God & Suffering
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
The following establishes a biblical theology of suffering grounded in God's absolute sovereignty and omnipotence. Rejecting the shallow, transactional tenets of prosperity theology, the text emphasizes that God utilizes tragedy for the ultimate good and purification of His saints. Pastoral application demands relational depth—offering quiet, steadfast presence rather than unsolicited theological rationalizations in moments of acute grief.
Core Theological & Pastoral Themes:
Divine Sovereignty Over Suffering: God orchestrates and filters every event—including the machinations of Satan and natural disasters—to accomplish His unsearchable purposes.
The Heresy of Prosperity Theology: Suffering is not definitively linked to a lack of faith or hidden sin; such accusations mirror the rebuked counsel of Job’s friends.
The Sufficiency of God's Presence: The resolution to human grief is not intellectual satisfaction, but a deeper revelation of God's character, goodness, and wisdom.
Relational Depth in Crises: The church must prioritize compassionate, incarnational presence over doctrinal dissertations when comforting the brokenhearted.
Sermon Transcript
Introduction to Job and the Reality of Suffering
That brings us to the book of Job. The last several weeks we have been reading through Job, and today is going to be an overview of the whole book. It's some 40 chapters long. It's a longer book of the Bible. And I want to give you an overview of it and pull out some lessons from it.
It is, I think, one of the most important books in the Bible. And the message that it contains, and the truth that it contains, is something that every Christian needs to understand, needs to know, because of the things that we will face—all of us, we will face in our lives. The book of Job speaks to that.
And so what we're going to do this morning, just this way of beginning this book, is we're going to read the first chapter. The first chapter really helps us orient in the story and sets up the rest of the book for us. And so if you would stand with me this morning, the first chapter is about 22 verses, so it's not super long. And it will very much help us in our understanding of the message of this book.
Job 1:1-22 (ESV)
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came anotherand said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
Father, we do thank you for your word. It is precious to us. You've given it to us to illuminate our path, to help us understand the world in which we live. God, without your word, we are in darkness. Without your word, we are stumbling. Without your word, we cannot understand the events of our world or the events of our life. But your word shines into our darkness. It pierces our hearts with the truth. It illuminates for us the path of righteousness. It shows us and points us to the only hope that we have, the gospel of your Son. Lord, as we spend time looking at this all-important book, help me to deliver your word to your people, and may it be profitable to their lives, in the advancement of your kingdom. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
The Affliction of Job and the Folly of His Friends
You may be seated. As I said, I think Job is one of the most important books of the Bible because it speaks into the most sensitive areas of our lives. The book of Job meets us at our most critical moments. The book of Job meets us at that place when in our lives, there is a disaster that strikes. When in our lives, there is tragedy, there is suffering. The book of Job touches our lives in the times when we are most vulnerable, when we are the weakest, and it serves to strengthen us in those times when we are the most weak.
The theme of this book is the theme of God and suffering. How are we to understand the pain of life, the sufferings that we endure, in relation to God who is in heaven? What part does God play in the suffering that we endure in this life? And all of us truly, all of us, will experience in our lives difficulty, hardship, pain, loss, grief, death, and suffering. Not a one of us will make it through this life without days like we've just read.
Now, the book of Job and Job's situations are very pronounced. It's told in such a way to draw out just the catastrophic circumstances, the greatness of the loss he endured. But truly, there are times in all of our lives where we feel like our whole life has collapsed. Where we feel like the future that we thought was going to happen, it becomes apparent to us that future is gone. And what do we do in those moments? And what does that say about God who is in heaven?
Job suffered great losses. He lost his property. He lost his wealth, he lost his possessions. He even lost his own children. And yet, how does Job respond? It tells us that Job responded by worshiping the Lord. He tore his robe, he shaved his head, he fell on the ground. He grieved and he worshipped. He worshipped, and he grieved. The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
But as the story continues, Job's losses don't end here. If we continue reading into chapter 2, Satan again goes to the Lord, and the Lord is seated on his throne in heaven, and the Lord says to Satan again, "Hey, have you considered my servant Job? You said he would curse me to my face, but you took everything from him and yet still he worships me. Still, he has not cursed me. Still, he maintains his integrity."
