Why am I Suffering? (Frank Mullis)

Suffering well, there's a topic. No one actually wants to deal with but that is gonna be the topic for today we're gonna play for you a message from a conference recently and That will be coming to you today on the rap report

Welcome to the rap report with Andrew rap report. We provide biblical interpretations and applications

This is a ministry of striving for eternity and a Christian podcast community for more content or to request a speaker for your church

Go to striving for eternity dot org Alrighty well, like I said, we had a conference recently

You've probably heard about it. If you are a regular listener called the sanctification through suffering conference

There's a lot of good things here to help folks in their own suffering or in helping others

And first up was pastor Frank Mollis left some of the introduction in here

So you can hear how we introduced him a little bit about himself But I hope that this message will be a blessing to you

We will try to put the rest of the messages from the conference out here We may do those as bonus episodes so that they're not just all preaching

But we do want you to be blessed by these messages. So I hope you enjoy them

You know, this is this is a little bit different not I don't know of any conferences that deal with the topic of suffering as I discovered and With this it's also son that it was very interesting

We realized if you say you were gonna do a conference dealing with the issues of suffering. No one wants to come And I was talking to someone earlier today

I said yeah It was like we used to have these CDs from Todd free all dealing with pornography and we used to make them available for free

We take just take one we get one or two that people would be that would they take and So what ended up happening was

I said take one for a friend of yours. They all went And I realized the problem.

No one wants to be seen taking it's like you say you're going to a conference on suffering Well, yeah, okay.

So we start resin though. We really should have said like this is for you to help someone else Because your friends need it not you obviously

But this is something that we we came up with as an idea because so few people are dealing with this topic and We also realized that well, basically all of us struggle in one way or another

You're gonna hear From different people that struggle in different ways and you're gonna hear from speakers who will tell you

That they don't ever want to do this again See it's when you do a conference you have a topic

I was asked to do it at conference I was asked to talk on perseverance and I was like, please no Because I knew that meant that coming up leading up to the conference

I was gonna have to be persevering for something God teaches us through experience Several of our speakers have had different experiences

Some on the higher scale worse than others. I just suffered with a cold. It's not a big deal I feel much better hanging around with like Frank and Colleen and what they put up with but But we all struggle in different ways okay, the reality is

None of you know my struggles and my suffering and I don't know any yours. I Really can't

I can't identify exactly with yours and you can't identify it exactly mine We're hoping that this conference will be something that will give it's not gonna answer everything that could be answered

But we hope that it's something that will help you in wherever you're at Whatever God would have either now or in the future

Because we don't know when struggles may come our way and God may have different ways of testing us in different means

This conference is being put on by striving for eternity The church here Chinese American Bible Church was gracious enough to to open their doors for us

So my request is to remember that they are going to have services on Sunday So, let's keep it as clean and easy for them to have services by Sunday as possible and So With that let me real quick for those who may not be familiar striving for eternity

And some of the speakers striving fraternities a discipling ministry And we do that a lot of different ways.

We have our online Academy. You can go to YouTube watch our classes for free That's how we make our money wait

Something didn't work right there. Yeah, clearly we don't have a good business model But what we're what we do is where we try to do discipling we we do courses online

We do seminars like, you know going into churches doing Bible interpretation made easy

We do evangelism we do apologetics church history theology

We even have as you're gonna hear in a minute from our first speaker who is one of Georgia's leading experts when it comes to sexual abusers, so we go into churches and A shocking thing if any of you think that our church doesn't need that we do background checks

How many how many people are first -time offenders? 90 % of people who are to get caught our first -time offenders, which means your background checks are basically doing nothing

It's scary, but you have to know how to identify people that are preying on on children and different people so So these are some of the seminars we do then we do conferences like this

We do our equip conferences, which is really help people get equipped to evangelize And now the most recent thing we've done is podcasting.

