4 PENTECOST                                                          GLORIA DEI, ANCHORAGE

JUNE 11, 2005                                                            PASTOR SCOTT FULLER

ISAIAH 55:1-11;   PSALM 8;   2 COR 13:11-13;   MATT 28:16-20

Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word.  Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

DFIC, GTYAPFGOFATLJX. Amen

Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).

Suffering produces endurance…

Book entitled Holes by Louis (?) Sachar.  A young teen named Stanley Yelnats is convicted of stealing his basketball idol’s shoes that were to be auctioned off for a charity.  He is given the choice of prison or an extended stay at Camp Greenlake, which is funny name because it turns out there is no water anywhere near the camp. 

He is described in the book as kind of big and soft, a good kid who doesn’t have much drive.  What a welcome to the harsh world of reality.  Immediately off the bus, he is given a 5’ long shovel and the next day starts at dawn to dig a hole in the old lake bed 5’ deep and 5’ around.  And repeats the process every day for months.

What happens to a person’s body if they aren’t used to such work?  Bad blisters and sore muscles.

Then what happens when they get used to such work?  Get tough, strong, develop a sense of self-esteem.

Suffering produces endurance…

 and endurance produces character…

A woman that I know spent her early teens watching the Nazi regime in Germany persecute her Jewish relatives and neighbors.  She was sent to England, which proved to be a blessing because the rest of her family was then sent to a concentration camp.  Eventually she found her way to London where she worked in an aid station.  During one night of fun, the air raid alarms went off and sent she and her friend to a shelter.  They were instructed to cover themselves with sand bags, but they found them so heavy that they could only drag them across the floor.  With a gleam in her eye, she said that she and her friend looked at each other and started to laugh…even while the bombs fell they sat together and laughed.  She is a character and is a person of great character.

Suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope…

Isn’t it amazing how God is able to reach us in our pain and problems and instill within us a secure feeling of hope?  Look at the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, Mother Theresa – from the fires of controversy and conflict, persecution and poverty, each of these people was fed by God’s great and gracious feast of faith: a hope that has no end….

Suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character,

and character produces hope

and hope does not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us.

Tried by the fires of suffering, emerging from that pain with a sense of endurance, and strengthened with a sense of character,