When Suffering Doesn't Make Sense: A Good God and the Pain We Can't Explain

and amen well you can have a seat church well i'm so excited and encouraged today i'm going to introduce our special guest this is kyle pastor kyle's led churches in texas the land the country of texas in oregon and we are so grateful that he's with us and calls this place home some of you might be wondering right now wait a second this guy looks familiar because he looks a lot like pastor mark who used to be a pastor here at journey church and there's a lot of confusion like who is that but they just sound differently pastor mark was from ireland and so so kyle today doesn't sound like that but i'll tell you you should be listening to kyle today we are so honored to have him and you're in for a treat i know god's going to speak to you but kyle has nine kids now i don't know about you but i want to listen to someone who's got nine kids

you know he's been through something before so you guys are in for a treat so would you just give kyle a warm welcome today thanks pastor kyle i i'm not sure if you listen to someone with nine kids or you don't listen to someone with nine kids i'm not really sure how that works um yeah i'm just really humbled to be here uh pastor keith said he needed the best looking pastor he knew to come and do this today he wasn't available so i was asked and so um but can i before i get started i just want to tell you how incredibly humbling it is to be here uh after 15 years of ministry it was it would be a year in august since my wife and i have retired from pastoral ministry now we work with leaders and entrepreneurs and and churches and so um you know but it's pretty incredible i want to let you know

in 15 years i've been able to you know preach at different churches and conferences and such and i have rarely found a staff as amazing as the one here at journey you are so blessed to have it and you know with nine kids you're the traveling children's ministry so pastor chelsea you're welcome and you know i mean like we come we bolster your numbers and and they've just accepted our kids so much so and by the way if you need somewhere to serve journey kids is where it's at and you can deal with my children it's great it's wonderful yeah please sign up and that's you are superheroes for real so uh but i'm excited to be here uh like i said we had um we were in ministry for 15 years and my last church i pastored was over in eugene uh and so we've been in bend for a whole whopping 18 months so we're we're we're old school like you know we know the area because like 50

people a day move here so you know we're pros now so we're not new anymore um you know with nine kids though it's really funny so i we drive a big ford transit van with a tall roof all right yeah you too all right great see mine's not a camper though so mine's a daily driver so that's what i like whenever i got here i told my wife i was like look at all these majorly huge vans there must be so many large families here no some of you just have too much time and money on your hands i was at a parking lot grocery store guys like oh dude cool camper i was like brother the only thing that camps in here are the fritos cheetos and the goldfish that my children throw on the floor that's it that's all that camps in here he was very disappointed when i opened up and chicken nuggets fell out i was like i'm sorry i just i don't really know what to do with that you know when we have nine kids we're really into adoption in foster care we started a few ministries with that and

um and we do we have three children who are adopted in our family they're from china and when your kids don't look like you get a lot of really fun questions kind of like when pregnant women are out in public and all of a sudden everyone uses loses the social norms right like all of a sudden they're just attracted to touch the lady's belly why why why why do we allow that to happen i don't that's just such a weird thing that we like have accepted in a culture we should take a stand on that i don't think that's and all the pregnant ladies say amen good and now your husband's like you're pregnant no i'm just kidding surprise no but i'll be like so we'll be in a grocery store and somebody come up to us who have all nine children and they're like you know they what's the same that some of you probably already got two right when you if you have like more than two kids you get this man your hands must be full that's right so my beautiful lovely jesus loving wife she has a great response to this

but our heart is full too blessings i have a less sanctified approach to this you know people can be like oh man your hands must be full and i'm like brother and we're just starting high five and they don't really know what to do with that or like we'll be in a grocery store and like our kids will be walking out and somebody's like there's another phrase they use are they all yours and i'll just grab the closest kid to him like who are you this kid followed us around the cereal aisle we can't get rid of him as you can tell it's really fun being a kid in our family so but uh no but we love we love our life like i said we serve for 15 years in different churches we do have a large family and you know one of the greatest and and most um amazing things to see

