Things to Look at When Blindsided by Tragedy

About the ministry this, of the week this week. Ministry of the week this week is our festival of treats. There we go. It will be held Friday, October 31st, and I know that's the day that most people don't celebrate, like my birthday.

I'm still 29. We will need a variety of volunteers. Starting next week, we'll be collecting donations of candy. What we're looking for is just bags of candy, wrapped candy that we can pass out to the kids.

We're going to have on the back park lot over here. We're going to have trunk or treat. So we need a lot of volunteers to bring their cars out. We're looking for people to decorate their, their cars and just make it a big hoopla for, for these kids and for the, for the outreach.

We also need volunteers for the parking lot service, and we need some volunteers to be tour guides as well. So, it's going to be similar to, to what we did last year for those of you who, who participated in it last year. the, the story's going to be a little bit different, but we also need a lot of children volunteers. We want to really do something for the, for the younger kids that's, This year, just put a, put an emphasis on that.

Next Sunday, we will be having a leadership meeting for anybody that wants to lead or take a position of leadership in this. We're looking for somebody to be in charge of the parking lot area. We need somebody that's in charge of security. We need people that are in charge of passing out candy and making sure that the candy gets to the trunk or treat people.

We need people who want to be in charge of the trunk or treat. And a few other leadership positions that Steve knows better than I do. So, if you want to lead or if you just want to even participate, be a volunteer, you can contact Steve McCullough and his number's in the back of the, Bulletin. And the leadership meeting is next week straight after 2nd service.

Thank you. Well, thank you, Chris. The purpose of this ministry fundamentally is to, to, deliver the gospel to the people in this immediate community that we have been seeking to reach, especially in, in recent years. And I don't know if we've settled on this.

My, there, there's a man in our church whose story is going to be told via video, just his testimony of what God has done in his life. And, how God has wonderfully, saved him. So, there'll be a very clear gospel, presentation and an opportunity for those that are there to hear the gospel and, and respond to it. it also lets people in the community know that we as a church are here, on a night of the year when everyone's walking around anyway, it gives us a chance to introduce ourselves as a church to, to people in the community.

So do pray about being involved in this ministry, and there's more information about it that you'll find in your bulletin this morning. Well, for, our time of study and the word this morning, we're going to do something different than, what I had planned to do as of about 8 o'clock last night, we were going to be continuing in our series through First Timothy, but we're going to skip that for a week and just focus our thoughts around some things that I think are important for us to look at.

this morning, and preparation for this, I was reminded of something that happened to me in February of this year. I came down with the flu, and you guys remember there was a nasty strain of the flu.

That was going around at the time, and I got, I got hit by it, as many in our church, got hit by the flu. And on one particular day, several days into the experience, I had, had fallen asleep during the afternoon. And I had been chilled during the day. I would alternate between being chilled and then breaking out in a hot sweat, so I didn't drink water the way that I should have.

In fact, I would feel chilled, so I would heat up some water, but by the time it was heated up, I was breaking out in a hot sweat, so I didn't want the hot water anymore. And just one thing led to another, and I had not drank hardly anything all day. And I took a nap that afternoon and I woke up a couple hours later, and how you feel like in the 1st 5 seconds after you wake up. Just like you're in a fog and you're not in a totally wakened state.

That's how I felt when I woke up, but I couldn't shake that feeling. I woke up and even several minutes went by and I just felt like I was in this deep fog, like I was not in a fully wakened state, and I came downstairs and I could barely walk downstairs. I was so weak. and, and fogged out, and I sat down and I, I called my wife.

I told her what I was feeling, and she got me a cup of water to drink and, and, it, my condition actually began to worsen, and she was like, why don't you just go back to sleep? And I, in my delirious state, I said, I, I, I can't go back to sleep. If I fall back to sleep, then I won't wake up again. I just felt like I was falling into a deep hole and I would never get out of it.

I would never awaken again. So to keep myself from falling asleep, I would make funny noises with my mouth just so I could hear the sound, and that was my connection to reality and I had my family sitting around me like watching this freak show, and But as I was clinging to the wakened state and trying to wake up even further, one of the things that I did was I insisted that my wife sit down in front of me, and I told her, I said, I need you in front of me. I need to be able to look at you.

