Why does God allow suffering? - Steve Ferris

We're going to get into today's teaching. I'll invite Karen to come and read

from a passage real quickly, and then we'll get into it.

And now my light in the sea's away, with fresh and haunt my days.

At night my bones are filled with me, for there's not as an equal lettuce.

With a strong hand, God cast my shield. He curts me by the collar of my coat.

He has thrown me into the mud, and nothing more than those of my ashes.

I cry to you, O God, but you don't use me. I stand before you,

and you don't use my book.

You have become cruel toward me. You use your power to persecute me.

You throw me into the wall of wind and destroy me in the storm.

And I know you are sending me to my death. The destination of the wall of wind.

So those of you who are familiar with the book of Job, It's an account of a

man who's subjected to an extraordinary amount of suffering.

And today, as part of the series where we're challenging our doubts,

we're talking about the questions that really we battle with,

the questions that keep people from coming to faith in Christ.

Is these things we have a hard time reconciling, one of which being,

why does God allow suffering?

So you saw in those verses, this is a brutal experience.

And it's that brutality of suffering that we have to acknowledge first before

we can get into any kind of redemptive purpose for it, before we begin to look

for what can God do, look for silver linings, you have to acknowledge there is a cloud.

It's heavy it's heavy,

This is one of the hardest questions we have to grapple with as humans,

because it's one of those questions that doesn't always have a nicely packed

answer for us when we most need it.

And if you remember anything from the story of Job, Job was, he was a good man.

He was an innocent person who had to endure all of this loss, pain, and trauma.

And there are innocent people today. we know some, we would say,

this person was innocent.

Why did they have to endure loss, pain, trauma?

And we see it. If it's not happening to you, it will eventually. Suffering will come.

We see it in the people that we love, and we see it in the world, and it breaks us.

We look to history, and we see that history is filled with suffering that we can't imagine.

Just each chapter, no matter what you want to highlight, this was a good thing

that happened in this part of history. Look just a little bit to the left or the right. You'll see,

something that's heartbreaking. So when you think about the future and you don't

have any hope, if you think about the future and you find yourself thinking,

what is there? More suffering?

That's kind of a logical way to put it. If there's always been suffering,

then maybe there always will be suffering. That's a line of reasoning you could follow.

So as you look at all this carnage that's in our life, you can't help but wonder why.

Why? Why of the suffering? Well, we can look to the Bible for other people who have asked why.

Throughout the Psalms, it's constant why.

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and our oppression?

And Lamentations, they write, though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer.

It's just kind of being bewildered and being just, we don't understand why.

And so we have to ask, if anything unfair is ever happening in your life,

you don't quite understand what you did to have to experience something,

why is always the first question.

And if you're hoping for a concrete answer from me today, I have to tell you honestly, I don't know.

I can't tell you 100% why anything.

There's a certain level to this that is wrapped in mystery.

And depending on the suffering we're looking at, and depending on what it costs,

depending on the cumulative damage, that can hurt even more.

It can be infuriating to not have an answer.

So yeah, we can end up doubting God or an existence of a good God when we see a suffering world.

And so skeptics have asked, which is it then?

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Well, then he must not be all powerful.

Or is it this, that he is able, but then he's not willing to end the suffering

and evil. Well, then he's malevolent.

And one could look at the state of the world as we see it today.

We could say that there is evidence. you can follow the line where he says there

is no evidence of a designer who is both good and powerful and there's a line

of reasoning people do follow,

but we're really quick to blame God for all of it is that fair.

So what are the sources of suffering the bible does outline a few of them they're

not all god so the sources of suffering can are a fallen world,

free will of humanity.

Evil satan and god also,

So I'll quickly just run through more on those.

We suffer because we live in a world that's fallen and it's waiting for renewal.

We learn that in Romans 8, we learn that creation has been subjected to futility, to a curse.

That creation is groaning. It's waiting for something.

And we see that what it's waiting for is Revelation 21, when there'll be no

more tears, there'll be no more death, no more mourning, no more pain.

And because the former things, those things we are walking through right now,

the hurtful things, the former things are past.

In 2 Corinthians, we're told that this is a momentary affliction that we are

dealing with in this lifetime.

And it's preparing us for the weight of eternal glory.

