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Andy Stanley - Why Is There Suffering In The World · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: So I think C. S.
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Speaker 2: Lewis was spot on when he wrote these famous words.
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Speaker 2: He wrote, God whispers to us and our pleasures, speaks in.
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Speaker 1: Our conscience, but shouts in our pain.
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Speaker 2: And then for the next few minutes, I want to
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Speaker 2: talk about how he completes this thought. You may have
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Speaker 2: read this before. It is talking about pain. Pain is
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Speaker 2: his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. And maybe that's
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Speaker 2: your story. You were going along kind of minding your
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Speaker 2: own business. You hadn't given God a thought in maybe
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Speaker 2: many years, or maybe ever, and then you got that call,
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Speaker 2: You felt that pain, you got that bad news, You
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Speaker 2: realize your life would never be the same again, and
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Speaker 2: you found yourself looking up.
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Speaker 1: And then you found.
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Speaker 2: Yourself face to face with a God you'd never believed
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Speaker 2: in before that perhaps you had abandoned in childhood and
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Speaker 2: you've been believing ever since. That pain was in fact
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Speaker 2: the megaphone that got your attention. Or maybe your story
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Speaker 2: is the opposite of that pain in the world, or
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Speaker 2: maybe personal suffering caused you to doubt God.
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Speaker 1: It's the thing that called you to lose faith.
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Speaker 2: Isn't it interesting that people with identical experiences or near
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Speaker 2: identical experiences can arrive at different conclusions about faith in
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Speaker 2: God when it comes to their experience with pain. That's
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Speaker 2: what I want to talk about for the next few minutes. Now,
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Speaker 2: you may be familiar with this name, Admiral Jim Stockdale.
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Speaker 1: Admiral Jim Stockdale.
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Speaker 2: Admiral Jim Stockdale actually ran for Vice president back in
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Speaker 2: the nineties. But what he's most famous for was he
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Speaker 2: was a pow during the Vietnam where he was actually
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Speaker 2: a vice admiral in the Navy and he was the
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Speaker 2: highest ranking This is amazing. He was the highest ranking
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Speaker 2: the United States military officer to be imprisoned in the
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Speaker 2: Hanoi Hilton Prisoner of War camp during the Vietnam War.
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Speaker 1: In fact, he was a pow for eight years.
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Speaker 2: He was tortured over twenty times, and one of the
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Speaker 2: reasons he was tortured he refused to participate.
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Speaker 1: In the North Vietnamese propaganda machine.
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Speaker 2: He actually took a razor and disfigured his own face
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Speaker 2: so they would not put him on camera. Well years
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Speaker 2: later after he was out and accomplished some extraordinary things.
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Speaker 2: Jim Collins interviewed him when he was writing his book
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Speaker 2: Good to Great. Some of you've read that book, and
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Speaker 2: in the interview, of course, Jim Collins asked the question
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Speaker 2: that we would all ask. He said, how in the
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Speaker 2: world did you survive eight years in a pow camp?
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Speaker 2: And here's what he said. He said, I never lost
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Speaker 2: faith in the end of the story. I never lost
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Speaker 2: faith in the end of the story. This is such
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Speaker 2: a powerful statement to me. I thought about just reading
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Speaker 2: this and then we could just close in prayer. This
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Speaker 2: is such an extraordinary, extraordinary statement. But he continues, and
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Speaker 2: he explains, he said the following.
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Speaker 1: I never doubted not only that I.
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Speaker 2: Would get out, but also that I would prevail in
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Speaker 2: the end and turn the experience into the defining event
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Speaker 2: of my life, which in retrospect I would not trade.
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Speaker 1: That's amazing.
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Speaker 2: And then Jim Collins asked him this question. He said, well,
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Speaker 2: you made it out. Tell me about the people who
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Speaker 2: didn't make it out. Who who didn't make it out?
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Speaker 2: And his answer surprised everybody. He said, Oh, that's easy.
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Speaker 2: The optimist. The optimist. Jim said, what do you mean
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Speaker 2: by optimist?