uh in our journey in ministry is god move in such powerful ways when we thought there was no way that anything could ever get better so the elephant in the room that pastor keith asked me to talk about today is suffering i know right cheery topic yeah it's like it's an easy one i'm like oh yeah suffering is something that we all encounter we all get to have an experience with and really the elephant we're tackling today is this that why would a good god allow suffering to happen and so we really don't know what to say in those moments even now you're like why did we pick today to come to church and so like i get it it's uncomfortable topic because we have to talk about a god a a good powerful perfect god that allows suffering we we have to talk about the way to address that

and in church we don't talk about enough and so since we don't talk about it enough we really don't know what to say to people when they are suffering you know you ever had the christianese like phrases that you have in your back pocket that you use that you should never use you'll be like at a at a funeral and and somebody's like you know i'm you know i'm really sorry this is happening but you know what god's in control when you're suffering you don't want to hear that like are we really being this is a safe place you can talk back to me it's okay like we know god's in control we know he's sovereign but when you're in the midst of suffering that's one of the last things you want to think about because you can't in your mind justify how this is actually happening to you or they say it could get worse thanks karen you know or you ever meet the people um

you know you remember that guy who's like tries to play suffering ping pong with you yeah yeah you know everybody's like oh yeah i know that if you don't know this person you may be them so i'm just letting you know that right now but like when you're like oh i'm going through a really hard time like you think your life is hard well guess what happened to me and you just really hate that you ever started the conversation you're like service one you know and it's just incredible because we don't really know what to do in the midst of suffering and like in 2020 i think we all got a dose of what suffering looks like to some extent did we not i mean whether it be suffering in isolation suffering through job loss health concerns i mean covered running rapid i mean we all kind of got a taste of suffering so the question is why why does this happen so let's talk about it a little bit today are you ready

all right good well you look good you sounded good i'm sure you smell good so here we go all right there's a couple of misconceptions i want to talk about with suffering that happens um before we actually jump into the actual topic and look at god's word but the first thing is i want to talk about to you today is that no one is immune to some level of suffering okay nobody like what you're going through right now i know it feels unique to you but i promise you some in this room has a similar experience right and and i think that's comforting i don't know maybe for you it may not become but it is comforting to me that i'm not alone in my suffering right that i'm not the only going through and the problem is that some of us maybe this morning online or here in this room you came into the faith you came into relationship with christ through a means of the gospel that maybe wasn't quite as accurate as it should have been with

scripture we get to this kind of idea sometimes in certain church circles of this christianized version of karma that if we just trust jesus then everything else in my life will work out if i if i just am a good enough person then bad will never happen to me and and you know what that's easy to sell pastor keith can come up here and he can sell that all week and you'll keep coming back like because you love that that tickles the years that's that's honey to the ears right we love the idea of oh well we used just jesus and we hit the lottery we're great but the problem that is the bible the bible has a huge issue with that it's not that we we we accept christ into our life and no suffering ever happens it's just that we accept christ we become that new creation in christ and suffering then makes sense suffering then has a meaning and a point that we'll talk about here in a little

bit but i think a lot of us we came into this idea that if i'm good enough god will love me my friends is so the opposite god loved us first so that we would know what good is you don't clean yourself up and come to church you come to church to get clean you are accepted and welcomed here and you're suffering though it feels unique you are not alone in it you're not immune to suffering i like what the word says here it says that but god shows his love for us that while we are still sinners christ died for us that's in romans 5 8 it says that while we were still sinners not why we all had it figured out if you ever meet someone says i have figured it all out you run away because they haven't figured it out right that you know it's not that whenever we're good enough or whenever

we're you know i've done enough works that we're they said while we were sinners christ died for us we all came into the faith the same way and what's incredible about all the stories represented here in this room is that we have one common need and that is our need for christ you're not immune to suffering secondly and i think this is one of the most powerful things this morning so if you hear anything today i really want you to hone in on this it's okay not to be okay and i think for some weird reason we've adopted in christian culture this idea that it's almost ungodly or unsanctified not to be okay like if we're suffering going through trials and tribulations we just pull ourselves up by our christian book straps and you know rub

