Collierville First Baptist Church

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Okay, everybody, if you'll grab a seat, we'll get started.

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Let's begin with a word of prayer.

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Our heavenly Father, I thank you so much.

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For the word of God.

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I thank you, Father, when we have big questions in our lives, we can go to the word of God and find answers and directions that we need desperately in those moments.

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Our heavenly Father, I ask you for the filling in the anointing of the Holy Spirit as I deal with this delicate subject tonight.

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Lord, speak through me. Give me clarity as I look at scriptures, I share scripture, I share what I've put together for tonight and I pray you would use this in a powerful way in all of our lives.

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I thank you for those who are in this room. I thank you for those who are watching live stream.

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And I pray, Lord, that you would be honored and glorified by everything we say and everything we do tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.

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If you could ask God only one question

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and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask?

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That was a question that Barna Research Group asked a large swath of people in their research. The number one answer was this, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world?

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The question of evil and suffering,

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it is a huge, huge question that so many people in our culture, even in our churches, deal with on a regular basis.

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Mark Middleburg wrote a book entitled The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask.

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And he made this statement.

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As God, he certainly would know about evil.

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And if he's really good, then he will condemn and want to do something about the evil.

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And if he's truly great, that is, if he's all powerful,

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then he would follow through and actually do what his goodness demands and that's destroy the evil. Today, we look around us and we're confronted all the time by moral evil, acts of terror,

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children being abused, teenagers being sold into a sex trafficking business,

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women battered by abusive husbands,

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senseless, vicious murders, babies being aborted,

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gang violence, plaguing our cities,

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and drug addiction destroying families.

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All of this demonstrates the moral evil that permeates our world.

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You see it, I see it, it's everywhere.

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And then we're also confronted by natural evil,

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such as tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis,

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hurricanes, wildfires, famines, disease, accidents.

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The question is, how can we reconcile all of this moral and natural evil and the corresponding suffering

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with our faith in a good, all powerful God? Now, I'm gonna tell you what I believe, right up front.

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I believe that God is good. I believe that's one of the attributes of God. God is good. I believe that God is all powerful.

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I believe that God is omniscient.

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He knows absolutely everything.

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Nothing slips through the cracks with God. He knows everything.

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And I believe that when it comes down to it

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and we face questions that we really struggle for an answer, we just gotta trust God.

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We gotta trust Him.

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Tonight, I wanna share with you an analytical answer to this question, a theological answer and a Christological answer to the question.

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I want you to take your Bible, turn to Luke chapter 13.

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I've got it in the notes there, but if you wanna follow along in your Bible,

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I would encourage you to do that. Let's look at first at the analytical answer to this question of why is there suffering and evil in a world if God is good and all powerful?

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Look at verse one of chapter 13.

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Now on the same occasion,

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there was some president who reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

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Apparently Pilate, the Roman administrator there in the area of Judea and Jerusalem,

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had ordered his soldiers to infiltrate a Passover celebration.

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While the animals were being sacrificed in the temple, the soldiers killed some Galilean, murdered some Galileans who were simply worshiping God and seeking to get right with Him.

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Stories about this evil spread like wildfire

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across the area of Judea and even into Galilee.

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It was evil, absolute evil.

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In Luke chapter 13 verse two,

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Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?" In other words, Jesus always would seem to answer a question with a question.

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In other words, do you think that these Galileans who were murdered in an act of religious faith, during an act of religious faith, do you think they were more evil than others? They were greater sinners than others.

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So he analyzed their minds and hearts and got straight to the point. You see, the Jews had a way of dealing with things that they didn't understand.

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They would, as in this case, they were assigning blame to the ones who were victims of evil.

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And they were saying, those guys, they must be more evil than we know about.

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And they were assigning blame to the victims.

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Do we see that in our culture today?

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I read about what happened in Seattle.

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There was a demonstration

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and the Christians were not demonstrating. They were standing for a biblical principle

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and the counter protesters came and there was violence. And you know who the mayor blamed? The Christians.

