OPEN: Over the past couple of years there has been a popular pair of movies called “Transformers.” The plot of these movies is that there are two types of aliens which have invaded Earth. The one alien force is called the “Decepticons”. These are an evil group of machines whose whole goal is to annihilate everything in their path. The other aliens are called “Transformers” who are dedicated to protecting the very things the Decepticons are focused on destroying.
Their conflict mirrors the truths of Scripture. The Bible tells us that there is a force intent on damaging and destroying as much of God’s creation as possible. This force (Satan) could justifiably be called a Decepticon because one of it’s principle weapons is deception.
But God as always sought to protect His creation. And one of His principle tools is that of transformation – transforming that which is weak and wounded into that which is strong and resilient. One of the most powerful tools of transformation is one God has used throughout Scripture. To help understand this tool, we need to go back to the story of Job.
The book of Job is perhaps one of the most unusual stories in the Old Testament. We’re introduced to a righteous man that God loves so much that only does God give him a multitude of blessings, but God brags to Satan about what a great guy Job is.
Satan snidely remarks that the only reason Job obeys God is because he’s got it so good. “Just let him lose those blessings and Job would turn his back on God and look elsewhere” he taunts. So God allows Satan to bring numerous disasters into Job’s life until finally Job has lost his children, his heath, his wealth. He’s reduced to sitting on the ground, scratching at his sores with broken pottery.
The bulk of the book is dedicated to a group of Job’s “friends” who stop by and trying to get Job to admit that the reason all these tragedies have come upon him is because he’s sinned and God was punishing him.
But that wasn’t true.
God wasn’t punishing Job.
The things that had happened to Job had nothing to do with his sins.
His misfortunes were caused by Satan.
The evil in Job’s life was caused by the evil in this world.
When we get to the New Testament, we find that the story hasn’t changed.
Suffering - in the lives of believers - is a reality.
Suffering will happen, and it will happen to you… and to me.
Jesus said: "… In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33
Acts 14 tells us that when Paul and Barnabas returned to the churches in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, they dedicated themselves to “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said.” Acts 14:22
In I Peter 4, the apostle Peter tells the Christians there “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” I Peter 4: 12-13
And here in Rom 8:17 Paul says “… 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.”
It’s a repeated theme throughout the New Testament:
Christians will suffer.
Christians will be persecuted
Christians will be face trials and tribulations.
Even the Apostle Paul – one of the greatest preachers who ever lived – he suffered. He writes in II Corinthians: “Five times I received - from the Jews - the forty lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.
I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” (I Corinthians 11:24-27)
Suffering in this world is inevitable… and Christians WILL suffer.
Now, sometimes we suffer in this life because we deserve to. We’ve made bad decisions.
Proverbs 13:15 tells us that “… the way of the unfaithful is hard”.
The way of the unfaithful is hard because they’ve walked away from God.
They’ve neglected their faith,
They’ve decide that sin is more fun than being holy.
And because they’ve made those decisions, they’re destined to live difficult, harsh and unfulfilling lives. .
But a lot of times, Christians suffer because we live in an evil world, and the pain in our lives is caused by the evil THAT IS IN this world.
And especially because we belong to God, our enemy is Satan, and Satan hates God so much that he’ll try to hurt us whenever and wherever he can.
The bad news is: We don’t get a choice – if we stand for Jesus we WILL suffer.
The good news is: We do have a choice in how we respond to that suffering.
ILLUS: In his old age, the great French painter Renoir, suffered from arthritis. The disease twisted and cramped his hand.
One his artist friends, Henri Matise, watched sadly while Renoir, grasping a brush with only his fingertips, continued to paint, even though each movement caused stabbing pain. One day, Matise asked Renoir why he persisted in painting at the expense of such torture.
Renoir replied, "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."
Renoir couldn’t avoid his suffering… but he did chose how responded to it.
Now, our advantage as Christians is that not only can we choose how we respond to suffering, but we can take comfort in the fact that this very suffering can be used by God to transform us into better Christians.
Suffering can TRANSFORM us so that God can make better use of us. That’s why James tells us to “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4
James is essentially saying:
Pain makes us grow up.
It completes us.
It matures us as Christians.
(pause) That which Satan would use to destroy us is the tool God can use to transform us/ to make us stronger in our faith.
ILLUS: That’s because people who endure the flames of suffering can better handle the hardships of life. In 1991, a fire raged through Oakland, CA destroying a number of houses in its path. One of those homes it belonged to a preacher. His home was totally destroyed, reducing most of the family’s possessions to little more than burnt ashes.
But one item did survive intact: a small porcelain rabbit figurine.
The next Sunday, the preacher took the item into the pulpit and explained his recent loss. holding up the small figurine, he noted that it was the sole surviving keepsake from the fire
and he dwelt on the unusual fact that it alone survived the flames.
Why, he asked, would this small item escape damage when nothing else did?
He smiled and said: "Because it had already been through a fire once."
