SLIDES

Why Bad Things Happen to People

(Part 2)

During our last lesson we began to discuss some of the reasons why bad things happen to people. Why do people experience pain, suffering, and problems.

The first reason people experience pain, suffering, and problems is because of bad decisions they make that have negative consequences.

The consequences of Adam and Eve choice to sin were horrific and brought pain and suffering into the world that continue until today. The following are some of these consequences:

·  Physical death

·  Spiritual death

·  The serpent was cursed.

·  There would be hostility between Satan and the woman, Israel.

·  There would be hostility between the Messiah and the anti-messiah

·  The Messiah would defeat Satan.

·  Satan would temporally defeat the Messiah.

·  Women would have pain in childbirth.

·  Men and women would work hard to survive and earn a living.

·  Growing food and other things would be difficult.

We also looked at illustrations from the lives of Abraham, King Saul, and King David about their making bad or unwise decisions that brought pain and suffering to themselves, to their families, and to others.

Each of us has made bad decisions that resulted in negative consequences. We, also, as believers, sin against a Holy God which may bring discipline from Him in many forms.

The second reason people experience pain, suffering and problems is because the LORD uses them to draw lost people to Himself for salvation.

People suffer all through life and usually have many problems.  They have problems with their marriages, homes, cars, jobs, children, relatives, neighbors, taxes, finances, physical bodies, etc. It does not matter if you are rich or poor.  Usually at the end of life is when most people suffer mentally and physically. Their bodies are old, worn out, and many times racked with pain.

Help! The Beatles

o  

Help! I need somebody
Help! Not just anybody
Help! You know I need someone
Help!

When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round+
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me?

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways
My independence seems to vanish in the haze
But every now and then I feel so insecure
I know that I just need you like I've never done before

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down

And I do appreciate you being 'round

Help me get my feet back on the ground

Won't you please, please help me?

 The Lord can use the problems of life to include pain and suffering to help people come to the realization that they need Him for everything in life and death. Some people come to the realization that this life is not all that we have to live for. After hearing the gospel sometime during their lifetime, they come to the realization that they must trust Jesus to remove their sins so peace can come into their lives and so they can live in the presence of God after death. However, some never come to this realization until after they die. Then it’s too late.

I know an individual who walked the aisle of a church when he was a child. He thought he was saved. After both children of this individual had medical problems and one almost died, this person came to the realization that he was lost because he had not really trusted in Jesus as a child. He trusted Christ and was baptized not long after that. This is a very common story with people who walked the aisle as a child and then come to the realization they are lost. However, there are still those who walked the isle as a child and have a false sense of security.

Many people who are saved came to the LORD because of pain, suffering, sickness, and adversity in their lives.

The third reason people experience pain, suffering, and problems is

because the LORD uses them to encourage and persuade believers to return to Him for fellowship.  

Most believers at some time or another during their Christian life get out of fellowship with the Lord. Years ago, this used to be called backsliding.

This word is found 12 times in the KJV and 3 times in the NASB in the Old Testament.  Because of different reasons, believers stray and wander away from the LORD as a sheep wanders or strays away from the shepherd and the flock. They usually become disobedient and insensitive to the things of God. When this happens, the shepherd is responsible for bringing them back to the flock. Jesus brings the sheep that belong to Him back to His flock of believers. God many times helps believers realize through pain, suffering, and problems that are out of fellowship with Him and need to return. Let ‘s look at one man who strayed from God and how God used suffering and affliction to bring him back.

Psalm 119:67, 71, 75

  67        Before I was afflicted I went astray,

But now I keep Your word.

  71       It is good for me that I was afflicted,

That I may learn Your statutes.

  75        I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous,

And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

The Lord used affliction in the life of David to help him return to Him and to be obedient to the Torah. David called God faithful. God knew what was best for David and He knows what is best for us today, Affliction helps to bring believers back to Him.  The way we come back into fellowship with God is to confess our sins (1 John 1:9) and to repent i.e., to change direction. If you are out of fellowship with Jesus, consider Ruth Harms Calkin’s experience with sin, confession, and repentance in her book, Lord, It Keeps Happening and Happening.

O God

You have driven me into a corner

Where I cannot escape.

I come to You penitently

For I’ve sinned grievously.

I have betrayed my highest ideals.

I have been false to my inner convictions.

I know I have broken your heart.

Thank you for dealing with me.

In the privacy of Your personal Presence

For my sin has been agonist You alone.

Cleanse me.

Sin is so hideous, so outrageous!

Renew me until I am spiritually contagious.

There once was a shepherd in Israel that had a lamb that continued to leave the flock day after day. The shepherd would continually have to spend his valuable time away from the entire flock to go after the disobedient lamb.  After many, many days of being patient with the lamb, the shepherd brought him back to the flock and broke his leg. After the lamb's leg was healed, he never left the flock again.  As matter of fact, he was much closer to the shepherd and never left his presence.  The lamb depended on the shepherd for everything after that and was obedient to his commands. The Lord may work in our lives like this sometimes.

