Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Aug. 3 revival sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 6:35 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Delivering the message today is Reverend Jason Knight from Maiden, North Carolina. I am thrilled and excited to be here today.
[00:00:16] Jeffrey did mention God has moved me out of pastoral ministry. I was in pastoral ministry for over 17 years, and he's moved me out of pastoral ministry into a different ministry setting with Samaritan's Purse. I get to go and work in that great ministry with them and we. What God is doing there. But as I began to see God moving me out and moving me into that different ministry, I was praying. I said, God, I just. I don't know about this. And he kind of speaks to you and says, it doesn't really matter what you know. It's what I say, right? And so I told God. I said, well, I'm just asking you. This was a matter of fact. It was on a Monday night or a Monday morning, and I was talking to God, and I said, God, I just want the opportunity to preach. I believe you've called me to preach. And I'm just asking you, Lord, if you're going to move me out, would you please give me the opportunity to. To continue and speaking and proclaiming your word?
[00:01:03] And so that night, I'm at my son's baseball practice, and I get a text from Jeffrey, and he said, hey, would you like to come and preach on August 3rd? And I was like, absolutely, Lord. Yes. I would love to thank you, Lord, for that opportunity. And it's just amazing how God just works and how much he does care about those things. And so I am so thankful to. To be here with you today, see so many people that we knew when we were here and that we love and just to come and worship with you.
[00:01:34] I saw a movie a few years ago. It was an Adam Sandler movie. Now, when I say that a lot of you just went to Happy Gilmore 2, right? That's what you're thinking of. And that's not the movie I'm thinking of. There was a movie that he was in called Spanglish. It was probably one of his more serious movies, if he has any. It's his only one if that's the case.
[00:01:52] But I don't remember much about the movie, but there was one scene that has always stuck with me. And what happens is John Klasky, I think was his name. That's the character in the movie. He goes upstairs to see his wife. Something will happen, something occurred, and he gets home, rushes home, he goes upstairs to See, his wife, he walks into their room, and she is an emotional wreck. And he says, what's wrong? What's going on, honey? And she's just crying, and I can't talk to you. I don't know what to say. And he kept saying, it's okay. Whatever it is, it's okay. Well, all of a sudden, she just blurts out, I've been seeing someone else.
[00:02:26] And he just stops. And as she blurts that out, she begins just to spew all of the reasons why and all the justifications. And finally he just says, hold on. Just stop.
[00:02:37] You can't tell me something like that and then keep talking. I need a moment. I can't hear what you're saying. And she said, well, what did you hear?
[00:02:46] And he said, there was a crack in my planet.
[00:02:50] Man, was it noisy. From what she just revealed to him, his world was crushed like that.
[00:02:57] Have you ever had that happen to you?
[00:03:00] Have you ever had something that feels like there was a crack in your planet?
[00:03:05] Do you have wounds that are deep?
[00:03:09] Every single one of us here has wounds. There are wounds that were a result of someone else to us or a result of wounds that we did to ourself or wounds that we caused in someone else with that.
[00:03:21] We all have wounds. It may be emotional, it may be physical, it may be spiritual. But here's the thing. We're in good company because even the Son of God had wounds and scars.
[00:03:33] How many. Let me just ask this. How many people in here, I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand, have experienced pain or suffering?
[00:03:41] Every single one of us, right? Every single. We are all experts in pain. My daughter Audrey, just the other week. I don't know if we have a picture up here.
[00:03:50] So this picture right here, she's not happy about this.
[00:03:53] She's covering her face right now.
[00:03:55] So she called me the other week and she said, dad, I'm bleeding.
[00:03:59] Not the way you should start something off, honey. You know that's not what I need to hear. What's going on? What happened? Well, I was cleaning my room, and I was cleaning my fan, and I cut my hand. And by the way, she uses this to say why she shouldn't clean her room anymore.
[00:04:13] And I said, okay, well, put a band aid on it, right?
