Trouble In The Life Of A Christian

1. One of the hardest questions to find answers to is why do Christians have trouble in their life?

2. A word of caution, judge not. John 9:1-3

a. Who sinned?

b. Why the birth defects?

3. We can take all the verses on suffering, add them all together and divide them into three areas.

4. Three men in scripture tell us why Christians suffer.

a. Job suffering.

1) 1 Peter 1:6-7

2) He suffered because he was faithful.

b. Jesus’ suffering.

1) 1 Peter 4:12-14

2) He suffered because he was Godly.

c. Jonah’s suffering.

1) Hebrews 12:5

2) Jonah suffered because of willful disobedience.

3) God chastised him.

d. Job’s suffering is the hardest to understand.

e. The difference between a happy Christian and an unhappy Christian is not the absence of trouble.

f. It comes from the attitude the trouble was received in.

g. Two ways to receive what God is doing in your life. 2 Corinthians 7:10

1) God’s way brings about peace and happiness.

2) World’s way brings death to your peace, happiness, and joy.

h. We need to listen to the man as well as the message.

i. Paul was an authority on the subject of pain and hurt.

j. Let’s let Paul tell us why Christians suffer.

I. Suffering Helps us Experience the Comfort of God.

1. 1 Corinthians 1:3-5, Matthew 5:4, John 14:15-16

a. Comfort

1) To help us

2) To defend us

3) To encourage us, 1 Thessalonians 4:18

4) To strengthen us

2. God is the God of all comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3

a. God’s comfort is complete. All strength and all powerful.

b. Not only a complete comfort, but also a concurring comfort.

1) His comfort enables us to endure the heat, but also to rejoice in it.

2) 2 Corinthians 7:4; 6:9-10

II. Suffering Helps Us be Equipped to Comfort Others.

1. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

2. We suffer, we are comforted that we might comfort others.

a. Don’t look at trouble as a hospital, but rather as a seminary, to help teach others.

b. Here is a tragedy. A hurt comes and you bear it the world’s way. You come face to face with another person who has the same hurt and you cannot help.

3. The ability to comfort is far greater than the ability to teach great lessons, preach great sermons or give great sums of money. I want to know how to comfort the hearts of others.

III. Suffering Helps Us be Emptied of all Self-Reliance

1. 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, 1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 11:28-30

2. God is trying to teach us to trust Him and not self.

3. Most of us will never trust God until we have tried everything else.

4. Paul said this experience that almost took his life. it drove him back to God.

5. He did not trust in His flesh.

6. The danger of prosperity is that it encourages a false independence. It makes us think we are able to handle life alone.

a. For every one prayer that rises to God in days of prosperity, 10,000 rise in days of adversity.

b. President Lincoln said, “I have often been driven to my knees in prayer because I had nowhere else to go.

7. The world says, “Have confidence in yourself.” Moses did, Abraham did, Peter did, and God emptied them all so they might trust Him.

8. God led the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. Why? Emptying self = trusting God. Deuteronomy 8:2-3

IV. Suffering Helps That We Might Exhibit the Power of God in Our Life

1. God wants to be glorified in our life. 2 Corinthians 4:7

2. Paul said when I am weak then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

3. The application of God’s “Sufficient Grace.”

V. Suffering Helps That We Might Express the Life of Jesus Himself

1. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12

2. If the life of Christ is to be revived in this day, it must be through the life of His people. Philippians 2:5, Colossians 3:17, 2 Corinthians 3:2

3. At no other time in your life is it watched more then when trouble comes.

VI. Conclusion

1. Why does trouble come to the life of Christians?

a. That we might experience the comfort of God.

b. That we might be equipped to comfort others.

c. That we might be emptied of all self-reliance.

d. That we might exhibit the power of God in our life.

e. That we might express the life of Jesus Himself.

2. The final question, “How are you handling the trouble?

a. God’s way or….

b. The World’s way.