Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
A Space For Suffering
( Delivered at New Hope Church Toowoomba)
Why does a good and omnipotent God allow suffering? It's a question as old as time itself, and one we tackle head-on through personal stories and biblical teachings. Join me, Luke, as I share my own poignant battles, including a life-threatening experience with cancer, and the transformative power that faith provided during those dark times. Through the lens of John 16:33, we explore how Jesus' assurance of victory can be a beacon of hope amidst life's inevitable troubles. By juxtaposing the wisdom of theologians like G.K. Chesterton and Epicurus, we confront the age-old mystery of faith under suffering, offering listeners a path to find strength and resilience.
Narrative power and spirituality's resurgence among younger generations form the backbone of our exploration into suffering's potential to deepen or challenge one's faith. Through the biblical story of Naomi from the Book of Ruth, we examine how painful experiences can feel like divine abandonment, yet also offer an opportunity for profound spiritual growth. As we navigate these spiritual waters, we emphasize the importance of reframing pain through a faith-filled lens, supported by stories of transformation, such as a young man's journey from atheism to embracing spirituality, alongside my own testimony of faith sustaining me through adversity.
Faith is more than a safety net; it's a transformative force that invites us to encounter God's profound love in the midst of suffering. We delve into the transformative impact of welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives, reinforcing that nothing can separate us from God's love. Whether you're feeling disconnected or are seeking a deeper connection with God, I extend an invitation to pause and reach out to Him. We conclude with a heartfelt prayer, seeking to open hearts to God's enduring presence and love, encouraging trust and offering hope for those navigating life's challenges.
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If we ever met. My name is Luke. It's great to be here with you guys Today. I want to talk a bit. I want to share a little bit about my story and I want to share a few thoughts from the Bible and then we are going to end with a response to God. So if this is kind of new for you, just relax and I pray that it helps you.
Speaker 1:I'm very, very aware that in a room this size, there's always much pain that people have experienced and it's uncomfortable to talk about it's going through. I'm going to talk about my experience with God through pain in my life. I call this message A Place for Suffering and I would also like to say that this talk is going to in no way do justice to the amount of tragedy that people have been through in their lives in this room. But I want to share with you the hope that God has put into my life, the way that God has changed my life through great suffering, and how good Jesus is in your suffering. So why don't we just take a deep breath and we're going to get into it. John 16, verse 33, jesus says this this is a promise that you won't hear many televangelists preach on, but it's in this world. You will have trouble. It's a promise, it's coming. Trouble is coming, but that is not the end of the story. He goes on to say but take heart, don't lose your heart, don't let your heart crumble, for I have overcome the world. That's the hope that we have. You know, being a pastor doesn't shield me from the pain of the world and the fact that many times it throws me into the depths of it.
Speaker 1:I was speaking to a man just even last week and he's grappling with this idea and intellectually, honestly grappling with this idea that he has faith, he's believing something, but it's not happening. And in his understanding of God, in his theology, he has faith. He's believing something, but it's not happening. And in his understanding of God, in his theology, he grew up in the healthy, wealthy and wise culture that some of us have, where if you have enough faith and you believe it, then it needs to happen. And if it doesn't happen, then either your faith is not good enough or big enough or strong enough or God is not coming through for you.
Speaker 1:The problem with that way of thinking about God is there's very little room for suffering in your life. There is no place for suffering in your life, and yet that is the very thing that Jesus had promised. Suffering drives many people towards God, but equally it drives people away from God. That's our response, gk Chesterton, the great theologian. He said the worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful but he has no one to thank. True, but equally, the hardest time for the Christian is when we spend so much time thanking the God that we know. And now we're in a situation we can no longer reconcile. Why is this not working? I have the faith, but it's not working.
Speaker 1:In the fourth century this theological debate raged with Epicurus, who was a Greek philosopher. He said if God is willing to prevent evil but he is not able, then he is not omnipotent. If he is able but he's not willing, then he's certainly. He said If God is good and he is able, then why am I suffering? Are you enjoying my motivational talk? It's going to get worse, but it will get better then at the end.
