Welcome to Affirm Foundation, presented by Princeton ministries with D r Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Tragedy struck the home of Beverly Sills, who is the renowned opera singer her first child was born almost totally deaf. The child would never hear the melodious voice of her mother. And just at the point that Beverly.

Sills was learning of the deafness of her child, she gave birth to a second child, a baby boy. This son was born mentally retarded and as you look at the career of Beverly Sills, you’ll note that there was one full year where she took off from all of her singing engagements. And she dedicated that year, a year that was full of great tragedy and Personal sorrow, and devoted it to her young daughter and son. And also trying to come to terms With her own personal double tragedy. She is often asked how she coped with that difficult time. And the famed songstress says, the first. Question that I asked myself was, why me?

The second question I asked was, why?  Theme surely, I think each of us faces tragedies, sorrows, afflictions in our own lives, and we have sometimes felt that wearisome weight of affliction sometimes we have felt our hearts almost crushed under some sorrow, some circumstance that. God has brought into our lives, and we cry out, why me? And if it is happening to others, why them? It is probably one of the single questions that we all have in common through this life.

I believe the Bible gives a perspective and answer to this question of why me? In the face of sorrows and afflictions. And I’d like for us to look at several principles of God’s word and the truths that are recorded, that we. Would have a perspective as christians when sorrow and affliction come first. I think it is important that we.

See that these scriptures teach that the. Righteous, those who trust in Jesus Christ, are nothing exempt from sorrows and afflictions that they will come to your house as well as to the house of those who are unrighteous, who make no. Declaration of allegiance to Jesus Christ. David tells us in Psalm 30 419. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Job reminds us that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, that trouble is part of the parcel of life that every one of us will face. Isaiah, when reflecting about the coming Messiah, spoke of Jesus in these terms. He is a man of sorrows who is acquainted with our grief, that the ministry of Jesus shows that he knew tribulation and sorrow and affliction among the parables that the Chinese tell is a story of a woman who lost her only son. And, of course, full of grief. She, for a period of time, laboured under the weight of that sorrow. And then finally, she went to a wise man and he told her, I will give you back your son. All that you must do is to bring me a mustard seed. A mustard seed from the home of a family that has never had sorrow and so eagerly she went about her task from house to house, looking for. That home where this small seed could be found, where sorrow had never entered that family and as she went from house to house, she found that, in fact, all of the homes, all of the families.

Either were currently or in the past or certainly were anticipating sorrows in their own lives. And what did she learn? How selfish I have been in my grief. Sorrow is common to everyone. The scriptures remind us that many are the afflictions of the righteous. It has been true from the beginning. Adam felt the sting of the arrow of sorrow as he was expelled from that garden.

Certainly that shroud of sorrow hung over the house of David as he faced the consequence of his sin with Bathsheba. And we know that the apostle Paul. Spoke of his personal sorrow and grief. As though it were a thorn in his flesh. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

There is a second principle of scripture that is important for each of us to have, and that is that afflictions are used by God to change us, to become more and more like Jesus Christ. Our text, taken from romans chapter five, tells us, we glory in our afflictions. An incredible statement by the apostle Paul. We glory in our afflictions, knowing that our afflictions produce endurance or perseverance, that this perseverance produces character, and that character produces hope. And that hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been.

Poured into us by the Holy Spirit. An amazing transition. As Paul would say, we glory in afflictions, sorrows, tribulations Why? Because we know that they will create endurance and that will create character, and that will create hope, and the Holy Spirit will be poured into our lives.
Just as it seems that the purest ore comes from the hottest furnace. I think it is equally true that the purest Christian character that I have ever seen seems to come from the.

Furnace of sorrow, that those who have.

Been afflicted much and have experienced great sorrows, great losses, great pains, that Christ is able to take that sorrow and to produce wonderful qualities of Christian character as a person endures through some form of suffering or another, and that the people who seem to have the greatest hope of the promises of Christ in their life so often are people who have faced personal trials and have seen.

The faithfulness of the Lord. It is equally true that those who seem to trust least in the promises of God, who have an eye of scepticism and cynicism, very often are people whose lives have been free from one. Form of sorrow or another it is, it seems, according to scripture, in this crucible of sorrow, that we become more Christ-like paul’s most fragrant epistles were written from a Roman prison.

John Bunyan wrote one of the classics of Christian literature, Pilgrim’s Progress from the Bedford jail. It was in hiding at the Wartburg castle that Martin Luther was able to. Translate the scriptures into German and to bring them to the masses as they would read the scripture in their own language.

There was a man who, at the age of 40, went to the sawmill as he had done for many years in the past.

And at 40, Wallace Johnson was told by the foreman, you’re fired. He didn’t expect to hear those words he was struck with grief at having lost his job. Depressed, discouraged, he felt that the world had simply caved in on him. When he went home, he told his wife what had happened, and his wife. Wanted to know, well, what’s the plan? What are we going to do?

And almost immediately, Wallace Johnson said, we’re. Going to sell our house, will take the money, and I’m going to start a small building company. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do.

