God and Evil (not RWE Session 2) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: This, sermon is not a typo.

It's God and evil, not good and evil.

Okay?

So you're wondering, um, but so we talked about that problem, right?

That problem of evil, that if God is in control of everything, then

how come bad things happen, right?

That's the, the main problem we're trying to figure out.

Um.

Which, if we're gonna say that God really is in control, right?

We're gonna say that, you know what?

It's not that God doesn't know that bad things are gonna happen

and he's reacting to them.

It's not that he, um, is fighting against an equally powerful evil force, and so

he's not in control of those things.

If we're gonna say that God really is in control, then that means

that how involved is he in the bad things that happen, right?

If God's really in control, then does he make the bad things happen?

Then isn't he bad?

Right?

You see the problem that's here if God is in control of the bad things

and he's, does he make them happen?

If so, is God bad?

Right?

Is God actually evil?

Is God starting these evil things on purpose?

That's a tough question and that's why we're here, right?

That's why, um, we want to dive into this, and so the main point for tonight

is I want you to think about evil serves God's good purposes, okay?

That's the whole sermon in one sentence.

Evil serves God's good purposes.

So evil isn't separate from God, it's serving God's good purposes.

Okay?

Um, evil isn't like a totally different force and fighting against God.

Um, in the sense of there's, you know, like any typical movie, right?

It's not like there's God and there's evil and they're always fighting, right?

Evil is serving God's purposes.

So, so God is doing things and evil is accomplishing some of

those things that God is planning.

Okay?

Now, um, we've talked about this, right?

If God really is in control, then that means if he's in control of

everything, he has to be in control of the bad things that happen.

So we're gonna explore what that looks like, but that's our starting point.

So our first point tonight is recognize God's control of evil.

If we're gonna say God isn't surprised by evil, that means he at least

knows it's gonna happen, right?

I think we can all get at least to there.

God knows bad things are gonna happen, but is he in control

of those bad things, right?

Is.

Does he just, is he just thinking, okay, well, I know these bad things are gonna

happen and I'm gonna respond to them.

I think what the Bible says is that God just doesn't respond to bad things.

He's actually in control of bad things, which creates a problem.

We'll address that other problem later.

But first we just wanna start there.

Okay.

If you think about this, this has to be true.

If we're gonna say God's in control, this has to be true.

I'll give you an example.

I think the best example in the Bible is in Acts four.

Okay?

Acts four.

Um, so if you've got your Bible, why don't you turn there to Acts chapter four.

Um, what we're seeing in Acts four, right?

The Book of Acts is right after Jesus goes up into heaven, right?

That's how it starts, is Jesus sends out the disciples and then

he's like, all right, peace out.

I'll see you when I come back and get you right.

Um, so Jesus goes up into heaven, and that's how the Book of Acts starts.

And then, right.

The disciples, their job is to go tell people all about Jesus, um,

and spread the good news, right?

That's, that's the whole point of the book of Acts.

We're gonna act.

Acts chapter four is all about how the gospel goes out, right?

It starts with 12 people, or actually 11 people who are scared in a room,

and it goes out into the whole Earth.

That's what the Book of Acts is about.

And so it starts in Jerusalem, so in Jerusalem, Peter and John, right?

The two.

Most famous disciples are, well, I guess maybe Judi is more famous,

but, um, Peter and John are, are talking to some people, right?

They're talking to the Jews and Peter is giving this sermon.

We're gonna look at verse 20.

Uh, let's start.

In verse 23.

Okay, so Peter and John, they're released from prison.

They got put in prison for sharing the gospel.

They went to their friends, they tell 'em what the chief priests, right?

The guys, the Jews that were in charge of Jerusalem said to

them, verse 24, they heard it.

They start praising God and they say, sovereign Lord, right?

Sovereign in control.

God, you're in control.

You made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them, and you through David,

your servant, said by the Holy Spirit.

And this is a quote here.

From Psalm two.

So he's saying that David was speaking by the Holy Spirit,

which that's interesting, right?

Because we know that the Bible, um, the people in the New Testament think

the Old Testament is from God, right?

So if you know the New Testament is God's word, then you can say, well, the New

Testament people who wrote God's word thought the Old Testament was God's word.

So, um, if you think the New Testament is in the Bible, then you have to say the Old

Testament's in the Bible, that's for free.

That has nothing to do with what we're talking about.

But, um, if you're an quip, you would be, you'd know, right?

So, um, he's talking about David and David.

Says this.

He says, why do the Gentiles right?

The people who don't know God, why are they angry?

Why do they rage in the people's plot in vain?

So these rulers, the kings of the earth, they set themselves against

God and against Jesus, right?

