Ever Wonder Why? - Week 1

why it's a simple question with no simple answers why now why this why me is god even here is he listening how can we know [Music] we've made it through dark times before and i want to have faith but i still wonder why well good morning woodlawn family so good to see all of you from wherever you may have come from today we are so glad that you took the time to worship with us here this morning at our 9 30 a.m service i want to say a special welcome and thank you to everybody that's tuning in online today can we give them all a big welcome too um so good that we have a quite a crowd that tunes in every single week online we appreciate you as well a lot of cool things are happening around here i'm really looking forward to this new series that we're in uh today we're launching it out on ever wonder why i don't know about you but have you ever gone through something in your life and or or witnessed something or somebody that you love went through some stuff and [Music] it caused you to stop and ask god why why i'm a good person they're a good per why so we're going to dive into uh this this series over the next few weeks that i think is going to really inspire and strengthen your faith as we walk through the ups and the downs of life but before we do real quick let me just say a couple of things to you and that is uh if you are new here if you're or fairly new to woodlawn church and you've not yet experienced growth track we highly recommend that you give it a try if you like what you've seen so far here at the church and you'd like to know more maybe take some next steps you know we have a lot of folks that come in and out of here uh in three services on a weekend and it's uh it's up to us to take some next steps to get connected and this is your connecting point it's just four weeks it kind of shares with you all the things that we believe as a church where we're going what our structure is and then you'll learn a few things about yourself and then how you can connect uh with us as well and then also that's coming up at the end of september but starting next week we're going to be promoting all of our community groups and we really really believe that spiritual growth happens in the context of relationships these weekends are awesome when we all come together and god does things in these moments that it's hard to replace anywhere else but also when you connect with a group of people that become your friends that you trust and trust you and you start sharing life and god together it's amazing how rich that can become in your life in your relationship so um obviously getting connected requires you to take a step of faith forward get out of your comfort zone a little bit you'll be hearing a lot about this stuff in the weeks to come we hope that you will take a next step this fall with us i think you'll be glad that you did if you don't mind let's go ahead and stand up for the reading of god's word here this morning um if again if you're new real simply we're a bible believing church so in our weekend services we like to stand up just for a moment to honor god's word we believe what the bible says we believe it's god's truth for us today and every week we just like to stand up and say god okay what do you got for me today what are you saying today and today as we dive into this series ever wonder why as we have those questions maybe you've had a question you you didn't even want to share with anybody you might be embarrassed or a doubt so big you didn't even want to express it especially at church well the next few weeks we're going to dive into some of those tough questions and my hope is and my prayer is that you will come out of this with a greater understanding of god and that your faith will actually be strengthened through this this time so today i i titled today's message why did god let it happen why did god let it happen why me why now i'm a good person i love god i i'm doing things what i feel like are the right way i treat people right i don't deserve this why am i dealing with this why is my spouse why are we having to deal with this we're going to dive into that a little bit today in why did god let it happen what we're going to do we're going to go to the the book of psalms we're look at psalm 73 it's a fascinating psalm it's a what i love about it it's very real what i love about the bible is it it doesn't hide like the the doubts the struggles of man uh that's what i appreciate about the bible it doesn't hide it it doesn't cover it up the guy that wrote this is a guy by the name of asaph he was a priest he was a he was a prophet and he was a man who um believed in the goodness of god but he had a season where he doubted it and i think most of us have probably been there before in our lives so he gets very raw very real with us and i appreciate it we're not going to read all 26 verses um we're just going to kind of hit a few of them but you can follow along with me here this is what the bible says surely god is good to israel to those who are pure in heart so he makes this great statement god is good he's good to his people he's good to those that are pure in heart then he goes on to say he says but as for me my feet had almost slipped i had nearly lost my foothold for i envied the arrogant i saw the prosperity of the wicked they have no struggles their bodies are healthy and strong they are free from common human burdens they are not plagued by human ills we'll fast forward to verse 12 this is what the wicked are like always uh free of care they go on amassing wealth and look what he says here you ever felt like this before surely in vain i have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence all day long i have been afflicted and every morning brings new punishments then he goes on in verse 16 when i tried to understand all this it troubled me deeply i love this part until or till i entered the sanctuary of god then i understood their final destiny fast forwards throughout through all these things yet i am always with you you hold me by my right hand you guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory whom have i ever in