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The Categories and Benefits of Suffering

Making Sense Out Of Suffering
Making Sense Out Of SufferingSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg discusses the various categories and benefits of suffering. He asserts that while some types of suffering can be corrective discipline for wrong behavior, there is also suffering that comes to those who have not done anything wrong. Despite this, Gregg explains that suffering can yield benefits such as building perseverance and endurance, yielding a fruit of righteousness, and leading to compassion for those who are going through similar struggles. Ultimately, Gregg suggests that through suffering, we can learn obedience and become closer to God.

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Transcript

This is our third session on Making Sense Out Of Suffering. I want to begin by saying that not all suffering is in the same category, though all suffering can have the same benefits. There are different categories of suffering I'd like you to be aware of.
One of them,
we'd have to call corrective discipline. As when a child disobeys and has to come under discipline so that they'll learn not to disobey. We do that too, obviously.
We are imperfect, we sin,
we disobey, and sometimes as a result of our disobeying, we suffer for it. Now that suffering can be simply internal suffering from God convicting us, and it can actually be worse than that. It can be physical.
If we do things that are wrong, then sometimes physically painful things
happen to us as a result. And it's not hard, as I was saying earlier in an earlier part of this series, it's not hard for us to understand why I'm suffering if I was driving drunk and I got in an accident and now I'm paralyzed. You know, okay, I'm suffering paralysis.
Can I figure out why that was? Yeah, I was sinning, I did the wrong thing, and this is the consequence of my sin. Now, that we could call corrective discipline. Now did God cause me to get paralyzed when I was driving drunk? Not necessarily, you know, in a direct way, but he could have prevented it.
The fact that he lifted his protection and allowed that to happen, allowed the natural consequences of my misdeeds to catch up with me, means he saw a reason to allow it, and what that reason is is almost certainly to correct my behavior. For me to understand not only not to drink and drive, by the way, I don't drink, but I'm speaking hypothetically, but not only teach me not to drink and drive, but to teach me to contemplate the consequences of wrong behavior in general. When we suffer for something we've done wrong, it's supposed to teach us, that's why you discipline a child.
Not because you're angry at the child, but because you want them to associate the kind of behavior that was inappropriate with consequences that are undesirable. And that's, so sometimes when we're suffering, we can see a very appropriate cause. I did something wrong, and that's why this is happening to me.
Joseph's brothers, you know, sold him into slavery, and it was years later, when they were perplexed at the way they were being treated by Joseph, whom they didn't know was Joseph, and he was kind of being a little hard on them. They said among themselves, this happened to us because of what we did to our brother Joseph. It was like years later, it was still on their conscience, but they knew, this is happening to us because we did a bad thing.
And it's amazing how it is true. That's why it happened to them. And it's amazing that sometimes consequences for wrong deeds catch up very belatedly.
But when they do, you say, I know what that's about. You know, Reuben, the oldest son of Jacob, actually fornicated with his father's concubine. There were no consequences for it right away, but when his father was old and dying and giving out the family blessings, Reuben was the firstborn and would have received the birthright.
But at that point, many years after the sin had taken place, Jacob said, Reuben, your unstable is water. You're not going to prosper. You don't get the birthright because you went into my concubine.
Now, that was like years later, but sometimes bad deeds have consequences that catch up years later, which is scary because a lot of times when we've sinned, we don't see any immediate results from it. And instead of learning to stop, we just say, well, I get away with this most of the time. I guess I got away with it.
But you never know if you did or not.
Something you did 20 years ago may catch up with you to ruin your reputation today. It says in the eighth chapter of Ecclesiastes, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil.
You get established in evil patterns because you're not immediately suffering for it. But sometimes God forestalls the consequences only to so you'll take it more seriously when it happens, because it does when suddenly something you did years ago pops up and you never suffered a consequence. It now pops up to ruin you.
It suddenly gives you a sense of how.
How horrible it is to say you don't know what the long range consequences may be, even if you don't sense short range consequences and therefore disciplinary suffering. And this can be physical pain.
It can be conviction. It can be any number of ways that you suffer because you did something wrong.
That's one kind of suffering.
It's only one category.
It's it's, of course, for training, just like when you discipline a child is to train. But there's another kind of suffering that isn't corrective discipline.
And that is suffering when you haven't done anything wrong. In fact, sometimes it's suffering when you did the right thing and because you did the right thing. Persecution is another kind of suffering.
And it certainly is in that category.
You're not persecuted because you did something wrong. You're persecuted for righteousness sake.
Jesus said it's part of bearing a cross. It's kind of a voluntary suffering. You take on by choosing to do the right thing.
Like I said, this is a war zone.
We're not in a playground. We're in a battleground.
And frankly, when you take sides of Christ, you're taking sides against the world.
You're taking sides against the devil. You're taking sides against most of humanity who are against God.
And that being so, you're inviting suffering on yourself that you would not experience if you didn't take God's side. You're not suffering corrective discipline for doing something wrong. You're suffering the wrath of man and the wrath of Satan because you're doing the right thing.
So it's God the Father who disciplines his children when they do wrong. But when it comes to persecution, that's the wrath of the enemy. And so, you know, sometimes when you're suffering, it's not because you did something wrong and God's trying to teach you not to do that anymore.
It's because he wants you to share in the sufferings of Christ. Christ was hated by the world. Jesus said, if the world hated me, they're going to hate you.
If they call the master of the house Beelzebub, what are they going to call you? And Paul said in Philippians chapter 2 that he wants to know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings. Certainly, being hated by the world for Christ's sake puts you in many respects in the same company with Jesus and in a position of fellowship with him and know him in a different way than before. Actually, I'm going to have more to say about that later, but that's another category of suffering.
