3-29-09 Suffering And Hope

Big Idea: Suffering will always come, but when God is with us in the midst of our suffering, this produces great hope that we will come out of our suffering as better people. Jesus is our model in perfect suffering.

Life is not always good, is it? Life throws us curve balls and those curve balls will sometimes hit us unexpectedly and knock us off our feet, and when that happens, life is hard; it’s painful; it’s difficult, and it can be very dark.

 

This is what Paul wrote, We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:2

 

There are three views that, we as human beings can adopt as we look at the future, because the future is a big deal to all of us. One is this posture that Paul is talking about and that is “I have hopes.” The hope is the belief that my future holds good prospects.

 

When I have Hope, then there’s something that I look forward to, and I genuinely want it, and I really think that it’s on the way…then I live with a sense of anticipation. Then when I wake up in the morning, I embrace the day because it’s getting me one day closer to that to which I look forward. You can tell if you’re around somebody who is a hoper, you can just tell. Hope is contagious.

 

Now there’s a second view. If I desperately want something, but I believe it’s not going to happen…if my soul hungers and thirsts for it, but I believe it’s not going to take place, then my posture towards the future is despair, and it just hurts. I long, I ache…but it’s not going to happen. We cannot live well or long in despair, because it’s so toxic. We’ll find some other way out.

 

There’s a third view that people will often times move towards.  People will usually manage despair with resignation. In resignation, what I do is try to dampen down my hope by ratcheting down my desire. I say things like it’s not that big of a deal. Not that great a job. Not that good of a place to live. She’s not that pretty. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. Resignation is kind of a half-way house between despair on the one hand and hope on the other hand.

 

Sometimes, frankly, this is about the best that we can do. Sometimes it’s the strategy of choice. I always think about it this time of year because I’m a Tigers fan. Do I want the Tigers to win? Yeah, since I was 10 years old. Do I believe they will win? I’m not an idiot. So I resign myself. I tell myself, “It’s not that big a deal. I’ve survived this long without it. I adopt a strategy of resignation.

 

Now a lot of people think, as Christians, that they are supposed to want something, but they are not sure if they really want it, if they’re honest about it. Let me just put this in the form of a few questions. How many people here want to go to heaven when you die? Raise your hands. Would you? Okay, that’s close to unanimous. Second question, how many of you, again just being really honest, how many of you want to go to heaven right now this second if we could arrange it? A little ambiguity at this point, isn’t there? I know I’m in church, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say. Okay?

 

Another form of this question, and we’ll get to more of this at the end is how many of you would like for the earth to get fixed up…right now?

No more babies with bloated bellies from hunger.

No more stories about corporate greed and corruption.

No more guilty, awkward distance between people of different races.

No more souls tortured by addictions of one form or another.

No more battered children.

No more ambulances.

No more hearing a siren and wondering who it’s going for.

No more caskets.

No more soldiers.

No more wars.

No obituary writers.

 

Everybody has a place where they love to live. Everybody has work they love to do. Everybody has people they love to befriend. How many would like for every sword to be beaten into plowshares? For the lions to lie down with lambs, for peace to break out, for justice to flow like water, for the defeat of death and the triumph of joy, and over all of this for there to be a God watching over it every second and this God is so gloriously good that everybody knows Him, and everybody enjoys Him, and everybody loves Him best of all. How many of you want that?

 

Well if you want that then you want what it is that Jesus talked about. Then you want Jesus, because He said when you pray, pray like this, “Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You do not, you cannot, understand Jesus if you don’t know this about Him. Jesus hoped. Those who knew Him came to hope in Him, and those who knew Him best came to hope the strongest.

 

Personal opinion…you have to decide what you think about this…I think if there is no

God, if there is no story, if there is no design, if this universe is simply an accident, the best we can do is resignation…the best we can do. And of course if that’s the case, it’s good to be honest about it.

 

Jesus did not go down the road of resignation. Jesus says, “Don’t despair.” Jesus says, “Don’t resign.” Jesus says, “There is good reason for hope.” Then people, who follow Him, like the Apostle Paul, go through enormous suffering, but he never resigns himself to it.

 

Paul says, “May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Spirit, by God’s presence with you.”

 

Paul is not hoping for small things. He’s hoping for the whole nine yards. We’re hoping for the big enchilada. We’re hoping for all joy, for all peace, and for all love – for up there to come down here, and if you want it, and if you believe that it is possible enough to commit yourself to it, then you hope in God’s glory and his love. You become a hope-er.

 

The reason why we’re looking at this today is because when crisis comes . . . and it will come . . .for everybody, we need to know how to deal with that.

 

Over the last decade a lot of research has been done in this area. It seems that some people don’t just get through suffering, but they actually get stronger. For a long time, people have talked about how there is post-traumatic stress syndrome. More recently, some researchers have begun to talk about a thing that they call post-traumatic growth. People go through suffering, they go

through hardship, and they don’t just make it through to the other side, but they come out different.

