 Okay So the recording is on good morning everyone Welcome to BC two on two our course on Christian apologetics So the plan is simple today. We want to finish Lesson 15 which we've been on And Then so I think you would be able to do it in in one hour So if you do that, then I will not be taking the second hour. We'll have it free and Then next week we'll get into our final Section on social issues. You want to discuss? different social issues And I'll mention that yeah next week, but let's pray we get started. Hopefully the others will join our class soon and We'll get going. Let's pray. Could somebody please lead us in prayer In heaven the father we come to you under the name of Jesus We thank you for this beautiful day and for the class. We are about to have God God I place past dashes into your hands be with him and guide him as he teaches us Jesus Help us to receive with Jesus help us to open our mind and heart and listen to it Lord, I pray for all my classmates over here I pray that we'll have some good network connections over the class and nothing will be a hinder for us Jesus, you're amazing. We love you. We thank you for everything that we that you have did Jesus you have called us To declare your gospel boldly Jesus as we learn about every single thing You give us that understanding and wisdom and knowledge and guide us throughout the session lot We give it into your hands you guide us and you lead us in Jesus name of prayer amen. Amen Amen, good morning. Once again. Thank you. All right so we Applying as I said is to complete our chapter 15. Have we been talking about a Biblical understanding of suffering so You want to just quickly review what we've done in The previous lectures and then bring you know bring this to a completion and of course feel free to Ask your questions on this area It is a challenging area. It's not that we have all the answers but To the best we can we can study the scriptures and try to understand You know About suffering why is why it is there and what what does God want us to do? in Relation to all that we see happening around us So let me go ahead Share the notes and we'll quickly review and move forward So we've been on this lesson for some time now. We've been trying to understand Yeah, why is there suffering? from a Biblical perspective and then We want to understand how God wants us to Respond to this and you know navigate through this as we journey through life So we began by saying that we need to understand God's heart In the light of his original intent, you know what it got originally intent We said it was not his intent for suffering to be in this world There's sickness and disease and pain and evil and that was not his original intent But we know it is there it is there in this world. We can't deny it There are kinds of difficulties hardships Oppressions all kinds of things happening And we face it in all realms when we face it in spiritual emotional physical realm There is suffering happening So if you want to look into the Bible and try to you know identify this why is there suffering? You know, we could look we can put it down And this is for our study purposes. We can identify these six areas one Is the and we'll go through each of these suffering due to the bondage of corruption suffering due to one's own actions suffering due to satanic oppression suffering due to other people's actions including persecution suffering due to divine judgment and suffering due to willing sacrifice So we talked about the first one suffering due to bondage of corruption which Paul explains for us in Romans 8 basically from the time of the fall all of creation was plunged into a process of decay a corruption deviation from the original design It was not God God's original intent but God gave it up knowing that he's going to redeem all of this back He's going to bring it all back to the original state so right now we're in that intermediate state between Where everything is in a state of corruption, but God will redeem all of it to himself Secondly, we said that there is suffering due to one's own actions sometimes we are not we don't live responsibly and when we do things wrong We face the consequences and then that's a Frank. So we shouldn't blame it on God neither should we blame it on anybody else But we need to take responsibility for our own actions and correct ourselves Of course, we repent before God And we learn from our mistakes and we correct ourselves and that is something all of us have to do But God in his mercy He lessens the consequence of our wrong actions. That's the mercy of God So When we repent and go to God and say Lord, I realize what I've done. I recognize my mistake Have mercy then in his mercy he reduces, you know, he causes the impact of our Wrong actions. He turns it around And he brings something good or beautiful out of that in spite of our mistakes The third thing we third area is suffering due to satanic oppression. So we spent some time on this where we said, you know And we look at Job we look at the apostle Paul It's very clear that it was Job. It was satan who was doing these things And we looked at Job very carefully It was very, you know Satan was doing these things to Job Job didn't have the understanding That we have, you know, we have the advantage of the written scriptures Which we can read and we can gain insight into the spiritual world Job did not have that he was faithful to God In his limited understanding, he thought God was doing it But in spite of it, he never sinned against God, you know, that's that's amazing. You know, he had little knowledge very limited knowledge So you can't blame him that He thought God was doing it, you know, he said God has given God has taken away He didn't realize or he didn't know he didn't