Go ahead and grab your copy of God's Word if you brought it with you, and I'd invite you to open it to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll be reading verses 16 through 18. I want us to be reminded on this day and on every day that this is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And as we stand here, I think on wet carpet with wet knees and we think about our friends and neighbors and our family members who have lost homes and lost cars and lost workplaces and lost pets. Possibly some have lost their lives. It may seem strange to say. our flesh it may seem strange at least that we will rejoice and be glad today. At least when I checked late last night at least 50 people had been confirmed dead from Hurricane Helene. It's highly likely that in the coming days more will be discovered dead or more will continue to die from complications resulted from the flooding and blocked roads and destroyed homes and resources and Especially as the adults know it will. It will be probably many years until Western North Carolina actually recovers from just the last few days. As we look around at the destruction brought by what seems to be the worst hurricane to come to this region in over a hundred years, we may have some questions. We may have a lot of questions. Certainly many people ask questions of eternal weight when tragedy strikes. I can remember on September 11th, 2001, how everyone was asking, where is God? Why would God allow something like this to happen? Why would a good God allow such tragedy to occur? our nation. Questions about good and evil, about purpose, about God's power. Is he really all-powerful? And so for this morning, instead of going through our normal sermon series, I've decided to focus our message on the question of suffering, the question of suffering. During times like this, it's good for us to pause and reflect and see what the Bible has to say about going through trying and difficult circumstances. It's good even in the midst of sorrow and confusion to ensure that we rejoice in the God who has the authority over the wind and the waves. So unlike most of our sermons, this will not be verse by verse expository. I will not be diving into our sermon scripture reading here today at all. Really, it's just a jumping off point for us. This is going to be a topical sermon, and we're going to answer the following four questions. Number one, why do we go through suffering? Number two, what good can come from suffering? Number three, how do I know whether I'm suffering for my own sin or for some other reason? And number four, how do I respond to suffering? So let's look now at 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and I'll read verses 16 through 18. This is the word of the Lord. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light, momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your goodness in our lives, Lord, even amidst tragedy and destruction. God, we thank you for the mercy that you've shown to this congregation in particular. And God, we just ask your spirit to fall on us afresh now. We ask for your blessing. Lord, let me just get out of the way of your people hearing from you. God, let them hear directly from you the message that you would have them hear. God, let me not say anything wrong. Lord, as I seek to shepherd through the preaching of the word, let me just shepherd truly. with your heart, Christ, and say only that which is in accord with your word. God, if I begin to veer off and do the wrong thing, Lord, just steer me back on course by your sovereign power. God, bless us now as we hear from you. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Our first question today is why do we go through suffering? Why do we go through suffering? There are several reasons that we could give as an answer here. But our first response to the question of why do we go through suffering is that suffering is allowed and ordained by our good God. Suffering is allowed and ordained by our good God. One of the central truths of the Bible, and this is a great comfort to the believer, and it should be a great terror to the unbeliever, to those who have not trusted in Christ. One of the central truths of the Bible is that God is in control of everything. There is not a single thing in the entirety of the heavens and the earth that is outside of God's sovereign control. The Heidelberg Catechism, when commenting on God's providence, puts it like this. The question is, what dost thou understand by the providence of God? Here's the answer. The almighty, everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, all things, come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. Nothing happens by accident. Nothing happens at random. As the Apostle Paul states, God works all things according to the counsel of his will. And that includes suffering. In fact, suffering even has a special and unique role in God's plans because it is through the suffering of Christ on the cross that we are saved. God has elevated suffering to a place of prominence in his plan of redemption. Jesus did not go through some bare legal cold calculating transaction to pay our sin debt like when you pay off a mortgage or a student loan or a hospital bill. No, he suffered. He suffered and felt the full weight of God's wrath for each and every sin his people would commit. He suffered. And through that suffering and death, he brought us peace. He brought us comfort and he brought us life. We even see that God intentionally brings so-called natural disasters. Of course, we might think of the great flood, I think, first and foremost. What greater natural disaster could be imagined than a flood that consumes the entire world and even reaches over every one of the mountain peaks? God used the flood to destroy nearly the whole world, and then He remade it. And He saved only righteous Noah and his family and the animals that He had brought to the ark. There's never been more worldwide suffering. There's