The Problem of Suffering

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Scripture Reading by Lady Pepper (Show Slide)

(Show Slide) Thank you Lady Pepper for the announcements and the reading of God’s Word.

Let’s all get on one accord and Stop what you doing and hear the “Word of God”

My Message is entitled:

The Problem of Suffering

My Text:

Job 1:20–21 NKJV

20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Scripture Reading: Job 1:1-22

Introduction

In December 1958 a play opened on Broadway that had only two letters for a title—J.B.

The play had several handicaps to overcome.

First, the newspapers were on strike, and not a single notice was printed of its appearance.

Second, it did not have any of the elements that seem to make a play successful—comedy, romance, music, dancing, and sex.

Third, the play was written in verse and dealt with a biblical theme. Nonetheless, every performance of J.B. was sold out.

Why did people take such an interest in the play? The answer is simple. J.B. is short for Job,

Job is the book in the Bible that deals directly with the agonizing problems of human suffering.

The story of Job hits people where they live; therefore insights into the story of Job will interest people.

The story of Job is an ancient one. Some say Job lived during the age of the patriarchs.

More than likely the book of Job was written during a time in Judah’s national suffering. The story of Job gives us several insights for living in our own time.

I. Life Brings Many Baffling Questions

The story of Job is a baffling one. Reading the circumstances of Job does raise questions.

The Lord described Job:

Job 1:8 (NIV)

8 “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

2. Job was blessed with a great family, seven sons and three daughters. He was further blessed with great wealth.

Job became a test study in motivation when Satan proposed that Job served the Lord because it brought great dividends, such as great wealth.

God permitted these externals to be removed so Satan could see that Job served the Lord from a good motivation.

In quick succession, blows of adversity hit Job. An Arab tribe stole his cattle. A storm destroyed his sheep and goats. The Chaldeans carried off his camels. A tornado killed all of his children.

3. Then Job lost his health. In all of these losses, Job never lost his faith in the Lord.

The story of Job baffles people. “Why did Job deserve those tragedies?

Didn’t it pay him to do good?”

4. Numerous circumstances puzzle our minds.

Observing some of life’s situations brings questions to our minds.

Why does a child suffer from a brain defect?

Why is a young wife and mother killed by a drunk driver?

Why is a young physician beginning an exciting career in surgery stricken with leukemia?

5. These and numerous other questions baffle our minds and prompt us to ask, “Why?”

The circumstances of life bring baffling questions.

Fortunately, the book of Job gives some insight.

II. The world’s thinkers have inadequate answers.

The friends of Job did not help him with his dilemma.

Three friends of Job—Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar—heard of Job’s problems and came to visit him.

They were shocked when they saw Job. They sat with him in silence for seven days and seven nights.

Perhaps the silence provided their best comfort to Job.

When the friends finally spoke, they ceased to comfort Job. Rather, they proposed to have the answer to Job’s suffering.

They said Job suffered because of his sin. If he would admit and confess the sin in his life, his suffering would cease.

Later another friend, a young man named Elihu, came to visit Job. His proposal was simple: Job’s suffering was given by God to refine his character like gold in the fire.

Thus none of Job’s four friends provided adequate answers for his suffering.

Life’s problems do not have easy answers.

Not every circumstance of suffering can be attributed to sin.

You remember Jesus’ observations of the man born blind (see John 9). He would not explain the man’s suffering in terms of his sin.

Furthermore, God does not give trouble only for the purpose of developing character. God may use trouble to develop character, but not every case of suffering can be attributed to this purpose.

There are no easy answers to the baffling problems of life. Simple formulas will not fit some of life’s circumstances. Yet the book of Job does not end in question; it ends with another insight.

III. The Lord has a word for us

The help for Job’s suffering comes with a word from God.

Job 38:1 NKJV

1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

God did not appear in order to take away Job’s sufferings. Rather, he came to be with Job. To teach Job some lessons on knowledge,

the Lord interrogated him, asking hard questions: “Were you present at creation?

Did you make the sea? Did you ever cause a sunrise? Can you explain rain?”

God knew that Job could not ignore these questions. Job needed to see the might of God and the inadequacies of human beings.

The Lord speaks to us amid life’s baffling circumstances. What does the Lord say?

Does he tell us the intellectual reasons for our suffering? No, he does not give us answers.

Instead, the Lord gives us the adequacy of his presence.

We must be willing to trust in the Lord to take over when we are confronted by situations we cannot understand.

Conclusion

One Christmas two brothers expected and received new bicycles.

Christmas day came, and both started riding and enjoying their gifts.

In a few hours, both of them became ill.

The older boy became so ill that he had to be hospitalized.

Spending the Christmas holidays in a hospital and knowing there was a new bicycle at home did not make him happy.

He asked, “Daddy, why did I have to get sick on Christmas?”

The answer was obvious and simple. “Son, a virus exists, and many people are getting sick this way.”

Those were the facts. But the boy was not satisfied with the facts, and learning the facts did not help him. However, the presence of his mother and father in the hospital room brought him comfort.

Now do you see? What a person needs amid life’s baffling situations is not an intellectual answer, but the presence of the Lord.

Why not let the Lord come into your life?

Salvation:

The Word of God says in:

John 3:16 NKJV

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 10:13 NKJV

13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you’d would like to receive Jesus today, please pray this prayer with all of us:

Lord I believe that Jesus is the son of God, and that He died On the cross for my sins and His resurrection from the dead gives me eternal life. I ask forgiveness of my sins, and I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

PastorDoc@FaithVision.org

Church Office: 909-922-8090

And I will send you a Bible & a Free Book on how to begin your first 21 steps with Jesus (show the book)

(Show Slide)

***Leave slide up until Pepper gets in position***

Lady Pepper Please Join Me

Pepper: Any comments or thoughts?

I would like to give a shout out, to one of our founding Faith Vision Members: Sharon Cooper (who I affectionately refer to as Cooper Girl

Who visited Lee Howard, on two different occasions in the Nursing home.

On one particular visit she began to read the word for you today our daily devotional. (great example)

On the second visit she started talking to him and he opened his eyes and focused.

She asked if he knew who she was and he nodded, and closed his eyes back.

Thank you Cooper girl for visiting the sick, and showing everyone matters in the kingdom of God.

Lady Pepper do we have any prayer request

Let us pray (P/P)

Lee Howard

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Raylen - Healing after a Stroke

Faith Vision Family & Friends

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