[00:04:17] And she said, it's bleeding. So I walked over from the office and I looked, and sure enough, she had a gash in her hand and she had to get stitches there. And as I looked at that, I took this picture as I was thinking about speaking here about what my topic was and she is not happy that I took this picture. I was like, hey, honey, look, you're gonna get stitches. This is gonna be really cool. You're gonna have a scar there. She doesn't think it's cool at all with that. But I've thought about that so many times.
[00:04:40] We get hurt, we have to get stitches right on that with it. If you slam your finger in a car door or a door, you become an expert on praying pretty quick, don't you?
[00:04:52] I was a few years ago, many years. I don't know if me and my wife were married or if we were just engaged, I can't remember, but we were going out to eat with my sister in law Emily, and we were walking into the restaurant and a truck had backed up at the sidewalk and had the hitch still in the back of his truck. If you back up on the sidewalk and you leave your hitch in there, please repent after the service, okay?
[00:05:16] Because I was walking and I was talking, all of a sudden, wham. I hit my shin on that. And talk about pain.
[00:05:23] It hurt, right? I don't cuss, but as a friend of mine says, if you had wrote it down, I'd have signed it. Alright.
[00:05:30] It hurts so bad, right? Feeling of being sick to your stomach. Well, listen, we have all been hurt physically, emotionally, spiritually, all those things. CS Lewis says this and you may have heard it before. God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to arouse a deaf world.
[00:05:50] My message is one that whenever I have a chance to preach it, there's this one. And if you remember, several years ago I preached one on holiness where I had ripped clothes and stuff. Jane said, are you gonna be taken and having ripped shirts and stuff today? On that I said, no, not today with it. But a message on holiness and a message on what I'm preaching on today about pain and suffering are ones that when I go somewhere and I have a chance to preach it, I want to get that message of God's goodness even in pain and suffering out. So if you're here today and if you're experiencing some pain or you're experiencing suffering, it may have been something that happened years ago and you haven't gotten past it may have just happened last night or last week. If you are hurting and experiencing those painful times, I am praying that today's message will encourage you and that you will take this home and that you'll just abide in Christ. And maybe today you're not going through anything. Your life seems to be going pretty good. But I don't mean to be a downer, but there is coming a time where you will experience that. It is said that you're either going into a storm in the middle of a storm or coming out of a storm. So when you go into those times, I hope that the truths that we hear and see from God's word will bring comfort to you. I'm going to ask if you'll turn with me to John chapter 20. We're going to look at verses 19 through 29, and if you are able, I'm going to ask if you'll stand in honor of God's word as and follow along as I read, starting in verse 19 of John 20. Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.
[00:07:27] Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you. As my Father had sent me, even so sent I you. And when he said this, he breathed on them, and he saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sends ye, remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I shall see his hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
[00:08:00] And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing.
[00:08:18] And Thomas answered and saith unto him, my Lord and my God.
[00:08:23] And Jesus said unto him, thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Let's pray, Father, as we come into this time, as we have the honor and the privilege of opening up your word, of gleaning from your truth, I pray, Lord, that your spirit will speak to us. It has nothing to do with my thoughts or my opinions, Lord. Matter of Fact, I pray that any of my opinions are kept out. I pray if it's anything of my own accord, that you will keep that out. But that we will hear from your spirit today that you'll speak unto us.
[00:08:56] Father, for those that are hurting, that they'll receive comfort. And for those that do not know you, Lord, I am assuming, and very possible in a crowd this high, there are ones that have never truly bowed their knee to you. I pray that today be the day that they come to know you.
[00:09:12] But we ask that your presence will be among us. In the name of Jesus, I pray. And all God's people said Amen. Thank you. May be seated. At the beginning of John 13, we see events leading up to Christ's death. Now I know they started way before that. But in John 13 is where we see Christ and his disciples in the upper room getting ready to observe the Passover meal. This is going to be the last Passover meal that Jesus is sharing with the disciples.
