we are in our series entitled Ever Wonder why, and we entitled that? Because we want to tackle some of life's toughest questions. And today I believe we're gonna try to address the number one objection to Christianity or faith in jesus christ. And the question is this why does God allow suffering? Why does God allow suffering? Writer and commentator john Stock put it this way. The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the christian faith and has been in every generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair sensitive spirits asked that if it can possibly be reconciled with God's justice and love, see suffering is something that we all experience at some point, everybody in the room and everybody watching online is going to have to attend the school of suffering all generations of all time and all in all places have have have experience or spoken that universal language and it's difficult and it's hard, but it's why we're here today searching for answers. And and we're not going to be able to unpack all the answers in 30 minutes. You have the greatest objection in question to Christianity, and we have a few minutes together. But what we wanna do is have an honest and reflective look of, what does God's word have to say to the question and maybe just maybe you'll have a hint, two helpful answer and I hope for the future and the situation that you might be walking through right now, if you're taking notes, I want to encourage you to write this down, and that is this, that suffering points are present reality to a significant eternity. That at the end of the day, suffering helps us realize that this present moment, it's temporary and it forces us to ask ourselves questions of significance, questions of meaning and purpose and ultimately eternity. Now we're gonna be quoting a lot of scripture today. And so now, more than ever encourage you to go back and visit our digital bulletin at Mission Grove dot info, because you can there, you can get all the references and go back through the notes. If we miss anything today, you can go back through and read that later this week. But here's the thing that today, while we talk about the present reality and the significance of eternity, we're going to try to address three issues when it comes to suffering. The first one is really the problem of suffering. Why is this even an issue? Why do people ask this question? Well, I believe the problem of suffering comes from christians trying to reconcile these things at the same time. It seems to be something paradoxical or something that, like these can't simultaneously be true, but yet they are. And so we wrestle with that. What do we wrestle with? Well, we wrestle with the fact that God is ultimately all good, that we believe that God is all knowing and we also sing about how God is all powerful. So he is all good, He's all knowing, he's all powerful, but at the same time, evil and suffering exist. And that's hard for our brains to reconcile that because we think, okay, if God knows that it's out there, God knows what is good and then he has the ability to stop it, why does he allow it? Well, the reality is it's not limited to those four things that while those four things are true, it's also true that God, it's full of wisdom and it's full of love and got us holy. And God is just there's a lot of things at play. And just because we might not know the answer doesn't mean that there isn't an answer. So there's a micro version of suffering because typically people approach that question or ask that question from a personal experience and so we think to ourselves, God, why me, why her, why him? Why this? Why now and so pain is very local. And then we asked global questions and while we might not be able to address the micro questions and I don't know if you're going to get answers to your specific situation, what we can do is take a step back and look at the macro or the larger issue at hand of really the problem and really the presence of evil and suffering because see we live in an era and in a world that contains a certain level of free will. Now, we're not going to jump into the debate between God's sovereignty and free will to which I would just say yes, there's both and there's there's really attention there and attention that's above my pay grade. But we we we accept and believe both is true. But the very presence of free will goes all the way back to the garden where people had the option to reject God and choose something other than and because of that choice, because of sin, we now live in a broken world. And the reason that's important is because that might not explain your situation. We can't explain everything on someone's sin. So you don't necessarily have an illness because of a choice you made. You don't necessarily walk through an accident or a situation because of a choice you made. Sometimes we make dumb decisions and was like, oh no gods against me? No, you just made a bad choice. But in other cases it's like man, why? And we don't know. But what we do know is that we live in a broken world and because we live in a broken world, there is evil and there is in fact suffering. C. S. Lewis put it this way that it's critically important for us to examine the assumptions behind every question. So a natural question and a and a large objection to Christianity is why is there evil in the world? Or how could there be evil and a good God. Now if you look at the assumptions behind that question, what are they? Well, if you're saying there is evil, there's got to be a definition of evil and if there's a definition of evil, there has to be a definition of good. Well, where does good come from? That means that good has to come from some sort of moral law. And if there is moral law at some point, you have a moral law giver and that moral law giver is described in Christianity as God. And so by expressing the frustrations of evil, you're actually expressing frustrations in your assumption and belief that there is in fact a god. Why? Because there is a god who gives moral law which describes what is good and what is not good, then we describe not just an absence of good, but a corruption of good. And now we find ourselves wrestling with evil and I would actually even go further and say, why do we wrestle with evil? We wrestle with evil because we believe there is something better and there is something different and there is something more. And if you take here's here's what's interesting, if you take God out of that question, guess what? You still have a question, but now