Finding Peace and Purpose in Suffering

1) "We are continuing our series, How Sweet the Sound. We're looking at different hymns of the faith. Some of these are old hymns and familiar hymns, and then some are less familiar, and maybe there'll be one that's almost a brand new song. The first week, we talked about amazing grace. We learned that once I was lost, but now I'm found because of the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Last week, we talked about what a friend we have in Jesus, and there's never anything that we can go through that we're not alone." [00:00:06] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "This song was written by a man named Horatio Spafford, who was a wealthy businessman in Chicago in the 19th century. In 1871, his young son died, and that same year he lost a major investment in real estate in the Chicago fire. It just burnt up in the fire. But in about two years, he had recovered both emotionally and financially, and he thought it was time for a vacation. And so he planned a vacation with his wife and his four daughters. They were going to go to England. So when the day came for them to depart, he got held up by some pressing business needs, and he wasn't able to leave with them. So he sent them on ahead on the train to get on the boat to go across the Atlantic Ocean to England. And he stayed behind and was going to join them later." [00:01:00] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "No matter what's going on, no matter what happens, I can say it is well because, God, you're with me. Now, I can see how he might write a song like that a few months later or maybe a year or so later, but how in the midst of that grief, he was able to get in touch with the peace of the Lord. It amazes me. In the world, there is no such peace. In the world, there is no such comfort. But in Christ Jesus, we have all the comfort and all the peace available to us that we need. And that's part of the scripture." [00:04:02] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "God is with us comfort us to heal us to give us hope and then we can be a part of his healing in the lives of others or three lessons I want us to learn from this scripture in the song this morning the first one is it's okay not to be okay it's okay not to be okay When you're sorrowful, when you're sad, when you're hurting, it's okay. You know, there's some Christian traditions. You might see them on television every once in a while. They ascribe to something called the health -wealth -self gospel. And they say, if you're a good Christian, nothing ever bad is going to happen to you. I don't understand that. That's not what the Bible says." [00:05:00] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Paul says, in your afflictions, I will comfort you. That means you have to have afflictions. You don't have to, but if you live long enough, you're going to. You're going to have afflictions. You're going to have sorrow. You're going to have pain. You're going to suffer loss. And in those times, God promises that He is the God of mercy. He's the God of all comfort. And He'll comfort us in the midst of our afflictions. He doesn't come to comfort the comfortable. They don't need comforting. He comes to comfort the afflicted and the broken and the hurting and the grieving." [00:08:22] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Y 'all know who he is? Vivek Murthy. That's your United States Surgeon General. He released a 71 -page report, really a warning, a warning about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that exists in the United States of America today. There should be a slide there, Lori, and all of the bad things that come along with that. And obviously, after 2020, after this epidemic of a virus, a coronavirus, this epidemic of loneliness grew worse. It was already happening. Somebody wrote a book back in 2000 called Bowling Alone that lamented the fact that Americans aren't connecting with each other. Anymore." [00:09:12] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "You've sort of figured out the answer, but you're not suggesting that we become more religious or more connected with God, which then connects us to each other. He says, I feel urgently like we have to figure out how to reproduce those aspects of religion in secular life. I say, good luck with that. It can't happen. You know why? Because in the church, what draws us to the church is not each other. It's our relationship with Christ. And then it's through our relationship with Christ, through the communion of the saints, the living and the faithful departed. It's through that that we are connected with each other. If you take Jesus out of the equation, people scatter. We need Jesus. The church. We need Christ." [00:11:07] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "you'll be comforted with this comfort that comes from God, and then because you've been comforted by God in your time of affliction, when others are in affliction, you can help them experience the comfort of God, too, because we're relational beings. We're created for relationships, first with God, but then also with one another. You don't have to be alone. God is here. Here. The church is here. You are loved. God wants to care for you. God wants to show you His grace and His mercy, His strength, His hope, His peace, His comfort. You're not alone." [00:12:03] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "You know, what pain does for us is reminds us that something's dangerous. That's how we learn not to touch the hot stove. Oh, that was hot. Don't want to do that again. Reminds us to stay away from danger. But also when we're experiencing pain, it tells us to get some help. Like if you've cut yourself and it hurts, you go, oh, wow, I cut myself. It hurts. I need to address that wound so I don't get an infection and die from an infection. Back in the day when we didn't have antibiotics, that could take you out. So pain has this purpose." [00:13:04] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10) "That's what God wants to do with your garbage, with your hurt, with your pain, because God's in the redemption business. He wants to transform your pain into wholeness and healing. He never wastes a pain. The prophet Isaiah talked about treasures. of darkness. I want to read this. It's from Isaiah 45, verse 3. It's the voice of the Lord saying, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name." [00:15:49] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)