Finding God in my Suffering || Pastor Adam Mesa

Praise God.

Thank you to all those that consider Patriot your home

church and partner with us in your generosity. I'm so

excited that all of you are here. Whether you're in

the courtyard cafe, we got people that sit all over

the campus.

It's good to see you.

Also, we always got people watching online and our campuses

as well, Pomona and Alameda. Can we welcome everyone whether

they're online, Pomona, Alameda.

So good to see everybody.

Feel like I haven't been here in a while, So

if you've been here in the past two weeks, I'll

introduce myself. My name is Adam and I'm the lead

pastor here at Patria. But the past two weeks, two

Sundays ago, I was sharing up at our Alameda campus.

On the fourth of July, they participated.

The city of Alameda and Northern California hosts what goes

on the Guinness Book of World Record as the longest

parade in the nation on the fourth of July. It

goes on for hours, and our church participated. You can

see on our instagram. At Patria Alameda, you'll see on

our instagram they partnticipated in the hours long. I think

it's like three or four hours of a parade that

just goes throughout the whole city, and they wrapped sung

worship and preached Jesus from the platform to eighty thousand

people because that's how many people they passed during the parade,

And so it was so cool to see online. But

I was with them the week before that they were

going to do it and sharing, and then last week

I happened to be preaching in Oahu, Hawaii at Inspire Church,

and so you know someone had to do it last weekend.

I said, Lord, I'll do it if you need me too,

but I'll go grumbling and complaining sermon prepping in the sand.

That was like, I said, Lord, do I feel it?

Next season called to a waho.

No, I'm just playing.

But one hundred and fifty people gave their life to

Christ last weekend at Inspire Church, and I got to

meet a lot of active duty The famous Army base,

the Schofield Army Base is about a mile and a

half away, two miles away from the church, and so

probably about a third of the church was active duty military.

So I got to meet a lot of individuals from

all over the nation who are familiar with our ministry

and our church, and so many of them shared their

love for our church as well, which was really cool

to experience. And see, I'm excited to dig into the word.

Today.

We're in this series called Questions for Life. We're almost done.

We've been doing it for the past really eight or

nine weeks, all the way up until August, and so

only a few more weeks left. And today we deal

with one that is either something you've had a question

for but or you definitely have known a friend who

has a question.

Today we're gonna deal with evil and suffering.

And before we jump in, people all across our church

and all of our campuses leading up to this series,

they picked up a small little phone that had a

little USB recorder and they asked questions. And what we

did was we took those hundreds upon hundreds of questions submissions,

we put it into an AI system and we asked it,

what are the nine common questions that individuals are asking

within our community, and it told us, here are the

nine things, and today is one of them. And then

we went back and found all of the audio files

for many of those individuals who asked those questions. So

to open up today, we have the video people from

our church who have submitted questions around this topic.

Let's check it out.

How do you deal with abandonment from family?

Why people like to bully and always do stuff to you.

How to deal with fear and anxiety even knowing that

God is with us and even reading our words.

Me and my sister recently lost our mom, and I'm

questioning faith a little. How should I go about just

becoming fully faithful?

My question is, why did God allow me to go

through the trauma that I went through? If He's a

good God.

Is it normal to have cycles of a after grief?

Okay, let's talk a little bit about this today. Now

we don't have a few hours. Okay, we have more

so minutes. So I'm not gonna be able to do

a deep dive particularly on all of the questions asked.

But everything that was asked deals with one of two areas.

Either it's been an effect of evil. We can see

that someone has done evil, someone has acted in evil,

and therefore I'm feeling the effects of evil or suffering,

whether it be suffering through creation, some type of earthquake,

some type of hurricane, some type of tsunami, or something

like that or suffering because of something I've experienced. I've

lost someone that I love, or I've experienced something that

someone has done to me that I'm not happy with.

And a lot of times, if you meet someone, most

people don't struggle with a relationship with God or even

believing that God exists because of an intellectual idea.

I know that's popularized.

Whether you go to school, they'll share with you whether

someone's an atheist, which is someone who doesn't believe that

God is real, or an agnostic, which is someone that

believes God is real, but I don't think he has

anything to do with us.

Individuals who you meet might like that, you may know them.

You may know people who say I don't go to

church because or I don't believe in God because and

nine times out of ten you will not hear them

say I don't believe in God because I've done the math,

I've read the books, I've looked at the data, I've

looked at the science.

They're not going to say that. Most people will say

I struggle with God or I struggle with.

The existence of God because what I have seen in

the world, or because what has happened to me.

There was a time in one time.

