Finding Hope in the Midst of Suffering

Now, I want to start with a question that will hopefully give us perspective on the subject we’re talking about today.

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The question is this: what’s the number one factor God uses to produce spiritual growth in people?

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When do people most grow spiritually?
What’s going on in their lives?
What was the factor that helped produce growth?

Tell the person next to you what you think it is.

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I’ve experienced this personally.
We see this in Scripture.
Surveys have been taken on this and have the same results.

The number one factor that people said produced spiritual growth in their life was…

Trouble
Pain
Difficulty
Problems
Suffering

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I think it is so critically important to understand what happens when God leads us into trouble and pain and suffering… and how to say yes to God in those difficult places.

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I’m going to start reading at 2 Corinthians 1 today. We’re skipping ahead in our study of Corinthians because this passage is relevant for us today.

2 Corinthians 1, verse 1

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 3:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

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I want to start today with a word-association deal.

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the word trouble? What picture comes to your mind when I say the word trouble?

If you feel comfortable, turn to the person next to you and tell them what came to your mind.

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As I was pondering the word “trouble”, one of the first pictures that came to my mind was a phone.

Maybe you have the same kind of association. Some of us associate a phone call with trouble — a phone call from a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a son, a daughter, a parent, or maybe it’s a phone call from the lab, the hospital, the school.

Sometimes, a phone call means trouble.

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For others of you, maybe you pictured in your mind and associated the word trouble with a person — a person’s face came to your mind. Maybe you’re sitting next to that person, and that’s trouble.

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Maybe some of you associated trouble with the news. You read the news, and it’s full of trouble — the front page, the business page, the sports page… if you’re a San Francisco sports fan.

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Trouble can be associated with about as many different things as there are different people in this room today.

Maybe you’re having financial problems.
Maybe you’re not in the job or school of your dreams.
Maybe you’ve lost a loved one to death or divorce.
Maybe you always dreamed of being married, and it hasn’t happened.
Maybe it has but you’re deeply disappointed by it for whatever reason.
Maybe you’ve lost a good friend.
Maybe you’ve been deeply disappointed in a relationship with a parent or a friend or someone else.
Maybe it involves a physical condition like my friend Landon.
Maybe you made a bad decision somewhere along the line, and everything is crashing down around you.

For whatever reason, you’re in trouble.

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The hardest thing, I think, about being in trouble is you start to wonder:

Has God lost track of me?
Has God forgotten his promises?
Does God remember where I am?
Does he even hear?
Will I ever be anywhere but here with this trouble?
Will I die here?

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That’s when we need a different perspective on trouble.

Because it’s in the midst of the trouble and pain of this life that God does some of his best work.

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Through the trouble God sometimes molds and shapes us like no place else.

Sometimes when everything that holds us up gets stripped away, and all we have in this world is God, that’s when we discover God is enough.

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God is really enough, and all those props we think our lives are being held up by aren’t supporting it.

Sometimes, of all places in this world, it’s not in wealth and prosperity and relational peace; it’s in the trouble and pain where we meet God.

God does some of his best work through our troubles.

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And the truth is we all have trouble in our lives.

Maybe not today… but we’re always either going into trouble, we’re in the middle of trouble, or we’re coming out of trouble.

The writers of Scripture say, “You’re going to have trouble.”

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There will be times when your heart aches with hurt or loss.

There will be times when you long for something, and as best you can discern, it’s a good thing, not a selfish thing. It seems like God could just give it to you so easily. He could just answer your prayers, but he doesn’t.

Sometimes trouble gets triggered by some event.

A relationship is broken.
A mistake is made that you can’t take back.
You have a disaster in your life and don’t know how you are going to deal with it.
You cherish a dream for so long and look forward to the day when it is going to come true. You work and you pray toward it. Then one day, you realize it’s not going to come true. It dies, and part of you dies with it.

Other times, trouble comes for no discernible reason at all.

In those times, even faith is hard.

You pray and you pour out your heart to God, but there is no sense of God being near to you. You’re confused and wonder why, but you receive no answer.

That’s a difficult place to be.

Some of you have been there.
Some of you are there right now.

And I don’t know how to say this with more compassion, but God has not forgotten you. You have not been abandoned.

God sometimes leads his children into pain and trouble, but he never forgets them.

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God is at work through the trouble in ways that you and I don’t see and in ways that we may never understand.

And God’s way is rarely the quickest way and is seldom the easiest way, but it is always the best way.

