"God Will Use Your Suffering" - Acts 16:16-40 (5.21.17) - Pastor Jordan Rogers

[Music] please do not discount the opportunity and the platform that you are given in those times to minister to people suffering in the same things this morning we are in Acts chapter 16 verse 16 down through verse 40 what I'm about to tell you is very radical it may very well alter the way that you view suffering the way that you view the things that you go through in this life it's a very radical thought it's a very striking truth and I want you to hear it because that every every one of you suffers every one of us will suffer and I want you to understand how God would have you to see that suffering and how God is using that suffering the first recollections I really have of my life the first the first I can really remember I became conscious of being alive I was somewhere around the going into the second grade and I remember it pretty well because at that point when I was going into the second grade that is actually when we when my family moved to to live about an hour hour and a half from here to move to date in Texas at that point my dad was pastoring a church Calvary Baptist Church in Cuero Texas I have fate memories of that something you know where kwarrel is because you go hunting out there and you may drive through it their body the only reason you go to Cuero but as we were there again I was I was a young boy and I don't have a whole lot of recollections but I do remember I do remember a young man that my brother was best friends with my brother was best friends with with the guy there in Cuero Texas by the name of Andrew her Andrew heard you've you've probably never heard of his name but Andrew heard you may very well have heard of him though but Andrew heard and Jeremy they were going into the the sixth grade and that's when my dad was called to move to Calvary Baptist Church in Dayton and so it was difficult for my brother going into middle school to have to move to a brand new town very difficult for him to leave Andrew heard behind because they did everything their house was within walking distance from our house there's a lot of stories I think I could tell you but not not right now about some adventures that Jeremy and Andrew had but they were best friends very best friends and so we moved away life goes on you go to school and all those sorts of things you get married and you start having children and lo and behold Andrew herds name popped up again now Andrew grew up in Cuero and and he ended up being the star quarterback really just the star athlete there in Cuero he was the quarterback of the football team the Cuero gobblers and I remember as we were in Dayton driving over to Houston and we went to the Astrodome because that's where they used to play the the UIL football state championship games you remember that and so we went over to the Astrodome and we watched Cuero play and lo and behold there's Andrew herd he is the quarterback in the state championship game he's a tremendous athlete he ends up he runs track and he goes to the state meeting track as well he goes to Texas Tech and in two and a half years he graduated with a four-year degree can you imagine that two and a half years he had a four-year degree of BA in business communications or in communications he actually while he was very walked on to the football team at Texas Tech not so easy is it so after he graduates in two and a half years he still has some years of eligibility left he goes to Baylor to do a master's degree a Masters of Divinity and he walks onto the football team at Baylor not an easy thing to do he was a receiver there in Baylor it seemed like everything was going perfectly Andrews life he had gotten married beautiful wife but when Andrew was 29 years old he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in the midst of all that stage 4 lung cancer which obviously is a diagnosis that it's not a matter of if you're going to die this it's a matter of how long it's going to take Andrews 29 years old at this time I'm older than him right now when he was diagnosed with that lung cancer Andrew died four months four months before his 31st birthday so if you if you were imagining this it would be me in a couple of months or so at the end of summer would be about the timeline of when Andrew died peak physical condition struck down Stage four lung cancer and I remember it was so incredible to watch him suffer because as he suffered he was given such a massive platform to tell people about Jesus and he spent the next year or so of his life after that diagnosis as he was going through radical chemotherapy and he would travel from church to church and school to school and he was given a platform to tell people about Jesus and to suffer well in front of them because it gave him an opportunity to tell people about Jesus and I want you to understand this morning I want to show you this from this passage I want you to understand this truth this morning that God will use your suffering I put your in there but it's you could say my God will use my suffering as an avenue to reach and sovereignly save those who are lost and going to eternal hell God will use your suffering and you must have that perspective and you must have that perspective now you may be in suffering or you may be going to it but you must have that perspective now if you try to gain that perspective while you are suffering you're walking against the flow there you're trying to sail out against the tide here you need to gain this understanding now that God will use your suffering God has purpose God has purpose in subjecting you to suffering wants you to see that in