93-71 – When God Doesn't Make Sense – When God Doesn't Seem to Make Sense, Part II

This sermon is Part 2 of the series "When God Doesn't Make Sense" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

This series was preached by Dr. Betters just six weeks after the death of his 16-year-old son Mark. Dr. Betters gives us a real, raw message as a man struggling with God, as a man wrestling with his faith. In his transparency, we see that Dr. Betters learned during this time that he is not very different from the rest of us. Walking by faith is hard, especially hard when God turns our lives upside down. God is in control of all things, even during these hard and emotional times. This is when we need the strength of other believers to help us through these times, to help remind us that God is in control and HE has a greater purpose for why things are as they are.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck of Fetters, produced by Marcus Ministries. Each in his grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Fetters as he preaches the series When God Doesn't Make Sense.

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Would you please take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Exodus? Exodus chapter 17. I've entitled this message, the second part of what we began last week, When God Doesn't Make Sense, written for people who have experienced sudden or unexplainable pain, in which certain principles, I believe, can be gleaned from the scriptures for whatever pain you might be bearing. And all of us have different kinds of trials and testings and temptations that come into our lives. Now let me quickly review where we've been. We're starting to sketch out what these principles are, and I hope that you might be taking notes so that you can kind of go home and review some of this. And even if you're not going through something, I'll guarantee you that eventually you will go through something, and you're going to want these principles firmly planted up in your head. Otherwise, you're going to be swarmed and you're going to sink. Principle number one is the inevitability of the refiner's fire. Simply stated, not all men have to drink the same cup of sorrow, but all of us as Christians will have to suffer to some degree or another. And under that point, I've kind of raised three sub-points. Number one, the price tag for refined faith is the fire of testing. Isn't the real coldness in the church today due to the fact that we are willing to offer him sacrifices of gold, that is our money or our time or our talents, and even incense, that is our worship and our praise and our preaching and acts of ministry. But few of us are willing to offer him our myrrh, the embalming fluid, the death fluid, the sacrifice of a broken heart, the sacrifice of grief, or pain, or sudden sorrow, or suffering, or extreme difficulty. We have trouble bringing that to God and saying, we want to give this to you as well. We want to make this a sacrifice of praise. Subpoint number two is this the product of refined faith is the joy of the Lord. Now, joy and happiness are not one and the same thing necessarily. You can have the joy of the Lord and be unhappy. Certainly, we are not in a situation now where we are saying, Lord, we are just so grateful and thankful and we praise you beyond everything within us. We are just excited to death that you have taken our son. We just think this is a wonderful thing you have done, Lord, that you have taken our son to be with you. I want to tell you something. Folks ask us how we're doing. We're doing horrible. We're doing how you would be doing if you lost a son suddenly like we did. But does that mean we can be robbed of the joy of the Lord? You see, joy transcends happiness. Joy goes beyond happiness. Joy is able to take even the most painful situations, even those moments when you are unhappy, and transcend those periods of pain and sorrow by bringing into your understanding who the Lord is and entering into his presence so that you can experience his healing. Now, is that easy? No, that's not easy. That's very difficult. But it's the product of refined faith, faith that has been put through the fire. The third subpoint was this: the purpose of refined faith is to prepare us for glory. All the trials that we enter are for the purpose of preparing us for that moment of glory when we will stand before God face to face. You know, one of the interesting things that I read recently is that not only are those periods of pain preparing us for glory, but those periods of blessing are also preparing us for glory. So whether we're being blessed of God or being tested by God, whether it's a blessing or an apparent curse, we are being prepared for the glory of God. The inevitability of the refiner's fire. Now that's Roman numeral number one. Roman numeral number two is this there is an eschatological dimension to suffering. That is, our suffering in its present form not only has a present purpose, but it also has a future purpose. We studied the last time we were together that in the last days, as the age of the gospel comes to a close, Satan, who has been bound and forbidden to hinder or block the flow of the kingdom in this age of the gospel, in the end times, Satan will be let loose for a season. When the age of the gospel comes to a close, Satan will be let loose. And so in those end times, as he is let loose, there is going to be an increasing pressure on the church, on the true believers. We are going to go through unparalleled tribulation. And our sufferings in its present form are preparing us for that satanic unleashing of evil power that will occur in the end times. But also, what that eschatological dimension to suffering says to us is that it rekindles in me and I hope in you a desire to see the Lord Jesus Christ come back. I think we