Suffering: God's Chisel to Conform You to the Image of His Son

Main idea: Our ability to hope in trials, be confident in tribulations, and rejoice in suffering depends upon our understanding of God’s ultimate purpose in all our trials and tribulations.

1. The recipients of the promise.
2. The goal of the promise.
3. The magnitude of the promise.
4. The conviction of the promise.

• Automated Transcription

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  Thank you for the opportunity to be here, and it would be hard to just be on vacation and not be able to preach something. I'm thankful personally for the opportunity. And thank you guys for your faithful support for us, as they mentioned, for 16 years of ministry on the field and and even before that, Peter and Sonya Smith, many of you will remember as well, labored there for 13 years before us, and it takes a long time to plant a church. Takes a long time to establish a firm foundation, and I know it takes a lot of prayer. Some of you have come up and just told me that you're praying for us regularly. One sister told told us yesterday that she's been praying for us every single day. And I think that explains why we see what we're what we're seeing, why the church is growing, mega church of nearly 100 people on Sundays, which is quite significant in our context. So we're very thankful for, again, for what the Lord's doing. We began, I think recently, last year, we began small groups, which has been a huge impetus, just for growth and spiritual care and building relationships in a context where being personal and open is not the norm, and so we're seeking to invest in people, invest in men, give them opportunities to learn how to lead, how to shepherd, how to care for souls. We're thankful for that. We also started a bi weekly leadership training program where there's about seven brothers in there. We're just studying theology together and learning just pastoral principles and priorities, and it's been very significant for our church. So we're very thankful for what the Lord is doing. I do with all my heart. Wish that each and every one of you could come and see with your own eyes how your prayers are being answered and even how your faithful giving is not in vain. The Lord is working in many mighty ways. We want to see how the Lord works, even in our own lives, individually. This morning, as they mentioned, we are in Romans, chapter eight. Romans, chapter eight, one of the greatest chapters in the Bible, and verse 28 one of the greatest verses in the Bible. We're going to study this text together and look at its truths and learn to cling to its promises. Romans eight, and in order that we can orient ourselves in this precious verse, let's start in verse 15. Romans chapter eight, really focusing on the promises the believer, his inheritance in Christ, His adoption, his future, his glorious future, in verse 28 obviously working towards that. So let's begin in verse 15. Reading from the NASB was either NAS or my Czech Bible. So we're doing NAS this morning Romans, 815, for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption by sons by which you cry out, Abba Father. The
  
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  Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children heirs also heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him, because of God, who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now, and not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons. What is that? It is the redemption
  
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  of our body,
  
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  for in hope, we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he already sees, but if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it.
  
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  And in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For in our sufferings, we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes
  
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  all. All things, all trials, all tribulations, all sufferings, to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that he would be the first born among many brethren. Amen,
  
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  pray, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the rich and precious promises that we have in your word that these things are not merely to be believed with our intellect, but they are to be grasped and laid hold up with our hearts and follow the might of our soul. I pray that You would help us this morning, or to either establish, or perhaps re establish, our hearts and minds on your Providence, on your sovereignty, On Your goodness and Your faithfulness, and on the plan and purpose that you have for our lives, but which you are using all things to ring about the greatest good of all. We, thank you for your faithfulness. We thank You for Your word. Please bless us now and help us in Jesus name, amen. Many of you have heard the name William Carey. He was one of the first missionaries that left Britain to go to India. He had a great burden to see the Indian people come to know Christ. In order to accomplish that task, he used his brilliance and his language abilities to translate the Bible into various Indian dialects, translated into Sanskrit, into Burmese and into Marathi Oriya and Assamese. He was a very, intelligent man. He's a very, very hard working man. He's a very caring man. He was instrumental in seeing child sacrifice outlawed in India. He was also instrumental in seeing the Indian ritual of burning alive the widow of the deceased husband. He saw that out loud as well. But his greatest burden and his greatest gift to the nation of India was his translation of the scriptures. In order to do that, he had to alphabetize languages. He had to create alphabets and dictionaries, and in the process of one of their translations, their printing shop was arson and burned to the ground. And him and other men, they lost years of work, hours, days, months and years of intense labor to translate the scriptures and to see them printed. All of it was burned up in an instant, as one of the locals was hoping to get rid of them, burned their shop to the ground.
  