heaven but you and earth has nothing i desire besides you my flesh and my soul may my heart may fail but god is the strength of my heart and my portion forever lord we just pray you bless your word today but i know that there's people here today in this auditorium those that are watching online today that are struggling and have questions and feel like asaph today i pray that you would bring clarity you would bring peace and you would inspire faith today in their hearts in jesus name and amen all right you can be seated in um if you've ever been around church any length of time um i've been at round church a long time and there are some sayings that we have in church and i bet there's some of you who can finish my saying today all right little audience participation today so here's i'm gonna say the first part and then you say the other part okay god is good that was really good let's do that again god is good and all the time that was man you guys are fantastic you had your coffee this morning all right god is good and all the time very good um have you ever doubted that seriously have you ever been through a season in your life when you come to church and you can say that but you go home and you lay in your bed at night and you question whether god really is good i had a pastor friend one time he was going through a tough time and he said to me you know he said i i know god loves me but sometimes i question whether he likes me i don't know if you've ever been there before but you know we we have some times in our life where we we doubt that i i know i've been through seasons in my own life where i questioned the plan of god why i was facing what i was facing you know maybe you lose a job and you're like wait a minute i'm serving god i'm doing what i'm supposed to be doing i even give my tithes to god i trust god with my finances i don't deserve this why did i lose my job you're uh you're a young young person you're in junior high and you know your parents weren't getting along so good and then suddenly your parents divorce and your your life is majorly shattered and rattled in that moment when your parents divorced all of a sudden you love your spouse with all of your heart and they walk away from you they find somebody else you've been betrayed and hurt and and you don't know why you're having to deal with this suddenly a loved one dies maybe unexpectedly somebody you you love with all of your heart and they die and they're no longer here with you maybe you're dealing with sickness in your body today you're like man i've been serving god with all my heart my mind my soul my strength but i got this pain in my body i got this weakness that i don't deserve and i don't know why i'm having to deal with this today maybe you have some emotions that you're dealing with you know i don't think we talk enough about emotions and our mental health in church i think we should do it more because i know a lot of people that struggle with that maybe you're hearing depression maybe you're watching online and you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning you love god but you just find it hard to get out of bed you're in a cycle you can't seem to break free from for others it's anxiety this trepidation just you try to go to work and it's hard to even function and you ask god to help you and you don't feel like he's helping you and you wonder why others have temptations in their life seem to be circling the same old mountain and falling in the same place time and time and time again and asking god to help you and wondering why he's not and then you look beyond that and you look into the global landscape of the world that we live in and you see children that are starving around the world you see wars that are completely unnecessary you see natural disasters and innocent people being swallowed up in tsunamis and earthquakes and mudslides and tornadoes and we look around the world and we see innocent people that love god's suffering and it makes us question the goodness of god here's the question why did god let this happen you know that's been a question that's gone on for since ancient times even long before christ there was a greek philosopher named epicurus and he was perplexed by this as well and he came up with four concluding statements as he began to think about this and this is what he said he said if god is not able to prevent evil then he's not all-powerful if god can't stop it then he must not be god because god is all-powerful then he went on to say this he said if god is not willing to prevent evil then he's not all good if he's able to stop it but he's not willing then he must not be all good like we know him to be and then he concluded with this he said if if god is both willing and able to prevent evil then why does evil exist if god's both willing and he's able to stop it then why is it here which then again begs the question of god and as a matter of fact that is one of atheists greatest argument against christianity is evil in the world in fact even the great c.s lewis the great writer of our christian faith who wrote so many iconic stories he said that evil is the most potent weapon that atheists have against the christian faith he said that himself and so that being said it begs the question why did god let it happen and and let me bring some just some i'm going to try to meet you where you are today because i think we've all been here today so i'm gonna give you give you a couple things today that i hope will help you to reconcile some things in your heart and mind and the first one i think i i want to bring it home to where you and i are today and that's this if if evil and suffering have made you question the love and goodness of god you are not alone all right let me say that um you're not alone you know there are times that we question and we're human and you know god's not afraid of our questions in fact if you read the bible um you know all throughout the bible there are great bible characters men and women of faith who had questions you know david who is a man after god's own heart said god where are you i'm serving you like what's up i don't deserve this