The Key to Contentment ā€“ Commitment to Your Sovereign Sympathetic Savior

Following prayer, my wife Jane will sing, Does Jesus Care, accompanied by Sue Lynch. And I would like to ask you, as she is singing, if you'd go ahead and turn to Isaiah 50 during her song so you'll be prepared for that when we have the message.

Again, Isaiah 50, if you'd look that up as Jane and Sue are doing special music. Let's go to the Lord in prayer at this time. Father, as we come before you, we want to praise you for your grace in our lives, your grace in salvation. And we're burdened for unsaved loved ones, and we ask that in your grace and mercy you'd quicken them to life, that like us you would quicken them to life and grant them faith and repentance. We ask you to help us to be a testimony before them, not only through our lips, but our lives. We praise you for the grace of sanctification, how you grow us, and the grace and knowledge of God through your word. And we praise you for the grace that strengthens us and gives us wisdom for service. Thank you for providing for Beacon Baptist Church and for our families.

We do pray for businesses and schools as they begin opening. We pray specifically for Naomi Williams, Hammy Freeman's mom, who's in the hospital with cancer. We pray for Robert Sweet, who will be having a sixth heart cath tomorrow. We pray for Larry Norris's niece, Robin Robinson, who is on a ventilator at Duke Med Center. Father, we think of Ruth Patterson and Dinky Smith, Hazel Garcia, Evelyn Butler, all of whom are in elder care facilities.

Protect them, strengthen them. We pray for Nellie Hunter, Betty Duncan, and Frances Easley as they each endure chronic back pain. I think of Nellie in particular as she goes to the doctor this week. We pray that you would enable her to get an MRI done of her back if that would please you. We think of Larry Appel also as he recovers from back surgery. I pray for Art Pope and Lanny Braley as they deal with COPD and Shirley Watkins, who continues to have health issues. Lord, we ask for sustaining grace for Ruth Guthrie as she's dealing with terminal cancer. We also pray for Dwayne Craig's dad, that the doctors would be able to discern the best course of action in his life as he has congestive heart failure. We lift up the following missionaries in prayer who have health issues.

I think of Trevor Johnson and Paul Snyder, David and Donna Edens, Steve Worth and Mike Webster. We also pray for Laverne's family as they recover from the home-going of Stuart that is both a blessing and yet also a burden for them as they miss him intensely. We pray for our nation. We ask that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, perfectly and entirely. We ask that you give our government officials wisdom, conviction, and courage. Father, most of all tonight, I ask that you bring honor to yourself. May I not do anything that would keep you from blessing your people.

Give me wisdom. Give me a liberty of thought and freedom of speech as we, for a few moments, dwell upon your work in our lives, Lord, how we can trust you during emotional and physical and spiritual times of trial. We'll praise you for what you accomplish in us and through us in Christ's name.

Amen. Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth or song? As the burdens press and the cares distress and the day grows weary and long. Oh yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when I've tried and failed to resist some temptation strong?

When in my deep grief I find no relief, though my tears flow all the night long. Oh yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me?

And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks. Is this odd to him? Does he see? Oh yes, he cares.

I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.

Thank you, Jane and Sue. Our message tonight is entitled The Key to Contentment, Commitment to Your Sovereign Sympathetic Savior. Our main text is going to be in Matthew 26, and we'll get there eventually. As I mentioned earlier, I trust that you turned to Isaiah 50, but let me give you a brief introduction. This message was prompted by visits that I've made to people in our church, quite frankly, that are hurting in a variety of different ways, and I want to be an encouragement to them tonight, and I trust and pray that I'll be an encouragement to some who are going through things that I'm not even aware of.

I know what you're going through. How often have those words been sincerely shared in an effort to encourage someone in their time of need? The problem with using those words is they're not entirely true. The full impact of a trial can't be understood by someone else. There can be the heartache of loneliness so deep that the one hurting feels adrift and alone in a crowded room. There can be the physical pain so intense and prolonged that the person struggles with the wish to die and go on to heaven. And there can be the spiritual burden for unsaved loved ones that haunts a burdened believer.

One thing is as comforting as it is certain. Jesus knows what you are personally going through. The writer of Hebrews assures us that Christ can and does sympathize with our greatest weaknesses and our most intense pains. Because of this, we can come boldly to the throne of grace where we can obtain mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. For those who are suffering emotionally, physically, or spiritually, there is no better remedy from which to draw strength than considering Christ who committed himself to God who judges righteously. Tonight for a few moments, we want to consider the example of Christ who suffered emotionally in Gethsemane, physically at Gabbatha, and spiritually on Golgotha. The strongest of Christians can be tempted to ask, does Jesus care? I pray that our considerations tonight will draw from you. Oh yes, He cares, I know He cares.

