Where is God When You Have to Suffer?
Part 3: Being God Centered
Introduction: A couple of weeks ago, we started this series on discipleship titled “Where is God?” It’s all about how to grow in your personal relationship with Christ. Unfortunately life has a habit of throwing things at us hoping to get us off track. So Two weeks ago we did a message titled “Where is God when things are hard?” Last week we did a message on “Where is God when we have to wait? This week we want to look at… “Where is God when you have to suffer?” Of course as soon as you say the word suffer… all kinds of things come to people’s minds… because… There are all kinds of suffering…
• Some is just inconvenient suffering
• We have physical suffering…
• We have self-inflicted suffering (He might be smiling… but I think he looks like he is in pain.)
• Some of us are in situations… where suffering is ongoing because we never know when something is going to go wrong
• Some of us suffer because we are made to do things we don’t want to do!
• Regardless of why we suffer… it affects everything about us… how we feel about ourselves… how we look… Life is a mess!
• Unfortunately, there are many times we can see that we will be going through a season of suffering… and we are powerless to stop it! (By the way, this is latest fad sweeping the country call bunny bowling!)
Needless to say, suffering is just part of life. We all have suffered… and whether we like it or not… we all will suffer sometime in the future. As Dr. Scott Peck would say… Life is Pain.
• Yet interestingly, when it comes to the whole topic of suffering and religion… the number one objection that people bring up for not coming to faith… for not trusting in God… is Suffering! They have done surveys upon surveys over the years, and have asked people… what is it that is keeping you from putting your trust in Christ? And the answer is always suffering!
• Why? Because they have bought into the idea that… If God is real and loving… there should be no suffering in the world?
• And if you haven’t noticed… there is a lot of suffering going on around us… so either there this no God… or this idea is a total bunk. Yet obviously, people buy into it… meaning that every time we read about some tragic event in the world… those people say that’s just another proof that God doesn’t exist.
• So when you read crazy stories like about the man who was having sex with two mentally ill disabled children for years and one just gave birth to his baby… supposedly that’s evidence that there is no God!
• Or every time an innocent person is killed by a drunk driver…
• And every time you hear how innocent children are dying of malaria and malnutrition… in Africa… this is seen as solid evidence that there is no God… or if there is a God… he certainly doesn’t care or is powerless to help us.
• Then add to that… our own suffering, the loss of a job, or going into chemo treatments, or losing your house… and the list just goes on and on.
• Experiences like these… become the great objections to faith! And not just for those who don’t believe. Even for the believer, suffering poses a challenge.
• Let’s be honest here, the more pain you are in, the harder it is to cling to your faith. Have you ever tried to have faith in God’s goodness when you have the flu? I have… and it’s not easy!
• So question becomes… what do you say… to someone one who is suffering? How do we respond to the cry… if God is real and loving… why does he allow so much pain and evil into our world? Why does He allow the innocent to suffer so… while so many of the unrighteous seems to go untouched? Now all these are good questions…
• And to find the answers to those questions… today we’re going to look at the book that deals with suffering and God more than any other book in the Bible, and that is the book Job. But first let’s pray… thank you that the word of God does not shy I away from any subject
Prelude to Suffering… So what do you say to someone who is suffering?
• Before we begin to address all these big questions concerning suffering and God… let me say something in regards to how we respond to those who are suffering…
• What do you say to a parent whose child is suffering or maybe even dying? What do you say to the elderly person at the nursing home who says that their own children have stopped visiting them? Or what do you say when you go to a funeral and talk to a spouse whose just loss their mate of 50 years?
• The best thing we can do is say nothing and this is exactly what Job’s friends did with him!
• Job 2:11-13 When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
• Personally… I think this is the best response to suffering. Say nothing and offer that other person you’re presence! The fact is, there’s nothing more costly to give the other person than your presence.
• Why? Because it’s hard to be with someone and just bear their pain. Why is that? Actually for all kinds of reasons.
• First, none of us likes pain… obviously no one volunteers for is… so we do everything we can to avoid pain or anything or anyone that reminds us of pain.
• Secondly, if we can’t avoid pain, then we feel compelled to fix people in pain.
• So now we try to come up with something clever… something wise, something that will help them… not be in pain… so that we don’t have to be in pain. Unfortunately, everything we come up with sounds shallow and hollow or cliché’s… and end up doing more damage than good.
