It is good to be back. I don't remember how long it's been, but it doesn't matter. Thankful to be alive. Thankful to be healthy again. Thank you for your prayers. Those of you who prayed for these days for me. I bring you greetings from Providence Chapel in Denton. And I just want to warmly extend to you the invitation if God would allow you to come to the fellowship conference, second half of April, Easter weekend. And if you can come, come. And if money is an issue, there's always scholarship money. So if you want to come and you feel led to come, but the money's an issue, travel money, registration money, I want you to see your elders because there's always scholarship money. I'd hate to see it go to waste because you're too proud to avail yourself of it. So. We're going to be tonight and tomorrow morning, God willing, in the book of Second Corinthians, Chapter one. So let's turn there. That line in that The hymn we just sang by John Newton talks about when God lays us low. How many of you truly enjoy suffering? Let me see your hand. How many of you have ever benefited from suffering? All right. Now we're getting somewhere. So this tells us something. As hard as suffering and trials are, You come out the other end, and you will if you're a Christian, you'll come out the other end better and benefited of what you went through. This means this, that you cannot go through anything, however hard it is, but that your Heavenly Father brought it to you at this time in your life for His purpose to become more real to you, where you would trust Him more, where He'll make you more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Every joy or trial fallen from above, traced upon the dial of our Father's love. So tonight we're going to talk about the theology of suffering, and I want the young people to get this. Because all of us, everybody in this room, this message applies to everybody in the world. Why? Because everybody suffers. So you either have gone through hard things or you are right now. This isn't original with me. Nothing is original with me. It all comes out of here or stuff I've gained in 50 years as a Christian. But you've been through hard things. And some of you are going through difficult things now that hurt and are so rough and you can't escape them. Or you're going to go through hard things in the future. All of us are going to go through hard things in the future. Disease. Fractured relationships. Heartache. Loss. Stress. Pressure. Children that are so sweet when they're two and four and six and when they're 17. Lord, just do something with them. Right. So there's hard things ordered up on the menu for all of us. From our heavenly father, because we have need of trials. Paul said, if need be, you are in heaviness through various kinds of trials. So tonight we're going to talk about a theology of suffering to understand it. How does God view it in Scripture for us? And then tomorrow morning, God willing, we'll talk about God's comforts for us in our suffering. Because if it was all suffering and never comforts from God, it'd be hard. But he does comfort us. So we're going to read this tonight from 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We'll read verses 3 through 8. Now let me say this. Do you know what one of the hardest things for a preacher to have to do is? On a Saturday night when people's bellies are full of food to preach to this slumbering bunch. Don't nod off, I'll call you out. If I nod off, you say, Mac, wake up. So, your stomach's full of food. I'm going to try not to go long. I won't be like Paul and priest till midnight. There's no windows here for anybody to fall out and die, as they did in Acts. So, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 8. The theology of suffering. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Now, pause. This is the only place in the New Testament where the authors describe God as the God of all comfort. There's other places where it talks about him giving comfort, but here he's described as the God of all comfort. And He is truly the only source of true comfort. That might come through the Bible, it might come through a sermon, it might come through a brother or sister, it might come through a friend, but God alone is the only source of comfort. Verse 4, Who comforts us in all our tribulation, in order that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So let me just illustrate that. Who can best strengthen and be the friend to a young widow who's lost her husband at 30 years old? Huh? Another widow. Be it a widow of 40 years or a widow of 4 years. Who can be a consolation to someone who has terminal cancer? You know the answer. We are able to comfort others in what they're going through with the comfort that we ourselves have received from God in any trials. Verse five, for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, So our consolation or comfort, same word, consolation or comfort also abounds through Christ. Now, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, Because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, now get this, you're going to partake of sufferings at times. Notice this. So also you will partake of the consolations. So you can mark it down. Whenever you're going through sufferings, trials, hardships, consolation is coming from God for you. Let's pray. