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Information about this sermon:
Preacher: Pastor Chuck Holiday
Scripture: Colossians 1:24-27
Our suffering can become a window into the immense love God has for us!
Transcript
I’m so glad you’re with us I want to just remember again those words that Jesus said um which are shocking you know to the modern church he said blessed are you who are poor blessed are you who are hungry and blessed are you who weep then this verse 22 blessed are you when people hate you when they exclude you and insult you and reject you for my name does that sound like this this is your best life now
does that sound like the way Jesus made disciples by promising that they would be richer and their marriages would be better and their children would grow up and always love them and be healthy and
prosperous it doesn’t sound that way does it and yet that’s the gospel that we’re seduced into believing my friends it’s not the real gospel Jesus Never Promised You a better life now he promised you a better
hope for a life to come and he promised you a richer life now internally he promised you a life where you could have peace when you were isolated where you could feel honor when the world had nothing but shame for you it’s a better gospel it’s not a it’s not a less lesser gospel it’s a better gospel and Paul brings us right into the heart of this In this passage in verse 24 he he hits us right in the face with it in Colossians 1 he said now I
rejoice in what I suffered for you I rejoice in it it would have been startling if he just Saidi endure it and keep my a stiff upper lip but he said no I rejoice in it and I feel it then then he says something that’s really shocking and hard to understand at first he said I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s
afflictions and what in the world does that mean
so um let’s talk about suffering and and I really believe that these teachings that God has for us here can can radically transform the way we view suffering if we’ll let the Holy Spirit just take a few minutes to deepen these thoughts in our hearts that the Apostle Paul’s giving us here suffering how much time and energy do we spend trying to to avoid
it I mean I you know if you’re older you you can’t help but think about your you know your retirement accounts and will I be able to maintain my standard of living when I no longer have that income uh if you’re younger it it has more to do with who am I going to sit with at the lunch table today and am I going to be alone am I going to be isolated am I going to have to go to my car uh you know if I’m driving to to uh to to avoid not having anybody to sit with uh we all spend enormous amounts of energy trying to avoid suffering trying to to do all we can to to wall it out and and to make sure that if it comes we we alleviate it to the best of our ability and that it would be temporary well my friends Paul said well I don’t like the suffer I don’t enjoy getting beat up and I don’t like being excluded by my buddies that I grew up with because I’m a Christian now and they’re they’re not I I don’t enjoy any of that in fact it’s hard he said but but I’ve discovered there’s a joy in it there’s there’s something very very deeply meaningful to
me and it all has to do with what David’s been teaching Us in the last couple weeks about the supremacy of Christ is is is it really Christ Alone is Christ sufficient is he enough is the beauty of Christ the acceptance of Christ the wisdom and purpose of Christ coming into this world to redeem it is is there a big enough Christ to make anything that I suffer for him a
joy a privilege and you know I was talking to David this week about I you know I this isn’t original I I’ve heard it many places but I’d like you to give you this phrase Jesus plus nothing equals
Everything Jesus plus nothing
not plus your church membership not plus your tithe money not plus your uh moral Purity Jesus plus nothing equals everything and I know right away some somebody’s going to say well but what about Good Works the Bible commands us you know good works and James said faith without works is dead I know all the verses
they’re all true but they’re all part of the everything they’re not on the first side of the equation they’re not Jesus plus gives us things it’s Jesus plus nothing gives us new hearts that want to do good works a desire to be part of God’s family a a generosity in our hearts to give away our wealth for the sake of those who have nothing it’s Jesus by himself plus nothing
it gives us everything and that’s what Paul said in these last two sermons that David’s brought to us is Christ really big enough to not need anything but what he did for us on the cross his perfect life his his innocent death on our behalf does that give us
everything well Paul says it does and and Jesus is so so enough that it transforms the way I look at suffering in fact suffering actually becomes part of the everything that I
get it’s not the thing to be avoided at all costs anymore for Paul it’s no I actually get to share in the sufferings of Christ for the Redemption of the world so how does that how does that work well there there’s Paul says back a little earlier in verse we we looked at U last week in chapters 20 chapter 1 verse 21 and 22 Paul says once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil Behavior now he doesn’t say God was your enemy he said you were God’s enemy you had a grudge he he’s talking to all these people who had become Christians he said before you came to Christ you actually hated God he was your enemy in your mind he was your enemy now how could that be because God loved the world well it’s it’s called projection have you ever been in a conversation with a