In my life where I pray to God, God take

me out of this situation, and he did it. Therefore

I don't think he's real, or therefore I struggle with

his existence. And hopefully today I can offer some time

type of foundation for you either to be able to

share about God by sharing what we're going to talk

about today, or maybe you're here yourself and your own

faith or your own relationship with God has been rocky

because of evil and suffering that you've seen or you've

personally experienced. But let me say this before we jump in.

If you have a Bible, you can go to Romans

chapter eight. That's where we're gonna be at today. But

you may like this conversation today and you say I

want to dig deeper in kind of We.

Call this apologetics.

It's about sharing your faith in much more of an

intellectual way. And so we just finished a sprint a

few months ago called the Apologetic Sprint, and we have

access to it for free. So if this is something

that interests you and you want to spend five hours

into kind of a conversation around this idea of free will,

evil suffering, creation, atheism, all those type of things then

you can see on.

Our web page.

The actual website is patriotsprints dot com and all of

our past sprints are on there, So not just our

apologetics one, but our men's sprint is on there, our

women's sprint is on there. How to read the Bible

sprint is on their Marriage and Family sprint is on there.

So if you're looking for five hours of a deep

dive of any of those topics, you can.

Find them on patriotsprints dot com.

This conversation today would specifically be under the apologetics sprint

that we just recently did, So here's where we're going

to be at today. In Romans, chapter eight, verse eighteen

to twenty eight, the apostle Paul writes this statement because

he's writing a statement about Christians who are not even

not just experiencing suffering in their own life, but also

they're experiencing an evil age. It's Rome, and some of

the Roman empires at this time were some of the

most evil and cruel leaders of any nation that existed,

and so it would be very easy for any Christian

to think, Hey, I thought following God meant that all

of these issues get fixed or all of this suffering stops,

and the apostle Paul is giving them hope to say,

God will finish suffering, but he will at a specific time.

So he offers encouragement to the church that you and

I can see today is still applicable. So if you're

ready for the standing of reading God's word, and you

found yourself in Romans chapter eight, it's about.

Ten verses today, we'll read it quickly.

But you may need to stretch your kneecaps a little

bit because I heard some people's ankles cracked when you

stood up. So make sure you drink water after service.

All right, here's what it says. It says, I consider

that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the

glory that will be revealed in us for the creation.

That's our earth, that's our world that we live in.

For creation weights and eager expectation for children of God

to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration,

not by its own choice. In other words, the world

that we see around us, specifically earthquakes, floods, tsunamis all

of the natural disasters. He says, this is a result

of not of its own choice. When God created it,

it was perfect but he says this, but by the

will of the one who subjected it in hope that

the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to

decay and brought into.

Freedom and glory of the children of God.

In other words, he says, it is God's children, being

that Adam and Eve welcomed sin into the world, which

allowed the world.

To begin to decay.

But he said, in the same way, through the children

of God, God has a plan to re redeem creation,

and specifically through Jesus. He says, we know that the

whole of creation has been growning as in the pains

of childbirth, right up to the present time. Not only so,

but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the

spirit grown inwardly, as we wigh eagerly for our adoption

to so the redemption of our body.

He says this, I know that there is suffering in

this world.

But he says, in the same way that you see

the pain, the spirit of God is waiting with great

anticipation to encourage you when you are down, to encourage

you when your faith is struggling.

He says, for in this hope we were saved.

But hope that is seen is no hope at all

who hopes for what they've already seen.

But if we hope for what we do.

Not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the

same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

We don't know what we.

Ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for

us through wordless groans. In other words, you don't have

to have all the answers, because God does, and he says,

if you are a child of the Spirit of God

through Jesus, the Spirit can help you when you are weak.

That's an encouragement he gives, and he says, And he

who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit,

because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with

the will of God last verse. And we know that

in all things God works for the good of those

who love Him who've been called according to His purpose.

You may be seated. Let's break this down with a

few moments that we have today as we kind of

talk about a little bit of evil that exists in

the world and suffering that exists in the world. I'm

gonna give you if you want to write them ahead

of time, because I'm gonna move relatively fast. For time's sake,

I'm gonna give you the four points ahead of time,

so that if you like writing them down, you can

get them down right now. So today, what we're going

to talk about is, first the reality of pain. We

can't have a conversation around evil and suffering without talking

about pain does exist. We're not here to ignore that

it doesn't exist. Number two, the risk of freedom. In

other words, in order for God to get create free

will and give us free will, there was a risk

attached to it, and God knows what that risk is,

and we'll share about that. Number three the redemption of suffering.

God has a plan. God has not given up on humanity.

And lastly, the resurrection of Jesus. Many people are asking,

where's Jesus, where is God in circumstance, Well, we have

a resurrected king, and I'm going to share with you

where Jesus is at and why Jesus cares about the

evil and suffering that exists in the world today.