His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. Our first consideration tonight is this, that Christ knew in detail the horrifying reality of what lay ahead of Him. Christ knew in detail the horrifying reality of what lay ahead of Him.

And we notice first of all under this, the cup that He would drink was prophesied. I asked you to turn to Isaiah 50 earlier and I want to read verses 6 through 7. And as I read this, instead of going through the verses completely, I'd like to stop and give you the meaning of the Hebrew word that I'll select.

That'll be a little more disjointed, but I want you to get the full impact of this. Isaiah 50 verses 6 and 7. I gave my back to those who struck me. That word struck means to beat or give wounds. And my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. The word plucked doesn't do it justice. That word means to tear out, to make bald.

In other words, to rip the beard from the face. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me, therefore I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint and I know that I will not be ashamed.

The Eastern people have always held the beard in the highest veneration. To have been extremely jealous of its honor. To pluck a man's beard is an instance of the greatest indignity that can be offered. Do you remember the Old Testament account of David sending some men to offer his consolation to the son of a king who had died? And that son of the king's advisor gave him bad advice. They said, David has sent these men to spy out the land. And so to humiliate those men, they cut their shirts off at the waist and shaved half of their beard off.

That goes back to what we said. Plucking the beard, pulling it from the face, was one of the highest forms of disgrace that you could give a man. I want you to turn over just a couple of chapters to Isaiah 52. And we want to read verse 14.

And we are considering the cup that he would drink was prophesied. Isaiah 52, 14, just as many were astonished. That word means stupefied or stunned.

Stupefied or stunned. Just as many as were astonished at you, so his visage, or his countenance, was marred or disfigured more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. Sometimes we can read over scripture and it can affect us, but when we really contemplate that, the prophet is saying no one has ever had this done to them like Jesus.

They were astonished, stunned, when they looked upon him. Let me turn over one more chapter for one last thing as far as Old Testament prophecy, and that is Isaiah 53. Familiar, and there are several words that we're going to give the sentence to, if we may.

Verses 4 and 5 are the ones that we will read. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. That word means anguish. Yet he esteemed him stricken.

That means to strike violently. He was smitten by God. Smitten means to beat, to give wounds. He was smitten by God and afflicted, put down, humbled. But he was wounded, and this one I never would have dreamed the meaning of it. He was wounded.

That means to profane, to make common, to defile, to pollute. Far different than what we would think of the word wounded. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised or crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Then we drop down to verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief, and that word grief means to make sick or weak. We'll not ask you to turn there unless you care to, but we're going to jump to the New Testament and look at Christ's words in Luke 18, 31.

Listen if you would. It says, Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. And beloved, as I studied for this and I thought over this, I could not help but wonder, when was it that Christ became aware that these Old Testament prophecies applied to him? Because as I thought about it, the first public words of Jesus were when he was in the temple at age 12.

Eighteen years passed before his public ministry began at age 30. And I wondered, when was it that he as Jesus the man understood the magnitude of what was going to happen to him? And the point I want to make before I read Mark 10, 32 through 34 is this, somewhere in that continuum between age 12 and age 30, the full weight of what lay ahead of him fell upon Jesus. And when you hear Mark 10, 32 through 34 fully knowing that he understood in great detail the horror that laid ahead of him, it should impact you. Does Jesus care?

He cared enough to endure what we're about to read. Mark 10, 32 through 34, speaking of Jesus and the disciples. Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them, and they were amazed.

That word means to astound or astonish. They were amazed. And as they followed, they were afraid. Then he took the 12 aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to him. Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him. And the third day he will rise again. Beloved, I'd remind you that the disciples and Jesus himself knew exactly what the word scourge meant.

They knew exactly what the word scourge meant. But secondly, as you see under this, Christ knew in detail the horrifying reality of what lay ahead of him. Not only was the cup prophesied, but the cup that he would drink was pervasive. As we shall see, it would permeate his entire being emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

It'll permeate every aspect of him and then finally see the cup that he would drink was purposeful. Listen to John 12, 27 and 28. Jesus said, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. What was the purpose for which Jesus came to this hour? The purpose was to save his people from their sin.