Sometimes you suffer for doing wrong. Sometimes you suffer for doing what's right. And then there's this other category of suffering, and probably most human suffering falls into this, and that's you're not suffering because you did anything wrong or anything right.
You're just suffering because you're on the planet. You're in a fallen world. A hurricane came through.
Everybody's houses were flooded.
It's not because they're good people and bad people. It's just this is a world full of suffering.
Sickness. You know, if you're working in a hospital with sick patients, you might get sick. You're not being persecuted for doing what's good, although in fact you might have been doing a very good thing, helping patients, but it's not a case of persecution.
It's a case of simply being in a place where people get sick and you got it, or being in a place where there's a war zone and good people and bad people alike suffer. And so much of our suffering is the result not of doing anything right or wrong, but simply being human in a world that's fallen and full of things that are out of proper sync and out of proper order. In a sense, we can see how corrective discipline can improve us.
If we do what's wrong, we suffer for it, we learn our lesson, we don't do that anymore. We can also perhaps see how persecution for righteous sake can help us, because it puts us more able to relate with Christ, really. And it brings us closer to Christ, which is a positive thing.
But what about just ordinary suffering? The suffering you usually have, you know? The power goes out where you live, and it's winter. And you're suffering from the cold, and so are your neighbors. Some of them are Christians, some are not.
It's just common suffering that everybody's experiencing. Or the flu goes through and you get it. How does that benefit you? Well, it benefits you by... it depends on how you respond to it, is the thing.
Suffering, no matter what the cause of it is, is an opportunity to respond in a godly way. We live in a world of suffering, and we who suffer are here to learn to empathize with other people who suffer. To be compassionate toward others who suffer.
To assist others who suffer, and so forth. I mean, there's plenty of ways in a world of generic suffering that a Christian, even one who experiences that generic suffering, can be of value. Most of you probably know who Johnny Erickson Todd is.
She's probably about my age, in her middle 60s. When she was, I think, 19, she was in a diving accident in a lake and broke her neck. She's been paralyzed from the neck down ever since.
She's also a cancer survivor, more recently. She got cancer, but I think she licked it. She's very famous.
Actually, as a result of her paralysis and her reactions later on, she got a lot of attention. A book was written about her. A movie was made from the book.
She's made albums. She sings. Can't use her hands or feet, but she can sing.
In fact, she paints paintings. She's pretty good at it, too. She holds a paintbrush in her mouth and paints on a canvas.
And there's greeting cards you can buy with Johnny Erickson Todd's pictures on here. This woman has done more without the use of her body below the neck than most people do with full access to all their limbs. But the interesting thing is her suffering was not because she didn't suffer from being bad or from being good.
It was just an accident. She was diving, and it was too shallow, and she broke her neck. We could say it's just bad luck.
But it has nonetheless been something that has brought much more Christlikeness in her life, and she would say the same thing. She's a very Christlike, humble, godly woman. She loves the Lord.
She's been on the platform of the Billy Graham crusades, and she's given her testimony in lots of places. She runs a ministry for disabled people worldwide. All of this, really, because she's a quadriplegic.
I mean, really, if she hadn't had that accident, I'm not sure how much attention she would have gotten. She would have probably just gotten married, had kids, lived in the Midwest on a farm, and maybe sang at church on an occasional Sunday morning. But it's her accident, it's her injuries that have actually made her world famous and given her a voice, given her visibility, and glorified God.
I'm sure she would tell you that she was more or less kind of an ordinary, worldly, teenage Christian girl before this, but now she's, of course, very saintly. These are common sufferings. It wasn't persecution.
It wasn't discipline from the Lord. It was just the kind of thing that could happen to anybody, but it happened to her. The important thing is, of course, to realize when common sufferings happen, that we can still receive them from the hand of God.
Because God is able to keep them from happening to us. Probably everyone's heard of stories of some soldier who was out on the battlefield, and he had a New Testament in his pocket, and a bullet hit him, and the New Testament stopped the bullet. Well, I don't think New Testaments generally stop bullets.
I think you can probably shoot a bullet through one. But occasionally, God has done something like that for someone. Now, he doesn't do it all the time, and I would suppose that most people with New Testaments in their pockets, if they get shot, they'll probably die.
But the fact that God can do it on occasion means he could do it every time if he wanted to. I think he does that kind of thing once in a while just to open eyes and say, see, that's what I could do. Now, if I don't, I've got a reason for it, you know.
Why was my son killed on the battlefield? Why didn't God stop the bullet there? Well, I don't know, but he could have, and he didn't. And that's the important thing to know. The fact that he could have and didn't and that he loves you means it was for a good reason because God would never allow such sorrow and loss to occur without intending to make good use of it.
God would never have somebody paralyzed from the neck down unless he hoped to make good use of it. When a hurricane blows through, there's been a few occasions I've heard where the whole neighborhood was wiped out except one house where the Christian lived. You ever heard of those stories? They happen rarely.
God doesn't do it all the time, but by sparing that one person's house, he shows, see, I'm really the one in charge here. It looks like a generic kind of a disaster that sweeps indiscriminately around, but I discriminate. I am God.
I'm paying attention to my children. Now, he won't always spare the Christian. Sometimes their house will go up just like everyone else's, but it won't be because God couldn't have saved it.
This is the point I want to make. Any suffering we have is suffering that could have been avoided if God had chosen to make it not happen. There's nothing that can happen to you that God can't protect you from, but he doesn't protect us all the time.
He lets us get sick. He lets us die sick. He lets people, Christians, die in violent crimes and in war and in accidents, but he doesn't have to.
If that happens, the Christian who knows the psalm to God says, God could have done differently. The fact that he didn't means there's a good purpose in this, and I recognize that. That's the Christian's response.
