God’s Glory In Our Suffering

Hurting is part of life. Ask anyone in a cancer ward facing a painful end of life with an incurable tumor. No one is exempt from suffering.

Sooner or later, we all experience it. But believers are promised that suffering for the sake of Jesus will be rewarded. Today, another lesson on why nothing else matters but the glory of God, especially when we're in pain.

Please stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. On this broadcast, you'll hear message number six in a nine-part series on Nothing Else Matters, how the glory of God gives meaning to all of life. Later in our program, Erwin Lutzer will speak on God's glory in our suffering.

Today's service begins with the singing of The Moody Church congregation, choir, and orchestra. O God, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Sing the choirs of the world, yes, God. And the system, and the strength, all are facing us now.

All are facing us now. Oh, the hopes of evil around us, for thy Christ has saved his ways. From the fears that long have bound us, free our hearts to faith and praise. Grant us wisdom, and praise. Grant us wisdom, and praise. For the living of these days.

For the living of these days. Oh, thy students are relentless, and the Christ, with all thy heart, is whole. Shake all our hearts with selfishness, rigid things, and warm and sober. Grant us wisdom, and praise. Bless these who make us whole.

Bless these who make us whole. Should our faith come all the places where our lives have been made clean, our good faith will rise by grace to give our lives through seven memories. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, that we do what we believe, that we do what we believe. Give us hope, give us salvation, to live in the Spirit of God. Give us truth, full of salvation, be our glory evermore. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, to live in the Spirit of God. Give us hope, give us courage, be our glory evermore. Give us truth, full of salvation, Amen. Our first scripture reading for this morning is taken from Luke chapter 24.

If you would, please follow along in your bulletin as I read. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled?

And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat?

And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things and behold I am sending the promise of my father upon you.

But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Then he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them and while he blessed them he parted from them and was carried up into heaven and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. Amen. Amen. Suffering for the glory of God. After all, as we're learning in this series of messages, nothing else really matters except the glory of God. Of course, as you know, there are many different kinds of suffering.

I shall list just a few. There is physical suffering. Some of you live with chronic pain.

Some of you who are listening may be diagnosed with a terminal disease such as cancer. And we've all seen people go through excruciating physical suffering and how awful it can be. Some of you may be going through a time also of emotional suffering.

You live with depression. You live with a sense of rejection, a sense of alienation and loneliness and you feel a sense of being unsuitable for God and you live that way. And sometimes it's hard for you to find a joy in the journey. And then of course we could talk about marital suffering where you have conflicts in the home and all that that means in marriages and between children and their parents and parents and their children. How much pain can this world endure?

There are other kinds as well. There's suffering that is inflicted upon us by others. There is also that which we have brought upon ourselves. Some of you are going through times of financial suffering because you don't know how your bills are going to be paid and you scarcely have enough money to be able to catch a cab or catch a bus to come here to The Moody Church.

And you wonder about the future. Suffering is all around us. Unfortunately there are many Christians who do not see God's hand in their suffering. We must understand that there are two different responses to suffering and two different intentions.

That's a better way for me to say it. On the one hand you have Satan's intention of suffering in the lives of Christians. His intention is very very clear. It is to make us miserable and cynical and to cut our hearts off from God. His intention is indeed that we no longer trust God, we don't believe in his goodness, and as a result we turn inward, bitter, angry, jealous, and self-serving. That's Satan's intention. And there are some Christians in whom he is winning those battles. I have no doubt about that. I remember my parents were friends with a woman who had come over from time to time and for two or three hours nothing but complaints.

Complaints about her pain, complaints about the doctors, complaints about the nursing home, complaints, complaints, complaints. And you look at her and you say I'm looking for Jesus there somewhere but I'm finding it hard to find him. And so Satan wins temporary victories in our lives. I say temporary because as Christians the future is secure, but temporary victories because we don't see God in the midst of it. God's own purpose for suffering is very different. It is to break us, to humble us, to develop his relationship with us. Suffering really is God trying to put his arms around us.

