I'm glad you're here this weekend.

Seriously, you came out and this is some heavy stuff.

I promised we're going to get into this, so we're going to get into this.

I want to welcome Rancho.

I want to welcome Wesco.

I want to welcome everyone here right now.

Just before I get started, I want to tell you that after probably three years of hard work, my new book called Resolve is officially being released.

College Press are the publishers.

The lifetime of work, you can gain access to this by Just taking your camera, going onto the barcode and follow the prompt, and it'll take you to where you need to go to be able to be some of the first ones.

I asked the publishers if they would only release it to our church first so that we could get the first copies.

And you can do that here, you can do that at the information table.

Really want to encourage you that if you have somebody that's really struggling in their lives with making sense of God, this would be a good present, a good gift to give them.

So get one for yourself, get one for them.

Also need you to know, I make no money off this.

This was written on the time of one and all, which means one and all owns it.

So this is not a commercial so Jeff can make more money.

This is just something to where we want to get to as many people as we can, okay?

Now, last week we started this series, Call Made for This, and we looked at the most crucial message in the book of Acts, which is the very first message.

And in the message we learned how one becomes a Christian, how to know with certainty that you are a Christian, and then the joy of the certainty of being a Christian.

In fact, Here's the beauty about age, folks.

The older you get, when you're young, you think about death, you think about dying just a little bit.

When you get middle age, you think about a little more.

And then the beauty happens when you get older, you don't fear it anymore.

You know it's going to come.

And because you have such a certainty of what happens next, there's a real peace that comes over your life in the later ages, if you've been growing and if you've been maturing in Christ.

As you read the book of Acts, you discover...

the types of things that you should expect as a Christian.

It could be summarized like this.

When you first come to Christ, you repent, you're baptized, you receive the gift of the Spirit, then you join in a community of believers as you study the Word together, the Apostles' Doctrine, as you pray, as you worship, as you bear one another's burdens, and then you take the good news.

There's an over-driving passion in you to take the good news of the Gospel to other people, to other nations.

And then if you read the book of Acts, The other thing you should expect as a Christ follower is this, pain, suffering, and persecution.

That's the book of Acts.

That's the history of the church.

Now, can I ask you something?

Wouldn't it be great?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you and I, when we became Christ followers, were spared any kind of pain and suffering now?

Wouldn't it be great?

Wouldn't it be awesome if any ailment of any kind was immediately healed?

That any attack of any kind was immediately subdued, that any unfortunate circumstance immediately was turned on its head and we received a victory.

Wouldn't it be great?

Wouldn't it be fantastic if becoming a Christian meant that there would be no more sickness, mourning, or pain now, right now?

We could all get t-shirts that say, can't touch this, couldn't we?

Wouldn't it be great?

Wouldn't That'd be fantastic.

But then you look in the book of Acts and you look at the life of the Apostle Paul, and it's one storm after another.

And Paul's different than David.

David in the Psalms lamented.

He's always talking about how tough life is and where is God, and then God shows up, and then he thanks God.

He's a roller coaster of emotions, not the Apostle Paul.

The Apostle Paul seems to take everything in stride as if he assumes that because the world is a fallen world, of course there's going to be sin and tragedy.

He knows that he's going to face the opposition because he knows better than anyone else of the spiritual warfare that happens all around us.

After all, he wrote Ephesians 6, the chapter in the Bible about spiritual warfare.

No doubt, as you look at his life, he's well-grounded, and he faces the opposition with an absolute trust that God will achieve his objective, even in the worst of circumstances.

Now, in Acts chapter 27, as our host read, he's in the middle of a storm.

It's hurricane force winds off the coast of Crete.

The ship is in peril.

Sailors are terrified.

And then Paul speaks.

I'm going to read a section again because I don't want you to miss it.

In verse 23, he comes to the sailors and he says that an angel of God, last night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, do not be afraid, Paul.

You must stand trial before Caesar.

God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.

So keep up the courage, men.

For I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.

Nevertheless, we must run aground on an island.

So he says, God has told me no one's going to be lost.

But now look down at verse 27.

On the 14th night, we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea.

When about midnight, the sailors sensed that they were approaching land, they took soundings and found the water was 120 feet deep.

Short time later, took soundings again, found it was 90 feet deep.

Fearing that they would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.

In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.

Then Paul said to them, or said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.

So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

Anybody see the problem?

Anybody see it?

Well, when I read this, I think, wait a minute.