 

It doesn’t happen automatically. Adversity…suffering…can cripple people. It often does. A lot rests on how people respond to it.

 

So that brings us to Joseph. The story of Joseph is found in Genesis 37. I encourage you to read later today or later this week. Joseph was a young guy, 17 years old. He had the world by the tail, and then all of a sudden his world collapses, as it will for everybody. His brothers betray him, and he is sold into slavery, but Joseph has a remarkable response to slavery.

 

Now you put yourself in Joseph’s place. You’re 17 years old; you grew up daddy’s favorite. You’re spoiled rotten. Your brothers are all jealous of you because dad always loved you more than he loved them. This is a great way how you and I should not raise our kids. There should never be a favorite child. We are called to love each one the same – even the child that is a little rascal. Joseph’s brother become so jealous and so angry that when they are in a remote place they gang up on him and sell him into slavery.

 

So, you’ve been sold into slavery. Things look really dark. All your loved ones betrayed you. There’s really no way out. It’s your first day on the job, and you’re a slave. Do you think you might have a little attitude problem if that was your situation? You had freedom, but now you’re a slave.

 

Then this remarkable thing happens. We’re told that the Lord is with Joseph in slavery. He gets whatever assignment he got on his first day that he’s a slave, and instead of resenting and resisting this slaver, he works with diligence. He treats people around him as if they are human beings. He actually does the tasks assigned to him with diligence, as if he’s working for somebody more important than Potiphar, his master.

 

The overseers, the people in the chain of command, notice this, and they give him more responsibility. He does well with that, and then word gets to Potiphar. Now Potiphar was a rather high-ranking official in the administration of the king. He’s the kind of guy who would have prided himself on his ability to spot talent. So he moves Joseph, the text says, into his house. That means Joseph is given managerial work. Joseph does well with that. Potiphar makes

Joseph his personal assistant. Joseph does well with that. Potiphar makes him his CEO.

 

The text says, “From the time Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his own household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care. With Joseph in charge he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.”

 

Joseph gets written up in Forbes. He is getting offers from other slave owners who want to buy out his contract. I want to pause here to note something that can happen in suffering. Suffering is not a good thing, but good things sometimes come out of it. When you suffer, sometimes you find yourself rising to a challenge that reveals abilities hidden in you that otherwise would have never made it to the surface, and you grow.

 

Now imagine being Joseph: I arrived at Potiphar’s. I was a 17 year old, a spoiled brat…always been the favorite. Everything always went my way. I told my brothers about my dreams of them bowing down to me, then I showed up here; I could have lain down and died. I didn’t think I could stand it, but I did. I showed up for work day after day, and it was the strangest thing, it’s like I was given this ability to do stuff I never thought I could do. I kept being able to do more than I logically could do.

 

I have gone through being betrayed, being sold into slavery, being forced to live in a foreign land, being alone, having no friends, no money, and come out flourishing. If I can do this…maybe I could do more? You’re 17 years old and you find out that about yourself, you find out something pretty significant.

 

Joseph finds out that somehow God is with him in a way that he never expected. Then it’s like, you know what? Whatever life throws at me from this day forward… The Apostle Paul put

it like this,

 

I have learned what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content, of being alive, of being vital in any situation up or down. I can do anything through Him who strengthens me. I have hope.”

 

Joseph did not have that, see, until he was thrown into a situation he never wanted to be in. But his trials are not over. The text goes on to say, “Now Joseph was well built and handsome. And after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, ‘Come to bed with me.’” In the Bible, when men fall in love, they are usually drawn to the whole person, but women are often just interested in a handsome face and a well-built body. It’s sad isn’t it?

 

This opportunity comes to Joseph and it would have been really easy to say, “Who cares. I’m a long way from home. She’s a beautiful woman. My master is away. Nobody will ever know. But instead, he says, No.”

 

Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Suffering as a slave has made him evaluate his life and he now knows what it means to be deceived and he decides he doesn’t want any part in deceiving his boss. He knows who he is and he knows what he stands for and so he says, “No!”

 

Potiphar’s wife gets angry when Joseph turns her down, and she falsely accuses Joseph. He doesn’t get rewarded for these noble choices; he ends up in prison. The text says, “But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him.” Can you imagine this. Joseph thinks he has it bad when be becomes a slave, thinking “how much lower can I go?” Well, he now knows. He ends up in prison. It’s as bad as it gets! It’s as low as you can go. But God is with him. This is a remarkable statement. God granted Joseph favor in all he did even while he was in prison. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care because the Lord was with Joseph.” He gave him success in whatever he did.