[00:09:37] It will be the last meal before their world is turned upside down and everything has changed more than they could ever imagine. It is at this last supper that Jesus, the Son of God went and he bent down to the disciples feet and washed their feet even before he was going to the cross. It is at this last supper where he says, one of you are going to betray me.
[00:10:03] It is at this last supper where he gives the new commandment to love one another.
[00:10:08] It is here that he looks at Peter and says, peter, you are going to deny me three times.
[00:10:13] It is here that he promises the Holy Spirit, how he speaks, that he is the way, the truth and life. How he speaks, that he is the true vine and we must abide in him. It is here at the Last Supper that he prays that amazing, incredible high priestly prayer even for us.
[00:10:29] But as the night progresses, Jesus becomes more and more troubled in spirit. Knowing that his time is drawing near, knowing that soon he will become sin. Let me just explain this real quickly. So often we talk about Christ going and taking our sins upon him. But Scripture is clear. Jesus, the very holy sinless Son of God, became sin for us.
[00:10:51] He became that sin and he knew that time was drawing near.
[00:10:56] And so they left in the upper room and they went to the garden of Gethsemane. And here is where he is betrayed with a kiss. Here is where he is arrested and he's dragged off to be tried illegally.
[00:11:07] During these trials he is mocked, he is beaten, he's been falsely accused. He is as predicted, he's denied by Peter they take him and they begin to chase him to a pole and they whip him over and over and over again.
[00:11:25] And then they take a robe and they place around him, on his opened raw back with those wounds that had just come across.
[00:11:35] They place this robe around him. They take thorns and they fashion a so called crown. And they take it and push it deep into his head.
[00:11:44] The blood is flowing down.
[00:11:46] If you think about it, as he's walking, people are punching him, they're spitting on him, they've probably pulled his beard out. All of these things are happening. And now he's being taken to Golgotha and he's laid upon a cross and nails are driven into his hands and into his feet.
[00:12:01] It is here on the cross that he seeks forgiveness for us. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. You know, I believe that he was speaking that about us too. He was speaking about those around him, but also it would echo through eternity. It is here, though, on the cross where he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I wonder how many of you have been crying out that this week, this month, this year. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's maybe what it feels like.
[00:12:29] He is forsaking you. It is here on the cross, though, that Christ declares victory with those three words. It is finished.
[00:12:39] That's a shout of victory. And as the day draws to a close, to make sure he is dead, the soldier comes and spears him in the side and blood and water flows and he is taken down. He is placed into a tomb and the stone is rolled over the opening.
[00:12:55] But three days later, right?
[00:12:57] Three days later, breath enters his lungs, his brain begins to fire again, his heart begins to pump blood through his body. And in the greatest moment in history, the Son of God, who just three days ago was brutally beaten, was crucified and died, and has been now walks out breaking the jaws of death and wants to take that victory lap. To say, Satan couldn't defeat me at the cross. The dead couldn't hold me. I'm alive forevermore.
[00:13:23] Now that part is for anybody that is here who does not know Christ.
[00:13:26] If you do not know Christ, he did that and listen, that is just a tip of the iceberg that he actually went through. He became sin. He took your sin upon himself on the cross so that you may have eternal life. Listen, if you don't know Christ, you don't need reviving today. You need to be brought to life.
[00:13:49] You need to be resurrected out of the sins.
[00:13:52] And Christ says, I can do that for you, and I will do that for you, and I want to do that for you. If you will just come and repent and confess, I will cleanse you and make you a new creation.
[00:14:04] But now, this next part that I want to see and that we read is for those who are here, who are hurting, who are struggling. Because sometimes I wonder, and maybe I'm wrong about this, but I wonder if we're so focused on our hurts, so focused on our wounds, we miss. Miss what Christ is wanting to do in our lives. And you have revival this week. And I don't want you focused on your wounds. I want you to focus on Christ, on everything that he can bring, the healing that he can bring, the joy that he can bring, all that he brings, the salvation that he will bring to you.