narcissist if you want to know what they’re planning to do to you just listen to what they’re accusing you
of when they accuse you of cheating it’s because they’re probably cheating when they accuse you of of being mean-spirited and having Wicked ulterior motives it’s probably a window into what they’re doing now we all do this to some extent we we interpret what somebody else is doing to us in terms of how we would how we would do it why why do we think that God is out to get
us why do we think that he’s always mad at me because that’s how we would feel if people had messed us over the way we’ve done it to God if somebody that I
loved had be betrayed me the way I’ve betrayed God of course he’s mad at me we’re projecting the way we would feel onto him and Paul says that’s not
true he forgives in ways that you could never forgive he loves you in ways that you could never love when you’ve been betrayed the way you’ve betrayed God now how now the point is how is the world going to believe that well Christ died on a cross for their sins and that kind of turns your heart to open to new possibilities maybe he does love me but Jesus did that 2,000 years ago and we didn’t we couldn’t feel and touch and hear his words and it’s so long ago so so how are they going to believe that the real God can love the real
them how are how are you going to believe it how how am I going to believe it Paul says the way we suffer for one another helps an alienated World believe that maybe God does love them Paul said I have to fill up what’s still lacking in the sufferings of Christ he doesn’t mean that the the atonement for our sins is incomplete no When Jesus died on the cross his last words it is fin finished it’s paid in full your suffering for another person’s Sins Of course can’t take away their sin or their guilt it’s impossible but what your suffering can do is help them believe that maybe God does love them if if you can love me maybe maybe there is something to this thing about God loving me hasn’t that been true for you in your experience isn’t it the the love of another human that that often opens your heart to the possibility that maybe God isn’t mad at me maybe he does love me Paul said that’s how it works so I I want you to just see briefly here but how even our suffering our suffering as human beings can become a window into the Comfort we receive from seeing the glory of Christ your suffering can be deeply meaningful and purposeful in reaching a lost world when the way you suffer becomes a window for people to understand how Christ suffers for
us that’s how it works our suffering first of all our suffering can be instrumental in helping people see the love of God you know there’s really no love without suffering you parents you realize this in loving your children it’s always substitutionary isn’t it meaningful love is always substitutionary that means you take on a pain so that your children can have a blessing that’s what it is right that’s the essence of Love there is no real meaningful love without sacrifice I substitute my comfort for the sake of for the sake of theirs moms just think about how you do that for your babies when they’re when they come into this world but it it never
stops now that that can become a window your suffering becomes a window for people to understand the love that God has for us I mean the really is a deep question in all of our hearts is could could God really could the real God love the real me the real me and you deep in our hearts we don’t really believe that very well or we wouldn’t spend so much time putting a false me on
Facebook I mean we’ve spend enormous amounts of energy creating a false me for the world to to maybe accept and ultimately hoping that God will accept me that God will love me but my friends the gospel is the real God loves the real you and it’s in our sacrificial love for people that they begin to maybe be open to that possibility now that sacrificial love always involves suffering now moms maybe you don’t think of it as suffering when you you know you have to get up three times in in the night to feed your baby or to tend to your crying child or but it it’s sacrifice right it’s suffering you know and when I talk to you know 20s somethings you know and they’re they’re uh having a bad day because they had to go to bed an hour late I thought well you just
wait you just wait because because you know it’s a world of suffering now those are little things Paul was talking about getting beaten up getting stoned getting Shipwrecked and I mean it was like over the toop suffering but you know suffering suffering you know and not having anybody to sit with at the lunch table is hard when you’re
15 you know or or having a sports injury that takes you out of your you know your seni your senior year in a sport you know one of my granddaughters just went through that it’s it’s hard when you’re 17 to you know suffering suffering and it helps when we are willing to suffer for one another to believe that maybe God loves me now it it it’s got to for you to come to Christ if you’re not a Christian yet um for you to come to Christ something has to happen to turn your heart from believing that I’m his enemy to um he loves me and it’s the love of other Christians that can help you begin to believe that that’s why this is important that we can be
