WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:28.100 If you don't sit down, this is the way you get attention in school. 00:28.100 --> 00:30.460 You'd get plenty of attention with that, wouldn't you? 00:30.460 --> 00:36.460 I would like us to turn to a passage of scriptures, very rare, Hebrews 13.3. 00:36.460 --> 00:46.900 It says, Think too of all who suffer as if you shared their pain. 00:46.900 --> 00:50.860 I know that there's plenty of pain in the world and plenty of heartaches and plenty 00:50.860 --> 00:56.180 of trouble and I'd like to spend a moment with this because a lot of people have attacked 00:56.180 --> 01:00.420 God because He said, You have allowed pain. 01:00.420 --> 01:03.380 I'm carrying something that's kind of neat. 01:03.380 --> 01:09.020 Michelle Switzer's daddy made this and she gave it to me. 01:09.020 --> 01:13.020 It's a beautiful thing, but notice it's got mud on the bottom. 01:13.020 --> 01:16.820 I was just complaining that I'm falling a lot more looking for dinosaurs than I ever 01:16.820 --> 01:17.820 used to. 01:17.820 --> 01:20.980 Now, I've got a crutch. 01:20.980 --> 01:22.140 You know what? 01:22.140 --> 01:23.780 That's a very comforting thing. 01:23.780 --> 01:27.180 That's got red mud on the end because you can't keep it pretty and still stick it in 01:27.180 --> 01:29.300 the mud, can you? 01:29.300 --> 01:30.800 Crutches are very, very useful. 01:30.800 --> 01:36.540 I found that God defined pain a long time ago and had a purpose for it. 01:36.540 --> 01:42.460 Pain is not just a random thing which some fluke of evolution left unsatisfied, but 01:42.460 --> 01:46.940 indeed it's part of God's plan and there is some profit and pain. 01:46.940 --> 01:49.220 I want to examine the scriptural nature of it. 01:49.220 --> 01:51.180 Before I do, I'd like to do the physical nature of it. 01:51.180 --> 01:56.260 If you want more of this, there's a wonderful book out by Charlie Brandt, the man who reconstructed 01:56.260 --> 02:03.020 Lepper's hands and he was a godly man and Philip Yancey works with him and it's a wonderful 02:03.020 --> 02:04.780 discourse on pain. 02:04.780 --> 02:11.780 I don't like pain, but it is one of the major protections which God provides his people 02:11.780 --> 02:18.980 and we need to live with that, you know, as if you shared other people's pain. 02:19.340 --> 02:24.300 Now if you walk in somebody's shoes for a mile, you'll find out whether you get blisters 02:24.300 --> 02:30.380 or not and I think the church would be a lot open-minded and open-hearted if it just saw 02:30.380 --> 02:35.620 that I need to be with those who are hurting and the church needs to be with those who 02:35.620 --> 02:40.780 are hurting and some of you have made a specialty of that and if you have that, God bless you 02:40.780 --> 02:45.820 for that talent and that gift which he has obviously given you because it's not a common 02:45.820 --> 02:48.300 thing to want to share anybody's pain. 02:48.300 --> 02:52.280 You know that's not the case and I'd like to address first of all physical pain for 02:52.280 --> 02:59.780 just a moment because it's the picture of a plan of God and it shows that God is orderly 02:59.780 --> 03:06.060 and there's no random or fortuitous circumstance in anything that has to do with a human being. 03:06.060 --> 03:11.300 We are here by design and that includes pain, doesn't it? 03:11.300 --> 03:15.580 You know if you measure pain and Charlie Brandt was a great one at this because restoring 03:15.580 --> 03:21.800 Lepper's hands he found out that there was a great deal of intriguing phenomena about 03:21.800 --> 03:23.300 the human body. 03:23.300 --> 03:27.140 Truly and fearfully we are wondrously made, we've heard that before, why don't we really 03:27.140 --> 03:29.500 buy it and really believe it? 03:29.500 --> 03:36.460 Did you know that the tongue can endure about 3 grams pressure but the foot can endure 250 03:36.460 --> 03:37.860 grams pressure? 03:37.860 --> 03:39.100 I wonder why that is? 03:39.100 --> 03:42.740 Well your foot has to do a different job than your mouth does. 03:42.740 --> 03:47.220 Some people probably can handle 300 or 400 grams of pressure because they use their tongue 03:47.220 --> 03:52.300 so much and it's a little bit overmuscled but that's not normally the case. 03:52.300 --> 03:59.500 You ever wonder why you can stick your tooth in a little cavity in your tooth and it feels 03:59.500 --> 04:00.500 like a cavern? 