PRAY

It’s often said that only 2 things are certain in this life.

Death and taxes!

But something else is certain:

and that’s Suffering.

The world is full of suffering, and things keep seemingly getting worse and falling apart around us.

A few years ago some of us took to the streets of WP and asked people this question.

‘If you could ask God one question, what would it be?’

About 70% of the answers were related to the world falling apart.

Why is there so much violence?

- Why is there famine?

- Why hasn’t anyone got rid of cancer?

- Why did my husband die at 31?

- Why couldn’t I get pregnant?

Even those wanting to give an amusing answer to us were related to suffering:

- Why is the traffic so bad on Worcester Park High Street?

- Is it going to rain on Monday?

And that was

before Covid,

before the War in Ukraine,

before Israel and Gaza, before Brexit,

before rising tensions generally across the world.

The world really does seem to be falling apart.

Internationally, and sadly for many of us, it seems very personally as some suffer far more that others.

So,

Why is the world Falling Apart?

Does the fact that so much misery and suffering exists proove that there can’t be a loving God?

Or if there is a God, why does He allow the world to be like this.

I’d like to propose 3 ways in which the bible helps us understand why God allows suffering in our world today.

1 - …it shows us who we are.

For a moment imagine suffering was non-existant,

but we’d soon have to imagine the extraordinary selfishness and power that we would try and draw to ourselves.

Think about what limits or controls our behaviour.

If there was no risk of causing suffering then image how fast we would drive our cars on residential roads!

The reason we don’t is that on the whole we’re afraid of hurting someone or ourselves.

We would steal from shops to have the best clothes or the latest gadgets if there was no fear of suffering,

becasue no fear of suffering means no consequences that we don’t like.

No police then to stop us,

no justice system to punish people.

In fact there would be no sense of wrong and right at all really.

War is only a problem becasue it brings suffering,

otherwise there is no real issue is there?

I can invade my neighbours house and take it for my own becasue it would cause no harm or suffering to him or her.

Of course this is all a nonsense,

becasue it stands to reason that the world cannot be like that.

If I invade my neighbours house they will have to suffer,

they’ll have to invade someone else's and so on a so forth.

My point is this.

A failing world shows us who we are.

If humanity was totally and utterly and perfectly loving,

then there would be no need for most suffering.

I wouldn’t even consider doing anything that harms or upsets another person.

I wouldn’t argue with my wife,

get fed up with a parent,

bend the tax laws,

I’d never lie,

never say a word that offends another,

and so on and so forth.

But becasue we are all prone to push the boundries,

break the rules,

be a little or a lot selfish,

we do bring about suffering.

However small or large,

suffering shows us who we are.

Suffering is a by-product of an unloving humanity.

From the Hitlers of the world right up to the sweet old lady next door.

We all cause suffering in some way, at some level, at some time to others and ourselves.

That’s what the bible reading we had is all about.

In Isaiah, God is addressing the Israelites hundreds of years ago,

he was rebuking the Israelites for not being perfectly loving and obedient to the good moral law of God.

42v20-21

Isaiah 42:20–21 NIV - Anglicised

You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.” It pleased the Lord for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious.

God’s perfect and glorious law, his design for the world we all live in,

His plan for a world without any suffering is great and glorious.

But the Israelites have ears and eyes, but do not hear or see.

They aren’t obeying God’s perfectly loving standard,

And as a result, their world will fall apart.

So you get,

Isaiah 42:22 NIV - Anglicised

But this is a people plundered and looted, all of them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They have become plunder, with no-one to rescue them; they have been made loot, with no-one to say, “Send them back.”

To not live up to God’s perfect and glorious and loving standards is to hand ourselves over to being ‘plunder and loot’,

we belong now to falling apart world.

We are ‘trapped in pits’.

Of course we try to get out this pit,

but as you will know from your own life,

however hard we try to live lovingly towards everyone else, we always fail.

A Failing world is a by product of who we are.

