Keith Battle - God's Plan: Making Sense Out of Suffering

Do me a favor: wherever you’re at, tell somebody near you that I’m glad you made it to church today. I think I’m just going to read two verses, verses 31 and 32, from the New Living Translation. Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat, but I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers. Hmm, everybody said, «God’s plan.» This past week had an unusual amount of difficulties, not for me personally, but for the people I was conversing with. Given the nature of my work, I hear a lot of bad news and don’t always hear good news. People don’t call me when they get a job; they call me when they lose one. It’s just the nature of it. They don’t call when their marriage is going great; they call when it’s in trouble. It kind of comes with the territory, but this week seemed unusually challenging for many. So many people are suffering and going through great difficulties: difficulties in their personal lives, in their relationships, and in their health. People are struggling with loss, depression, darkness, and hopelessness. It was just so heavy this week, and I want to preface what I’m about to say because I don’t want to sound condescending at all to anyone who’s not a follower of Jesus Christ. If you’re here and you’re watching and you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ, we welcome you. This church is for everybody! Amen? If you want a church for everybody, this is it! We welcome people who don’t believe in Jesus, people who love Him, people who hate Him, and people just checking to see if we’re fake. Wherever you are, you’re welcome! But what makes following Jesus really valuable to me is not just the fact that I have a home in heaven; one of the things that makes following Jesus so special is that He can help me make sense out of suffering. I can’t tell you what suffering means to people who don’t know the Lord, but I don’t know how it all comes together. However, when you have a relationship with God, there is no pain for which He doesn’t have a plan. I might not even know the plan, but I know He has one. My pain is always intentional; nothing arbitrarily happens in my life. I’m confident of that, and that’s a difference-maker right there. I may not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. I may not know how tomorrow is going to turn out, and I may not know how things are going to work out, and I may not have everything I want or everything I desire, but I have God, and God says that I am everything you need. Do you understand what I’m saying? He causes all things to work together for good, so even if it isn’t good right now, it’s going to end up good because He says He’s working it all together for good. Everything we suffer and go through is intentional. In fact, I’m excited about the fact that even if it’s warfare—because sometimes we go through things, and it’s one thing to go through something knowing you are the cause of it, because some things we go through we know are our fault. Yes, there’s guilt when you know you made a mistake. But I’m talking about when you can’t even connect the dots between your suffering and your own mistakes. You might ask, «What did I do wrong?» People say, «What did I do to deserve this? Why me, and why this, and why now?» I’m saying that the relationship with God gives us hope even in our pain, that He can make sense out of our suffering—it is His plan. In fact, what this text I just read highlights, even if it’s warfare, is the fact that Satan has asked. The Bible says that Jesus tells His disciples, «Listen, Satan has asked if he could sift each of you like wheat.» He is talking to Simon but addressing the whole crew. He wants all of you. But the thing that blessed me, Pastor Jeff, was that Jesus said Satan asked if he could do it. Let me slow down for you—that he asks if he could do it. Yes, I’m saying that the fact that Satan has to ask gives me hope here, because he can’t do anything in my life without God’s permission. Guess what? Satan has you on his prayer list; he has you on his hit list. But the beauty of it is he’s got to go through God first. Nothing is happening in my life that hasn’t first crossed God’s desk before it comes into my life. That’s good! I don’t know how you feel about it, but I’m rejoicing over the fact that he’s got to get permission. Let me put it like this: Satan says, «I want you; I want her. God, I want him.» And I don’t just want him for…