That's his anointed, the Messiah.

So these people are opposed to Jesus, and what they're saying

is that is actually talking about what happened when Jesus died.

They were these people who were opposed to God.

And so in verse 27.

This is what we're looking at.

Okay?

So they say for truly, this is how that worked.

How were the kings of the earth opposed to God?

Well, verse 27, for truly in this city, Jerusalem, they were gathered

together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod

and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.

So right Herod was the king, the Roman.

King of Jerusalem.

Um, poncho Pilate was the governor, um, along with the

Gentiles and the people of Israel.

So all these people from different backgrounds are against Israel, right?

They're gathered together against Jesus, sorry, um, to do whatever

your hand and your plan had pre guessed in to take place.

So from this part, what we're seeing, right?

Who planned to kill Jesus?

Everyone.

Okay?

Including right Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, people of Israel.

But whose plan was it?

Who's your God?

God, right?

So God planned.

God planned before the foundation of the world.

Before time existed, God planned to kill Jesus right by these people.

So the God planned for these people to kill Jesus.

Now.

Is these people killing Jesus?

A bad thing that happened?

Yes.

Right.

This is actually the probably the worst thing that ever happened

in the history of the world.

This is the most evil act.

People killed God, right?

That's the worst thing that could ever happen, is people saw

God and they said, we hate him.

Let's kill him.

The worst thing that could possibly happen in the history of the world, right?

The most evil thing is to see God, see his miracles and say, we hate you.

Let's kill you.

Right.

So God planned this to take place.

Yeah.

This wasn't just, these people hated Jesus a lot, and so then they decided to kill

him, and God was like, okay, now that you guys are gonna do that, I'm gonna use it.

Right?

This isn't God piggybacking onto what the Drummonds and the Jews wanted to do.

This is God planning what the Romans and the Jews were gonna do.

Right?

So isn't God saying, well, they're already evil.

I'm gonna use it.

Right.

It's almost like the difference between, um, like you, um, I don't, so

this, when I was little, um, my dad in the, the kid pool, he would like run

around in circles in the kid pool and create like this big current, right?

And it would be like this giant whirlpool.

And I thought it was the most fun thing ever.

Um, right.

God's not jumping into the current that these guys are creating.

Right?

God's not doing that.

God is actually creating, right?

He's planning these, what?

This is gonna happen, right?

This is God's idea.

Before it was Pilate's idea, right?

Before it was Judas idea, before it was the Jews's idea, it was God's idea, right?

That Jesus would get killed by these people.

So you could say, right, that God planned a murder.

That's kind of crazy, right?

God planned a murder so that we will talk about this later, but is

God responsible for that murder?

Us.

That's what we'll talk about later.

Yes.

But what we'll start with is that these people's evil

actions are in God's control.

Right?

They were doing exactly what God planned for them to do.

So we have to say that God is in control of evil, right?

These people did exactly what God planned for them to do.

I want you to, when you think about this, when you think about the bad

things that happen to you, right?

When people sin against you, maybe people make fun of you.

People gossip about you, right?

Maybe people get angry at you.

Maybe your siblings are really annoying to you, right?

When people sin against you, remember that they didn't do

that just in isolation, right?

God is in control of that happening.

Hopefully, if you think about what we talked about, uh, this morning, right?

Or I guess this afternoon, um, I've said like the wrong time,

like four different times, okay?

Um, so whatever the, the, the thing before this, right?

Whatever happened, right?

Um, hopefully that helps you think, okay, we're, uh, this is in God's hands, right?

Someone sins against me.

Well, it passed through God's filter, right?

If God didn't want it to happen, it wouldn't happen.

If God didn't want that person right to sin against you for some

good purpose, which we'll get to later, it wouldn't happen.

Now when I say God wanted it to happen, right?

That's a loaded phrase, right?

Does God want people to sin?

Well, no.

Right?

But in the sense of God allowed it to happen, and right God wasn't like so

excited that they sinned against you.

God wasn't like, oh, yay, these people are killing Jesus.

Yay.

They're fulfilling my plan.

Right?

That's not what's happening.

God's not excited that these people are accomplishing his plan.

But in the sense, right.

Jesus can say, you know what?

These people are doing this and it's, it's from God.

Right?

It's in God's control.

God's not celebrating the evil, but it's in God's control.

If God wanted to stop it, he would've right?

In the sense of big picture, right.

Obviously, God hated that this happened.

We'll get into more of that tension later, but the big picture is that

God is in control of these bad things and God's in control of

the bad things that happen to you.

Now, maybe that gets you thinking, well, I don't want God to be

in control of that, right?

I don't want God to let those things happen.

He's in control.

He just stop it.

That's what we're talking about from earlier, right?