We have the we we run the Christian podcast community I'm the executive director in the back is

Colleen sharp from theology gals, and she's the administrator and so we do a lot of discipling with podcasting why that's the next medium that is really blowing up and You're gonna you know,

I'm gonna talk about some different podcasts. We're gonna highlight different ones, but it is the next medium and So if you want to check out the

Christian podcast community It's actually a podcast itself and we have all the podcasts on there that are part of the community

So if you want one podcast, it gives you everything That's it. You'll get a whole lot of stuff

And there's some things that just go on there like our awards at the end of the year and maybe different things throughout the year But with that aside, that's what striving fraternity is about I'm gonna introduce our first speaker who is

You know Some people actually Justin Peters asked why I wasn't speaking because I'm kind of known as the face of striving fraternity and we're trying to change that and So the first speaker is one of our other speakers

Frank Mullis. We designed this this conference really about around his expertise We have another speaker

Anthony Anthony Silvestro He's not here because well when you have three speakers

And I think I got called for an event and when I wasn't available Frank got called and he wasn't available because we're both here so Anthony got called and he's out in Pennsylvania speaking right now at a

Basically doing an apologetics training with a whole bunch of college students They're going on to campuses during the day and he's training them at night

And they're actually using their spring break to evangelize other campuses that are not on spring break neat idea

So pastor Frank Mullis his introduction takes a while because he does too many things

He's a pastor of Devereux Baptist Church in Georgia He's also not only a full -time pastor.

He's a full -time counselor He's like I said one of Georgia's leading experts when it comes to sexual offenders

How many sexual offenders do you counsel like a month? Huh? 200 so if you want someone to pray you

I mean just think about listening and counseling 200 sexual offenders a month and thinking like You got to go home, and you have four daughters

Okay, so not only that like if that's not enough full -time jobs He you don't want to pick a fight with him because he also runs the

Milledgeville mixed martial arts Academy he's a black belt in karate and Jiu -jitsu

I could tell you for a fact you don't want to roll with him. I've been on the losing side of that I Could tell you it's a bad thing but Pastor Mollis has been a real blessing to our ministry he's got a lot of wealth of knowledge, and I think that what he's going to bring to you guys is not only a

Theological view of suffering and how to deal with it, but a very practical one and one with many years of counseling

So with that I'll ask if pastor Mollis wants to come on up So the real reason

I'm here is so I could say I spoke with Justin Peters at a conference That's really the really the main reason

So Andrew said hey, how would you like to speak to Justin with Justin Peters? I was like that'd be great.

What's the topic? He said suffering So Justin asked me so Frank we've spent about a year and a half since we've seen each other.

What's been going on? Well, I've had about 12 funerals Including two of my best friends

One died of ALS one of cancer My grandmother passed away two of my uncles

Year ago my counseling supervisor who was my mentor through Dealing with the sex offenders.

She was killed in a tragic car accident Leaving group one night. It was that night that I Next morning when

I found out I pretty much had a emotional breakdown because of dealing I really hadn't dealt with any death as a pastor you know what it's like you you put it all inside and just keep going and so Even More so recently

I've been dealing with some other personal issues I had a member of my family physically assaulted and then had to deal with a friend who

I've had to deal in legal issues, so it's been a build -up to suffering this last couple of weeks, so It was 1996 that I went to seminary and I Thought I was going to be a counselor youth minister sounded like a pretty pretty way to go

Thought hmm sounds pretty good about Three or four years into youth ministry.

I decided I couldn't relate to youth anymore So I decided I was going to go into the pastorate As a new pastor

I had spoken at my grandfather's both my grandfather's Funerals, but hadn't preached a funeral yet got a phone call from One of my church members and said that one of the boys in the church had drowned

So I immediately called the hospital to speak to their grandfather two of the boys had drowned

They had three sons the oldest son and the youngest son had Gone down to the lake where near where they lived and they were riding their bicycles on the dock the youngest boy

Fell off the end of the dock on his bicycle his brother jumped in after him their mother and father got to looking for them and Turned out that their dad was a

Navy rescue diver He immediately went to the lake figuring that's what happened. He jumped in Pulled out his oldest son

Proceeded to do CPR he came to and then he expired he went in and pulled out his other son

So they had left the hospital the parents and all I got to the house and I'd called my wife.

I said you need to come on home. I need you to go with me. It's gonna be tough So I got to the house We walked up to the door the mom comes running out and she looked at me and as a pastor of course in seminary

You think you're gonna have the right words to say what are you gonna say? And she's words come out of her mouth.

Why did God take my two sons? And I looked at her with all my theological knowledge and I said this

I don't know Don't know That's the question isn't why am

I suffering that is the theological question of why we here why does God allow me to suffer this

Question we hear as a pastor all the time when death grief trials tribulations. What whatever comes into your

Congregations life you want to be the one there to be able to answer that question Why does God allow me to suffer now?

We ask that question as The ancient question is there but it's a modern one.

