The true child of God will find

      that their union with Christ

            brings into their life a measure of suffering

      that would not have existed

            had Christ not been present within them.

And when we reach this 5^th evidence of the true child of God

      I think it may cause a question

            in some of your minds.

Paul tells us that one of the ways we know

      that Christ is in our lives,

            is that His presence within us

                  will result in a measure of suffering

                        that would not have existed

had we not joined ourselves to Him.

Paul says it like this:

ROM 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

ROM 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

And Paul’s reference to suffering here in this verse

      is just one of numerous passages

            found in the writings of every New Testament writer

                  telling us of the added sufferings our union with Christ will bring into our lives.

In fact at one point

      Paul went so far as to tell his friend Timothy,

2TI 3:12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

And when Peter wrote his first open letter to the family of God he said,

1PE 4:12-13 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.

But just going through passages

      that assure us we will encounter sufferings as a result of Christ’s presence in our lives

            doesn’t really tell us what we want to know.

The real question we wrestle with

      is WHY?

Why would the presence of an all powerful,

      loving God in our lives

            actually increase our pain?

I know that, at first glance,

      this whole concept may seem strange to some of us.

We look back at all of the suffering

      and potential suffering that Christ has delivered us from

            and Paul’s comments here in Romans

                  may seem backwards.

We look at the way in which our Lord

      has broken the power of those sins

            that were shredding our lives

                  prior to our union with Him,

sins that were generating tremendous pain,

      pain from our addictions,

            pain from our shattered relationships,

                  pain from the natural consequences of our immorality,

      and we see His work within us

            delivering us from, not into suffering.

And it is certainly true.

Where is the suffering in our Lord teaching us

       how to love our husband or our wife?

Where is the suffering

      in His giving us a heart for our children?

Where is the suffering in His giving us

       a clear conscience and the inner strength to choose righteousness for the first time in our lives?

But there is another side to this whole thing as well.

You see, when we join ourselves to Christ,

      our union with Him suddenly thrusts us into the middle

            of a raging war that,

prior to our union with Him,

       we never even knew existed.

It is a war between God and Satan,

      a war being fought not for galaxies

            but for human beings.

And our submission to Christ

      ignites Satan’s rage against us,

            not just because we defected from his kingdom,

                  but even more because Christ’s ability to live in us

      and communicate His love through us

            now makes us a major threat

                  to others he still possesses.

And we become Satan’s enemy.

Peter expressed Satan’s attitude toward the Christian in vivid terms when he wrote,

1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

It is no coincidence

      that throughout most countries

            throughout most of history

society as a whole has warred against the people of God.

The entire first phase of the church

      was lived out in the context of a persecution

            that was sometimes so intense

                  that at one point Paul actually recommended that Christians postpone getting married until the persecution subsided

      because he wanted to save young brides and grooms

            the agony of seeing the love of their life executed for their faith in Christ. (I Cor. 7:26)

And there is a fascinating statement in the book of Revelation

      that even suggests that God measures the flow of human history

            not by days, and weeks, and months,

                  and years as we do,

but rather by the number of people

      put to death for their faith in Jesus Christ. (Revelation 6:11)

But, because we in America happen to live

      in a relatively persecution-free bubble in history,

            we may think this suffering thing

                  doesn’t apply to us.

Not so!

And just to help us get a better grip on this whole thing

      I want to take the remaining time we have this morning

            to share with you the 4 sources of suffering we inherit

                  as a result of Christ’s presence in our lives.

#1. The first one is the suffering that always accompanies our willingness

      to allow God to rebuild our characters

            into greater conformity with the image of Christ.

Or, in the terms we’ve been using most recently,

      this is the suffering that always accompanies

            the process of bring our mistrained bodies

                  under the leadership

                        of the new heart God has created within us.

Remember the first evidence of true faith?

The true child of God lives with a continual tension between his new, holy heart,

      and his ongoing impulses of a body that was trained by a spirit in rebellion against God.

Well, that tension is in no way a stagnant or fixed condition.

Every growing child of God

      is in a constant daily process,

            carefully orchestrated by the Spirit of God,

of bringing those flesh impulses

      into subjection to that new heart.

But that reconstructive process rarely happens without pain,

      pain that would never have existed in our lives

            had we not given our Lord permission

                  to perform His rebuilding work within us.

Have you ever felt that pain that comes

      when you suddenly realize you have said or done something,

            maybe without even thinking about it,

                  something that ends up hurting someone you care about?

And then have you noticed how the Spirit of God

      uses the memory of that incident

            to make you so much more keenly aware

                  of the importance of your words and your actions towards the people He places into your life?

Do you now what that is?