Now, what benefits specifically could I expect to gain from suffering that I couldn't get without it? Perhaps there are some things you gain through suffering that God could have given you without suffering, but there are some things that require suffering to get them, and they're worth getting. Let me give you a few of them from Scripture. It says in Hebrews 12, 11, No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.
Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Now, it's saying that when you suffer, when God is rearing you and allowing you to face suffering, it's not for nothing, though it's not pleasant. No discipline is pleasant.
It's always painful, but afterward, it yields what he calls the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who are trained by it. The suffering is training, and it yields something called the fruit of righteousness. What is that fruit? Well, let me give you some examples.
Romans 5, 3 says, And not only that, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. Same thing in James 1, 3. Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience or perseverance. Perseverance.
If you want to be an athlete, you're not likely naturally to be able to run, you know, a marathon. You've got to work up to it. If you're going to be, you know, lift weights, you're not going to be immediately breaking records the first time you pick up the barbells.
You're going to have to work up to it. You're going to have to develop perseverance. And it's not comfortable doing so, but it's good to have it.
Once you have perseverance, you're in good shape. I remember going on a long hike with some Christian friends of mine out in the woods. They did it all the time.
I didn't. I lived a pretty sedentary life. I sit at a desk and read and write most of my time, so I don't, I'm not in great shape.
But we went on this hike, and they were just cruising up and down the hills and stuff like this. This is something they did all the time. I was puffing and panting, especially at the end of the day after hiking about, I don't know, probably at least 700 miles.
We're up, heading back to the cars up the hill, and I just felt, I can't, I don't think I can put one foot in front of another. I didn't know you could be so tired. I didn't know you could be totally out of energy so that you felt like, I just got to stand here maybe till tomorrow, and maybe I'll be able to take another step then.
Honestly. But these guys, they were, they didn't look much different than me, but they were cruising. They had no problem at all.
They did that kind of stuff a lot. I don't. I remember once a friend of mine in Oregon opened up his own fitness center, it was really a gym.
And so I joined it because I thought I better get in shape. I remember getting on the exercise bicycle. I thought, well, I'll just set the, I'll set this for, there was some kind of preset program.
I'll go for the 12 minutes. So I start riding, and there's not even much resistance, but like a minute or two minutes into it, I'm thinking, I don't see how I can do this. I'm not overweight.
I've never been overweight. I've always been underweight. I never thought I'd be, you know, have low endurance, but I just couldn't go more than a minute or two.
But I came back a couple of days later and did it again. I still couldn't do 12 minutes, but it was easier to do the minute or two that I did. And I kept coming back, and within a week, I was able to easily do the 12 minutes.
I mean, it was amazing how quickly you build up perseverance and endurance if you keep at it. But if you just sit around, you're not going to build any up. You're not going to become a stronger Christian.
You're not going to be able to face harder trials in the future if you're not trained for it or in training for it. You know, there's an interesting place in Jeremiah chapter 12 where he's complaining because Jeremiah actually had a pretty hard life. And he was known to whine.
He's called the weeping prophet, but he could be called the whining prophet some of the time because he complained a lot about his sufferings. Not that I wouldn't. I mean, I'm not saying I'm better than him, but it's interesting.
He says he's complaining to God about this, about his circumstances. Then God speaks to him in verse 5, Jeremiah 12, 5. God says, if you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace in which you trusted, they wearied you, how then will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? Now that first line in particular, I remember reading that when I was like a teenager and thinking, wow, is that challenging? If you've run with the footmen and you've gotten tired, what are you going to do when you have to run against horses? You're not going to do very well. Can a man run against a horse in a race? Actually, yes.
Elijah did. There are some few Nigerians who've done so in modern times, and sometimes a man can beat a horse. Elijah outran a chariot pulled by horses.
He was on foot, Ahab was in the chariot. It's not impossible for a man who's very fit and very fast to outrun horses. I'll never be able to do it because I'm not very fit or very fast.
But what if you're running in a race against other people who are just people? And you can't handle it. If you've run against the footmen, and you're a footman, and you're exhausted, you can't handle it, how are you going to do when you have to face the horses? If in the land of peace you're having trouble, how are you going to do when the Jordan floods? The idea here is we haven't seen anything yet. I mean, if we begin to have persecution in this country, like they had in China, like they had in the Soviet Union at one time, we're just wimps.
We're not ready for that. And we don't know what God may have in mind for us in the future, but it may be far worse. And the trials he gives us now are building up our spiritual muscle, our perseverance, our endurance.
You can't build up endurance without, you know, stressing your current comfort level. But you're going to want endurance because there are many, the Bible says, who fall away because they don't have endurance. In times of tribulation and persecution because of the Word, they fall away, Jesus said.
Paul said in the last days, many shall depart from the faith. Well, who's going to persevere to the end? Well, the ones who do are going to be saved. Whoever perseveres to the end shall be saved, Jesus said.
Well, then we better have perseverance because you never know. The worst may be yet to come in this life. We do not know.
Things could get better. But frankly, they used to be better in my lifetime, and I think they're getting a little more difficult now. Whether it's going to continue that trend, I don't know.
But from the time I was young, I read about martyrs in Fox's book of martyrs, and I read about modern people like Richard Wurmbrandt, who were in prison for their faith for 14 years and tortured regularly, or Corten Boom and her sister who were in the Nazi death camps, or frankly, you know, any number of people who in recent history have suffered things that are unimaginable to us. I thought, could I do that? Could I endure that? One thing I knew is I would have to. It's not like you have a choice.
You can't deny Christ. You've got to be strong no matter what. How are you going to get there from here? If we're flabby and wimpy spiritually now, how are we going to get there from here? Trials, they build endurance.
