How to Answer the Problem of Evil in 5 Steps 😨

we're dealing today with the problem of evil and that is the problem of bad things that bad things happen in life and how this affects our faith in God let's face it really bad things happen I mean bad things horrible things things that are hard to even think about let alone experience there are times where in life in the world there's terrible abuse some there's there's parents who are terribly abusive to their children there's the death of loved ones which is a trauma that um you have to go through to even know what that's really about there's children who have bone cancer who are slowly perishing in the hospital and their parents are are praying and praying and maybe some of them are getting healed but some of them are not there's tsunamis there's natural disasters there's earthquakes there's famines there's all sorts of other things like this the world has a lot of bad stuff and so this leads you naturally to ask the question if God's good why is it there's so much bad stuff going on in the world some people they think that there is no God because of this question there they go well there is no God that God must not exist it's they think it's impossible for God to exist while evil things might be happening somewhere in the universe if there's evil happening anywhere it means that God doesn't exist other people they still believe that God exists but because of this problem of evil they rebel against God they shake their fist at God God I'm I'm mad at you you've allowed this stuff to happen and I judge that you're bad for letting this stuff happen and they they get mad at god um so you're going to encounter this problem either it's going to hit your own heart because you'll struggle with hardship and you'll go I don't understand I want to know why why why why and it might get more and more Angry as you ask that question or you'll encounter it in the in the mouths of other people as you're sharing your faith as you're witnessing as you're telling people about Jesus where they might ask you this question what about the problem of evil so that's what I want to do today I want to answer this question I want to and there are good answers for this question um but I also want to be very open and real and honest with you I'm not trying to spin anything I'm not trying to manipulate I want to be as clear as possible on this subject so to start with let me say this there's two sides of this issue that we got to deal with the emotional problem and the intellectual problem the emotional problem and the intellectual problem these are two different sides of the coin dealing with the problem of evil in fact at first when I said if God's get why do bad things happen you probably thought yeah that's an intellectual problem but then as I started describing some of the bad things you started to feel your emotions go out a little right your heart goes out to like this child that might have bone cancer some terrible thing going on with them but let me let me explain to you the difference between the the emotional and intellectual issue let's suppose that here you are you're at church you're in a Bible study and I look and I I zero in on your face and my face becomes angry angry and oh I'm so mad and then I look at you and you could see it in my eyes you're like he looks like he's mad at me and I yell at you stop it and you're like I don't even know what I'm doing like and I yell at you again stop or I will kill you and you're like what and then I pull out a gun and I pointed at you and I yell stop her I'll kill you and now you're totally freaked out and then I pull the trigger boom you feel the bullet fly past you as I apparently Miss and you're traumatized your heart is pounding your blood is pumping you're freaked out you're like I knew it I knew Mike was a psychopath path I knew it this whole time and you're really freaked out until you look behind you and you see there was a guy coming up behind you with an axe ready to bury it into your head and you realize that whole time I was yelling at him protecting you now intellectually you've solved the riddle but the emotional trauma is not over yet is it you're like I still have that memory of him pointing a gun at me think and I thought I was going to die you might not even want to talk to me even though what I did was actually good for you you might just be like oh I just like gu freaked me out I saw it in his eyes he had death in his eyes you know it it's it's it's an emotional problem it's an intellectual problem and sometimes our Emotions Don't line up with the truth of things right and that's the issue we've got here today so what I want to do is I want to ask your permission I want to take you from the feeling level the emotional level where most of us hang out and ask you to be on the thinking level the intellectual level just for a moment let's set aside your feelings about the problem of evil and let's talk intellectually about it and then we'll come back to the emotions later let's try to straighten out the intellect and then we'll try to deal with our emotions so hopefully I have your permission to do that let's set aside for a minute your emotions let's talk about what's true what's true about this evil this Evil issue now first off dealing with the intellectual side we realize the problem of evil is actually two different problems and one of them is the problem of moral evil and the other one is the problem of suffering or pain suffering and pain and moral evil these are two very different issues that are going on moral evil is like that that person abusing someone else that's morally evil murder theft rape this is moral evil that's morally wrong and that's a problem that's one question then there's a separate question that's the problem of suffering or the problem of pain I have a I have an issue of problem of pain that's been bugging me recently over the past couple weeks you see I I don't know why but when I chew I chew very hard and every once in a while my lip