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Blame the Christians. Now the FBI is involved in that little detail.

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Think about Job.

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Job was known as a righteous man,

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righteous, godly man.

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He had everything going for him. But suddenly without warning,

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his animals were stolen.

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His servants were killed.

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His 10 children were killed in a violent storm.

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His health was decimated. His wife turned against him. How about having this for your wife? Told him to curse God and die.

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Some of his friends showed up. You read about, I just finished the book of Job recently.

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And those friends who showed up, boy, they were real characters.

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They were quiet for a while

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and they started to assign blame. And basically they insinuated this, "Job, you must be an evil man for all this to happen to you."

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Now they had no idea what was going on in heaven.

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They had no idea what lay behind this and what will come after this.

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But this same idea of, if something bad's happening to you, then you must be more evil than other people.

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That flawed theology is going around today.

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Prosperity, gospel, preachers,

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teach that if you have faith,

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if you have faith, you will prosper financially.

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You will never be sick.

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You will prosper spiritually. You will prosper emotionally. You will prosper relationally. Everything's gonna be great in your life if you have faith.

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And they say that even though Job was maybe the most righteous man on the planet at the time that he was living.

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That kind of logic, that kind of theology was not true in Job's day. It wasn't true in Jesus' day and it's not true in our day.

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Look at verse three, Luke 13, verse three. Jesus says, "I tell you no,

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"but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

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The point in this is that evil and suffering do not prove that their victims are any more sinful than anyone else.

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So get that thought out of your mind.

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If somebody is going through a difficult time, if they're suffering,

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if something bad is happening in their lives, it does not mean that they're evil.

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They could be like Job.

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They could be the most righteous man, the most righteous woman in Collierville.

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And some of you may be suffering tonight. There are unanswered questions in your mind and your heart. You don't understand why God is allowing you to go through what you're going through. It just makes no sense. You love the Lord, you come to church,

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you give your tithes, you're faithful,

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and yet things seem to be not going so well in your life or there is a wound that you have in your heart from something that happened years ago.

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(Congregation Laughing)

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And some of you are experiencing the best life that life has to offer right now. Can I tell you that does not mean that you're better than the person who's suffering sitting beside you.

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And if you're suffering, it doesn't mean you're worse than anybody else in this room.

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Get that through your mind.

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There was a book written several years ago

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when bad things happen to good people.

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And bad things do happen to good people.

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Even though we know that the Bible says in Romans chapter three, there's none good, not even one.

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Look at verse four, Luke 13, four, "Do you suppose that those 18 on whom," this is a different thing that happened there in the first century, "Or do you suppose that those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?"

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So evidently there was an accident that occurred

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and a tower fell and killed 18 men.

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Now a tower symbolizes strength and protection,

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yet it fell and 18 people lost their lives in this tragedy.

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Was God picking out the worst 18 sinners and snuffing out their lives?

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Look at verse five, Jesus says, "I tell you no,

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but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

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R.C. Sproul wrote this, he said, "In effect what Jesus was saying was this,

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you people are asking the wrong question

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about the 18 people who were killed when the tower fell." He said, "You should be asking me, why didn't that tower fall on me instead?"

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I wanna give you some reminders

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that I think are very important as we deal with this question analytically.

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Remember what the question is. The question is, how can a good God, a powerful God, an all knowing God, a sovereign God,

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how can he allow suffering and evil in the world that he created?

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How can he allow suffering and evil

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to impact somebody who is faithful to him,

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somebody who comes to church,

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somebody who loves the Lord?

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How can that be?

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Well, here's the first reminder.

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Death is a reality for everyone.

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I promise you this, if Jesus tarries, everybody in this room is gonna die one day.

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We don't know when, we don't know how,

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but I promise you, the Bible teaches very, very plainly.

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That everybody's gonna die.

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You say, "Man, I wish I'd skipped tonight." Now you're gonna be glad you came. Hold on, hold on, don't get up and leave, okay?

