Thanks, Jasmine. Hey, good morning, everybody. Great to see you guys.
Hey, on Easter, we began a series. We just called it, Let's Talk About It.
And so, what are we talking about? And so, we talked about Jesus on the first weekend at Easter,
who Jesus is, and that he's healer, he's savior, right? He's still working. He's eternal king.
Last week, we talked about the aspect of his word. How do we, how can we trust his word?
What about, you know, whatever the situations could be in that?
And this evening, or this morning, we're going to be this weekend, I guess, because we had service last night.
But this weekend, what we're talking about is really, like the number one question that
surveys have said is that if people could ask God any question, knowing that God would answer them,
what would you ask? And the question came back is, why is there pain and suffering in the world?
And when we talk about this aspect, this is things that philosophers and theologians have debated for
and discussed for thousands of years, really. But the thing is that these conversations still happen.
Because I've had these conversations on college campuses when I did college ministry.
I've had them happen in the classroom. I've had them happen on the street just having a conversation with people.
I've had it happen in my friend's house as we're just talking about life.
And so in the midst of those things, we know it's a very common question.
At the same time that we, as we discussed this though, is that we don't want to approach it purely from an academic level.
How many of you guys have ever heard philosophers or theologians kind of lecture and speak like that?
Anybody here? You guys ever? Yeah. And so sometimes they answer questions nobody's asking.
And sometimes they talk about things in such a complex way, or it's a technical way of speaking,
very dense, very precise, that sometimes we can miss the nuance.
And so I don't want to speak about it that way, but I do want to at the same time address that there are,
you know, real issues and real thoughts that we have to address.
And the other aspect is as a pastor, I'm always concerned about the way that where people are at personally.
Because the thing about this issue is that though we can talk about it in a dispassionate way about,
you know, if God is good, why is there evil and suffering in the world?
But to be honest, most of us when we think about it, we think about it personally.
Because if we're going through that, you know, you've had the loss of a loved one.
You've seen a relationship that was sweet turned into betrayal.
People who've gone to war and people who've seen, you don't have to go to war to see man's inhumanity to man.
But if you've experienced these things, we understand that, you know, they present real challenge to us.
And so we understand, I understand that if you're in the midst of something really difficult right now, you're going through it.
I understand that you might hear the message and it might sound a little hollow because sometimes we get overwhelmed by those things.
But at the same time, I'm hoping that even if that is the case, that would you know that there are real answers
and real reasons that we can hold on to hope in the midst of those times.
And so this this evening or this weekend, we want to make sure that we're continuing this aspect.
What it says in 1 Peter 3 15 to set Christ to set up, to set in our hearts, to set apart Christ as Lord and being prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks us, right?
To give the reason for the hope that you have, but to do this with gentleness and respect.
And so this evening, this week, am I, what am I always saying this evening?
Just like it's not that dark, right?
But so here's the thing is that we want to do is we want to try to address that.
Now, when I've, when I've done that, when I've had these discussions, sometimes I've had them in really comfortable settings, right?
And it is academic and sometimes I've had to sit with couples who've lost the child, right?
Sometimes I've had to do it in the midst of kind of a city that has been devastated when the tsunami hit the Fukushima Sendai and they call that whole area the Tohoku Prefecture.
It's literally like about a hundred miles of all the cities, every city is the same level of destruction.
It took 20,000 lives and I've sat with people who have lost everybody in their family and accept them.
And when we talk about these things, you know, they're very, very personal.
And so sometimes in the midst of that, it's just to listen is the best, you know, when we're in the midst of that.
But this, this morning as we talk about it that, you know, this is not the time to listen, this is the time to discuss a little bit.
And then maybe we'll have a time to listen.
But I do want to open in a word of prayer. Would you be kind enough that let's just say, you know, we can do all the study we want, but we want God's spirit to lead us this morning.
Father, this this morning as we come, we know that this issue may have academic roots in it, but it is an intensely personal question for many of us.
And sometimes the people that we love that we deal with them and this is their question and this is the thing that they begin to struggle.
And so, Father, we want to build that bridge between what might be intellectual academic, but really to where we are.
And so, Father, we thank you that you're the ultimate bridge builder.
You're the ultimate one who speaks life.
And so, Father, would you lead us that as we discuss this, it wouldn't just simply be academic, but it would be something that touches our heart, touches our life as well as our minds.