Paul, you just said that God told you no one will be lost.

And now you're telling these men that if they carry through, they'll be lost.

God says that no one will die.

And the prophet's dilemma is that you make a prophecy.

And unless it's proven correct, they take you outside the city gates and stone you.

So Paul is making a prophecy.

He's saying that God told him.

And then he says, unless you guys stay in the boat, you're not going to be saved.

God already said, though, that no one's going to die.

He said that clearly.

Paul says that if they leave, they'll die.

How can both these things be true?

They cannot.

They cannot.

Now, I was told by my seminary professor.

that the reason I struggle with this is because I'm part of a culture that is either or, but the Eastern mind is both and.

And my response to him was baloney.

I'm not buying this.

The law of non-contradiction says that two statements made about the same thing that diametrically oppose one another cannot both be true.

This to me is a seeming contradiction.

How are we to understand it?

Again, my theology professor, Dr.

Jack Cottrell in seminary, would set us up week after week.

And it was my first year.

And for week after week, he continued to make this claim.

He said, God has predetermined the details of our lives while giving us the freedom to make choices that have consequences.

Let me read that again.

He said, this is how he started his class.

He said, God has predetermined the details of our lives while giving us the freedom to make choices that have consequences.

He would begin class with that statement for weeks as if he was trying to bait us.

Now, we dare not question a professor.

You don't want to question the one who determines your final grade.

That's unwise.

But he was relentless, and I just couldn't take it anymore.

So finally, I raised my hand.

Dr.

Carter said, yes, Mr.

Vines.

I said, this is a contradiction, the statement that you're making every time we start class.

He said, I thought I would be reprimanded.

He said, how so, Mr.

Vines?

I said, how can God predetermine every event of my life and then hold me responsible for the choices I make?

That is unjust.

He said, go on.

And I felt inspired.

Because I had my list ready.

I said, a drunk driver runs over a little boy on his way home from school.

God predetermined that event?

What choice did the little boy have in the matter?

A father sexually and verbally abuses his daughter?

and ruins her life?

God predetermined that?

What choice did the little girl have in the matter?

A husband cheats on his wife.

A teacher abuses a student.

A man kills his neighbor.

A financier swindles people out of the life savings for which they had worked so hard and now leaves them penniless.

God predetermined that?

A tsunami blasts east to Asia and thousands upon thousands of little children die.

What choice did they have?

God predetermined that?

Do you remind you travels in apologetics.

Something made me very uncomfortable.

I would watch Christians who would want to have it both ways.

Because when the atheists ask, how can you believe in God with pain and suffering in the world?

The typical Christian response was 99.9% of the pain and suffering and evil in the world is caused by man's free will decision.

But when the Christ follower, the believer said, how do you explain suffering, pain and evil in the world?

We would say well, God has a plan for your life.

Meaning that God causes this suffering to create something good in you, that God causes it.

To the non-believer, we say that suffering is a result of free will decisions.

But to the believer, we say suffering is God's plan to create something beautiful in you.

And by God's plan, typically the person means that God sent this horrific event into your life.

To accomplish something great.

I've heard well-meaning Christians say to people who have suffered horrible atrocities, say to them, God has a plan.

As if to imply this horrible situation has been part of God's plan for you from the beginning.

Have you ever been to a child cancer ward?

That's God's plan?

That never sat well with me and it still doesn't.

My question is, are you telling me that God predetermined the Holocaust?

That God preordained the killing of six million Jews and babies in the gas ovens of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück?

That God preordained?

Without involving human freedom, things like Tiananmen Square, Pol Pot, Hitler, Mussolini, Joseph Stalin.

Hey, how about this?

If God causes everything, if God is the first cause of everything, then isn't he the first cause of abortion, homosexuality, lesbianism?

That the preordained plan God has for millions of lives is poverty, starvation, famine, war, and crucifixion?

I'm not buying it.

No matter how you try to rephrase it or wordsmith it, I'm not buying it.

Now, let me show you what I think the error is that we make.

And then I want to go back to Acts 27 to show you how I harmonize that passage with no problem.

In Romans 8, 28, a passage with which we're familiar, the Bible says, 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.

For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

The reason Paul uses two different words is because there are two different ideas here.

Foreknow is prognosco, and to foreknow something means that you know it before it happens.

But predestined pro orizo means you determine it before it happens.

And those are two different things.

They're different in the sense that one includes free choice, the other does not.

