Colossians Lesson 7
Colossians · Courtney Hemenway · May 4, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926426296216

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, we are in Lesson 7, Colossians Chapter 1. We'll be covering verses 24 through 27 today. One of the things I want to do, and I realize this after a while, getting lost in the forest, through the trees, or see the trees through the forest, or whatever that thing is. You know, we've been looking, we've been climbing along I think we've had six, eight weeks to get through about ten verses or so. So, what I wanted to do is just to get back, kind of get back, look at the forest and see what we're looking at in this section.

You know, in mine, I think they actually break this section out. It's called the incomparable Christ. Just in my Bible, they divide it out. And I think that's a good term or topic label for this section of scripture. So I just want to go through just to kind of give us a kind of an overview back to what we're looking at in these verses because we've kind of chopped it up and looked at it in very fine detail. I just want to go back and get a flavor for this section of scripture because it is amazing when you look at this section and just the description of who Christ is.

And all that is involved in this section is just, well, taking us 8 or 10 weeks to get through these verses. We could probably spend that much more again, just going back over again. But I just want to go through it, and I'm going to start in verse 13 and go through 27. So Colossians 1, 13 through 27. Again, this is just the overview. And just remember, as we've gone through these sections, just what we've learned through these verses.

And this is an amazing section of Scripture and the description of Christ. So, beginning in verse 13. For he read, and I'll read from the New American Standard. for He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross through Him.

I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a minister." Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Of this church I was made a minister, according to the stewardship from God, bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Man, what a section of scripture. Just all that is covered in that, and just who Christ is. I think this is one of the best pictures of what's all involved in Christ, who Christ is, and just the splendors of it. Again, as I went over my section earlier on the In Him All Things Hold Together, that changed me, and if you really understand that, whatever you go through, if you understand that in that sheet that I handed out, I'll touch that a little bit later, if you know he's in control of all things.

That gives you that peace that surpasses all understanding, that rest that only He can provide. Because He's in control of all things. Every cell in your body, if you have illness or anything or any issues, He's in control of that. And you rest in that fact, in the macro, in anything that's going on. If He's in control, what peace? You understand He's in control of that.

And again, when we tie that, that we can't be separated from His love, For me, personally, that just gives me ultimate peace because I understand He is in control and whatever He is doing is for the best for me. So we'll touch a little bit on that in these verses actually. So, question one, lesson seven.

Why was Paul rejoicing in his sufferings and should we? So from verse 24 it says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings. Is Paul a glutton for punishment? Or is it just weird that he states he rejoices in suffering? It's really great that the Galatians might be dealing with joy. He was able to practice what he prayed.

Huh. Okay. So, was he going to say that they were going to suffer? Yes. We're going to touch on that one. That's those verses that you really don't want to touch, but you have to. So, he just wasn't a glutton. He said, I rejoice. Now, how many of you say you rejoice in your sufferings? Huh? Come on, we have the example here. Paul, rejoice in your sufferings. We'll touch on this. Because the last part of this is, should we? The personal aspect, I know that I have rejoiced over the last two years.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in and out of either a hospital or rehab or care center or whatever. But every place, every time, God has presented an opportunity to share the Word of God. And not necessarily from my starting anything, but just from somebody else's observation and asking questions. And it's just opened the doors because of where I was. And yeah, I had some physical suffering, but I could rejoice, like Paul says, that because of that I met people that I never would have come in contact with.

You know, how many times have you, I know personally in mine, there were some things in the past that probably it's the hardest thing I've been through, tore my heart out in some things. In the time it was hurting, you know, trusting the Lord what was going on, didn't understand at the time, and I fully confessed to the Lord, I don't understand this. This hurts.

And yet, you know, two years later, three years later, I understand exactly what was going on. At the time, I had no clue. And it was, I just trust you, Lord. There's no other way. But when you go through it, and you look back, 20-20 hindsight, oh, that's what you were doing. And you understand, at the time you may not. At the time you have opportunities, you may have perfect opportunities. And I think a lot of times that's it.

Especially in medical. I go back to Hal Malloy, who was the most amazing witness in the hospital that I have ever seen. I think I've relayed that story on many times, that when the psychiatrist went in to comfort him, she came out in tears because of what he had done to her. and just the understanding of the peace that he had and she couldn't understand. So he explained it to her, an opportunity.

So, you know, it's the rejoice in sufferings. The one that I always go back to, that I have a lot, is consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. The James. And if you try and understand that without all these things, how do you consider it all joy? He's saying the same thing here. I rejoice in my sufferings. You know, I rejoice in my sufferings. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.

