05 Suffering & God's Response-Choosing to Suffer

Suffering & God’s Response

Pt. 5 Choosing to Suffer

By Louie Marsh, 4-6-2025

 

Intro – X quotes, video of man who quit believing.

 

1) When I accepted Christ I accepted SUFFERING in His Name.

 

“²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24–25, ESV)

 

2) This suffering can impact my ENTIRE life.

 

“³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34–39, ESV)

 

3) I suffer INTERNALLY as well as physically.

 

“²³And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23, ESV)

 

“²⁰I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

 

“¹³“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13–14, ESV)

 

4) Why not ask WHY?

 

“¹The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.” (Judges 6:1, ESV)

 

“¹²And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” ¹³And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”” (Judges 6:12–14, ESV)

 

5) Don’t ask why, ask…

 

·  WHAT can I learn from this?

 

“¹¹For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11, ESV)

 

·  HOW can I deal with this?

 

“¹I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1–2, ESV)

 

“¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18, ESV)

 

·  WHERE do I go with this?

 

“²⁰Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. ²¹Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” (Proverbs 19:20–21, ESV)

 

“²⁵that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12:25–26, ESV)

 

·  WHO can I help with the lessons learned?

 

“³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4, ESV)

 

6) A snap shot of living by FAITH.

 

“³²And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— ³³who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. ³⁶Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— ³⁸of whom THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” (Hebrews 11:32–38, ESV)