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Part of the chapter I wanted to focus in was in verse 3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And the title of the sermon this morning is The Purpose of Pain. The Purpose of Pain. We see in the future, we see in the new heavens and the new earth, there will be a time where there is no pain. But now while we're on this earth, we experience pain, don't we? Everybody on this earth experiences pain virtually. And a lot of people, you know, atheists, they'll say they don't believe that God exists because pain exists. They'll say, well, you know, God is love, and God loved us. Why does He let there be pain? Why does He let there be suffering? And why does He let there be sorrow? And all these things that they say are negative. But the reality is, in the world that we live in today, pain is good. Pain is very needful, it's very necessary, and we're going to understand the purpose of pain for now. Obviously, we see in the future, there'll be a time where there is no pain. And that's actually very difficult, if you really think about all the ramifications of what that means, to really see what that would be like. But we know, according to the Bible, there's no more pain in the new heaven, the new earth. But while we're here, we have pain. We understand pain. And the Bible talks about pain all over it. Constantly it's talking about pain in lots of different areas. So go, if you would, to Proverbs chapter number 26. And the goal of this sermon is to understand that the purpose of pain is to avoid harm. I'm giving you the answer already. It's the teacher edition, where you just flip back to the back of the book. You say, what's the answer? The purpose of pain is to avoid harm. That's the whole purpose. You say, well, why do we not have it in the new Jerusalem? Well, I guess we're not needing to avoid any harm. But while you're on this earth, there's a lot of things that can harm you, a lot of things that are dangerous for you, and the whole reason you have pain is to avoid it. It's to not suffer more harm. Look at Proverbs 26 verse 9. As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. So he's saying, look, someone who was drunk, they might not even realize or experience pain and the way someone that is sober is. So they could let a thorn just go all the way into their hand. They don't even realize what's going on. They put their hand on something dangerous, and it'll literally pierce through their skin, cause them to start bleeding and suffering all kinds of harm to their body. They don't even realize it. So in this case, this guy needs some pain, doesn't he? He needs some more pain so that he can realize, I don't want to harm my body. I don't want to touch something that's going to be dangerous to my body. And my first point is, the first thing I wanted to talk about was just wounds. I mean, this is probably the most common thing you think of, of pain, just being wounded in some way, being hurt, being physically tormented in some way. Go to Isaiah chapter number 1. In Matthew 17, the Bible says, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and sorvexed, for oft times he falleth into the fire and oft into the water. So someone came unto Jesus Christ and he says, look, my son's a lunatic, cause he's casting himself into the fire, cause he's trying to drown himself. What? When you try to hurt yourself, it's looked at as being a lunatic. It's being an idiot. Why would you want to harm yourself? Why would you want to hurt yourself? This is why pain is good. And someone that was demon possessed, they're not in control. They're not letting the pain influence them. So they're able to just be cast into the fire. We see the guy that's drunk. He's not experiencing the same levels of pain. So he's able to harm himself with all kinds of different things. Look at Isaiah chapter 1 verse 4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger. They are gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? Will you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even under the head, there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Now there's a lot of this chapter, but basically he's saying spiritually, he's making a physical example to represent a spiritual application. When he looks at the children of Israel, he says y'all are like got tons of wounds and putrefying sores and bruises spiritually and why would I strike in you anymore? Why would I punish you anymore? It's not affecting your behavior. It's not causing you to decide this is harmful what you're doing and stop from doing it. So he says look, there's no point in even doing it anymore. But we see in verse 6, what is the cure for wounds, bruises and putrefying sores? Medicine, right? Close them up, to bound them up, to mollify them. Why? To reduce the amount of harm coming onto your body. If you're bleeding, you need to close it up. Why? So you don't bleed out, so you don't die. We see when you're bruised or you're harmed or you're hurt, we see ointments or certain things can be applied on the body to help them heal, to help them correct. Why? So you don't suffer more harm in the future. And basically this is the number one reason why people go to the doctor. Pain. Look, if you've never experienced pain, why would you ever go to the doctor? I mean, why do people walk into the emergency room? Because they're suffering a lot of pain. Because there's a lot of pain on them at that moment. We see, why do people go to the doctor for any reason? Hey, I've got this pain in my back. Hey, my stomach's hurting. Hey, my head's hurting. You walk into the doctor and say, what's hurting? I mean, this is just basically common sense, right? Why do people go to the doctor because of pain? And why are they there? So things don't get worse. So the pain doesn't cause something even more detrimental than is already happening. Go if you would to Proverbs 23, Proverbs chapter 23. We see in Revelation 16, it says, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. So when it, we look at the wrath of God, which we had studied earlier. The wrath of God is after the tribulation. It's after people have been raptured. So it's only those that have, you know, not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth at that time. They're suffering great wrath of God. And the Bible says, look, even though they have all these pains and sores, they're still not giving repentance under the Lord. They're still not trying to turn from their ways. But we see God is using this pain to try and draw them back, to try and wake them up, to try and say, look, you need to stop doing this. This is the whole purpose of what he was doing it. What to avoid harm. Jesus Christ said, they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Look, if you're not experiencing pain, if there's nothing wrong with you, why would you go to the doctor? That's another good question too, right? If you're not experiencing pain, why would you even go to the doctor? But people today, they like to turn pain off. They like to stop from experiencing pain. And this is in all kinds of ways and all kinds of areas. Here's a really common one. How about headache medicine? I mean, you basically, your head hurts, you have some type of, you know, pain in your frontal cortex or in your temples or whatever you're suffering. What do people like to do? They like to pop in some aspirin, pop in some Tylenol, pop in whatever. Here's my question though. Is it medication that they're popping in? No, they're basically just covering up whatever the problem that is happening. Why do people get headaches? A lot of times they get it because they're tired or because they're hungry or because they're thirsty or because they've been staring at a computer monitor or TV for like hours and then all of a sudden their head hurts. Now, you know what they should do? If you're tired, go to bed. If you're hungry, eat some food. If you're thirsty, take a drink of water. Hey, maybe you should stop staring at that screen for a few seconds. Maybe you should go out and, you know, look at some light. And obviously, you know, I work as a computer programmer so I can experience this. I need to take some breaks. I need to, you know, get up and move around just so I don't get headaches or whatever. Now, I'm not saying that taking headache medication is a sin. Don't hear me wrong. Okay. I'm just saying all it's doing is it's just masking whatever the problem is. You're experiencing pain because your body is telling you, hey, there's something harmful going on. I want you to stop it. Hey, you not sleeping? Stop it and go to sleep. That's what your body's trying to say. Hey, go to sleep. Hey, say, hey, you're hungry. Hey, you're starving yourself. Put some food in your belly. Hey, you're thirsty. Look, you can die if you don't drink water. People that, you know, live in a hot climate