All Creation Groans, Pt. 4
Study Guide, August 10, 2025
Pastor Clay Olsen
There’s a quiet theme that runs throughout the Old and New Testaments that, once you hear it, becomes the loudest influence on how you understand your life and your world around you. The theme is this: The life you are now living is not lived unto yourself. The life you are now living is linked to the lives of others who came before you and to others who will follow you. And the life you are now living is going to bless others that follow you in many and in manifold ways. Through the life you are now living you are both serving and sacrificing for others that will follow you in some ways that are known and in some ways that are now unknown, but one day will be fully known. In the amazing ways of God, every person is both a distinct individual yet is also distinctly joined to those in the past, present, and those still to become…the ‘Body of Christ’…the ‘Family of God.’
There are many passages that reveal this theme, but one notable one is in 1 Peter 1:10-12 – “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to look.” NASU
The Prophets learned that the lives that they were living were being lived in the service of others. They learned that their lives were serving as a basis upon which others who would follow them would become the beneficiaries of the successes, struggles, sufferings, and sacrifices of their lives, ministries, message, and service. And the profound reality is that the same is true of you, and of others who will follow you. Others yet to come into the family of God will become the beneficiaries of the successes, struggles, sufferings, and sacrifices that you are now making that will be used of God for their blessing, as well as for your gain. God has promised that to you.
When this theme is applied to civil life, we say that we today are the beneficiaries of the sacrifices of those before us made, especially as in battles and warfare, so that we can enjoy the freedoms and privileges we now have in our country. Their sufferings were actually ‘sacrifices’ that were offered on battlefields for our sake. That’s why we call them ‘Heroes’. Heroes are those who sacrificed of themselves for the sake of protecting, defending, and blessing others.
Think about that further: Parents don’t want their children to have to go off to war. But they do so for the sake of others who need to be defended and delivered from the evil that is going on in this world. They know that their child could be wounded, or even killed. Good soldiers get shot on battlefields with no fault of their own. And why? Because that’s what happens when you fight on a battlefield.
Who is our God to us? Our God is our Heavenly Father. As we have stated: God is our Perfect Parent. And our Perfect Parent does not want to have His children to have to go to war in this world, fighting against the forces of darkness, fighting against sin and evil, fighting against sickness and disease and danger of all manners. No, the heart of our Perfect Parent is to give His children not only our daily bread, but to also deliver us from all evil, and to heal us from all our diseases, and to give us all good things, and to do everything on Earth for every one of His children just as they are in Heaven. That is God’s heart for us…but this world…this present Earth is the present world in which we have to live for now. And in this world, few things are being done on Earth as they are in Heaven. For this world is a world at war with the Kingdom of Heaven. This world is a battlefield. And although our Perfect Parent does not want to have any of His children have to fight the good fight of faith on this battlefield of Earth, we are the only ones on Earth who can. We are God’s soldiers for Christ.
Think about it: Jesus also said that His people are the salt of the Earth. The only reason the world has not undergone complete decay is because of the presence of God the Holy Spirit in the lives of His children around the world. And Jesus said that His people are the lights of this world. The only reason that the world is not in total darkness in falsehood is because of the presence of the Spirit of Truth, who is God the Holy Spirit in the lives of His children around the world. The very presence of God’s people in this world is staying the decay and bringing light into the darkness.
But Jesus also said that this world loves darkness more than light and loves their sin more than the only Savior of this world. So mark it down: the reality is; as long as we are in this world, we will be at war against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And when you are in a war, the real possibility is that you may get shot…you may suffer…you may become a ‘wounded warrior’ in God’s army.
But again, the only way for those who are yet to follow us, to have the chance and the immeasurable privilege to become children of God…to become a part of the Body of Christ…to become sons and daughters of God’s forever family, is for us, for God’s children to continue to fight the good fight of faith, even if we get wounded in the fight.
But because of our good fight of faith, those who will follow us will become the beneficiaries of our successes, our struggles, our sufferings, and our sacrifices. And each of these, especially our sufferings, will be precious to them, and immeasurably precious to our God. And you will be a ‘Hero’ to those who had the opportunity and privilege to become a child of God because you were one of those who were here to fight the good fight of faith on this battlefield of Earth. And what this also means is that in essence, our present sufferings that we face are the sacrifices we make for the sake of those yet to come into the family of God. Our sufferings are essentially – our sacrifices. (We’ll come back to that.)
We are to also know that God’s directive will for His children is to be with Him in His Kingdom, His Home, that where He is we may be also. Jesus told us: “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also.” (Jn. 14:2) God’s directive will for us is to experience His kingdom, which is a kingdom of peace and righteousness and joy in the Spirit. Know that it is not God’s directive will for any of His children to have to live in a world that harms His children with sorrows and sicknesses and sufferings. That is what we are to know about our God.
But we are also to know that the only reason that God permits His people to live in this fallen, broken, and cursed world of suffering and evil is because there are more souls yet to birthed and saved and brought into the forever family of God. And in the plan of God, His people were predestined to be His ambassadors to this lost and dying world.