04:00.500 --> 04:03.100 Have you ever wondered about that? 04:03.100 --> 04:05.500 What if your fingers were like that and you mashed it? 04:05.500 --> 04:09.540 Wouldn't that be excruciating but God didn't design you that way, did he? 04:09.540 --> 04:14.180 There's also a test using a pinprick that the eyeball can only endure two tenths of 04:14.180 --> 04:20.140 a gram, that's a teeny bitty itty bitty part of your little finger. 04:20.140 --> 04:23.980 But did you know that your fingertips can endure 300 grams? 04:23.980 --> 04:28.100 Thank God and there are many of us who are diabetic, man if you look at our fingertips 04:28.100 --> 04:32.620 they're scarred and I'm glad God designed it that way because I guess he knew us diabetics 04:32.620 --> 04:36.860 would be self mutilating ourselves to stay alive. 04:36.860 --> 04:40.980 God distributed things different in every part of our body in order that pain might 04:40.980 --> 04:42.660 be handled. 04:42.660 --> 04:47.140 Pain cells are not distributed evenly and I'm thankful for that. 04:47.140 --> 04:51.340 Did you know that our stomach could be wound on a drum and burned and we would not suffer 04:51.340 --> 04:52.340 the pain? 04:52.340 --> 04:56.020 The pain would come when we have a few gas bubbles in our stomach. 04:56.020 --> 04:57.020 Does that hurt? 04:57.020 --> 04:59.580 Oh that's called a stomach ache, isn't it? 04:59.580 --> 05:05.380 And yet what a miraculous variety of pain distribution in the body. 05:05.380 --> 05:08.740 God cleverly designed it that way for His purpose. 05:08.740 --> 05:11.940 Pain therefore is by design. 05:11.940 --> 05:18.300 It is not an accident and therefore we must realize we take it into account in our everyday 05:18.300 --> 05:21.100 existence how important it is. 05:21.100 --> 05:28.700 Hansen disease is a clear, is a clear proof that without pain we would perish. 05:28.700 --> 05:33.180 Now I had this old stick and you know you could lean on that thing and when my heel 05:33.180 --> 05:35.940 is hurting it's good to lean on something. 05:35.940 --> 05:40.660 And did you know that the pain receptors borrow each other from place to place? 05:40.660 --> 05:44.380 You can have a heart attack here and feel it over here. 05:44.380 --> 05:48.820 And God has designed it that way in order as I begin to wear away the tendons of my 05:48.820 --> 05:56.940 muscles if I have Hansen's disease or leprosy I cannot keep my fingers intact. 05:56.940 --> 06:03.420 I bump my face, I rub my hands, I kick my toe and eventually I lose that part of my 06:03.420 --> 06:07.980 body because it's in sense that I have no pain. 06:07.980 --> 06:12.860 And therefore I would conclude that without pain we have death. 06:12.860 --> 06:19.340 With pain we may have death but we adjust much better with the pain and there is a purpose 06:19.340 --> 06:20.620 for it. 06:20.620 --> 06:26.420 Now I know that there's more to life than physical pain and I sometimes wonder if the 06:26.420 --> 06:34.300 mental and spiritual pain is not far worse than the agony of the flesh. 06:34.300 --> 06:38.220 And I know I've seen terrible agonies of the flesh. 06:38.220 --> 06:40.700 All of us have cancer. 06:40.700 --> 06:47.340 Oh my we could destroy that scourge that seems to cause God's people so much pain. 06:47.340 --> 06:52.260 Probably in this small congregation there's 10 of us or 12 of us that are dealing with 06:52.260 --> 06:59.180 or have dealt with that single pain dealing, running amok of the cells of the body called 06:59.180 --> 07:00.180 cancer. 07:00.180 --> 07:06.820 And it's a terrible, terrible pain and we have to sometimes live with that. 07:06.820 --> 07:13.060 Did you know that I keep up with biology, I keep up with organic chemistry because part 07:13.060 --> 07:22.220 of my life there's a new compound called telomerase and it binds the end of the 07:22.220 --> 07:30.340 DNA molecules in our body and it comes unraveled because the skin as we began to grow older 07:30.340 --> 07:35.180 only multiplies between 50 and 70 times the epithelial layers. 07:35.180 --> 07:41.620 And you can see that my hand isn't as pretty and soft and pink and as much fun to interdigitate 07:41.620 --> 07:49.500 with as you youngsters at 30 or 20 or 50 or 60 but I tell you what things change and there's 07:49.500 --> 07:54.300 only so much rejuvenation of the cells that lie within our bodies. 