• Thirdly, just sitting around hour after hour doing nothing but being in pain... feels so unproductive! Again, we want to be able to do something to change these circumstances. So sitting and seemingly doing nothing… drives us crazy!
• And then on top of all that… and this is just sad… most of us think there is a time limit on suffering. We will give you a week, a month to get over with it… but that’s it. Let’s move on, six months or a year, a couple of years… forget about it, we need to move on.
• Yet, when you talk to someone who has gone through much suffering and ask what kind of support was most helpful, they will almost always say… thank you for just being there for me!
• And that’s exactly what we find in the book of Job. Jobs friends were doing exactly the right thing… by simply sitting with Job for a week.
• The problems began when they began to open their mouths… which are where most of our problems begin.
• But unfortunately that doesn’t seem to stop anybody from opening their mouths. And in this case… as in so many others… the things we say to try to help… are not even true. Let me share with you…
I. Five False answers…to why we suffer
1. Maybe because of my sin?
- When we suffer… we always ask the question why, and the answer that comes up most often, is we deserve it! You made your bed, now lie in it.
- We know we are sinners, and so the most common explanation for our own pain and suffering is, is that we are being punished. The reason my husband has had an affair with the secretary is because I’ve been a bad wife… or the reason my daughter was hit by a drunk driver, was because I drove intoxicated when I was in high school.
- This is the explanation that Job’s friends came up with. Job suffered more than we can imagine, probably only second to what Jesus went through. He lost everything, he was mocked, he lost his business, he watched his children get murdered, and then he was wracked with pain from morning tonight without medication. How do we explain this, Job’s friends said, you need to understand Job, you are a sinner!
- Job 22:4-10 "Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you? Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless? You demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land- an honored man, living on it. And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless. That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you,
- Problem is… that this was a totally inaccurate view of Job…
- Job 1:1 This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.
- And this is not just the author’s impression of Job, but God’s as well…Job 1:8 "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
- So what is going on here? The Book of job is a protest against this kind of dysfunctional thinking that if a person sufferers… it is because their sin. And on the other side of that… if they are prospering… it is because they are living righteously!
- While it is true that we do reap what we sow… if you smoke two packs a day, you shouldn’t be surprised if you get cancer, or if you do a lot of yelling at your wife, you shouldn’t be surprised if she begins to despise you. If we are overly critical with our children, then we should be surprised if they want to leave you as soon as they get old enough!
- I know people who lived in Sin, and still have prospered! And I know people who have had high standards; high morals … go through horrendous stuff.
- Suffering is not necessarily connected to either living righteously or unrighteously.
- And this book is in protest against that whole idea of all suffering is a result of your sin.
- Another reason we come up with to why we suffer is…
2. Maybe we suffer because God does not love us?
- Here we find the disciples and Jesus sailing across the sea of Galilee… when a big storm quickly overcame them.
- Mark 4:37-39 But soon a fierce storm arose. High waves began to break into the boat until it was nearly full of water. 38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. Frantically they woke him up, shouting, "Teacher, don't you even care that we are going to drown?" 39 When he woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the water, "Quiet down!" Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.
- I love this story because it truly reveals how own fears not only rob us of our faith, but actually can blind us to the love of God.
- Here they are in a boat… with Jesus himself who is sleeping upfront. A storm whips up out of nowhere, and begins to invade their space… as water begins to come into their boat. They get scared… run to Jesus… frantically waking him up… all the while accusing him of not loving them.
- Jesus gets up and rebukes the wind… and immediately the storm ceases… causing them to be in awe of him.
- You see… their fear blinded them to the reality… that in fact… of all the places in the world… they were in the safest place… because God himself was in the boat with them.
- Even more than that… they were actually being obedient to Christ… because it was by his word that they were sailing in the first place.
- So there you have it… God was with them every step of the way, they were being obedient to his word, and a fierce storm still hit them. Their suffering had no connection whatsoever to whether God love them or didn’t.
- The same argument can be made for just about every man or women of faith throughout scripture. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Elijah or Elisha. Every prophet from Isaiah to Deborah to Malachi… suffered pain as they pursued their calling.