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In Romans 3.23, the Bible says, "For all is sin that comes short of the glory of God."

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In Romans 6.23, the Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God's eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

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We may die from a heart attack. We may die from cancer.

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We may die in a hunting accident. We may die in a terrorist attack. We may die as a victim of a crime. We may die from old age.

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One thing is for certain, every one of us will die. We don't know when it will happen or how it will happen, but we will die if Jesus tarries in his coming.

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So I think if we're gonna get the proper answer

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to this big ticket question that we're trying to wrestle with tonight,

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it begins with realizing the reality that everybody is going to die. The Bible says it's appointed unto man wants to die,

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and then comes the judgment.

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Now, here's a second reminder.

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God owes us absolutely nothing.

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Look at me. Everybody look at me. Sometimes I think that we have this idea that God owes us.

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I mean, we tithe, God owes us.

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We come to church, God owes us.

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We love our spouse, God owes us.

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We try to do the right thing, God owes us.

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Let me tell you, God owes us nothing, not a single thing.

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Mark Middleburg said, "Many people ignore God and live for decades as if he doesn't exist.

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Then they encounter a serious problem in their lives and they get mad at the God they've been ignoring as if he owes them something."

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Have you seen that happen?

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I've seen that happen.

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I've seen that happen in the lives of church members.

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I've seen that happen in the lives of total unbelievers who would never darken the door of a church. They've ignored God their whole life and something bad happens in their lives or suffering and somebody dies close to them and they get mad at God.

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As if God owes them something.

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I wanna say it again.

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Two reminders. Number one, everybody's gonna die.

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Number two, God owes us nothing, nothing.

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Let me just add a little tack on there.

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We owe God everything, everything.

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Do you realize the reason you're in this room tonight

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is because the creator God gave breath to your lungs.

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It's because the creator God calls your heart to beat this morning when you got out of bed.

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We owe God everything.

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God owes us nothing.

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Maybe we should be asking why God has allowed us to be blessed with another day to spend with our loved ones.

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What a blessing.

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Or another day to get to worship the Lord with fellow believers like we're doing tonight.

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Or another day to see the glory of a beautiful sunset or a beautiful sunrise.

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I'll tell you one of the things that's sorely missing in most believers lives is gratitude.

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Gratitude.

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I'll tell you we ought to focus every day, we ought to focus on things that we can be thankful to God for.

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I remember there was a man in this church several years ago that cancer.

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He had such a great attitude. Man, he was losing weight, it was just melting off of him and he was really struggling with pain.

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And I remember going to the hospital

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and several times I would ask him, I call his name and say, how you doing?

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Here's what he would say.

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It's all good, pastor.

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It's all good.

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I'll tell you, we've got to learn how to handle

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the difficulties of life in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord. The fact that you and I are alive tonight

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is not because you and I are better than the two young Jewish diplomats who were murdered in Washington DC

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by a pro-Palestinian activist.

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We're not better than them.

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God's just given us grace and mercy

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to live and be here tonight.

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Jesus gave a frank, analytic, analytical answer to those who ask him about these two tragedies.

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The towers slow and fall and killing 18 men and the henchmen of Pilate who murdered some Galileans who were worshiping the Lord.

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And God is good all the time.

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So we're seeking to answer a question.

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How can we reconcile all of this moral and natural evil

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and the corresponding suffering with our faith in a good, all powerful God?

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So we looked at the analytical answer. Now let's look at the theological answer.

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Philosophers have long held that if God is sovereign

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and if God is all powerful and evil exists then he must not be good.

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Or if God is good and evil exists then he must not be sovereign and all powerful.

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And that's what atheistic philosophers

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have gone to hail in their thinking and their philosophy.

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But this approach is short-sighted. Let's examine God's purpose, okay?

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Maybe you're asking this question in your mind. Well, why didn't God create a world where there was no evil or suffering? Hey, great question.

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I got an answer for you. He did.