have lost a sense of that hope in the church of the 20th century. The Bible refers to the second coming of Christ as the hope of the church. We're going to celebrate the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. We're clearly instructed in Scripture that we do this until He comes again. That it is to remind us that He's coming again. It is to remind us of what He's done in the past, but it's also to remind us that we live between what He's done in the past and what He's going to do in the future. We celebrate the sacrament and we say in that celebration, we believe that Jesus Christ is coming back and that that hope is the hope of the church. It is the blessed hope of the church. It is something that ought to be experienced in us every day. We ought to long for it every day. But we get so wrapped up in our little worlds that we forget that all of this is coming to a gigantic climax someday. So there is an eschatological dimension to suffering. The third principle was this: although grief and pain and sorrow is incredibly self-centered, and it is, God does make sense even when God doesn't make sense. God is present in our lives even when he seems to be deaf. Even when he seems to have taken this extended leave of absence. Dobson says in that book that God's timing is perfect even when his timing seems to be catastrophically late. For reasons impossible for us to explain, somehow or another, we human beings are incredibly precious to God. Now, I want to bring us to this fourth point. And I hope you have in Exodus chapter 17 your Bibles open there. Let me give you this principle up front, and then we're going to develop it. Whenever you experience a sudden sorrow or sudden pain, or even as you are experiencing extended pain or extended sorrow, there develops a circle of fear. The circle of fear goes something like this. When some tragedy hits, you think to yourself, My, what's next? This is so horrible. What's next? So the principle stated goes like this the circle of fear. Listen carefully. I don't want this church one day to ever be accused of not having been instructed because I believe this is one of the major areas in which most of us fail. Listen carefully. The circle of fear is so intense that it demands faithful friends who will empathize with the sorrow and with the sudden pain, and now underline this and not avoid it. Do you know somebody going through some sorrow? Do you know what kind of fear they might be living in right now? Do you know that that circle of fear can become so intense that they cannot even sleep at night? It is at that critical moment those people need friends who will not only empathize and feel what they're feeling, but confront their pain by their presence and not avoid it. The body has incredible power to heal. During the first week to ten days of our tragedy, I cannot even begin to think how we would have gotten through that first week to ten days after Mark went home to be with the Lord, unless this body had responded the way they did. Now I recognize that our family is in a privileged position and that we're public figures, and that probably not all people would be treated the same way that we were, which I think has a sad element to it. But nonetheless, I'm very grateful for the things that were done by people who just came and said, What can we do? We've received hundreds and hundreds of cards that have had this message in it. We don't know what to say to you. We don't know what to say, but we grieve for you, and we grieve with you, and we're hurting with you, and we're praying with you. We have received cards from people who have said they're awakened in the middle of the night to pray for us. We realize the impact that this tragedy has had not only on you as this congregation, but on the Christian community as a whole. We know that. We realize that. But I want to tell you something. What has become clearly evident is that some people have greater gifts to minister than other people. As I have stood at cemetery sites for 25 years, one of the instructions I have given to the crowd as they gather to pay their very last respects at the committal service. After the committal service is over, inevitably I will say this to the people who are gathered. As I point to the family and to the friends who are sitting there, I will say this. The easy part is now. This is the easy part. You see, only one foot has dropped. But down the road, two, three, four months, the other foot's going to drop. And that is when these people are going to need you more than now. And what I have found is that we are very good, and I've heard other people complain about this, we are very good as Christians confronting the immediate crisis. We cook meals, we clean houses, we do those little practical things that mean so much. We send the cards, we pray the prayers, it means so much. But when the other foot drops, when the reality sets in, when the real pain begins and the anaesthetic wears off, and the real sorrow sets in, we have in the Christian church what I call the leprosy syndrome. We don't know what to do, we don't know what to say. And so rather than confront the issue, rather than weep with those who weep and laugh with those who laugh, we will avoid them like the plague. Now, in the position that I hold, as public and as upfront as our position is, I can honestly tell you we have already experienced that. And if that's true of us, how much more true is it of those of you who don't have that kind of support base? Where you suffer alone. You say, Well, what can we say to take away the pain? Nothing. Somebody asked me the other day, point blank, they said, What can we say to you to make you feel better? And I kind of chuckled. I said, You can tell me Mark's standing outside waiting to talk to me. You can't say anything. You can give me the promises of