And how many of us absolutely resist those arms and we become angry as I mentioned before? You know the Bible says in Philippians chapter 1 verse 29, very interesting verse, it says, on to you it is given on behalf of Christ to believe on him. All of us believe that faith is a gift of God and so God gives us the opportunity to believe on him. It is a divine gift. But the rest of the verse says, on to you it is given to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his name. For the next few moments I want you to see suffering as a divine gift in your life coming from God's hand for God's purposes. And it's a gift that I don't want you to resent. It's a gift that I do not want you to be angry about but a gift for you to be able to see the larger picture of what God has in mind for his glory and for his honor.

That's the agenda. Now there are so many different passages of scripture I could turn to to show that the Bible is filled with teaching about suffering. Nowhere in the scripture do we ever come across a phrase like this where Paul says, now I'm really sorry that you're suffering.

That's really too bad. You don't find it in the Bible. Everything is rejoice in your tribulations. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials because if you see God and his glory you and I will suffer well.

So what I've decided to do is this. Rather than use one passage of scripture I'd like to use a number of passages, number of examples from the Bible that help us get into this whole business of suffering to pull back the curtain and see what God has in mind. And I'm going to invite you to turn if you will in your Bible to a few passages of scripture.

If you'd prefer to listen that's fine. If you want to use the Bible that is in the seat in front of you you can do that as well. But join me on a journey because at the end of this journey I'm going to ask you to submit to God in a way that perhaps you've not submitted him to him before in whatever suffering he has brought into your life. I want you to see suffering as his gift to us.

You ready for the journey? First of all suffering glorifies God. It glorifies God when God uses it to expose our sin that we deal with. Best example is Job. You can turn if you will to Job chapter 42 for just a moment. Job chapter 42. I'm going to be reading a few verses but remember the story of Job. He loses 10 children.

10 fresh new graves on the hillside. His wife is not supportive. She says curse God and die. Job's friends come and chapter after chapter they're trying to unravel the mystery of suffering and they're saying in effect, Job if you were a righteous man you wouldn't suffer like that. Cough up your sin.

Tell us what it is. Did you know that it is always wrong for you to judge someone because of the suffering that they are going through and assume that somehow it is because of their sin. Now in some instances we can see that clearly of course if you are involved in an addiction the consequences are evident but for the most part you and I have no clue because there is no direct cause-effect relationship between the extent of somebody's suffering and whether or not they are righteous. As a matter of fact the Bible says that God chose Job because he was upright. He feared God and turned away from evil and it's because of his righteousness that God allowed him to suffer. So at the end what is God doing in Job's life? Yes he was righteous. Yes he feared God but there was more sin in Job's heart than he knew about and suffering brought it to the surface.

There's nothing like suffering to bring out what is within us. Job indicated that he was self-righteous. He was angry with God. He didn't trust God. He didn't like the way God was dealing with him.

There was really no submission in his life despite the fact that he was probably one of the most religious and good men that was on the earth at that time. Now after that God reveals himself to Job and now we're in chapter 42 verse 5. Job is saying in the presence of God I heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job is a righteous man but God needed to reveal to him the depths of his sin so that his relationship with God might be strengthened that he might be able to accept this trial as from the hand of God for God's glory and God brought Job to that point as a result of suffering.

Nothing can do it. Sermons can't do it. Dr. Alan Redpath who for many years was a pastor here a very godly man he went through a time however where he had a stroke and in his suffering there's nothing like sickness that makes you realize how sinful and petty you really are.

He said that when he was recovering from his sickness he saw in his life anger and lust and jealousy and all kinds of sins he thought he had dealt with and he ended by saying this I concluded that there is nothing in Alan Redpath that is good except Jesus Christ. Suffering my friend is good. We can suffer for God's glory when God reveals and exposes our sin. I'm going to say something that's hard to hear because Job's children certainly were precious to him and to others but God was saying that when I really want to get to a man even his children are not untouchable and God took Job's children to get to Job's heart. Job ended up not being angry with God but seeing his suffering as part of God's program for him and that sense that's the sense in which his suffering glorified God.