We know that just like she was asking me She wanted to know we we want to have answers. It's on the street as Andrew he goes

We go out times there to Union Square there in New York as he goes that question always comes up I'm sure you have friends 9 -11 happened that was one of the number one questions

How in the world can God do this the Muslim their crisis that happened there in New Zealand today?

I'm sure that question is coming up How can God but you know what the Muslims are having to deal with that question just as much with their

God, right? So why is it that? The problem of reconciling an all -powerful all -loving

God with suffering that clearly exists in one of the main objections to Christianity Why is that because it's a tough one, let's just be honest we deal with it.

We struggle. It's Christians Something comes into our life God. Why? You know

Job Last half of the book of Job was Job asking questions Right. We we we asked that they hey

Jesus, but that tower that fell on all those people Jesus Jesus gave a quick answer.

Did he not? Better repent for it happens to you. I mean that was that's the simple that way

I mean Jesus just gave that was his theodicy right there, right? Doesn't work well with our friends though.

Does it? I'll try to clarify the questions a little bit provide some understanding and make some comparisons of some other

Explanations. I'm not the end -all be -all this I deal as Andrew dealt with I deal with a lot of a lot of suffering 200 sex offenders means

I have to deal with 200 plus victims most sex offenders have 12 or plus victims before they really get to us and I read a lot of the victim statements and see a lot of the horrors and There's a lot of depravity and sin and suffering that other people experience on the other end of the people

I counsel But not only that the people that counsel their childhoods are full of that same type of suffering as well and so we deal with this in all elements whether it's

Someone that we look at as as a depraved person that well They have their suffering too right and then the victims who have suffering and we have ours

You know Andrews cold for to him. That's that's pretty severe right man cold. It's got to be terrible, right?

So This is what helps me and it may help you when dealing with suffering theology matters

And and I want to this is my premise of this whole talk if you want to understand that your theology

Your theology will determine how you suffer Okay, so just understand your theology the depth of your theology will determine how you suffer so Many have a poor theology of suffering

Why because you're not supposed to suffer. This is your best life now You're supposed to be wealthy.

You're supposed to be healthy. This is the poor theology, right? So these people who are expecting their best life now

They're expecting to be healthy and wealthy and they can't figure out why in the world that faith healers wear glasses, right?

Okay And why Justin's never brought up on the stage at Benny Hinn's conference, right?

This is it. Don't you love the first law? God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life

It's what I was told as a Southern Baptist growing up. That was one of the spiritual laws But God may not have a wonderful plan for your life

That's the problem Justin. I were talking about that God's plan may not be wonderful for you God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

I love this means some restrictions do apply Especially if you were a

Christian in the Roman Empire, right? That's not what the Bible says

I Can't find it in the life of Stephen as you know, if you listen to the podcast with With Justin you can't find it in the life of Paul.

You can't find in life Stephen any of the Apostles, you know Even even John there then he was exiled, you know, so What does the

Bible say? It's not what the Bible says is is this look as believers? We must develop a sound theology of suffering.

That's it as a believer. You have to develop your theology of suffering Pause on that for a minute and think what is your theology of suffering?

What what what if you've developed as your theology of suffering is it based on Joel steam?

Is it based on the NAR? I mean, what is it based on? What has been your theological understanding of suffering throughout your life and What was your parents understanding of suffering?

How did they deal with suffering and I promise you you probably deal with problems very much in the same way

They did that's how that's where we learn If your church

Didn't teach much on suffering. Maybe you didn't develop a sound theology of suffering

It's my favorite peanuts little thing there You know It's amazing what sound theology will do, right?

First Thessalonians 4 15. This is the verse I like to go to when I preach funerals

But we do not want you to be uninformed dot dot dot there that you may not grieve what

As Others do what who are the others? He's speaking to believers so first and foremost your theology of suffering means

You should not react the same way as lost people do if you're a believer when suffering enters your life

It's what Paul's telling you what does he mean? I don't want you to be uninformed.

So in other words go to the scripture When suffering comes into your life and look and see what scripture has to say about what you're dealing with when you're going through suffering

So that you don't grieve as others who have what? No, hope now.

The question is Where is the hope? It's future glory

I mean our hope as Christians are in future glory not in the Now and now right

That that's that's the problem with most suffering is that we assume that this is it

This is our best life now and as many have said if this is your best life now, you're probably going to hell right

So what is a sound theology of suffering? There's four premises about suffering that you as a

Christian need to Need to grasp need to hold on to Need to memorize and the scriptures surrounding this and I'm giving you a couple of simple scriptures there.