never been a magnitude of suffering like that spread across the whole world when he cleansed the old world of its immense defilement. And it was so very clearly ordained by God and used as a means of salvation. Or we might think of the suffering caused by the 10 plagues on the Egyptians that God sent to magnify his name and rescue his people from slavery. He intentionally sent these plagues, some of which were what would normally be called natural disasters. Or we might recall when the Israelites are conquering the promised land and God sends a mighty hailstorm raining stones down from heaven to kill his enemies. So there are many times in history where we can see the hand of God so clearly at work in devastating weather phenomena that bring about great amounts of suffering. I remember in the 90s back when public schools still had a vestige or maybe a veneer, that might be putting it generously, but at least a veneer of goodness in them. I remember our kindergarten class learning and singing the song, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. What a wonderful song. Does anyone here remember that song? He's got the whole world in his hands. Whether they knew it or not, those public school teachers that taught me and my classmates that song were laying deep biblical truth into our hearts that maybe some of us even who don't know Christ are drawing on even today. I don't know. Maybe they are. And of course, I think we all know it, but the song is so simple and so profound. It just repeats, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole wide world in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got the whole world in his hands. And then one of those verses goes, he's got the wind and the rain in his hands. He's got the wind and the rain in his hands. He's got the wind and the rain in his hands. He's got the wind. He's got the whole world in his hands. God is in control of everything, even the wind and the rain, even this hurricane. And that, of course, includes suffering. God is in control of suffering. It's not something that he wishes he could stop, but he's powerless to do so. We're often in that position, not God. He ordains the hardships we go through, and he allows many of the things that we see as wicked in this world. But we also have to rightly assert that even though God plans and ordains and controls everything that happens, the Bible is also clear that at least some of our suffering comes because of the direct activity of Satan. The suffering which the whole world was brought into when our first parents sinned in the Garden of Eden was of course completely under God's control, but it was also a result of Adam and Eve's choices and the influence of Satan. Even more directly, perhaps, think of the story of Job. God's Word tells us that Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from evil. He was wealthy beyond any imagining. He had seven sons and three daughters and 11,000 animals. And he lost all of this in a single day. All ten of his children. all 11,000 of his animals. And then later on, his health, his reputation, and to some extent, his friendship and relationship with his wife and several of his friends, all gone. And this is one of those cases where I think everyone was right to ask when they see Job going through this, why God? Why would you let tragedy befall such a godly servant as Job? Here's the answer. One day in heaven, the angels present themselves before God, and Satan, interestingly, comes with them. And God asked, Satan, where have you come from? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth? And so reading between the lines a little bit here, Satan may have been implying to God something like, I may not be reigning in heaven like you, God, but I've been all over your earth. And there I have some freedom and some power. I've been deceiving nations, just like I deceived Eve in the beginning. And God, God might've said, well, yes, ah, but did you see Job? You may have deceived many of my creatures, entire nations you have led astray, but Job is a man after my own heart." And remember, Job was one of the nations. He wasn't part of God's visible covenant people. He says, you won't deceive him. So Satan goes on to point out that, okay God, but Job is only so good and so righteous because you have blessed him with so many good things. If you would just take away those blessings in Job's life, he would turn and curse you to your face. Well, God says, do with him what you will and we'll see who's right. So Satan takes everything from Job in one day. And in part, he uses natural disasters, thunderous wind to do this. And when we really sit back and think about this narrative, we might ask ourselves, wait, what's going on? Job is getting tortured. We might even use that word. Job's getting tortured because he was righteous. Not because he was a sinner, but because Job was so good, he's facing all this hardship. He was a good and godly man. And God gives Satan permission to destroy his life just so he can be proved right and the devil be put to shame? That's absolutely right. That is absolutely what happened here. Now, in God's abundant grace, not only did Job, for the most part, retain his righteousness and faith in God, but God also restored every single thing that Job had lost double. He restored all 10 of his children, and then he restored double of his wealth, double of his possessions. Job 42 says that the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning, and he lived even to see four generations of his descendants, and he died an old man and full of years. He thought he would see no grandchildren. He thought that his line was cut off forever. And he saw four generations. Very few of us are blessed in that way. So God's ultimately in charge here. He's ultimately in charge of everything that happened in Job's life. But we still have to admit the direct cause of Job's specific suffering was the work of Satan. And though Satan's power was greatly limited, and Satan himself was bound by Christ's victory over sin and death 2,000 years ago, he still causes real suffering in the world, even today. He's no longer deceiving the nations en masse, but he still has an influence. So God ordains all suffering, Satan causes some of our suffering, and also we would answer the question of why do we go through suffering by asserting that suffering is, of course, a result of sin. Job suffered because he was righteous, but we also suffer because we are sinful. Just like the truth that God is in control of everything written on every page of the Bible, the fact that sin causes suffering could be proved from just a huge litany of Bible verses and stories. Romans is especially clear on this point. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1 that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men." Now, of course, the word suffering isn't in that passage, but believe me, if the wrath of God is upon you, you have nothing to do but to suffer. That's all you have to do is to suffer. And at least here in Romans 1, Paul isn't just talking about like a generic wrath against the sin of the world. It's true that in general, sin causes suffering. Paul even goes on a few chapters later in Romans 5 to say that the reason why humans die is because every one of us, even sweet little babies in the womb, every one of us has sinned in Adam. Meaning that we all have a sin nature and therefore are guilty before God. So death and sickness and all forms of sadness, They don't come only from particular sins of individuals. They do also come from this original curse that God put on the whole world. But in Romans 1, Paul makes sure that we don't make the mistake it's only a generic kind of out there nebulous idea of sin that causes our pain. No, even our specific sins have specific consequences. Romans 127 reads like this, the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. So Paul says these men sinned in a specific physical way, and therefore it made them sick in a specific physical way. There was a direct suffering for particular sins. We see this all over the Bible. Think of Nadab and Abihu. They were killed by God. They were trying to worship Him, they thought, but they offered unauthorized fire on the altar of the Lord. And because of that, God killed them. Herod, or think of in, as recorded in Acts chapter 12, Herod was slain by God in a moment for receiving worship as if he were God, instead of giving glory to the one true and living God in heaven, the Father of Jesus Christ. Moses, he wasn't killed in the same way as those people were, but he was not able to enter the promised land for one act of disobedience. He struck the rock instead of speaking to it. And because of that, he was cut off from receiving in his own lifetime the promises of God. That's suffering. Sin promises us joy and ease and contentment, but it only ever gives us sadness and sorrow and suffering. We can clearly see that we suffer because of the result of sin, because of the result of Satan's activity in the world, and because of God's sovereign plan to bring about his purposes. But we might think, okay, I understand that that's what causes suffering, but what's the point? Why? Why are we suffering? What good could come from pain and sorrow? What good could come from this? That's our second question for the day. What good can come from suffering? The world often tells us that nothing good can come from suffering. It's only something to be escaped. It's only something that we need to try to free ourselves from. But God tells us something very different. First, The glory of God is revealed through suffering, through the suffering of his children. In John chapter nine, we read this. As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. The disciples thought, well, surely if a man can't see, if something so essential as a man's eyes don't work, surely that's got to be God's curse on him, either because of something he did or because of something his family did. That is God's curse for a specific sin in their lives. And he's been blind all this time. But Jesus said, no, that's not what's going on here. Jesus says that he has been blind from birth so that right now in this very moment, Christ might heal him of his blindness, save his soul, and show the Pharisees and the watching world a proof of his divinity and of the glory of God. The reason that man was blind all those years was for this moment right here, recorded in John chapter nine, so that the glory of God would be revealed through his deliverance. That's why he was blind. The physical suffering of one man served as an open door for Christ to exalt God and to bring about spiritual salvation. Suffering also, in addition to revealing the glory of God, it also refines God's saints and brings us nearer to Christ. Many of you, I'm sure, can attest to the fact that it is during suffering, not prosperity normally, that you have prayed the most earnest prayers. It is during the darkest nights that you have sought Christ most vigorously, that during the times of affliction, God has weaned you of your love of the things of this world and grown within you a desire to be with Christ in His glory. When your house is destroyed, totally consumed in flames, but your family all makes it out safely, are you caring one iota about that house in that moment? No, you don't. You couldn't care less about that house once you see that all your children are around you and safe. When you total your car that you just finished paying off, or you just gave a beautiful wash and wax to, and you absolutely total it in an accident, and you look to the right, and your wife is there safe in the seat next to you, do you think you care about your car right then? That's because tragedy puts things in their proper perspective. And for the believer, when everything, even your own health and your own family, when everything is taken from you, for the believer, you then realize you still have Christ and he's more than you could ever need or want. and nothing whatsoever can take Christ from you if you are in Him through faith. You can say with the Apostle Paul in those moments, I am convinced that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's more than enough. 