07:54.300 --> 08:01.780 And after that the telomerase disappears, the caps begin to explode or implode and before 08:01.780 --> 08:05.700 long the cell dies and we grow old. 08:05.700 --> 08:09.260 And there's a mechanism that God has put in there, part of its pain. 08:09.260 --> 08:16.580 Don't tell me that growing old isn't a pain, pain in the rear, a derriere I should say 08:16.580 --> 08:17.580 that word. 08:17.580 --> 08:21.540 It's a terrible thing to grow old in a way, is it? 08:21.540 --> 08:22.540 Because it hurts. 08:22.540 --> 08:26.660 I'd like to say it's a pretty, pretty thing but not always, is it? 08:26.660 --> 08:33.140 There is, for many of our problems, a panacea, an answer to such a thing and it's not Bayer 08:33.140 --> 08:42.340 or Cedron 26 but rather it's the fellowship of God, koinonia and they continued steadfastly 08:42.340 --> 08:44.820 in the apostles koinonia. 08:44.820 --> 08:53.500 The breaking of bread and prayers and we need the body and as I was imitating a picture 08:53.500 --> 08:58.060 of a guy with a bruised heel beginning to cripple, if one of us is hurting we should 08:58.060 --> 08:59.700 all cripple. 08:59.700 --> 09:06.100 We should all stand close and adjust our step with them and care for them and be intrigued 09:06.100 --> 09:07.860 and interested by them. 09:07.860 --> 09:13.260 It's God's design and its purpose in the physical body ever so much more in the spiritual 09:13.260 --> 09:14.260 body. 09:14.380 --> 09:20.580 Well, koinonia is found in three or four chapters but I like 1 Corinthians 12, I also like 09:20.580 --> 09:27.580 Ephesians 4 and I also like Romans 12 so think 12, 4, 12 and that has to do with the fellowship 09:27.580 --> 09:33.020 of God's people, the koinonia, the community, the spiritual family, see, the togetherness 09:33.020 --> 09:39.100 of God's people and sometimes that's your best protection against a world of outrageous 09:39.100 --> 09:45.820 nature, of sadness and sorrow and pain rampant running everywhere. 09:45.820 --> 09:50.620 Listen to what he says in Galatians 6, 1, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you 09:50.620 --> 09:57.460 who are spiritual, that should be every one of us, should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. 09:57.460 --> 10:07.260 Now the word restore there is a word called catartizo and it means to set a broken bone 10:07.380 --> 10:09.660 and every soldier knew about that in the field. 10:09.660 --> 10:15.860 Those old terrible blunt hand axes, they weren't sharp and they weren't polished steel and 10:15.860 --> 10:21.020 those long swords, they weren't sharp as you see it on TV, they were old, dull things 10:21.020 --> 10:27.260 of iron and tin and they were designed mainly to break men's bones, not to sever anything. 10:27.260 --> 10:30.900 All you had to do is break a man's arm and he suddenly wanted to get intellectual. 10:30.900 --> 10:35.740 Let's talk about this now and so that's all it was required and breaking a bone was a 10:35.740 --> 10:42.220 prerequisite for a soldier in the field and also for those who were fishermen, it means 10:42.220 --> 10:47.300 the same word, catartizo means to mend the nets. 10:47.300 --> 10:52.180 Now for a sailor, that's a fisherman, that's everything, mend the nets. 10:52.180 --> 11:01.180 If you've got a member of your household at home who needs a mended net, you restore 11:01.180 --> 11:03.820 her, restore him. 11:03.820 --> 11:10.700 If there's a brother in the church that's got a broken bone, either physically or spiritually, 11:10.700 --> 11:15.180 heal that bone that needs to be done. 11:15.180 --> 11:21.140 I tell you this, pain and suffering has happened. 