Let's look at point number one. Here's this point today.

The reality of pain doesn't cancel the presence of God

just because things are painful, just because suffering happens.

Does not mean that God is not there in the

same way many of us.

We live in California. Do any of you in your

life today, Have any of you ever spent time consuming

your mind trying to figure out how to stop an

earthquake from happening.

None of us.

I don't think that there's anyone here that's been tinkering

in their garage trying to figure out a way where

you can prevent earthquakes. But as of right now, I

know we got people that watch us all over. But

as far as all of our campuses, there is something

that all of us have that is unique from mostly

almost any other state in America. Is all of us

have a policy called the earthquake Insurance policy.

Believe it or not.

Other states don't have those because most of them don't

worry about it. Other states may have tornado insurance, they

may have flooding insurance.

But for us, we have earthquake insurance.

And when we build buildings and when we build homes,

none of us are working to invest on how to

stop earthquakes because we know they'll come. We know it's

going to happen, we know it, we always hear it's

only a matter of time before the big one comes.

So what do we do when we build our lives

and we build our homes and we build our buildings.

What we do is we.

Make sure that we have such a strong enough foundation

and make sure that we have strong enough pillars in

our building that say, when it comes, we will be prepared.

And one of the things God wants to do when

it comes to evil and suffering, because you'll find out

in a few moments there's a reason why God allows it.

But the reason why what God wants to do in.

Your life is God doesn't necessarily want to stop all

the earthquakes that will happen in your life, and will

share why in a few moments. But what God wants

to do is God wants to build a foundation in

your life and bring pillars in your life that when

those things come in your life, when a divorce happens,

when a breakup happens, when the loss of a loved

one happens, when the unthinkable happens, you can say this,

I may not have been able to prevent it, but

I serve a God who's stronger than me, and I

have a relationship with Jesus that is my foundation. So

the world or shake. The storms are come, but you

are strong. Romans Ates said, you are not strong because

of yourself. You are strong because of the spirit of

the living God that lives inside of you.

Where you are weak, God is strong. You see in

this Bible.

This is the amazing thing about God's word is God's word.

Is not a fairy tale. This isn't a fairy tale.

Haven't you all know the difference between the Bible and

a fairy tale? What's a fairy tale? A fairy tale?

We call it a fairy tale because it happens so

perfectly that we say it's so orchestrated, it's so perfect

it has to be fake.

Well, you think about it.

This. You know, poor girl that's been taken care of

by her step mother and stepsisters, and she's locked in

a broom closet and a fairy godmother comes into her

bedroom and gives her a new outfit and then turns

a pumpkin into a car and then takes this pumpkin

because the prince is holding a ball looking for his

future wife, and all the who's who are there, and

here she walks in with glass slippers, and she's gorgeous

and she has till midnight to show herself off to

the prince, and sure enough, midnight hit. She has her

first dance with him, and when she goes to run away,

her glass slipper falls off, and she goes home, back

to her closet. She goes home, back to the pumpkin,

and the pumpkin goes back into food, and sure enough,

the prince he's so in love because in two seconds

he decided he loved somebody, and he loves her so

much that he scours the whole village and he puts

the glass slipper on every woman he can find it. Finally,

the little girl comes out, who's sweeping the broom, sweeping.

The closet, and he says, let's put the shoe on you.

And it was her, And within twenty four they're married

and they're having children, and she's been rescued.

He's now in love. We go, oh, be quiet.

You're like, I'd be lucky to find a guy who

will buy me shoes. I'd be lucky to be by

a lip gloss let alone.

Scour the whole village to find me. We look at it.

It's a fairy tale, but when you read the Bible,

you don't find stories like that. When you open up

to the book of Genesis, you see individuals that have

got a perfect relationship with God, and they think, I

want to be like God.

I want to eat some fruit off the tree he

told us not to eat.

And then all of a sudden, the first two sons

that Adam and he have canaan Abel can get so

jealous of his brother he kills him. I mean, it's

just story number one. You go into story number ten,

Noah gets delivered from a flood and it was so

emotional he got drunk.

You go to the next story and you got a woman.

Who says to sell herself as a prostitute in order

to live.

I mean, we just in Genesis.

You go to Exodus and you got a corrupt ruler

who enslaves an entire nation and takes advantage of them.

In Exodus, you see a man that has anger management

issues named Moses, who hits his stick on rocks everywhere

he goes and cussles to Israel, lights out every chance

he can. You go to First and second Kings, you

find even godly rulers fall prey to temptation, fall prey

to women, fall prey to finances, fall prey to things,

fall prey to prayer.

Man this we're just on first and second Kings.