- And then of course… there is Christ himself… dearly loved by his father… yet who suffered untold pain at Calvary on our behalf!
- This brings us to the third reason people give to our suffering…
3. Maybe God is not good? Why else would God let this happened to me… maybe he’s unjust, maybe he’s not listening, maybe God is unfair…
- Job 9:21-24 "Although I am blameless, I have no concern for myself; I despise my own life. It is all the same; that is why I say, 'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.' When a scourge brings sudden death, he mocks the despair of the innocent. When a land falls into the hands of the wicked, he blindfolds its judges. If it is not he, then who is it?
- Job does not let God off the hook like many contemporary people do today by saying that God didn’t do this, but life did this to you. Job said… No, I refuse to believe in that cheap explanation. I believe in the sovereign God, I believe in the God who is all mighty, I believe in a God’s who is overall, and even though he might not be the cause of my problem, certainly oh mighty God could have prevented it!
- He could have protected me! My suffering happened at least by God’s permission… which if you read the beginning of the book… this is exactly what had happened.
- So Job charges God with being indiscriminate. And often we see that… that suffering is indiscriminate. When the plague comes Job says, it is not only the wicked that die, but the righteous.
- And if we updated it Today… we would say this rash set of tornado’s we had earlier this year… good people got killed… not just the child beaters or adulteress that went down… but good people, good husbands…and good wife’s… good sons… good daughters… and good mothers and good fathers… and people who love Jesus… as well as those who were not good.
- C.S. Lewis the great Christian English professor from Oxford England said perhaps the presence of suffering and our rage against suffering is not evidence that God is not good… but perhaps it is evidence of God being good!
- When you rage against injustice… as Sigmund Freud did… You know Freud, the father of psycho annalist who said… if there is such a thing as God… when I meet him, I am going to shake in his face a cancerous bone of a child and say… explained this?
- When you rage against God’s justice, you rage against God’s goodness. What you really are saying is that you have some sense internally of what justice is… of what goodness is. So when we say that rape is wrong… it is because you have internally sensed of what is right.
- You can’t say a line is crooked unless you have an internal sense of what is a straight line.
- And thus the question… where does that internal sense come from? Why is it… that everybody in the world…that all people have a sense of what is wrong?
- We Christians say that this internal sense is imprinted on the conscience of every single human being… and that it comes from somewhere… it comes from God!
- Because if we are just randomly thrown together… If we are just a byproduct of stardust as Carl Sagan said… if we are just the result of the evolutionary process… then we are all just making the rules up as we go along… so how can we protest evil. How can we say this is wrong… because if it really is up to us… we could have easily have said it was not wrong. Yet, every single person has this innate sense with in them of right and wrong! Why is that?
- Again… C.S. Lewes brilliantly said…the standard comes from God… that is why we all know it! He goes on and says… If the universe is as rotten and bad as we see it to be, how is it then that anyone ever came up with the idea of a good, omnipotent, all wise, all knowing good God? Where would we come up with evidence that there is a good God unless… such a good God existed… unless such a good God revealed himself!
- Therefore, the only reason we know that there is good or evil… is because God… who is good… has revealed it to us.
4. Maybe God is not powerful? The reason we suffer so… is because God just isn’t powerful enough to do anything.
- Now interestingly, Job never went here! In fact, pre-modern people never went here. This is a contemporary view.
- You see… pre-modern people were continually confronted with the powers of nature… and didn’t have ways to protect themselves from it. They didn’t have heated houses, insulated walls, access to any food they wanted instantly. They were continually exposed to the raw elements of nature…storms, floods and droughts.
- They saw the Stars & galaxies in their entire brilliant splendor… unaffected by light pollution. Thus when you read ancient texts… you quickly discover that Pre-modern people never would have thought in a million years that God was not all mighty.
- This is where only contemporary people go. This is where Rabbi Kushner went in his book “Why do bad things happen to good people.” God is good, God is loving, but he is not all mighty! He just can’t stop it, he would like to… but he just can’t.
- And unfortunately, people of our culture have bought into that. God is a good… but a week ineffective father. Now some people find comfort in that. But I don’t, I don’t want a father in heaven that is weak and ineffective… because my question is, how do I know good will triumphant in the end?
- If you start questioning God’s power… then maybe Jesus got it all wrong… maybe the meek will not inherit the earth... Maybe it’s only the strong and the ruthless who will inherit the earth!
