Suffering Has Purpose

What does St. Paul mean to take joy in suffering? Does anyone here wish to go and enter the operating theater where they chop people up into the hands of the surgeon? Do you want to go there? Do you want to ever see that sight? You know, when I enter that operating theater and I see the surgeon coming in with a sterilized knife thing, I hope it is sterile, when I see that knife in their hand, it's a very frightening scene. But that very knife that's going to cut me up and hurt me is the very knife that is going to heal me. If I want to be healed, I need to be hurt first.

Without cutting, there is no healing. So what St. Paul is saying, you see, we are all sinners, and what did sin do to us, made us all sick. So there is pain coming from that sickness.

There is pain coming from that sickness. One of the pains, pride, self-pride. One of the pains, envy.

One of the pains, jealousy. One of the pains, temptation, lust, like the one. There are so many, greed, greed, stubbornness.

These are all illnesses came about because of our sinful nature, because we sinned, because we broke God's word. All these illnesses surfaced up here in this human being. The Lord came as the true surgeon to take away every illness in us.

And the only way to do that, the surgeon must do what they are good at. Cutting, extracting, and then stitching up. The process of healing is called suffering.

The process of healing is called suffering. You know, when I went into the operating theater, they put me under the general anesthetic. I didn't feel when they were cutting me up and taking whatever it was that needed to be taken out of this body.

But after recovery, there was a painful process to reach full healing. That process of reaching full healing is called suffering. That's why St. Paul says, be joyous when you suffer.

Be joyous when you suffer, because that suffering is the sign that's telling you, you are now walking in the right direction towards healing. But let me tell you this, and I think I'll finish it off on this. Another, I want to take it from a different angle, this suffering, from a different angle.

Where did suffering come from? How did suffering came into existence? Two things made suffering exist. One, knowledge. Two, love.

One, knowledge. And two, love. And the two are one.

You see, what leads to love is knowledge. What leads you to love is knowledge. You can't claim that you love someone you do not know.

You can only love the one who you came to know. So, first you come to know them in order to be able to love them. Without knowing them, it is impossible to love someone you never knew in your life.

So, knowledge leads you to love. I came, I met this person for the first time in my life, and I came to know them by engaging in a conversation. We started talking, and after a day, and a week, a month, a year, we came to know each other very well, and very intimate, where we started loving one another, and now we are ready to give each other's life to each to one another in the marital and matrimonial bond.

So, now that knowledge led me to loving the person. Now, the moment you start to know, you start to love. The moment you start to know and love, you start suffering, because you can only suffer at the hands of the ones you love the most, and you know the most.

A total stranger tells me off, hasn't even touched me, but a sweetheart that I adore to the core, tells me off, shatters me to pieces, shatters me to pieces. I suffer at the hands of the ones I love the most. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus is saying to all of us.

Do you know why I died this way? It's a long story, but why the cross? The cross at the time was the most excruciating, agonizing, slow death. It would have taken hours upon hours of unbearable pain, suffering, and agony for the crucified person to eventually give the last breath and die, and end that painful, unbearable suffering and pain. The cross was extremely painful to choose to die in this way.

The Lord chose the most agonizing, slow, painful death to say one thing to all of us. My love for you is perfect and complete, and my knowledge for you, and about you, and to you is perfect and complete. Since I know you perfectly, and since I know you perfectly, the day you broke my word was the day you broke my heart.

You see, the Lord Jesus' suffering was not the nails, and the crown of thorns, and the scourgings. Yes, they were painful. However, that kind of a pain will diminish and will cease after a little while.

The nails, one week, one month, one year, that pain will disappear. The scourging will disappear. The crown of thorns, that pain will also disappear.

But the pain of the loved one that denied you, and sold you with 30 pieces of silver, and the other one making vows and swearing that I don't know who this man is, the loved ones, my pain, I Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was not so much the nails, and the crown of thorns, and the scourging. It was the denial of the ones whom I loved more than myself. This pain doesn't cease.

How can you stop hurting when the one you love the most is living in denial of you, and has become your own enemy? Ah, that was in the Middle Eastern way, ah. In English, ouch. The most painful, unbearable pain is when you are all love for that person, and they are all hatred toward you.

You're saying, I love you. Why are you treating me this way? I gave my life for you. Why are you hurting me? I went through sacrifices and endless pains just to raise you up, and now you're coming and talking this way to your dad, to your mom, to whoever that person is.

There is nothing more painful than when you love, and your love is misunderstood and rejected. This pain is unbearable. That's why the Lord is suffering.

