Old Complete Sermon

Commentary on the State of Mind of the Spirit: 

The Righteous will Suffer...  (The Suffering Sermon) 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 1 of 8) 

Patient Endurance 

Rejoice in your sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance... 

American Baptist minister, activist, humanitarian, and civil rights leader, Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. once said quote; 

"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." 

Injustice, suffering, unfairness and the world not being exactly as I want it is pretty much a guaranteed constant in life. That is life... However, I've found that I can refuse to be seduced into being emotionally immobilized over my troubles. 

To quote from the King James Bible, the book of James chapter 1, verse 4; 

"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." 

The point is that suffering is a fact of life, for you, for me and for everyone. It's a necessary part of the salvation process, but the bright side is that the suffering of the faithful and righteous always glorifies God in the end. And that is the glorious truth; TRUTH God always redeems the suffering of His faithful little ones. 

The essence of Christianity is for the Creation to commune in the consciousness of the infinite Creator. The essence of being a Christian is to as said in 1st John chapter 2, verse 3; quote; 

"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.” 

That should fill your heart with hope, ease your worries and put your mind at peace... It did when I first finally understood and grasped the love the God has for me. This biblical perspective on suffering makes any Christian's suffering not only bearable but welcomed and enjoyed if that be the will of the Lord... 

In the world of pure spirit, there is nothing but endless love and grace. The Father loves His children perfectly according to their needs. Our good Heavenly Father knows us better than we know ourselves. All you have to do is believe in Him. Just have faith, because He is waiting for you to want to get to know Him. Because faith in the Father is the keys to this kingdom, and trust is the ticket to tune into His Holy Spirit. There are no boundaries here, there are no limits, anything is possible with the love of Christ. 

But obeying His word and walking like Christ is not always easy to do, and I'm telling you that it will take you your lifetime to learn to comply. The path is narrow and yes sadly it’s true, that few will enter and that many will be doomed. 

But have Faith little ones, because the faithful must patiently endure a trivial amount of suffering along the way. 

That's right, your momentary suffering is petty in comparison to the immense glory that awaits you. 

Yes, God's magnificent glory and grace is worth enduring any amount of suffering. 

So, I recommend that in the meantime, you be gentle with yourself, love one another as Christ taught us, and appreciate the miracle that you are alive and breathing right now in the moment. Be patient and kind to everyone, regardless of any reasons you feel otherwise. And most of all love God unconditionally regardless of what comes your way. 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 2 of 8) 

In Regards to Dealing with Other People 

I have finally realized and accepted that other people are simply going to be exactly the way they are; independent of my opinion about them.  

And the world is simply going to be exactly the way it is, regardless of my best efforts and aspirations to change it... So I have finally let go and now I just let God do His thing. I stopped trying so hard, and just trust Him more. 

Looking back at my life, and looking around now, I see that God has provided everything I need according to His plan for me. I now recognize that I lack nothing, and that is so freeing. I'm starting to feel that I've actually been made perfect and that there is nothing wrong with me. God has healed my wounded flesh and renewed my mind. I used to have all sorts of mental health problems, self-esteem issues, convoluted and contrary constructs of reality and the world around me. 

I was conflicted, my perception of reality was off. I just had some major misconceptions about the world and the truth of it all. These distorted views of mine were all corrected when I finally read the entire Bible. 

Yes, leave it to the Word of God to bring order to the chaos. Reading the Bible change my perspective on all that I was wrong about. I was on the right track about some things, I was right on about a few, but I was way off in some big places (like trust). I found that I was focusing my attention on all the wrong things. My loyalties were misconstrued and my trust was misplaced. Reading the Bible, yes, just by spending time in His Word, changed all that for me... 

I came to realize that all the abundance I want and need is already here in my life. It is all already here in my world. I just needed to tune into it. I stopped focusing on what I did not have, and shifted my consciousness to an appreciation for all that I AM and all the blessings I already have. 

I opened my eyes and saw all the blessings that He has already given me. And reflecting on life, I suddenly realized all that He has already done for me all my years. All the times that He showed up in my life, helping me and I didn't even recognize. And wow. Oh my God. Hallelujah. I'm overwhelmed by his amazing grace. 

Shame, guilt, grief, apathy and fear have disappeared! Now I live in a constant state of gratefulness. I constantly thank the Lord for every blessing He has graciously given me. 