like Phoenix, sometimes they'll go out hiking and they don't bring enough water with them. They will literally die on the trail. They will die because they don't have enough water from heat exhaustion. So, your body giving you pain, it's looking out for you. It's warning you. It's saying, hey, wake up. What you're doing is bad. But if you take headache medication, now, I don't think headache medications never really work for me that great. It's never just like instantly the pain's gone or anything. But even for people that it does work pretty well, all you're doing is masking the problem. You know, in my truck, I've had the check engine light on for like five years at one point. Okay, it was just on. Basically, I had an O2 sensor that was just kind of broken. So, it was just there. Now, I could have just gone in my truck and just unplugged the wire. But here's the question, would that have solved the problem? No, I'm just masking the problem. This is what headache medication is like. Headache medication is not fixing anything. You're just saying, well, I'm tired of that sensor telling me that there's something wrong. So, I'll just unplug it. But here's the thing. There's damaging results from doing that because now all of a sudden you keep pushing yourself in a way that your body should not be pushed. Now, in some extreme examples or in some situations, you know, hey, I'm at work. I got to finish my shift. My head's pounding. I'm going to pop in some headache medication just to get through the day. And then when I get home, I'll take a rest. I'll fix whatever the problem is. Look, I'm not saying it's a sin to take headache medication, but we should realize what we're doing to our bodies. We should realize why our body's giving us pain and the pain is not a problem. The pain is good. It's telling you to wake up. Hey, there's something wrong. Something you're doing needs to be corrected. Something you're doing needs to be fixed. The Bayer, and some of these, like Bayer, which is aspirin, they actually have a lot of negative consequences of taking it, especially if you take a lot of it. They'll say on their advertisement, Bayer, take it for pain, take it for life. But here's the problem. If you take aspirin for life, it says you're very likely to get a stroke. You're very likely to have gastrointestinal problems. You're very likely to have allergic reactions. Look, these type of drugs that you just take constantly. Hey, I have to take headache medication every day. There's something wrong. That's not normal. That's something that you should be very weary of. Why are you constantly masking the pain that your body's telling you there's something wrong? So these type of things, in my opinion, should be taken at necessity, at just rare circumstances, at times you feel like I just really need this. This is just whatever. If this is something you just pop at every whim, why I feel a little bit of pain, I'll just pop some aspirin, just pop some headache medication. Look, this is not a healthy lifestyle. This is not a good thing to do. Not only this, people will have traumatic experiences where maybe they have a very severe pain. And what do they get prescribed? Oxycodone, hydrocodone, meperidine, morphine. These are some hard core drugs that can cause you to basically feel no pain. I mean, the headache medication, it kind of works a little bit, but when you start taking the morphine, you start taking oxycodone, these type of things are oxycontin, as people refer to it. These street drugs or these prescription drugs, as they were, they can cause you to feel no pain. And they'll cause all kinds of havoc on your body. Let's say someone breaks an arm or breaks a leg or they have some kind of severe burn or whatever, and they're experiencing, guess what, a lot of pain. But you know what your body's telling you, you know I'm giving you all this pain because you need to just lay down, because you need to just rest. You need to not be walking on it. You need to not be using that part of your body. That's why the pain exists. And when people start popping all these drugs and popping the oxycontin and whatever, then they start saying, I don't feel that bad. I'll just walk on it anyways. And it'll cause all kinds of damage to the leg. The leg won't heal properly. You'll have all kinds of issues. Not only that, then people get addicted to this junk. People get addicted to these type of pain medications. I found an article on WebMD. It says it's a widespread problem. In 2015, approximately 2 million Americans had substance abuse disorders related to opioid medications. Look, these people are running and walking and jumping and lifting on parts of their body that should not have this. And if they were experiencing the pain that's natural, they wouldn't do it. It's not even possible. It's not even an option. But because of these type of drugs being injected in their body, they're doing all kinds of weird stuff. And then there's even just druggies who just take these because they get a high off it. They think it's super cool. But then they're like the lunatic that's just casting himself in the fire or, you know, stabbing himself with the, you know, the thorn that's going into his hand. Look, pain is a good thing. Pain will protect you. What's the purpose of pain? To avoid harm. When you start messing with the ability of your body to experience pain, you're allowing yourself to be susceptible to all kinds of harm. Not only that, there's a disease called congenital insensitivity to pain. And you say, what did you just say? Well, congenital is basically like you're born with. If you think of the word con in Spanish, that means with. And then genital would be like your genes. It's like it's saying it's like with your genes. So it's saying you're like born with this. And sometimes it'll even use that word in an exaggerative sense. Just kind of being like it's like he's always been born with this or whatever. So it's congenital then insensitivity, meaning they can't feel pain. So sometimes somehow there's some damage in the person's body where they really can't even experience pain at all. Now, this is an extremely dangerous condition. I'll just read for you. It says congenital insensitivity to pain or known as SIP, also known as congenital analgesia, is one or more rare conditions in which a person cannot feel and has never felt physical pain. The conditions described here are separate from the HSAN group of disorders, which have more specific signs and costs because feeling physical pain is vital for survival. SIP is an extremely dangerous condition. It is common for people with a condition to die in childhood due to injuries or illnesses going unnoticed. Burn injuries are among the more common injuries. So he's saying, look, when somebody has this disease, they're most likely just going to die as a child. Why? Because if you never experience pain, what's going to stop you from doing anything? You know that pain that tells you when you're bending your arm in a way that it's going to break and snap? If you don't feel that, guess what? You're going to break and snap your arm a lot. If you don't feel that on your legs, you're going to break your legs. If you don't feel the pain of fire, hey, I'll just stick my hand in the fire to see what happens. Oh, it's melting. That's interesting. I mean, if you're not experiencing pain, this is a very dangerous situation. So in the world that we live in, we don't live in New Jerusalem. We don't live in the new heaven and the new earth. We need pain to help us be protected against danger. And these people that don't experience pain, they're very susceptible to all kinds of harm. Let's read Proverbs 23. Now, most people, this is really rare. This is something that's not very common. But people can manipulate their bodies to basically have a state where they can be like this. They can temporarily experience this no pain zone, as it were. It's just a paradise. I mean, I just wish there was no pain for anybody. It's just so great. Look at Proverbs 23, verse 29. Who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright, at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mass. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. We see a guy getting so drunk, so intoxicated with poison, that he can literally be beaten and doesn't feel it. He can literally, you know, just go lie out in the midst of the sea. Oh, that sounds like a good place to go lay down. Sounds like that lunatic, remember? The lunatic just going in the fire, constantly trying to drown himself. And look, people when they get drunk, they'll do all kinds of harm to their physical body. When they wake up in the morning, when they become sober, they say, oh wow, I'm experiencing pain. I don't know what happened. I don't know where that came from. I have all these bruises and wounds and all this pain and all this woe and all this suffering and sorrow. Guess what the response is? Oh, I'll go seek it again. So we see this is the danger of people that do this. It's like a perpetual cycle. Now that I'm experiencing all this pain, I guess I wanna just drink again so that I don't feel it. And then I get more pain. And then I just drink where I don't feel it. And then I get more pain. And then I just drink so I don't feel it. And it's this perpetual cycle where they're just gonna destroy themselves. They're just gonna destroy their lives. And this is what these prescription drugs are like. These oxycontin and these oxycodone and hydrocodone and morphine. Look, what do they want? They get addicted to this stuff. They love not experiencing the pain. They love not having the pain. They get addicted to these substances. The triggers in their brain say, I want that. I wanna not experience pain. And so they just fulfill that. And they're gonna destroy their lives. They're gonna destroy their bodies. This is very dangerous. Pain, what's the purpose of pain? To avoid harm. Now I think when we preach this first subject, most people are kinda like, I get it. Most people that are not just drug addicts. Most people that are not just derelicts or whatever, that aren't drunks. You probably got it. But as we keep going through, we'll see people stop applying this logic in other areas of their life. They just stop applying the purpose of pain. Go to Proverbs 22. Proverbs chapter 22. Now just as dangerous for a child to not experience that pain, to be born with congenital insensitivity to pain, would be for a parent to not apply pain themselves to their child. What are you talking about? Spanking. I'm talking about applying the rod of correction. Look at your Bible in Proverbs 22 verse 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. You say, what's the purpose of that pain? To help your children avoid harm. To avoid bad things in their life. Now let's focus on the first part of this verse. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. You say, well my kids, they sometimes scream. Every kid screams. And my kid sometimes throws a fit. My kids throw fits. My kids misbehave. My kids are brats. My kids do all the, you know, you say, what? The bad things that kids do? They all do it. Foolishness is bound in their heart. So you say, how am I gonna get it out? Time out. No. How am I gonna get it out? Reasoning with them. No. It's the rod of correction. But we see parents today, they don't wanna apply the biblical principles. They don't wanna apply what the Bible says about pain. And look, pain is gonna help them avoid dangers in their life. Let's get back to chapter 19. Look at chapter 19. Look, there's so much Bible on this topic. Look at chapter 19 verse 18. Chasing thy son while there is hope. And let not thy soul spare for his crying. He's saying, look, you have a chance when they're young. You have a chance as they're growing up to instruct them to get the foolishness out of their heart. But as they get older and older and older, it's much more difficult to influence them. It's much more difficult to instruct them in the right ways. You need to get that foolishness out as young as possible. As much as you can applying the rod. Go to chapter 13. Go back to chapter number 13. This is a famous scripture that usually gets misquoted. Proverbs 13 verse 24. He that spareth his rod spoils the child. No. Nope. He that spareth his rod hateth his son. But he that loveth him chasteth him the times. Look, when you see a parent that refuses to spank their child, it's because they don't love them. It's because they aren't loving towards their child because they don't want their child to suffer pain. Now look, when I go out and I see children throwing a fit and acting like a brat or whatever, I don't think, oh man, that kid is just such a horrible kid. You know, every kid does that. But you know, and I see the parent deciding not to apply the rod of correction in that situation, I think that's too bad. That's a shame. They had an opportunity to get some of that foolishness out of that child's heart and they decided not to do it. They decided, hey, this is a great opportunity to help my child be a better child and I'm just gonna forgo it. I'm just not gonna let it happen. Like I was at Chick-fil-A with my family and some parents brought their kids in. It was just a mom and her daughter. And the daughter wants to go play in the play place, right? And the mom wants her to eat first. Well, the kid just starts throwing a fit, okay? And look, my kids could do the same thing. Your kids could do the same thing. They wanna just go play. They don't understand why. But look, instead of the mom just dealing with the child, either applying the rod of correction or taking care of the situation, she starts to try and reason with the child. She starts getting down on her knees and saying, you know, we gotta eat first and then we'll go play and you know, please don't stop screaming and then they come sit down near us. The kid's still wailing, still screaming. Then she tries to give him food. The kid's throwing the food. She's not stopping to scream. I mean, the screaming's just constantly happening, okay? Then she tries to pick up the child and carry her and walk her around and she goes and looks at a book. This is like five minutes. I mean, this kid's just not stopping screaming, not stopping crying. Then eventually, she just lets the kid go into the play place. Then the kid stops crying. Then the kid stops screaming. You know what you just taught your child? If you kick and scream and yell, you will eventually be rewarded. You will eventually get what you want. This is why all these liberals and leftists, what do they do when they don't get what they want? They kick and scream and they say, ah, I don't like Trump. I don't like the, you know, Republicans. Ah, Christians are mean. Ah, I want money and the government help me. They act like a child and a brat and their parents didn't deal with them. So now they're wicked people. Now they're awful people. You say, I don't want my kid to be like that. Then get the rod out and discipline your child. Look, I only say that because I want you to love your child. I want your child to be a godly person. I want them to not suffer harm. You look at these liberals. You're like, these people are idiots. These people are morons. They're ruining their life. If you want your child to be like that, don't spank them. Reason with them. You know, and I went to the pediatrician and whenever our kids would, you know, not be perfect, they said, well, you know, instead of spanking them, why don't you reason with them? Reason with a two-year-old, reason with a three-year-old. Look, they don't understand what's going on. Now, I'm not saying that you don't talk to them. I'm not saying that you don't explain to them why they're being punished, but I'm saying if you expect a two-year-old to realize, hey, don't touch that and don't, you know, do that again, they're not gonna get it. They're gonna just keep doing the wrong thing. You know what they get? When you spank them on the rear, then they get the godly fear. Then they realize, hey, I'm not gonna do it. And as you keep instructing them, eventually the words will match that pain. Eventually the words will match that punishment and they'll figure it out. They'll get it. But if you wanna, you know, these pediatricians give horrible advice. You say, what do you think about pediatricians? Well, the Bible uses this phrase, physicians of no value. You say, look, why would I take a healthy, you know, godly baby to a doctor to have them influence me with all kinds of wicked advice, wicked counsel, try to stab them with poison. You say, do you take your kids to the pediatrician? Well, my Bible says they that be wholly not a physician. No, I don't. And I found it a waste of money, a waste of time. Now look, one time when we were in San Antonio, my little, my oldest, Clayton, he was hanging out with one of his family members and they were playing kind of rough and his elbow came out of socket and it was hurting. And so we went to the emergency, we went to like emergency clinic, just one of those normal clinics. You see them all over the place and the doctor help, you know, pop his arm back in. It's called nurse-made elbow. It's a very common thing that if you have a young child and you're just kind of swinging them by their arms, their arm can kind of pop out a little bit. Now, luckily, children are like rubber so they can just kind of pop back in or whatever. But obviously, look, I'm not saying if your child's experiencing pain, if they're having problems, don't seek medical advice, don't seek medical attention, don't try to get them help. I'm saying, why would I take my healthy, normal child to some doctor to get some ungodly, unbiblical advice? I'm not gonna do it. It doesn't make any sense. It's