The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: There's all kinds of pain in this world today. People are hurting, and I pray that if you're hurting today or you know someone that's hurting, that you'll look to the Lord for yourself and for them and experience God's intervention and his blessing.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Healing Word, a radio ministry of the Largo Community Church. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: I have a special message today entitled "Why Suffering and Pain?" That's a question that everybody is asking. Even Christians secretly ask why all this hunger, pain, suffering, grief, and sorrow exists. Why is God allowing it to exist? We're going to go to Romans chapter 5 and learn where it started, when it started, and how it started. We're also going to learn about the man that God sent, Jesus, who's going to take it all away.

Come with me now into the sanctuary. Open your heart and hear this message. Some of your questions are going to be answered—not all of them, perhaps, but you're going to learn something today from the Word of God, and so am I. It's going to be a great day for you, for me, and for Christians everywhere.

Pain came into the world in the very beginning of the human race, and it's been here ever since. When we die, most people go out in pain. There's an anesthetic that will mask the pain. Years ago, Sir James Simpson performed something similar to a miracle when he came up with something called chloroform. He administered the chloroform to a lady giving birth. When it was over, she didn't even know she'd had a baby. He nicknamed the baby Anesthesia after the anesthetic.

Babies come into the world crying. Their very first experience in life in this world is pain. That should tell you something. Have you ever seen a baby born laughing? We come in with pain, we experience pain, and we go out with pain. Thank God there is hope for God's people, not only in the world to come but in this life also. Sickness, disease, organ failure, heart failure, liver failure, dysfunctional kidneys, cancer, cerebral palsy, HIV, MS, and asthma—I could go on and on talking about physical pain.

There is also emotional, mental, and psychological pain: fears, depression, and schizophrenia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists a myriad of mental illnesses. When a mental illness is listed, it is broken down into subcategories. Who knows all the problems and mental illnesses people are experiencing today?

Then there's the pain when a loved one dies. My father, my mother, and my sister died, and I had pain. You can't get away from it. When your loved ones or friends die, it hurts. I've preached many funerals for members of my congregation. I have been in pain and the tears have flowed. I couldn't stop and was almost embarrassed because I was grieving for them. I wouldn't see them anymore in this life, but I knew I would see them again in the life to come. That's a different kind of pain.

There is also pain in marriage. There are many good, happy marriages, but there's been pain and suffering somewhere along the way. I think of divorce. Many divorces come about not as a result of a mate being unfaithful. I've had couples in my office where the person who cheated and the innocent person were both sitting there crying. Everyone suffers in situations like that, especially the little children.

Every person here knows somebody in their family who has been divorced, or maybe you have been divorced yourself. You know the pain. I got a letter a couple of days ago from a young girl in another state. I performed a wedding for her parents many years ago when I was pastoring in Baltimore, Maryland. That couple went into the ministry and is still doing a wonderful job of serving God and the church. They had two beautiful children. The girl just recently got a divorce and she wrote to me.

She said, "Thank you for your prayers yesterday and all along." She mentioned they went to the courthouse and everything is now finalized. She said, "God will fight the battle. It's his battle, and I'm resting in him. This has been horrible for everyone involved." Not only for her, but her children and parents are involved as well. She said, "Only God knows the future and the next steps. I'm asking God for wisdom and discernment in the days and decisions ahead."

She wrote, "I believe the man I married 14 years ago was God's man for me. Both of us were born-again Christians when we received the vows at the altar. That's why I married him, and that's what kept us hanging on for 14 years." Something went bad in that marriage. During the last six or seven months of the divorce proceedings, she said, "I was hanging on to God. I want to be sure I'm hanging on to God and not my feelings. I want to be sure I'm doing what God says and not anything else. I'm still wearing my husband's ring even though the divorce is final. I know God loves me and cares for me."

People are hurting. If you're hurting today or you know someone who is, look to the Lord for yourself and for them to experience God's intervention and blessing. The skeptic or the atheist says there is no God. His argument is that if there is a good God like the Bible talks about, why are there orphanages, hospitals, hunger, divorce, pain, sickness, and death? The atheist is very vocal about it.