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God created a perfect world.

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A world where everything worked together in perfect harmony.

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He created Adam and Eve and he put them in the Garden of Eden.

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And it was paradise, absolute paradise.

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And God gave them one rule. He didn't give them 10 rules, he gave them one rule.

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Don't eat from the tree in the middle of the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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That's the only rule they had.

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If they had obeyed God, if they had followed God's will in that matter, we wouldn't see all of the natural immoral evil that's taking place in the world today.

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But they opened Pandora's box

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when Satan showed up in the garden and tempted Eve.

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And you remember what Satan did? He was a sly devil, I'm telling you. And he got her to take that forbidden fruit

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and she ate a bite of it and she gave Adam a bite.

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And I'm gonna tell you when that happened,

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Katie barred the door.

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Evil infiltrated God's perfect world.

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Sin enter the hearts of the human right. Every person born on this planet

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is born with a sin nature.

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And every person born on this planet it has not only been born with a sin nature, every person on this planet has chosen to give into that sin nature and to sin against God.

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We are sinners by nature and by choice.

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Look at Genesis 1.1 and 1.31.

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"In the beginning, God created the heavens of the earth." Look at verse 31 of the same chapter. The first verse in the chapter, the last verse in chapter one of Genesis. "God saw all that he had made." Now what he had made? He had made everything.

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By that time of the sixth day, he had created Adam and Eve.

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God saw all that he made and behold it was, what does the Bible say?

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Very good.

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You might even put the word perfect

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by those two words, very good. It was perfect.

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And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day.

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The Lord gave Adam and Eve that one rule, they disobeyed God.

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We live in a fallen world.

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Now look, God did not create evil.

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Remember that, God didn't create evil.

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He created Adam and Eve and he created you and me and every human being to be a free moral agent to choose whether we will obey God or disobey God. We're not robots. God did not create a bunch of robots.

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He created us with the freedom to choose whether we would obey him or disobey him, just like Adam and Eve had that choice.

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So what God did, he created the potential for evil.

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If Adam and Eve or us, if we disobey him, there's a potential for evil.

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So in our flawed world today,

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people choose whether they will obey God

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or whether they will disobey God.

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I want you to think about this.

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If you look at what's happening in our world today,

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I would say that most human suffering is caused by humans.

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Let me repeat that.

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Look at what's happening.

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Most human suffering is caused by humans.

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Let's take Hamas for example.

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The terrorist organization.

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What they did on October the 7th, a few years ago,

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was the most heinous thing I've ever seen in my life.

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Do you know that the leaders of Hamas gave their henchmen some kind of drug? I can't, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it caused them not to get sleepy and it caused them to have no feelings and no emotions.

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That's why they would go into Israel

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and they will take a little baby in front of the mom and daddy and take the baby and put the baby in the oven and turn the oven on.

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Do you realize what's happening in Gaza today?

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Now, if you watch certain news organizations,

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you will get the idea that Israel is keeping food and water from the residents of Gaza.

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But if you dig down into it a little bit,

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you'll notice that Hamas is going against their own people, the Palestinians, if they take food or water from the aid workers.

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Hamas takes the trucks that go in with the food and they steal it.

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Most human suffering today is caused by humans. I'm not saying all, but most of it is caused by humans.

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Now think about God's power.

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God is, look, I believe in the sovereignty of God.

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I believe he is sovereign over every aspect of his creation. The Bible says that Jesus has been assigned the responsibility to make sure that all of creation holds together.

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Do you know why the planet states and why the planet stay in their orbits? Because Jesus keeps them in their orbits.

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Do you know why it rains?

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Because the Lord blesses the earth with rain.

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I mean, God is so good to us.

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Anything that happens in our lives, whether good or bad occurs either because God causes it or he allows it.

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Now there's a mystery there. I'm not gonna lie to you, there's a mystery there. There's a lot that I'm still leaning into. I don't have all the answers. Look at 1 Corinthians 13, 12.