Scripture, I already know them, and I believe them. You say, Well, then what can we do? Acknowledge the pain. That's all. Take the hurting brother or the hurting sister that you know in your life and simply acknowledge their pain. Why do we think we have to have all the answers? Weep with them. Talk with them. Enter into the chamber of their pain. You say, wait a minute, I'm not comfortable doing that. Well, force yourself out of your comfort zone and learn to do that because it's a command of Scripture. God commands us to step outside of our comfort zone, and that's why friendships are so vital when you're grieving. You know why? Because people who experience sudden pain or intense sorrow feel invaded, they feel vulnerable, and they feel weak. We haven't gotten to Exodus yet. Put your finger there, go back to Job. I want to show you something in Job. Job chapter 2. I was so intrigued by this verse. Job chapter 2. All of us know the story of Job. What intense sorrow and pain he experienced. Some of us think that when we're going through what we're going through, we're just like Job. I don't believe anybody has gone through what Job's gone through except Job. And that's why the book of Job was written. And you know something? Job didn't even have the book of Job to comfort him. Job chapter 2, verse 11. Job had three buddies. We always criticize these three buddies because the rest of the book of Job is written to show us how incredibly insensitive they were by giving him all of these pat answers to the struggles that he was experiencing. And so we tend to criticize Job's friends. What do we call them? Job's comforters. And we criticize them. First thing I want you to remember about Job's comforters, read very clearly, there was a lot of truth in what they said to Job. Now, not all of it was true. Their conclusions were faulty, but there was a lot of truth in what they said to Job. But the point I want to make is this: Job chapter 2, verse 11. When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. They began to weep out loud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Got this picture? Now I have this underlined in my Bible, the next sentence. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was. Go ahead and criticize these guys. But for seven days and seven nights they sat beside this man, never opened their mouths, but were not afraid of his pain. We tend to see people through an immediate crisis and maybe even come up with some pad answers. But see, the Christian faith demands that we do more than that, that we enter into the fellowship of suffering. Jim Conway, who wrote the book Men in Midlife Crisis, his daughter became ill. And to make a very long story short, it was determined that it was very possible her leg was going to have to be amputated. And uh Jim Conway was grieved, as any father would be, that his young girl was going to have to have her leg amputated. So he gathered together people around him and said, Let's begin to pray that God would heal. Let's begin to pray that when the surgery is scheduled, that the doctor will see that the healing has happened and that God has worked a miracle. And for weeks they prayed and prayed and prayed faithfully, around the clock, prayer vigils. And the surgery was scheduled and they were expecting God to work a miracle, a wonderful miracle. And his little girl was taken into the surgery, and even then, as the girl was taken into surgery, they were expecting that the surgeon would any minute walk out and say, I don't know what's happened, but she's healed. The hours went by. And he knew. And the man was reduced to tears. He began to weep and cry. He began to mourn in his heart, thinking of what his daughter's life was going to have to be like now that her leg was amputated. He began to think very quickly about all the activities that other children would engage in that she couldn't engage in. The volleyball games and the basketball games and all of the things that now she was going to have to endure. And he was reduced so much in so much pain, he went down into the basement of the hospital to the morgue. And he felt as he entered into the morgue that this was the place he belonged, and he wept hysterically down there and questioned God, God, why didn't you heal her? You could have healed her. This doesn't make sense. This man's heart was broken, it was ripped out of him as any father's heart would be. And as the weeks went by, his pain became greater and greater as he saw his daughter struggling in rehabilitation, watching this beautiful little girl learning how to walk with a stump. And his pain became more and more intense, as it does with time, as the other foot drops. And certain well-meaning people, one in particular, sensed his anger and his resentment and his bitterness, and a man in his church walked up to him and said, You know, Pastor? We believe a revival has been started in our church as the result of your daughter losing her leg. And the man meant well. But Jim Conway turned and snapped at the person and said, Is that what it takes for God to start a revival? Does he have to cut off a little girl's leg? Then what's the next revival going to cost? Her arms? What's the next revival going to cost? Her eyes? What's the next revival going to cost? Her ears? Obviously, that person said the wrong thing. But maybe they really didn't. Because sometime later, a group of pastors, in this particular case, charismatic pastors who held a different perspective than he did theologically, went to him. And they came by his side and allowed him to talk. And they wept with him and they cried with him and they acknowledged his pain. They offered no answers. They just allowed him to speak and allowed him to grieve and allowed him to mourn. For days they did this until the man could begin to work through his pain and begin