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  But all this backfired. Three amazing things happened because of this. First within a few weeks, word of the fire reached Great Britain, and people who had never heard of William Carey were now reading his story on the front page. People were so moved that churches and organizations began to send in money, and within a short time, their printing press and everything else that they needed was was rebuilt, and they began to translate again. Secondly, because of this publicity, there was pressure upon the British government now to to release their strict laws against missionaries coming into India. And thirdly, because of this, there was an increased desire amongst the British to send out missionaries as as hundreds of young men, women and children now devoted their lives to the call of Christ, to take the gospel to the nations, and that through this, God raises up missionaries for India, Africa and China. In other words, what others meant for evil. God intended for good. He brought good out of a very distressing and humiliating and excruciatingly painful situation and circumstance, and we read a story like that, many other stories as well. And it's easy to rejoice, and it's easy to understand the good, it's easy to see it in that sort of context. But we understand that most of our stories, we're not at the end. We're still in the middle of the print of the burnt printing press. We're still in the middle of the trial. We're still in the middle of the suffering. In other words, we don't see the good always. We don't understand what God is doing, what His purpose is, in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our trial, in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our tribulations. Ian. So we ask, even as Kana was asking God, what are you doing? Why have you allowed this? Why are you even causing this? What is your purpose in this?
  
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  And that's the question we bring to our text this morning,
  
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  because God wants us to build our lives upon the promise of this text. The promise of this verse is a mighty fortress around the believers heart. It is a rock to stand upon in the midst of the flood. Is a promise upon which we are to lay our heads upon at night and to sleep soundly as a baby
  
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  even in the midst of overwhelming floods. God's desire is for us to trust in Him and to cling to his word and to stand upon his promise, which requires of us this morning, a correct understanding of Romans 828,
  
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  what does Paul mean?
  
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  Our ability to hope in trials, be confident in tribulations, and rejoice in our sufferings, depends upon a correct and faithful interpretation of the promise that is contained in Romans, 828, so my aim this morning is to help us, perhaps afresh, grasp the aim the meaning of this text, and, above all, to prepare all of us to cling to it in the midst of overwhelming flood, because we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, there are four facets that we need to look at this morning, four aspects of this verse. First of all, I want you to note the recipients of the promise. The recipients of the promise, the recipients are described with two important phrases, to those who love God and to those who are called.
  
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  To those who love God is the first phrase. There are few significant things regarding this phrase. First of all, we learn that the promise here in this text is limited the recipients of this promise, they're limited. It's not for the world. This promise is not for your your gracious neighbors who are even willing to help you and to come and cut your grass or to cook for you when you're sick. It's not for well intended religious people. The promise is not broad, but the promise is narrow. It is for those who love God. Secondly, Paul tells us the promise is conditional. It's not for those who go to church, it's not for those who are baptized, it's not for those who take the Lord's Supper.
  
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  It's not for those who are nice, it's not for those who are Republican. It's for those who love God. And thirdly, the love described here, our love described here, for God is a supernatural love. It is a supernatural love.
  
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  This love for God is not general love. It's not natural love, and it's not human generated love. It is the supernatural love that God Himself has poured out into our hearts and produced in our hearts, as described in Romans chapter five or Romans chapter eight, just a few verses earlier, Paul said, and beginning in verse five, for those who are according to the flesh, that those who are without the Spirit set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the Spirit, for the mind set on the flesh, the mind of the unbeliever is death, but the mind set on the Spirit, the mind of the believer is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh, it is hostile towards God. It does not subject itself to the law of God. It is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh, they cannot please God. They cannot love God. They cannot produce affection for God, all that is in you, all that is in me, all goodness, all affection, all desire to live for Christ, to worship Christ, to love Christ, to honor Christ, if there is anything good, if there is anything excellent, if there is anything worthy of praise that is produced in you by God, I wasn't born a missionary. I wasn't born a preacher. Didn't come out with a Bible in my hand and a plane ticket to the Czech Republic. I came out a rebel. No one had to teach me the ways of the world, no one had to teach me to lie, no one had to teach me to lust, no one had to teach me to covet those things. Maybe were impressed upon me as I spent time with others that were excellent in those things as well. But I didn't need a degree. And being selfish and being self centered, being proud and arrogant, those things came out naturally from me, because from the moment of my birth, my entire being was bent upon using. Every good and perfect gift from God against God, man's natural disposition is to take what God graciously, faithfully, continually, constantly gives him, and to use all that he has from God in rebellion against God, to use every aspect, every faculty of his mind, every every aspect of his body, all of his limbs, everything to do exactly what God has said not to do. That is the innate, natural disposition of every man and woman and child,
  
