So, I've been listening to Mark Driscoll's sermons on Phillipians and this one - the third in the series - is amazing. Well, his teaching is generally good. But I wanted to share some things that he said because they really encouraged me.
I'll only be sharing extracts, so they may not be so coherent. To listen to the whole sermon - or in fact, the whole series - go to marshill.com The series is entitled "The Rebel's Guide to Joy".
"...in large part, to be alive means that you will suffer; that you will suffer physically, and emotionally, and spiritually, and mentally, and relationally. And the Bible is so replete with suffering that roughly one third of the Psalms, which are songs and Psalms sung of God’s people in praise and gratitude to God, one third of those or more include Psalms of lament, where God’s people are groaning, and struggling, and wrestling, in a lamenting fashion with the difficulty of sin."
"And human suffering is so real, and so raw, and so replete throughout Scripture that there are, occasionally, those in Scripture who, despite their great love of God, question why they were even born, cursed the day of their own birth. Perhaps, you can identify with them. Perhaps, you have or are suffering to such a degree that you wake up and, occasionally, look in the mirror and ask, “Why, God, was I ever born? It seems like it is nothing but sorrow, and shame, and suffering, and why in the world would I be brought into an existence that is marked by this level of pain?
If so, then Job and Jeremiah would echo your sentiment. Those two men in the Bible asked the question of God, “Why was I born? Why did I leave my mother’s womb to see nothing but sorrow, and shame, and strife, and suffering, all the days of my life?”"
"You and I can only handle seeing so much suffering, and hearing so much suffering, and we reach a point where we simply cannot continue to see it or hear of it. And I want you to, for a moment, consider with me what it must be like that we are incapable of fully experiencing this; what it must be like to be God. The Bible tells us that God sees everything. That means that God sees all injustice, evil, sin, atrocity, pain and suffering. He sees all of it. There is never a moment that God is not seeing suffering. Unlike you and I, God never has a moment of respite.
Additionally, the Bible teaches us that God hears all. There is never a moment that God does not hear those who are weeping, and wailing, and screaming, and shouting, and crying, and moaning in agony, and pain, and suffering. And God endures this continually, unendingly, unceasingly. And the Bible says that God is good. That God is loving. That God is merciful. That God is compassionate. And you and I, when we see suffering in our life for the life of others, when we hear of suffering in our life or the life of others, we are overwhelmed. And for God, this is continual and it encompasses every human being on the earth."
"You and I will suffer. Will we suffer in a way that is purposeful that God might do something in us or through us, or will we suffer in a way that is purposeless, that nothing good would be accomplished in us and that nothing good would be accomplished through us?"
"You and I will suffer. Paul, here, is suffering. And what Paul is exemplifying for us is that there is a way to suffer as a Christian so that our suffering is purposeful and not purposeless. My question to you is this: when you suffer, because the question is not if, when you suffer, will you suffer in a way that is purposeful or purposeless? Will you suffer in a way that God could do a good thing in you? We call it sanctification. It is where through suffering, and hardship, and pain and mourning, and loss and strife, and struggling, we are made to be more and more patterned after the character of Jesus Christ. Or will suffering, for you, become an opportunity that you allow to pass you by so that God is not able, because of your stubbornness to do anything good in you?"
"You will suffer. Will you suffer well? Will you suffer in such a way that God, through Jesus Christ, could do something good in you; grow you in love, and mercy, and patience, and kindness, and faith, and humility, and Christ-likeness. My first question is will your suffering compel you to love Jesus more? Some of you know what I’m talking about. You have suffered, and because of your suffering, you love Jesus because in your suffering, you lost everyone and everything but Jesus, and he’s the only treasure you have.
Some of you, in your suffering, have learned to love Jesus more because you realize that our God didn’t stay distant and far away. Unlike the false demon gods of other religions, he was willing to humbly come into human history and our God suffered because of that. When you suffer, you love him so much because he chose suffering in a way that you and I would never choose to suffer."
"Have you suffered? Are you suffering? In what way has or could God, if you would partner with him in the suffering, use it to accomplish something good in you? And if you will partner with God in that way, he will take what he has worked into you and he will work it through you as a witness so that, as the world sees you suffer, and as the church sees you suffer, they see that Jesus is making a difference. They see that Jesus is at work. They see that you are suffering in a way that you absolutely could not apart from Jesus. Will your suffering be purposeless in you? Will it be purposeless through you? Or will it be purposeful in you, and will it be purposeful through you? I am begging you not to waste your suffering. Your tears should not be in vain. Your struggle should not be in vain. Your hardship should not be in vain. It should not be wasted. It should not be neglected. It should not be abandoned. It should be embraced as Gospel centered, Jesus given, divine opportunity. Paul is demonstrating that for us."
"...will the Christians who watch you suffer, and hear you suffer grow in their faith? Will they become more bold? Paul says, “What has happened to me, brothers, has really served to advance the Gospel.” Some of the Christians were timid. They were shy. They were embarrassed a little bit about Jesus. They didn’t wanna say his name and now, the Christians have become more bold. They say, ‘Yes, I am a Christian. Yes, I do love Jesus. Yes, I do belong to Jesus.’ Christians are watching other Christians suffer and we may articulate a theology, but we demonstrate true belief with how we suffer."
"You will suffer. Will you suffer well? Will you suffer purposefully or purposelessly? Will you suffer in such a way that God does a work in you and through you or will you waste it? Will your waste your sickness, and your poverty, and your hardship, and your loneliness, and your tears, and your grief, and your sadness, and your sorrow, and your suffering? What a great tragedy it would be for you to waste all of that.
There was American missionary to India. His name was E. Stanley Jones. He has a great quote that I think articulates so much of what Paul is trying to summarize. He says this: "Don't bear trouble. Use it." "Don't bear trouble. Use it. Take whatever happens, justice and injustice, pleasure and pain, compliment and criticism, take it up into the purpose of your life and make something out of it. Turn it," he says, "into a testimony." "Into a testimony.""
Ok, so Mark Driscoll goes on to talk about 10 false teaching about suffering, but this is already a very long post, so I am going to leave it there. There's enough for you to chew on and to think about. I really recommend listening to the whole sermon. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment