Month: June 2020

Good morning everyone. For those who do not know I would like to inform everybody that we already had an official website for our church. I’d like to encourage everyone to visit our website because there you can review my sermon manuscript/notes and you can use it for your devotion.

The name of the website: bayateron.cw.center. Aside from that, I will be posting a variety of  Christian eBooks that can be downloaded for self-study and self-meditation.

Last Sunday, we talked about THE PURPOSE OF SUFFERING God intended it so that our faith may be strengthened, we can rely on God and we become like Christ-like character.

Now, I’m going to share with you entitled “ GOD’S PROMISE OF SUFFERING. Let’s pray

3 SIGNIFICANT PROMISE OF GOD OF SUFFERING

I. HE WILL COMFORT US

“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.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

We can never be effective in every aspect of life if we don’t undergo trials and suffering why? For that reason likewise, He wants us to minister

The word “comfort’ here is taken from the word “comforter” in the Greek word “ paraclete which means advocate or comforter.

1 John 2:1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The word advocate is the same Greek word translated comforter.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth, He was the Comforter to His disciples. He was together with to sustain them when they were drifting on the storm-tossed sea. 

He was alongside to supply for them when there was a shortage of food. He was beside to strengthen them when they suffered persecution at the hands of their enemies. He was along with to solace them in their sorrows.

I want you to know that our God whom we served is the God of “ ALL TROUBLES” He doesn’t say here “ some troubles” but of “ ALL TROUBLES.” In other words whenever we have problems and suffering in life God still there with you to comfort us. Do we hearsay Amen bah!

I just want you to pause for a moment and think off well and ask yourself Am I a comforter to my children or bad reporter. Am I a comforter of those people coming to me.

In fact, our Lord Jesus when He was on His earthly ministry and start serving the people His primary focus was to save problematic people from their hopeless situation that they may be relieved from their discouragement of suffering, he used to uplift to the downfalls and give them hope. 

God wants us to be a paraclete that gives a word of hope to the suffering people. 

 GOD’S PROMISE OF SUFFERING

II. HE WILL GIVE US INNER PEACE

The world we live in can not offer us a real peace in life. No matter how pretty and good place it is if Christ is absent in us, we can never be obtained a genuine peace unless we get connected with Christ to become your Lord and Savior. 

The Comfort zone of life unable us to give perfect peace Am I right? Even though we might sleeping on an expensive bed or be in a quiet, peaceful, and air-conditioned room it doesn’t guarantee us that we would sleep well or just we have a pathway to peace.

John 14:27 New King James Version

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

There’s an old saying, money can buy a comfortable bed but can’t buy sound sleep. Amen bah!

To understand the great fact peace is our inheritance of being a Christian. Peace is what Jesus has left us. It is essential and can not be taken away from us by any circumstance. This is

what He means by, “not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let me ask you a question. How does the world give peace?

For instance, we were troubled and you went to a doctor who was not a Christian and asked him, “what can I do to secure peace?” What would he tell us?

Perhaps he would say, Take a trip. Go to Siargao, Palawan, Hawaii, or Singapore. Getaway from it all. In other words, Change your circumstances. Go to a place where nothing bothers you, where everything is peaceful around you. Then you can be at peace.

But Jesus says, I give peace right in the midst of trouble, right in the midst of distress and turmoil and heartache and pressure. I can impart peace to your heart right there, and not as the world gives.

Why? Because we can return to that basic relationship we have–You in Me, and I in you. Out of that comes the guarantee that He is working out His purposes. 

He will bring us to the end of the trouble. He will still the storm and quiet the waves. 

We rest in the boat, content, knowing, No water can swallow the ship, where lies the Master of ocean and earth and sky. That is peace.

Peace I leave with you. [Therefore], the Lord adds, do not let your hearts be troubled. That is addressed to all of us! 

It means you do not have to be upset and anxious, weary and worried. Do not let your hearts be troubled. 

How? By returning to that place of rest. Return to the phone booth and rest there in the confidence that Superman is within and will work the situation out for you and will accomplish His purpose through you.

Last but not the least, GOD’S PROMISE OF SUFFERING

III. HE WILL REMAIN FAITHFUL

Isaiah 54:10 ESV  For the mountains may depart and the hills are removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

I’d like to focus on one prominent person in the old testament who used to experience rapid trials not only on his personal life but also on his entire household and friends who were abstained during his agony of afflictions and that his name was Job.

In spite of all the suffering of Job, he lost all of his

livelihood, he lost his loving children, he lost his health, neighbors and friends were suspicious him, helpers at home get rid of him, unfortunately, his wife scolded and criticized him due to  heavy trials and she wanted him to commit suicide. To make a long story short, Job remains faithful he bow downed and worshiped the living God. 

Job 1:20 New King James Version

Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 

Let me ask you a question. Is there a time you worshiped the living God when you were down, you were in confusion, in your pain and heartache? You were in emotional disorder, you were broken-hearted, you were in health problem, you were in financial difficulty, you were in marital challenge?

Would you bow and worship the living God? God found Job that he is faithful. He lost everything but he never lost his faith in God. faith of Job can not be shaken despite of rapid trials.

Job’s faithfulness was tested and proven.

Job 23:10 (NKJV) But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

I could say that God is very faithful to Himself and to the life of Job not because Job was perfect but because he was an optimistic– hopeful and confident about the future.

The Lord restores Job fortunes and gave him twice as much he had before.

Job 42:10-12

“The Lord restored Job’s fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.”

Therefore, God will remain faithful no matter who you are, what you are, what is your background in life. He will never look at your mistake from your past but God is looking to your heart.

We thank God for His goodness that sustains us to live in this universe. Without Him we can do nothing. Amen bah?

And His goodness cannot be seen only in a good situation of life but also in bad times as well.

We do often heard people say,

How could a loving, powerful God allow so much tragedy, pain and agony, so many fatal diseases and deadly accidents? Why does God allow suffering to continue?

Every time a personal tragedy, plague or natural disaster occurs, many have the real and understandable questions: why did God allow this? Why would a powerful and loving God allow suffering, evil and death?

The short answer is that we don’t always know why in specific cases. But we do know that God loves each person who is suffering, and that He does have each person’s eternal best interests in mind.

And we know He has a merciful and loving plan to replace this world of evil and suffering with a world of righteousness and peace. 

And the Bible does show how evil and suffering began in this world and what really is the ultimate cause.

Let’s take a look of the creation account found in Genesis 1-3 gives us some evidences/clues as to the origin of human suffering.

THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING

From the beginning, it seems clear that God carefully planned in a peaceful/idyllic environment for mankind.

From water to dry land, from seeds yielding herbs and fruit of all kinds, from every beast of the field, bird of the air and creature of the sea, our Creator brought forth all that was necessary to sustain human life.

On the sixth day, God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7).

From Adam’s rib, God created man’s perfect complement and united Adam and Eve as husband and wife.

Then God placed them both in a beautiful garden—the Garden of Eden. Surrounded with very rich vegetation/greenery and an abundance of food and water.

God encouraged them to freely eat of every tree in the garden except one—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Should they decide to eat of that tree, He warned them, they would surely die.

EVE WAS DECEIVED BY THE EVIL SERPENT

Into this peaceful setting crawled the cunning and evil serpent, Satan the devil. He approached Eve and struck up a conversation. “Did God really say that you couldn’t eat of every tree in the garden?” he basically asked Eve.

Satan immediately injected doubt into Eve’s mind regarding what God had said. He made it sound as though God might be withholding something from her and Adam.

Satan then proceeded to call God a liar! He assured Eve that she would not die if she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In fact, if she did eat of it, her eyes would be opened, and she would become like God—able to know the difference between good and evil.

DISOBEDIENCE LEADS TO SUFFERING

God addressed the serpent, the woman and the man. God cursed the serpent; described the pain and sorrow that Eve and all mothers would face in the course of bearing and raising children;

And cursed the ground, warning Adam of the extreme hardships he and his family would experience as a result of their disobedience.

Furthermore, God told them a second time that they would indeed die and return to the dust from whence they came.

He then drives them both out of the Garden of Eden and placed angels at the gate to guard the tree of life and keep Adam and Eve from reentering the garden. Life was about to become very difficult for the first family.

Their firstborn son, Cain, murdered his brother Abel. More sadness, suffering and evil followed until the wickedness of mankind became so great that God chose to destroy much of the life He had created via the Noachian flood.

DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING?

So we have seen that Satan’s trickery and Adam and Eve’s wrong choices introduced suffering into the world. God did not cause suffering.

Still, as the all-powerful Creator God, nothing can happen in this universe without God allowing it to happen.

So why does God allow suffering?

Because He allows us to have free choice—to be humans and not preprogrammed robots. That means we can choose to sin, and the natural consequence of disobedience to God’s beneficial laws is suffering.

Truly, history shows that everyone has chosen or fallen into sin, and the “wages” of sin (disobedience to God’s laws and commandments) is death, suffering, sadness and sorrow.

WHY DID JESUS CHRIST HAVE TO SUFFER?

Essentially, Jesus Christ suffered and died because of sin—not His own sin, but the sins of all of mankind.

Notice the prophet Isaiah’s description of Christ’s suffering: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Clearly suffering was brought into the world as a result of sin. This does not mean that people who are suffering are always the cause of their own suffering; often people suffer because of the sins of others. And though suffering is painful, and we should do whatever we can to avoid causing it,

God can even use suffering to produce good. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:1-7).

SUFFERING CAUSED BY SIN

Why does God allow suffering? Clearly suffering was brought into the world as a result of sin. This does not mean that people who are suffering are always the cause of their own suffering; often people suffer because of the sins of others.

And though suffering is painful and we should do whatever we can to avoid causing it, God can even use suffering to produce good.

MADE PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING

As we read in the book of Hebrews, suffering helped Jesus Christ achieve something of value:

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:9-10).

Suffering can have the same impact upon us that it had upon Jesus Christ—it can aid us in becoming more Christlike in our character and in our lives.

As we just read, God is in the process of bringing many sons to glory; and Christ, being the firstborn, arrived there first.

Christ was tempted by Satan the devil and never surrendered. He was tried and tested, beaten and crucified, yet He never sinned!

We, too, are admonished to endure whatever this life has to offer us as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). He affirmed that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (verse 28) and that “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (verse 31).

But, as the apostle Peter stated, our adversary is seeking to devour us just as he sought to devour Christ:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you” (1 Peter 5:8-10).

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all return to the world that God created for Adam and Eve—a world of peace, hope, abundance and plenty without the serpent; a world without the suffering, pain and agony brought upon us all by sin (the transgression of God’s law)?

Thankfully, that is God’s intention! Upon His return, one of Christ’s first acts will be the binding of Satan as He takes the necessary steps to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.

WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOTTHERE WOULD BE AN

 

END OF SUFFERING

Read what God ultimately has in store for all of mankind: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away’” (Revelation 21:1-4).

These “former things” have plagued mankind since the Garden of Eden. God does allow suffering.

It was never His intention to promote suffering—our adversary did that in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, and suffering and death were the consequences.

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