What Happened?

Open your Bibles to John chapter 10. Meet me at verse 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

John chapter 10, verse 10. And we will tackle this from the Amplified Classic.

John 10:10

My favorite or one of my favorite passages of scripture. One of the reasons

we started the church was this verse.

And Jesus tells us the thief comes only. Somebody shout only.

This is the only reason the thief is coming. To steal, to kill, and to destroy.

Jesus says, I came that they may have life and enjoy life and have it in abundance

to the full till it overflows.

I've been in full-time ministry now almost over 16 years.

And one of the benefits I have in being in full-time ministry is I get a chance

to talk to a lot of people.

Not only people in my congregation, but people outside, unsaved people,

people in other states. I just talk to a lot of people, and I've found out that

a lot of people ask the same questions.

And some of the questions they ask, I believe, are really good questions,

but questions like, why did this happen? Why?

Why did they die? Why didn't God come through for me in that situation?

Questions such as, I believed, I prayed, and it didn't come to pass.

Why did that person leave me?

Why did my child die? Why did I get a divorce? And a lot of questions regarding why.

And I don't profess to know all the answers, but all this week,

I've been meditating on these questions because I want to address them in a simplistic way.

I want to show you what the Word of God says regarding some of these questions.

And if you lock in, if you tune in, I believe you'll get some understanding today.

Around March 2011, my son Zavin was born, 15 years old now, and a lady that

I went to high school with, her son was born March 2011 as well.

And so she reached out to me via Facebook, et cetera, hey, our sons are born

around the exact same time, and we celebrated each other's growth in terms of our sons growing up.

And around the fall of that year, August or so, I get a Facebook messenger from her.

And in the messenger, she says to me, my son is dead.

He didn't wake up. What is that, SIDS or something along those lines? He didn't wake up.

He's dead. And she's explaining to me in this letter how everyone is telling

her that this was God's plan,

this is God's purpose, and this is what God wanted to take place,

and that she just needed to embrace it and accept it.

While I'm reading the letter, I'm bawling, crying because it hit really close

to home. We had the same age children and I'm crying reading the letter. I got tissue.

Sometimes you think pastor pastors are Superman. No, we not.

We feel just like you feel. Guess what? I also get my feelings hurt, too.

You can hurt my feelings too. Oh, pastor shouldn't have responded that way.

Well, you hurt my feelings.

All right, I'm human. And so I'm bawling, I'm crying. I'm like,

Lord, how do I respond to her?

And she, at the end, concludes with, I don't wanna have anything to do with God.

I don't wanna have anything to do with the church.

Her marriage was on the rocks because of this. And she didn't wanna have anything to do with anything.

And so I'm, tears coming down my eyes.

I'm in year, literally, year one of two of full-time ministry at this point.

I'm praying in the spirit. I'm praying in tongues. Lord, what do I say? How do I respond?

I heard the Lord prompt this verse that we just read on the inside of me. John 10, 10.

Scripture says, the thief. Say thief.

Thief. He comes to steal, it's the only reason he's coming, kill and destroy.

And so I wrote back and I apologized for what happened to her.

I told her I was praying for her, that I feel what she feels.

I moved the way she's moved.

I said, but let me tell you what the scriptures say.

The scriptures tell us that there is a thief.

Now notice, Scripture didn't say that there is a robber.

A robber is someone that's going to come, bop you over the head,

take your wallet, and run off. Do it right in your face.

But a thief is someone that's going to steal, kill, and destroy secretly.

Use manipulation and deception. Take from you, and you didn't even realize that they were even there.

The Old Testament, in my estimation, does not do a very good job of clearly defining our enemy.

In the Old Testament, a lot of things that happened were put to blame on God.

We just looked and said, this was God's doing. This was God's fault.

This is what God wanted. And we kind of put it in a little box that we call the sovereignty of God.

And we just blamed everything on God.

Because the Old Testament, in my opinion, did not paint a really good picture of our enemy.

But when Jesus came, I want you to understand, he operated under the old covenant.

You know, the New Testament starts at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Acts, and et cetera.

But really, it doesn't start until he died and he rose.

That's when the new covenant took place. So he operated in the old covenant.

But he came and distinctively told us two, I believe, powerful things.

One is that God is our father.

No one ever really communicated to God as a father.

And so we have an understanding of fatherhood, and Jesus wanted us to see clearly

that God is a good, good father.

