Speaker 1: God pays attention to the details of my pain. Some
Speaker 1: of you are in tremendous pain right now, and you
Speaker 1: think God doesn't even care. God doesn't even know. Oh,
Speaker 1: he knows. More than he knows. He's keeping a record,
Speaker 1: and more than keeping a record, it pains him. God
Speaker 1: suffers with us. We serve a suffering God. Now, let
Speaker 1: me start by just giving you a definition of trauma.
Speaker 1: I wrote it down. Trauma is an experience of feeling
Speaker 1: either overwhelmed or helpless or paralyzed. Overwhelmed, helpless, paralyzed, may
Speaker 1: be frightened by a deeply distressing event. That's what trauma is.
Speaker 1: Being overwhelmed or paralyzed, or frightened, or just feeling helpless
Speaker 1: by some kind of deeply traumatizing event in your life. Now,
Speaker 1: trauma can come from a lot of different places. It
Speaker 1: can come from abuse, It can come from abandonment, come
Speaker 1: from you know, mistreatment, It comes from betrayal, It can
Speaker 1: come from rejection, It can come from abandonment. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: death of a loved one can be very traumatic. Divorce
Speaker 1: can be traumatic. A deeply distressing event in your life,
Speaker 1: a violent accident, being a victim of a crime can
Speaker 1: be like a scam. You've been scammed, you were swindled.
Speaker 1: That can be traumatizing. But the kind of trauma that
Speaker 1: I want us to focus on this weekend is the
Speaker 1: kind that has occurred when an evil person traumatizes you
Speaker 1: with their evil, either an abuse or in some way
Speaker 1: you have been traumatized by the actions of another person.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about hurricanes, I'm not talking about, you know,
Speaker 1: a bankruptcy. I'm talking about when you've been traumatized by
Speaker 1: the actions of somebody else who was very hurtful, maybe violent,
Speaker 1: towards you. Now, at some point in your life, you're
Speaker 1: going to have the most traumatizing event. Mine was six
Speaker 1: years ago when my youngest son took his life after
Speaker 1: struggling with mental illness for his entire life. Nothing I
Speaker 1: can imagine would be more traumatic than losing my son
Speaker 1: who took his own life. But every day in the world,
Speaker 1: there are evil people doing evil things to innocent people.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want us to talk about this weekend.
Speaker 1: Every day there's injustice. Every day there is bigotry, there's bias,
Speaker 1: there is prejudice, there's unfairness, things like that, And as
Speaker 1: I said, at some point, you're going to face trauma
Speaker 1: in your life, So what does God say about it?
Speaker 1: What does God say about evil? And what does God
Speaker 1: say about trauma? Now, when we talk about this, the
Speaker 1: first thing that people always ask is, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: a good question. If God is truly good, if God
Speaker 1: is truly loving, if God is so loving and good
Speaker 1: and gracious, why do you think you just get rid
Speaker 1: of evil? Why didn't just wipe it out? Why does
Speaker 1: he let bad things happen to good people? Why didn't
Speaker 1: just wipe out all kinds of evil? What's good? Questions
Speaker 1: a legitimate question. First, you have to define evil. What
Speaker 1: is evil? Because we always think evil is something out there.
Speaker 1: Evil is anything that opposes God, rebels against God, disobeys God,
Speaker 1: rejects God, or ignores God. Now, if that's what evil
Speaker 1: is the opposite of what God is. God is good
Speaker 1: and evil is the opposite of God, then I have
Speaker 1: made evil choices in my life, and so have you.
Speaker 1: So have you? You have not always done what God
Speaker 1: said to do. You have not always done what's best
Speaker 1: for other people. You have made evil choices, and I
Speaker 1: have made evil choices too. The Bible says no one
Speaker 1: gets off clean on this one, and so really the
Speaker 1: answer of why does God allow evil in the world,
Speaker 1: why do he need to just wipe out evil right now?
Speaker 1: The answer actually has two parts. The first is, in fact,
Speaker 1: God is going to wipe out evil one day at
Speaker 1: the end of history. He's going to send all evil
Speaker 1: to Hell. The Bible says Hell was created for evil.