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Speaker 1: Here's what he said.
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Speaker 2: He said, the optimists were the ones who said, well,
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Speaker 2: we're going to be out by Christmas, and Christmas would come,
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Speaker 2: and Christmas would go, and then they'd say, well, we're
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Speaker 2: going to be out by Easter, and Easter would come,
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Speaker 2: and Easter would go, and then Thanksgiving and then it
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Speaker 2: would be Christmas again. And he went on to say this,
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Speaker 2: those men died of a broken heart. And then he
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Speaker 2: turned to Jim Collins. He said, what I'm about to
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Speaker 2: say is so very important. What I'm about to say
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Speaker 2: next is the lesson to take away from all of this.
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Speaker 1: Here's what he said.
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Speaker 2: He said, you must never confuse faith that you will
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Speaker 2: prevail in the end. You must never confuse faith that
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Speaker 2: you will prevail in the end, which you can never
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Speaker 2: afford to lose. You can never afford to lose that
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Speaker 2: you are going to prevail in the end. But you
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Speaker 2: can't confuse that kind of confidence in faith with the
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Speaker 2: discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality,
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Speaker 2: whatever that might be. Now, this statement is sometimes referred
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Speaker 2: to as the Stockdale paradox. And you know what a
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Speaker 2: paradox is. A paradox is a statement that on the
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Speaker 2: surface doesn't seem to make any sense, and then you
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Speaker 2: explore it further and it actually proves to be true.
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Speaker 2: And the paradox that he's pointing to. The reason this
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Speaker 2: is called the paradox is the paradox is to never
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Speaker 2: give up hope, but never deceive yourself about current reality.
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Speaker 2: You never give up hope, but at the same time,
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Speaker 2: you don't refuse to face the things that you don't
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Speaker 2: want to face, the things that would cause you to
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Speaker 2: possibly lose hope. You hold both of them. You never
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Speaker 2: give up hope and you never deceive yourself about current reality.
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Speaker 2: And the reason I bring that up is that Christianity,
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Speaker 2: our faith, actually comes prepackaged with a similar paradox.
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Speaker 1: And the similar paradox is this that we have a.
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Speaker 2: Future hope and it is tethered to a brutal fact.
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Speaker 2: To use his term, that we have a future hope
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Speaker 2: and it is tetherto it comes complete with a brutal fact.
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Speaker 2: And the problem is for many of us as Christians,
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Speaker 2: we get so focused on the hope that we try
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Speaker 2: to pray away, faith away and obey away the brutal
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Speaker 2: fact that is part of the package. In fact, some
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Speaker 2: versions of Christianity, maybe you were raised with one of
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Speaker 2: these versions, some versions of Christianity just deny the brutal fact.
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Speaker 2: So let's begin with that. The brutal fact of Christianity.
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Speaker 1: Here it is.
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Speaker 2: It's the one that's easy to lose sight of, especially
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Speaker 2: when things are going good. But if you lose sight
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Speaker 2: of it when things are going well, it creates confusion,
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Speaker 2: it creates faithlessness, and it creates despair when things turn
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Speaker 2: upside down.
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Speaker 1: Here's the brutal fact.
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Speaker 2: There is a cause and effect relationship between sin and suffering.
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Speaker 2: And we know this on a personal level because all
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Speaker 2: of us have done things that we consider bad and
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Speaker 2: we suffered because of it. We have all experienced the
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Speaker 2: pain that is associated with certain behaviors. If you're a
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Speaker 2: Jesus follower and use the word sin, you know that
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Speaker 2: you have experienced the consequences, the personal consequences of personal sin.
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Speaker 1: So we all get that. But the brute fact, the.
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Speaker 2: Fact that it's so difficult for many people to get
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Speaker 2: their mind and hearts around, is this that the relationship,
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Speaker 2: the cause effect and relationship between sin and suffering goes
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Speaker 2: beyond personal behavior. It is a global reality. The brutal
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Speaker 2: fact is that there is a global relationship between sin
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Speaker 2: and suffering.