you have no basis for answer. Atheists still suffer. Agnostics still experience pain and ask questions, but what happens if you don't believe in God if you don't believe in a moral lawgiver and that it's subjective to the individual, you end up like philosopher Bertrand Russell who just said, well, if there is no God, what is there? He says, well, I decide what's right based on my feelings. And so let me ask you an objective question from a subjective point of view. Yes, I'm a believer in jesus, but I ask you to think through rationally, that which takes more faith. That good is subjective to every individual of all time, based on how you're feeling in a given moment, or good comes from a moral lawgiver who created this world on purpose with a purpose. And so for every question, there is an assumption behind the question and we have to decide where that comes from. So even in our angst, even in our pain, even our suffering, we can actually lean into the very existence of God vince vitale, who is a christian apologist uh really describes this and what he calls a non identity theocracy. So the odyssey is defined as the struggle or proof of trying to juggle both the provision of God and the presence of evil. And he and he says, and he puts it this way, it's a non identity theocracy meaning. We use the approach evil from our own personal experience, and so here's how it goes. We exist in this world filled with difficulties and suffering, we step out of that world for a moment and we picture another world will say a metaverse or are a reality or a different universe where we picture us being the same exact person but with less suffering and then we ask ourselves God, why didn't you put me in this world? Not in that world, it's almost like God, why didn't you put me in this room? Not that room. But the problem is that your very existence is based on the circumstances and situations and the decisions of all people of all time to this exact moment. And so if you take this world out, you take away the suffering and circumstances that you experience what you unknowingly do is take away your very existence. It doesn't work that way is that you are a culmination of your experiences and decisions. So for example my wife was born in California. I was born in Illinois. Yet we met in Ohio and and there and all the circumstances that came through for us to even fall in love that if one moment one of those things didn't go that way, we wouldn't have had that relationship. So the very fact that I tore my A. C. L. Which almost pretty much ended my college basketball career. I wasn't in those moments where she came over to check on me and friends, became more than friends, became boyfriend, girlfriend and now is my wife for the last 15 years or I think about the fact of a very difficult moment in my life when in our lives when we walk through back to back miscarriages as a couple. But I think on the other side of this now to understand that if we had not walked through those together that we would not have carter her little ones. It was just a joy. It's just a joy. And and and I would never wish the loss on anybody. But yet we wouldn't be, does that make sense? Like we wouldn't have what we have at the same time. We wouldn't have also realized, okay because of what we walked through, we need to stop pursuing killing that way. But then God opened up our heart to foster care into adoption and then through a whole another trauma and a whole another state in a place that we didn't even know really existed burst out of trauma then presented to now we have I have my little girl see how all the traumas and situations that you have make up who you are. So if you have a broken relationship okay, But if you hadn't walked through that broken relationship that wouldn't put you in a position where you are now, they would have given you the Children that you have now that wouldn't have given you the opportunity and even the struggle that you have now. And so these situations move us and I don't know about you but I need a faith that can handle it. Like you, you know how they have certain I don't know they have like on trucks okay, they have like payloads like they can carry X amount of weight before something breaks down. Your faith needs to be able to carry the weight of your suffering. Like I, I don't need a bubble gum bumper sticker faith. It's like we're all in meadows with flowers like like we're seeing it like it doesn't work like that, right? Like we need to be able, like if your faith isn't able to handle your questions, if your God isn't able to handle your doubts and your questions then who are you praying to? And in those trucks where it says like truck built ford tough, like I am grateful that we have a God who is built suffering tough and that out of suffering, we have the very word of God and I'm just gonna highlight a couple passages today and again go to mission growth dot info to download these. But there are hundreds and hundreds of these And so I read that and I realized that our faith was birthed out of suffering even at the point of our creator and savior, jesus christ himself. And so I read that and I can resonate and I can connect, let me just share a couple examples from the psalms. So I'm 23, right? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. It doesn't say I walk around the valley. It doesn't say I ignore the valley. It doesn't say that go over the top. And it also doesn't say I stay in the valley. But I go through it. See for the christian, they don't have to live in hell. They can just walk through it because suffering is temporary. So we walked through this valley and our comfort. It's the very fact that God is with us. Another example here, the large, longest chapter in the bible psalm 1 19 verse 50 says my comfort in my suffering is this that your promise preserves my life. That the power and peace of God comes from him. I was just talking to a lady after first hour. This is just 10 minutes 20 minutes ago who lost her husband a month ago and was talking to someone in her grief. Was someone who didn't believe in God. And that person admitted, wow, you seem to have a piece that anchors you. I don't have that anchor. See our anchor is the very peace and the power of God psalm 13 noticed this, this is somebody walking through a hard time and notice this progression here. This is how long O Lord will you forget me forever. How long will you hide your face from me? This is not bumper sticker bubblegum faith. This is real stuff. Where are you God? I don't see you? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day. How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me. O Lord, my God! Light up my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death lest my enemy say I have prevailed over him lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. So he pours out his heart. And then in verse five notice the transition. But I have trusted in your steadfast love and my heart shall rejoice in your salvation and I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountiful e with me. And so we have this picture that even the worst of suffering, we have a God who is there and present with us. Because if you got the answer to your question, why is this happening? That wouldn't make the loss any easier. Like if you know why a loved one died, that doesn't make the loss of that loved one any easier. And so we might not get the answer why? Even if you do get the answer why this happened to you, that doesn't make it easier. But what does make it easier is the very presence of God? There's a little verse that's not gonna be on the screen. But in Revelation 21 4 that I hadn't noticed this phrase before and 15 years of a pastor and all these years being a christian. But revelation 21 4, it doesn't say that your tears will be no more. It actually says that he will wipe away the tears. That means that we have a personal god. That means we have the presence of God. And while you might not be able to answer the question, why we can't answer the question of who's there to care about it. You know, I think about my little daughter who loves to wake up and so I'm getting ready for church this morning and it's early and and she comes walking out of her bedroom with her big bedhead and just kind of like dad and then crawls up and sits on my lap. How often do we search that in a world that as a child, we have a heavenly father to approach who actually understands what we're going through? Because if we pray to a God who has never suffered, it's easy to feel bitter. But God himself experienced the worst of suffering. This is why we move into not just the problem of suffering but the purpose of suffering. See in Hebrews 12 verses two and three, it says, looking to jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that seems so crazy to me. The joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, Why did he do that? So that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. We have a God who understands suffering because he experienced it. And then it says in here in hebrews 4:15 for we do not have a high priest, referring to Jesus who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So we have a God who saw the suffering in our world and cares so much that he entered that world and took on the greatest burden for you and for me. And while he was on this earth, he spoke these words in John 1633, he says, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace that in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart for I have overcome the world, our God understands suffering, he knows, Isn't it interesting that in life if you're walking through a hard time, who often brings the best comfort, it is somebody who's walked through that same situation. Have you experienced that where, where you walk through something difficult and somebody who walked through a similar situation has a deeper connection with you that the rest of the world just doesn't understand and you're able to connect why? Because you had the same experience, we have a God who has the same experience and so we can connect and he cares for us. And so we cannot answer the question why, but I can tell you what it is not. It is not because God doesn't care for us, because he experienced the greatest suffering. And then paul writes this in romans 51 through five. It says therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, jesus christ. Okay, this is the Gospel, This is awesome through him. We have also obtained access by faith into Grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Okay, so we have this glory, this is the Gospel, this is great. But paul says this isn't just for the next life. This isn't just for some cloud to play a harp in heaven, someday let me tell you why this is important. He says in verse three, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that we see that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And then in Colossians 120 for the same writer says, this that now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh, I'm filling up what is lacking in christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known that the mystery hidden for ages and generations. But now revealed to his saints to them. God chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is christ in you the hope of glory. I ask you this question which tells a greater story. Someone who has everything going right, Someone who has all the worldly possessions and everything seems going great or someone who has experienced pain and hurt and is vulnerable and authentic and real. And at the end of the day, you can say I trust you God, which story seems more genuine to you because it's in our pain. We can tell of the glory of God. And so I don't have the answer to why on a micro level, but I can offer a hint and our hint goes back to the cross that we have a god who experienced the greatest suffering and that when he died and rose again, he not only covered our sins but conquered death. And because of that are suffering is temporary. And so we have a hint from the past in the cross of christ, but then we have a hope for the future which is the very glory of God living within you. And so we have this here we see this experience and so you see the you see this really through and let me just give you a couple of practical examples as well. Uh just earthly examples because it's it's not just something to talk about, right? It's it's a it's a universal language that we experience on a personal level. There's a lady named Joni Erickson Tata who had an accident and became a quadriplegic and she said there, she said sitting in a wheelchair, I was feeling more like the enemy of God than his child. Didn't God want to stop my accident. Could he have was he even there Or was it the devil instead? So imagine losing all use of your limbs. But she would go on to find faith and and experience strength through God and would would paint and would write books and share her story. And she said this incredible quote and it's that