[00:14:35] So here was what we have. We see a curious scene in John 20. Here, the disciples are in a room, probably the same upper room as they took the Last Supper in.
[00:14:46] They are heartbroken. They are mourning. As a matter of fact, they're probably taking part in what's called sitting in Shiva. Sitting in Shiva is where the Jewish people would come and they would sit. Much like our receiving. When we lose a family member, we have receiving of friends or a family night. They would sit at their homes and people would come and visit them. The only difference is that as these disciples are sitting in Shiva, they are there in this room, but they close the door and they lock the doors because they are afraid of, of the Jews. We are told they are sitting here heartbroken, fearful, not knowing what to do. The man they put their hopes and dreams in is dead and gone.
[00:15:25] And they will surely be scarred for life. The wound of losing Jesus is too great. Because guess what? It wasn't supposed to end that way.
[00:15:35] How often have you said, this is not the way I thought my life was going to go?
[00:15:42] This isn't what I have planned, very rarely for you who are here, who are young, maybe you're just going into high school, graduating high school, graduating college. And I want to tell you something. Life rarely goes the way you plan.
[00:15:56] Thanks for that encouragement, Jason. I really appreciate that. But here's the thing.
[00:16:00] Here's what I've noticed.
[00:16:02] When God gets involved, it's much better.
[00:16:06] It's much, much better. No matter what pain or heartache that you go through, it is so much, much better when we let him take that lead. But here they are. They said life wasn't supposed to go this way. They left jobs, they left Stable careers to follow this man. And now, nothing. No future, no hope. Only suffering is what we have. Maybe, maybe they think, well, give us a few years and we'll look back on those days that we walked and ministered in the area with Jesus and we'll think about the times where he combed the storm and the times where he made the blind see and the lame walk. Maybe we'll think about those and we'll smile and we laugh about the good times that we have. But right now, it's just too raw.
[00:16:49] It's just too raw. And they're here and they are sitting in mourning and they are sitting in fear.
[00:16:55] And as they are sitting there thinking of what might have been, what might have been if this didn't happen, what could have been, they began to wonder, why did this happen?
[00:17:05] And all of a sudden Jesus appears. I mean, he just appears. He's just there, the doors are shut, they're locked. And he just shows up and he says, you bunch of chickens, what are you doing here? Hiding? Why would you do this? I should have chose different men. That's what I should have done. Is that what he says? Oh no, he says peace.
[00:17:29] Why does he say peace? Why does he come to me that says peace? Because he knows the inner turmoil that's going on. We're at a church last week the preacher was preaching on when Jesus walked on the water and how Peter got out. And one thing that he said that I loved, he said, Jesus is still sovereign in the chaos. And that's what he does. He brings peace into chaos, into hurt and the suffering of our lives. And this is what he comes, he says peace.
[00:17:54] And he shows them his hands and his side. Luke actually mentions. He shows them his feet. He shows them the wounds that I believe are now been healed miraculously in those three days. And they are scars. They are wounds that are sacred.
[00:18:11] As he says, look, guys, look what I did for you.
[00:18:15] They are glad. It says they were glad when they saw the Lord. That is one of the biggest understatements I think I've ever read. Jesus appears. He's alive. And it's like John says, and the disciples were glad.
[00:18:26] No, no, no. I think they were overjoyed and they were in disbelief. Might wrap their mind around what was happening, but who cares? Jesus is alive and he's here with us.
[00:18:37] But now one person was missing and that's old Thomas.
[00:18:40] Now when I say Thomas, what do you think of doubting Thomas, right? He gets a really bad rap, by the way.
[00:18:48] If I was Thomas, I'm like, john, come on, man.
[00:18:52] You could have put me a little bit better light. But, you know, if you go back to John 11 and read about the story of Lazarus, which is one of my favorite stories, Jesus gets worried that Lazarus had died and he's going to go back to Bethany. And his disciples say, you can't go back there. If you go back there, you're gonna die.