- So to combat that… our God’s response was… the resurrection! The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us that good will triumphant over evil! Meaning, that it does matter what you do… if you do good or if you do evil… good will triumphant in the end! Lastly… the reason there is suffering in the world… is because…
5. Maybe because there is no God? Now according to the bible… the one who says there is no God… is a fool! Ps 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, "There is no God”
- In other words… the atheist is not the clear thinking, rational person they claim to be… who is willing to look at all the evidence without blinking…like those foolish Christians are…
- According to the bible… the person who looks at the world… and looks at all the evidence that creation presents… and denies the very existence of God… is a person who is suffering from a psychological defense mechanism condition called repression.
- Rom 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
- Repression or suppression… is when you stuff your emotions down, when you push your ideas down so far so that you do not have to feel them. Thoughts that create so much pain…are too terrible to face… that the only way you can deal with them is through repression.
- Thus, the thought that there is a God… is too terrible for the atheist to face!
- The thought… that there is a God… and you can’t live life just the way you want to… and that you will have to stand before God on judgment day to give an account of our lives… is just too scary! Therefore, the only thing they can do… is repress and suppress the truth.
- And the sad thing is… they don’t even know that they are doing it.
So there you have it… five false reasons why we suffer. Of course this still leaves us asking… so why do we suffer? And while I don’t think there is a simple reason that one can give to cover all the bases… in every situation… but I will make this observation.
II. Suffering is your big test! You want to understand something of suffering, then understand it as a test!
• Now interestingly, Most people try to turn it around… and think it is about testing God! But that’s simply not true.
• Job 23:2-4 "Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
• Job thought God was on trial and we are the prosecutors. We say God, explain this. Why is this happening? Unfortunately, Job didn’t have the benefit of reading the first couple chapters of Job. But we do, and we realize that it was Job was on trial… not God!
• Job 2:3-6 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason." "Skin for skin!" Satan replied. "A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face." The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life."
• At the end of the book God says… Job 38:1-3 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
• Point being… you cannot put God to the test. We try. People come to test him, quiz him, questioned him all the time… but God just turns it’s around. You see… He is always the test giver and we are always the ones being tested.
• And when I say God is testing us… reality is… what God is really doing is purifying us! He is changing us. He is out to radically transform our lives! This brings us to our last observation about suffering...
III. Suffering creates a cross road for you. Whenever we find ourselves being tested, we have a choice in front of us. And not just one choice, but many. At least three…
A. We must choose between humility and pride!
- Job 38:1-7 Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind: "Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. Do you know how its dimensions were determined and who did the surveying? What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
- Job 38:17-18 Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!
- Job 38:18-21 Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know! "Where does the light come from, and where does the darkness go? Can you take it to its home? Do you know how to get there? But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!
- Job 38:31-35 "Can you hold back the movements of the stars? Are you able to restrain the Orion? 32 Can you ensure the proper sequence of the seasons or guide the constellation of the Bear with her cubs across the heavens? Do you know the laws of the universe and how God rules the earth? "Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct it?
- What’s going on here? God is challenging Job! Job has a choice between taking the path of humility and or taking the path of pride.
- When your marriage isn’t what you want it to be, or your child is struggling, or your single and want to be married, or people aren’t doing what you want them to do… you are at a crossroads. You have a choice.
- You can say… God, I know what’s best… and if you don’t do what I want you to do, forget you, I’m out of here, I will do what I want to do.
- Or we can understand our own limits. And as God points out… maybe we don’t know everything… maybe we don’t see things as clearly as we think we do. And maybe there is more going on here that what I can see or understand.
- So I have a choice… and I need to choose what path I am going to take. I can take the path of humility… and say God teach me… lead me… show me your way.
- Or I can take the path of pride… insisting on having my own way… and doing things the way I think they ought to be done.
- Now personally, I think the path of humility is the only path to take when we are suffering. Defiance will only increase our suffering.
- It’s only in humility we can declare… God, we can’t even begin to comprehend your plans, so I will trust your word that you will bring good to me. So I am in your hands. Do to me as you will!
B. The second crossroads we come to is one of motivations!
- What are your real motivations? When we go through times of sufferings… our motivations are being tested and being exposed for what they truly are.