 

Joseph is now serving people who are in prison. What’s extraordinary about this is that Joseph had a dream when he was younger in which his brothers would bow down before him and Joseph thought that would be really great – that his brothers would be his servants and he would rule over them. But Suffering produces perseverance and perseverance leads to character. And now even though Joseph is over these prisoners, he is serving them and caring for them.

 

So two men are put under Joseph’s watch and both of these men had worked for the king or Pharaoh as he was called at one time before they had fallen in disrepute. One was Pharaoh’s baker and the other was his cupbearer. One night they both had a dream. Then we’re told when Joseph came to them the next morning that he saw that they were dejected so he asked, “Why are your faces looking so sad today?”

 

Here’s what’s interesting, you might not have noticed this: When Joseph was at home, and his life was going great, his own brothers lived in huge pain because he was the favorite, but he never noticed. He told bad reports about them. He gloated over his dreams to them…he never had a clue. Now, in prison, where you might think he would just be consumed… thinking, I have my own problems, I have my own difficulties to deal with, but now he sees. Now he cares. Now he asks.

 

Suffering can do that to a heart.  You can’t see it while you’re going through it, but when you look back – Wow! Suffering has the power…it doesn’t automatically do it…it has the power to

deepen relationships in profound ways. People who go through great grief sometimes find that although they would never have asked for it, would have it removed if they could, it leads to a depth in the way that they connect to other souls that they have never known before.

 

The baker and the cupbearer both had dreams and because they were unable to interpret them they were downcast. Joseph interprets their dream and he tells the cupbearer, “You’re going to get restored to your old job, and he asked him that when this happened to plead his case before Pharaoh and get him out of prison.”

 

The cupbearer gets released and goes back into the service of Pharaoh just as Joseph predicted.

You can just imagine how Joseph is waiting to get out of prison. Today’s the day he’s thinking, but nothing happens. So Joseph waits the next day. He was probably busy…probably tomorrow.  Tomorrow…Joseph is stuck in prison. The next day…stuck in prison. Two full years went by and finally Pharaoh has a dream, and the cupbearer remembers Joseph.

 

Finally Joseph in this strange life gets out of prison and begins a new life. Such an odd journey. So hard to tell what’s good, what’s bad, what’s up, what’s down. It’s kind of that way

in the kingdom for those who hope. For your life is hidden with Christ in God. So hard to say what’s good and what’s bad. Joseph is at home, he’s his dad’s favorite. He wears the robe. Bad stuff is going on inside him. Then this terrible thing happens. He gets kidnapped and becomes a slave, but the Lord is with him.

 

He does great in slavery…gets lifted up to the highest place that he could be…looks like things are going great. Then a terrible thing happens. He gets falsely accused, gets thrown into prison…awful place, but God is present doing great things in Joseph’s life during that time. Joseph does great in prison. He gets exalted to the highest place in prison. Then a terrible thing happens. The cupbearer forgets and for two years he languishes…for two years. Then one day Pharaoh has a dream, calls Joseph. Joseph does great with Pharaoh.

 

He gets exalted to the highest place in Egypt, and it turns out that all of his suffering is his

glory…strangest thing.

 

Here’s one of the things that can happen in suffering: It’s kind of like in normal life, like we get on this treadmill, and we’re just running after…we don’t know what for, we don’t know why…money, success, education, comfort, security, pleasure, happiness, something…I don’t know, just running after it. And then when suffering comes, it just knocks you off the treadmill, and all of a sudden you have to ask, “What in the world am I doing here?” Is there any meaning to this life? What’s important?

 

What do you do when what you’re hoping for doesn’t work out? It happened to Joseph. It will happen for you. Maybe now, maybe tomorrow, maybe at the very end, it will happen. What do you do when you lose your family? What do you do when you lose your dream? What do you do when you get betrayed? What do you do when you are forgotten by your friends? What do you do when you languish in the pit? You can live in despair.

 

You can howl and rage against the dark night. And many people, many gifted people, many very, very bright minds do this. You can live in resignation. Best we can do. Hedge my bets.

Try to bank down my hopes. Don’t think it really means anything, but it’s not that big a deal. I can tough it out. I can make it to the end.

 

One day, a man named Jesus walked the earth and said there was good reason to hold out for the big enchilada. Not a pleasant little marriage, not a nice little life. One day Jesus said that through your suffering and pain you will can taste the glory of God.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. And then a terrible thing happened. They put Him on trial. They pounded huge spikes through his arms and legs and hung Him on a cross. They laid Him in a tomb. Things were dark. Things couldn’t get worse, but the Lord was with Him in the tomb. He does great in the tomb. He gets exalted to the highest place. It turns out so strange. Jesus’ death – the darkest part of the story becomes His glory. Now there is a promise that one day up there will come down here, and between that day and this one there is suffering, and suffering produces perseverance, and  perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, because in the middle of all that suffering we see God’s glory - we see traces of up there coming down here. We