And Satan says to God, "Yes, of course, but you're still protecting his health. Take his health from him and he will curse you to your face." And Satan then gives God permission to take Job's health, to take everything from him but the breath in his lungs. And so Satan comes and he afflicts Job with this incredible disease. It says, from the sole of his feet to the top of his head, he is afflicted with these skin lesions, these boils, these sores. He's just laying in agony and grief and pain. You can't even get up. It says, to comfort himself, he would take a broken piece of pottery to lance his boils, so the pus could alleviate the pressure. It's very graphic.
He loses everything, including his health, and in this state, it says, his wife comes to him. His wife, who, no doubt, was grieving herself, having just buried her own ten children. And she comes to Job and she says, "Are you still going to worship God? Are you still going to maintain your integrity before God?" She says, "What are you doing? Just curse God and die." These are the words of a grieving mother who has lost everything.
But Job responded to her, "Those are foolish words," he says. "Stop talking so foolishly. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" Again, it says, in all this, Job did not sin with his lips.
Job does not curse God and die. And also, Job doesn't run from God. As the story continues to unfold, what Job does is he runs to God. He runs to God with his pain, with his grief, with his questions, with his confusion, with his emotional state that is all up and down. He runs to God with all of it. And if you've read the book of Job, if you read it with us this week, and you're thinking, "You know what? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense." Yeah, sometimes grief doesn't make sense. Sometimes when we are hurting so much, the words out of our mouth don't make a lot of sense. But Job takes all of that to the Lord. Yes, his emotions are all over the place. Rightfully so. But the direction he takes it—he doesn't run from God, he doesn't curse God, he runs to God with his grief and with his questions.
And in his grief, the story continues that he has three friends who come to comfort him. The Bible says they come to comfort him. And the reason why there's a handful of people laughing is because they know that when these friends come, they do not comfort him. What these friends do is they come, and they, instead, accuse Job. They say, "Job, the reason this has happened to you is because you have hidden sin in your life. You must have hidden sin in your life. Why else is God afflicting you so badly? If you were truly a righteous man, God wouldn't treat you this way."
But the book began by telling us no, Job, in fact, was a righteous man. He was a man who feared God. Of course, he wasn't a perfect man. There's only one perfect man, it's Jesus Christ. But he was godly. He sought the Lord; when there was sin in his life, he made sacrifices. When his own children sinned, he made sacrifices for them. He loved the Lord. He served the Lord. He kept the Lord's commandments. Job did not have hidden sin in his life, and yet, for nearly 40 chapters, Job's friends accuse him. "Confess your sin. Surely you've done this. Surely you did this, maybe it was this, maybe it was that," and they lay out all manner of sin that they accused Job of having hidden in his life. And Job says, "None of those things. I don't understand why God has afflicted me. It makes no sense to me."
And maybe you have felt that way with events in your life. Maybe there have been things that have happened that you just don't understand. You cannot comprehend. It makes no sense to you. The message of the book of Job is for you. It's for the most difficult moments in our life.
A Personal Encounter with Grief and False Theology
For me, the most difficult moment of my life, I found the book of Job to be the healing that I needed. It was the healing touch of the Lord for me. Some of you know a little bit of my background, a little bit of my story, and the story of our family. But the most difficult moment of my life, truly, was the day my dad passed away. That was the most difficult moment, the most difficult season for me. Some of you have suffered much greater losses than that, and in no way am I trying to compare our pain or compare our grief. It would be foolish and silly to even try to do that. The point being is that whatever we have lost and whatever grief that we do have, the book of Job speaks to it.