There are several Obviously they could fit what I'm about to give you Why why these four premises because this is what atheists are going to come at you with when they attack the character of God The first premise is one as we said growing up God is great.

Remember that prayer. God is great. God is good. Well, the first one is look God is great He's all -powerful

Omnipotent as we call it in seminary The whole God is great and we know him not the number of his years is unsearchable and that's coming

From Job why the job is the book of suffering, right? So first premise is to understand that God is great

That has a lot of theological implications So first and foremost to understand the omnipotence and the greatness of God you understand who

God is and who you're not Really helps us understand premise one notice there.

This is a presuppositional argument. I'm making here I'm starting with scripture if you have scriptures your foundation and you believe that Scripture is not only inerrant and infallible, but is sufficient

You like to use that term sufficient because that is the weakness in the Southern Baptist Convention now Right.

It is sufficient you hold on to these verses and grasp them when you put them in your heart and Grasp them so that your mind has them number two.

God knows it all from beginning in it to the end Great is our

Lord notice that Psalm 147 5 great is our Lord. So it goes back to the greatness of God abundant in power

His understanding is beyond measure He knows so what you don't know about your suffering

God knows You understand how that that affects your suffering God knows what you are going through and as a

Calvinist he ordained it in such a way right But he knows

He's ever -present Premise three

God is good, and I'm not so whatever

I may think about suffering God is good and Jesus said to him.

Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone You know, of course

Jesus is not denying. He's not God there by the way. Just throw that out there God Is good the goodness of God wrap yourself around the goodness of God even in your suffering

Because I promise you it can get worse It can ask

Job It got worse Everything was going great for Peter until I'm sorry.

Everything's going great for Stephen until Paul showed up, right? You understand

Things go well for a while and it doesn't mean they necessarily gonna get better things could get worse

But trust God and his goodness premise for God is not the author of evil

Now let no one say when I'm tempted. I'm being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one first John 1 5

God is light and in him is no darkness So, why is it that we first of all like my church member

Why did God I didn't know?

now There are things as a pastor. You don't ever say

You just don't to people in your congregation in regards to some things that happen in tragedies

You do tell your children so the two young boys

They were told by their mom and dad not to go to the lake that morning They had gone a couple times before Down and they were riding their bikes to see how close they could get to the edge before they would topple in So mom and dad had told them not to go to the lake that morning.

They disobeyed their mom and dad They went to the lake and one of them drowned Now theologically

I could have said to the mom. Well, let me explain to you why they died for the wages of sin is death One of the commandment says that you are to obey your mother and father and that your life will be long upon the earth if you

Do so and obviously your children disobeyed you and their life was ended shortly as scripture came to pass

That wouldn't help mom that day. I would have been packing my bags and on my way back to Georgia, right?

But I promise you my children have heard that story about look what happens What can happen if you disobey mom and dad when they tell you not to go down to the lake?

Right But notice she didn't immediately think about the sinfulness of her children that day

The first person she attacked was God Why did God? 9 -11 why did

God? Every other bad thing in the world that happens is why is it God's character and why in the world do atheists attack?

God's character if there's no God Right. So it's it's always about God That's why because they know there's a

God has written on his heart Romans tells us that they know but they want to attack his character But we as Christians you understand what

God's character is through these four premises and your view of suffering will change

Develop a strong understanding of theology proper and who God is So with these sound truths locked in our hearts

Let's continue on and look at this in a little bit more of a theological way The term you need to know as you mature as a

Christian is the term theodicy, okay The term theodicy you will not learn that term unless you study theology or go to seminary

It's just a it's the problem of evil people That's what it is. We seminarians like to use these big words to make us look smart after all that money we spent

It's defending God's goodness in light of the evil and suffering in this life Look even for the

Christian we know you wouldn't be here if you understood and had a hey, maybe you're just curious I don't know, but we're here for this reason to understand it a little bit more.

So even for the believing Christian, there's no Greater test of our faith and when we go through when we suffer

So why does God allow his creatures and even his children to suffer?

Well as we come to this, let's define evil There seems to be two types of evil in the world that is moral evil and that's the evil we as human beings do originates

Cruel and unjust vicious pervase thoughts and deeds Then we have of course natural evil.

