Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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So I'm so thankful to joy for everything that she
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does for our church.
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She's actually one of the very first people that I
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ever met.
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Um, at our church, Probably.
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I think, actually, the first person that I officially met
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at church back when she was still high school.
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And I've gotten to know her, um so well over
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the years, and she has really become a trusted co
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worker and somebody that I really, uh, appreciate depend on
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really couldn't imagine during ministry without bond, like a truly
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like a partner.
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Um, and so, you know, we love joy.
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Um, is she just sharing her heart about wanting to
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engage people into worship?
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You know, Joyce, always very tactful and very kind.
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Um, but I hear in her in her heart and
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her desire, like part of this frustration that, you know,
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as the worship team is trying so hard to engage
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and get people to worship together.
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That's when we pray for every week before we go
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on on stage and begin worship.
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You know, we pray that God would lead, use us
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to lead people into worship.
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Um, and as she's kind of like asking the congregation
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to give her feet back.
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You know, let her know what works, What doesn't work.
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It's frustrating because, you know, I see how much work
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that the, um the worship team puts into the worship
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experience and trying to get people to connect and participate.
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And sometimes it's tough to see when people are on
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their bones or, uh, not really into the worship, you
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know, And so I just I just really ah, here,
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her heart there and hope that we as a church
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could support her.
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But as she's sharing that, it also makes me think
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about, um this is very human experience that we all
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share, you know, which is that often times when we
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as humans try to follow what God wants, you know,
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do our best to do what God desires.
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Ah, lot of times, the result isn't what we expect,
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but we oftentimes instead get the short end of the
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stick. You know, a long time church member spends the
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better part of their life serving, donating, giving time to
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their church, only to see it fall apart after years
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was struggling.
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Christian parents spends their lives building a god honoring home
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teaching or gives to pray praying with their kids while
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you know before bedtime, um, and sending their kids toe
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Christian school only to see their Children walk away from
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God on and disappear from the church in their adult
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lives. Um, well meaning young lady might come to church,
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put her purse down at a church function when she
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goes to help in the kitchen.
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And when she comes back, her purse is gone.
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It's missing and all over documents, and some important things
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are gone.
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You hear stories like this all the time, right?
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A missionary goes to share the gospel in a dangerous
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place on rather than having success stories about people complaining
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churches, they end up being arrested and jailed instead, all
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around us, we find that very often people who try
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to follow what God wants for their lives, um, and
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does their best to to make it happen.
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Uh, oftentimes get the short end of the stick.
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Life doesn't seem to always work out the way that
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it should.
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We end up suffering for good things rather than being
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rewarded. And I want to talk about this today in
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a message, um, entitling why it is unfair.
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Um, you know, how do we respond to this situation?
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Why does God allow this to happen?
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What is God's purpose for all of this suffering for
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people who try to do as well.
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Um, and what do we do when we find ourselves
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in the middle of it as Christians?
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Okay, so we're gonna be in second Corinthians, Chapter one
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versus three through 11 today.
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And let's, uh, pray before we get into the scripture.
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Father God, we, um come before you, uh, with humble
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hearts asking that you would speak to us through your
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words, Lord, as you speak to us, may we meditate
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upon your words May they take root in us.
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May you encourage and both prune us with them.
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Lauren maim.
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Um my words not be my own floor, but, um,
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glorifying to you May we see you?
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Um Just says John, the baptist sprayed.
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May I be, um, may I be made less?
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You be magnifying Jesus.
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Name. Alright.
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Second Corinthians Chapter one versus three through 11.
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Paul says blessed be to the God and father of
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our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of Mercies and God
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of all comfort who comforts us in all of our
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affliction so that we are able to comfort those who
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are in any affliction with the comfort with which we
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ourselves are comforted by God for as we share abundantly
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in Christ sufferings.
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So through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
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If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and
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salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your
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comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same
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sufferings that we suffer.
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Our hope for you is unshaken for we know that
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as you share in our sufferings, you also share our
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comfort. What we do not want you to be unaware
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brothers of the afflictions we experienced in Asia for we
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were so utterly burdened beyond her strength that we have
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despaired of life itself.
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Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of
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death. But that was to make us not rely on
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ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
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He delivered us from such a deadly peril and he
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will deliver us on him.
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We upset our hopes that he will deliver us again.
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You also must help us by prayer so that many
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will give thinks on our behalf for the blessing granted
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us through the prayers of many.
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All right, so the first thing that I want to
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point out not from this this this scripture, but from,
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ah, from Scripture in in general, OK, is that when
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we're thinking about this question about why it isn't fair?
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What what is God allow?
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Couldn't good, bad things to happen to good people.
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The first thing that we have to realize is that
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maybe as Christians, we need to flip our expectations a
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little bit.
