-Transcript-
Thank you for joining me today. Good to be here. Today, we are talking about or I should say, continuing our theme on dealing with Affliction on the Godliness that comes from Affliction. On the goodness that comes from being afflicted and lately. I found myself preaching a lot on this idea of going through struggles and going through trying times and how it works our patient says James references and how it’s only for a season as Peter references and how we can glory in our affirmities as Paul references. And we have more good scripture here today. All the word is so good. There’s always something in the Word for whatever you are going through. And that’s no different when it comes to being afflicted, going through a hard time. If you’re going through a hard time here today, or maybe you’re on a Mountaintop, but you’re worried about what will happen. When you go through a hard time, listen to this scripture. It’s Psalm 119 :71-73, Psalm 119, 71-73.” It is good for me, that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me, give me understanding that. I may learn Thy Commandments. That I may learn Thy Commandments“. Amen. Well look, Psalm 19:71-73. Plainly says, it is good for me that I have been Afflicted. Now that’s a very powerful statement from the Psalmist. That’s not easy to say. Oftentimes people say it’s bad that I’m afflicted in the modern day world, people feel sorry for you when you’re afflicted. People will just shake their heads at you or ask if they can do anything for you. They don’t think it’s a good thing. They think a good thing is when you win the lottery, but here in verse 72 it says the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. And then something very poignant comes in, in verse 73 of Psalm, 119 thy hands have made me and fashioned me, give me understanding that. I may learn Thy Commandments. See David, here’s referencing the idea that the hands of God made him and therefore God, the maker knows how to deal with the creation on a level. That is unlike any other, God knows how to deal with his creation as he allows that stress and that strife to come. The creation’s way, have you ever thought about it like that, you know here, David’s saying, give me understanding that I can learn your Commandments, I can learn what you want me to do and how you want me to live. Help me to understand. And this Affliction what I should do. Have you ever thought about that that you can go to God and prayer and ask Him how you could best suffer through the affliction? How you could suffer well, so to speak how you could grin and bear it as God would have you to do it or what you can learn before He brings you out of it. You know, it’s amazing. We have a god that’s willing and able to help if we would choose to go to Him. But oftentimes we go to a friend or nothing wrong with that but sometimes a friend look at Job, he had friends and their advice wasn’t very helpful. In fact, it was unbiblical. Uh, oftentimes we’ll go to a therapist and you may go to one that will say well if you’re unhappy just take these pills. Well that’s not going to solve the problem long term. Now you’re treating the symptom, you’re treating the unhappiness instead of treating. What is the root of the unhappiness? You’re trying to treat numb, the infliction when you want to know? Why is the Affliction there? And what God does with the Saints, as as we go through Affliction, he is molding us to be, like Christ, He’s making us into His image, and He has a reason for it. Uh, in the message I gave on Sunday morning dealing with struggle and affliction. I quoted a Spurgeon of devotional passage that I had there. That was basically talking about the life of ease and how when you have a life of ease, you’re not running to God as you are, when you’re in trouble and in torment. And it’s so true if you are uh, just stretched out on the beach, hanging out and uh, having fun and everything is great. You may not really be running to God for anything. You may say, hey, I’ve got everything I need, I’m doing good, but when times get tough and when then anxiety starts to peek up and when there’s problems here there and everywhere and your, blood’s pressures are pumping, what do you do? You go to the throne boldly you call on God you ask him you plead with him to help you. And so we see that sometimes God needs to get our attention through Affliction, not all the time but sometimes and so the question I have here today is what comes out of Affliction that is Godly, you know in in uh Psalm 119:71, it says it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn my statutes. You know, the psalmist is saying it’s good for me that I have been afflicted. So the question is, what good? Is it? What what Godliness comes out of this. We know that all good things come from God. So, what Godliness? What goodness comes out of Affliction? This should be a help and a blessing to you today. Um, and I I have a feeling, uh, that that you can relate to this , cause I know I can that’s why I try to get at, I can relate to this ,I’ve gone through a few things lately, Ive been in more valleys and I have a Mountain Top as a late, Ive been praying, praying a lot, seeking the Lord a lot, listen to a lot of preaching,studying the Bible a lot. Doing a lot of preaching, serving Him, and just begging Him to remove some of these obstacles in my life. I know how it is friend. I’m not telling you something that I don’t. It have haven’t gone through myself and so I can relate to some of these tenants that come out of affliction. These Godly things that come out of it. Firstly firstly, what comes out of it is a closeness with God not found in the ordinary day’s day and so you know when we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t just come nearby us when we’re saved doesn’t just come alongside us when we’re saved but the Lord Jesus Christ resides in us when we’re saved by the working of the Holy Spirit. You know, when Jesus Christ died on that cross and was buried three days and he willingly died, He could have instantly called all the angels down in the universe to wipe out all the enemies. He could have just spoken a word and that all be gone but He willingly gave Himself up for mankind for sinners like you and myself. He gave Himself up He said, I will die for them. I’ll pay their sin debt because Jesus Christ was perfect and sinless. And so, by Him paying the sin debt on the cross, He then allowed us, He gave us the opportunity to accept that free gift of Salvation because Him being in the grave three days, getting the keys to Heaven, Hell, and the grave everything and being raised again on the third day and walking this Earth, 40 days and 40 nights and being seen by over 500 and ascending up to the right hand of the Father by doing all of that when we accept His free gift of Salvation. When we say, you