And we pray these things in general and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
And so this this morning as we start this basically just three points to this aspect, but probably in a discussion like this, it's always good to talk about what are our underlying assumptions.
And so often that this discussion, if God is good, then why is there evil?
Normally, it often breaks down to like three simple statements. It can be more, but for the sake of our time that we're just going to discuss these three.
But it says this that the first three statements is that God is good, right?
So the assumption if God is good and God is all powerful, right?
God is all powerful. Why is there evil is the basic thing, right?
So this is what they but it says that evil is real.
And for some people, when they look at these three statements, they can say even though the statement is simple,
that it becomes very difficult for some people to believe that all these three things can exist at the same time because there are assumptions that come with those statements, right?
So there's some assumptions that come with the statement.
So that's why underneath there, I said that there's the statements with assumptions.
And what is the assumption that the first one is this?
If God is good, then he wouldn't want evil and suffering in the world, right?
Like if God was kind and compassionate and he's good, then would he see what evil and suffering would do?
And so he wouldn't want that, would he?
And the second assumption is this. If God is all powerful, not that he wouldn't want, but he wouldn't allow, right?
He would prevent, right? Having evil and suffering in the world.
And then the other part where we talk about, when we talk about evil and suffering, is it's not just a little bit.
Maybe some people think if it was just a little bit, then maybe we could, we wouldn't mind as much,
but it seemed to be a whole lot of evil and suffering in the world.
And so those are the three kind of assumptions that little bit more expanded.
So as a result, some people just simply say, well, the simple solution is just if God is not good,
we don't have to worry that God is good, then we don't have to worry about it.
Some people, obviously, they just want to say, well, it's because of this that I cannot believe in God,
that God doesn't exist.
And philosophers in the past used to be this way.
They would just say simply that God doesn't exist, but today it's a little different.
Today there are people that they say God doesn't exist, and then they also say this, but I hate him.
Well, how can he hate somebody that doesn't exist, right?
So what they're saying really is, I don't understand it, and I'm mad about it, right?
So there are some people that they'll just say this, because of that God is not good.
And there will be some who say then, obviously, that God is not all powerful.
That God cannot do different things because it's too hard, or it's that evil, or the devil is too strong.
I've heard people say, I think that the devil might be stronger than God, because when I look at the situations that I've seen,
I see more of his activity than God's activity.
Now, when people say stuff like that, I understand that there is things that are wrong,
and you don't have to look in the newspaper.
Sometimes you just drive down the street and you can see it, right?
Now, to prove this point, some people have used this question.
And I'm going to ask you, raise your hand if you've heard this question before, that this is how people try to say,
look, God is not all powerful, because they say this, if God is all powerful, can God create a rock so big that even he couldn't lift it?
Anybody hear that question before?
No?
Okay, only the people that talk to some young people.
I used to hear this a lot on the college campuses, to be honest, and I used to hear it a lot.
And why is this question like, would be a conundrum for people?
Because if you say, God can create a rock so powerful that he cannot lift it, then you're still saying he's not powerful, right?
But then if you say, well, if God cannot create a rock that's so big that he cannot lift it, then God cannot create that big of a thing, right?
So it's like, you know, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.
That's the old proverbial saying.
But here's some things, why do people use that kind of an illustration, whether they use that kind of a question?
It's because, to be honest, sometimes they don't understand that when we say God is good, we have assumptions about it as well.
When we say God is powerful, we have assumptions about it as well.
And that they don't necessarily understand what those assumptions are.
Because we understand God to be not just the sum total of the universe, but that God created everything in the universe so that God is actually existing before there was a universe, right?
So current theory is that the universe started with the Big Bang, right?
And the question is that we ask scientists and scientists are asked, what happened, what was there before the Big Bang?
And what, you know what their answer is? We don't know. We don't know.
But to be honest, technically they say there was nothing, right?
So that one theory is that all of the matter is equally balanced by antimatter in the space of the universe.
But the reality is if there was a Big Bang, then there had to be something that created it, right?
That there had to be some cause, some reason. So there was a Big Bang-er, right? Some place, right?
And so he exists outside of his creation.
So if we were to answer this, we would answer this.
We'd be mindful of this in Jeremiah 32-17. Let's read what it says.
Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.