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Okay, maybe the way that we're asking this question is
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wrong. Because there is ample times increased in Scripture Where,
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um, Christians air told that we shouldn't be surprised by
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these things.
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Okay, um, we shouldn't be surprised by the suffering that
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we receive in, um, the gospel of John Peter.
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Uh, I'm sorry.
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Uh, Jesus is talking Teoh his disciples, and he says,
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um, the servant is not greater than his master.
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Right? And he's talking to them in the context of
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if people are going to persecute me, then they're also
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going to persecute you.
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Um, and Jesus also says I'm not taking you out
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of the world I'm now asking God to I don't
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I'm not praying for God to take you away from,
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uh, orally persecution, the worldly suffering, all of the bad
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things that happened in the world.
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But what?
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That God would protect you from them, right, That God
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would shield you from them, That God would give you
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the strength to face them.
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So the first thing that we want to say is
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that we shouldn't be surprised by suffering.
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Okay. In first Peter, Chapter four, verse 12 Peter says,
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dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal
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that has come on you to test you as though
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something strange were happening to you.
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But rejoice, inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of
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Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory
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is revealed.
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It's like when I read this, you know, I I'm
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asking myself this question like, What do you mean?
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Peter, how am I supposed to rejoice in the midst
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of suffering?
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You know, you know, when people, um, who have something
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really bad going on and, you know, just kind of
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like put on a face and, like, you know, act
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like everything's okay and you're just kind of like waiting
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for this person.
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They kind of, like, crack and break.
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And you wonder, right, because the normal human response was
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linked bad is happening is to kind of like it
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down about it to be depressed and disappointed.
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You know, um, we talked last week about being vulnerable.
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We talked last week about not putting on a mask,
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you know?
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And so the question that I have when I read
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this passage with Peter is like, What do you mean,
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rejoice? You know, how is that supposed to happening?
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Right? And the reason that Peter can tell us to
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rejoice as Christians and I think, pull and, um the
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the that the writers of the the Epistles would agree
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with Peter is that the reason that they can rejoice
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in the midst of suffering for God in the midst
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of unfairness coming upon them is that they have discovered
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that the greater the suffering that we receive, the greater
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the grace of God is also there with, um, with
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that suffering, Okay, that there is a proportional.
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Um, there is a proportional grace that we receive in
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order to uh huh.
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Provide for our suffering.
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Okay, When we suffer abundantly for God's doing God's will,
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God comforts us in equal abundance.
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And we need to know that as hard as it
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gets, as difficult as it gets, God is providing as
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much grace as we need to sustain us through difficult
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times. Okay, In the scripture that we just read in
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first Corinthians, he says, for as we share a abundantly
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in Christ sufferings, Okay, as hard as things are for
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us because we're following after Jesus.
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So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too.
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Okay. So just as much as got, uh, God is
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allowing us to suffer.
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He is also abundantly gearing us grace and comfort.
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This is a powerful scripture.
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Okay, we see this all over the Bible, right?
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Um, all kinds of people in the Old Testament and
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new, um, are sustained through tough times, difficult times, by
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God's grace.
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That seems to be just enough to get them through
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it. I'm thinking about Daniel in the Lions, then, right,
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um, Daniel gets thrown into the lion's den, and he,
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um okay, doesn't fear.
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In fact, he rejoices about it because, um, God closes
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the mouth of the line right and uses Daniel to,
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um to change the entire, um, entire people.
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Um, and I'm thinking about Stephen.
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Oops. In acts chapters after acts, Chapter seven, Verses 53
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43 56.
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You remember that Steven was the first person to be
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martyred for the gospel, for teaching, speaking, preaching and speaking
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to book the gospel.
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And as he was telling people out, Jesus, the members
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of the same Children were getting so mad at him
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that they took off, uh, their cloaks and handed them
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to saw and grabbed stones.
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And, you know, you better shut up or we're gonna
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kill you in.
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Stephen said I can't.
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This is the gospel that Jesus has commissioned me to
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speak. And, uh, it says when the members of sent
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he'd heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth
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at home has always been fighting is like her.
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But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to
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heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing
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at the right hand of God And look, he said,
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I see heaven opened and the son of man standing
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at the right hand of God.
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So you see this proportional grace that is distributed to
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people in the midst of their suffering.
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The harder it gets, the closer they feel to God,
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right? Um, the comfort that they feel is is proportional
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to the suffering that they're feeling.
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Okay. In acts, Chapter 12 we we learn about the
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persecution of, like this this this section here in acts
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chapter seven.
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Um, if you guys remember from the book of acts
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sets off this huge persecution right then and all the
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Christians are scattered across the land, and, um