And the second thing I believe he drew the line in the sand is that there is a thief.

And the thief is coming to steal, kill, and destroy. And so if it's good, it's God.

If it's stealing, killing, or destruction, it's the thief.

Say this after me. If it's good, it's God.

If it's stealing, killing, or destruction, it's God.

It's the enemy. Always remember that. Jesus drew the line and said,

when something happens in your life, remember, is this good? Then it must be God.

But if it's stealing, killing, or destruction, it's the enemy.

And I explained this to her that we have an enemy and somehow,

someway, the thief has come in and has been able to steal, kill,

and destroy. But God loves you.

God is the one that's going to comfort you. God's the one that's going to give

you that counsel and embrace you and hold you and carry you through this.

I don't know why it happened, but I know God's not the one behind it.

He's the one that's going to love on you and encourage you.

And when you die, he's going to welcome you with open arms into heaven.

He's the one that is going to embrace you.

And I didn't hear from her for another year or so.

And then about a year or so later, she writes me back and she says, your message healed me.

I said, wow. And she said, I didn't want to have anything to do with God.

I was anti-God because people were telling me God did this.

And why would you want to have anything to do with God if God killed your little baby? I know I don't.

Do you? No. She said, it healed me. My husband and I are back reconciled,

back together. I'm back in church, and we're pregnant again. And so praise God.

Yeah, come on, give the Lord some praise for that.

And she says, I have a relationship with him, with the Lord that I've never

had before. And your words of there is a thief.

We've been blaming God too often when there is a devil that goes away hidden,

hiding, and we give him no blame whatsoever.

We just tend to point at God.

And I want to show you some other things because I want to answer the question today.

Why did this happen? What happened? Why is it not happening?

I was talking to a friend of mine. He pastors a church in Colorado.

He goes, well, you're going to tackle some deep stuff today.

I said, no, I'm not going to get into anything entirely too deep.

I do want to just scratch the surface and present to you something to think

about, something to consider.

Now, this is not on the same scale as losing a child, but many years ago,

in my early 20s, I believe the Lord was telling me to get a job.

Well, I say I had a job. Let me back up.

Get a job. Yeah, the Lord is telling you to get a job. I had a job,

but I believe the Lord was telling me to go for a particular promotion.

Side note, I do want to share Ron's testimony. Ron went for a position. Listen to this.

He went for a position, didn't get the job, and said, okay, you know,

hey, God must have something better for me.

A month later, the person, all the people that got the job that he went for all got laid off.

One month later. So if he would have got the job, he would have got laid off.

The Lord was protecting him.

Amen. You got, yeah. We don't.

We'll understand better by and by.

And so this particular time I was going for this job, I, guys,

you cannot convince me that the Lord did not want me to have this position.

And I went for it and I'm praying, I'm fasting, I'm doing everything I know

to do to believe him for this job. It was going to be a great job in ministry.

I was excited about it.

And lo and behold, instead of getting the job, they let me go.

Now how do I go from interviewing preparing for this position to being let go.

Let me go. And I am depressed.

Seriously, I'm sitting on the couch just sitting there looking straight ahead.

I thought I had heard from God.

This is what God wanted me to do. This is how he's positioned me. They let me go.

I'm depressed. I'm sad. I don't want to do ministry anymore.

I don't want to have this close relationship. How can God let me down so much?

I'm in my 20s, and I'm just done.

But I look back, it's what got me to Charlotte.

And then I meet my wife, Stacy. And then we have children together,

and we have this amazing church now.

If I would have got that job, I would have stayed there.

But look what the Lord has done. I'm glad I didn't get that job.

Somebody said, me too. Amen.

I'm glad I didn't get the job, right? So sometimes we don't know things in the moment.

What happened? Why did that happen? Well, one, there's a thief.

And the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And now the thief,

listen to me, cannot take from you anytime he wants.

Because Jesus has disarmed him and stripped him.

Colossians 2.15 tells us he's been stripped and disarmed. He can't take from you anytime he wants.

He's got to get you and I in agreement.

If we can agree with him with the words of our mouth.

If we can agree with him and say those things that he's saying,

we come in agreement with him and then he can begin to take from us.

And so it's important because Proverbs 19.3 says it this way.

It'll be on the screen here. Watch this in the message translation.

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity.

So why does God always get blamed? People, let's read it again.

