Category Archives: Sermons

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God Questions Part 3: Evil and Suffering

This topic has hit me personally right between the eyes this last few years.  Bucky and I discuss evil and suffering in this session of the God Questions at Pathways Church (www.ocpathways.org)

You can also read this brief collection of information that I put together concerning evil and suffering:

The 5-C’s of Evil and Suffering

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Evil and Suffering Sermon #2 Luke 13:4

This is Greg Boyd’s final sermon on evil and suffering his preaching on Luke 13. He makes 3 KEY POINTS in this sermon:

#1. collapse the judgment–don’t blame the sufferer and don’t blame yourself for the suffering. We don’t know squat! As C.S. Lewis said to a colleague who was trying to comfort him with Lewis’ own theological answers to evil and suffering after his wife Joy died: ‘Shut up, it’s just a bloody mess.”
When we judge or look for blame for a tragedy, it forces us to conclude that God is just, and therefore we must blame the individuals involved in the tragedy.  Or we must conclude that God is unjust, and we must blame God for the tragedy.  But God doesn’t cause the messes; He brings purpose to the messes!
The one suffering often feels horrible and that they are to blame which causes us to label ourselves a murderer or a whatever and that makes us “not a verb that we did but a noun that we are!”
We must live in the now because God is in the now.  No blaming but asking God how He can bring good out of this tragedy.  Every mess is an opportunity to bring healing and something good out of it.  In a time of suffering, we must be quiet, listen and ask how would you, God, have me respond to this mess?
#2. in the face of tragedies don’t judge, just respond–Are you turned and walking in the kingdom? Don’t try to figure it out! Just bring healing! HOW CAN GOD BE GLORIFIED IN THE MESS?
#3. God’s response to tragedy is always about healing never about condemnation–We live in a demonic war zone…demonic forces play a big part of suffering….
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God Questions Part 1

Bucky and I did a sermon series together titled: The God Questions.  Here is Part 1 of 4.  This is an introduction by Bucky to the journey, the questions, the talking time with our friends about these life changing questions.  Please let me know your thoughts about these messages.

The 3 key themes through out our series were:

  1. Love: It is the MOST exciting adventure of our lives to explore the key questions in life.  Why not do it with love? We want to emphasize the key to any time in discussion with someone must be with love.
  2. Listen:  The best answer is a question.  Too much time has been spent NOT listening to the other person in the discussion of these important questions of life.  If you don’t know or don’t understand, then listen!
  3. Learn: This is a team effort.  We want you to enjoy and learn from the time with others in discussion on these GREAT topics.