The whole creation is in slavery to this.

Don't feel picked on.

Got a bad knee?

Got a bad brain?

Got a dying spouse?

Please, what this text is designed to do is take away from you a burden you don't

have to carry, namely, what's wrong with me? Why me? It's the why me question that's being

removed by this text. This is a new series on Light and Truth titled Hope in a World of Sorrows.

If suffering is inevitable, what does it reveal about life's meaning?

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper opens Romans 8, 18 to 23 to show how our suffering

relates to our God-given hope. This sermon was originally delivered at Bethlehem Baptist Church

on April 28, 2002.

There's a lot of people, some in this room, I'm sure, who have tasted enough of suffering to be tempted to say, if that's the payoff for being a child of God, I'm out of here.

You expected more.

It was supposed to get better.

When you believed, this paragraph is in the Bible so that you won't say that it's in the Bible to help you get ready to

suffer because if you haven't suffered much and many in this room haven't suffered much some have

much but you will you will you must will. You must.

And this paragraph is in the Bible as a mercy to you to help you get ready so that when it comes, you won't say, I'm out of here.

If that's the way the children get treated, then I'm just finished with it all.

I'll find another father.

I'll find another treasure that treats me better.

...