Nothing is too hard for you. So sometimes what we will answer if that question, can God create a rock too big for him to move or to lift,
the answer is simply no. And then some people say, well, then the guy's not, he's not powerful then, right?
Well, it says that God, it's nothing is too hard for him to do, but there are some things that are impossible for him to do.
For instance, and this is a slight distinction for some of us, but can God make a triangle circle?
Well, then you have to look at what is a triangle? Triangle is a three-sided geometric shape, right?
And what is a circle? Like a lot of us we think, I know what a circle is. I don't know how to explain what a circle is, right?
So I had to look it up myself. Like what is a circle? It's like where every point in the shape is equidistant from the center, right?
So we have a circle. Can God make a triangle circle? No. Why? Because if you did, you would have changed all those definitions.
So in other words, the reason why God cannot make a triangle circle is because it's nonsensical, right?
It's nonsensical. Can God make a black-white? You know, you're just stirring words together.
So when people say there's no such thing as a dumb question, that's not always true. No.
But because they don't realize what we're doing is we're changing the definitions.
That's so often the problem in our culture today is they want to change the definition of things.
And so we see sometimes the problems that come with that. It would be the same as if God were to say, can God make it rain in this room and not rain in this room at the same time?
It just doesn't make sense, right? You're just saying, you're just making a logical impossibility.
So there are some things God cannot do because it's logically impossible.
There is logic in the answer that I gave, though, that God cannot lift the rock.
I mean that God cannot create the rock that he cannot lift.
And the reason is because God is outside of his creation, the rock, no matter how big he creates it, is still smaller than him.
Because he exists outside of this realm, physical realm.
He can be involved in it, but he exists even outside of it before there was anything, right?
So the logical response to that is no.
Because no matter how big the universe is, the Bible describes it as the span of God's hand, right?
So there are some things that we think in terms of the power of God.
But what about this aspect of evil?
It's important to describe and define evil because evil is not necessarily a thing.
It's not like radiation where you can get contaminated by radiation.
When I was a kid, we had chemistry class.
Anybody had chemistry class a long time ago?
This is a long time ago.
You know what they handed around in our chemistry class?
A bowl of mercury.
They handed around a bowl of mercury and we all put stuff in it.
It was floating under mercury.
It was fun to somebody drop that bowl of mercury and mercury all over.
Today we would call hazmat and that would be in the news.
Back then, you know what we did?
We swept it up and we broke down into smaller globes and then we used our hands.
Some of you are wondering, that explains why Glenn is the way he is today.
But it's crazy, right?
To be honest, we would have been contaminated.
We would have gone to the hospital.
We would have been isolated.
We should have, right?
But evil is not like mercury that breaks down.
Even though microscopic, you cannot see it, it poisons you.
That's not what evil is.
Evil is not a substance like that.
Instead, what we see is that evil is a corruption of the good.
So it's not a thing itself.
It's when something that ought to be there isn't there, then that's an evil.
So you might say that there is, and I'll talk about it, natural evil and moral evil.
There's two different things, but maybe we can think about it like this.
Maybe a way to think about it is that if you had a body, and I know we all have a body,
and let's just say you're totally healthy, right?
Then you have a healthy body.
Now, if you had cancer, we would say it's not a perfectly healthy body.
But you have to have a body to have cancer.
Without a body, there can be no cancer, right?
But we can also envision a body without cancer, right?
We have some friends that work in the automotive industry in our place.
Let's just say, if you could get any car that you wanted, what would be your dream car?
Let me tell you my dream car.
You guys are one of my dream cars.
It's a car that I'll never buy, and I'll probably not have the resources to buy.
I'm not talking about Lamborghini and Ferrari, but I would be satisfied with a Honda NSX, $179,000.
I would be satisfied with that if somebody...
But I can picture that cherry red, super glossy kind of a car.
And if there was no blemish, then what do you say?
It's like, man, that's cars cherry.
But we can also envision that there would be a rust spot on it.
A pressure dent, a scratch of some kind, right?
But here's the thing.
You can have a car that doesn't have a dent, but you cannot have a dent without a car.
You cannot have rust without the car, right?
And so, you see, this is what God says is that it's evil is not like a substance.
It's when there's corruption.
That makes sense?
So it's the corruption of good.
And so, some people deny that this is real, right?
So some religious kind of thoughts do it, like Hinduism will deny that evil.
