# The reasons God allows us to suffer

Key Passage: 1 Peter 4:16-19
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Peter chapter four.

So, amen. First Peter chapter four, if you would. The theme of First Peter is rejoice in the midst of suffering. Suffering in some form, as mentioned sixteen times in this book of the Bible. Much of it is about that, but rejoicing in the midst of suffering. We’re going to just look at this. I don’t know that you’ll hear anything new tonight, but sometimes you just need to be reminded of some things. I felt like the Lord wants us to go this way tonight. Maybe it’ll be new to you. I don’t know. No new thing under the sun. Sometimes always looking for something new is trouble, amen. I mean, find the truth and just hold on to it, amen. Hold that which is fast.

But First Peter chapter four, and we’re going to start in verse number sixteen. First Peter four, verse number sixteen tonight. If you just stand real quickly, please, if you’re able to, just to show the word of God respect.

Verse number sixteen: “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian”—that’s important, as a Christian—“let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.”

“For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. If it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obeyed not the gospel of God?”

“And if the righteous”—this morning we discussed how to get righteous before God through the righteousness of Jesus—what about someone being saved right here? “And if the righteous scarcely be saved…” They’re righteous before God. They’re born-again Christian. They’re saved. They’re not living it. First Corinthians says, saved yet so as by fire. If the righteous scarcely be saved, you know, a born-again Christian can be living like the child of the devil. They’re backslidden. Poor ambassador for Christ. Sometimes the parents are embarrassed of their children; God can be like that one.

If the righteous scarcely be saved… Here’s the sad part. Here’s the sad part here in this verse: “And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

That lost fellow at work, he’s going through a tough time. If he had a good godly testimony around him, he’d go to him and say, “Would you pray for my aunt, my uncle, my health?” and maybe even get saved. But if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Sad thing. Maybe that’s the reason why God, before he judges the nation, he always looks to his people. That’s the key, because he wants to work through them. Same thing he’d say, if the righteous scarcely be saved, where should the ungodly and sinner appear?

Now, verse number nineteen, here’s our text verse: “Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God…”

Preacher, does every time always God get us out of the tough times and bring healing and all that down here? No, sometimes it’s the will of God for us to suffer. That’s what it’s saying right there. Wherefore let him that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing. He’s doing it well. He knows what he’s doing, as unto a faithful Creator. He made it all the first place. He’s faithful. I’m just going to commit it. He knows there’s a good reason for this to happen in my life, and I’m just going to leave it to him.

Just a bit. We’re going to just kind of rehash just a couple things. Sometimes the reasons God allows us to suffer—just a couple faults. I’m sure you’ve heard much of this before, but just to be reminded: Why does God sometimes allow us to suffer, to go through suffering?

Let me just mention this right off the bat. Sometimes God allows us to go through suffering because then you’ll have a heart for others that are suffering.

I was amazed after I was in my accident. It’s been thirty-two years ago. I lost my fingers in an accident. And I can’t blame my wife because we weren’t actually married at the time, you know. But I was in a machine accident at work, lost my fingers in an accident. And here’s one of the things that surprised me. After that accident, you know, and you just go through the healing and the therapy and all that, and months and months of all those things. And I would be driving down the road, literally, and I’m not exaggerating. I’d be driving down the road and someone would be walking on the sidewalk. Now, it wasn’t one of those times I was driving ninety miles an hour, amen, you know. But I was just driving down the road. Somebody’s walking on the sidewalk there. Before my accident, it would never, ever catch my eye, but they would be walking on the sidewalk. I’m driving by, and my mind, I don’t know how, just my mind would pick up, “They’re missing a finger.”

I’m like, how could I? Just, just, it’s instinct. I mean, if anybody was anywhere in my radius around me, they had a band-aid on a finger, I’ll never forget during that time period, amen. There was a—I went back to work three months later on, and there was twenty-foot lengths of metal coming down some rollers, brother. Brother Bill understands that. And there was a stop down the end, coming before Saul, and his hand was right down the end of that, and what my mind just went, radar going off, “He’s about to have a hand injury.” And I was just so sensitive to other people with hand injuries.

When God allows suffering in your life, you have a radar with other people that are hurting. I’ve been visiting with a lot of different people over the years, and sometimes we’re just so caught up in our life, and we don’t really recognize that person’s hurting. Or if we’re going through a hurting, it’s amazing how, boom, you pick up it like that. And God, nothing tenderizes our hearts like suffering.