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Speaker 1: This is the part we resist, and.
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Speaker 2: The reason we resist it is because it's not fair,
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Speaker 2: and it takes everything out of our control. But the
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Speaker 2: fact is that when sin entered the world, it held
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Speaker 2: the door for sorrow, death, illness, and despair that they
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Speaker 2: snuck in right behind Sin. When sin entered the world,
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Speaker 2: death came in along with it and Jesus. The interesting
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Speaker 2: thing is when you read the New Testament, Jesus assumed
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Speaker 2: this worldview. Jesus assumed this brutal fact. The message of
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Speaker 2: Jesus was a message of hope that never lost sight
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Speaker 2: of the brute fact or the brutal fact that sin
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Speaker 2: was making its way through the world and would touch
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Speaker 2: every single human being. This was built into the paradigm
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Speaker 2: that he lived with and that he embraced, and that
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Speaker 2: he left us with. In the Gospel, so a couple
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Speaker 2: of examples might help. John tells us about a time
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Speaker 2: that Jesus and the disciples were going along, and well,
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Speaker 2: here's how John wrote it. He said, as we or
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Speaker 2: he went along, he talking about Jesus saw a blind
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Speaker 2: man who'd been blind from birth, and his disciples asked Jesus, Rabbi,
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Speaker 2: who sinned this man or his parents that he was
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Speaker 2: born blind. So they understood that there's a relationship between
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Speaker 2: blindness or illness, and sin. But they thought it was
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Speaker 2: a one to one correlation. Their assumption looks something like this,
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Speaker 2: that good things happened to good people, bad things happened
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Speaker 2: to sinners.
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Speaker 1: What they did not understand or had lost sight.
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Speaker 2: Of, the fact is that there is a global relation
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Speaker 2: ship between sin and suffering, between sin, sorrow and death.
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Speaker 2: They didn't seem to understand that connection. So Jesus responds
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Speaker 2: this way. He says, well, you're wrong. Neither this man
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Speaker 2: nor his parents sin, said Jesus, not meaning they'd never sin,
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Speaker 2: but meaning no one's personal sin was responsible for this
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Speaker 2: man's blindness. This man was not blind because of personal sin.
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Speaker 2: But this man was blind because sin was wreaking havoc
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Speaker 2: in the world. That the presence of sin and the
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Speaker 2: world resulted in illness and resulted in this man's blindness.
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Speaker 2: It was the consequence, the global consequence of sin in
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Speaker 2: the world. He goes on and says, this, but this happened,
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Speaker 2: This blindness happened so that the works of God. This
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Speaker 2: is so amazing, so that the works of God might
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Speaker 2: be displayed in him. Jesus said, the purpose for this
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Speaker 2: blindness that was caused by the global effects of sin.
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Speaker 2: It's going to turn into an illustration of the fact
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Speaker 2: that I, the Son of God, have power over the
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Speaker 2: global consequences of sin, which infers that I have power
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Speaker 2: over sin, that I am the solution to the world's
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Speaker 2: greatest problem, the problem that plagues every single one of
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Speaker 2: us every single day. That God would use his power
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Speaker 2: over the global consequences of sin to draw attention to himself.
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Speaker 2: He goes on and he says this. He preaches a
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Speaker 2: little sermon. He says, as long as it is day,
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Speaker 2: we must do the works of him who sent me
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Speaker 2: talking about God. But that day is coming to an end.
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Speaker 2: Night is coming when no one can work. And of
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Speaker 2: course that they look at each other, like does anyone
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Speaker 2: know what he's talking about? So Jesus clarifies it for him,
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Speaker 2: and he makes this statement, while I am in the world,
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Speaker 2: I am the light of the world. While I am
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Speaker 2: in the world, I am going to demonstrate my power
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Speaker 2: over the global consequences of sin, because God has power
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Speaker 2: over the global consequences of sin. While I am in
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Speaker 2: the world, I'm going to show you that I have
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Speaker 2: come to.
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Speaker 1: Address the root issue.
