Questions Series week 5

Why Does God Allow Bad things to Happen to good people?

SONGS:

Come Satisfy

Questions to discuss:

Read Isaiah 29:16 and discuss, What can we learn about God as the creator and humans as the created from this verse?

2. Do we learn more when from the bad circumstances of life or the good?

3. What is one thing you’ve learned in your life from a bad situation?

4. What is suffering? How does suffering vary for person to person?

What are Bad things?

John 16:33 “33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.””

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

- every difficulty is an opportunity to trust and lean in to Christ.

Illustration:

When my sons were learning to walk, would it be evil of me to purposely push my son down?

yes. Absolutely.

Is it wrong of me to allow my sons to fall though?

If I see them walking and they are about to fall, is it wrong for me to let them fall?

NO.

How will your children learn to walk? From falling.

If I always catch my sons and prevent them from falling, guess what, they may never learn to walk!

Allowing my sons to fall is vastly different than causing them to fall.

When you stop and just consider this for a moment, that describes much of life doesn’t it?

For a child, cleaning their room is an act of suffering.

But if they don’t do it, they won’t appreciate the clean room in the end.

Eating the food given to them, seems like suffering, but eating something you don’t like is a small price to pay when you consider the real suffering that is Hunger!

I suppose part of the lesson here is that the child like suffering that we look back and laugh at, actually just grows up with us.

The suffering we experience today feels much worse, but what if it doesn’t seem like a big deal later?

Even death, the worst suffering, losing someone we love, isn’t bad.

For the believer, we step into eternal joy.

Philippians 1:21 “21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Take Job for example:

Job 1:1 “1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.”

Job 13:15 “15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.”

Job 1:21 “21 and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.””

When Job lost it all and all he had was his life, he still said, “Blessed be the name of the Lord… may the name of the Lord be praised.”

How could he say that?

Because as his suffering increased, so did his focus on Christ.

And that’s God’s goal, right?

God’s goal is for you to trust Him and to place your faith in Him.

What is God to do if we ignore Him?

Romans 1:20 “20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

God can be known through His Eternal power and Divine Nature.

This is called General Revelation.

God has generally revealed himself through creation.

But what if someone rejects God?

They look out at creation and still come to the conclusion that God isn’t real?

Take dating for example.

Illustration:

Guys, if you want to date the girl, how do you do that?

You try to get her attention right?

What happens if she never notices you?

Then, spoiler alert, she won’t know you exist!

So how do you get her to know that you exist?

You get her attention.

These things go hand in hand!

Isaiah 41:20 “20 so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

God desires us to reason his existence, presence, and actions.

God is in control. He is Sovereign.

He is over it all and working in it all.

Isaiah 33:6 “6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”

“The key to this treasure..”

Isaiah 29:16 “16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?”

Guys, we are the pots, God is the creator.

When we get lost in the suffering of today, take a moment, take a deep breath, and remember how small you are.

Then take another deep breath and remember,

God sees you. He meets you in your suffering.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

His grace is available to you.

To meet you right where you are.

The best part of suffering is that.

To know that no matter how dark and bleak the day gets, God is present.

So follow me, What if all of the struggles we face in life are allowed by God to remind us that we are not self-sufficient.

Our sufficiency is in Christ, and only in Christ!

Let’s look at this from another angle too..

If you live your whole life as a self-made person… how much need do you have for God?

On the flip side, for people who live in the struggle every day… they know that they need things outside of themselves.

they need people to help them.

They need God.

If we are so self-sufficient that we have no needs, then consequently we may fail to realize our need for God.

Also, because of God’s great love for you, He wants you to know that you need Him;

therefore, he may allow struggles into your life if that means you will finally see that He exists.

Who are good people? Are there any good people?

Ecclesiastes 7:20 “20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.”

Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

1 John 1:8 “8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

The truth is, there are no “good” people undeserving of suffering.

The fact that we all don’t suffer constantly, all the time, is because of God’s grace.

But we rarely think about it that way.

We think, “oh man… my life was so good until today, now today life sucks because of ________________”

But really we should be saying,

God thank you for your grace.

God thank you for the constant reminder that I need you.

God thank you that no matter what happens today, you are all I need.

God thank you that even though I was dead in my sins, you made me alive in Christ.

God help me to remember no matter what the situations in my life:

CONCLUSION:

1. Suffering is a reminder of our weaknesses.

2. Bad things that occur should remind us of the brokenness in the world.

While also reminding us our strength is ONLY found in Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 “9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Let that verse sink into your bones.

Lastly, I would argue bad things occur to help us be empathetic with one another.

2 Corinthians 1:3–7 “3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

In suffering Christ comforts us.

When others suffer, we should comfort one another with the love we have received from Christ.

IN ALL, SUFFERING IS A REMINDER OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US.

His Presence.

His GRACE

The Presence of God is a Constant Reminder that we are not alone.