Okay, guys, let me give you some options. Number one, my right eye causes me to sin.
Number two, Ben lost patience with my impertinence. That's believable, is it not? Number three, my favorite. I don't follow fashion. I said it.
I think they're going to catch on. Number four, Julie lost patience with my impertinence, which is probably the most believable for all of you. And the last one is I had a little eye surgery last week and it is going fine.
Sometimes, guys, life is hard. Sometimes that makes a lot of people, maybe some of you guys question the idea of an all powerful, loving, good God. If God is so powerful and God is so good, then why, why the miscarriage? Why the death of a child? Or the death of a friend, a spouse, so young, so tragically?
If God is so God, why won't he heal the cancer, stop the dementia? Why won't he answer my prayers?
If God is so good and God is so powerful, why doesn't he protect kids? I mean the abuse, disease, hunger.
Why doesn't he protect his own us Jesus followers from flat out evil out there? Sometimes the strong abusing the weak, the con artists scamming the innocent.
God is so good and God is so powerful. Why won't he heal our marriage, bring back our prodigal kids?
Well, why won't he fix our brokenness? Why won't God eliminate my addictions, my sinful desires? Why won't God protect me from me?
You can make the list as long as you want, right? If God is so good, God is so powerful, then why?
And have you ever noticed that those who believe in an all powerful, all good God don't get any breaks? We get cancer, heart disease, dementia, eye issues. Just like those who don't believe do our marriages break, our kids walk away, we lose our jobs like they do. In fact, sometimes it's worse for us. It's ubiquitous, right?
There's pain, there's evil out there. There's pain and evil in this room. In fact, there's pain and evil right here. Because we're not only victims, we're carriers.
Bottom line, guys, we are Jesus followers. We believe in an all powerful, all holy, all good, all wise God. Right? I do.
But our belief in the God revealed in and through Jesus is what makes these questions intensely personal. Why doesn't he step in when we ask him if he can stop it? Why does he allow it? Why doesn't he at least protect those most innocent or protect his own? Come on God.
Now you can actually Hear this same question in the Bible a lot. Here's a psalm of David. David says, o Lord, how long will you forget me forever? How long, God, will you look the other way?
Ever been there? Felt that? Well, here's the prophet Habakkuk. He says, O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from this violence? Ever prayed a prayer like that?
Jeremiah, the prophet, he's bold. Are you confused? God, you're our champion. Are you helpless to save us? You're right here among us, God, we're known as your people.
Don't abandon us now.
Ever felt anything like that? Wondered that? Prayed that? By the way, you can believe in God and still be confused about what God is doing. They prove that.
So how do we put these things together? An all powerful, all good God and a world like this? In fact, some of the philosophers put it like this. If God wants to prevent evil, but he can't, then he's not all powerful. If God can prevent evil and doesn't want to, then he's not all good.
And if God wants to prevent evil and can, why does it exist now? Maybe you've never phrased it that way, but have you ever wondered something like that? And some people think that that trilemma is persuasive, as if those are the only options out there. So they dismissed the idea of an all good, all powerful God. Would that make it easier for you?
Just blow God off? Would removing God make suffering easier to explain?
Or would removing God make suffering easier to face? Which is an entirely different question, isn't it? How about you? Would you prefer that there was no God? Would it change the way you live?
Especially when life hurts? Bottom line, does the whole idea of God make it more confusing?
Or does the idea of God all powerful, all good, give us a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope. A time when wounds will be healed and evil judged and death overcome.
So let's imagine it for a moment. Let's say. Let's say there's no God. If there's no God, guys, the universe owes you nothing. Cancer is not unfair, it just is.
There's no God. There's no God to be mad at, no silence to explain. Is that easier for you? Better? Or the big question, is it true?
Bottom line, guys, hard stuff like suffering and pain may be easier to explain if there was no all powerful, all good God. But if it's true, you actually lose way more than you gain.
Let me show some of what you lose. Let's start here Guys, if there's no God, you can't whine about evil in the world because without God there is no real evil. The whole idea of evil requires a moral law, a moral standard that's higher than you or me. And if there's no God, then I suppose you get to decide what's right for you and who am I to call it wrong and I get to decide what's right for me and who are you to call me wrong. Which kind of guts the idea of evil, doesn't it?