11:21.140 --> 11:22.660 It's a fact of our life. 11:22.660 --> 11:26.500 I think you will see more of it in the world to come and the church needs to be prepared 11:26.500 --> 11:27.500 for that. 11:27.500 --> 11:33.100 So what, do you remember the tired old movies, you know, the guy that gets all shook up in 11:33.100 --> 11:39.460 the army and he goes hysterical and the guy slaps him across the jowl, whoop, like that 11:39.460 --> 11:43.220 and he says, thanks, I needed that. 11:43.220 --> 11:47.820 Remember that old cliche, thanks, I needed that. 11:47.820 --> 11:51.180 Well that's pretty bum advice, a slap in the face. 11:51.180 --> 11:55.340 I don't know whether that really is what he needed or not, we're prone to give the slap 11:55.340 --> 11:59.860 in the face before we are giving a courage word, I mentioned that. 11:59.860 --> 12:07.340 When I think of this, even more stupid advice to pain, God is testing you sister, well I 12:07.340 --> 12:11.460 don't know whether God is testing us with some of the things that we run across, I really 12:11.460 --> 12:17.060 doubt it most of the time, so be careful about quoting God, doing anything in your life. 12:17.060 --> 12:24.460 You leave it to him, what a wonderful cancer brother, give thanks to the Lord for this. 12:24.460 --> 12:27.100 That's the dumbest of all. 12:27.100 --> 12:34.020 I shall never give thanks for the cancer that killed my daddy, I just am not up to that 12:34.020 --> 12:38.740 and I don't believe the Bible requires that I do that. 12:38.740 --> 12:44.260 That powerful and strong man I loved just like any little boy would love his papa, he 12:44.260 --> 12:49.980 was everything and when I went to say goodbye to him, I put my arm around him and I recoiled 12:49.980 --> 12:56.180 and it hurt his feelings because I could feel every bone in that strong man's body. 12:56.180 --> 13:03.380 I don't give thanks for that and I didn't ask my daddy to just give thanks to the Lord, 13:03.380 --> 13:08.460 dad, it's a wonderful thing you have there, what a delightful cancer, not in the name 13:08.460 --> 13:11.260 of the Lord, not at all. 13:11.260 --> 13:15.180 And then I've heard this advice, well if you're having troubles, maybe you'd like to talk 13:15.180 --> 13:21.380 about some of your hidden sins sister, I don't hope you never give anybody that advice, that's 13:21.380 --> 13:23.860 not biblical and that is not right. 13:23.940 --> 13:32.860 Now let's go into it, what can the church do to do things in the coyano-nia way, in 13:32.860 --> 13:38.740 the spiritual sense to heal mended and mend things that are broken, see and heal those 13:38.740 --> 13:40.660 things which are separated. 13:40.660 --> 13:47.340 I know that if you're lonely, you're hurting, there's pain and if you're rejected, there's 13:47.340 --> 13:49.740 pain and there's hurt. 13:49.740 --> 13:55.660 But if there's cancer, you're hurting and we need to stand by those who will suffer 13:55.660 --> 13:56.660 those things. 13:56.660 --> 14:02.220 I would conclude this thought and I think a great man quantified at least five of these, 14:02.220 --> 14:06.780 I have a study which has more than this if you're welcome to borrow it if you would like 14:06.780 --> 14:10.820 because I've tried to carefully research everything that has to do with pain and suffering because 14:10.820 --> 14:15.620 I see an awful lot of it in the world and I want the church to be better prepared to 14:15.620 --> 14:18.380 step in and to heal some of the problems. 14:18.380 --> 14:23.580 Two young people, don't be turned off by this because even you are going to have pains, 14:23.580 --> 14:30.620 even you and you may have some worse even than the older people and his name was Martin 14:30.620 --> 14:37.860 Luther and he quantified over almost several hundred years ago at least five things that 14:37.860 --> 14:45.380 the Bible says pain is a comfort, is a gift to our life rather than a curse. 14:45.380 --> 14:51.620 Peter one, he said, it refines our faith and here he quotes first Peter one verses five 14:51.620 --> 14:56.940 through seven, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that 14:56.940 --> 15:00.140 perishes though it be tried by fire. 15:00.140 --> 15:03.860 Now if you're purified by fire, that's going to hurt. 15:03.860 --> 15:05.380 There's one way to sterilize your hands. 15:05.380 --> 15:08.900 You say to little kids, come out it's time to eat hamburgers, now put your hands over 15:08.900 --> 15:12.980 the fire here and we'll get rid of the germs and you don't do it that way, do you? 15:13.380 --> 15:19.260 Now you'd be tempted sometimes to do that but that would certainly take care of the 15:19.260 --> 15:25.220 problem but I'm afraid the problem would be you know not near as bad as the solution that 15:25.220 --> 15:33.780 you offered see and so he goes on, it perishes this gold dust though it is purified by fire 15:33.780 --> 15:41.140 might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15:41.140 --> 15:49.380 Being tried by fire refines me and purifies me and you and we need to keep that in mind 15:49.380 --> 15:56.420 that God is purifying some of the drought that is within us. 15:56.420 --> 16:02.900 Secondly he said this, pain makes us mature, James one, two, four, hey how can you be in 16:02.900 --> 16:03.900 sports? 