decides to like commit Harry carry in my mouth and jump in between my teeth as I'm chewing really hard and so I will Mash down on my lip and hear the cracking and popping of my own physical mouth and then the blood gushes and stuff well then I've SW I've swollen up my mouth because of biting it so what happens next I bite it again I bite it again again and again I did it again this morning I did it yesterday I did it a couple days before that it's been going on for like two weeks because I'm an idiot and I keep chewing the same way apparently I can't retrain myself I'm like oh gum it freshens my you know no more gum for me this is not a problem of moral evil though is it what's that a problem of pain physical pain it's a problem I don't like it but the the physical problem of pain and suffering this is what connects to things like disease or cancer or um or natural disaster a hurricane that's not a moral evil it's a it's a it's a suffering problem it's a pain problem so suffering or pain is unpleasant it can even be terrible pain but it doesn't make it immoral it doesn't make it immoral so let's first talk about the moral problem of evil you see the two problems moral evil and pain two two different issues so moral evil is real there is real moral evil out there in the world this is legitimate some people deny this right like there are certain like Eastern religions that will just deny that moral evil even exists that they all pantheism and they don't think that moral evil even happens but moral evil does happen and believe it or not as a Christian this should strengthen your faith in God what do I mean well what I mean is this if moral evil didn't happen it would be because there was no God see if there is no God there's no moral evil there's no real reason how you can say to somebody you ought to do this you ought not to do that this is morally right that's morally wrong so if moral evil really exists in the world then this is actually evidence for God not evidence against God emotionally it's evidence against God but not intellectually not in reality if you're an atheist you have to believe that there isn't any moral evil in the world so you can't come to God and complain God why is there moral evil cuz you don't believe in God or moral evil if you're consistent in your worldview you can't be like it's just wrong rape is just wrong well when when I see a a great white shark on the nature Channel and it gets together with a female shark it forces itself upon her but we don't call this rape we don't call that because it's forced we don't call it that it's just that's there's no moral real moral quality these are just sharks but with people we see there's a moral element to what we're doing because there's a God who's told us how he wants us to live so moral evil is evidence for God if if there was no God there wouldn't be any moral evil but here's the question that I have to struggle with is there purpose behind God allowing this moral evil to happen is there a reason why God and I'm going to give you four reasons why I think God legitimately allows moral evil to happen in this world and the first probably biggest reason is the the phrase Free Will Free Will Free Will is a good thing Free Will is my ability to choose what I'm going to do next you know I can choose to keep talking and deliver this message or I can choose to grab my wallet and go to Crispy Cream and get a dut but I will Choose Wisely no I will I will choose to to keep going here but it's a decision I don't have to even be here you didn't even have to show up today oh but my mom made me well you actually you could have stabbed her with a fork and then ran the other way I mean you have free will this is Free Will that you have now free will is a good thing Free Will is a good thing I think we agree with this I like being able to choose things in my life but there's a problem with Free Will and Free Will is this it allows evil you can't really allow true Free Will without also letting people do wrong things so evil comes as a consequence of God letting us make decisions letting us have free will Free Will is good robots don't compare to people imagine if you had your your best friend and it's a robot now I know that there are some people on Earth whose best friend really is a robot that's sad like we all know that's really pathetic right that's not how it's supposed to be people are different than robots so this actually answers the question of who made evil because maybe that's on your mind too who made evil who created evil well but evil wasn't created then if evil is is just me being allowed to decide to do things that are not right then God didn't have to make evil he simply had to give us free will and we made the evil when I chose to when Cain chose to kill Abel he created that evil situation the first murder so the first reason there purpose behind Free Will is um the purpose behind evil rather is because God allows us to have free will the second one is connected to free will but it's different than free will it's the concept of love love is arguably the greatest good there is on Earth love man people loving each other people loving God God loving people imagine if you could take the Earth and just remove love all Love Gone what's the point what's the point I mean love is a great great good but imagine if I could design for you your perfect girl or guy and then they would then they would love you guaranteed they would love you in fact it's programmed into their DNA they have to love you they have no choice no matter what you do they like it no matter how bad your joke is they laugh at it this is this is the perfect person physically and you know character-wise and all this good stuff that you like but they have no free will they never choose to love you it's just automatically programmed in do you like that you're like what's the point what's the point man if you don't get to choose to care about me then then how are you really caring about me so love needs Free Will and to to say I