Good morning, church. But before we begin, just a little testimony about yesterday. We as a church, the brothers and Betsy, we all came out yesterday to White Plains. And for the first time, we preached two hours straight with amplification right in the city center of White Plains. And no police or nobody gave us trouble, so I didn't even have to show them the permit. Two hours, the sound was blasting all throughout White Plains. People all the way down in the end of White Plains could hear our preaching. We passed out tracts. We did one-to-one evangelism. Some of the brothers here that never opened their preach before got out of their comfort zone and they opened their preach. I just want to encourage everybody, when you go out for evangelism, there's no wasted time. Sometimes it feels like, oh, nobody accepted the gospel. Did I just waste two hours of my time? Remember, even if they reject your message, just from God's gospel going out, God is glorified through the preaching of his gospel, whether someone accepts the message or not. So our main objective in going out there is God be glorified. So I just want to encourage everyone, when you get the chance, come out for evangelism. Today's message that I want to share with you today is the theology of afflictions. And our text today is from Hebrews. All of us have experienced afflictions. Each and every one of us sitting here is in one of three states. Either we're just coming out of an affliction, we're currently in an affliction, or about to face an affliction. And no other philosophy of life or religion deals with afflictions like how Christianity deals with afflictions. Historically, Christians have been known as a people that face some of the heaviest afflictions in history. Christians have been fed alive to the lions. They have been crucified upside down. They have been lit on the street like a candle and burned. And all these Christians went to their death with the psalm on their tongues and joy in their hearts because they counted it worthy to suffer for his name. Now the chapter in the Bible, the book of the Bible that tells us about afflictions is the book of Job. But the one chapter in the Bible that goes in on the theology of afflictions is Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, we're gonna look at verses 3 to 11. And here, we find a balm that can heal our afflicted souls. Here in Hebrews 12, we find comfort for those who are grieving. Here in Hebrews 12, we find hope for those who are on the brink of despair. If you have your Bibles, turn to Hebrews 12, and we're gonna look at verses 3 to 11. I'm gonna be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. The writer of Hebrew says in verse three, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against themselves, so you will not grow weary, fainting in heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and He flogs every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share his holiness. And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. But to those who have been trained by it afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness." We're just going to bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, the grass withers. the flower fades but your word abides forever we thank you lord that you for giving us your revelation that we have each and every one of us have the privilege of holding a bible in our hands lord we thank you lord that during the midst of affliction, that you don't leave us to ourselves, but you comfort us through your word. We pray, Lord, that you know the hearts of each and every one of us here. You know what each and every one is going through, the pain, the agony, the hurt. We pray, Lord, that your word will be a balm to their hearts, a comfort to them, that you would give them the strength to endure any affliction. To the praise and glory of your name, amen. The author of Hebrews is unknown. Some say it's the Apostle Paul. Some say it's Apollos because Apollos was steeped in the Old Testament. Other scholars say it might be Luke because of the sophisticated language the author of Hebrew uses. We don't know who the human author is. One thing we know is that the Holy Spirit wrote this book. The book of Hebrews is about the preeminence of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is greater than everyone and everybody. The letter of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians, those Christians who've been saved out of Judaism, and now, because of their newfound faith in Jesus Christ, they were facing turmoil from within and persecution from without. They were ostracized, some of them from their own families, Some of them were rejected from society and some of them even faced persecution from the government. And the writer of Hebrews writes a letter to encourage some of those Christians who were attempted to apostatize from the faith. The first point we want to look at in our chapter today is the prescription for afflictions. And the prescription for afflictions is to consider Christ. We want to consider Christ's suffering. As we consider the sufferings of our Savior, we find new strength and encouragement to endure any afflictions we face in this life. If we lose sight of Christ when a severe affliction befalls us, we'll be in a constant state of self-pity and worry. We'll be in shock. We'll become like what the writer Hebrew says. We'll grow weary and faint when an affliction falls us. It would heed us all good if we heed the