Is this just craziness or what? Well, remember all the stuff we've learned before this about who Christ is and He's in control. All things. We hear all these things and we're going to get into some of these things. All things. Well, if you begin to understand this, and remember the bottom line of that sheet that I had. What is our battle? What is our battle in all this? What's the one thing? Are we supposed to fight the devil? Are we supposed to carry the load? What is our battle? Faith. And what does that mean? It means to believe this stuff. To believe it.

And when you do, what do you have? As that sheet went down, peace, rest, joy, all these different things. So you can rejoice in your sufferings. It's really kind of, I mean, it sounds weird when you put it together, if you don't put everything together. But that's how Paul could do it. I was looking at that word, rejoice, and I remember reading that it's grace giving joy.

It's God as a source. And it flows from the life of Christ. It's not something that we could ever conjure up of ourselves. It's another grace of God. Great point. I couldn't do this if I didn't have Christ in me. There's just no way. I use this a lot. You husbands, go and look in Ephesians and look at your responsibilities as a husband. Can you do that by yourselves? Pardon the English. Ain't no way. Ain't no way. I look at that and there's no way I can look at all the things that as a husband I'm supposed to do without the Holy Spirit and Christ in me. There's no way.

In these sufferings, people go through tragedies and I feel, we've had some and some friends, and I just feel the emptiness that they have because they don't understand. They don't have the peace that we can have in suffering and in trials. When some of these medical things happen and they just have no clue, I just feel for them. And it's a great witnessing opportunity. Because it's like, I know there's a God and He's in control. I don't understand maybe what's going on here, but He's in control. And I rest in that fact and that gives me peace.

I just feel for those people who don't have that, they can never say this, I believe. Consider it all joy. Rejoice in my sufferings. They can't. But we can. The last part of this, should we? Should we rejoice in our sufferings? Swallow hard. Swallow hard.

Yes. Does Paul believe that there is a reason or purpose for his suffering? Yes. And what is that? You've got to share in the suffering of Christ. And at the end of this verse, verse 24, he says, now I rejoice in my suffering, why? What's it say? For you, for your sake. For your sake. So not only is Paul, he's not just a glutton for punishment, I'm just suffering for the fun of it. He's doing it for what? Your sake. So, it's not just that he's a glutton for punishment and likes to have suffering.

The reason why he goes through this is so they may grow. They may grow in Christ. Point them to Christ. It's for your sake. So, Paul was rejoicing in suffering because it benefited the church at Colossae and ultimately us. So it wasn't just a sick thing to do. It was a purpose. It was for us.

And when you go through this, I was looking through, which we'll touch a little bit, reading through Acts and what Paul goes through, his little ship ride to Rome. If you go through that, I mean, whew. Reading through that the other day, it was, yeah, that was quite a trip. And we'll touch on some of these verses.

In all that, what does he consider the sufferings? As nothing. Because of Christ. So, look at Philippians 3, 7-9. Again, Paul is stating things about suffering and his attitude toward it. So, Philippians 3, 7-9, it says, But whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him." Do you understand his suffering? I count them all but rubbish, loss of everything. What? That I may gain Christ and may be found in him. That's how he rejoices. He counted it but trash, rubbish. So he may gain Christ.

Yeah. Didn't Solomon basically come to that same conclusion in the very end? Well, actually in, what is it? In the end, with all knowledge and everything, it's all junk. And I can't remember the exact verse of that, but he does. At the very end he says, with all the great knowledge and all the books and all the knowledge that there is, it's worthless. Fear God. And I can't remember what that is. I think it was just Fear God, I think. It wasn't even the commandment. It's the end of one of the short books. I can't remember which one it is, but it basically says at the end, he says, I have all this knowledge and all the books and all the great things and all this, wisest man ever, and in the end he says, Fear God. So yeah, he came to the same conclusion. The real thing is knowing Christ. That's how you can get through this rejoicing in sufferings? Consider all joy? Keep the commandments. It is? Keep the commandments? I just, I term it, I cut it off. I just fear God. Keep those commandments then. Law based, huh? Yeah. This is kind of off subject, but I don't want to miss an opportunity to ask.

In verse 24, where he says, Through his affliction he's filling up that which is lacking in Christ's affliction. I don't think anything was lacking. Read down about three questions. Two or three questions. Somewhere. Afflictions. We deal with this. It's number three? Yeah. I can see how it would improve the person. We're going to get to this. But there's nothing lacking in anything about Christ. You are jumping ahead. Is it question three? Yeah, question three. What does Paul mean when he speaks of filling up that which is lacking? We will address that coming up here.