The trial of your faith, Paul says, our tribulations produce perseverance. James says that our testing, our trials of our faith produce patience. That's one benefit that you cannot produce without difficulty.
You need to suffer in order to build up perseverance. Because being comfortable doesn't build perseverance. It builds flabbiness.
So it's a fruit of righteousness, endurance, perseverance, that is a result of and can only be a result of suffering. Another one is compassion. Compassion, the word compassion means to suffer with.
The word passion is Latin for suffer and calm means with. Compassion means to suffer with somebody. When somebody is suffering and you aren't, they need compassion.
And if you're going to be Christ-like, you're going to want to be compassionate. Jesus was moved with compassion on a regular basis. The Bible says he was moved with compassion.
To have compassion means you have to be able to empathize. You have to be able to suffer with that person. It says in Hebrews 5.2, speaking of Jesus, He can have compassion.
I should start with the high priests. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. And speaking of Jesus in Hebrews 4.15, it says, We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Christ can sympathize. Christ has compassion. High priests are besought with weakness like everybody else, and therefore they can have compassion on those who are out of the way.
Once you've suffered, you're more likely to be able to put yourself emotionally and, you know, maybe in some other important ways, in the shoes of somebody else who's suffering. And unless you suffer, you can't really have the same compassion. You can't relate.
I saw a Dr. Phil show once where he was talking to somebody who I think one of their children was murdered or something like that. And he said, I'm not going to lie to you and say I understand what you're going through. I've never lost a child.
And sometimes that's what we have to say to somebody. You want to comfort them, but you say, I don't know what it's like. But how different it is when you do.
You know, when my wife was killed in an accident, most of the people in the church in the course of the next two days came to visit me. And I appreciated it. Most of them had no idea what I was going through, but I appreciated their good intentions.
But then a guy came in, one of the deacons in the church, and it meant so much that he came. And we had such good and comforting fellowship because he had lost a wife in an accident just a few years earlier, a wife and a child. And I knew that about him.
Before I lost my wife, I knew that he had lost a wife and a child. I thought, man, what must that be like to go through? And then I lost a wife. But when he came, his visit and his words that he spoke to me were so much more impactful than others.
Not because he meant well and they didn't, but because he'd been there. He knew exactly what I was going through. And most of those people just didn't.
It's not their fault. They couldn't help it. And I've been sitting with people who have been through things I have not been through.
And I think, I wish I could say I know what it's like, but I don't. But the more things I suffered, the more people there are I could say that to. I know what that's like.
Your wife died? Mine did too. Your wife left you? Mine did too. Your kids fell away? Mine did too.
I don't want any of those things to happen to me. But since they have, I know what it's like. And I can have compassion more naturally.
In fact, I cannot not have compassion. I know the first time my first wife left me for another man, I couldn't even watch TV shows where there was a hint of a married woman flirting with another man. I felt so much compassion for the character who was being cheated on, even though he wasn't a real person.
It was a drama. But I just felt, it just cut to the heart. And I felt like I was the better for it.
I like those sensitivities. I like being able to cry. You may have guessed it, I'm kind of a cerebral kind of a guy.
And you might think I don't feel many emotions. I do. But I used to complain about my very temperament.
I said, I wish I could cry more easily. I wish I had more, you know, I wish my eyes weren't as dry as they are. Or, you know, how come I can just look at things more analytically? I wish I had more that compassion.
But that was a long time ago. I've been through the meat grinder a few times and I, you know, I, I find that I can cry very easily. Yeah.
No, but I'm glad. I'm glad. I want to be able to.
Jesus wept, you know. Unless you suffer, you can't feel another's pain. You can try.
You can want to. But you can't feel it. As Jesus did.
But you can become more like him through suffering, by developing, by obtaining this fruit of righteousness, which is compassion. Another thing you learn, that's certainly desirable through suffering, is obedience. And this is said about Jesus.
I mentioned this before. Hebrews 5 verses 8 and 9. Though he was a son, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
Now he obeyed. Now he is obeyed. We obey him.
He was perfected. He learned obedience through the things he suffered. I mentioned earlier, this is a perplexing verse, because it sounds like it's saying Jesus was not very obedient, then he had to suffer, then he became obedient, he learned how to be obedient.
I don't think that's what it means. I think what he's saying is, when Jesus was in heaven, before he came to earth as a man, obedience was a non, a non-issue. His father wasn't giving him orders.
He wasn't being asked to make any sacrifices. He was God. He was in the position of God.
He was not in the position of being subject to God. He was God. When he became a man, he became subject to his father in a way human beings are.
And he learned what a life of obedience is, what it feels like, what it costs, how difficult it is. He learned what we have to learn. The lessons of what it means to be in a position of obedience and how hard that is, especially when obedience hurts like it hurt him and costs as much as it costs him.
Likewise, we learn obedience through the things we suffer. In Psalm 119 and verse 67, it says, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. Know better next time.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray. I didn't obey. Now I do.
Why? What changed? I went through this thing called affliction. Before that, I didn't obey. Now I do.
Now, Jesus obeyed before, but the point is we don't always obey, and affliction is a very good motivator to learn to keep his word. Now, here's another thing the Bible says we get in tribulation, which we can't get anywhere else. Second Corinthians, one form.
God comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. This is a little bit like the compassion things, but what he's saying is in our affliction, God comforts us. Now, you don't need comfort if you're not hurting, and if you don't hurt, you won't receive this particular comfort.
Being comforted by God for those who love God, those who want to be close to God, those who want to know him in the affliction, having his comfort is one of the greatest privileges. And God, he says, comforts us in all our tribulations, but he can't do that unless I'm in tribulation. He can make me comfortable.
