When Moses showed the elders of Israel all the signs, because they were so beat down, they couldn’t receive the message. They missed the hope because of the heaviness they had endured. Because of their circumstances, they couldn’t and wouldn’t see hope.
The early church were martyred in terrible, physical ways, thrown into snake pits, dismembered, thrown to lions, etc. Today, the attacks are more subtle, more secret.
Rom 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Paul reasoned that the sufferings right now weren’t worthy to compare with the joy and glory we have to look forward to. It will be worth it.
The purpose of suffering is all about ‘afterward.’
The present is a gift, that’s why it’s called ‘the present’. However, that’s not always true. Now might be a bad time. We need a better solution than just living now.
There are just two days to live for: this day and ‘That Day’. In ‘That Day’ there is no death, no need for sleep, complete rest.
So, how to get through today? Why does God allow suffering? God is just and loving. Why hurricanes and wars and disease? Why does it seem that bad things happen to good people?
Sometimes, bad things are our fault. We do bad things and reap those consequences. But, what about cancer and earthquakes and floods?
One angel questions God’s ways. He came against God’s moral justice.
Deut 28: ‘If you obey, then you’ll be blessed…’
In Job’s day, the thinking was if you did something wrong, you suffered. Therefore, Job must have done something wrong. In his case, however, that simply wasn’t true. He got angry at his accusers and called for God to take the stand.
If you do wrong, you receive wrong, but what about when you don’t do wrong? It’s human nature to assign blame. ‘If I can blame someone else, it’s not my fault.’ Casting blame makes us feel better. So, who’s the person to blame for all this stuff? This thinking is not a Christian mentality.
It’s horrifying to realize that suffering can come at any time for no reason at all. What’s the point of living right if I can suffer like a sinner?
Biblical scholars have looked for explanations on suffering in the book of Job. God’s response to Job is a panorama of all creation. He basically didn’t answer the question. Did God avoid the question?
Suffering is real. Job lost his kids, his wealth, his reputation, and finally his health. Job’s wife said, ‘Job, just curse God and die.’ His response was, ‘Why should I curse God?’
1 Pet 5:7-10 “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
Don’t worry because God cares about you. Give God all your worries. Be aware that the adversary is looking for a weakness. Be steadfast like those who have gone before. Hold on tightly to faith. God has called us to eternal glory.
After you’ve suffered a while, He will make you perfect. It’s all about the afterward.
The adversary is an opponent. He wants to point the finger and say, ‘You deserve this suffering.’
Innocent people suffer and are accused of doing wrong.
When Jesus and the disciples were in the midst of the storm, they woke Him not to stop the storm. It was to get Him to help bail water.
The answer is there is something coming after the storm that is more wonderful and special than you can even imagine. Something so much better is coming.
God has a plan to prosper you and bless you. There is something good being wrought in the midst of suffering, but we have trouble seeing it.
It may feel like you’ve failed and done wrong, but that’s just the accuser. This is like Job’s friends. If Job had had encouragement from his friends it might have been so much better. Instead, they asked him what he had done wrong. That was the devil at his finest work.
The truth is that God has a purpose for this suffering. He is working something afterward that is so much better. Afterward, you will look back and say, ‘Thank God for all that, because here I am today.’
We have the vision of the Promised Land, but we don’t know all that’s involved in getting there. We know the promise, but not the process. You hang onto the end. If God told you the journey, you wouldn’t go. God doesn’t give us the how, He just gives the promise.
Joseph had a dream. He even got the interpretation. He knew everyone would bow down to him. He had no idea about the suffering that would happen before all that. His brothers, jealous, sold him as a slave. This horrible situation was all in God’s plan to get Joseph exactly where He wanted him to be. Joseph went from being a slave to being a prisoner in a jail. He kept a good attitude in spite of all of that. It went from bad to even worse.
Don’t let the process of God abort your faith. Trust Him, because the end is better than you can even imagine. God wants to bless you. He wants to release you to become the person you were meant to be. The only way for that to happen is through suffering.
The flesh is the veil. It’s the chains. If you break those chains and pierce through the flesh, you can get to the promise. Breaking is the suffering in your life.
Why do good people suffer? That’s the wrong question. A better question is, ‘Can God trust you with suffering?’
Shakespeare said, ‘All the world’s a stage and every man is a player.’ Who wrote the play in our lives? We are all part of an intricately woven together master plan called Life. In that story, there is a message of love and encouragement. We come onto the stage with a very small part to play, but your part is still very, very important.
On your page, your role is to come out and slip on a banana and get hurt. Then, you get carried off the stage. This play is horrible! It stinks! But, did you read the rest of the play? Somewhere there is a message of love. Somebody has to be a Job or a Joseph. Only then can we see Jesus. What do we see on the cross? Did we see only suffering or also deliverance?
Of course you don’t want suffering.
Jer 18:1 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”
God gave an object lesson first in order for Jeremiah to understand the message He had to give.
A piece of clay is first slammed down onto the table. The potter must work out the impurities and imperfections in order for the clay to be ready for the oven. The clay is slammed down over and over again until all the bad things are out.
