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Freedom Health Ministries

Gabriel Arruda

Suffer Well

All right, before we get started, could you please bow your heads, let's have an additional word of prayer together.

Father, here we are, Sabbath morning, and Lord, what we need is your presence.

You know, the only thing that makes church worth attending is Jesus, And I pray that your presence would be here and that you would speak through me and we would just really hear a message from Scripture and that you would teach us something.

We ask, we plead, we beg in Jesus' name, amen.

The title of this message is Suffer Well, Suffer Well.

As many of you know, last, this past winter, I had a terrible health challenge.

And my stomach was rejecting just about everything I ate.

I had acid reflux after pretty much every meal.

In addition to that, I would get debilitating fatigue.

And I was constantly having to do these water fasts as that would be the only thing that would kind of reset my stomach.

And in addition to that I wasn't sleeping well.

So I'm not eating well, I'm not sleeping well, I'm fatigued all day long.

I was miserable and I also lost a lot of weight.

Now this is wintertime and I tell you winter is not a good time to be skinny.

I was cold often and to be perfectly honest with you there were times where I was barely hanging on.

And I would beg God for healing and He would always give me the grace somehow to make it through the day.

He always would give me the grace to make it through.

Stop asking for healing and start asking for more grace to bear this burden.

Stop asking for healing and start asking for why I'm even allowing this trial to come on you in the first place.

And you know so much about Christian teaching is how to get out of suffering.

So much is about just how to make things better, how to do better financially, how to have a better marriage, how to have better health, how to have more success in your business.

And none of these things are inherently evil in and of themselves.

But the problem is Christian can be, friends I'll go to say Christianity is in many cases a self-centered religion.

It ends up being just another tool for people to get what they want.

You know, 1 of the most popular selling books in Christianity in the last decade is a book by, a man you guys probably know, Joel Osteen.

Friends, I'm sorry, this is not our best life.

If this is your best life, I'm so sorry for you.

But that just epitomizes what a lot of is going on in pop Christianity, and what we find is a self-centered version of Christianity, and that's what's popular.

But friends, I want to submit to you that this kind of thinking is extremely dangerous and that we need to do everything we can to get rid of this kind of thinking of viewing Christianity this way because the Bible tells us something.

Please open it with me to the book of Daniel.

Turn with me to the book of Daniel, chapter 12, and we're going to read verse 1.

And Daniel 12 1 gives us some insight why it's really not a good idea to view Christianity in a self-centered way.

Daniel 12, 1, looks like most of you were there.

It says, And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which stands for the children of your people and there shall be what does it say friends a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that that same time and at that time here's the good part thy people shall be delivered everyone that is found written in the book.

The Bible predicts that in the future a time is coming.

And not just an ordinary time of trouble.

There's times of trouble happening right now, right?

We talk about what's going on in the Middle East.

The Bible said, such as never was since there was a nation, essentially.

And 1 of the reasons why I believe that is, is because it's going to be global.

Right now you hear about, you know, this country's suffering, oh they had an earthquake and they're going through this, but everyone kind of takes their turns, right?

And the Bible says something in addition to that.

The Bible describes the church during that time.

It says, and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

So interesting, so fascinating, that the church in the last days is described by a symbol in the Bible.

At night, if you went outside right now, looked up, are you gonna see a star?

No, we just saw a lunar eclipse, but stars.

You only see them when they're surrounded by darkness.

How is the church described in the last days?

They that be wise and turn many to righteousness shall be like the stars.

Because we're coming into a time of trouble where the world is going to be surrounded by darkness.

And the thing is, the only Christians who are going to survive are the ones who could suffer well.

You know, Christianity tends to lots of wonderful things.

When you follow the principles of scripture, it tends to prosperity.

What if choosing Christ ruined you financially?

Christianity tends towards happy marriages and happy relationships.

But what if choosing Christ ruined your relationship, ruined your marriage, because your spouse didn't share the same Christian values as you?

Christianity tends to good health, but what if choosing Christ meant you actually jeopardized your health?

You know the Apostle Paul, he preached in a town called Philippi, and they really didn't like his sermon, and they drug him out, and they stoned him with stones outside of the city.

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Suffer Well

Transcript

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