Suffering is caused by the free will of natural man.

In the scripture, we refer to this as flesh is in us.

There's something in us and our free will that leads us to do things that cause

suffering to ourselves and others.

Because through Adam and Eve, we know that sin entered into the picture through

one man, Adam, and through that, death spread to all and sin.

It was lawlessness that entered in.

It has become, in a sense, a genetic condition that we've all been born into after that.

Sin and death lives in this body.

And Galatians 6 reminds us that whatever a man sows, he reaps.

So there's something in us that

is driving us to do things that are not life-giving, that are not good.

They're driven by selfishness.

And then, whatever we sow, we reap.

In the 90s, this band called The New Radicals had a song, and they summed it

up, and they said, You get what you give.

All right, what goes around comes around. In James chapter 1,

James 1 · chapter mention

we learn that it's our own desires that entice us to sin, which leads to death.

As much as we like to point to everything else in the world when it comes to

us suffering, we have to acknowledge there's a part of us that needs to own

responsibility for some things.

The evil things that that Paul didn't want to do he even writes his struggles in Romans he says,

so the evil I do not want is what I keep doing,

and we feel that and people would say well can't you just follow your heart

shouldn't your heart be leading you to do what's right well we also know that

the heart is deceitful above all things That's taught to us in Scripture.

And then we wish we had someone to blame. I wish I didn't have to look at myself and say it was me.

And I had more than one instance. I want to say it was all as a child,

but I'm sure I've done it as an adult too. I know what. I'll just blame the devil.

Which also is a source of suffering. Suffering can originate from Satan,

from evil, from forces of darkness.

So we know in the account of Job, Satan strikes Job with everything you can

imagine, even sickness.

Even has a hand in natural disasters in his life.

And Satan has certain characteristics that fit this type of behavior.

We learn that he is a thief.

He comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

And that our struggle ultimately is not against other people,

flesh and blood, but it is against,

dark spiritual forces that exist where we exist.

And finally, yes, some suffering does actually come from God.

In Job, Satan is acting against Job, but it's within the permission that God has given him.

And if you've taken the time to read through the prophetic books,

when God is speaking to prophets to lay out his judgment against his own people

and against the enemies of his people,

when you read what he says, this is what I'm going to do, and when you read

about what he actually did, it's horrifying.

There's no other word for it. It's a terrible thing to be under God's judgment.

In Isaiah 45, verse 7, God says through the prophets, I form light and create darkness.

Isaiah 45:7

I make well-being and create calamity.

There is part of the suffering that is within his authority,

and he's justified when he brings it.

Why does he allow it? That's the question. Why does God allow it?

Well, sometimes it's obvious.

We know that he's judging his enemies for the wrong. We know everyone says,

yes, God's enemies have done something wrong.

These people deserve what they had coming.

But he doesn't deal that same way with everyone. You see, if you're a child,

he deals with you a little bit differently.

It's not judgment, it's discipline. And the scripture tells us that God disciplines the ones that he loves.

And that can come in two different ways. His judgment and discipline can come

in an active way where God actually sends something.

He actually is doing something to let his will be known or to give correction and to give judgment.

The other thing is passive, which is passive. Passive means God is letting the

fruit of your actions play out.

That means he is handing over people over to what they've done,

and he's going to let them experience what's coming around.

And sometimes we as Christians can think that because I'm not getting the active discipline, I'm good.

Just know that there is a passive discipline that can last a lifetime.

God's okay. He's okay. He knows how we all work. He knows how we reason.

He knows the deceitful parts of our own hearts. We have been deceived by our

own motives. and he can deal out discipline that is appropriate for each of us.

But what about when we're innocent? I mean, we're all innocent, right?

I don't do anything wrong. Don't point fingers at me. Yeah.

So Christians have proposed a few different reasons as to why God does allow suffering.

This is not complete. There are other reasons.

So the first reason is for God to allow suffering for the greater good.

That suffering can produce what comfort can't, whether that be courage,

compassion, perseverance, other things.

Romans 5, verse 3-4 says, We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials,

Romans 5:3–4

for we know that they help us develop endurance.

And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our

confidence and hope of salvation.

In a sense, this is God redeeming the suffering.