Sometimes God says, “You know, I just need—I need a special person to reach out to other hurting people. So I’m going to allow some suffering in your life.” Boy, by the way, other people that are hurting will listen to—they’ll be more apt to listen to you when they know you’ve been through some suffering.

I forget what years ago, we had a man, and he had visited whatnot, and I can’t remember the individual, but I remember him saying this: He said, “At first”—maybe years ago I was a little bit younger of a preacher. I’m still a young preacher, amen? Okay, there’s cracks in the ceiling right now, you know. But it was a little bit younger, and he came in, and he said, “I’ll be honest with you.” He said, “At first I was a little bit like, I don’t know about this young preacher type thing.” And he said, “But then I noticed your missing fingers.” And so he said, “Well, that guy knows what hard times are, so I’ll listen to him.”

And sometimes people are just more apt to listen when they’re hurting when they know you’ve been through hurting times. So God allows suffering sometimes just because he wants to use you in other people’s lives.

You ever have a special tool in your garage, and you might not use it very often at all, but every once in a while you have that one certain job to do, and you need that tool to do it? Now, here’s the problem: Where in the world did I put that tool at, amen, you know? That’s the problem right there. Often they’re expensive, but, you know, use it all the time, but if you’re going to do that job, you’ve got to have a tool.

And God allows you to go through suffering because he’s making you into a special tool. And when he has someone, they just need someone to help them, God says, “I’m making you that special tool so you can help them.” That’s why it’s the will of God sometimes for us to go through suffering. It just tenderizes our hearts like no one else.

I talked to someone just this week. I said, “You’re so good about helping or being willing to help others when they’re going through rough times.” And they say, “Well, we know what it’s like.” That’s what God allows us to go through suffering so we can help other people.

Number two. Number one, why does God allow us to suffer? So we help other people that are suffering. Number two, would you look over in Philippians chapter number three? Philippians chapter number three. Many of you know this earth. You may know it by heart.

And God’s speaking here through Paul, and what a heart Paul had for the Lord. And notice what it says, Philippians 3. Look in verse number ten, would you please? Philippians 3, verse number ten. And he says there, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.” Notice the purpose of that: I may know him and the power of his resurrection, yes. And watch this: “And the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

That little phrase, “the fellowship of his sufferings.” You get a young couple, and, you know, they’ve been dating for a year or whatever it is, and they’re wanting to get married, and, you know, maybe premarital counseling, whatever, and you say, “Now, do you… You really know it?” “Oh, we know each other. We’ve been dating for a month, and we know each other very well. We’ve talked about everything. We’ve got it all talked out. Everything’s covered,” you know. And they’ve did a good job. Nothing wrong with that.

But you let that couple get married, and you let them go through financial trouble together. You let them go through the nine-month flu together, where, you know, she wants peanut butter on the pickle, and she’s out of pickles, and you got to go to the—you know, you understand all that stuff, you know. And Brother Larry says, “I understand that stuff,” amen, you know. But all, you go through problems, and then the little one comes along, and, you know, they got to have that certain pacifier. You understand what I’m talking about? And 2 a.m., you can’t find that pacifier. And what did you do in the past? And all the rest of that, you know? I mean, and you let them go through hard times together. And about a couple years down the road, they know each other so much better. And there’s no way to avoid it. That’s just part of it. Not that they did a bad job getting ready; it’s just life.

I remember we went to a building program. We built a church building in the church that in Alabama. And we had set a date for the grand opening. And you know how it is. You set a date like that, and then all the problems arise after you set the date. Man, problem and problem. And there was one man there that he was just to—he was a mechanic, full-time mechanic years ago, but he just did it out of his yard at that time so he could take jobs whenever we wanted to. And so he just full-time at the church during the building program. Of course, I was on staff, so I was there all the time. And we went through a lot of problems together. I mean, God took care of that church, but there was a lot of problems during that building program. I often say it’s amazing: From the start of the building program to the end of it, it was a totally different congregation. For the most part, God kept the numbers the same.