16:03.900 --> 16:08.140 No pain, no gain man, no pain, no gain. 16:08.140 --> 16:15.260 And I can remember just doing dumb things in the army to prove how mature and macho 16:15.260 --> 16:16.260 I was. 16:16.260 --> 16:18.660 Have you ever done that men? 16:18.660 --> 16:24.340 There's a few men here and they have a male ego and yes I'm quite sure ladies you understand 16:24.340 --> 16:29.260 that a male's ego is a problem to handle and to deal with isn't it? 16:29.260 --> 16:33.740 Have you ever done goofy things just to prove how tough you are? 16:33.740 --> 16:43.860 Well listen count it all joy my brothers when we meet various trials pains, sorrowing, suffering 16:43.860 --> 16:48.300 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfast and let steadfast have 16:48.300 --> 16:55.900 its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. 16:55.900 --> 17:10.020 In other words when I look at an old face scarred, gray, wrinkled, tired, sad, roomy 17:10.020 --> 17:14.220 eyed, what a beautiful face it is. 17:14.220 --> 17:19.260 And contrasted to a little baby's perfect little pink face it's so uniquely different 17:19.260 --> 17:24.060 but there's the mark of God in that tired old worn out face isn't it? 17:24.060 --> 17:29.300 You think of your mama, you think of your papa or your grandparents and you just think 17:29.300 --> 17:36.780 of that beautiful old face, how it has been tried, how it has proven successful and how 17:36.780 --> 17:39.420 it's come out to the good. 17:39.420 --> 17:45.020 And then he said thirdly pained helps us to display the works of God John 9 one through 17:45.020 --> 17:50.860 three and he was speaking of a blind man who had been healed and here's what they said 17:50.860 --> 17:58.060 neither has this man sinned nor his parents because see they said well hey he's blind 17:58.060 --> 18:00.780 was he responsible or was his parents? 18:00.780 --> 18:05.420 Well if you've raised kids aren't you glad that there comes a time when you're not totally 18:05.420 --> 18:07.460 responsible for your children. 18:07.460 --> 18:09.100 You can't be blamed for that. 18:09.100 --> 18:16.540 They eventually have to decide for themselves and be what they know God wants them to be 18:16.540 --> 18:19.540 and you just can't forever take responsibility. 18:19.540 --> 18:25.780 You get them as far as you can and you love them and you say goodbye and you pray the 18:25.780 --> 18:29.420 rest of your days and you love them for the rest of your days. 18:29.420 --> 18:41.380 So he says all things there not his parents that were made him guilty but the works of 18:41.380 --> 18:43.140 God should be manifested in him. 18:43.140 --> 18:51.340 I think many of you know the ministry of Johnny Erickson Tata have you heard her story or 18:51.340 --> 18:52.340 told that. 18:52.340 --> 19:00.940 She became a quadriplegic beautiful young lady dived in broke her neck and forever has 19:00.940 --> 19:06.780 lost the sense of everything below her neck and yet she's become one of the great artists 19:06.780 --> 19:08.420 of the world. 19:08.420 --> 19:13.020 She inspired hundreds of thousands of people by her ministry. 19:13.020 --> 19:15.720 She has painted pictures with her teeth. 19:15.720 --> 19:22.620 She has overcome and she has displayed the works of God because here I am fat and sassy 19:22.620 --> 19:27.860 and healthy and educated and everything and free to do whatever I want to be and I don't 19:27.860 --> 19:31.260 have one thousandths of the ministry that she does. 19:31.260 --> 19:37.380 And would it have been the same that she remained subtle and beautiful and ever lice them and 19:37.380 --> 19:38.380 young? 