You are my reference point.

And I just stared at her, just, and I knew as long as I could see her, I was in the real world. I was not dead. And I would hold her hand and I kept hitting her hand like real hard in her arm because I knew as long as I'm feeling her, then I'm in the real world. And so she was my connection to reality and I didn't want to take my eyes off of her and at different times she had to get up and do something.

I'd say hurry back because you're my reference point. And she thought I was awake. She would ask me to describe what's going on around me and the names of the children, and I knew everything. She's like, You're awake.

And I'm like, No, I'm not. And anyway, it got worse and they ended up having to take me to the hospital that night and it turned out I was totally dehydrated. After two big cups of water that I drank at home, they had to put two more full bags of fluids in me. My fluids were dangerously low.

But during that episode, as I'm reeling and dizzy and nauseated and not even knowing what was going on, I needed someone to look at. And that was my wife, and she was my connection to reality. She was my reference point that kept me sane during that episode. I thought about that, just putting my thoughts together for this morning because we, we find ourselves as a church body, I find myself as a pastor in a situation where I really, where we're, some of us are reeling, I am reeling, and we need something to look at, a reference point that is our connection to reality.

We tried our best to send out word last night regarding this. many of Kerry and Sue Brown. In fact, he often sits, over on this side of the auditorium. And he's fairly vocal in responding to the messages, just a very responsive listener to the word of God.

but last night, he passed away, And the cause of death at this point is, is undetermined. But we got a phone call yesterday evening. I don't know what time, maybe about 7 or 8 o'clock, that his daughter had found him. dead in her home.

And what makes it doubly difficult is that Sue, his wife, is in Virginia with their one of their daughters who just had a baby. So she's been there and was planning on being there until Tuesday. And, so she, when she got word, she was absolutely devastated. She's right now flying back to, to California.

She's probably, she's in flight right now and should be arriving before noon. Noon today. But I saw some things last night. And in the late hours of yesterday evening, I saw my brother that I'm used to sitting out here in a body bag.

And, Even this morning I saw one of you. I won't identify who, but out of the corner of my eye, and I thought it was him. And I looked and it wasn't, and knowing that in this life we won't see this brother again, Carrie and Sue were the helping couple for Randy and Phyllis's care group, and so their presence is going to be missed there as well. Sue is going to need a tremendous amount of comfort and ministry in the days ahead, and there will be a number in our church body that will need to be comforted and encouraged in In dealing with the loss of our brother.

As far as the service time and everything, we'll be letting you guys know that in, in the coming days once Sue gets back into town and we can figure some of those things out. But, being where I was last night, seeing what I saw. I suddenly lost interest in preaching from First Timothy. And I came home and I just needed to look at some things myself and what I chose to look at last night, I would like for all of us to take some time to look at today.

If you want to put a title to this message, it would be things to look at. When blindsided by tragedy. Even if you did not know Carrie Brown, they've not been coming to our church for too terribly long. there is a sister in the Lord, Sue, who is absolutely broken and devastated over this and is going to need ministry and comfort and perspective, and all of us are going to have an opportunity to provide that and minister that comfort to her.

And to her family. But I walk away from things like what happened last night and just go, why does this stuff happen? And feeling dizzy, reeling spiritually from, from such things and desperately needing a reference point and something to look at. And what I'm going to suggest that we look at, it's 5 things that we need to look at.

These aren't just things to look at when you're going through tragedy. These are things that we need to be looking at all the time, but especially to be gazing upon these things. As a reference point in times of difficulty and times of tragedy, the first thing that we need to look at, and this is the first place that my mind went last night that we need to gaze upon as our reference point is we need to behold the crucified Christ. We need to look upon and behold the crucified Christ.

You guys know the story in Numbers 21 about the children of Israel who had complained against the Lord. So the Lord sent fiery serpents that came and bit the people of Israel. It was a fatal bite, they were going to die. but then Moses was instructed by God to take a serpent.

and put it on a pole, and that the people of Israel was said that everyone who was bitten, when he looks at it, that serpent upon a pole, he shall live. So if they would just look upon this, they, they would live. Well, Jesus makes reference to that, in speaking of himself in John chapter 3. He says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him.