[00:19:08] All his other disciples were trying to keep him from doing it, not Thomas. Thomas was like, if he's gonna go, I'm gonna. We may die, but I'm gonna go with him. I love that response, don't you? I love it. The fact that Thomas was willing to follow Jesus even in death.
[00:19:20] And then we sit here because of this one time that we're about to look at it. We say, he's a doubting Thomas. Oh, no, here is Thomas, and he's not here. This first appearance, I wonder, and this is just me wondering if he's the type of person that just says, you know what? I need to get a loan by myself for a while.
[00:19:40] I need to process everything that has happened. I just need to get away. I can't comprehend it right now, and I can't be around everybody, and I need to just. Maybe I just need to go and camp out by myself for a while. Maybe I need to go and sit by the sea for a few days. I cannot do this. Whatever the reason, he is not there.
[00:19:58] He just needed some alone time. He shows up, and the disciples are like, hey, Thomas, guess what? Jesus appeared. He's like, y' all are crazy. He's dead. I saw it. I saw what they did to him. I saw the nails. I saw the crown of thorns. I saw them with the spear. I saw them put them in the tomb. There's no way he's alive. No, no, no, Thomas, he's alive.
[00:20:18] He's alive. Thomas says, I will not believe unless I can touch where the nails and the spear punctured his skin.
[00:20:26] Unless he could see and touch the scars of Jesus, he wasn't gonna listen. And then eight days later, he's with them. And Jesus appeared to them again. Again he says, peace, Peace.
[00:20:38] And he directs his attention to Tom. Charles Swindoll says he addressed it to the neediest person in the room. My prayer is this.
[00:20:48] I don't know who you are or what you're going through, but I pray that the Holy Spirit is. Is directing his attention to the neediest person in this room. Or maybe online.
[00:20:58] Maybe you're here. No one knows what's going on. But the Spirit does.
[00:21:02] He knows what you're going through. He knows the pain. He knows the suffering.
[00:21:07] And maybe you're here just because you said, I'm gonna go with my friend. Maybe you say, well, it's Sunday. We gotta go anyways. But you may be the neediest person in the room. I may be the neediest person in the room.
[00:21:16] And the Spirit is right now directing his attention to you in a very personal way.
[00:21:22] Jesus does this, and he looks at Thomas and he says, here you go, Thomas. Touch my hands.
[00:21:28] Touch my side. Go ahead. Here it is. Now, we are not told that Thomas does this. I do not believe that Thomas actually touched his hands and his side. Because all we're told is Thomas sees. And then it says. He said, my Lord and my God.
[00:21:45] All it took was Jesus showing up and saying, here, Thomas. And I think Thomas just fell to his knees, crying out in worship and praise and saying, thank you, Jesus, for revealing yourself to me. Now, you may be saying, what does this have to do with me?
[00:22:00] As I said before, we all have scars.
[00:22:03] We all have things that have happened. What painful events have transpired in your life that has scarred you or that will scar you?
[00:22:13] What are you doing with those scars?
[00:22:16] Are you hiding from them? You know, when we were younger, we would get hurt. We would like to show everybody. You know, my daughter didn't want to show about her getting cut and stuff. And she's 13, so maybe that's a girl. Think she doesn't really care about the scars. Guys, they're like, look at this, baby. You know, look at these scars. Isn't this so cool? Right? It's a badge of honor. But as we get older, we. We start to be embarrassed of our scars. We start to be embarrassed of those hurts. We don't want to talk about them or go through that at all because we think that we're the only ones that have them.
[00:22:48] I want to give you four things about scars and we'll go through these quickly, but four things about scars that I've learned and that I am even learning now. Number one is this.
[00:22:58] Scars are signs that we are fallen beings and live in a fallen world.
[00:23:03] Scars are signs that we are fallen beings and live in a fallen world. In a perfect world, there would be no scars because there would be no pain. Scars and wounds come because of pain, right?