words of a Scottish pastor named Robert Murray McShane. He says for every one look at yourselves, take ten looks at Christ. As we look from ourselves and our circumstances and as we gaze upon Christ, we see him suffering there in Gethsemane. We see him suffering upon the cross and the sufferings of Christ puts our own sufferings into perspectives. When we contemplate all that Christ has went through, our sufferings won't seem as much. Not only that, in Jesus, we have an example to follow. The Bible says that he was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. In Jesus, we have a model of suffering to follow, that he was faithful and obedient in times of difficulty. Hebrews 12.4 says, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. In the beginning chapter of Hebrews, the writer uses a running metaphor, but now he switches and uses a boxing metaphor. In the sport of boxing, the boxer takes blows to the face, he might get cuts on the face, and he'll shed blood. The imagery of boxing is similar to our struggle against sin. We must make war against our sin. Our savior has gone to the greatest lengths to accomplish and purchase us with his precious blood. We must resist sin to the point of death. In the early church, the believers faced insults, they faced slander, they even faced physical persecution. In church history, there's a man called Polycarp of Smyrna. This is an important figure in church history because he was the direct disciple of the Apostle John. And he was taken by the state to be persecuted, and the state asked him to recant his faith in Jesus Christ. And Polycarp at the time was an 86-year-old man. And this was Polycarp's last words. 86 years I have been his servant. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me? In the midst of this heavy affliction, his persecution from the state where his life was on the line, he remembered and considered his Savior, the goodness of a Savior and all that the Savior has done for him. And he stood firm by God's grace to the point of shedding against blood. He resisted the temptation to deny Christ. When we're going through affliction, it's not only important to consider Christ's suffering, we must consider the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4.15 says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but one who've been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin. One of the temptations we have when going through affliction is to think that no one knows what I'm going through. No one has experienced what I'm going through. My situation, my affliction is unique. Because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, we cannot say those words anymore, because Jesus knows. The Bible says he was tempted in all points like we, but yet without sin. You might say, did he ever experience betrayal? Jesus, for three years, he had an inner 12. He did ministry with them, he preached with them, healed with them. They saw him raise the dead, cast out demons. He had intimate, close, trusted fellowship with them. And then one of them, Judas Iscariot, betrayed him. What pain, what hurt must have entered the Savior's heart from the pain of betrayal? You might say, what about grief or loss? Jesus experienced loss. He experienced the loss of a friend. In John chapter 11, his friend Lazarus died. The Bible says Jesus wept. The book of Isaiah described Jesus as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Hebrews 7.25 says, Jesus always lives to make intercession for us. There are times in our life where a severe affliction may fall upon us and at that moment the pain, the agony will be so great you try to open your mouth to pray and no words may come out. You may cry, nothing but tears flow from your face, and you might feel like this situation is over, your head is gonna drown and destroy you. But at that moment, you must remember that you have a high priest in heaven who is praying for you moment by moment. He's praying for you moment by moment. Therefore, your salvation is secure because he has you, he's praying for you to keep you in the circle of his love. The Puritans were so confident in the priestly work of Jesus Christ, they said that in heaven, there won't be one empty seat. See, the reality is when we study the book of Hebrews, we see that the book of Hebrews teaches us that Jesus Christ intercedes for every member of the new covenant. So our salvation is secure because of the priestly work of Jesus Christ. When we enter the gates of heaven and worship the lamb for all eternity, We'll look back and we'll come to the realization that our justification is by grace, our sanctification is by grace, our glorification is by grace. We'll come to understand that Christian life begins with grace, it develops with grace, and it ends with grace. Therefore, when we go to eternity, we would have nothing to boast except in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So when we go through suffering, not only must we contemplate the sufferings of Christ and the priesthood of Christ, but we must remember Christ's second coming. Theology matters. What we believe about the future have practical implications today. When you believe doctrines like the second coming of Jesus Christ or the doctrine we see in Revelation of the new heavens and the new earth, those very doctrines strengthened the early church. The Apostle John was writing those very doctrines, not to give you just high lofty theology, but to encourage those Christians who was