I can be comfortable in a world without tribulations, but I can't be comforted. There's something very sweet about the comfort of God. The Bible says the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and comforts, or say if such are who have a contrite spirit.
God draws near to people who are suffering when they look to him. And the nearness of God, the contact with God at that level is something that is different than you can have when you're not in need of or experiencing affliction and comfort together. But he says that we now, having been comforted by God, can now comfort others who are in an affliction.
So, again, I've been through it now. I can speak with authority. I can speak with poignancy to somebody else who's going through it because they can't say, I don't know what it's like.
I do. And I've known the comfort of God. And I can tell somebody who's been through something.
Hey, God, God is in that. When I was in that, God drew near to me. You can draw near to God.
He'll draw near to you.
And this this is a good thing. This can work out for your good.
You'll be glad in the end about it. Now, a fifth thing that suffering works for us is trust in God. And again, this is something that suffering allows us to do, which prosperity, good health, comfort does not really allow.
I'm not saying that people who are comfortable and happy in their circumstances can't trust God. But they can't trust him desperately because they're not desperate. You know, when my wife was killed, I received an insurance settlement.
I didn't know I would. I was at home and there's a knock on my door and the car that hit her was insured for a little bit of money. Not anywhere near as much as it could have been, but the guy was a poor guy and he didn't he had minimal insurance and they came and offered me a check.
Though it was not a big amount, it was big for me. I had been living on $400 a month at that time. This is 1980 or 81.
And I was living with other brothers and living it cheap on the cheap because I was in full time ministry. And I've always always wanted to do, you know, free up as much time for ministry as possible. So I'd live very smart most of my life.
And my actual cost of living with a daughter was $400 a month at that time. The amount that came was not a huge amount, but it was enough to live on for years at my standard of living. But I've been living by faith, by choice.
I don't have to live by faith. I could tell people what my needs are. I don't want to.
I want to see God provide and he does. And so I thought, OK, now I've got all this money. How can I trust God? I was determined, though I have this money, I'm going to trust God the same as when I didn't.
But that was impossible. It was just impossible. Why? Because when I didn't have the money, I had to trust God to pay the phone bill every month.
I had to trust God to bring in money for my rent. I was driving an old car. If I had to drive anywhere out of town, I had to trust God to keep it running, which was no guarantee in its condition.
I had to live on the desperate edge of faith in everything for just the ordinary things of life. But with this money now in my bank account, I didn't have to trust God for any of that stuff. I could say, I'm still trusting you, Lord, but it sounds kind of hollow.
God, I'm still going to trust you to pay my rent. I mean, I know God. I've got enough to pay rent for the next three years already.
So how can I trust him to pay my rent? I can thank him. I can say God has provided for my next three years rent, but that's not the same thing as trusting him for my rent month by month. I didn't have to worry about my car breaking down.
If my car broke down, I can call the tow truck, take it to the dump. I'll buy myself another car. I could do it.
I had the money. So I found out, by the way, I didn't like that. I found that I did not like having that there.
And so I made a commitment to myself that I would give away that money over the course of the next year and be, within a year from that date, have none of it left. And during that year, it was fun. It's fun to give money away, you know, to people.
But eventually, it was given away, and I was back where I stood, and I loved being back where I had to live by faith again. Because I guess I had that experience, so I know this, because I wouldn't otherwise know it. When you're well off, comfortable, no crisis in your life, trusting God is a luxury.
And, in fact, it's a luxury that you can't really do quite the same. Because trusting God is at its best when you're desperate and you can't trust anything else or anyone else. When you have money, you can trust the money.
I'm not saying it's a sin to have money. That's not my position. My position is there's a great joy in trusting God because you then see his faithfulness on a regular basis, which makes him more real to you, which is important.
When I went into the ministry, I knew that I didn't have a ministry of healing or miracle working, things like that. You know, I thought, well, people who do that, you know, God's always real to you because you're seeing miracles all the time, but I don't do that kind of stuff. So I thought, this is why I will live by faith, because then every time I pay a bill, it's a miracle.
Because no human on earth knows my needs or will be allowed to know them. Only God will. And since there's no guarantee income from me, of course, every bill I pay will be because God supernaturally put it on someone's heart to make a contribution that I didn't ask for and didn't let them know it was needed.
And that's how I've lived for most of 49 years now. And happy about it. As I said, I had that money for a while.
I didn't like that very much, but I learned a lesson. And that is if you don't need God, you don't trust God. You can try.
I mean, a lot of people say, well, I wish I had faith like you. I think, well, my faith is not exceptional. I only believe God as much as I need to.
But I need to more than a lot of people do, because I've chosen a way of life that's more dependent on him. If you want more faith, be more dependent on him. Now, when you're suffering, that's... you don't choose that.
Now, I chose to live the way I do because I like living by faith. And I like the fact that being desperate throws my confidence on God more. But when you're suffering, that's not self-imposed.
That's something that happens to you you wish didn't happen and you wish you could change, but you can't. You're made desperate when you're sick. When you lose your job.
When your family falls apart and you can't control the other part. You know, when freedoms are being taken away by the government. Whatever, I mean, things that you can't control, suddenly you think, I've got to trust God more for this.
Because there's nowhere else I can look. And suffering then puts us in the position, excuse me, to trust in God. As we might not otherwise.
In 2 Corinthians 1, there's a great statement Paul makes in 2 Corinthians 1, 8 and 9. He says, we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came on us in Asia. Now, he didn't say what it was. I don't want you to be ignorant about it, but I can tell you exactly what it is.
But I'll tell you something about it. He says, we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Okay, that's pretty big trials.
