{"id":50,"date":"2018-11-06T16:23:53","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T00:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/migrate.bettersermons.org\/?p=50"},"modified":"2020-06-01T11:41:33","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T18:41:33","slug":"pain-sent-from-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/pain-sent-from-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Pain Sent From Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pain Sent From Paradise<\/span><\/div>\n

\".\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Key Text:<\/b>\u00a0Matthew 9; John 5 <\/p>\n

Key Thought:<\/b>\u00a0God is not the One causing the pain in our world. And yet He is present with us during our moments of deepest sorrow.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Photo: Lorelyn Medina<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Introduction:\u00a0<\/strong>Why is there so much pain in our world\u2014physical, emotional, spiritual? What possible good comes from our hurts? We say to a friend who has lost their loved one: \u201cI know how you feel.\u201d But we really don\u2019t. We don\u2019t understand the physical ripping that happens with that kind of loss.<\/p>\n

The Purpose of Pain:<\/strong>\u00a0Why do we have to live on the one planet where cars go hurtling off roads and into trees?\u00a0 Why is it here in our world where broken bodies are identified at the morgue?\u00a0 Why HERE . . . and why US?<\/p>\n

Is there a divine purpose to pain?<\/strong>\u00a0 In the Christian film,\u00a0Shadowlands<\/em>, C. S. Lewis spoke to audiences across England about pain, and said: \u201cIt is because God loves us that He makes us the gift of suffering. Pain is God\u2019s megaphone to rock a deaf world. We are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the form of man. And the blows of His chisel, which hurt us so much, are what make us perfect.\u201d But those glib words were before Lewis himself felt the blows, felt the hollow pain, almost overwhelming, of losing his own wife, Joy.<\/p>\n

Did God send our pain?<\/strong>\u00a0If so, if there\u2019s some lesson He wants us to learn through cancer or excruciating arthritis or through the tumult of relentless emotional pain, frankly, we think we\u2019re willing to learn the lesson without the pain. \u201cJust TELL us!\u201d we plead. \u201cStop the punishment. I\u2019ll do whatever You want me to do. Just make it stop hurting!\u201d Many of us have prayed, \u201cJesus, please make us wise without the accompanying hurt!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes long-term, unremitting, unblinking pain is part of someone\u2019s human existence. We all know someone who hasn\u2019t had relief in decades. Year after year, doctor after doctor, prescription after prescription . . . it just keeps on coming. Some of these people are the most courageous, brave men and women we\u2019ve ever encountered. They admit their trials, but end by saying, \u201cI still praise God.\u201d Others confess that they honestly don\u2019t think they can go on. How much longer can they face a life filled with such pain?\u00a0 Why can\u2019t they just die and be done with it?<\/p>\n

Bible Illustrations:\u00a0<\/strong>God\u2019s Word tells us that lifelong pain isn\u2019t a 21st-century phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0In Matthew 9 is the story of a woman who\u2019d suffered from a bleeding disorder for twelve years. Nothing had worked \u2013 medicines, doctor\u2019s visits, oddball, phony cures \u2013 for twelve YEARS.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0In John 5 is the experience of a crippled man who\u2019d been ill for thirty-eight years. And to make his life experience more painful, he\u2019d been at the edge of the Pool of Siloam, which was alleged to have healing powers. But because he was lame, he couldn\u2019t ever be the first one in the water for the miracle moment. Imagine being so close to the hope of a cure . . . and yet his pain and handicap had filled his life for nearly four decades.<\/p>\n

Two Bible Realities:<\/strong>\u00a0we can\u2019t successfully comprehend all of the deep theology of why suffering exists and go into a detailed exploration of the Greek and Hebrew passages that describe human hurting. But two things that are at the same time simple\u2014and biblically profound.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0God isn\u2019t the Author of pain.<\/strong>\u00a0The world He created was a world without pain, a paradise where the word\u00a0suffering<\/em>\u00a0wasn\u2019t in the dictionary. The New Earth will be a pain-free paradise. The experience of relentless, unending pain was not designed by heaven; it invaded our lives from another agency.<\/p>\n

