LifePoint Church
January 15, 2023
Pastor Kile Baker
Hardship: A situation or season that causes suffering.
Examples of Hardship
• Financial need
• Addiction recovery
• Loss of loved one
• Divorce
• Loss of job
• Major or terminal illness
• Worry about family and friends
Suffering is the gap between stability and inability.
Three truths about suffering
1. Suffering happens to non-Christians.
"Who will help me?"
"Is there any hope?"
Non-Christians and looking for relief from suffering.
2. Suffering happens to Christians.
"How will the church help me?"
"Do I remember where my hope is placed?"
Christians look for hope in their suffering.
1 Corinthians 3:-11 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are afflicted, 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 that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.
We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.
Being a Christian doesn't mean we won't have suffering, it means we have hope even in our suffering.
3. Suffering happens to God.
"Who can help the world but me?"
"Do they know the cost of hope?"
Luke 9:22 “It is necessary that the Son of Man suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.”
Luke 22:42-44 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me—nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Being in anguish, he prayed more fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
"God had one Son on Earth without sin, but never one without suffering."
-St. Augustine.
Non-Christians are looking for relief from suffering.
Christians look for hope in their suffering.
God loved the world through His suffering.
How suffering helps connect us to God.
1. Suffering reveals that no one is self-sufficient.
2. Suffering shows us that there is sin in the world.
3. Suffering leads to searching.
Suffering is unique in the sense that we think when we cry out to God we will finally have His attention, when really, He finally has ours.
There may be no worse answer to hardship than to get what you need for the moment, but not for eternity.
Fulfilling someone's temporary need can lead to filling their eternal need.
Suffering is the gap between stability and inability.
There is no greater stability that to know God has provided hop for today, and an end to suffering in eternity.
"My church will help you when you're in need, and with what you need."
Next Steps:
1. Be the church before you invite them to church.
2. Be familiar with the resources we provide.
3. Pray for their temporary and eternal needs.