Suffering due to an Attack or Consequences?
Opener:
Well Good morning church! We are so happy that you have joined us to worship the Lord! The past number of weeks we have been in a sermon series from the book of Jonah. It really touched a number of people in our congregation. This week, we are going to tackle a topic that seems to be surrounded by a lot of mystery. At least to myself.
Before we get into that topic, I would like to share a story with you from a man from the bible that suffered a tremendous amount. Initially, when I read the story of Job, I was deeply challenged by it. To see a man serving God having to suffer the extent to which Job did was very difficult for me to understand the Why. In the early part of the book of Job, we learn that Job was a blameless and upright man, a man who feared God. We also learn about a meeting between God and satan who was roaming the earth. Satan goes on to challenge God about how strong Job’s faith really is. In the story, God allows satan to attack Job and a result of this attack Job loses his property and his children all in one day. Job’s response to this attack was powerful. Let’s read that in Job 1: 20-22 NKJV- 20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.
Can you just imagine how Job handled this situation? Instead of questioning God, he caused himself to worship God. Instead of getting angry, he looked for God’s goodness and mercy. Instead of being in despair, he placed his hope in God! Later, when Job’s health was also attacked by Satan, Job’s wife told him: “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” Job 2:9 Read the response of Job: Job 2:10 NKJV But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
I wonder, can we also have the same attitude and spirit like Job? Can we have the courage to refuse to question God, but instead trust in His wisdom? Can we be like Job who chose to worship, rather than bitterness? If we can’t, then I pray that Job would inspire us to follow his example in the midst of adversity. I have learned that during some of the most challenging situations in my life can bring about the deepest inspiration from God.
This morning, we are going to talk about distinguishing, whether our current suffering is because we are serving God like Job or is an attack from the enemy or because of natural consequences of sin. While all three of these produce the same response and that is that we don’t like it.
But if what we are going through, is God-ordained suffering to help us grow, whining and complaining will keep us from getting to where God is trying to take us.
If it’s a natural consequence of something we did, something someone else did, or simply because we live in a fallen world, whining and complaining will just delay our freedom in Christ.
If it’s an attack from satan, whining and complaining gives satan what he needs to continue to destroying our lives even when he has been stripped of his authority and power.
Regardless of its suffering for God, an attack from satan, or a natural consequence, whining and complaining will not help you. Whenever we choose the path to start whining and complaining, I hope you are reminded of this moment and think, “This is going to get me nowhere. So I might as well knock it off and work to find a solution.” The solution will be different depending on the cause of your suffering. That’s why we are talking about this today to help us discern the difference between these three events.
I. Suffering for God
A. Everyone’s favorite
a. As a believer, if we had to choose a reason that we had to suffer. I would recon that everyone would pick suffering for God as their favorite.
b. We live in a culture today in the United States that we really struggle with suffering for Jesus.
c. We have been trained that once you say yes to Jesus, everything will go your way, and you will have an easy life and all kinds of money.
B. Suffering?
a. Now if you have been a believer for any kind of time, you know that is not entirely accurate.
b. In fact, when we look into the early church and learn of the everyday challenges that they faced, there seems to be a disconnect .
c. The bible tells us that as child of God, we will experience suffering.
d. If you have your bibles turn with me to Romans 8:16-18 NKJV16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
C. Expect it
a. Turns out there will be suffering now, in this life, even as a Christian. Or should I say, especially as a Christian? But our suffering will be transformed into the glory of God.
b. Amazing! But what kind of suffering are we talking about? Does this mean we have to be sick to bring glory to God? Do we have to be poor to bring glory to God?
c. The bible tells us exactly what kind of suffering brings glory to God – the same suffering Jesus experienced.
d. Was Jesus ever sick? No. Was He poor? No. Every need that He had was met, even if the money came out of a fish’s mouth or if five loaves and two fish needed to be multiplied to feed thousands.
D. Suffering like Jesus
a. So, what kind of suffering did Jesus experience?
i. Well first, we see how Jesus was rejected by His own people. He was rejected by the religious leaders at the time.
ii. Those from His own hometown rejected Him.
iii. Even His closest friends when He needed them the most rejected Him and disowned Him.
b. Jesus also suffered by betrayal. We learned how Judas Iscariot sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. He betrayed Jesus for money of all things. Not only did Judas do this, so did all the other disciples as well.
c. I don’t know if you have ever been betrayed, but I have been. Now, truth be told, it stings anytime that it happens. I have had people that I did not know that well betray me but when someone close to me betrayed me. Man, that stings. After betrayal, typically comes people then spreading all kinds of lies to get others to betray you.
d. If the rejection and betrayal wasn’t enough. Jesus suffered persecution at the hands of unbelievers.
e. Jesus was constantly mocked for His beliefs. People made fun of Him. They lied about Him. And in the end, they whipped Him, beat Him, and killed Him.
E. Suffering explained
a. So, when the Bible mentions suffering as Jesus did, this is what it is talking about. You will be rejected. You will be betrayed. And you most definitely will be persecuted for following Jesus.
b. Jesus talks about this suffering in Matthew 5: 11-12 NKJV -11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you
c. So our response to suffering for God is not to get depressed, not to feel sorry for ourselves, not to blame others but rather, to rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
d. When we do this, the enemy had no clue. It brings a tremendous amount of confusion to him and we then will experience God’s power in our life.
II. Attack from satan
A. All the credit
a. While many of us like to give satan credit for every challenge that we face in life. I do not believe that every attack is from satan.
b. Let me say this “ Even when attacked, satan can’t do anything without our consent or cooperation.
c. There are some teachings out there that satan is so powerful that he can come and torment you any time that he would like.
d. Some look at satan as being this all powerful, supernatural being that controls all that happens in the world.
e. The reality is that satan’s power is limited.
