Hey there again to you. This is Pastor Mark of Words of Life. And on this week's broadcast or podcast, we're going to talk about understanding affliction. Lots of times, all too often, we're surprised, we're shocked, we're thrown for a loop. We're literally caught off guard when affliction happens. befalls us. But the truth of the matter is we might need to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to understanding affliction. I look forward to seeing you right back here. We're going to get right to it right here on Words of Life. See you in a bit.
SPEAKER_00:We thank you for joining our Words of Life broadcast, where our mission is persuading the lost, perfecting each believer, and equipping all for service with practical application from God's Word. We now join Pastor Mark for this week's Words of Life.
SPEAKER_01:We are back and we are grateful that you've decided to be with us. I like to start off every episode thanking you because the truth of the matter is you could have been anywhere else doing anything else, listening to anyone else. Your time is precious, but you have listened to, you have been guided by God's spirit to tune in and to hear a word from him through this ministry. And for that, my wife and I, we are so grateful. grateful. I'm going to ask right now, I'd like to add a little too, to start off just a little bit, to give you time to find in God's Word. We're coming from two scriptures as our primary text today. We're going to start in the Old Testament. I want you to turn to Isaiah 53 and 7, and then we're going to reference the New Testament and tie these two scriptures together. I do believe that's Acts chapter 8, beginning at verse I'm going to go ahead, as the words start to come up, the font comes up on the screen, I'm going to go ahead and start reading Isaiah chapter 53, beginning at verse 7. And the verse reads as follows. And the Lord has laid upon him, him being Jesus, and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. He, Jesus, was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. And now I'm going to ask you to turn over, flip over to Acts chapter 8, beginning at verse 30. We just read Isaiah 53 and 7. I want to read a few verses from Acts chapter 8, beginning at verse 30. The verse begins, Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you're reading? Philip asked. How can I? He said, unless someone guides me. And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of scripture. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. May the Lord add a blessing to the hearers, the readers, but most importantly, those that intend to do God's holy word with his help. We're starting this series off. It's a four-part series, and today we're going to start off simply with the title, Understanding Affliction. I think before we handle a task or anything in life to go into something and to be successful with it or to know what you're doing in a sense, I think you have to gain understanding of it. You might need to know how a stove works and understand how it works before you start to cook. You might need to know the workings of the steering wheel and the gas pedal and the brake in a car before you get in it to drive it. Same thing with affliction, because a lot of times we're caught off guard. We're thrown for a loop. The defense mechanism goes up. We put ourselves aside and just like isolate ourselves. But the truth is, when it comes to affliction, I believe to handle it in a godly way. We have to make it a point to try to understand what affliction truly is. That's just why I tied the verses together beginning in Isaiah when the prophet was reading. He was talking about Jesus being afflicted. And to be afflicted, it is to be bowed beneath. It is to be quiet without murmur. or without complaint. Now, let's reference Acts 8 because as the Ethiopian eunuch was riding along, he was reading this exact chapter, this exact verse. And Philip, the disciple, runs up and just said, do you know what you're reading? Do you understand what it is what you're reading? And the eunuch replied, well, how can I? There's no one to teach me this exact passage that I'm reading. And so Philip did just that. He wanted to make sure to understand in the Greek. He wanted to make sure that the eunuch knew that he truly comprehended. He recognized and he realized what he is reading or was reading at that point. And I think that's excellent to tie those two verses together because before we get into what affliction is and we've established in the Hebrew, Jesus was to be bowed beneath. He was to be without murmur. He was to be without complaint while he endured affliction. That's what affliction is really. Anything that God lays upon us in a sense that we are bowed humbly beneath, that we are silent without murmuring or without complaint. But again, We're taking it back a lot of times. So I want to jump right into our application points of this first part of the series, understanding affliction. Here is today's focal point. Affliction is laying upon us by the Lord. That's something we have to come to grips with. I'm not saying God puts sin on us. That is not what God does, but he does lay affliction upon us for his ultimate purpose. If we refer back to our opening text, Isaiah 53 and 7, the verse starts off, and the Lord has laid upon Jesus the iniquity, the sin of us all. Jesus did not sin. He was without sin. But the Lord God Almighty laid upon his son the sins of you and I so that we might live safely forever in his presence. And here's something I want to ask us since our first focal point of the day. Affliction is laid upon us