So again, the rejoicing. So again, the battle we have is faith, believing this, that he's in control of all things. And that's where we can go through anything. And if I can impress, that's the thing, when you have any kind of trial, any kind of suffering, you have a piece that the world doesn't have. Because you have the indwelling, and if you understand, by faith, these truths, what do you do? Are you shouting at God because he went, oops, missed it. Oh, it's Friday. I forgot. I didn't see what was going on. I was busy over here.

Can that ever happen? Never. Intimately involved with each and every one of you. And if you tie that to you can't be separated from his love, what more peace can you get in any circumstance? Any medical, any trial, anything if you understand that. You may not understand why it's happening. I fully confess that. A lot of times I have no idea what he's doing. But I rest in the fact that he's in control. And as I said many times, I don't know if you have, but like I said many times, if you've gone through something, you have no clue. But, and we'll actually touch on some verses that do this, but three years later, five years later, he used that for his purposes. Five years later, in you or through you. Yeah, Carol.

I think the point of rejoicing in suffering is that you're rejoicing about your sufferings. It's in spite of. is that you can rise above them and you're rejoicing because of what you have in the Lord. Right, yeah, exactly. It's not that I'm rejoicing that, you know, I'm having somebody pound on my feet. It's that we can endure them and we don't have to dwell on them. Because you understand why.

He's in control. That's why I went back through the beginning of this whole passage. Because put all these things together. This is just the back end of this whole passage he's speaking about. So that's why I want to go back, because think of all these truths that we've already learned about Christ. So if you begin to understand those by faith, we can rejoice in our suffering. We can understand them.

We can know that he's using it for his purposes. I don't know why he may be doing something, but I know he's in control. He loves me, and it's the best thing for me. Even in a trial. Thinking about the identification side of this conditional positional, we've talked a lot about the purpose, and purpose is really important.

I was just thinking about how Christ suffers. He's the one suffering. He's the one rejoicing. He's the one that's doing the living. And we're resting in Him as He works this out in our lives. And so, Paul definitely is talking about my sufferings, but in other passages he talks about my suffering with Christ. And he also contrasts that with my comfort in Christ. And so when we think about it, we sometimes want to own our suffering so much, like this is my thing, nobody gets it like anyone else gets it. And I've got this burden to bear and it's mine.

But really, from a positional perspective, this is what Christ is doing through you, and He's the one that has the rejoicing for you. It's not you mustering up the strength to get through it, and it's not your attitude adjustments that are going to eventually work themselves out. It's Christ that does these in and through you. It's not like you want to go out and just play in the middle of I-25, you know. You know, you go out and just, Lord, yeah, I'm rejoicing in this. He gave us a will, He gave it, you understand. I mean, you know, it's not that I just want to suffer and these things are, that I own them. It's that you have an understanding through these trials of who, you know, who is the one in control.

And I just, I go back to these things about why that's so important for me. He's in control of all things because And we'll touch on this a little bit. Is it only when you're doing something for Christ or is it in all things? And we'll touch a little bit more on that when we get into the further questions.

But if you just understand He's in control and He can't be separated from love. Just understand those two things. That's, I think, the key in faith of understanding. It's not owning all these sufferings, but understanding he's the one doing this and he's the one who's who's bringing you through this and what for your best interest for for what's best for you to what to be conformed to him and his image yeah um you know we're in first peter in the fourth chapter of the twelfth verse it says beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as you are protectors of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may have exceeding joy, because He has set these trials and has separated us from this old earth."

Absolutely! Perfect verses! Now what was that scripture? 1 Peter 4, 3, 12, yeah. 1 Peter 4. Yeah, 12 and 13. Again, look at the way that is structured. All these sayings, rejoice. Keep hearing that from him. What is with this guy? He knows the end. He knows that the battle is faith, believing that what Christ said is true, and understanding these things.

The last part of this question is, should we? Should we rejoice? Should we understand these things? We're going to go through, and we talked about it in the last lesson I did on those things, We are going to go through trials. It isn't that once you become a believer, it's cupcakes and candy. There will be trials, no question. But, if you understand these things, you can, not through your own gutting it out, It's understanding by faith that Christ is doing these things in and through you to what? Conform you to his image, to draw you out of this world and into him, into conforming to him.