Evil is just an illusion.
Like, you know, there's suffering and pain and pain and suffering is an illusion.
They'll say this, or Christian science.
And Christian science, if you aren't familiar with Christian science,
you might have heard the term because we hear the Christian science monitor or whatever it is.
Christian science is kind of like grape nuts.
You guys ever eat grape nuts?
It doesn't have grapes and it doesn't have nuts, right?
And so Christian science is like, it's not Christian and there's no science.
I used to think, was that Christian scientists?
No, but what they believe is that sickness and suffering is an illusion.
It has more to do with Hinduism than anything.
And so we see this aspect.
Some people, this is what they say.
No, they can say God is powerful, God is good, but they just take away suffering and evil in the world.
And I don't think that that is the experience of regular people, right?
Because we know it to be true because this has been part of our experience.
You know, when my son was young, it starts early, right?
He's those of us who have kids.
You take your kids to get vaccinated at times, right?
So when my children were there, like, kids are interesting when they get vaccinated
because in the beginning, when they get a vaccine, they don't even cry.
Not when they get the injection. They get the injection.
You know when they cry after it's done because they don't even know what's going on?
Then after a while they're like sitting happy and they start crying.
But it's already done already. But then they learn quick.
They start learning. They start learning that when you go to this office and they see that anti, right?
Especially they bring out the little alcohol swab and they start doing this.
They're breathing, right?
And I brought my oldest and he was in the middle of doing this thing.
And the nurse said, as she said, you know, today we got to do five.
And so I'm going to need your help. Can you hold him down?
Because he's going to squirm after like a couple of them.
I said, yeah, I can do that.
And then I, she gave the first injection. I had to kind of hold him.
And then by the time she gave the second injection, there was just terror in his face.
And he looked at me. We made eye contact because I'm holding him.
And it's like a tube routine, right?
Like you two betraying me, right? This aspect.
And he was crying. And by the third injection, I'm crying.
And what I wanted to say to him is that I'm not trying to cause you pain.
I don't mean you harm, but he couldn't see it, right?
At that moment. And this experience we have of pain and suffering in the world.
I mean, it starts young and it doesn't end until our life ends.
Now, in this aspect though, what we see is it's not supposed to be this way.
It wasn't the way the world was created.
So God didn't create the world with evil. God created a world and created it good.
In fact, that's the second point. So a good God created a good world.
But there is a kicker in that because he did create a world with free will that made things possible.
But when he created the world, it says in the Scriptures that it was good.
Or maybe like today kids might say, it's all good.
It's all good. Well, it's not all good, but it was all good at one time.
So when he created light, he says in the first day it was darkness and light, he says, and it was good.
When he created the dry ground, he says it was good.
And he tried trees and plants and all that. And people, it doesn't say he was all good until they made male and female.
Then God says it was very good at that point.
Now, although it was good, there was a capacity for it not to be good.
Because he created people, he created mankind with a capacity to choose to love him or not to love him.
Obey him or not obey him. And it says it like this in the Scriptures.
You might be familiar and Genesis 2, he says that in the Lord God commanded the man,
you are free to eat from what? Any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
For when you eat from it, you will certainly die.
Now, this is not God placing like a child in a room with chocolate.
And psychologists have done these kind of experiments, placed a chocolate on the table and just tell the kids,
okay kids, don't eat it and then leave the room.
That's not what God did. Because if you look at it, it was a garden, it was an acreage that had many, many, many trees,
that had many, many sources of food. There was one tree that he said to avoid.
He says there was one tree. So it's not like they were surrounded. They had to look for it.
Unfortunately, they did. Now they had some help.
And so they focused on this and they ate the tree. They ate from the tree.
Now what does it say happened at that? It says what was going to happen is you're going to die.
They ate it and they didn't die though. Not right away, not physically.
We do understand this that there was a separation that happened between them and God because something died in them spiritually.
But they lived for many, many, many years. Scriptures talk about it like it's actually hundreds of years.
Now what is this? How can we explain this maybe with an illustration that maybe a little bit more current?
Maybe one of the current theories out there in explaining how large scale complex systems are changed by one small disturbance.
They used this thing called chaos theory. You guys ever heard of chaos theory?
It's probably best known from the butterfly effect. You guys ever heard the butterfly effect?