going through real trying times. Those doctrines helped the Christians realize that the severe persecution, the imminent death threats, were all temporary compared and there was working for them an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. These doctrines of eschatology helps us to realize that there is an end in sight. This world is not all there is. There is coming a time when there will be no more persecutions. There'll be no more suffering. There'll be no more betrayals. There'll be no more pain. A time where he'll wipe away every tear. Keeping this in the forethought of your mind will enable you to suffer any persecution or affliction for the sake to advance his kingdom. The next point we're gonna look at is the plan for afflictions. In Hebrews 12, five to six, it says, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he flogs every son whom he receives. The writer of Hebrews is writing to Christians who are well acquainted with their Old Testaments. And he quotes here Proverbs 3, 11 to 12. The writer of Hebrews tells us, the antidote to spiritual amnesia, which would eventually lead to spiritual apostasy, is not to forget the word that you have heard. As believers, we need to keep a close watch on our life and doctrine. We need to constantly come to our local church and hear God's word. We need to study God's word. We need to read God's word. If Adam in his pre-fall state needed God's counsel, he needed God's instruction, he needed to hear God's voice to live in God's world. How much more do we need God's word and counsel living in a post-fall world? how much more do we need god's word and counsel when we're going through an affliction because sometimes the pain can distort our way that we look at things and we need god's word to readjust our lenses to see our situation properly when it comes to trials there are two extreme views that people hold one extreme view is the view of those who adhere to the word of faith movement Those who adhere to the health, wealth, prosperity movement, they believe that it is only God's will to bring you health, wealth, and prosperity. Anything outside of those three categories is not God's will. So I don't know what they do with Hebrews 12. Because Hebrews 12 teaches us that God is holy and he is committed to his children walking in holiness so much so that he will bring affliction and take away your comfort so you grow up in spiritual maturity. And another extreme view is that there are some people that trace the cause of every affliction back to personal sin. And we know from God's word that not every affliction is caused by personal sin. James 1.2 says, counted all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. The Greek word there for various is poikilos, and it means multicolored. The trials of life comes to us in all different shapes and sizes. One of the trials that come to our lives is natural afflictions. These are afflictions that come our way from the natural cause of things. One thing is we live in a fallen world. In a fallen world, we have viruses, bacteria, we have tsunamis, we have hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes. Not only that, there are some natural afflictions that simply come, maybe not from any personal sin of our own, but it may come simply from aging. When we age, we lose our eyesight, our strength depletes and we become weak. We begin to lose our memories. Sometimes we develop illnesses like Alzheimer's and dementia. And sometimes God can use these natural afflictions to punish us, to correct us and discipline us for our sins. But not every affliction is caused by a personal sin. There are also godly afflictions. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3.12, all those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Here we have an ironclad promise from God. If you live godly in Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted. When you live godly in Christ Jesus, you may be rejected from your family because of your newfound faith in Jesus Christ. You may be scorned and mocked by the friends you once held dear and near. And if you decide to take your faith to the public square and confront the ungodliness of the culture with the gospel, you may be mocked, you may be laughed at, you may be scorned, and you may even face physical persecution. So if you're here today and you never experienced persecution in your life, the question you should ask yourself is, are you living as godly in Christ Jesus as you ought to be? There are not only natural afflictions and godly afflictions, but there are also afflictions that are caused none other than our own sin and our own foolishness. And God loves us so much to leave us in our sin and foolishness. He comes and disciplines us so we mature and grow spiritually. Hebrews 12, 5 says, My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him. The way we regard lightly the discipline of the Lord is by not seeing the discipline that comes to your life through the eyes of faith, by seeing God's hand, fatherly loving hands behind that discipline. God not only permits the discipline that comes into your life, He ordains it. God is not only sovereign over the planets and your salvation, He is sovereign even over suffering. Every affliction in your life is tailor-made for you. God is sovereign. He says he has ordained even the bounds of your habitation. He decided which parents to give you, which family you should have. He decided which church members should be part of your