One of the smartest atheists around, a guy named Richard Dawkins, put it like this. He says, at bottom there is no evil, no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. But almost no one actually believes that because even those who are atheists believe that there's just flat out evil because it's written on our hearts. Listen guys, moral outrage is not an evidence that there is no God.
It is exactly the opposite. It's powerful evidence that there must be an all powerful all good God because it assumes a moral law. And a moral law assumes a lawgiver. Someone higher, bigger than you and me. You get it?
And I know guys, there are amazingly moral people who don't believe in God. In fact, some of the best moral people I know are atheists. Way better people than some of the Jesus followers I've known.
But bottom line, guys, they're way better than their atheism can justify. Because without an all good, all powerful God, you lose the reality of evil and you know that's not right.
And without an all powerful, all good God, you lose any hope for justice, real justice. You see, without an all powerful, all good God, you lose any coherent hope for forever. And you see some wrongs are never going to get righted in this world. In this world, too often abusers win and victims lose. In this world too often, evil people prosper because of their evil.
Cheaters win, liars win, scammers get rich, bullies get their way, the corrupt get promoted, the powerful cover their tracks and the powerless carry the scars.
Without God and the forever that he's mapped out in all of our futures, you lose any real hope for for justice. And you know that's not right.
Without a God, where does that longing for justice come from? It's hardwired in your heart.
And without an all powerful all good God, you actually lose any real meaning or hope. I mean, one guy put it like this. He said if death is the end, then this story is a tragedy. And Macbeth was right. Life is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Guys, if death is the end, as the apostle Paul put it, let's just feast and drink for tomorrow we die. Why not? If there's no God, no forever. Just grab what you can while you can, because what does it really matter, right?
But the real question isn't what would you lose? The real question is what's true? What's true? And you see, without God, an all powerful, all good God, I think you lose touch with reality. It's not about whether you prefer there to be no God.
The question is there a God? A big G God? The God revealed in and through Jesus? Did Jesus really walk out of his tomb? And if there is a transcendent, all powerful, all holy, all wise creator God, does he have the right to determine purpose and meaning?
Does he have the right to determine what is right and wrong? Does he have a plan to execute justice in his own way over time?
Bottom line, guys, there are things you can wish. Wishing doesn't make them so. I wish eating ice cream would make me lose weight. Doesn't make it so. I wish ignoring a bill would make it disappear.
Don't you wish? I wish the government wouldn't take so much of our money. Don't you wish? I wish my body at 72 worked like it did at 22. I wish being sincere meant I was right.
I wish bad things only happened to bad people. I wish I wasn't one of those bad people.
Some of you might even wish there was no God. Or you might wish that if there is a God, you could get that God to agree with you. Wishing doesn't make it so.
We believe there's a God, not just because we wish it. And we believe that he's way smarter than we are, way gooder than we are.
And maybe, guys, if we could get a glimpse of what he actually is and what he's actually like, some of this stuff would start making a little more sense. Maybe the pain and the evil in this world would become a little less oppressive.
Because in reality, guys, what makes this stuff so hard isn't God. I think it's the things some people say about God, what they believe about God. Maybe what you believe about God. So let's start here. Listen, guys, God never choreographs evil in this world.
God didn't script that betrayal. God didn't move that hand that abused that child. God never choreographs the cruelty of a bully. God doesn't author that lie that ruins a life or plant the greed that exploits the poor. God never gives evil a place in his plan.
That is not God.
Two verses for you. The first one's written by James, a brother of Jesus. He says, let no one say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God. Because God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone. I like the way the message puts it.
Don't let anyone under pressure, give in to evil and say, God is trying to trip me up. God is impervious to evil and he puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us.
And Jesus himself taught us to pray something like this. He says it's in the Lord's Prayer. May your will be done, God, on earth as it is in heaven. You know what that means? It means that God's will is not always done on earth as it is in heaven.