But this man, I tell you what, after months and months of going through hard times together, he’s the man. If you ever hear me say, “I like the way we’re doing it better than the way you’re not,” you ever hear me say that, you know? I got that from that man. He’s just a country—down in Alabama country man, you know—and I got that from, he was just that kind of guy. But I’ll be honest with you, after months of that, we spent, honestly, a couple nights we spent all night long trying to get that building done. And after that, when me and that other man was in the room together and somebody walked in and say this, that, another, I pretty much would know what he’d say about it, and he would know what I was going to say about it because we went through a hard time together.

My wife ever once in a while bothers me, she knows me so well. And, you know, you hide some things from some people. I can’t hide it. She knows, you know, because I’ve been through things together. And friend, when you grow in the Lord, there’s going to come a time when God says, “I want to know you on a closer, more real level.” And for us to get really to know each other in a greater way, and for you to know my power, my consistency, and my grace through tough times, we’re going to have to go through some tough times together.

And that’s why it says that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. And when you go through hard times together with the Lord, you can come out on the other side knowing him so much better. Job, he talks about over in Job 42. He said, “Lo, before I heard about you, but now I see you.”

And so sometimes God allows us to go through suffering just because he wants to get closer to you. He wants to go through the hard times together with you. He wants you to know him in a greater way. By the way, you say, “Well, it’s not fair for God to allow me to go through suffering so you know, he can be close to me.” Well, friend, he went through a whole lot of suffering. He left heaven, came down, living in this sin-cursed world for thirty-three years. The devil was on his back all the time. He allowed his beard to be plucked out. He was stripped at one point, a crown of thorns put on his head, and stripes, thirty-nine stripes across his back and on his chest. And he went through all that so he can get close to you. And God says, “We’re going to have fellowship of sufferings.” I said, “I know you more.” God just wants to be closer to you.

Number one, we said sometimes he allows to go through suffering just because he wants to use you in someone else’s life. Number two, sometimes he’s simply just allowing that because he wants you to know him more, the fellowship of his sufferings.

Then would you look over in Hebrews chapter number eleven? You’ll know the verse, Hebrews 11. And verse number six, a very familiar verse you’ll know it. Hebrews 11:6. Hebrews 11, the whole hall of fame of faith. Verse number six right there. He says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

So faith must be involved in order to please God. Help me out. Help me out. It’s good and it’s right to tithe when you have plenty of leftover. That’s right to do. But when you don’t have any leftover and you’re not going to have enough to pay your bills, and you tithe it, which one requires more faith when they’re going through tough times? You know the one that’s pleasing God the most? A Christian, you know, in Smyrna that’s pleasing God the most tonight. You know where they might be at? Stonecrest Medical Center, laying in a bed, ICU, because it takes a whole lot of faith to live for him at that moment. And that’s what pleases God.

Friend, when you go through times of suffering, you have just an extra opportunity to please God like never before. It’s one thing to serve God when everything’s wonderful, but it’s another thing to serve God when everything’s not so wonderful. That takes much more faith. Faith is the thing that pleases God. That spouse, their spouse is not being the spouse they ought to be, but out of their love to God or their dedication to the Lord, they’re being a good spouse. That takes a whole lot of faith. And God’s pleased with that.

You realize when you’re going through a time of suffering, you have a special opportunity. We’ve preached on the crowns that we’ll receive when we stand before the Lord at the Judgment Seat of Christ. And the five different crowns, I would try to say them on, but I’ll probably forget some. Let’s see here: The crown of life for a pastor, the incorruptible crown, the crown of life we got—help me out. There’s two more we’re forgetting here. Crown of rejoicing for the soul winners. Good, good, good. And one more we’re missing somewhere here. Crown of righteousness, those that love us appearing, maybe. Crown of life. That’s the one where we mentioned we’re going to get to.

Look over, if you will, in James. Look over in James. We’re trying to get the crown of life here. We’ll just—we’ll look at it real. We want you to notice something about this thing here. James 1, look at verse number twelve. James 1, look at verse number twelve. It’s one of the crowns you can win when we stand before the Lord at the judgment, if you’re a born-again Christian. James 1, look at verse number twelve. He says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

Hey friend, when you go through a time of suffering, you have an opportunity to win a crown. You can’t win in any other way. The only other time this crown is mentioned is in the book of Revelation for someone that’s being martyred for the Lord—the ultimate of temptation, trials, martyrdom. And so look, if everything’s wonderful in your life, you won’t have an opportunity to win that crown. But if you’re going through a tough time, God’s given you an opportunity to please him and to win a crown of…

Can’t have a victim without a battle. And you can’t win that crown without suffering, enduring temptations.