People say, well, if God, if God lets bad things happen, I don't want him, and

that's why we need to think about, okay, do I really believe that God is good?

And that's where the things we talked about earlier really hit home.

I said, well, bad things are happening to me, and it seems

like God's in control of them.

If he wanted to stop 'em, he would've.

So do I really believe God is good if he's actually in control of these bad things?

Right?

Jesus had to, had to reconcile that his father let these people mock him,

spit on him, beat him up, nail him to a cross, make fun of him and kill him.

His father let them do that.

He planned for them to do that.

Jesus in his mind, still thinks God is good and I trust him.

That's where I want you to be.

Okay?

But it's a comforting thing because you know that God's in control of it, right?

It's from God.

What's happening to you is not something that is out of God's control.

That'd be even worse, right?

People are sitting against you.

People are are making fun of you.

People are gossiping about you.

People are angry at you.

That would be even worse, right?

Because if God's not in control of it, then what?

You don't know if it's gonna help you at all.

You know if it's gonna be good for you at all.

You don't know how that's gonna work out, right?

So actually it's better that God's in control of it.

Something else we see in the Bible is that God actively works

through evil people and evil deeds.

Okay, let's go to Isaiah 45.

Isaiah 45.

Um, what's happening here in Isaiah chapter 45?

Isaiah 45 · chapter mention

It is a lot, a lot.

What happens in Isaiah is God is talking about his servant.

He's saying, I've, this person is serving me, and they're, they're

my, they're doing my plan, right?

Someone who's serving God,

and here, and Isaiah Chapter 45, God's chosen servant, right?

Isaiah 45 · chapter mention

He's anointed.

He doesn't talk about Jesus.

If you're in 45, look up one verse further to 44.

The last verse, verse 28.

God is saying this about Cyrus.

Cyrus is the king of Persia.

Okay?

So at this time, a little history lesson for you.

Persia is in control of Israel.

They're taking over the world essentially.

Um, so Persia is not really the good guys in this sense, right?

But God says, I'm gonna use Cyrus.

Look at verse 28, chapter 44, he says, of Cyrus, he's my shepherd, this foreign

king who's not part of God's people.

Right?

This would be like saying, you know the dictator of North Korea, right?

Or the leader of Iran.

He's fulfilling my purpose, or the prime minister of Russia, right?

He's fulfilling my purpose.

You see that in verse 28, verse 45.

Thus the Lord says to his anointed to Cyrus, he's saying, imagine God

saying that Vladimir Putin my anointed.

That would be weird.

That would be strange, right?

He's saying that I'm in control of this evil God, this foreign king who

has nothing to do with my people.

I'm in control of.

Look down at verse seven.

God says, I form light and create darkness.

I make wellbeing and create calamity.

What's calamity?

Calamity is not good, right?

It's a disaster.

Calamity is a bad thing.

All these bad things that happen.

He says, I am the Lord who does all these things, so God is in control

of all the bad things that happen.

I think that's pretty clear from the Bible, which that leaves us.

In an interesting position, right?

'cause we're saying that God is in control of these things.

He's not just saying, oh yeah, that happened.

I'll fix it.

He's saying, I actually like, that's part of my plan.

And he's at work in these things, right?

Israel getting invaded in the Old Testament, right?

That was God doing something.

Those people, right?

Babylon, Persia, they destroyed Jerusalem.

They killed people, right?

That was God in control of that.

Or when people killed Jesus on the cross, that was God in

control of that and that traits.

Hopefully you, you feel some tension there, right?

Oh wait, God was doing that right.

When a natural disaster happens, you can say, God did that.

That's maybe uncomfortable, right?

God did that.

My God.

Good God loving God did that.

And that's weird, right?

It creates some intention, but we can't say, well, my God would never do that.

Right?

Some people say that, well, I don't think God would do that.

Right?

Or I, my God wouldn't do those things.

Right.

Some people say that we can't do that.

Why can't we do that?

Well, we don't get to decide what God's like, right?

I can't make up who God is.

God has already decided who he is, right?

He, he, and he shows us in His word.

We can't say, well God, I don't like that about you, so I'm not gonna believe it.

Right.

You can't do that.

That's not how reality works.

Right.

So

it's really interesting when you think about God is in control

of these bad things that happen.

So God is taking almost ultimate responsibility in a sense.

He's saying, yeah, the reason that happened was 'cause

it was part of my plan.

It's your responsibility.

So.

You are in control of it, which is kind of strange.

Now doesn't that mean that these people,

Speaker 5: right, these people who did these bad things

Speaker: are not responsible for it?

Are they just robots?

Right.

Is was Judas just doing exactly what God planned and he couldn't do anything else?