in paul and silas's life is specifically in this interaction here with the Philippian jailer so if you will look with me at this text and you're going to see two truths about how God will use your suffering to reach people for Jesus will give her 16 through 24 this is the truth that you see from verse 16 through 24 that you must be willing to suffer for the name of Christ and the purposes of his sovereign will you must be willing look at verse 16 it says as we were going to the place of Prayer remember that Paul and Barnabas don't forget this fact not Paul and Barnabas were Paul and Silas they had intended Paul had intended on this second missionary journey to just visit those churches there in Asia Minor correct that's that's what Paul had intended but you remember from last week the Holy Spirit intended so much more than Paul did right so the Holy Spirit tells him you go all the way past Asia Minor you go all the way through don't go in it don't go to the north don't go to the south you just keep going and the Holy Spirit sent Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke he sent them into Europe he sent them not just to encourage the Christians there in Asia Minor as they were walking through Galatia he sent them to Europe because there were people who needed to become believers in the church in Philippi was the first church the first Christian Church there in Europe and so Paul and in company they're going there and you remember that as the they went to Philip I there's no synagogue in Philip I so they go down to the river and they're going to pray on the Sabbath day they come across a woman named Lydia and she is miraculously saved by God's sovereign grace so what do Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke what do they continue to do it tells us that they're going to go back to that same fishing hole it seems that God was blessing what they were doing so they go back down to that very same River verse 16 is we were going to the place of Prayer at the river that is we were met not this time by Lydia but this time by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling so she is a slave of men correct I want you to see that first she is a slave of men first of all verse 17 says she followed Paul and us crying out these men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation so she is a slave of men but she also says she has a spirit of divination and you're going to see the Apostle Paul cast this spirit out so not only is she is slave of men she's also a slave of the devil she is a slave of Satan and notice what that demon is crying out this demon is not lying this demon is actually proclaiming the truth it doesn't say that Paul gets annoyed with her because she's lying it says he just gets annoyed with her she kick she just keeps going on and on and on listen to what she declares as she sees Paul these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation that's the testimony of a demon the demon of speaking the truth about Paul and his company these men are servants of the Most High God for Satan and for his demons that is not a point under contention that is just the truth Paul and his companions are serving God and the second truth that that demon affirms is that Paul and his company they are preaching the way of salvation this level is saying if you don't want to go to hell listen to Paul he's affirming the truth you believe in the Lord Jesus you'll go to heaven and the demon says Amen that's true what's the problem the demons believe they tremble but they don't obey he knows it's the truth that demon knows it's the truth and he declares it so loudly when he sees Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke they're so he's a slave of men she is a slave of the devil and the devil's proclaiming the truth look at verse 18 and this she kept doing for many days Paul having become greatly annoyed turned and said to the spirit I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and it came out that very hour this is not something new in scripture this seems to be something that is understood at this point that God has complete sovereign control over the devil and his demons so that as a word is spoken in the name of Christ the demons flee the demons are cast out God is more powerful than the demon God created them they are angels and God exercises his authority over that demon through Paul and Silas but that's not the point of this passage we'll get to the point of the passage here as you see the sinful look at verse 19 but when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone they ceased Paul and Silas Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers now I want you to think about this and understand understand how this is parallel to our culture to our world this girl is a slave of men she is the slave of the devil she is under bondage she's possessed by a demon gives her the ability maybe she's just speaking in riddles speaking incoherently the text doesn't say but people go to her for fortune-telling and so she tells them something the text doesn't say their fortunes come true at all but this woman is in bondage and her masters are preying off the fact that she is in bondage more than just preying off the fact that she's in bondage they are profiteering off of it these men I tell you the truth these men and their actions is no different than those peoples who peddle porn people who produce pornography people who encourage drunkenness people who sell narcotics people who sing about about all their fascination with being drunk and being high and for lust and for power and for greed what are they doing they are profiteering off of the