Last thing here, last thing. Look over in Revelation chapter number three. We’ve listed a couple of things. Why does God allow us to go through suffering? To have a heart for those that are suffering. In order to get to know God more. In order to please God more. Then I want you to see this. Revelation chapter number three. He is here talking to the church at Laodicea. And many of you—I’m sure how many ever heard of the church of Laodicea? How many, you know? I said, “Yeah, yeah.” I mean, many things are very similar to our day and time, especially in America, and many Christians in America are like that. And we know about that. God says, “You’re just—you’re not cold or hot, and you’re lukewarm, and I want to—I want to spew you, you want to throw you up,” you know. And just a sad condition that they’re in.

Well, what’s the answer to that? All right. Would you look in verse number seventeen, Revelation 3? Look in verse number seventeen. God gives them the answer to their situation. Verse number seventeen, Revelation chapter 3. Y’all there tonight, amen? Good deal. Verse number seventeen, he says, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” That’s what they’re saying. That’s what they thought. “And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” Whoa. Two different views going on right there.

Now, what do you do about it? How do you solve this problem? Look in verse number eighteen. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” That’s expensive. It’s going to cost you a little bit. The cure for this saying is going to cost you something. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.” And watch this: “And anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.”

You know when you go through tough times, you see everything differently? You just—your eyes—it helps you see better. He said, “You need some fire in your life. It’s going to cost you something, but you’re going to come out of it, and it’s going to be like getting eyes out. It’s going to help you to see better.” You view life differently.

You know when you go through—you’re laying in the hospital, and I say you, you don’t care if you got name-brand clothes on. You don’t care what kind of car you drive. You don’t care what kind of house you got. You don’t care how popular you are. You don’t care about Hollywood, all the rest of that. You just view everything differently.

You go through real tough times, different things matter to you at that time: family, relationships, and eternity, and soul saved, what you’ve done for the Lord—all those things matter at that time. It changes your view on life. And God says to the church at Laodicea and say, he said, “Look, you know what you need? You need some suffering, if you will. And it’ll give you a different—you’ll start to see yourself. You’re not rich and increased with goods because I haven’t eaten anything. You’re poor, wretched, miserable, blind, naked.” You see everything different.

Sometimes God allows us to go through tough times. God says, “If we never go through tough times, it’s very easy. You’re going to be prone to materialistic view. But after a while of suffering, hey, you just see everything differently.” God says, “You need a little bit of—you need some glasses, if you will, so you can see things clear.” God allows us to go through suffering.

Boy, you’ll have a heart for other people’s suffering. Just amazing. The Bible says, “Weep with those that weep and laugh with those that laugh.” You have a tough time, but boy, you go through tough times, you understand weeping with those that weep. I never forget a young man is going through a hard time in a church, and he said, “I’m never”—he said, “I never cry, but I don’t know what’s going on in me.” He said, “I’m just driving down the road, and I start crying.” And I realized God was tenderizing his heart. He would have a little bit more of a heart for those that are hurting.

Sometimes God allows us to go through suffering simply because God says, “I want to be closer to you.” And if we’re going to be closer, we’re going to have to go through tough times together—fellowship of his sufferings.

Sometimes God says, “Look, I’m allowing you to go through this suffering because I want to be able to give you a crown of life.” And you please me more because it requires more faith to go through tough times, and that’s when you’re really pleasing God.

And then sometimes God says, “You know what? I want you to see better.” If we’re not careful, we’re seeing the world like the world that sees the world. I think a good definition of wisdom—you know, wisdom is found a lot in the book of Proverbs—wisdom is seeing, seeing through the eyes of God. And God says, “I need to anoint your eyes with some eye-salve. I need to allow some suffering in your life.”

That’s why over there in 1 Peter 4, he said, “Look, he said, sometimes God is going to allow, and it’s his will for you to go through suffering.” But he said, “Hey, commit your soul unto him in well-doing. He’s doing it well, as unto a faithful Creator. He’s got it all.”

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - - The Reasons God Allows Us To Suffer - Sunday PM 12032023