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  and yet, by the grace of God, by the gospel, by the mercy of Jesus, Christ, the love of God is poured out in to our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans five says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
  
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  Ephesians two, four to five says that God was rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ first John 410 says and this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
  
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  So that phrase to those who love God is not those who are working hard to to love God and working hard to to produce affection. No, this is, this is a promise. This love in us is produced by God. For God,
  
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  and we also see that this promise is for those who are called
  
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  to those who love God, and to those who are called
  
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  to those who love God looks at our relationship from the human perspective, and those who are called looks at our relationship with God from the divine perspective, and it's important to remember, even though many of you will already know, but that this call here is not this general preaching the gospel call. This is not the evangelism call. This is a sovereign call.
  
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  This is what theologians call an effectual call, or an efficacious call. It is that call of God which brings sinners from death to life, from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God, just as when Jesus told the layman to pick up his pallet and walk, when he told Lazarus to come out of the tomb, or when the angel told Peter to get up and leave the prison, this call enables what it demands. It calls the blind to see and it gives sight. It calls the dead to hear and gives hearing. It calls the lame to walk and gives strength. It calls sinners to repent. It gives power, and it calls those who hate God to love God, and it gives them a new heart to do so. I God. And the point of this phrase is to encourage us with the certainty of what the child of God has. Because, as we heard even this morning from Karina, there is a temptation. There's a even still in us, a natural response, in the midst of our trials, in the midst of our sufferings, to say, God, what are you doing? I don't understand. Have you forgotten who I am? Have you forgotten I'm your child? Have you forgotten your plan? Is Satan stronger than you? And
  
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  if we don't understand what Paul is teaching us, we will allow those kinds of thoughts, not only to remain, but to take root and to grow weeds that will choke out faith, which means we need to look secondly at the goal of the promise. The goal of the promise, what is the aim? What is the goal? It is contained in two parallel phrases that contain one singular aim. Paul says, together for good and called according to His purpose,
  
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  that God is causing all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
  
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  And everything in this verse revolves around these two phrases,
  
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  what is the good that God promises to bring about? What is the purpose that we have been called to? Is it the promise for good that in this life, there will be riches after poverty, health after sickness, love after loss, birth after death? What is the good here?
  
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  Do we make up our own do we insert our own answer? Paul tells us verse 29 for explanatory of what I mean in verse 28 for those whom He foreknew. He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.
  
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  The good that we are heading towards, the purpose for which we have been called is perfect, unending conformity to Jesus Christ, God's greatest plan, final goal. Ultimate aim is to conform each and every one of his adopted children into the perfections, into the holiness, into the righteousness of his own beloved son, every way of thinking, every motive of the heart, every look of the eye, every use of our hands, our feet, our mouth, will one day be purified of all sinfulness, selfishness and impurity, so that one day we will perfectly, perfectly, feel like Jesus, think like Jesus, speak like Jesus, and act like Jesus,
  
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  which means that God's goal for you is to remove everything that
  
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  doesn't look like Jesus.
  
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  Every flaw, every weakness, every sinful desire, will be purged for all of eternity. Will have godly motives, godly desires. Can you imagine just that you won't have the ability to sin, right?
  