have the understanding for satan was afflicting But in spite of all that Job didn't sin against God You know, and he maintained his integrity and so the new testament points back to Job and says look at his endurance and I follow his example And we see the end of it. That is God turned everything back So God reverses even what the devil does, you know, God reverses and works everything out for our good The case of the apostle Paul that thorn in the flesh was a messenger of satan that kept on coming against him and You know, Paul prayed God take this away and God said, you know, it's not about taking that away But it's about you depending on my grace to overcome And we see the end result, you know, Paul said I finished my course. I've kept the faith um That means this messenger of satan demonic power that kept coming against him Did not succeed Paul finished his course And that's a lesson for us to learn that God's empowering grace help us to work helps us to overcome whatever the devil may throw against us But we also made other qualifiers in the sense. We said, you know, none of us qualify for a thorn in the flesh the way Paul had Because we have not received the abundance or revelations that Paul received, you know We are walking at a different we're walking in a different calling In comparison to the apostle Paul whom God revealed so much and he In order to write the revelation the new testament um Major part of the new testament for us So we've been given weapons to overcome What the enemy does Then we came to the point for the point where we spent some time. We said look There is suffering cause because of other people's actions including persecution So this is where sin is in the world people hate people do wickedness And they do wickedness even towards good people innocent people And they don't you know, they don't feel bad about it. They don't their consciousness and trouble them because their conscience has been seared and They go around doing evil so We as believers may face persecution Or evil against us because of who we are because of our faith because of our standing for righteousness Because of our walk of integrity There will be things coming against us because of the actions of other people So this is where there is that Unknown, you know for me it is still an unknown fact here Where On the one hand we believe in divine protection You know, we believe in divine protection. So this is where we stopped We believe in divine protection We believe god is our defender god is our fortress No weapon formed against us will prosper The angel of the lord encams around us until we believe in that and yet I do not have an explanation For why some believers actually suffer persecution meaning they they they they endure there they they go through the heart the heart things I don't have an explanation for that But if you ask me, what is your personal position my personal position is to believe god That god will divinely protect me And so I go out With wisdom to serve god, you know We don't unnecessarily put ourselves in a place where Unnecessarily we are at we are putting ourselves in risk You know and and and I and I've heard so many examples for instance a preacher stands in front of a temple And he preaches against idolatry In front of a temple, you know Happens here in India So or they give out, you know, they stand in front of a temple and they give out tracks And the tracks are so condemning Ideology, you know, you you people you worship idols you need and then there is Of course the Hindus whoever they would get upset And they would you know start throwing stones beating people whatever now When I look at that or you know, and these things have happened When we look at that say look, why did you do something like that? You know, you're you're causing trouble for yourself. You're going standing in front of a temple And then telling people don't worship idols. I mean Come on There's a better way to do it Right, uh, you know, of course we call to preach the gospel but do it with wisdom share it in love And so on, you know, so In those situations when people are persecuted then you think like hey could you have avoided that and it's unnecessary Because you're unnecessarily doing something provoking people And it's obviously going to bring this kind of action from them We are not here to hurt the sentiments of people but to proclaim the truth in love so um, we have to be Wise so when Jesus sent his disciples out in Matthew 10, you know, you said see You're going to face hardship, but people are going to hate you for my name's sake, but I'm sending you As sheep Among wolves me look, you know, this is a very dangerous situation. You're putting sheep among wolves, but he said I want you to be wise as happens and harmless as does So we aren't fearful We believe in God's protection But we have to be wise, you know, don't Unnecessarily expose ourselves into those things. There are so many different ways in which we can go about reaching people so there is that Walk with wisdom Don't walk in fear walk in boldness and walk in wisdom and as we go about Doing what we call to do and believe in divine protection believe the girl protect you. So that's my my Position But I don't have an explanation for you know, why is it that Some Christians or some Christians end up facing persecution in some very very difficult ways Why didn't God protect them? Why didn't the angel of God stand and You know, preserve them at that moment? I don't have an answer But the thing that we must be determined in our hearts and minds is We do not love our lives even to the point of death that means If we have to suffer to the point of death, so be it Our commitment is to Jesus Christ We're going to believe God for protection. He