Life Hurts! Where’s God? - Part B

In heaven, you'll never pass out a single gospel tract. In heaven, you'll never pray for somebody who's sick because there's no sick people. In heaven, you'll never wipe away one tear of compassion. No need to, no tears in heaven. The only time we have to do His work and show His compassion is now.

Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. We all have unexpected moments of tragedy and pain that come into our lives. And the question is, where is God when life hurts? There have been a ton of books written on the subject, along with multimedia seminars, sermon series, and much more. It's a topic that we all want clarity on, one we want some simple answers for. But are there any simple answers for a complex issue such as the pain and tragedy of life, and where God fits into all that, as we continue with our study of the book of John today in our series Believe 879.

But first, this update from the Connect with Skip Resource Center. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain, these words, There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and especially of our Lord's own words.

It has always been held by Christendom, and it has the support of reason. Ecclesiastes says, God has put eternity in our heart. To help you understand what awaits both believers and unbelievers in eternity, we've put together an exciting resource called the Eternity Package, featuring Skip's booklet, Hell, No, Don't Go, and seven of his strongest teachings about eternity, including the truth about hell and what most people don't know about heaven. This powerful new resource package is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support the broadcast ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig. So get your copy of the Hell, No, Don't Go booklet and the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. This eternity package is some of the most powerful information for you and to give to family and friends. See, if there is no hell, then the Bible is a book of myths. If there is no hell, then Jesus was just a misguided soul. If there is no hell, then the crucifixion was pointless. There's no significance in dying to save us from what? If there's no hell, then you should sin as much as you possibly can, because it's not sin. It's just fun, right? It's just all about you getting pleasure in this life, sucking it like an orange dry at every drop of enjoyment you can. So get your copy of the Hell, No, Don't Go booklet and the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We continue today in John Chapter nine. So as you find that spot in your Bibles, we'll join Skip Heitzig. He says, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva. Interesting. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. Ew. It's a good thing he was blind. And he said to him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated sent. So he went and washed and he came back seeing.

This is what I'd like you to notice. To Jesus Christ, this man was not some theological case study. Wasn't some philosophical argument about the reason of evil and pain in the world. He was a man who was blind, who needed help. And it's like Jesus rolling up his sleeves.

And says, I'm going to get to work. There's a few things I want you to notice about what we just read. First of all, Jesus was sensitive. Jesus was sensitive.

Who's the first guy that saw the man? Verse one, Jesus. I mean, they're all they're all going out of the temple because they wanted a stone. Jesus, the crowd did. They're going out of the temple.

Their nerves are raw. The first one that noticed him. Was Jesus. Disciples had the questions. Jesus noticed him.

That's Jesus. Always sensitive. Always aware.

Always aware of needs. Even in Galilee, when a crowd of people gathered and most people go, look at how many people I got coming today to my crowd gathering up here. Jesus saw that they were like sheep having no shepherd. They were broken hearted.

And that kind of sensitivity pervaded his ministry. There's something that you and I face today as Americans in this modern era. It's called compassion fatigue. Because we do watch television and we see all of the images of pain and suffering and war every single night, on and on, it puts a little bit of a callous.

It is a phenomenon known as compassion fatigue. Just be aware of it. Guard against it. Pray against it. Jesus noticed he was sensitive.

Notice also he was practical. Look what Jesus says. I must work the work of him who sent me while at his day. Didn't get involved in a theological debate.

I'm not going to get into an argument about sin and suffering. I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get to work. Now, many translations don't say I must work. They say we must work.

We're reading off the Texas Receptus, basically those manuscript derivations. That's what we have in our hand. But many manuscripts that are newer don't say I must work, but we must work the works of him who sent me.

I love that. That Jesus is saying we let us gather and get together and do this work because the time is coming when no man can work. So he was practical. We must work. Let's get to work.

Also notice he was urgent. He said I must work the works or we must work the works of him who sent me while at his day. The night is coming when no one can work. In other words, we have a limited time to serve the Lord. Jesus calls it while. While. While at his day. Within six months, Jesus will be crucified.

He has a few more months to put everything into the mission his father sent him on. What does that say to us? That you and I have a while. I don't know how long your while is or my while is, but while it is day and while we're on earth, let's push aside every selfish distraction and ambition for our money or our fame or our happiness and say we have this time to serve the Lord. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. That's really a strong and powerful message Jesus is giving.

While it is day. I've said it before. I think it bears repeating. In heaven, you'll never pass out a single gospel tract. In heaven, you'll never pray for somebody who's sick because there's no sick people. In heaven, you'll never wipe away one tear of compassion.

No need to. No tears in heaven. The only time we have to do his work and show his compassion is now. Right here.