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And that’s why the writers of Scripture challenge us in terms of our perspective on trouble.

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Ultimately, the way you view trouble is going to determine to a great degree how you respond to it.

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So how do you respond to trouble?

When it surfaces in your life, how do you respond? What’s your perspective?

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Some of you, when trouble surfaces, you roll up your sleeves and swing away at it. You see it as a problem to solve. Your perspective is that God might not be big enough, powerful enough or loving enough to deal with it, so I’m going to need to do it on my own.

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Others of you, maybe the first thing you do is wonder what you did wrong to deserve this. You spend time in prayer and reading the Bible in the morning. Why, God? You think trouble is a form of punishment. That’s your perspective.

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Let me suggest a perspective on trouble that may be challenging to some of you.

Our all-loving, all-powerful, heavenly Father… Notice how I described him — Our all-loving, all-powerful, heavenly Father — allows trouble into our lives in order to further his purpose in and through our lives.

That’s why trouble comes into our lives, in order for God to further his purpose through our lives and in our lives.

That’s what the passage we’re going to look at today is about — 2 Corinthians 1:1-11.

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2 Corinthians is written by the apostle Paul, a man who was well qualified to talk about trouble.

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Paul begins this letter to the Corinthians in an unusual manner.

He begins right off by talking about trouble.

Why?

I think it’s because the Corinthian church was full of young believers who had radical conversions.

These young Christians were thinking that since they were now children of God that problems would be gone.

They were disillusioned, as many of us can sometimes become, by the ongoing presence of problems.

Some of them were turning away from the faith saying, “It doesn’t work, because I still have troubles.”

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Paul launches into the opening of his second letter with this passage on troubles to give the Corinthians (and us) a new perspective on trouble.

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That perspective is that — trouble is going to provide opportunities to experience God’s compassion and comfort.

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Paul writes:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,

He’s saying as we go through troubles and stay close to our heavenly Father, we’re going to experience his compassion.

That word compassion means we’re going to experience the sense that God is with us and he loves us.

We can experience that as we stay close to God in the midst of trouble.

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Not only compassion, but we also receive comfort.

The word ‘comfort’ here is the same word that is applied to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the comforter — one who comes alongside in order to assist. In other words, we sense the closeness of God as we go through these troubles.

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Paul says:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,

For some of us, we’d like to think that there’s a period there. But there’s not.

The next two words are the words “so that.” In other words, Paul is about to lay out for us the purpose, which is much greater than just receiving compassion and comfort from God.

There’s a much greater purpose in God’s involvement with our troubles than just helping alleviate those troubles.

Here’s what he says:

“God is comforting us in our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

In other words, having received compassion and comfort from God, we can now turn and bring comfort to others who are going through similar troubles.

We’re going to serve them with the compassion and comfort that we’ve received from God.

In other words, the trouble you’ve gone through, are going through or will go through — whether that’s relational trouble, financial, spiritual, medical, any kind of trouble — qualifies you for a new level of involvement and influence with a new group of people.

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Can I ask you about the trouble that you’ve experienced in your life or are currently experiencing?

How could God use that trouble to provide an opportunity for you to be used by him to comfort others?

Are you willing to allow God to bring comfort to others through those troubled times in your life?

Before you answer that question, you should know that this requires a level of vulnerability and authenticity that makes some of us very uncomfortable.

In order to allow God to use our past and even our current troubles, we’re going to have to admit that we’ve got them. We’re going to have to be willing to admit that we’ve got troubles in our lives.

That’s tough for some of us. Some of us still hold onto this idea that we’re Christians and don’t have problems, but we do.

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I’m almost certain there is someone in this room today who has gone through what you are going through?

I’m almost certain in a group this size there is someone here who has gone through and who has experienced God’s compassion and God’s comfort in an area in which you’re going through right now?

Imagine the kind of connection that would take place between you and that other person if you could just find him.

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There is most likely someone here in this room today who is going through what God has brought you through.

If you’ve experienced compassion and comfort in your life, there is someone here today who would benefit from sitting down with you, hearing that story, and having you say, “God did it for me? I’m going to come alongside of you, encourage you and let you know God is going to do it for you as well.”

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Friends, I want to challenge you in this. Some of you need to let us know, “I’m wounded, but I’d like to be a wounded healer. I’ve been bruised. I have troubles, but I’ve also experienced God’s compassion and his comfort. If there is anyone who could benefit from what I’ve gone through, I’m available.”