Jesus is the good shepherd of those who believe in Him for eternal life. Sometimes Jesus allows us to have pain, sorrow, and problems to bring us back to him in obedience. If you are having pain, suffering, and problems because you have strayed from Him and have been disobedient, return to Him today by confessing your sins and repenting.

Questions and Comments

The fourth reason believers experience pain, suffering, and problems is so that they will be equipped to comfort those who are suffering.

We all have experienced suffering, heartache, and trials. We have just discussed that suffering and bad things happening to us might result in our being saved or being brought back into fellowship with God. Now Paul will explain to us that our suffering might result in our comforting someone who is also suffering.

2 Corinthians 1:2-3

   3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

   4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort…

Please notice that God is to be blessed. Usually, we think of God blessing us not us blessing Him. The word blessing literally means “to speak highly of” or “to celebrate with praises.” Basically, it is a synonym for the word praise. God is be praised because the Father is the God of mercies and all comfort. He is the source of all mercies and compassion. To me this is one of the most intriguing set of verses in Scripture as we shall see.

The LORD is compassionate and gives comfort to believers who are hurting, but it does not end there. The word "comfort" (paraklēseōs) means to be by the side of another; to relieve and support; to give solace, consolation, encouragement, and to help lift one’s spirit. This is the same word that is used for the Holy Spirit when Jesus said He would send the Comforter when He returned to heaven. Paul used the word comfort nine times in this passage of Scripture that we will read shortly.

One purpose for God comforting us during our afflictions and suffering is so that we might comfort others who have afflictions and who are suffering. This comfort that we receive from God is not simply for our personal relief; it is shared with us that we might be able to help others. Just as spiritual gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit are not intended solely for the recipients' benefit but are to be used in turn for the service of others, particularly in the Body of Christ, so is pain and suffering.  Peter in 1 Peter 4:10 instructs us concerning our spiritual gift(s).

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

So, comfort received from God enables believers to comfort others. The comfort of God is channeled through people (Acts 9:10-19; 2 Cor. 7:6) and by means of prayer (2 Corinthians 1:11). As I said a few minutes ago, in verses 3-7 Paul used the word comfort nine times Let’s now read verses 5-7.

2 Corinthians 1:5-7

   5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

   6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer;

   7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

Paul now transitions from talking about God the Father giving comfort to the believer to God the Son giving comfort to the believer. Just as Jesus experienced an abundance of suffering, so do believers. He can comfort us who suffer. Since Jesus comforted us in our suffering, we can comfort others.

Today most believers who live in the United States have not suffered like Jesus nor Paul suffered for their faith, at least not yet. However, we live in post-Christian America. Christians suffering for their faith is on the rise numerically and in degree of suffering. Both will continue to increase. Our suffering has been different. We all share in suffering. Our suffering is usually related to health, finances, and relational problems., etc. When we suffer, have trials and hardships, the LORD comforts us so that we can turn around and comfort others.

Put another way, Paul teaches the wonderful truth that a Christian's affliction brings a double blessing: first, to the individual believer, and then to others. We as Christians ought to be willing to endure trials, since we know they bring spiritual good to us personally, and blessings to others as we share God's comfort with them.

One day Commissioner Frederick Booth-Tucker of the Salvation Army was preaching in Chicago when a man stepped out of the crowd and said to him before the entire crowd, “Booth-Tucker, you can talk about how Chart is dear to you; but if your wife were dead as my wife is, and you had babies crying at home for their mother, you couldn’t say what you are saying.” A few days later Booth-Tucker lost his lovely wife in a tragic train accident. Her body was returned to Chicago for the funeral. As the service concluded, the husband took his place at the casket and said, “The other day when I was preaching in the city, a man said that if my wife were dead, I could not say Christ was sufficient. If that man is here, I would tell him Christ is sufficient! My heart is crushed, bleeding, and broken. But there is a song in my heart, and Christ put it there. The Savior speaks comfort to me today.”  The man was present, and on hearing that, he came down the aisle and trusted in Christ as his Savior.

How many times have you cried out to God because you had an important and pressing need in the area of finances, health, or relationships with family or friends.? After you cried out to God, He answered your prayer by meeting your need. You were so thankful that God met your need, and you praised Him for that.  However, after God graciously met your need, you had an opportunity and the means to help someone who also had a need, but you did not help in any way. We are all guilty of that very thing. Most, if not all of us, have done that. This kind of thing reminds me of James 2:15-17.  

       15  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of 

                 daily food,

       16  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and

                 be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary                

                 for their body, what use is that?

       17  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

As believers in Jesus, we should be more sensitive to the needs of others, particularly to brothers and sisters in Christ. There are times in the lives of believers when God brings needs, pain, suffering, disappointment to us so we can turn around and comfort others who are experiencing needs, pain, suffering, and disappointment.

To sum up our lesson today:

The reasons people experience pain, suffering, and problems are:

1.    Because of bad decisions they make that have negative consequences.

2. Because the LORD uses them to draw lost people to Himself for salvation.

3.    Because the LORD uses them to encourage and persuade believers to return to Him for fellowship.  

4. Because they help equip believers to comfort those who are suffering. 

SELAH!

  Questions or Comments