- Job 1:8-12 Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth — a man of complete integrity. He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil." 9 Satan replied to the LORD, "Yes, Job fears God, but not without good reason! 10 You have always protected him and his home and his property from harm. You have made him prosperous in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!" "All right, you may test him," the LORD said to Satan. "Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically." So Satan left the LORD's presence.
- In other words, Job’s suffering was meant to expose what really was in his heart. This is what suffering does… it reveals what is really going on in our lives.
- When we are suffering… we need to ask ourselves the hard questions… like what is really motivating me now. What must I have to feel satisfied with life? When everything is stripped from you, what do you think you need?
- It’s during times like these… we need to take a good hard look at what you have been complaining about. Because what you have been complaining about will tell you what you think you really need. And then ask yourself… is that what I truly want?
- One of the great revelations of the book of Job… is that at the end of this whole ordeal that Job is going through… he discovered that the only thing he truly needed is God!
- In Chapter 38 God Challenges Job, in chapter 40, God is revealed as powerful and then in chapter 42 vs. 5 Job declares … now I know you. This is what God wants to do with us through suffering. He wants us to come to a place where we see God to be our one and only. He wants to bring us to place where we say that the only thing we really want is you God. It’s not comfort, it’s now riches, it’s not fame and prestige… it’s you God!
- Job 42:2-6 "I'm convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, 'Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing my purposes?' I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, 'Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.' I admit I once lived by rumors of you; now I have it all firsthand — from my own eyes and ears! I'm sorry — forgive me. I'll never do that again, I promise! I'll never again live on crusts of hearsay, crumbs of rumor." Message
- Job realized… that despite all his lost… all his pain… God was suffice… God was all he needed! And not someone else’s version of God… but he needed to experience God first hand! Nothing else would do. He needed to make his own personal connection with God!
- This brings us to the last crossroad that suffering brings us to…
C. The final crossroads we approach is one of hope…
- One of the things that Rich Nathan, pastor of the Columbus Ohio Vineyard said after reading the book of Job was… If it was up to me the book should end where Job repents. The actual end of the book of Job… where everything he lost is restored to twice what he had had… almost feels too Hollywoodish.
- I can see his point… after incredible gut wrenching experience… Everything is restored and we are left with the definite impression that he lived happily ever after.
- But there is something inspired about this ending. And we need to remind ourselves that this too is part of the word of God. There is something here that challenges our faith!
- Let me explain… we all have hopes how our life will go, whether we are talking about our children, marriages, careers, or just our future in general
- And then life happens, and things don’t go as planned. We can’t have a child, or we have a handicapped child, or a child gets sick or whatever.
- Thus the question… What do we do when life doesn’t happen according to script? Some people say forget God, but some say don’t forget God. Some give up on hope and just go through the motions, live hollow existent lives.
- But others say I’m going to keep holding onto you and putting my hope in you. I am to keep going to church and believing in you, believing you are good, and somehow you will bring good back into my life.
- Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
- When we go through suffering… and difficult times… we are all tempted to give up on hope. This is to say… that we give up on God! Yet God has declared that he will never leave us or forsake us. That whether we see him or not… he is working behind the scenes bringing about good… in his own timing.
- Job 42:10-17 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before… The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. …In all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughter… After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children, and his children's children, four generations. And Job died, old and full of days
- You see… while God says I’m not devoted to do what you want me to do. Nevertheless, I do want my children to have a living hope, an expectation that I am moving in their lives… and working in their lives… and bringing good into their lives! Right now, today, even as we speak.
- So regardless of our suffering… all of us have a choice… to either give up hope… or to continue to put our hope in God… believing in God’s goodness for our lives
In Conclusion: Let me recap what we have said…
• When we suffer, or when you see someone else suffering… the best you can do is offer them your living presence.
• Secondly, we need to realize that we are not suffering because God is punishing you for your sin, or he doesn’t love you, or he is not good, or powerless to help you.
• But rather… suffering is a test.
• It is a test to see whether you will take the path of humility or pride.
• It is a test of our motives… is God alone suffice for us... or do we think we need something else.
• And it is a test of hope. Will we give up our hope… or continue to put our hope in God believing that our God is a good God… who will bring His goodness into our lives.
• Let’s pray…