Speaker 1: Hell was created for the devil and his angels, and
Speaker 1: God is going to banish it all and there will
Speaker 1: be an eternal punishment in Hell. God is going to
Speaker 1: end evil one day. He said, why doesn't he do
Speaker 1: it right now? Well he could. In fact, God could
Speaker 1: eliminate evil instantly by doing one simple thing, take away
Speaker 1: our freedom to choose, because where does evil come from?
Speaker 1: Our bad choices? See, if God took away my freedom
Speaker 1: to choose, your freedom to choose, then there wouldn't be
Speaker 1: any evil in the world. Everything would always be good,
Speaker 1: but you would have no choice about it. You would
Speaker 1: always do the right thing, you would never do anything wrong,
Speaker 1: you never do anything selfish, you'd never do anything unkind,
Speaker 1: you'd never do anything hurtful. Be real simple. God takes
Speaker 1: away your freedom of choice and there would be no evil.
Speaker 1: Now I need to give you a little backstory on
Speaker 1: why you exist. The first thing is the Bible tells
Speaker 1: God is love. The God is a God of love,
Speaker 1: and you were created to be loved by God. That's
Speaker 1: why you exist. God made you to love you. God
Speaker 1: wanted a family. God wanted children. That's the first thing
Speaker 1: you need to know, the whole reason you exist because
Speaker 1: God made you to love you, and if he hadn't
Speaker 1: wanted to love you, you would not exist. God made
Speaker 1: you to love you. God wanted children to love. Second
Speaker 1: thing you need to know is he wants you to
Speaker 1: love him back. Nothing wrong. Every parent understands that. Every
Speaker 1: parent wants their kids to love them back. God wants
Speaker 1: you to love him back. But here's the issue. Love
Speaker 1: cannot be coerced. It can't be forced. You can't make
Speaker 1: people love you. Anybody who's been through a divorce knows
Speaker 1: that you couldn't make somebody fall in love with you. You
Speaker 1: can't make somebody stay in love with you. Love cannot
Speaker 1: be forced. It has to be voluntary. It has to
Speaker 1: be willing. It has to be a choice. If there's
Speaker 1: no choice, there's no love. That makes sense. Okay, so
Speaker 1: I can't love God unless I have the freedom cannot
Speaker 1: love him. Does that make sense. It's not real love.
Speaker 1: If I'm forced to love him, then I'm just a puppet.
Speaker 1: I'm a marionette on strings, and it's not real love.
Speaker 1: So God gave you the freedom to choose. That's your
Speaker 1: greatest blessing, and it's your greatest curse. And all of
Speaker 1: the evil that exists from the world is because we
Speaker 1: were given the freedom to choose. And we don't always
Speaker 1: choose to do what's right. In fact, people to choose
Speaker 1: to do wrong all the time. I do, you do,
Speaker 1: and everybody else dose Hitler did, and everybody else. God
Speaker 1: could easily get rid of evil just take away our
Speaker 1: freedom to choose. It is the alternative or the alternative
Speaker 1: that allows you to willingly love him. And God says, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the freedom to choose. And
Speaker 1: you can either accept me or reject me. You can
Speaker 1: obey me or you can disobey me. You can love
Speaker 1: me or not love me. You can trust me or
Speaker 1: you can distrust me, you can doubt me. That's all.
Speaker 1: God gives you that freedom. You're free to make any
Speaker 1: choice you want. You're not free from the consequences of it,
Speaker 1: but you are free to make your choice, and so
Speaker 1: God could have just taken away all of our freedom
Speaker 1: and then we wouldn't have any evil in the world.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, every human being has made wrong choices,
Speaker 1: and that's called sin. I've made wrong choices. You have to.
Speaker 1: There have been times I say, I know what God
Speaker 1: wants me to do, but I'm gonna do what I
Speaker 1: think is best because I think I know better than God.
Speaker 1: I think this will give me more pleasure. I think
Speaker 1: this will make me more happy. I think this is
Speaker 1: what I want. It's not what other people want, it's
Speaker 1: not what God wants, what I want, and that's called sin.