want to get rid of free will and then I want to get rid of love so that I can get rid of evil is itself really kind of sad and it's unfortunate and it's a good reason to allow moral evil is to to create the opportunity for good the third reason is this purpose behind God allowing evil is and this this will make sense to someone who loves God it will be confusing to someone who does not but it's this it's God's glory God's glory god judges moral evils and this is a good thing we want him to judge like we we feel it in our gut that that sin and moral evil is asking for judgment like God said to Cain about murdering his brother Abel he who his blood cries out to me it cries out for judgment it cries out for justice and just like in a movie the bad guy sort of lets the good guy show his colors now imagine watching the movies you've seen and take the bad guy out of out of the equation well maybe there wouldn't be a movie it wouldn't be there but there's the bad guy allowing the good guy to show his colors and there's an element of this in God allowing evil God can bring good through judging and show his goodness in his glory and his righteousness by being the hero saving the day and doing things right now that's just one reason it's not the whole reason but that's one then number four the fourth reason I have here is is their purpose behind God allowing evil and I think you'll appreciate this one very personally let's suppose for a second that God were to stop all evil and God just said no more evil boom and he stopped all evil well how does he do that this well it's easy he just he just looks around the universe and he looks at every possible source of evil and he eradicates it he destroys it he annihilates it would you enjoy that Universe after all the sources of evil were annihilated why wouldn't you enjoy it you wouldn't be in it you are a source of evil I am a source of evil I've done evil things I've done wrong things and if God were to really just drop the hammer and bring judgment right now and stop all sources of evil he'd stop all human beings so it is God's grace upon us that it allows us to continue existing and continue going now God has a limit to this he's not going to let it go on forever and he doesn't let people get away with anything they want there's some limits that he places we look at God's judging cities and and worlds in the past like Noah um the flood destroying the Earth God God's like limiting the wickedness of man but he's allowing them to exist because he's giving them time to repent and come to Christ so stopping evil means stopping us and that's the fourth reason is is out of care for us God lets us continue so that's moral evil I think in all honesty it's not that hard to show that moral evil can exist while God exists he just gives us Free Will and then he works good through the things that are going on it shows us judgment it's time for us to repent to get saved all these different good things that are coming out of this uh moral Evils are caused by free will agents people and those people are responsible for their acts God is not responsible for their actions they have free will and God has a good reason to allow it and he limits it to some degree so I I personally I'm satisfied with that intellectually in my brain so the second question is this that's moral evil what about suffering what about pain what about cancer and tornadoes and hurricanes what about people who fall into quicksand you know like what about various different um non-moral suffering is there purpose behind suffering and I think that there's several things where there's purpose behind suffering one of them is this the first one suffering leads to lessons that we learn character transformation personal change that happens because I go through pain it wakes me up it gets me asking deep questions I remember hearing the story of Bethany Hamilton she's a pro Surfer who uh had was attacked by a shark and she lost her arm had her arm had to have her arm amputated or was eaten or something along those lines it was destroyed by the shark and she was there in the hospital and it was there after losing her arm that she starts asking deep deep questions about God and about life and it led her into doing a worldwide Ministry sharing the truths of God and of Christ with other people it never would have happened had she not lost her arm to that shark and there are countless countless examples of people whose lives lives blossomed as a result of pain as a result of difficulty and suffering it allows us to respond nobly right there's lessons and character transformation from Pain great men and women of the past like Godly men Godly women have gone through suffering just about every single one of them Paul the Apostle talks about it he goes I've learned how to suffer in need and still trust in Christ how did he learn it by suffering need and and reaching deep down to trust in the Lord and you can probably see this in your own life probably if you really think about it can you think of pain you've gone through that taught you something I think personally I've learned more through suffering than I have through when times are good I can learn more through five minutes of pain than I do through like a week of feeling great because we just don't really dig very deep when things are going fantastic that tends to be our our nature so imagine if you can you have a world with no pain there's like no pain of any kind in this world and so you stub your toe it doesn't hurt you you jump off a building you break your leg it's broke but it doesn't hurt what kind of people would we become dead POS quite possibly dead leprosy is an example of what happens when you stop receiving pain signals from your body and you start losing body parts but there's more than that we would also become selfish immature shallow proud and not dependent on God it is my Frailty and weakness that has me calling out to God if I when you're young you tend to think you're the king of the world after a while you start