Is there a scripture about, you know, you keep talking about identification and the positional and the conditional, and I think I understand that, but if you were going to talk to someone about that, what scriptures would you use? The identification ones, I use Romans 6. That really is the best one, I think, for the identification. It talks about our co-crucifixion. It goes all through that Romans 6-6, 6-11. Reckon yourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God. All those are probably for the identification.

The positional ones come out of the identification because we've been placed into Him. So once we're into Him, all those truths of Christ become ours, other than deity. So once we're placed, that's the positional side. Whatever we're saying, like in Ephesians, I think in the first two chapters, I think there was like 16 or 20 times the in hymns. All these truths, because we're in hymn, and those are positional truths. If you look at Ephesians, especially 1 and 2. you'll see about the in hymns, which are positional. Because just think of the placement, we're placed in the hymns, that's a positional truth.

Anytime where it's kind of a response or action on our part, I don't know if that's the best, it's more conditional. But there's so many truths, and we pass out those papers that are, Louis Ferry Chaffer has the 33 things that are immediately true of you once you believe. And that's the positional truths. But then I think they expand out. There's another one that has like 212 that talk about things that they've gone in. So, I can't point to... Yeah, I got one for you. Romans 8, 17. I'll read it to you real quick.

It says, And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. So that talks about our relationship, right? And then it goes on, If indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. So suffering and glorification, obviously death, glorification, I mean there's two of the five identification truths right there, but specifically suffering.

2 Corinthians 1.5 is another you can check out.

Yes, and position and condition, you know, is there, I don't know other than, well I know, but a verse that says this is position, there isn't one, there isn't like a verse that says position, it's because of our identification with him being placed into him, that that gets our position. So there are lots of scriptures, when you look at it, you just have to see if it is relating to where we are positionally in Christ. You just have to evaluate it based on what it's talking about. The one that came to my mind is 1 Corinthians 12, 13. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, yeah. And so from this we can say that we have been placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. You know, Paul has a lot, you know, that it is not I who live, but Christ in me.

You know, there are a bunch of those that will substantiate where a placement or a position is. So there isn't like I said a verse that just says, this is position. But it's based on the identification truths of us being placed into him, our co-crucifixion, our baptism, into his death and his resurrection, death, burial, resurrection, ascension. And so through that we are positionally put into him.

And so when you see a lot of those ones, like I said, Ephesians comes to mind. Like I said, there are several verses that say, in Him, you know, all these truths, because it says, in Him we have, in Him, in Him. And it's because of that position, we have all those truths about us.

It just dawned on me when you rang up Ephesians, we talked about at the very beginning of the class, Colossians is about our minds set above, and Ephesians is about our minds set... is about heavenly looking down. Heavenly looking down, and this is earthly looking up. Wait, wait. Colossians is what? It's about setting our mind above. Colossians is basically us here conditionally looking up who we are, and Ephesians is the other way. It shows our position in the heavenlies, And so our position, where we are in Christ, so it's basically heavenly looking down, where Colossians is earthly looking up.

Kind of as a general theme of the books, or the epistles, yeah. Well, I saw J.D. Phillips' translation of Christ in You, the Hope of Glory, and he says, Christ in you, the hope, of all the glorious things to come. Well, this is where Mike gets mad at heaven can wait, or what is that, when we all get to heaven, or one of those, we're positionally there now.

We have all these truths about us right now. So they aren't something to come, they're the things right now. Positionally right now, the positional things are true about you right now. No waiting. No wait in line, no delay. Once you go through that process of the co-crucifixion, once you believe and you go through that co-crucifixion, in God's view, positionally, He has separated you and now you're a new creature placed into Christ. Right now, what's true about you right now is Christ. You have been placed into Christ positionally. So when He looks at you, He sees Christ.

That's good. Yeah. And when you look at your sufferings, you see Christ. Yeah, it's amazing how this works, you know? It all fits together. Okay? Possibly move on to question two? Blazing through the questions today. Why were Paul suffering for the sake of the church? Was it to show the church at Colossae how good they had it?

Good. Warn them. Lead by example. Lead by example. Witness. Witness. He knew, well he had been told by God that he was going to suffer. And he knew that what he was doing while he was suffering in prison, for example, was going to be for the benefit of the church, right down to where we are right now. So, it was for the sake of the church. Yeah. You know, and I go back, you know, to the real Lord's Prayer, John 17. Remember where he says, you know, the ones who believe based on what you say and what... These are the things so we may believe.