The believer asks similar questions silently. Those thoughts enter our minds from time to time. Both the atheist and the Christian are looking for answers. We have put God on the witness stand and demanded an answer. The only difference is who can control it best. It's similar to a marriage. We have married into the family of God and are now married to the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have become one flesh with him and our hearts are dedicated to him. It has become a love relationship that started with him first. Then we made our vow of promise: "Forgive me of my sins. I'll love you and serve you all the days of my life." But then temptation, problems, sickness, cancer, heart failure, divorce, and death come. We ask, "Didn't you say until death do we part, Lord?" Sometimes we walk away from God's love and that relationship.

Giving our heart to the Lord is like a couple coming to the altar. When I knelt before the Lord as a sinner, I don't know if it was really a love relationship yet. it was more of a trust relationship. I was entrusting my soul to the Lord. After years have passed, I've seen how God has blessed me and walked with me through hard places, financial problems, and marital issues. I can say God has been with us and kept us. I love him now because I know that my trust paid off. He's a God who cares and who has kept me. My heart rejoices in God my savior.

Adam and Eve trusted God and had a wonderful relationship with him. It was not hypocritical, surface, or phony. They walked with God for a period of time. Then the devil came. There's a real tempter out there trying to tempt you to lose your faith and trust and give up on God. He went to Adam and Eve. No one has had a relationship with God like they did, yet they failed.

We haven't had that same face-to-face, visible relationship, but they failed when the tempter came. This is how it all started. The tempter asked them, "Did God really say that?" The break started because they listened and ruminated on that "if." If God loved me, why am I sick? If God loved me, why are my parents dead? If God loves me, why don't I live forever in this world? You've already heard the voice of the devil if you're thinking that way. He's going to tear your life to pieces if you don't turn away and give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those same temptations face us to this very day. We wonder if God still means what he said or if he has changed. When we think that way, we lose the presence of God. God's answer to sickness, suffering, and pain is a man, Christ Jesus. The first man made you a temporal being subject to sickness, suffering, sin, and temptation.

Another Adam came into the world as the first man of God. Scripture says, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men because all men have sinned." Verse 15 says, "But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow unto many?" God's grace and loving-kindness are still available to all who believe.

I go to the book of Job. It is the first book of the Bible ever put out, even though Genesis is compiled first because it talks about the beginning. The entire book of Job deals with pain and suffering. You can't escape it; it's everywhere. Job lost everything: his finances, his family, and even the affection of his wife. You have not lost everything if you haven't lost God. If you still have him, it's because you have a relationship with him.

Job's body was diseased and oozing corruption. Three friends decided to come and comfort him. When they saw Job from afar, they tore their clothes because they had never seen suffering like that. They threw dust on their heads and sat on the ground with him. For seven days, those friends never said a word. That was Job's greatest comfort. When those friends finally opened their mouths to speak, Job's suffering was intensified. It's not about words; it's about your heart and your presence.

A sermon is just words. You've been hearing a lot of words this morning. Sermons themselves don't cure anybody of anything. The Bible is a book of words. Atheists can read the Bible and come up with logical, philosophical arguments against the existence of God. Job's friends were at their best when they said nothing and gave Job only their presence.

A sermon is meant to point you to the man. There is no other reason for a preacher to get up here. We're not entertainers or philosophers. The Bible is worthless until you meet the man of the Bible. Words don't cure or heal on their own, but in the presence of Jesus Christ, things change. He's the one who came into the world to save our souls and give us everlasting life through a love relationship with God.

He is the one with the balm in Gilead that brings healing to the soul. That healing then begins to initiate itself through our entire being. Jesus didn't come into the world to be a king on a throne. No one ever suffered like Jesus. He didn't complain about his suffering. God said, "This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased." Even though you're suffering today, you can still be God's well-pleased servant and be loved greatly by him.

Adam and Eve lost their way, and many of God's people have lost their way as well. Some here this morning could be on the verge of losing your way because you're sick and feel like the church, the hymns, and the sermons aren't doing any good. It's God who does you good. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. He's the man who came to make us whole within.

Job said, "My ears have heard of you." This morning you've been hearing with your ears. You've been hearing a sermon, but that didn't fix it for Job. He then said, "But now my eyes have seen you." See the hand of God coming into your family, your marriage, and your spirit. We're all going to die someday, but when we can see Jesus helping us through the vicissitudes of life, it means you're going to make it all the way to glory.

Guest (Male): If today's message strengthened your faith, we invite you to stand with The Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.