You go to the prophets, and all of a sudden

you start finding ins who are speaking for God but

are scared of people, that are timid of people. You

have israel Lites who are led by God and they reject.

God all the time.

It's like, I'm only in like five books of the

Bible so far. You're like, when does the fairy tale start?

And you continue to read on and then you find

yourself in Matthew Martin looking John and it's like, oh,

finally there's someone who's perfect. You're like, oh, well, there

it is, because it's God who came down to.

Creation named Jesus to redeem us.

And then you start going to first and Second Corinthians

and all the letters and you find, oh, man, the

church doesn't even always get it right.

Paul's whole beginning letter.

Of One Corinthians is saying, hey, you guys have so

and so on your church and he's sleeping with his stepmother.

Tell him to stop. You're like, dang, oh, this is

in the Bible.

Yeah, you never read it before.

It Oh your mind.

But the reason why all that's there is because God

is trying to show you humanity's not perfect. Humanity experience

is pain. Humanity experience is suffering. But the whole point

of this is to get to revelations where God says,

but I have a plan. I have a plan that

in your pain. I have a plan in your brokenness

that I can redeem you. He could takey, he could

take ashes and he can bring it into beauty. God

can take dry bones and he could put living flesh

on of it. See, what God is trying to do

is not show you that life is a fairy tale.

But God wants to redeem us that when creation has

fallen and pain has created, not only does God have

a plan in your pain, but also God has.

A future for your pain. This isn't a fairy tale.

So if you ever meet someone that says, oh, I

don't believe in God because I see this in the world,

you say, you can see it in the Bible too.

It's not like you read the Bible and it's trying

to show the world one way and then you look

at the world.

And you're like, this doesn't match.

Actually, about as bad as the world can get it's

in the word of God. And just because God puts

it in there doesn't mean he's co.

Signing on it.

It means he's trying to show you he recognizes it's there.

Do you ever try to have a conversation with your

parents and they just acted when you were growing up,

and they just acted like whatever you were saying wasn't.

A big deal. That's not a big deal. But to you,

it was a big deal.

Whether you had your first boyfriend and girlfriend of your

crush and they're like, oh, you'll have ten more, don't worry.

You're like, I'll have ten more heartbreaks? Are you kidding me?

You see, when you read the Bible, God's not saying, ah, yeah,

what you're going through, that's nothing. He says, No, that

is something he cares about it. We're gonna find out

why he cares about it. I want you to see it. Well,

here's a couple of things I want to share his

Number one, pain proves the Bible's diagnosis is right.

It doesn't contra addicted.

The groaning of creation points to a broken system, but

also the coming healing that God wants to do. The

presence of pain is not the absence of God. It's

often the place he's most active. I want you to

see this in point two. The risk of freedom opens

the door to evil. So not only does God admit

that pain exists in the world, but God didn't create it,

but he opened up the opportunity for humanity. And here's

why the risk of freedom opens the door to evil.

Alvin Plantago, which was an apologist and a philosopher, says this,

a world containing creatures who are significantly free is more

valuable than a world containing only a tumata.

Here's what this means by that he says this.

He says, God creating a world where you have choice

is far more loving than creating you and removing any

choice from your life. That would be unloving, that would

be unkind. And when God creating you and I with

the capacity to choose.

It Also because of.

Adam and Eve's fall, the whole story of the garden

is the capacity that Adam and Heave were given free

will and they always chose what they still wanted to do.

And so people will make the argument, why did God

create that tree to begin with? If he knew they

were gonna fall, why would he do it?

Well?

Because He created choice for them. That is what is

most loving. Let me put it this way. You may

see a man, I'm struggling with this. I don't see

how this is love. Get giving a choice to sin

and do evil. That doesn't seem very loving. Well, it's

actually extremely loving. We put it like this. How many

of you guys in here are married by show of hands?

So let me see you're married? How many all are

dating by show of hands? Like to be married? Now,

I'm just kidding, just putting some pressure on your boyfriend girlfriend.

There's a lot of people married here. I want you

to imagine this. You and I we sit down. I'm

gonna be marrying you, and you do pre marital with me.

And we've done it. We've done all the counseling sessions.

You've done all the sessions. And then all of a sudden,

you and I are sitting down and I look at

the husband and I say this, hey, brother, I got

one last thing that I offer to people when they're

about to get married.

And out of my back pocket I.

Pull a little vial and on it it says love potion.

And I say, hey, so if your wife drinks this,

here's what happens. Number one, and I tell her you

could give it to him as well. But I said,

here's what happens.

If I give you this love potion, then that means

they will. You will never not have to trust them.

You always trust them because they can never decide, they

can never cheat on you, they'll never flirt with someone else.

