1 00:00:06,316 --> 00:00:12,713 When I was a new Christian, 2 00:00:12,713 --> 00:00:15,581 I was suffering. 3 00:00:15,581 --> 00:00:18,387 You say, what were you suffering? 4 00:00:18,387 --> 00:00:20,786 I had a friend: Craig. 5 00:00:20,786 --> 00:00:23,054 Craig had a family. 6 00:00:23,054 --> 00:00:24,437 I had a friend: Rod. 7 00:00:24,437 --> 00:00:26,979 Rod had a family. 8 00:00:26,979 --> 00:00:29,630 We were pretty tight. 9 00:00:29,630 --> 00:00:32,844 I didn't have a family. 10 00:00:32,844 --> 00:00:34,561 I would see them with their families - 11 00:00:34,561 --> 00:00:36,315 with their wives, with their children. 12 00:00:36,315 --> 00:00:39,240 I would drive home alone. 13 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:44,315 Loneliness is a severe trial. 14 00:00:44,315 --> 00:00:48,031 You say, how were you helped? 15 00:00:48,031 --> 00:00:51,766 Jesus visited me in those years of my life 16 00:00:51,766 --> 00:00:54,538 in ways I don't experience now. 17 00:00:54,538 --> 00:00:57,498 Oh, I experience them, but not like I did then. 18 00:00:57,498 --> 00:01:00,843 He came to me. 19 00:01:00,843 --> 00:01:04,165 His presence was so sweet, 20 00:01:04,165 --> 00:01:08,523 it turned my darkness into light. 21 00:01:08,523 --> 00:01:11,286 My sister-in-law Mida... 22 00:01:11,286 --> 00:01:16,110 She was suffering cancer, going through chemotherapy. 23 00:01:16,110 --> 00:01:18,746 Bitter trial. 24 00:01:18,746 --> 00:01:23,099 She was on a two week rotation of chemo, 25 00:01:23,099 --> 00:01:32,551 and at that period where she would be most pressed 26 00:01:32,551 --> 00:01:35,866 by that chemo treatment, most weak 27 00:01:35,866 --> 00:01:37,641 most suffering... 28 00:01:37,641 --> 00:01:41,148 Jesus would come to her. 29 00:01:41,148 --> 00:01:45,416 And she actually wept when she was healed, 30 00:01:45,416 --> 00:01:49,588 because those seasons would not come anymore. 31 00:01:49,588 --> 00:01:51,706 Brethren, that's one of the ways He helps. 32 00:01:51,706 --> 00:01:54,511 He comes and He visits His people. 33 00:01:54,511 --> 00:01:56,165 I've told you this story before: 34 00:01:56,165 --> 00:01:59,041 Scottish Covenanters, 35 00:01:59,041 --> 00:02:04,991 one of these guys was so mutilated 36 00:02:04,991 --> 00:02:08,681 the Dragoons came in and they dealt 37 00:02:08,681 --> 00:02:11,170 like 8 mortal blows to him. 38 00:02:11,170 --> 00:02:12,819 They took his broken body 39 00:02:12,819 --> 00:02:15,336 and they just threw it on the dungeon floor. 40 00:02:15,336 --> 00:02:21,489 And as he laid there, his body broken, 41 00:02:21,489 --> 00:02:28,049 he said, "I don't know if I can withstand this any longer." 42 00:02:28,049 --> 00:02:31,185 And those bystanders thought he was talking 43 00:02:31,185 --> 00:02:32,701 about his wounds. 44 00:02:32,701 --> 00:02:35,939 He said, "the presence of Christ is so overwhelming 45 00:02:35,939 --> 00:02:38,151 to me right now, I don't know if I can 46 00:02:38,151 --> 00:02:41,278 handle anymore. 47 00:02:41,278 --> 00:02:46,802 Brethren, one of the ways that Christ helps us, 48 00:02:46,802 --> 00:02:50,166 is He visits us. 49 00:02:50,166 --> 00:02:52,679 The last thing you ever want to do 50 00:02:52,679 --> 00:02:54,518 in the midst of your suffering 51 00:02:54,518 --> 00:02:56,758 is turn away from your times in prayer 52 00:02:56,758 --> 00:02:58,563 and your times in the Word. 53 00:02:58,563 --> 00:03:01,696 Because that is so often right where He comes to us. 54 00:03:01,696 --> 00:03:04,328 It was in my seasons when I would go out 55 00:03:04,328 --> 00:03:05,781 in those early days, 56 00:03:05,781 --> 00:03:08,473 and loneliness felt at times like it would crush me, 57 00:03:08,473 --> 00:03:11,236 but I would go out in the fields and I would pray. 58 00:03:11,236 --> 00:03:12,936 And it was there praying - there were times 59 00:03:12,936 --> 00:03:15,086 when I would walk and I could feel 60 00:03:15,086 --> 00:03:17,072 His presence at my side. 61 00:03:17,072 --> 00:03:20,568 I could have reached over and touched Him. 62 00:03:20,568 --> 00:03:24,106 And brethren, there's times when He takes 63 00:03:24,106 --> 00:03:27,837 the pain of the suffering out. 64 00:03:27,837 --> 00:03:29,125 You may know this story, 65 00:03:29,125 --> 00:03:30,817 there was a time when Spurgeon 66 00:03:30,817 --> 00:03:32,793 was suffering the pain of gout, 67 00:03:32,793 --> 00:03:34,576 and it was so overwhelming, 68 00:03:34,576 --> 00:03:35,855 he had to ask the people in the room 69 00:03:35,855 --> 00:03:36,928 to leave. 70 00:03:36,928 --> 00:03:39,235 And he just cried out, you can almost hear it, 71 00:03:39,235 --> 00:03:42,931 almost like Jesus there out in the wilderness 72 00:03:42,931 --> 00:03:46,264 pleading with cries and tears, 73 00:03:46,264 --> 00:03:50,214 and Spurgeon there with crying and tears 74 00:03:50,214 --> 00:03:56,576 says, "please!" And God took the pain away. 75 00:03:56,576 --> 00:04:00,542 No doubt, not all of it. And not forever. 76 00:04:00,542 --> 00:04:04,312 But He took it away right there when asked.