bondage of human beings when this demon is cast out they lose their hope for gain and you'll see how vitriolic Lee they respond to Paul casting this demon out when they lose their grip on the bondage of human being I will tell you the truth God is able to free people who are in bondage you see that with this girl this girl is in bondage and she is being preyed off of and God sets her free in the name of Christ people who are in bondage to their lust people who are in addiction and bondage to pornography and to alcoholism and to drug use and to any other sort of lust or greed what's the truth of God's Word there's the name of Jesus you can be set free from that God is still in the business of setting people free who are in bondage but again this is not the point of the text it's not the main point of the passage verse 19 but when her owner saw that their hope was gone they ceased Paul and Silas and dragged him into the marketplace before the rulers and when they had brought them to the magic straights they said these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city they're cleaning it up that's what they were doing so they're disturbing our city they advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice the crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates tore the garments of them and gave orders to beat them with rods you under get the picture of what just happened here Paul just cast out a demon from a girl who is in bondage she's set free and so her owners they see that their profit has gone to the wayside so they grabbed Paul and Silas dragged them into the marketplace and a whole crowd comes around and they start accusing them before the magistrates are the rulers of the city accusing them of all sorts of things maligning their name the magistrates do what doesn't say that they tore their own clothes since that they go to Paul and Silas and they strip them down they stripped Paul and Silas down naked in front of this whole city you talk about the beginnings of their suffering at Philippi as if that were not humiliating enough they stripped them down naked in front of this whole mob what did the magistrates tell them to do beat them with rods so they begin to beat them again within an inch of their lives Paul has already been stoned you remember when he was stoned a few chapters back there at Lystra he was stoned and they thought that he was dead and so they left the way and the disciples brought him up out of that pile of rubble can you get a picture of Paul in your mind a lot of times when we think of the Apostle Paul we think of this this preacher Li man I guarantee I have not been beat up the way that Paul was think about the way that Paul looked stoned at Lystra beaten with rods while naked there Philip hi can you imagine Paul's face no plastic surgery there no stitches no butterfly bandages to be had so Paul's cheeks gashed open still having the scars mounting up on top of each other for the multiple times that this has happened eyebrows maybe half of an eyebrow gone or so because part of the skull was showing when a rocket hitting him maybe if I was partly closed on one side I imagine Paul with those with those cauliflower ears as a wrestler just from repeated blow after blow with the stones and then with these rods Paul was beaten Silas was beaten these men were suffering for the name of Christ they were suffering for the good things that they were doing so they tell them beat them with rods later on later on when Paul writes a letter to the Galatians I think Paul when he would approach people they would see his disfigured appearance clearly probably not as disfigured as Jesus was there as Jesus was suffering but Paul and his disfigured appearance as he's pinning the letter to the Galatians he says this in Galatians 6 verse 17 he says from now on let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus you can imagine what Paul is pointing to a gashed open cheekbone eye socket that had been ruptured possibly ears that are cauliflower friends you must be willing to suffer for the name of Christ the events that are going to unfold from here on out would not have taken place if Paul and Silas had not been willing to suffer for the name of Jesus look at how it plays out verse 23 and when they had inflicted many blows upon them they threw them into prison ordering the jailer to keep them safely look at what the jailer does having received this order he number one he put them in the into the inner prison he takes them down to the deepest part of that dungeon to the inner prison it's going to say later that he's going to actually need lights in order to see down there that is the inner prison the depths of the dungeons that they had here in this pagan city of Philippi so he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks just to make sure that they don't leave put them in the deepest darkest hole you have in the entire city of Philippi and chained them to the ground Paul and Silas were willing to suffer for the name of Jesus you must be willing to suffer just as well now these circumstances that Paul and Silas experienced yes these circumstances are unique to them your circumstances are unique to you nonetheless God will subject you to suffering God does not protect every person from suffering in fact I would say God protects no one from suffering in this life God permits suffering in every person's life you must be willing to suffer for God's sovereign purposes now you'll see God's purposes in their suffering look at verse 25 through 40 about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners we're listening to them at midnight at midnight Paul and Silas