I want to challenge you to find someone, prayerfully so. Listen with fresh ears to see if maybe God has arranged a divine appointment for you to make available to that person the comfort and compassion you’ve received from God.

Some of you need to make yourself available and say, “God, I’m going to be a wounded healer.”

And I believe God will bring you someone you can comfort… if you’re open to it.

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It’s a whole new perspective on trouble.

Whatever God has led you through or is leading you through, as God is comforting you in that trouble, he is also giving you an opportunity to be used by him to comfort others.

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There’s another kind of perspective that Paul introduces in verses 8 and 9 — Trouble strengthens the focus of my faith.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:8

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.

I appreciate that about Paul. He’s honest. He says, “I want you to know that we’ve had troubles.”

There are Christians — I don’t think this happens here too often, but I’ve encountered plenty in my life — who think that being a Christian means pretending that everything is okay all the time.

“I’m a Christian so everything is okay.”

It’s not. So let’s not fake it.

Paul gives us permission right here. He shares it right there:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia.

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

Paul went through tremendous pressure and trouble to the extent that he thought he was going to die.

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There’s great speculation about what Paul’s referring to here.

Some believe he’s referring back to Acts 19 and the riot that took place in Ephesus… but he got out of there alive. It wasn’t a life-threatening situation.

The question still remains, what is Paul talking about?

To be honest, I don’t know exactly.

I can take you to the passage in 2 Corinthians in which Paul runs out a list of the kinds of troubles he has encountered.

It’s 2 Corinthians 11:24

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles;

in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.

I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Paul had troubles, didn’t he? What a list.

I wonder if that were your list, what would your perspective be about that trouble?

I mean, would you be at the point where you would be shaking your fist at God and saying, “Enough, I’m done with this already.”

What would your perspective be in the midst of that great pressure? What kind of perspective would you have?

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Look back to 2 Corinthians 1, and you’ll see the kind of perspective Paul maintains throughout his troubled times… starting at verse 9:

Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God.

“Do you know what kind of perspective it has given me?”

Paul says, “Trouble strengthens the focus of my faith. I see now what God was up to when he allowed this trouble to surface in my life. He was strengthening the focus of my faith.”

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When our lives are trouble-free, we have this tendency to drift into a state of self-sufficiency and self-reliance.

This happens to me at such a rapid rate that it’s frightening. When things are good and God’s blessings are flowing, I’m worshipping God and trying to stay connected. I’m going through the motions, but the intensity of my prayers are beginning to decrease. The time allotted to searching the Scriptures for God’s leading decreases as well.

There a subtle shift in who I’m trusting in ultimately. It’s like on a subconscious level that I’m finding myself saying to God, “God, you go ahead and take a breather. I’ll take it for awhile, no problem.”

I end up relying more and more on my own resources and strengths. In a very real sense, I’m becoming the focus of my faith.

Can any of you relate to that?

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Troubles have this disturbing way of helping me see that I can’t be the object of my faith.

I’m not strong enough.
I’m not big enough.
My resources are too limited.
My vision is too shortsighted.

Like Paul when I’m under trouble, I find myself saying, “This pressure is so great it’s far beyond my ability to endure it.”

We come to that point and say, “God, my shoulders aren’t big enough. I need your strength. I need to become reliant and absolutely dependent upon you once again.”

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And if you allow him to, the pain can be a place where God strengthens you.

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The question that always gets asked when you’re in a difficult situation is — “Why? Why am I in this trouble?”

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And I need to tell you a hard truth — God is more concerned with who you are becoming in the midst of the trouble than relieving you of the pain.

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And generally, God’s people know a lot about trouble. Because God is more concerned with who I am becoming than making my life problem-free.

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It’s in the midst of trouble that you learn what it is to trust God.

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We get to a point where we become god-like when things are good.

That’s why I think Paul wrote these very wise words toward the end of 2 Corinthians 12. Paul understood this kind of pressure that comes along with good things.

Here’s what he says in 2 Corinthians 12:7.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

“To keep me from becoming conceited.”

What’s conceited?

It’s to think more highly of himself than he ought to. It’s to have an inflated view of himself.

Paul’s commentary:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul finally came to the point at the end of 2 Corinthians where he said, “I think I’m starting to get it. I plead with God to take trouble out of my life.”

And God says, “I don’t think I’m going to at this point, but I’ll do something even better than taking trouble out of your life. I will put myself in the midst of trouble with you. You’re going to have the view of who I really am that you never would have had apart from encountering me in the midst of trouble.”