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  You're walking down the street and there's something that passes by, and there is a desire. There is a lustful desire. There is an innate desire to do something that you know is wrong, and you fill the temptation
  
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  that will never exist again for all of eternity, you will never again know temptation
  
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  or desire to sin, and you'll have no ability to sin against God. All of it will be purged. But
  
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  we need to understand that in the midst of the purging, in the midst of the sanctification in this life, we need to ask ourselves,
  
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  what is the real purpose? What is the ultimate aim?
  
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  And Paul says so that he would be the first born among many brethren.
  
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  The term first born does not mean first born here in a physical sense. It means first born in the sense of honor and priority.
  
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  For the Jews, the first born was the son of privilege, a son of honor, and in this case, it is God's exalted son.
  
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  And God says that Jesus Christ will be exalted. He will be preeminent. He will be the first born, the most important amongst many brethren. And he will be for two reasons. First of all, because Jesus Christ is the one, the only one who perfectly displays the character and the attributes of the Father. Colossians, 115 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Hebrews, one three, and he is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of his nature. And he upholds all things by the Word of His power. Jesus Christ will be preeminent because he is preeminent, because he is the only exalted one, but secondly, he will be preeminent amongst us, because everything that we have is from him whose righteousness do we possess. It's Christ's righteousness whose life do we possess. Is the life of Christ whose resurrection power will possess, whose glory will shine forth from us, whose father will be will we be united to, whose kingdom will we dwell in, whose blood will wash away our sins, who himself will bring us into the presence of the Father on whose throne will we rule and reign and judge? All of these things are Christ's everything that you and I have will be from Christ.
  
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  And Paul doesn't just say that Jesus Christ is going to be the most important among many slaves, but it says the firstborn amongst many brethren that Jesus Christ came to earth, took on flesh, took on our sin, endured the wrath of God, endured judgment, so that he might make us like himself and give to us all that he has, that we might rule with Him, reign with Him, sit on thrones with him, and no endless joy with him. And so Paul says the reason that get that that God is conforming us to Christ is for the honor and the exaltation and the glory of Christ. In other words, brothers and sisters, just step back for a moment as you look at your life, as you look at your suffering, as you are tempted to ask, Why is this happening? Don't even think for. Of all, but God's using this for my good? No, the first reason that God is doing all this is for the glory of Jesus Christ. It's for his honor. It is for his name. Christ is the center of the Father's plan. Christ is the center of the Father's affections, and he will do all in our lives to bring about the glory and the honor of His Son as he conforms us to that image. But this doesn't mean that you're an afterthought. This
  
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  doesn't mean that you're a side dish. This doesn't mean that you're not important,
  
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  because the Gospel says that God's the Father. Sent God the Son, for your sake. This
  
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  leads us leads us to our third facet, the magnitude of the promise, the magnitude of the promise, the scope, the breadth, the length, the height and depth of the promise,
  
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  because it says that the God causes all things to work together for good,
  
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  not some things, not the majority of things, not most things,
  
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  But that everything in our lives is being sovereignly used by God for His intention and his purpose to make us like His Son.
  
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  It means that little things, big things, good things, bad things, painful things, joyful things, sorrowful things, beautiful things, even evil things,
  
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  are being used by God are working together
  
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  for our good. That phrase work together is a single Greek verb, sooner ghetto, which we from which we get our word synergism.
  
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  The term means to engage in cooperative endeavor that all things, no matter how they appear to us, no matter how benign they feel to us, no matter how insecure convenient they feel to us,
  
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  all of these things are being used to bring about the goal of making us like Christ. This is the meaning of the doctrine of Providence.
  
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  Providence is God's operating in and through every event in the world, whether good or evil, to bring about his intended plan. And all things working together for good means that all things are working as God's servants to bring about his intended purpose. Isaiah, 46, eight through 10. Brand this on your minds. Remember this and be assured. Recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no one, no other I am God, and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all of my good pleasure. God said this to Israel in the midst of the Babylonian captivity there, what's going on? How could you allow this? How could you do this? And God says, This is my sovereign plan. Nothing will thwart it, and I will use it Israel for your good Ephesians, 111 and we also have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things
  
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  after the counsel of his will. In other words, there's no such thing, brothers and sisters. There's no such thing as an accident. In the dictionary of the Holy Spirit. There is no term. Accident does not exist. Cancer, disease, car accidents, the death of a loved one, a broken back, paralysis, barrenness, mild, severe, physical disability, your child's bad attitude, their children's ungratefulness, after all, you did to raise them, to serve them, to minister to them, they're they're complete and utter rejection of you, every pain that you can think of, every pain you can conjure, every suffering that You've been through.
  
