Endure Suffering • Psalm 40:1-5

49:55 Teaching begins

Notes

God develops our endurance through suffering and afflictions. These sufferings are absolutely necessary. There is no other way to endure than to go through suffering.

If you know the purpose behind suffering it will enable you to endure. There are two parts to this. God uses suffering to transform you. The greater purpose in suffering is that God uses your changed life to touch and bless other people’s lives. The suffering you experience will save and transform others.

I’m reading Psalm 40:1-5.

1. David got into a situation he could not get out of.

A. He called it a pit of destruction. Other translations call it a horrible pit.

1. Literally it’s the sound of two armies clashing. I played on a street in Tokyo where it’s four lanes in each direction. They would close it off on Sundays and then bands would set up on either side of the street and play music. 20 or 30 bands playing different kinds of rock, all at the same time. They’d come with 5,000 watt generators and have their own light shows. The sound would punish you and wipe you out.

2. Whatever happened it was not a literal pit. But it was like that. A pit is a depression in the ground. You know we’re made of dirt. We get depressed.

B. How did David get into it? Didn’t he see it coming? Did he think, “Well, it’s just a pit, I’ll go through it.” Did someone push him? We don’t know what his suffering was. We don’t know how he got into it. That’s good. If it was specific then we would say, “Well, it only applies when you have a son who is trying to kill you. That’s not what I’m going through. Therefore God isn’t working in my suffering. My suffering is meaningless.” That’s wrong This applies to everything you suffer, without exception.

C. Whatever it was, David couldn’t get out of it.

1. You think, I’ll just grab something and pull myself out. Didn’t work.

2. You call for help. No one hears.

3. You thrash around and only lose your shoes.

4. You pray to God. O God, You can do all things. Get me out of here right now! Thank You in Jesus’ name.” Nothing.

5. It lasted a lot longer than he thought it should. “I’m so done with this. Please get me out, now!” No answer.

2. David came to the point where he realized that only God could get him out of this pit.

A. Either God helps him, or he’s stuck there and he will die there.

B. There is no plan B. He can’t do anything. No one can help him.

C. So all his expectation is on God, and no one else.

3. Then the time came. God saved David. And then he found out that his suffering was only part of a bigger purpose.

A. God took David out of that hopeless position. He put David’s feet on a solid foundation. It felt great that it was over! God saved him! David was happy.

B. So David wrote a song to remember this act of saving. Music is about memory. We can remember God’s goodness in the past and it affects today.

C. David found that others were affected by God saving him.

1. Many will see and will fear and will put their trust in the Lord.

2. They look at David and say, there has to be a God. Look at him! There is no other explanation. There is a God and He saves whoever calls on Him. I’m going to call on Him. David became the proof that convinced others to trust God and be saved.

D. Look at what David learned by his experience.

1. He learned that he could trust his life to God alone. He learned that God is faithful. His relationship with God was greatly increased.

2. He learned that God remembered him. Look at verse five: God’s thoughts toward him could not be counted, they were so many. He thought, “God doesn’t see me, doesn’t hear me. He doesn’t know my name.” That wasn’t true. God has thought every thought that could be thought about David. From the moment he was conceived til the day of his death, God has thought every thought that could be thought about David.

3. That means that pit wasn’t an accident. That’s God’s instrument designed by God especially, to work on David and for those who would see David. God accomplished His purpose for David and for others at the same time.

4. Suffering changed David’s attitude.

A. At the beginning of the pit experience I can imagine David thinking, “Well, this is stupid. What a waste of time. I could be doing great things. What am I doing in this stupid place? What’s going on, God? God? Why don’t you hear me?” I’m sure he thought, “Well, if this is good for my faith, I’m sure I’m done now. Come and get me! I’m a lot holier than I was. Why do I have to wait?”

B. Now out of the pit, looking back, he sees all the good God has done in him and beyond him to others. That suffering was valuable and fruitful. Are you discouraged, David? “Nah, I’m good with it.”

C. The Apostle Paul learned this, 2 Corinthians 1:3-11.

1. Imagine God allowing Paul to be burdened beyond his ability. He thought he was going to die!

2. He had no hope in himself or anything else, only God.

3. And he says God saved me. He has before, He does now, He will in the future. And that suffering blessed Paul, but it also went beyond him. That helped the Corinthians to understand their suffering and have hope. And God has been blessing people in the same way for 2000 years!

D. I learned this too. I got into a pit of destruction I could not get out of.

1. I thought, “I have really made a mistake. I am not supposed to be a pastor. I’m no good at this. I can’t quit being a pastor because no one is going to hire an old guy like me. It’s too late for me to fix it. I have really made a mistake with my whole life.” I had to keep teaching the Bible and pastoring and I was dying inside.

2. I kept meditating because that’s my lifeline to God. And God started talking to me at Psalm 40. I read the first line and I thought, “How do you sit calmly while you’re in a pit of destruction? Why don’t You teach me how to do that?”

3. While I meditated in Psalm 40 and other places, God taught me about who He really is, that He is humble. That means He doesn’t think about Himself, He thinks about others. And that He is making me humble, like Himself. And I’m not a mistake, I’m not forgotten. God Himself is making me like Jesus. It’s all humility now because it will be all glory later. Before honor is humility, even for the Son of God. Yes! When I understood that, it saved my life.

4. And then I taught this at a missionary conference. God used my suffering to touch hundreds of suffering missionaries. They all could see: I am suffering because God is making me like Jesus. My suffering has a purpose. Many people will come to Jesus because of my suffering. I can endure now.

5. Maybe you heard of Viktor Frankl. His famous formula was this: suffering without meaning equals despair. Despair means quit, surrender, the enemy wins, I die. But the opposite is true: suffering plus meaning equals hope. Good is coming in the future for me. I am going to receive it. Hope gives you endurance. Hope gives you life.

6. Am I okay that God put me in a pit of destruction? And left me there a lot longer than I thought necessary? I’ve seen that God has brought life to many people. I’m okay with that.

5. So what?

A. Suffering is absolutely necessary for you to have endurance.

B. Your suffering has eternal purpose: to make you like Jesus.

C. The purpose is so that your life with God will affect others for good.

D. I promise you: God is going to save you. This suffering is temporary. And then the glory will go on forever.

E. Are you okay with that?

Let’s pray.