One, what was foreknown according to Romans 8, what God knew beforehand was your salvation.

That means that God knew, because God, we're going to get to this, and I want to get ahead of myself, it'll just be confusing.

Because God knows all things, He knew whether you were going to receive or reject Him.

But He did not predetermine.

whether you were going to receive or reject him.

But there is something that is predetermined, and it's your sanctification.

In other words, once you use your freedom to receive Christ, he's going to sanctify you whether you like it or not.

That's right.

He is going to work on you for the rest of your life.

If he has to drag you into heaven kicking and screaming, he's going to work on you and not stop working on you until he makes you holy.

That's predetermined.

Now this makes sense if you think about the fact that God is the creator of all things, including time.

And God is not subject to anything he himself creates.

God is eternal.

He stands outside of time.

God is present in every moment, past, present, and future.

That's why he knows everything that's ever going to happen.

But that does not mean that he predetermines everything that's going to happen.

He knows who's going to be saved and who will reject him and who will receive him, but he does so because he's already in that moment.

That does not mean that he predetermines who will be saved and who will not be saved, absent from your freedom to choose.

That is unjust.

To send someone to a Christless eternity who was predetermined and preordained to reject Jesus goes against everything we know about justice, Fairness and the mercy of God as revealed to us in the scriptures.

Let me read it to you again.

For those God foreknew, he knew the decision that you would make.

He also predestined that he would put his Holy Spirit in you and conform you or begin conforming you to the image of his son.

You may not make it until you get to heaven.

Right now, the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.

God works on you.

But when you get to heaven, guess what?

The spirit is willing and the flesh is able.

He will perfect you.

Now, it also says that he might be the firstborn.

This is a reference to the elder brother, that he's the first one among many brothers and sisters.

He's our elder brother who rescues us.

And those he predestined, he also called.

Those he called, he also justified.

And those he justified, he also glorified.

So we've not been glorified yet, but he's speaking as though this is the present tense.

Because if he does through his foreknowledge...

know your free will decision that you will make to receive him.

He's already determined that one day you're going to be glorified.

So your salvation was not predetermined, but it was foreknown.

That's a different thing.

One includes your freedom.

The other does not.

Your sanctification is predetermined.

However, God is going to start working on you and never stop working on you till he makes you into the person he wants you to be.

And that may mean some of your life is tough.

Because you keep kicking against the goats.

The Bible places a huge emphasis on the power of decision.

Do not be deceived.

God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows.

John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Now look at this one.

This is a passage that those who may not agree with me often refer to.

Let me tell you why I think it's a mistake.

For it is by grace you have been saved.

through faith.

And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Now the question is, what is the gift of God?

Is it your faith?

No.

How do you know that?

Listen carefully.

T-O-U-T-O, Tauto or Tuto, is a neuter pronoun.

The Greek is very precise.

Grace is in the feminine, faith is also in the feminine.

And if you're going to identify something or modify something, it's going to have the same type of gender.

You either have feminine, masculine, or neuter.

The word translated this is a neuter pronoun which refers to the concept as a whole of salvation, which makes sense because you and I have been saved by grace, right?

It is by grace you've been saved and through faith when we believe and this, what is the this?

The whole concept of salvation did not come from you, it came from God.

Salvation is a gift to you, but you still express faith to believe in it.

Acts 2.36, remember last week, we talked about this passage.

Here's another example of the difference between for and no.

God knows something and God predetermines something.

In verse 36, therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter, how does he reply?

He says, you got to repent and be baptized.

To passionately call for repentance.

and baptism and belief and then claim that those who do not respond were preordained to reject God would be unjust.

However, because God is omniscient, he knew one day that you would respond to his invitation.

He knows every free will decision we'll ever make, but he doesn't predetermine them.

Now somebody...

will ask me in our apologetic conferences, this is the number one question.

Okay, number two or three, but it's a popular one.

Then Jeff, why does God create, why create those whom God foreknew would reject his salvation?

See the question?

If God knows who's going to be saved and who's not going to be saved, then if he knows that before anything happens, why not then, based on the fact that he knows there will be some reject him, just don't create them, just create the ones who will receive them.

Now there's a problem here.

First of all, as I've said before, God thinks linearly just like we do.

So God decides he's going to create the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

He doesn't create it out of loneliness because there was perfect unity and diversity and love within the Trinity.

He creates because he wants to love and be loved.

He desires to share his love with all people.