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For now we see an emiradimily,

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but then face to face,

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now I know in part,

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then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. We won't understand everything till we get to heaven.

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Do you remember Job?

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Job had all these things. He said, I just wanna have a meeting with God.

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I'm just paraphrasing here, okay? I just wanna have a meeting with God.

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I wanna ask God some questions.

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And when God showed up,

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remember that at the end of the book,

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God showed up and Job shut up.

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And God began to ask him some questions.

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Job, where were you when I created the Pleiades and I put the Pleiades and all of the stars in play? Where were you, Job?

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And God just pampers him with question after question

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and Job, man, he put his hand over his mouth

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and he worshiped God.

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He didn't ask God a thing.

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I think sometimes we need to remember that.

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God has a power to take things that from our perspective looks evil, bad, hurtful, suffering

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and turn it into something that's good for us

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and bring glory to him.

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You realize that when God created you in your mother's womb,

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he created you to bring glory to him.

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That's why he created you.

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You are here to glorify God,

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to honor God, to revere God,

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to make him known to people who do not know him.

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That's why you're here.

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I love Romans 8.28 and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,

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to those who are called according to his purpose.

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Let me remind you of this.

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Sometimes we think, well, in fact, Psalm 73, Psalm 73 is a great psalm

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and the psalmist is looking at the wicked, the rich, wicked people around him

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and he's wondering how they can thrive and he who loves God is suffering so much.

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And for about three quarters of that chapter,

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he constantly begins to attack against God, basically.

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God, why do you let the people who are wicked and evil thrive while I am suffering?

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Habakkuk had the same thing, the prophet Habakkuk had the same idea.

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God had told him the Chaldeans are coming and the Chaldeans are going to bring judgment against the covenant people of Israel.

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Now Habakkuk knew about the Chaldeans. They were a very evil, wicked, vicious people

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and it scared the Bejebes out of him.

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And he couldn't understand, for the life of him, he could not understand how in the world God could use a wicked, godless people

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to bring judgment upon the covenant people of God.

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Hey, just take your Bible.

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Don't do it because you...

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Let me show you something.

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Habakkuk.

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Habakkuk chapter, I think it's three.

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Yeah, Habakkuk chapter three, look at this.

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So I've given you the framework for what Habakkuk was going through,

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but I want you to look at verse 17. I love this part. I'm memorizing this, 17, 18, 19, I'm memorizing it.

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I'm not there yet, okay, I'm memorizing.

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So Habakkuk said, "Though the fig tree should not blossom

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and there be no fruit on the vines,

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though the yield of the olive should fail

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and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and he's made my feet like Heinz feet,

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like the feet of deer, sure footed.

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And he makes me walk on my high places."

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You know what Habakkuk say?

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He said, "Lord, I don't care what happens.

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I don't care if I have a morsel to eat.

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Lord, I'm gonna worship you."

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That's where he got to. And I hope and pray if you're here tonight

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and there's a wound in your heart

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and you've been wondering for years why God allowed certain things to happen in your life, I hope and pray that you can, like Habakkuk,

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find that place of solid footing. The Bible says that God will not allow the righteous to be shaken, that you will find that place in your life

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and you'll take the wounds and turn them into worship

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and you'll worship the Lord.

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It doesn't mean you have all the answers.

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You will, listen, you will never have all the answers as long as you live on this earth.

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But I believe that God provides points of light. Think about this. Have you ever been driving on the interstate

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and it's raining cats and dogs

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and it's foggy and it's night

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and you're driving along and you're going real slow but you don't stop because you're afraid somebody hit you from behind. You know what I'm talking about?

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And you're making progress but you're doing it very slowly and very tediously. Basically all you can see is that little white line on the side.

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But you come up and you find an 18 wheeler in front of you.

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That 18 wheeler's got fog lights

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and he's going at a steadier pace than you are

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and you have his bright red tail lights

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and you just get in behind him

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and you follow those lights.