church, what boss would be your boss, what co-workers you would work with. And in Hebrews 12, verse 6, it says, And He flogs every son whom He receives. You can faint under trial when you fail to see through the eyes of faith that there is a loving Heavenly Father. In all your afflictions, in all your trials, in all your difficulties, He has a purpose. He is molding you. He is building your character. And you must realize when going through affliction, some people are discouraged because they have a distorted view of who God is. Sometimes we view God as Christians, as someone who's a judge and is angry with his wrath over our heads. The Bible says in Romans 8.1, for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because we have been born again, adopted into his family, God no longer is a judge with his vengeance and wrath over our heads, but now because the Jesus has satisfied the wrath of God for us, God's disposition towards us is one of love. And now when he brings affliction into our lives, when he corrects us, when he disciplines us, he does it out of a fatherly loving heart to correct us. God no longer punishes us in condemnation, but he corrects us in love. The next point we want to look at is The proof for afflictions in verses 7 to 9 in your Bibles. In Hebrews 12, 7 to 9, it says, it is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. But what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? When God disciplines us through afflictions for our sins, it proves that we are children of God. Through the affliction and discipline of God, we get a greater assurance of faith. The Roman Catholic Church, they teach that believers cannot have an assurance of faith. Their system of salvation is called a synergistic model. They teach that we must maintain our salvation by our good works. They teach that both God and man must work together to attain salvation. And therefore, if our salvation also depends upon us, we can make a mess of our salvation and we can possibly lose our salvation. And that's what the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that you must maintain your salvation in cooperation with God and it is possible for you to lose our salvation. But the Bible teaches a monergistic model of salvation. The Bible says that salvation is of the Lord. Therefore, you cannot lose your salvation. And therefore, as believers, today, as we see in this text, believers can have assurance of faith. You can know today if you're a true child of God. The discipline of the Lord accomplishes two things. It would demonstrate to us if we're a true child of God or illegitimate children. And it would give us an assurance of faith. Hebrews 12, seven says, it is for discipline that you endure, God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you can go day in and day out in unrepentant, habitual sin, and never face the correction of God, the discipline of God, it may prove that you're not truly a born-again child of God. It was Dr. Joe Beeke who said, a Christian cannot enjoy high levels of assurance while he persists in low levels of obedience. Living obediently as a Christian will increase our assurance of faith and it will give proof that the faith that we have is a living faith. See, good works do not save us. Good works are the evidence that we are truly born again. Now in our passage, the writer of Hebrews makes an argument from the lesser to the greater. He uses our earthly fathers and makes a comparison with the heavenly father. Hebrews 12, 9, it says, furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? Good, loving parents set boundaries to their children, and they even do the hard task of disciplining their children, because they want what's best for them. They want to protect them. And we respect in return our parents when we submit to the hard discipline they bring into our lives. In the same way, God is a father who is perfect in love. His wisdom is matchless and perfect, and he is concerned not only with the here and now, but our eternal welfare. See, God is not some cosmic killjoy. Every time that God tells you thou shall not, he's saying don't hurt yourself. Every time God says, thou shalt, he's saying, help yourself with happiness. And when we're going through a dark time of affliction, it's important that we trust the heart of God, knowing that God's heart towards us is one of love and one of goodwill. So we saw the prescription for afflictions. which is to consider Christ. We saw the plan of afflictions, which is to trust God's sovereignty and his fatherly care. We saw the proof for afflictions, which is afflictions prove that we're truly children of God. It proves our sonships. And now, lastly, we wanna look at the purpose for afflictions. If you have your Bibles, look at Hebrews 12, 10 to 11. Hebrews 12, 10 to 11 says, for they disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best for them. But he disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share his holiness. And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. But to those who've been trained by it afterwards, it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness. In verse 10, we see a contrast between our heavenly father and our earthly father. Once again, we see our earthly father may discipline us short term. He's thinking about, he's concerned about our years from childhood to adolescence. But our earthly father's concerned about the here and now and our eternal welfare. And our earthly father, when he