reconciled Christ paid the price when he died for our sins on the cross but that doesn’t help if our hearts are still alienated if we still see God as the the enemy if we still believe that there’s nothing but wrath in his heart for me then we’re not going to be ready to receive him and receive the sacrifice for us but here but the other thing is not only can can our suffering help a lost world trust God and come to Christ but our suffering actually can help us as Christians to see the love that God has for us more clearly and this is the exact reverse of this this is where you can tell whether is the spirit of God working in a person’s heart it it will always come into clear Focus over this issue of suffering because suffering never leaves us in a the same place it it will push us one way or the other and if if your heart is not sensitive to what God is doing if you’re stuck in bitterness what will suffering do it will just deepen your bitterness it will just deepen your alienation it will just just reinforce what you already think God hates me he’s mad at me and there’s nothing I can do to get him off my back suffering will just deepen your alienation but if the spirit of God begins to work in your heart and you begin to see that Christ loves me he died for my sins I have a Eternal Destiny of Glory with him then what does suffering do it becomes the opposite it becomes a window to understand more deeply what he did for
me I I knew a guy many years ago their their little two-year-old was desperately sick um critically sick like life or death any day and he was sharing with his friend the agony he was in just the Deep Agony over the the suffering of his little little girl and his friend said brother I don’t know what to say right now except welcome to the agony of
God maybe maybe there’s a blessing in this somewhere for you to understand a little more deeply what God feels for us every
day he feels our pain the way you feel the pain of your little
girl you know when people when people come with bitter Hearts over the hurts that that’s being inflicted on them in their relationships or their work
um and they’re stuck in their bitterness sometimes that often people will say well how could I how could I not be bitter with what’s happened to me but there’s a turn in our hearts when we begin to realize okay I too have treated other people the way I’m being treated there’s a turn in our heart when we begin to realize I don’t ever want to make anybody else feel the way they’re making me feel it turns from of course I’m a jerk because look at the way I’ve been bullied you know I’ve been a I’ve been bullied so that’s why I’m a
bully it that can turn to you know what the way I’ve been bullied I don’t want anybody to ever feel that so God help me not to be a bully you see it can it’ll push you one way or the other and it depends on whether you believe there’s a good and gracious God who suffers for
you Paul says I know he does now this is this is where it gets really awesome because the the thing we hate about suffering more than anything else else more than the physical pain more than the
loneliness more than the fear of who’s going to take care of me more than anything the thing that we absolutely find intolerable in suffering is the shame that we usually attach to the suffering and if if you don’t know what I’m talking about just think of were you ever bullied as a kid were you ever bullied we ever made fun of and and physically dominated and just that that incredible shame it’s you know getting beat up is by a bully is different than than breaking your leg playing football doesn’t hurt near as bad as breaking your leg playing football but the shame you don’t feel shame when you get break your leg playing football you you actually feel kind of cool you know
I remember the first time I broke my nose in college uh playing basketball and oh my gosh that hurt but I don’t remember feeling any Shame about that you know I remember another time I broke my nose on a sleding accident you know and uh doing something really stupid you know but I remember the doctor setting my nose and stitching my forehead up without any novocaine and and it wasn’t that bad because because I felt really cool for this stupid thing you know they tried to do on a sled you know it’s like it’s the shame that attaches itself to the pain that is intolerable that makes the pain unbearable and Paul said not only do I not feel shame in getting beat up for Christ I have discovered that it’s my glory I get to share in the glory of Christ when that happens to me this is what he says in verse 27 he said to them God has chosen to make known the Gentiles the Glorious Riches of this mystery which is Christ in you the hope of
glory there’s glory in it why because two things one I’m partnering with God we’re we’re in Mission together God is Jesus is in me and together we are reaching a world for Christ and he says secondly when I suffer for Christ I feel a a fellowship a connection to Jesus that I don’t feel any other time in my life it’s in the
suffering any how many of you grew up up north any of you some of you you know there’s nothing like shoveling snow when you’re you know I mean it gets it gets old but when you’re when you’re five and your dad says come on come on Chucky we got to shovel the
driveway it is really cool you know and and and you know when you come back in and you can’t feel your hands and you can’t feel your feet you know you absolutely are physically hurting in lots of ways but when you’re when your mom says did you guys shovel the driveway and and you know you I don’t know how much you shoveled when you’re five but it wasn’t much you know but yeah we shoveled the driveway and it feels great and you don’t care how cold your hands and feet are because we shovel the driveway Paul says that’s what I feel when I get to tell people about Jesus and when I get to suffer and see people come to Christ through my suffering