After that, the clay is put on a wheel and spun wildly. If the clay doesn’t respond well, he doesn’t give up on it. ‘Marred’ means something bad happened. The Potter has the right to detect the mar in the clay. He wants to still use you. Therefore, he makes it again into a new vessel. Even though life feels like you’re on a wheel spinning out of control, stay on the wheel because God has a plan for you that is good.
It may not seem good to the clay, but that’s not for the clay to say. It’s for the Potter to say. You might want to be a salad bowl, but it’s the Potter’s choice to make you into a coffee cup. You can’t say to the Maker, ‘Why didn’t you make me a table instead of a chair? I’d have made a much better table.’ But, there’s some people who need a nice place to rest for a while.
Nobody enjoys suffering. Sometimes, you might think, ‘I don’t deserve this,’ or ‘I do deserve this.’ Both ways are wrong thinking.
Heb 12:11 “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
People who work out don’t enjoy the pain, but ‘no pain, no gain.’ This suffering is not worthy of the glory yet to be revealed in you. We don’t live for ‘right now’, we live for afterward.
All kinds of things happen in a vessel’s life. There is no better education than the lessons learned through suffering.
There is a ‘dry out season’ in pottery. Too long causes it to break, too short causes cracks when heated in the oven. There are different seasons in a piece of pottery. A mug for coffee must go through the process in order to properly hold the hot, delicious liquid to come.
The suffering causes people to think you must have done something wrong. We don’t want God to take stuff away. We just want the good times. Oil, anointing, comes from olives. In order to have that olive oil, olives must go through a press. In order to ‘follow Him,’ you’ve got to ‘take up your cross.’
Too much blessing causes us to become arrogant, but being beaten down causes humility.
We might want to carry someone else’s cross, but no one else’s is better than the one God has for you. It’s a cross, it’s suffering, but its end is good. Glory is coming.
There’s an afterward.
When a woman holds her newborn child, she forgets the suffering.
We choose to follow Jesus because of the hope we have in Him. It’s not the blessings that teach you. You learn from suffering.
‘When the GPS is silent, don’t panic, it just means you’re on the right road.’ –Everton Wellington
The reason why God is silent sometimes is because you’re already right where He wants you. He doesn’t need to say anything. The Spirit led Jesus into the dessert. The suffering in that time ended, then the miracles.
Rom 5:3-5 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Patience is what you need right before experience. You don’t need experience in fourth grade because you’ve graduated from there already. Those tests and struggles from before you’ve already passed. After experience you will gain hope. You have to go through tribulations to get hope.
‘Your way is [painful]…’ We must pull out of our souls those things that God wants us to get rid of. He will help us to get to the end. That hope from past experiences helps us go through the suffering today. Surrender and trust God because hope will not disappoint. In the end, there is glory.
There is something coming that is greater than what you’re going through. There is purpose for your struggles.
Some might want validation and credit and recognition. God can’t use that. Suffering works that out of you. God isn’t looking for a ‘professional’. He’s looking for clay. The process is suffering. Tribulation gives endurance and endurance builds character.
It’s all about afterward. Fire brings impurities to the surface. The recognition of impurities allows the silversmith to scrape them off. To purify silver, this is done seven times. A silversmith knows that the silver is pure when it reflects its maker.
Maybe the stuff you’re going through right now is still too much Joseph and not enough Jesus, too much Job and not enough Jesus. The suffering will cause you to reflect Jesus–if you let it. It’s all about afterward.
Some suffering doesn’t make sense, but God will work it out. He is producing something in you. That’s why Paul could write, ‘I rejoice in my suffering.’ At the end of it, there’s glory to look forward to. To know Jesus is worth it all. Through suffering we are made mature and more like Jesus. Righteousness comes through suffering.
Of course, we pray for blessings. He has not lifted the suffering because what you are praying for is not what is best for you. Of course, we don’t pray for suffering, but it’s good to pray, ‘Let Your will, God, be done.’
After lessons learned through suffering, there is glory and joy and righteousness. Job ended so much better than before. God has not abandoned you. He is working on you–through the loss and suffering. Let this pierce your heart. God is trusting you with this mess right now. If you will endure for a little while, something good will come after. When it’s all done, you’ll be more mature, more like Him. Hang on. Don’t give up. Hang on, Joseph. The dream is coming. You will see it, just keep holding on.
Psalm 105:17-19 “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: 19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him.”
Afterwards, Psalm 105:20-21 “The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:”
Don’t give up now! You’re almost ready for the promises to come true. Don’t give up during the process. After you’ve suffered awhile, there is glory.
More Questions for Personal or Group Study:
- What really spoke to you in this message?
- What is your attitude during trials and/or suffering?
- Read Psalm 27. What is David’s primary focus? How does he encourage himself in the midst of trials?
- How can you encourage someone else with this message?
Excerpted from a sermon preached by Pastor Anthony LoCascio.
If you are looking for an Apostolic Pentecostal church and are in the Chicagoland area, come check out The Life Church of Glenview located at 3030 Central Road in Glenview, IL. We have service on Sundays at 1pm (in person and online): The Life Church of Glenview. On Wednesday evenings at 7:00pm you are invited to join a Life Group. We would love to see you!
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