I walked a mile with pleasure she chatted all the way but let me none the wiser for all she had to say. I've walked a mile with sorrow and ne'er a word said she but all the things I learned when sorrow walked with me suffering to the glory of God. Let me give you a second example and that comes to us from the Apostle Paul and you know the story so well you need not even turn to the text. The Apostle Paul is going through a time of difficulty and in 2nd Corinthians he says I had the temptation to be proud. You see because he was given so many revelations people would say oh Paul he's got a direct hotline to God. Look at the way in which he's writing inspired scripture.

Jesus personally appealed to him and appeared to him first of all appealed to him and then appeared to him and so people began to say oh you know you know Paul just walks on water. He says lest I become proud as a result of the abundance of revelations given to me there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. We don't know exactly what the thorn was.

The Greek word is scallops. It is a stake in the flesh probably some physical pain and the Apostle Paul cries up to God three times and says take it away take it away take it away. God says no I'm not taking it away but I will supply grace chapter 12 verse 9 of 2nd Corinthians. He says God says my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is perfected in weakness and Paul says most gladly will I therefore rather glory in mine infirmity but the power of Christ may rest upon me. If it takes pain to give me power I'll accept it from God's hand. Let me say this that you and I because of the pride of our hearts we have within us our heart which is a temple whereby we worship ourselves. All that really matters is us where we live how much we earn what other people think of us our health nothing wrong being concerned with those things but that's as far as it goes and and we do not have compassion we can't see beyond our own need and in our pride and in our self-will and in our self-defensiveness there we are and God comes along and weakens us because what God wants to say is you need a new sense of dependence upon me and if you want my power Paul says I will glory in insults he says I will glory let me give you the whole list he says I am content with weaknesses insults hardships persecution calamities I'm content with them because I see God in them and when I am weak he says then am I strong I could become angry at God I could close my heart toward him I could doubt his goodness I could become bitter I have all of those options but I choose rather to see God in this affliction and have a whole new sense of dependence that my pride might be brought low and you can suffer for the glory of God when God does that in your life another example is we can glorify God in suffering when it extends the gospel when it extends the gospel you know the apostle Paul was in prison very probably in Rome chained to guards this is what he said in Philippians chapter 1 listen to it carefully he's saying I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ and now most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear Paul says here I am in prison confined but I see God in this I have the opportunity to witness in prison and if my suffering gives me a platform in which people are willing to listen to my calamities and not to listen because of the calamities but because of what I'm willing to endure for Christ and I endure it cheerfully I'm witnessing right where the gospel needs to be and my witness is inspiring others to be bold too Paul says hey I'm content to be in jail if my suffering does that some of you work in work environments that are very very difficult I know that there are those that I've talked to who say that in your work environment there are all kinds of innuendos there's all kinds of people who are trying to undercut one another it is a very unkind unclean environment and you want to get out of it and I say to you before you get out of it remember this that you are the best witness these dear people have and if your suffering if you're going to work and you're discovering hardship there is a platform on which you can live out the gospel not in a judgmental way but in a way that that honors God and to be there for people when the bottom falls out of their lives then remember that kind of suffering is good because after all it extends the gospel and Paul says I'm willing to put up with this as long as I have the opportunity to tell somebody about Jesus and in that sense Paul glorifies God right where he is let me give you another example and for this we turn to the Old Testament and that is sometimes we suffer for future generations let me tell you the context of the book of Ruth there is a woman by the name of Naomi Naomi marries a man by the name of Elimelech they leave Bethlehem which is known as the house of bread in Hebrew beit lechem house of bread because there's a famine in the house of bread and they go to Moab and along the way they choose to live there in Moab for 10 long years they have two sons and suddenly her husband dies Elimelech dies Naomi is left a widow and then of all things her two sons also die and she's left with two daughter-in-laws so Naomi has heard that Bethlehem is doing better economically there's some bread there now so she's leaving Moab and now she wants to go to Bethlehem and the two daughter-in-laws accompany her one of them turns away Oprah Orfa I should say did you know that Oprah Oprah is a misspelling of the word Orfa I think that's Oprah Winfrey that's why she has such a unique and special name Orfa turns back but Ruth Ruth decides to go with her and says I want your God to be my God all right that's the context now listen to how Naomi is responding