Rick Warren - How God Can Help You Heal Through Trauma, Grief & Loss

God pays attention to the details of my pain. Some

of you are in tremendous pain right now, and you

think God doesn't even care. God doesn't even know. Oh,

he knows. More than he knows. He's keeping a record,

and more than keeping a record, it pains him. God

suffers with us. We serve a suffering God. Now, let

me start by just giving you a definition of trauma.

I wrote it down. Trauma is an experience of feeling

either overwhelmed or helpless or paralyzed. Overwhelmed, helpless, paralyzed, may

be frightened by a deeply distressing event. That's what trauma is.

Being overwhelmed or paralyzed, or frightened, or just feeling helpless

by some kind of deeply traumatizing event in your life. Now,

trauma can come from a lot of different places. It

can come from abuse, It can come from abandonment, come

from you know, mistreatment, It comes from betrayal, It can

come from rejection, It can come from abandonment. Obviously, the

death of a loved one can be very traumatic. Divorce

can be traumatic. A deeply distressing event in your life,

a violent accident, being a victim of a crime can

be like a scam. You've been scammed, you were swindled.

That can be traumatizing. But the kind of trauma that

I want us to focus on this weekend is the

kind that has occurred when an evil person traumatizes you

with their evil, either an abuse or in some way

you have been traumatized by the actions of another person.

I'm not talking about hurricanes, I'm not talking about, you know,

a bankruptcy. I'm talking about when you've been traumatized by

the actions of somebody else who was very hurtful, maybe violent,

towards you. Now, at some point in your life, you're

going to have the most traumatizing event. Mine was six

years ago when my youngest son took his life after

struggling with mental illness for his entire life. Nothing I

can imagine would be more traumatic than losing my son

who took his own life. But every day in the world,

there are evil people doing evil things to innocent people.

And that's what I want us to talk about this weekend.

Every day there's injustice. Every day there is bigotry, there's bias,

there is prejudice, there's unfairness, things like that, And as

I said, at some point, you're going to face trauma

in your life, So what does God say about it?

What does God say about evil? And what does God

say about trauma? Now, when we talk about this, the

first thing that people always ask is, Okay, this is

a good question. If God is truly good, if God

is truly loving, if God is so loving and good

and gracious, why do you think you just get rid

of evil? Why didn't just wipe it out? Why does

he let bad things happen to good people? Why didn't

just wipe out all kinds of evil? What's good? Questions

a legitimate question. First, you have to define evil. What

is evil? Because we always think evil is something out there.

Evil is anything that opposes God, rebels against God, disobeys God,

rejects God, or ignores God. Now, if that's what evil

is the opposite of what God is. God is good

and evil is the opposite of God, then I have

made evil choices in my life, and so have you.

So have you? You have not always done what God

said to do. You have not always done what's best

for other people. You have made evil choices, and I

have made evil choices too. The Bible says no one

gets off clean on this one, and so really the

answer of why does God allow evil in the world,

why do he need to just wipe out evil right now?

The answer actually has two parts. The first is, in fact,

God is going to wipe out evil one day at

the end of history. He's going to send all evil

to Hell. The Bible says Hell was created for evil.

Hell was created for the devil and his angels, and

God is going to banish it all and there will

be an eternal punishment in Hell. God is going to

end evil one day. He said, why doesn't he do

it right now? Well he could. In fact, God could

eliminate evil instantly by doing one simple thing, take away

our freedom to choose, because where does evil come from?

Our bad choices? See, if God took away my freedom

to choose, your freedom to choose, then there wouldn't be

any evil in the world. Everything would always be good,

but you would have no choice about it. You would

always do the right thing, you would never do anything wrong,

you never do anything selfish, you'd never do anything unkind,

you'd never do anything hurtful. Be real simple. God takes

away your freedom of choice and there would be no evil.

Now I need to give you a little backstory on

why you exist. The first thing is the Bible tells

God is love. The God is a God of love,

and you were created to be loved by God. That's

why you exist. God made you to love you. God

wanted a family. God wanted children. That's the first thing

you need to know, the whole reason you exist because

God made you to love you, and if he hadn't

wanted to love you, you would not exist. God made

you to love you. God wanted children to love. Second

thing you need to know is he wants you to

love him back. Nothing wrong. Every parent understands that. Every

parent wants their kids to love them back. God wants

you to love him back. But here's the issue. Love

cannot be coerced. It can't be forced. You can't make

people love you. Anybody who's been through a divorce knows

that you couldn't make somebody fall in love with you. You

can't make somebody stay in love with you. Love cannot

be forced. It has to be voluntary. It has to

be willing. It has to be a choice. If there's

no choice, there's no love. That makes sense. Okay, so

I can't love God unless I have the freedom cannot

love him. Does that make sense. It's not real love.

If I'm forced to love him, then I'm just a puppet.

I'm a marionette on strings, and it's not real love.