will protect us But if we have to die for Christ as martyrs, so be it So that's where we stand We will Proceed now to the next few. Let me pause you to see if there any questions and then we will proceed with The remaining areas. Let me just pause and see If there are any questions um Any questions so far I just did a quick review Of what we have covered so far Any questions? Let's move forward so the fifth reason Why there is suffering is because of divine discipline And also divine judgment Now we need to understand the difference between these two things Discipline and judgment These are two different things God disciplines whom he loves God also judges He he he Sense judgment against What he hates that is against the sin that he hates so discipline is something All of God's people believers will face So let's go to Hebrews chapter 12. It's um, it's um Important passage Hebrews 12 is going to read a section a portion of it Hebrews 12 and let's see Let's go from verse 5 Till verse 11 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 To 11 could somebody read that for us, please Hebrews 12 fight to 11 Hebrews 12 fight along somebody please Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 to 11 And you have forgotten that the word of encouragement or addresses you as sons My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you Because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone. He accepts as a son And your hardship as discipline God is treating you as sons for what son is not disciplined by his father If you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline Then you are illegitimate children and not true sons Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it How much more should we submit? To the father of our spirits and live our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they Thought best but God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness No disciplines seems blessed at the time but painful they turn on however It produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it So this is a beautiful passage Hebrews 12 That explains to us God's divine discipline now This discipline it has to be understood in context So this discipline that's being talked about here in Hebrews 12 5 through 11 is God disciplining us as a father would discipline An earthly father would discipline his children So that's the context. It's not about judgment judgment is different This is discipline so that means this is something that happens in all of our lives as children of God on an ongoing basis And what is you know, what what are some of the things we can you know highlight from this passage one is The discipline that that that God deals with us is is so much more in love and compassion than an earthly father earthly parent See an earthly parent of course disciplines their children Not to destroy them But in order to train them in the right way And God does this of course with much more love Much more kindness he disciplines us In order to train us in righteousness and holiness. So he says, you know End of worst then the reason God does this is so that we may be partakers of his holiness So God is disciplining us for a purpose That we could partake in his holiness it's not uh just You know don't it's not just for his personal You know desire Now train us in holiness. We are going to be brought to a place of holiness And again an end of worst realm it it brings a peaceful fruit of righteousness by those who are trained by it So God's discipline God's disciplinary dealings with us is as a father as a heavenly father That means with much more love much more compassion much more patience Than would be demonstrated by an earthly parent in an even earthly parents, you know Um, you know, if you just think about how they would go about it They would initially say no don't do that and they would they would discipline through words They were disciplined through you know giving simple punishment like hey go sit in the corner or you will not be allowed to play for Next one out whatever, you know some some simple forms of correction In order to help the child understand the lesson and then You know in some cases they would you know and again this varies in different parts of the world. I understand it I don't want to get into a debate on this but in some parts of the world they do spank the kids Right, for instance in india. We are allowed to I know in you know in some other parts of the world. That's considered abuse Again, it's just perception of our people look at it but anyway, that's not the point that I want to argue about but the point I want to highlight is parents are very progressive in the way they discipline the child initially it's Just verbal don't do do this or don't do that Then you find that then there is a little bit of more correction coming through You know by saying, okay, you won't get this privilege. They're removing a way of privileges You know you have to do this sit in a corner or whatever, you know, and then there is In some parts of the world like I said they could even use the cane or something like that But anyway, so there are these forms of correction But all of this is done in love with the intent Of the well-being of the child who is being trained to understand what's right. What's wrong So that the child does not fall into trouble get into error or whatever, you know get into trouble and so So that that's the way we must understand he bruce 12 that god lovingly corrects us His two primary ways to correct us is through the scriptures And through the prompting of the holy spirit But that's very clear We all understand that you know all scripture is given by the Inspiration of God and it is useful one of the things it mentions there in second