But my dad, as some of you know, was the pastor of this church, a very wonderful man, a very godly man. In fact, I think you could say what it says about Job, I think you could say it about my dad, David Bell. That he was an upright man who feared the Lord and turned away from evil. He wasn't a perfect man. I saw his faults right up close, right up, you know, at a front row seat to all of them, but he was a man who loved and served the Lord. He was a wonderful father, a wonderful friend, and a wonderful pastor of this church.
And yet, on one Sunday morning, May the 6th, 2012. A Sunday morning, not unlike our Sunday here today. Wonderful time of worship, praising God, celebrating him. But yet in the middle of our worship, we could not find my dad. He was nowhere to be found. And so we went looking for him and searching for him, and my brothers found him in his office, having passed away from some heart issue, heart attack, stroke. I don't know what the issue was, but his heart failed him. On a Sunday morning, while he was getting ready to preach God's word. As he was getting ready to come and deliver to this congregation a word from the Lord, God decided to take him home. He was a young man, not even 60 years old. In good health, played tennis three times a week. No signs of any health issues whatsoever.
And in that moment, watching the EMS come in and try to work on my dad and not being able to do anything for him and watching them carry my dad out on a stretcher. On a Sunday morning of all days, when we were supposedly in the presence of God, and yet, this happens here to the pastor, to my dad, to my friend. It shattered my view of God in that moment. It shattered it.
You see, I had this view of God that if you do the right things, God will bless you. That was sort of my theology. If you do the right things, God will bless you. You'll experience God's blessing and favor in your life. And of all the people I ever knew, the one person that I could say did the most right things was my dad. My dad left a very lucrative software career to take a not very lucrative pastorate, and to raise five boys on a very meager salary and to make incredible sacrifices. And I watched how he endured baseless criticism, and people attacking him within the church, and I watched how he constantly loved and served, and gave and sacrificed for the Lord, and for his kingdom, and for his people. And this is what he gets. This is how he dies.
All of a sudden, "if you do the right things, God will bless you" didn't add up to the events I was experiencing, and my family was experiencing, and our church was experiencing at the time. And I remember in my grief just saying, "God, I don't understand this. God, this makes no sense to me. God, I can't comprehend how you could allow this to happen to our family, to our church."
And I was expressing those things as we do to the people in our lives, the people that are close to us, the people that care for us. And I'll never forget a minister took me out to lunch shortly after my dad passed away. And I was just, I was broken. I was absolutely broken. I didn't understand. Yes, I love the Lord. But I didn't understand. And I was just pouring my heart out to this man of God that I respected greatly. I said, "I don't understand how God could allow this to happen. I don't understand why my dad died."
And he said, I'll never forget his words. He said, "I know why it happened."
I said, "Really, explain it to me." You see, when we found my dad, we prayed for him. We surrounded him. We confessed scripture over him. We declared what the Bible says, that by his stripes, he would be healed, and that we prayed that God would raise him up. And the leaders of the church were there, and we were praying, and we were calling out to God to heal my dad, in faith, believing God. And yet at the end of the day, my dad didn't walk out of his office. He was wheeled out on a stretcher.
And so I'm saying to this minister, "How could God allow this to happen? Why didn't God answer our prayers?"
He says, "I know why it happened." I'm all ears. Right? This is my question that I have to answer. He said this: "If your elders, the leaders of the church that prayed for your dad, if your elders were real men of faith, your dad would still be alive today. If your dad was a real man of faith, he would still be alive today."
I sat there. I listened. Listened to everything he had to say. And I walked out of Mama Margie's, I sat down in my car, and I said, "I don't know if that's true or not. But what that guy just did to me, I am never gonna do to somebody else. I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm never gonna go to somebody whose heart is broken into a million pieces and come and tell them that it's their fault."
And so what this did for me was this led me to say, "God, I believe in you. I believe in your son Jesus. I know that you have saved me. And you have filled me with your spirit. I believe that. But everything else is up for grabs. Everything else. Because the things that I believed, the things that people I respect are telling me, I don't know if they're true. Because I cannot handle the situation that I find myself in. My doctrine, my theology, it cannot process these events."