are singing they are praying they're singing hymns to the Lord you I hope I hope I can get this point across to you the truth that God will give you the grace to suffer well God will give you the grace to suffer well you imagine Paul and Silas there in the depths of that dungeon rats are probably call it crawling around there their wounds are still open they're a 'king from the beating that they have just taken and they're singing praises to God they're praying I think it's because they understand the truths that are replete in God's Word Psalm 139 verse 7 through 10 where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence says the psalmist if I ascend to the heaven you are there if I make my bed in Sheol you are there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there your hand shall lead me in your right hand shall hold me what is the strength that sustains the psalmist when he was going through difficulties no matter where he was the grace of God it was the presence of the Lord you remember as David pinned Psalm 23 we often quote this Psalm when we are at funerals Psalm 23 verse 4 David wrote even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me God's presence God's strength given to his people in times of suffering so that they can suffer well and suffer in peace that's how Paul and Silas are singing and praying out loud here in the prison and Philip hi at midnight after they have been beaten within an inch of their life because God gives them the grace to suffer well now when I tell you you must be willing to suffer well for the purposes of God I am not telling you that you do that on your own strength no one can do that in their own strength no one can suffer a well in their own strength if you try to suffer in your own strength you will realize that chemotherapy will SAP your strength you will realize that circumstances in life will suck the life out of you and you will not have the strength in your body to suffer well you're going to have to have an alternate power source you can ask to have an infinite power source that when you suffer Paul and Silas are very well aware that God is the one who gives you grace to suffer well notice the second truth here in verse 25 that when you are suffering there are always people who are watching when you are suffering there are always people who are watching about midnight verse 25 Paul and Silas we're praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them when you are suffering people are always watching when you are suffering God gives you a platform to minister to people who are watching people who are listening who are the people who are listening to Paul and Silas well they're prisoners just as well that bears in mind the third truth doesn't it that most often when you are suffering the people who are most attentive are the people who are suffering with the same things because you you're able to connect with that person if you're suffering through the loss of a child there are going to be people who have lost children who will look to you and see how you handle that they're not going to look to people who haven't lost children because guess what they just don't understand you begin to lose a spouse to cancer people with cancer are going to look at your spouse because they understand they want to see how they handle it and the one who's going to be widowed is going to be watching you or watching the one you're leaving behind and seeing how they suffer because they can understand the people who watch you when you're suffering most often are the people who are suffering through the same things please do not discount the opportunity and the platform that you are given in those times to minister to people suffering in the same things God sovereignly puts you in that place so that you can minister to those people and it says the prisoners were listening to them look at verse 26 and sudden there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken you know there are there are some commentators liberal commentators who want to talk about this and say oh what what happened stands what a chance that is Paul and Silas get thrown into prison and there's an earthquake that opens up all these prison doors and they want to dismiss this as just a natural activity but I would contend that they actually haven't read the passage read the passage and see what God does here so then suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open yeah that could happen in an earthquake couldn't it and everyone's bonds were unfastened that doesn't happen with an earthquake those bonds are not a part of the Foundation's this is not tectonic activity this is God's sovereignty at work God is opening this prison God is setting all of these prisoners free look at verse 27 when the jailer woke sleeping on a job huh you ever been caught like that sleeping on the job not doing what you're supposed to be doing doing the wrong thing because this prisoner is caught in his sin this prisoner is caught with his guard down he is caught actively sinning against his masters when the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open look at his immediate reaction he drew his sword and was about to kill himself this man understand he is going to die for his sins he understands the truth that he hasn't even read in Scripture in fact Romans 6:23 hadn't even been read yet but he understands the truth that the wages of sin is death this man knows his masters are going to kill him for these prisoners escaping and so he is about to fall on his sword I imagine putting that sword leaning in against the chair or something and he's getting ready and he's going to fall