Speaker 1: Now here's what the Bible says. Look at the verse
Speaker 1: Romans five twelve. Sin came into the world because of
Speaker 1: what one man did, that's Adam. And with sin came death.
Speaker 1: Did you know that before Adam sin there was no death.
Speaker 1: Adam could have just lived for eternity on Earth in
Speaker 1: the Garden of Eden, could have lived for eternity in Paradise.
Speaker 1: But the moment sin and evil enter the world, God goes,
Speaker 1: I don't want you living on a planet where there's
Speaker 1: sin and evil for eternity, and so death entered the world.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I don't have to live on this planet
Speaker 1: for eternity. I want to live forever. I just don't
Speaker 1: want to live where there's suffering and sorrow and sadness
Speaker 1: and sickness and disease and death and depression and racism
Speaker 1: and all the other problems in the world. I just
Speaker 1: don't want to live there for eternity. I want to
Speaker 1: live for eternity. I just want to live any perfect place.
Speaker 1: And once Earth was broken by sin and death, God says, well,
Speaker 1: you're not going to live here forever now, it says
Speaker 1: Notice that verse. It says sin came into the world
Speaker 1: because of what one man did. He chose between the
Speaker 1: knowledge of good and evil, and he chose evil. And
Speaker 1: with sin came death. By the way, not just death
Speaker 1: came with that. Sin created a lot of other problems too.
Speaker 1: Let me read you a list. I made this list
Speaker 1: this yesterday. None of us, none of the things on
Speaker 1: this list were in the Garden of Eden. In paradise, decay, damage, debauchery, debt, disability,
Speaker 1: these deceit, defeat, defiance, defilement, dehumanization, none of these were
Speaker 1: in garden. I mean delusions, dementia, depravity, deprivation, deviants, dictators, disunity, deportation, despotism, disloyalty, disgrace, depression, destruction, devastation, desertion, distress, disease, divorce, dysfunction.
Speaker 1: None of these were in paradise, distrust, disputes, destitution, disease, disasters, desperation,
Speaker 1: and despair. That's what sin brought into the world. So
Speaker 1: you want to know why they're suffering in the world.
Speaker 1: They're suffering in the world because of sin and evil.
Speaker 1: And why is they're sin and evil in the world
Speaker 1: because God gave us the choice, and none of us
Speaker 1: have chosen correctly all the time. Now, let me give
Speaker 1: you a couple other things the Bible says about it.
Speaker 1: Number two, everything on Earth. This leads to the second one.
Speaker 1: Everything on Earth is broken by sin and by evil.
Speaker 1: Nothing on this planet works correctly all the time. The
Speaker 1: only thing perfect on planet Earth is God's word. But
Speaker 1: our relationships are broken. The weather is broken, the economy
Speaker 1: is broken, your body is broken. It does. Have you
Speaker 1: noticed your body doesn't always work correctly? Have you noticed
Speaker 1: your relationships don't always work correctly? The economy doesn't always
Speaker 1: work correctly. Nothing works correctly because we live now on
Speaker 1: a planet broken by evil and by sin. Now, Jesus
Speaker 1: warn in the world you will have tribulation, said, count
Speaker 1: on it, because we're on a broken planet. This is
Speaker 1: not heaven. We want heaven to be. We want earth
Speaker 1: to be heaven Heaven. Everything is perfect, it works perfectly.
Speaker 1: God's will has done completely, instantly, continuously, quickly all the time.
Speaker 1: None of that's true on Earth, will done seldom, incompletely incorrectly,
Speaker 1: and often just ignored. That's why James says in the
Speaker 1: Book of James, he says, don't be surprised when you
Speaker 1: have trials on the Earth. You know this is not Heaven.
Speaker 1: That's the place that's perfect. Things don't work here. Nothing
Speaker 1: works perfectly here. That's why Jesus said in Matthew twenty four,
Speaker 1: verse twelve, there will be more and more evil in
Speaker 1: the world, so most people will stop showing their love
Speaker 1: for each other. He said, it's going to increase over time.