some dirt on it and it's okay and we won't confess to one another look i'm not okay let me just say this and this is not really my notes it's it's extra it's free you're welcome but hear me give yourself permission to not be okay today because in this room we are just all a bunch of rebels clinging to the mercies of jesus daily you are welcomed here with all your baggage with all your history with all the things you're going through that should not eliminate your ability to confess and tell someone here today on staff someone you've seen on the stage someone you you that brought you here to church today i'm not okay it's okay not to be okay we just don't want to stay there

and how we become okay oftentimes comes through community god didn't come down in the form of jesus to save you just so you go do lone ranger christianity no i'm serious we practice that all the time right what did you when you walked into the doors and someone greeted you today you may be going through literal one of the most tumultuous times in your life but what did you say hey how's it going good morning you said good morning how are you oh everything's great while my marriage is crumbling my finances are going to the wayside my kids are wayward i mean like whatever issues like we feel like at church that we have to you know pretty ourselves up in order to be accepted by this group of believers but the crazy thing is we're all sinners in this room we're all messy in this room and jesus cleans us up so come get clean let us bear those burdens with you as

galatians 6 thus fulfilling the law of christ you are not to mean to do this on your own and you are not alone and it's okay not to be okay hebrews 4 16 says let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need hear this your level of okayness and yes i just coined that trademark kyle rainey you're okay sorry you're okayness your level of canis does not define you it simply informs you of where you're at when you can accept the fact that i'm not okay that i'm in the midst of trial and suffering

then god can start to work god can start to expose we often times and i know if you're like this some of you may have the personality whenever you see suffering coming or trial come you just go head long into it right you're like let's go jesus me and you and you're just like john wayne and jesus and there you go like you're just going to take it out but i want to suggest to you sometimes we need to take a step back and remember who we are and whose we are and we say okay we're not okay how is this informing how i'm feeling how does this inform how i'm seeing things that how do i have a jesus gospel perspective on how to move forward okay so when it says here in hebrews let us draw confidently near god is not annoyed by your not okayness he's not annoyed about you coming to him he's not disappointed in you i can't tell you how many people in my

churches would just say well i just can't really talk to god like that because i don't want to be disappointed in me and it's kind of like this looming father that is just like constantly just why don't you be better why can't you why can't you live up to your brothers and sisters next door right and we get caught in that comparison trap i mean i get it you're on instagram you're on social media on facebook and you you let the highlights of other people's life compare to your low lights and that's a trap by the enemy because then you convince yourself that everyone's okay everyone's got it figured out just not me but hebrews literally says draw near like when my little girl who is four years old issues the baby of the family not spoiled at all out of nine children being the youngest when she wreaks havoc and i use that term precisely

and she's my she's my princess she can do no wrong like she could set one of the other kids on fire and be like maybe it's okay it's all right they probably had to come in but she cut like when she scrapes her knee when she messes up she runs to me or she runs to her mother and then i'm second choice but still she runs to us right your kids run to you why because you're gonna scoop them up and you're gonna say it's gonna be all right it's gonna be okay that's what this verse is saying to us you're not just random souls teetering back and forth in this life drifting through this life if you have jesus you are a son and daughter of the most high god and he says come to me jesus said to himself he goes those who are weary and heavy laden come to me

for my burden is light so he says draw near to the throne of grace in your time of need and you will receive grace and mercy finally another misconception is that our suffering doesn't have a meaning but let me tell you your suffering does have meaning and we spent a lot of time here for the rest of the time this morning in this idea of meeting in our suffering first peter 1 6-7 says this and this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you've been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though is tested by fire may be found to result in the praise and glory and honor of the revelation of jesus christ so christ and we find out later in first peter that he says that christ suffered therefore we will suffer for his name and we are to emulate

