WORSHIP SONGS
We’re Blessed (Fred Hammond)
Do it Again (Elevation Worship)
Goodness of God (CeCe Winans)
SERMON NOTES
SERIES - Don’t Save Me: Good News for Skeptics
THEME - “How Can There Be A Savior And So Much Suffering?”
Main Text: Romans 8:18-28 (NIV)
Other Texts: Romans 7:14-25, Romans 6:22-23, Romans 8:35-39, James 1:2-8
Biblical Background:
The Bible is full of stories of People Coming Closer to God amid Suffering.
(Hagar, Joseph, Daniel, Samson, and Paul to name a few).
The Bible is full of stories of God intervening as a Liberator, Deliverer, and Healer for Suffering People (Exodus, Daniel, Esther, The Gospels, etc.)
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
• If there is a God why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Why doesn’t God keep bad things from happening to good people? Why did God allow me to go through such a painful experience?
These are questions that keep people from believing in God and connecting to the church.
• People can become so fixated with why God doesn’t stop suffering, that they don’t see how God is present with us during suffering.
• The Church has an opportunity to be God’s vehicle of faith, healing, maturity, and love in a world too full of evil and suffering.
How to Believe in God in a Broken World
1.) Knowing We Suffer Because of Sin (Romans 7:14-25)
• Evil and Suffering Occur Because of Sin. Some of my suffering is because of my sin.
• The Biblical Dimensions of Sin- In the Soul, In Society, and In Satan.
2.) Knowing We Won’t Suffer Forever (Romans 6:22-23)
• This World as We Live in it is Not our Forever. A new Creation without sin and death awaits us if we accept Christ.
“our faith is in a God who has come to rescue His creation from the absurdity of sin and the emptiness of death…And while we know that the victory over evil and death has been won in Christ, we know also that it is a victory yet to come, and that creation therefore, as Paul says, (Rom. 8:22) groans in expectation of the glory that will one day be revealed.”
- David Bentley Hart
3.) Knowing We Don’t Suffer Alone (Romans 8:35-39)
• We have a Suffering Savior. If there is no God, how then do we explain evil, suffering, and life? God’s love is available to us in a world of evil and suffering.
“God saves the world by taking its suffering into the very heart of the divine life, bearing it there, and then wearing it in the form of a cross.” - Terrance Fretheim
Final Thought: Knowing We Can Get Stronger in Suffering
(Romans 8:18, James 1:2-8)
• “…the glory that will be revealed in us.” Glory over Suffering.
• Growing in Faith, Perseverance, Maturity, and Wisdom in suffering.
RESPONSE TIME
Write out a psalm of lament or reflection based on the suffering and evil you witness in the world (in your own life or in the lives of others).