God Has Designed My Suffering

[0:00] and give thanks to God for his grace in your life. We're going to be looking at our title this morning, God Has Designed My Suffering.

[0:18] And you'll see on the inside of your new sheet, there's two books that are available this morning. I've mentioned them before.

[0:28] And the first one is Invest Your Suffering, Unexpected Intimacy with a Loving God. So this red one here by Paul Millard.

[0:39] So he shares throughout the book his experience of his wife's long-term illness to which there's no known cure, and his openness as he wrestles with scripture and yet trusts in God, him and his family.

[0:56] So that's at the back there. You mightn't have heard of him, but I'm sure you will have heard of Joni. Erickson Tadda, her book, A Place of Healing, Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain and God's Sovereignty.

[1:12] So it tells of her story through life. She's wheelchair bound, and yet God has used her amazingly through her suffering to reach many people with the good news of Christ across the world.

[1:28] And in many nations, people have been helped through her story. So these are two books that I've read. They're specifically written out of experience and the context of walking through suffering.

[1:42] So they're both very helpful for that reason. And they're 10 euro each, so they're available. There's a few copies of each this morning. Let's pray together.

[2:07] Father, thank you for this story of grace and your goodness to Mary in the midst of her life and going through the storms and struggles that she has.

[2:24] Thank you, Father, that you have been her father, a rock, one in whom she can trust. We pray now, Father, as we look together at your word, as we listen to what you have to say to us, that for each one of us, you would be that rock in whom we can trust.

[2:51] So help us now, Father, we pray. Amen. Well, you heard Mary's story, and I wonder, how do you respond when you go through times of suffering?

[3:11] If it's an unexpected illness, a relationship breakdown, a disappointment in life, what do you do when you suffer?

[3:24] Well, I think there's one or two ways in which we often respond. First, when suffering comes, we can run from God.

[3:36] You see, for many, personal suffering has no rhyme or reason. God isn't in control, and he can't do anything to make it stop. The things we go through are just random events, tragic circumstances that invade our happy lives.

[3:54] It's just the way that life is. So suffering can cause us to run from God. It can all be flight. Or sometimes we can fight with God.

[4:10] We get angry and we get bitter and we blame God for the things that happen. And we shout at him, you can't let this happen to me. If you really cared for me, if you really loved me, you would make it all go away.

[4:25] And so suffering can cause us to fight with God. But there is another way, the way of faith.

[4:39] We can trust God. Have a look with me, please, at Psalm 139, verse 13. Psalm 139, verse 13.

[4:55] Let's pick it up in verse 13.

[5:16] For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

[5:28] Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

[5:43] Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

[5:54] How precious to me are your thoughts, God. How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

[6:07] When I am awake, I am still with you. Did you see verse 16? All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

[6:26] Our life is in God's hands. God ordains the day we are born and God ordains the day that we die.

[6:37] He is the one who gives us our very first breath and He is the one who takes our last breath. And if God controls the beginning and the end, then He controls every circumstance and every event in between.

[6:53] God knows all things. God rules all things. God is sovereign over all things. Nothing happens in your life without God's permission.

[7:07] In fact, the message of the Bible is this. God has designed my suffering, so trust Him. God has designed my suffering, so trust Him.

[7:23] You see, some people think that the Christian life is a blissful journey from earth to heaven. God's plan for your life is to be healthy and wealthy.

[7:34] No trials and no troubles. But if you should suffer in some way, you have somehow moved outside of God's plan for your life.

[7:45] No. Everything that happens in your life is ordained by God. God has designed the suffering in our life so that I can trust Him.

[8:03] Now, to help us see this, we're going to look at the lives of four characters in the Scriptures, four people who suffered, and how we see God's design over it.

[8:18] So the first one we're going to look at is Joseph in the place of God. Have a look back at Genesis chapter 45.

[8:31] Genesis chapter 45. Joseph, if you know anything about him, was the youngest of 12 brothers.

[8:43] The problem was, his father Jacob treated him as the favorite. And while his brothers were out working, providing, slogging away, Joseph stayed at home.

[8:57] In fact, his father treasured him so much, he made him a very expensive coat, the famous coat of many colors. If you like, it was a one-off designer item.

[9:09] And one day, while his brothers were out in the fields, Jacob sent Joseph out to see how they were getting on. And as they saw him approach, they were filled with rage and jealousy, and they plotted amongst themselves how they were going to kill him.

[9:29] But instead, they sold Joseph as a slave to some passing travelers. They covered his coat in blood, and told his father he was killed by a wild animal.

[9:45] Joseph suffered. He became a slave. Not only that, later on in his life, he ended up being sent to prison for a crime that he never committed.

[9:59] And after 17 years of one trial and struggle after another, Joseph found himself in better times. He became second in command to Pharaoh, ruler of Egypt.

[10:14] Now, at the same time, his brothers were facing a severe famine. So, they traveled to Egypt in search of food. And who did they meet?

[10:26] Well, Joseph. But look carefully at what Joseph says to his brothers when they come face to face. Chapter 45, verse 4.

[10:41] Then Joseph said to his brothers, come close to me. When they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph, the one who sold you into Egypt.