And so he creates the world, reveals himself.

Because love is the highest value in the universe, he gives us the ability to reject that love.

Because love cannot maintain its integrity unless you and I can reject it.

God wants us to love Him freely, wants us to choose Him.

Knowing that some will rebel against God and choose to reject Him, God immediately starts the redemptive story.

He sets it in motion.

The cross, salvation, the restoration of all things.

But if God refuses to create those that He knows will reject Him, that's not free will.

That's not freedom.

God predetermined that he would send a savior into the world, yes.

God predetermined that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

God predetermined that the church would be born on the day of Pentecost.

He predetermined that he would one day restore everything that's been lost.

And he predetermined that those who rejected him would be given the ultimate ramifications of their free will decision to live apart from him.

And that's what the scholars and that's what the scriptures describe as hell.

You spend all your life and you say, I don't want God, I don't need God.

So God, in the words of C.S.

Lewis on the day of accountability, simply says to you, okay, not my will, but yours be done.

Now you can live in a realm apart from the goodness, the love, the knowledge of God.

Man's free choice cannot stop the Savior from entering the world, the birth of the church, the power of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate healing of the nations and the restoration of all things.

These things are set in stone.

Now, you might say, Pastor Jeff, do the choices of humanity play any role at all?

Of course they do.

But God weaves them all together because he knows them all to accomplish his ultimate purposes.

You with me still?

Or did I lose you at hello?

Whether you respond to God's offer of salvation, an offer that was predetermined, the offer itself, is up to your free choice.

Something that God also knows beforehand.

Whether you join his church and play your role in the kingdom of God is up to you and your choice, but God gave you gifts.

That's been preordained.

Whether you respond to your trials and the storms in your life with faith or fear is up to your choice, but the resource of the Holy Spirit's power to enable you to conquer all things, that's predetermined.

What does all this mean?

It means that when something really bad happens in the world, or in your life, it is a mistake to assume that God's plan for you was to suffer enormous pain and suffering.

If by God's plan, you mean that God caused it, that God caused this evil to come into your life.

Even in the book of Job, God did not cause or send the evil into Job's life.

Instead, he permitted it for a season in order to accomplish a greater good.

More often than not, This horrible thing that has happened to you, it has more to do with man's free will decision in a fallen world than it does God's plan.

What did Joseph say to his brothers in Genesis 50-20?

You meant it for evil.

You caused evil, but God used it for good.

Jealousy, strife, hatred, slander, malice, envy, coveting, you name it, we do it to one another.

And because of our pride, we alienate ourselves from one another, and we do things that we never thought ourselves capable.

And 99.9% of the world's pain and suffering on this earth comes from a result of what we do to each other.

The idea that God preordains cancer in kids, leukemia in adolescents, and many other debilitating diseases is preposterous.

The love of money is the root of all evil, and you and I are being poisoned every day by those who...

Seek to destroy us for personal gain.

This is a sinful world in which we live, and one day, justice is going to roll like a river.

To suggest that God predetermined all these things is ludicrous.

However, did God see all of it coming?

Yeah.

If he stands outside of time and space, he is omniscient, he's omnipresent, he's omnipotent.

Nothing catches God by surprise.

Then your question is, well, then why doesn't he stop it?

Now, have you thought about this?

First of all, if God were to stop all evil, pain, and suffering, the first thing you'd have to do is remove your freedom.

We'd all be like robots.

We'd all have to do exactly as God predetermined.

But the problem with that is the very purpose for which you and I were created, a loving relationship with God the Father would be taken away.

Two, this is a big one.

You don't know how much evil God prevents every day.

Because you only see the evil that you see.

You don't know how many times God says this far, no further.

My grandmother, Bessie, the round mound of sound, she knew this well.

She prayed for us every day as we walked home from school as little boys.

And then my brother, one day walking home from school, got bitten by a dog.

My older brother asked Grandma Bessie, I thought you were praying for us.

And my Grandma Bessie said, Yeah, and God has said yes to your safety for 12 years.

You get bit by a dog, all of a sudden God's not involved.

You have no idea how much God...

You got no idea how blessed you really are and how many times God says, you know, my servant, I'm going to let...

No, not today.

Not today.

By the way, when my brother got bit by that dog, he learned to pray.

He was praying hard.

But here's the third thing.

Well...

If I were God, I would prevent much more.

Come on, just admit it.

You don't have enough information to make that claim.