John 10, 14 and 15. I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep and I'm known by my own.

As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. The success of Christ wasn't just a possibility. It was foreordained. Before he ever became man, you recall that the angel told Joseph, You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. So we've considered, first of all, Christ knew in detail the horrifying reality of what lay ahead of him. The cup that he would drink was prophesied. The cup that he would drink was pervasive or all-encompassing.

The cup that he would drink was purposeful. Now we want to look at these three different areas emotionally, physically, and spiritually. What we're going to do, we'll end up going to Matthew 26 at this time. I'm going to read an extensive portion of scripture as we go through this, the different phases. First one of the three, Christ's new emotional agony in Gethsemane. Matthew 26, we'll begin reading at verse 36. Matthew 26 verses 36 through 38. Christ's new emotional agony in Gethsemane.

Then Jesus came with him to a place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.

Stay here and watch with me. The words exceedingly sorrowful mean grieved all around, intensely sad. In Gethsemane, his dread of the cup was such that he requested three times that it pass from him. Folks, when you think about his high priestly prayer in John 17 where he says, I have glorified you on the earth.

I have finished the work that you gave me to do. Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha still lay ahead of him. And he said, Father, I have finished the work.

He had purpose to do it. And yet when he got to Gethsemane and he considered that cup, those Old Testament prophecies, he ended up praying three times, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Matthew 26, 39 through 45, he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them asleep and said to Peter, What?

Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, a second time he went away and prayed, saying, Oh, my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me, unless I drink it, your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So he left them, went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand. The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Now, I emphasize the words. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

I've heard that countless times. MacArthur ends up saying this about the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He states, At that very moment, Jesus was locked in a struggle against human passions, which, while not sinful in themselves, must be subjugated to the divine will if sin is to be avoided. What is he saying? Never forget, he suffered in his humanity.

He wanted the cup to pass if it be possible, but above his desire, he wanted God's will to be done. And I think it appropriate to insert here just a very quick personal illustration. If you attend Beacon regularly, you know that last year on Father's Day, I had a heart attack. And I don't want to belabor the point, but when something like this happens to you, it's front and center. Any time you get a little bit of a pain in your chest, that comes back to you. You know, when you feel to make sure you got your nitroglycerin little bottle in your pocket. And I will never forget, and I'll skip right to the point, of going in there and being put in a room after, what, six hours on an emergency room bed, if you can call that a bed, they got me to a room, they closed the door, and it hit me.

I may never see my family again. But here's the thing that I want you to get, not that. Yeah, that's emotional, friend. That's emotional. But there's also a spiritual aspect. I truly said, Lord, my body is yours.

You bought it with the price of your blood. I would ask that if it would please you, you would give me more time to serve you. And yet the best I know how, I ask for your will to be done. Folks, if we forget anything else that's said tonight, that is the bottom line. Commitment to the sovereignty of a sympathetic savior. That's the bottom line. It is no magic pill. It's a decision.

And let me say this to you. It brought peace. That doesn't mean that the peace was insulated against human feelings still. I had a peace that if I, and I was ignorant of having a heart cath, ignorant. Well, it went through my mind, I'm either going to wake up in heaven or wake up on that operating table or in recovery.

Little did I know they don't put you to sleep during that. So I was at complete peace as far as my salvation. I knew where I was going if it was not God's will for me to come through this.

But there was still a motion, as I mentioned in another message. I texted my wife, sent that. I texted our three kids, sent that.

I wrote a text to our grandchildren and left it unsent. I figured they can send that to them if the Lord chooses to take me home. But here's the deal. The spirit's willing but the flesh is weak. I know what that means. I know what that feels like.

I know what that feels like. My spirit was willing. Lord, have your will be done. My flesh is weak.

I want to hang around here if it would please you. He requested, his requesting, I should say, three times that the cup passed from him reveals the depth of his emotional agony. If you can just envision him there going through that. And Luke 22, keep your place in Matthew. But in Luke 22, Jesus prayed, Father, if it's your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. God's response was that he sent an angel that appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him.

Now this is important. God sent an angel to strengthen Christ. That's verse 42. Verse 44 says, And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

John MacArthur again gives us insights. This suggests a dangerous condition known as hemocytosis. What is that? It's the effusion of blood in your perspiration. It can be caused by extreme anguish or physical strain.