So the gist of that is that if you had a butterfly in your backyard somewhere and it just flew around,
every time it flaps its wings, it creates micro air pressure disturbances.
And that disturbance in one section will interact with a surrounding area and that will affect that area.
That will affect the larger area, the larger area, the larger area.
And so that you can have in complex weather systems that a small disturbance can produce kind of like an unfathomable bowl,
like an unchartable, humanly speaking, at this point event.
So for instance that the butterfly flying in your backyard on a wahoo maybe one day creates a typhoon in India.
So that's the kind of thing. We cannot predict but we understand that if we were to trace it all the way back
and it's myriad of complex interactions, it could be traced back possibly to the butterfly.
So that's the butterfly effect.
Now why do I share that? Because it's like the ripple from this butterfly on a wahoo.
For it to get to India doesn't happen instantly. It has to work through the system.
But as it does, it creates some kind of a change that shouldn't have had to happen.
And so this is what we find happen in this picture in the garden is the opening of Pandora's Box when they did the thing.
There was a ripple. The first thing that that ripple kind of we saw its effect was a spiritual darkening in their heart.
But then to be honest, something was happening with them on a cellular or not a gene level.
And to be honest, this thing is still rippling today in physiological terms because today that people are getting more
in some sense kind of health issues that we find we trace back on a gene level because this thing is still happening today.
But we find all these things can happen even in nature. And nature began to change because you know,
earthquakes and tsunamis and all that that wasn't part of God's original design floods and droughts and all this kind of disease and sickness, those things.
Right. So some of the things that we encounter in evil and suffering. And by the way, evil and suffering are different.
And I use them together because often the fact that something is corrupted leads to suffering. Right.
So but they're different. And so what we find is that the this unleashing of these things happened in nature and then it can also happen morally.
Right. That now all of a sudden people's moral choices change. And so everything in our planet throughout the universe, I would say it didn't just it's not just stuck on our planet.
I believe it echoes through the universe. Something was corrupted that was an impossible for those two people to see.
But it's its implications have been reverberating such that Romans tells us this in Romans 822. And we know that the what?
Whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time that there is a sense in the world that yeah, something is wrong.
Now the question then is asked if God knew, because let's just say this because the other part of it, the other phrase that sometimes is thrown in here is that God is all knowing.
And I believe that I didn't list it in the thing. But that wouldn't God then choose to not make people with free will if they knew that this is going to be the result.
Right. And in order to explain that, I think that maybe it's helpful to think in terms of Disneyland. Let's think about Disneyland.
Any Disney Disney lovers here. Okay. Yeah. You guys shy sometimes I just see him like this. You know, I wear the ears when I go I do all that stuff right so one of the probably iconic rides there is it's a small world.
You guys familiar with that right you get in the boat you get in there with your friends. If you're riding in a hot crazy summer day that's a great ride to ride on because it's real cool.
But you hear that music and you're basically do this journey around the world and all the cultures and everybody's singing right and the little dolls and like Japanese and you know Tagalog and you know Mandarin all throughout the whole world right
Spanish and all that stuff. And at the end of the ride, some people are really happy when they come out and some people are really irritated with that music but but it's kind of like that perfect world right that you get to to ride in.
Now, what would you rather have would you rather have in your house, the perfect family that was perfect all the time. And that every time you went home you heard this music and your whole life was that I was surrounded by that music.
It would drive you crazy right a little bit right but but you would have a perfect family but they would just only do that one song and it would do it because it had no capacity to do anything other than right.
Or let's say this you could have real children.
And if you have real children you know what we soon discover they have great capacity to do things that you don't want them to do right like maybe it starts by them writing pencil on the baseboard or on the on the wall or whatever or when they're toddlers and they say no right that it produces actually great pain.
Great great angst in the heart of a parent at times or is it just me. All right, thank you. I'm normal your normal right creates great angst in us sometimes great frustration sometimes but we wouldn't trade it for the world.
Because why because we have real relationship with your children. But you can have a nice thing. You can have a nice program you can have a nice robot you can have a nice puppet.
But you don't have a relationship with that thing. It's something you use. It's something that might entertain you.
And so when we understand what God was creating when he created the world and this is an important thing to understand that when God created the world God wasn't trying to create a small world for a big God.
God was trying to create a family.
That were people are sons and daughters.
