Series: Why?
Making Sense of God’s Will
God And Suffering
Four Foundational Truths:
1. God Is Love
May you be able to feel and understand, as
all God’s children should, how long, how
wide, how deep, and how high his love
really is.
Ephesians 3:18 (LB)
Four Foundational Truths:
1. God Is Love
2. God Loves Me
For Christ’s love compels us, because we
are convinced that Christ died for
everyone…
2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV)
Four Foundational Truths:
1. God Is Love
2. God Loves Me
3. We Are To Become Like Christ
For God knew his people in advance, and
he chose them to become like his Son.
Romans 8:29 (NLT)
Four Foundational Truths:
1. God Is Love
2. God Loves Me
3. We Are To Become Like Christ
4. We Live To Please God
Jesus died for everyone so that those who
receive his new life will no longer live to
please themselves. Instead, they will live
to please Christ, who died and was raised
for them.
2 Corinthians 5:15 (NLT)
Good vs. Evil
The Lord God took the man and put him
in the Garden of Eden to work it and take
care of it. And the Lord God commanded
the man, “You are free to eat from any
tree in the garden;
Genesis 2:15-18
but you must not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for when you
eat from it you will certainly die.” The Lord
God said, “It is not good for the man to be
alone.
I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Genesis 2:15-18
And the Lord God said, “The man has
now become like one of us, knowing good
and evil. He must not be allowed to reach
out his hand and take also from the tree of
life and eat, and live forever.”
Genesis 3:22-23 (NIV)
So the Lord God banished him from the
Garden of Eden to work the ground from
which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:22-23 (NIV)
We Will Have Trouble:
The Fall
“I have told you these things, so that in
me you may have peace. In this world you
will have trouble. But take heart! I have
overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (NIV)
Jesus answered, “Do you think that these
Galileans were worse sinners than all the
other Galileans because they suffered this
way?
I tell you, no!
Luke 13:2-5 (NIV)
Or those eighteen who died when the
tower in Siloam fell on them—do you
think they were more guilty than all the
others living in Jerusalem? I tell you,
no!”
Luke 13:2-5 (NIV)
As he went along, he saw a man blind
from birth. His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither
this man nor his parents sinned,” said
Jesus.
John 9:1-4 (NIV)
“but this happened so that the works of
God might be displayed in him. As long
as it is day, we must do the works of him
who sent me.”
John 9:1-4 (NIV)
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful
and increase in number; fill the earth and
subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the
birds in the sky and over every living creature
that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:28 (NIV)
Paul & Job:
Perspective and Stewardship
“I have worked much harder, been in
prison more frequently, been flogged
more severely, and been exposed to death
again and again. Five times I received
from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (NIV)
Three times I was beaten with rods, once I
was pelted with stones, three times I was
shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in
the open sea…I have known hunger and
thirst and have often gone without food; I
have been cold and naked.”
2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him.
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
I consider that our present sufferings are not
worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed in us.
Romans 8:18 (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. I
saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride beautifully dressed for her husband
Revelation 21:1-5 (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.
Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV)
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There
will be no more death’ or mourning or crying
or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away.” He who was seated on the throne said,
“I am making everything new!”
Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV)
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart. The Lord gave
and the Lord has taken away; may the
name of the Lord be praised.” In all this,
Job did not sin by charging God with
wrongdoing.”
Job 1:20-22
Three Areas Of Broad Suffering:
1. Natural Disasters
2. Human Decisions
3. Sickness
Joni Eareckson Tada
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or
famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: “For your sake we face death
all day long; we are considered as sheep to be
slaughtered.”
Romans 8:35-39 (NIV)
No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor
depth,
Romans 8:35-39 (NIV)
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39 (NIV)
Series: Why?
Making Sense Of God’s Will
God And Suffering