Download PaulGarrett-ElSentid..

1
El Sentido del Sufrimiento – Making Sense out of Suffering
#1 ¿Y el Mundo Perfecto? -- Where is the Perfect World?

God is perfect.
 That means he has no flaws, no errors,
 That also means he does not change.
 That also means that he created everything perfect, ¿right?
 So the world you live in is perfect, ¿right?
 NO! Why?




God is love.
 That means he loves us?
 That also means he wants "good" for us? Blessings.
 That means that he doesn't want us to suffer, ¿right?
 That means that he doesn't want us to have pain, ¿right?
 NO!
 So God wants you to have pain?
 I assure you there are people here and others listening to the
recording that are in pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain.
Tough questions. ¿Where is the perfect World?

OK. Maybe this is an explanation:
 God is perfect and God is love; but he cannot avoid
suffering. ¿right?
 Ex: Preacher gone to Nicaragua when a hurricane came.
Testimony of all that God did on the mission trip. "My God
doesn't bring hurricanes".
 Did Satan bring the hurricane and God couldn't do
anything about it?
 Did Satan bring the hurricane and God didn't care to
do anything about it?
Did God just create an imperfect world and then "let
bad things happen by themselves"?
Some of you might know the person I'm talking about.
I'm NOT trying to judge her.
I've had these questions myself too. Probably you have
too.
I put this example because it is an example that is close
to us.
It gets hard when the tough time comes to us or to
someone close to us.
How many have a hard time knowing what to say to the
grieving family members at a funeral?




Either we have a bad view of love or a bad view of suffering.
My short answer: Both!
Over the next months we can go talking about this
Ex: The other day I sat down to install a garbage can in the
kitchen.
 Very nice garbage can, very difficult to understand instructions.
 Hold the paper against the wood with A against the side of the
cabinet and drill points 1, 2 and 3.
 Flip paper sideways and hold B against the door and drill points
4 5 and 6.
 I drilled lots of holes in the wood, more than we needed.
 Then I thought. Let me start with what I know.
 The garbage goes in the top. This piece must go here.
 Then the only place that this piece can go is here.
 Eventually I got the garbage can installed.
2
Let's start with what we know: Biblical Truths
1. God is Perfect.
 Deu_32:4 (4) He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his
ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just
is he.
2. God is Good.
 Sal_106:1 Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is
good; his love endures forever.
 Mar_10:17-18 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him
and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what
must I do to inherit eternal life?" (18) Why do you call me good?
Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
3. God is Soverign. Almighty.
 Jer_32:17 Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and
the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is
too hard for you.
Eden and Heaven
 have a lot of things in common
God created a good earth.
 Gén_2:8 God planted a garden, called it Eden.
 Gén_2:9 Trees in a garden. Tree of life.
 Gén_2:10 River in the garden.
 Gén_3:8 Dios caminaba con Adan y Eva en el jardín.
God will remain with a good and perfect earth.
 Apo_21:2 Describes a City.
 Apo_22:1 River of the water of life
 Apo_22:2 Tree of life!
 Apo_22:3 No more curse! We'll talk about that in a moment.
 Apo_22:3-4 We will be with God, see his face.




OK. Now let's look at the world. Turn to Genesis 1
 Gén_1:1 God created.
 Gén_1:4 God created light... it was good
 Gén_1:10 God created water and land... it was good
 Gén_1:12 Plants and trees.. it was good
 Gén_1:18 Sun & other stars, Moon... it was good
 Gén_1:21 Fish & birds... it was Good.
 Gén_1:25 Animals according to their kind... it was good
 Gén_1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.




So there was perfection in the first two chapters of the Bible
And there will be perfection in the last two chapters of the Bible
1185 Chapters in the middle that are a mystery (1189 chapters
in the Bible)
Difficult to explain: Sin, Corruption, Curse, Death, Pain,
Suffering, Tears, Carpenter, Cross, Tomb, Persecution, Hell.
 Pecado, Corrupción, Maldición, Muerte, Dolor,
Sufrimiento, Lágrimas, Carpintero, Cruz, Tumba,
Persecución, Infierno.
Eden and Heaven have a lot of things in common, but they
are not the same. God didn't just "fix" a broken earth.
When God restores, he makes things better.
There is someone present in the City at the end of this Book
that was not there in the Garden at the beginning of the Book. - It's the bride!
And She is the reason why there is hundreds of chapters in the
middle that we have a hard time explaining.
3

The Bride of Christ is the reason why God allowed: Sin, Curse,
Death, Pain, Suffering, Tears, Carpenter, Cross, Tomb,
Persecution, Hell.
Process of Corruption
 Gén_2:15-17 The LORD God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (16) And the
LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any
tree in the garden; (17) but you must not eat from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die."
 God created man with free choice.
 Freedom means that you could have done otherwise.
 God made us in his own image.
 God is Moral. We are Moral
 God is Free. We are Free.
 You cannot be free to love God if you cannot hate God
 You cannot be free to worship God if you cannot
blaspheme him.
 Imagine that when Eve was going to eat the fruit God didn't
let her.
 He rotted the fruit.
 He made her teeth close.
 Would she have been free?
 We made our free choice.
 Gén_3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was
good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for
gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave
some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
What is so important about freedom?
 God wants a bride that is free to love him.
 God wants a bride that is free to worship him.
 In creating that freedom, an evil choice was made.
Who would want a Bride that cannot choose?
 God created freedom so we could choose him.