why am i going through this and where are you in this many biblical characters have done that in fact there that's where we are today with this guy that wrote this a asaph he actually was a quite a man quite a man of god in fact 12 of the psalms david wrote most of them but 12 of them are attributed to this guy by the name of asaph and so what does he do he comes out in the psalm and he makes this bold statement in verse 1. he says god you are good you're good to israel which was his people of the old testament you're good you're good to all who have a pure heart you are good he makes this great statement and then he stops and that's what i love about the bible it doesn't it doesn't hide the humanity of man and he says however but he said there was a time that i stumbled in my faith he said there was a moment when i questioned god he said i began looking around me and i saw the wicked people the people that didn't believe in god the people that hated god and they're prospering and they're flourishing and they're not sick and they're healthy and everything is just up and to the right for them and and i look at myself and i'm serving god and i'm living for god and yet i am suffering why in the new living translation i love i love how it's worded this is kind of what he says he says look at these wicked people enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply did i keep my heart pure for nothing did i keep myself innocent for no reason i get nothing but trouble all day long every morning brings me pain that was his complaint he's like the wicked are flourishing and i got pain and every day i wake up and i have pain and it leads him to this question why i followed you i've honored you i've served you i've obeyed you to the best of my ability the wicked who hates you are flourishing i am struggling why you ever been there before never just had a moment in your humanity i know i have like why let me give you this one if i could bring you right into christianity's personal life when my wife was you know 11 years we had fertility trouble couldn't have children wanted children my wife's one of the greatest mothers i've ever ever ever known and she's got an incredible maternal instinct but anyways she wanted to have kids and she would cry and she would say things like this like i'm seeing these women who don't believe in god who are out there sleeping around with everybody around and they're popping out kids right and left and i'm serving god and i would be a great parent and i can't have kids of my own it's real life folks sometimes we want to just be faith and never have a problem and everything's good sometimes things don't feel good and that's where we were at that moment it was tough it wasn't it wasn't easy and so what we need to do is we have to reconcile this biblically and the beautiful thing and what i love about the bible is the bible does that here's what we can understand is that christianity makes sense of and gives meaning to and offers a solution for the evil and the suffering that you and i experience in this life what i love about the bible is evil and suffering are not contrary to the biblical story evil and suffering are central to the story of the bible what i love about the bible is the bible doesn't avoid pain it doesn't avoid evil it doesn't avoid suffering in fact there are countless expressions throughout your bible and mind that i read that where people express anguish and confusion and rage and suffering and pain and that's where asaph is look what he says he says when i thought how to understand this it was too painful for me so he's like i'm trying to reconcile this in my mind i'm trying to make sense of it but i can't and it's just too painful for me to deal with right now but then something happens verse 17 there's a transition and look what he says i couldn't figure it out in my own strength until i went into the sanctuary of god he said suddenly i got let me bring that into modern terms i went to church and i got into worship like we did this morning and i felt the warmth of god's presence and i opened up his word and his commands and suddenly i got with god and i realized there's more to the story he began seeing it from an eternal heavenly perspective and not just a temporal one so let me do my best here in the next few minutes to unpack for you a very long challenging study make it clear make it plain make it simple for you and i to grasp today the cause of evil and suffering in our world god gets blamed for a lot let's talk a little bit about it here's what there's three things number one is this that god created a world that is free of evil and suffering you need to understand that we know that right genesis 1 god created everything and it was what good back when he finished creation he stepped back and he looked and he said it is very good he created mankind man and woman and put him in the garden of eden we talked about this last week and what was the first thing god did to adam and eve he blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth and and rule this place and enjoy do you know in the original garden of eden there was no death mankind was not designed to physically die in that moment there was no sickness there was no pain there was no cancer there was no heartache there was no natural disasters no tsunamis no earthquakes none of that was was happening in the garden of eden man was gonna live forever in this beautiful place but here is what you need to understand and that's this the only way love is possible is to have a choice this is what's really important let me ask you a question today for those of you that are married imagine that the person that you are married today two you're married to because the government sent them a letter and a mandate that says they have to marry you or spend their life in jail all right you're living with this human being in your home you're sleeping next to this thing did i say thing i'm in person and uh how good would you feel about that marriage how loved would you feel how secure would you feel about that man or that woman laying in your bed probably not very good right we wouldn't be basking