Timothy 3 16 and 17 is for correction So the scriptures The god uses his word to correct us. So that's one way Where loving correction comes into our lives Second the holy spirit He guides us into all truth He Tells us, you know, he can be grieved that means when he's grieved he's communicating to us that Something we are doing or tolerating in our lives is Not pleasant to him. It's not pleasing to him. So the holy spirit can be grieved. Let's just know he's grieved Which means we need to change And then of course the the fact is god uses other people So, you know, that's why he's made us part of the body we he uses us to Shape and correct each other in love. So these are the three Primary ways by which gods divine discipline loving correction comes into our lives by his word by his spirit through the Council a lot of the people he's put around in our lives. They're willing to Speak into us and tell us and This is God's loving correction. It's meant to build us up. It's not meant to destroy us. It's not meant to You know, uh, in any way Demote us. It's only meant to bring us to a level of greater holiness greater righteousness maturity revelation so on so forth, right? So But what is interesting is this That All of this like verse 11 he says No chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful. So Sometimes And there are times when God's loving correction is painful Why is it painful because we Have difficulty in adapting to it right, so for example God may you know, uh We may hold a grudge against somebody And you know, we're kind of just going on with it But then God begins to deal with us through his word or by his spirit or even through somebody else Saying you need to forgive Now how can I forgive? Why should I forgive? So We struggle with it. It's painful for us and you know, I'm just making an example here It's just painful for us to deal with that So while God is telling us, you know, you need to forgive you need to let go you cannot hold it against that person For us, it's like, hmm, you know I'm not willing to forgive whatever it's painful for us. So this divine discipline in some cases Requires a little bit some sacrifice in our lives some it it's it brings about some discomfort or pain in our lives in order for us to obey What God is telling us So to that extent there is we could say suffering in the life of a believer In that extent now, I'm not saying every time even most of us and God corrects us. We're ready to get in line We say god, I understand. I thank you so much for correcting me. I receive your correction I I just bring myself into alignment and I am choosing to do your will so it's very simple You know, we respond like that many cases But in some cases it can be difficult We have to get our mind our will our emotions in line With the word of God and that's where we have a struggle and we go through a little bit of suffering In contrast to divine discipline is divine judgment So judgment is very different When do we and we see examples of this in God's divine judgment towards his own people and the judgment of God Is always, you know, there are some things we can say about the judgment of God As we look at it in scripture It's always preceded by a call to repentance. You know, that means before God can actually execute judgment He's going to tell people hey, you know Get back in line And This is the right way, you know, whether he He speaks through his prophets or through the preaching of His servant in some way God is calling people back to him When they refuse to heed that All right, so that means they are now in rebellion. They've gone away from walking in obedience They're continuing in rebellion and are not heeding his call to repentance Then at some point God says, okay, it's time for judgment Right, so it's not like judgment happens immediately, you know the moment somebody sends boom, there's judgment No, what we see in the bible over and over again Is that God always gives a call to repentance? He sends a messenger Calling people because he wants people to find mercy And he wants people when they repent They can obtain mercy instead of judgment That they can come back into alignment come back into the place where God wants them to be But If they continue Going out of What he wants then there is judgment now the The the the judgment remember who is responsible for judgment It's the people Because they were in disobedience. They were in rebellion And then what what really happens in judgment is we are stepping out of God's Providential protection over our lives We are stepping out of God's because God's Desire is always to protect to preserve to provide To bless But in disobedience we're walking out of that Out of his place out of our place of covenant out of our place of providential Care and protection walking out of it Then what happens each experience judgment now there will be times when God uses, you know things to bring judgment There may be times when God lets the enemy You know cause all kinds of things to happen And and and so there are very different things that we see that take place in judgment But then that judgment is also intended to Force us in some ways force us back to a place Of repentance Now if you Look at that and now we see all of that in the Old Testament Now we look at it in the New Testament. What do we see? well In Acts chapter 5 we see some serious things happen the book of Acts Ananias and Sapphira They did what seemed to be a small thing. They Only brought a portion of what they had received from the sale of their land And brought it to the apostles But the pretense was that look this is all we got we're bringing everything So that means they were dishonest to that extent You know they didn't bring a hundred percent they they