Revelation 21: "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

The question of God and suffering  Does God have the power to stop it?  Does God care?

There is no pit so deep but God’s love is not deeper still

Why Should He stop the trouble?  Do we do what He wants us to do?  Why should He do what we want Him to do?

What if He did?  Would we love him more?  Would we believe in Him more?  How long would the peace last?

Lessons of history  1940’s The second world war  1950’s Britain – austerity years  1960’s The affluent society  Car ownership quadrupled  1960’s the permissive society  1961 the pill  1967 abortion legalised

Lessons of history National military service ends 1963 Change in religious commitments in the latter half of the 20 th century

Lessons from the Bible  Moses and the Children of Israel  Deuteronomy Chapter 31: "Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel. "When I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, of which I swore to their fathers, and they have eaten and filled themselves and grown fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them; and they will provoke Me and break My covenant

Lessons from the Bible  David and Solomon  David a man of war  During his reign he promoted pure worship  Solomon a man of peace  At the end of his reign idolatry and false worship began

Lessons from the Bible  The prophets for example Ezekiel Ch 16  Vs "I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger skin; I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck.  Vs " 'And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.

A plane full of praying passengers  15 Jan 2009 – New York  Why did they pray?

Why were they praying?  Not in control of events  Feared they were probably going to die

Conclusion  Man has a sinful heart  Make his life easy –  He will become not less but more sinful  What needs to change is not man’s surroundings but his heart

God has a purpose in suffering  The worst suffering anyone ever endured?

Isaiah Ch 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray  We have turned every one to his own way  And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all

Suffering will end forever Or...

Suffering will never end  Revelation Ch 21:27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life