Suffering Part 2

Understanding Sonship Today’s Focus: Raising the Sons of God: Suffering part 2 Scripture: 1 Peter 4:12-14; Hebrews 12:11; Hebrews 5 Greetings Kingdom Citizens Now I lead off the last message with the statement that we all must suffer. Now let’s look through the scriptures to show this. Do not let the devil steal this message from you and make you think you have done something wrong when things just happen. Let’s start at 1 Peter 4:12-14: “Think IT NOT STRANGE concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, AS THOUGH SOME STRANGE THING HAPPENED UNTO YOU: BUT REJOICE, inasmuch as ye are PARTAKER’S OF CHRIST SUFFERINGS; that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. It is clear to see right here in scripture that trials will come and you will have to suffer because Christ suffered but now the good part. After suffering you will see His glory, not in His return only, but in that situation and upon deliverance. Let’s keep it rolling! Hebrews 12:11: Now no chastening FOR THE PRESENT SEEMETH TO BE JOYOUS, BUT GRIEVIOUS: Nevertheless the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. What is God trying to show us? We should welcome suffering, as naturally weird as that may seem because it is our time to grow. Yes we may cry and yes we may hurt those are natural emotions but we should also become closer to God putting our full trust in His comfort and power. And finally let’s look at Hebrews 5:8-10: Though he were a Son (Jesus), yet learned He (Jesus) obedience BY THE THINGS HE SUFFERED; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him (Jesus); Called of God an High Priest after the order of Melchisedek. Now I know after all of this we are saying that ok, I have to suffer to grow now let’s answer your next question, For what purpose is this? When you start off in the Kingdom you are a babe and have to grasp the foundational principals of Christ (Hebrews 6:1-3). Pastors, every new convert you get should learn those principals. After grasping those principals you begin to grow from a babe to a child and to a teenager and then to an adult. So your journey through the Kingdom is a growth process. The more you grow, the more responsibility and accountability you have toward the things of God. No different from our natural maturation. If I wanted to be a pharmacist there was a gradual process to get there so that when you arrive you are responsible and accountable. Jesus did this with His disciples in Matthew 10. After teaching them and showing them what they will endure and what the message is, He sent them out with direct instructions so they can experience the Kingdom. All the disciples had growing pains, none more obvious than Peter. But as they grew from Matthew to Acts you begin to see the level of responsibility they were given through time. First they had to sit and be taught (Discipleship) and then they were told the message to tell the people (The Kingdom of God). After listening and learning then Jesus allowed them to go out and preach the message of the Kingdom of God. After that then they saw Him casting out devils and healing the sick. After sitting and understanding that aspect of the Kingdom, Jesus sent them out again and allowed them to experience that. So what we see is a growth that results in the maturing of the son of God and more responsibility and accountability given to him to carry out the will of God. The disciples had to suffer in order to grow, from forsaking their families, storms, arrests, public trials and in some cases disagreements with each other. But all of that was a part of the growth process of the son of God. It is time to embrace our trials and remember that we glory in tribulations also; knowing the tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience and experience, hope (Romans 5:3-4). In the next message we will go back and look at this level of accountability and see how it impacts the Kingdom of God. At Our Father’s Service, Elder Calvin Calhoun, Jr.