You just don't.

How much pain and suffering would you allow if you were God?

You'd say, well, none.

Then you've got to remove freedom.

I have made this challenge to groups that I've spoken to on this issue many times.

I challenge anyone to come up with a creation scenario that maintains the integrity of love and allows no pain and suffering at the same time.

Come up with a creation scenario that maintains the integrity of love between creator and creature and at the same time allows no pain and suffering.

You can't.

Larry King said he did not believe in God because pain and suffering and evil in this world.

Now you've heard my response to that numerous times.

There's a problem with this.

It's a self-defeating statement because, and I'll do the short version, once you assume evil, you assume good.

Once you assume good and evil as objective categories, you have to have a moral law to define what is objectively good and what is objectively evil.

But if you have a moral law to define these categories, the moral law has to be absolute and unchanging, and the only entity that can give an absolute moral law to define the categories of good and evil is God.

You have to resolve the problem of pain, suffering, and evil in the context of God.

Outside of the context of God, the question self-destructs.

God's initial response to Job's questioning, have you ever read it?

God responds in gorgeous poetry when he says something like this to Job.

Job, until you know a little more about running the physical universe, don't tell me how to run the moral universe.

The only thing that God criticized Job for was his limited point of view.

But to suggest that God deliberately sins, pre-ordains, predetermines every evil event in this world is untenable.

To suggest to someone that God sent every cancer and every disease and every tragedy and every sexual abuse and every divorce and every addiction into your life as part of a pre-ordained plan is a direct attack on the goodness and mercy of God and a telltale sign of our limited point of view.

Yes, God does have a plan for your life.

Yes, he does.

To save you.

but that's contingent on your response to the gift of grace.

Yes, God has a plan to use you for his purposes and to use the unfortunate events of your life to bring about ultimate good.

That's what made for this means.

Made for this means that God, when those unfortunate things happen in your life, can use you for wonderful purposes.

But that doesn't mean that he caused it.

There's a difference between using something and causing something.

I go back to what Joseph said to his brothers.

Let me read it to you.

You intended to harm me.

God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

You chose to do evil, Joseph said.

Don't blame God.

You did it.

You sold me into slavery.

You put me in prison.

You put me in Potiphar's house.

All of those are residual impacts of your choice, but you know what God did?

God saw what you were going to do, and he decided, I'm going to turn it all around.

and redeem it and use it for good.

That's what sovereignty means.

Let me define it for you.

God is sovereign over human actions, not in that he causes every evil event, rather that he is able to transform intended malice, betrayal, and suffering into positive outcomes.

God works through, yet is not the author of, sinful acts to achieve ultimate good.

What's the best example of this?

Okay, here we go.

We started the sermon.

We started this series by Peter's first sermon.

Did you notice a line?

I'm in Acts 2, back where we were last weekend.

Fellow Israelites, listen to this.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Now, what does he mean when he says God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge?

Notice he throws prognosco in there.

God's preordained.

God preordained that he would one day send his only son, the Lamb of God, who will take away the sins of the world.

But God knew on the basis of his foreknowledge that when he sent his son, one that was so righteous, into this world that powerful men would not be able to bear it and would kill him.

God could have prevented this murder.

But rather he handed him over to allow evil men to accomplish their free choices.

But God decided before the foundations of the world that he was going to use this event, understood through his foreknowledge, turn it on its head, and use it for the salvation of the entire world.

That when Jesus hung on the tree, God would treat Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

That God would empty out his wrath, our sins deserve, on Jesus.

Rather than us, so that we could go free.

Romans 3.25, Paul reiterates it.

He says, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement.

This is the Greek word propitiation.

The Greeks love this word.

And it means sacrifice that turns away wrath.

God emptied his wrath on his son so that he would not have to empty his wrath on us.

And it's received by what?

By what?

Faith.

Acts 2.36, therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

And Paul says in Romans 8.28, and we know that in all things, God works for good for those who love him, who've been called according to his purpose.

Now, back to Acts.

How do we harmonize Acts?

Let me go back and read it again.

Verse 23, Paul says, last night, an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, do not be afraid, Paul.

You must stand trial before Caesar, and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sell with you.

Nobody's going to die, Paul.

So keep up courage, men, for I have faith in the God that it will happen just as he told me.

Nevertheless, we must run aground on the island.

But then in verse 31, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless you men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.

In other words, you will die.

So the soldiers cut the ropes and held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

How can we harmonize these two things?