We were burdened beyond measure, off the charts, immeasurable. Beyond our strength. Now, some of you say, God won't let you be tested beyond your strength.
Well, he will. Paul was. But God will give you the extra strength necessary.
But he'll certainly allow you to face things that you cannot handle in your own strength. Why? He says, yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead. See, if I can handle it, then I don't have to trust in God.
You know, trusting God is kind of a last resort most of the time. Even if we want to be faithful, it's just, we can handle things most of the time. There's no reason to trust God.
It's like the woman who said to her friend, I've tried everything, every expedient, all the resources, they're expended, now there's nothing left for me but to trust God. And her friend said, alas, has it come to that? Are things so bad that you have to trust God now? Sometimes, yeah, they have to get really bad before you will. Because if there's anything else to trust besides God, you will.
Or at least there'll be the strong temptation to do so. It's hard to avoid that temptation if you know you've got a safety net. There's a backup here.
If God doesn't come through, it's still okay. When you're in a situation where if God doesn't come through, it's not going to be okay. That's when trusting God becomes dynamic.
And so Paul says, we had the sense of, we despaired of our lives, we couldn't help ourselves. This happened so we wouldn't trust in ourselves, but we trust in God who raised the earth. Suffering puts you in a position to grow in faith in God.
Another thing that suffering does for you is it makes you humble. Now, by the way, humility is an elusive virtue. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're proud.
I am, and I've noticed. When I've been in the ministry, I noticed that in the Jesus movement, people who could teach the Bible were looked up to. Because most of the Jesus freaks were brand new converts out of hippy-dum, they didn't know one thing about the Bible.
I was raised in the church, I read the Bible all my life, I knew something they didn't know, and people looked up to me. And they also looked up to Christian bands, and I was in a Christian band. So I was in situations in ministry that I knew my peers would tend to kind of look up to me.
And yet I knew, because I'm serious about God, I always was, that God would strike me right down if I'm proud. And God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. It says that several times in the Bible.
And that, to me, being proud was a terrifying prospect. And yet, as a young man, I couldn't be as humble as I want to be. I heard one older preacher say, I've never met a humble young man.
One preacher I know said, when I turned 30, I repented of being 20. When I turned 40, I repented of being 30. When I turned 50, I repented of being 40.
You know, I'm now 60, I'll probably repent of being 60 when I'm 70. You know? Because as you get older, you look back on how arrogant you were. You didn't know it.
You were just you. Being proud is natural. You don't realize you're proud.
But I do remember that when people would compliment me or praise me in some way, I remember thinking, that's dangerous, you know? That's risky. If people say great things about me, I might be stupid enough to start believing it at some point. And I know it's not true.
I know I'm not great. I know that they're impressed by something that I didn't even have anything to do with. I didn't ask for this.
If they start giving me credit, I might start wanting to take the credit. I'll tell you, humility is a hard thing to find. And I don't know that any man finds it perfectly.
But young men, especially, are more prone to it because they feel indestructible. Young men are indestructible as you get older and weaker and uglier. Ugly old age.
My friend, Fred Bob, he was talking about ugly old age. And he was an ugly old man, but he was sure a diamond, a spiritual diamond. But he was all wrinkled up and all messed up.
But he was full of joy because he said only Jesus can make ugly old age the crowning period of life. But the point is, when you get older, it's easier to be humble. And yet it's still not easy.
It's still the tendency is to be proud. But one thing that really works real well in creating humility or inspiring humility is suffering. Because it's when you're suffering, you don't feel indestructible at the moment.
You don't feel like you're in command of the situation anymore. If you were, you wouldn't be going through this. Suffering is a humbling thing, and that's a very helpful thing.
Trust me, you want to be humble. You don't want God to resist you. God resists the proud.
He gives grace and you want to be humble. I've known that all my life. I want to be humble.
I just am not. But the more you suffer, the more it is natural to be humble. Like, hey, I'm getting it.
I'm not indestructible. I'm not great. I'm not anything.
I'm just a feeble, vulnerable, frail human being who has all the sufferings anyone else has. And I can't do anything more about it than they can. That's a wonderful, wonderful, humbling thing.
Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 12, 7, Paul suffered from that thorn in the flesh. It was annoying to him. We don't know exactly what it was, but he tells us it was very unpleasant.
And he says, the reason I had it, it was given to me. Now, he said it was a messenger of Satan. But it was very clear that under God's control, as he goes on to make very clear, it was God's desire to allow this messenger of Satan to buffet him and trouble him.
And he said, it's so that I would not be exalted above measure. Now, you know, that was God's purpose for it, not the devil's. The devil was not trying to keep Paul from being proud.
God was trying to keep him from being proud. So he allowed this messenger of Satan to buffet him, this thorn in the flesh. And it helped him stay humble.
And that's what suffering offering does. It's a wonderful benefit from suffering. Become more like Christ in that way.
In the same passage, the next verse, Paul said, Now, what's that mean? He prayed three times for it to go away. Now, this is another benefit of suffering. It makes you pray.
Most Christians I know would say they've got a pretty pathetic prayer life. Now, maybe you don't. I know some people have got great prayer lives.
But most people I know say their prayer life is pretty pathetic. They wish they could do better. If they could snap a finger and become a great prayer warrior, they would.
But that just doesn't happen. They get distracted. They start praying and they fall asleep.
They can't remember what to pray for after a few minutes. And it's like, this is, you know, I'm just, I'm bad at this, you know. I think it was C.A. Spurgeon said, And yet I truly do believe in prayer.
I believe prayer is the most powerful force, the greatest privilege that Christians have. So why don't I do it better? Why don't I do it more? Once again, it has to do with how desperate do I feel? We cry out to God when we're desperate. When we're not desperate, we might pray.