From all those other sources I mentioned, all those sources,

God can redeem it and actually create good in us and around us.

I'm reminded of a passage where Jesus says, unless a head of grain fall to the ground.

That was hidden. He gives this parable where he talks about a seed having to

die in the ground and the seed creates a crop.

So that seed had to die. Christ had to die.

And what came was a harvest of righteousness.

And we see this across the world where the church grows. We see where there

is persecution, where there's martyrdom.

The church of Christ just explodes in growth.

It's one of these things where we don't quite understand. No one's raising their

hand to be in the front lines of that. But God is using these points of suffering for greater good.

Another thing that the church has taught, we don't teach this here at Grace

Church, but it's a common teaching, so I want to talk about it here,

is the idea that it's part of soul-making.

That humans are not born complete, that we have to go through trials and tribulations to be fully formed.

And I would just say, I would be careful with this because that type of teaching

doesn't gel with the idea of our God being a loving father who is just going

to go ahead and hurt all the children so that they would learn all the good lessons.

God has many ways to instruct and to teach us.

And we need to be careful what we expect from him. It can warp our perception of who this God is to us.

And we're made complete by jesus you're not made complete by your suffering

and maybe it's going to be part of your walk but that's not what makes you complete

it is not what perfects you.

And and again god he can redeem suffering from all those things we mentioned,

But most often time, God is not using the suffering to hurt the teach people.

Another teaching the church has given us is this triumphalism,

or we've heard it called the prosperity doctrine.

It's really popular in the word of faith movements.

I was part of churches in the past that were really steeped in this.

And the idea essentially is that God doesn't allow it. God doesn't allow suffering.

That suffering is never God's will, that victory is always for now. You just gotta believe.

And I would also say, be careful with this.

Jesus accepted his cup of suffering.

He prayed, God, take it away. But then he ended up surrendering,

saying, but it's your will, not mine.

We need to have that heart when we encounter our own problems, our own suffering.

And reminded also, the same approach sounds a little bit like Peter.

Jesus was telling his disciples what would happen to him, letting them know,

hey, I'm going to be taken, I'm going to be killed.

And while he's sharing this, Peter, who's always using the first one to speak,

he says, far be it from you.

Far be it from you, Jesus.

And I feel like that's reflected so much in this teaching where if there's a

problem in our lives or there's a suffering, there's someone there saying,

far be it from you, far be it from you.

And Jesus actually recognized that voice from Peter as a voice of Satan, rebukes him as Satan.

So that's not always the default that we should go to where we rebuke the suffering or rebuke the thing.

Sometimes it's actually part of the plan.

And so I think it's the default position to rebuke it, which we need to be careful of.

And at its core it becomes another works-based system where if you can say the

right words, you have the right beliefs or the right type of holiness,

you either do this and you get that.

And what happens is that you end up shaming the people who are suffering.

They're suffering and then you put it back on them. It's, well, it's your fault.

And beyond that, it sets a wrong expectation of what to expect from God.

It frames our relationship with God as a transactional.

Like he's like a gumball machine. I put this effort in, I put in this,

God gives me what I'm wanting here.

That's a transactional relationship and that is not what God has set up for you and me.

And the problem is if we believe that God is like that and we believe that,

well, all I gotta do is just put more in and then I'm gonna get more out and

I'm going to get what I want.

I'm going to brute force my will into this situation by doing more stuff.

What's going to happen is that one day it's not going to pay out.

One day you're going to be in a crisis.

And I've seen this happen so many times.

People with this expectation, they come into a crisis. They don't get what they

thought was promised to them.

The expectations fail them. They become discouraged and they end up leaving

the faith. So it can be quite destructive.

Whereas if they were willing to accept that, you know, this could just be part

of what God has for me, I don't know.

And God would, your will, surrendering to him, they might be in a better place.

And final teaching, I'll kind of explain as to why God allows suffering.

Sometimes it's for his own glory, to reveal his power and some of his attributes.

See, when we experience affliction, then we can experience God's healing power.

In John 9, there's an account of Jesus and the disciples meeting a blind man,

and they're all asking, why is he blind? Who sinned?

Who did something wrong that he's suffering like this? Jesus says,

that's not at all the case.