to realize you're the Joker you're the duns you know like I'm not so fantastic I'm not so amazing I spend all this time as a as a youth young person judging others for how they don't measure up never looking at myself to see the plank of my own eye well pain and difficulty they humble us and they teach us deep lessons and the lessons think about this the lessons are temporary the pain is temporary but the lessons you learn from them are permanent the character is permanent the pain is temporary the character change is permanent and on balance permanent character growth is better than temporary pain the second reason why God would allow pain and suffering would be because of Correction um Hebrews 12 talks about this let me read it to you it says now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful nevertheless afterward it yields the Peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it that God will sometimes allow Our Lives to become uncomfortable or painful or even really painful in order to teach us lessons this is a sense of Correction when God sees us going astray to cause us to wake up it's like the spanking from the Lord a third reason God would allow suffering and pain is for punishment God really does allow these things for a sense of punishment this doesen happened we read about Egypt and we see about the 10 plagues the 10 plagues weren't just coincidences like they were a natural type disaster but it was miraculous but it would have appeared like a nature rising up sort of um but what it was is God actually punishing them for their Rebellion against God and there are punishments that also come sin does cry out for for judgment and I mean hell itself involves suffering it involves a sense of pain but but it's just and good it's right this is a right thing and a good thing and to to not bring pain on those who fully deserve it when you're the righteous judge of the Earth would actually be wrong to withhold that pain and then there's also the Book of Job we learned some interesting stuff from The Book of Job job is his his children are killed his his his livestock are killed his crops are destroyed and he's Afflicted with physical pain and suffering and it's all because of issues that are going on between God and the angels and Satan and job is never in the book he's never told why all this stuff happens he asks why throughout the book why why why Lord why I need to know why I've got to know why like so many who go through pain they just feel like they have to know why God never never tells him why but he does come and he starts asking him these questions and he's like job Were You There When I created the world this would be no were you there when I when I fashioned the the animals Were You There When when I when I put the stars in the sky like were you there do you know what's going on and job responds finally he says oh I was such a fool I spoke words without knowledge I wanted to know why but who was I to think that God had to explain himself to me and that's the danger of asking the question about why evil God is I'm sometimes acting like God has to answer to me but he may have Heavenly reasons there may be reasons that have nothing to do with human beings on Earth but have to do with some Angelic things that are going on and that's how it is in the Book of Job there may be reasons there that you're simply not aware of because it has to do with spiritual powers and truths and similar to this number five a fifth reason why I think God allows pain and suffering is because of let's call it the butter the butterfly effect you've heard this before right the butterfly effect the idea is that you know maybe somewhere like out in the middle of I don't know Uganda there's like a butterfly that flaps its wings and slow slowly this like builds up you know this wind creates this that creates that and all of a sudden there's a hurricane a year later and I mean that could happen but think about this you don't know how the events that are going on in your life are affecting somewhere else in the world somebody else's life or maybe a hundred years from now you wouldn't even exist you wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the fact that your mom and dad's genetic information just just happened to mix in that specific way at that exact time it just it just had to happen that particular way or you would not even exist life is full of so many moving parts that you honestly don't know what impact this pain or this suffering is going to have in some other way it might be hundreds of years from now before you find out if you do why such and such has happened but the world in life is a lot bigger than you and me and this Butterfly Effect is basically saying God I know that there's a lot of things in Motion in the world and this pain and suffering could be causing all sorts of different things to happen that I do not know about and the number six six reason why why we see pain and suffering in the world is because uh we're in a fallen World we're in a fallen world now pain says to you this isn't right right when I bite my lip and it shoots pain through my head it says to me something's wrong something is wrong and when we see the world around us with a lot of suffering a lot of evil a lot of pain we say something's wrong and that's a good thing for us to recognize it's a Fallen World now I don't think any of these is like a one-size fits-all situation uh but I think that they give us reason to have hope because you could look and you can you can go you know what I may not know this but I think that that one applies to this situation maybe that one applies and possibly this one too and it gives you some sort of sense of intellectual like anchor to grab on to and go okay okay I can see this I I can see this in my own life um I I remember being very bothered by the lack of attention and a lack of care that I felt like I experienced at home and the uh the fact that I felt like my dad didn't care about me growing up and my stepdad was kind of