August 23 - Rejoicing Amidst Suffering
August 30 - What Suffering Leads To
September 6 - What Endurance Produces
September 13 - What Character Produces
September 20 - What Hope Does

1. My suffering, your suffering, our suffering.

Suffering 1. the state or experience of one who suffers. 2. Pain.
Suffer 1. to submit to or be forced to endure 2. to put up with, especially as inevitable or unavoidable.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

“Walking with God through Pain and Suffering” by Timothy Keller.

2. Getting through suffering.

Out of the Darkness

Out of the dark forbidding soil, the pure white lilies grow.
Out of the black and murky clouds, descends the stainless snow.
Out of the crawling earth-bound worm, A butterfly is born.
Out of the somber shrouded night, Behold! A golden morn!
Out of the pain and stress of life, the peace of God pours down.

Out of the nails -- the spear -- the cross, Redemption -- and a crown! Author Unknown https://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/suffering.htm

“It is only when suffering comes that you realize who is the true God and what are the false gods of your lives. Only the true God can go with you through that furnace and out to the other side. The other gods will abandon you in the furnace.” (Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Keller, 308)

3. Rejoicing in suffering. Or is it too difficult to achieve?

“To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God's will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.” (Oswald Chambers, https://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/suffering.htm)

Sermon Questions

1. Describe your time of greatest suffering. How did you get through?

2. How do we show compassion to someone who shares that they are suffering, but we don't view it as severe?

3. Tell of a time that you have rejoiced while suffering. Or is it too difficult to achieve?

4. Who is a Biblical character that we read about who suffered and who encourages you?

5. How has suffering helped you?

6. Do you know of someone who is suffering around you? How can you help them in this time?