19:38.380 --> 19:39.380 No? 19:39.380 --> 19:40.380 I think not. 19:40.380 --> 19:41.380 I really do not. 19:41.380 --> 19:47.580 The first thing was this, that we should be conformed to God's image by pain. 19:47.580 --> 19:53.620 In Romans 8, 28 and 29, I just read the last verse and we know that all things, whether 19:53.620 --> 19:59.380 it's pain or anything else, work together for good to them who are the called according 19:59.380 --> 20:05.740 to God's purpose and the last of course, that ultimate gift of pain is hope. 20:05.740 --> 20:06.740 How so? 20:06.740 --> 20:12.620 Well in Romans 5, 3 it says, but we glory in tribulations, also knowing that tribulation 20:12.620 --> 20:21.020 works patience and patience, experience and experience brings hope. 20:21.020 --> 20:24.260 Now you see, pain has a part of that. 20:24.260 --> 20:30.060 When I overcome pain on a day to day basis, I am assured that whatever happens to me, 20:30.060 --> 20:34.420 I have been trained, I have been developed, I have been using the strength and the spirit 20:34.420 --> 20:39.700 of God to overcome the next pain and the next heartache and the next trouble. 20:39.700 --> 20:45.620 I find that this veil of tears is a great sequence of many small things as well as great 20:45.620 --> 20:51.900 things and if we wish to overcome, we shall overcome. 20:51.900 --> 20:55.860 It gives us hope because we have seen it work. 20:55.860 --> 21:01.940 The joy of that tired old face of the older person is, these are overcomers. 21:01.940 --> 21:06.140 This dear person has won her fight, his fight. 21:06.140 --> 21:10.500 They have conquered time and time again and you know the adversity that they have gone 21:10.500 --> 21:13.300 through and you feel good about that. 21:13.300 --> 21:17.540 Probably the most significant pain brought to human beings on the face of the earth was 21:17.540 --> 21:24.260 World War II and part of that because it's I think God's plan that that was the way it 21:24.260 --> 21:25.260 should be. 21:25.260 --> 21:30.540 At least 42 million people suffered and died and 4 to 6 million specifically of the Israelites, 21:30.540 --> 21:32.620 God's people perished. 21:32.620 --> 21:38.660 4 to 6 million, many say 6, I'll buy the 6, if it was 6 it was too many. 21:38.660 --> 21:44.040 6 million is unthinkable, but it happened. 21:44.040 --> 21:49.940 A man who sat by the president not long ago when that great museum of the suffering of 21:49.940 --> 21:57.100 God's people in New York was open was named Eli Wiesel, W-I-E-S-E-L, who was a prisoner 21:57.100 --> 22:02.220 at Birkenbaugh during the worst part of the end of the war when Hitler was destroying 22:02.220 --> 22:07.020 on some days 180,000 Jews a day. 22:07.020 --> 22:11.260 And this is what Eli says, he is not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. 22:11.260 --> 22:20.500 Now listen, never shall I forget that night, 7 times 7 cursed and 7 times sealed, never 22:20.500 --> 22:26.020 shall I forget that smoke, never shall I forget the little faces of the children whose bodies 22:26.020 --> 22:32.700 I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky, never shall I forget that 22:32.700 --> 22:39.660 nocturnal silence which deprive me for all eternity of the desire to even live, never 22:39.660 --> 22:51.940 shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul turned my dreams to dust. 22:51.940 --> 22:59.260 Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself, 22:59.260 --> 23:02.460 never will I forget. 23:02.460 --> 23:06.900 You all know the story of Corey Ten Boom, if you do not shame on me. 23:06.900 --> 23:14.260 You all I should think would know Sabrina and Pastor Richard Vermbrent and their terrible 23:14.260 --> 23:19.340 suffering and the author of the book Tortured for Christ. 23:19.340 --> 23:26.300 You should read Sabrina's ladies, her wonderful daily devotions as she suffered in prison 23:26.300 --> 23:31.580 knowing her children and her husband also were suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. 23:31.580 --> 23:40.140 I mean in unthinkable ways, I don't mean giving up your hearing because you were too dumb 23:40.140 --> 23:45.940 to put something in your ear when you were chopping a hole through the church's wall, 23:45.940 --> 23:49.140 that's stupidity, that's not suffering. 23:49.140 --> 23:54.260 There have been people who have suffered, believe you me, they have indeed. 23:54.260 --> 23:59.100 When I think of that wonderful dear lady, Corey Ten Boom, I don't think of this terrible 23:59.100 --> 24:01.420 poem that this guy wrote. 