400 years ago, Scottish pastor Samuel Rutherford wrote that whatever direction the wind blows, it will blow us to the Lord. How true should that ring to us today in the wake of a hurricane? Are you trusting God's leading to blow you to Christ during this time? Are you kissing the wave that has dashed your body onto the rock of ages? That's the question we have to ask. Are you, as the Apostle James says, counting it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds? Are you, as the Apostle Paul says, rejoicing in your sufferings? knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us. Or do you not know that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God? And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Amen, we say. What does Paul say immediately after that? Provided we are heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. The way to glory is through suffering. So it brings us nearer to Christ and refines us and readies us for heaven. God will not waste your suffering, brother or sister. He is not wasting the suffering of those in our community in the larger Western North Carolina region and in other states that are affected. We wish it were different. Every single one of us wishes this last weekend had gone totally different. We hate suffering. but God has ordained to use it for His glory and for the refining and purifying and building up of our children so that when Christ's children go through terrible times that they hate, when they come through it, they are better on the backside of suffering than they were going into it. And we should always praise God for anything that brings us nearer to Him and holier than we were. So we've looked at why we suffer and we've looked at the good that can come from our suffering. But whenever we go through a specific trial, those are very general things. Why does suffering happen in general? What good can come from suffering in general? But when you go through a specific trial, we might wonder, well, but why this trial? Why is this happening to me right now? Am I suffering for my own sin or for just some other random reason that I don't know? Well, the short answer is this, and this is not the answer we often wanna hear. The shorter answer is, sometimes you just don't ever find out the specifics of why you are suffering. And that's okay. That's not for us to know. We can't look into the eternal plan of God for our lives and all its details. Now, a lot of times you can tell why you're suffering. Why did you get cirrhosis of the liver? It's because you drank your whole life. You were an alcoholic. Why did you contract that particular disease? It might be because of immorality you were engaging in. Why did your spouse divorce you? Well, you were unfaithful. Why did you get fired from your job? You couldn't show up on time. There's lots of times where we can say, you know what? I can see a very direct line from this particular suffering and the thing I did that caused it. That's on me, that's my fault. I'm sinning and I'm suffering for it. But a lot of times you don't get to find out why bad things happen to you and to those that you love. And I think this is important to remember as we're reflecting on the suffering caused by Hurricane Helene. We know that God has ordained from eternity past that this hurricane would come to this region of the world at this particular time. That was in his plan. We serve a God who has authority, like we said, over all the wind and the waves. And we can be absolutely 100% certain that he was in control of everything that happened. Now, could Satan have had a role here? Could God have allowed him, Satan, to send this destruction upon us? Either because of our righteousness or our sin or some other reason, sure. God could have done that. That's within God's prerogative to do that. But we don't know. And one of the interesting thing about Job's life. See, we know more about Job's life than Job did when he was living in a lot of ways. One of the interesting thing about Job's life and suffering is that there's not even a hint in the text that Job discovers Satan's role in the troubles. Job had no idea of that conversation that happened. between Satan and God in Job chapter 1. He was just completely unaware of it. And I think the tenor of the book of Job, and especially the interactions Job and God have in the whirlwind speeches, make it virtually certain that Job never found out and never even guessed that Satan had a role here. There are times where humans can have a clear awareness of Satan's oppression in their lives. Paul is a great example of this. He tells the Corinthian church, I know that God sent a messenger from Satan to harass me so that I would not become conceited. He knew Satan was operating in his life to cause him suffering. But I think usually we don't know the ways that Satan and the demons are involved in our lives. So it's best not to assume that Satan is a direct cause of this disaster. What about sin though? What role has sin had in the destruction wrought by Helene? We know that without sin's presence in the world, hurricanes would not exist. After God finished His creation, He looked at the world and He said, Behold, it is very good. And hurricanes were not part of that very good creation. So clearly sin is involved somehow. But to what extent? Could this region of our country be being judged by God for some specific sins we have been committing or allowing? Yes, absolutely. I think there is ample reason to believe that could be the case. Once again, we don't know for certain. Our particular sins could have no role whatsoever in this hurricane. But even if it didn't, if God sent this wind and this rain for a completely different