to acquiesce to the power of God. We have a leprosy syndrome. We look at people who are experiencing significant pain and we realize that in and of themselves they're not going to be able to stand. Now to the Exodus passage. How do we narrow the circle of fear? How do we narrow that circle? Before we do that, I want to read something to you that was given to me this past week by someone who truly understands this concept of acknowledging the pain. I know this from firsthand experience because I have seen some incredible ministry from people who have had to step outside of their circle of fear. This particular person who has ministered greatly to both my wife and I wrote something and called us the other day and read it to us, and I asked for permission to have this, and it was given to me, and I'd like to read it to you. It says, I donned the unbecoming yellow paper gown and cap and put on my rubber gloves and mask as I prepared to enter the patient's room. The effects of his disease were repulsive, and I avoided the room until the needs of the patient required my attention. His body was broken with raw open sewers that penetrated to the bone. Involuntary nervous responses resulted in embarrassing outbursts of unpredictable emotions. The pain of it all permeated the room, giving a suffocating feeling to anyone who entered. The private room's windows and glass door mocked the one who would see out to the world he could not join. This patient was total care, incapable of caring for himself in any way. Isolation always seemed ironic to me. We usually put on sterile gloves to protect the patient from our germs. Isolation cases required full garb to protect us from the patient's disease. It was always risky to treat these patients. Why did I take the risk? There is a strange phenomenon that occurs when you choose to take that risk. Somehow it makes you feel more alive to be in touch with such intense pain. It makes me feel real. Then I can always take off my protective layer and go back into the routine life that my patient longs to experience once again. This patient, though drenched with disease, had a pull on me. I was always glad after I began to care for him that I could be the one to help. I wonder why I avoided that room so much once I was there and carrying out the treatment. Perhaps it was not knowing what state I would find him in that caused my apprehension. Key to the treatment was my responsibility to convince the patient that he would get better. Not that anyone would blame him for not believing it. Yet the research all showed that recovery required patient confidence that it would happen. This confidence would allow the patient to participate in his treatment, speeding the healing process. I proceeded into the sick room once again and began the treatment. I could see that very little healing had taken place and the disease was progressing. As I went about my care for the patient, trying to encourage him all the while that he would recover, I was continually hampered by the cumbersome isolation garb. The patient was suffering because of my inability to fully function, and he looked at me with frustration in his eyes. I was causing more pain. For a moment I stopped and our eyes met as I finally realized what he couldn't seem to communicate. No, he wouldn't request me to put myself at risk, but he wouldn't believe my encouraging words either. I stared beyond his eyes as time stood still, and without a word, I removed the gloves, the mask, and the cumbersome paper gown. For the first time, a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes, and I could believe that his disease, grief, would be conquered. Exodus chapter 17, verse 9. Here's how the healing begins. Here's how the circle of fear is narrowed. Verse 9 Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered. And Moses, Aaron, and her went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Her held his hands up, one on one side, one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner. He said, For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. Four principles that narrow the circle of fear. Four principles that I believe you can be instrumental in someone else's pain, someone else's grief to help that circle of fear to be narrowed. Somehow or another, we've got to take off the garb and get in there where the muck and the mire and the disease exists. And sense and feel the pain that others are experiencing and quit being so afraid that we are somehow going to be touched by such sorrow. Principle number one: Moses held up a vision of the power of God to deliver. Verse 9. Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. He held out a vision. This is what God can do. This is the power of God. He held out a vision that the Amalekite army could be defeated. Here it is. Verse 10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and her went to the top of the hill. Friends, we fight a very vicious enemy. Your friend, who is going through significant pain right now, is battling a tough enemy. Every one of you knows somebody who's fighting an enemy. But some of them are so wrapped up in the circle of fear they can't see who the enemy really is. They don't have a clear perspective. Some of them think God's the enemy. God, why did you do this to me? God, you must hate me. God, you must be cursing me. God, you must be judging me. And some of them don't understand that there's a wider purpose involved here that maybe you don't even understand or cannot comprehend, but you must hold out that vision that God can deliver and you need to help them to discern exactly who the enemy is. I told someone the other day, actually, I told my wife the other day, she's someone, I said, Do you think that the people in this church realize how vulnerable the church is at this point? Do you realize that as we review