pretended to bring a hundred percent But they actually kept part of it back So that is where the problem was But what is so strange In Acts chapter 5 is there was severe judgment both fell down dead And so we think like that's very severe Because today There are a lot of people talking about in the church who are doing wrong things But they don't fall down dead It's just continuous Why is that? Well, one thing we can point to Acts chapter 5 is That was a season of great glory You know you look at Acts chapter 5 Acceptance, you know two three four and five from the day of Pentecost It was a season of great glory and there that is great glory There is low tolerance for sin How do we know that? Well Look at the very presence of God In the glory of God in the very presence of God there is zero sin and the The one record that we have of Lucifer the archangel. I mean one of the greatest angels got created When he sinned he was immediately banished from the presence of God no tolerance zero tolerance Expelled who was just the archangel lucifer? Most likely the chief musician the chief worship leader Sin was found in him pride was found in his heart What happened he and all those who joined with him were banished from the presence of God zero tolerance so So what we can say is where there is greater glory there is lesser tolerance for sin And so the consequences Would be severe like we see in Acts The book of Acts the early chapters of the book of Acts that is why An Anis and Sapphira who were dishonest For the simple thing of not bringing the entire amount of money They face such a severe consequence that is one explanation we can give To why there was such judgment in the house of God but then Very interestingly when you progress later on in in the early church you find that Sin is being in some way tolerated much more than what we saw in the book of Acts example In the church at Corinth Here's a man who is in sexual immorality and he doesn't fall down dead We asking excuse me Acts 5 They lied And they fell down dead First Corinthians 5 A man is living in immorality He doesn't fall down dead What's the difference? Like I said One probable reason at least in my mind In my understanding and I mean I can't necessarily give chapter and verse for this That the glory that was being manifested in the early days of the early church was so great As opposed to what we're seeing later on in As you know as the work expands and churches are planted and so on I think There The experience what's happening is you know in some way now. That's not as intense as before. That's just my thought And And so here in the church at Corinth they're being Given the same gospel They're believing the same Jesus the experience in the same work of the Holy Spirit And yet a man who is committing adult immorality sexual immorality Paul says You need to put him out the church disciplines him The church tells you need to take action. So it's not God's judgment coming in But the church is bringing disciplinary action putting him out until he Is willing to change and in this case in this particular case in Corinth It seems like this man repented So that in second Corinthians Paul is saying okay, show kindness to him bring him back in Less Satan should take advantage of us So we see that We see a different example in The case of two men hymenius and lexander in the church at Ephesius In their case Paul says I'm just giving them over to satan. That means Get them out of the church Release them That means they are no longer under the Fellowship of the believers. They're no longer under the oversight the spiritual oversight Of the leadership So that means they're exposed to satan It's up to them what's going to happen And in that case It seems like these people did not repent You can read that in 2 Timothy chapter 4 Paul still mentions hymenius the coppersmith. He's done me a lot of harm And let God handle them So in one case in Corinth The man the church was just church disciplined and put him out But then he repented so they brought him back in They church in Ephesus two men they were put out But it didn't doesn't seem like they repented from the last record that we have So what are we saying? We're saying that There is divine discipline. There is judgment God In his glorious presence There is zero tolerance for sin And then in the house of God They can be divine judgment that God himself executes directly Or there's judgment that is executed through the church that means through the people of God But it's always with mercy And if people repent They are brought back into fellowship if they don't They're they're they're not brought back, which means they are left out And you know God God deals with them So This is another aspect or another side to suffering There is divine discipline which we as believers will go through but there's also divine judgment Where God will carry our judgment against sin The next part i'll give some time for questions before we wrap up The next part is suffering due to willing sacrifice That means we willingly take on Suffering we willingly sacrifice In order to serve God You know, uh, that means we are saying god. I could enjoy these comforts, but i'm giving it up In order to Serve you or do your will and in the process i'm willing to endure whatever hardship I have to Jesus said it looked 1427, you know, he said you take up your cross daily follow me The cross is a place of suffering It's also a place of separation from the world. You see that in the lesion 614 It's also a place of sacrifice. So when jesus says take up your cross he's saying Be willing to suffer be willing to be separated be willing to sacrifice On a daily basis So this is another reason why you know some of god's people may suffer because they're