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity.

So why does God always get blamed? Let's look at the New Living Translation.

People ruin their lives by their own foolishness, and then they are angry at the Lord.

Number one, why did this happen? Why didn't that happen? Why did this take place in my life?

Number one, we got to look at our decisions, right?

Your decisions are critical, very important of what you are deciding to do.

It's our decisions that lead us to a certain place.

I was on the plane yesterday and ended up sitting by a evangelist in the Kojic church.

And we got to talking and got to preaching the whole way home to each other.

And she was coming to Charlotte to speak at a church. And we got connected.

And I began to talk to her about how important it is to be where we're supposed to be.

To do what we're supposed to be doing.

You need to be hearing so clearly that the Lord can speak to you and say,

don't go to that restaurant today.

And you don't say, well, Psalms 91, I'm going anyway. No, you don't go.

You don't go. There's been a gentleman that I really admire.

He went to heaven, Miles Monroe, died in a plane crash.

And I looked at and did some history like, Lord, what happened?

This is a powerful voice in the earth.

What happened?

Well, in the Bahamas, all of the commercial planes were landed. The weather was bad.

Planes, no flying. But private planes, in some ways, have an opportunity to,

do some of the things that they want to do sometimes.

And in this situation, all public planes were landed. In the Bahamas at that

moment, not one plane was in the air.

Except for Miles Monroe's plane,

and he crashed and we can look at that and say well Lord why did you kill him.

Or we can look at that and say, what decisions are we making?

Life and death decisions every single day that we're making. Can I talk to you today?

If the Lord says, don't go, don't go.

Stacey woke up one morning. This was a couple of years ago. She said,

I feel like the kids shouldn't go to school today.

Why? I don't know. I said, well, that must be the Lord.

I don't feel that way. You feel that way The Lord's talking to you Guess what

Children not going to school today So we told them No school today They said

why not We don't know Just not going We don't know.

But go ahead, play your video games, and you're not in trouble.

Just have fun, do whatever you want, but you're not going today.

Stacey Hurts. Well, later that day, there was a school shooting,

not at their school, praise God, but there was a school shooting happening somewhere

around the country. She picked that up in the spirit.

Decisions. Pick these things up. Don't be fruity, but listen,

because life and death occur.

With our decisions. We're asking, why did God do that? And we probably need

to be asking, what decision was made?

Or can I say it this way? What did we do to cause God to be unable to intervene?

Listen to me. Can I talk to you today? Don't throw stones at me.

I just want to talk to you today.

And so Proverbs 19.3, Put it on the screen again. The message translation.

I want to read it again. Watch this. Proverbs 19.3.

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity.

So why does God always get blamed?

Our decisions are important. What are we deciding?

What are we choosing? Are we getting the counsel from the Lord?

Are we where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be?

Or are we doing whatever we want to do?

I'm very, very conscious of being where the Lord wants me to be.

I've gotten to the age now, I'm almost 50. I just say no. So you want to come? No. Why not? No.

Okay? When I was in my 20s, I used to feel like I had to explain.

Let me explain to you why I don't want to go. No, actually, in my 20s,

I felt like I couldn't say no.

If you asked me, I had to go, you know. Let's go party. Okay, you know.

When I hit 30, I started saying no, but I felt like I needed to explain my no.

Now I'm close to 50. It's just no.

Can you take my phone call? No. Oh, he's mean. No, I said no. That's it, right?

And so now I'm very conscious. Where am I supposed to be?

There was one particular time I was supposed to go to a ministry event,

and I just didn't sense in my heart I was supposed to be there.

And a couple of friends was like, are you coming? I said, no.

They said, why not? I just said, no. Why? I didn't sense in my heart I was supposed to be there.

You're going to have to listen because there is a thief.

I said, there is a thief. And he's looking for ways to steal, kill, and destroy.

Another part of our if I can use this terminology stupidity is our denial,

why did this happen why did that happen why didn't this person get healed well

why did they die what what happened a lot of times we're in denial,

one particular person.

Denied the doctor's report doctor says you have a tumor and,

They said, I do not. That's denial.

Okay, that's not faith. Faith doesn't call things that are as though they are

not. Faith calls things that are not as though they are.

Let me say it again. Faith doesn't call things that are. Doctor says you have

a tumor. Faith doesn't say, I do not.

Faith calls those things that are not as though they are. So what's the difference?