the security of our loved one we would be freaking out and you know god is the same way when god created man he didn't want robots love has to have a choice how do you know that person wants to be with you because they chose to be with you it was their choice they love you that man saw you and said whoa i gotta be with her and she looked at you and said he's like a cool drop of water on a hot summer day right when you had hair and abs but it but it's so so god didn't want robots god wanted a choice so the problem is an inheritance with a free will is also an option to make the wrong choice and that's what adam and eve did and here comes here's the linchpin here's where here's where it goes back is that when man chose to sin the floodgates of human suffering were thrown open you see what happened was when man god said you can eat of any tree don't eat of that one the day you eat of that tree what did he say you will surely what die now that was die physically so now they were they're capable of bot of dying because now this body is in a fallen condition that's why death happened sin came into the world they were kicked out of the garden and now everything became more difficult and there was pain and heartache and all this bad stuff happening in the world because of their sin here's another thing you need to understand they inherited this this sin nature so because of that because of that because of man's free will choice they did that the floodgates of human suffering were thrown open and evil is in the world and bible scholars will tell us there are three types of evil in the world if you were to generalize it here's three types of evil let's break it down number one is moral evil that is man hurting man so because we have a fallen human nature we are subject to doing and saying things we regret right like how many of you know you don't have to teach your child to lie to you it's inbred it comes naturally right when you tell jimmy not to go down near the street what's the first thing jimmy's gonna do when you walk away he's going to the street why because jimmy was born with a sin nature and jimmy's flesh and sin nature tells him to do the wrong thing it's the same thing that tells you to lie to your boss no you don't do that i mean uh same thing that you know that that sin nature remember when the apostle paul in the book of romans chapter 7 he said man he's like the things i want to do i don't do the things i don't want to do i do them what a wretched human being i am what was he talking about he was talking about this sin nature that we inherited from the fall so because of that human beings hurt human beings there's violence there's abuse there's thievery there's trickery there's bigotry i mean you name it and in truth be told we've all been hurt by people haven't we and truth be told we've all hurt people as well maybe knowingly or unknowingly but we all been guilty of hurting people so you have that in the world so that's a source of a lot of human suffering here's another one you have natural evil you see what you need to understand is when mankind fell when sin came into the world even the world we live in is fallen as a matter of fact romans chapter 8 verse 22 tells us that even the earth that we live on groans for its new renovation because when you go to the end of the book the bible the bible said that someday god is going to renovate this earth by fire and create a new heaven and a new earth and make it all right forever awesome but right now the earth is in a fallen state that's why you have natural disasters that's why you have earthquakes when people say why did god send a tsunami to kill all those innocent japanese people in 2009 my first answer is he didn't what what is that a result of that is a result of a fallen world in which we live in where there are natural disasters diseases and all that stuff in the world today that is a result of living in a fallen world huh god i gotta tell you a story you're not gonna believe what happened to me last night you're not gonna believe it i can't make this stuff up so i had a very long day yesterday um it was a long long day and i was actually here at the church working till eight o'clock went home last night and uh eight o'clock my kids my family had already eaten dinner i grabbed a bowl of spaghetti warmed in the microwave sat on the couch with my wife and kids ate a bowl of spaghetti while they were watching superbook before christy threw him in bed and then as soon as i was done i went back to my office at home and i'm finishing some things up for you today and i'm down there and about nine o'clock last night these storms come through and the power goes out anybody lose your power last night my power went out all right so it was stuffy it was hot my kids were scared they're at that age where they're scared of everything and uh they come down and they're like what are we gonna do we're trying to find candles we have no flashlights of course so i i have this new work light because i love to work on my own cars and i didn't have a light i broke my old light so i went to advanced auto and i bought me this really sweet long led bright rechargeable thing and i was proud i went out in the garage and i got it i brought it in i'm like look at this the light came on and you know i'm trying to solve all the problems last night and so uh but it got worse the good news was is my my little laptop tablet is a battery so i could keep working and i just stayed right in the office in the dark and i'm like finishing some stuff up well then all of a sudden my whole family's screaming and i hear my two kids and my wife coming down the stairs screaming they busted to the office and say dad there is a bat flying in our house all right this is bad no i can't make this stuff up so listen i am slightly to blame and this is where i'll take my blame i renovated my house last year remember i told you i painted it the wrong color had to repaint it and all that kind of stuff and we reconfigured my my porch and then coming around from the porch to the garage i have this big piece of aluminum trim and it's too big and there's a big gap in it and um