Trouble strengthens the focus of our faith.

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I really appreciate what Paul says. Going back to chapter 1, where he says starting in the middle of verse 9:

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us.

Did you follow what he just said? He said, “God did deliver us. He is delivering us and will continue to deliver us.”

As Paul goes through problems and troubles, he begins to see a pattern. He begins to see the pattern of God’s faithfulness in the past and in the present. That creates a strengthened faith for the future. That’s what trouble does for us.

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Have you gotten to the point where you can see trouble from that perspective? Or are you trying to be God?

God will say, “If you want to be God, I’ll let you have the role for a while. See how it feels.”

I think a lot of times God is just waiting for us to surrender to him.

When we do, we see his faithfulness.

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There’s another perspective about trouble that I just want to touch on today.

Trouble reveals the condition of my supportive relationships.

Here’s what Paul says in verse 10 and 11.

He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.

Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Friends, Paul had a network of supportive relationships. When he walked through a period of trouble, he would not walk alone.

I wonder how many of you can say the same thing?

If something were to happen to you or one of your family members today, who would you call and how would that person respond on the other end of the phone?

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When trouble pushes its weight into our lives, it reveals the condition of our supportive relationships — those people who pray for us, comfort us, challenge us. It reveals whether we are either surrounded by loving, caring friends or it reveals that we are alone and isolated.

What does trouble reveal about the condition of your supportive relationships?

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Many of you would say, “It’s great. I’m in a small group or serving on a team with people I’m committed to, and they’re committed to me. We’ve been through trouble together. There’s no doubt in my mind that I could call anyone of those people anytime, day or night, and they’d be there for me just as I would be there for them.”

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If you can say that, you have a gift from God. Don’t take that gift for granted. Continue to nurture that group, affirm one another and raise the bar of commitment toward one another, because you’re experiencing what the leaders of this church are dreaming, praying and working for — for that time in the future of this church where everyone can experience that level of care and support through a small group or serve team.

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However, I know there are a good number of you who, if trouble were to strike today, you really don’t know who you’d call. You feel alone and isolated.

I think you should know that God doesn’t want you that way. This church doesn’t want you to be alone.

It would be tragic if trouble were to hit you today.

I know. I’ve had trouble hit when I was alone, and I’ve had trouble hit when I’ve been in supportive relationships.

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If you’re alone, prayerfully consider taking a step toward a group, or serving on a team or something someplace so you don’t have to go through trouble alone.

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If you are connected in supportive relationships, would you take time this week to say to those people, “It’s so good to have your support. Thanks for being there for me when I need you.”

That’s the kind of perspective Paul had.

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Alright, last thing about trouble — and this is something we all need to do.

When you’re in the midst of trouble — Discuss your discouragement openly with God.

Most of us get discouraged when we’re dealing with problems.

Well, you’ve got to name it… and this will take some time and effort.

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I want you to notice something about Psalm 142:1-2.

This is a Psalm for people who are going through trouble.

This apparently expresses the cry of David’s heart when he was on the run from King Saul who was trying to kill him.

Look what he says:

I cry out to the LORD; I plead for the LORD’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.

A real quick show of hands on this one: How many of you can complain?

How many of you have discovered that it is in fact a spiritual gift of yours?

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Well, if you can complain, you can do this step.

David says, “I pour out my complaints to God.”

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I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s important to remember in times of trouble.

Old Testament scholars tell us that there are different kinds of Psalms.

Some are what are called thanksgiving psalms
Some are enthronement psalms about the kings
Some are psalms of wisdom.

But the number one category, the single most frequent kind of psalm is called the Psalm of Lament, which is just kind of a fancy word for complaint.

That’s the most frequent psalm — a psalmist complaining to God. And God, apparently, is not put off by this at all. God allows people to do this.

David gets still enough before God that he gets to the very bottom of his pain and discouragement. He feels it in his gut.

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Now, many people never have the courage to do this.

They stuff their problems down real deep.
They pretend to be okay.
They put on a mask.
They force smiles.

But they avoid the pain that’s inside of them… and that doesn’t solve anything.

And there are some people who live with such a chronic sense of discouragement that they just get used to it. They don’t even notice, but it leaks out of them, and it robs them of life, and it drains the life out of other people.

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There’s a story about a farmer who has a neighbor who’s never impressed by anything. This neighbor is a very discouraging guy.

