{"id":111,"date":"2018-11-06T16:37:16","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=111"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:41:03","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:03","slug":"charlie-browns-lament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/charlie-browns-lament\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Brown’s Lament"},"content":{"rendered":"
Charlie Brown’s Lament<\/span><\/div>\n

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Key Passage:\u00a0<\/strong>We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. Romans 5:3, 4.<\/p>\n

Key Thought:<\/strong>\u00a0Pain serves to remind us to always trust in the presence of Jesus in our lives.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Introduction:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cSuffering builds character.\u201d That diagnosis is as unpopular as \u201cEat your spinach; it\u2019s good for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlie Brown Story:<\/strong>\u00a0One of Charles Schultz\u2019s\u00a0Peanuts<\/em>\u00a0cartoon strips has Charlie Brown and his baseball team losing yet again. There have been innumerable line drives that cause pitcher Charlie Brown to go flying off the mound, his hat and glove and even clothes sailing in all directions. On the way home he complains to Linus. Why has the team lost again? Five million to nothing! And this is the eightieth loss in a row! Nobody can hit. He\u2019s got a beagle for a shortstop. Lucy certainly doesn\u2019t try very hard out there in center field. Etc. Charlie Brown, whose secret unrealized ambition has always been to be called \u201cFlash,\u201d is one dejected athlete. Linus responds with a casual shrug. \u201cLook at it this way, Charlie Brown. You learn more from losing than you do from winning.\u201d This is exactly what Charlie Brown doesn\u2019t want to hear. Turning on his friend in sorrow and rage, he knocks him right over with a shriek: \u201cthat makes me the smartest person in the world!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Romans 5:3, 4:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cWe rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

NIV Text Notes:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cA Christian\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0rejoice in suffering because he knows that it is not meaningless. Part of God\u2019s purpose is to produce character in His children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning the Hard Way:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, many of us have pleaded with God: \u201cLord, let me learn some other way. I don\u2019t need suffering in order to follow Your will. Please let me attend some easier university, where I can soak up Your lessons on a laptop computer or by taking a painless pill.\u201d But the history of our human race is that we generally only learn through pain and suffering. Still, the son or daughter of God has an advantage in being able to trust that God\u00a0does\u00a0<\/em>have an ultimate purpose in their life.<\/p>\n

What Is Faith?<\/strong>\u00a0It truly is one of the great tests in the Christian walk to keep trusting in God when the pain just goes on and on with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel. Author Hank Hanegraaff describes faith as: \u201ctrusting God\u00a0even when you do not understand<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing the Face of God<\/em>\u00a0by Tim Stafford:\u00a0<\/strong>(This deals with the \u201cinner\u201d effect of suffering): \u201cSuffering is lonely, and its most obvious effect is to bring the sufferer into a new relationship with himself. Suffering does not teach from a textbook; it works with the material already in a woman or man. It purifies this human material, cutting away layer after soft layer until only firmer stuff remains. All the dross goes: the ambitions, love of money, vanity about appearance, everything that sets us above others in our own mind. Suffering purges everything that is not central to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Story:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Hollywood actor Christopher Reeve enjoyed the good life and gladly accepted paychecks for playing fairly frivolous roles like\u00a0Superman<\/em>. In 1995 he was thrown from a horse and paralyzed for life. Did his priorities and values change for the next nine years of his life? If he could have spun the world backward and reversed time, as\u00a0Superman<\/em>\u00a0did in the first installment of that series, and gone back to the time of his abundant health . . . if he could live it over, would he spent his moments of vitality with greater wisdom? I imagine we all would.<\/p>\n

Eternal Perspectives:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI complained about having no shoes . . . until I met a man who had no feet.\u201d Suffering can help us to hold on to an eternal perspective.<\/p>\n

Having an Outlook of \u201cAbundance\u201d Despite Suffering:<\/strong>\u00a0The book\u00a0Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants<\/em>, by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, stirs your heart to read many stories of people who have lived long lives where pain was a daily and hourly companion. Some of the people in India that Dr. Brand worked with suffered for decades from the ravaging effects of leprosy or other grave illnesses. But this missionary doctor was often amazed at how many people learned to endure suffering with grace and good cheer, and actually live Christian lives that he could only describe as abundant.<\/p>\n

He reminisces: \u201cI have never made much money in my lifetime of surgery, but I feel very rich because of patients like these. They bring me more joy than wealth ever could. And they bring me hope for other suffering people. In Namo, Sadan, and Palani [three of his patients] I have indisputable proof that pain, even the cruelly stigmatizing pain of a disease like leprosy, need not destroy. \u2018What does not destroy me makes me stronger,\u2019 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used to say, and I have seen that proverb come alive in many of my former patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pain Without Apparent Meaning:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, sometimes pain is a signal to us of something we need to change. TV commercials joke about heartburn, but this is a body signal protesting our foolish choices. Taking a certain pill allows you to continue the mad party; still, it\u2019d be a lot better if we selected a more sensible diet.<\/p>\n

But often pain is simply\u00a0there<\/em>\u00a0as an undeserved foe. It\u2019s a random attacker. There\u2019s no reason it\u2019s part of your life except for the fact that we live in a cruel, sin-soaked world. You don\u2019t have a lesson to learn; you\u2019re simply on the enemy\u2019s hit list. What perspective can\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0possibly adopt that will see you through this endless valley of shadows? All we can say then is that\u00a0we suffer for the sake of Christ<\/em>. Maybe there\u2019s nothing else, no other reason. But the Bible tells us that there\u2019s nobleness and reward in being a fellow sufferer with Jesus Christ. He suffered too, and we, as parts of His family, may well have a heavy cross to bear.<\/p>\n

Philippians 1:29:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cIt has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acts 5:41:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Jesus.]\n

That willingness, that spirit of rejoicing in the midst of suffering, is largely why the infant Christian church survived. There was incredible pain and persecution for those first followers of Christ. Beatings and crucifixions and lions and the agony of families torn apart, either by the wild beasts of Rome or by the spiritual splits this new faith caused. What impact did all the flowing blood have? Louis Bouyer: \u201cThe importance of martyrdom in the spirituality of the early Church would be difficult to exaggerate . . . After the elements of the New Testament, certainly no other factor has had more influence in constituting Christian spirituality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two Realities:<\/strong>\u00a01) Suffering and pain can and do bring us to a new level of character. As sons and daughters of God, we accept the blows of the chisel because we want to someday be made whole again. 2) Through all that comes our way, Jesus is there. In your darkest hour, the Son of God stands by your side: \u201cImmanuel\u201d \u2013 \u201cGod with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letters To an American Lady<\/em>\u00a0by C. S. Lewis:<\/strong>\u00a0After losing his wife to cancer, \u201cJack\u201d Lewis wrote in one of his final letters: \u201cRemember, though we struggle against things because we are afraid of them, it is often the other way around\u2014we get afraid\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0we struggle. Are you struggling, resisting? Don\u2019t you think Our Lord says to you, \u2018Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go. Underneath you are the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you. Do you trust Me so little?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion:\u00a0<\/strong>Sometimes there is no other purpose for pain except to teach us to witness to our faith in Jesus\u2019 presence.
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Submitted by David B. Smith. Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2008. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Brown’s Lament Key Passage:\u00a0We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. Romans 5:3, 4. Key Thought:\u00a0Pain serves to remind us …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}