I felt like he hated me I don't think I'm the only one who thought that um you know and and some other things that were going on around around the home what's interesting is that this is what actually now in hindsight in hindsight now I'm 38 years old and I look back upon my life a little differently and I go that was what caused me to be so desperate for God I was even asking questions about God otherwise I would have been just like every other kid that I knew but because I was going through hardship because I was so discontent with life because things were bad I decided to ask the deeper questions and be like God I need you I need help and that actually led me to my faith in God and so I look back at it now and I'm glad I'm not kidding I'm glad that things happened the way they did I'm grateful for it cuz I'm afraid that if it had happened differently I might not have come to Christ and so I'm I'm grateful that God worked in that situation now does that make it good that my dad or stepdad acted these ways no it doesn't make it good it just means God's good and he works good into these situations and I'm really grateful for that so here's what we do know I know that for those who are wrestling with suffering here I know that creation was not always this way this isn't just part of the original plan this isn't part of the original arrangement where it's like permanently this way always this way this is not how it's always been that Free Will has to be has to be involving the issue of evil that that's that they come together I know that suffering is useful that God uses it I also know that suffering is temporary creation will not always be this way that there's a new Heaven and a new Earth and that I can have great hope and peace in that I also know that God limits suffering and pain there's all sorts of things he doesn't let happen I I just imagine if he took his hand off the world you know would the Cold War have resulted in a nuclear destruction across you know two-thirds of the earth maybe maybe you'd be dead already if God wasn't already at work in your life that's what we do know here's what we don't know we don't know why individual situations are are are going wrong I don't know why this person got cancer I don't know why that hurricane or tornado hit how would I know this what kind of arrogance do some people have to like look at someone else's situation from miles away and be like yep I know why that happened how do you know that you're just guessing you don't know anything God's plan is not obvious to me I shouldn't act like I know what's going on can we agree I shouldn't act like I know what God is doing in someone else's pain in some situation that I'm not even involved in I don't even know what he's doing in my pain half the time or more but if this is true if it's arrogant to act like I know what's going on I get it took me I had to look at it to get the get the mouse trap what do you think's going on in life and all the moving pieces that are going on I think I can I can say I don't know I don't know I don't know why this is happening I can't tell you why your your father died I can't tell you why your daughter got hit by a car I can't tell you why your best friend decided to get into drugs I I can't tell you why these things happen nor would I expect to be able to tell you why but I can be comforted by the truths that we've intellectually given right here so in conclusion if you want to say that God can't exist because of the problem of evil you have to say that you know a whole lot more than you know a whole lot more than you know I mean only pointless constant suffering in the absence of good would show that the Christian God doesn't exist or be somehow evidence for it pointless constant suffering in the absence of good but that's not what we see around the world is it it's what we see is temporary and purposeful based on uh the reasons I've given but plus based on scripture so let me give you guys I going to challenge you for a second there's something called The Logical problem of evil and and it goes like this I'm going to challenge you with this and I want to see if you can give me the rebuttal after I've shared all this stuff with you okay and then we'll talk about emotions in a second um it goes like this if God is all good God would want to stop evil because he's good make sense then they say this if God is all powerful then he can stop evil he has the ability to stop evil because he's so powerful does that make sense then they conclude this evil hasn't stopped therefore either God is not good or God is not all powerful or there is no God anybody think that maybe you could think of a honest rational way to respond to that go and take a moment to think about it if God's all good he can he wants to stop evil if he's all powerful he can stop evil evil hasn't stopped God must not be good God must not be powerful or simply doesn't exist at all yeah Gavin they like rule out if he wants to stop stop evil right now mhm yeah there's there's one word that you can add at the very end of the argument if God's all good he would want to stop evil I agree if he's all powerful he can stop evil I think I agree with that too yeah evil hasn't stopped yet see what what the what the thing assumes it assumes that right now is the way things have been are and will always be but if they wait I I don't know 10 minutes till Jesus comes back or a thousand years or whatever it's going to be then they won't be able to ask this argument because it will have been stopped sir also um it's kind of in the Box thinking like God can turn evil into good it doesn't have to be I stop evil and so now it's good God can Pastor Gary was just saying this in his study God uses all things for good to those who love him so he can take this evil in the same situation you're in and make it this amazing thing that you wouldn't change for the world so it's not so linear it's not in the absence of evil there's good God can change it in what it is and make it something that defines