God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves. God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves. Another example. There's a gentleman named James Bond Stockdale. How about that name? Right? James Bond Stockdale. He was the United States Navy Vice Admiral. He won the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War because he was held prisoner for over seven years and after surviving being tortured for seven years, came out on the other side, Jim Collins the author of Good to Great interviewed James Bond Stockdale and said, okay all those years. How did you make it? Who didn't make it? Tell me, tell me of the group who didn't make it. And he said this and he said, oh, that's easy. The optimist didn't make it, they were the ones who would say, we're going to be out by christmas and christmas would come and go and then they'd say we'd be out by easter and then easter would come and go and then thanksgiving and then it will be christmas again. And ultimately these people died of broken heart. It says, this is a very important lesson that you must never confuse faith, that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, Whatever they might be in psychology, this has become known as the Stockdale paradox is where two seemingly opposed things can be held at the same time. And so there is a brutal acceptance of the reality of that you live in at the same time, a resilient persistence of belief that you have prevail in the end. This is at its core is the christian faith. Another example, there's a guy named brian Birdwell who was a lieutenant colonel who was in the pentagon on 9 11 and he was in the building when a plane flew in and it burned most of his body And it burned most of his body. He was given less than 1% chance of living, but he survived And he would retire from the army in 2004 and he and his wife began a ministry to burn victims, helping them see beyond their pain for their spiritual realities. And brian Birdwell said this, he said, you know, an 80 ton 7 57 came through at 530 miles an hour with £3000 of jet fuel. And somehow I'm still here. And the plane isn't, you don't survive because the army made you tough, you survived because the Lord's got something else in mind for you to do. It's interesting author Randy Alcorn put it this way, he says here, it says, this is one of the greatest paradoxes of suffering. That those who don't suffer much think that suffering should keep people from God. While many who suffer a great deal turn to God not from him. Why? Because it's that anchor for your soul. It's a belief in a bigger story. It's a hit from the past and it's a hope for the future. It doesn't make it easier. But it gives you resilience. We we address the the problem of suffering. We highlight briefly the purpose of suffering and we might not know that ultimate reason. But there is one. And now let's talk a little bit about the process because many in this room right now are walking through such a tough time and I can't even begin to put myself in your shoes. But you know, you hear these stories like for example, I was listening to an interview with rick Warren, pastor of saddleback Church and author of purpose driven life beyond the bible, it's the most sold book of all time. Here is someone who is supposedly doing everything right, right Pastor, faithful marriage, author, writer, generous giving stuff away a couple years ago, lost his son to mental health and apparent suicide. And in an interview he is talking with David Kinnaman who lost his wife to cancer and they're talking about grief and the response was interesting because he he said this, he says, you know, in God's Garden of Grace, even broken trees, bear fruit, he says, you know what, we're all broken. You know, grief is a gift at the end because it allows you to feel. There's actually I forget the name of it off the top of my head right now. But there is a medical condition that is very dangerous where people lose sensitivity and they can't feel pain, but it's actually dangerous because you can't, so if you touch something hot, you don't know if you get an infection or your blisters, I mean, you don't know, and it's actually more dangerous for your body. And so the actual expression or feeling of pain can actually be a good thing because it you understand that something is off that something is temporary, that something is different, that something is wrong. And so grief actually helps us process that grief can actually be a good thing and it helps us process through what we're experiencing. But again, we're not ignoring the valley, but we're walking through the valley and that everyone's experiences grief differently, that people in a family might experience grief. And, and there are different waves of it and your waves might not match up and you might not experience it the same way, but you walk through and when you grieve, you don't necessarily recover. You don't get back to quote unquote normal. Like if if I lost my arm to an accident, I'm not gonna wake up and my arm's gonna be back like the rest of my life, I will wake up every day understanding that I'm missing something in the same way. If you experience a loss like you're gonna carry that loss with you. But as you carry that, it opens you up and it makes you stronger and, and, and it opens you up and more sensitive to the hurts of the people around you and sensitive of those things. And pastor rick warren as he walked through the experience, the loss of a loved one. He talks about how he's in pain every day. You hear a song on the radio or a restaurant or, or a book or a sound or a smell and immediately go back. But he shared these kind of really the steps of grief that process through that, this isn't here, that, you know, first, and then these aren't necessarily linear. You can, you can experience more than one at a time and in different orders. But you you typically walk through these things and he says they're shock. It's disbelief that this happened, then there's a sorrow and it's and you see that and then and ultimately you end up in a struggle. This is where you ask those why questions. But as you process through those three, and it could be days, it could be months, it could be years, it could be decades In all reality, everyone grieves differently. You end up at a place of surrender because what other choice do you have? And and when you surrender, you see God start to sanctify you and you become stronger in this process and you become more empathetic and you become more open and you become more vulnerable and you become more honest, and you become and the