willingly doing it They give up their right to something they may have freedom to And uh the suffering Leads us to greater foot fullness What do we mean when we look at the example of jesus in john 12 24 to 26 You know jesus used the illustration of a corn of grain. He said Unless a corn of grain Falls into the ground and it dies. It remains alone But if it dies, it'll bring forth more fruit So he's using that as an example saying look, of course, he was referring to his own death and resurrection But it's also an example for all of us that when we willingly give up When we serving in our service of god, we're willing to are willing to Die to self die to things that we could otherwise have Take enjoyed It leads us to greater foot fullness for the kingdom of god right, so there is that is the outcome of these willing sacrifices that We each one of us may make for the kingdom of god And just to kind of delve a little deeper into this There are daily sacrifices and there are life sacrifices You know these daily sacrifices would be yeah things that we do on a regular basis We separate ourselves from unnecessary things Maybe it's choosing not to do things with others Or just you know, we're living a consecrated life. Those are daily sacrifices Then there are life sacrifices that means you know, you may give up a great opportunity You may give up other options in order to pursue what god has put it before you Now you may Do, you know, these are you know one-time events, but of course the impact the rest of your life But these are references life. We I mean, we just call life sacrifices Are we do this god calls us to do it? but In all of this we must keep in mind that we must do spirit led sacrifices versus fleshly sacrifices So what do we mean by fleshly sacrifices that is things that are motivated by wrong reasons You know, oh, I'll just do this to You know impress somebody else. I'm doing it by my flesh It's it appears as a sacrifice or it could be a genuine sacrifice But the motivation is wrong The motivation is to impress somebody the motivation is to look nice in front of people or look very religious in front of people God sees our heart And he knows why we are do making that so-called sacrifice That doesn't please him if it is for the wrong reasons We must do spirit led sacrifices. That means Something that's the holy spirit leads us You know, he leads us to do this And be doing it as unto the lord. We're doing it Before god And we're doing it for joy Those are spirit led sacrifices and those are the sacrifices that are pleasing and acceptable to god so Keep that in mind In all of this you must understand that There is suffering again, this is just in general helping us understand this whole idea suffering that we suffer according to the will of god that means There is suffering that god says yeah go through it Which means there is suffering That is not according to the will of god We need to understand the difference between the two And when you look at for speeder He mentions clearly that if we are suffering for righteousness sake If we are suffering because we are a christian He calls that as suffering according to the will of god that means god says yeah, it's okay. You go through it I'm with you And it's good So when we are suffering for righteousness sake when we're suffering as as christian as for the name of christ When you're suffering because we are walking as gods people That is according to the will of god but If i'm suffering for the wrong i have done if i'm suffering Because what the devil is doing that is not according to the will of god that suffering should be avoided That suffering you need to get out of That suffering god works to undo It's not his will he doesn't want us to suffer that way In other words, don't do wrong you can keep yourself from facing suffering Because of those that wrong doing Walk in authority over the devil you don't have to suffer the devil's works Sickness failure poverty whatever different things the enemy does that is not according to the will of god That we fight We don't tolerate that Okay, so understand the difference between What is suffering according to the will of god? And what is not according To the will of god there's a difference here and then this this big question Why does god allow us to suffer? You know, I mean we are in this world. There's so much of evil We understand the reasoning, but why do we go have to go through this? You know, why doesn't god just put us in a Safe box and just we sail through life without any problems without any difficulties And sometimes you hear some teaching, you know, and i'm talking about teaching in the church That says you should know you're not going to face any trials Any trials they're not going to face any hardships And that's interesting because that's just exactly opposite of what jesus said jesus said in the world You will have tribulation. That means look you're going to face it James wrote in account the joy brother when you face these things So in other words The new testament says look you're going to face these things But god's given us a way to overcome He's told us what to do as we journey through this So we need to have a biblical mindset as we face these challenges What happens We understand that character is developed through all of this the romans 5 3 and 4 James 1 24, you know character is developed through what we go endure And we're growing in maturity. We're developing certain things in our lives That could not be developed any other way as we journey through challenging situations secondly It helps in us Getting pruned unnecessary things we realize, you know, we don't need this. We don't need that And the pruning that takes place only causes us to be more fruitful in our lives so The