we did
it we didn’t waste our life there’s a purpose and a calling that we have my friends to partner with God not just when you’re evangelizing when you go to work when you start a company that’s going to do good in the world it’s going to be part of blessing people healing people building good houses for people designing better cars for people can you do it in partnership with god with a sense of this is what he has given me to do with my life and I want to do it for his glory and when we do it we we did it together now come on you didn’t do much but you did your part and he Delights to bring you along like like I mean I I love you know having my son go out and shovel the driveway with me it’s so much more fun than doing it by myself that’s how God feels about you partnering in the thing he’s called you to do with your life Paul said that’s true for me and suffering is part of it but I don’t mind in fact what I feel when I get this when I my hands are frozen and my feet are frozen what I feel is honor what I feel is Glory I don’t feel shame I don’t feel like I feel when I get beat up on the way home from the school bus I feel awesome you know father Daman who was a Catholic priest in the 19th century went to Hawaii and he felt a call to go to the leper community on a portion of the island that was isolated you know it was a peninsula out on the uh the end of the island in Malachi uh with a with three sides surrounded by water and one side uh impenetrable Cliff so this is where they took the lepers uh to isolate them they wanted them to stay alive but they they were completely isolated they had no Law and Order they had no medical care they had no schools and father Daman felt like this was his call to go to to the LEP colony and uh so in 1873 he he went and mostly what he did was build houses and schools and buildings and help re bring some kind of Law and Order to this Lawless Society of outcasts isolated people and when he went in there he knew he wasn’t coming back
he went in as a healthy man to an unhealthy colony of lepers and um in 1885 when he got up to speak to the people his his vocabulary changed and instead of saying you lepers he had to say we lepers because now he had the disease
my friends do you know what that’s that’s what Jesus did for us when he left Heaven he came to a leper
colony not a physical leper colony but a spiritual lepr Colony leprosy always represented sin in the Old Testament because it it it was physically uh horrible but mostly it was the isolation people in leper colonies couldn’t go hug their kids they couldn’t go home for Christmas they were absolutely isolated and lived with the shame of being outcasts when Jesus left heaven to come to Earth he came to the spiritual lepr leprosy Colony not to come and give us hope for the future yes but he came to be a leper because he knew there was only one way out of this leper colony for for those of us who are who are in it he had to take our leprosy in order to take our sin he had to become sin so that we could become righteous in him my friends that’s what he did for us now father Damian didn’t sacrifice himself for the the sins of the people but his physical sacrifice his willingness to become an outcast to be among them is the thing that helped them believe that God does love me and that Jesus did come for me and he transformed that leopard Colony yeah through building buildings and bringing some Law and Order and dressing their wounds but mostly by being among them and convincing them that they were not foreigners they were not strangers to the love of God they could be Christlike as lepers my friends as we as we come to the Lord’s table and a little bit later in the service I want to give you his words as as he would gather his flock at the at the Lord’s table he said it is at the foot of the altar we find the strength we need in our
isolation some of you are here today we’re you know 150 of us or whatever I don’t know but you can be here and feel absolutely isolated absolutely alone you have people who are kind to you but if you deep inside you’re feeling like but if they knew me they wouldn’t want me my friends we all deal with that at at the foot of this altar we find strength the strength we need in our isolation the strength to come out of our isolation the strength to share in The Fellowship of the sufferings of Christ let’s pray together God in
heaven you know I just want to confess that I believe these words are true but my heart uh Rebels against them very very frequently and uh I ask you to deliver me and and for us as as your people would You Deliver Us from this Relentless anxiety about suffering this fear of it this preoccupation with with you know keeping ourselves comfortable would you Holy Spirit today give us a vision of a glory that can be in our suffering how could we experience expence glory in a bankruptcy how could we experience Glory and Honor in a cancer diagnosis how could we how could we feel your Delight in us when nobody wants to sit with us at lunch holy spirit would you would you show us how big Christ is how immense his love for us is May our suffering become a window to our understanding how much you love us
and Lord may we turn our eyes to Jesus and to the glory that awaits Us in his name we pray amen
