I believe there is no suffering, weeping, mourning, shedding of tears, or dark days for any child of God that is pointless, purposeless, or without meaning.

I’m not saying every evil and injustice is something God intended. It’s not God’s will that we sin or violate his laws that are meant for our good. But I believe every suffering in this life can be used by God for his glory and for our good.

Genesis 50:20 is a classic text on this, where Joseph’s brothers did horrific evil to him, sinned against him grievously, and repeatedly.

He looks at them at the end of many years and says:

20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

That means God is bigger than evil. God is bigger than sin. And in the end, as Romans 8:28 says:

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

That doesn’t mean all things are what God wanted, or willed, or wished. But it does mean God is big enough to work it out for good even when there is sin and rebellion.

He works out all things for good. God wastes not one tear. God wastes not one suffering.

In times of grief we need to feel our feelings and express them. We need to feel them to the fullest extent that they well up within us.

When we bury, deny, or discount our feelings, we’re doing damage to our souls.

Paul instructs us to grieve in 1 Thessalonians 4:13. We’re not to grieve inappropriately, but we are to grieve. There is hope beyond grief when we work through grief.

So grieve.

We may have been taught that we ought to act as if it doesn’t hurt, or that this is a sign of strength.

In churches people sometimes even get credit for being spiritual if something catastrophic happens. They take it in stride and keep moving as if it doesn’t bother them. There can be a pressure not to grieve, and people can play games with this.

When I was growing up, we would travel. I was one of four kids, and we would get cranky as we sat in the back seat. On long trips, we would ask the question kids always ask on long trips, “Are we there yet?”

We would complain about the length of the trip, how cramped we were, how we were too hungry, too hot or too cold.

My mom had a game she would play. It was called he quiet game. In the quiet game you just be quiet. Whoever is quiet the longest wins.

We sometimes encourage people to play the quiet game by pretending things don’t hurt or by showing how strong they are through silence.

People sometimes escape their pain by being busy, watching TV, overworking, falling into addictive behaviors, or spending lots of money. People sometimes think that being a good Christian means going through big losses and not grieving.

I don’t know where this idea comes from. I know it doesn’t come from the Bible.

The book of Psalms are prayers to God. Some express praise. Some express thanks. The most common psalm is called the psalm of lament. The most frequent Psalm of lament is: “God, why? God, how long? God, where are you? God, why have you hidden your face from me?”

God is a very big God who is not threatened in the least by people expressing their anger and grief over hurt.

Some of us are playing the quiet game. We have losses we haven’t mourned and tears we haven’t shed. We need to stop escaping or running away and face the sadness.

Jesus felt his feeling and expressed them at times of loss in his life. There’s an example in the Gospel of John, chapter 11. Jesus’ close friend, Lazarus, unexpectedly died. John 11:35 says it in two words:

35 Jesus wept.

This is the shortest verse of scripture. It’s also the most significant when it comes to grief. Jesus Just started grieving. He started feeling his feelings of loss.

I wish that moment outside the tomb could have been caught on video. I think it would help us to watch Jesus weep. It might free some of us to express our God-designed grieving emotion more freely than some of us do.

People who feel their feelings and express them freely begin the journey toward health and wholeness.

This is a question many of us struggle with when it comes to experiencing pain and suffering. In the midst of heartache and loss, and in the presence of death and darkness, “Where is God?”

I’ll be honest, I have no easy answers for this. There’s a lot that I don’t understand.

Some people think the existence of pain and suffering means God doesn’t exist. Other people wonder, “Why didn’t God create a world where there is no pain or suffering, where everything goes according to plan? Why didn’t God write a script with what every person is going to say and do so things run according to that script?”

Think what that kind of world would be like.

There’s a movie called, “The Stepford Wives.” It was about this little community where wives were robots. The wives were passive and cheerfully lived to cook, sew and make life wonderful for their husbands. There was never any conflict.

God could have made a Stepford world with no hurt, or suffering, or conflict. He could have created robots who were obedient in every detail, but God is so filled with love that he wanted human beings.

It’s only between human beings that there can be freely expressed, generous love. In all of God’s power and strength, he somehow limited himself and gave to us the ability to choose to be human beings.

This inevitably means human beings are free to choose to disobey as well as to obey. If they want to, parents can neglect their children instead of loving them. Instead of feeding them, the rich could steal from the poor. Instead of befriending one another, nations could war against one another.

The writers of Scripture teach that the Fall – the coming of sin and the choice of disobedience – unleashed the forces of death, pain, and suffering into our world.

And it’s important that we’re very clear about God’s heart in all the suffering in our world. People sometimes misunderstand and think of God as a cruel character who sends out pain – a tornado or accident that skips one house but hits another.