He says he's blind so that the works of God should be revealed in him.

The works of God will be revealed in this blind man because I'm about to heal this blindness.

And it was a miracle. I glorified God as a testimony to God's power,

as a testimony to Jesus as God's son.

So God can redeem all the suffering. He redeemed it for that blind man. He was able to heal it.

But I would say no one answer is going to solve 100% of the issues.

Not one answer satisfies every time.

But I feel like there's always an element of mystery and things being unresolved.

And I feel like to get through that part, you need to understand who God is a little bit.

First off, God, he's not like us, okay?

God, he's outside of time. So he experiences time differently.

So he has said, a day is like a thousand years with me.

He exists outside of it. He can see the end and the beginning at the same time.

He knows the end already.

So whether it has to do with me and my life or you and your life,

the world, the universe, he knows what's happening.

He can see it all from one view.

That changes his perspective. So there's some room for us to not understand

why God, because he's got a lot more information than we do.

What's interesting though, sometimes we could be praying for a breakthrough

or asking God to come into this point of suffering.

And we wonder God, why the wait? Why so long?

And from his perspective, he already sees that it's done already because he

sees he already delivered you. He already heals you.

He's already brought justice there.

You're here, I know. But he's happy.

He knows it's coming. He decided when it's going to come at the right moment.

He's just waiting for us to get there.

That's a strange thing to have to consider for us who are trapped in this dimension of time.

But God's done so many things we're praying for. God's done them already from

His point of view. It's already done.

God is also all-knowing. And because he spoke everything into being,

I'm following this line of logic.

If God has spoke everything into being, into motion, then I have to believe

that he knows the placement and trajectory of every atom in the universe.

So whether that's events, outcomes, decisions, people.

So that brings the question, if he even knows everything, and he knows from

beginning to end, what's that have to do with me and free will?

I have choices to make, right?

He's not taking my choices away, is he? No, he's not.

Actually, you're going to decide in your life, and people will decide whether

they're going to do good or evil, whether they're going to bring blessing or suffering.

And God's not going to interrupt those things all the time. And actually,

when they happen, they're not surprising God at all.

The thing is, he already knows.

He already knows what you're going to do. You don't know what you're going to do, but he does.

Even Jesus, he knew some things. When Peter was again saying,

hey, I'll never leave you.

Don't say, well, I'll never leave you. Jesus tells him, I know, Peter.

You're going to deny me three times before the morning.

Before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three times. And he did.

God knows a lot more. And lastly, God is holy. He is holy.

Holy means to be set apart from that things that are common.

And in scripture, the angels cry out, holy, holy, holy, which is a way to intensify,

to magnify the meaning of that word.

Essentially, they're saying, he's so far set apart.

Have you ever heard of the term out of your league?

Those of us who are dating those of us who have dated people tell you they're out of your league,

And maybe some of us have married up, and we know that the spouse that we were

blessed with, you know, was out of our league, but praise God.

But God is so far beyond us. And I think that is something we have to recognize

also when we come to these hard questions.

We cannot say, God, why don't you do things like I think they should be done?

Recognizing He is so far beyond. It's a title that He holds alone. God alone, he is holy.

And in that position.

We have verses like this in Isaiah 55, 8 through 9.

God tells us, My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord.

And my ways are far beyond anything you can imagine, just for as the heavens

are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways,

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

That makes it quite clear why we're confused. That's why you're confused.

That's a really hard thing to reconcile. That is part of the same problem Adam

and Eve were trying to solve.

They were promised by a deceitful serpent. No, no, no.

See, God doesn't want you to eat from this tree of knowledge of good and evil

because as soon as you do, you're going to know things like he knows them.

And that was enough.

Deal done. They took the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.

And we're reaping the consequences.

Because there's this human desire, I have to know.

I cannot let things be unknown. I need to know whatever God knows.

And frankly, we just can't.

He'll tell us some things, but most things that are hidden are hidden for a reason.

They belong to him. but this high and holy God,

is different than any other God. So in other religions, it's really common to

have it set up where there's a God who is above suffering, is watching us lowly people,

is instructing from a distance, you know, calling shots.

But in Christianity, it's a bit different. God enters into our suffering.

That's not happened before.