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Speaker 2: There is hope, but in the meantime, there is a
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Speaker 2: brute fact you must never lose sight of, because if
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Speaker 2: you lose sight of the brute fact, you will eventually
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Speaker 2: lose your faith. On another occasion. In fact, this is
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Speaker 2: a really familiar story. We actually talked about this a
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Speaker 2: few weeks ago. Jesus is in someone's large home.
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Speaker 1: He's teaching.
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Speaker 2: There's so many people there that people are outside trying
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Speaker 2: to listen.
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Speaker 1: You'll remember this story.
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Speaker 2: Some men show up with a friend of theirs that's paralyzed.
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Speaker 2: They want Jesus to heal their friend. They can't get
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Speaker 2: Jesus in front of their friends, so they climb up
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Speaker 2: on the roof of the house, dig through the roof
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Speaker 2: of the house, and they lower this man on a
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Speaker 2: cot right at the feet of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: And you'll remember this.
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Speaker 2: When Jesus saw their faith, they had faith that Jesus
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Speaker 2: could heal their friend. When Jesus saw their faith, he
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Speaker 2: said to the paralyzed man, and no one was expecting this.
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Speaker 2: He said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven,
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Speaker 2: to which he could have responded, that's not what I
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Speaker 2: dropped in for right, And his friends up on the
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Speaker 2: roof are like that, that's not why we dug a
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Speaker 2: hole in the roof. We did not bring him here
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Speaker 2: to be forgiven of his sins. So why would Jesus
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Speaker 2: say this? Because Jesus is pointing to this fact that
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Speaker 2: there is a relationship between sin and illness, sin and sickness,
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Speaker 2: not personal sin, but existence and the presence of sin
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Speaker 2: in the world. Now, when Jesus said this, the religious
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Speaker 2: leaders immediately kind of went berserk. They were like, wait
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Speaker 2: a minute, he's blaspheming who who can forgive sins?
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Speaker 1: But God alone? Here he is putting himself in the
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Speaker 1: place of God. And Jesus smiles because this was the point.
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Speaker 2: He smiles, and he asks them a question, not a
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Speaker 2: trick question. He asked, which is easier to say, Which
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Speaker 2: is easier to say to this paralyzed man, your sins
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Speaker 2: are forgiven?
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Speaker 1: Anyone can say that, right.
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Speaker 2: Which is easier to say to this man, your sins
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Speaker 2: are forgiven? Or to say, get up, take up your mat,
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Speaker 2: and walk, because the two are related.
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Speaker 1: Sin and illness are related.
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Speaker 2: Not this man's personal sin, but the presence of sin
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Speaker 2: in the world is why this man is paralyzed.
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Speaker 1: And so Jesus.
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Speaker 2: Responded with this, but I want you to know. But
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Speaker 2: I want you to know that the Son of Man,
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Speaker 2: here it is, has authority on earth to forgive sin.
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Speaker 1: I want you to know that the.
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Speaker 2: Son of Man has authority on earth to reverse the
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Speaker 2: consequences of the global impact of sin on the world.
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Speaker 1: I want you to know who you are dealing with.
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Speaker 1: But how does he prove that?
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Speaker 2: How do you prove you have the power to forgive
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Speaker 2: sin and the consequences associated with sin? Will you reverse
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Speaker 2: the consequences of sin? Not the man's personal sin, the
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Speaker 2: sin that impacts all of us, the sin that touches everyone.
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Speaker 2: And he said to the man, get up and go home.
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Speaker 2: And he did, and the crowd was in awe because
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Speaker 2: something greater than the temple was here, someone, someone, more
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Speaker 2: powerful than the global consequences of sin have arrived. Then
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Speaker 2: years later, the Apostle Paul comes along, and the Apostle
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Speaker 2: Paul kind of teases this idea out for us. Instead
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Speaker 2: of illustrating it like Jesus did, he explains it. And
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Speaker 2: here's how he explains it. In what we call the
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Speaker 2: Book of Romans, a letter he wrote to Christians living
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Speaker 2: in Rome. He said, here's the big idea, Christians, here's
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Speaker 2: the idea you dare not lose sight of. We have
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Speaker 2: hope tethered to a brute fact that sin has impacted
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Speaker 2: the entire world.
