Untitled Sermon (7)

Week 2

Text:

Topic: Suffering, Hope, Evil

Big Idea of the Message: Evil is a result of sin in the world, and God can transform evil into something for his glory and our good.

Application Point: Trust God with your suffering.

Sermon Ideas and Talking Points:

1. “Why does God let bad things happen?” is one of the most painful and difficult questions many of us will ever ask.

For writer and professor Khaldoun Sweis, this question came in the middle of the death of his young child.

He writes, “I held my son Enoch’s little hand as he died, and went through a suffering that no words could express.

A perpetually wounded heart that would not mend, a broken body for which there is no antidote, or a destroyed home that can never be the same … all left me asking many questions”

We will all face tragedies and personal suffering in this life, and these questions are a natural and normal response to pain that seems too great for a good God to allow.

There are no perfect answers, and no answers that will heal our suffering, but there are answers that can give us hope in the face of pain and tragedy.

2. Many recent school shootings have reminded us of the truth that no one is immune to tragedy.

Sometimes adults can forget that teenagers struggle with deep pain and suffering—in small ways and in really big ways.

After the recent shootings at Parkland and Santa Fe High Schools, the whole country was again reminded of this truth.

Students were planning birthday parties and days at the pool when their whole community was unexpectedly rocked with tragedy.

Even for those of us who haven’t experienced this tragedy in our own schools, it can fill us with fear or sadness, knowing that death and destruction are a part of everyone’s life in one way or another.

Romans 8:18–30 ESV

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:

3. reminds us of a truth to hold on to in our darkest moments: that our “present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (v. 18).

“Our glorification is the third and final aspect of our salvation, in which God will deliver us from the presence of sin forever”

There is hope in knowing that God has defeated sin and death, even if we don’t experience the full effects of that victory here and now.

One answer to our difficult question is that while he allows suffering now as a consequence of the power of sin over all the earth, we will not experience those consequences in eternity.

4. Verse 22 displays another answer to this difficult question: our groaning reminds us that this is not how things are supposed to be.

“Evil is a deviation from the way things ought to be, right?

But there can't be a deviation from the way things ought to be unless there is a way things ought to be.

There can't be a way things ought to be unless there is a design plan that says, 'Here is how things ought to be.'

And there can't be a design plan that says, 'Here is how things ought to be' unless there is a Designer who put forth that design plan in the first place”

Many atheists hold up instances of extreme suffering as evidence that God is not real.

But the ability to identify those things as wrong requires a standard of what’s right, a standard that only the existence of good God can provide us.

5. Another important answer to this question is that God uses suffering for his glory and our good, even when it seems difficult to understand.

When Category 4 Hurricane Maria landed in the Caribbean, many Christians struggled to understand how God could allow this kind of evil to happen.

Local pastor Gadiel Ríos explained how the hurricane season “is bringing people back to the biblical, sound view of God.

God is sovereign, good, and merciful, but is not our servant; we are his servants. …

Now we can understand the verses on regarding the days of comfort and the days of suffering:

Both are his will, and both are for our wellbeing and for his glory”

The pastor also explained how the economic downturn halted the spread of the prosperity gospel boom in the country, as people were forced to grapple with a true understanding of suffering and God’s sovereignty.

6. Verse 28 makes this truth plain:

“In all things God works for the good of those who love him.”

We do not always understand what he’s doing or how he’s working, but he is able to use even the most horrific circumstances to bring about good.

We have to be careful here, however:

God doesn’t will evil; that is the opposite of his character.

We also have to acknowledge that evil is a consequence of sin, and sometimes it seems to have no purpose or redeeming quality.

We can throw up our hands and lean on him when we don’t understand.

But above all else, we can have faith that we are eternally secure in him, as “those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified” (v. 30).

7. For a readable first hand treatment of death, suffering, and pain, see Wade Bearden’s book Failing Faith: When What You Thought You Knew About God Doesn’t Work in the Real World: https://www.amazon.com/Failing-Faith-Thought-about-Doesnt/dp/0692922482.

Intro