Jesus clearly explains in John 10:10 that there is a thief out there in the darkness. Someone who wants to kill and to destroy and to bring pain. But then He adds this:\u00a0\u201cI am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

No, our pain doesn\u2019t come from God. True, pain can turn out to be a blessing; it can even be a lifesaver. But it isn\u2019t heaven\u2019s invention.<\/p>\n

Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants<\/em>\u00a0by Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. Brand shares out of his own childhood a poignant story of pain. Living as a small boy in India, the son of a medical missionary doctor, he was sent at the age of nine to England with his sister Connie. For six long years this young child went to school many thousands of miles away from his parents. Letters from India took months to arrive by steamship.<\/p>\n

In 1929, his parents announced that they were coming home for a one-year sabbatical. Teenaged Paul looked forward deliriously to the reunion. He could hardly wait. However, just weeks before the big day, a telegram arrived. Father was dead. Malaria and blackwater fever had cut him down at the age of 44. And to lose his dad so soon before he was to have seen him again had to be heartbreaking for this young man. Talk about pain\u2014an unrelenting, never-going-away throbbing of the heart, of endless nights staring out of the bedroom window missing your dad.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brand writes about the foolish things people said to him:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u201cYour father was a wonderful man, too good for this world.\u201d\u00a0But what about the rest of us\u2014does that mean we\u2019re not good enough?
\n<\/em>
\n\u2022\u00a0\u201cGod needed him in heaven more than we need him on earth.\u201d\u00a0No! I haven\u2019t seen Dad in six years. I need my dad!
\n<\/em>
\n\u2022\u00a0\u201cHis work was finished here.\u201d\u00a0That can\u2019t be true! The church is barely beginning, and the medical work is growing. Who will care for the hill people now?\u00a0 And what about my mother?
\n<\/em>
\n\u2022\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s for the best.\u201d\u00a0How can it POSSIBLY be best?<\/em><\/p>\n

For a while this struggling teenager thought that maybe it was his own fault. Perhaps God was punishing him. Guilt began to consume him. Brand then concludes: \u201cThis is not a book of theology. Yet I have seen so much harm caused by guilt over this one issue that I would be remiss if I did not mention it as a pain\u00a0intensifier<\/em>. Hundreds of patients I have treated\u2014Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Christian\u2014have tormented themselves with questions of guilt and punishment. What have I done wrong?\u00a0Why me?\u00a0What is God trying to tell me?\u00a0Why do I deserve this fate?\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand and Yancey go on to assert that human pain and suffering are NOT sent as a punishment. \u201cIf God IS using human suffering, He certainly has picked an obscure way to communicate His displeasure. The most basic fact about punishment is that it only works if the person knows the reason for it. It does absolute harm, NOT good, to punish a child unless the child understands why he or she is being punished. Yet most patients I have treated feel mainly confused, not chastened, by suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Clear Communication:<\/strong>\u00a0In the Bible, those who received divine punishment generally knew why! Those who rejected Noah\u2019s invitations were fully aware of why they were about to drown in the flood. The disobedient Egyptians knew why they were suffering under the weight of those ten plagues in Exodus. Prophets told of upcoming hardships because of apostasy. Jesus warned about dire consequences to those who laugh off God\u2019s invitations. But in the book of Job, the classic suffering story of all time, Job was NOT being punished. God Himself said Job was blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/strong>\u00a0It is easy today to blithely say, \u201cI feel your pain.\u201d But the reality is that God\u00a0does<\/em>feel our suffering. He is not the Author of our anguish, but He is present with us as we struggle and hold on to our faith. In the book of Daniel, where the three brave young men were tossed into the fiery furnace, that wasn\u2019t God\u2019s fire. He didn\u2019t light it or stoke the flames. But in that terrible moment, He\u00a0was there<\/em>\u00a0with His three children.
\n______________________________<\/p>\n

Submitted by David B. Smith. Better Sermons \u00a9 2005-2008. Click here for\u00a0<\/span>usage guidelines<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pain Sent From Paradise Key Text:\u00a0Matthew 9; John 5  Key Thought:\u00a0God is not the One causing the pain in our world. And yet He is present with us during our …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bettersermons.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}