(pause) That which Satan would use to destroy us is the tool God can use to transform us/ to make us stronger in our faith.
When we allow God to work in our suffering, God can use our pain to strengthen us as metal worker uses fire to refine gold and silver and burn off impurities in those metals. The metal worker puts the metals into the furnace and exposes them to the fire. The heat from the fire melts the silver or gold into a liquid substance… and the impurities float to the top and are skimmed away. The resulting metals are purer and thus more valuable because they’ve been ‘refined.’
In Psalm 66:10 the psalmist praises God “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver.”
God can use our suffering to can purify us, to change us, to transform us.
So, since suffering can refine us and burn off our impurities… when we find ourselves in pain, does God just simply walk away and wait for our suffering to do its magic in our lives?
Oh no.
As Warren Wiersbe, once said "When God permits his children to go through the furnace, he keeps his eye on the clock and his hand on the thermostat."
God doesn’t abandon us to face our troubles.
Psalm 103 is one of my favorite passages
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.” Psalm 103:13-18
He knows you are weak. He knows I am weak.
He knows we’re frail
He remembers that we are dust… and that the wind can just sweep over us and blows us away. And He knows that our suffering can makes us weaker and more frail and can easily destroy us.
So, as Romans 8:26 says “the Spirit helps us IN OUR WEAKNESS. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
You see, when people are suffering, they begin to question everything.
I was reading from Psalm 13 this last week, and I found that David wrote:
“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?…” Psalm 13:1-2
When a person is filled with sadness, sorrow and suffering they begin to wrestle with their thoughts. They begin to think things they’d never consider when life is good.
They begin to question
• their own motives,
• thoughts,
• the decisions they’ve made.
They even begin to question God. And the most serious question they’ll entertain is: why isn’t God listening to me!
HOW LONG OH LORD – will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
In our weakness, we can feel abandoned.
And God – IN the midst of our WEAKNESS (when life is falling apart and you don’t feel like God is listening anymore), God says “Yes… I’m listening.”
In those times when you don’t think that you’re getting through – you are!
God’s Spirit dwells right inside you… and He intercedes for you.
He takes your groaning and moaning – all the emotions that tear at your heart – and He communicates those things directly before God’s throne.
You’re getting through.
BUT that’s not all (and this is the intriguing part) God ACTS upon those prayers.
Look at Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God WORKS for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Now that passage doesn’t say that everything that happens to us is good.
And it doesn’t say that God has caused all the things that happen in our lives.
BUT it does say – it doesn’t make any difference!
God is big enough to take anything that happens in your life - anything that you give to Him and allow Him to use - He can take ALL THINGS and turn them to your good.
ILLUS: A little boy is telling his Grandma how "everything" is going wrong – school is hard, there are difficulties at home, his parents have severe health problems, etc. Meanwhile, Grandma is baking a cake.
She asks the child if he would like a snack, which of course he does.
Pouring come cooking oil into a cup she says "Here. Have some cooking oil."
"Yuck," says the boy.
"How about a couple of raw eggs?"
"Gross, Grandma."
"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"
"Grandma, those are all yucky!"
Grandma replied: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! God works the same way.
"Many times we wonder why he would let us go through such bad and difficult times, but, God knows that, when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually they will all make something wonderful!"
And that’s what Romans 8:28 tells us "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
CLOSE: At camp this week, one of the speakers (Jerry Weller) was talking about the suffering of Job. But then he started talking about the power that suffering has to bring a change in our lives.
He explained that suffering is common to all of us, and that he remembered when he was a boy how he suffered. He particularly suffered when his mom decided it was time to go to the doctor. The visit to the doctor was never pleasant. It seemed there was always those yucky pills and painful shots. But at the end of the Doctor visit, the Dr. always gave him a treat, and somehow the treat offset all the pain of the visit.
Then the speaker noted that this was how God worked with Job. Job went thru a terrible time of suffering and trial. But when it was all over, God gave Job a treat. God bro’t sweetness into a life that had been filled with ugliness.
His wife that had shut him down and told him to curse God and die…began kissing on him again, and she bore him 7 more strong sons and 3 more beautiful daughters. And the friends who had made his life all the more miserable because they questioned his morality and character - these friends who tormented him in his misery - these same friends praised him and sought his prayers for their lives.
Psalm 30:5 tells us “Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning”
With God beside us in our suffering our weeping will only last so long.
But He’ll turn our sorrow to joy, and ultimately (because we’ve trusted Him now) He’ll give us something that will last forever. Not just blessings in this life, but even more powerfully in the day when Jesus returns: In Romans 8:18 Paul declares “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
The blessings of God in this present world can only offset the pain of so much suffering. But when Jesus comes again, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:4
That’s why give an invitation at the end of every service. What a shame it would be if, after having gone through all the difficulties of this life we missed out on the greatest blessing that God wants to give us. What a shame it would be if you missed the glory that God wants to bestow upon you because you simply didn’t accept His gracious offer. Won’t you come forward as we sing the invitation song “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”