Capillaries under the skin dilate and burst, mingling blood with sweat. Christ himself stated that his distress had brought him to the threshold of death. Beloved, Christ knows what emotional agony is all about.

You may be going through the toughest from your perspective, but none of us touches what he went through in Gethsemane. But also in Gethsemane, Christ knew the Father's ability to deliver him. Same chapter, verses 46 through 56. He said to his disciples, Rise, let us be going.

See, my betrayer is at hand. And while he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now his betrayer had given them a sign saying, whomever I kiss, he is the one, seize him. Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, Greetings, Rabbi, and kissed him. But Jesus said to him, Friend, why have you come? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. But Jesus said to him, Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

Now notice this. Or do you think that I cannot pray now to my Father and he will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen thus? In that hour, Jesus said to the multitudes, Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me? I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you did not seize me. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Mark's account, Jesus prayed Abba, and that is a word of endearment.

I guess we could say similar to our word daddy, but an intimate term. He prayed, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. And the point that we're making, Christ knew the Father's ability to deliver him if he so chose to do that. Of Christ's agony and Gethsemane, the commentator Adam Clark writes this. His agony and distress can receive no consistent explanation but this. He suffered the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Oh glorious truth, oh infinitely meritorious suffering, and oh above all, the eternal love that caused him to undergo such suffering for the sake of sinners. Jesus knew emotional agony.

And number three, Christ knew physical agony in Gabatha. Matthew 26 again, and let me say this before we read the text that I want you to look at. Matthew 26, 57 all the way through chapter 27, 25 records Christ's trial before Caiaphas. It records Peter's denial, the remorse of Judas.

It records Christ's trial before Pilate. All we want to look at tonight are the verses that deal with him suffering physically. We're going to go right to that text and that will be verses 26 through, well first, 67 and 68 of Matthew 26. Matthew 26, 67 and 68.

He's before Caiaphas and the elders. They spat on his face and beat him, and that word beat means to wrap with a fist. They spat on his face and beat him, and others struck him with the palms of their hands, saying, prophesy to us, Christ, who is the one who struck you? Now turn over one chapter, if you would, to Matthew 27, and we'll read verses 26 through 30. And this is Christ before Pilate.

Verse 26, then he, Pilate, released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, and that was with a flagellum, or we would also know it as a cat of nine tails, when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium, gathered the whole garrison around him. Commentators tell us that a garrison is a cohort of about 600 soldiers.

Can you picture that in your mind? 600 soldiers, men who got up every day realizing, I'm going to kill or be killed. Hardened men. The whole garrison was around him. Verse 28, they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. When they twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. They bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Then they spat on him, took the reed, and struck him. That word struck means to pummel repeatedly. They struck him repeatedly on the head. When they had mocked him, they took the robe off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified. The prophecies that we read earlier from Isaiah 50 and 52 and 53 concerning Jesus' physical suffering were fulfilled down to the minute detail. The word scourged in verse 26 that I mentioned earlier in the message is especially gruesome.

Let me quote a commentator. Hardened men who were adept with a flagellum or a cat of nine tails would flog the individual mercilessly. An expert at wielding the scourge could literally tear the flesh from the back, lacerating muscles, sometimes even exposing the kidneys or other internal organs. Scourging alone was fatal in some cases.

Can you imagine? You think back, especially Isaiah 50, where people were astonished at his visage, not only his face but his body. Recall that the prophet Isaiah said no other human being had been afflicted to that degree. Understand that Isaiah 52 verse 14 refers to Christ's appearance after Gabbatha.

So when we read that prophecy, we're seeing a picture of what he looked like after Gabbatha. The lyrics, his robes for mine to his robes for mine, don't overstate the brutality of Gabbatha. Let me quote, and we love singing this song. But when you sing the song and really meditate upon the message, which is most important, it's jarring, for lack of a better way of putting it.

Listen to this. Jesus is crushed. Jesus is crushed and thus the Father is pleased. In the physical agony of Gabbatha, Christ again committed himself to the Father's sovereign will. Finally, and we've looked at the fact that he knew emotional agony and Gethsemane there alone. He knew physical agony and Gabbatha at the hands of the Romans. But we also want to see that Christ knew spiritual agony on Gaugatha. To be sure, his crucifixion on Gaugatha involved indescribable pain and emotion.

And I want to read just a summary. I've cut it short, to be quite honest with you, that MacArthur has in his study Bible concerning crucifixion. He said Roman crucifixion was a lingering doom by design.