Everlasting or eternal life. So Jesus is saying, I am the one that is lifted up, that all of that story symbolize me. And if I am lifted up, he says elsewhere, I'll draw all men to myself, but I am the one who is lifted up. And whoever believes in me, he doesn't use the word look.

but it means the same thing. Whoever looks with faith, who looks with belief at me will live, they will have eternal life. I really want to encourage you guys with the fact that we don't just look to the cross, we don't just look to the crucified Savior in order to get converted, and then we turn away and we look at everything else. No, we need to continue looking every day at the crucified, Savior.

That's why Paul Said to the Corinthians, when I was among you, I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus and Him crucified. Paul was always looking at Jesus and Him crucified. And that's what he was publicly portraying like he did to the Galatians, Christ as crucified, holding that up as a banner for everyone that he ministered to, to look upon in both good times and bad. When we do look at the crucified Savior upon a cross and we behold that in our mind's eye, we are through that able to see a lot of things that are of great benefit to us.

We're able to see the gravity of our sin. Our sin must be really bad. if it would require the slaughter of the perfect Son of God that we might be saved, you might also want to add that we see our own helplessness demonstrated there, because if we could have contributed anything to our salvation, God surely would not have done this to His Son in order that we might be saved. We also, as we behold Jesus, the infinitely lovely and holy and righteous one upon the cross, we see the sufficiency of the payment that was made.

We see His infinite self. We see the infinite degree to which he suffered the infinite wrath of God. And if we behold that enough, we'll walk away with an understanding that the payment was sufficient for sins committed. In fact, he even said it is finished.

The price that needed to be paid for the sins of all those that will believe in me has been paid. In full. And if we know this, we are comforted by the sins we have committed before salvation and since we became believers, we're comforted. And so we never feel like we need to atone for our own sins, that we need to do this or that or be.

Ourselves up or go through punishment in order to atone for our sins. We'll never have to suffer a little bit in purgatory in order to pay some of the price for our sin. We'll understand that Jesus paid it all, all of our sins. And, another application of this is we see the sufficiency of the price that was paid for the sins of our brothers and sisters in the Lord, our husband and our wife.

If you, if you take the sins that maybe have been committed against you and the hurts that it has caused you and and your own tendency to inflict payments, Upon that person and to make them suffer for the sins they've committed, the wrongs they've done against you. If you just go to the cross and you see Jesus infinitely suffering on behalf of their sins, you would never walk away from that vision and say, in addition to that, I think I will make them pay. Something for the sins that they have committed, I will exact payment upon them for the sins that they have committed as we behold Christ crucified.

We see the gravity of our sins, we see our helplessness, we see the sufficiency of his payment, both for our sins and even for the sins that others have committed, perhaps even against us.

We also see the greatness of Christ's love. Jesus said, he's the one who tells us how to view this. When you look at the cross, here's what I want you to think, Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus wants us to look at the cross and say, Man, this is unbelievable love.

When we look at the cross, we also see the greatness of the Father's love for us. We see the greatness of the Father's suffering for us. it seems like we do focus a lot on the suffering of Christ on the cross, and rightly we should. But I don't know that we give enough thought to the suffering of His Heavenly Father who had to watch that as we behold the cross with our mind's eye, as we behold the suffering of Christ, we are able to observe what the Father must have observed as he watched his own son suffer.

I know all of us in this room, who are parents, we would gladly suffer. In the place of our children. We, we, we would be willing to be the ones who endure suffering, rather than our children to have to endure that suffering, and especially to sit there and to watch our children suffer. And our Heavenly Father, having the power to deliver his son, had to watch his son being whipped with a scourge, being beaten in the face, punched in the mouth, and slapped and spat upon, and a crown of thorns placed upon his brow, and, and to suffer false accusation again and again.

before the Jews and before Pilate and then nailed to a cross and crucified and mocked and ridiculed, the Father could have halted all of that. He had the power, but he did not. He watched his son suffer. And even his son said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

crying out in his greatest agony. I don't know that we think enough about what that must have been like for Our Heavenly Father, to witness the sufferings of Jesus. I was forced to think about this a little bit. This past week, I'm reading a book to my son Benjamin, written by Richard Wormbrandt, who suffered greatly in communist Romania, behind the Iron Curtain decades ago.

