07-05-26 - ‘Let’s get serious: Enduring Sufferings’

In this message from the Midweek Church Service, Reverend Tim Gutmann begins a new series looking at subjects that are often avoided, starting with the biblical reality of suffering. He explains that becoming a believer does not mean suffering disappears, but that Jesus carries His people through it, giving grace, endurance, joy, and the hope of resurrection life.

Drawing from Job, Genesis, 2 Corinthians, 2 Timothy, and the Gospels, the sermon challenges the idea that sickness, pain, or hardship must mean a believer has done something wrong. Reverend Tim warns against both prosperity-style thinking and a victim mindset, reminding listeners that Scripture calls believers to endure hardship as good soldiers of Christ.

The message reflects on Job’s faithfulness, Israel’s history of suffering and perseverance, and Paul’s endurance through imprisonment, beatings, rejection, and hardship. It also points to Jesus’ declaration that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church, showing that believers are not called to retreat in suffering, but to press forward in faith, prayer, worship, and obedience.

The sermon closes by encouraging those going through pain or struggle to let Jesus take the lead, remembering that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Listeners are reminded that they are not alone, that Christ cares deeply, and that His grace gives power to endure.

Listeners can watch the full Midweek Church Service live every Thursday at 7pm on Revelation TV.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

So I'm gonna share actually we we're kind of like just gonna do a series and uh we we'll we'll preach on some things that uh you won't actually hear a lot of preachers preaching on certain subjects you know like wrath and hell but then but we we always land the message with good news because actually this all highlights God's grace and his love and mercy so tonight I'm gonna talk about suffering. So when you hear the scriptures and everything, it's gonna be like whoa, whoa, whoa, do you mean that suffering doesn't end, we become a believer? It's not that it doesn't end, it's that we're not alone. Like Jesus carries us, he gets us through it. We can suffer with joy, have joy and gladness, and one day we'll all get new bodies, praise the Lord. So if you have like long-term pain, you're gonna get a resurrection body. That is the promise. We're gonna get new bodies. All of that. So suffering is is it's not that God takes it away as soon as you become a Christian, but he gives you the grace to overcome, to endure, endures a big word, and through that we become strong warriors for Jesus. Hey, I always use the ESV when I share, so it'll be if you guys, it doesn't matter what version you use, but I'm letting you know in case some of my uh scriptures that I share uh read or sound a little bit different, that's why ESV, but you guys, whatever you use, they're all the word of God, right? And uh, so that's the ESV. So listen, it says this. Uh, we read earlier about God taking us to a broad place. We read earlier how uh Job, we heard a few scriptures about Job tonight. Job really suffered so much. The enemy wanted to test. God's like, have you seen my servant Job? And that's kind of like where I've been for the last couple of weeks reading through Job. And uh that the whole lesson is actually at the end of Job's life, he was even doubly blessed than he was at the start. But actually, through the suffering, it's not that we get angry with God or even think that God is unable to help us, it's that actually we keep our eyes on God, our eyes on Jesus. There is a deception, you know, because I really believe, I don't know about you guys, I really believe we're living in the last days. I might be wrong, but I just think you know, we should be ready. I think we should be ready for Jesus, for the trumpet to sound at any moment. We should live like that anyway, right? Just being on fire for God. Um, but part of the end times teaching and in the word of God, whenever it talks about that, it all kind of like goes hand in hand with deception, apostasy in the church. Jesus says, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on the earth? What a huge challenge that is. Uh and it all of this stuff about deception. And I think there's such a deception. If you uh had it in your mind that if you're sick or if you're suffering, you must be doing something wrong. That's deception. God hasn't called us to kind of like live these lives where we we just get everything we want and we drive around in the best cars and fly the best jets, and that's like what being blessed is. It isn't that at all. And actually, when you read the scriptures, quite the opposite is sometimes we do suffer, but God gives us the grace and the power to endure and overcome. And sometimes as well, it seems in society today it's a bit of suffering, and it's like an excuse to carry a victim card at the same time. That's the opposite end of the spectrum. It's like, you know what, I'm a victim, so I've got a good excuse to be moody or to not moody, that's a bad word. I've got a good excuse to be negative, to to not really push into God, to not really be a positive, encouraging person because I'm I'm really going through it right now, so that means I'm allowed to carry this card and I'm allowed to struggle. To struggle. We don't need to struggle. We got Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and uh He He enables us to get through anything. Job chapter 2, verses 9 and 10. When