24:01.420 --> 24:05.100 It's sad, it's ugly, it's gross, and by the way if you want to know why that terrible 24:05.100 --> 24:09.500 suffering of the Holocaust, read Leviticus 26 and you'll have a much clearer understanding 24:09.500 --> 24:12.980 of why such things are tolerated by God Almighty. 24:12.980 --> 24:18.620 We simply, like sheep, turned away from him and broke his commandments and walked away 24:18.620 --> 24:27.460 from his word and did not listen to the Messiah which he sent and we therefore became prisoners 24:27.460 --> 24:35.060 to our own ugliness and our own inner poor, poor, sad heart. 24:35.060 --> 24:40.860 And it is an attribute of sin, and listen in Romans 8.6 he says, for to be carnally 24:40.860 --> 24:44.500 minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 24:44.500 --> 24:50.620 And in Corey Ten Boom you find hymns being sung of people who had no bread sharing a 24:50.620 --> 24:57.800 little crust of bread, of love and of mercy and of gentleness and people laying down their 24:57.800 --> 25:06.980 lives for their brothers and their sisters and Corey with her Jesus had a noble life 25:06.980 --> 25:13.860 and Ely without the Lord Jesus could only see agony and heartache and pain and thus 25:13.860 --> 25:17.220 there was no hope or no goodness for Ely. 25:17.220 --> 25:22.900 Well I believe with all of my heart that Jesus showed us the way. 25:22.900 --> 25:27.020 Oh remember, do you think Jesus knew pain? 25:27.020 --> 25:34.860 Well certainly, of course he made those hands that hurt and so they drove a nail through 25:34.860 --> 25:36.300 it. 25:36.300 --> 25:41.820 And he understood that even though the legs could take an 8mm junction between two without 25:41.820 --> 25:47.420 discerning that there's two points instead of one, they broke his leg. 25:47.420 --> 25:52.460 And so you see he knew all about pain and he said those precious words, Eloi Eloi Lama 25:52.460 --> 25:59.060 Sabahthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 25:59.060 --> 26:05.060 I think he knew what pain was, well that's silly, sure he did, he knew what pain was 26:05.060 --> 26:06.060 all about. 26:06.060 --> 26:15.420 However deep the pit, the love of God is deeper still and Jesus showed us that that was true. 26:15.420 --> 26:19.700 When you have a day you don't think you can handle, you can get through it if you'll just 26:19.700 --> 26:22.100 cling to the words of Jesus. 26:22.100 --> 26:28.460 Follow him, read him, study him, be his friend, know him intimately. 26:28.460 --> 26:34.820 My heart is filled for a world that doesn't in the main know much about Jesus. 26:34.820 --> 26:38.580 When we in the church are so lucky we have such a great inheritance. 26:38.580 --> 26:43.340 We have eternal life and we have hope and we have material things which allow us to 26:43.340 --> 26:50.300 survive in this veil of tears much better than others without a plan, without a promise, 26:50.300 --> 26:55.020 without a Lord to look to and without a hope of salvation. 26:55.020 --> 26:57.140 That includes our nation. 26:57.140 --> 27:03.900 Second Chronicle 714 said, and if my people which are called by my name will humble themselves 27:03.900 --> 27:11.420 and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear them from heaven, I will 27:11.420 --> 27:17.100 forgive their sins and I will heal their land. 27:17.100 --> 27:23.860 The best thing you can do for America is to pray for it, is to pray for it, is to pray 27:23.860 --> 27:26.660 for it and to pray for its people. 27:26.660 --> 27:28.460 We are a covenant people. 27:28.460 --> 27:32.700 One thing I tell you, I get sick of seeing clouds aren't you, but one thing I've noticed 27:32.700 --> 27:38.060 about a cloud is, and we've had plenty of rain, Bruce, just call it off, call it off. 27:38.060 --> 27:39.460 We've had plenty of rain. 27:39.460 --> 27:45.300 We have walked through a bog hole it seems like out at our place for three months. 27:45.300 --> 27:48.180 And when that sunlight comes, isn't it glorious? 27:48.180 --> 27:55.060 And after a rain comes the covenant circle of God, the rainbow, and in the rainbow of 27:55.060 --> 28:02.540 blessing, it's a promise that sin isn't going to conquer or destroy us ever, ever again. 28:02.540 --> 28:05.100 And I want to conclude with this one thought. 28:05.100 --> 28:08.660 It's a small thing, the voice of the martyrs. 