus Christ. The scripture here even uses the phrase we groan within ourselves, meaning that we so understand the Holy Spirit is upon us, and that He’s living in us, and that, and that He’s the down payment for our sin, that when we sin we grieve over our sinfulness.

And then the scripture says that we are eagerly expecting the full reality of our spiritual adoption. The full reality of our spiritual adoption I will talk about here in a moment, but let me remind you, do you remember what we said last week together? What we said last week together is that, is that when Jesus came into your life, the Holy Spirit came to live within you. And the moment that He came to live within you, He bore you into the family of God, and at that very moment that Christ came into your life, He adopted you into the family of God. You were an orphan. You had no father, you had no home, you had no hope, but God through His love and Jesus picked you up and He called you unto Himself, and unto a relationship, and when you said yes to Christ, the Spirit came to live within you, but not only that, He took you as an orphan and He adopted you into the family of God. And today He treats you just as He treats the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and you are joint heirs with Jesus, and one day you will realize the full inheritance of God. Wow.

Now. One day, one day you will also realize something more. You will realize that when Jesus comes again you will realize that, that, you will begin to realize your full meaning of your adoption. Do you know what the full meaning of that adoption will be? Is that not only will you gain heaven, but you will gain a new body. You will have a glorified body. One of the ways you know that hasn’t happened yet is just look around those who are with you. But we are saved by this hope that places faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

I was reminded this week through a wonderful note by one of our members telling me that when physical adoption takes place in America, which they do have an adopted child, that on the day of the final adoption decree the judge tells the family these words, and I quote, “An adopted child can never be disowned or disinherited by any parent.” Unquote. Wow. Aren’t you glad you live in America? Hm-hm. But if that’s true for this, it’s even more true once you become a child of God. You can never be disowned and you can never be disinherited by the parent of the Lord who changed your life and saved you. You cannot sin yourself outside of God’s family ladies and gentlemen. [APPLAUSE] You can do nothing to lose the status you have as being a member of the family of God. Now give God praise for that! Amen! [APPLAUSE] That is worth it all! [APPLAUSE CONTINUES]

Because I’m telling you one day soon, one day soon when Jesus comes again, and I saw the other day a guy picked the day he was going to come. I, I looked at the article, read it through, felt pretty good about it, except he chose the day therefore if God had that in mind He wouldn’t come that day because the Bible says nobody knows, so I hate to tell him that, but God bless. So if you’re listening to me today, your days are on big guy. But one day soon when Jesus comes again, listen to me; every Christ-follower will be raised from the dead. Every Christ-follower will be raised from ICU units all over the world. Every Christ-follower will be raised from hospice units all over the world. Every Christ-follower who has any handicap at all will be raised. Every Christ-follower who even thinks he or she is wonderful will be raised, even to a greater realization before you will be raised and made in the likeness of Jesus Christ because you have been adopted by Jesus into the family of God! So yes, peace and confidence can come when you walk through difficult times and challenges, through sufferings and pain and illness, because of the reality that I can eagerly expect the redemption of my body. Makes me wonder why I work out all the time. It’s about quality of life.

I’m reminded of this, do you remember this? Listen to this, huh? There is coming a day when no heartaches shall come. No more clouds in the sky. No more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore. What a day glorious day that will be. There will be no sorrows there, no more burdens to bear, no more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there; and forever I will be with the One who died for me, what a day, glorious day that will be.

Oh wouldn’t it be awesome if you were alive when Jesus came again, and you were driving by a local cemetery when He split the clouds? And all of a sudden in the twinkling of an eye you’re saying to yourself, “Oh there they go! Oh here I go!” [LAUGHTER] Cause they go first, and then us. Amen.

I like this next one. I like all of them in fact, but notice this one:

4. The greatest suffering that I face is incomparable to the coming glory of God. I mean that’s got to give me peace and freedom in the midst of my struggle, that the greatest suffering I face is incomparable to the coming glory of God! The scripture says in verse 18 one day the glory of God will be revealed and our present suffering, regardless of how great it is will be incomparable to the coming glory of God! The coming glory of God, according to John 1:14, He’s full of grace and truth. He is the glory of the only begotten, begotten of the Son of God who is the Son of God. Ladies and gentlemen he’s talking about Jesus coming again.

And all suffering will one day fade away. Verse 25 says that this is our hope, this is what we anticipate, this is what we eagerly await for. We eagerly await for the coming glory of God! And you know when this comes? This comes at the time, at the moment when the Messiah is revealed. When the coming of Jesus Christ occurs.

I love what this great PhD in suffering said over to the church in Colossi when he wrote in chapter 3, verse 4 when he says, “When the Messiah,” I like that phrase. “When the Messiah who is your life.” Hey, listen to me today. Your life’s not your money! Your life is not your job, it’s not your prestige, it’s not your future. When your life, when your Messiah, who is your life. Wow! When He is revealed then you will also be revealed with Him in glory.