who you are so God kind of is outside of that absolutely so in other words it's more complicated than that I mean if God was going to stop evil he's got to stop you and me he's got even better plan he's going to redeem you and me not just stop us save us change us so that those who are the sources of evil become transformed God's going to work and bring good out of the evil that's going on currently and then when you're in heaven for eternity you're not really going to care about the little pains you experien while you were on Earth so it so the problem falls apart it's really not a problem the quote logical problem of evil um now that all being said this does not mean that pain and experiencing moral evils in the world won't mess you up emotionally because it will so let's talk for a second about the emotional side of issues um I'm just saying that intellectually pain and suffering doesn't challenge God's God's existence or even God's goodness but emotionally I'm you know you're just like not okay because life is not okay and you know what I'm talking about we've all been not okay very not okay in our different experiences um so the emotional problem of evil is to say this that I'm traumatized by the idea of the existence of the suffering that I've experienced or that I have seen other people experience that's a problem it's an emotional problem dealing with evil whether it's moral or or physical pain and I'm with you on this some people will say this they'll say I find it hard to conceive of how God could use this particular suffering for good I'm down with God using different suffer but this suffering but why my suffering why my back problem how could God be using that for good how my my baby who I carried in my for 9 months was born and a week later died in in sudden infant death in this in the in the crib how could God use that for good and they what they're saying is I can't think of how God is using this for some worthwhile good I am with you and if you listen to what I said earlier you'll realize I'm not trying to say that we look to find out what good is coming out of every evil situation good luck with that you don't know what's going on you don't know the end of the story you don't know much of what's going on all you know is One Piece One Freeze Frame one picture and you're going to make that your your whole universe of reality about God but we just don't know all the details I don't recommend trying to force good that God will bring out of this oh well you know God it's he's going to teach you lessons through it and it's going to be good and so that made it worth it oh that's not a good thing to say I don't know what God is doing in the emotional problem of evil not the intellectual one but the emotional problem we don't want bad answers and cheap Comfort we really don't we really don't so I've had people I've as a as a pastor I've been there when people have passed away when they've lost their loved ones and they look at me and they go I don't know why this is happening why why why and all I can think is well if they died of cancer it's cancer is the why but what they're asking is something else they don't even know for sure what they're asking they're just saying I hate what's happening I can't stand what I'm going through it hurts so bad make it better or undo it this is unfortunately not something that's in any of our power the emotional pain of difficulty is is is a whole different issue it's a whole different issue but how you choose to respond to your emotions when you're suffering it says everything about you and it changes your life either you'll trust God or you're you're going to reject God based on your lack of understanding I'm in this moment I'm in this pain I don't know what's going on I'm confused I'm struggling so I will trust the Lord or I'm in this pain I'm confused I'm struggling so I will reject God what will you do with your lack of understanding what will you do with your pain a bad conclusion is to say since I can't figure out what's good in this situation I'm going to reject God now here's here's a good solution a good conclusion God is smarter than me I will trust his word that he will bring good from this and I will rest in his goodness in the middle of the situations I'm experiencing that are not good just because you can't think of what good might come of it doesn't mean it's not there just because I can't think of how digestion works I don't know how I eat a sandwich and that gives energy for my legs to run I don't understand that but it doesn't mean it's not true you don't need to lean on your own understanding here that's the point so what help is there for someone who's suffering well the first thing I want to give is advice this is advice if maybe you're gone you've gone through pain or you're you're going through this I'm I'm going to do the bet I can't fix it for you but I'll try to give you some counsel some pastoral advice right now I going to say this first this will sound like it's like it's the wrong thing to say but but I got to say it watch out for Pride watch out for Pride that acts like the whole world revolves around you I know you're in pain but it doesn't mean the world revolves balls around you I don't want to be like the kid who's out there playing with his buddies and then I get hurt or I'm losing the game so I take my ball and go home I'm G to ruin everybody's game because I'm having a bad game you know what I mean and and I make the whole world all about me well well this translated into later life situations is really bad it's it's narcissism is what it is it's like all obsessed with myself and it will result in God make the world the way I need the world to be for me that's what matters more than anything not your plan not your agenda not your will be done my will be done Lord mine I I refuse to accept what you're letting happen that's a dangerous arrogant thing to do I have heard over and over crazy atheists and this is crazy saying that theoretically if they were to if they died and