It's not the nails. It's when I and you, you and I, walk away from him and go to Satan. That is the suffering of the Lord.

He says, my son, you'll never find greater love than the one I revealed to you on the cross. You'll never find anyone loves you more than Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Why are you walking away from me? Why are you denying me? Why don't you want to come to me? Why are you running to Satan and not even walking to Jesus Christ? Now that's very painful.

It's painful when the Lord walks in heaven and he sees all these mansions. By the way, every human being has a mansion in heaven. God is fair.

Everybody's got a place. In my father's house are many rooms, meaning everybody's got a room. So when the Lord walks at the end in heaven, he will come to this room and he will see it empty.

You know why? Because that person, till the last second of their life on earth, rejected Christ. Christ never gave their place to anyone else. That was meant to be for so-and-so.

It will always be for so-and-so because I am dead and he was my child. I'll never give my child's place to anyone else because every single one of you is number one in my eyes. No one is second.

No one is third. All of you are one. Therefore, no one will ever take your place.

The only one who will take it away from you is you. It's you. When you deny me till the end, when you be stubborn and shut the door in my face and reject me totally, you are the one who is taking that place from your own self.

The Lord will walk and he will see some places empty and some places full, but he will say, I did the impossible to bring this child of mine to this place, but he rejected me till the end. Don't let it be too late. My son, my daughter, run to the Lord.

Don't ever run away from him. And if it's for his sake, I to be suffering, then let it be because he suffered the ultimate suffering for me. And true love is a two-way street, not a one-way street.

A one-way street is a selfish love. Therefore, it's a fake one. But the true love is both ways.

The Lord loved me and died for me, then I need to love him and die for him. He suffered for me, I need to suffer back for him because this is true love when it is both ways. He carried the cross, I need to carry his cross as well if I truly love him.

It's a matrimonial bond. Will you take her in good times and bad times? Will you take her in richness and in poorness? Will you take her in sickness and in health? It's both. Not only health, not only sickness, it is both because true love is found when it is both ways, not one way.

If you love her when she is good to you, if you love her when she is bad to you, you'll definitely love her when she is good to you. If you love her when she is poor, you'll definitely love her when she is rich. We spoke about marriage.

There was a question there, can you talk about marriage? I was just touching the base. Don't ever treat Christ as a duty. Don't ever treat Christ as an obligation.

Don't ever say, I have to go to church man. I don't want to but I have to. Like, do I have to pray father? Can it be just, yeah.

Can I like give 50 bucks and get away with it? What is this? Some sort of a trade place? Buying and selling? It's about love. Christ is love. My son, when you fall in love with your sweetheart, do you say to yourself, do I really have to go and see her? Do I really have to drag myself out of home and comfort place to go and just see my sweetheart? You run to her like crazy.

You cannot wait to be with her. You cannot wait to see her. You cannot wait to hear her.

You cannot wait to touch her. You cannot wait because when there is love, there is natural reaction to it. You do not treat that love as a duty.

Well, I called you today. What else do you want? Well, I bought you a flower. Then shut up.

Well, then be quiet. Sometimes we become naughty boys. Yeah, we become kind of rough in our language.

And I did this for you. I got, one day this couple came to me. Before they entered the door, they said, father, we are here to divorce.

In the Middle Eastern custom, I said, welcome. What a joyous moment. You came to divorce.

Stunning. Welcome. Please come on in.

So they said, I let them talk for two and a half hours. I let them talk. You know what the man was saying to his wife before me, in front of me? He said, father, I honestly don't know what else she wants from me.

She wanted the house. I bought her a house. She wanted a four wheel drive Toyota.

I bought her a four wheel drive Toyota. She wanted a diamond ring. I got her a ring.

Whatever she wants. I give her money to go shopping, to go spend here on herself, not just on the house and on the kids, but on herself. I give her whatever she wants.

I work hard. What else does she want? I said, there is one thing money cannot buy. If you truly love one another.

I said, son, when you get up in the morning, do you say to her, I thank God for you. I thank the Lord that he's given me you, not anyone else. Do you get up in the morning and say, you are my sunshine.

You are my happiness. You are my comfort. I don't know what I would have done without you.

Stop talking about material. Love is not material. Love is life.

You need to live each other. Live. Not buy things.

You need to live. Do you thank God in the morning and when you come back from work and see your wife in one piece intact at home, when you enter the house, do you thank the Lord? Do you acknowledge that to her? Do you call her beautiful names, different names every day, or do you just hi, bye?