Right now. That's our while we're on earth. So how does a Christian deal with the problem of pain? Much more than theologically, much more than academically, much more than philosophically. Even as the unbelievers have their little syllogism, their series of logical remarks, we have our own.

Let me state it for you. The biblical God is loving. The biblical God is all knowing. The biblical God is all powerful. And yet we acknowledge that massive evil exists in our world. Therefore, we know that Jesus will one day return to this earth and judge all sin and make all bad things right. And, and until he does, I will help alleviate that suffering and pain and thus represent Jesus Christ to a suffering world. That is a Christian biblical worldview of pain and suffering.

And it is seen here in our text. Something else. He was not only sensitive and practical and urgent. He was personal. There's nothing more personal than getting your own spit involved in the mud and touching a man, touching, touching a blind man, touching a beggar. I don't know how he smelled or how we look, but Jesus touched him. Now there's, believe it or not, pages of perhaps explanations of why Jesus made mud. We're not told why he made mud. Maybe he was harkening back to Genesis 2 when God formed man out of the dust of the earth. And for the creator of the earth in human flesh to make a couple of eyes, not a big deal. He made everything else.

Just like, watch that. He made mud because he wanted to make mud. But he touched him. He touched him.

Why did he do that? Because he didn't have to. Did Jesus have to touch anybody he healed? Could he have waved a magic wand? Be healed. In fact, couldn't have Jesus have, have healed anyone he wanted to in mass? I mean, maybe he would have been organized about it and say, okay, we'll put lepers over here.

Congenital anomalies over here in birth defects. We'll put leprosy over here and just all of you get together. Now watch this. Healed. One big fell swoop. He didn't do that. He touched. He touched. It was personal.

Why did he do that? One author says, Jesus' mission was not primarily a crusade against disease, but a ministry to individual people, some of whom happen to have a disease. He wanted those people, one by one, to feel his love, for Jesus knew he could not readily demonstrate love to a crowd, for love usually involves touching.

The grasp of a hand, the embrace of the arms, the eye-to-eye contact, the personal involvement goes so much and so far in showing compassion. So two questions I leave with you before we move on and finish this. Number one, are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God? If suffering drives you to God, are you willing to embrace it? Are you willing to embrace suffering if it drives you to God? Question number two, are you willing to alleviate suffering if it drives others to God? Well, finally, let's finish this out in verse eight and downward. And here's the fourth reality that suffering does.

Suffering challenges expectations. Verse eight, therefore, the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, This is he. Others said, Well, he's like him. He said, I am him.

I am he. Therefore, they said to him, How were your eyes open? He answered and said, A man called Jesus, made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed and received sight. And then they said to him, Where is he? He said, I don't know. Isn't it amazing the simplicity with which Jesus did this? He saw a blind man.

He says, Time to work. He made clay, put it in his eyes. You know, there was no musical prelude.

And now Jesus and then the angels, and then just simply healed and the guy got healed. Very, very understated. What I'd like you to see is notice the mixture in this paragraph. Of wonder, confusion, bewilderment, skepticism, disbelief, all rolled into one.

Why? Because they'd never seen anything like this before. This guy was a blind beggar. This transformation was so shocking, so shocking that they found it easier to believe this is just a case of mistaken identity. He must look a lot like him. He goes, No, I'm he.

I'm the guy. Than to believe it was a bona fide healing. Here's my point. No one in that group expected the beggar to ever be anything else but a blind beggar. And my principle is this suffering lessens your expectation that life will ever be any better than this.

It wears on you and it lessens and lowers the expectation that life will ever be any better than it is now. Well, it's true, for some, God may call them to prolong suffering. Paul the Apostle would say, I'm one of those guys. God called me to this. I prayed about it a long time, three times.

God finally said it's enough, so I rejoice in it. But having said that, never let your expectations limit God. That's unbelief. That is unbelief. Psalm 78 recounts the children of Israel wandering through the desert in God's plan, but there's a very worrisome verse in Psalm 78.

This is what it says. Listen carefully. And they limited the Holy One of Israel.

Did you get that? The children of Israel wandering through the desert limited the Holy One of Israel. Now I've got a question for you. How do you limit the unlimited God? Well, unbelief will do it. Unbelief will do it.

Mark said Jesus was going through one of the towns in Israel, and the Bible says in that Gospel passage, He could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief. Now some of you can relate to this man and his friends around him in verses 8 through 12, because you came to Christ and nobody could believe you could ever change, just like this man. They said, no, you know what, mistaken identity.

This isn't the guy. Because they thought he'd never change. And do you remember, some of you came to Jesus and you were so excited, and you told your friends and your family to go, oh look, you can't pull one over on us. We know you. We know what you do and what you've done.

You can't change. What a beautiful picture this is of salvation. A man blind, totally hopeless, unable to see, lacking the capacity to see, and hopeless unless Jesus were to seek him out and give him sight.