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Speaker 1: Here are Paul's words.
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Speaker 2: He wrote these, Therefore, just as Sin entered the world
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Speaker 2: through one man, and I have to pause and make
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Speaker 2: an observation. This is so helpful. The Apostle Paul talks
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Speaker 2: about sin as an entity. He personifies it. He treats
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Speaker 2: sin like we talk about energy or information. You can't
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Speaker 2: see energy, you can't see information, but they're everywhere. You
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Speaker 2: can't put them in a box. But it's undeniable, right,
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Speaker 2: you can't deny energy or information.
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Speaker 1: They affect everything.
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Speaker 2: And so the Apostle Paul kind of talks about sin
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Speaker 2: in the same way. It's like an entity that you
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Speaker 2: can't see, but it impacts everything, and it impacts everyone.
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Speaker 2: And he goes on and he says this, Therefore, just
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Speaker 2: as Sin entered the world through one man, and right
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Speaker 2: on the heels of sin, as soon as Sin entered
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Speaker 2: the world, sin held the door. And right behind Sin
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Speaker 2: came death through sin. And in this way, he said,
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Speaker 2: in this way, death came to all people. Death came
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Speaker 2: to all people because all sin, death and its allies
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Speaker 2: marched through the world, and you cannot pray it away,
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Speaker 2: you cannot faith it away, and you cannot.
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Speaker 1: Obey it away. This is the brute fact.
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Speaker 2: This is the reality that is hard for us to
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Speaker 2: get our minds and hearts around.
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Speaker 1: But if you divorce your.
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Speaker 2: Hope in Christ from this brute fact, you run the
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Speaker 2: risk of losing your faith. And anyone who tells you otherwise,
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Speaker 2: anyone who promises you that there's a way around this
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Speaker 2: is either trying to sell you something or they have never.
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Speaker 1: Ever read the New Testament.
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Speaker 2: They have certainly never followed Jesus through the Gospels. And
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Speaker 2: we don't like this. We don't like this because it's
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Speaker 2: not fair. But facts aren't fair. Facts are facts, and
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Speaker 2: this brute fact is absolutely true, and you have experienced
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Speaker 2: the reality of it, and in some cases, you experience
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Speaker 2: the reality of this every single day. We want there
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Speaker 2: and I get this. I'm the same way. We want
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Speaker 2: there to be a one to one correlation. We want
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Speaker 2: good things to happen to good people, and we want
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Speaker 2: bad things to happen to not sow good people so
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Speaker 2: they will become good people. But you're an adult. You've
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Speaker 2: lived long enough to know that is not how the
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Speaker 2: world works. And here's what you need to know. Jesus assumed.
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Speaker 2: Jesus taught that's not how the world works. And if
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Speaker 2: you lost faith, this is so huge. If you lost
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Speaker 2: faith because somehow sin and suffering did not line up
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Speaker 2: with your Christian theology, perhaps you had the wrong theology
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Speaker 2: if you cling to that myth that somehow only good
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Speaker 2: things happen to good people and bad things happen to
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Speaker 2: bad people. If you cling to that myth, your faith
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Speaker 2: will eventually be ground into dust. But here's what you
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Speaker 2: need to know Christians. Christians have never and Christians have
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Speaker 2: never believed that God doesn't allow bad things to happen
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Speaker 2: to good people.
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Speaker 1: In fact, just the opposite.
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Speaker 2: Christians believe that the worst possible thing happen to the
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Speaker 2: best possible person.
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Speaker 1: So should we resist evil? Yes? Should we fight and
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Speaker 1: try to solve the problems of the world. Yes.
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Speaker 2: Should we try to alleviate pain and suffering in the world.
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Speaker 1: Yes?
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Speaker 2: Will we win that battle in the end? No, because
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Speaker 2: that is not our ultimate battle.