But they had to have a capacity than to willingly love him or not and and and I think that's that aspect so that we can see a mechanistic property where the people had no capacity.
But I think.
Or we had when people have capacities to have free will.
Now and I'll come back to this but but this life by the way is like we we have to exercise that capacity in this life.
This life is like probation not not the kind you know like you get the brain ankle bracelet around you.
But but the kind of probation like like when you get a job and you work somewhere and you work in that place but you may not enjoy the full fullness of everything.
Till you kind of you hit this pace where you go OK this works right.
We want you here and I'll come back to that but but this life is temporary right.
This life is not eternal in this life we we live for a time in this life.
But can I just say this if we understand that that God created a world where he though he was all powerful and he was good that there was this capacity for evil to.
And to be honest we have to say if God is all knowing he knew.
That it would happen right.
But but not but can we say this not all pain and suffering is evil right not all pain and suffering is even just like my son's thing.
It actually prevented him from getting sick having death potentially you know deathly illnesses as a result.
But but there are some evils that happen that that are some pain that happens as a result of evil.
That's a different thing.
And he did know that it would be be possible but we say it's because somehow God was seeing that there would be something that could come out of that.
And so this because that's a difficult part I think to say.
But but what we also see I think is from that first instance that happened where the world was broken and that ripple began to move through out all of creation.
We also see that God began a mission to restore a broken world right.
And so we see that that's point number three is that God wants to restore a broken world.
And that the rest of this that is described in here is part of that process of God restoring a broken world.
We see it summed up in the New Testament this way in the book of John John 3 17 John 3 16 says for God to restore a broken world.
John 3 16 says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son right that whoever believes in him should not perish.
But then verse 17 says this for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but what to save the world through him.
So he began this restoration process and then he sends his son and what does his son do his son and it says in first John 3 8 says the son of God appeared was to destroy.
The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
And so it was to oppose the one who had been corrupted who to be honest in many ways was the genesis of this corruption on our physical planet in our physical world and to oppose him and to destroy his work.
And so how does God do that? How does God do that? It says it like this in Romans 8 28 he says and we know that what God causes everything to work together for the good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Now it is not calling evil good that would be nonsensical but it's saying that evil is evil and suffering as a result sometimes is a result of that evil.
But God is saying that he doesn't waste a hurt and that he can even cause good to somehow come out like the vaccine or in some sense working in some way to produce good.
No, I did talk a little bit about the fact that God is good in those three statements. But how is God then using that by his goodness how is he restoring the world in the midst of this world that is broken and has evil and suffering.
I want to use a more contemporary illustration not so much the chaos theory from the scientific one but maybe just from movies.
Anybody here see this movie called sliding doors? Gwyneth Paltrow in it? Okay, so you correct me if I get off in my illustration.
But it's actually a movie that you see the main character Helen who's Gwyneth Paltrow who's a PR executive. She loses her job and we see her in the opening of the movie going into the subway station and she's in a rush.
She's coming down the steps. She goes onto the train platform and she misses the train.
And then as soon as she does that, we see this kind of like rewind in some sense and she's coming down the stairs and then this time she gets on the train.
And we see from that difference whether she gets on the train or doesn't get on the train that like a seemingly insignificant event that begins to ripple out over time and we see two very, very different lives that come into being.
So one situation when she gets on the train that we see there's happiness and love start working out in her life and everything goes well and she becomes prosperous and successful.
We see this one situation. And then the other situation where she doesn't get on the train, we see that divergent that to be honest the train system is delayed anyway so she can't even ride the train.
And then she has to catch a taxi but we see increasing levels of disappointment and disappointing experiences and misery and failure and unhappiness.
We see growing within her. Now the interesting thing in that movie was it was tied.
You know why she misses the train in the beginning? Because there's a little girl playing with a doll on the railing.
And because she's doing that when she's running down the stairs initially the first one she bumps into this little girl and that little two seconds or a second delay is what makes her miss the train.
And when they did the rewind and she's coming down the next time the mom sees her coming and pulls the daughter out of the way and so she makes the train.
And so that's we see this happen but the interesting thing, the seemingly insignificant thing is that real that incident is what causes getting on the train and not getting on the train.
But it ripples out right now in the first scenario where everything goes her way it even gets to this place where she falls in love because she actually gets a divorce and the thing but she falls in love.