Right.

When he decided to kill Jesus, was he helpless when he decided to

to sell Jesus for silver or was.

What the person who sins against you right this week or maybe today,

someone sinned against you or they just helplessly deciding to

sin against you will know, right?

Think about what we saw in these verses, right?

Um, they did it right?

They did it.

If you look actually in Acts four, um, we don't, you don't have to turn

there, but in Acts two earlier, um, what I think Peter says before that.

Acts two.

Yeah.

23 says the same thing.

This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

He says he's talking to the Jews.

He says, you crucified him.

So God's plan, but you did it.

So even though God is ultimately responsible, right?

God's plan to crucify Jesus.

Peter looks the Jews in the eye and says, you crucified him.

Now, did the Jews crucify Jesus?

Yes.

But who actually crucified him?

The Romans did, right?

The Jews?

No, no.

Jews were picking up hammers and nails and putting Jesus on the cross.

But Peter's saying, you Jews are responsible for this.

He says, you killed him by the hands of lawless men.

So the Romans right, they did this, but the Jews are

responsible for killing Jesus.

But God planned it.

So you see all these layers of responsibility here.

God is ultimately responsible like a big umbrella, right?

God is ultimately responsible.

And then the Jews, it's their fault because they wanted to do it and they did

it, but the Romans were how they did it.

So that's really interesting, right?

We've got these layers of responsibility.

We have.

God is he planned it.

It's definite plan and foreknowledge of God, right?

God predestined it.

But the Jews are the people that actually Peter says, you crucified Jesus.

You wanted to do it.

You willingly did it.

You decided to do it in your heart, but the Romans are the

ones who helped you do it.

So there's all of these layers here, and what I want you to see is

the, the bad things that happen are under the umbrella of God's control,

including right, the crucifixion.

All the bad things that happen are under the umbrella of God's control.

They're not outside of God's sphere of influence, right?

They're not happening over there.

And God is over here.

God is.

Control over those things.

So we wanna recognize that God is in control of evil.

But the best part about thinking about this, if God is in control of evil,

well then, um, how does this work?

The best part is he's not just in control of things.

He's using them.

Right?

God has a purpose behind all the evil things that happen, right?

God isn't just reacting to evil.

He's not just in control of evil.

He's actively working.

Through evil.

He's using it.

He's using bad things to accomplish good purposes.

So that's our second point.

Trust God to use evil for good.

Trust God to use evil for good.

All the bad things that happen accomplish God's good purposes.

Every single one.

Every single one.

Right?

It's not just that God's like, oh yeah, I guess I have to let that happen

just because, you know, I wanna make sure that you're not a robot, right?

It's God saying, I'm doing something good through this bad thing.

Right?

Think about crucifixion.

If God doesn't plan for the murder of his son, then none of us are here.

None of us are saved, right?

It's a good thing that God accomplishes through.

Something really bad.

So, um,

let's, yeah.

So evil, right?

Ultimately, what's good, right?

Well, what, what is good?

Well, who gets to decide what's good?

God does, right?

So if God gets to decide what's good, then maybe if I'm thinking,

well, God, this bad thing didn't seem to accomplish anything, right?

Maybe something happened.

Maybe you failed your math test, right?

And you're like, man, that was a bad thing that happened.

Maybe something bigger that's bad happens, right?

Maybe, um, someone you really care about gets sick, right?

Or, or someone, a relative, you know, passes away, right?

You say, God, that doesn't seem like it was any good, nothing happened.

Um, God gets to decide what is good, right?

So God has a good purpose that he's accomplishing

Speaker 5: through that.

Speaker: The best thing about evil is that it shows us more of God.

Maybe for you that's, you don't like that, that's cool, whatever.

That's not very good.

Right?

But the best thing for you and me is more of God.

The best gift that God can give you is himself.

We've talked about this before.

If I said, I am the best baker of all time, right?

Or let's say, let's imagine Mr.

Clancy was the best hot dog griller in the history of.

Dogs and heat.

Okay.

Let's say that Mr.

Clancy was the best hot dog griller in history of all time.

There's gonna be no one who's ever better at making hot dogs than Mr.

Clancy.

All right?

Um, if he let Matt make the hot dogs, would that be very loving of him?

No.

Right.

If he's really like a million times better at making hot dogs than Matt is.

He should say, you know what, the best way for me to love you guys

is for me to make the hotdog.

Right?

Or let's say, um, hypothetically, let's say hypothetically we were playing

capture the flag tonight, right?

And, um, you had, right, you had, um, Mr.

Clancy on your team and you were like, oh, um, we're definitely gonna win now.

'cause he's on our team, right?

Hypothet, this is all hypothetical.