And I remind myself to keep my mind on Christ, to keep my thoughts on good things, because whatever I think about is what will expand; and if I think about what I don't have, then what I don’t have will expand. 

If you think about what you don’t like in someone, then what you don’t like in that someone will expand. That is why pouring out endless love is always the best thing to do in all circumstances. Pouring out love in response to hate; defuses the hate. Pouring out love in response to love multiplies that love beyond measure... 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 3 of 8)  

Parking Garage for Your Soul 

Some people think that they are just their physical flesh and blood bodies. 

Wiseguy newsflash, F.Y.I. For Your Information; Your body, your flesh, and blood is nothing more than a temporary holding place for your soul.  

Your body is your vessel in the physical world, which came up in a night, and will perish in a night. Your life is a parenthesis in eternity. You don't own your body, you're just renting it for a moment, so take care of it!   

As the apostle Paul said in 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19-20 quote; 

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”  

Your body is always changing; the living cells that make up your body are always growing and dying, being replenished by the nutrients in the food we eat. You are always in a constant state of transition, from the day of your birth to your death and last living breath. You are never the same from one day to the next. Nothing forms, nothing dies, everything is simply in transition. 

And that includes you, who you really are. You are not your body. You are part of something eternal, changeless... Trapped in a form that is simply in transition. The point is that by the grace of God Almighty, you are a new person each day, and each day it is up to you who you serve. Whatever you serve here in this life, whatever you give you love and energy and loyalties to, will own your soul for eternity. Choose today whom you will serve. 

There are really only two choices. The Apologetic Wiseguy chooses life, of course, I choose Christ. I've died to self and surrendered to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and now the Holy Spirit of God who created all the universe fills me. Christ, the son of God resides inside of me. I know, it still sounds cliché and almost nonsensical at first. But I promise, it really works… 

Take 2nd Corinthians chapter 13, verse 5, Paul asks the Corinthian believers: quote; 

“Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” 

Most just hear this without really understanding its significance. What Paul truly means is that Jesus Christ literally dwells within the believers. Paul wasn’t speaking poetically or metaphorically. There are many other verses in the Word of God that confirm the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ actually dwells in His believers. 

And now when a problem arises, I drop to my knees and pray. Before blabbing out blame and judging others, or collapsing in shame and defeat, I try to keep very quiet about it, I ask God how I can use this experience to learn something. 

I go to my secret place. I take the time to meditate alone in a quiet place about the problem, and contemplate what is really important to me, I consider what is really important in the eyes of God, and how this will affect my family and the people around me that I love. Problems come and go, there will always be problems. What's really important is how you react to the problems. 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 4 of 8) 

What is Really Important 

Mother Teresa once said, quote; 

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." 

Accepting the world as it is, has finally allowed me to relax. I have finally learned that I can't save the world, and little me is not supposed to either. Saving the world is not my purpose, it’s not what God fearfully and wonderfully created me for. (Plus as I came to discover, Christ already saved the world a long time ago…)  

Anyways, the point here is that I still aspire to do great things, however, more than that, I desire to simply serve the Lord and trust His will. And if it is His will, He will use me, and great things will happen. But not because of me and my own vanity. 

And that has led me to the revelation that being intelligent (as I so thought I was...) is not about being studious all the time, it is knowing how to be fulfilled and all circumstances. I thought I was intelligent, but I wasn't fulfilled in the most basic of circumstances. I thought I needed this or that to be complete. I thought God made my brain wrong. I felt the world was wrong and that I knew how to fix it. I thought that it was because of me and my intelligence and ambition that I was going to do great things. 

Come to find out, I was so wrong. I used to base my actions on my feelings, which were based on my own understanding, without knowing all of the facts, so of course, I got it wrong most of the time. So what a relief it was for me when God revealed to me that it is not about me at all. It is not about how I feel, or what I think I want. It is all about God. 

And I could not say it better than original wiseguy, Mark Twain. quote; 

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” 

So it is not about what mister wiseguy wants, and it is certainly not about what mister wiseguy feels. So you should just ignore your feelings, right? Yes, that is correct. Well, sort of. Of course, it is a little more complicated than that, but that is the basic idea. At first, the thought of neglecting how I personally feel about whatever felt so stupid and counter-productive. How am I to control how I feel? If I'm mad or I don't like something how am I supposed to just ignore my feelings? 