Wasn't that your condition? Blinded by sin, unable to see the truth of God, unable to see the truth of life, unable to see the truth of Christ? Were it not for Jesus opening our eyes, we would still be in darkness.

2 Corinthians 4, 4, Paul writes, the God of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. One final note and I close. Something about physical healing. All healings are temporary. Every single person that gets healed will eventually do what? Die.

They're all temporary. If you get healed of lung cancer, hallelujah, but you'll die of something else. That's reality.

That's the bottom line. However, if you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, what happens is the spiritual transformation right now where you become a new creation in Christ, old things are passed away, all things become new. Guaranteed heaven and eternal life with that. And, and a physical transformation when he comes back on resurrection day. So like that little boy who asked God, the Bible says you give us everything we want, how come we don't have everything? You will.

You will have everything on that day. Some of you are on a hard road right now and you're thinking this is so tough this month has been so hard and this year has been so desperate. You know where that road leads? Home. It leads home. Don't despise the road when it leads home.

You'll end up at home in your father's house. If on the other hand, you're here today and God is sort of an interesting concept, life is good for you. No, I'm not experiencing any bad problems or health. Life is good. I'm going to have no trial. In fact, my financial portfolio is really strong right now and my health is really good. Wonderful. But you're like all those people sitting on lounge chairs on the Titanic. That ship is going down and you're just having a great time until that happens. Here's my counsel.

Here's my counsel. If you don't have a personal relationship this morning with the Lord Jesus Christ, you can see He wants to touch you and make you better. This blind man, healed of blindness, will by the end of the chapter have a healing in his soul. He'll meet Christ. The best of both worlds.

Able to see and set for eternity. Well, what about you? Are you set for eternity? Can you see Jesus for who He really is?

If so, then share that good news with someone you know. Someone who may need the comforting presence of God in their life. If you can't answer those questions in the positive, but you aren't yet sure how to begin, we'd be happy to help you with that.

Just give us a call at 1-800-922-1888. And we'll explain exactly what it means to invite Jesus to be the Savior of your life. Now, before we go, here is Skip and Lenya with a few more words of encouragement. Lenya? Well, so far this series has been really rich and deep, and it feels like it's just touched so many. And long. It's been a long one, but it's been rewarding for me.

That's right. Short isn't always sweet. Sometimes you've got to dig deep, right? And so you've just covered so many things that speak out to the human crisis, the human problem, if you will. And today you hit one of them, suffering and evil in the world. I mean, I would say when I witness to unbelievers in my life, one of the biggest things is, how can a God of love let this exist?

How evil exists. Exactly. It is a big— The most common question. Yeah.

It's a huge one. So what are some encouraging truths from God's Word that we can keep in mind as we confront that or we share with people that are hurting? Well, there's always two different levels. When you deal with a person who's going through it, academic information isn't always helpful. An embrace, a prayer, an encouragement is.

But when you're dealing with the idea of it, the question of it, you're sort of at arm's length from it in terms of experience, then you do have to approach it differently. And so I guess generally I would say what we all know, suffering is real, evil is real, but so is God. And God knows also that evil is real and suffering is real, and God has a plan to eradicate it eventually. And the Bible shows that. The Bible does not turn a blind eye to suffering and evil. It puts it out there, it talks about it, it displays it on every page, but it also ensures us that eventually—not immediately, but eventually— God will not only deal with it and make things right, but eradicate it completely.

But let's rein it in a little bit. You know, when we suffer, that's sort of the issue. The issue isn't why people suffer, it's why do I suffer.

You know, that's real. So I would say to our listeners who may be going through a season of suffering, what are you learning from it? Remember James said, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives freely? That's in the context of suffering.

So the best thing to do is to learn from it. What is God trying to show me? Lord, I need wisdom to know what this is all about. So, you know, we want to be delivered from it. We ask God, you know, why would this happen, or how could this happen? But what is it for, is a better question. What is God trying to show me?

How can I be refined by it? Then there's always Romans 8.28. That's the fallback verse, you know.

We all love it. It's a soft pillow to a tired heart. We know that all things God works together for good to those that love Him. So God has a plan through it, and I need to discover what that is, but I may never fully discover what that is until I'm in glory. One thing that helped me when I was in a particularly dark time is Psalm 23. And it, you know, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and someone said something quirky to me, and it stuck, and he said the only way out is through.

And I like that. Sometimes you're in the middle of something, and you want out. You will get out, but sometimes you have to walk through it. And just know that, you know, through that there is deliverance, because, you know, goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life. But wouldn't it be better to be airlifted from peak to peak? Ha, ha, ha. Maybe. Well, next time we'll learn a bit more about our neighbors, including a startling truth. Right here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast all burdens on His word Make a connection A connection A connection Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.