Suffering---> Joy

ME

Seeing things from the right perspective changes everything...

Fire Pic

The true story of an incident in the life of famous inventor Thomas Edison written by his son Charles illustrates perfectly the benefits of a positive attitude:

One December evening the cry of “Fire!” echoed through the plant. Spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film room. Within moments all the packing compounds, celluloid for records, film and other flammable goods had gone up with a whoosh…

When I couldn’t find Father, I became concerned. Was he safe? With all his assets going up in smoke, would his spirit be broken? He was 67, no age to begin anew. Then I saw him in the plant yard, running toward me.

“Where’s Mom!” he shouted. “Go get her! Tell her to get her friends! They’ll never see a fire like this again!”

Can you believe it? Rather than saying, “Oh, God, what did I do to deserve this? Sixty-seven years I’ve faithfully lived my life, and this is what I get in return,” he says, “Hey, son, get your mother. This is one unbelievable sight! Look at that fire!”

Edison’s son continues,

At 5:30 the next morning, when the fire was barely under control, he called his employees together and announced, “We’re rebuilding!”

One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area. Another, to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an afterthought he added, “Oh, by the way. Anybody know where we can get some money?”

Later on he explained, “You can always make capital out of disaster. We’ve just cleared out a bunch of old rubbish! We’ll build bigger and better on these ruins.” With that he rolled up his coat for a pillow, curled up on a table and immediately fell asleep.

WE

Title Slide

How would you have reacted if your house burn up in flames like Edison’s business did?

Would you be getting trying to make smores with your friends or would you be devastated?

Most of us would be pretty tore up about it, right?

And with good reason.

Losing everything you own isn’t something that makes you want to throw a party right?

And maybe you’ve never gone through anything quite like Thomas Edison did. (I know I haven’t)

But when we go through hard times in life we’ve got a couple of options:

Sit around and wallow in self pity

Go through the pain, learn from it, and grow stronger

GOD

Job feast pic

A long time ago there was a man who had it all.

He was a godly man whom God had blessed in incredible ways.

He had a beautiful family and tons of money like Elon Musk. In fact, he was the richest guy anywhere around.

satan before God pic

One day the devil went to God and started meddling around (Because that’s what he does.)

God giving permission pic

God was proud of the godly man that he had blessed, but the devil trashed this man and said that he only loved God for the money and that if God took away everything things would change...

God said “bet” and the devil was allowed to pester this man...

1st devastation pic

So some gangs came by and took out some of the man’s animals and servants.

Lightning came down and burned up some more animals and servants.

Some more gangs came by, jacked some camels and killed servants.

2nd devastation pic

Then a tornado came and took out all ten of the man’s kids.

Job mourning pic

The man mourned for his children, but then had a church service with God and said: “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job sores and wife pic

Then the devil made sores break out all over the man’s body from his head to his feet.

Finally his wife said “Curse God and die.”

The man said “are we not gonna take the good and bad with God?”

After all that tragedy, he still wasn’t gonna blame God for his problems.

TIMEOUT...

Job cover pic- show comic

If you don’t know by now this story is about a guy named Job.

Many people say that this book written about him is the oldest book in the entire Bible, which would also make it one of the oldest books in world history.

You see, people have been going through pain since sin entered the world.

And we see in this story that God isn’t the one who causes the pain.. but it’s the devil every time.

TIME IN

Job friends pic

Then three “friends” show up to try and help Job.

They think they know what they’re talking about, but they ain’t got a clue.

They accuse Job of sinning against God bc they believe that bad things happen to people because they did something wrong. (Which is true sometimes, but not always.)

They go on and on FOREVER, Job and them go back and forth, and eventually Job gets worn down from all he’s been through, the pain in his body and his foolish friends, and actually begins to accuse God of being a bully.

Creation pic

Then God takes Job on a trip through all of creation- from before the world was made, to describing how he guides all the animals in the world from the ostrich to creatures called Behemoth and Leviathian…

Some people believe that Behemoth and Leviathan are Hippos and alligators.

Dino pic

Others believe that they represent much larger monster-like creatures such as dinosaurs and dragons.

Sea monster pic

I dare you to read up on Leviathan in the book of Job…scary stuff.

Creation pic

But God takes Job on this trip through creation and history to give him PERSPECTIVE.

You see, we are the smartest creatures on earth because we are made in the image of God.

However, we don’t have the perspective that God does, we don’t see all that’s going on behind the scenes, so we have NO business trying to give advice to God or telling Him how to run things or calling Him a bully for allowing suffering to happen.

Behemoth and Leviathan… creatures that represent different aspects of God’s world: Good, ordered and beautiful, and ALSO, Not perfect, wild and dangerous.

Job 42:1–6 NIV

Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job prayer pic

Job recognizes that he done messed up.

For a while He couldn’t see God through the suffering, but now he sees clearly again.

Then God brings restoration.

Job wasn’t perfect, but he still honored God through the trial.

And God gives everything back to Job: Wealth and family… twice as much as he had before.

Job emerged from his trial to become the world’s greatest witness to the power of faith to get a true believer in God through anything.

WHEN LIFE’S AT ITS WORST, GOD GROWS US THE MOST.

YOU

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Have you ever thought about why there’s suffering in God’s world?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why are there terrible people who hurt me?

Why did I hurt that person the way I did?

These a great questions.

And while I certainly can’t give you an answer for every situation because I just don’t completely understand everything you’ve gone through in life… I can tell you this:

God’s answer through scripture about the question of suffering in our world is this: we live in an amazing world that is NOT designed to prevent suffering.

Everyone has a free will, and mankind chose to reject God, suffering came into the world, and God made a way to heal the suffering of our souls through Jesus Christ.

And although this world isn’t perfect, it is beautiful.

Through the pain and chaos there are glimpses of beauty and eternity.

And the God of all creation feels every pain you go through :

Isaiah 63:9 The Message

In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn’t send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time.

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Prayer

WE

So let’s enjoy the world that God has given us, honor Him with our lives in with the time that we have on it, and look forward to the new world God will have for us one day:

Revelation 21:1 NIV

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Revelation 21:3 NIV

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.