But it's kind of perfunctory, isn't it? I mean, okay, time to pray. You know, I have my morning devotions. Oh, we're going to eat a meal.
Let's go into bed and say a prayer. Okay, so we say a prayer. But when we're not very desperate, in many cases, we're not doing much more than saying a prayer.
That's not always the same thing as praying. When you're desperate, you cry out to God. And Paul said, I prayed three times for it to go away.
Now, you might say, well, that's not a whole prayer life. No, but that's three prayers he wouldn't have prayed if he didn't have that thorn. You want to pray more? I'll tell you what, when you suffer, you'll find yourself much more naturally crying out to God, praying.
When my ex-wife left, left four kids at home, just went off, never spoke to me again. Never explained why she left. That was hard.
The good part of it was she left the kids, you know. It would be much harder if she took the kids too. Thankfully, she didn't.
But it was hard. First of all, I was in the ministry. Secondly, it was my second divorce.
That's not good on the resume of a minister. It raised questions about whether I could ever teach again on family life, which was one of the things I taught about a great deal before then. My family was good.
I taught about family life a lot. I hardly ever have spoken about it since then. It's been 18 years.
I mean, I could see damage to the ministry. I could see damage to my children. I could see damage to our testimony.
I could see damage to the church. It was a bad thing. I was suffering at many levels.
But I'll tell you what, I walked through the house praying out loud every day for months. You know, I mean, I don't usually pray out loud all day long. I couldn't go very many seconds without crying out to God again.
You know, suffering makes you prayerful. Unless you're not a believer, of course. But prayerfulness is a good thing.
It's something most of us would like more of. Appreciate it when God does something that makes you that way. Another benefit.
Only a few more that were done here for the session. Is it puts you in a different degree of fellowship with Jesus to suffer with him. I mentioned earlier Philippians 3 10.
Paul says, I pray that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformed to his death. I want to know Jesus. Other than by hearsay.
I want to know him by immediate interaction. I want to know him by immediate knowledge. Intimately.
I want to know the power of his resurrection, but I also want to know the sharing the fellowship of his sufferings. Paul thought that suffering with Jesus, suffering for Jesus, suffering like Jesus. Was a major part of bringing him into fellowship with Jesus, knowing Jesus.
You learn more about somebody when you've suffered what they suffer. And if you suffer with them. That binds you together.
Like very few other things. If people endure, you know, if a bunch of, you know, skiers are stranded together on on a mountaintop and they're not sure they're going to be rescued, you know. If they get rescued, they'll be close.
At least when they see each other, they'll feel they've got sort of a bond there because they've been through something together. That they haven't been through with other people. If you go through the kind of suffering that Jesus went through.
And you're mindful of the fact that you're. You know, experiencing what he experienced. This adds dimension.
To your fellowship with Jesus to your your connection. You're you're more. Not your salvation connection, but to your emotional connection, your awareness of what he's like, you know him better.
If you've go through fellowship and his sufferings with him. Another benefit that suffering brings. Is.
What we could call homesickness for heaven. We are pretty comfortable in this world. I remember a pastor's wife once said to me, you know, I want Jesus to come back and all that.
But frankly, I hope he doesn't come too soon. Because I'm really liking my life right now. Well, I don't blame a woman for liking her life if she has a good life.
But if like in this life becomes a rival to your bridegroom. And your desire to be with him. Then that's not a healthy thing.
The world is a rival. To Christ for our affections. And when the world treats us so good.
It's easy for us to give it a lot of our affection. When the world turns on us. And things go badly.
When the world is an uncomfortable place. A painful place to be. That's when you start thinking.
Come quickly Lord Jesus. John was on the island of Patmos when he said come quickly Lord Jesus. He was imprisoned there.
He was a prisoner. I'm not saying he wouldn't say it at other times. But that's when you feel it.
That's when you really want to see Jesus. That's when you realize this world is not my home. I want to be with Jesus.
And Paul said that. He was imprisoned probably in Rome when he wrote Philippians 1. He's telling his readers how hard it is for him. But he says I am hard pressed between the two.
Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Which is far better. Paul suffered a great deal.
And he said you know this just makes me want to go be with Jesus. Because that's so much better. But you know a lot of people I know.
When they think about being with Jesus. They don't have a present life. These are the golden years of my life.
I'm retired now. I don't have to go to work. The kids are grown.
The house is paid for. We got an RV. We can live like frankly royalty couldn't live.
Over a hundred years ago. And this is a pretty sweet gig. But it might be a little too sweet sometimes.
Like if you find out you're going to die. You say oh no. Even when I'm happy and I'm mostly happy.
I'm certainly very happily married right now. My life is a very happy life right now. But I've never been at a point in my life where.
If a doctor would say. Got bad news. Three weeks to live.
I've never been at a point in my life where I wouldn't say. Any chance it could be sooner? This world is not a place I am loath to leave. Not that I don't like this world.
I'm pretty comfortable. I've got a lot of friends. I've got a happy life actually.
But it's nothing like seeing Jesus. And when the gig isn't that sweet. When you're really starting to have pain and suffering.
And trials. And the world isn't starting to look like your friend anymore. That's especially when you get homesick for Jesus.
Come Lord Jesus. Take me. Take me away.
That's a good thing. To long for Jesus. A crown of righteousness.
Not for me only. But all who love his appearing. If someone says.
Well I want him to come back. But not yet. I don't think you love his appearing.
How could a woman who's in love with her husband. Who's away at war. Not be longing for the day.
That he comes back from war. And they're united. There's no love there.
If she doesn't want him back. Not right away. One last thing that's a real benefit that comes.
From suffering. And that is. It provides.
An opportunity for witness. I mentioned that if you've been through something. You can.