over and he's probably breathing very deeply about to take his life but look at Paul he's going to save somebody who's about to die he was about to kill himself supposing that the prisoners had escaped and Paul cried with a loud voice do not harm you self for we are all here there's Paul trying to save somebody who is about to die do not harm yourself for we are all here you see Paul's intention is not to get out of this prison Paul's intention is to do whatever God has sent him into the prison to accomplish if that were his point to get out of the prison we'll let the guy fall on his sword and just walk right out it's a free escape but that's not why God had sent him in there you're not hauling yourself we are all here verse 29 and the jailer called from lights and rushed in and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas look at this question then he brought them out and said sirs what must I do to be saved and they said believe in the Lord Jesus that's the very testimony of the demon confirmed if you believe in the Lord Jesus you will go to heaven when you die if you believe in the Lord Jesus your sins are washed away and your eternity is secure that is confirmed by Jesus being raised from the dead and secondarily it's confirmed by the fact that the demons agreed with it so he says believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household now people read this and they get they get full of angst in' and get all weird and anxious about this because they think oh oh no so does that mean that the Philippian jailer if he believes in Jesus that his household is saved as well is that what that passage says I'll continue with you the people who think that they again they haven't read the passage read the passage and see what Paul does here he says believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household there is a promise available to you Philippian jailer and there is a promise available to your household as well this promise is not unique to you it is available for all who believe in the Lord Jesus now his household is not saved without hearing the word and believing or else verse 32 would be superfluous and they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who are in his house if the people in his house made by his faith why did they need to hear the word of the Lord they needed to hear the word of the Lord because a person is saved by their own faith you are saved by your own individual faith not your daddy's faith not your mama or your grandma's faith or your parents faith so it says that they believe all who are in his house look at verse 33 and he took them the same hour of night midnight here probably about 12:30 1:00 o'clock mating took them that same out of the night and wash their wounds what a role reversal here and he was baptized at once he and all his family was he baptized to be saved or was he baptized because he was saved what's obvious from the text he's baptized because he believes in the Lord Jesus his family is baptized because they believe in the Lord Jesus look at verse 34 then he brought them up into the house and set food before them and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God in verse 35 pause right there and think about this remember that it was the Holy Spirit who sent Paul and his companions into Phillipi they were not intending on going to Philip high they were not intending on running into Lydia down there by the river when they led her to Jesus I guarantee you they were not intending on going into the Philippian jail I would imagine they would have probably made plans to avoid something like that had they known they were coming but God has sent them there God has sovereignly designed and orchestrated these circumstances subjected his servants to these circumstances so that they could be in this particular place at this particular time you know God God could have waited for that Philippian jailer to get off of work and go to the marketplace and encounter Paul and Silas God could have waited for for that Philippian jailer to take his son down to the river to go fishing and run into Paul and Silas just just a happenstance just a chance encounter you know what this text tells me this text tells me that God is not depending on chance encounters God is not waiting for opportunities to happen and saying hey speak now what this text tells me is that God is in the business of sending God is in the business of sending his people to the places where lost people are people who don't know Jesus God is in the business of sending them there so God is not going to wait for the Philippian jailer to get off work God is going to send Paul and Silas to the very place that the Philippian jailer works right there into the prison and that Philippian jailer is going to be born again he and all of his household God is in the business of sending and because he is in the business of sending church listen to me every person in here you need to be the kind of person that is on his or her toes I do baseball lessons quite a bit and one of the things that I work on with with these guys as they come to baseball lessons the same thing with pitching it's the same thing with hitting it's the same thing that is apparent in any athletic movement that a human being makes here on earth God has made us a particular way you know that when you are going to do something athletically there is a particular posture that you have with your body you have your your knees bent your knees over your toes your rear-end over your heels you chest back and you have all the weight of your body here on your toes because when you put the weight on your toes it says that you