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™ For millions of believers around the world, faith in Christ and belief in the teachings of the Bible are not only discouraged but actually dangerous. KNOW HIS PERSECUTED. KNOW HIS WORD. Periodically, Secret Church gatherings are held to engage in an intense six-hour Bible study as we identify with and pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the globe. The objective of Secret Church is for you to pass along what you learn in these gatherings to others so that you can make disciples of Christ in all nations for God’s glory. secretchurch.org - 1 - Beyond These Walls Secret Church Resources We’re glad you’ve decided to attend tonight’s Secret Church meeting. But even if PAST SECRET CHURCH RESOURCES no one showed up, it would still be worth the effort. Actually, this Bible study will hopefully benefit far more people than just those who were in attendance. Past Secret Church resources (DVDs, CDs, and Study Guides) are available for purchase at The Church at Brook Hills and online at Radical (Radical.net). Here’s how. Tonight we will record the teaching sessions, and in the coming months these sessions will be transcribed and translated into many different languages, including Spanish, ONLINE RESOURCES Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, and others. The foreign-language versions of Secret Church will be available online as translations are completed. But that is just the beginning. Secret Church resources, including audio and video recordings of the teaching sessions, downloadable study guides, and links to additional information about the Most Christ-followers around the world don’t have access to seminaries or Bible persecuted church are available on the Secret Church website (SecretChurch.org) colleges. In fact, Christ-followers in many parts of the world have no formal Christian and through the Radical website (Radical.net). teaching at all. Pastor David will lead additional Secret Church studies, creating numerous hours of Bible teaching on various biblical and theological issues. We will then be able to distribute those resources worldwide. The sessions together TRANSLATED RESOURCES will compose a portable seminary, so to speak, with minicourses in biblical training accessible to anyone. Secret Church resources and other message series have been translated into multiple languages. Audio recordings, transcripts, and study guides can be downloaded from the During the evening we will collect an offering. All of the proceeds will support Radical website in the Resource Library (Radical.net). Current languages include Arabic, persecuted Christians worldwide through ongoing ministry initiatives and provide Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian, Russian, Farsi, French, Vietnamese, Thai, and Secret Church Bible teaching materials in multiple languages. Imagine a house- Amharic. New resources and languages are continually being added to the website. church leader in Asia or the Middle East now able to hear hours of Bible teaching as he listens to Secret Church in his own language. With your help, this can become a reality. BOOKS BY DAVID PLATT If you would like to make a donation to Secret Church or would like any of the Secret Church resources in another language, go to Radical.net. David Platt is the author of two books: Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream and Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God. These books are available online at Radical (Radical.net). If you would like additional information about the books, visit RadicalTheBook.com and RadicalTogether.com. All proceeds from book sales go toward promoting the glory of Christ in all nations. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Additional resources such as sermons, Small Group Guides, Family Worship Guides, and more are available on the Radical website (Radical.net). - 2 - - 3 - THE CROSS AND SUFFERING Program Notes Secret Church “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you TONIGHT’S SCHEDULE ‘Violence!’ and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. 5:00 p.m. Simulcast Begins For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.” Habakkuk 1:2-4 6:00 p.m. Announcements 6:05 p.m. Welcome from Pastor David “The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge 6:10 p.m. Musical Worship to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation.” 6:30 p.m. Teaching Segment 1 John Stott 7:30 p.m. Break The World Around Us ... 7:45 p.m. Teaching Segment 2 • Suffering is a global reality. 8:45 p.m. Persecuted Church Highlight: Horn of Africa ❍ We live in a world full of natural evil. 8:50 p.m. Prayer for the Persecuted Church ■ Diseases • Almost 50,000 people contracted HIV last week; approximately 9:10 p.m. Break 40,000 others died of AIDS in that same week. • In the next year, over 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with 9:25 p.m. Teaching Segment 3 cancer; over 500,000 people will die of cancer. Based on current 10:25 p.m. Giving Report/Offering trends, almost 50 percent of men and women born today will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetimes. 10:35 p.m. Break ■ Disasters • Hundreds of thousands of people died instantly in recent 10:50 p.m. Teaching Segment 4 earthquakes in Haiti and China, in a cyclone in Myanmar, 11:50 p.m. Musical Worship and in a tsunami in Southeast Asia. 11:55 p.m. Simulcast Concludes • Over 13 million people are currently suffering amid famine and food shortages in the Horn of Africa; hundreds of thousands are on the brink of starvation. (Times are approximate, and the schedule is subject to change.) ■ Death • Approximately 25,000 children under the age of 5 die every day due to poverty. That’s over 9 million children every year who die because Pastor David will be teaching tonight from the English Standard Version (ESV). of poverty. Almost 40 percent of those children die during the first Scriptures and references are included in the Study Guide. month of their lives. • Over 150,000 people die every day in the world. That’s So as not to distract from the study, please turn all cell phones to the “silent” or “off ” over 60 million people who will die this year. mode during our time together. “One hundred [people] are dying each minute. If you could hear them all, you’d hear so many screams you’d go insane. Only God can hear them all and not go insane. God parcels out our awareness in small amounts lest we go under. How can you live in a world like that as a loving person and rejoice in the Lord?” John Piper - 4 - - 5 - ❍ We live in a world full of moral evil. ■ Dualism: Good and evil are two forces, equal in power and opposite ■ Slavery and abortion . in purpose. ■ Beatings and murders. ■ Fatalism: Blind fate determines the depth of evil in our lives and in the ■ Robberies and riots. world. ■ Torture and rape. ■ Process Theism: God’s power is always evolving; He is limited ■ Discrimination and persecution . in His ability to prevent evil. ■ War and terrorism. ■ Violence and genocide. “It is too difficult even for God to keep cruelty and chaos ■ Suffering is a universal experience. from claiming their innocent victims.” ❍ All people experience suffering. Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People ❍ All Christians undergo suffering. ■ Satan intends every type of suffering to sabotage us. ■ Open Theism: God’s knowledge is always increasing; because ■ God intends every type of suffering to sanctify us. He has limited information, He sometimes makes errors in judgment. • Suffering is a personal struggle. ❍ Physical pain. “Decisions not yet made do not exist anywhere to be known even by God. They ❍ Emotional hurt. are potential—yet to be realized but not yet actual. God can predict a great deal ❍ Intellectual questions ... of what we will choose to do, but not all of it, because some of it remains hidden in ■ Why do evil and suffering exist? the mystery of human freedom. …The God of the Bible displays an openness to the ■ Where is God in the middle of suffering? future that the traditional view of omniscience simply cannot accommodate.” ■ How can I suffer well? Clark Pinnock ■ When will my suffering end? ■ How can God be good and allow so much evil in the world? ❍ Intense longing ... ■ How can God be gracious and ordain such suffering in my life? ■ We don’t want thoughts from men. ❍ Insufficient answers ... ■ We want truth from God. ■ Atheism: God and evil do NOT exist. The Word Before Us ... “None can account for the tremendous amount of suffering in a world in which an allegedly omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good God reigns... The conclusion to • The Bible addresses suffering honestly. which we are drawn, therefore, is that the existence of such a God is implausible.” Andrew Weisberger Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD—how long? “Not many years ago when I was an atheist, if anyone had asked me, ‘Why do you not Psalm 6:2-3 believe in God?’ my reply would have run something like this: ‘Look at the universe we live in.’ … History is largely a record of crime, war, disease, and terror. … But all civilizations How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? pass away and, even while they remain, inflict peculiar sufferings of their own.
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