reason, He still would have every right and be perfectly just to destroy this region of America completely because of our wickedness. all throughout the hurricane's path. There are abortion clinics, there are rapists, there are human traffickers, there are pornographers, there are whole towns that accept and celebrate sodomy. There is more than enough reason for God to absolutely obliterate this entire region of America. We have more than enough crimes within this area to damn us to a thousand hells. Now, I don't mean to apply we're unique, that this is the worst place on earth. Many other regions of our country and world are just as guilty of these crimes or far worse. But we are not judged based on the actions of our neighbors. We are judged based on the law of God. And the law of God finds our region of the world guilty. So while I don't think it's appropriate to say emphatically that this hurricane is evidence of God's judgment, I know it's appropriate to do some soul searching and some repenting and to call on the church and our nation to do some as well. John Flavel in his masterful pastoral work, A Token for Mourners, or as it's sometimes entitled, Facing Grief, says this, when God is smiting, we should be a searching. Lord, what special corruption is it that this rod is sent to rebuke? What sinful neglect doth it come to humble me for? Oh, discover it now to me and recover me now from it. Flavel is telling us when bad things happen, look into your own heart and see what God might be disciplining you for. And let Him work within you to purge any evil out of your heart that you might be holding fast to. Use this affliction as an opportunity to turn from your sin and to turn once again to your glorious and merciful Savior. And Flavel admits it, it might not be your fault. He says, it is true, God may afflict from prerogative or for trial, but we may always see cause enough in ourselves and it is safest to charge it upon our own folly. It could be that this hurricane was caused by a specific sin. It could even be that this hurricane was caused by specific sins or a pattern of sinning from not a sin that we committed or anyone we even know committed. But it could be that the hurricane was caused by sins that someone else was complicit in. Helene could be the result of the sins of the governors of our states. It could be the result of the sins of one particular group of people in our region or someone else entirely that we've never even heard of. See, oftentimes in life, people suffer for the sins of others. It's true that no one will suffer in eternity for anyone's sin but their own. No one goes to hell who does not deserve it. But many times in life, people who are totally innocent of the particular sin that brings the destruction, they're the ones that get destroyed anyway. Think of David's great sin against the Lord with Bathsheba. David takes another man's wife, that's Bathsheba. He invents this elaborate scheme to cover up his sin. He murders Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. All of this is David's sin. All of it. It can all be laid at David's feet. But who suffers for it? Uriah gets killed. He has no clue what's going on. He is a picture of righteousness in that narrative. He gets killed. David's child that Bathsheba is carrying dies. And God makes certain, David knows, this isn't just because babies sometimes die. This is because you sinned. Your child is dying for your sin. Imagine hearing that from the Lord. Bathsheba herself suffers the loss of her husband, her child and her dignity. And plus Uriah's family suffers his loss. And Uriah's fellow soldiers, many of them suffered and died and were injured for something they had no clue about. They didn't do anything directly to cause this suffering. None of these people, they were innocent of the specific acts that brought the judgment. That could be the case here. You might be out of power or someone might be out of a home or out of food or out of a loved one. And it might not even be their fault at all. It might not be anyone's fault in here in the slightest, but that's how destructive and deadly sin is. It doesn't just affect you. There are no secret sins that you can commit that won't affect others. There are no sins that hurt no one. Sin is like the deadliest, most contagious disease ever imagined in the world. It spreads and gets everyone sick in its path, and it has one mission, and it is to kill and destroy. That's sin. It twists, perverts, kills, and destroys everything it touches. So how do we respond then to this suffering? How do we respond both in general and to the suffering brought by Helene to our region? I think we've already implicitly covered a lot of ground here, but I'm gonna try to just boil it all down to a few points for you. First, we need to respond like Job responded when everything was taken from him. Job chapter one, verses 20 and 21, when all of his children and all of his animals were taken away, God's word says this, then Job arose, He tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This is often spoken at funerals. Maybe one of the most common funeral texts second to Psalm 23 right here. It's a comfort to know that the Lord's in charge. and it's a comfort to know that it's not wrong to grieve. God does not condemn grieving. It is good and appropriate to have grief and sadness and to mourn and to cry when calamity strikes. But in the midst of that, we must continue to worship. Worshiping through the pain and through the heartache. We cannot wallow alone in our own misery. though there's often a great temptation to do that. We must remember that apart from the Lord, we have nothing at all. So if he takes it away, he didn't take anything that was ours. He just took what was his right back. His fatherly providence for our lives is always ultimately for our good, even when it causes us immense pain. And no matter if we have feast or famine, pain or pleasure, we must praise the name of the Lord like Job