not what the Bible teaches. And you know, they'll teach you, well, do timeouts. You know, just, you know, take away their toy. But here's the problem with these type of, you know, advices. Here's the problem with these type of things. They're not biblical, first of all. And second of all is you don't have restoration of fellowship. You know, as soon as I discipline my child, as soon as I spank them, you know, guess what? Immediately, we're buddies again. Immediately, we're having fellowship again. And look, if this mom, whenever she was, you know, having this child scream and cry, I guarantee when she spanked that child, she wouldn't have been screaming more. There wasn't gonna be more screaming. And here's the thing, why do people not decide to spank their children? Because they don't want the kids to scream and yell, right? But if they're already screaming and yelling, why wouldn't you spank them? I mean, you're basically gonna end the problem quicker. You're gonna end the problem quicker. So in my house, if they're gonna scream and cry like they've been spanked, they're gonna get spanked. I mean, why not? And here's the thing, they'll learn that's a bad behavior. I shouldn't scream and yell to get what I want. And you say, well, I'm not like that. You know, my parents didn't spank me. Okay, so how is your marriage? When you're not having a good time, do you scream and yell at your spouse? Do you throw a fit? Do you act like a child? Look, there's so many adults today, they don't know how to behave themselves because they weren't properly disciplined as children. Because they didn't learn proper discipline. They didn't learn how to act like an adult. Go over to Hebrews chapter number 12. I'll read for you, it says, withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. The Bible says the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. It says, correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest, yea, he shall give thee delight unto thy soul. You look at these parents that are doing this to their children, the kids are screaming for five minutes, they're like, I could never have three kids. And look, I wouldn't want three of your hellions either. But here's the problem, you're not disciplining them properly. If you discipline your children properly, they'll give you rest. Eventually you'll get to a point where they're just delight. Now here's the thing, you're gonna have to get that foolishness out though, and it's gonna take a lot of effort and a lot of energy, and you're gonna say, well, you're not getting it. We just keep getting in trouble for the same things over and over and over and over. But guess what, if you are consistent, they'll get it. If you're consistent, they'll learn. If you're consistent, God's word works every single time. But if you don't apply these things, you're gonna leave a lot of foolishness in your child's heart. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 verse five. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward he yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So God gives us a great application in the New Testament. He says, look, just from the same way that a parent would literally spank, would chasten and scourge their son, the same way God wants to deal with us. Why? That we may be profited by. Look, God does this to us so that we better people, so that we'll avoid harm, we'll avoid danger in our lives. Why are you telling your kid, hey, don't go play in the street, and then you spank them when they do. Why? You're trying to help them not get killed, not lose their life. I'm not doing it because I'm just mean. Oh, you're just a mean parent. No, the mean parent just lets their kid play in the street with no recourse, or just tries to get their two-year-old and say, now honey, you don't want to play in the street because cars could come by. Look, your two-year-old's like, I like cars. Cars, I want to see the car. I want to go, but you know what? When you beat them on the bottom, they say, hey, if I go in the street again, I'm going to get beat. I don't want to go out there. They're not going to understand what you're saying. But if you keep saying it over and over, then when they're five and they see the car whizz by and it hits a dog, whoa, that could have been me. You know, they'll get it. They'll eventually get it. But don't think that reasoning with a two-year-old is going to fix the problem. No, the rod of correction is what the Bible prescribes. And we see with God, that's how he wants us to be. Why would God use this example if it's not what he wants? He's obviously what he wants. And he says, look, in verse 8, whereof all are partakers? You say, well, that's not for my child. It's not for, you know, our situation. No, it's for all. It's for every single situation. Now, go back to Proverbs. Go to Proverbs chapter 20. We see with Eli, with Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, he did not use physical punishment. He was just like, nay, my sons. And the Bible, when he talks about them, he says, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And you know what? They were sons of Belial. They went to the devil. They went, and they were, you know, the most wicked people. They made people not even want to worship the Lord. They're wicked false prophets. And look, when you don't punish your children, you're leaving them susceptible to go to hell. You're leaving them susceptible to all manner of wickedness and filth. You say, how could they go to hell? They've been raised in church. Look, if they realize that there's never any recourse for their actions, if they realize they're never going to be punished, it's hard for them to realize that God will punish them, that God has a punishment called hell. People that don't have any punishment, they're the worst type of people. Just take it to the bank. You say, this person's really wicked. I bet they weren't spanked that much as a kid. I bet they have no respect for cops and authority. I bet they weren't punished very much as a kid. Obviously, there's going to be exceptions to the rule. But generally speaking, the Bible gives us wisdom, and that's what the Bible teaches. Look at Proverbs 20, verse 30. The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil. So do stripes the inward parts of the belly. Now, here's the thing. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 25. The Bible just teaches that physical pain is actually a punishment for all. You say, I thought it was just for babies and toddlers and young children. Actually, according to the Bible, God prescribes physical punishment for all. It was always supposed to be a thing. It's always supposed to be a physical punishment, not just for children, but even for all people. This is God's punishment plan. So we've learned what? There's wounds. Wounds cause pain. Why? So you don't harm yourselves. We have pain as a child. Why? To instruct them, encourage them to not do bad behavior. Not only that, we have pain from punishment, which our society does not do. There's still countries in this world that actually do this, but our country pretty much for the most part does not do this. But they have in the past, and there's been plenty of times throughout history where this has been a punishment. But look at Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 1. If there be a controversy between men and they come unto judgment that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. And it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face according to his fault by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him and not exceed, lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee. So according to the Bible, a biblical punishment is to literally be beaten. And you say, why? Well, Proverbs told us in chapter 20 that the blueness of the wound would cause them to what? Depart from evil. If you know, hey, if I commit this sin, if I go out and steal, if I go lie on the job, if I go do something, I'm going to go out into the public square and literally get beaten, it's going to cause people not to do it. You know what? Today, if it's like, well, you just pay a fine or you might get fired or whatever, it doesn't cause people to not do it. It's not a deterrent. And you know, jail today is not a deterrent. Jail is a very small deterrent to many people, even though it's way worse. It's way worse than actually getting the physical punishment. And here's the thing. The physical punishment here is the same principle as children and the fact that after the punishment's been applied, immediate restoration. Immediate, you know, you can receive the person back. The person can still be a part of society. They can still go back to their family. They can still provide for their family. And look, jail just destroys people's lives. You know, people put their kids in time out. And then what's the adult