The writers of Scripture do not speak about death as the tool of God but speak about it as the enemy of God. God is unalterably and eternally opposed to it.

No matter what we may hear in our day, death is not a natural part of life. Death was not God’s original plan and is not his final purpose for human beings. Death is unnatural and evil. It’s not God’s plan for the people he loves.

So where is God? The writers of Scripture teach that God is with those who suffer.

David writes in Psalm 22:

24 For he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy. He has not turned his back on them, but has listened to their cries for help.

Ultimately, this is the message of the Cross. On the Cross, Jesus took on himself more than just our guilt and sin. He also took our suffering and pain.

This is how Isaiah 53 describes Jesus.

3 He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

Of all the gods that human minds have ever devised and worshipped, only the God of the Bible is the God who suffers with and for the suffering human race.

Jesus was acquainted with deepest grief. It’s important to remember this when we suffer, because Jesus truly understands the suffering we endure. Jesus wants to meet us in our deepest grief. He hears our cries for help.

You can’t just sit back and do nothing if you want to achieve greatness.

In Matthew 20, Jesus said:

Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

This verse is a paradox. A paradox is a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet it is true. It’s counter-intuitive.

Jesus says, “If you want to be great you must serve.” That doesn’t seem to make sense in our world.

What Jesus is saying is, “If you want to live life to its fullest, if you want to live a life of significance it’s not about people serving you. It’s about giving up your life to serve other people. It’s about contributing so that you can be a difference maker in this world.” It comes by following the Greatest Difference Maker the world has ever seen.

It’s really simple. If you want to be great, be a servant. It’s upside-down from what the world teaches. He makes it simple and yet, He makes it hard. Another paradox!

The world says, “Whoever wants to become great must have enough success, money and power that they are served.”

Jesus says, “Whoever wants to become great must be a servant.” And often the best opportunities come when no one is looking.

Carefully consider how Jesus seemed to prove this over and over again. Then set out, without fanfare, to simply follow Him whenever and wherever He goes. I promise… you’ll discover a remarkably satisfying path to greatness.

I have to be honest and say I’m more excited about this Sunday than any other Sunday since we started Blue Oaks Church. This Sunday we start a new teaching series called Hope Lives.

Hope is a quality that can run very deep. It’s a belief that the best is yet to come. Those with hope have courage that allows them to dream big and take risks. Hope enables us to endure pain and overcome grief. With it we are able to surmount obstacles, frustrations and failure.

From a Christian point of view, hope is rooted in our understanding of who God is and how God wants to interact in our lives.

This is a very different thing than the kind of stuff that we’re likely to read in the self-help section of a bookstore. What I’m talking about in this series is not simply a willingness to take risks, and a belief that everything will turn out well as long as I just maintain a positive attitude about it. That kind of naïve optimism is not helpful. It can be non-productive, at best, and dangerous, at worst.

Hope, in the biblical sense, is not about hyping myself into believing that everything is going to turn out the way that I want it. It is the confident expectation that an all-powerful God is at work, even in this fallen world, to redeem it and to bring good out of it. Which means I can face today with a resilient confidence and unshakable poise, not because the circumstances of my prosperity, health, and so on are going to work out in a way that necessarily looks wonderful from this culture’s perspective, but because an all-powerful, all good God is at work redeeming this world. He knows about and is deeply concerned about my life and the role that he wants me to play in this world.

I really hope you make plans to join us in this series. I believe God is going to bring hope alive in our church and community.

See you Sunday at our 9:00am or 11:00am service.

http://blueoaks.cc/

In Colossians 2, Paul wrote:

He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Paul was using a financial metaphor when he wrote, “canceling the written code.” That term is for a certificate of indebtedness. We might refer to this as an IOU. There was this moral debt between us and God, but somehow, it got paid – in full.

Have you ever seen a check that’s returned from the bank, stamped “insufficient funds?” Not your own personally (of course), but maybe a friend or family member? Most of us know what it feels like to feel helpless about being able to repay a debt.

But this is grace for each of us, because we all have struggled in despair over sin. Whenever you feel pain over that gap between who God has called you to be and the reality of who you are… whenever you feel discouraged or feel tempted to quit… whenever you wonder if you’ll ever make it… then you need to hear God has removed your indebtedness “as far as the east is from the west!” Whenever you are overwhelmed with guilt, remember He nailed it to the cross. He erased the bill.

Paul is saying, “God not only has cancelled your indebtedness, He’s even tore up the IOU – “He took it away” – so you’re free! That’s amazing grace.

