Sermons on Suffering
God is looking for ordinary, regular people who realize that they are not able to serve God without His intervention and help. They know that they cannot succeed without His power at work in and through them. As Oswald Chambers said, “All through history God has chosen and used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique display of his power and grace. He chose and used sombodies only when they renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources.”
We cannot forget that there is immeasurable power behind the message of the Gospel! The same power that was at work in Philippi is the same power that is at work in and through us. There is power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be careful not to box God in by our cynicism and lack of faith. Our faith in God rests in the power of the gospel—“for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17).
Hell is the absence of God and every good thing that His presence brings to this world. If hell is the absence of God, then it is also the absence of everything good—joy, pleasure, laughter, music, art, food, water, etc. Can you imagine? God patiently offers us the free gift of eternal life with Him, but when man exercises his free will and chooses not to follow God’s plan, then his choice has determined his fate. John 3:17-18 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Philosophy professor, Ronald Nash, states, “Every philosopher believes that the most serious challenge to theism was, and is, and will continue to be the problem of evil.” This is the issue that we hope to address this morning—“If God is good, why is there so much pain, and suffering, and evil in the world?” Another philosopher, David Hume, poses the problem of evil and sufferance in this way. He says, “Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able to but not willing? Then his is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Why then is there evil?”