our lives, and I began to name the different things that Satan has thrown at us? And at the time, each of those things we thought were incredibly painful. Satan tried this to destroy our faith, and tried that to destroy our faith, and tried this to destroy our faith, and tried that to destroy our faith. And we rehearsed what we could remember in the past 15 years that Satan has thrown at us. We couldn't remember beyond that. But at least for 15 years, some of the memories were fresh. But nothing, nothing. You can wrap all of those things up, multiply them by a thousand. They pale in insignificance compared to the trial of faith we are experiencing right now. And it is probably one of the most vulnerable times in the life of this church. Doesn't the scripture teach us, smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered? Doesn't it teach us that Satan doesn't hang around cemeteries, that he goes where he can cause the most damage? And so if he can destroy the faith of my household, he can make inroads into destroying the faith of your household and the household of the Christian community. And I will be the first one to stand up here and tell you I need Aaron and I need her. I'm the first one to tell you that long term I am going to need Aaron over here and I am going to need her over here. Because the arms get real heavy. We had a beautiful wedding yesterday from some very good friends. Saw two families in this church, both families, I love them a great deal, and I love their kids, and it was a real privilege to stand up here and marry them. Went to their wedding reception. And uh, it was a great time. But there was a ball of pain in my heart. I said, get out of here, ball of pain, get out of here. I want to enjoy this time. No, it stayed. We left the reception early and got in the car. And no sooner got down Kirkwood Highway, my wife and I were reduced to tears all the way home. We did nothing but weep. Nothing but weep. I said, somebody's not praying for us right now. The arms are getting weak. The arms are getting weak. The arms are getting weak. We need to know who the enemy is. And you look around you at the people around you. You look at the people sitting beside you. Some of them are going through terrible pain, terrible sorrow. Mine's more visible because you see me every week. But there are just as many broken hearts sitting around you right now. And they need Aaron. And they need her to hold up the arms. Get a vision of the power of God to deliver. Know who the enemy is. Thirdly, even though we have a sure foundation in the rock which is Christ, listen, we need the body of Christ to believe for us even when we don't believe for ourselves. Say, wait a minute, you mean I can believe for somebody else? In their moments of doubt, fear, and apprehension, what they are going to need beside them are people who believe for them and will be sustaining their faith for them. Verse 11 and 12. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone. They took a stone. Who took the stone? Aaron took the stone. Her took the stone. They took a stone and put it under him and sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up, one on the side, one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. Aaron and her took over when Moses' hands began to drop. Are you taking over for somebody whose faith has been weakened? Are you holding up their hands as that circle of fear gets bigger and bigger instead of smaller and smaller? Fourth principle. My son Chuck, of course, loves music. He has great taste in music, too. And has given us a C D that we play. And one of the songs on that C D is called The Promise. I've asked him to get the choir to sing that sometime. Just a wonderful song that speaks so clearly to my heart. You see, right now, the only thing that person sitting next to you may have to hang on to is a promise. The only thing I know we have to hang on to is the promise. That God is going to do what God said he's going to do. That's why God instructed Moses, write these things down. Verse 13 through 16. Make sure everybody remembers this. Why? Because when this kind of a thing happens again, they're going to have to look back at what happened here and trust that God, who fulfilled his promise then, is going to fulfill his promise now. The Saturday before, and I don't want to say this to make my family feel any worse. I've already told them this story, and I hope they don't, but I want you to see a perspective. The Saturday before we went on vacation. A vacation, by the way, we didn't want to go on. But we went anyhow. And uh the Saturday before I got into the car, I did not tell anybody what I was going to do. And I went to Mark's grave. We hadn't seen his grave since we had buried him. And uh I drove into the cemetery and I tried to remember from when we were driven up in the limousine where he was buried. And uh I couldn't find it. At least I thought I couldn't find it. I went to the spot where I thought he was buried, and there were several fresh graves that were still there. And uh I thought I had seen the spot where he was buried, but I wasn't sure, and there wasn't anything to market. And so I went to the office, which was just getting ready to close, and I told them who I was, and I wanted to know where my son's grave was. And the man instructed me as to where it was. And I went back, and it sure enough was the same spot I had just been to, and had just walked right over. And he said, look very closely, you'll see that there's a temporary marker there. And I walked up and I pushed aside the netting that they use on fresh graves. And do you know what happens to a man's heart when he sees his son's name on the ground? I opened up the car door and I turned my C D player up full blast to the song The Promise. And for an hour and a half I sat there and wailed.