[00:23:15] But in a perfect world, hey, we don't have to worry about it. But the scars we have, as I said, it's either because we have sinned, we've done things in our life that have brought great consequences to our own lives or because someone has sinned against us. Here's the thing. Scars are, are a result of sin. All sin. It doesn't matter what it may be. Even the catastrophes and the terrible tragedies of life that occur. It's because we live in a fallen world. So we need to understand that. Because that's very important for you to understand, to come to know Christ. We're fallen people. We are people in need of salvation. And the only one that can bring that salvation is through Jesus Christ and his shed blood.
[00:23:57] So we live in a fallen world. So we have scars. Number two.
[00:24:00] Scars are signs of who we are.
[00:24:03] Scars are signs of who we are. You ever wonder why, when Jesus rose again in a perfected body, a body that transcends space and time, that could just appear and disappear at will, why did he still have the scars?
[00:24:17] Why was that? Why would you do that, Jesus? You could have risen and you could have been completely whole. He. Here's why. It was a sign of who he was.
[00:24:26] When he showed it to the disciples, it proved to them this is the same man that was up on the cross. It was proof that he had been crucified and that he had died. But now he is alive again. His scars were sacred and so are yours and mine.
[00:24:42] Our scars are sacred. That brings me to my third point.
[00:24:46] Scars are signs that speak truth to others.
[00:24:50] Scars are signs that speak truth to others. Because our scars shape us, because they are sacred. Don't try to hide them now. Don't go air your dirty laundry. No, I think there are too often people want to give their testimony all because they want to bask in, oh, look at how bad I was. And really they just want to relive those sinful areas of their life and times of their life. And that is ungodly. I'm not saying air your dirty laundry, but listen, these things that have happened to us, these scars, use them.
[00:25:20] I could put it this way. Don't squander your scars.
[00:25:23] Right? Don't squander them. Let them speak truth to others.
[00:25:30] Let them speak truth to others.
[00:25:32] And number four, scars are signs of God's goodness and grace. You may say that's a rather strange thing, that scars are a sign of God. Wouldn't God's goodness and grace be that? We wouldn't even have that wound to be begin with. No, not necessarily. Because see, here it is. The scars, those healed wounds are proof that God brought us through.
[00:25:54] He brought us through. I don't care what you're going through right now. It doesn't matter. I'm telling you, I am telling you with everything in me, you trust in the Lord and he will bring you through.
[00:26:05] You know how I know that? Because he's promised, I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
[00:26:10] Never. And if that's the case, then as you're going through these hard times, he's saying, I'm walking right beside you. Matter of fact, when we go through these hurtful times, he carries us.
[00:26:21] He will carry us through that with it.
[00:26:25] Let the scars be signs of God's goodness. Let them speak out and praise God, giving him glory and honor. And when other people look at that, I pray that when, when others look at the scars of my life and what God has brought me through, I pray as they. I will do that they will say, my Lord and my God, let them be proof of God's goodness and grace.
[00:26:46] Several years ago, many of you remember this because this church prayed for my father. But my father had a stroke and he was put on blood thinner. And so about a year later, he was outside, it was in January, and he slipped on some ice and he fell straight down. Didn't hit his head, but he fell straight down. And it triggered a brain bleed.
[00:27:03] Didn't know for about a month. He had blood seeping really into his brain for over a month. And it became very, very serious. And I remember getting the call and rushing to North Carolina to do. Not sure when I got there if he was going to be alive or not. And we were told three times, he's not going to make it. We don't see how he can make it. And then we were told, well, if he does, he'll probably be in a vegetative state. And they said, the best case scenario is he's going to be in a assisted living home for probably years just trying to learn how to talk and walk again if he can get there. It was that serious.
[00:27:38] And then one of them, I'm going to tell you something. Nine days. He walked out of the hospital talking nine days.