And so I took everything that I had been taught, and I pushed it to the side. And I said, "God, I want to know you. There are things about you that I've believed that are not true. There are things about you that are true, that I have not believed. God, I want to know you." And so where do we find that? Right here. And so for the next two years, it was me and my Bible and nobody else. I didn't want to hear this preacher. I didn't want to hear that preacher. I didn't want to hear from this perspective or that perspective, or this camp, or that camp. It was me and my Bible. "God, I want to know you. Reveal yourself to me. Help me see what I cannot see. Help me know what I do not know."
And in reading my Bible, there's the book of Job. In the book of Job, it tells us some things about God. And I have three things, three points I want to draw out for you from the book of Job that will help you. Whether you're in a situation like this of great loss and suffering, whether you've been through one, or you haven't yet been there. We all need this message.
Before I get to my three points, I need to tell you that what that minister told me at Mama Margie's was wrong. Absolutely, categorically wrong. What I did not know about that man and his theology—I didn't know it, I hadn't studied it, I didn't understand it—was that that man was a word-of-faith preacher. He believed in this false, heretical gospel that teaches you you can have whatever you want if you have enough faith. It's called word-of-faith. There are many, in fact, probably the most popular teachers teach this heresy today. Kenneth Copeland is a heretic teacher that teaches word-of-faith theology. I'm getting a little bit animated right now. Maybe I need to dial it back. Creflo Dollar? Jesse Duplantis. And then there are others that teach word-of-faith light. If I go down that list, we would be here all day.
They teach that you can have whatever you want if you just have enough faith and speak it with your words. It's called name it and claim it, blab it and grab it. If you're sick, if you're poor, it's your fault, because you don't have enough faith. It's not true. And the book of Job tells us it's not true. Job was a real man of faith. He trusted God. He trusted God so much that when all of his blessings were taken away, he still worshiped God. That theology is satanic, it's demonic. It's not true. Whether you have a lot of faith or whether you have a little bit of faith, Jesus says, in the world, we will all have what? Tribulation, hardships, struggles. But yet he says that we can take heart because he has overcome the world.
You see, Job's friends came to him and they said, "You have secret, you have hidden sin in your life. That's why you're enduring all of this suffering." Well, at the end of the book of Job, you know who shows up? God shows up. And you know what God does? He rebukes Job's friends for the lies they've been saying. He rebukes them. And what that minister told me at Mama Margie's, 14 years ago, is just another version of that. "You didn't have enough faith." Well, what's that? That's some hidden sin in my heart. "You had sin in your life, that's why you didn't get what you prayed for." No, it's not true.
1. God is Absolutely Sovereign Over All Things
The first point that the book of Job shows us so clearly is that God is absolutely sovereign over all things. He's absolutely sovereign. Where do we see God? He's on his throne in heaven. And what is he doing? He's holding court. And what is he ruling and reigning over? He's ruling and reigning over everything, including the earth. And even the devil himself has to come and give reports to God on his throne. God is seated on the throne of heaven, and he rules and reigns over all things.
This can be described as God's omnipotence. He is almighty, he has all power. And that means, because God is sovereign over all things, that there are no accidents in this life. That everything, because God is sovereign, everything in this life has a purpose. Everything in this life has meaning. It is so clear that because of no fault of Job's, God allowed these events to happen in his life. There was a greater purpose for it. Job didn't see it. Job didn't understand it. And yet God was doing something through it. These weren't just random accidents that afflicted Job. There was a purpose. There was meaning behind it.
Now when I say that God allowed this to happen to Job, at first glance, this can make us uncomfortable. It can be an uncomfortable thought. God allowed this? How could God allow this to happen? Why didn't God stop this? Why didn't God just flick Satan out of heaven and say, "Get out of here"? Why did God highlight Job? It wasn't Satan that brought up Job. It was God. "Hey, Satan, have you considered Job?"