And He worked with the underground church and he ended up being arrested for a number of years. There were 2 periods of arrest for a lengthy period of time, and in the book, he tells some of what he observed and heard about while he was in prison and the sufferings that he endured were absolutely unspeakable, but he speaks of a Pastor Florescu, a Christian from the underground church who had been arrested by the communists and, Pastor Florescu, suffered greatly at the hands of the communists.

In fact, Richard Wormbrandt says he was tortured with red hot iron pokers and knives. He was beaten repeatedly.

And the goal of the Russians was to get him to denounce Christ and to denounce his brothers and the underground church and to betray them and to tell the guards, the communists, of their whereabouts and their activities, but he steadfastly, he endured all of this suffering and never betrayed Christ and never betrayed his brothers. The communists intensified their tactics. They put them in a room. And they took starving rats and released them.

They drove those rats through this pipe into this man's cell, and Pastor Florescu was no longer allowed to fall asleep because if he did, then the rats would be upon him. So every time he would doze off, the rats would start coming towards him, starved and needing to eat something. And so he would wake up and have to To scoot them away and so he was going mad just from not being able to, to sleep. He was then forced to stand for two solid weeks, day and night without any, any rest, and he still steadfastly refused to betray Christ and to betray his brothers.

And so the communists resorted to one more tactic that finally got to him. They took his 14-year-old son. And I'll, I'll let Richard Wormbrandt tell the story. Eventually they brought his 14-year-old son.

To the prison and began to whip the boy in front of his father. Saying that they would continue to beat him until the pastor said what they wished him to say. The poor man was half crazy with grief. He bore it as long as he could, and then he cried to his son, Alexander, I must say what they want.

I can't bear your beating any more. See, this suffering was intolerable for him. He could suffer. He couldn't watch his son suffer.

But listen to what his son said. His son answered, Father, don't do me the injustice of having a traitor as a parent. Withstand. If I die, I will die with the words Jesus and my fatherland.

The communist, enraged, fell upon the child and beat him to death with blood spattered over the walls of the cell. He died praising God, but our dear brother Florescu was never the same. After seeing this. When we look upon the cross.

We see what our father saw. We're looking at a savior, But the one on that cross was the precious, dearly beloved Son of our Heavenly Father, and our Father witnessed all of that, not just with the eyes that we have, but eyes that see everything. He saw the full length and breadth of the suffering of His Son. In fact, in Isaiah 53:11, Isaiah affirms this that speaking in advance, saying that the Father will see it, speaking of the anguish of the soul of the Messiah upon the cross, he didn't just see the external punishment, he saw through that and even saw the, the infinitely deep anguish in the soul of his son.

In fact, one writer says, no one has suffered more than our Father in heaven. No one has paid more dearly for the allowance of sin into the world than him. And his point is not that our Heavenly Father has suffered more than Jesus, because he goes on to say, no one has suffered more than Jesus. The point is the suffering of our Heavenly Father and Jesus, His Son, were equal, were equal, and merit equal meditation on our part.

When we gaze upon the cross, we see the gravity of our sin, we see the sufficiency of the payment made, the greatness of God's love for us, the love of Jesus for us, the love of the Father for us, that God would allow His Son to suffer in this way. But as we gaze upon the cross, we also learn something about suffering ourselves. we learned from 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 21 to 24, that Jesus Suffered and being reviled, he did not revile in return. In fact, he kept on entrusting himself to God, our faithful Creator.

