How Shall We React to Sufferings?
A Journey with Job • Sermon • Submitted
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· 18 viewsGrace means underserved blessings. What about undeserved sufferings? Is there such a thing? Why do bad things happens to good people? Can a believer truly claim that he is completely good and he doesn't deserve to suffer? We know that God is just (2 Thessalonians 1:5-6). If we believe that God is Almighty and Just, how then shall we react to sufferings? Just Keep on Worshipping God regardless of your circumstances. Own nothing, because everyone & everything, came and belongs to God. Bless the Lord with your praises.
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Opening
Opening
New Year’s Resolutions are meant to be broken, are they? Really?
Statistically, people give up their resolutions in few months, weeks or even just days
A month had passed after the New Year’s
How are you holding up to your New Year’s Resolutions?
if you want a resolution that last forever, be resolve to love & follow Jesus
It is the best and only resolution that we all need, and it will last until forever
BREATHE!
Jesus said, come, take and learn
Come follow my commands
Take my yoke, share to me your burden and I will lighten your load
Learn from my teachings, and live a life that is full
I don’t know what burdens you have in your shoulders
I don’t know what’s weighing you down
But I certainly know the answer
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
A yoke is a piece of wood that you put around the shoulders of two cattle to pull a cart or a plow
This will allow each cow to share the load
When Jesus said take my yoke upon you, it doesn’t mean that He will be giving you problems
Jesus doesn’t have problems!
Jesus is saying, He is going to share your problems
He will take on your load and bear your stress
In other words, Jesus said come and team up with me, learn how I do it, and you shall find rest
BREATHE!
Pressure Cooker Analogy
During our Life Group meeting last Monday, Ate Arca made a super crispy crackling “lechong kawali” using her amazing “turbo broiler”
There is another kind of kitchen wonder invented many years ago called “pressure cooker”
It tenderizes anything that you put in it
Fill it with water, and thrown in it pork knuckles, beef brisket, or the hardest kind of meat you can ever think of
Heat up the pot and anything in it will surely soften over time
The trick is to trap all the pressures inside the pot while boiling
In the same manner, God exposes us to different kind of pressures & stresses in life
Because through those life pressures, the Lord tenderizes our hearts
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
BREATHE!
Story: My Family 2-Day Retreat in Big Bear
There’s nothing superficial about my family
Not because we are the pastoral family of our church would mean that we are super special
Ours is like everyone else’s family
Sometimes we argue, we fight and we yell at each other
Thanks to Sis. Sheilah’s reminder that it is not just the family that prays together, that will stay together
But even families that argues together, stays together
But I praise God for replacing our hearts of stone, with hearts of flesh
That before the yelling gets really loud, we release the pressures
We just came back from a 2-day family retreat at Big Bear
And on the first night up in Big Bear, over some Korean Barbecue that my kids calls KBBQ, we had a family talk
There was raising of voices, wailing and crying
It’s very similar to those drama series you see on tv
We’d rather keep a mellow dramatic genre instead of suspense action thriller
Without going to the details, I gave every member of my family the permission to once again, just like 4 years ago, tell me everything they want to tell me
This time I started with my wife then all the way down to Anton
They brought out valid points that sufficiently merits my asking for apologies
Yes, I am a Pastor, I am a loyal servant of God, but that doesn’t make me God
God is perfect while I am not
After that night, we all felt great
Feels like all the pressures has been released
There was forgiveness and a lot of hugs was passed around the family
Felt really great!
God really is the source of all grace...
BREATHE!
Grace means “underserved blessings”
What about “undeserved sufferings”? what does it mean?
Why do bad things happens to good people?
Can a believer truly claim that he is completely good?
Is there such a thing as “underserved sufferings”?
As followers of Christ, why do we still have to suffer?
We know that God is Almighty and Just
How to Read the Bible Book by Book Specific Advice for Reading Job
how to reconcile undeserved suffering with a God who is both almighty and just
5-6
All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you
If we believe that God is Almighty and Just, how shall we react to sufferings?
As you turn your Bible to Job chapter 1, let me give you some important facts about suffering of believers
Jesus foretold it
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
The Apostles Foretold it
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,
Suffering is Profitable
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
RText: A Journey with Job ()
Suffering is the price of godliness
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Suffering Develops Character
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Suffering Deepens Fellowship
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Suffering Draws Believers to the Lord
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
BREATHE!
Text: A Journey with Job ()
Text: A Journey with Job ()
Job is believed to have lived in the time of Abraham (Patriarchs)
He was blameless and upright
He had 7 sons and 3 daughters
Very rich with large number of servants
He was a great man in the east
His kids used to party to celebrate occasions such as birthdays
Job will sacrifice burnt offering in the morning after the party as his custom to purify his children should they have sinned against God
His resolve was put to test
He lost all his wealth
He lost all his children
But not his faith in God
After loosing everything, he didn’t blame God
But instead ...
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
Go ahead and underscore “worship”,
“Naked I came”
“The Lord be praised”
BREATHE!
How shall we react to sufferings?
How shall we react to sufferings?
Just Keep on Worshipping God regardless of your circumstances
Just Keep on Worshipping God regardless of your circumstances
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Worshipping God not just through music & prayers
Worshipping God in our day to day life
Own nothing, because everyone & everything, came and belongs to God
Own nothing, because everyone & everything, came and belongs to God
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
Psalm 24:1
Bless the Lord with your praises
Bless the Lord with your praises
I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises.
BREATHE!
My Personal Story of loosing almost everything
I lost everything
God start restoring what is truly important
He started by restoring my family first
And then He started restoring my wealth
He restores my friendships by bringing me to Agape community
Prayer
Prayer