They proclaim their love and it seems like the happy ending but what happens?
As soon as they say that she steps off the curb and gets hit by a truck basically right?
And she dies in the arms of the person said who she loved her.
So this sounds like a Japanese movie sometimes but like before all Japanese movies they end like that.
It's like I don't know it was weird but then the second one though, the second scenario it actually, we find at some point in all this massive failure and misery and all that but at the end actually she falls in love and everything gets better and her life ends well.
Right? And so even though and why is that?
Because there needed to be something that happened that stemmed the flow of chaos and that somehow brought order but it didn't all happen at once.
It needed to kind of filter its way and so when we come to experience this our life doesn't all change at once.
Right? Maybe it starts with the opposite of what happened because if Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and ultimately if that choice was influenced by the devil's temptation that the first effect was spiritual death but what is the first effect of coming to Christ is spiritual life.
But does that mean everything in your life goes well after that? No, it doesn't.
It doesn't guarantee it takes time. Right? But as it goes its ripple effect through every aspect life can change dramatically but it really really changes when we pass from this life to the next.
Because we'll never in this life never really get all of heaven until Jesus comes back and changes everything.
And so what we can say is that maybe just watching that movie you couldn't have predicted the outcomes the way they did it. Right?
And so can we say that even though one system looked bad in the beginning it ended good and was it worth it?
Versus the one that looked perfect, looked great but ended poorly. I think we would choose the latter. Right?
And so is it possible that God has a vantage point that we at times do not always possess to say that what is it that he wanted to bring out?
And somehow that in his bid to create a family from all the peoples of the earth because it says that he loves all the people of the earth.
That he was trying to work something perfect through Christ.
Now what does that mean to us today then? Does it help you? I'm not sure.
Like I said if in the middle of your life right now is something that is very personal, that's very real, that's very overwhelming.
Then I understand this message might not make, you know, might sound like a bunch of words. And I understand that.
But I hope that you can understand God's heart for you.
Because maybe it's like when I held my son that maybe God is saying I know this is painful.
I know that you feel like I've abandoned you or I've betrayed you in some way.
But I actually want what's best for you. If I as a faulty human being can feel that.
I truly believe that your Father in heaven can do the same thing.
His desire is not the pain, it's not the suffering.
But there is something that he can even work through that.
Now what if I cause my own pain and suffering?
What if I'm the cause of that?
Well you know the thing is that God is still working all those things to the good.
Even if you were the source of the pain, if you were the source of all that.
The only thing that maybe helps to accelerate that is when we maybe we invite him into that pain.
We invite him into that suffering.
So that we don't keep it from him. We allow him, because we invite him into that, to begin to change it.
Maybe more directly.
And so this morning I do want to invite us that for some of us we need to invite God into that.
For some of you, life is good.
And that's great. We're glad for that.
But we also know that it doesn't mean that there won't be dark days and there won't be hard days.
And so I want you to understand in that point that when that happens to you or people that you love,
it's not because he's abandoned you. It's not because the devil is stronger.
It's, I don't know the exact reason because can I say this?
I don't know why. I don't know why that God allowed that child to die with my friends.
I don't know why that, you know, when I was in Japan, I was asked directly, does God hate Japanese?
Does God hate Japan?
Because our nation is devastated.
And I said, no, God doesn't hate Japanese.
He doesn't hate Japan. He loves you.
He loves this nation.
But so I don't know why.
So I'm not saying I'm giving an answer to any specific situation,
but I wanted us to understand kind of the broad framework
so that when we look at those things, we can see why God even allowed this framework to happen.
And so maybe this morning, let's just bring ourselves before him today.
And for some of us, I hope that you have a, like again, the framework,
but for some of us, I want us to pray to meet the one who begins to change.
So can we just pray this morning? Can we bow our heads?
Father, we know this question is a question that most of us ask at some point.
But more than asking the question and even getting a technically correct answer
or maybe even a more technically complete answer, that doesn't change our life.
What changes our life is you.
Because you're the redeemer, because you're the healer, because you're the savior, because you're the king.
And if for some of us, maybe the reason why you've been wrestling with this pain so much
is because you've been in pain, you've been a little resentful to God.
And although God wants to embrace you and God wants to hold you,
you've been pushing him away because of that.
And can we just say that maybe it's time to invite him into your pain and suffering.