They'll only have eyes free. It's guaranteed. The moment they

drink this, they just they only see you as the

most attractive person in the whole world for the rest

of your life. On top of that, they'll never tell

you no. They'll always agree to whatever you say. So

as you go in life, however many children you do

or don't want to have, they're gonna say, yes, babe,

whatever you think in future goals. She says, Oh, I

think I desire to do this, and you say I

don't want to do that.

She says, whatever you say, honey.

No disagreements, no arguments, no conflict, no strife. You'll never

argue again, You'll never fight again. And any time you

ever want something.

They'll do it.

She could work an eighteen hour shift and come home

and you say, you know what, I feel like you

baking me a pie right now? She'll get right off

the couch and say, yes, honey, right now. Some of

y'all are like, they got this at Costco? Where do

they sell this? What's going on? But you never have

to live in fear, never have to live in fear.

What are they doing when I'm not around? Who are

they talking? It's guarantee?

And he say, okay, I'm gonna give that to her.

And let's say twenty years later, I come and I

check in with I say, how are things out. You're like, oh,

it's amazing. She says yes to everything that I say.

She does everything that I say, anytime of day, anytime

she's in agreement.

I've never had to worry about her.

One time, this guy that looked like Chris Hemsworth walked

right by her asked for her phone number, and she.

Just looked at me. She didn't even look at him.

She finds me the most attractive person in this world.

And then I look at her and I say, how

do you feel about it? And she goes, it's great.

And then I look back at him and I say,

let me ask you something. Does she love you? He'd say, well,

I think.

So, Well, tell tell me why you think so well,

because she's always been faithful, she's always done e anything

I've asked, We've never disagreed. And then if I ask him, well,

did she ever have a choice not to?

How do you know? I don't know. I don't know how.

To compare love if choice is taken away. In the

same way, I have no way to judge what joy

is if I know what lack of joy is.

I don't know how toy and.

Judge sadness or happiness if certain things don't exist, because

they're all judged against each other, and so free will

allows a clarity. That's why when someone stands up and

they say, this is me and my wife where the Johnson's,

we've been married fifty years, we would all go, I guess, yes,

you made it, because we know that thing had to

have been hell at some point.

And if you made it fifty years, it means that

you pushed past all the junk.

Now, if a faithful marriage was guaranteed, nobody would celebrate that.

Let's just say the death penalty was attached to not

making it through in your marriage. And then people say

we made it to fifty years, Like, yeah, we're all

making it to fifty years. None of us want to die, dummy.

You see the moment you had certain contingencies. There's nothing

to celebrate anymore. And so by God giving us a

free will to choose, and man and humanity creates the

opportunity of evil and suffering and disobedience.

What this shows is not that God isn't active.

It shows that God is far more loving than he

is intrusive.

How many of you guys could put.

A camera in your children's room to watch them twenty

four hours to make sure they never do any wrong?

But how many of you all? That's just weird. You

gotta trust him at some point.

You got to get him opportunity, at some point to

make the decision between.

Right and wrong.

And that God loves you so much, and God loves

his creation so much that he gives opportunity for choice.

And then we'll say, well, then, but there's big things.

Why doesn't he just intervene on the stuff that I

think is big? Well to everyone else? What is big

to everyone is different from everyone. We'd have to define. Then,

where should God intervene? I want you to see this

graphic that I have. You tell me where should God intervene?

It's a barometer. I think you guys got it there.

It is God's intervention. So let's say if you say, God,

I think you should get involved in cheating, Well, what

kind of cheating?

An exam cheating or a spouse cheating. Well you may say, well,

I don't think.

Cheating on an exam at your sophomore year is a

big deal. But do you think cheating as an adoctor

is a big deal on their exam? I don't want

them to get their license, I don't. So where should

God intervene? Should God intervene that abuse? Well, what kind

of abuse? Substance abuse or physical abuse, or what other

type of abuse? Or God should involve get involved in stealing? Well,

what kind of stealing? Stealing a pencil or stealing a car,

or stealing from a bank. You may say, oh, well,

I don't think a pencil is a big deal. Well,

it'd be a big deal if it was your child,

because you know that it shows signs of something greater.

And so what happens is is murder? What type of murder?

War?

Retaliation?

So the reality is the moment you and I start

saying God, well you need to intervene in X. You

need to intervene, and why we're not God? So what

level of intervention should he do?

Now? Is God active? Does he intervene?

Yes, all the time, far more than you understand, far

more than we see. But the reality is what we're

trying to say, God, you should intervene one hundred percent

of the time.

Well, if he interviews one hundred percent of the time, Now,

where is faith?

If everyone can see God all the time, if everyone

can see all these angels stopping stuff all the time,

well you would just be like, there'd be no faith.