[00:27:50] And that is because of the prayers of God's people. But here's the thing. He had a scar. He had surgeries, really, procedures, but he had a scar and they had to shave his head and all. And at first he would be very embarrassed of it and he would want to put on head. He wouldn't be embarrassed of it. And my mom and me and my sister said, stop covering it up.
[00:28:12] They're beautiful to Us.
[00:28:14] Those scars are. Dad, you don't remember, but God performed a miracle and that scar is the proof of what he did on that. My mother, when she was pregnant with my brother, he's a little over a year older than me. When she was pregnant with him, her and my grandmother were out shopping and a young man running from the cops hit them head on.
[00:28:37] She had 280some stitches in one eye. She's blind in her right eye now, but she had 280some stitches and she had a scar on that right eye.
[00:28:46] And my dad says that scar is beautiful because it shows me that you're still here and that my son is still here. It showed God's goodness. Listen, there are emotional scars in my family and in your family as well. Don't hide it. Don't cover it up. Don't try to make people believe that your life is absolutely perfect. Because if you try to make people believe your life is perfect, listen, then you have no testimony. You have no testimony. When that happens, I want to be able to say, I am a flawed person. I have messed up. I have screwed up. I. People have hurt me. I've hurt people. But by the grace of God, he's covered it with his blood in Jesus Christ and is all glory and honor to him. And this is what God is doing.
[00:29:29] And one day every tear will be wiped away.
[00:29:33] One day there will be no more pain or suffering. I had a man call me, and I'm almost done, but I had a man, actually, he texted me this week. His wife passed away a few months ago. He lost his son a few years before that.
[00:29:44] He's just gotten onto Facebook, but he texts me. He says, you know, people keep trying to tell me to speak and say how good God is, he said, but I don't feel like it. Is there something wrong with me? I responded back, that's a hard question, by the way. I said, no, there's nothing wrong with you. That's understandable.
[00:30:03] But it doesn't take away that God is still good.
[00:30:06] It doesn't take away that he is still faithful to us. You may not be able to say it or type it on Facebook or say it, but he is still good. Don't forget it. And I share with him what the psalmist said. In Psalm 56. 8, he says this, and I don't know if you've ever heard this, but it's an amazing verse. It says that God keeps track of all of our sorrows, and he keeps our tears in a bottle. And one day I believe that God's gonna take those bottles of tears and he's gonna smash them. He's gonna say, no more tears of pain, no more sorrow. It is all done. I've cast it into the pit. I of hell and welcome into the joy of your Lord.
[00:30:44] Jesus had the marks of death, but they are marks of love now. And I believe that those scars will be evident through eternity. And I believe that every time we look at Jesus, every time we come across his path, we will see those scars. And I think every time we do, we will fall down in worship and adoration of those and fall and just say, thank you, Jesus, for those scars of salvation.
[00:31:07] Maybe you're here today and you've had that crack in your planet and maybe you are hurting.
[00:31:14] Maybe your spouse has said, I'm leaving.
[00:31:17] Maybe your child has wandered from the faith.
[00:31:21] Maybe it is you've lost a job and you don't know what you're gonna do financially. Maybe it's that call from the doctor that says it's not good news. There's not much we can do.
[00:31:30] Maybe it's a betrayal. I don't know what you're going through or experiencing in your life, but the Lord knows and he wants you to look to him and abide in him and trust him and let him come and heal you of that and bring glory to Him. Maybe today you don't know Christ.
[00:31:49] You've never given your life to Him. You've been at church, you've done all those things that you think are good, but you've never given your life. Men and women. I want to tell you, if you take your last breath without Christ, you will enter into an eternity of nothing but sorrow and pain and heartache and suffering.
[00:32:05] And God says no. That's why I sent my son to die for you. Believe in your heart that Christ came, died and rose again.
[00:32:12] Confess that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved.
[00:32:17] Father, I pray this time that you'll just speak into our hearts, into our lives, that your will will be done. We give this time to you. In the name of Jesus, I pray.
[00:32:26] Amen. Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 4394605 55.