well i didn't realize that we have woods all around us and bats like gaps and so this bat and i was pretty sure it can't get into my up into my like my patio area or my my front porch area but these droppings were there and so i put mothballs up there and the dropping stopped i thought i fixed it the moth balls went away the bats came back the droppings came back i said i'm gonna fix it and i didn't so needless to say there's bat home by my garage well my kids love to leave the doors open do your kids love to leave the doors open they like to cool the outside and heat the outside there's leave the doors open i don't know when this thing got in my wife also went out last night after we have a well so we can't get water when the power goes out so she went out to the garage get some bottles of water we think it might have flew in maybe when she opened the door but there was a bat flying around in our home last night and we're all freaking out so i you know i tried to be brave and i went and got a tennis racket that's what we do and i'm walking around my house with my fancy light and my tennis racket brave warrior that i am can't find the thing so christy's like okay we searched the house she's like i'm gonna take the kids into brady's room we're all gonna sleep in brady's room shut the door i'm like good idea we'll find that joker tomorrow whatever and so i'm down working and next thing you know they're screaming and they come running down again it's in the room it's in that romance in the room so i so we you know we we we try all that we can and make a long story short we just kind of tapped out and uh we all kind of went to bed hoping it was going to be hiding because we had enough light on and uh power didn't come back on every 15 minutes the bat would come back christy would scream so she's in with the kids i'm laying in our bed literally one o'clock in the morning two o'clock in the morning i'm sitting in bed last i get up at five on sunday i'm reading about how to eradicate a bat from a house and uh so uh finally she screams one last time it flies out so i was able to shut the door i knew they were safe i was pretty sure it wasn't in my room but this time i didn't even care i was gonna take that thing on with my bare hands if i had to i'm tired and i'm angry and i'm going to bed so i shut my door wake up this morning five o'clock in the morning i'm like what am i going to do what do i do because i leave before everybody else and i don't want to leave my kids at home with a bat and so i get up in the morning i haven't even had my coffee yet i let my dog out we come inside first of all when i came out i had my tennis racket of course and my phone and i come down into the kitchen and um the first thing i do every morning is i let my dog out turn my coffee pot on let the dog out while the coffee is brewing i feed him so i have this big food bag where he where his food is we keep a big plastic cup in there that we dig the food out i kid you not i reach in the bag at 5 30 this morning to scoop his food and inside that food bag i feel this and i'm like oh i'm freaking out the bat is in the food bag so i go and i get my phone the brave warrior that i am and i'm like and i turn my flashlight on and i look and that joker is in the food bag so i happen to have my big rawhide work gloves right there on the counter i put those babies on i did a one two three and i ran over there and i fold up that bag and i pick it up and i can hear them in there flitting around in there and i take them out on the back porch and i open the bag because i guess you're supposed to let them fly because they're an endangered species you have to protect them they equalize the atmosphere i don't know he might still be in there today when i get home in that food bag if he is he's a dead bat and i don't care if he's protected or not if i have to go to jail and stand before a judge i will say it was self-defense so the question is did god send the bat no did the civil devil send the bat you know quite frankly he might have because i knew this series was going to help people and he didn't want me to sleep all night and i didn't but here it is so uh that's that's the spiritual evil there's satan and demonic forces out there so you and i get it from all angles so that being said that's where the evil comes from and why i say that is god gets blamed for a lot of things that he doesn't do and that's where the rub comes in a lot of times when we're hurting we want someone to blame and the easiest person to blame sometimes is god and we point our fingers at god as to why we're going through this but here's what you need to know about god in an ultimate display of love jesus came to redeem what was lost at the fall look what the bible says for god so what he loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life if you want to see the heart of god look at jesus can i ask you a question where in the gospels do you see jesus putting cancer on somebody do you see any up any any of that ever where do you see him sending an earthquake to tear up innocent people you know i don't like capernaum they weren't that nice to me he didn't do that did he in fact one of my favorite scriptures in the new testament is a scripture that i stand on acts 10 38 speaking of jesus now jesus who was anointed by the holy spirit went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil right so jesus's earthly ministry was redemptive does god send sickness no does god heal sickness yes does god send storms no does god stop storms yes and that's what you and i need to understand he is a healing good god so then of course he ultimately died on a cross for you and i he died on a cross to make right the separation that was separated when man made their choice now here's the interesting thing about that if you ever question god's love which sometimes we're guilty of doing just look at the cross the bible says in romans 5 8 that god proved his love for you and i in that when we were still sinners christ died for you and me god proved his love so let me let me read some of your minds today i can't do that i'm just figure of speech um okay pastor matt