It'd be a forced relationship at that point, there would

be no decision, there would be no hope. We read

in Romans chapter eight, God says this when the children

of God and the Christians are trying to say, why

doesn't God intervene more? He's saying, because then it would

remove your hope. And if it removes your hope, then

it removes your relationship. And so what we have to

recognize is God giving us the opportunity for freedom and

free will means that it does open a door till

evil and suffering, not because God's unloving, but actually because

God is far more loving than we give him credit for.

And Here's the third point is this is God has

a redemption of suffering, and it reveals the power of God.

We see all throughout scriptures. God's hand is in things.

His hand is in things, and even though we don't

always see him, part of reading God's word is to

give us an ability to say, oh, He's in so

many areas that we don't recognize or we don't see.

Genesis fifty twenty is just one example.

What happened was Joseph was sold off to slavery from

his brothers. He was put into someone's home, forced to

be a slave. Then he was thrown into prison. He

was forced to be in prison. All these things happened

to him just because his brothers were jealous, just because

his brothers made him suffer. But what happens Joseph eventually

becomes the right hand to Pharaoh and actually the person

that when Pharaoh's not around, he is Pharaoh. And in

Genesis fifty he sees his brothers again after a very

long time, and he tells his brothers this as for you.

You meant evil against me, but God meant it for

good to bring about that many people should be kept

ablive as they are today. What Joseph was saying was

humanity can do evil, and people can cause others to suffer.

But he says, but God can create a better plan

through suffering. What people may mean for evil, God can

redeem it for good. What happens in suffering, God can

create hope. Elizabeth Elliot says it like this. God never

wastes a wound, and in suffering, we have to remember

that God doesn't waste wounds.

He actually weaves them. And He can take your wounds.

And he can weave it into something that's far more

beautiful than we could create on our own. So suffering

has a purpose in the hands of the redeemer. God

doesn't always explain suffering, but he does always redeem it.

How do we know? Because the Cross proves that God.

Can take what is worst and use it for what

is best. If you look at Jesus, the Bible theologically

calls Jesus the suffering servant because when God God made

a decision to come to earth, he didn't say this,

I'm gonna come and I'm gonna inhabit a palace, and

I'm gonna sit on a golden throne, and I'm gonna

tell people.

Here is your savior. Follow me. That's for the movies.

What actually, when you see the gospel, Jesus is.

Born into a poor man's home.

Jesus is raised as a carpenter, not some elitist lifestyle,

not some elitist occupation.

He's a carpenter.

He has to raise his own money to take care

of to put food on his own table when he

bows and preaches the gospel. On top of that, he

goes to the cross and he bears immense pain by

being whipped to the point that his own mother could

not recognize him. He experiences so much anguishing pain and

so much anguishing torment that the night before he goes

to the cross, he's praying and his popillary veins begin

to burst and says he sweat blood because of the

anguish he was gonna experience. So that, Jesus, when you

experience evil, pain and suffering in this world, he says this,

I know because I've been there. Jesus came to show

you he will lead from the front. He's not a

leader from the ground, whose boots aren't dirty, whose clothes

are kept clean. He's saying this, I came to Earth,

and I led the pack in pain, so that when

you experience pain, it says this, It says the gospel

say that he sympathizes us within our weakness because.

He's been there.

God's love is for you is so great that he

chose to inhabit humanity and experience the very same things

that you would experience.

God didn't have to do that.

And so Jesus's suffering reveals that God cares about humanity's pain.

But more than that, it shows that He has a

plan in humanity's pain to redeem it. And so oftentimes

we can see here's some here's just a couple redempt them.

Things of what pain can do and what suffering can do.

Number one is it can humble you. You know, going

through seasons of suffering, it's humbling. There's times we take

advantage of God. There's times we take advantage of his grace.

Oftentimes we connect following God to just some type of

intellectual thing. Well, if God just showed himself to me,

then I would believe him and then I would follow him.

Just look around at humanity. We know that smoking causes cancer.

How many people? How many of us still do it?

We know that sodas and candies and all these things

lead to type two diabetes, But how many of us

still do it? There's all this data of things that

we risk our lives all the time, but knowing we

don't always. Just because we knew better doesn't mean we

do better. So someone that just says, well, God just

reveals himself to me, I do better.

We're clearly not with certain things.

So it's not just knowledge, and so suffering our times

as God humbling us. The second thing is God wants

to refine you. If you've ever seen gold being made

in a refiner, gold is not pure.

The only way you purify.