Theologically, this plan is referred to as God’s Directive Will and God’s Permissive Will. God permits things He does not prefer. Just like it is not God’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Pet. 3:9) But we also know that God permits people to reject His will and resist His Gospel and neglect His great salvation. As Jesus looked over Jerusalem, He said that He wanted to gather them all to Him as a hen gathers her chicks. But then He also said; “But you were ‘unwilling’!” God let them do their will…let them have their way. I once heard it put, that a sign in front of Heaven said “God’s will be done!”…and it had our name signed to it. And then there was a sign in front of Hell that said: “Your will be done.”…it was signed by ‘God’.
But again, God’s family is not yet completed. And yet, God’s family is daily being physically birthed and spiritually rebirthed! But they are coming into God’s family from this foreign land of the battlefield of Earth. And we, along with all God’s children on this Earth, are the Soldiers of Christ that are fighting this good fight of faith in a foreign land and on a battlefield for the sake of our future brothers and sisters in Christ.
And that is also why our personal sufferings are, in reality, more than personal sufferings…they are precious sacrifices in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. Which also means that our sufferings are of immense value in the eyes and heart of our God. In fact, the Psalmist reveals that our sorrows and our sufferings are so precious to God that even our ‘every tear’ is kept in a bottle by God for both His remembrance and for our reward. Ps 56:8- “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” NLT Know that every sorrow you have experienced, every suffering you have endured, and every sacrifice you have made will be made up to you by your Heavenly Father in many ways and in manifold rewards. God will compensate you many times over for any struggles, sorrows, and suffering that you endured from living on this battlefield of Earth. And know this for certain: In God’s eyes, the sufferings that you are facing are the sacrifices you are making that make it possible for those who are still to follow you to become delivered from this kingdom of darkness into God’s Kingdom of Light and Life. Your present sufferings are eternal sacrifices that will forever bless your forever family and be rewarded by our Eternal God.
And in God’s eyes, since you, yourself, are ‘precious in His sight’, know that our God hurts over every hurt of yours. God grieves over every sorrow over which you grieve. God suffers over and with every instance of your suffering. God cares more deeply about our sufferings that we can even think or imagine. So while we may not understand the timing of our deliverance from our particular sufferings, since we know that God’s love and care for us is perfect, we can then rest and trust in whatever the timing our deliverance might be.
Which gives answer to that age old question of ‘Why does God allow us to suffer?’ And much of the answer has do to this reality of where we live…which expands that question to – ‘Why does God allow His people to live in a world of suffering where they may experience suffering?’ And that answer has to do with this: Since God has allowed us and appointed us to be His ‘body’ in this world…His ‘hands and feet and voice’ to this world, and since this world is a world of suffering, even God’s people will experience suffering. Again, when you live in a world of suffering, you will suffer. Everyone suffers in a world of suffering. But God is also delivering His people either from their suffering or through their suffering. And there is no question about that. God is our Deliverer and He will deliver us.
The question about suffering then is no longer about ‘why’, but about ‘when’. The question about suffering for God’s people is not about ‘Why me?’, but about ‘How long?’
For the child of God then, the issue of suffering is not a ‘caring issue’, it’s actually a ‘timing issue’. And, since we know what the possibilities are about the ‘timing’ of God’s deliverances for His people, we know that the timing of our miracle could be immediately…or our miracle could be in time…or our miracle could be in eternity. ‘Timing’ is out of our hands… ‘Timing’ is in God’s hands, and that is where our trust can rest as well. Because we know the heart of our God we can trust in the works of His hands. So, yes, we have many answers revealed in the Scriptures about ‘God’s caring’ for us in our suffering. The only answers yet to be revealed are about the ‘timing’ of our deliverances and our victories.
But we need to come back to how we are to identify our sufferings, for in order to more realistically think of our sufferings, we also need to re-identify them not as ‘sufferings’, but as ‘sacrifices’. Again, Parents don’t want their children to have to make sacrifices on the battlefields of life, but they know that it’s the only way for others to be defended and delivered. In a similar way, neither does our God, our Perfect Parent want His children to have to make sacrifices on the battlefield of this life, but it is the only way for others to have the opportunity to be defended from the enemy and delivered into the family of God.
Again, the only reason this world is being allowed to continue at all is that God’s family is not yet complete. Do you remember how that passage in Hebrews 11 ended in talking about those who suffered on this battlefield of Earth? “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” (Heb. 11:39-40 NASU) These suffering saints did not experience the fullness of the promises of God because there were still others to be added, to be birthed and re-birthed, to become members with them in the fullness of redemption and salvation. And as we pointed out in our last study, we may experience similar sufferings in this life just like some of these suffering saints experienced. And, again, just like with those who experienced what we call ‘miracles’, we may also experience those kinds of miracles as well. In fact, in the experience of life on this battlefield of Earth, many of God’s people experience both – both the miracles of immediate deliverances and victories, but also experience struggles and sufferings in the world of suffering. So as we pointed out before…we need to be ‘ready for either’.
And that brings us back to our theme…to the overarching reason that God allows this world of suffering, and for any suffering, especially of God’s people, to continue at all. It’s because God’s family is not yet complete. These dear suffering saints of the OT went through their sufferings for us…for you and for me. We call them ‘Heroes’. And today, God’s saints are going through sufferings for those still to be reborn into the family of God out of this suffering world. And they will be so thankful that you endured this suffering world so that they could become part of God’s new world. And to them, you will be a ‘Hero!’