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You still can't see anything out here or anything behind you. You're just watching the lights.

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I believe God provides those kind of lights for us through the scriptures

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and through our walk with Christ on a daily basis.

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And if we will just follow the lights,

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he'll get us exactly where we need to be.

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That's proven true in my life.

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I think some people think, well, you're a pastor, you're born with a spiritual golden spoon in your mouth. You never had to deal with anything bad. No, that's wrong.

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Listen, everybody at some point or the other in their lives

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is gonna have to deal with heartache and suffering.

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How you deal with it,

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it's not only important for you,

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but it's important for your kids and your grandkids

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and your great grandkids and your neighbors and your friends to see how you handle a difficult moment in your life and if your faith is solid and steady.

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I pray, and I pray this,

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that when the Lord gets ready to take me,

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that I will set a great example for Darlene.

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I'll set a great example for Cade and Ainslie and Lakin and Zach and Tina and Vic and Heather.

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And they'll not only see for me how to live,

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but how to die, how to die.

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Not sour, not bitter,

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but with joy in my heart, a smile on my face where I could say like that man who would die with cancer, cancer, it's all good, it's all good.

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Man, I'll tell you, this kind of stuff is so important. Let me tell you this, sometimes we think that people who are evil get by with it, they get by with it. Now look at me, they may get by with it down here,

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but I want you to read with me Revelation 20, 11 to 15,

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page six, "Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away.

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And no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great, the small standing before the throne and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to," notice it, you ought to underline that, "according to their deeds."

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Now the white throne judgment is the judgment of people who have rejected Jesus Christ.

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They are unbelievers and they are judged based upon their deeds.

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So those things that they did that you thought they got away with it, I can't get away with it.

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There's a payday someday, I promise you.

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And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death in Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged. Every one of them according to their what church?

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According to their deeds.

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They may have so much money down here. It's like the rich man in Lazarus in Luke chapter 16, the parable that Jesus told.

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And here's a rich man and he had everything money could buy. He had the best clothes, the best food.

[01:44:28;56 - 01:44:31;12]
But he was an unbeliever, he rejected God.

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And there was a poor man who was there at his table begging just for scraps from the table.

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And the rich man wouldn't even give him scraps from the table.

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And when Jesus told that parable, he said,

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the dogs were licking his swords. He was a leper and dogs were licking his swords. And then Jesus said this, both of them died.

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Hey, we all died, remember that.

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Both of them died.

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And Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom where he was blessed. He went to paradise where he was blessed.

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And the rich man who had rejected God,

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who had treated this poor leper so mercilessly,

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he went to hell.

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And remember the story?

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Jesus said that the rich man cried out to Abraham,

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Abraham, Abraham, send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and just put a drop on my tongue where I'm in torment in this fire.

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And he paid for his deeds.

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God is a just God.

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He is a holy God.

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And we've got to remember that.

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And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Let's think about, look at page seven, God's pain.

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God entered into the evil and suffering of this fallen world. You say how in the world did God enter into the evil and suffering of this fallen world? He sent his son into this world.

[01:46:34;11 - 01:46:36;39]
He sent Jesus to this world.

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And Jesus, who was fully God and fully human,

[01:46:44;33 - 01:46:50;52]
experienced a level of human suffering and torment that no one has ever gone through in all of history.

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No one.

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Because his suffering was not only physical,

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it was emotional and spiritual.

[01:47:05;50 - 01:47:09;18]
The God who pronounced a curse upon the fallen human race

[01:47:11;27 - 01:47:17;46]
took that curse and placed it upon his son, the Lord Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins.

[01:47:20;09 - 01:47:22;07]
Hebrews two, 17 and 18.

[01:47:23;42 - 01:47:42;20]
Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

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The cross, I love this state, the cross tells us that God understands our suffering.

[01:47:56;47 - 01:47:57;44]
He understands it.

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He understands evil.