Friend, this is our hope. Oh, but let me tell you, I like this last one too. In fact, it might be the jewel of all of them. But I really like the third one, and the second one too, and the fourth one. But the:

5. Holy Spirit is with me. Man, when I’m going through it, when I’m facing challenges and struggles, and adversity, and persecution, and struggle, and pain, and sorrow, and sickness, and the possibility of death, listen, peace, freedom has the power to happen because I know the Holy Spirit is with me. He’s with me. He’s with me.

Verse 26 says that He is united with me, therefore because the Holy Spirit is united with me, listen to this insight, then that means that He’s united with my weaknesses. And when we suffer at times, we do not even know how to pray. We don’t even know what to pray. Have you ever been there? Where things are so cratering upon you, you kneel on your knees, you sit in your chair, you walk around, or you drive in your car, and you don’t even know what to say to God? But He, the Holy Spirit’s praying for us! He is interceding on our behalf according to verse 26 with words that cannot even be spoken to us! But there’s no need for Him to speak a word that we can understand. Why? Because of verse 27. No words need to be prayed by the Holy Spirit on our behalf because the Father knows the mind of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God intercedes, and the Spirit of God prays for us to do the will of God. I mean God is pulling for me to make it according to the will of God.

God is pulling for you to make it according to the will of God. Wow. So how is the Holy Spirit with me? He’s with me:

(1) In my weakness. In my weakness. I mean isn’t it amazing that when you get weak in America, you know, people leave you. But not God. When you’ve been up, and all of a sudden you’re not up anymore, they’ll walk out of your life quicker than they ever came in. They’ll treat you like a leper, but listen, the Holy Spirit’s with you in your weakness. When you’ve got a letdown, remember, He’s with you in the letdown. He’s with you in your weakness.

And you know what else He’s with me in? He’s

(2) Praying for me. He’s praying for me. Can you imagine it? The Holy Spirit of God praying for you at my weakest moment? The Spirit of God is praying, “Oh Father, may he do the will of God.” Oh listen my friend; He floods our soul with the power to get us through the toughest times of life! So know today the Holy Spirit is with you if you know Christ as Lord and Savior.

I close with this question today: why do we suffer? Why do we suffer? You realize that we suffer because of sin, don’t you? But there are also other reasons that we suffer. To think that every time I go through adversity is because I’ve done something wrong, for, far misses the reality of what God wants to do in my life. Do you realize that sometimes God lets you go through adversity to bring you to an end of yourself? You know we’re all pretty proud of ourselves, aren’t we? Pretty proud of our achievements, and our life, something going on, and every now and then God’s just got to remind us that this isn’t all about us.

And we suffer not only because at times we sin, but we suffer other times because God is trying to bring us to an end of ourselves ladies and gentlemen! And sometime He has to crush us, and He has to pressure us, He has to stress us where we are so low there is nowhere else to look but to look up! And while we call upon our power, or our prestige, or our money, or our partners, or our friends, or our family, or whatever it may be, that’s still not enough! Because God’s committed us to look at one place, and it’s to Him. One place, and it’s to Him.

So sometimes God lets you go through suffering for that reason, and there are other times God lets you go through suffering just cause He wants to bring glory through your life. And He thinks that’s one of the greatest ways to bring glory through your life. It’s hard for us to see that, isn’t it? Because we love this life so much we’re more caught up about here than we are up there. Yet we’re only here a few years, when we’re there for all of eternity. We live like here’s where it’s all at, and we act like there really doesn’t matter. Well, it does matter. You see what we have to understand is that the worst moment of our lives, that the worst challenges of our life, in the worst time in our lives, in the most devastating times in our life, even when the diagnosis, the diagnosis has been given and it’s not good, or we sit beside the body of a loved one who is gone into eternity, or we are seeing, and we are facing crisis after crisis that is crashing down upon us, we’ve got to come to one of the great realities of all life!

And I don’t know of how that can be said in our day than by a woman who was in a German concentration camp for a large part of her childhood, and who lived past it. And Corrie Ten Boom said, and she said it well. This is where we’ve got to get it today. “You may never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” And you know what? There are a lot of us here today, we really don’t know that Jesus is really all we need, and we even know Him. But sometime suffering, what it does, it strips away the stuff, and it strips away this, and it strips away that, and it strips away this, and we’re literally naked before God with nothing! And I want to remind everybody Job said it you, “You came in naked, you’re going to leave naked!” You came in with nothing; you’re not leaving with anything! But all you’ve got, and all you have is Jesus, that’s it. And suffering can help us understand that. And when we see that Jesus is all we need, oh wow, then we understand. We don’t understand that completely until we understand that Jesus is all we have. Wow.

And I just want to, I just want to go on record before we leave today, I’ve just got to say this to you; you’ve got to get it. I just want to notify everybody today, Jesus is sufficient. He is sufficient. Jesus is enough. He really is. He is enough. He’s enough. Do you understand that? He’s enough. You may never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

Father…[Prayer]

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