B. The bible
a. For us blood washed, bible believer, we know and understand that the Scripture teaches us that only God is all powerful!
b. Furthermore, we can understand that we have the same authority that Jesus had while here on the earth.
c. The bible says Luke 10:19NKJV19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
d. It goes on to say: 1 John 4:4 NKJV -4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
C. The temptation
a. So understanding we have power over the enemy does not absolve us from His attacks.
b. In fact, Jesus was attacked numerous times. One of those times was in the book of Luke chapter four, we learn that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
c. How many of you would be excited about that assignment from the Holy Spirit?
i. The first temptation was food. For forty days, He ate nothing. For most of us, we wouldn’t make it past day two. The devil would have tempted us with a burger from Culvers and it would have been over.
ii. As you can imagine, at the end of the forty days, Jesus was very hungry. I imagine this was hungry to a whole different level.
iii. The devil waited until Jesus was at His weakest point and then decided to show up and tempt Him.
d. It seems to me that the devil does this to us too. Have you ever noticed that the devil likes to kick you when you are down?
e. He loves to attack when you are tired and hungry. I know this is a real challenge for me to.
D. Attack on your identity
a. So Jesus is hungry and tired, satan swoops in and begins to attack Jesus and the second thing he goes after was Jesus identity.
b. This is important to catch because, in our country today, we are seeing an identity crisis more-so now that ever before. People are so confused.
c. Let’s look luke 4 verse 5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
d. Satan was trying to get Jesus to worship him and forget who He was and who He was suppose to worship.
e. Jesus did not fall for this attempt, in fact, His reply is found in verse 8 8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
E. An attack to commit suicide
a. The third and final attack of Jesus really is a powerful one.
b. This attack happens in verse 9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ 11 and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
c. Maybe your family or someone you know has been touched by suicide. The latest statistic from Wikipedia reports that an estimated 1 million people worldwide die by suicide every year.
d. In fact, from ages 15-44, suicide ranks among the third leading cause of death. Here in Wisconsin 921 people died of suicide in 2022 which is up from the prior year.
e. Jesus response to the enemies attack is found in verse 12 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ” 13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
F. Response to an attack
a. No matter the attack, the response should be the same from every believer and that is to respond with the Word of God.
b. Not our own thoughts or ideas, not with some kind of philosophy, not quoting dr. phil , Oprah, or even judge judy.
c. The Word of God is our weapon. Once, we begin to use that Word, we will begin to have victory in our lives.
G. Satan uses people
a. We can understand that satans attacks can come in various forms. He uses people that he has under his control to attack the believer.
b. He uses these people to stire up fleshly lusts within us to tempt us to sin.
c. He uses the unbelieving world to attempt to deceive us from the wisdom of the Scriptures.
d. He uses people that claim to be Christians to try to mislead people with a false gospel.
i. There was a pastor from Michigan who had a huge church started promoting this theory of universal reconciliation which basically states that all sinful and alienated human souls will ultimately be reconciled to God. This pastor had controversial views on hell and taught those views. After thousands leaving his church, this pastor resigned in 2012 from mars hill bible church.
ii. We have to be careful not to be swept away with false doctrine or teaching.
e. Sometimes the enemy will attack us physically afflicting us or loved ones in our bodies.
III. Natural Consequences
A. Did something foolish?
a. Let’s move on to our last point that we are looking at today and that our suffering is due to natural consequences.
b. Some of the suffering that we may experience may be a result of something foolish that we did and now we are reaping the consequences.
c. My grandma passed away earlier this year, she was a sweet lady but she had a nasty habit. She would smoke like several packs of cigarettes a day. When at some point, your lungs will fail because we know that cigarette smoke is not good for you.
d. Most of the sicknesses that we deal with today results from natural consequences. It results from what we eat, what’s in our water, vaccines, viruses, and bacteria.
e. Does that mean we have to just deal with it? No. It means we need to lean into the power of Jesus to help us change our behaviors while trusting Him to handle the things we can’t change.
B. Dealing with natural consequences
a. Every day, before I eat, I pray over the food that I eat.
b. I go about my day and try to make good choices. I drink water. I try to get some form of exercise.
c. There are so many choices that we all make each day! Some good, some not so good.
d. Often in the church office, we get numerous request throughout the week from people that made not so good decision.
e. For instance, people Quitting a job without having another job lined up. We see this one a lot.
f. People come the church often, needing money for a heating bill or for food or for gas.
g. Why, cause they made poor financial decisions in their life and now they are suffering the consequences.
h. This is not an attack from satan, or suffering for God, it is because they are not being a good steward with what God had entrusted to you.
Closing:
As we wrap up our time here this morning, we need to understand that there are natural consequences for the decisions we make every day. These consequences can bog us down and keep us from fulfilling the call God has on our lives. We understand that sometimes our suffering comes at the hand of our enemy, the devil. He attacks us through deceit and lies and he tries to get us to cooperate with him. We need to use the Word of God to fight the enemy and to speak truth into the situation. This leads us to the third and final and that is like Job who suffered tremendously because of his faith. The enemy is not going to sit back and allow us to be used by God. He doesn’t think “Oh that is great, many people are being saved through this person’s life” No, he will not sit back while you go about serving the Lord, you will experience trials and suffering, but be of good cheer my friend. Jesus said in John 16:33 NKJV 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” We are going to have tribulation, but let the joy of God be your strength. Knowing as Romans 8:28NKJV tells us: 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