Naomi the name means pleasant the people in Bethlehem say hey Naomi's back that's great listen to how Naomi is interpreting this in verse 20 of chapter 1 do not call me Naomi or pleasant call me Mara a word Mara means bitter for the almighty has dealt very bitterly with me I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the almighty has brought this calamity upon me at least give her credit for knowing that her calamity ultimately came from God though there were secondary causes but here she's saying call me bitter I left full I had a husband two sons now I'm a widow and here I am God has dealt bitterly with me is there a widow that is listening to me today and that's the way you feel you've lost a husband maybe you've lost a child to boot you've lost your identity perhaps you've lost your friends and you feel like Naomi don't call me pleasant call me bitter now if we'd gone to Naomi and said why do you think God brought that calamity upon you she'd have probably said I have no reason at all to know now of course God wanted to do a work in her heart for her to accept her calamity and later on she does because things turned out pretty well for her but listen to the way in which the book ends you'll notice it says Ruth marries Boaz and then verse 17 of chapter 4 and the women of the neighborhood after Ruth has a child with Boaz the women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying a son has been born to Naomi Naomi is actually the grandmother and they named him Obed he was the father of Jesse the father of David and your jaw drops and Ruth shows up in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 1 if you'd have said Naomi why is God being bitter with you or at least you think that he's being that way why she would not have been able to look centuries into the future and to know that the reason that God brought all of this about certainly one of the primary reasons is that Ruth might be converted to the true God the God of Israel and secondly God wanted a moabites in the genealogy of Jesus to show that the gospel is really for everybody and not just for the Jews listen you don't know the half of the reasons why you're suffering that's why we have to trust God that's why we read together the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes because Naomi needed to trust God and God's picture was so much bigger than hers she had no way to know the far-reaching implications of her sorrow and her moving from Bethlehem to Moab and then from Moab back to Bethlehem she didn't see that she died without knowing it imagine John chapter 9 there's a man who was born blind from his birth I should have looked it up I think it was 27 years or was it 47 I didn't look at the passage but for many many years there he is blind and the disciples say now who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind in other words whose sin do we attribute it to they're interested in this cause-effect relationship we can judge how good a person is by how much they suffer born blind maybe you sinned in some way before birth or your parents send Jesus who did it and Jesus said there is no direct cause-effect relationship here he said neither this man sin nor his parents he didn't mean that they were sinless he meant that there was no causal relationship between their sin and the blindness but Jesus said he was born blind that the works of God might be manifest in him takes your breath away all those years sitting in blindness did he know the reason why he was blind of course not later on it became clear to him when Jesus healed him and opened his eyes but at the time that you're going through a trial you see no purpose in it whatever that's the time to trust and believe God that even though you don't see the purpose now if you can see further down the road God has purposes that you and I never know about and blessed are those who understand that it is because of the future and the blessing that we are to others through our suffering that that also is part of the equation and that man in his blindness suffered to the glory and the honor of God now of course God is also honored when we see him as being entirely worthy and I'm not going to turn to this passage but you can read it later in Ephesians chapter 3 where Paul talks about the wisdom and the greatness of God being displayed throughout all of eternity and then Paul says he says for which also I suffer and that leads me to some conclusions I want you to write down if you say today well Pastor Lutzer I'm not suffering today you're the one that should be taking notes most carefully because your day is coming it's guaranteed it's on its way wait till tomorrow number one we can glorify God not just by winning but also by losing let that sink in we can glorify God by winning but also by losing think of it this way job lost 10 children Paul lost his health Naomi lost a husband and two sons you see we have this idea that unless we're always advancing always going up the ladder always from one success to another always keeping up with others that somehow that is God's blessing sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't sometimes it is the setbacks of life where we see God's glory most clearly blessed are those who go on believing and trusting when they do not see God's purposes but know that it has come from his hand and they go on and they keep believing no matter what blessed are those it's the trial of your faith as I mentioned more precious than gold that is perishing wow think of it this way Jesus not only glorified the father by his resurrection and we know how he did glorify the father by his resurrection but Jesus also glorified God as a result of the crucifixion in fact before he was crucified he says now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified thereby oh well there he is hanging on the cross he looks as bad off as the other two that are on either side of him he looks as weak and as helpless as the thieves and there he is and he's glorifying God we don't always have to win oh it takes the pressure off of life if you sincerely believe that nothing else matters except God's glory it's as if you are taking a weight from your shoulder and you are just rolling it onto the ground and you're walking away a free person you really are young man said to me would you pray that I might be able to get through my comprehensive exams I should sure I'll pray that but is it okay if I also pray that you'll glorify God just as much if you fail well he swallowed and then said yeah you can pray that too we don't always have to win look at the people in the bible who suffered and died suffering from a human standpoint they weren't winners but from God's standpoint they glorified God in their weakness and in their suffering and I'm going to speak on how to glorify God in death because remember Jesus said to Peter he told him how he was going to die and he says this he said to Peter by which death he was to glorify God death I believe is the crowning example of how we can give glory to God so we don't always have to win you see what God wants to do is to crush us to bring us to the place of Job to bring us to the place of Paul where we stop resisting his hand of course we do all that we possibly can to alleviate our suffering we go to doctors we go for help we do everything we can but at the end of the day you can't get rid of it all and you embrace it and you say this has come to me from God I'm going to lay down the weapons of a rebel and I'm going to accept it and thank him for it and give him glory let me give you a second lesson and that is that time is short and eternity is long time is short and eternity is long I love that verse in second corinthians where the apostle Paul says this he says this light affliction and you remember what he went through thorn in the flesh people who tried to undermine him the resistance of many groups that were against him insults stoning a number of times it went through all that and he says this light affliction is but for a moment and works in us an exceeding great and weight of glory I was brought up in a culture where we used to when I was young actually have scales where you put one weight on this you'd put a pound on this side and then you'd balance it with a pound on the other side and that's how much you would know if you went to a grocery store as to how much meat or whatever it is that you were buying that tells you a little bit about my age it also tells you why I never read medical books I'm always scared that I'm going to die because of a misprint but anyway I remember those scales and I remember them well because I was in a store where as a little boy I put my hand on one of those sides and the proprietor was not amused and let me know it and it's amazing how those things stick with you throughout the years what the apostle Paul is saying is take all of your trials take the cancer take the difficult marriage take the financial pressures take the jealousy that is in your heart and confess it and be content with where you are at take that and you put it on this side of the scale and it is the weight of a human hair in comparison to an elephant on the other side he says that this light weight works in us a far exceeding weight of glory beyond all comparison eternity is coming and it's really long and you know what I think Paul actually is saying he's not just saying that God is going to have all of eternity to make it up for us though he's saying that for sure what he is saying is is that the greater the suffering the greater the glory and that's why you and I should be known as people who suffer well in fact the apostle Paul in second Corinthians actually says that that's the mark of him being a true apostle he said if you want to know I'm a true apostle he said I'm good at suffering that's my pedigree that's my certificate and the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison is coming and no wonder the bible says we rejoice in trials we don't fight them we lay down our anger against God and against others the trials have humiliated us the trials have given us a new sense of dependence we trust God beyond what we can see and we trust him and we suffer differently there's a third lesson and that is that Jesus of course models suffering Jesus models suffering you want to know how to suffer look at Jesus now here's a verse that maybe you have not read for a long time and I won't ask you to turn to it but I want you to listen as I quote it it's from Hebrews chapter 5 it says that Jesus in his flesh cried up to God with long suffering and tears onto him who was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared and then it says really I'm not making this up that's the footnote really I'm not making this up and though he were a son yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered and having suffered he became the heir of salvation having been made perfect I neglected to mention that phrase through suffering you say well wasn't Jesus perfect absolutely perfect in his person no question about it sinless and incapable of sinning we believe that but was he perfect in his mission could he have decided at the garden of Gethsemane to say you know what father from what I've seen of humanity I'm on my way to heaven I'm going to forget the cross aren't you glad he didn't say that with that have made him perfect in his mission obviously not he had to go through suffering he had to suffer in order to fulfill his mission now I won't ask for a show of hands though I should how many of you well let me it's just