      That is the suffering that accompanies

            the process of the Spirit of God

                  reshaping our character into greater conformity with Christ.

It is a kind of suffering

      that comes as a direct result of the presence of Christ within us.

#2. There is also a suffering that comes into our lives

       when our Lord allows us to see

                  a little bit of our world through His eyes.

Have you ever seen another person’s pain,

      or need,

            or helplessness

 and found yourself hurting inside

      because of what you have seen?

Have you ever found what you were feeling

      giving you a longing to reach out and help?

I remember one of the first times I experienced that.

I was 22 years old, on the Carribean Island of Trinidad

      helping a missionary family start a church.

There was a 12 year old boy in our valley.

      His name was Little Barry.

He was deaf.

He’d been deaf since his early childhood

      when his brother got mad at him

            and kicked him down a flight of stairs.

I can remember hurting for that kid,

      feeling so helpless,

            and longing for some effective way

                  of sharing the love of my God with him.

That’s common stuff for the people of God.

And when your Lord allows you to see a part of your world through His eyes,

      and you feel the pain it brings,

            whatever you do, don’t run from that pain.

Embrace it as a wonderful part of the legacy given to you by your Lord.

Recognize it for what it is - His promise

      that your life both can and will

            make a tremendous difference in your world

                  as you allow that pain you feel

                        to motivate you to reach out to those who hurt

                              and bring them healing and a window into the heart of God

                                    that they would never otherwise know.

You see, this whole thing started with Christ Himself.

Our Lord,

      our God,

            our Creator saw our pain -

all of the suffering that we brought upon ourselves

      because of our rebellion against Him.

And He responded to that pain

      by taking our suffering

            and making it His own,

so that He could then replace our agony

      with the healing touch of His love.

1PE 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

ISA 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

And the amazing thing

      is that, in the most remarkable way,

            He then allows each of us who come to Him

      to share in that same healing process

            in the lives of those around us.

He equips us to enter into their suffering

      in a way that motivates us to then reach out to them

            with the love and the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this process, by the way,

      is the basis of all true Christian evangelism,

            and it is also radically different

                  from the religious counterfeit

that is so prevalent in our world today.

Religion seeks to win converts.

It’s all about how many,

      and how much,

            and how big.

It cultivates and refines the process

      of marketing the religious system.

And Christianity is in no way immune to it.

‟Who wants salvation?

      Who wants healing?

            Who wants peace?

Step right up! Jesus can give you what you want.”

Religion seeks to win converts,

      but true Christianity calls us to love others,

            and in that process to sometimes feel their pain in a way that motivates us

                  to reach out to their need.

And there are times

      when we suffer as a direct result

            of our God giving us the ability to see through His eyes.

#3. And then there is a suffering that comes as a direct result

      of choosing to live a moral life in an immoral world.

It is so very easy to be dishonest and profit from it in our world.

It is so very easy to cheat and get ahead.

It is so very easy to accept the world’s values of doing whatever has to be done

      in order to increase our wealth,

            or our popularity,

                  or our status.

But holding to right values in a corrupt society

      will at times make life harder.

The father or mother who chooses the family

      above the career

            will not know the level of career success they could have achieved

                  by sacrificing their children,

                        or their marriage for “success”.

The commissioned sales person

      who sells the customer what he really needs,

            rather than what brings him the greatest profit

                  will not make as much money.

And every time a Christian chooses honesty

      and moral integrity

            above profit or personal gain

                  we share in the sufferings of Christ.

Now it is true

      that godly living has it’s own tremendous rewards,

            but it is also true that righteous living in an unrighteous world

                  brings with it a measure of suffering.

1PE 2:20 ... if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

1PE 2:21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps...

#4. And the final source of suffering I would mention

      that comes as a result of our union with Christ

            is the suffering that comes

                  from our being under the direct attack of Satan.

There are times when we hurt,

      or when we fight fear,

            or when we wrestle with anxiety,

times when we find false accusations leveled against us,

      times when we find ourselves filled with doubt,

            times when evil intrudes into our world in the most painful ways,

as a direct result of Satan’s efforts

      to get us to doubt the love of our God

            or His sufficiency to bring us through.

The most concise statement of this kind of suffering

      is given to us by Peter when he writes,

1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1PE 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

1PE 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

1PE 5:11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The battle is altogether real,

      the attacks are real,

            and the suffering they bring is a direct result of our union with Christ.

Now, I know this is a terrible place to stop this study

      because it raises all the questions about suffering

            without giving any encouragement.

But next week, with this as a backdrop,

      we will then look at Paul’s five strong statements of encouragement

            for Christians when we suffer.