the type of of suffering that christ actually endured but really what you're saying is it says in this you rejoice now the rest of this passage before this was talking about that we're rejoicing in jesus right so we rejoice in christ he says but though for now a little while if necessary and i know some of you you're like i've suffered enough it's not necessary any longer i'm good god i got the message thank you um but iran is he goes if necessary you're going to go through this and he goes it's to be tested by fire your faith will be but on the other end of that test you're going to see this genuine faith that will lead you to worship and i can tell you you know i've only been alive for 40 years but with nine children you feel like that's 80 years and so but we've seen some things man we've we've gone through some some seasons um

we you know enduring two miscarriages and um losing jobs and having to go on you know food stamps and moving 16 times you know the reality is that with our special needs children too with high medical needs i mean we've gone through some trials we've seen some things but i continue to see the hand of god in the midst of all of our suffering and it may not make sense right in the midst of it but on the other side of it it makes sense one of the greatest pastoral phrases i ever learned in 15 years someone would come up to me and say pastor what in the world why is this happening why am i suffering my best response was i don't know because i think we get in trouble when we try to subscribe subscribe you know what's happening in someone's life when we really don't know but i said i don't know but i know one

day it'll make sense maybe not on this side of heaven i've got a story it's not part of my notes but let me just say this there was a there's a gentleman in our in my last church in in the eugene springfield area and uh battle for cancer uh the whole time i was there the entire time i was pastoring that church he battled for cancer and you never found a happier man than barry he just all smiles all the time flying to arizona and back for these special treatments just fighting this cancer as well as he could and um he assumed his his body succumbed to to cancer and and i got to do his funeral at celebration service and we packed the place out i mean the people that were in that room was just it was just incredible and person after person after person would come to me and talk to me and i didn't recognize him like who are you like i don't know you're not from our church you're not from the community

it's these people that were in his clinical trial he just showed up to get his chemo to get his this specialty drug and he would just talk about jesus you're there for like four hours plugged up to machines and so he's thought no better time than to be a little evangelist while he was there and it was incredible absolutely incredible your suffering has meaning and you may not understand and i don't think barry ever really got to grasp that this side of heaven but i promise you when he hit those gates and god was there to greet him and said well done my good and faithful servant you took the lot i gave you and you did the most with it to glorify my name and for the good of others your suffering has means so none of us are immune to suffering our suffering has meaning it's okay not to be okay see the thing is this sunday morning

it's easy right we have an amazing worship leader uh in in haley and the worship team come up and we're just all just jazzed up with the holy spirit and it's just awesome and we sing how good is our god and then monday hits right monday hits suffering comes out of nowhere we don't see the storm happening when it just comes kind of comes upon us and the problem is a lot of times we are focusing then our focus gets out of our heavenly father and on to our earthly circumstances let me say this to before we jump in we're going to wrap this up i promise we have to distinguish in the midst of suffering and frame it this way we have to distinguish the difference between happiness and joy those are two very different emotions though they get paired together all the time happiness is attached to circumstances

and situations happiness is like being on a roller coaster i'm super happy that this good looking pastor is preaching us today i'll be even happier when he's done we can go at lunch like i get that you know um and but then when something doesn't work out or something doesn't happen the way you want it then that roll you just dip right back down and you you tie your emotions and sometimes our trust in jesus to that happiness no circumstances joy is different joy's not a roller coaster it's a train man it's just a straight shot with jesus at the wheel right just going all that was a country song you're welcome um it's the texas in me i think that's what it is so but i mean it's just like this straight narrow shot you know you're just going enjoy and no matter what valleys you find yourself in or what mountaintop experiences you jesus is still the same and so we cling to joy happiness is great it's not a bad emotion but it's a fickle emotion and we can't

let it rule us and we can't allow our circumstances to take our joy that's jesus's job so the question is beg then how can a good god allow suffering well here's my take and and before i jump into these three things and we wrap it up um let me i know some of you may be at this point are like well you know i think if i just and then you've already gotten these like pragmatic steps in your head to be a better christian so that you won't suffer any longer right look at the disciples life right the 12 disciples that followed jesus you know one betrayed him 11 were martyred for their faith and one got you know isolated on an island and saw really crazy things at the for end times that pastor keith just preached on following jesus wasn't the greatest retirement plan