Like this, God told Paul that no one would be lost because God knew beforehand that the men would indeed cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

He made it on the basis of his foreknowledge.

Had God known that some of the men would indeed leave the ship, then God would not have promised Paul that no one would be lost.

Now, am I saying that God predetermined the soldier's decision?

No.

I'm saying God knew the choice they would make and therefore informed Paul that no one would be lost.

Sometimes people will say to me, well, if God knows everything, why even pray?

Ah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

This one really gave me a headache in seminary.

Here's why.

If you don't pray, God knew you wouldn't pray.

If you don't pray.

God knew you wouldn't, and therefore God knew he wasn't going to answer.

If you do pray, guess what?

God knew you were going to pray, and he already might have thought how he was going to answer you.

The foreknowledge of God is different.

Man, prognosco and proorizo are two different words and two different things that get confused.

When you pray, God knew you were going to pray, and he knew he was going to deliver.

You know what the lesson is?

My goodness, pray hard.

Am I saying that God cannot and would not have forced the men to remain on the boat in order to save Paul's life?

Of course not.

God can do whatever he wants.

But in this case, it seems God's foreknowledge is at work, which is the reason he told Paul categorically, nobody's going to be lost.

Now, what do we learn from this?

You okay?

Everybody all right?

You know, you can always go back and listen to this a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth time.

I may have to do that myself.

Hey, you would rather it be like this than me bore you for 40 minutes and you know it.

Okay.

So here we go.

What do we learn?

Here's what we learn.

Number one, God sees every storm headed your way.

Oh yeah.

This sickness, this disease, the depression and anxiety, your financial tragedy, the betrayal, the harm to your children or grandchildren, God saw it all coming.

Can you categorically state that God sent this darkness into your life?

No.

You live in a fallen world where people make decisions that impact the lives of people all around them.

Jesus said, when the storms come.

He knew they were coming, not if they come.

Can God use what others have meant for evil for ultimate good?

Absolutely.

This is what God does best.

This is his forte.

It's what he does.

No matter what comes into your life, he can use any tragedy at all.

Turn it on its head.

God took...

Joseph's slavery, his prison.

False accusations made against him and the failed promises of those he had rescued and turned it out for the salvation of a nation.

Whatever comes into your life is no match for God.

For those who call on his name and trust him, he will do immeasurably more than you could ever ask or imagine.

So no matter what you face, he knew it was coming.

He knew it was coming.

Could have he stopped it?

Yeah, he didn't.

Okay, why?

That's above my pay grade.

But I can tell you this.

What he...

What we're promised in Romans, he takes everything and works it together for good.

But that's different than saying God causes all the evil.

Totally different concept.

God is able to take all the free choices of man, hold him accountable for making them, and still make it work out the way he wants it.

You know, one of my favorite stories, it was my first Easter sermon.

I must have been 22 or 23.

In John 11, there's a great story, of course, it's the raising of Lazarus.

And if you read the passage again and again and again, you start noticing a few things.

Number one, you notice that Mary and Martha and Lazarus loved Jesus.

They were best friends, man.

I mean, after church on Sunday, they went over to their house for Sunday lunch.

I mean, they were close.

And when Mary and Martha send word to Jesus, who's only five miles away, that Lazarus is sick and near death, Jesus...

doesn't move, doesn't budge.

And you wonder why.

And then as you read the story, you realize Jesus is waiting until Lazarus dies.

He's waiting.

Why would he do that?

Why does he wait?

Because there's a greater end.

And as I go back over the passage, I read that end in four separate sections of John 11.

John 11 verse 4 says, Jesus said, this sickness will not end in death.

No, it is for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it.

So God is going to take their suffering and he's going to glorify himself.

It doesn't stop there.

But notice John 11, 33, Jesus sees her weeping, something that he could have prevented.

And the Jews who had along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

And then what do you do?

Shortest verse in the Bible.

Jesus wept.

Well, if you don't want to weep, Jesus, just make sure Lazarus doesn't die.

There's a greater purpose.

Does that mean that God killed Lazarus?

No.

Did God send death to Lazarus?

No.

Jesus weeps, and the reason he weeps is because he knows the damage pain, sin, suffering have caused on planet earth that one day will all be rectified, but now is not the time.

John 11, 40, then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?

And then the end of the story in verse 45, therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.

So Lazarus' sickness and consequential death, Mary and Martha.