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  It's not an accident, and it's not the scourge of a cruel, unloving God. All things, all things, are the instruments in the hand of a loving Father who out of love for his son and concern for you, is slowly conforming you to the image of His Son.
  
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  The Great Sculptor Michelangelo said, in every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me. Shame. Shaped and perfect in attitude and action, I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the eyes as mine see it. That's Romans 828,
  
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  God is removing all the useless, superfluous marble in your life
  
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  to conform you to Christ, he is chiseling away at your immaturity, chiseling away at your weakness, chiseling away your greed, your love, my love for the world, my lust, my pride, chiseling away at our proclivity to trust in other people, to trust in our flesh, to love God when everything's going well, and to grumble and complain and maybe even hate God when it's not going the way that we want it to God's chisel is removing all of this from us, all that does not belong to the beauty and the glory of Christ.
  
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  Again, Michelangelo said the sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work, it's already there. I just have to chisel away the superfluous material,
  
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  brothers and sisters. This is what God's doing. This is our hope,
  
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  trials that hammer away at our character until Christ is singing. Temptations hammer away at our hearts until Christ comes forth. Suffering and sadness hammer away at our spirits until the joy of Christ shoots forth in the core of our being,
  
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  pain, suffering, disease,
  
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  and then that final blow, the chisel death
  
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  that will strike us
  
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  and bring about the perfect glory of Christ in our lives.
  
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  This is what God is doing for his children. This is what God is doing for those who love Him. We
  
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  need to understand that this truth, it offers immense hope, because I was talking to Dan, he was like, there, you know, in the church this size, there are 40 people on Sunday, maybe more, that are going through intense suffering.
  
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  There are people that are facing intense difficulties, and the magnitude of their pain, it's not fathomable. And we come on Sunday, we're all sitting here. We look fine. Everything's fine, and there is unimaginable grief taking place in another person's life. And I've been in the hospital. I've been in a room where there are men dying, and I've watched, I've seen, with my own eyes, the hopelessness of men facing eternity without Christ. And I've watched their families. I've watched the wife on the on the bed, just putting her head on her husband's stomach and just weeping, and there's nothing you can say to them, there's nothing you can do, there's no hope you can offer. Everything has been shut out. All the darkness has come in, and this woman has no hope. Why? Because she doesn't have Christ. But Paul says, but we don't. We don't grieve as those who have no hope. We don't look at the world and say there is no God. We don't look at everything that happens in our lives and say there's no purpose, there's no meaning, there's no intent, no there is because the love of God promises that all things work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And I would just remind you, brothers and sisters, that this this verse, it makes a mockery of Satan. This verse, it makes a mockery of satan because it promises that all of his attempts to thwart God, all of his attempts to derail you, to strike you down, to destroy you, everything that he uses to think that will crush you and destroy you, it ends up being used to produce greater faith, greater hope, Greater Christ, likeness. And it all backfires
  
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  and Satan, in his attempt to hurt you,
  
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  actually helps you.
  
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  God will bring about his glory, will bring about His plan and His purpose in your life. And
  
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  if you say to me, Marcus, I don't see it like I still don't get it, I understand. I'm not saying that this verse will just magically make the pain go away.
  
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  But if you need more proof, and just ask yourself, How has God brought about the greatest good from the greatest evil?
  