Job first lost everything and suffered so much, his wife said to him, Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God? Shall we not receive evil? And in this, Job did not sin with his lips. Job didn't sin, he didn't curse God. He he's saying to his wife, and his wife, don't forget, she lost all her children, she lost her home. Don't let's not be people that judge his wife. We can lay learn lessons from her and make sure we stay encouraging to our spouses to hold on to Jesus. But they just lost everything. And Job is like, listen, why would you think that it should all just be good all the time? Why would you think that you should curse God as soon as things aren't going our way or as soon as things are going hard? Job actually said that, and that was a real strong message of faith. Listen, do you think we should just receive good all the time? Yeah. Sometimes there's evil in life.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Sometimes we do just want good.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Sometimes we do just want good. And and I think about Israel when God calls Israel. What is it about the Jewish people? Why God chose Israel through Israel that they would be the blessing to the nations? That through them would come Yeshua, through them would come salvation. Why Israel? I think there's a clue to that actually in Genesis chapter 32, reading 27 and 28. He said to Israel, What is your name? To Jacob. He said, What is your name? He said, Jacob. He said, Well, your name's no longer Jacob. You're going to be called Israel because you strove with God and with men and you have prevailed. There's the clue. Israel in its history was going to suffer. It was going to go uh through periods when nations would invade, when nations would slaughter, when nations would scatter them into exile, when nations would would uh uh take their people, the women, their children, such suffering. And actually, if you look at the history of the Jewish people, even since the resurrection of our King Yeshua, the suffering, the Holocaust, but actually, there's something about that Israel's that Jacob spirit, that Israel spirit where they struggle, which means they hang on, they hold on. You can't get them to let go of Torah, you can't get them to let go of God, and for that, we know what God is going to do and what God is doing in these last days as well. But because of Israel's struggle, struggling and its ability to suffer, not turn against God, and not blame God and not let go and not just run away from God. There's always a remnant that holds on like this with an iron fist, that 7,000 that will not bow the knee to Baal. I think that's something unique about Israel, which is why God chose one of the reasons why God chose Israel is about struggling and suffering. It says, I love this scripture, I'm not gonna read it, but I was just reading in 2 Corinthians. Paul says to the church, to men and women, he says, Listen, you need to act like men, you need to be able to suffer. And this whole actually, the whole of 2 Corinthians 1 is about suffering, you receive God's comfort, and then you can be a comforter. So when we suffer, there's a reason sometimes God allows, or sometimes we go through these seasons, and God doesn't just shield us from everything. Sometimes we go through these seasons because you learn to hold on to God. Yeah, you learn to press in. This is the time to press into prayer. This is the time to really press into the word of God, to put on that worship CD, to worship God, even without the music, just to praise God. That is the time when you're feeling like you're suffering. But I love that. Paul said to Timothy, join with me in what? Join with me in prosperity, join with me in the easy life, join with me in getting everything you want whenever you ask God. He didn't say that. He says in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1, join with me, share in suffering as a good soldier in Christ Jesus. We want to be good soldiers. We're FTV family, we want to be soldiers. We don't want to just be people that are up and down, and when life gets a bit hard, we get moany, we carry the victim card, or we think we're doing something wrong, we get depressed, but we say, Do you know what, enemy? Is that it? Because I'm nothing's gonna stop me letting go of Jesus. Nothing's gonna stop me being on fire for God. You can even find joy in that. Joy of the Lord is your strength. You can find joy to worship the king when circumstances say you should be flat out, giving up, just staying in bed, shutting the curtains and crying. You can find joy actually in the Holy Ghost. That's how awesome our God is. I love this about Jesus. He gave that great church speech. He said the gates of hell. Well, he gave that great church speech. Shall I tell you? It wasn't in a synagogue, a nice little safe temple. At Cesar Philippi, actually, which is at the bottom of Mount Hermon, which many people believe not as opposed to Mount Sabor, is where he was transfigured. It was a very high mount, and it was near Cesir Philippi. But at the bottom of that, he says to Peter, who do you serve? He says, You are the Christ. He says, On that confession, I will build my church and the gates of hell. And guess what? At the bottom of this, at the foot of this mountain, there was a cave called uh the uh the cave of Pan, and there were temples there, many temples. There was a three or four, actually, in front of that cave of Pan, which the cave of Pan was nicknamed the gates of hell.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