So God gave you the freedom to choose. That's your

greatest blessing, and it's your greatest curse. And all of

the evil that exists from the world is because we

were given the freedom to choose. And we don't always

choose to do what's right. In fact, people to choose

to do wrong all the time. I do, you do,

and everybody else dose Hitler did, and everybody else. God

could easily get rid of evil just take away our

freedom to choose. It is the alternative or the alternative

that allows you to willingly love him. And God says, Okay,

I'm going to give you the freedom to choose. And

you can either accept me or reject me. You can

obey me or you can disobey me. You can love

me or not love me. You can trust me or

you can distrust me, you can doubt me. That's all.

God gives you that freedom. You're free to make any

choice you want. You're not free from the consequences of it,

but you are free to make your choice, and so

God could have just taken away all of our freedom

and then we wouldn't have any evil in the world.

The Bible says, every human being has made wrong choices,

and that's called sin. I've made wrong choices. You have to.

There have been times I say, I know what God

wants me to do, but I'm gonna do what I

think is best because I think I know better than God.

I think this will give me more pleasure. I think

this will make me more happy. I think this is

what I want. It's not what other people want, it's

not what God wants, what I want, and that's called sin.

Now here's what the Bible says. Look at the verse

Romans five twelve. Sin came into the world because of

what one man did, that's Adam. And with sin came death.

Did you know that before Adam sin there was no death.

Adam could have just lived for eternity on Earth in

the Garden of Eden, could have lived for eternity in Paradise.

But the moment sin and evil enter the world, God goes,

I don't want you living on a planet where there's

sin and evil for eternity, and so death entered the world.

I'm glad I don't have to live on this planet

for eternity. I want to live forever. I just don't

want to live where there's suffering and sorrow and sadness

and sickness and disease and death and depression and racism

and all the other problems in the world. I just

don't want to live there for eternity. I want to

live for eternity. I just want to live any perfect place.

And once Earth was broken by sin and death, God says, well,

you're not going to live here forever now, it says

Notice that verse. It says sin came into the world

because of what one man did. He chose between the

knowledge of good and evil, and he chose evil. And

with sin came death. By the way, not just death

came with that. Sin created a lot of other problems too.

Let me read you a list. I made this list

this yesterday. None of us, none of the things on

this list were in the Garden of Eden. In paradise, decay, damage, debauchery, debt, disability,

these deceit, defeat, defiance, defilement, dehumanization, none of these were

in garden. I mean delusions, dementia, depravity, deprivation, deviants, dictators, disunity, deportation, despotism, disloyalty, disgrace, depression, destruction, devastation, desertion, distress, disease, divorce, dysfunction.

None of these were in paradise, distrust, disputes, destitution, disease, disasters, desperation,

and despair. That's what sin brought into the world. So

you want to know why they're suffering in the world.

They're suffering in the world because of sin and evil.

And why is they're sin and evil in the world

because God gave us the choice, and none of us

have chosen correctly all the time. Now, let me give

you a couple other things the Bible says about it.

Number two, everything on Earth. This leads to the second one.

Everything on Earth is broken by sin and by evil.

Everything on Earth is broken by sin and by evil.

Nothing on this planet works correctly all the time. The

only thing perfect on planet Earth is God's word. But

our relationships are broken. The weather is broken, the economy

is broken, your body is broken. It does. Have you

noticed your body doesn't always work correctly? Have you noticed

your relationships don't always work correctly? The economy doesn't always

work correctly. Nothing works correctly because we live now on

a planet broken by evil and by sin. Now, Jesus

warn in the world you will have tribulation, said, count

on it, because we're on a broken planet. This is

not heaven. We want heaven to be. We want earth

to be heaven Heaven. Everything is perfect, it works perfectly.

God's will has done completely, instantly, continuously, quickly all the time.

None of that's true on Earth, will done seldom, incompletely incorrectly,

and often just ignored. That's why James says in the

Book of James, he says, don't be surprised when you

have trials on the Earth. You know this is not Heaven.

That's the place that's perfect. Things don't work here. Nothing

works perfectly here. That's why Jesus said in Matthew twenty four,

verse twelve, there will be more and more evil in

the world, so most people will stop showing their love

for each other. He said, it's going to increase over time.

Number three. This is an interesting point. God grieves when

he sees us hurting. Sin and evil cause pain, coust suffering,

calls hurt, and he said, well, what does God think

about all this. When he sees people hurting from all

these things I just read abuse and assault and abandonment

and all those. God grieves when he sees his children hurting.

It may surprise you to know that God has emotions.

God has emotions, But why does God? Why do you

have emotions? The only reason you have emotions is you

were made in God's image. The Bible says God gets angry.

The Bible says God grieves. The Bible says God laughs.

The Bible says God is sorrowful, He's sad. God has emotion.

God is an emotional God. He feels things when he

sees us hurting each other. When he sees man's inhumanity

to humanity, it bothers him, It grieves him. Look up

here on the screen. In Genesis chapter six, it says,

in Noah's day, the Lord was deeply grieved that he

had made man, and his heart was filled with pain.