Let me insert here. It was done right outside of Jerusalem on a hill overlooking the city where any passerby would see the crucified person. And it would be a visual warning to anyone.

Mess with us and this is what you get. Roman crucifixion was a lingering doom by design. Roman executioners had perfected the art of slow torture while keeping the victim alive. Some victims even lingered until they were eaten alive by birds of prey or wild beasts. Most hung on the cross for days before dying of exhaustion, dehydration, traumatic fever, or most likely suffocation.

How would that take place? When the legs would no longer support the weight of the body, the diaphragm was constricted in a way that made breathing impossible. That's why breaking the legs ended up hastening death because the man could only keep himself up by his arms. And after a while he could no longer do that and he would suffocate. But this was not done to Jesus.

Why? Because it fulfilled prophecy that not a bone of his body would be broken. Why do we refer to Christ's spiritual agony on Golgotha rather than his ongoing physical agony? Because his cry of anguish in Matthew 27 verse 46 near the end of three hours of darkness climaxes the extreme bitterness of the cup of wrath he was given.

And I think you'll agree with me as I comment on this. That cry is the climax of everything he endured. The darkness from 12 to 3 was symbolic of spiritual judgment. And the cry that we're referring to, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Christ's questioning of God is in the context of submission to the Father's will.

It wasn't in any way, shape, or form negative toward the Father. It just conveys the depth of the spiritual agony that he endured. Commentators say that the extent of the temporary separation from God remains a mystery. We cannot possibly comprehend what it was like for the eternal Son of God to be forsaken by his Father.

Let me give you some details under this that will color in even more for us. His spiritual anguish is especially moving because just prior to his high priestly prayer in John 17, Christ told his disciples this. Indeed, the hour is coming, yes, has come now, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave me alone. Now listen to this, and yet I'm not alone because the Father is with me.

Folks, that is tough sledding. I am not alone because the Father is with me. On the cross, Jesus was crying out in anguish because of the separation he now experienced from his Heavenly Father for the first and only time in all of eternity.

That is a profound statement from a commentator. For the first and only time in all eternity, he is separated from fellowship with the Father. It's the only time that we have record that Jesus did not address God as Father. He didn't say, my Father, my Father, he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's the first and last recorded words that Jesus has that he uses the word Father.

Remember in the temple at age 12, first time that he ever recorded, he told Joseph and Mary, I must be about my Father's business. Then I insert my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And at the very end on the cross, he said, Father, into your hands, here's that word again, I commit or commend my spirit.

And having said thus, he breathed his last. Again, I borrow some words from his robes from mine. Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.

That is a profound statement. God estranged from God, also the words such anguish none can know. Christ, God's beloved, condemned as though his foe. He as though I accursed and left alone. I as though he embraced and welcomed home. He was forsaken from God that we might have fellowship with God. What can we learn from Christ's response to the tests that were emotional, physical, and spiritual in agony?

First of all, accept that your well-being is in the hands of Almighty God who sovereignly ordained each step of your journey. Do you believe that, folks? Do you believe that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way? And that the only reason you could even have the word good put alongside your name is grace? Grace. Do you believe that?

Accept your well-being is in the hands of Almighty God who sovereignly ordained each step of your journey. Now, I'll read this slowly, but this commentator hits it on the head. How many times in the Gospel of John does Jesus talk about his hour? He would say, my hour has not yet come, or the hour is coming. It was as if Jesus was hearing the chimes of a clock that nobody else could hear. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sum total of his ministry and mission, was leading to this one final cry to Telestai, it is finished.

From his birth through his boyhood, manhood, and public ministry, Jesus' focus was to finish the work his Father had given to him, and that work was the work of redemption. How do we apply that to our lives? Keep serving him until he takes you home. Keep serving him until he takes you home.

Now, I'm just going to generalize on this. I stopped by to get the oil changed and the car that the church lets me use, and there was a gentleman there getting his done, and we struck up a conversation. I don't know how I worked the conversation to spiritual things, but it happened. He said, yeah, we're in the process of looking for a pastor. He said the sad part about it is it all boils down to money. I told him how the Lord had blessed my wife and I in ministry several different times, just tangibly blessed us, met a need that we had. I made this statement because we got around to the conversation how many jobs there are out there that people could get if they wanted to.