Well, here is a little lesson in logic: If you control your thoughts, and your feelings come from your thoughts, then you control your feelings. Yes, it is that simple. Keep this in mind always. Whatever feelings you have or emotions you’re experiencing, it all came from a thought… And you control your thoughts. And if you don’t believe that you control your thoughts, then ask yourself who is controlling you? Just keep your mind on Christ and just give love. It is that easy. 

It is when I realized that I am creating my own world based on how I perceive and react to whatever comes my way. If I react with violence and contempt, or loftiness, then that negative energy will expand and rebound back at me... If I plant even a single seed of evil, then, of course, wickedness will grow in my world. If I ignore my own feelings, sometimes acting against my own better judgment, and just respond with loving kindness, then the grace of God will come back at me. It is that simple. 

That is what it means to have the Spirit of God inside you. As Jesus said, when you turn the other cheek, when you love your enemies, when you humble yourself, when you love the sinner and your neighbor, then and only then will Father God will exalt you. It is when you no longer act based on your own feelings,and when you obey the perfect laws of God, that you will be freed from the curse of sin. 

Now being filled with nothing but love, nothin but love comes out. When anger or envy try to creep into my reactions, and I'm about to do or say something stupid, I ask Jesus to put me in a choke hold... 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 5 of 8)  

Know the Will of the Father and Fall back in the Knowing 

That is why I've learned to fall back and just trust God, always trying my best to imitate Jesus in all that I do. 

More often than not, suppressing my natural human notion to act based on my feelings, which are based on my own understanding. In exchange for a more godly way of behaving.   

Trusting my feelings have failed me before, there have been plenty of times I thought I knew best only to fail big time because I was way wrong. So I know that I can't even completely trust my feelings. That is basic logic; if something is fallible once, it can never be truly trusted. So what can be trusted in this world? The answer is nothing. God is the only infallible source of truth, thus you can always trust Him. It’s like the old saying goes, 

“Never lie to someone who trusts you and never trust someone that lies to you.” 

I now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is in control, and not me. And what a wonderful relief that is. It's the responsibility of saving the world, which I took on all by myself, is taken off my shoulders. If the world was to be as my whims would have it, chaos and disorder would surely ensue. If the world were so organized that everything had to be perfectly fair, according to me, the world wouldn't survive for a day. 

Imagine what the world would be like if everyone’s self-interest would have to be served. Birds would be forbidden to eat worms, out of the worm’s self-interested to stay alive, the birds would die of starvation. Thank God that He is in control, and not me... 

The only God, the Creator, that ETERNAL, OMNIPRESENT, OMNIPOTENT, and OMNISCIENT, supreme being... 

(ETERNAL, meaning not involved in the flow of time, OMNIPRESENT, meaning found everywhere; OMNIPOTENT, meaning all powerful; and OMNISCIENT, meaning all knowing for is in control and not me...) 

Christ has empowered me to go beyond the ideas succeeding and failing. These are judgment calls, and bias judgments at best, based on my narrow perspective. I have found that when I judge others, I do not define them, I define myself. A seeming failure could be a critical part of the big picture for all I know. I have learned to just try to stay in the process, just enjoying life in the moment and allow the perfect flow of the universe to handle the details. 

Flow with the spirit of God into His peaceful presence. A mind at peace, a mind focusing on not harming others is stronger than any physical force in the universe. Stay on purpose! And let the God of the universe handle the details. 

I've discovered that a great majority of my suffering is and has been caused by my mind, by a mind that insists on having preferences, and holding prejudices. A mind that will not allow others to be just as they are will never find true peace. 

But by the grace of God, I've learned let that go. And He has allowed me to begin to feel the true joy and exhilarating feeling of being at peace with myself and the world around me. Mindfulness about my body and awareness of the physical world around me has allowed me to tap into a peaceful flow from the pleadings of my soul. 

The Holy Spirit now guides me. I live in His presence. He lives in me. Peace is in my spirit. As I shift my consciousness from the world of form to the spirit world, I'm endowed with discernment of the Father's will... and I fall back in the knowing… Aligning my soul and spirit with the Spirit of the Lord. 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 6 of 8) 

Perfect Love and Judgement 

So, if God is the perfect judge, and loves us all perfectly, then what is the story about hell fire and brimstone? 