Okay.

Um.

Right.

The loving thing for him to do would be to, to win the game for you, right?

You need your star player to come through for you, right?

Um, the best thing for God to do is to give you more of himself, right?

The best thing, the most loving thing for God to do is show

more of who he is to you.

Right?

That's the best thing God can do for you.

If, if, and that's the whole point of the gospel.

The best part of the gospel is you get, God, we've talked

about this in Romans, right?

The best part of forgiveness isn't, oh, I don't have to go to hell anymore.

The best part of forgiveness is I get to go and be with God.

That's the best part.

So, the best thing that God can do for you is show you more of himself.

That's what's best for us.

So the best thing that evil does is it shows us more of who God is.

Think about this.

If you never sinned.

Could you ever know that God was merciful?

You could know it in your head, right?

You could read it in a book, right?

Someone could tell you, oh yeah, God's merciful.

But if you never had the experience of sinning against God and

confessing your sin and having to say, God, I messed up right?

I am a horrible person.

I sinned against you for the millionth time, and I need you.

Right.

You get to experience God's mercy in a much better way, a much bigger,

deeper, fuller, richer way, right?

Because of the presence of evil or God's patience, right?

You get to see, man, God, you were so patient with me.

I spent 15 years of my life sitting against you, 15 years of sitting

against you every single day and thinking other things are better

than you, and other things are are making me happier than you, and, and

trusting other things instead of you.

You, you let me do that for 15 years.

I have trouble when my sibling sins against me for 15 seconds.

Right?

And God let, let you sin against him for 15 years and you finally trust

Jesus and ask for forgiveness, right?

That shows you so much more of God's patience, right?

Or, or God's love when you realize, man, I'm a horrible person.

I'm not a lovable person,

but God loves me anyway.

That shows you God is so loving, right?

If you were an amazing person, God wouldn't have to love you.

Try really hard to love you, right?

God wouldn't have to really show that much of his love because

you are so lovable anyway.

You deserve it makes sense.

But the fact that God loves us, even though it doesn't make sense,

that shows us how loving God really is.

So the, the presence of evil in the world and in us shows us more of who God is, and

that's the best thing evil can do for us.

It shows us his righteousness.

He's a good judge.

He punishes evil, right?

The presence of evil lets us see that God really hates it and it shows us

exactly what God's gonna do about it.

He's gonna actually punish evil forever.

'cause that's how big of a deal it is, right?

If you think you get upset when someone sins against you, or you

see, you watch the news, you see horrible things happening, think

about how God feels about it.

So evil shows us more of God.

That's one thing.

Right.

It, it gives us that deeper experience, experiential knowledge of who God is.

Kinda like when you watch a movie, right?

Um, someone could tell you like, oh yeah, um, captain America is really strong.

And you'd be like, cool.

Captain America's strong.

I know that, right?

Someone told me that.

But you watch the movie and you're like, oh, he is really strong.

He like pulled the helicopter down while holding onto the landing pad, right?

And you're like, oh, he really, he's like really strong because

you saw it happen, right?

You have experiential knowledge of that and you really know

he was strong if you like, arm wrestled him or something, right?

Um, so that's what evil does, is it gives us this experiential knowledge of, man,

God is so patient, God is so loving, God is so righteous, God is so good.

So that's the best thing that evil does for us.

But also God has good purposes for.

Every evil thing that happens, every bad thing that happens,

God has a good purpose for it.

Okay, look at Genesis chapter 50, verse 20.

Genesis 50:20

This is right, the story of Joseph.

If you remember the story of Joseph, uh, a lot of bad things

happened to Joseph, right?

He gets sold into slavery.

Um, his brothers wish he was dead and they hate him.

Um, and then he.

Is in slavery, right?

And he's doing really well.

Life is good.

And he's, he's like moving up in the world and then suddenly, oh,

he gets falsely accused of a crime and now he gets sent to jail.

So he goes from slavery to jail.

So it's getting worse and worse and worse for Joseph.

Then all these bad things are happening and then he finally has

a chance to get outta jail, right?

He, he interprets these two guys' dreams and he's like, Hey, remember

me when you get outta jail so you can get me outta jail too, right?

And then what happens?

Do they remember him?

No.

Right?

They forget for like three years or something.

So all these bad things happen to Joseph.

Joseph, at the very end of it all, he finally gets to, gets outta jail.

He finally gets to see his brothers again and he says, you

guys, you meant evil against me.

So think about that.

Joseph and God through Joseph is saying his brothers really meant

bad things to happen, right?

The bad things that they wanted to happen.

Those are real things that they're responsible for.

You see that even though God is in control of it and using it, these

brothers are still responsible.