It is by heating it in a kettle, and all

of the impurities will actually rise to the top because

it's lighter and gold is heavier, and so the gold

sits at the bottom of the fire and the impurities

rise to the top. And there are times suffering God

is trying to refine you. At times it's trying to

take some things out of us, some anger, some resentment,

some pride. The third thing God can do is he

can equip you, because your comfort becomes someone else's healing.

And so how many of you've ever been through a

tough time and you've been able to help someone else

through it because you've been there. And there are times God,

as God's people, He's allowing us, just like Jesus, to

sympathize with other people's weaknesses so that we could use

that as a source of strength to show people ave

been there, and God has been there for me every

step of the way.

And here's the last point.

Is this, as we begin to close, the resurrection of

Jesus guarantees the defeat of evil. In other words, no

one's getting off scot free. You may say this, well,

what about these evil things, what about these evil rulers?

What about these evil people? What about these predators? What

about this? So they just get off scot free. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no no no. Every tongue and every person will stand

before God and they will give an account for what

they've done on earth. And so people do not get

off for scott free. Abuse does not get off scot free.

Evil does not get off scot free. Those individuals will

stand before a holy and righteous judge that has fire

in his eyes, that will hold them accountable for everything

they've ever done.

You may, well, that's scared. What about for me?

Well, that's what the resurrection does for those that recognize,

I don't want to stand before that guy. I want

to stand before a loving savior. Well, the way you

do that is by receiving the loving savior, by recognizing,

through suffering, through evil, humanity has brought about evil, and

you and I we all have our capacity because you

may say, what about those evil things they have done?

What about the evil things I've done? Jesus makes it

clear that even if you have intentions of sinning, even

as you've moved into places, that there is no level

to sin.

Sin is sin.

Once you dirty the water, you dirty the water. And

Pastor Diego has made it clear for decades.

He said this.

If I was baking cookies, and I was baking one

hundred cookies, and all I did was put a teaspoon

of dog poop in it. But I told you no

one would eat the cookie. It's only a teaspoon. You said,

it's a teaspoon enough for me that I don't want

to eat that cookie.

That's what sin does. It's only a tea food. It's

just cheating.

I've stolen. But it was like an eraser. It was

like I didn't rob a bank. How wrong is that? Well,

it's enough. It's enough that a holy God can't dwell

with it. But good thing, you don't have to dwell

with the Holy God. Jesus dwells with God, and Jesus

can fill your life. That's what romans Ad is all about.

It's the hope that God can place in your spirit,

not because of how righteous you have lived, but because

of how righteous Jesus has lived and how much God

loves you. John sixteen thirty three says this, I have

said these things to you that in you you may

have peace. In the world you have tribulation. Jesus himself

admits the world is broken, and he says, but take heart,

I have overcome the world Revelations, chapter twenty one, verse four.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and

death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning,

nor crying, nor pain anymore, or the former thing have

passed away?

Where is God in these things?

Is?

God is preparing a home for us.

God is giving every opportunity for all of humanity to

hear the good words.

Of Jesus to make a decision to follow him. God's

not done yet. Where is God?

God is giving an opportunity for us to receive Him

so that we.

May dwell with Him in all that He has created.

Man, I want every opportunity for every person to know that,

without a shout of a doubt, they will be standing

before the presence of God one day, and it comes from.

Making a choice to follow Jesus.

Here's what I want to share with you some things

today as we recap pain doesn't cancel God's presence. Free

will allowed evil, but it also made love possible. Suffering

can be redeemed through the cross of Jesus. And lastly,

resurrection proves evil doesn't win. Jesus in three days in

that tomb, he defeated Satan and he defeated sin. When

we rest our faith in him, we know that God

has a purpose in those things. So in conclusion, here's

where I want to share with you. Trust his heart

even when you can't trace his hand, Lean into God's presence,

not your pain. And lastly, don't let what hurts you

rob you of who holds you. God's got you, He's

with you. I encourage you reread Romans chapter eight today

eighteen to twenty eight and know that God can be

your hope.

Man.

You will face tough times, I know, and there's times

all we wonder. I've gone through stuff for I s

a God, where are you in this? I don't see it?

And then later on I see God as he can

redeem anything. I think, Oh, God, you are so much

more wiser than me, because when this happened, this person

gave their life to Christ and that person gave and God,

I always forget you are far more concerned with eternity

because that's what you've created us.

For.

You are far more concerned with eternity than you sometimes

are with what's happening here, because God is putting things

in motion for humanity, and God does.

Involve himself often.

And never be afraid to go to God for strength

and comfort because He's always near to the broken hearted,

and he's always available for us to seek him. So

I want to make an invitation as we close here today,

if you've never trusted a relationship with Jesus Christ given

your hope into Jesus. We've read today and learned today

that the Gospel truly is the only source of strength.