Doctor says, I have a tumor.

Faith says, I call healing to come to me now in Jesus' name.

Faith doesn't say, I don't have a tumor.

Many people are dying. We're praying and believing and laying hands and doing

everything they want to do, and they've denied what the doctor has said.

I don't have it. And what does denial do? I wrote this down.

Denial has difficulty accepting reality.

Denial fights to maintain the story they tell themselves.

Difficulty accepting reality, and you fight to maintain a story that you tell yourself.

Denial rejects evidence, blames others, and becomes defensive.

When you are in denial, these are the symptoms. These are your attributes.

And one of the ways that things happen in the earth is because we are denying evidence.

We're denying reality.

We're denying these things and telling ourselves a story that we're the only

ones that believe this particular story we're telling ourselves.

And so, not only is it important, what happened? Why didn't that come to pass?

Why did that person die?

Our decisions and denial. We cannot deny evidence.

Say amen to this.

Another reason why did that happen?

Pride. Somebody say pride. Every single one of us deals with pride.

Whether you feel like you deal with pride or not, pride sits at the table every time you sit down.

Pride is sitting right next to you right now.

We all deal with some form of ego and pride. And pride says, I can do this alone.

I don't need any help.

I'm a man. I'm a woman. I can do it by myself. Pride.

Here's where you know someone has pride. There used to be an individual who

went to our church, and one time I slid him $100. I was like, praise God, be blessed.

He gave it right back to me. Like, you know, I just have, you know,

I was taught not to take handouts. I'm trying to bless you.

But guess what I do when people hand it right back to me? I keep it.

Amen. Yeah, who said keep it? That's what I do.

I put it right back in my pocket and I go spend it later on that day.

Prod says I don't need help. I can do it alone.

Prod is deceptive and manipulative. Prod tells you you're the only one going through this.

Prod says that nobody else can understand the way you feel.

Pride says that you are the only one that can get through this and I can just

do this alone. This is what pride says.

And a lot of things happen because of pride.

The scripture says that pride stands before what?

A fall. Why did they fall? Pride.

Why did that happen? Well, God has some mysterious reason as to why that happened. No, pride.

We have a part to play. Are you listening to me today?

Pride. Pride can be a part of the stupidity that ruins our own life.

We can't blame God.

Pride. I want to get back to the story real quick. The Lord just prompted me.

The story I said, I was going for this job.

And as I was going for this particular job, and in the process,

they laid me off, let me go. But I was going for the job.

I end up praying like, Lord, what happened?

And Proverbs 14, 12 came to me. There is a way that seems right.

But in the end, it's the way of destruction. You know, you and I can come up

with ways that seem right.

We can even convince ourselves that it's God.

But we actually came up with it. And I look back at that, I think that was a

way that seemed right to me.

I'm going to get this, and I'm going to be doing this and doing that, and they let me go. And,

I believe God orchestrated me getting let go.

I do, so that I can get on the journey that he has for me in my life.

And so there's a way that seems right. What are some things you think,

well, why hasn't this happened yet? Is this something I came up with?

Come on, let's all be adults here today. Did I come up with this?

Did I manufacture this? Is this a plan that I have?

Or can I really trace it back to the heart of God?

Why didn't it happen? Because God never said it was gonna happen.

You could be right here saying, your grass needs to be cut.

And you could be saying, Pastor Devon's going to come cut my grass.

I just believe Pastor Devon is coming to cut the grass.

You could say, I believe, you know, that Pastor Devon's coming.

He's going to cut this grass. He's coming.

I say now, Pastor Devon, come now cut the grass. You would be believing that forever.

I don't even cut my own grass. I don't even cut my own grass.

You got to make yourself believe something that I never said.

I never said I was coming to cut the grass. So you are making yourself believe

something that I never said. And too often, you and I make ourselves believe

something God never said. Can I talk to you today?

We're believing something God has never even told us. And we're making ourselves

believe. That's called make believe.

And so most people call things that are as though they do not exist versus calling

things that do not exist as though they do exist.

And pride says, I don't need help.

Another magnet, part of the stupidity of humanity that we participate in these

things, but somehow we blame God for the results is fear.

You know, fear is like a magnet that draws your worst possibilities.

Job said in Job 3, 325, I like what he said.

He said here, for the thing I greatly feared, watch this, has come upon me.