Because when Jesus came into the world, this is how we know He did not just love us from a distance.
Because He became a man who though maybe they didn't have vaccinations,
but He stumbled and He fell and He knows what it meant to be a man, to be a person, to be a human being.
And all the things that come with it.
And when it came to that time, when He hung in the cross, He said,
Give me all of your pain and all of your suffering and all of the evil and all of the sin in the world
and put it on me, that I can redeem it, that I can pay for it,
and that I will be the event by which we'll ripple throughout all of our lives and all of our experience
to destroy the works of the devil and to bring restoration.
Maybe would you invite him into that?
Because God doesn't change the past.
He changed how the past affects us.
Because He's working it together for the good.
Father, only you can do that. We're asking would you touch your people
and those who call out on you right now.
But for some of us, if you've never come to God to be part of His family,
then maybe that's what the call is.
Because God's not trying to create a perfect world and you don't fit in that world
or He's not trying to point out how bad you are.
He's trying to point out how loved you are.
Sometimes in the process we realize, generally we realize,
well to be honest evil isn't just out on the world, but in my heart,
there's some things that's been corrupted.
And as a result I sinned too.
As a result I've created my own messes.
If you recognize that, would you know that Jesus wants to be your redeemer?
He wants to be your healer. He wants to be your same.
And if you just say yes to Him and you surrender yourself to Him,
He says this, then I will begin that restoration work in you
and starting in your heart and starting in your life.
And all you got to do is ask.
Whether you're at home or you're in the house, it's the same call.
And if you're at that place where you go, Lord that's me,
whether you're at home or you're in the house,
you just raise a hand to Him and say, Lord that's me today.
I want to respond to that.
I need that because I see it's not just in the world, it's in me.
Sometimes that rebellion, sometimes that hardness, I recognize that.
We're going to pray a very simple prayer if that's you and you would like to receive that.
Would you repeat after me?
Dear God, thank You that You know me.
And that You know all things.
Thank You that You see the suffering in the world.
You see my suffering.
And I'm asking you today, would you come live inside me?
Because Jesus, I recognize, You died in my place for my sin and my wrongs.
Lord, in my sickness and my disease.
And that Lord, You said that by Your stripes, I'll be made well, I'll be made whole.
And so I receive You today.
And would You be my leader and guide today?
As I learned to follow You today, help me to know Your will and Your ways.
I know You will use Your word to teach me Your will and Your ways.
So would You give me a hunger for Your word?
And Lord, would You bring people in my life that will stand with me in the journey of life to encourage me in You?
So Lord, I receive You today because You chose me, I choose You.
You helped me to become all You created me to be in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you. We say congratulations to those folks.
Can I address something that I mentioned that I feel like sometimes the enemy has used this.
He used it in my life.
And it has to do with this probation thing I mentioned.
But how many of you have ever thought maybe, and you don't have to raise your hand,
but I know there are people that you think like,
hey, what's prevent me from being like the devil when I'm in heaven and I mess up in heaven?
Well, you know, we talked about God making free moral agents.
I didn't use that term, but giving people the free capacity to choose.
Well, that's what we choose in this life. We choose Him in this life.
And there's a little illustration in the Old Testament where people who had no choice,
like they make a choice and that seals their choice.
It was like a person who was a slave, and slavery was a little different kind of slavery
than American slavery. You didn't just own people, but you had a debt.
And so this is what they said, but after having lived in this thing,
they realized that the master of the house was more than the master of a house.
He was like family.
And so this is what they would say that if you wanted to be a part of the house,
not just a slave, then you would just say, would you put a, would you pierce my ear?
And he would go against the wall and they would take an all and pierce his ear.
And that choice then said this, I'm choosing to be a part of this.
And then from that point on, he was part of that household.
And you see in this life, when we choose Jesus and we have to keep choosing,
that this is what we say, when we come to the end of the life, this probationary period,
if this is what happens, it says then when we see Jesus, then we shall become like He is.
He will change us in some ways, not to take away our will,
but because that is the expression of our will, that we want to now not be able to do those things that we did in the past.
And so this is what we end the probation and we step into the fullness.
That makes sense?
And so if anybody else wrestled, I used to wrestle with them.
But God says, no, no, no, that's this life.
In the next life, now we get changed.
Now we get the real part of it.
And so, hey God bless you guys.
Thanks for joining us.