[10:55] The one you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

[11:10] For two years now, there has been a famine in the land and for the next five years, there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

[11:28] Yes, the brothers sold him as a slave. They plotted it out. They planned it. They got money for the sale. But Joseph knew that God was ultimately in control.

[11:42] Look at verse 7. But God sent me ahead of you. You see, suffering is not a random event.

[11:53] It is not a mistake or a plan that has gone wrong. God not only allows these things to happen, he purposes them to happen. Flick on a couple of chapters to chapter 50, verse 19.

[12:14] Chapter 50, verse 19. Again, Joseph is speaking to his brothers. verse 19. But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid.

[12:29] Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

[12:44] In my suffering, says Joseph, I am in the place of God. And in our suffering, we are in the place of God.

[12:58] God has designed our suffering so we can trust him. Second, let's look at Job. Job chapter 1 comes before, just before Psalms.

[13:15] Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1. Job chapter 1. We've met Job before in our studies on this subject.

[13:27] We've seen his sufferings. He lost his livelihood. All his animals and servants were taken away. His ten children and their husbands and wives were killed in a tornado.

[13:41] And then Job suffered a terrible skin disease, a flesh-eating disease that left him in absolute agony. But look at how Job sees all these trials and struggles.

[13:53] Verse 20. At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall depart.

[14:12] The Lord gave, and the Lord is taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

[14:27] Everything that happened in his life was not some terrible twist of fate. This is not the result of a God who is absent and powerless.

[14:39] Look at verse 21. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. And even when Job's wife begins to question him over his ideas and his thinking, look what she says in verse 9, chapter 2, verse 9.

[14:58] His wife said to him, Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die. He replied, You are talking like a foolish woman.

[15:12] Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? in all this, Job did not sin in what he said. He recognizes that God brings good and that God brings troubles.

[15:32] John Piper, reflecting on these verses, put it like this. Follow along as I read. it will not do to say that God only uses our suffering but does not design it.

[15:49] What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees suffering, he can stop it or not.

[16:02] If he does not, then he has purposes. purposes. And since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design.

[16:15] You see, Job saw his suffering as purposed, planned and designed by God. Of course, that doesn't mean that Job didn't struggle or that he didn't have questions.

[16:25] the whole book of Job is full of questions and his shoutings at God. However, knowing that God ordains all things leads him to trust God.

[16:39] Look at the conclusion of the book, chapter 42. The very end, chapter 42, verse 1.

[16:55] Look at how Job responds to all that has happened in his life. Then Job replied to the Lord, I know that you can do all things.

[17:17] No purpose of yours can be thwarted. Nothing that happens in our life is outside of God's plan for your life.

[17:31] Nothing can disrupt what God has designed, so we trust him. So Joseph was in the place of God.

[17:44] Job could say no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Jeremiah, all J's, so it's easy to follow and remember.

[17:57] He was one who trusted the Lord. Have a look at Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah was a prophet called by God to speak a message to the people.

[18:16] It wasn't an easy message, it was a message of judgment. His message was simply this because the people had persisted in their sin and rebelled against God. God was going to take them by way of discipline into exile.

[18:31] That was his message. It's not a nice message to tell, it certainly wasn't a nice message for the people to hear, and Jeremiah suffered for it.

[18:45] No need to look up the references, I'll just refer to them. In chapter 12, verse 6, we read about his own family who betrayed him and turned against him, left on his own.

[18:59] In chapter 20, verse 2, we read that the priest in charge of the temple had beaten him up and then put him into stocks for everybody to see at the entrance of the gates.

[19:14] In chapter 26, verse 16, he endured continuous death threats of the people planned to try and kill him. Chapter 37, verse 18, he was thrown into prison and punished by the king.

[19:31] And following that event, no sooner was he released than he was thrown into a disused well. And this is what it says, it had no water in it, only mud, water in it, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

[19:50] I think it's fair to say that Jeremiah suffered terribly. His whole adult life was marked with one trial after another. He had done nothing wrong.

[20:02] He was only doing what God had called him to do. Yet through it all, Jeremiah didn't fight God and he didn't flee from God. He trusted that God was over all things.

[20:17] You see, in times of suffering, he looked to God in faith. Look at what God says to Jeremiah in chapter 17, verse 5.

[20:33] So he's already gone through suffering, he will go through more suffering, and in the midst of it all, this is what God says. this is what the Lord says.

[20:45] Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands.

[20:57] They will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But, blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

[21:18] They will be like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes. So no matter what the storm or the struggle, he does not fear.

[21:33] It leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought. And never fails to bear fruit. Trust me with your life, God says.

[21:48] Whatever you are going through, don't run to other things and to other people. Trust me. And look at Jeremiah's response, verse 14.

[22:00] Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved. For you are the one I praise.

[22:15] Jeremiah would go on to suffer much more after he said that, but it was a mark of his life. We mightn't understand everything. We mightn't make sense of what's going on in our life.

[22:28] Our suffering may continue through all of our prayers, yet we trust that God is in control of all that happens.

[22:39] God has designed our suffering so we can trust him. So Joseph understood that he was in the place of God.