but they were faithful men and they got their reward and they suffered well why does a good god allow suffering well number one i think is to grow us romans chapter 5 verses 3 4 says this not only that but we rejoice in our sufferings which may be the most contradictory thing we could ever see in all of scripture right rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because god's love has been poured into our hearts to the holy spirit who's been given to us when you encounter suffering or a trial or tribulation and god sees you through that you gain the spiritual intelligence and awareness right a confidence that you didn't have beforehand that you can face the next trial with boldness knowing that your god is the same god who pulled you through that last disaster he's going to

pull you through this one next i think it is to bring about good remember the story of joseph right in the old testament great family rivalry that he had you know had the wonderful coat brother sold him into slavery he ended up just enduring all these sufferings and then ended up in the palace and egypt ended up saving all of israel because of his efforts and he has this kind of at the very end of this story he's talking to his brothers or literally coming to beg for food to not starve and he says this when he reveals who he is he says in genesis 50 verses 20 it says you meant evil against me but god meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today god can use your suffering to bring about good my oldest son i got permission to tell

this story and some of you that have teens they got to hang out at camp this last week at high school camp my oldest son he's 15 years old his name is noah next time you see him just give him a high five he's a really awesome kid but when he was 18 months old he was diagnosed with autism in a pretty severe case of autism i remember the psychologist telling me he's like you know don't don't expect him to ever speak don't respect him ever talk um he probably is not going to retain a lot of things he probably nonverbal mate won't be able to take care of himself you know all the things you know and of course as a new father like this is my first kid this is one of nine right so i wasn't i'm not at nine right where i have these confidence and trust i'm just like oh my goodness like this is happening you know and i had all these kind of false realities of what parents had looked like and they just came crumbling down

i have a special needs son and i don't really know what to do with that i remember even getting angry with god and this is just me very raw and honest with you but i remember i was in seminary at the time and i told god literally i remember talking to god in our little apartment in fort worth texas said i am going to school for you i work for you are you kidding like are you kidding me and i made it all about me all about my suffering and i thinking once about myself just made it all about my suffering fast forward a few years and noah starts making strides we haven't been therapy all the things and i was invited to come again in texas and i was about four or five at the time to come and speak to a secular group i was like a support group for parents who had autistic children right and so i went in there and kind of talked to this small little crowd about you know all the things that we had gone through with our son and all the therapies and you know those of you who have special needs are in that kind of community you

know you start speaking in code oh do you do aba ana fdd you know whatever you have all the things so it's kind of like it's like speaking cling on to one another i mean you understand each other but no one else ever just kind of looks at you weird and so you know we start talking to those things and the gentleman um just the whole time just kind of had that dead look in his eyes and just stared me down the entire time you know and so afterwards he started approaching me as a fairly big man so i was kind of scared but he approached me and he's like i need to talk to you and i was like i have no money i'm a pastor you don't get paid a lot i'm sorry and he said we just got a diagnosis for my son and he's 18 months and i'm losing it man i don't know what to do i don't know how to help him he just started weeping i hadn't revealed to anybody in the group that was a pastor at the time i didn't tell him even i was a christian it was a secular group and i just was

giving them tips on how to handle all the therapies and maneuver through all these things and i told him his name was mike and i said mike your son is fearfully and wonderfully made and before the beginning of time god set you aside to be his dad he could have chosen anybody but he chose you and he's going to do amazing things in this kid's life and we prayed and i said man you need to get into church you need to find a community around you and you need to walk through this but i'm telling you your son's going to do amazing things and it may not live up to the world standards of amazing things but he has a purpose and god does not make mistakes a couple months later mike showed back up to the group that i was at and i happened to be there