are ready to take the action to somebody that's an athlete who's ready that's an athlete who is going to respond that's an athlete who is going to initiate action you know what I have to tell every single one of these young guys who come to learn baseball from me the first thing that I do I don't even look at their face I look at the way they stand every one of them stands on their heels every one of them they stand on their heels people who stand on their heels are waiting for something to happen to them waiting for something to happen to them and when that ball gets hit to them and they're on the pitcher's mound they can't respond because the first thing they have to do is get into that position and then go too late man you missed it they're not ready to respond you know what kind of people God wants us to be God wants us to be people on our toes not people on our heels we're supposed to be people who are aware that God is initiating action God wants us to be ready for action God is not intending on us just to slip into opportunities at work or in the marketplace wherever you interact with people God is not in the business of saying oh hey look there's an opportunity for you God is sending you God gave you the job he gave you - for you to encounter those people that you work with every day and the people that you see clients that you that you work with God has put you in those positions not so that you're on your heels and you're just waiting for for the heavens to open up and for this person to tell you for no reason what must I do to be saved no God is going to actually send you in there and in midnight you better be singing you better be praying you better be ready be on your toes be the kind of person that that goes not the kind of person that sits back and waits Romans chapter 10 verse 14 and 15 how then will they call on him in whom they have not heard or believed and how are they to believe in him and whom they have not heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching and how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news has God called us to be on our heels and just wait for chance no God has sent Scott has called us to go to where people are and God in fact orchestrates putting us in the place that he does just as he put Paul and Silas in this prison he puts us in the place that we are so that we can tell people about Christ now continue to look read these very fast quickly here verse 20 verse 35 but when it was day the magistrates that the police saying let those men go and the jailer reported these words to Paul saying the magistrates has sent to let you go therefore come out now and go in peace but Paul said to them they've wronged us they have beaten us publicly uncontrol men citizens and have thrown us into prison and do they now throw us out secretly Paul says a wrong has been done here we have been roamed we ask you a question did God and his sovereignty subject them to this wrong God is the one that's symptom to Philip I God is the one that gave Paul the authority to cast out the demon God is the one by His Holy Spirit who has subjected them to this suffering does that release the human agents from their responsibilities not at all both are affirm God's sovereignty and man's responsibility Paul is calling these people on the carpet here he's saying you have wronged us you have treated us wrongly you have sinned against us you have violated our rights you have violated the rules look at what he says No let them come in themselves and take us out the police reported these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens so they came and apologized to them and took them out and asked them to leave the city so they went out of the prison and visited Lydia and when they had seen the brothers they encouraged them and departed friends God will subject you to suffering sometimes that will be suffering that comes in the form of sicknesses sometimes that's going to be suffering at the hands of men and women when suffering when you suffer wrongly you suffer in the name of Christ understand this truth just as Paul is calling for justice here God will vindicate his servants God will vindicate his people who are wronged against God will make all these things right in fact that seems to be one of the main theme of the book of Revelation doesn't it that God writes every wrong that God gives the earth exactly what is due for her sins and he preserves and he protects and he vindicates his servants so understand that truth that being a Christian doesn't mean you just sweep everything under the rug and it's okay that other people do the wrong thing no it's not okay and God is not saying it's okay that people mistreat you for the name of Christ you will be vindicated when you suffer rightly for the name of Jesus now why why did God subject Paul and Silas to the suffering of being beaten naked and being sent into the Philippian prison why did God subject into that the answer seems easy now doesn't it God subjected them to suffering because he wanted to sovereignly save the Philippian jailer and his household this was the way that God used in order to save these people God will use your suffering in order to reach people for Christ God will use your suffering to give you a platform to speak to people who are suffering in the same way that you are those prisoners listen to Paul and Silas the people in the same prison you're in they're going to listen to you you're going to make use of that divinely appointed opportunity probably 10 years after this event in acts 16 when Paul and Silas started the church in Philippi probably around ten years after the fact