Evil, Suffering, God tackles one of the most difficult questions people wrestle with: If God is all-powerful and all-good, why does He allow evil and suffering? Cole Tuck approaches the question honestly and logically, recognizing that it is not only skeptics who ask it; faithful Christian’s experience pain, loss, and heartbreak and sometimes struggle to understand where God is in the midst of it.
The sermon explores several reasons God may allow suffering, including human free will, punishment, God’s patience, spiritual preparation, and drawing us closer to Him. Importantly, the sermon warns against assuming that every experience of suffering is punishment, pointing to Job, David, Jesus, and the man born blind as examples of people who suffered without having done something to deserve it. Rather than offering a simplistic answer, Cole emphasizes that different suffering can have different purposes. Sometimes suffering results from the choices of others; sometimes God uses difficult circumstances to give people an opportunity to repent or to prepare them for what lies ahead.
Ultimately, the sermon points us toward Jesus. Christ Himself suffered despite being innocent, experiencing pain on our behalf. Therefore, when Christians suffer, they can trust that God is not asking them to walk a road He has never walked. Jesus has already experienced suffering, and He calls us to trust God through it.
Talking Points
- Why Does God Allow Evil and Suffering?
- The tension between God’s power, goodness, and the reality of suffering.
- Why this question matters to both skeptics and believers.
- Why Are We Asking the Question?
- Emotional pain can cloud our judgment.
- We may seek answers because we are hurting.
- We may sometimes use the question to justify our rejection of God.
- We should honestly examine our motives.
- Evil and Suffering Are Not Exactly the Same
- Suffering can come from sickness, disasters, and other circumstances.
- Evil involves sinful human choices such as murder, war, lying, and abuse.
- The distinction helps us think more clearly about the problem.
- Free Will
- God could have created people as beings incapable of choosing evil.
- Instead, God allows human beings to make genuine choices.
- Much suffering results from the sinful choices of other people.
- Suffering and Punishment
- Scripture shows that God sometimes disciplines or punishes.
- But suffering should never automatically be interpreted as punishment.
- Job and the man born blind demonstrate that righteous people can suffer.
- God’s Patience
- God’s patience gives people time and opportunity to repent.
- His willingness to delay judgment is an expression of mercy.
- Suffering Can Prepare Us
- Difficult experiences can expose areas where we need spiritual growth.
- Suffering can remind us that this life is temporary and that we must prepare for judgment.
- Suffering Can Draw Us Toward God
- When life knocks us down, our need can cause us to seek God.
- Pain can remind us that we need Him.
- Jesus Understands Our Suffering
- Jesus suffered even though He had not sinned.
- He experienced pain before asking us to trust God through ours.
- We can have confidence because Christ has already walked that road.
- Trust God When We Don’t Understand
- We may not always know why suffering happens.
- The answer may not be the same in every circumstance.
- We can ask God for wisdom and guidance even when we don’t have all the answers.