by the Lord. Let's think about this. If it was laid upon Jesus, why not us? And that's what throws us. Jesus, he took up his cross all the way to Calvary. He set his face toward Calvary, determined to go to Jerusalem to fulfill the purpose Father had for him. Do we do likewise? It was laid upon Jesus, affliction. We can expect it to be laying upon us. It's laid upon us by God for a few reasons. Sanctification is a part of this. Christian process being made holy once we meet God face to face. He is holy. Nothing unholy can be in his presence. So as we live, we are being sanctified. Sanctification is a part of the process. That is a reason that God lays affliction upon us because it's for God's glory. It's for his story. It's for his purpose. It's for his will in our lives. laying upon us affliction also helps us to remain humble it keeps us from the need to defend ourselves the need to fight back to always respond to lay upon us affliction sometimes it's not really even god he allows it and sometimes we're just reaping what we have sown so i want to challenge us when it comes to affliction being laid upon us, we gotta understand that affliction, our focal point of the day, affliction is laying upon us. It is allowed by God. Here's our second point to think about. Sometimes there's nothing wrong. It's just our turn to bear the cross. Do we encourage? Do we set our faith? Do we encourage ourselves? Do we resolve with this determination and courage to simply proceed forward with purpose. That's what Jesus did. He just set his face towards Jerusalem and Calvary. I will fulfill my purpose. That's the question I want to challenge us with. When affliction hits us, do we just set our faces toward the purpose that God has us and he's going to judge us for? It's something that we're going to be judged. Yes, our salvation has already been secured. We've been judged there. When it comes to our work, when it comes to our purpose, when it comes to, well done, my good and faithful servant, here are your rewards, or that will be tried by fire, you're saved, but that motive, that work, and do we set our face towards purpose? Jerusalem, our Calvary. Quite simply, do we bear our cross? And the final point that I want you to think about today when we're talking about understanding affliction, who do we run to? when we're frustrated, when we feel like nobody understands us, when we're overcome by affliction, who do we run to? And more important than that, I think we should ask ourselves, do we murmur? Do we complain? Because the word says Jesus was bowed beneath. He was afflicted. He was bowed beneath. He did it without murmur, without complaint. like a sheep led to the slaughter jesus never said a mumbling word as god laid affliction upon him for our benefit and so when god does likewise to us who do we run to do we complain do we murmur are we trying to defend ourselves are we fighting trying to figure things out or do we understand that if we're going to run to anybody how about we just run to the lord and say father I need your help, Holy Spirit. And here's the part of the message where I never tend to forget because it's why we preach and teach. In the midst of affliction, whether you know what it is or not, I dare not close without offering you an opportunity to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If you simply pray this prayer with me, Father, in the name of Jesus, I may or may not understand affliction, but I do know I'm headed towards eternity and I cannot do so safely without it. Jesus. And so Father God, I accept that I'm a sinner. I acknowledge my sin. I confess it. But I believe that Jesus died for me and Holy Spirit will come and take up residence in my heart to do the rest, sanctifying me to meet you. And along the way, I'm going to have to deal with some afflictions. I thank God for you. We're going to close that with an amen or it is so. And again, I cannot say enough how grateful I am for you tuning in to this week's episode of Words of Life, where we have covered our part one of the series, Understanding Affliction. I look forward to seeing you again for part two of this series. And until then, same time, same pastor, same words of life from the word. I thank God for you. Love you. See you next week. Bye-bye. I could say Been holding on but do you miss me Life is going astray It's hitting different and oh so deeply Been trying to figure it out What left behind is supposed to be about I know you're finding your home But I'm wishing heaven had a phone With what's left behind Been running round like I'm doing just fine Oh, I wonder if you can see I'm letting go of all that belonged to we Sometimes I just let it out All the years and they ask what I'm crying about Wish I could leave it alone That's why I'm wishing heaven had a phone I'm wishing heaven had a phone So what you doing right now Do you think of me and is that a loud thing I wonder if you still care I could call you up I think I'd say that I'm never ever hanging up Cause I'm still running from home That's why I'm wishing heaven had a phone I talk to God every day Through Christ alone He hears me as I pray So don't put God on the line And he's a friend of mine Today I'm just missing you Been mad as hell about doing life without you Make it make sense to me Cause way up there there are no tears for me I'm tired of being so strong That's why I'm wishing that heaven had a phone Just got the words of a song You're all I'd ever known Wish I could leave it alone Been trying to live since the day God brought you home I can't accept that you're gone That's why I'm wishing heaven had a phone