He didn't give that great church speech in a synagogue in a safe temple. He gave that church speech on the edge of darkness by the gates of hell, and he's saying the gates of hell aren't gonna overcome the church. Because the church is gonna be on the offense, the church is gonna be attacking darkness, we're not gonna be shriveled up, hiding, being victims, and being like, you know, where suffering stops us, we're gonna push forward. Overcome. I love that he gave that church speech at the gates of pan, at the gates of hell. He says, My yoke is easy, my burden is light, which doesn't mean we live easy straight and there's no suffering. It means this actually in that ancient context. There was a a bar, a wooden beam that was shared between two animals. And what a yoke is easy, it means this, it's recognizing Jesus is our partner, and sometimes entering the rest of God is letting Jesus, the stronger one, take the wheel, so to speak. He's let Jesus take the lead. Or when Moses saw the burning bush, God said, Take off your sandals. In ancient Israel, a sandal was used for as a symbol of ownership. So if you were to buy a piece of land, you seal it by taking off your sandal. When God said take off your sandal, he said to Moses, listen, take off ownership of your own life, unown yourself. Unown yourself and give up that right to decide where you go in life. Let me lead you. Or as he said to Peter, listen, you've always dressed yourself, but when in a little while you're gonna be led even to where you think you don't want to go, he says that at the end of John. That's the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we'll go through things we don't particularly want to, but if your eyes are on Jesus, you'll never leave his path, his plan, his arm, and his hands. Isn't our God awesome? Really? He is mighty. He is mighty and mighty. And I'm gonna finish with this. 2 Timothy 2, 6, 8 to 10. Remember Jesus, risen from the dead, offspring of David, has preached in my gospel for which I am suffering, I'm bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect that they can obtain the salvation that is in Jesus Christ with eternal glory. That is Paul in jail, whipped, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, rejected and stoned. And I love it at the beginning of Ephesians, when he's in jail, he says, How amazing is our glorious God, what a life we live, and he's so excited, he's writing that from prison. So let's remember we suffer, but we don't give up, we don't get down, we don't like bury our heads under the sand, we keep our eyes on Jesus. And if you're going through something right now, I want you to know this. You might need to hear this word. I want to encourage you, you are not alone. Let Jesus take the lead on this, you know. His yoke is easy, his burden is light. Say, Jesus, I need you to lead me through this because I am struggling. And just be real with God. He loves you so much, he cares when you are suffering. He genuinely cares. He has the ability to heal, to carry, and to get you through this so that you can endure. And I'm gonna pray with you. And if you've never asked Jesus into your life, also just pray with me as well. Father, I thank you that you love me so much that you gave your only begotten Son Jesus. Jesus, I believe you died on the cross for me. Forgive my sin and live in life my way. Like Moses, I give up the right to just do it my way. I want to live your way. And for all of those praying and listening right now, Lord, on our Revelation TV family, for anyone suffering, going through struggles and pain, I pray you're anointing the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, teach, walk with, and talk with. Lord Jesus, be with us closer than ever, actually, every step of the way. We know we can endure because you give us the power and the grace in Jesus' name, the same power that raised Jesus. We'd love to hear from you. We've got so many emails. I'll come back to that in a minute, my love, but why don't you um as well you can lead us in prayer for Israel and for the UK as well and for people's nations or whatever you want more.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Lovely. Uh well, first of all, I want to say thank you for leading us um and bringing that message to us. I think that was so fantastic, and you're right, you know, we are going to suffer, and uh I love the fact that you just want to strengthen the church, and God is using you to strengthen the church to say, actually, come on, we can we we've got Yahweh on our side. We will suffer, but we don't need to let that suffering overtake us because we have gone outside.