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray that you would draw near to us. And these minutes. And speak to us. Through your word by your Holy Spirit. And instruct us. More. And how to be good sufferers. Speak to us now. Give us help. Holy Spirit. For the glory of Jesus Christ. Amen. Second Corinthians is really a neglected book. Let me illustrate that. If someone were to ask you who had just started reading the Bible. What can you tell me about this church at Corinth or Corinth or whatever, however you say it? What do you know about the church at Corinth? You probably would base everything you know to tell them on what? 1 Corinthians. What do you know about 2 Corinthians? If somebody said, what's 2 Corinthians about? How would you tell them? What would you say? We don't know a lot about it. It's neglected. It's underappreciated. But, you know, the fact is Our view of the Corinthian church ought to be shaped by 2 Corinthians as much as 1 Corinthians. It is not well understood because it is neglected. We ought to read it more. But it is autobiographical. In other words, Paul talks about himself in 2 Corinthians properly more than any other book in the New Testament. And while it's underappreciated, ironically, some of the greatest standalone passages in the New Testament are found in 2nd Corinthians. Let me just give you a few sprinkling. All these are from 2nd Corinthians. You start reading through 2 Corinthians and you come to this verse. For all the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians. You keep reading and you read where Paul says, not that we are sufficient in ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God who has made us able ministers of the new covenant. He's talking about not elders and deacons, he's talking about believers. We have been made able, equipped ministers of the new covenant, the gospel. Here's another one. But we all with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord. And we are being transformed into that same image by the Spirit of the Lord. But if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are what? Perishing. Because the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. Here's another one. God who commended light to shine out of darkness. Now think about it. Light doesn't shine out of darkness. Light shines into darkness. But Paul said, God who commended the light to shine out of darkness has shined into our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's second Corinthians. Some of the richest verses. Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though the outward man is perishing, the inner man is being renewed day by day. Our light affliction, which is momentary, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. How about this one? For we walk by faith and not by sight. 2nd Corinthians. Don't you love 2nd Corinthians the more I talk about it? Here's another one. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That each of us may receive the things done in the body according to what he's done. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Or here's one. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has light with darkness. Don't marry an unbeliever. Don't date an unbeliever. Don't even flirt with an unbeliever. Don't go into business with an unbeliever. Do not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. It's only trouble. Second Corinthians. Here's another one. One of my favorite. For he, that is God, made him, that is Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be made sin for us, in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Here's another one. He who sows sparingly will what? Reap sparingly. Let me give you three more. My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Examine yourselves to even see if you're in the faith. And the last verse of 2 Corinthians is marvelous. You want to hear it? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. 2 Corinthians is amazingly rich. Now I could pray and sit down now, but I won't. Chapter 1, Paul begins with this theology of suffering. So, my wife Lynn and I have been married 46 years, and there have been seasons of great joy and blessing, and there have been seasons of suffering. You've had them. The last two years has been a, it seemed like a long season of suffering. Two years ago, I had bad insomnia for about a year. The insomnia, children, you know what insomnia means? No? It means you can't sleep good. You try to go to sleep, you just, you can't sleep. And insomnia led to physical exhaustion in my life. which led to discouragement. Insomnia is still going. Exhaustion is still going. Discouragement sets in. Those three are still working in me, six, four months, six months, nine months. Then mental exhaustion sets in, and then spiritual depression sets in. It was for about 12, 14 months this went on. I began to not even function hardly. I didn't know how to. I couldn't go to church. I couldn't preach. I couldn't sleep. I'd sit in a recliner and about 9 p.m. at night I dreaded night coming because I knew what was coming. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to sleep and I was so mentally weak. and so emotionally weak and cloudy in my mind, I didn't know how to pray anymore. I would just, at 1 a.m., 4 a.m., midnight, all that I could get out was, Jesus, help me. Just help me tonight. Could you just let me sleep a little? And sometimes it would happen. But I could not sense the presence of God at all. I couldn't read the Bible except for the Psalms because those prayers I just get on. Have mercy on me, oh Lord. And when when the sun would come up and daylight dawned, I would say, oh, it's morning, the night's over. And so. It went on. for over a year. And I honestly thought I'm just going to. In six months, I may be in a. Nursing home, I thought ministry was over. I thought my life was over as I knew it. I thought I'll never preach again and. And then here's what began to happen. Suddenly on my mind would come this oppression of condemnation about sins from 55 years ago when I was 15 would vividly come to me. And I'd remember them. And I'd just feel guilty. But then thoughts would come. I know that's forgiven. And I would cling on to the gospel. Lord Jesus, you died for that. I know you're not bringing this up. I trust you. But the darkness wouldn't leave. And all I could do was in my heart just try to cling to Jesus and not let go. So God suddenly one weekend brought me out of that. Through a friend who talked to me for 15 minutes. Not really knowing what I was going through. I began to say something to him, what I was struggling with. He would