version? Jail, prison, right? This ruins people's lives. People that are not guilty to just be in jail for a year or three years or whatever, they shouldn't deserve that type of a punishment. They should probably just be beaten. Non-violent crimes, crimes that are not, you know, a damage to society. They lied or they robbed something, you know, without physical threat. You know, they're just basically doing something wrong. These people should just be beaten and brought back into society. Now, the people that commit violent crimes, they should just be executed. You know what happens? Women are not left in these weird situations. Today, because of prison, women are left in horrible situations. Because look, if your husband comes back beaten, he can still go to the job on Monday. He can still go out and work. He can still provide. He's still there. Or the husband that's like a rapist or a murderer, guess what, he's put to death. And then after a year or so, the wife can move on. She can get remarried or she can, you know, find somebody else or she can move in with the dad. But these people that are put in jail for one year, five years, 10 years, 20 years, I mean, you're putting these women and these families in these really weird situations. They don't know what to do. And then years later, they're still suffering from the consequences of these situations. Look, if the rapist was just put to death, after a year or two, the wife can move on. The wife can find happiness. The wife and the family, you know, can finally, you know, have restoration. But you know what? When their husband's in jail for 50 years, they never get that real restoration. So what do they do? They get divorced and they try to find some other guy and they get divorced to him. And I mean, they just run this perpetual cycle of just damage and destruction to their life. Godly punishments are for a reason. And if you ask the people in jail, obviously not the ones that should be killed, but you know, just the normal ones, you ask them, would they rather just get beaten or be in jail for three years? They would all choose the beating, every single one of them. And you know, liberals today will say, oh, so you're so vile. You're so mean. You're so barbaric. Look, this is what God's Word teaches all the way through. So you know what that also tells me? There's not an age where my children become not susceptible to being chastened and scourged. If you're in my house, you're going to follow my rules or you're susceptible to this type of punishment. Now, obviously, if you're my wife, you're not. But I'm talking about my children. If you're one of my children, there's not an age where you graduate. Oh, now I get the time out. Now I get the, you know, the stuff taken away. No, you're always susceptible to God's punishment. He has this for men. Does he not? The Bible says in Proverbs 26 3, a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's bat. Why does the Bible give these type of punishments? So that people will avoid harm. So people will avoid these type of situations. It's actually a biblical deterrent. It's actually going to correct things in society. Now I did a little bit of research. There's 2.2 million adults and U.S. federal state prisons or county jails in America. Over 2 million people are incarcerated in this country. That's 655 out of 100,000. Now America is by and large the largest country as far as number of inmates. And especially if you go by percentage. In China, I think China was like a million. So it's about half of what America has. But China has three or four times as many people. So their incarceration rate is still a lot lower than that in America. And I was looking up, what are some of the penalties or the punishments that we have in America, okay? Well, if you commit the crime of carjacking. So you say, what's carjacking? It's where by legal force, like lethal force, you're literally taking a car from somebody. Somebody's in the car and by gun point or knife point or just physical threat, you basically get them out of the vehicle and then you take their car. Stealing their car while they're in it. I mean, this is a pretty bad thing. The minimum sentence is three years in prison. So the minimum penalty that you would receive if you're guilty of carjacking is three years and then it doesn't even have like a maximum. Now here's the thing. Kidnapping first degree with a firearm. Okay, so this is you're literally stealing a child from their parents or from their guardian or whoever's taking care of them with a weapon. I mean, this is basically the same thing as carjacking, right? I mean, except for instead of taking the car, you're literally taking their child. The minimum penalty is one year in prison. One year in prison is a maximum of 25 years. You're telling me that stealing their car in front of them is worse than stealing their child? This is the type of ridiculousness that we have in our society. Now look, if someone carjacks you, go take them to the pole and beat them 40 times, all right? That's what we could send. But if someone steals your child, put them to death. That's what the Bible says. Look, when you get out of God's will, when you start doing things that are not biblical, all kinds of wickedness abounds in this country. You're gonna tell me that's a deterrent. Oh, I might get one year in prison for stealing a child. First degree. I mean, this is like you're the main perpetrator. You're not just assisting them or abetting them or whatever, letting them stay with you. You're literally the guy that took them out of the arms. One year. What ridiculous. How about possession of an assault weapon? That's also one year. So just literally owning an assault weapon is the same in the government's eyes as literally stealing a child by force of threat of death. What in the world? Now our Second Amendment says that you're allowed to have a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. So according to our Constitution, each state is allowed to have their own military of militia. And you say, what's militia? It's just you and me getting together and being a part of a military. Now, can you imagine us having a military today without any assault weapons? I mean, you'd think of a military today, we could have tanks. I mean, we could have bazooka, a grenade. But these type of things are definitely not allowed. I mean, you get caught with one of these things, you're gonna be thrown in jail for several years. Look, our country's all backwards. You say it should not be infringed on. Guess what? It's already being infringed on. People are finally like, well, I want to really have a pistol. Look, you should be able to have all kinds of weapons. It's already been infringed on. We just keep getting oppressed and oppressed and oppressed. And you just believe the dialect. You say, oh, gay marriage. It's the big issue. No, they should be put to death. They move the border. They move the line so far off the left, you get fighting over something that's so trivial. Look, the right to bear arms, you should be able to have any kind of weapon according to the US Constitution. They've already infringed upon that right. And I believe everybody should have an arm. You need to give you a weapon. You need to be protected today. We live in perilous times. Go to Genesis chapter number three now. What's the point of the sermon? The purpose of pain is to avoid harm. And look, physical pain is good in this life. It's necessary. It's going to help you. And even for criminals, this is what should be prescribed, not being thrown and locked up in jail, especially when you're legal according to the Constitution. Hey, I own an assault rifle, but the Constitution said I should be able to. But now we're going to infringe upon that right and take it away and oppress you. But you get the same punishment as a kidnapper? Good night. What kind of world and society do we live in? We've got to get this Republican in office because he'll really help us. They don't even care about these issues. Here's another way that people like to ignore what the Bible teaches about pain. Look at Genesis chapter 3 verse 16. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. So according to the Bible, women, when they give birth, what happens? They experience something known as pain, pain. And some people say this, well, the fact that I experience pain is my curse for being a woman. That's not what the Bible teaches. Let's read this again. Under the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. Now here's the thing. Hopefully you didn't forget this in math class. If you multiply a number by 0, guess what the answer is? 0. 1 times 0, 0. 5 times 0, 0. 