so god didn't cause my suffering i get that but why didn't he stop it god didn't cause it why didn't he stop it and you know what my answer is i don't know because in those areas we get into matters of god's sovereignty and i am not god and i don't know i can't give see god is in heaven he sees eternally we only see now and so what happens is sometimes we judge god based on a temporary circumstance when he's seeing the whole picture we're lost in the woods he's in the helicopter up here he sees everything we only see the fact that we're in the woods and we get angry and we get frustrated with god in those moments but here's what we can know is we can trust god the apostle paul who wrote two-thirds of the new testament this is what he said he said in this life we know in part but someday we will stand before a risen savior in heaven and everything will be crystal clear everything that i'm concerned about or have questions about today will be answered then so here's the answer for you and i this is how we are to live living with an eternal perspective is the right perspective you gotta live with an eternal perspective it's kind of like you're watching a movie i don't know if you got anybody can do any netflix binging i don't do too much of that but one of the things christy and i watch have been watching is flash and on netflix anybody watch flash been like season eight or whatever but you're watching flash or whatever you watch and you're in the middle of the show and he's in trouble and his team's in trouble and and if you turn it off right there it's gonna look like flash and his team lost but if you just hang on to the end of the show they always win right because that's the way the writers do it but then they always leave you a hook at the end to make sure you come back the next time but the idea is if you watch it to the end you will see how the end turns out and that's what you and i need to understand when you and i live with an eternal perspective this life that we're living in this is not all that there is jesus said in this life you will have tribulations you'll have issues but be of good cheer i've overcome the world and guess what happens you and i are going to be eternally with god forever as a matter of fact look what the bible says look what he went on to say he said yet i am always with you so he reconciles it now he's looking at it and he realizes i went to your sanctuary and i realize that those wicked people that are flourishing now when they die they go to eternal punishment they are separated from you however me when i'm walking through the storms of life i'm always with me you and you hold my right hand listen if you're walking through a storm of life that you don't understand and you don't like can i tell you if you're serving god he is right there holding your hand his grace is sufficient for you he is there yes he can heal yes he can deliver yes we believe for that and in the midst of it while you're waiting for that to happen he's with you right um you guide me with your counsel but look but afterward you will take me where into glory into heaven whom am i in heaven but you the earth has nothing i desire besides you you know what's interesting i think sometimes when we go through suffering it reminds us that this life is not all there is i think sometimes as believers we get duped into the believing that heaven is right here on earth listen the goodness of god is here for us but it doesn't mean we're not going to walk through some tough times right but we want to live like heaven is here and now but heaven is actually coming we're gonna experience that when we go to be with him but he says you're gonna so so we begin to lose our grip on the things of the earth when we have an eternal perspective it's like why am i just living for all this stuff i'm i need to live for so much more but then it goes on to say um my flesh and my heart so my body might break down my heart my soul my emotions might fail but god is the strength of my heart and my portion forever so now is why he can go back to the beginning and say god you are good in every season of life and can i tell you even in our suffering god does do positive things the bible teaches us that and i don't have time to go into all of them but how many of you know romans 8 28 says god can work all things for good to those that love god just ask joseph that his brother sold him into slavery and god set him up to be second in command of all of egypt what they meant for evil god worked for good paul was thrown in jail whipped beaten stoned thrown in jail while he was in jail he wrote five of his prison letters ephesians philippians um colossians philemon all written while he was in prison we are enjoying those words of comfort and instruction today because he spent time in jail first peter in the book of first peter it says that our faith is refined when you walk through a trial and you come out on the other side your faith is strengthened to believe god for more second corinthians paul said we comfort others with the comfort we've been given so when god comforts us in our trials now i can comfort somebody else in their trials and then of course there is the one of discipline does god allow does god let negative things happen to us is discipline and i say absolutely yes the bible says he disciplines those he loves any parents in the room we discipline our kids for good right we make them a little uncomfortable for a while right so they learn and they stay off drugs and they hang out with the right people and they become productive adults so we we do that and god does that sometimes with us but here's the good news today the good news is this the end of god's redemption story is the elimination of evil and suffering listen the elimination of it look what the bible says right here it says and god this is in revelation 21 and god will wipe away every tear from their eyes there shall be no more death no more sorrow no crying there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away and that good news so here's what's going to happen when you and i die our soul goes to be with jesus isn't that great to be absent