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  What is the greatest evil that's ever been committed? Is it the Holocaust is. Is the Harlem or in Ukraine? Is it? What happened in the detail? I lived for six years, and the Nazis came in, took 176 men, one by one, line them up for a barn, put a bullet in their heads, and took their wives and sent them to ravensbrook and took their children and sent them to gas chamber. Horrible things. Is that the greatest evil i is the greatest evil when Satan fell and brought millions of angels with him. Is the greatest evil when Adam and Eve sinned and brought an entire humanity
  
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  into the fall and under the wrath of God. What is the greatest evil and how out of it has come an immense fountain of good.
  
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  The greatest evil that it was ever committed, that could ever be committed, was the murderer of Jesus Christ.
  
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  For the scriptures say that he, the Son of God, came and lived amongst us, that the Creator became created, that one who made us in His image, took our image upon himself, and he lived perfectly according to the Father's will. He obeyed the Father. And every motive, every intent and every desire of his heart was only good continually that his heart was filled at all times with affection for the father, with love for the Father, with a desire to obey the Father. And this man, Peter says, By the pre determined plan and foreknowledge of God, was delivered over to the hands of godless men and crucified. And the scripture says by this that the greatest evil in the universe, the murder of the Son of God, was used to bring about the most infinite good in the universe, the salvation of your soul, that Jesus Christ loved us and gave himself up for us according to the Father's plan, that he might bring you to God, and he might conform you to himself, so that in a few hours, all of your sin and your corruption and your foulness and your fallenness, it will all be purged, and You will one day be perfect in holiness and righteousness and infinite, unendless, unquenchable joy, so that every single blow and pain and suffering in your trial is being used to bring about the good of making you and preparing you For
  
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  that joy, for that joy, for that glory.
  
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  All things for good is the core of the cross. All things for good is the heart of the gospel, brothers
  
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  and sisters, if you don't, if you don't grasp this, your pain and suffering will never make any sense. But if you do grasp this, in the midst of it,
  
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  in the midst of the tears, in the midst of the confusion, in the midst of a trial, you can say, Father, I know why you're doing this. I understand your aim. I understand your plan.
  
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  The spanking hurts. The discipline is very painful, but I know that you love me.
  
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  I know that you love me because you sent your only beloved son to bear my sin in his body upon the cross, so that I might be in your presence and stand before you holy and blameless and great joy for all paternity. And
  
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  that's why the last facet is so pertinent,
  
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  the conviction of the promise. The
  
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  conviction of the promise. What is, what does Paul say at the beginning? Doesn't say, I know.
  
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  What does he say?
  
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  He says we know.
  
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  We know.
  
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  And he doesn't just mean we know. It's in theology that we're able to pass a systematic theology exam. He means that we believe this
  
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  doctrine with all of our hearts.
  
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  This is what we cling to. This is what we stand upon when everything else is sinking sand,
  
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  so that when sorrow comes, we can say all things for good when the tears flow, that we could still say all things for good when the pain is excruciating, that we can still say all. All things for good. And when death approaches, whether your death or the death of another one, you can cling to their hands. You can say to them, we can use this truth to build one another up, not flippantly, not just walking up to someone, just flippantly, saying, hey, all things for good. Don't worry. It's gonna be okay, no. But with wisdom, with humility, with conviction
  
  40:21
  and hope, I could say, brother, sister, all things for God. This is our God. This is our promise. This is our gospel. God is using all things in your life to bring about good,
  
  40:44
  Heavenly Father, we pray that you would embed these truths upon our hearts and our minds.
  
  40:51
  And I pray once again for my brothers and sisters the suffering of watching others suffer with the sufferings of bearing up of their own trials.
  
  41:03
  I pray that God, you would imprint this truth upon their hearts and their minds and souls. They would stand vastly upon it, and that you would strengthen them, Lord, even as they seek to minister these truths to others, Lord, who are in the grip of pain and suffering, Help us, Lord, to believe that you are causing all things to work together for good, because you love us, because you've called us according to your purpose. Amen.

Marcus Denny

Marcus and his wife Amie were highly involved in ministry here at Faith before being sent down to The Master’s Seminary. During their time in Southern California Marcus completed his pastoral training in a small but growing church. The Dennys have been serving in the Czech Republic since 2009 where they continue to be used by the Lord to establish a healthy church in a highly atheistic country.

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