For their feelings and their hatred and their jealousy and their envy.

Right?

They're responsible for it, but God meant it for good to bring it about that

many people should be kept alive, right?

You know what happens?

All these people end up coming to Egypt and surviving, uh, food

shortage because Joseph ends up as the second in command of Egypt.

So all of this bad stuff happens, but God meant it for good

when bad things happen to you.

You need to take this perspective, right?

When someone you know, right?

Maybe one of your friends, you know, stabs you in the back, right?

And they, they let you down, or maybe your parents let you down, right?

Or maybe, um, you get really disappointed.

Something doesn't, something doesn't go the way you want it to.

You don't make the team, you don't pass the test, you don't whatever, right?

Someone really might have meant that to be evil.

Someone really might have hated you and really wanted to hurt you,

but God didn't mean it for evil.

God meant it for good,

and that's where we get our confidence that God is good from right.

When we talked about earlier, defending God's goodness to yourself, right?

You have to defend God's goodness, not just to other people, but to yourself.

Because in this moment, right, if, if you're the person being

sinned against here, right?

You're Joseph.

Your brothers hated you.

They sold you into slavery.

They wished you were dead.

Your temptation is gonna be, I don't like you guys and it's God's fault

and I hate God, or I don't trust God, or I don't want to know God very much

'cause he clearly doesn't like me.

All these bad things keep happening to me.

You need to defend God's goodness to yourself and you need to say, look, even

though these bad things are happening, God has a good purpose for them.

God's trying to do something.

He's not just trying to make me feel bad.

He's not just letting these things happen and far away, right?

God is doing, he's active.

He's, he's in those things, working them out for good.

Yeah.

Maybe he wants to teach you something, right?

Maybe he wants to teach you about, um, trusting him.

Maybe he wants to help you, trust him more than you already do.

He's stretching you out, right?

He's working out your trust muscles and maybe they're getting sore

because it's, they're under stress.

God is working out your trust muscles and stretching you out so you can trust

'em even more than you already do.

Right?

Or maybe God is trying to untangle you from the world.

Maybe God wants you to see, you know what?

The world's gonna let you down.

If you put all of your hope in your friends to make you happy,

your circumstances make you happy, your athletic ability, your

smarts, your success to make you happy, you're gonna get let down.

If you put all your hope in your video games or your screen time or whatever to

make you happy, it's gonna let you down.

You're always gonna be left empty.

Maybe that's what God wants to do.

Maybe God wants to show you, you know what?

This world isn't all there is.

This world is broken.

It's messed up, right?

We'll talk about that tomorrow, but this world isn't supposed to make

you totally happy, and maybe God is planning these bad things to happen

in your life so he can show you.

We love to get wrapped around the world, right?

I want you to think yourself kind of like, you know, those vines that like

grow up walls and like grab onto things.

Some of them even like grab like, like this.

Okay.

Thanks Jordan.

Imagine this is you.

Okay?

And this pillar is the world.

We love to get tangled onto the world.

We love to get tangled onto.

Oh, I love what people, when people think good thoughts about me, when people think

I'm cool or I'm smart, or I'm funny, or I'm pretty, I love when people do that

and we get wrapped around those things and then God allows someone to hurt you.

He allows someone to say something really mean to you, and hopefully what that does

for you is you unwrap yourself from that.

You say, you know what?

That's not gonna make me happy if I put all of my.

My effort into holding on to what people think about me, it's gonna let me down.

It's gonna burn me.

Right?

Don't that, maybe that's what God's doing.

He's showing you, you know what?

Don't put all your hope in in people to make you happy.

Don't put all your hope in your success or your circumstances to make you happy.

Right?

He's maybe, he's trying to help you unwrap yourself from the world.

Speaker 3: He could also

Speaker: be helping you to help someone else down the line, right?

Maybe someone else is gonna have that same bad thing happen to you.

Maybe someone else is, is gonna get bullied at school.

Maybe someone else is gonna lose a loved one.

Maybe someone else is going to have a really mean teacher.

Maybe someone else is going to have a real struggle to make friends.

And God is helping you get ready to help that person, and that's why he's

letting these bad things happen to you.

There's so many reasons that God is, is maybe using these these bad things for.

So the first thing we need to do is look for him, right?

We need to look and say, okay, God, what are you trying to teach me?

When something bad happens to you, one of the, the first things

you think about should be one.

This is from God, right?

God didn't say, oh shoot, sorry.

I didn't mean for that to happen to you, right?

It's from God.

He's a good purpose for it.

Okay?

What is that good purpose?

Okay.

Maybe he wants me to trust him more.

Maybe he wants me to, um, maybe I'm holding onto his sin.

He's showing me that, and maybe I'm.