Speaker 1:Atheism really thought it took a victory lap in the early 2000s and it was at its peak. It's kind of tapering off, but it was at its peak in its early 2000s and you can kind of understand why, in the face of God really hates you, wants to forgive you, but first he's got to kill his son so that he can. In that kind of theology, atheism kind of looked a little bit attractive. So that he can. In that kind of theology, atheism kind of looked a little bit attractive. One philosopher called atheism the palate cleanser for Christianity, meaning we needed a little bit of atheism so that we could come back to who Jesus really is, because he's so much better than we ever imagined he was. He's so good. The next generation I see is coming back to God in droves and in power and I believe they're coming back to God in such a more way that's deeply rooted in Scripture and the person of Jesus, like I've never seen before. I'm so impressed with the next generation.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you this question we're going to start with this. We'll ponder this one a little bit Do you have space in your faith in God to suffer? Is there any room in your life, in your faith, to hold suffering as well as your faith? And we look at the Scripture. There's a character in the Bible. Her name is Naomi. It's in the book of Ruth. There's a small book of the Bible, but it's basically a summary of the whole Bible altogether in the chapters.
Speaker 1:She's lost so much, this woman.
Speaker 1:She's lost so much, this woman.
Speaker 1:She's lost so much. Her son has died. She's now left with her daughter-in-law and she has compassion on her, but she has no compassion for herself Ever been there. I believe that for you, man, but for me I don't know if God's with me she's in utter despair. And in Ruth, chapter 1, verse 13, she says this to her daughter-in-law she says See what's happening here, stay with me. See what's happening here, stay with me.
Speaker 1:She's taking the events of her life and now she's interpreting them. She's gone from historian to philosopher. She's now. She's taken the brokenness of her life and her conclusion is God's against me. Ever been that it's not working out. So God must really not like me. I know he likes those other guys at that New Hope church, but he doesn't like me.
Speaker 1:I'm different. If I walked into this building, you know the roof would fall down, something like that. And we all go through this. She gives meaning to her suffering and that's what we all do. We all give a narrative, a story to the suffering in our lives and we have to be careful of the story that we give it and arguably, we go through this narrative building in a few different ways. One of them, number one, is theologically God, where are you? Maybe I say it more passionately God, where are you? We also go through it psychologically. I'm not a psychologist. We also go through it psychologically. I'm not a psychologist, but what I mean is we bury it or we distance ourself from the pain or we medicate our pain.
Speaker 1:Has anyone here medicated your pain before? I have, maybe with adrenaline-seeking activities or certain kinds of drugs that make me separate myself from the pain that I'm in. I talked to a young man just last week. I shared about medicating. He came up to me after and he said that is my life. My life has been medicating my pain the entire time. He said I came in here an atheist today and I've been hearing about how Jesus is the only person who can come and feel that pain. And he said I came in an atheist, but maybe now I'm open to God. That's the goodness of God.
Speaker 1:We dig hole, put my pain in it. We dig hole, put my pain in it. It's easier to bury my pain and not look at it than it is to face it. Isn't that true, even though facing it is the path to real freedom? But by doing this, I allow my pain to define me. I heard Tyler Staden put it like this recently If you bury something living like the pain that comes alive in every victim of suffering, it doesn't die there, it goes on living right where you buried it. And if the place where you bury your pain is within you, then that is exactly where it's still living. It is living inside of you. It doesn't go away Relationally.
Speaker 1:The pain of your life doesn't just affect you. We all know this. It affects the people around me. I mean, my wife carried me, you know, almost literally for about seven months, carried our family, did an incredible job and I'm so thankful for my wife. Held was so strong. The tougher it got, the stronger she became and I'm so glad that she held it all together. But the events of my life become a story, a narrative. Be careful of the story that you're telling yourself in the middle of your suffering. A very helpful way to think about this and I'm going to circle back, and this is Anne when we respond to God, but a very helpful way to think about this is when you go through difficult things. There's four questions that we could ask ourselves. That would be very helpful. Number one this is from Rich for Lotus, very helpful. Number one what happened? Number two how do I feel? Number three what is the narrative I'm telling myself? And number four what does the gospel say? What's the story I'm telling myself in the middle of my pain? But, more importantly, what does the gospel say, what does Jesus say in the middle of my pain? Very important, and then repeat, very helpful, very helpful.
Speaker 1:When I was diagnosed with cancer mouth cancer last October, 31st Halloween day Terrible, my terrible day it was my first reaction was a freeze shock, absolute shock. I went into the hospital by myself, expecting for the doctor to tell me that I had some kind of allergic reaction in my mouth. I needed to cut something out of my diet. And then the leading surgeon in Australia for mouth cancer, he sits down with me and he says I'm very sorry, you have a very, very aggressive cancer in your mouth and we must operate immediately or you will die. Oh, and it hit me. It hit me so hard I couldn, I couldn't, I was like you. What like? What are you talking? What? My wife's not even here. How am I going to tell her that. He said call her and bring her here and I'll explain.