His heart was filled with pain. You know, the shortest

verse in the Bible is this next one, John eleven

thirty five, Jesus wept. It's the shortest verse in the Bible,

but it's filled with importance. Why because it shows that

God grieves. Jesus wept God. When God sees you in pain,

he grieves too, all right, And so like a parent

watching a child in pain. Look at this verse. The

Bible says in Isaiah sixty three, verse nine, in all

their suffering, he that's God suffered too. In all their suffering.

He suffered too. I want you to write this down

on your outline. God suffers with me. That's one of

the most important things I want you to learn today

is that God suffers with me. When I suffer. God suffers.

We don't have an apathetic God who's an apathetic to pain.

When he sees me suffering, he suffers with me. When

he sees you suffering, he suffers with you. Of course,

the greatest example of this was when Jesus came to earth.

He suffered evil with us. The greatest evil ever done

one was done to Jesus Christ on the cross, where

someone who was perfect, the only perfect person to ever lived,

because he was God, the son of God. He was innocent.

He's tortured, he's abused, he's humiliated, he's murdered. That was evil,

That was evil before Easter. God suffers with me. Look

at this next or Psalm fifty five, verse eight. You

Lord keep a record of all my sorrows. You collected

all my tears in your bottle, and you list each

one in your book. Is that one of the most

amazing verses? Let me read it again. You Lord keep

a record of all my sorrows, and you collected all

my tears in your bottle, and you list each one

in your book. Not only has God seen every tear

that's fallen from your face, He's counted them. That's how

much God cares about you. That's how much God loves you.

That's how compassionate. That's how much God feels your pain.

He's not just seen every tear you've cried, He's counted them.

He's recorded them in a book. I want you to

write this on your outline. God pays attention to the

details of my pain. Some of you are in tremendous

pain right now, and you think God doesn't even care.

God doesn't even know. Oh he knows. More than he knows.

He's keeping a record, and more than keeping a record,

it pains him. God suffers with us. We serve a

suffering God. Lady once asked me where was my God?

Where was God when my son died, I said. He

was the same place he was when his son died.

He was weeping. He was grieving at what men, what humanity,

was doing to his son, Jesus Christ, Christ, he was grieving.

He was weeping. God says, I suffer with you. I

grieve with you. I pay attention to the details of

your pain. Number four. The fourth thing we know about

evil and trauma is that one day God will judge

everyone justly. God will judge everyone justly one day. God

is a God of justice, and evil will not get

away with evil forever. There is a day of reckoning coming.

There is a judgment day. God is not just loving,

he is lovingly just. God is both. God cares about justice.

God cares about justice more than you do. You say,

I want justice for what was done to me. Believe me,

there will be a day of justice. There will be

a day of reckoning. There will be a day of judgment.

The Bible says it is an awesome and fearful thing

to hand fall in the hands of God in the

day of justice. Because God's not just a God of love,

he is a God of justice, and what is wrong

must be righted. Hebrews eleven twenty seven. Look up here

on the screen. God has appointed that every person will die,

and after that they face the judgment. God is appointed.

That is one appointment you're not gonna be late for.

That is one appointment you can't cancel. That is one

appointment you're not gonna miss. That appointment has already been

set in history when you're gonna die, and it says

after that you're gonna face the judgment. Now, a lot

of people think they're getting away with secret sin. But

let me show you another verse. Look at this Hebrews

four thirteen. People ain't well. Nobody knows what I'm doing.

Well God does. Hebrews four thirteen says nothing can be

hidden from God. Everything in all creation is exposed to

his and each of us will give an account of

our lives to him. That's the justice part of God.

That's why we need salvation. It's why we need a savior,

because without that, all we've got is justice and judgment.

Nothing can be hidden from God's eyes. God sees it all.

I think I'm getting away with something because maybe nobody

knows about it. The most important person in the world

in the universe knows God knows, and so what am

I saying? God says this about evil and trauma. Evil

is the downside of our free choice. It's the downside

of our free choice. Number two. Everything on earth is

broken by sin and evil. Number three. God grieves when

he sees evil and sin hurt us. Number four. God's

going to judge everyone justly one day. But there's one more,

and this is good news. Number five. God can bring

good out of bad if we trust him, and only

God can do that. Anybody can bring good out of good.

That's no big deal. You can do that. I could

do that bring good out of good. God specializes in

bringing good out of bad. God specializes in turning crucifixions

into resurrections. And the worst thing that happened, the worst

evil in history, God used to save the world. He

can bring good out of bad if we trust him.

We looked at this verse last week Romans eight twenty eight.

We know that in all things, that's even the bad stuff,

God works for the good of those who love him,

for those who have been called according to his purpose.

If we're living for God's purpose, God is saying, I

will use even the bad stuff, even the trauma, even

the parts that you're most embarrassed or ashamed or wish

had never happened. He says, I can even use that too.

I'm a God who knows how to bring good, even

out of bad. If you'll get give me the pieces,

I will give you peace.