Just because God is all powerful does not mean that he forces his will on us. Could, but he doesn't. Pain, that tears you up. The brokenness, the messes you find yourself in, that's not God. You live in a broken world and broken things can hurt you.
You live with broken people and broken people will hurt you. And you're broken and you're inevitably going to hurt you.
God doesn't choreograph evil. He doesn't choreograph the brokenness. He can use it, but he's not the source of your pain. He's the only hope you've got.
Remember that trilemma we were talking about earlier? If God wants to prevent evil, but can, he's not all powerful, he can't prevent evil, doesn't want to, then he's not all good. If he wants to prevent evil and can, why does evil exist? Maybe those aren't the only alternatives. Maybe there's another.
Maybe the all powerful, all good. God gave us the freedom to choose because he loves us. And it's that freedom that has created all the brokenness in this world.
Because here's another thing about the real God, and this one sounds hard. You got to think on it. God values your love more than he values your obedience.
He wants you to love him, but he's not gonna force you. He wants you to do life his way. Cause it's the best way to live. But he's not gonna force you. He wants you to be Christlike, but he's not gonna force you guys.
God could stop you from ever sinning. He could stop you from ever hurting the people around you. He could stop the people around you from lying and cheating and abusing and marginalizing you. But to do all that, he'd have to turn us into robots. He'd have to take away our free will.
And without free will, we can't love each other and we can't love God.
Bottom line, God loves you and he wants you to love him back. But for that love to mean anything at all, you've got to be free not to love him back. You get it?
Here's another thing about the real God, and it's connected. Guys, God never promised that your life is going to be easier in this world if you're a Jesus follower. In fact, he told us the opposite. Jesus said, here on this earth, you're going to have many trials and sorrows. And that thought is all over the New Testament, guys.
Jesus says, you're going to be hated by everyone because of me. But the one who stands firm until the end will be saved. The apostle Paul said, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.
Guys, God is going to fix things someday. He's going to make things right someday. But right now, in this world, life's going to be hard sometimes. But it'll be worth it if you don't quit. And if you do quit, it'll be the worst thing ever.
Now, one more thing about this real God. God is not some dispassionate observer watching our pain from afar. Your pain breaks his heart.
In fact, God cares about our pain so much that he enters into our world to share it and bear it.
Some of the most extraordinary words ever written by the prophet Isaiah. He's talking about God.
He was despised and rejected. Jesus, a man of sorrows, acquainted with the deepest grief. We turned our backs on Jesus and looked the other way. He was despised. We didn't care.
But it was our weaknesses that he carried. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. We thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins. But he was pierced for my rebellion, crushed for my sin. He so I could be whole, whipped so I could be healed.
Does that make a difference? To know that God knows what you're going through, that he understands your hurt. He doesn't ignore it, but he's already done something about it. And someday, because that's where the rubber hits the road, guys. We have this all powerful, all good God.
And because of that, life in this world is not all there is. Because there is a God, there's a forever. And it's that forever, that can change everything.
Places I could go, I just want to point very quickly to three. Number one, forever changes how I see my suffering. Forever means that suffering and evil will not have the last word. Word, at least for those who accept the real God as their real God. I know how hard it is.
I know that the whole idea of delayed gratification is one of the toughest things for us to embrace. But you know that sometimes it's worth it, right? We do it all the time. We endure the workout because we want the strength. We endure the discipline because we want the diploma.
We endure the sacrifice because we want the security. We endure the labor because we want the harvest. And all that stuff is by comparison petty compared to forever.
Apostle Paul put it like this. He says, whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared to the magnificent future God has planned for us. And guys, if there really is a heaven and a hell, no kidding.
He says our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal. Light and momentary troubles. You might not describe your troubles as light and momentary.
Paul tells us what his light and momentary troubles were. He was imprisoned repeatedly, flogged at least five times, beaten with rods, stoned, shipwrecked three times, and the list goes on. Light and momentary compared to what was coming. Paul thought so here's the Apostle Peter, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ. After you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong and firm and steadfast.
And according to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down because he's a Jesus follower. Light and momentary troubles. Peter thoughts.