And so Jesus was willing to endure this heart wrenching agony, and an act of trust, like, God, I'm just trusting that what you're doing, and allowing this and orchestrating this, and I will entrust myself to your care. what guys, I don't, I don't stand before you and have answers as to why they're suffering in the world, why tsunamis happen and earthquakes and hurricanes happen and all of the damage and the loss of life. I don't know why trains collide into each other. I can't stand up here and give you some perfectly rational, Answer to those questions, although the scripture does give us some idea.

But one of the replies of the Bible to those questions is that God is not in heaven, immune to the suffering that is associated with this fallen world. God came into this world, In the form of Jesus Christ, God sent His Son into the world. God Himself, the God man suffered more than any other human being has ever suffered in this fallen world. And God the Father in heaven suffered greatly through the suffering of His Son.

And that still leaves a question mark. over the question of human suffering. But as John Stott says in his book, The Cross of Christ, over that question mark, we boldly stamp the image of the cross. That's what gives us perspective in our suffering.

And tragedy. This is what we'll give Sue and some in our church perspective. In dealing with the passing of our brother Carrie. So let us keep our eyes on the crucified Christ.

There's a second thing that we need to fix our eyes upon as a reference point, and that is the ascended Christ. We don't just look at Jesus on the cross. We, we look at him as he is right now ascended at the right hand of God. we are, in fact, I've got the wrong reference.

This is Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, rather than Titus 2:13. But in Hebrews 12:2, we're told to be fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne. of God and, and the writer of Hebrews is writing to suffering Christians, and he's saying, what you need to do is fix your eyes, literally turn your eyes from anyone or anything else, and to put your eyes upon Jesus, and on him alone.

He's the author, he's the finisher of our faith, and look at where he is now.

He did suffer. He did suffer on the cross, but look at where he is now, glorified at the right hand of the throne of God. As we gaze upon the ascended Christ, who died, but is now alive, we are encouraged with what we see because we see that there is life on the other side of physical death, because Jesus died and was raised and is now alive forevermore. We know that for ourselves, there is life.

on the other side of physical death. There is life for Carrie on the other side of physical death. We also observed that there is life on the other side of our experiences of dying. And I'm talking about spiritual death to self, those crucifixion moments where we go through excruciating pain.

in our lives, or moments where we have to say no to sin, and we die to sin and die to ourselves and reckon ourselves dead and do what is right, that the story of Jesus' death and resurrection, and ascension. To the right hand of God teaches us that if we would just entrust ourselves to our Heavenly Father, the way that Jesus did, there is life, in fact, real life on the other side of those dying moments. We just need to trust God the way that Jesus trusted him. in fact, in John 1:18, Jesus is referred to as the only begotten God who is present tense in the bosom of the Father.

Not only is Jesus at the right hand of God, but he's in the embrace of the Father, as it were, just this intimacy that he has with his Father. And so we need to be, we need to realize God is committed to our dying every single day. And he's committed to our crucifixion. Every single day.

But when those moments come, we need to step into them and know that on the other side of those moments, of those experiences of dying is deeper and richer and more intimate experiences of life than we would ever experience. On the other side of crucifixion, were we to try to avoid that. Jesus says you want to save your life. You don't want to die, you don't want this crucifixion, you'll lose your life.

But if you lose your life for my sake, day by day, you're going to find life, the life that anyone who avoids that would never find. Let us keep our eyes upon the resurrected Christ. Let us do what Paul tells us to do in Colossians 3:1, to keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Let us set our minds upon Him.

Let us see the crucified Christ, let us see the ascended Christ also. But let us also contemplate and behold a third thing in times of difficulty. And that is the coming Christ or the coming of Christ. yes, in our Christian lives, we look back to what Jesus did 2000 years ago.

We look at where he is presently, but we also look ahead to, what is going to happen in a future day. We look forward to the second coming, the coming of Jesus back for us. In Titus 2:13, we are challenged by Paul to be looking continuously for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. Christ Jesus.

So this speaks of an anxious longing. We are groaning for this. We, if, if we pray anything, we ask God to hasten the day that Christ will appear. And we're looking for this, we're looking for the appearing of Jesus Christ.

This brings us great hope, great hope, especially when a loved one passes away. Paul speaks to this in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says to the Thessalonians, we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. So that you will not grieve as do the rest who have not hope.