disciplines us, it may not be always for the right motives. Our earthly father may discipline us out of anger, out of irritation, out of impatience, but God, the Father's motives is always one of love. As parents, we may have the best of intentions, but I think every parent has one time or another in their life made mistakes. And some of us here probably made many mistakes. And one of the two extremes of parenting is on one extreme, there are parents who over discipline their child. Their parenting is so strict and so harsh that they fail to provide their child with the kindness a child needs to grow and mature. On the other extreme, there are some parents who are under-disciplined their child. They allow their child to say anything they want, do anything they want, go anywhere they want without any consequences. And this type of model of parenting fails to give their child the firmness that a child needs to grow and mature. We may, as parents, fail to use the rod on our child's back when they need. We may fail to instruct our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord in the right time when we should have. If you're here today, and you're a father, and you want to be a good, balanced father here today, look to your Heavenly Father, because He models for us what fatherhood should be. One of the greatest crises facing our nation at the moment is the crisis of fatherlessness. Every societal problem from promiscuity, violence, incarceration, poverty can be traced back to fatherlessness. The latest statistics says that 40% of households in the United States, a child is raised without their biological father. That's significant because out of the whole world, that's the highest rate of fatherlessness. See, if the fathers are strong, you'll have strong homes. If you have strong homes, we'll have strong churches. So if you're here today and you wanna be a strong father, look to God the Father. Ephesians 5 1 says therefore be imitators of God as beloved children My son Ian is not even 2 yet But whatever I do he copies me if I get down and do push-ups He gets down and tries to do push-ups if I try to start singing he starts to try to sing God has hardwired us he has created us in such a way that we learn by imitation and And if you're here today and you want to be a good father, if you want to be balanced in your parenting, look to God the Father. If you model your parenting after God the Father, you won't be an absentee father. You'll be present in the life of your children because God the Father never leaves or forsakes us. He never abandons his children. If you model your parenting after God the Father, you won't be an abusive, harsh, cruel father, because God is a father who is loving, kind, and affectionate. We see in Zephaniah 3.17, the Bible says that God rejoices over his children with singing. If we model our parenting after God the Father, we won't be an uncaring, permissive father. Because we see in Hebrews 12, God is a father who disciplines his children when they go astray. So we see that we must model our parenting after God the Father. In verse 11, it says, and all discipline for the moment seemed not to be joyful but sorrowful. But to those who've been trained by afterwards, it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Earlier, we saw that God is a father who loves us. And in this verse, we see God is not only a father, but he is a farmer. And he is pruning us. And he has a great purpose, that that pruning process may be painful and difficult, but God, the father as a farmer, has an end in sight, that he has multiple purposes for his pruning process. And this verse tells us one of his purposes. It says, afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. One of the purposes God has for bringing these difficult afflictions into our life is that we may grow in holiness. Now, holiness is a topic that our Christian forefathers placed a great emphasis on. The Puritans, the reformers, they placed the emphasis on piety, practical godliness. But holiness is a topic that is not popular today, and it's not something we see modern Christians put a priority on. It should be a priority for the people of God. Why? Because holiness is a priority for God. In 1 Peter it says, God says, be ye holy for I am holy. The Great Commission is the primary responsibility of the local church. And the Great Commission is not only to go into the world and preach the gospel and bring men and women to Jesus Christ. The Great Commission is also a call to holiness. In Matthew 28, 18 to 20, Jesus said, and Jesus came up and spoke to them. saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Grace and truth, are we known as a church that keeps all that Jesus has commanded? If someone looked at your life, would they describe you with this one word, obedience? May Hebrews 12 spur us as a congregation to pursue greater and greater heights of godliness. God brings affliction into our life not only for that we grow in holiness, but that we may grow in intimacy with God. Afflictions can do two things to us. Either it can drive us away from God, or it could draw us closer to God. And the most important thing is not how much afflictions you have faced in your life. The most important thing is how we respond to the afflictions that come to our life. Because some of us have experienced many afflictions, but we have not even an ounce of spiritual maturity to show for it. When afflictions come in our lives, is our response one of God-centered