You know, all these things that transpired, it's for us, as well as the church at Colossae. It is for us. All these things he suffered. Because we look at it, and again, if you understand what Paul went through, how's your day going? How's that shipwreck going? How's the stoning? You got stoned this morning? It was an early stoning before you came here? Or a snake bite.

You know, you look at what he went through, but it's for our sake. And so, was the church supposed to derive some enjoyment from Paul's sufferings? Why was it for the sake of the church, and ultimately for us? So I went to 2 Corinthians 1, 3-7, and I read it.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Just remember these things. Remember all these. The God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. Or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our suffering, so also you are sharers of our comfort." Hmm. Hmm. so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted.

Think that may be what Paul was doing? He's saying, he's rejoicing in the sufferings, understanding what's going on. Hey Colossi, hey believers, how was he comforted? by all the things He knew. He knew all this. He knew He's in control of all things.

God loved us first. We can't be separated from this. That's how He was comforted. How are we supposed to be comforted? By the exact same thing. So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Can you say that? Boy that's done silence.

I think just that right here, must I be carried through the skies on flowery beds of ease while others stalk through enterprise and sail through bloody seas. We have to think about that too where we are and where other people who have the same thing that we have. You know, it is, you know, but we have the same, I mean, whether we're in persecution somewhere or right here, it's the same.

And the sufferings, you know, I look at these things and I understand it. What I said, you know, you go through something, I said at the beginning, if you go through something, I don't understand why that's happening. But then, five years later, somebody is in the exact same position, hey, I know what you're going through. I know what you're going through. I've been there. It doesn't mean everybody has to be through the same things, but that same comfort that you received in your trial can be brought to someone else to comfort them.

And what I put here is also, The answer, you know, should this be the same for us? Yes. But then, you know, the answer is, boy, but you ought to walk a mile in my shoes. Whew. Yeah, it's easy for you to say. You know, you and your ivory tower up there, you know, you haven't had my suffering. So.

Also, Paul had to come to a radical change of living of thinking. He was a very educated man and had been on the side of those doing the persecution for a while. A lot of the Christians at that time were suffering persecution one way or another, not just physical pain, but being slaughtered even. Because they were a Christian. And Paul, because of his suffering now, could understand and could speak to them and give them that thing to hold on to? Yeah, he says, somewhere out there in the scriptures, I being the chief accuser or chief persecutor, you know, he relates back to what he had done. But I look at, you know, from the afflictions, is it only, you know, nobody understands my pain. You guys are great, but, you know, I'm different. Is that the way you feel? Is that the way you should feel? No. Everybody has affliction.

And the peace you derive, the rejoicing is understanding God has a purpose for that. What did we say? He's already said the purpose is for their sake. For your sake. So your sufferings, no matter how tough you think you have it, God's in control and He's using it. For your sake. What? To draw you to Him. To be conformed to Him.

You know, the more you hang on to this world and the other stuff, that's what He's trying to separate you from. Give it up. Give it up. You know, our citizenship's in heaven now. That's where our citizenship is. We're just ambassadors here. Give up holding on to the things here.

And the conforming, he uses these sufferings, these trials, to what conform you to his image. That's his ultimate purpose. So, when you go through that trial, understand, and that gives me peace. If I'm going through, you know, the garbage disposal, you know, getting torn up, I can understand. I mean, I don't understand why you're doing it, but I understand your purpose. It's to draw me to you. That's it. And is that a bad thing? Being drawn to Christ? No, no, get away. I want to stay at arm's length from you. I don't want to be closer to you. Crazy. Be conformed to his image. These trials are meant for your benefit. And no matter who's going through what, you always think, like I said, the typical answer is, yeah, but you haven't been in my shoes. You haven't been in my shoes. You don't know where I've been.

Guess what? He knows where you've been. He knows your shoes. He knows where you're at. And guess what? He has you exactly where he wants you. And learning. He's in control of all things. Somebody had... Yeah, Roy? I was just thinking that maybe I took this wrong, but I took it a little differently as to the answer to why The why is answered because God made him a minister of this mystery that Christ is in us with confidence of glory. Next couple of questions. I know. That's what came to my mind. Yeah, it is.

And again, when you look at the whole passage, he answers that. He brings that down in the next couple of verses. And Peter goes on with that a little further in chapter 4 there. was quoted a little while ago, but verse 19 it says, therefore let those also suffer according to the will of God and trust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. The creator is doing the right thing.