Speaker 1: Number three. This is an interesting point. God grieves when
Speaker 1: he sees us hurting. Sin and evil cause pain, coust suffering,
Speaker 1: calls hurt, and he said, well, what does God think
Speaker 1: about all this. When he sees people hurting from all
Speaker 1: these things I just read abuse and assault and abandonment
Speaker 1: and all those. God grieves when he sees his children hurting.
Speaker 1: It may surprise you to know that God has emotions.
Speaker 1: God has emotions, But why does God? Why do you
Speaker 1: have emotions? The only reason you have emotions is you
Speaker 1: were made in God's image. The Bible says God gets angry.
Speaker 1: The Bible says God grieves. The Bible says God laughs.
Speaker 1: The Bible says God is sorrowful, He's sad. God has emotion.
Speaker 1: God is an emotional God. He feels things when he
Speaker 1: sees us hurting each other. When he sees man's inhumanity
Speaker 1: to humanity, it bothers him, It grieves him. Look up
Speaker 1: here on the screen. In Genesis chapter six, it says,
Speaker 1: in Noah's day, the Lord was deeply grieved that he
Speaker 1: had made man, and his heart was filled with pain.
Speaker 1: His heart was filled with pain. You know, the shortest
Speaker 1: verse in the Bible is this next one, John eleven
Speaker 1: thirty five, Jesus wept. It's the shortest verse in the Bible,
Speaker 1: but it's filled with importance. Why because it shows that
Speaker 1: God grieves. Jesus wept God. When God sees you in pain,
Speaker 1: he grieves too, all right, And so like a parent
Speaker 1: watching a child in pain. Look at this verse. The
Speaker 1: Bible says in Isaiah sixty three, verse nine, in all
Speaker 1: their suffering, he that's God suffered too. In all their suffering.
Speaker 1: He suffered too. I want you to write this down
Speaker 1: on your outline. God suffers with me. That's one of
Speaker 1: the most important things I want you to learn today
Speaker 1: is that God suffers with me. When I suffer. God suffers.
Speaker 1: We don't have an apathetic God who's an apathetic to pain.
Speaker 1: When he sees me suffering, he suffers with me. When
Speaker 1: he sees you suffering, he suffers with you. Of course,
Speaker 1: the greatest example of this was when Jesus came to earth.
Speaker 1: He suffered evil with us. The greatest evil ever done
Speaker 1: one was done to Jesus Christ on the cross, where
Speaker 1: someone who was perfect, the only perfect person to ever lived,
Speaker 1: because he was God, the son of God. He was innocent.
Speaker 1: He's tortured, he's abused, he's humiliated, he's murdered. That was evil,
Speaker 1: That was evil before Easter. God suffers with me. Look
Speaker 1: at this next or Psalm fifty five, verse eight. You
Speaker 1: Lord keep a record of all my sorrows. You collected
Speaker 1: all my tears in your bottle, and you list each
Speaker 1: one in your book. Is that one of the most
Speaker 1: amazing verses? Let me read it again. You Lord keep
Speaker 1: a record of all my sorrows, and you collected all
Speaker 1: my tears in your bottle, and you list each one
Speaker 1: in your book. Not only has God seen every tear
Speaker 1: that's fallen from your face, He's counted them. That's how
Speaker 1: much God cares about you. That's how much God loves you.
Speaker 1: That's how compassionate. That's how much God feels your pain.
Speaker 1: He's not just seen every tear you've cried, He's counted them.
Speaker 1: He's recorded them in a book. I want you to
Speaker 1: write this on your outline. God pays attention to the
Speaker 1: details of my pain. Some of you are in tremendous
Speaker 1: pain right now, and you think God doesn't even care.
Speaker 1: God doesn't even know. Oh he knows. More than he knows.
Speaker 1: He's keeping a record, and more than keeping a record,
Speaker 1: it pains him. God suffers with us. We serve a
Speaker 1: suffering God. Lady once asked me where was my God?
