Our questions about suffering are often formed along the lines of, “If God is Sovereign, why does God allow people/me/my family/them to suffer?” Sometimes, we add things like God’s love into the mix, so that the question sounds like, “If God loves us, and if God is sovereign, then why …[fill in the blanks]?” In this message, Pastor Richard works from texts in Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 4, Colossians 1, Revelation 9 and John 16 to show that for as long as suffering exists, God does have a plan for it, and it is never meaningless or without purpose. And those plans, purposes and meanings include the drawing of people to repentance and faith, the display of Jesus’ suffering necessary for our salvation, the reality of an eternal glory for those who follow Jesus, and the hope of a world to come that is yet to be seen.