i only went twice to this group and he was there both times and he caught me afterwards he's like we found a church me and my wife are getting baptized next week i'm starting the special needs ministry in my my church thank you and i said man i didn't do anything it was my four-year-old who was the evangelist not me you know what we see is suffering sometimes god is going to use for good now my son is 15 and he's got like this trapped mind he's got this amazing brain and he's just so intelligent and he remembers everything and his one of his greatest passions is learning scripture thank you awana um i know we don't have that here but that's what he grew up on and like he just says but and that's all great until he starts preaching to you so be be forewarned um but no i mean like uh you know if i'm if i'm having a

frustrating dad moment he said you know dad the bible says not to be i say hold up i don't think so but he's a special kid he's a great kid he's he's a mountain mover he's a world shaker and i just love being around him and and so i know that some of you may be going through something like similar to that or you have a situation in which you believe god can never bring out good in it but he can because he allowed it and created it and he is there in the midst of your suffering and he is seeking your good and his glory and i know it doesn't feel like it and you're like well that you can say that now because all things worked out we'd have other stories that it didn't work out and yet god is still good he does it to grow us he he does it to bring about good

he does it to sanctify us and james 1 2-4 says this and again another contradictory statement that is very against the very nature of humanity he says consider a great joy my brothers when you experience various trials i'm sorry james that's like someone come to you and say like you're like oh i'm really suffering right now like dude congratulations that's amazing i wish i was suffering with you i mean that's that's pretty much how we read this i mean james is super pumped to tell you that through various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance endurance must do its complete work so that you may be more complete and lacking in nothing james is asking us to do something like i said it's completely contrary to our nature but to find joy in our suffering knowing that on the other side of suffering we look more like jesus and that's the goal the last thing that i think suffering is

allowed to happen is actually to point us to jesus and that's where i want to spend the rest of our time i've got about a couple more minutes with you and that's where i'd like to spend the rest of my time this morning romans 8 1 is my favorite verse in all the bible my favorite chapter and all the bible it says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus the entirety of the good news of the gospel of christ in one verse because when we're suffering we feel condemned right kind of how we talked about earlier i know that right now some of you may be even thinking well i this is my trial this is my burden this is what i'm going through this is how i'm suffering and you're going but i mean you're backtracking to your history to figure out how this came about and you're stuck back here right some of us are suffering because we haven't

moved on from this place from this time this season and where we failed where we let people down we let ourselves down we let god down and we haven't and we haven't grasped onto the idea of second corinthians 5 right that we are new creations in christ behold all the things have passed have gone away behold the new things to come but we're still in here in the past but friends i'm i'm telling you there is no condemnation if you are in christ jesus and so today as we do every sunday here at this church i'm going to invite you into a relationship with jesus but what i want to tell you is those of you who already know christ you're not a lesser christian because you're in the midst of suffering right now god sees you he loves you and you're not condemned you are loved and like i said earlier you're a son and

daughter of the most high god i love what paul says in romans 8 18 he says for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us in the same chapter paul's like you know i'm in prison writing this letter and i don't consider these sufferings even to compare to what awaits me what a mindset and heart position someone has to you have had to see miracles in your life with jesus to be able to have that kind of disposition how can he do that romans 8 1 there's no condemnation for those in christ jesus he can say that these sufferings not that they're not important not that they're not minor in his life i mean my goodness he's in prison it's not like the prisons we think of today he's like literally in a cave and and suffering and he's writing this this letter and he says but i consider these sufferings really to not even

compare to what jesus has in store for me oh to have that mentality in 2021 people face our sufferings at whatever season in life we find ourselves in saying these sufferings don't compare to what i have in jesus i'll be honest with you i'm not always there it's not always there but i hope to get there because what a legacy we leave and what an impact we can make when we suffer well like christ suffered knowing that what awaits us is eternity with him he goes on when we jump down to romans 8 26-27 he says likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches

hearts knows what is in the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of god let me ask a question this morning and you don't have to raise your hand or anything like that but how many of us have had sufferings and trials that were too deep for words to even express that we're not okay maybe some of you are in a season like that right now where the trials of this life are literally feel like they're sucking the very life out of you that you don't have the breath to cry out to god take hope friends because if you have christ you have a holy spirit within you and they intercede on your behalf that's an amazing god that would give us the helper to intercede on our behalf and we don't have the words to give you know it's even incredible too if we come back over here to genesis chapter three we mentioned earlier about you know sin enter the world you know it's funny when you go to read genesis it's like

everything was great for like five minutes you know like chapter one that's amazing oh the stars the moon this guy oh they made people and people screwed it up and so like genesis 3 you're like what happened what happened there's such a good story up until this point and so genesis 3 comes in and like it's like your kids like you had one job you had one job adam any of you had one job right and so sin enters into the world but what's incredible about this moment if you look in genesis chapter 3 god meets and he's got adam and eve over here and he's got satan in the form of the serpent you know the story right and he's giving out curses right i mean i mean sin is entered into the world the the eden that they had was lost because look you're going to toil for your food and ladies i'm sorry childbirth is going to be difficult and hard and he goes into all these things but then he says something there at the

very end and he goes you know what eve your seed will be in strife with the seed of the serpent we're the seed of satan he will nick your seed's healed but you your seed will crush the serpent's head you know what that is that is the what we call in theological circles the proto-evangelion so you can say you learned a really big word today proto-that's the first gospel message back way back here way back here at the beginning of time when all hope seemed lost god was was proclaiming that he was making a way for you and i to get back to him and not suffer the greatest suffering we will ever suffer and that is our own sin that is a good god see jesus wasn't plan b right we often think that he had the old testament and the law didn't work out so jesus was

playing it's not like god was in heaven like jesus uh they mess it all up blue team go you know jesus like just jumps into the air he's like i'm here you know whatever it wasn't like that jesus was always going to be the way the truth and the life back to god so if he's weaving this narrative back here don't you know that he's with you in your suffering in 2021 that he has made a way for us to endure to find joy and ultimately salvation through his son christ even when we have no words and groanings too deep for words finally romans 8 28 and we know that for those who love god all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose i don't think we will ever realize the

amount of good that god is seeking on our behalf on this side of heaven i just don't think we're going to be able to really contemplate that he is constantly seeking her good even when it feels like nothing good is happening so here's what i want to do for the next four minutes i want to talk to two specific groups of people the first group those of you who have met jesus that you know him as your lord and savior yet you walked into this room today or you're viewing online today and you know you're suffering whether it be in a relationship maybe it be in in health maybe it's something that is self-induced

and it's an addiction or it's a a sin that just keeps propping its head up again and again and again and you feel a weight of suffering on you i want to invite you today to grab one of the pastors grab somebody that you see here on staff grab me grab one of the greeters who helped you to your seat and say that's me i'm suffering and i need somebody to know pastor kim is a brilliant pastor who will plug you into a community who will get you help and honestly like i said earlier you're not meant to do it alone and can i tell you that it is by no mistake that you're here in this room at this moment at this time hearing this message and a season just like this that is god's grace on you to invite you to be in this place an amazing church that is ready to bear your burdens with

you you are not alone hear me say this you are seen you are heard not only by god but by the people in this room the saints in this room who want to lock arms with you and walk through the season with you we need each other more than ever do we not and i know that some of us are worried we're watching the news is this round two coming i mean like i get it i get it and we should be cautious and we should be prayerful but honestly let's do this together whatever that looks like for us let's do it together because there's a second pandemic happening in our country and it's the mental health pandemic that is coming our way and we have the answer church and so if you came in here today and you

tried to put on the masquerade of church if you came in today and you you greeted somebody says everything's great dandy and wonderful no one says danny anymore but you know what i mean it was awesome you know i'm great everything's wonderful my marriage is super kids are wonderful a job is awesome and if that wasn't the truth and you're silently suffering you do not have to be silent anymore and so i beg you implore you that god see his hand in all of this bringing you to a place like this this morning so you can receive mercy grace and the help you need for everybody else in the room i know that there may be a couple people here and folks online that have not made that commitment to jesus i met jesus when i was 21 years old i was a student at texas a m university that's where christ lives so if you want