[22:52] Job came to see that no plan of God's could be thwarted, and Jeremiah knew what it was to trust the Lord in the midst of his suffering.

[23:07] This has changed slightly the title. Well, Jesus is still right, but the next bit is into your hands I commit my spirit.

[23:19] Turn to Acts chapter 2 with me. Acts chapter 2. Jesus is the supreme example for us that we can trust God in the midst of our suffering.

[23:45] Jesus was one who did suffer. Isaiah the prophet reminds us he was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain.

[24:00] Jesus knew what it was to be a refugee. He experienced hunger, sleepless nights, he faced opposition and rejection, and primarily and most of all he suffered the judgment of God on the cross for us.

[24:17] He suffered the reality of hell for you and for me. But all this suffering that took place was all designed by God. Peter tells us that Jesus was chosen before the creation of the world, before this universe existed.

[24:37] Jesus was chosen. The plan was in place. The plan was in place. Peter is preaching, preaching about Jesus.

[24:58] It's after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And look what he says, verse 22. fellow Israelites, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him as you yourselves know.

[25:17] This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

[25:37] So who is responsible for the death of Jesus? Well, we could say the people and the Roman soldiers, and we would be right, wouldn't we?

[25:51] But, look what it says in verse 23. This man, Jesus, was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge.

[26:04] Before the creation of the world, God planned and ordained and designed the death of Jesus. Have a look at Acts chapter 4.

[26:24] Peter has just been released from prison. He's been put in prison for teaching about Jesus, and the disciples are now facing great opposition.

[26:36] Peter's just come out of prison and they begin to pray in verse 24, Acts 4, verse 24. When they heard this, that is, when Peter's, when they'd heard of Peter's release from prison, they raised their voices together in prayer to God, sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

[27:03] In other words, you're in control of all things. And you spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David.

[27:17] He spoke about the opposition that there would be towards Jesus. Jesus. And he quotes, why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain?

[27:28] The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. And it did come to pass, verse 27, indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in the city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed.

[27:50] They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. So again, who is responsible for the suffering of Jesus? Well, we could say, verse 27, that it's Herod and his little chat with Pontius Pilate, the religious authorities, they put Jesus to death.

[28:14] And we would be right. But look at verse 28. They only did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

[28:28] God designed the suffering of Jesus. The lash on his back, the thorns on his head, the spit on his cheek, the bruises on his face, the nails in his hands, the spear in his side, the scorn of rulers, the betrayal of his friends, the desertion by his disciples.

[29:00] These were all the results of sin, and all designed by God to destroy the power of sin. You see, in Jesus, we see the true Joseph, the better Joseph, who was sent by God, planned by God, designed by God, to come and save many people through his sufferings.

[29:32] Jesus is our better Job, isn't he? The one who is ultimately innocent, and suffered the ultimate suffering for us, judgment and hell, so that we don't have to.

[29:50] Jesus is the true and better Jeremiah, the one who trusted the Lord with his life, when nothing seemed to make sense.

[30:01] He committed his life to God. You see, knowing his suffering, knowing that his way to the cross was all designed by God, Jesus prayed.

[30:17] Do you remember what he prayed in the garden? Father, if you are willing, take this cup, take this cup of suffering from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.

[30:35] Jesus, as he faces into his suffering, entrusts his life to the Father. And when he is on the cross, having gone through all the suffering that he endured, Jesus called out in a loud voice, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

[30:56] And when he said this, he breathed his last. Because God has planned and designed his sufferings, Jesus could entrust his life to the Father.

[31:13] You see, as Jesus prays, he's praying for us. Jesus is standing in for us, entrusting our lives into the Father's sovereign hands.

[31:27] He prays the prayer for our eternal salvation, so that we can trust him with our life. He entrusts us into the Father's care, so that when suffering comes into our life, we too can pray, Father, not my will, but your will be done.

[31:52] Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. If God willed and decided all that should happen to his son would be for our good and for our ultimate salvation, how much more then can we trust him with the sufferings in our life?

[32:19] In the coming weeks, we're going to be seeing how God uses our suffering for our good and the many benefits and blessings that come through that. But as we close, I'd like us to listen to the testimony of Joni Erickson Tada.

[32:37] It comes from the book that I mentioned earlier. Joni suffered a terrible injury as a teenager that left her paralyzed from the neck down.

[32:47] Joni trusts God who has designed her suffering. Listen to what she says. These are her words.

[33:00] So many have tried to get me to say that my accident of 43 years ago was never part of God's plan, that my paralysis was never his intention, that quadriplegia was never necessary, that chronic pain didn't have to be, that suffering was never part of his plan, that the many tears and groans and struggles and sleepless nights were needless and a waste of my energy and my life.

[33:34] life. But I know differently. It was all planned long ago and God brought it about in his perfect faithfulness.

[33:47] And because he allowed it and permitted it, because he has walked with me through every moment of it, his plan has been marvellous for Joni Erickson Tadda.

[34:02] God has designed my suffering. God has designed your suffering.

[34:14] And we can trust him. Let's pray. Amen. Father, we look in your heart.

[34:37] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.