speak something to me and a light bulb would turn on. And in 15 minutes, a year and a half of it was gone. God just delivered me. Then, Linda has had 25 years of chronic, undiagnosable pain, and in the last year and a half, has just gotten deeper and worse. And no answers. No healing. And then she had major oral surgery. And then, well, back in May, I was preaching at Kyle Weiss Church in Elmendorf, driving home, got home three days later, I wake up in the middle of the night and two discs had herniated in my back. And so, the pain was not bad, but I couldn't sit in a chair for five months. I laid in bed. And I could get up and down, but five months I was a captive to my bed. It took him three months to get me to surgery. And then so the last two years have been a remarkable time for us. That's been hard. No light at the end of the tunnel. But here's what happened to wind up this story. And here's where God brought me and it's what you and I have to do. About a week into having to lay on the bed, I said to myself, okay, God has brought this, and I'm to receive it from His hand. I'm to submit my will and myself to Him. Because He brought it. Father, You brought it. So I yield. You know what You're doing. I don't. But I can trust You even though I don't understand. So here we go. Lord, let's go together. However long this is going to take whatever's at the end of it, you're with me. And I'm yours. And you're in control. And I know you have good for me in this. If that's your response, you can get through any trial you go through. Whether it's becoming a widow or widower, or you lose your you lose your dad or your mom in the next few years, God will bring you through anything with stability and peace if you yield to Him and not fight it. Because if we don't yield to Him, the trials will make you bitter and not better. And the time on the bed became a revival. It's hard to say what happened but whether at 3 in the morning or 5 a.m. or 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. every day it was like Jesus walked into the bedroom and sat down there and like he paid me a house visit and he he poured his love out on me. He comforted me. And I was I was greatly enjoying the months with him. Now, brethren. It doesn't matter what you go through, suffering is going to come and how you respond to it will determine. If you benefit from it or if you don't. So. The Christian suffers. Tonight we're talking about that. Tomorrow we'll talk about God's comforts in our suffering. God has not promised the Christian a suffering-free life, has He? Through much tribulation we're in the kingdom. The Bible shows us that thoroughly. But God has promised the Christian that with suffering will come help and peace and strength and comfort from the Lord. So this, think how practical this is. Everyone suffers. And when any Christian suffers in any way, what do they want to happen right then when they're suffering? They want relief. They want encouragement. They want comfort. They want help. And God will bring it. He will bring it. He will not fill His children. If we only have suffering and no comfort, that's really bad news. But suffering coupled with, followed by the Father's love, and the nearness of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit's special presence to you, enables any Christian to endure and even rejoice in times of suffering. Let's think about this tonight from 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. I want us to look at beginning really in verse 2. We're going to see some things beginning in verse 2. The apostle Paul would tell us this. All of life since the Garden of Eden is composed of suffering. All of life. Now, think about it. When Adam and Eve were put in that garden, they were in a pain-free paradise of pleasure and peace. But with the fall into sin, the first thing God said to Adam and Eve, He spoke to Eve. And He said, I will greatly multiply your pain and sorrow in burying children. And then he spoke to Adam and he said, curse it is the ground. By it, you'll. By the curse ground, you will eat of it, all your days will bring thorns. And in sweaty, hard labor until you die, all of life for all of history since then. Life has been a life of sorrow for everyone. Nobody escapes. You just think about some Old Testament characters. Pharaoh meets Jacob. And Pharaoh says, how how old are you? And Jacob's answer is one hundred and thirty have been my years. And then he says, few and evil have been the days of my life. Evil meaning sorrowful, hard. Life is hard, is it not? Meaning Jacob meant by that, that his life had been marked by hard things, unpleasant experiences, fractured relationships. Jacob had them with Esau. Heartache, bad things, loss and sadness, physical pain, and disappointment. Job, you think he went through any? Job said, this man who is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. How morbid is that? It's realistic. This is the reality of human history, universally and personal. Now, the kind of things that, of sufferings and trials represented in this room are multifaceted. You've been through things that others haven't. Others have been through things you haven't. So many different type of things. Some horribly traumatic. Others less, but they're real for you. What person who's ever lived was their life somehow not marked by suffering? Either one time or a hundred times. Have your suffering times made you a better Christian? Have they made you depend on the Lord more? How much less like Jesus Christ would you be if you had a pain free life? Psalm 90 says that we end our days. Well, think about we begin. Babies are born and they they're born not laughing, but crying. Screaming. And we end life, Psalm 90 says, with a moan of groan and a sigh. and three score and ten, and if by reason of more, his pain and sorrow. The years of our life are seventy, and even through strength we reach eighty, yet it is still toil and trouble. How important then is it for us to be taught of