pruning the removing of a of unnecessary things results in greater fruitfulness And thirdly Sometimes we suffer But the kingdom of god advances The work of god increases Yes, we face we may face hardship. We face difficulty But god's kingdom is advanced So these are the good things that come out of our enduring suffering our character is developed we are brought to a place of greater fruitfulness and god's kingdom is advanced in closing What should our attitude be when we go through suffering? And these are things we are we have seen in scripture You know, we must maintain our joy Keep your joy In spite of it In you keep your eyes on the lord keep your joy Focus on the good that is happening. You know, we may not understand Why the challenges are happening but Look at the good And the bible says is any of you afflicted they didn't pray That means you're going through difficulties pray So let that challenge push you into greater prayer pray more during that time And thirdly if you keep our eyes For our reward the the light afflictions that we face at this time Is nothing compared to the glory which shall be revealed. So we look to our heavenly reward during those times When you're facing persecution from people you know, we we We know that people will Persecute us. We need to support those who are being persecuted But we are not terrified I mean we take precaution. We're not terrified We believe in divine protection. We're going to stay faithful unto death Because we don't quit Instead we pray for those who Might be persecuting us So let me pause here. I know I've Gone through this very quickly. Let's take up some questions before we Go for a break and Yeah, I think we'll try to finish this up. So we'll get a free hour next one to question Questions from john paul Let's go in this five. We see paul mentioned he hands over person to satan Can a person's spiritual authority do this? Is this a kind of suffering as far as that person is concerned? A second question How can we help somebody who's saying about the physical ailment In family loss of loved ones as gods will for dealing with them I can do good questions. Let's so the first first question is five five What did paul mean like actually, you know in first one is five five as well as in first timothy They're twice when paul says he hands somebody over to satan You know can a person's spiritual authority do this What does this mean? Now we have to be very careful You know in us doing something like this You know, so the answer is yes, but how does it happen? Basically, it's not so much as the shepherd the pastor or the person a spiritual authority Doing it. It's really more of The consequence of of the actions of the person who's committing the wrong That they themselves are moving into a place That puts them out of the spiritual Oversight of spiritual covering or protection that comes from A spiritual leader who is shepherding the people So I as a spiritual leader, I pray over my congregate. I'm just giving example. I as a spiritual leader I pray over my congregation. I'm protecting them. I'm speaking the blessing of God over them I'm praying the promises of God over them. So what am I doing? I am automatically as a spiritual leader through my prayer through my You know intercession through my proclaiming of God's word. I am protecting these people spiritually Now if somebody decides I don't want to stay part of this I don't want to walk aligned to this leadership. I don't want the you know, the prayers of this person They're stepping away in rebellions. What is happening? They're stepping out of The prayer that I would be praying for them And that means they are themselves being coming out of this place of protection and in the spiritual Making themselves vulnerable and I'm not you know, we don't use it as a way to control people We're just doing it as our calling As spiritual overseers we pray we intercede and we're not saying hey, you know, if you rebel against me You're going to be exposed to Satan. No, you know If that person You know the example If that person continues in the walk with God But just decides to come out of this fellowship or go fellowship somewhere else perfectly fine It's not like they're going to be exposed to Satan and that's not right But if a person gets into sin the rebellion against God and steps out of this So then the prayers of that spiritual overseer whoever it is No longer avails in that person's life because they're in rebellion against God By walking in sin and disobedience and that's when They are Exposing themselves to the enemy And to the degree they walk in rebellion to that degree they become vulnerable to the enemy What will actually happen? We don't know You know, the enemy is going to do certain things. What exactly we'll do it vary from case to case Is that okay John for the first question? Okay, secondly You know, there are people Who believe that sickness comes from God and God causes trouble and all because of you know Maybe they've grown up with that kind of teaching grown up in that kind of environment Where that is believed now The best way we can is if lovingly lovingly show them from scripture that um God doesn't do those kinds of things. God is a good God. He's a healer He's a deliverer You know, he's the one who destroys it. Let me show them from scripture. So we do this lovingly now If they're willing to listen Sometimes people are so closed in their minds. They're saying believers. They're so close to them But they don't want to listen Then it's very hard to even open the bible and share scripture with them But if they're willing to listen then little by little line upon line precept upon precept We can explain to them and bring them to a place of understanding that God is the healer God is