stood before God and found out God was real that they would shake their fist at God and they would say how dare you to God and they would say to God how dare you allow this to happen or that to happen and they'd point at some horrible example probably things they never even went through and they would talk about how God must be evil for letting these things happen and all I can think is you're insane there is no way you will stand before God and even have the guts to shake your fist at him he's God and the arrogance and the pride and the narcissism that comes from this I mean there are people who've gone through these situations and they still are praising and thanking God going Lord I don't understand but I trust you and I'm glad I have hope beyond the death of the loved one or whatever and I have joy in you and I can trust you and yet The Atheist says nope that's not good enough I just heard about your story and I'm mad at God about it it's just arrogant and it's foolish if this is you and you're and you've been hurt I understand but being angry because you're hurt is a mistake I'm hurt so I'll be angry this is a classic mistake it ruins marriages it kills friendships it destroys your relationship with God because I'm hurt I'll be angry how about because you're hurt you'll just be hurt let it happen let that grief go through my well-being is not the highest good in the land and me looking at the world and saying that it's it's going to work the way I want it to work is not the most important thing it's God's glory and this is what job repented of at the end of The Book of Job he's like Lord I was a foolish man I was a foolish man now he was right about so much but when he thought he could stand over God in Judgment of God for what God would allow in his life he was a fool and he realized this and God put him in his place I would say please don't forget to be thankful don't forget to thank God for the good things that he has done in your life don't forget to thank God for the promises for the future don't act like this moment is eternity because it's not and I'd like to point out that if somebody's hurt and they're angry because they're hurt the question is what is your anger getting you what are you benefiting from this anger it's just messing you up from the inside out messes you up messes up other people it just does no good in the end you're just keeping yourself from hope I'd like to ask The Atheist who shakes their fist at God what hope do you offer a dying child what peace do you bring into a home when someone passed away you atheists who s there sarcastically going around the internet haunting every Christian video you can find to Mock and ridicule whatever you see do people call you when they're dying can you come and bring Comfort into my life you I wouldn't want to be you I wouldn't go I ain't got no comfort for you your view of the world at that point is so Bleak and so sad but more importantly it's not true it's not true and it's based upon basically sarcasm scoffing and acting like one moment of pain is the Eternal Universe when it's just not so pastorally there's three things that I want to point you guys towards if you're going through pain or you know someone who is um and I'll I'll abbreviate them they're all with peas here make it easy to remember this wasn't on purpose because I kind of dislike when people do that but it happen so promises presence and patience these are the three things that came to my heart as I Was preparing to share with you guys today promises presence and patience and the first one's promises um there are promises God has given us that when we go through difficult times we can cling to and we can hold to and it will help us in those Hard Times promises like Romans 8:28 that Sarah mentioned a minute ago that says we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are the called according to his purpose do you love God or you the called according to his purpose well yeah then I know that everything is going to work together for my good it'll be good toward me somehow this is going to end up in goodness towards me it doesn't mean that the thing is good but God will bring good out of it now I'm comforted by that even if I don't know what good will come out of it in Revelation 21 let me read this to you this is a promise about our future it says and I heard a loud voice from Heaven saying behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people God himself will be with them and be their God and God listen will wipe every tear away he's going to wipe away every tear there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying there shall be no more pain for the former things have passed away this life is temporary and one of the promises of God is Not only that our future is eternally glorious but there's this really interesting statement about him wiping away our tears what do you think this means I mean it doesn't mean that like hey if you cry go like wh don't do that wipe that away what it means is that God's Comfort is so much that even though you still remember the pain of the past you don't feel the pain of the past anymore because it's been resolved God has wiped that tear away there's a there's a future time where I will be okay even if I'm not right now there's also a new heaven and a new Earth the scripture says and it says u in Romans 8:18 for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us that the suffering you're going through now can't compare to the later Glory imagine this imagine if you lived a horrible life on Earth 70 years of just BL but you trusted in Christ you you were saved 70 years of just horrible horrible experiences now Flash Forward for a second you've been in heaven for 7 trillion years that's a long time and if if you could just go to that guy say it's you and I come to you and I say hey 7 trillion years in in in God's glorious presence have the benefits outweigh the sufferings have the Comforts overcome the pain what do you think you would answer NOP that 70 years is