Paul would say, I'm not trying to take your grief away. I just, I'm trying to prevent you from grieving the way that people grieve who don't have hope. I want you to grieve. And when you grieve, I want you to grieve with hope.

And then look at where he goes to give them hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord, comfort one another. With these words. Paul is actually teaching us that those who have died in the Lord before us, if we live to the rapture, they actually have an advantage over us.

They're going to get to be with the Lord, before we do. They're not only with the Lord, spiritually speaking, even at this moment, but in a fully embodied state, they will reach that fully embodied glorified state. perhaps seconds before we do, but if anything, they have the edge on us. They have the advantage, and we can take comfort in these realities, the resurrection realities that are tied to the coming of Jesus, ultimately.

And First John 3, John says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared what we shall be. We know that when Jesus appears, this is what we look for when Jesus appears. This is one of the reasons we look forward to his appearing, we'll be like him because we're going to see him as he is. When we see Jesus, the sight of him will be so powerful and so overwhelming, we will instantly be changed into the image of what we see.

And every who right now in this life in this world, who has this hope fixed on him, purifies himself, even as Jesus is pure. In other words, you fix your hope on the glorious appearing of Jesus, and you'll be looking towards that right now, you can even now begin to be transformed. You don't have to wait until he appears to experience any degree of transformation. You can be transformed and purified just by looking to Jesus, at his coming in advance that can have a transforming effect upon you.

And it definitely gives us comfort in times of difficulty. We look to the crucified Christ, the ascended Christ. We look to the coming of Christ. There's a 4th thing that we would do well to look upon, and that is to look upon the heaven.

That follows The heaven that follows when Christ comes. Part of what makes that glorious is not just that we get him. Part of what makes that glorious is not just that we're instantly transformed to look like him. but what makes that glorious also is that there is a heaven, an eternal dwelling place that God has prepared for us so that we might live with Him forever.

what guys, we need to realize that we are just sojourners. All of us are going to die. We're sojourners on this planet. We're just tent dwellers.

We're not here permanently. We're just passing through. Our brothers and sisters are just passing through. Some of them are going to go on to glory and vacate their tent a little sooner than we will, but all of us are headed towards that destination.

And we should not look towards that with groaning. In other words, disappointment, but we should see this as a glorious thing because we have a savior who says, I'm preparing a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may be where I am with me. Think about Abraham, he left of the Chalde, to go to essentially the promised land, but even once he got there, the writer of Hebrews says something very interesting, says by faith, Abraham lived as an alien in the Land of Promise.

Even in the Land of Promise, he lived as an alien, as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, for he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God. Even in a sense, when Abraham got to the physical promised land, he was still looking. His eyes were on something else. And that is essentially the new Jerusalem.

The dwelling place of God. Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 1, that we are all aliens and strangers. And I think sometimes we forget that. We forget that.

We're just passing through, guys. And we're not long for this world. This world itself is passing away. We're passing away physically, we're deteriorating physically.

We're on our way out of this place. And we need to have our eyes just fixed on where it is that we are heading. This makes the difference in our perspective, as we experience the fallenness of life in this world. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says, we don't lose heart.

Paul's life was a mess. It was a wreck from a physical standpoint, the beatings and all the, the heartbreak that he endured, but he says, we don't lose heart, though our Outer man is decaying. He says, what, we're already decomposing, we are decaying, but we're not losing heart, because our inner man is being renewed day by day. And then look at how he describes his decades of suffering, guys, are momentary light affliction.

he says, my sufferings that are like 25 years long, are momentary, they're fleeting, and they are light. And so the question is, how in the world could Paul look at the intensity of the suffering he endured, and call it light? And how can he look at the duration of his suffering for Christ, and call it momentary? Where does a guy get that perspective?

Well, he tells you, He says our momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison. See the word eternal, that's the opposite of momentary and weight of glory. That's the opposite of light. You're like, how does Paul have that perspective?

Look at verse 18. While we look, The reason Paul could say his suffering. And this world was momentary and light is because he was looking at something else beyond this world. And anything he saw and experienced in this world, he saw it against the backdrop of this other thing that he's looking at and what was he looking at?