Being prepared to help someone else, right?

So God is using these things for good purpose.

So you, you don't look for it, right?

Don't.

If you just sit there and think, oh, why is this happening to me so hard?

I don't like this.

Why is this, why is this happening?

This stinks, right?

That's not gonna help you.

It's not gonna help you trust God, right?

In fact, that's probably working against you, right?

You gotta argue with yourself, like we talked about you.

Like, um, you, you load your truth, bullets, and your gun and

you say, you know, God is good.

God has a purpose for this.

Maybe you memorize this verse and you say, you know what?

God had a good purpose for all these things that happen to Joseph.

He, he says that God meant it for good.

Okay, I'm gonna believe that and I'm gonna fire it right, and I'm gonna

trust God and I'm gonna look for the good purpose that God has for this.

That's how you do that, right?

That's that's how you put this verse into your life and believe it.

So God uses evil for good.

God uses bad things for good purposes, right?

He's not just in control of them and saying, well, too bad, sorry.

Um, he's involved in what's happening now.

That sets us up with the question though, right?

Okay.

If God is making these things happen, that's God's idea for these bad things

happen, then how is he not responsible?

How is it not his fault?

Right?

So our third point tonight is gonna figure that out, okay?

Don't blame God.

For evil.

Don't blame God for evil.

Now, this is really interesting, right?

We talked about our layers of responsibility.

We have our ultimate responsibility, and then we have like our moral

responsibility, if you will, right?

We've got big picture, okay?

God's in control, so he caused it to happen and he's in control of it, but he's

not morally responsible in the sense of.

He's not actually evil and he's not wanting the evil thing to happen.

Okay?

We start from what God says.

Well, God says in James chapter one, let no one say when he's

tempted, I'm being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one right?

That's about as black and white as you can get.

God does not do bad things.

God is not responsible morally.

For doing a bad thing.

You can't say, God, you wanted this bad thing to happen because you hate me.

You can't say that.

It's not true.

It's never true.

Speaker 5: So we start there,

Speaker: right?

If you're ever confused about something in the Bible, start with a clear

passage, a very simple passage that something like this that says, okay,

God cannot be tempted with evil.

No exceptions, no.

You know, ifs no buts, no sometimes right?

Blanket statement.

God cannot be temped by evil.

He himself tempts no one.

Okay?

So God is not morally.

Responsible.

He doesn't do anything sinful.

And this is kinda where we get into this.

We talked about little, uh, we talked a little bit about this in our small groups.

Um, at least our group did in the sense that people always do

exactly what they want, right?

No one is unwillingly sinning.

So like, think about the people who crucified Jesus, right?

We're, were, um, did Judas want to betray Jesus?

Yes.

Right.

Judas wanted to betray Jesus.

It's not like Judas was like, well, you know, God predestined for this

to happen, so I guess I gotta do it.

I really like this Jesus guy.

I really wanna believe in him, but God predestined it, so gotta do it.

Right.

That's not what Judas was thinking.

Judas was like, I hate this dude.

He's a loser.

Let, I'd rather have money then have Jesus.

Right.

That's what you just said in his mind.

Right?

I don't know if he said that.

Uh, essentially that's what his action said.

Right.

So.

People always do exactly what they want.

Right?

When, when someone sins against you, it's not because God forced them to do it.

God's not twisting people's arms into sinning, right?

God is, um, in control of it, but they're willingly doing what they want to do.

That's the first part.

Also, we could say that permitting a sin, right?

Allowing sin isn't the same thing as actively sinning, right?

Um, the best way that I heard this explained was think about a shadow.

Okay.

Um, does this light cause a shadow behind behind me?

Okay.

So see my shadow?

And you probably can't, but it's fine.

Just pretend you can see it.

So my shadow's here, right?

What's causing my shadow?

That light Or me?

Wait.

Oh, oh.

If that light didn't exist, if that, if all the lights were

off, would I have a shadow?

No.

No.

But who's making the shadow happen?

You God, I am.

The light is right.

This is kinda like what we're talking about.

Okay.

So God is like the light and people who are sinning are like me.

Alright.

That's true in multiple ways, but um, God is like the light and

I'm like a person who's sinning.

So the person who sins, they really caused the shadow, right?

Like, if I wasn't here, there would be no shadow.

Mm-hmm.

But.

The reason the shadow exists is because there's a light.

So there wouldn't be a light or a shadow without a light, but the light isn't

the one actively causing the shadow.

I'm actively causing the shadow, right?

That's kinda what we're talking about here.

So there's God, he's planned it in the sense he's in control of it, right?

It wouldn't happen if he wasn't allowing it to happen,

right?