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Speaker 1: Does that mean God doesn't care?
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Speaker 2: No?
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Speaker 1: Read the Gospels. We know God cares.
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Speaker 2: But this is not the end of the story. And
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Speaker 2: that is not the end of the story. There is hope,
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Speaker 2: but our hope is not in solving the global consequences
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Speaker 2: of sinning the world. Our hope is in the person
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Speaker 2: who came to address the old ultimate issue, which is
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Speaker 2: not illness. It's not sickness, it's not pain. The ultimate
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Speaker 2: issue is sin. And the brute fact of Christianity is
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Speaker 2: there is a relationship between sin, sorrow, and ultimately death.
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Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul continues.
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Speaker 2: He says, this for if this is so big, if
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Speaker 2: by the trespass or the sin of one man, talking
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Speaker 2: about Adam, death rained through that one man, And don't
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Speaker 2: miss this, The Apostle Paul says, Look, hey, I'm not
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Speaker 2: pulling any punches. You live in a world where death reigns,
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Speaker 2: death rains. He says, But if sin entered the world
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Speaker 2: and through one man, death rain through that one man,
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Speaker 2: here's the good news. How much more, how much more
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Speaker 2: will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and
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Speaker 2: of the gift of righteousness.
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Speaker 1: And let me define these terms for you. This is huge.
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Speaker 2: In this context, Grace is a reference to the ability
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Speaker 2: to endure, and righteousness is a reference to the fact
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Speaker 2: that our relationship with God is secure. He said, if
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Speaker 2: death reigned through the one man Adam, who brought sin
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Speaker 2: into the world, how much more will those of us
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Speaker 2: who have the ability to endure and a relationship with
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Speaker 2: our heavenly Father that is secure. How much more then
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Speaker 2: will we reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: But we reign in life. This is huge.
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Speaker 2: We reign in life by embracing this paradox. We embrace
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Speaker 2: the paradox that sin will have its way today but
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Speaker 2: not forever, that sin will have its way today but
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Speaker 2: not forever, or to paraphrase Jesus to kind of put
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Speaker 2: a spin on Jesus words, we do not reign in
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Speaker 2: life by devoting our lives to preserving our lives.
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Speaker 1: If that's the wind, you can never win.
18:45
Speaker 2: We reign in life by following the one who offered
18:49
Speaker 2: real life and the ultimate and final solution for sin.
18:54
Speaker 1: And the amazing thing is this.
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Speaker 2: The New Testament authors are so clear and they're so
19:00
Speaker 2: insistent on this that Jesus did not offer himself as
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Speaker 2: the final solution to sin from the comforts of home,
19:08
Speaker 2: that he became one of us to experience exactly what
19:13
Speaker 2: we experience The gospel writer John begins his gospel with
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Speaker 2: these famous words. He said this, that the word became
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Speaker 2: flesh talking about Jesus and made his dwelling among us.
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Speaker 1: He faced what we face. He felt what we felt.
19:30
Speaker 2: The apostle Paul, he puts his spin on it. He
19:32
Speaker 2: says it this way. He says, Jesus, being in very
19:35
Speaker 2: nature God, think about this, that Jesus was God in
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Speaker 2: a body, did not consider equality with God something to
19:43
Speaker 2: be used to his own advantage. In other words, Jesus
19:46
Speaker 2: never cheated. Jesus never played the God card. Jesus experienced
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Speaker 2: life just like you experience it, just like I experienced it.
19:54
Speaker 2: But he went even further. The apostle Paul elaborate. He says,
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Speaker 2: he humbled himself by becoming obedient. How obedient to death,
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Speaker 2: even death on a cross, That your savior faced the
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Speaker 2: ultimate consequence of sin. Death, but not just any death,
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Speaker 2: the worst kind of death. The author of Hebrews will
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Speaker 2: come along later and give us his spin on it.