And what I dreaded has happened to me.

Notice, I believe fear here was the magnet that brought what he dreaded,

fear. Somebody say fear. Fear.

A lot of us are not enjoying life because of fear. A lot of us are paralyzed.

A lot of us are in torment.

And what we are fearing actually is happening to us because it's an expectation.

And you know you do get what you expect. Right?

Let me say it again. You get what you expect. Expectation is a biblical word.

You get what you expect. And so fear is an expectation of something negative.

And if you meditate on it more and more, you can literally manifest that thing in your life.

And fear will come to you. And you say, why did that happen?

Because of fear caused it to happen.

And this is why you got to be so engulfed in the love of God,

because perfected love casts out fear.

1 John 4, 18 says, there is no fear in love, but perfect, developed,

mature, full-grown love will cast out fear, because fear has torment.

And so, and he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

And so when you're dealing with fear, you're going to have to throw yourself into the love of God.

When there's fear that tries to overwhelm me, something's going to happen to

your kids. I throw myself, I throw them and myself into the love of God.

Something's going to happen to my wife. No, God loves me. He loves my wife.

He loves my family. And everything is going to be all right.

It's fear that can bring it in. And if we get our mouth in line with that fear,

we can literally manifest negativity in our life. Say amen to that.

Psalms 112.7 in the New Living says it this way. They do not fear bad news.

Somebody say, that's me.

Say this. I do not fear bad news.

Say it again. I do not fear bad news. Say it one more time. I do not fear bad news.

I confidently trust the Lord to care for me.

Amen. To care for me. I don't fear bad news.

Many people don't go to the doctor because they fear bad news.

I said in healing school, and I'll say it again, I grew up in a home that we

didn't go to the doctor. I don't know why, but just we never went.

If something happened, throw some dirt on it. You'll be fine.

You know, put some peroxide on it.

You know. You know, what's that? What's that? Vicks. Put some Vicks on your

chest, on your top lip. You're going to be fine. We didn't go.

Y'all know what I'm talking about. Yeah. Alcohol, too. You know,

get that rubbing alcohol.

You're going to be fine. Tylenol. Nothing wrong with Tylenol, by the way.

But Stacey grew up in a home. She went to the doctor all the time.

So when we had kids, understand, that was a tug and pull because she,

I mean, they got to go to the doctor.

And I'm like, no, they just lay down somewhere, pat them on the back.

And so that was a struggle in the beginning of our marriage.

She was quick to take them.

Now I've come over, okay? Now just go. Just go to the doctor.

They want to go? Just go. Praise God.

And we find out what's wrong, and then we address it in Jesus' name.

We don't fear the bad news. The bad news tells us what's wrong.

The bad news gives us a target to identify and to attack.

Find out what's going on. Now, the doctors can be wrong.

They can be. okay but fine and go get a second and third opinion if you need

to but find out what's going on I believe doctors and preachers should be on

the same team working together to get the spirit soul and body healthy and whole amen,

but somehow some way we do not want to hear the bad news so we don't go get

our physical yeah I'm talking to somebody today

we don't go get our physical we don't go to the dentist we don't we don't go

get that checked out and we don't find out what's wrong But if we find out what's

wrong, we can address it.

In some ways, it can be medicine that addresses it.

In another ways, you can find out what it is and address it by the Spirit of God.

Let me tell you a situation in my life. Many years ago, I used to wake up with hives all over my body.

I would wake up, be all over my face. And every Sunday I was nervous because

if I woke up and all over my face, I was going to see a monster I wasn't going

to let the hive stop me. I'm going to get up here now Y'all might just forgive how my face look, right?

But I would wake up with these hives I went to the doctor and the doctor said

they had some medicine to give me that, you know It can get rid of the hives,

but it may give me cancer I said, well, no, thank you.

Yeah, I don't, you know, we're going to get rid of the hives another way.

And they, you know, doctor, and then they would put me on Predazone.

Y'all know about Predazone. And for some reason, now Predazone got rid of the

hives, but I was an angry, hungry individual.

I'm yelling at my kids and my wife and whoever, maybe Tasha too,

I don't know. But I was angry and hungry all the time. And I started gaining

weight. I said, no, I can't do this Predazone.

And the Lord said, start talking to the hives. We're going to talk about this

tomorrow in healing school. Start talking to them.

And I began just to talk to them.