10 times 0, 0. So according to this, there was already sorrow. There was already going to be pain. But he's saying, look, I'm going to multiply it. So the intensity of that pain, you could say that that was part of the curse on the woman. Just like for a man, he had to go out and till the ground. He had to work by the sweat of his brow. Look, the ground wasn't just going to bring him the fruits, and you just pluck it real easy. According to this, women weren't going to just give childbirth real easy anymore with minor amounts of pain. It was going to be greatly multiplied. But the fact that you're given pain is still a good thing. Obviously, I'm not saying that I want women to suffer. Or have great pain. But if you look up the word pain in your Bible, this is the number one thing that it's talking about. The number one thing is childbirth. Go to Isaiah chapter 13. The Bible says in Psalms 48, verse 6, fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman and travail. The Bible warns you over, and over, and over. Hey, childbirth is painful. Guess what? There's pain in childbirth. Hey, guess what? There's going to be sorrow in childbirth. Hey, guess what? You're going to experience pain. Look at Isaiah 13, verse 8. And they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain as of a woman that travaileth. They shall be amazed one to another. Their faces shall be as flames. Skip to chapter 21. I'm going to kind of go fast through these. I want to look at a lot of them just to get them in your mind. Isaiah 21, look at verse 3. Therefore are my loins filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth. I was bowed down at the hearing of it. I was dismayed at the seeing of it. Look at chapter 26. Chapter 26, a couple forward. Look at verse 17. Like as a woman with child that draweth near to the time of her delivery is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs. So have we been in thy sight, O Lord. You know, some nurses will be like, don't scream, honey. You know, you can keep it down. Look, the Bible says you're going to be screaming. There's going to be some noise happening. Look at verse 18. We have been with child. We have been in pain. We have, as it were, brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth. Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Go to Jeremiah now. Go to Jeremiah chapter number 6. So what do we see? Hey, women that are in travail, pain. When women, it's time for them to deliver, they're in pain. We see, hey, what did God say? Whenever you're going to give birth, it's going to be greatly multiplied your sorrow. Look at Jeremiah 6, verse 24. We have heard the fame thereof. Our hands waxed feeble. Anguish hath taken hold on us. And pain as of a woman in travail. Skip to chapter 22 now. Chapter number 22. You say, why are you reading all these? Because I don't want you to get confused. You say, preach the Bible. Well, how much Bible do you want? How many times do you want me to show you what the Bible says about pain? Look at Jeremiah 22, verse 23. O, inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail. Now, I'm not going to have you turn in the other place. I'll read a couple, but go if you would to Psalms 38. Psalms 38 will be the next place you turn. In Micah chapter 4, the Bible says, be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail. The Bible says in Revelation 12, verse 2, and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pain to be delivered. Now, here's the thing. Why are women experiencing so much pain? Well, part of it draws back to Genesis chapter 3. Obviously, that's what the Bible teaches. But the pain is good. Why? Because it's drawing all of your attention. A woman that's about to give birth, guess what? She can't have divided attention. She's not going to be distracted and doing anything else. Why? Her body is telling her something important's happening. You need to pay attention. Hey, don't go do something else real quick. Don't go try to jog. Don't go in a dangerous situation. Something very serious and major is about to happen. Your body's telling you, hey, you need to wake up. You need to pay attention. You need to be prepared. That's why you're experiencing a lot of this pain. But what do people do? They're trying to eliminate their pain, right? They get drugs. They get headache medication. Not only that, they decide to do timeouts for their children. Not only that, we try to do jail for real punishments. But what do people do with this? They get, what, epidurals, don't they? They try to escape this pain by getting an epidural. Now, I'll read for you some articles, some information, because I want you to be informed this morning. The Bible says from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, it says more than 60% of women in labor use an epidural. So this is something that affects a lot of women. I mean, it's saying more than half of women decide to choose to get an epidural. It's a spinal or combined spinal epidural anesthesia for labor. Now, I went to another article and just tried to see, what are some of the risks of epidural? Now, when it comes to getting an epidural, you say, what's an epidural? It's where they literally put a catheter in the back of your spine and apply drugs to cause you to feel no pain at the lower part of your body. Basically, you become completely numb at the same time, where you can't feel anything. Now, in this study, it says that the risk of permanent injury is about 1 in 23 to 50,000. So some people say it's relatively safe. They say only about 23 to 50,000 chance that you'll literally be paralyzed for the rest of your life. And if you look up articles, there are women that have literally been paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of their life because of an epidural. So that is a reality. But I'm just trying to give you the facts. According to this, it's 1 in 23 to 50,000 chance that that would happen. Now, what are some of the other risks, though? Is that the only risk? No. Here's some other risks. It says back pain and soreness. Well, that should be obvious. The needle that they stab in the back is huge. It's major. It's hard to look at. You can get headaches. You can have persistent bleeding from your puncture site in your back. You can have fever. You can have breathing difficulties. You can have a drop in blood pressure, which can slow the baby's heart rate. But not only that, it also says the fact that mothers can't feel all of the elements of delivery with an epidural can also lead to a host of other problems, such as increased risk of tearing during vaginal delivery. You say, why am I experiencing pain? Because your body's trying to perform an operation. Your body's trying to perform something. And when you can't feel that pain, you can't respond in the right way. The drunk, he can't feel that thorn going through his hand. The child, whenever he's not getting spanked, he doesn't understand the instructions of his parents. The guy going to jail, he doesn't understand it. Look, the pain is helping them, and it's putting limits on their life. So the woman that's getting this drug put in her body, she can't feel. Well, she doesn't know how to push. She doesn't know how much force to apply. She doesn't know when to push. She doesn't know a lot of these things. So she's just guessing. She's guessing with the nurse's help or the doctor's help. And look, if you don't feel any pain, you can push yourself the limits that you shouldn't be put in. Not only that, your body's trying to help you naturally do this. And when you just take away all that natural ability, well, now you're just guessing. Now you're just trying to figure out what's happening. Now, if you ask me and my situation, me and my wife, we had an epidural with our first child, and we did not with the subsequent ones. So I have experience of literally doing this and literally not. Now, here's the thing. My wife, when she had her first child and she was going into labor through induction, which is another topic to talk about, but I'm just focusing on this pain part. When she was going into labor and she was going to have the child, she literally was crowning with our first-born child. And the doctor was not there, so they decided to hold off. Because if the doctor is not there, the doctor will not get paid. The doctor will lose all the money that you've paid them upfront. They'll have to refund you all the money. So the nurses were terrified to let the baby be born until the doctor came. So they had to call the doctor. We had to wait 30 more minutes. Now, look, the baby in delivery is not in the same location. It's actually somewhere. Then it starts to go through the canal. And look, when it's in the canal, it shouldn't just stay there. It's a smaller part of the body. But look, our first-born was in the canal for over 30 minutes, when it would have literally taken like 30 seconds more for him to be delivered. Like, I'm not joking. He was there. Now, I'm a brand new father. I've been instructed zero. I know nothing. I'm ignorant. And look, that's not a good way to go into any situation, especially