FHBC Sermon Notes

This passage as we look on reminds us what it means to endure for the sake of the gospel. To truly know what it means to live for Jesus.

Palmer's Testimony - A blessing brother to hear this powerful testimony. What is darkness? "At that point ... I had had the clouds before, but never the darkness".  The Bible denotes darkness and nothingness. I was in a place where negative thoughts were all I had. ANT the doctors call it. (Automatic Negative Thoughts) The medication did nothing to resolve this. But God had an answer.

John 1:5-10 - This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that ^m God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  6 ⁿ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and ^o do not practice the truth.  7 But ^p if we walk in the light, ^q as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and ^r the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  8 ^s If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and ^t the truth is not in us.  9 ^u If we confess our sins, he is ^v faithful and just to forgive us our sins and ^r to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  10 If we say we have not sinned, ^w we make him a liar, and ^x his word is not in us.  

What does happy mean? Contented and revived. "Happy is he whose has the Lord God as help."

Amen.  It is good to hear the testimony in the lives of the saints.

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1) What does it mean to endure hardship?

a. A faithfulness to God, his Word and his call in the midst of conflict.
This is a physical labor, a emotional labor, and yes a spiritual labor. Though we go through suffering, though we experience conflict ourselves, one of the way we endure is to prayer for the suffering of other saints. Those saints both here and abroad. We prayer not that God would simply take away the suffering, but instead that they may endure. In turn, voicing this for others helps us to voice it for ourselves.

Am I going to seek the worlds answers to try and make it go away, or pray that we may be able to endure for the glory of God.

2) Why must we suffer hardship anyway?
a. At conversion, we step into a spiritual battle.
When we are born again into Christ, we are not born into a peaceful existence of bliss. We are instead born into a battle. This is a spiritual battle, that was in fact raging always before us, but that before the Spirit indwelled in us, we were unaware of. It is a battle that we dying in, but even so unaware of our own death.

Why is there a battle?
b. There exists a continuous, systematic opposition to Christ.
This can be seen throughout the Bible, by the way that the people rejected God's prophets, and ultimately the way the people, all people, rejected Jesus, and killed him on a cross. (v.15) By in Christ God conquered death itself. What have we to fear? 

This also is the story of 1 Thessalonians. For the Jews and the people crucified Jesus, and in this letter, we hear the story of the church. How Jews and Gentile alike who followed after Jesus also were pursued to be killed.

Why does God allow this? Why this suffering?
c. This is God's sovereign and perfect will for the church.
We don't know fully the wisdom and counsel of God. Yet, we do know that He is completely good in all that He does. Paul makes it clear here that this suffering was not in vain. For though there was a great burden, because of this persecution, Paul was able to proclaim the gospel among them, and in turn they received it.

"God allows the suffering the torture, but we must endure through it?"

Is this our perspective? Are we just waiting for it to be over so we can go back to "living".  Or are we able to give thanks to God in the midst of our suffering so that we may truly live in the light of what we are heard and understood in Jesus.

To lean upon Jesus, to turn our eyes on him, this truly is living.