And as I began to talk to them, it started to go away.

And then I went and saw a holistic doctor. You're trying to holistic?

You better try everything.

Here's my remedy. Try everything.

I went, and the holistic doctor said, hey, take these vitamins here or there.

I mean, real natural vitamins. I got done, and speaking to the hives and taking

the vitamins, them hives have never come back.

And that was like six, seven years ago. Amen.

Amen. But I had to go find out what was going on.

Some of y'all think, well, you was allergic to something. We tried that too.

Okay? We changed all the detergent. We bought brand new sheets.

We bought new pillows. We even bought a new bed.

They were still coming back right no we tried it all,

but the Lord said talk to him and he led us to the solicit doctor why I didn't

fear the bad news stop fearing the bad news get the news and address it some

people are dying for reasons that medicine could take care of,

say amen to that you know we're in the 21st century right,

Another reason, why did this happen? Why did that not happen?

Why is this working? Why is it not working? Another reason is laziness. I ain't scared of y'all.

You're just lazy. Well, we got this going on in my body, and you got that going

on, and why won't this go away? Because you're lazy.

Well why won't why have I not met a woman yet because you're lazy,

I got security if you try to jump on me now,

lazy people want what hard working people have.

Lazy people want what hardworking people have. You're lazy.

So this particular individual, this particular individual I know passed away.

And we were praying. We were believing.

We were confessing. We were doing everything wrong we knew to do.

She was in our ministry, and she passed away. And I prayed. I cried,

and it was just, it was sad.

And I said, Lord, where did we miss it? And he said, y'all didn't miss it.

He said, this individual, I said, what happened?

This individual denied that they even had a sickness, would never,

I don't have that. Well, you do.

So they wouldn't address it because they felt like they didn't have it.

Never did anything to it. Individual pride, never told anybody what they were

going through until they died.

I'll do it alone, me and God. It's pride. Why did that happen?

Fear, didn't want to go to the doctor because doctor may give us some bad news.

So fear and then didn't want to do the work it takes.

If the doctor said, do 10 jumping jacks, I want to do 10 jumping jacks.

What's that called? Lazy.

Hardheaded, rebellious, whatever you want to call it. It all is the same thing.

Right. And many times, not just in that situation.

Let's look at any of our lives.

Why didn't it happen? Why did it happen? Somewhere along the lines,

there were some decisions that were made.

There was some fear involved. There was some denial involved somewhere.

There was some pride involved. There was some laziness involved.

And we got to the point where why didn't God intervene or what happened to him?

Why did that happen?

I think we got to look at ourselves sometimes.

And say, hey, where did I miss it? Where did I make the mistake?

Now, I don't want to be too simplistic. There are some things that are or appear to be unexplainable.

There are some times that the enemy, the thief, appears to have won a battle.

He lost the war, but he appears to have won the battle.

And there are some times that I don't know what happened. I'll say this. Listen to me now.

God's perfect will, look at me now, God's perfect will doesn't always happen.

His perfect will is his will found in the word. Doesn't always happen.

You know, it's God's will that no man would die without him,

that all will come to know the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is his perfect will. But you know, people are going to die without him.

His perfect will doesn't always happen. You know his perfect will says in everything,

give thanks for this is the will of

God. How many people are grumbling and complaining and crying and moaning?

His perfect will is not always happening. It's his perfect will that we all

abstain from sexual immorality.

That's the will of God. But how many of you know people involved?

Nobody in here, nobody online.

But people involved with sexual immorality.

Three, God's will doesn't always happen in the earth.

And I want to oversimplify this, but I just want to say, why did that happen?

Why did this person die? What happened to this baby? What happened here? What happened there?

I want to let you know his perfect will doesn't always happen.

But I want to turn the question back.

A lot of times these things happen. Listen to me now.

Because God is looking for us to repent.

He's not doing it so that we repent. It happens, and our response should be of repentance.

Let's go real quick. Go to Luke 13. It's not in the notes, but I want to show

y'all something. Luke chapter 13.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

And we'll look at verse 1. Luke 13 and verse 1. Let me show you something real

quick. Are y'all getting something out of today?

Look at verse 1.

There were present at that season, some who told him about the Galatians whose

blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Let's pause.

There were some Galatians that were offering sacrifices unto God.

Pilate murdered them.

So their blood was mingled with the sacrifice. He killed them all.