He says, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. He says, my, my eyes are on the heavenly city, my eyes are on Jesus Christ, my eyes are on those things that are eternal. The glory that awaits us.

And when I'm looking at that, and then I look at my 2.5 decades of suffering, it's fleeting, compared to eternity. When I feel the weight of it, it's light compared to the weight of the glory that I will experience in heaven. Let us keep our eyes, On the crucified Christ, the ascended Christ. The coming Christ and the heaven that follows.

But what, guys, in times of Difficulty trial. And even when we're not going through those things, there's one other place that I think God encourages us to look. This may surprise you. But look to each other.

Look to each other, when Jesus was on the cross, about to die. He looked down at John and his mother Mary. And he says to his mom, Woman, behold, which is the command, look, woman, look. Your son.

And he said to John, look, Your mother. what he was saying by that? You guys, I want you to care for each other. I want you to love each other.

John, I want you to take care of Mary. Mary, I want you to relate to John. As a son, I want you to look to each other, and it says from that day forward, John took Mary into his household. Jesus prepared his disciples for his death by saying, I'm going to be going away from you and, but I command you to love one another the way that I have loved you.

And you got to understand that the psychology here of this, he's like, they're sad, we're going to miss you, Jesus. And he's like, I know what'll help you guys just love each other the way that I've been loving you. Cause it'll feel very much like I'm here. And can you imagine the disciples?

It's like, what, I'm gonna, I'm going to love my brother disciple the way that Jesus loved me. And so the disciple does something for his brother and his brother like, is like, oh, that's just like Jesus. That reminds me of Jesus. So they look to each other and they love each other and receive love from each other, as if it's from Jesus Christ Himself.

And this is thoroughly biblical, that in times of difficulty, we do look to one another. Ultimately, we're looking to God in each other. Philippians 2:4, don't merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. So we're to be others focused.

First Thessalonians 4:18, therefore comfort one another with these words. He's talking about the coming of Christ. And then he says, now that I've told you this, I want you guys to go to each other and say these things to each other. I want you to minister comfort and encouragement to one another.

I don't want all of you to just come to First Thessalonians, isolated from each other and read these words like, OK, I'm reading them, I've memorized them. I'll just quote them to myself, and I'll stay encouraged that way. That's great. But Jesus, or Paul says, no, what I want you to do is, I want you to take these words, put them inside of you, and then go to one another and speak them to each other.

Minister comfort. We minister comfort by doing what Paul says in Romans 12:15, rejoice with those who rejoice. We With those who weep. Why would God, what does it tell us about God that he would tell you to weep with a brother or sister that's weeping?

It tells you that he's weeping. And he's saying, I want you to weep with them because if you weep with them, you are displaying me. You're displaying my heart towards that person in their time of difficulty and trial. I think sometimes God, I was telling Sue this last night, speaking to her over the phone that there's no way she could bear the full weight of this tragedy by herself.

So it's almost like God just spreads it around and lets other people feel something of what she's feeling to help lighten her load and, and whatever we feel in our heart, that's, that's God letting us under the load of that to help bear that. And she feels less alone in her suffering, knowing that something, just even if it's a fraction, something of what she is feeling is inside of her brothers and sisters. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians. This is the last slide I want to show you.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies. And the God of all comfort. So God is the source, all comfort comes from Him. But look at what it says next, Who comforts us?

So he's the one who does the comforting and all of our afflictions. Why? So that we will be able to comfort those in any affliction with the comfort we ourselves are comforted by God. So God comforts us.

He's a source of comfort. But he gives us comfort so that we can then take that comfort and deliver that to other people. Again, God wants us to experience tragedy, and go through affliction in community with one another to where ultimately we're looking to God, but we're finding God, experiencing God in one another, and receiving comfort and encouragement. And I would just so love it if Sue could, could successfully look to her brothers and sisters here in the Cornerstone family and find Discomfort and this help, And one last thing about looking to each other.