And because of this tension between God's sovereignty and our suffering on this earth, many people just outright reject the idea that God is sovereign. And they will say that there is suffering in the world, not because God is sovereign. "God is not sovereign over suffering." They will say this, quote, "because people have free will." Because people have free will and they choose to sin, it produces suffering in the world. Yes, that is a secondary cause. And yes, people are responsible for their sin. God, though he is sovereign, is not the author of evil, nor does he do evil, nor is he responsible for evil. We are responsible for the sin in our lives. But all the suffering in the world is not because of free will. God is sovereign over all things.
And this alternative that God is not sovereign over suffering is so dark and depressing. Why? Because it removes God's power. And in doing so, it removes all meaning and purpose from suffering. If God is not sovereign over everything, then the evil we endure, the suffering we endure, the hardships we endure, if they're just simply the random acts of evil men, truly your suffering is meaningless and purposeless. That's very dark. Not only is it dark and depressing, but that's not what the Bible says. So there's that too.
It's not just the sinful actions of evil men that produces Job's suffering. Fire from heaven comes down and consumes all of his sheep. A tornado strikes his son's house and kills his children. These are not the actions of evil men. These are the actions of nature that God gave Satan control over in this moment. In verse 10, Satan says this to God: "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has?" Satan says, "Of course, Job worships you. You're protecting him. You're watching over him. You're blessing him. There's a hedge around him. I want to get to him, but you won't let me, God."
And truly, hear this for all of God's children. His protection, his hedge, is about all of us. God had a hedge around Job, but guess what? God has a hedge around you as well. The Bible actually says that we are in Christ. We are hidden with God in Christ. That means that anything in our lives is allowed there by God. And if he has allowed it into our lives, it's because he has a great meaning and purpose for it. God's protection extends to all of his children. Satan cannot touch Job without God's explicit permission, and neither can he touch you. So whatever comes into our lives is allowed there by God for a greater purpose.
In Luke chapter 22, Jesus is speaking to Peter:
Luke 22:31-32 (ESV)
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Satan came to Jesus to ask permission. To sift Peter like wheat. What does sifting like wheat mean? They would put it in a grate, and they would shake it back and forth, and throw it up into the air, and it was this violent shaking so that everything but the wheat would fall off. He's saying Satan has demanded to have you, that he might shake you, torment you, afflict you, buffet you, attack you.
And if I was Peter, I'd be sitting there thinking, "And you told him no, right, Jesus? You told them no, right? You told him—you remember Jesus, how you told me? 'Get behind me, Satan.' You told him that, right?"
But this is what Jesus told Peter. He says, "But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail." You see, Jesus gave something greater to Peter than protection. He gave him prayer for the most important thing—that Peter's faith would not fail. I think the sifting as wheat refers to the night where Peter denied Jesus. I think it refers to that darkest moment of his life where he denied Jesus three times. Because Jesus says, "I prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."
What Jesus is saying is, "Peter, I'm going to allow this trial into your life because it's going to purify you. It's going to refine you. It's not going to destroy you, but it's going to make you stronger. And when you emerge from this trial, having been purified like gold, I want you to then turn around and strengthen those who are weak. I want you to carry those who are weak with the strength that I'm going to form in you, in your character, in these moments. Because, Peter, there's people in your life, there's people around you who are going to need the strength that you can give to them."
And so it is with you and me. Yes, we would love it if we could just ride through this life on a cloud. If we could just ease through this life, and it was all cotton candy and rainbows, and we pull every slot machine, and it's bing, bing, bing, 777, and it's just awesome all the time. And we see examples of people whose parents are very wealthy and they live lives like that. And what do we call those kinds of people? Spoiled. Because their character never develops. Does our character develop in good times or in hard times? Hard times.