20:22
Speaker 2: Here's how he says it. He says, for we do
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Speaker 2: not have a high priest talking about Jesus, who is
20:27
Speaker 2: unable to empathize with our weaknesses. The implication being that
20:33
Speaker 2: weakness is a permanent part of the human condition. You
20:37
Speaker 2: can't pray faith or obey your way beyond it. But
20:41
Speaker 2: he says, the good news is that your high priest,
20:44
Speaker 2: the one that you go to in prayer, understands and
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Speaker 2: can empathize.
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Speaker 1: He continues, he says this, but on the contrary, we
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Speaker 1: have a high priest who has been tempted in every
20:53
Speaker 1: way just as we are.
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Speaker 2: And then here's the best part, he says, in the meantime,
21:00
Speaker 2: In the meantime, here's what you're to do.
21:02
Speaker 1: In the meantime.
21:03
Speaker 2: You are to do exactly what your first century brothers
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Speaker 2: and sisters did as they lived in the conflict of
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Speaker 2: a future hope, but a world that was rapped by pain, illness, suffering,
21:15
Speaker 2: and death. It's the same thing that I've seen dozens
21:19
Speaker 2: and dozens of parents do when their children are sick, or.
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Speaker 1: When they've had to bury a child.
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Speaker 2: It's the thing I've seen dozens and dozens of brothers
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Speaker 2: and sisters.
21:28
Speaker 1: Do when they had to bury a parent too early.
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Speaker 2: The thing I've seen hundreds of people do when they
21:34
Speaker 2: faced extraordinary suffering or were surprised by grief or surprised
21:39
Speaker 2: by loss.
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Speaker 1: Here is the invitation.
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Speaker 2: Here is how to live in the messy, messy middle.
21:46
Speaker 2: Here's what the author of Hebrews says. Here is God's
21:49
Speaker 2: promise to you. He writes, let us then approach God's
21:54
Speaker 2: throne of grace with confidence. He may here it is,
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Speaker 2: receive mercy and find grace to help us in our
22:06
Speaker 2: time of need.
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Speaker 1: The New Testament.
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Speaker 2: Authors had their feet firmly planted on the soil of suffering.
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Speaker 1: They understood the world we live in.
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Speaker 2: And the author of Hebrews is this when you're going
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Speaker 2: through the suffering and the pain, when you realize I'm
22:22
Speaker 2: caught in the messy middle.
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Speaker 1: There is a hope, but there is a brute fact
22:25
Speaker 1: that I cannot get around.
22:26
Speaker 2: He says, you can come to your heavenly Father with confidence,
22:29
Speaker 2: and here is God's promise to you. You will receive
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Speaker 2: mercy and you will receive grace. You will receive mercy
22:36
Speaker 2: and you will receive grace. You will receive grace.
22:39
Speaker 1: And mercy in your time of need.
22:42
Speaker 2: And then once again, the apostle Paul, and think about this,
22:46
Speaker 2: the apostle Paul, who himself was awakened by the megaphone
22:50
Speaker 2: of pain on his way to Damascus to inflict pain
22:55
Speaker 2: on first century Christians. Again, he puts this in context
22:59
Speaker 2: for us when he writes these powerful words. He says,
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Speaker 2: I consider that our present sufferings, no one avoids this,
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Speaker 2: no one escapes this. I consider that our present sufferings
23:10
Speaker 2: are not worth comparing with the glory that future tense
23:14
Speaker 2: will be revealed in us, because we know that, we
23:19
Speaker 2: have confidence, that we know that the whole creation has
23:22
Speaker 2: been growing, as in the pains of childbirth, right up
23:26
Speaker 2: to the present time. Then, he continues, he writes this,
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Speaker 2: not only so, but we ourselves who have the first
23:32
Speaker 2: fruits of the spirit. In other words, even those of
23:34
Speaker 2: us who are Jesus followers, we grown inwardly as we
23:38
Speaker 2: wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of
23:43
Speaker 2: our bodies.
23:44
Speaker 1: And then these next words are.