He took the money, and he built two small buildings. Within five years, he became a multimillionaire builder. He says, today, if I could locate the man who fired me, I would sincerely thank him for what he did. At the time that it happened, I.

Didn’t understand why I was fired. But later I saw that it was. God’s unerring and wondrous plan to get me into the way of his blessing. That all started with Wallace Johnson, at the age of 40, being told, you’re fired. He then built a couple of homes. He then gathered capital, and then he became the founder of Holiday Inn.

And as he looks back over his life, he sees that from an event that certainly would be an affliction, a. Sorrowful event in the time of a family, that he would thank the man who fired him.

The scriptures tell us that suffering produces perseverance. Now, there is a way to face suffering where we short circuit any endurance, any perseverance. It has become quite common in our own culture to do anything we can not to endure something that is sorrowful. And so whatever we can do, we try not to endure in the face.

Grief, afflictions, or sorrow. But the scripture says this suffering will produce endurance, that will produce character, that the qualities of Christian character seem to be produced through a period of enduring. In the hope of Christ, some trouble or affliction that you’re facing. One of the greatest gatherings that has occurred in the history of the church occurred and was called the Nicene Council. The Nicene creed which came out of that council is one of the most hhelpful statements of belief in the Christian faith. Now, at that Nicene council, there were 318 delegates present.

And who were they? Certainly, they were all christians because they were there to represent the church but is there any other quality that. Was common to these men? Well, Vance Havner tells us that of the 318 men who attended as delegates at this nicene council, 302 showed on their body some form of the results of torture and imprisonment for their faith. Some were missing an eye. Others were without a hand. Some had legs that had been shortened as hot pokers, had been placed into the sinews of their legs and dwarfed their leg. And of the 318 who helped to ffound one of the greatest statements of the Christian faith, the vast majority had faced great personal sorrow, great afflictions, adversity and sorrow has another purpose, and that. Is that it is often used by the Lord to draw us closer to Jesus Christ. You would think when the sun is shining, when the birds are singing, when all is right with the world, that.

We would be inclined by nature to give thanks to the Lord and to seek him and to follow him. But in fact, it seems that the opposite is true, that when things are going best, that seems to be so often the time when we think that. We need the Lord the least. Not long ago, I was with our four children, and we had parked in. The parking lot, and I had crossed the street with one of the children. And the other two were on the. Other side and would be crossing in just a moment as it turned out, our car blocked. The oncoming road that was vacant except. For one car that was speeding along.

At about 40 miles an hour. And as I turned around, I could see my little three-year-old daughter Mary, joyfully running around the car and in front with her vision totally blocked from this oncoming car that certainly was coming at a speed and angle that she would have been struck. And in that split second, as I turned around, I could see the car, which was only able to see me and not my daughter. And I instantly ran back into the oncoming car, held my hands up and yelled, stop. And with fear, this driver, unaware of my daughter, slammed the brakes on, and my hands were on the hood of the car. Not only did the car stop, but so did Mary.

And in that instant, she recognized her danger. She was full of fear at that moment. And as she realized what almost happened. She ran up to me and with. All of her might, hugged me around the neck. It seems that so often we are a lot like my little daughter. We are enchanted with the things of this world. We are enjoying this life until suddenly we hear the terrible shriek of sorrow.

In our life, or until we are about to be run over by some affliction. And at that moment, in our sorrow, in our affliction, what do we do? As people who love Christ so often, we take our arms and again embrace our father and thank him and remember what he has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ.

There is a godly use of adversity and if we are a Christian, if we by faith have trusted in Christ then we can know that God is using sorrow in our life to produce qualities of endurance, that, in fact, will produce qualities of character that will make. You into a hopeful Christian. But it is also possible that you.

Do not know Christ and so for you, the only word that can be used about sorrow are words like destructive, painful, agonizing, spirit-breaking words that are black and gloomy and full of despair and for you, sorrow and affliction have. No relationship to hope and the reason is that you have not yet entered into that relationship with Jesus Christ, that you must, by faith embrace Christ, that you must ask him.

To forgive you of your sin. That you would know that when he died on the cross and shed his blood, it was for your sin. And that when he was raised from the dead, it is for your justification that you would become part of God’s family through Jesus Christ. And if by faith you would accept.

Christ, then the promise is to you, not that your life will be free of sorrows, but rather that the tribulations that come into your life will produce endurance. And that endurance will produce character, and that character will produce hope. And that hope will not disappoint you, because the love of Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit has been poured into your life.

Let us pray. Our God and our Father. It is in a world of afflictions and sorrows that we live. We thank you that in Jesus Christ we are not crushed by these afflictions, but rather in Christ by your spirit, we are able to endure them, that you would change us. More into the image of your son that we would take on those characteristics of Jesus, and that our life would be marked by hope. We give you thanks even for the tribulations in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Affirm Foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. That’s Princeton Ministries post Office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 08543. The Lord bless you and Dr Smith looks forward to hearing from you.