So God did not create Evil.
 (Hab_1:13) Your eyes are too pure to look on evil

God created freedom. In that freedom, he gave us liberty to
make an evil choice.
 God gave the angels liberty to make an evil choice.
 God gave Lucifer freedom to make an evil choice.
 1/3 of the angels made an evil choice.
 God gave Adam the ability to make an evil choice.
 All men except one have made that evil choice.
The mystery is that through that one-man, the Carpenter,
Jesus he has made possible that the rest of us can choose
correctly.
 Choose to accept the gift of salvation
 And that makes us part of the bride of Christ.
 A bride that chooses to love him.
 A bride that chooses to worship him.
 And he gets a REAL BRIDE.

4
Why does God allow suffering?
 Not for fun.
 Not for passtime. He has nothing better to do.
 Because in suffering his Bride is perfected.
 This is a profound concept that we're not going to finish in this
afternoon.
 We have the following weeks and months to understand it.
 But let me give you two examples as an illustration.
Example 1: Personal Life
 Many people pray a little and feel god a little bit when things
are going well.
 Many of us here have a relationship with God that is "okay"
when things are going well.
 But when we get sick, need money, need guidance because we
fight with a family member -- when we suffer, what often
happens?
 We seek God. We remember that Jesus is our lover, our
provider, our friend.
 Suffering could produce more love in us for Jesus.
 The Bride grew! (More in love)
Example 2: Death in the Family
 Let us pretend that there are three brothers, one is a christian.
 The Christian one gets very sick and dies.
 Sal_116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his
saints.







The Christian one is with Jesus!
The two brothers that are left suffer.
Because of the suffering, one of them thinks about eternity
and becomes a Christian.
He is born again. Becomes part of the Bride of Christ!
The Bride grew. (One more person).
There are many questions, cases that you can probably think of.
We will not go into all of them now, and we need to see more
elements of the Word of God to understand them.
5
Rom_8:19-23
 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to
be revealed. (20)
 For the creation was subjected to frustration,
 not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it
[Adam],
 in hope (21) that the creation itself will be liberated from its
bondage to decay
 and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
(22)
 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the
pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (23)
 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as
sons, the redemption of our bodies.
¿Where is the perfect world?
 It's Coming! It is our hope. v20
 I don't know why God, but I put my trust in you.
 I don't understand, but I put my hope in you.
 Apo_22:17 Both the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" Anyone
who hears should say, "Come!" And the one who is thirsty should
come. Whoever desires should take the living water as a gift.
 Apo_22:17 El Espíritu y la novia dicen: «¡Ven!»; y el que
escuche diga: «¡Ven!» El que tenga sed, venga; y el que
quiera, tome gratuitamente del agua de la vida.
 Meanwhile, when we are in "frustration" (v20)
 Take the opportunity to get closer to God. Seek God. Long
for him like the Bride waiting.
6
El Sentido del Sufrimiento
#1 ¿Y el Mundo Perfecto?
Dios es Perfecto.
Deu_32:4 Él es la Roca, sus obras son perfectas, y todos sus caminos
son justos. Dios es fiel; no practica la injusticia. Él es recto y justo.
Dios es Bueno
Sal_106:1 ¡Aleluya! ¡Alabado sea el SEÑOR! Den gracias al SEÑOR,
porque él es bueno; su gran amor perdura para siempre.
Mar_10:17-18 Cuando Jesús estaba ya para irse, un hombre llegó
corriendo y se postró delante de él. —Maestro bueno —le
preguntó—, ¿qué debo hacer para heredar la vida eterna? (18) —
¿Por qué me llamas bueno? —respondió Jesús—. Nadie es bueno
sino sólo Dios.
Dios es Soberano
Jer_32:17 »¡Ah, SEÑOR mi Dios! Tú, con tu gran fuerza y tu brazo
poderoso, has hecho los cielos y la tierra. Para ti no hay nada
imposible.
Génesis 1
Apocalipsis 21
Gén 2:15 Dios el SEÑOR tomó al hombre y lo puso en el jardín del
Edén para que lo cultivara y lo cuidara,
Gén 2:16 y le dio este mandato: «Puedes comer de todos los árboles
del jardín,
Gén 2:17 pero del árbol del conocimiento del bien y del mal no
deberás comer. El día que de él comas, ciertamente morirás.»
Gén 3:6 La mujer vio que el fruto del árbol era bueno para comer, y
que tenía buen aspecto y era deseable para adquirir sabiduría, así
que tomó de su fruto y comió. Luego le dio a su esposo, y también
él comió.
Hab_1:13 Son tan puros tus ojos que no puedes ver el mal
Sal_116:15 Estimada a los ojos del SEÑOR Es la muerte de Sus
santos.
Rom_8:19-23
 La creación aguarda con ansiedad la revelación de los hijos de
Dios, (20)
 porque fue sometida a la frustración.
 Esto no sucedió por su propia voluntad, sino por la del que así lo
dispuso. [Adán]
 Pero queda la firme esperanza (21) de que la creación misma
ha de ser liberada de la corrupción que la esclaviza,
 para así alcanzar la gloriosa libertad de los hijos de Dios.
(22)
 Sabemos que toda la creación todavía gime a una, como si
tuviera dolores de parto. (23)
Y no sólo ella, sino también nosotros mismos, que tenemos las
primicias del Espíritu, gemimos interiormente, mientras
Pecado, Corrupción, Maldición, Muerte, Dolor, Sufrimiento,
aguardamos nuestra adopción como hijos, es decir, la redención de
Lágrimas, Carpintero, Cruz, Tumba, Persecución, Infierno.
nuestro cuerpo.