Eternal god puts on skin and

mortality he doesn't put on better skin he

doesn't put on a privileged humanity where he he's not going to be susceptible

to pain disease loss bleeding he subjects himself to the same things that we

are being betrayed beaten bleeding delivered unto death. He wasn't even spared that.

The author of life wasn't spared from death.

When Jesus was on the cross, he cried out, why have you forsaken me to his God?

He echoed our cry. We say that. We feel that.

And here is God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, saying the same words.

But we know that he defeated death and sin. We know that he's restoring everything.

And right now we're in this awkward place where we're watching redemption unfold in real time.

It's not complete though.

And we see it. We see the kingdom of God growing and touching other people.

And they got their healing.

They got their breakthrough. They got what they're praying for,

but it's not solved here.

And it's not solved there. and it's not solved here because the kingdom of heaven,

is expanding. And it's going to touch everything at some point.

And it's going to touch you.

It's going to touch parts of the world we see that need it the most.

It's going to touch the person who we feel is most lost.

It will touch everything at some point.

But the kingdom of heaven is like a tiny seed that grows into the largest tree

in the garden and covers the whole thing.

The kingdom of heaven is like a little bit of yeast that permeates every part of a batch of dough.

You see these principles that he's explaining to us as it starts out like this,

and it expands and covers everything.

And the kingdom of heaven, it entered into this world 2,000 years ago.

John the Baptist said, hey, it's coming. Jesus was here. There's a message saying, it is here now.

The kingdom of heaven is here.

It starts 2,000 years ago, a message that was introduced in Israel.

And ever since then it's been spreading through every nation.

And where it's going to is we see in Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 14.

Habakkuk 2:14

For as the waters fill the earth,

the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.

That's where we're heading. That's our hope. And suffering is going to end.

But what do we do today?

What do we do? those of us who are suffering right now. It will end in the future, but what now?

We hear it in James, we're told, James chapter 1, verse 2-4,

James 1:2–4

Count it all joy, my brothers.

When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your

faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

And if we've been affected by a culture that's always telling us to look at

ourselves what about me looking at me,

my walk with the Lord my faith my calling my blessing my breakthrough that may not be satisfactory,

count all joy,

because you're going to do some other things in me why can't I just have what I want,

well that's just the truth count on all joy,

we don't know what's coming we don't know if you're going to receive deliverance

from suffering now, later or in the age to come but it will come,

so that's the encouragement draw closer to the Lord,

today if there are immediate needs that you have right now you're actually enduring something.

We need to pray for that today God, you see all of us right now Lord,

there's nothing happening in our lives Lord, that you're unaware of,

We come to you, Lord, with disappointments, with hurts, God,

with suffering that we're enduring, suffering that is impacting us as you watch

it unfold in the lives of people who we love.

God, we come and we're bringing those to you right now.

If there's something that you're battling through right now or something you

need prayer and encouragement to go through right now, you don't need to be

specific about it. But I would ask, would you just raise your hand?

If you see someone with our hands raised, would you just bless them for a moment? Let's just pray.

Keep your hands up. I want to make sure we pray and bless you.

God, we bring these things to you, Lord. God, we come and we confess,

Lord. God, we're looking to you, Lord. We don't have any hope.

No hope that is as big or as lasting as you. No hope that has as much authority or power as you.

God, we're coming to you, Lord. We submit these things to you,

God. We say, God, whatever your will is, let it be done.

But God, we know your will isn't to leave us suffering all the time.

We may not understand it, God, but we know, God, that you deliver.

God, we know, God, that you heal. We know that you restore and redeem.

God, we just come to you to declare that we believe, we have faith that you

will do what you said you will do.

And that you know the time that is best. But God, we ask for you to move.

God, we ask that, would you move on our behalf? Would you move on the behalf of those around us, God?

Show yourself strong. Show yourself as a God who does not hide from suffering,

but comes in with us through it.

God, would you come? Let us feel your love. Let us feel your comfort and your peace.

Holy Spirit, you're the comforter. We ask you come right now.

Carry us through. We thank you, Lord, for your work, Holy Spirit, to help us to endure.

Through these trials, what an amazing work. Thank you for strengthening us from the inside outward.

Commit these things into your hands. In Jesus' name, amen.