Pause

But a little bit more is going on in our world isn’t it.

there are more problems than just interpersonal human relationships.

That explains wars and falling out with our family,

But

What about disease and natural distaster.

The real the problem behind who we are,

is not actually how we treat one another,

but how we treat God.

You see, we only understand that suffering is bad and that love is good, becasue God made us that way.

Animals don’t have that concept - they just do what helps them survive.

So fighting is a good thing - they don’t care about others suffering.

But we, humans, have a moral conscience - and the only explanation is that we were designed this way.

Designed to live by a moral code, according to our designer,

Accroding then, to God’s law.

When Jesus was asked to summarise the ‘law’ of God - the great and glorious law’ we heard about in Isaiah

Jesus said

Matthew 22:37–39 NIV - Anglicised

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

Love the Lord Your God with all your heart soul and mind.

The real problem behind who we are,

is not just that we don’t act perfectly lovingly towards each other,

it’s that we don’t perfectly love God with our heart, soul and mind!

And so suffering is not just a result of our actions against each other,

Suffering is now a result of our failure to love God.

And so, God also inflicts suffering upon humanity.

have look at 42v24-25

Isaiah 42:24–25 NIV - Anglicised

Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways; they did not obey his law. So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

Suffering exists in the world not becasue God cannot control it,

Not becasue God doesn’t exist,

But because it is the natural result of who we are as humanity.

Suffering shows us who we are!

The Israelites were given over to suffering, individual and national.

by God himself, becasue they continuously refused to follow his glorious and loving rule and law.

pause.

God wants a gloruious and perfect loving world,

but we just can’t and wont live lives that love Him with our hearts souls and minds

and love each other as we would love ourselves.

So you are not suffering with cancer, or you didn’t loose a loved one, or you didn’t loose your job, or you are not anxious about WW3 becasue you did a speciifc thing that deserved that specific suffering. (although some suffering we all can see is a direct consequence of our actions)

No.

Suffering is a much bigger pandemic that exists becasue we logically deserve and demand suffering in the world becasue of how we want and do act.

Why is The World is falling apart?

1 - …it shows us who we are

2 - …it shows us we need help

A sheep will wander around a mountain side looking for grass.

It’s quite happy, doesn’t really need a shepherd.

That is until it’s world falls apart.

It falls into a steep ditch.

Or the grass has run out and hunger sets in.

Suffering for the sheep not only shows the sheep who he really is, - ‘not very clever in the grand scheme of things’

But Suffering also casues the sheep to cry out for help.

My notes say (Baaaaaaaaa! Heeeeelp.)

Of course the sheep doesn’t really know who he’s calling to?

Another sheep comes by,

Baaaaaa,

But the other sheep can’t help - infact he’s more interested in himself anyway.

A group of sheep come by,

And to make themselves feel better they devise a plan to rescue the sheep involving great theories and plans.

They try and try and often think they have made great progress,

But as time goes on they all find themsleves in the pit, for different reasons.

Baaaa they now all cry.

You see if we faced no trials,

no suffering in this world,

if we looked out and all was good and wonderful.

would we ever recognise we needed help from God?

No-one calls for help unless they realise they need help!

We go to the doctors when we develop symptoms of something more serious don’t we.

Otherwise, we’d carry on without help.

In fact I’m sure most doctors would prefer more severe symptoms were present for some diseases.

So the patient suffered more and came for help sooner.

Would we think a doctor who thought like that was mean and horrible?

No,

we would know the doctor is being loving and kind in wishing we had severe symptoms sooner,

so we were able to address the real issue.

And so it is with God.

have a look at our passage again.

42v25

Isaiah 42:25 NIV - Anglicised

So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.

Don’t mistake a crumbling world for a God who is out of control or unloving

Understand that suffering is a loving God showing us that he cares.

A Doctor calling us home to be helped.

The Israelites faced war and defeat not becasue God hated them, but becasue he loved them.

He wanted them to ‘understnad’,

he wanted them to ‘take it to heart’.