So God allows Peter to go through it, to produce the character of Christ in him, that he might be able to share it with others, and that is what God does in our lives as well. Yes, we wish he would take the trial from us. Yes, we would pray, "God remove this thorn from me." But like he told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in your weakness." God is a shield about us, a hedge about us. Whatever he allows in, whatever we experience in our life, it has gone through his filter so that we might draw closer to him, that we might cling to him, that we might draw strength from him and thereby strengthen others with what he has done in our lives.
And so this hedge about us, it should produce a great confidence in the people of God. God is watching over me. God is watching over you. And he will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability. He provides for us the strength that we need in whatever challenge that we face. Therefore, whatever comes into my life has been approved by God for some greater purpose of his.
2. God is All-Wise, All-Knowing, and All-Good
The second thing that we see in the book of Job is that God is all-wise, all-knowing, and all-good. We see this at the very end in chapter 38, when God comes and speaks with Job. And God never gives Job an answer. He never says, "Job, this is why you endured this suffering." Instead, he does something even better than that for Job. He reveals himself to Job. He gives Job a greater revelation of who God himself is.
And when Job sees this vision of God, glorious, almighty, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, all-good, Job himself repents. Job himself covers his own mouth and says, "I didn't understand what I was saying in my grief. But now, God, I see. I see who you are. I see that you are all-wise, that you know what you are doing, God." He says, "I repent of the words that I said. I should have trusted in you. I shouldn't have questioned you," is what Job says. Even though God didn't rebuke Job, he only revealed himself to Job. Job himself repents of the words that he had said. He had this greater revelation of God.
Listen, when you are going through a trial, you don't need answers. You need God. That's what you need. You just need him. You just need more of his presence in your life. God does allow things in our life. Things that we don't understand, things that we wish were not there. But what we really need is not an explanation from God on why those things are there. What we need is more of God. We just need more of him.
We often don't see God's greater purpose. We often don't understand it. We don't know what he's doing. It may take years to see what God was doing all along. Like Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, who some 40 years later will say, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." God uses Joseph in his life in slavery and life in prison, and having lost his family, he uses it to bring deliverance and salvation to the people of God. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. Job saw it some 40 years later.
It may be years before we ever see what God was doing all along with our pain and our suffering. And we truly, in this life, we may never even see it this side of glory. The book of Hebrews talks about the great patriarchs of the faith, and it says they all died in faith. They all died, having not yet received the promise, but believing God was faithful. We may not see it in this life. But we need to be like Job. We need to be like the great heroes of the faith, that no matter what comes to us in this life, we're gonna cross the finish line in faith. We're going to cross over, believing in God, believing in his word, holding fast to him.
I don't know what tomorrow holds for me or for you, or for our country, or for the world. But God does. And truly, that is enough. And so the book of Job, it becomes this invitation to let God be God.
3. We Can Trust God at All Times
Let God be God. So because God is sovereign, and because God is omniscient, all-knowing, all-wise, all-good, therefore, we can trust him at all times. Whatever life brings, you can trust in God. Trust in him, believe in him, hold fast to him.
One of the things that has often brought me comfort in life when I don't understand the events that are transpiring around me is to look to Christ and his suffering on the cross. The suffering of Christ on the cross was the greatest evil that has ever been done in the history of the world. What could be more evil than murdering the Son of God? It was the greatest act of injustice ever done. Jesus had never sinned. He did not deserve that death that he died.
And yet, when Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost, he says this: This death of Christ on the cross was God's predetermined plan to bring about the salvation of mankind. And so if God can use the most evil act, the greatest injustice ever known, to bring about the greatest good that there will ever be, how much more can God take the events of our lives? The evil done against us, the suffering we endure, to produce something good and glorious and beautiful in the end.
If God can turn the cross into the resurrection, into the salvation of the world, he can turn your pain into something beautiful. He can use it, and he will use it, the Bible says.