[01:48:06;42 - 01:48:22;21]
And God declares to us from the cross, I love you. If you're here tonight and you're suffering or you've got a wound that just never heals from what happened in the past,

[01:48:24;06 - 01:48:26;09]
God saved you through the cross, I love you.

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I know the heartaches and sorrows and the pains that you feel, come to me and let me help you. That's what God's saying to you. Hey, take your Bible, flip over to Hebrews four just a minute.

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Hebrews four.

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Look at verse 14.

[01:48:53;37 - 01:48:56;02]
Therefore, since we have a great high priest

[01:48:57;15 - 01:48:58;39]
who has passed through the heavens,

[01:48:59;55 - 01:49:04;35]
Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

[01:49:06;40 - 01:49:10;29]
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

[01:49:12;22 - 01:49:15;44]
One has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin.

[01:49:17;52 - 01:49:20;11]
Therefore, let us draw near with confidence

[01:49:21;49 - 01:49:23;17]
to the throne of grace.

[01:49:24;45 - 01:49:26;59]
Aren't you glad that God's throne is the throne of grace?

[01:49:28;17 - 01:49:35;25]
So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

[01:49:37;06 - 01:49:41;23]
Let me tell you the Lord Jesus has conquered Satan,

[01:49:42;57 - 01:49:50;53]
sin, evil and death. He's conquered all of that junk.

[01:49:52;01 - 01:49:54;05]
There is hope in Christ alone.

[01:49:55;23 - 01:49:58;08]
I tell you, I would not wanna live without Jesus.

[01:50:01;20 - 01:50:02;47]
Finally, look at God's promise.

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There is no simple solution to the problem of suffering

[01:50:14;43 - 01:50:16;02]
and pain and evil.

[01:50:19;03 - 01:50:23;54]
We know that God, this world was created by good, gracious, supremely powerful God.

[01:50:25;46 - 01:50:39;33]
And God will never surrender any of his attributes. He will always be those things. He will always be all powerful. He will always be good. He will always be full of grace and mercy. That's who he is.

[01:50:40;35 - 01:50:47;04]
Nothing can change that. But the Bible promises that those who follow Christ

[01:50:48;12 - 01:50:49;06]
will suffer.

[01:50:51;32 - 01:50:54;05]
There was no bait and switch with Jesus.

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He told his disciples exactly what was gonna happen.

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We've already seen it here in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five.

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And right before Jesus was crucified in the upper room in John chapter 14 through 16, Jesus tells his disciples,

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"The world hates me and the world will hate you."

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The world persecuted me, the world persecute you.

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And even mention the fact of their martyrdom in Matthew chapter five.

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I can't look at you and tell you that if you follow Jesus, everything is going to, I'm gonna borrow an old country term, everything's gonna be hunky door in your life. I can't tell you that.

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Because it's not gonna be. Because Jesus told you it was not gonna be.

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You will suffer for following Christ.

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But look at this promise.

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Look at Romans chapter eight, verse 16 to 18. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

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Oh boy, isn't that wonderful?

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And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

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If indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I love verse 18.

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I preach this verse sometime in funerals for solid, godly believers who've been true to Jesus and have gone through difficult times. Look at verse 18.

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"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

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"are not worthy to be compared with the glory "that is to be revealed to us."

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Man, we just gotta remember we're going through this kind of bad stuff that the best is yet to come. It is. That's not a little trite saying to make you feel better. It's the truth.

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Again, we're answering the question, how can we reconcile all this moral and naturalism and the corresponding suffering with our faith in a good and all powerful God? We've seen the analytical answer, the theological answer. Now let's look at the Christological answer.

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A quick study of the preaching of Jesus in our text tonight, Luke chapter 13 verses one to five.

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He reveals one of the key things that we need to remember

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and that's the need for true repentance.

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Two times he says it. He says, "Unless you repent, "you will all want likewise perish."

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Now here are guys who are saying to him, "Hey, those guys must have been more evil "than other people because that tower fell on them." Jesus said, "No."