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Speaker 2: So powerful, He says, with all that as a backdraw,
23:50
Speaker 2: with all that in mind, for in this hope, for
23:54
Speaker 2: in this hope, not in the hope that everything is
23:57
Speaker 2: going to work out today, not in the hope that
23:59
Speaker 2: everything is going to work out for us eventually, not
24:02
Speaker 2: in the hope that everything's ultimately going to be fine now,
24:06
Speaker 2: but in the ultimate hope that Jesus came to earth
24:10
Speaker 2: not only to die for our sins, but to demonstrate
24:12
Speaker 2: he has the power over the global consequences of sin.
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Speaker 1: And we live in the tension.
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Speaker 2: We live in the messy middle of a future hope
24:20
Speaker 2: that we can have confidence in, while at the same
24:23
Speaker 2: time embracing and acknowledging.
24:25
Speaker 1: The type of world that we live in. We don't
24:30
Speaker 1: like this, but it's true.
24:33
Speaker 2: When sin entered the world, death was right on its heels.
24:40
Speaker 2: And this is the age when the consequences of sin
24:44
Speaker 2: run their course and no one, not even your savior,
24:51
Speaker 2: was an exception.
24:53
Speaker 1: To that rule. Did God cause it? No? Will God
24:58
Speaker 1: use it.
24:59
Speaker 2: Absolutely, He will use it as a wake up call
25:02
Speaker 2: to rouse this world, to get us to look up
25:05
Speaker 2: and regain or find for the first time, our hope.
25:09
Speaker 1: It's a wake up call.
25:10
Speaker 2: For anyone who has ears to hear. And one day,
25:16
Speaker 2: one day, the world will be as we know it
25:18
Speaker 2: should be. One day the world will be as we
25:21
Speaker 2: know it should be. One day there will be no
25:23
Speaker 2: more sin, no more sorrow, no more death.
25:26
Speaker 1: But not yet, not you and not me again. C. S.
25:33
Speaker 2: Lewis says it so eloquently when he wrote these words,
25:36
Speaker 2: He said, if I find in myself a desire which
25:41
Speaker 2: no experience in this world can satisfy. That is, if
25:44
Speaker 2: I am able to imagine a better world, and there
25:48
Speaker 2: is something in me that longs for.
25:50
Speaker 1: That better world.
25:51
Speaker 2: If I find within myself a desire that no experience
25:54
Speaker 2: in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation, the
25:58
Speaker 2: most probable explanation, is that I was made and that
26:04
Speaker 2: you were made.
26:06
Speaker 1: For another world.
26:09
Speaker 2: So Admiral Stockdale was exactly right. We must never lose
26:15
Speaker 2: faith in the end of the story. And my friends,
26:20
Speaker 2: this is not the end. This is just the messy,
26:24
Speaker 2: messy middle. And in this messy middle, we can have
26:27
Speaker 2: the confidence that the New Testament authors had when they
26:30
Speaker 2: said that we can have confidence in God.
26:32
Speaker 1: We can have confidence that.
26:33
Speaker 2: God loves us, that God is for us, that God
26:37
Speaker 2: cares for us, and that God will judge sin, but
26:43
Speaker 2: he loves those of us left in the wake of
26:47
Speaker 2: his judgment on sin. That, as we've seen, he had
26:52
Speaker 2: every right to just walk away, but in fact he
26:57
Speaker 2: chose to weide in and experience this life as we experience.
27:02
Speaker 1: It with us.
27:03
Speaker 2: Our present sufferings, our president, our present sufferings, are nothing
27:07
Speaker 2: to be compared with our future hope. Our present sufferings
27:10
Speaker 2: are just another reminder of the global.
27:12
Speaker 1: Consequences of sin.
27:13
Speaker 2: They're just another reminder of our need for a savior,
27:16
Speaker 2: of the world's need for a savior. Our current circumstances
27:22
Speaker 2: are just another reminder that one day God will in
27:25
Speaker 2: fact make all things.
27:29
Speaker 1: New.
27:29
Speaker 2: If I find within myself a desire that no experience
27:33
Speaker 2: in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is
27:39
Speaker 2: that we were made for another world s