I made the comment. I can't imagine fully retiring. I would go bananas. I can't imagine fully retiring. I'm going to be doing something somewhere, God willing, until he said come home. Folks, the bottom line in this first point is accept that your well-being is in the hands of Almighty God who sovereignly ordained every single step of your journey. Job 14.5 says of mankind, and I'm sure this was several people, says of all men, his days are determined. The number of his months is with you. You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass. For someone to make the statement he died too young through ignorant of scripture, he died exactly the day and the hour and the minute that God had ordained for him to die. Of mankind, his days are determined. The number of his months is with you. You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass.

The second thing that I want us to consider tonight is by way of application. Apply the scriptures in your difficult circumstances, and I want to give you one example of this. It's of Christ. He had taught unforgiveness. Luke 6, 27 and 28, he said, But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. Beloved, is there any better example than Christ praying from the cross for those who mock him? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

He applied scripture because his words are scripture. Are you going through physical agony? I'm not saying take Romans 8, 28 like two aspirin and get plenty of sleep, but I am saying that Romans 8, 28 means what Romans 8, 28 says.

All things are working together for good. Some of it is flat out rough, but it contributes to the big picture. Gethsemane was rough. Gabbatha was rough.

Gogatha was rough. And when you put the whole thing together, you have a beautiful, moving picture of what it costs for you to be redeemed. So, are you going through a physical need? Confess that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit if you indeed are a Christian. Lord, my body is yours.

I ask if it would please you, you give me more time, and yet I bow the knee to your sovereignty, and if you decide to take me home, so be it. Rest in his sovereignty. What about emotional agony? Go to 2 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4.

He's the God of all comfort, and he will comfort you in ways that you in turn can comfort others. Are you going through spiritual agony? Go to the throne of grace and realize that salvation is of the Lord.

Don't let that be heard too lightly, folks. Go to the throne of grace, realizing that salvation is of the Lord. Honor God, glorify God by praying that he in his grace and mercy will save those for whom you're burdened. Call out their name by name if you know them to be apart from grace, apart from Christ.

And if it's general, in my case, I have several relatives that are rarely exposed to the word. I send a devotional out every Sunday, and many of them are on that list, but I also make it very clear that it's sent to other people. Don't target them, and I pray, Lord, if it would please you, expose them to this or whatever you would choose. But expose them to the gospel. Quicken them to life. Grant them repentance and faith for your glory. Apply the scriptures in your difficult situations. And then finally, acknowledge that your circumstances can be used of God for the eternal good of others. I'll give you a real life example. Well, both of them I'm going to give a real life.

Joni Eareckson Tada, at 17, dove into the water, hit her head, fractured her spine, and has gone years and years, decades, literally decades. And she would readily tell you that she's been used to the Lord in ways that she wouldn't dream of being used, as a typical 17-year-old, even with age. Sometimes on my way to church, her short program will be on. And I'm amazed at what her ministry is accomplishing. Acknowledge that your circumstances can be used of God for the eternal and temporal good of others.

Here's the illustration that I give. Matthew 27, 54. So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, truly, this was the Son of God. Now, was that an admission of saving faith? It certainly is an admission that Jesus was more than just a man. Secondly, and this one definitely speaks of saving faith, Luke 23, 43. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Acknowledge that your circumstances can be used of God for the eternal good of others. I want to read for you just three verses out of Hebrews 12, and the punchline for these verses that I want you to get is at the last part of it, and I'll point it out to you.

Familiar. Hebrews 12, 1-3, and closing. Therefore we also, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, are they?

The people in Hebrews 11, some of whom had horrific things happen to them. Agonizing trial. Therefore we also, seeing we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Now listen to this last verse.

For consider him, which we've done tonight. We've considered Jesus emotionally in Gethsemane, physically in Gabbatha, spiritually in Golgotha. Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself.

Why? Lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Folks, Christ knew in detail the horrifying reality of what lay ahead of him. He knew that that cup was prophesied, that it was pervasive, it would cover all of his emotion, all of him. He knew that it was purposeful. It was why he came to this earth. We looked at the fact that he suffered intense, indescribable emotion in Gethsemane, that they brutalized him in Gabbatha, that he said probably the most horrific, sad words that any human tongue has ever said. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

May that be an encouragement to you. Does Jesus care? Does Jesus care? I want to read just the chorus, then we're going to pray. The question is asked in the first verse. Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply from earth or song, as the burdens press and the cares distress and the way grows weary and long?

And the chorus. Oh yes, he cares. I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. For our benediction, I want to read 2 Thessalonians 2, 16 and 17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Amen and amen.