So the farmer gets the world’s greatest hunting dog and trains it to do remarkable things just to impress this discouraging neighbor.

He teaches his dog to sniff scents from a mile away, to sit and point for an hour without moving a muscle.

So this farmer invites his neighbor to go out hunting. They go, and this dog does these remarkable things. But the neighbor doesn’t say a word.

Finally, they’re in a duck blind, and the neighbor shoots a duck and it lands in the middle of a pond. The farmer sends his dog to get it, and the dog goes out and walks on the water, and grabs the duck in his teeth.

He walks on the water with the duck back to the duck blind, drops it at his master’s feet, and the neighbor looks over to the farmer and says…

“Your dog can’t swim, can he?”

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You know people like that, don’t you?

So do I.

And you have a little of that in you.

So do I.

It’s possible for human beings to kind of slide into a chronic form of subtle discouragement that doesn’t just go away.

And it sucks life out of them and out of other people.

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Now there’s something we need to understand about discouragement, and that is, God is never the root of discouragement. He never is.

When you have a discouraging spirit or discouraging thoughts, you can know that it’s not from God.

Does God sometimes brings painful things? Yes. Because pain is a good thing if it causes us to grow.

But he never brings discouragement. God is not a God of discouragement.

And anytime we experience discouragement, we can be sure that it is not coming from God.

So, something we all have to learn to do in the midst of discouragement is…

Name it.
Be open about it.
Talk to God about it.

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Some of you are in the midst of discouragement today. You’re experiencing pain for whatever reason, and there’s a shortcut to relief that’s tempting you.

I believe there are some of you who are here today, and the whole reason that God brought you here is for these next 60 seconds because you have a decision to make.

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Will you submit to God’s will?

Maybe you feel so alone because you’ve been single a long time or your marriage is in the wilderness, and there’s a relationship that promises intimacy and closeness.

And it’s so tempting for you to think, “This is so available, and it would feel so good. And I’m so miserable and lonely in the midst of this pain. And God wants me to be happy. I can rationalize this.”

But it’s a shortcut. It is not God’s will for your life. It contradicts his desire for you.

And the question that your future pivots on right now is will you take the shortcut, or will you submit to God?

Will you say, “All right, God, I’ll spend more time in this difficult situation. As hard as it is, I will not take a shortcut out of here.”

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Maybe you’re facing financial temptation.

And there’s a shortcut that promises quick financial gains, but you know it would mean compromising your integrity and potentially damaging relationships if you get caught.

Will you say, “God, I’ll spend more time in this pain. As difficult as this is, I will not take the short cut.”

Maybe it’s the temptation to deceive someone.
Maybe it’s the temptation to just ignore a pattern of behavior that has been very sinful and destructive.
Maybe it’s a temptation to just quit something when you know God is calling you to endure, but it would just feel so good to quit.
Maybe it’s a temptation to keep sin hidden.

Some of you are here today just to be asked this question: Will you have the courage not to take the shortcut, not to give in to temptation, to stay in the midst of the trouble even though it would be so easy to get out?

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Because I’ll tell you, a shortcut like that can destroy a soul. It can give you relief for a moment, but it can destroy a soul.

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Sometimes you’re in a kind of trouble where with work and thought, with prayer and God’s help and bold action and right living, you can get out.

But sometimes you’re in trouble that no human action can get you out of and it’s something you cannot fix. And it’s something you cannot heal. And it’s something you cannot escape.

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In that day, all you can do is hang on to God, just to find your ultimate refuge.

That’s the word David uses over and over and over again in the Psalms.

“God, when I cannot get myself out of this, I will not let go of you. I will find my refuge in you. I will trust you.”

Finding ultimate refuge in God means you get yourself so immersed in God’s presence and so convinced of his goodness and so devoted to his lordship that you find even the difficult times are safe for you because God is there with you.

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You know, Jesus suffered like us… and he suffered for us.

Jesus had everything stripped away from him.

He lost his position as a teacher
He lost his safety
His friends ran away from him
He lost the adoration of a cheering crowd
He had his life threatened by his enemies
He went to a cross and died.

And they thought he was finished, but what they didn’t know, what the evil one always forgets, is that God does some of his best work in times of trouble and pain.

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I don’t know about your trouble. I don’t know if you’re there now or if it’s coming in the future. I don’t know how scary it will be.

But I know God will do some of his best work there if you’ll allow him to.

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Alright, let me pray for you as the team comes to lead us in a closing song.