childbirth. If I had known what was going on, I'd be like, let's bring that child out. I just saw it. I literally saw the majority of my child's head. He was crowning, let's bring that baby out, instead of letting my wife just stay in this condition. But she had an epidural. Here's the thing. If she had not had an epidural, that wouldn't even be possible. Her body would have literally forced the child to be delivered. She would have just been forced to push. She would have been forced to deliver the child. So then she just left in the situation. And look, there was ramifications and suffering that came from that result. So look, I'm just trying to teach you my personal opinion, my personal experiences, and we're trying to apply biblical principles. Look, does the Bible spell everything out about epidurals and headache medication and pain killers and all these things? No, you have to use biblical logic and biblical wisdom to apply it in your life. But what's the purpose of pain? To avoid harm. And look, when you remove the ability to feel physical pain, you're susceptible to all kinds of harm. So you say, are you going to get an epidural for your wife again? Not if it's a normal pregnancy. Now look, sometimes people are put in surgery or put in some kind of extreme example where they're going to be cut open and all kinds of stuff and they get drugs. Look, again, is an epidural a sin? No. Let's keep sin what the Bible says as a transgression of the law. Show me where it says, thou shalt not have epidural. But at the same time, we can use God's wisdom and logic to make good decisions for our body to understand why we experience pain, why we have pain. Here's some other complications I read. You a lot of times need Pitocin. What's Pitocin? It's a drug that will induce women. It will put them in labor because they need this drug so that they'll be pushing more or their body will be pushing more because their body's not doing what it naturally needs to do. Sometimes they'll need forceps or vacuum extraction. This is the same kind of tools they use in abortions. You say, I really want that. Well, use an epidural. You can have an episiotomy. Now, I'm not going to explain what that is. You don't want this. You don't want an episiotomy. Need more time for pushing than you would otherwise. They admit, hey, you probably need more time pushing. Why? Because your body's not naturally doing what it's supposed to be doing. You're not experiencing that great pain and your body's telling you, push, push. You need to push right now. But it's also giving you some time to say, oh, stop pushing for a minute. Take a breath. Take a relief. Don't push past this point. This is what your body's doing for you. It increases the length of the second stage because your muscles are less able to help rotate your baby and to preferred positions for childbirth. Not only that, it says the epidural will most likely have great effect on your ability to push. It says most likely complication being a lengthier pushing phase. Many women gladly trade a few extra minutes of labor with the pain relief provided by the epidural for the alternative. If you're planning to have an epidural, talk to your doctor and do a little about how you want to handle the pushing phase of labor. Now here's the thing. When it comes to childbirth, every situation is different. Every single woman's different. Every single event's different. But I'm saying childbirth is not a wound. Childbirth is natural. Childbirth is normal. I'm not going to use some advent to escape the pain when the pain is actually good. Look, you say I don't want to experience that pain. Well, you know what? There's other consequences that you can receive from trying to escape that type of pain, to trying to escape what the Bible's teaching. Go to John chapter 16. I had to go to Psalms 38. Keep your finger there and go to John chapter 16. There's a lot more in my notes. I don't know that I'm going to get to all of it this morning. John chapter number 16. There is some good news, ladies. You say I want to escape this pain, this great suffering, this great agony, this great torment. Look at John chapter 16, verse 21. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow because her hour has come. Look, I'm just going to be honest, it's painful. It's something that's not something that you're going to enjoy, necessarily. But it says, look, but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. So the Bible says, look, as soon as that baby is delivered, you're not even going to remember that pain. You're not even remember that sorrow. And look, there is all kinds of pain, and suffering, and sorrow that I can remember my wife experiencing. And then when I talked to her about it, she forgot. She doesn't even remember. In the moment, she's screaming, and yelling, and the whole world's falling down. But as soon as it's over, as soon as she now has some rational thoughts, as soon as the hormones are not just firing like firecrackers, she can actually have some sobering thoughts, now it will be OK. And here's the thing, there is a lot of pain. So if you don't make the decision beforehand when you're sober, a lot of times people make bad decisions in the moment of pain. When they have the pain, they're like, no, I want to get the pain relief. Look, the Bible says if you want the pain relief, deliver the child. When the child comes out, now you won't suffer any of that pain anymore. Go back to Psalms 38. Look, it's joy when you have that child. It's a relief, it's exciting. And you know what? There's been children that my wife's delivered in like 10 minutes. It wasn't even that bad. So you say, well, man, I've heard these horror stories. I've heard these stories where women are in labor for hours and years and months. Look, it's not years. Eventually the child comes out. But you hear all these horror stories. Look, there's also good stories. My wife, with the second and third one, had super easy deliveries, very minimal pain, very quick deliveries. So just as many horror stories, there's plenty of good stories too. I just pray for the women in this church, and my wife, whenever they give delivery, that it'll be easy, that they'll have strength, that it'll be quick. But you don't ever know what the situation is going to be. Not only that, look at Psalms 38, verse 1. O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest of my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Now, for sake of time, I'm not going to spend too much time. What's another way that we experience pain? Sin. Sin will cause pain in your life. And he's liking it unto a wound, saying, when you actually love God, when you actually want to do that which is godly, when you actually care what the Bible says, and you sin, it can cause a lot of pain. It can cause a lot of suffering. And what? That's good. Why? Because it's helping you not want to do it again. It's helping you avoid more danger in your life. When you feel that consequence of the sin, when you feel that pain and sorrow, oh, man, I've been doing something wrong. That pain can come into your heart and can help fix your heart. Go to Lamentations chapter number three. Lamentations chapter number three. Not only that, you can feel sorrow. The Bible says, he that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow. And the father of a fool hath no joy. The Bible says in Samuel chapter 22, the sorrows of hell compassed me about. The snares of death prevented me. First Thessalonians chapter four says, but I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if ye believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. So here's the thing. We're going to have sorrow in this world. We're going to have mourning. We're going to have suffering. And these things can be good. And we need to realize that we should get our relief from God's word. We should get our relief from the joy of the Lord. We should get our relief from his mercies, from his grace. Look at Lamentations 3 verse 14. I was indrigened all my people in their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes. This guy's not having a good day. His teeth are broken with gravel stones. I mean, look, he's obviously being exaggerative. He's using these type of language to describe great sorrow. And there are going to be times in your life where you experience great sorrow, great mourning. But let's keep reading. Look at verse 21. This I recall to my mind. Therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sit it alone and keep a silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust. If so be, there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach, for the Lord will not cast off forever. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. So the Bible's saying, look, you're going to suffer. You're going to have punishment. You're going to have chastisement of the Lord. You're going to have all these things. But look, his mercies are new every morning. Every morning, you know, I get on my knees and I beg and plead that he would forget all of my transgressions, all of the wickedness that I've done in my past. He has new mercies every morning. So I'm going to pray and ask that I can receive those. I can pray and ask for those from the Lord. And look, whatever sorrow you have, seek that from the Lord. Don't go to the hydrocodone. Don't go to the drugs. Don't go to the alcohol. Don't go to the things of this world. They're saying, hey, we'll give you relief. We'll give you, you know, relief from your pain. No, we get our relief from the joy of the Lord. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter seven. We're almost finished. Ecclesiastes chapter number seven. Look, pain is a good thing because it can build character. Someone that's never experienced pain is going to have no character. Look, just research the founder of Buddhism. This guy was raised to not experience any pain or sorrow or suffering. He's the most wicked person ever. He creates such a demonic religion. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter seven verse one. A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter for by the sadness of the countenance, the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. So you know what I think about? I just think about, well, you could be at Joel Osteen's church singing the song of fools just up there having a great old time or you could come hear some Bible preaching and you say, well, man, it makes me have a little bit of pain, has me having a little bit of sorrow. I feel a little bit bad about my sin. Well, you know what? You're going to be wise in the eyes of the Lord when you hearken under the instruction of God's word. Look, pain will only make you a better person. Pain will only give you more character. Pain will only build you and edify you. Look, I've seen parents, they lose a child. This is a horrible thing. This is an awful thing. And you know what? They should be suffering and mourning for a while. Don't, hey, give them some depression drugs. No, if you lose a child, you should be mourning and sorrowful and cry and scream and be angry. These are all natural emotions. Let them be that way for a while but eventually get your joy back from the Lord, get your joy from his promises, get your joy in his hope. And look, this will make you a better person. Now this person has greater empathy. Now this person probably appreciates their children more than they did before. The other children they may have or the children they may get in the future. I'm not saying, look, I can't love my children with all my heart, but the Bible talks about the woman that had committed more sins than the, you know the parable I'm talking about. The publicans or whatever, they say they hadn't sinned as much. And he's like, who loved greater? And it's the woman that had sinned more. So the person that experienced more pain, look, they have a greater depth to their character. They have a greater depth to their empathy. People that have suffered in all kinds of ways in life, you have more ability to help other people. Look, you can use that for good. You can use that to help the next family that loses a child. And look, if you have lots of children, if you're in a church where people are having lots of children, eventually some of those children, something bad might happen to them. And God forbid, I hope that it doesn't happen to anybody. I hope you never have to suffer that. I hope that never happens to us, but it's a reality. And the reality is that the people that go through those type of things, they have a chance to build their character. Now you could downward spiral. You could decide to go back to drugs and alcohol in the world, but those that go to seek the comfort from the Lord, they learn how to deal with these tough situations from these type of traumas. The Bible says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Last place I'll have you turn is James chapter five. James chapter five. Not only that, the Bible says in Romans five, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith and his grace wherein we stand, and rejoice and hope with the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. The Bible says, look, when you go through suffering, when you go through tribulation, what it can build in you is it can build patience. You learn to be a more patient person when you go through suffering, when you go through hard times. Not only that, that patience will give you experience. Not only that, when you have all that experience, you realize things can get better, and it gives you that hope. So then the next time you have that suffering, the next time you experience those tribulations, you say, well, I know what, it's gonna get better eventually. I know eventually, and this is what I think about child rearing. You go through these stages of raising your child, or it's just a lot of tribulation, and you get a lot of patience, and you get a lot of experience, and then you realize, hey, eventually it got better. And then you get into the new cycle. You know, you get into the next cycle. First, you just want them to sleep, you know? And then once they sleep, you know, then you just want the diapers to not be as, you know, rampant as they are. And then, you know, I mean, you have all these type of things that you're constantly going through all these different phases. Then they start, you know, talking. It's really exciting. But then they start talking back, and you're like, okay, well, you know, then they won't stop asking questions, you know? Then, you know, you have all these type of things. They say, I love you, but now all of a sudden, they're really just, you know, they say something mean to you. They say something disrespectful. Look, you gotta train them. There's all these different stages. You're constantly learning these things, and when you go through suffering, when you go through tribulation, it'll make you a better person. Look at James chapter five, verse eight. Last place we'll look. But be ye also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another. Brethren, lest ye be condemned, behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. Not only will you get patience, you get endurance. Those that have suffered pain learn how to endure pain better. They learn how to endure afflictions better. They learn how to endure suffering better. Look, if you had a lot of kids, you learn how to endure childbirth a lot more than the person that's never gone through it, the person that doesn't have any experience doing it. And this is how life is. Pain has a purpose. What is that purpose? To avoid harm. Look, there's a lot of ways that you can be harmed in your life today, and some people wanna say, well, pain's just bad. Let's just get rid of pain. How many, they're getting a headache medication, they're getting the drugs, they don't wanna, you know, spank their children. Look, not spanking your children is gonna bring a lot of harm in your life, a lot of harm to the child. Look, the Bible, the number one thing of pain in the Bible, childbirth. You say, why'd you bring it up? Well, it's the number one thing in the Bible. It's the number one verse on pain is childbirth. And look, there's, you know, I wish that someone had instructed me. I wish someone had given me their opinion, their knowledge, their information. Now look, you say, I don't agree with your opinion. That's fine. You know, you don't have to agree with my personal opinion. You don't have to do what I do. You can go do whatever you want. But at the end of the day, I'm just trying to help you with what the Bible teaches, and the purpose of pain is to avoid harm. And if you reject that, if you decide, I don't want to experience any pain, I want to press a button and feel no pain, you're going to be a horrible person. You're going to experience a lot of pain. You can't do that. The only way to experience pain, to not experience pain, is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then enter into the new heaven and the new earth. That's where there'll be no more pain. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you so much for your instruction. Thank you for giving us pain that we could protect ourselves from other dangers, from other evils, from other bad things that could happen to us, physically, mentally, spiritually, in every area of our life. I pray that we would not seek to avoid pain, but rather we would embrace the pain that you've been given unto us, the pain that you gave us for a reason, that we'd realize this can give us what? Patience. It can give us endurance. It can help us give experience and hope. I just pray that everyone in this room would embrace the pain that you've ordained for them. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.