the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Philippians people we call it the letter to the Philippians in Philippians chapter 1 verse 12 through 13 I'm going to read this and I want you to see this truth that Paul affirms he says I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment and most of the brothers have become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear what does Paul see as the purpose for his imprisonment the advance of the gospel the purpose of his suffering was for the advance of the gospel understand that truth once more if you haven't written it down please write this down God will use my suffering as an avenue to reach and sovereignly save those who are lost and going to an eternal hell when you go to work the kind of situation that you approach when you have people who have not believed in Jesus and are going to hell you are approaching people who figuratively and spiritually wait there with a sword planted going to fall on it because that's that's that's their destiny at that point are you going to be like Paul and say no don't harm yourself let me tell you about how you can be saved yes you understand that the wages of your sin is death but let me tell you how you can be saved God has put me here at this moment at this point I want to give you a very recent confirmation of this truth two weeks ago two weeks ago the sermon that was preached I talked to you about how it is wrong for us to go out of our way to avoid people but that God is putting people in our path the path he has us walking God puts us in those paths and puts those people there too so that we can share Jesus with them you remember that and I encourage you don't go out of your way to avoid people encounter people it is not an inconvenience for you it is an opportunity to share the gospel one of our church members remember the example I gave you one of the things I went through a list of how you can go throughout your day and you can avoid people I said you can order your home good on Amazon you can order your groceries on the phone or on the website you can go to Walmart and they'll come deliver it you don't have to say a word to them you pay them you can go through drive-thru go home look at people's lives on Facebook you can avoid people all together and I simply said don't do that just encounter people one of our church members did just that this lady said she said you know what I left the sermon and I had I had it scheduled to go pick up my groceries and so I called Walmart and I canceled the order called Walmart and I cancelled the order and she said I pulled up into the driveway they're at Walmart and I said Lord I'm obeying you you told me not to not to hide from people you told me to go where people are and that you would give me opportunities to talk about your son Jesus so Lord I'm going to obey you I cancel my order and now I'm going to walk into Walmart I don't know what you're going to do but I'm trusting you so she walked into Walmart going down the aisle she needs to get her groceries one of the first aisle she walks down there's a woman there who is sobbing so she said Lord I'm gonna go talk to this woman she walked up to that woman and she said ma'am can I help you is there something I can do for you are you okay and she said I just lost my mother and so this woman was able to pray with this woman right there in the midst of her need right here at our Walmart God put her in that place God put her in that position by his sovereignty so that she could share the gospel with this woman and pray for her and give her comfort in the most troubling time in her life friends God will do that with the circumstances of your day God will also do that with your suffering some of you suffer through ailments you suffer through difficulties that cause you to encounter people at all these different medical centers where people are suffering you have an opportunity to speak Jesus to those people that I don't get I'm not suffering at this point with their same maladies some of you have lost loved ones some of you have lost those who have been very close to you and you have an opportunity to minister to people because of that platform just like Andrew Hurd had you have that same opportunity God will use your suffering to reach people for Jesus and don't miss this point that not only will God use your suffering God will give you the grace to suffer well no matter where you go you can't escape his presence he's always there even in the valley of the shadow of death and if you don't believe these truths I want you to remember how you are saved you are saved through the suffering of Jesus God used the suffering of Jesus so that he would bear in his body all the penalty for your sin so that through his suffering your sins can be forgiven if you just believe on the Lord Jesus you will be saved so that all you have to do is call on Christ and he'll forgive you of your sins Don raises him from the dead and he promises you just the same God has used suffering to provide salvation for all who believe now God will use your suffering to bring that message to people who need it would you pray with me please [Music]

Channel: Dr. Jordan Neal Rogers

Views: 2,136

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: preaching, teaching, Bible, Scripture, biblical, scriptural, expository, exposition, expositional, expository preaching, Jesus, suffering, Christ, suffer, cancer, child, dies, die, died, death, terrible, problem, prison, difficulty, Yahweh, Hillcrest, Baptist, Church, Nederland, Texas, Jordan, Rogers, Holy Spirit

Id: JfSewwlDIWY

Length: 48min 1sec (2881 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2017