The Gospel is truly the only source of redemption in

this life. God can redeem things suffering when it happens,

I mean, we go to prayer God, he gets involved

in a lot of things. But also there are things

that happen, just like natural disasters happen that though we

can't stop them, we can be prepared for them, and

we can prepare others for them, and we can tell

people if you stood before God today, would you be ready?

You may say, well, how do I have to get ready?

What do I have to give up? What do I

have to do?

How much do I have to pay to get ready

for God? Or what type of prayer do I need

to do to receive God. You don't have to do

any of those things. What you need has already been done.

When Jesus died on the cross and he rose three

days later. That was sufficiently enough. God does not require

anything else other than faith in that to say, Jesus,

I believe that you have redeemed my sin.

I believe that you rose from the grave.

Therefore I make you my Lord and my savior. The

redemption comes with faith. It's just God, I believe it

to be true.

I trust you, Lord. I lean not on my own understanding,

but I fully have faith in You. So with every

head bow.

Would you bow your head and close your eyes for

just a moment, I'm gonna have us repeat this prayer.

Like I said, the prayer is not the thing that said.

God is already at work in your heart right now.

But if you're here today, whether you're in the cafe

courtyard or in this room, and you're ready to give

your faith to Jesus Christ, either for the first time

or the last time, I just encourage you. We're all

gonna say this prayer out loud, but all we're doing

is affirming what God is already doing. Would you join

me in saying this today, Dear Lord Jesus, in this moment,

I confess you as my Lord and my savior. I

repent to my sins, and from this moment forward, I

trust you. Even when times are hard, and even when

times are good. I'm gonna hold to you, and I

choose to follow you for the rest of my days.

In Jesus' name a man.

Can we give a handclap for those that may have

said that today, here's what I'm doing one more time.

I'm gonna encourage you, and we'll probably celebrate one more time.

If you said that prayer today. Wherever you're at, you

may be out in the courtyard. You said that prayer

today for the first time or the last time, would

you slip your hand up in the air on the

counter of three.

We're not gonna do anything. All we want to do

is welcome you into the family.

We believe that heaven's getting bigger today because you've made

a big decision to.

Make God your savior.

So if you're here today and you said that on

the counter three, would you slip your hand up so

we can celebrate you one, one, two, three, raise your

hand up in the air. If that was your Hey,

praise God, God, Bless you my friends. God bless you,

my friends. Praise God. Welcome to the family. I see

those hands. Book of Revelation says for every person that

says yes to Jesus, all of Heaven rejoices. So we

celebrate and we cheer because we just want to match

what's happening in heaven right now. Your future is secure

in God's hands. Before you leave, if you raised your hand,

or maybe you wanted to, we have some information for

you if you want to grow in your faith. That's

our website ww dot grow dot Faith. It'll help you

with some next steps. And so we would never want

you to raise your hand and say I don't know

what's next. If you go to grow dot faith, it'll

help you with that. There's two things I can encourage

you to do if you gave your life to Jesus today.

Number One, read your Bible or start to have a

relationship with God in any best way, but the Bible

is the best first place. Start to read your Bible.

Number two, come to church as often as possible. See

how much your life changes when you come to church

more In the same way, when you go to the

gym every day, your body looks a lot different.

Same way with your spirit.

Man, the more time you spend in God's presence, the

most time you spend learning God's word, your spirit will

look different in that same way.

So come to church as often as possible. I know

that today we talked about some heavy things.

As I was talking about suffering or pain, it may

have brought your recollection to some things that you're going

through or you've gone through that you just having a

hard time to wrap around. Our prayer team will be

up here in the front if you need prayer for anything.

Maybe you got something else coming up and you just

need someone to come.

Into an agreement.

Then our prayer, our elders, and our deacons will be

up here in the front and they would love to

pray for you.

Right now.

My wife Ashley's gonna come and conclude us. I'll be

out in the foyer if you'd like to say hello, God,

bless you family.

Thank you so much.

Family.

Were you blessed today?

Amen?

If you guys can stand to your feet, I'm gonna

pray us out. Like we said, we have our job

fair that is out in the courtyard. If you want

more information on what we're inquiring about, job descriptions and

everything like that, you can find that information. And again

our prayer team will be here.

Up in the front for you.

If we can bow our heads. Dearly Father, we just

thank you for this time.

Father.

We just thank you for an on time word Father,

just from you, not from man, but from what you

wanted to hear, what you wanted us to hear from you.

Today.

Father, we ask Father, right now that you protect every

individual that is in this house.

Father, today we protect.

Their hearts, their minds, and their spirits. Father, we ask

that they have a blessed week going forward in your

mighty name.

Amen. Amen, Church, have a great day.