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
All things are working together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Even our pain, even our suffering, even when we don't see it. God is working in it all. So let us trust God at all times. Let us trust God when things are good. Let us trust God when things are bad. Let us trust God when things are ugly. Let us trust God with our grief. Go to him with your pain, go to him with your grief. Go to him with your questions. Just go to him. Just go to him.
Conclusion
I wanna close with this story. It's a story many of you may have heard before, but it's about a man who endured a similar situation and loss to Job. His name was Horatio Spafford. And he was a successful lawyer in Chicago in the 19th century. He was also a Presbyterian minister and a friend of D.L. Moody. But as he lived in Chicago, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, as it swept through the city, it destroyed all of his real estate investments, leaving him almost impoverished. And prior to that tragedy, of economic downturn, he had already lost his young son to scarlet fever.
And so, in the midst of losing everything and hoping for a better future and rest and outcome, he put his wife, Anna, and their four daughters on a ship to sail to England. As they got to England, they were planning to join D.L. Moody and his evangelistic work in Europe. However, as they were about to leave on their trip, business demanded that Horatio stayed behind, and he stayed in Chicago. And so he sent his wife and his four daughters ahead. He put them on the ship as they crossed the Atlantic, and he stayed behind in Chicago.
But as they were sailing, their ship was struck by another vessel. And the ship that they were on sunk in 12 minutes. That's really fast. His wife Anna survived. She was pulled from the water unconscious by rescue efforts. But all four of their daughters drowned: Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta. When his wife Anna reached Wales, she sent a telegram to Horatio with these words: Saved alone. What shall I do?
Horatio boarded a ship immediately to go to his grieving wife, a ship that sailed the very waters in which his daughters had perished. And as he crossed the Atlantic, the captain, knowing what had happened, came as they were at the very spot where his daughters had perished, and he pointed out to him the place where they had drowned. And gazing at the empty waves, Horatio said this: "It is well. The will of God be done."
Some three years later, Horatio Spafford would take these words and put them to music. And today we know this as the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. Listen to the words that he penned:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
This man, like many other men, lost more than he thought he could bear. Yet he took his grief to the Lord. And he found in the Lord a healing that only the Lord can do. God is sovereign over all things. God has a purpose for all of the events in our life. We may see it, we may not. But he is working in all of it for our good and for his glory. And until our faith becomes sight, may the Lord teach us to sing: "It is well, it is well, with my soul."
God, I'm going to worship you. I'm going to trust in you. I'm going to believe in you. I'm going to hold fast to you as the anchor for my soul. We all go through storms in life. What do we do with our pain? Do we take it to the Lord? Do we run from the Lord? Do we curse God and die? Let us just worship. Let us just trust Him. Let us say whatever comes my way, your praise will be on my lips.
I invite you to stand with me this morning. You know, I found that when difficult times come, what people really need is a friend. What people really need is someone to love them. People don't need theology and doctrine. When people are suffering, they don't need you to show up and give them your exhortation on your theology of God's sovereignty. I think those things are best kept for sermons.
When people in our lives go through grief, what they really need is presence. They need a loving hand. They need a shoulder to cry on. They need someone to say, "I don't understand this either. But I love you. And I'm here for you. And we're praying for you. And we're going to walk with you." That's what we need. Answers, they're in God's hands. When we show up with answers, what we think are answers, oftentimes, we're putting ourselves in the place of God. We need to be content to let God do his work in people's hearts and us just be the hands and feet of Jesus that love on people when they're hurting.
So when you see someone hurting, when you see someone going through a difficult time, don't show up with your exhortation, your dissertation on six points of God's sovereignty, or why they don't have enough faith, or they must have hidden sin in their life—unless you want to be rebuked by God like Job's friends, which I don't want to be. Let's learn to love people. Let's learn to care for people. Let's just be a shoulder to cry on and prepare a meal and just be there for people. That's what the body of Christ has been for me, in my moments of need, and what we've endeavored to be for others, and that we can be for our friends and family, and our fellow man. Amen?