did. That's what we're called to, number one, first and foremost. Next, when suffering like this hits, we need to take time to search our own hearts. Take this time of tragedy as a gift from the Lord, sent to remind us of his mercy that he has for us, in that God allows us these opportunities to repent of our sins. He does not have to allow us the gift of repentance, but when tragedy comes, could God be opening our hearts to turn from some evil, to lay a sin at his feet that we've been holding on to, that we thought no one knew about, to just lay it bare before him. So right now, repent of anything going on in your heart or your mind that you would not want to answer for on judgment day. I know we already had our time of confession of sin this morning, but even right now, those listening to my voice, where you're sitting, if you feel weighed down by any sins, just confess them to God from your heart and ask him to give you the strength to turn from your disobedience and trust God and follow his paths of righteousness. Another response we need to have when tragedy strikes in the form of something like a hurricane, and there's just enormous suffering all around us, is that we must love our neighbors and meet the needs of those around us. Just like how the works of God were put on display in Christ when he healed the man who had been born blind, so we should let the works of God be put on display through us when we help each other in great distress. God is glorified when we provide food for the hungry. When we give a cup of cold water to the thirsty and the sick in the name of Jesus. When we open our homes to those in need. When we pray for the broken hearted. When the world seems darkest, then we can shine the brightest. We can be like that city set upon a hill or that lamp put on the mantle. And when it's all dark around us, we can shine brightly like the sun. And then what will happen? Men will see our good works and give glory to the Father in heaven. So when the world is as dark as it gets, that's when we have an opportunity to lead people to Christ even more than normal. And we aren't called here in Boone, North Carolina to save every single person who's suffering throughout the world. We don't have that calling or that ability. But like the good Samaritan, we need to think of who God has put directly in our path that we can do good to today. And I know many of you have already all been doing this. You've been banding together and serving one another, serving your family and friends and neighborhoods. This is an opportunity to continue that work, to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in our community. How can we serve those around us, we might ask, especially those nearest us? That's what we need to be thinking. How can I serve those nearest me? How can I serve those with greatest needs? Whether that's the sick people or the elderly or the homeless, whomever. And as the Apostle Paul says in Galatians, we also need to ask, how can we serve those who are of the household of faith? Yes, we can and should serve people of all backgrounds when there's a need and we have an opportunity to help. But God's word also makes it especially clear that we are to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ first. That's one of the reason God gives us families, both earthly families and spiritual families, so that we can serve them and they can serve us. We're to bear each other's burdens. That's what we can do right now. And then finally, No matter how dark or dismal things get in this life, no matter what pain or hardship or injustice or terror we might go through, we have to remember that compared to the life to come, this is light and momentary. Compared to the 100 trillion centuries waiting for you on the other side of the grave, everything in this life is over in the twinkling of an eye. That doesn't mean this life isn't important. It's massively important. Our actions here will in fact echo throughout the halls of eternity forever and ever. This life is very important, but it's also unbelievably brief. And no matter how unbearably terrible your pain may be here on earth, it is nothing compared to the pain that will be experienced by those who die apart from the love of Christ. So put your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again in victory on the third day, and you will not be put to shame on the final day. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for your goodness to us in Christ Jesus. God, we thank you that we were not affected worse than we are, that we were shown a great mercy in large measure through this hurricane that hit our region, God. We thank you, Lord, for the promises of your word. God, we thank you that even when it doesn't feel this way, these sufferings are light and momentary. We thank you that we have laid up for us an eternal weight of glory. We thank you, God, that in your house, Father, there are many mansions that you have prepared specifically for your people. Lord, we thank you when we look around at death and destruction, Lord, that we can look forward to the new heavens and the new earth, where we'll eat from the tree of life, which is for the healing of the nations. God, we thank you that at your table there will be no hunger, that in your presence there will be no sadness, but rather, God, there will be pleasures forevermore. God, we thank you that you are the God who wipes away every tear from our eyes. We thank you, Lord, that you are the God who visits those who are brokenhearted. Lord, that you came for those who are struggling and suffering. We thank you that we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us, Lord, but we thank you that you are one who walks with us in our weakness and our sadness and our sorrow. God, we thank you for this time to hear from you today, and we ask your continued blessing on our congregation, on our community, and on all of this region of the United States that's suffering now. In Christ's name, amen.