And their depression was used by God as an opportunity to bring salvation and resurrection.

Sometimes when God sees the storm coming, he allows it to eventuate for ultimate good.

God foreknew Lazarus' death, did not predetermine it.

God foreknew that evil men would deliver his son to the Romans to be crucified.

God foreknew that Joseph's brothers would sell him into slavery.

And yet in all of these violent storms, God worked it all together to bring rainbows of salvation.

One, God sees every storm coming your way.

Two, God promises his prevailing presence.

It's not like God just throws you out there and allows something to happen in your life that he doesn't intend on walking with you through the storm and offering you something that passes all understanding.

Now, because of time, I'm not going to be able to read this next text.

I've got to speed up here.

So you're going to have to trust me.

In Mark chapter 6, Jesus has just fed...

the crowd of 5,000 plus, probably more like 8 to 10, with loaves and fishes.

If you look in Mark chapter 6, immediately after Jesus performs that miracle, he sends the disciples out on a boat because he knows a storm is coming, and he wants to see how the disciples are going to respond.

Now, in Mark 6, let's read verse...well, let's read the Bible.

Verse 45.

Okay, I changed my mind.

Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida.

While he dismissed the crowd, after leaving them, we went up on the mountainside to pray.

Now, I've been to this place that he's talking about geographically, and it is true from where Jesus would have prayed, you can see everything happening on the lake.

Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land.

He saw the disciples straining up the oars?

Because the wind was against them.

Shortly before dawn, he went out to them walking on the lake.

He was about to pass them by, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost.

They cried out because they all saw him and were terrified.

Now listen to this next part.

Immediately, he spoke to them and said, take courage, it is I, don't be afraid.

Then he climbed into the boat with them and the wind died down.

They were completely amazed for they had not understood about the loaves and their hearts were hardened.

They were supposed to learn the lesson that when things seem impossible, God is right there.

and he can make everything okay.

So he teaches them the lesson and immediately tests them again by putting them on the lake and they fail the test.

Do you remember what Job said to God?

He says, I know you can do all things.

This is Job 42.

No purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You ask, who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

You said, listen now and I will speak.

I will question you and you shall answer me.

And then Job says, my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

Sometimes the storm is worth the pain because the destination is worth the journey.

And what I mean by that, it is true.

Then the deepest, darkest moments of your life is when you start to really see the face of God.

God knows that.

He knows that.

But listen, when we classify all of the storms and the pain of suffering under one category, we trivialize and minimize the seriousness of the pain that many suffer.

I've met people over the course of my life that suffered greatly.

I've met a young woman raped and abused by her own father.

A middle-aged couple whose son committed suicide.

A mother who fought the battle of cancer and watched her family, her young girls and young sons worry constantly that they would lose her.

I've talked to young men who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they've seen things they just can't get out of their minds, and it haunts them daily.

I dare not say to them that God has a plan for your life, and if by plan I mean God sent this into your life.

No, you don't know that.

What do you say, Pastor Jeff?

The same thing I say to all of you who have experienced untold trauma, God's heart breaks for you and he weeps.

Justice will one day roll like a river.

He and you both will be vindicated and God will walk with you.

There is a prevailing presence that gives a peace that passes all understanding.

In fact, folks, if you're here...

And you fall into that category.

Can I just say to you, your only hope?

No, you may not ever completely understand the mind of God.

Who does?

But as I've said before, just because there are things I don't understand does not take away from the things that I do understand.

And your only hope is Jesus.

Isaiah 61, that scroll that we saw when we were in Israel a few years ago, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness the prisoners.

To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

In other words, he's saying that the people of God who respond in faith and trust that God will work everything out for his good.

He didn't send it, but he's going to use it.

and turn it around, flip it on its head, and do amazing things for those people.

They will be like huge trees that are so beautiful.

And people come from all over the world to see them.

No one is immune to the pain and suffering of the world.

God sees every storm that will come to your way.

Trust him.

God promises his prevailing presence, so seek him.

Now, this is the end.

You did well.

Every decision you make.

has ramifications.

You are responsible.

I am responsible for the decisions that I make in my life.

And when you begin defining God's sovereignty as preordaining or predetermining every event of your life, there's a tendency to shift the blame from your personal decision to God's sovereign plan.

I know this because I'm a pastor and I've heard people say to me, well, it must've been God's plan that I became an alcoholic because look at the way he's using it now to help other people.