Here's the Apostle John in the book of Revelation, giving us just a little peek at what's coming for Jesus followers. He says God's going to wipe every tear from their eyes. No more pain, death, mourning, crying for the old order of things has passed away. Worth it. Yeah.
Listen, guys, let's be honest. Forever doesn't make your pain today small, makes it temporary, and it makes endurance matter. Don't quit. God's got a forever for Jesus followers that is beyond imagination, beyond words.
So for changes how I see my suffering, that was number one. Number two, it changes how I respond to evil. It changes how I respond to the evil of others. It changes how I respond to my own evil.
See, here's part of what Makes endure. It's worth it. In forever, God will make things right. Justice and with grace. We said it earlier, some wrongs never get righted in this world.
Abusers too often win. Victims lose. The evil prosper, cheaters win, liars win, scammers get rich, bullies get their way, corrupt get promoted, powerful cover their tracks. The powerless carry the scars. And you know it's not right because God has written it on your heart.
But God has promised that at the doorway to forever there will be an accounting. And the all powerful, all wise, all holy God will make everything right. Do you believe that now? That could be absolutely terrifying if not for the cross of Jesus. You see, guys, on that day, I don't want Jesus to give me what I deserve.
And I don't want Jesus to give you what you deserve.
But for those who've bent their knees to Jesus, there will be justice. Because our sins will have been paid for and there will be grace. Thank God. Because there was a God and because there is a forever, and because there is this amazing grace, we have a shot if we surrender.
Last one forever changes what I expect from the future.
Because there's a God and because he's all powerful and all good, I can trust his hints at what is coming.
And what's coming, guys, is not about family reunions or endless banquet tables with the most exquisite foods and no calories. It's not a playground where you can go do whatever you want for as long as you want. And it's certainly not about some eternal heavenly choir. It's a restoration of life as it was meant to be.
Jesus gives us a glimpse when he was here on this earth, he healed the sick, cast out demons, still the storms, raised the dead. He didn't heal all the sick, cast out all the demons, still all the storms, or raise all the dead. Because he was giving us a peek at what's coming. He was showing us what he could do and what he will do.
The apostle John gives us a peek in the book of Revelation. He says, I heard a loud sh from the throne saying, look, look, God's home is now among his people and he will live with them, and they'll be his people. And God himself will be with them and he will wipe every tear from their eyes and there'll be no more pain, sorrow, crying, or pain. All of these things are gone forever.
Now we tend to fixate on the no tears, no death, no sorrow, no crying, no pain parts, right? We're going to find out that even those are comparatively little the Heart of heaven is this. Look. God's home is now among his people. He will live with them, and they will be his people.
And God himself will be with them. You'll see. I hope that's what will make forever worth it.
Okay, guys, you think the pain and the brokenness and the evil in this world would be easier to understand if there was no God?
Some ways, maybe yes. In other ways, absolutely not. Removing God may make suffering easier to explain, but only God and forever makes it possible to face.
And if there was no God, what would you gain? Nothing that matters.
But if there is a God and you blow him off, what do you lose?
Everything that matters.
But guys, don't jump in just because there might be a heaven and a hell and you need some kind of an insurance policy.
Jump in because it's right. There is a God and he's good. Jump in because the all powerful, all good God sent his son to take on himself what we deserve. Lucado put it like this. He said, Jesus would rather go to hell for you than go to heaven without you.
And when he walked out of his tomb, he proved that he can keep his promises.
So are you living like there is a God who holds you forever in his hands?
Are you living like he is God and you're not?
Do it his way, guys. And the pain and the suffering and the evil are still going to hurt. But they won't win.
Paul called his troubles light and momentary.
In perspective, mine are too. And yours are too. So, guys, we can live lightly because this is not the end of the story. Let's pray together.
Father, sometimes these things are hard to understand. We.
We suffer and wonder where you are.
We see evil and we wonder why you don't act.
And yet you're there. And you care. And you have a plan. And it will be fixed. Give us the wisdom to trust that, the patience to trust that, the endurance to trust that to the end.
And help us because of that, to live lightly in this world. To stand above with the joy that only those who understand you can understand. In the name of Christ, we pray these things. Amen.