from the bodies to be present with the lord and that great our body goes where into the grave right but the bible says when jesus comes back in the rapture that these bodies of ours are going to come back up again and that soul of yours that's been with the lord is going to meet and you're going to get a new glorified body and the hair comes back and the abs come back and we forever rule and reign with jesus but listen you and i at that point biblically i know that might be hard for you to grasp but if you read the bible what's god's ultimate plan did god know adam and eve would blow it in the garden absolutely he did he absolutely did but even then god had a plan he would send his own son to prove his love for us we would give our lives to him god would wrap this thing up he's going to come back someday defeat evil throw satan in the lake of fire renovate this place and you and i are going to live and rule and reign with god forever with our free wills still intact only god could figure that one out isn't that good that's how good god is so i will just say to you if you're hurting right now wondering where god is remember we're living in the not there yet something better is coming can god heal you yes are we believing are we believers in that yes can god provide for you yes can god heal yes can god save your marriage yes and along the way know that he loves you and he's with you you're not going through this because god doesn't love you as a matter of fact you know what i've noticed about the goodness of god as i close we had a funeral yesterday for a precious saint of god in our church gloria arne gloria arne was 87 years old her husband jack in 92 he's still alive today they literally helped build this church raised a godly family and she went to be with the lord we did her funeral she passed away last sunday night at about 11 p.m her four daughters were around her and they were worshiping her daughters were crying when they were telling me the story that we were with our mom she was ready to go she was tired of being in this broken old body she knew that heaven was her ultimate home and she was ready to go and she didn't want any more treatments she just wanted to go be with jesus and we were singing and we were worshiping and she said we felt the presence of god there was a picture over her bed with these sun rays that we'd never really noticed before and she said here we were and ivan and she one one daughter said i've been in church all my life and here we were and i felt the presence of god by the holy spirit like jesus walked in that room and grabbed her by the hand and took her home and she was like we could see the light rays shining down on her from that picture and at the it and at their at the funeral yesterday they asked us to play a song from cc winans called the goodness of god cece weining has put out some fabulous music over the many decades that she's done this but especially even recently and in it all um she says all my life you have been faithful all my life you have been so so good let me just say this as i close don't judge god by a temporary circumstance the only way to view god is over the long term i have been through things and seasons in my life that i hated and i was angry and i was frustrated and it didn't make sense to me but i have been walking with god for 30 years now and i can tell you of 30 years of walking with god when i look back over my life god has been nothing but good and faithful amen so don't judge him by your temporary circumstances let's pray father we thank you lord for this time together today we thank you for your word and your promise that god you are not the author of evil evil is a corruption of the good that you made and we thank you that you've given us your redemptive story in our pain you are with us and our struggles your grace is sufficient you're a healer you're a redeemer you're a restorer we thank you for that today if you're here today or maybe you're watching online i want to say a quick prayer for you before we wrap up i will not embarrass you this is between you and god and me but if you came into church today or you tuned on today and you feel and have felt like asaph like you you know god's good but he doesn't feel good right now you don't like what you're going through right now you've been struggling with that could i pray for you today would you just lift up your hand long enough for me to see you so i can pray for you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you father i pray for everyone that raised their hands those that are responding online right now god i pray that you would meet them where they are in the midst of the confusion and the pain that god there would be a presence of your holy spirit a peace in their hearts that would go beyond their understanding father i pray you release your healing power physically into people's bodies emotionally spiritually that god you would touch people heal emotions take away depression give peace where there's been anxiety and lord help our faith to grow knowing you are good in jesus name lastly with your heads about eyes closed maybe you're watching online you're here today and you've never made jesus the lord of your life let me invite you to do that right now ultimately jesus came to restore god man back to god he took your punishment in mind and salvation comes not by being good or doing good works that comes by putting our faith in christ if you've never done that i want to invite you to pray with me now maybe you did it when you were younger and you drifted away we like to do it this way just have everybody pray it i'm not going to embarrass you but if you need this put your faith in christ today can we all say this say jesus thank you for your goodness and your love thank you for coming to earth and dying for me i put my faith in you today as my personal lord and savior please forgive me of all of my sins in jesus name amen god is good and all the time amen

Channel: Woodlawn Church Online

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Id: oyGHPCbEEIM

Length: 47min 24sec (2844 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 21 2022