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And I said, God, you have got to fulfill your promise. You have got to be faithful.

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And as my tears began to subside, I was sitting on a mound, and behind me was a statue. You know, at that cemetery, the Catholics, the Protestants, and the Jews are all cared for. Everybody's taken care of. And I was sitting right there in front of the statue. Looked behind me, and there it was, I'm on this mound. My son's grave is directly in front of me. And that statue is a statue of Jesus as he is going through the agony in the garden. And I looked right across the road. There's about a three or four-acre field, and in that field are bushes that are planted the entire perimeter of the field, and they form purposely the shape of a cross. And Mark's grave is right at the very foot of that cross, right at the very foot of the agony in the garden. I said, How appropriate. I'm in the agony. He's before the Lord, and I'm in the agony. And I played the song again. You have got to be faithful. I drove down Route 13, full blast, crying my eyes out. You have got to be faithful, playing the song, The Promise. The promise is love, the promise is light. The promise gave life to the world. What promise? What promise? The promise that says, Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house. Are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man will see God but by me. That's the promise. The circle of fear narrows as Aaron and her enter in with their gowns off, their masks removed, and they're willing to hold up the arms of the inflamed patient. The circle of fear narrows as we get a vision of what God can do and will do. As we define who the enemy is, and as we rest in the very promises that he gives to us, the circle becomes more and more and more narrow. The final principle. Some questions will remain unanswered in this life. What have I told you so far? The inevitability of the refiner's fire, the eschatological dimension to suffering. Although sudden pain is incredibly self-centered, God does make sense even when God doesn't make sense. Fourthly, the circle of fear demands faithful friends who will empathize with the sorrow or sudden pain and not avoid it. And fifthly, for those in sudden grief, for those with unexplainable pain, for those of you who are going through incredible sorrow, some of the questions you're asking will never be answered in this life. And you have to face that. But I want to say something to you. It is not sinful to raise questions to God. It is not sinful to raise questions to God. The sin comes when we refuse to hear the answers. The sin comes when we say God cannot answer or God will not answer. The sin comes when God does answer and we refuse to accept it. And besides that, there is great comfort in the fellowship of sufferings. My Bible tells me that Jesus is holding us. And that as we are sobbing, he is sobbing. As we are struggling to breathe, he is struggling to breathe. That is what is meant by the fellowship of his sufferings. Hang around our house. And you'll see us one minute laughing and laughing and laughing about something. And then in the next moment it's like good friends. Know how to take that. Some questions will remain unanswered. It's not sinful to raise questions. There's great comfort in the fellowship of sufferings. Our human experience and spirit is intricately associated with various emotions. But you know what we found? True healing will begin with good doctrine. You better know what you believe. Because if you don't believe it, you better know what the options are. You better know what, if you don't believe, is true, then what the alternatives are are sad. I believe that good doctrine bows at the sovereignty of God. You have to. You have to say, not what if, what if, what if, if only, but you have to step over here in front of a sovereign God and claim the greatest if only of the entire scripture. If God be for us, who against us? And you either believe that or you don't. Have you entered into another suffering? I don't mean for just a few days. Are you willing to see them come to the point of the joy of the Lord? No matter how long that takes. I think it's something greatly lacking in the church. I think we're very good at crying for the moment, but we might be grossly lacking in acknowledging the pain of others and seeing them through, even to the point that Aaron and her hold up the stones, hold up the arms.

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Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore.

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You have been listening. Mark and offer help and hope to hurting people by the comfort of his work. We provide free resources for those walking through suffering. To learn more about doctor batteries, our resources, more contractors, and