God, how to view suffering, and how to get through it, Trusting him. Because you have one of two options, you either trust yourself or you trust Christ. You trust men, you're still trusting yourself. All right, quickly, then. Let me get to the text. What I've summarized there is a basic theology of suffering. God brings it. It's going to come. We have to learn to view it rightly. And respond to it properly. By responding to the Lord. This is the theology of suffering the Bible teaches. And so 2nd Corinthians 1 is about this. And in chapter 1. Paul uses five different words to talk about suffering. So I want you to look at it in verse, starting in verse three, he says, or I'm sorry, verse four, who comforts us in all of our tribulation. Now this is New King James, but here's the words. Tribulation is one of the words Paul uses, verse four. Also in verse 4, he uses the word trouble, tribulation, trouble. Same thing. He uses the word sufferings in verse 6 and 7. In verse 8, he uses this phrase, we were burdened beyond measure. So that's suffering, burdened down, weighed down, with pressure and stress and heartache, burden beyond measure, that's another one. And in verse 6 he uses the word afflicted. So tribulation, affliction, trouble, suffering, burden, it's all the same thing. That's the basket of life's trials that God says all those things are in it. And He hands you the basket says, here, this is for you for this season. How many of us want to take the basket? We don't have a choice. God puts it in our hands and we're going to go through it. We might as well man up, woman up, Christian up and learn to walk with God in it. And trust him. So. This is real because we're human beings in a fallen world. And we are followers of the man of sorrows. His name is Jesus. Sorrows were greater than anyone ever in all of history. And we must learn to let this mind be in us. It was also in Christ Jesus. I'm a believer. I'm following him. And I must follow him through much tribulation. I may have physical pain. I may have heartache. I'm going to suffer loss. I'm going to experience this or that. I don't know what. But I am going to keep my hand to the plow. I'm going to trust God and I will endure to the end because he's going to give me grace. This is living by faith. It's living by faith. John Popper wrote a book called Don't Waste Your Sorrows. No, that wasn't him. He wrote a book, Don't Waste Your Cancer. 30 years ago, a man named Paul Bilheimer wrote a book, Don't Waste Your Sorrows. Find it and read it. It's a small book. It's a gold mine. So, the Bible tells us, do not be surprised by the fiery trials that come which are to try you. The first thing we generally do is we get surprised. We say, why? God, why this? Why me? Why now? But the Bible tells us, don't be surprised concerning the fiery trials which are to try you. As though some strange thing is happening. It's not. It's right on God's schedule for you. The hardest things are meant to bring Him closer to you more than anything else, and they are to make you deeper and deeper with Him. So, here's what He says in verse 5. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, So it's true for Paul, he's talking about all Christians in general. The whole living of the Christian life, sufferings are going to be mixed in with sorrows and joys and revival and encouragement and growth. Mixed in the recipe will be tears. And sadness. And sorrow. And disappointment. and complete lack of understanding why you're having to go through this. You see through a glass darkly, darkly, and you can make no sense of it all. You have no answers. It's then, with no answers, you can learn to trust Jesus in the dark. And he's there in the dark. Frances Havergal, one of the great hymn writers, she has a number of hymns in those hymn books up there. She and Fanny Crosby, another great lady hymn writer, wrote some of the greatest hymns about suffering and trials. And one stanza, I think I quoted it a little bit earlier, every joy or trial fallen from above. traced upon our dial by the son of love. We might trust him fully. That's all we're supposed to do. They who trust him wholly find him wholly true, not perfectly, but completely. Those who trust him wholly find him wholly true. What are you going through right now that's really hard in your life? Face it. I say that lovingly. The Lord wants you to face it. Don't be in denial about it. Don't dread it. When we learn to not dread trials, but face them, like God helped me to do on the bed, I say, OK, Lord, this is my condition. You're with me. You brought this. So what do you have, Father? And he had five months for me being there. Diving deeper in my Bible than ever, I wrote 75% of a book that I had planned on starting on the bed. And the presence of Jesus was so real, I had many times to call people and encourage them and pray with them. My elders would come by, my deacons would come by. and I was able to share joy with them. And it became a glorious time in my life because God had let me go through it. Are you willing to let Him take you through whatever He thinks is best for you to make you a blessing to others because of what you go through? Don't be afraid of any of it. He'll give you grace for it. He will. because he's the God of all. We're going to hear about this in the morning, the God of all comfort, because with our sufferings come his consolations. And you know who brings the consolations? The Holy Spirit. So let's pray and we'll be dismissed. I'll turn it over to Mark. Father. Take my simple words tonight and bless them beyond me, beyond this weekend, to disequip us more, to endure hardness as a good soldier, to rejoice in our tribulation, to endure trials, to not be surprised by them. But Lord, when they come, for our hearts and our minds to not look inward, to not look outward, but to look upward to you. Bless your word and equip us for a deeper relationship with you. In the blessed name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.