A Bout With Hurt: Why Evil? Why Pain?
WATCH HERE: https://vimeo.com/channels/forestpointe (Message Begins at 21:55)
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our consciences, but He shouts to us in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” C.S. Lewis
> EVIL ENTERED BY CHOICE, OUR CHOICE.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 2:15-17 (NLT)
> SOMETIMES MY PAIN COMES AS A TEST SO THAT I CAN LEARN TRUST.
1Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” Genesis 22:1-2 (NLT) 
> SOMETIMES MY PAIN IS A MYSTERY TO IMPART PERSPECTIVE OR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON KNOWN ONLY TO GOD.
20 Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 21 He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!”22 In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God. Job 1:20-22 (NLT)
> SOMETIMES MY PAIN COMES FROM DISOBEDIENCE AND SIN.
31 On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say,‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.” 33 Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.” Matthew 26:31-33 (NLT)
And immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he broke down and wept. Mark 14:72 (NLT)
But what about the pain in the world?! Where is God when all this bad stuff happens?
Where He has ALWAYS been….Transcending time and space, ruling the universe, and in exactly the SAME PLACE when his one and only Son was tortured, brutalized, and killed to bear your sin and my sin.
Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Mark 15:34(NLT)
God’s pain is the same as our pain multiplied by 107 Billion borne on the body of Jesus, His one and only.
>>>> So Why Evil and Pain?- BECAUSE WE WANTED MORE THAN PERFECT AND ENDED UP WITH LESS THAN THE BEST. <<<< BUT GOD...loves us SO MUCH still.