No, you became an alcoholic because you drank too much, and you wounded a lot of people around you, and you destroyed the lives of people who trusted you.

Thank God you met Jesus, and now he's turned it all around.

He's redeemed your addiction, and he's using it for good.

That's what God does.

Men who are addicted to pornography.

Oh my goodness.

Oh, I failed.

Oh, I failed.

Here's my advice.

Stop it.

Well, I don't understand why God allowed me to become addicted to pornography.

It's destroying my life.

No, God did not preordain that you would become addicted to porn.

You did that on your own by your own choices.

You broke through the barriers.

You quenched the fire of the spirit.

And now there's carnage everywhere.

Repent and stop.

Can he use you?

Yes.

If you repent.

God can redeem it and you can warn people not to go through the barriers that you went through because it brought destruction.

And when you repent, God forgives, even though the ramifications often remain.

But don't blame God.

Don't blame God.

Every storm is foreknown.

Trust.

God promises his prevailing presence.

Seek.

Every decision has ramifications.

Repent.

And finally, and the end of the end, the end of all storms is on the horizon, folks.

Now don't miss this part.

Remember you've heard me say numerous times that 99.9% of the world's pain and suffering comes from what we do to each other.

What about the other 0.1?

Paul says this.

That is a great question.

Paul would answer that question like this.

He says in Romans 8.18, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

So here's what he's saying.

No matter what you go through on this planet, it cannot compare.

to the glory that waits you and what God has prepared.

In other words, if you're thinking about the tsunami and it hits East Asia, and there are all these hundreds and hundreds of little children who are one moment walking safely and then swallowed up in waves, just make sure you remember that their next waking moment is holding the hand of God.

But then he says, for the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed, for the creation was subjected you to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope.

Now listen, the Greek word metautis is the word translated frustration.

This is an interesting word.

It means that the created order had an original purpose.

And the purpose was so that we would look at it and glorify God.

But because we chose rather than worshiping the creator, Romans 1, we worship created things.

God subjected it to a secondary purpose.

Now the secondary purpose through the second law of thermodynamics is for you to look at the world and not worship it because at any moment it can kill you.

And that's supposed to help you repent.

That's supposed to help you look, wait a minute, my confidence can't be in this.

There's a lot of goodness to it, but it's also broken.

And because I know it's broken, the hope...

By subjecting it to a secondary objective, God's hope was that you would repent and put your faith and trust in him.

So yes, the earth is not eternal.

It is broken.

And because it's broken, creation is disintegrating.

And when creation is disintegrating, the natural result is going to be volcanoes and floods and tsunami.

God doesn't look down and say, I'm going to send a tsunami and wipe out 100,000 kids.

No.

It is the natural order of things in a fallen world.

Can God redeem it?

Yes, but he's not the cause.

2 Corinthians 4.16, but we don't lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Can I just say that delayed justice is not the same as no justice.

Delayed healing is not the same as no healing.

Delayed restoration is not the same as no restoration.

You say, well, where was God in my pain?

Walking with you, preparing justice, and preparing your final home.

That's where he was.

Lee Strobel says it best.

He says, we should not deny the reality of pain in this life.

It might be terrible.

It might be chronic.

It might go on for all 72 of your years.

But in heaven, after 5,484,545 days of pure bliss and with infinite more to come, if someone asks, so how has your existence been?

You'd instantly react by saying, it's been absolutely wonderful.

Words can't describe the joy and delight and the fulfillment.

And if they said, but didn't you have a tough time before you got here?

You would probably think back and say, well, yes.

It's true that those days were painful.

I can't deny that.

But when I put them in the context, in light of all God's outpouring of goodness to me, those bad days aren't even worth comparing with the eternity of blessings and joy I've received.

No eye has seen, no ear has ever heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

The storms are coming.

Build your life on a foundation, a firm foundation.

And it will sustain you to know that one day justice is going to roll like a river.

And whatever you experience here is not worth comparing to what waits for us.

Father, thank you for your goodness and mercy.

I pray for grace in the length of this sermon.

I pray that eyes would have been open, that the character of God would have been defended, even though we know God does not need his character defended.

But the word teaches us.

that there is a vast difference between the things that are preordained and the things that are foreknown.

And I pray that as we counsel each other and encourage each other, we would do well to remember that and remind with words of hope that God is able to take whatever happens, what men mean for evil, he is able to take it and use it for not only good, but ultimate good in Christ's name.

Amen.