and the thing that trivial things of this world don't seem to bother you as much as before. And you start to have deeper conversations and you and you start to ask big questions and you start to move through and you end up at a place ultimately of service. See this is why at the end of the day, I think suffering exists in our world, because suffering points are present reality to a significant eternity. And I want to end not just with some abstract story about a colonel or an author, but it just conversations I'm having with people in the room. So I'm in the room right now and I think of my friends that burn L's and we shared that story about a year ago about brody who survived a plane crash and how for years and countless surgeries and comas and traumatic brain injury that mom Jeannie shared that she got this moment from God in the middle of it, and the silence where she felt like God spoke to her saying, you know, you see broken, I see mended. You know, I think about my friends here, the Butlers who if you know them are the sweetest people in the in the world, but I've been through living hell this last year and number of surgeries and pain and things and they're still in it and I want to be sensitive to that. But, you know, having a conversation with a good friend and I said, man, how are you doing this? How are you even waking up in the morning? And he says, you know, at some point you he just said, okay, God has to have a plan for this. I don't know what it is, I don't have a choice for that, but I do have a choice with my attitude and negativity will eat your soul. And I think the most encouraging thing you said to me, we're just chatting and we've been talking for a while because we're good friends. And is that just this steadfast belief from the beginning, you said this is that I can't help but think there's a story and I want to tell the best story I can to my kids friends, the community, you know, I think about frank glen and crosses, who can't be here right now because of being immune compromised and walk through leukemia is walking through that and than the end result after leukemia is getting this rare form of pneumonia that has ended so far with him getting eight times his lungs drained, which is a fun process of a giant needle going in the back, pulling out leaders of liquid at a time, mclean. How do you? Here's a guy CIA, it's super, he's he's forgotten more than I could ever learn, right, Like super smart and everything there too. And just how do you even like wake up and have a smile on your face? It's like, well, it's not easy and being someone analytical, I question everything he said, but at some point it forces you to wrestle with mortality and it forces you to embrace the moment and to be empathetic to others. He says, you know, I I grab coffee or breakfast sometimes with a good friend who is battling brain cancer and we know at any moment this could be our last, we're sitting there and and it just seems like you look around and people are so busy, so busy going, going, going that it almost seems like they're sleepwalking. It's like I don't wish it on anybody, but I also don't feel like I'm sleepwalking anymore and I can have that and genuine connection and relationship and walk outside and be like, wow, I can feel the sun and you take joy in those little moments. And so if you're walking through something, my heart breaks for you and I want you to know that God loves you and that we love you and that if you have a loved one going through something, you know, I I heard recently that the bigger the problem, the less you say, and sometimes it's not the words you say, but just the ministry of presence and in prayer and I don't have answers and I'm sorry for that and I wish I could, I mean we're praying for a miracle, we're praying for healing, we're praying for those things to happen. But what we hang on to in the meantime is that we know the greatest miracle happened 2000 years ago, that jesus conquered the greatest level of suffering possible and that when he rose again, that means that eternity is possible, that peace is possible that you don't have to be blown to and fro and the storms of life without an anchor for your soul and now your ankle anchor can be jesus christ himself and that you have a community that cares for you that loves you, that people can walk through and that you can be open and vulnerable and authentic and loving and that everything that you've walked through right now, everything that's at home right now that you are watching online, that you can't be in person because of an illness or a situation that the everything that you're walking through has positioned you exactly where God needs you to be and has made you who you need to be, that every hurt, every issue, it's painful. But we have a God who one day one day will wipe away every tear and there will be no more cancer and there will be no more betrayal and there'll be no more Brokenness and there will be no more hurting and that God is real, that peace is possible and because he overcame death, we can overcome suffering and out of that confidence, we gain our courage amen and we can praise God for who he is even in the midst of our store. Can I pray for you right now, Dear God, I pray for friends who are hurting and we're praying for miracles, God and we're not seeing it, but we know God that you're all good, we know that you're all loving. We know that you're all powerful and we know that's true because of what you did on the cross. And so God, it's in that power. We pray for healing. We pray for miracles. We pray for life and that ultimately we pray for the comfort and courage that comes from knowing you as our Lord and Savior. If there's somebody walking through something tough right now, it's my prayer that they will come to believe in you, so that they are no longer walking through the storms of life being blown to and from in all every which way, but they can have an anchor for their soul and their peace that comes from knowing you as Lord and Savior. So they can live from that strength and and and connect and serve and bless others. And ultimately you can have the glory God through everything. We humbly come before you, God. And all we just say is God, we love you, jesus, we love you. And so we lift up these temporary circumstances. We lift up these very real pains and and losses and hurts and we give it to you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us. Give us your peace and your presence now and your son's name. We pray Amen, Will you stand and sing with us?