Sunday, August 11th, 2024 - 11am Traditional Service - Guest Speaker Brad Yates - "Suffering Part 2"

In one paragraph

This was part two of Brad Yates's series on suffering, preached at First B Jackson on August 11, 2024. Where part one addressed why a good God permits evil and suffering, this message turned to the practical question of what we are actually supposed to do, whether suffering is happening around us or to us. Brad worked through three scenarios: collective tragedy, others suffering, and our own...

Read together

1. Luke 13 collective suffering and repentance, the biblical response to broad tragedies
2. Job 2:11-13 Job's three friends showing up, sitting with him in silence for seven days
3. Ephesians 4 Christ gave apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers to equip his people for works of service
4. Romans 8:28 cited as an example of a 'ninja star verse' thrown at people who are suffering
5. Philippians 2 Christ set aside equality with God to take on flesh and die for our sins
6. Luke 21 Jesus promises his disciples they will be betrayed, hated, some put to death, yet not a hair of their head will perish
7. Luke 12 five sparrows sold for two pennies, hairs of your head all counted, do not fear
8. Luke 13 Tower of Siloam, eternal perishing
9. Psalm 22:1 my God my God why have you forsaken me, what Jesus cried from the cross and what David wrote
10. Psalm 13 how long O Lord will you forget me forever, how long will you hide your face
11. Psalm 34 the Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit
12. Mark 9 father of the dying child saying I believe but help my unbelief
13. John 11 shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept
14. Hebrews 12 Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him, despising the shame
15. Daniel 3 Shadrach Meshach Abednego in the furnace, a fourth figure seen in the fire like a son of the gods
16. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others with the same comfort he gave us

Talk about it

1. Brad said that if God were to eliminate all evil from the world today, he would have to destroy the very people he loves. How does that reframe the way you think about unanswered prayers for suffering to end?
2. Brad drew a distinction between God penalizing us for sin and God disciplining us. Has that distinction ever mattered to you personally in a season of difficulty, and how did it change the way you processed what was happening?
3. Brad described Job's friends as being off to a great start by showing up and sitting in silence for seven days, but then going wrong when they rushed to explain what God was doing. What makes it so hard to stay quiet and present rather than jumping to solutions or scripture verses?
4. Brad said that bitterness or greatness are basically the only two options that come out of suffering over time, and that it is your response to the storm rather than the storm itself that shapes you. Where have you seen that play out, either in your own life or in someone close to you?
5. Brad closed with the image of a fourth man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and said the confidence of those three was not in the rescue God might provide but in who God is. What would it look like in a practical, day-to-day way to anchor your confidence in the giver rather than the gift?