Speaker 1:He got a skull out and I was. I was in, I was in a head spin. He told me the parts that they would have to cut out and I was thinking to myself that's a lot, like there's not much space there, like there's not much to work with there. That's a lot to cut out most of my mouth. And then he said and then we're going to cut up your leg, take out all the bones, cut them up, and then we're going to rebuild your face with it. I'm thinking what Tell me about the food allergy, like what? What's going on here? Called Izumi up here and I just said to Izumi I'm sorry, our lives are about to change. And you know, I was just really in shock. I remember calling Chris and a couple of other friends to pray with us and we were all in shock and he came right away to be with me and kind of sit with me with that and I was in a bit of a head spin and, like many of us are, when you get bad news you're in a bit of a head spin.
Speaker 1:But then when the breath started coming back into my lungs later that day and I had a moment to sit for a second. Immediately the questions for God started piling up. Why, this is not the plan, god? What about my children? At that point they didn't know how bad the cancer was. It could have gone up to my face, into my brain. They weren't sure how bad it would be. They weren't giving me any promises. But the surgeon told me our goal is to save your life. And I was saying God, like you, called me to speak. And now I have mouth cancer. What is going on? This is crazy, god.
Speaker 1:And amongst all of my questions, I hear this calm and confident and unconfused voice, the voice that I've grown up to know and to love so deeply, the voice that called me into ministry, the voice that calmed my fears so many times, over and over again. And this voice says into my heart so clearly Luke, I'm going to show you how much I love you. And I said don't do it. Don't do it. I don't want to know. Don't show me, because I knew that meant going to the depths to see how big God's love is. I knew that going to the deepest part, the most tragic part of life, I would see how deeply God's loved me. And I was afraid. I was afraid.
Speaker 1:Have you ever heard of this thing called a luxury belief? Have you ever heard of that concept? A luxury belief? A luxury belief is something that you believe but you're shielded from the consequences of that belief. But you're shielded from the consequences of that belief, like I believe, that God is with the brokenhearted. I believe that, but I'm not brokenhearted, so I'm just kind of shielded from the reality of that belief. So I can tell you, god's with the brokenhearted man. You should believe that. But I'm not brokenhearted. I haven't had to believe that. I haven't had to lean on that belief and be desperately hopeful that it's real until I'm brokenhearted. And then suddenly it's not a luxury belief anymore, it's a necessary belief, it's real. Or we're in trouble.
Speaker 1:And I remember saying to God God, if you're not real, I'm in trouble, I'm in trouble. And I remember preaching. I could preach to you about the love of God and we would all stand and clap. It would be a great message about the love of God for you. I believe that for you. But for me, when you really need that love of God to be real, because there's nowhere else to go. There's nowhere else to turn. I'm desperate for that love of God to hold me in my pain and then it gets real. Then it gets really real and I need it to be real. So we're sitting in this little chapel downstairs in the hospital and we're praying together quietly. Total shock Two weeks later, a few weeks later, I'm in an operation with 20 of Australia's best surgeons and doctors doing the largest operation that the hospital does 10 hours on the operating table with 20 surgeons saving my life.
Speaker 1:I wake up to not being able to speak. Izumi gets a bit of a break. I can't eat. For many, many weeks. I'm doing the nose tubes and everything else and recovery. For six weeks. I was asking the doctor what is the? You know what's going to happen after that, what's going to be the treatment after that? He said let's not talk about that now. He later went on to tell me I didn't want to tell you that now because I didn't want to tell you that the operation the really hard part that was the easier part, the harder part was going to come next. The harder part was going to be in radiation for seven weeks.
Speaker 1:Every day where they put this mask on me I'm claustrophobic. They put this mask on me and they pull it down over your face and then they tie it to the gurney so you cannot move, you can't even open your eyes because it's so tight, and then they put you into this machine. My response to that? I wish it was neat and tidy for you. I wish that I had a triumphant, kind of like faith response to that. But honestly I was afraid and I think in some ways coming through that I was so frail. I lost 19 kilos. I was so frail, so timid and I was kind of ashamed of who I'd become, how frail I'd become in light of who I was, how strong and confident I was For most of my treatment. I mean, my commitment to God was this I won't quit today. That's it. I can't promise anything about tomorrow, but I will go back today.