That's the evil originates as we call in the insurance business, right? They call it the acts of God earthquakes storms droughts tornadoes, etc

Why in the world? Are these two types of evil exists? Well, let's talk about moral evil

Evil caused by human beings. For example, I deal with these people every one of them you see up there

I deal with on a weekly basis. I have murderers. I have liars. I have thieves have greedy and dishonest people along with rapists and child molesters and and child pornographers and Sex slave traffickers

That I deal with on a weekly basis. I see moral evil constantly. I Deal with moral evil constantly.

It's not it's not we turn on the TV. We see moral evil It's not like it's hard for us to understand moral evil

This one is the natural evil we deal with is the bad weather now if you've ever hydroplaned

And almost died like I did and then years ago had to do some counseling for that by the way animal attacks famine disease birth defects disabilities all of these things are natural evil and So on both sides of the table

We are constantly inundated as Christians with moral evil when someone does something to a member of your family or congregations family

You deal with it or when the tornado hits and as we as Christians we go and do

Relief and things like that. So we're we're on both sides of the picture and we see both sides of it and guess what?

It's not any different They still attack God So the question is is why does

God? Why does God? It's an old question epicurious

Life is good Well, if that's the way life is supposed to be Something's quite wrong, right because it doesn't seem to be that way, but look if you live a life

If you live a life in the belief that your mindset your presupposition is Life is supposed to be good

This is my best life now When something tragic comes into your life

You are going to feel really bad Because this is what epicurious

Thought life was supposed to be good. So when bad things happen He attacked look not the

God of the Bible just some God This is the question notice what they attack

They attack God's power his greatness. They attack his goodness

It's my level then why in the world's are evil If God is so great and God is so good why in the world is there evil that's epicurious

Then there's Leibniz You ever read Voltaire rape of the lock if I remember correctly there was this

Can't remember the doctor's name in the book. You think of it throw it at me But Leibniz made fun of him all through his book or I'm sorry

Voltaire made fun of Leibniz all through the book with this doctor So everywhere this doctor went something bad happened and the doctor would say hey, this is the best of all possible worlds

You know isn't get syphilis his nose falls off You know, there's a flood the

Lisbon flood comes in and I was the best of all possible worlds And so that's his well If this is the best all possible worlds and what in the world

God must not be all -powerful and all -knowing all good because there's bad things in this world God could have done better Charles Darwin Same thing it's a revolt to the understanding that God would allow evil

David Hume takes the same question He's willing to prevent it

He's not able then he's not omnipotent or he is impotent basically

If he is able but not willing then he is malevolent If he is both and willing then he's just playing out why in the world.

It's the same question There's an attack on the character of God by all the philosophers by all the atheists

Hans Kuhn. He says the same thing about Auschwitz What about Hitler?

God but what about Hitler? Look problem of evil and philosophy returns basically refers to the argument

From evil against the existence of God his three characteristics all -powerful all -knowing all good That's it

That's the basis of every attack that you're going to come across as a believer It would someone comes up to you and they ask you these questions

They're going to attack these three areas of the nature and character of God So theologically this is where you need to spend time when you deal with suffering is

Learn as much as you can about what scripture has to say about the omnipotence of God The knowledge of God and the goodness of God and the more you develop a theological

Understanding of the character of God the more you will learn to know what God does and what

God does not do So there are three versions of the problem of evil put forth basically by atheists and by the philosophers

The first one is this all -powerful all -good all -knowing God evil exists in other words if there's a

God wise or bad Well scripture explains that in the very beginning So why does the world attack

Genesis first? Why don't we go from you know? The primary idea of creation and our evolution is the primary thing

Anthony Silvestro and his seminars he will tell you exactly why the book of Genesis is one of the most attacked books in all of the

Bible because Most everything that we know about God and man starts out there

And explains exactly why So the problem of evil that blue didn't show up too.

Well, but version two all -powerful all -good all -knowing God Large amounts extreme and horrendous kinds of perplexing distributions of evil exist.

So they start pointing out What about this? What about so they give you situational ethics?

That's what situational ethics are and those are the ones that confound us Well, what about this in this circumstance and post -modernism has moved from the idea of logic to our feelings?