between us how many of you have ever prayed that God would make you like Jesus can I see your hands please say oh yeah lord Jesus please oh lord please make me like Jesus well you know what you prayed for you prayed for a cross it seems to me that's the way God brought Jesus perfect in his mission and are you telling me that we're all going to pray that we're going to be like Jesus and God is not going to use the very same instrument in our lives as he used in the life of Jesus to bring it about and so the first little bit of struggle and the first little bit of trial we immediately complain and say where's God not just you but others also isn't that exactly the way we are because we don't see God in this and because we don't see God that's why we can be believers in Christ with an eternal inheritance and be utterly miserable no joy no faith nothing God says therefore we rejoice in trials knowing that tribulation works patience patience experience experience hope hope makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given on to us finally we see God we give up our weapons we embrace our circumstances because at the end nothing else matters except his glory but there's something also that i need to tell you about the suffering of Jesus that is very unique from others you and i may suffer physically and in other ways be rejected by people be evil spoken against but jesus suffered differently because on the cross he actually bore our sin and our iniquities that was laid upon him you see there's some of you who are listening to this message and you say i could never trust God like that i don't even know him how do you expect me to trust him well let me tell you how you get to know him it is when you acknowledge your own need and the fact that you need a savior you don't just need a good teacher you actually need a savior and you trust that savior as your very own and you say that you Lord Jesus having died for sinners bring me to God and therefore through faith i receive you as my own and when you receive Christ here's the promise as many as received him to those he gave the authority to become the children of God even to those who believe on his name and you claim that promise for yourself and then you know him then he creates love in your heart for him supernaturally created within us because we don't have it naturally and we desire to follow him all the days of our lives all the way to eternity knowing that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us but we're on our way to an eternal kingdom and it will be entirely worth it to glorify God in our suffering are you ready to begin today would be a good time to begin would you join me as we pray together and those of you who have never trusted Christ as savior i'll give you an opportunity to do that and those of you who are believers angry with God angry with circumstances refusing to see God in the midst of your need God's after something he wouldn't have brought all that sorrow into your life unless he were after something let him put his arms around you and deal with the issues lord we are such poor sufferers help us to look more like Jesus in our suffering and help us to know that we don't have to compete we don't have to always win we don't always have to do this or do that we we can be content with where we are at with hardships with insults with pain with shattered dreams because we know that you're bigger than all those things and you're after something namely our hearts take from our hearts lord Jesus the coldness the cynicism instead of our heart being a temple where we worship ourselves help us to genuinely worship you and now for those of you who have never trusted Christ as savior you can receive him right now if you say Jesus i know that i'm a sinner your spirit is teaching me that through the word and i also know that Jesus is a savior and today i believe on him as mine you tell him that lord Jesus draw us ever nearer even through the storm we love you amen would you stand as we worship together jesus draw me ever nearer jesus draw me ever nearer as i labor through the storm you have called me to this passage and i'll follow though i'm warm jesus guide me through the tempest keep my spirit stay and show when the midnight beats the morning let me love you even more may this journey bring a passing and may our eyes on wings of faith and at the end of my last testing with your likeness let me wait with the treasures as i go at the end of this one message let me bring the blessing at the end of my last testing with your kindness let me wait on today's Moody Church hour pastor lutzer spoke on god's glory in our suffering message number six in a nine-part series on nothing else matters how the glory of god gives meaning to all of life all of us have to come to grips with our own mortality for some talking about the end of life is not easy but for believers it's a gateway into eternal life next week join us as pastor lutzer talks about god's glory in our death the final two parts of this series will be about how the glory of god changes us from second corinthians chapter 3 and then god's glory and our glorification taken from ephishians chapter 5 and romans chapter 8 pastor lutzer's book the inheritance of the redeemed helps us claim the spiritual treasures that are ours in christ it can be yours is our thank you for your gift of any amount to support The Moody Church hour just call us at 1-800-215-5001 that's 1-800-215-5001 online go to moodyoffer.com that's moodyoffer.com or write to Moody Church media 1635 north la salle boulevard chicago illinois 60614 join us next week for another Moody Church hour with pastor irwin lutzer and the congregation of historic Moody Church in chicago this broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church