Speaker 1: Where was God when my son died, I said. He
Speaker 1: was the same place he was when his son died.
Speaker 1: He was weeping. He was grieving at what men, what humanity,
Speaker 1: was doing to his son, Jesus Christ, Christ, he was grieving.
Speaker 1: He was weeping. God says, I suffer with you. I
Speaker 1: grieve with you. I pay attention to the details of
Speaker 1: your pain. Number four. The fourth thing we know about
Speaker 1: evil and trauma is that one day God will judge
Speaker 1: everyone justly. God will judge everyone justly one day. God
Speaker 1: is a God of justice, and evil will not get
Speaker 1: away with evil forever. There is a day of reckoning coming.
Speaker 1: There is a judgment day. God is not just loving,
Speaker 1: he is lovingly just. God is both. God cares about justice.
Speaker 1: God cares about justice more than you do. You say,
Speaker 1: I want justice for what was done to me. Believe me,
Speaker 1: there will be a day of justice. There will be
Speaker 1: a day of reckoning. There will be a day of judgment.
Speaker 1: The Bible says it is an awesome and fearful thing
Speaker 1: to hand fall in the hands of God in the
Speaker 1: day of justice. Because God's not just a God of love,
Speaker 1: he is a God of justice, and what is wrong
Speaker 1: must be righted. Hebrews eleven twenty seven. Look up here
Speaker 1: on the screen. God has appointed that every person will die,
Speaker 1: and after that they face the judgment. God is appointed.
Speaker 1: That is one appointment you're not gonna be late for.
Speaker 1: That is one appointment you can't cancel. That is one
Speaker 1: appointment you're not gonna miss. That appointment has already been
Speaker 1: set in history when you're gonna die, and it says
Speaker 1: after that you're gonna face the judgment. Now, a lot
Speaker 1: of people think they're getting away with secret sin. But
Speaker 1: let me show you another verse. Look at this Hebrews
Speaker 1: four thirteen. People ain't well. Nobody knows what I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Well God does. Hebrews four thirteen says nothing can be
Speaker 1: hidden from God. Everything in all creation is exposed to
Speaker 1: his and each of us will give an account of
Speaker 1: our lives to him. That's the justice part of God.
Speaker 1: That's why we need salvation. It's why we need a savior,
Speaker 1: because without that, all we've got is justice and judgment.
Speaker 1: Nothing can be hidden from God's eyes. God sees it all.
Speaker 1: I think I'm getting away with something because maybe nobody
Speaker 1: knows about it. The most important person in the world
Speaker 1: in the universe knows God knows, and so what am
Speaker 1: I saying? God says this about evil and trauma. Evil
Speaker 1: is the downside of our free choice. It's the downside
Speaker 1: of our free choice. Number two. Everything on earth is
Speaker 1: broken by sin and evil. Number three. God grieves when
Speaker 1: he sees evil and sin hurt us. Number four. God's
Speaker 1: going to judge everyone justly one day. But there's one more,
Speaker 1: and this is good news. Number five. God can bring
Speaker 1: good out of bad if we trust him, and only
Speaker 1: God can do that. Anybody can bring good out of good.
Speaker 1: That's no big deal. You can do that. I could
Speaker 1: do that bring good out of good. God specializes in
Speaker 1: bringing good out of bad. God specializes in turning crucifixions
Speaker 1: into resurrections. And the worst thing that happened, the worst
Speaker 1: evil in history, God used to save the world. He
Speaker 1: can bring good out of bad if we trust him.
Speaker 1: We looked at this verse last week Romans eight twenty eight.
Speaker 1: We know that in all things, that's even the bad stuff,
Speaker 1: God works for the good of those who love him,
Speaker 1: for those who have been called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: If we're living for God's purpose, God is saying, I
Speaker 1: will use even the bad stuff, even the trauma, even
Speaker 1: the parts that you're most embarrassed or ashamed or wish
Speaker 1: had never happened. He says, I can even use that too.
Speaker 1: I'm a God who knows how to bring good, even
Speaker 1: out of bad. If you'll get give me the pieces,
Speaker 1: I will give you peace.