Why would God create a human soul just to condemn them? 

The God in the Old Testament seems to have many personalities; cruel, unjust, kind, loving, and jealous, just to name a few. There are, however, two major areas which we humans have a difficult time reconciling; the love that God has for us versus righteousness. God is loving, but perfect love requires justice. Just as a father disciplines his own children when they disobey, God disciplines us if we don't meet His requirements. The problem for us is that we cannot keep all of the commandments because of our selfishness and self-centeredness. God would have been completely just and loving in destroying all of us for our disobedience to Him. It is only through His extraordinary love and grace that we are allowed into His presence. 

In regards to free will and love. I believe in a God that has dignified you and me by giving us the capacity to choose. The capacity to choose who to love. The choice to decide for myself who to follow and obey. 

And if I choose to say "no" to God, then God will allow me the implications of that choice. He will allow me not to have Him. Otherwise, we would be accusing Him of forcing Himself into our lives. And life without God is by definition, hell. As the Bible vividly reveals the very nature of the Creator to us, the definition of what is good is derived directly from the nature of God, What is good is like God. Of course God is more than just good, He is everything that society has come to think of as good. God is holy. God is justice. God is morality. God is love. 

And love cannot be forced or else it isn't genuinely love. So true love must be a free uncoerced choice. If coercion, even to the smallest degree is involved, then it ceases to be love and becomes some level of servitude ( a.k.a; slavery). Love comes down to choice. 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 7 of 8) 

 Wiseguy’s Parable of Proud Parents 

Think about a parent's love for their children. 

Parents love their kids no matter what and hope that love is returned. 

Parents take the risk that even after pouring out unconditional love for decades that their kids might grow up to hate their parents. For the kids, being born it not a choice, but because they are free, they can choose who they love. So there is always the risk for the parents, that no matter how much they love their kids, there is a chance that their kids won't love them back. 

So then, why take the risk to have children? Is it worth while? Many parents think so because there is the possibility of love. But there is only the possibility of love if there is the fundamental freedom to say yes or no. So there is always the risk that "no" will be said. But the risk that some children will choose to reject their parents is sad, and statistically, will happen sometimes if freedom is given. 

However, the reward greatly outweighs the risks. Just ask any parent if it is all worth it to hear your little-loved ones tell you sincerely that they love you. 

It is not a coincidence that good morality and God go hand in hand. It is no wonder why societies that totally rejected God, (like the Old Testament Amorites) are no longer around today. The children who said "no" to God, were free to choose to worship phallic sex gods in sex cults with perverse sexual morality, including incest, pedophilia, orgies and child sacrifice instead of obeying God. 

And as the implications of that as the Old Testament showed us was that they were wiped out, because they were not like God. They weren't good. They had to go. So God wiped them out. God is both infinitely good and holy. Likewise, anything that is not good and not like God would be defined as being evil. 

Sin, as defined by God Himself, is anything that is not good. Sin is disobedience to God. Sin is any human action that is not godly. Hell is devoid of all that is good, absent of all the attributes of God, leaving nothing but evil is hell. 

The Suffering Sermon (Part 8 of 8) 

What is Not Important 

Final thought to ponder: 

Have you ever asked yourself what's really important to you? 

A good way to find this out is by looking at what you're attached to versus what you enjoy doing. If you wonder what's the difference between your attachment to something verse your enjoyment of something, ask yourself these four simple questions: 

1) How would you react if suddenly a physical object that you really valued was suddenly gone? 

2) How would you feel if you lost everything you like and want but not what you need to survive? 

3) Would you still love and trust God? Would you still believe that everything is exactly as it is supposed to be? 

4) Despite you feeling that things aren't fair and you thinking that everything is horribly wrong at the moment, would you still love your neighbor? 

Consider unhealthy attachments to things in the physical world versus the healthy enjoyment of living life in peace and enjoying the blessings with the sufferings that God gives you. Life is good. God is good. And God has promised good to me. 

And I trust Father God's promise, that in the end, perfect judgment and justice will be served, the faithful's suffering will be redeemed and that is was all for His glory, forever. 

Amen.  The End.