There would be no shadows if there wasn't a light to make.

Parts that aren't shadows, right?

But there would also be no shadows if there weren't people

or things blocking the light.

So that's how it kind of, how it works, right?

There's, there's God, he's the ultimate cause he's in control of it.

But the evil actions that people really do, that's what's

making the evil happen, right?

God is in control of the sin.

He's allowing the sin, but God isn't sinning.

He's not the one making it happen.

He's in control of it, but he's not the one that's actively in

the process of blocking the light.

Right.

The light isn't blocking the light.

I'm blocking the light.

So hopefully that's helpful for you.

You could, there's another way someone explained it.

Um, they were talking about books that they read and they said, um, that.

So the lady who wrote Harry Potter, right?

Um, sorry if Harry Potter's offensive to you.

Um, rolling.

Yeah.

JK Rowling.

She, uh, they said she's a murderer.

She killed so many people, right?

She killed, uh, what's his name?

Fred Weasley.

She killed Spoiler.

Sorry.

These are all spoilers.

She killed Voldemort.

Big spoiler.

She killed Snape.

She killed all these people.

Right.

I don't know why Fred Weezy is the first person I thought of, but I did, um, she

killed all of these people in her books.

Right?

Whose idea was it that Fred died?

JK Rowling's idea, right?

She killed him.

But who killed him?

Not JK Rowling.

Right?

Some character in the book.

Some death eat right.

Um.

If you, if you don't know anything about Harry Potter, sorry, I,

we could pick a different book.

We could do a Marvel movie, whatever.

Right?

We could say, Stan Lee killed all these people, or John

Favre killed all these people.

Right?

Um, or Star Wars, right?

That's probably the easiest one.

Um, George Lucas killed all these people.

George Lucas killed Obi one.

George Lucas killed Yoda.

George Luc has killed all these people, right?

Um, but really, who killed them, right?

Darth Vader.

Killed Obiwan, not George Lucas.

So the author of the story makes the actions happen, but is

not the one doing the actions.

Right?

God is the author of the story, God's the, the author of the story

in the sense of, oh yeah, um, he's the one who planned the crucifixion.

He wrote the crucifixion into the story, but who killed Jesus?

Right?

The people in the story did it.

So we can't say, God, you're the one actually cynic.

Because he's the author, he's the light, he's not the sinner,

he's not the shadow maker.

He's not the the killer in the book.

So your biggest challenge when bad things happen is going to be how

you posture is towards God, right?

Bad things are gonna happen to you, right?

Evil is going to happen.

You're like people you love are going to die.

Things that you wish would happen are gonna let you down.

They're gonna disappoint you, right?

You're not gonna get that thing you really want, right?

Someone is really going to sin against you and hurt you and break your heart, right?

How are you gonna respond?

Are you gonna turn towards God or away from God?

And that's what I want you to take away from this sermon.

When bad things happen to me, am I gonna turn towards God or away from God?

Am I gonna blame God and get distant from God and say, God, you're, you're not.

Good for me.

You're, it's your fault, or I don't really trust you, or you don't really

have my best interests in at heart.

Or are you gonna turn towards God and say, God, I trust you.

Right?

You have a good plan for this.

Show me what that plan is.

I want to trust you.

I know it's for my good.

Thank you for loving me in a way that's better than I would love you.

Ever think about that.

God loves you in a way that's way better than you could love yourself.

You would never in a million years.

You can ask your leaders about this.

You would never in a million years allow all these things to

happen to you that are so bad.

And God's like, no, no, I'm doing it because I'm way smarter than

you and I love you so much that I'm gonna let this bad thing happen to

you 'cause it's so good for you.

Right.

You would never make up that plan.

Right.

I was telling someone earlier, um, about this house, right?

I would never design this house the way it is.

It's very strange, but it's cool.

It's cool.

It's got this like cool corridor upstairs.

It's got a cool basement.

It's got all this fun stuff.

It's a cool design.

I never would've thought of it.

That's kinda like God and his purpose for evil.

You never would've planned it that way, but it's so much better than your plan.

And so I hope you turn towards God when bad things happen instead of away from it.

All right, let's pray.

We'll talk about that more in small groups.

God, we love you and we wanna right now just affirm that we trust you.

Um, we know that we might not understand exactly what you're doing or why

you're doing it, or how it's gonna work out for good, but we want to

believe and we want to trust you, that you are working all things for good.

You have our best interests in mind, not our kind of good

interests, but our best interests.

You do things for us from a heart of pure love.

There is no, there's, there's no bad intention.

In you at all.

And so we are so grateful for that.

Help us to turn towards you hearing evil.

Help us to to trust you with bad things rather than grow,

bitter and distant from you.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.