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Or are those Galileans who were slaughtered while they were worshiping God in the temple and offering sacrifice, they must have been more evil than others. Jesus said, "No."

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And here was Jesus answer to them.

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"Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." The real calamity in their lives would not be if they were brutally murdered or if a tower fell on them and their life was snuffed out.

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For the Jesus, the issue was not when they died or how they died or why they died, the tragedy of all tragedies would occur if they stepped into eternity and they were not right with God.

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That is the tragedy of all tragedies. Because that opens up an eternity of suffering.

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But if we put our faith and trust in Jesus and we receive him as our Savior and Lord and we receive his grace and his mercy in our lives and he forgives our sins,

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we don't spend eternity in suffering,

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we spend eternity in Jubilee, in the silent joy in the presence of breathtaking beauty

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for all of eternity.

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Do you know what the Bible says in Ephesians 2.7?

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It says, "For all of eternity,

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God will pour out the riches of his kindness and grace toward us in Christ Jesus."

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My little peanut brain cannot even understand that.

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It's so wonderful.

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This is if you're a believer, when you get to heaven,

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Jesus is not going to run you over the coals because you didn't do something or you did do something.

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I talked to the staff this week, I did a little Bible study with them and I talked about the things that God remembers.

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He remembers our works, he remembers our words.

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And I said, but what does he not remember? What does God not remember?

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He does not remember one single solitary sin that a believer commits, none.

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When you get to heaven as a believer in Christ, Jesus is not going to upbraid you about what you did do or did do.

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He's gonna welcome you,

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he's gonna throw his arms around you. I'm telling you, it's gonna be the most wonderful moment of your life for all of eternity, it's gonna be like that.

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That's the power of the gospel. So the Christological answer is,

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you better get right with God before you die.

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Don't die without Jesus, whatever you do.

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Now, what does it mean to repent? It literally means a change of mind that leads to a change of life. That's what repentance is. And repentance and faith go together like peanut butter and jelly.

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You turn from your sin,

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you put your faith and your trust in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord.

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And every sin is forgiven,

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you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and every sin is forgiven. You receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the perfect righteousness of Jesus is imputed to you, and you go to heaven on his righteousness, not your righteousness.

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So how can we reconcile all this moral and natural evil and the corresponding suffering with our faith in a good and all-powerful God? Tonight, we've looked at the analytical answer, the theological answer, and the Christological answer.

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And I want you to remember this, and I believe this from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet.

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God is good.

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He's good, and he's good all the time.

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Some of you have been touched by now have been touched by natural or moral evil,

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and the pain associated with living in a fallen world is fresh, and the wounds are deep.

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I'm not asking you to ignore what you feel.

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I'm not asking you to ignore it.

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I'm not asking you to pretend that evil and suffering are not real, because they are.

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But I would ask you,

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to turn to Jesus and allow him to comfort you

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and to bring healing to those wounds.

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Jesus can do that. He can identify with what you're going through.

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So turn to Jesus.

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Well, I hope that this study has maybe answered some questions that you've been dealing with.

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I didn't want to get into Matthew chapter seven, because there's no way I could have done the whole chapter of Matthew chapter seven tonight.

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So I'm saving that.

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Now we won't be meeting, let's see, during the month of June, we've got all kinds of kids stuff, student stuff that we have to do, and I have to be a part of it. So we'll start meeting again on Wednesday night in July, first Wednesday night in July, and we'll open up with Matthew chapter seven, and we'll finish that chapter, okay?

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So thank you for being here tonight.

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And I hope and pray this has helped you, okay? Let me pray.

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Heavenly Father, thank you so much

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that you are a good God.

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Thank you, Lord, that you provided answers

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to the complexities of life.

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Thank you, Lord, that you know how to get us through times of suffering and hurt and wounds.

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And I thank you, Lord, that you've made some incredible promises to us.

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And I pray that we would cling to those promises

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and that you would be honored and glorified in and through our lives.

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Lord, we love you.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, God bless you.