know what, Jesus, what you did on the cross. I accept that. I accept that free gift. I accept what you do in the cross. I believe that you died for me. I’m a sinner. And I need a Savior and I personally believe that you would have done it, even if it was just for me. And I accept that free gift of Salvation, I believe in you. Jesus, I believe that you died for me. I know that I’m a sinner. I know that there’s nothing I can do with my own and then I need to be in front of a Holy God, only through your righteousness because if it was mine, I’d be going to hell. And when we accept Jesus Christ’s savior, then what do we do? We have the Holy Ghost living within us. What’s the Holy Ghost called the Comforter? And that Holy Ghost living within us when we are in trying times, and we are living Godly and it’s important that we are Living Godly and trying times, not perfect, but living Godly walking with the Lord, and trying times, not grieving that Holy Spirit through sin, but as we are walking with the Lord, Doing the best we can that Holy Spirit is working in us. That Holy Spirit is leading us. That holy Spirit is comforting us. The Holy Spirit is working through us. You know, the Bible says the Holy Spirit actually communicates to God. So by the working of the Holy Spirit, Spirit through what Christ did on the cross two. Father God, that’s the whole Holy Trinity there. The Holy Spirit, utters things that we can’t explain that we can’t utter and gives the prayer request that we really need to have the Holy Spirit does that and brings it before the Father and we have a mediator in Christ Jesus. Who goes to the Father and says, look this saint of God, they’re not perfect. No, but they’ve accepted me a avior. They’re one of my own and they were struggling and the Holy Spirit’s calling out and they need peace. And they need a resolution. And oh, how the mighty hand of God will come upon you in your time of Affliction and we’ll walk with You. And we’ll be literally inside of You and we’ll give you peace that you can’t experience in good times. You know what think about it, if you’re having a good time you experience that peace. The peace is the type of calm that sets over you when it’s unexplainable, when everything seems dire and you just have this perce So we get a closeness with God. That’s not found in ordinary day-to-day life. If you’re going through Affliction rejoice, that you can have a closest with God, that most will not experience in their day-to-day life because you can call call on God. And you can see the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit in your day-to-day life. I I plead with you, if you are going through a hard time, give it to God. Cast your cares upon him for a care for you. All your cares upon him and you’ll have that closest with God. That’s hard to describe. That’s Indescribable. A second thing that happens when you go through Affliction that’s Godly you reflect on Christ as your Personal Savior. You know, at the more afflicted, you are the more deepening trouble. You’re in the more trials that you have, the more that you reflect on what Jesus did for you on the cross and how you are changed, and how you have a place in eternity. How your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, how one day, it won’t be like this. And why won’t it be like this? Because what Christ has done on the cross done as in past tense, it is done. And when you accept that free gift of Salvation from Jesus, you are your sins are forgiven past present and future. There’s no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, Amen. So you have a reflection on Christ your Personal Savior. And then what happens after that, you have that closeness with God, you’re reflecting on God. When Jesus Christ, and what He’s done for you, what happens? After that, logically, you start longing for His return, you know, that’s how we should be as Christians. We should be longing for the rapture longing for Christ to come back longing for for the, uh, for the the marriage, several of the lamb longing, for the millennial Kingdom to take place longing for our, our glorified bodies. You know, we should have a longing for heaven, not for the things of Earth. And again, think about it. When everything is going great, everything is all just so wonderful. We might get very comfortable down here. We may buy a house and call it our forever home. Now, it’s not our forever home. That’s our temporary home, amen. Our forever home is in heaven. Amen. And that’s with God and with Christ Jesus and we will long for His return more in affliction. That is a good biblical trait. If you’re going through Affliction and you were longing for his return, you are acting biblical. We are to wait upon the Lord. We are to serve the Lord and be active for the Lord. And at the same time, we are not to be comfortable on this Earth. We are pilgrims passing through, we are sojourners. I like the Israelites were in Egypt and we will go through our Red Sea experience and we will be in the promised land with the Lord for an eternity. We should be longing for his return as we go through Affliction, you’ll if it’s real bad. What will you say? Oh, Lord comes soon. Oh, Lord, come back. As I understand that. That’s what the word Maranatha means. Oh Lord. Come, you know, in the end of the Bible, right in the Book of Revelation, John writes, even so Lord, come, Amen. We want Him to come. We long for Him to come. Why? Because all the suffering ends when He comes, you understand, there’s no evidence. There’s none of these worldly problems in heaven. There’s no sickness in heaven. There’s no bankruptcy in heaven. There’s no, uh, Scheming and, and sinful things happening in heaven. All of that is gone and done with, and our bodies are glorified as Christ is glorified, and we will rule and reign with Him. It’s hard to understand, but He will not just be our savior and Lord but He’ll be our brother. And our friend, what an idea, what an idea we’ll be going to worship Him and we’ll see Him. We won’t need this Faith to say somewhere out there. There’s Christ Jesus, I’m told He’s living within me. We will see Him face to face. That should excite you. As you go through Affliction, you can long for his return like you wouldn’t in comfortable times. And finally, what do we understand? We understand God’s sovereignty. We see that God is in full control and now he doesn’t want things to happen. God doesn’t want someone to go. Shoot up a mall or anything like that, but he’s in full control and he allows it for a reason. So we see God’s sovereignty. And as we see God’s sovereignty, we can see His Providence and he can work through us and with us to make our lives. In his choice time as we mature like Christ, thank you so much for joining me. Keep praying, keep sticking to it and soon the Affliction will be gone and Jesus name. Amen.