Speaker 1:When you have a two-year-old, that's super cute, that kind of helps. You just come in, give you a kiss, say daddy, in the most heavenly voice you've ever heard. You know that'll get you through the day. You can't quit on that. You got to go one more day. Maybe that's an encouragement for someone here. You got to go one more day.
Speaker 1:Cs Lewis in his book the Problem of Pain. This is a great truth for me. I can tell you this with such confidence God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but he shouts in our pain. God's voice. During your pain, the volume just goes up. When you really need God, when you're desperate in your pain, god will speak to you loud because his care for you is more than you could ever imagine.
Speaker 1:I remember being on the hospital floor in the bathrooms, at the height of just my face, looking like Frankenstein being in such a difficult situation. I remember being laid out on the bathroom floor and begging God for a repeal. And I remember God saying to me with such a strong voice. The worse it got, the stronger God's voice became. And I remember God saying to me I love you so much, I will hold you, I will not let you go, don't quit. Many times I hear God's voice saying to me look at me, look at me, don't look down. Look at me, look at me, don't look down. Look at me, like Peter on the waves. Look at me, don't look away. When you go through your pain, don't look away. Don't hide your face from God. He is not afraid to enter into your pain. Look to God, look to God, look to God. He will be there for you. I can tell you that with absolute confidence.
Speaker 1:Have you ever been on a high ropes course? And you, on a high ropes course, there's this real fear that you could, you could fall off this log and I remember going with my son recently and he stepped down onto that ledge and there's that hole, but I'll use like 15 metres or whatever it is, and it feels like 1,000 metres and there's this absolute, real fear that you could die and your brain's telling you don't do that, because you will die. And that's a good thing. If you didn't have the rope I mean the rope changes the whole dynamic because that fear is not really a real fear, it's not really a real possibility. The rope will save you, right. And I remember saying to my boy you are safe. I know you don't feel safe, but you are safe, you're okay. And I kind of feel like God's voice to us in our most difficult moments is yes, there is a real fear that without me you would die, you would fall off this cliff, but with me you are safe.
Speaker 1:Have confidence, have confidence in the rope, and I've been to the depths of suffering with God, and I met God at the bottom. And here's what I want to encourage you today. I've been to the bottom and it is not even close to the depths of God's love for you To the very bottom, and he's still got plenty of room to go. It doesn't matter how far you run, how much you sin, how far away from God you feel. His love for you is bigger than you could ever imagine. It's so big for you that I think many people are afraid of it. You are afraid to look into the eyes of the love of God because it's too real. It's too raw and powerful and all-consuming His love for you. He won't quit, but if you would have the courage today to come to God in your pain, he will be faithful. He will be more than you could ever imagine. He will be more than you could ever imagine. How could God relate to my suffering? He's God. How does he understand my suffering?
Speaker 1:Before I went into the operation, I read Tim Keller's book on walking with God through pain and suffering. It's a good read, but it's a challenging one. It says one of the quotes from that book only Christianity teaches that God himself has experienced the greatest depths of suffering. He understands us. He has been where we are. He cares for us. That cross that you carry around your neck, it's not a fashion statement. It's not a fashion statement in Jesus' day. That word comes from the same word that we get excruciating, from pain, the deepest gut level pain, all of body, all of mind, all of soul, brokenness, pain. That's Jesus. That's the pain that Jesus knows. That's why Jesus can stand with you in your pain, Because whatever you know, he knows, he knows it. That's why I can say he's with the brokenhearted.
Speaker 1:My favourite theologian, tom Wright, said the cross is the surest, truest and deepest window on the very heart and the character of a living and loving God. The cross of Jesus' suffering. My friends, we've gone to the depths. Now let's give us the good news. Are we okay? I didn't expect anyone to clap and stuff. You know it's not really that kind of message. I haven't preached this message yet before. This is a first for me, so I wanted to share with you guys.
Speaker 1:First, resurrection, hope. The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate answer to suffering. It guarantees that suffering does not have the final word and that one day all things will be made new. Our hope is not in escaping this world like drunkenness or some drugs would offer, but a powerful motivation to endure suffering and work for justice and healing in the present, in light of what is to come. It's allowing God to redeem everything. This concept of God redeeming it is much deeper than you know.
Speaker 1:I see the saying God will give you double for your trouble. Man, that's a cheap version of a deeper truth that God will buy back your junk from you and give you His goodness. Well, how would God even do that? It's not a very good exchange. That's how much he loves you. That's how much he cares for you. He takes your pain and gives you something useful and valuable, maybe even a ministry towards others. That's what I've seen.