We, guys, we're not always going to be together. The relationships we have now are not in their present state, going to be forever. And how many times have maybe we thought about making a phone call, writing a note? And then maybe, maybe that person.

ended up passing away. We never had the opportunity to do what maybe we felt the prompting to do. And how much money would we pay to just have that brother or sister back, that mother or father back for just a day so we can just make a phone call or write a letter that they can read? How precious are those moments.

After it's too late. I had Carrie's phone number on my desk. I wanted to call him. in recent days and I didn't.

I'm going to leave his phone number on my desk. As a reminder to me that, When I have the opportunity to take the opportunity. Because right now if I had a million bucks, I'd pay it. To just be able to talk to him.

And love on him. For a few minutes. Let us take advantage of the opportunities that we have now. I asked my daughter.

Brianna, for permission to share this. She said that I could, but last night while I was out of the house, dealing with the situation with The Browns There was a harsh exchange between Brianna and one of her older siblings where she said some things to that sibling in anger. that were regrettable. That sibling got in the car and left to go run an errand.

And Brianna, just really struck by what had happened with Carrie Brown, just began to feel like What if What if this sibling never makes it home? And the last thing I would have said would have been a harsh word, and she insisted. On being able to pick up the phone and call her sibling. And to say I'm sorry.

Because she didn't know. And we don't know. How many opportunities we have. To show love this side.

Of glory. So realizing the temporary nature of our relationships as they presently exist, we're going to have all of eternity, but realizing that these moments that we have now are temporary. They're passing. Let us seize the moments we have now to love well.

One another as we pass through this place and all of us are departing at different times. Let us at all times and at this time. Look to the crucified Christ. The ascended Christ.

The coming Christ, the heaven that follows, let us look to one another for comfort and encouragement and love, and let us look to one another with a greater resolve to just be a better brother and sister, more actively seizing those moments and those opportunities to show love to the people in our lives while we right now have the opportunity. And along those lines, Sue Brown is not the only person in our church family that is hurting. There are others in our church family that have lost loved ones in recent days, and We need to be lifting up these brothers and sisters in prayer and taking advantage of the opportunities that we have to, to take something of what God has given to us in the past, that love, that comfort.

That encouragement onto them.

Maybe it's speaking a word of encouragement, maybe. maybe it's just weeping with them as they weep. May God grow all of us. and our ability to show love to our brothers and sisters.

Let me ask you to bow your heads. In your bulletins is a comment card if you have prayer requests. Fill out, that card, let us know so we can take those things to prayer. And put them on the church prayer sheet.

And we're going to be taking up an offering in just a moment and just returning to the Lord a portion of what he has blessed us with. Let us give to the Lord with eagerness. With a heart full of love that is thankful for what He has given to us. Lord, we, Life in this world is, is messy.

It, it can be excruciating. It can Leave us reeling with the things we experience and the things we see, but we thank you, Lord, that through all this mayhem, what appears to be mayhem that through these things that we could still look and see you. And see beyond this world into the next. We can still look to each other.

And experience you and each other. I know Kim Davis has lost her mom this week. Ed Soto and Joe Rockowicz have just, The last 2 or 3 weeks lost their father. Others.

Just over the last few months have lost loved ones and others even in this church body, Lord, are themselves going through. Very difficult times with even terminal conditions. And Help us to see what we should see. Define you as our reference point.

Help all of us, including me, to grow in our ability. To see each other better. To see the hurts better. And then to be thrilled at the opportunity to just take your love and match that love to those hurts.

And deepen our brothers or sisters' experience of you in a time of great need. Help us learn to come inside of each other's pain, and to minister from there rather than to stand on the outside of their pain, and to shout from the outside in, know that we come inside together with them, and then we, we listen and we weep and we speak. Your words to them. But fresh on our minds, Lord, we pray for Sue.

Give her safety as she travels home. And give her your comfort. She will need to grieve 1000 times. And we're going to trust you to be there for her in every one of those moments.

We thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to Give of our offerings to you. We give because we love you and we love you because you first loved us. So receive our offerings that we give to you this morning, Lord. With our money, we give ourselves in the name of Jesus.

And all God's people said,