Look at verse 2. And Jesus answered and said to them, do you suppose that these

Galatians were worse sinners than all the other Galatians because they suffered such things?

Jesus said in verse 3, I tell you no, but unless you repent,

you will all likewise perish.

Notice he's saying they weren't worse sinners than anybody else.

That happened to them, but let's stop asking why did that happen?

And let's repent.

Okay, let's show you the next one. Look at verse four. Or how about those 18?

So apparently there were 18 people who were on the tower, and the tower fell and killed them.

What happened, we asked. And Jesus said, do you think that they were worse sinners

than all the other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?

He says, I tell you no.

They were not worse sinners. They didn't die because they were worse sinners

than anybody else. No, but let's not consider that.

Let's consider this. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

What am I saying to you? A lot of times we look at these events and we say, where's God?

What happened? Why did God let that happen? Why did God do that?

And God's saying, don't look at this event and ask, where's God?

Look at this event and say, I better make sure I'm right with God.

Are you getting this? I better make sure that I'm in right standing.

I better turn and change from my ways and make sure I'm right with God.

Because if these people that died were innocent,

then I need to make sure I'm right with God. Do you see this?

And so we ask, why do these things happen? I think our response should be, let me repent.

Let me repent. I remember when Kobe Bryant, y'all remember Kobe Bryant passed

in a helicopter, hit the mountain, young.

You know, we thought he had more time. We all thought he had more time.

I was devastated when he passed. I thought, man, I thought this,

he was my age. I thought he had more time and people were calling me.

Why did God let Kobe Bryant die?

Oh my goodness, why, why, why? You know what I responded with?

Are you right with Jesus?

It's time for you to give your life to Jesus. Just like Kobe went,

you could go like that too. Right?

It's time to repent when we see these things. It's time to say,

whoa, whoa, whoa, let me, you know what?

Let me give my life to Jesus.

Let me go and be sold out to him. Because in any moment, something can happen. Say amen to that.

I know y'all wanted some shouting and screaming today and some celebratory music.

And come on, Kurt, get it going.

I want to talk to you today about why these things take place.

And then there are some things that happen that we don't understand.

There are some things that I've seen that has occurred I can't even explain.

I would want to know. When I get to heaven, I've got to ask God these things.

Why? Do you know probably when we get there, we're not going to think about it?

It's so major now, but we get there, we're like, whoa, look,

oh my Lord. Look at the beauty and the splendor of this place.

My goodness, we're not even going to be thinking about some of these questions,

that we're considering right now. But there are times that you have questions.

I don't profess to have all the answers. I'm going to let you know.

I don't know everything.

Do you know that? I don't know everything. I can't explain everything.

But Deuteronomy 29, 29 in the New Living is a verse I always lean on when I come to this place.

It says, the Lord our God has secrets.

He has secrets known to no one.

We are not accountable for those secrets. But we and our children are accountable

forever for all that he has revealed to us.

So that we may obey all the terms of these instructions. I lean on this verse. What happened?

Why did God let them die? What happened? We prayed and they died or,

you know, they were innocent and they were young. And what happened?

I go back to Deuteronomy 29, 29. One more time, guys, on the screen.

Deuteronomy 29, 29. The Lord our God has secrets.

And these secrets are known to no one.

You're just going to have to come to grips that that is a secret. that only God knows.

In order to have peace that passes understanding, you're gonna have to give

up your right to understand everything.

Can I say that again? In order to have peace that passes understanding,

you're gonna have to give up your right to understand everything.

There's some things that are happening. Even in my life, I don't understand.

I keep saying, I give up my right because I need peace.

I give up my right to understand everything because I want peace that passes understanding.

And so I come back to that verse. Why did that happen? If I can't give all of

the things that I told you today,

that's part of our quote unquote stupidity of what we do wrong and we can't

come to conclusion I lean on Deuteronomy 29 29 there are some things that are

secret that only belong to the Lord,

I'm going to say this to you God's will is always good,

but good is not always God's will think about that.

When Jesus was getting ready to be put on that cross and he had been scourged

and beaten and punched and abused and we could not even recognize him.

At the time, we can look at that and say, that's not God's will.

That man's getting beat to death.

But it was God's will. And it didn't look good, but it was his will so that

you and I could live and have life and life more abundantly.

God's will is always good now, but good is not always God's will.

Does this make sense?

This is how you experience true life.