It's brother and I were talking about feelings Right if I can get you to feel instead of think you're more likely to side with me

Take you away from the logic of Scripture. I'm writing a book called

God doesn't care how you feel It'll be out next year No, I mean is he cares about your thinking and how you think and logically thinking through look suffering makes us feel it

Makes us feel and we push those thoughts away. It's hard for us to think when we feel bad

When we're hurting it's hard for us to think logically. I Dealt with something this week that I never thought

I would have to deal with and I literally had to call several friends of mine and ask them if I was crazy

Couple of them said you were crazy to start with But in reality I Was thinking and not feeling that's why

I was dealing with it differently than they were They couldn't understand why

I was angry Why I was not wrathful But they were because they were feeling it.

They didn't think about it in the same way. I did and That's why when we deal with evil in this world and we deal with problems and we deal with circumstances

If we get on that feeling level, it's very easy to get angry at God Get mad at God God you're you're the reason

I'm here Well on a providential level. Yes, that's true And I'm not saying you can't question

God. This has been one of the debates I've been having with people this week is look Job questioned God. Did he not?

David questioned God. Did he not? Moses questioned God. Did he not they weren't tempting

God? Hey, you're right. They questioned Jesus, too It didn't seem like God got angry

It seemed like God kind of began to show them that he was God Be careful that your questioning doesn't turn into tempting or become angry

Toward God, so there's three versions again version three all -powerful all -good all -knowing

God Gratuitous and pointless evil exists

Yes, I have counseled people. Why'd you do it? I was a good Because I wanted to because they were there.

I don't know why just did it It's tough.

I We understand I Promise you I've dealt with this is 15 starting 15 years in October will be that I've dealt with this type of counseling

I've done and I Know more than I did, but I don't know everything

And I'm still deemed an expert in court only because I know more than the judge most of the time

Or more than their lawyer most of the time but but it There's just some things you cannot explain about human behavior.

It's very unpredictable All of our behavior is unpredictable because there's something within us called sin

So here's the challenge we face as Christians And all -powerful all -good all -loving all -knowing

God exists evil exists extreme and horrendous evil exists and gratuitous pointless evil exists

So let's talk about some of the cheap solutions that people like to give Philosophy likes to give us some cheap solutions religions like to give us cheap solutions

So here's one The Christian science gives us evils and illusion Mary Baker Edie she's still dead

Jim Henson he's still dead Evil's not real.

It's an illusion Reality proves this to be false

It really does Because you know why lost people use the term evil

Atheists like to use the term evil They call it the problem of evil.

I Love how Sproul responds. It's the problem of good. It's easy to figure out why there's evil, but why is there good?

Another cheap solution This is a strange when God hears the whole sympathy and it's good and harmonious

We only hear a few Few of the sounds we're so far renewed from hearing the symphony.

We don't really understand it What good is your conscience?

What good your conscience? Scripture says

God's ways are higher than our ways That's why there's evil.

We you know It's true What seems like evil is not really evil because God's hands in it

It's not what scripture says we like to take that verse in Romans all things work together for good

And we like to make that into evil is good woe to those who call evil good right

We are in his image and we are in his likeness and we understand the difference between good and evil we do

We are moral creatures We know It's written on our hearts

Romans 1 says so They suppress it in their unrighteousness All's well that ends well case or a sera

It'll work out in the end So I was teaching school several years ago, and I was talking a world religion class and one of my students says

Went through all these things and it's made me the person I am I said, that's wonderful Too bad you weren't beaten and you know all terrible things happen to you, you know along the way

You probably wouldn't think so much about that We can't have an ethic at all well in well as Christians, it's not gonna work

Future good justifying brutal murders premature deaths Things of that nature we can we can try to try to put that into a perspective

We can even rationalize abortion and those types of things because it lowered the crime rate This is my favorite one.

The devil made me do it. I hear that a lot in group Angels are responsible.

The devil made me do it Didn't God make them and aren't they subject to God's power too? So you still stuck with that love

Martin Luther's line He's the guy he's God's devil, right? Ask Job And I say this this is my quote the devil gets blamed for a lot of stuff.

He didn't do because We are depraved

Lot of evil rise from human action. So God should not be blamed did not

God make Hitler and Stalin and your scripture talking about raising up the governments and raising up the leaders and There's that whole thing about an

Egyptian Pharaoh there in Romans. I Just like this meme I throw it in here.

How do you make everyone in your country happy? Well, you kill everyone that's unhappy right

Why does God allow so much suffering? Let's let's get to my presuppositional arguments here I think there's nine of them.

Number one. Some suffering is for God's glory John 9 1 through 3 the

Jews basically believe that your physical illness was a result of Your parents sin

Justin What do you think? That'd be a negative

But look what it says Not this man sinned or his parents but that the works of God might be displayed in him

Justin Peters Shows glory to God every day I'm so amazed by him.