response? Are we responding to afflictions? with obedience, with humility, with patience, we must see the afflictions that come into our lives as opportunities to grow and mature. God brings afflictions into our lives not only for intimacy with God, so that we may know God more. It was Martin Luther who said, affliction is the Christian's theologian. We not only know God through his word, we know God through afflictions. It is in afflictions that the rubber meets the road. It's where we come to God's word in Bible study, and we learn about the attributes of God, we learn about the providence of God, the protection of God, we learn, and then when affliction comes, we have an experimental knowledge of God, rather than just a textbook knowledge of God. In Psalm 119.71, the psalmist said, it was good for me to be afflicted, that I may learn your statutes. The psalmist looked back at all his difficulties, all his trying times, all his pains, and he said, it is good. Why? Because it is only through the affliction that he learned to rejoice in God's Word. There's something about afflictions, when you're going through trouble, maybe there's a verse you never saw in your Bible, all of a sudden, when you're going through a trying time, that verse jumps out of the page and becomes real to you. God brings us through affliction, not only so we may have intimacy with Him, that not only we may grow in holiness, but He brings us through trying times to expose our sin. We don't know our hearts like we think we do. Our biggest problem today is not people or circumstances. Our biggest problem here today is our own hearts. And this is evidence. When you were single, you might have thought you're one of the most godliest people. And then just in the first years of marriage, you all of a sudden see how impatient and selfish you are. Now that marriage didn't create the impatience and selfishness in you, but the marriage was the crucible in which to reveal what was already there. You'd never been tested before, you'd never been tried, so you never saw that side of yourselves. If you have your Bibles, turn to Deuteronomy 8.2. In Deuteronomy 8-2, the children of Israel is in the wilderness. And close to entering the promised land, Moses says, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that He may humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Now God brings the children of Israel through the wilderness experience. not so he may know what's in the children of Israel's heart, because God is omniscient. He knows all things. He brings the children of Israel through that wilderness experience so that they may know what's in their hearts. And as God brings us through trying times, as the ugliness of our hearts is revealed to us, may we go boldly to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and grace in our time of need. And it's at that place where we find forgiveness and cleansing and change to be more like Christ. And lastly, afflictions, God brings us, brings afflictions into our life to equip us for greater usefulness for God's kingdom. It was Charles Spurgeon who said that the Lord gets his best soldiers at the highlands of affliction. Through the means of afflictions, God blesses us with a unique ministry to bring comfort through those who are suffering. Second Corinthians 1, 3 to 4 says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. My wife Betsy, when she was a teenager, lost both of our parents to a cardiac arrest. Imagine the pain, the difficulty of losing both of your parents at such a crucial time in your life when you probably need your parents the most. And throughout the years, God comforted her. A couple of years ago when she went to India, there was a young man in her church who was newly married, and he was driving his motorcycle through India traffic. If you know about Indian traffic, it's a frightening thing to see. But he was driving his motorcycle through the Indian traffic and all of a sudden a big truck came and ran him over and he instantly died on the spot. And the news of his death went to his wife who was just one month into their marriage. Now imagine can't imagine the level of pain the agony the pain is unimaginable losing a new husband and when when his wife got that news Betsy was one of the first people to go to her and she stood with her the whole day and weeped with her as she weeped and was a shoulder to cry on God is in the business of taking those who've been comforted and making them comforters. He doesn't just comfort us so we can sit in the pew and be comforted. He comforts us so we can go and be a comfort to others. To conclude, sometimes our afflictions may look meaningless, but no affliction is wasted in the economy of God. Whether it's criticism that you receive, whether it's cancer, whether it's slander, whether it's a surgery or any imminent trial, he is conforming you to his image, he is building your character, he is causing you to grow in intimacy with him, he is equipping you to greater usefulness for his kingdom, and he may be doing a thousand other things that you may not realize at the moment. If I could leave you with just one truth, is consider Christ no matter what you're going through, and that will get you through anything. I wanna leave you with a line from one of my favorite hymns. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full into his wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. If you consider Christ, you will suffer well to the glory of God.