to find him that's where you got to go to find him so uh and i and i and i lived a pretty stereotypical you know culturally relevant college life suppose pcs i can get on sunday morning and um and jesus found me at the depths of my sin and revived me and at first i was really skeptical because i was like you know what is this true i don't know about you but i don't i don't like to be fooled right i wanted the truth and so i started researching religions right and here's one thing i found that i thought was really fascinating and i think it i wanted to really play to your heart today those of you who have not made that commitment to jesus and not said yes to christ repented of your sins and made him lord of your life when i said and looked at all these different religions i noticed a trend that if i do better if i am more moral

if i do put more good into the world i can raise up to a level of existence of zen of you know a nirvana of some sort of platitudes of happiness that i create and then i'll be able to commune with my deity right but what i found that was different about christianity is it exposed that i could never be good enough to do that and god knew that and he came to me and that's when i knew it was true because i know me and i know who i was and i also know that i stand before you a forgiven son of the most high god and so i want to invite you into that relationship today you are suffering and the things and trials you're going through it is just a symptom of what i think really what ails you and that is your own sin and i know that's not

something maybe that is easy to receive but i can tell you i have this amazing hope for you the bible tells us that when we place our trust in jesus we are those new creations christ and you can become new today i don't have a prayer for you i don't have an incantation i have not it's just you in your heart saying yeah i want that that's me i want to repent and that's just a church word that we say that turn from the ways in which we were going turn from our sin and turn towards jesus and make him lord of your life because god did come in the form of man and his name was jesus and he suffered like we suffered but unlike us he did not sin and he was the absolute perfect sacrifice for you and for i so that we one day will be in heaven with him where there will be no more tears

no more pandemics no more health scares no more heartaches and sufferings in which we all are exposed to and so i want to invite you that today let's pray father god thank you so much for who you are and what you're doing in our midst father in the power of the name of jesus christ by the power of your holy spirit i ask today for those who are suffering physically to find some relief today whether that be through the form of a miracle whether it be form of news from their physicians whether it be form of anything that you choose to glorify yourself lord i ask that they find healing today those who are suffering and their marriages will you restore and heal marriages today begin that journey of restoration today father those who are in conflict maybe with their children or

have broken relationships with them will you begin to mend those relationships for your glory and for your namesake father and god i ask that those here today that came in with all these burdens and felt like no one understands no one cares i can't reveal this to anyone give them the freedom to know that you understand that you've seen them that you care and they're amongst a group of people this morning not by accident that want nothing better than to walk with them through this pray with them and begin that road to recovery through their suffering god we know that you're there in the highlights of our life the lights of our life and we know that you will continue to weave your will in our lives and father i pray today if there's anyone here this morning even right now as we pray father if you are here this morning you hear my words you can hear my voice and your heart's pumping a little bit your hands

are sweating a little bit if you this morning say you know what i have suffered alone long enough with a life that i was living a life that i know was not fulfilling a life i know that was a contrary to god's will and i want to receive jesus christ as my lord and savior i repent of my sins and place my trust in jesus if that's you this morning what i want you to do if you could with every head bowel with every eye clothes if you just want to raise your hand this morning and say hey that's me that's me i i need that and you're like well what do i need to pray for thank you sister i see you i what i need to pray for what do i need to say is there something no no you just say that's me and jesus will do the rest and if anybody else i see a couple hands out if anybody else even after the service and after we're done if you want to make that commitment to christ we would love more than anything to talk to you

about it father god go before us love us restore us we suffer but not in vain you are god of everything and you bring us the joy that we long for and need you are anthem as we're about to sing jesus you are our joy that we cling to and there's no one like you thank you for allowing us to go through this world not aimlessly but with a purpose knowing that you are with us in jesus name amen