28:08.660 --> 28:13.780 I mentioned Pastor Virm Brandt, and if you would like to, you can borrow one of those, 28:13.780 --> 28:19.740 the voice of the martyrs, and you know all over the world, the church is being persecuted 28:19.740 --> 28:20.740 today. 28:20.740 --> 28:25.020 You know, we have it easy in America, but there are people who are laying down their 28:25.020 --> 28:29.900 life who are being crucified literally, who are being sold into slavery, who are being 28:29.900 --> 28:36.820 destroyed in school systems because of their confession of faith. 28:36.820 --> 28:43.300 And I believe that we need to really bleed for the martyrs, martyrs, those who perish 28:43.300 --> 28:47.020 because of their witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. 28:47.020 --> 28:48.180 And you know what? 28:48.180 --> 29:00.220 I pity a church which has not the heart to pray, to feed, to help the suffering martyred 29:00.220 --> 29:06.820 church around the world, because it simply means we don't have that concept of pain 29:06.820 --> 29:11.020 that when something hurts, all of us should hurt. 29:11.020 --> 29:16.540 When someone's low, we should all gather in and strengthen and encourage and encumber. 29:16.540 --> 29:22.260 And when a little guy is struggling, we should all pitch in and lift him up and elevate him 29:22.260 --> 29:23.940 and take care of him. 29:23.940 --> 29:30.140 And I know that the more you learn about the suffering church, the more the church will 29:30.140 --> 29:38.580 grow and that you need to stand beside the cripple and the hard one, the hurt one, the 29:38.580 --> 29:40.940 lonely one, and the sad one. 29:40.940 --> 29:48.580 I conclude with just this one verse and I began with it in Hebrews 13.3, thank to 29:48.580 --> 29:58.340 of all who suffer as if you shared their pain. 29:58.340 --> 30:05.580 And I think then the martyrs will profit, the church here around the golf course will 30:05.580 --> 30:10.060 profit, your family, your sweetheart will profit. 30:10.060 --> 30:14.960 If you walk in empathy and understand their pain. 30:14.960 --> 30:17.700 Let's stand and sing our hymn invitation. 30:17.700 --> 30:27.700 Is it meet us here? 30:27.700 --> 30:30.260 Which one is it? 30:30.260 --> 30:31.260 Open our eyes. 30:31.260 --> 30:32.260 Okay. 30:32.260 --> 30:33.260 Yes. 30:33.260 --> 30:34.260 Open our eyes, Lord. 30:34.260 --> 30:57.260 We want to see Jesus to reach out and touch him and say that we love him. 30:57.260 --> 31:12.260 Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen. 31:12.260 --> 31:18.260 Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus. 31:18.260 --> 31:25.260 Maybe there's someone here today that's really hurt. 31:25.260 --> 31:30.380 You used to make a confession of your faith that may need to be born again of the water 31:30.380 --> 31:31.380 and of the spirit. 31:31.380 --> 31:35.380 You're not going to inherit the kingdom of God unless you're born again and whatever 31:35.380 --> 31:39.860 happens in your life if you're not born again, you can suffer all kinds of pain and never 31:39.860 --> 31:46.740 know heaven, never know martyrdom, never know anything that's good beyond this veil of tears 31:46.860 --> 31:50.060 but oblivion and judgment. 31:50.060 --> 31:56.060 But hey, behind every rain crowd, cloud, there has to come the rainbow and it's a promise 31:56.060 --> 32:03.060 of God's covenanted people, hey, it's dark and it's rainy and it's kind of gross out 32:03.060 --> 32:07.740 there in the muddy fields, but there's a green suede coming. 32:07.740 --> 32:12.260 There's a grassy heaven that's prepared for God's people. 32:12.260 --> 32:16.620 We'd like to sing as we that last one, and you would like to make a decision for the 32:16.620 --> 32:17.620 Lord Jesus Christ. 32:17.620 --> 32:18.620 Please, please come. 32:18.620 --> 32:19.620 We'll sing the last verse. 32:19.620 --> 32:44.620 Stopping my heart gold, melt me and mow me, make me a vessel to pour out your spirit, 32:44.620 --> 33:03.620 to bring joy and gladness to those who have sorrow, open my eyes, Lord, I want to see 33:03.620 --> 33:04.620 Jesus. 33:04.620 --> 33:05.620 Thank you for a heavy sermon. 33:05.620 --> 33:06.620 It isn't all giggles and laughs. 33:06.620 --> 33:17.620 But we have hope, whatever happens, would you be seated.