Wisdom is not just information. It’s much more than that – and only becomes valuable when it’s lived out. Wisdom is a very practical thing.

To have wisdom is to be able to say and do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason. That’s the wise person. And, of course, we learn wisdom from Scripture.

The Apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:16:

     Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

“Word” means the thoughts of Christ. Let the thoughts of Christ or the ways of Christ abide in you so richly that, by His Spirit, it flows out into all that you do.

When we lack wisdom, the sign of that lack in wisdom, is that we keep making the same (or similar) mistakes over and over again. We keep being defeated by the same sin and we live with the burden of regret, guilt and often despair. Usually we’ll fall into the trap of then beating ourselves up over our struggle and before we know it, we’re saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way for the wrong reason – and simply want to give up.

Are you growing in wisdom or do you find yourself replaying the scene from “Groundhog Day”?

Wisdom comes when you let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let those words sink in – they’ll make you wise – I promise.

How grateful are you these days? Think about this for a moment. Do you find yourself complaining more often or are you expressing a lot of appreciation?

The Apostle Paul says we are to be overflowing with thanksgiving. And “overflowing” is a word he uses quite often. I’m thinking he uses it for a real purpose.

Listen how he describes the fruit of the Spirit: He’ll say, “I want you to be overflowing with joy,” or “overflowing with gratitude.”

It was a word that the Greeks would use in Paul’s day for a bottle or jar that was so full of something, it simply spilled over. It was a word of abundance – when you had more than enough of something.

There was a milk commercial, maybe you’ve seen it, where a kid pours a glass of milk to the top of the glass, to the point of abundance. This kid pours it to the top and then a little bit more so that it actually kind of crowns at the top.

It’s not easy to keep milk in that glass, a little milk flows with every step that kid takes. There’s a little trail of milk that follows that kid wherever he goes. If you bump into that kid, what you get is milk.

The question comes down to this – when someone bumps into you, what do they get? How grateful are you these days?

Why is every church not a community that’s just immersed in grace? Sometimes this can be one of the greatest stumbling blocks to followers and non-followers of Jesus alike.

I believe it often has to do with pride. The Bible says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

I think when we’re desperate and we know our need, when we’ve fallen to our knees, when we’ve messed up royally then we’re open to grace and can experience true humility.

It’s just human nature that when we’re not desperate anymore, once we start to think of ourselves as having accomplished something, we want the credit for it. We want to feel like we earned it. It’s kind of a pride thing that happens.

The CEO of a Fortune 500 company talked about how one time he and his wife drove into a gas station. He pumped the gas while she went in to pay.

While she was paying, he noticed the attendant was in deep conversation with his wife. So he asked her about it as they drove away.

It turned out that she knew the gas station attendant, and used to date him back in high school.

So as they’re driving away this CEO is feeling pretty good about himself.

He finally says to his wife, “I’ll bet I know what you were thinking. I bet you were thinking you’re glad that you married me, Fortune 500 CEO, and not a gas station attendant.”

His wife said, “No, actually, I was thinking if I married him instead of you, he’d be a Fortune 500 CEO and you’d be a gas station attendant.”

It’s human nature to think this way. The farther we go down any particular road, we don’t want to think that part of who we are is because of someone else. We want the credit.

So little by little by little, grace just gets choked out of those who are saved by grace. When you really think about it, this is so heartbreaking.

Paul says in Colossians 2:11:

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

Here’s what was happening in the church at Colossae: There were some legalistic people trying to convince new believers that they also had to be legalistic through undergoing circumcision as a rite of initiation into the church.

Circumcision started in the Old Testament. God told Abraham he was going to be the father of a nation, the nation of Israel, and the sign God gave him and all his male descendants was circumcision.

Now, if I was Abraham, I would have said, “How come Noah got a rainbow? I mean seriously? Can I have a rainbow or something? If not a rainbow, can it be like a birthmark or something?”

Paul is trying to encourage these new believers, these Gentiles, by referring to circumcision as: “You used to be excluded. Now you’re part of the people of God. Now you belong. Your old nature has been cut away. Your new identity is in Christ.”

Most people know the pain of being on the outside. We know what it was like when teams were chosen and nobody wanted us. We know what it’s like to be shunned by someone to whom we wanted to give our hearts. We know the pain of being forgotten. We know what it’s like to be judged by someone. We know the pain of a family member who doesn’t forgive us or accept us. We know the pain of being left on the outside.

When you make a decision to follow Christ he performs a spiritual circumcision on your heart. He cuts away your old life, your sinful nature. You have a new identity in Christ. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.

God wants you to know that you are chosen. You are wanted. You are desired by God. You are part of His family.

You belong.