Who Do You Think You Are? You Are Afflicted Ephesians 3:1-13

You will be afflicted. You don't get a say in that. In some form or fashion, it's going to find you. You might be the reason, you might not, you might never know the reason, but it's going to find you. That's the certainty. And now we're moving on from a period you will be afflicted to a question mark. Because while the first thing is certain, the last two things are not. [00:51:12] (34 seconds)  #AfflictionIsCertain

See, if we actually want to glorify God in our suffering, I submit we've got to shift the conversation. We have to shift from why to who. That's what the psalmist did in those writings. I'll tell the kings about you. I I love your commandments. I'll I'll lift my hands to them. I will remember them. You are my comfort in what's going on. You are my comfort in my affliction. [00:54:39] (32 seconds)  #FromWhyToWho

We see this all throughout both the old and the New Testament. Our adversary is at work. And while that is real, it is also comforting to know that all throughout scriptures, our adversary the devil and his demons will never take one step farther than God allows. They are subjugates. They are subject to him. They are not more powerful than him. They are not on par with him. They cannot do anything that the Lord does not allow to happen. [00:45:31] (33 seconds)  #GodAboveTheEnemy

Spent her life, still alive today, spent her life unable to move from the neck down. She said this, sometimes, god allows what he hates to accomplish what he loves. So whether it was a Nazi concentration camp or spending decades of your life paralyzed from the neck down, these women and so many others learned about god and their identity in Christ formed in the crucible of affliction. They glorified God in the midst of suffering. [00:56:55] (38 seconds)  #CrucibleBuildsFaith

Affliction is seasonal. This thing doesn't last. Will you in your walk with Christ last through it? It is a season. And notice the language that it uses. After you have suffered a little while, months, years, perhaps even decades of suffering. It doesn't feel like a little while. I'm not saying that it does. But at this time of writing in Ephesians, Paul had been a prisoner for about four years. He's been a citizen of heaven in the presence of Christ for more than two thousand years. [00:57:49] (48 seconds)  #AfflictionIsSeasonal

You're going to be afflicted. Will you glorify God in this affliction? Will you be afflicted for the good of others? The first is a certainty. The last two, that's up to you. However you choose, choose well. [01:10:00] (29 seconds)  #ChooseToGlorify

So listen, there is a whole host of ways and reasons for you and I to be afflicted. And we don't know which one it's going to come in the form of. And I'll be honest with you, some of those might never touch us. But affliction and suffering in some form or fashion will always inevitably find every one of us. And being a follower of Jesus who is faithful to God, faithful to the church, doing the best you can, that does not exempt you. Paul is quote a prisoner of Christ [00:49:34] (42 seconds)  #NoExemptionInSuffering

Now, we might come in certain moments in our life. We might come at certain circumstances in various ways in our life where affliction might surprise us as to what we're going through or this kind of seemingly comes out of nowhere, but we need to understand that if the scriptures are clear about anything, it is clear about the fact that in this world everyone, you and I included, are going to endure affliction. No one gets a note from mom. No one is excused from this. This happens to everyone and oftentimes it happens in very difficult ways and in very difficult manifestations. [00:38:58] (42 seconds)  #SufferingAffectsEveryone