I'm so in awe of him and he hates me saying that that's what I love about him, too

That's why I said it Some suffering produces joy

For his anger is but for a moment in his favor for a lifetime weeping may tarry for the night But joy comes with the morning

Hey, don't you love it when the bad things over and you're rejoicing the next day. Thank goodness.

That test is over No pain, no gain is how he would say it, right?

Some suffering produces joy Some suffering can produce rejoicing now

I rejoice in who what is this is Paul, right in my suffering for your sake

And in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body

That is the church. In other words. I'm going through this suffering for you and I bring rejoice that if I'm suffering and that is for the sake of the gospel, then

I'll suffer whatever I need to suffer All suffering works for your good if you love

God and are called according to his purpose. Let's finish that verse Does not say that all things are good

Says is working let me Throw this out there and we know that all things work for Those who hate

God all things work together for your damnation for those who aren't according called according to his purpose

That verse is for believers people That's a long one and it's small and you can look it up.

Hopefully you got your Bibles. I Think this is what

Andrew was talking about endurance and perseverance there and all that problems that came with that Some suffering produces endurance

What do I mean by that? Look if you've ran a 5k before which

I never have and never will But I'm quite sure the next time you run it. It won't be so bad

You understand when you've gone through something and it comes back around you go.

You know what I made it through last time I can make it through this time hey, brother,

I Went through the same thing you can make it I did and I know you're stronger than I am

Hey, I know you're weaker than I am But you know what? I'm gonna be there with you and I'm gonna help you through this because I got through it this way

You don't go through it alone either Suffering is gracious in the sight of the

Lord But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure this is the gracious thing in the sight of God notice what he says and Suffer for the goodness and suffer for it you endure means you go through it.

It's gracious in the sight of the Lord Why because Christ also suffered for you?

again believers Christ suffered for you in ways that are unimaginable and For you who were yet sinners he died for you

There were seven You're blessed when you suffer you can go to beatitudes and see that first Peter for But rejoicing so far as you share

Christ's offerings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed The love do not be surprised.

You see that's the thing. It's Frohls book surprised by suffering, right? Why because they thought this was their best life now

It shouldn't surprise you Peter tells you that Jesus said that when you go, right?

Hey Christians, you're going to suffer You're going to it's a promise

Don't be surprised it's what Peter's telling us It's why you need a good sound theology of suffering

Suffering is just a part of life people My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra Which persecutions

I endured yet from them all the Lord rescued me indeed all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will what?

It's a part of your life as a Christian. It's going to come and Guess what?

There are people in your life Who are looking at you and they know you're a

Christian and they've gone through things and it was really hard and they're waiting to see and I you know, there's some missionary stories that are out there, you know about how the witch doctors killed the missionaries

You know poison the missionaries and watched how they dealt with the suffering. Don't know if those are true Let me tell you people are watching how you suffer as a

Christian Remember, we don't suffer as others. We don't grieve as others as Those who have no hope

Understand it's a part of life. You're gonna deal with it Hey number nine.

I stopped with this premise here We'll move on to a couple of things God is in control of suffering from beginning to end

Job 121 to 210 Lord gives the

Lord takes away. Bless me the name of the Lord. I Love that But he said to her he's a

King James, but he said to he said woman can't get away with that anymore Right Woman one of those foolish women would speak

Shall we receive good and shall we not receive evil? in other words

The Lord gives the Lord takes away in other words. Are you going to rejoice and praise

God? when he gives you this best life now and Then are you going to question him and argue with him and fight him and Telling that he's he's he's needs to go away

That if he's really good if he's really all -knowing is really powerful. Why in the world am I having to go through this

God? But yeah, I was really happy over here He is in control

It's one of the things I love about Reform faith is the sovereignty of God is at the centerpiece

Knowing that I am NOT the one steering the boat through the storm

Remember the disciples they were all there They're panicking. There's Jesus asleep

It's not like he hadn't done some amazing things before that storm got there. I Jesus not so worried.

Maybe if Jesus had been worried. I would have probably been really worried, right? But he wasn't he was asleep

Now, I'm not saying Jesus is asleep during your suffering But what I'm saying is he's not surprised either

He's there with you We have a friend closer than a brother We are his friends.