That becomes a testimony. You can tell people how God. Took you through it.
How God. You know. Delivered you or whatever.
Or if you're not delivered. If you're still in it. You know.
You wouldn't trade. You know. These sufferings.
Along with God. For a life without God. And without suffering.
I mean. When people are suffering. They almost always speak sincerely.
And people know that. When you're suffering. And you speak about God.
Most people realize that. Maybe they should listen to you. Especially if you've been something.
Through something that. Not everyone's been through. Or that they haven't been through.
It says. In Philippians 1. 12 through 14. Paul says.
I want you to know brethren. That the things which happen to me here. He's in prison.
Actually turned out. For the furtherance of the gospel. So that it has become evident.
To the whole palace guard. And to all the rest. That my chains are in Christ.
Because I'm in prison. I have access to minister. To testify to the prison guards.
To the whole household of Caesar. That's a witness. I didn't have access to.
That's an audience I didn't have access to. And most of the brethren in the Lord. Having become confident by my chains.
Are much more bold. To speak the word without fear. Now.
Because I'm in chains. Paul says. Which is not a comfortable place to be.
In a third world jail. There's people here in the gospel. That would never have heard it.
And there's brethren. Who are already believers. Who are emboldened.
They figure if Paul can go through it. I can go through it. I'll tell you what.
I have been impacted in my life. More. Than by any other thing.
Besides the Bible itself. I've been impacted by. Biographies.
Especially biographies of people. Who've suffered. Great things.
And again. I mentioned Richard Wurmbrandt. Corrie ten Boom.
Johnny Erickson Tada. The stories in Fox's book of martyrs. Those stories.
Have done more to inspire me. Because of the testimonies of those people. And what they suffered.
You know. Someone gave me Fox's book of martyrs. As a gift.
When I was like 17. I didn't want to read it. I knew it was a great book.
I'd heard it was a great book. But I'm squeamish. I don't like to see blood.
On television. I don't even like to see a squished possum. On the side of the road.
With its guts out. Gives me the creeps. I don't have a strong stomach.
I'm weak. I thought. I don't want to read about these people.
Being skinned alive. And you know. Shot through with arrows.
And you know. Hung with spears. I don't want to read this stuff.
And then. I'd had it on my shelf. For a really long time.
And never cracked the book. And then. One day I thought.
You know. Everyone says it's so great. Maybe I'll just take a peek and read.
The thing was so encouraging. The book's totally edifying. I mean.
It does describe all these. Tortures and martyrdoms. But what it's describing.
Is these people. Receiving this grace from God. To be joyous in the face of suffering.
And to be strengthened. And to testify to their persecutors. And people getting saved.
Because of this. I mean. This is a really different angle.
You know. I mean. I knew it was a story about people suffering.
And dying. I didn't know it was a story. That was so much about.
The testimony that they gave. And the test. And the impact their testimony had.
On people. Tremendous. So.
We're going to take a break. But I just want to remind you. The thing is.
That I believe. Are. The primary benefits.
That the Bible says. We can receive through suffering. Which we cannot.
As easily. Or maybe not at all. Receive without suffering.
The peaceable fruits of righteousness. That are. That we benefit.
By being trained. By our suffering. One of them.
As I said. Is. Endurance.
Another is compassion. Another is. Learning to be more obedient.
Another is. The receiving of God's comfort. Another is learning to trust God.
And experiencing. Trust in God. Another is humility.
Another is prayerfulness. Another is. A degree of fellowship with Jesus.
That can't be had without. Fellowshiping in his sufferings. Also.
There's homesickness for heaven. And then there's of course. The kind of special dynamic testimony.
That comes. That God gives you. Because of your suffering.
So. I'm. I'm.
I'm. I'm. I'm.
I'm. I'm. I'm.
I'm. I'm. I'm.
I'm. I'm. I'm.
I'm. I'm. I'm.
I'm. I'm.

Series by Steve Gregg

Some Assembly Required
Some Assembly Required
Steve Gregg's focuses on the concept of the Church as a universal movement of believers, emphasizing the importance of community and loving one anothe
The Life and Teachings of Christ
The Life and Teachings of Christ
This 180-part series by Steve Gregg delves into the life and teachings of Christ, exploring topics such as prayer, humility, resurrection appearances,
Proverbs
Proverbs
In this 34-part series, Steve Gregg offers in-depth analysis and insightful discussion of biblical book Proverbs, covering topics such as wisdom, spee
Making Sense Out Of Suffering
Making Sense Out Of Suffering
In "Making Sense Out Of Suffering," Steve Gregg delves into the philosophical question of why a good sovereign God allows suffering in the world.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit
Steve Gregg's series "The Holy Spirit" explores the concept of the Holy Spirit and its implications for the Christian life, emphasizing genuine spirit
Nehemiah
Nehemiah
A comprehensive analysis by Steve Gregg on the book of Nehemiah, exploring the story of an ordinary man's determination and resilience in rebuilding t
Revelation
Revelation
In this 19-part series, Steve Gregg offers a verse-by-verse analysis of the book of Revelation, discussing topics such as heavenly worship, the renewa
Zephaniah
Zephaniah
Experience the prophetic words of Zephaniah, written in 612 B.C., as Steve Gregg vividly brings to life the impending judgement, destruction, and hope
Genuinely Following Jesus
Genuinely Following Jesus
Steve Gregg's lecture series on discipleship emphasizes the importance of following Jesus and becoming more like Him in character and values. He highl
What You Absolutely Need To Know Before You Get Married
What You Absolutely Need To Know Before You Get Married
Steve Gregg's lecture series on marriage emphasizes the gravity of the covenant between two individuals and the importance of understanding God's defi
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