Speaker 1:Also, I want to end with three things. I've got a few minutes left. So I want to end with three things. I've got a few minutes left A declaration, an invitation and a question. Okay, then we're going to pray First of all. Here's my declaration New creation is being birthed in us, and one day it will be complete. God has a plan. It's a beautiful plan. His plan is to renew the whole world. We hear this in Romans 8. We know that the whole creation has been groaning, as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present. Even the earth is groaning towards the day of new creation. We are part of that. One day, we will have resurrection bodies. In the same way that Jesus was raised from the dead, we too will also be raised from the dead with resurrection bodies. That is the hope that we have. If you are suffering in your body, we believe in healing. I will pray for you to be healed. I believe in healing. I already believe in healing before this. What I didn't have was space for any kind of suffering. We're a miracle believing church. We just pray for miracles. I believe in miracles. God does miracles on the way towards new creation and where the miracles are the reality, that's new creation that is coming.
Speaker 1:So here's my invitation to you While you wait, there is a place of lament for you. Lament is the prayerful practice of hope in the face of suffering. It is the honest emotion of calling out to God in pain in one hand. Holding my pain in one hand up to God, while with the other hand holding the promises of God and honestly, at the same time holding them both. This is the practice of lament. God, I don't understand God. Where are you? And at the very same time, god, I believe you are so good and your promises are for me, and I believe you are so good and your promises are for me and I believe them. This is the invitation Death in one hand and resurrection in the other.
Speaker 1:So here's my question. It's a question for us, really, for our church. I'm kind of including myself there aren't I. Can I trust you with my pain, because pain is not meant to be endured individually. This is a community thing. It's a team sport. We're doing this together. If this is a real community, this is not a show we're putting on or a concert. This is a community thing. It's a team sport. We're doing this together. If this is a real community, this is not a show we're putting on or a concert. This is a community.
Speaker 1:Can I trust you with my pain? Can I trust you when I don't have it all together and I have questions and I have struggles? Will you stand with me? Will you pray with me? Will you allow with me? Will you allow me to be honest on my path to becoming whole? Will you love me into wholeness? That's what this church did for me when I was a teenager, love me into wholeness. So let's respond to God. Can we stand? Is that okay? I'm gauging the room. Are we still okay? Are we all right? Yeah, so let's do this as we respond to God. I just invite you to close your eyes with me. Maybe you want to extend your hands. It's just a posture telling my body what my heart is really thinking, and that is I need God.
Speaker 1:If you're comfortable, let me ask you these four questions once more and just allow the Spirit of God to come and work and speak as we ask these questions, and maybe he has something to say to you. What happened in your life? What happened and how do you feel? And how do you feel? Maybe hopeless or fearful, maybe even angry, resentful. And what is the story that I'm telling myself in my pain? I'm not good enough. Things will never change. I'm not a good leader. I couldn't love me, whatever. It is, just in humility. Now let me just ask you the fourth question.
Speaker 1:This is the most important part. What does the gospel say? Come, holy Spirit, speak to us. There is hope for you. God is good, he loves you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. His care for you is so good. If you're an extrovert and this silence is making you uncomfortable, maybe that's exactly what you need Just time to stop. Allow God to speak to you. Just one word from him Change you. Change you.
Speaker 1:If you're here today and you don't know Jesus not really. Maybe there's something talking and you're thinking I don't really know that God, maybe you hope that is real, but you don't really know you today you could. You could invite him into your life, invite him into your pain, your situation. He cares for you. He loves you deeply. You've heard that today. I'd like to pray for you as well. Would you also respond to God? If you want to know God today, I'll do a simple prayer for you. A little introduction, if you will. That's you and you need to come back to God. You need to come back to trusting Him or maybe this is the first time you need to put your trust in God. Show me who you are. Can you just lift your hand? I'll pray with you. Who's that here? You just respond. Just reach out your hands to Him. I'll pray with you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, lord, thank you, god, for people responding to you right now. I pray, God that you would come into their life and do what only you can do. Love them so deeply that it changes them forever. Help them to put their trust in you, to lean fully on you. There's people here who are ready to trust you. I pray, god, that you would come through for them in a big, big way. We know you will. We love you. Bless this church, god. Bless these people as we walk through our lives together. I pray that you would draw close to us God, like we've never experienced before. We love you, jesus, amen, amen.