In other words to realise that we need to cry out to God for help in this life.

He created all things, he created you and me,

And he loves his creation enough to shock us through the symptoms of suffering to cry out to him.

And he is the shepherd, the good doctor who hears us when we cry out.

Lord help us,

Lord God, forgive us,

Lord God rescue us.

And so finally,

the logical question is, is God going to help us?

Why is The World is falling apart?

3 - …to shows Us the Saving Grace of God.

A failing world is an unavoidable byproduct of human sinfulness.

It shows us who we really are.

it ought to casue us to cry out for help from God.

He’s the only one able to save us.

But save us from what?

Heals us from all disease,

gives us money when we’re poor,

raises our loved ones back to life?

No, they are just the symptoms!

No, he saves us from something ..bigger, something ..eternal.

The bible is very clear that we are eternal beings.

We have a consciousness, a spirit that lives on,

that is more than just chemical brain processes that die when our bodies do.

No, we were created by and for the Almighty God, for all eternity.

So when he speaks of rescuing us,

he’s got something far grander,

far more miraculous,

far more extraordinary than miracles of healing, or prosperity, or temporary happiness.

Have a look at 43v1-2

Isaiah 43:1–2 NIV - Anglicised

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Does that mean the Israelites could never drown,

or get swept away by rivers,

or get burned by fire?

Of course not -

God’s point and love is far more significant that that!

I have ‘redeemed you’ he says to Israel.

I’ve bought you at a price

- despite who you are, despite your sin!

That ‘price’ God paid was Jesus,

God’s own beloved son.

The Israelites would have to wait a few hundred years to see how God would keep his promises to them.

For many would have died by fire or water,

But God’ promise to always be with them,

to not let the fire be their eternal end,

well that would be made possible in Jesus.

Jesus paid the price we ought to have paid.

Our sin, that brings suffering,

That God rightly cannot tolerate in his world forever,

will all one day have to be judged by Him.

And we will be found guilty.

Sentenced to an eternity of suffering.

That is why to experience suffering in this world is not God being mean or harsh.

He’s the loving doctor that ensures we experience the painful symptoms of a far greater problem before it’s too late.

He is allowing us to experience a foretaste of an eternity of judgement,

In order that we might cry out to him,

In order that we might find his saving grace.

So if we do cry out to God, then he ‘redeems us’.

He buys us by the blood of Jesus.

The NT puts it like this in Romans 5v8-9

Romans 5:8–9 NIV - Anglicised

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!

the world is falling apart to Show Us the Saving Grace of God

Jesus suffered the ultimate punishment form God,

he died on the cross so that we don’t have to be separated from the God of Love,

The suffering in the world shouts out to us

- God can save you from real and eternal suffering

- nothing and no-one else can.

Cry out to God,

Ask for his help and rescue through the death and resurection of Jesus.

And he will free you from eternal suffering,

And even now

- when we face terrible suffering,

which Christians do,

but we no longer live in fear and despair of suffering

For the Christian has eternal hope,

We have the God of the universe with us in the flood waters of life.

We have Jesus our brother, our friend, our saviour,

Who suffered far more than we ever will for the sake of loving us.

We have hope,

We have peace in our hearts,

Becasue we know we are eternally saved, even if we temporarily suffer.

So, fellow sufferers - cry out to God, to the Lord Jesus to rescue us,

so we have a hope of eternity with him with no suffering whatsoever,

With Jesus as our Loving Lord and King.

The alternative - If God does not exisst - then the world has only very bad news for us - it is falling apart and there is no hope, no solution and no real explanation for it All.

But if there is a God, it all makes compleet sense.

Why is the world falling apart?

Well God would perhaps simply say,

Becasue I love you, and I want you to know ‘who you are’

I want you call to me for help,

And I want you to see and accept my saving grace in Jesus for all eternity.

Without symptoms of illness - we’d never realise we needed a doctor until it was too late.

Pray

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