We are reconciled. We are made right? We wear his robe of righteousness He loves you

In the storm, he loves you as you're suffering What's going on in your mother's life or your father's life as they're dealing with cancer my mother she had colon surgery last night

God made it through and I was sitting there going God Don't really need something else right now.

No She went and went through amazing But he's in control

So here are my go -to answers Amazing grace, right

I Have reason to praise him for my trials for most probably

I should have been ruined without them. I Was bragging

Have four daughters so I could use that for the reason I suffer But I've had

I've I've been blessed With four amazing daughters three of them have come to faith in Christ Pray for the youngest my number one prayer that I've always prayed for my children is

God protect them from the evil one That has been mine I said if that's something

Jesus prayed for his children, I'll pray that for my children Hadn't had any boy problems.

I Wish I'd never said that The last two months

I've dealt with some serious issues with my oldest daughter not anything she's done but People who have come after her and I Thank God.

He did protect her from the evil one because it could have been a lot worse Now I'm able now to go through that and look back and now

I'm have a little compassion and understanding I guess in a different area of my life Sometimes those troubles that come into your life

They're for a reason and a purpose so that you're going to be able to counsel with someone a little bit better Misanthropy this is that word that You hear it's the big theological word for you

In other words, why do bad things happen to good people? You know the answer to this

Sproul said that straight There are no good people

It's the easiest it's easy as answer that only happened once and he volunteered

That's the answer as soon as I why there's no good people I'll say that my group is easy.

So my answer why there's no good people look around the room millet

Erickson he was Theologian he was one of my professors main theologians said anyone who would impugn the goodness of God It's allowing sin and consequently evil must measure that charge against the teaching of Scripture that God himself

Became the victim of evil so that he and we might be victors over evil He Became sin

Who knew no sin he who was good became evil for us

This was another one I Use this one a lot So you're willing to get rid of all evil in the world.

Yeah Why does it God get rid of all the evil in the world? I said, do you believe people are evil? Yes, they're evil people So what if God killed you?

Are you really really for God to get rid of it? I Go, wait a minute.

I'm not so bad Do we really want him to get rid of evil right just snap the finger and evil go

There'll be a lot of people in your life missing tomorrow be like Thanos, right Andrew had no clue what that joke was about So here's the

Christian response, let's let's follow it up If God is all -powerful, yes, he can defeat evil.

We know that God is all -loving and good.

He will defeat evil. We do know that he will defeat it Therefore evil will be defeated in God's own time and way

God is sovereign. God is in control and we know it is the hope

That's why we react and respond differently to evil because of hope Because there is a day coming revelation 21 for is there not

That he is going to wipe away all of our tears and All the death that we've had endured and those

Christian friends of mine who passed away. I will see again and There will be no mourning and there will be no more crying nor there will be any pain and I will get to dance with Justin right?

I Don't know Right For the former things are gone evil is gone.

That's what is telling us That is the hope of glory Hey, and by the way revelation 20 look where evil is going.

They're going to another place and they're gonna be annihilated They are going to be justly

Tormented day and night forever and ever That's where evil is going. So here's the thing.

What should we do? First respond differently than the lost do Respond differently than the lost do we as Christians around the world?

They want to get rid of us Good luck when disaster strikes Your hospital a lot of your hospitals are going to close a lot of your orphanages are going to close a lot of your women's shelters are going to close a

Lot of your counseling clinics are going to close Because we respond differently as Christians Use your suffering as an opportunity to show empathy

You reach out to those people who are going through things that you have gone through And this one show compassion to those who are suffering

Be compassionate That couple with the two kids that died

It's my first funeral ever preached second funeral

I preached was Was a man who committed suicide The third funeral

I preached was a man's son who was in prison who had died in prison and his daughter

Four year old daughter all during the funeral kept saying where's daddy? Where's daddy? Right But with that first family

I Was there with them at their home? I? Was there with them at the funeral home?

I would preach the funeral. I was there with them after Didn't understand didn't know

Why God took their voice? Didn't matter Didn't matter why

God did it But I knew that I had to be there and show compassion and empathy and love

That's our calling. That's our goal As Christians when we suffer is to react respond differently

And when we're going through it, we're riding through the storm trusting in God's Power his goodness his love his knowledge

That we're going to make it through and guess what even if we don't our best life is not now it's in the future

Let's pray Father I thank you for your kindness and your goodness and your mercy. I Pray for Justin as he comes next and he exposes the scripture.