the deliverer. God is the provider. God is the protector and it's a devil who does these things so The answer to your second question is, you know, if they're willing to listen We have to show them from scripture little by little and Then Bring them to a place of understanding. Otherwise we we can't force it on them We just have to leave it Because sometimes people are so they hold on to their Wrong beliefs so tightly. It's hard to help them Yeah Yes, possible is can I have one more small question? Go ahead. Go ahead. Uh, pastor if uh, as we discussed suffering could also be due to one's actions So let's uh, this uh, think about one Case we had in church one person No has not been great in You know, bringing up their her children. She also mentioned that and now the child is suffering from little personality issues Now, um, and she's also taking medications for anti anti psychotic medications. Now is How can we encourage them to um for a supernatural healing? Is there anything that they should correct now because it's already The child is already 21 or 22 um So how can we help them first? so What we understand about god is God always wants to redeem and that's the heart of god. It's the redemptive heart of god He always wants to restore. He always wants To bring back to the original place so we Encourage them towards that. Okay, whatever's happened in the past. We can't change it. That's that's happened already but now example If the parents didn't show love towards the child Now you can change now. You can show love Now, you know, you can say sorry for whatever the hurt has happened and now you can affirm love Now you can speak You can change now because they've received understand they can speak Affirmation they can speak positive. They can speak the word of god, right? So that one one thing the parent can do In their relationship toward the child I mean now the child is an adult 21 So can do in their relations and affirm the adult affirm the you know So that itself would be a big change which could big bring a big healing To the young adult, you know who's 21 years old now so The parent making a change understanding that hey, maybe I did it wrong in the past But now I've understood what's the right way. Let me speak love. Let me speak affirmation Let me be a support be an encouragement Let me affirm the good things in my son or daughter and That's a big thing Secondly, there's a lot of prayer intercession that can happen The parent can take the hold of the word of god You take a hold of the scriptures and pray and intercede that over their child And that's very powerful When somebody in this case the parent takes the scriptures that god has given to us for our children You know and begin to intercede for the young adult It can have from god will begin to work in the basic the parent is extending faith and prayer intercession for the son or daughter It'll have powerful effect Third is the young adult can be taught the word of god So this person who's now 21 if they discover that identity in christ If they understand the truth of what god has done for them on the cross of jesus christ, they themselves can receive healing and wholeness Independent of whether the parent changes or not, you know, so we could Work on it from both sides from the parent also more importantly. I think the most important part will be The 21 year old embracing the truth of the word of god That would be the most one because then through that god can work healing In his or her life Yeah So Yeah, so as pastors, you know to the extent that they're willing to come We can you know put the word of god in And you know just build up that 21 year old And help that person receive healing. Yeah Yes, thank you Any other questions from anybody else in class any any other thoughts any questions? Okay, I'd encourage you to take some time to Go through this chapter again I know I didn't read all the verses but think through read through it think about it Try to get a clearer understanding and Next week next monday. We'll continue if you have additional questions, please feel free to ask So we won't have our next class next hour but next week What I would request Of what we would do is we would get into another chapter called social challenges How to be as a church respond to some of the challenges and In society in general, you know, we talk about things like Marriage divorce Go into other things like climate change environment and those all these different things We need to respond as believers. How do we respond? What is the biblical response to these things and more and more people are questioning the church You know, what does the church say? What does the bible say about this topic? And so we want to cover several topics give brief answers not not you're not going to do an exhaustive study But brief answers to many of these different social challenges that we are seeing And be prepared to give a response to those things. Okay So let's pray and close You won't have the second hour and then we will meet again next week Could somebody pray with us, please and we will dismiss Anyone there's just Lord. We thank you for this time of learning. Thank you for enabling pastor to share your heart Lord Jesus. We humble ourselves once again and we pray oh god that we would be able to take back the lessons and Help ourselves and also help others who are going through suffering and Help us to understand your heart even more Lord Jesus as we continue to meditate on your word We pray and bless each one of us and let your protection covering be upon us. God. We thank you in Jesus's name. We pray Amen Amen Amen Thank you everyone with me again next week next monday And continue this god bless. Thank you for being on the class today Thank you god bless you