more you know it does this is just a blink it's a tiny little blink it's a speck it's a moment and glory is forever so that's why Paul says that the sufferings we go through now though they are great though they're intense they're nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed they can't even be compared so that's God's promises also God's presence I think you need God's presence if you're going through suffering this is one of the Glorious things that comes out of suffering is it gets me on my knees seeking the Lord and his help in his presence Psalm 73 says this it is good for me to draw near to God it is good for me to draw near to God draw near to the Lord maybe you were just living kind of a selfish life sinning and then pain came and it woke you up you need God's presence Philippians 4 says this listen be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus so you approach God In Prayer you dump out your heart and you pour out your heart and the issues that are going on you ask for his aid and there's something of the peace of God that surrounds you your heart and your mind you need God's presence in your life Psalm 61:2 puts it this way listen to these words when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I Lord life is too much sometimes I need your presence I got I got to seek you I got to really be serious it's not you know there's intellectual problems of pain but then there is the emotional issues and the spiritual side of things and I need you for that God I need your presence I need you in my heart and in my life read the book of Psalms if you're going through suffering like this and see how David cries out and let that be an example of how you should cry out when you're in pain and you will find that he found Hope and you will find Hope because if you draw near to God God will draw near to you and finally patience that's the third thing if pastorally I recommend for you is patience the scripture says wait on the Lord it says it over and over and over again wait on the Lord and he'll renew your strength he's going to help you out he's going to get you through this God will strengthen your heart wait on the Lord I mean it gets it gets easier it life does get better it does get easier we get trauma but then things get a little bit better as time goes by that happens naturally but waiting on the is even better than this because things get much better in the future wait on that future God's glorious future is not even in this life seek his presence but wait on his on his promises for the future be patient God really is working in you so I'd encourage you to grieve if you have to grieve if you got to cry if if you've got to break down and break down but then remember God's promises and seek his presence and have some patience for what he's bringing in your future you trust the Lord God is good he hasn't abandoned he hasn't stopped he hasn't ceased he hasn't failed and it's so sad when people out of out of uh hurt feeling pain feeling wounded and they get mad at God they withdraw from God I mean you're not hurting God you're hurting you he's the one I need right now he's the one I desperately need I need to draw near to God he's the help of my soul he's my anchor he's he's everything I need as Christians we not only have an explanation for pain and suffering showing that God has good reason for allowing it but we also have somewhere to go with where we're with where our hearts are at in those times this is just one of the many reasons why people need need Jesus you need Jesus I sometimes as a pastor I get called into situations where it's people who aren't Believers and I get called in and I get asked to to minister to them and it's it's a little bit difficult because I I don't know how to help somebody who doesn't have God I can offer some Aid I can offer some counsel about taking things one day at a time I can offer some concerns emotionally hey have you eaten you know have you take care of some physical things like this but the true the true Aid the true satisfactory help for the pain I suffer is God and it's only in god let's pray father God we we're grateful for your truths help us to not forget them when we're feeling down help us to have an anchor for our souls have the strength and hope in Christ help us Lord to wake up to the truths of God there are some maybe even in this room there are some hearing this who've been shaking their fist at you using using the fact that they're upset about something as an excuse to not pray to not seek you to not walk with you Lord we pray that they would see that um you're our savior you're not the enemy you're our help you're our hope and you have good reason for allowing the things you do even if we don't see it God help us to trust you with all all of our hearts not lean on our understanding help us to learn it for the glory of Christ and Lord we look forward to the day when uh we won't even be asking for any more explanations because we will be fully comforted eternally in your presence in Jesus name amen you are my joy you are my peace you are my home and I find rest at your [Music] feet you are my [Music] joy my my [Music] joy you are my joy my joy oh you are my joy every morning every morning Joy merci fresh Joy [Music] morning Joy words of you are my joy every morning my [Music] Jo [Music] my you are you [Music] [Music] me

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 85,309

Keywords: Mike Winger, if God is good then why do bad things happen?, BibleThinker, why is there evil in the world if god exists, why is there evil in the world Bible, if god is real then why do bad things happen, problem of suffering in Christianity, how to answer the problem of evil, how to explain why there is evil, explaining evil from a Christian, why do bad things happen to good people Christian, why doesn't God stop evil from happening, bone cancer in children how dare you, bible-thinker

Id: 70T8mm0W2tA

Length: 52min 44sec (3164 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 13 2017