But you're entrusting, believing. We can't see it. Right. Chester McCauley had an interesting thought here. He says, the sufferings of a believer are seen as the continuation of this world's quarrel with Christ Jesus. And I thought that was kind of interesting. Yeah, we'll kind of touch on that as we go on, but that's true. Because we'll get into the next question about, should we be comfortable here? So that'll answer that.

The other one, which was kind of a question in this one, and I don't know if you have this same question. Does that mean any suffering or affliction or just those when we're representing Christ? What do you think? I'm sorry, what did you say? Wanda, Wanda, Wanda. I can't keep up. I can't answer. Let me repeat the question.

I want answers for this because this is, I think, an important part. Are these afflictions Any affliction? Or only when we're representing Christ? Or ministering for Christ? I want to get a hint. Can we do a hint? You guys are all going to be chicken. You'll never do this. Who thinks it's for when we're representing Christ? What about any affliction? We should be representing Christ at all times. Because He is within us and anybody observing us should see Him.

Your knee. Oh yeah. I don't know why I'm going through this, but God does and I can trust that. He's doing what is right. But my point, and I looked at this and it's like, is this just when Paul is a minister, which we'll get down to in the next verses, is it only that or is it any affliction? Most of you said, any. The verse in Romans 8 says, God is working all things together. That's where you get that conformingness. Lots of verses.

If we look at verse 4 out of the Colossians verses that are read, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we'll be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. So it isn't just when we're representing Christ that we're persecuted for presenting Christ. This is any affliction. So again, the thought being is in any affliction. Because what is it? God is still in control of that affliction, right? That trial? He's still in control of all that. And why?

To draw you to Him. And Wanda brought up a great point. Last week she asked, you know, why did I go to all these different churches? And my coming to know Christ has been such a long path. I mean, but God's in charge of all of that. That's it. He had that path specifically for you. He has that path specifically for any of you. Would you repeat what Roy said? I couldn't. Basically with what Wanda was saying last week about how she'd gotten to this point.

I was just saying that it was a great example of God working all things together for good. That Wanda went through all of these things in her progress of growth in coming to be intimate with Christ and knowing that she is part of his body. And with that she can comfort other people. This is what He's done for me in bringing me to know Him. I was thinking though that since we're the only Bible that people may ever read, it really depends on how we're handling our afflictions and that's what they're going to see. Are we trusting or are we just fighting through it?

See and that's, again, my point is that, you know, He's using all that and It's just what I brought up with Hal. Hal was a great witness during the last moments of his life. He used that. And you know, I think of all these things, you know, all things and all this.

All the things he did in his life, the last thing that God had for him to do before he took home was to witness all these people in the hospital, I think. You know, that was the last work that he had for them. And he did a great job because, my greatest example is when the psychiatrist is coming out of the room crying. She was going to comfort him.

Oops. She had no clue about any of this and how revealed that to her and how he could go through moments, days before his death basically and basically be rejoicing. Yeah, you know, those are the things like, you know, it sounds stupid, but you know, it's like, you know, having a surgery or something, you know, having my hip and all the things. I really have a piece in that, even though Mike was very, very rapid to want to speak at my memorial if I died on the table, so it's a little disturbing, but it's, you know, it's a win-win.

I literally, if I get done, it's great and it's fixed. But if I go home, it's a win. I'm home. I am home. This is not my home. And if you understand that, boy, does that make it easier. You know, that peace, that joy, that rest, all those things? Perfect. I'm not home yet. So, alright, we'll finish up a little bit. I've got a couple more points on this and then we'll continue. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. Again, we just thank you for who you are. Father, we just rest in you. As we understand these truths, we derive the peace that only you can provide, the rest that only you can provide. that comfort that only you can provide in any of these afflictions. As we understand, as we go through these sufferings, there's a purpose and it's to draw us to your son, to be conformed to his image, to give up this world, to be conformed to his image and look to our home. which is in heaven. Positionally we're there right now. Conditionally at some point you will take us home and we just rejoice in that day when we are back face to face or we are face to face with you and we just Realize it's the battle of faith that we have now.

Believing these things that you have left for us, these truths, these wonderful truths that you have, that you are the one that hold all things together. You're the ones in control and you love us with a love that can't be separated. from so we just rest in those facts and and again we thank you for all these truths all the things you've done for us in fact you provide everything to us every heartbeat every breath everything that we have is provided from you so we just thank you for that and we just thank you for this time we pray for Vern as he gives us a message just prepare hearts to receive it we do all these things in the name of your son the Lord Jesus Amen