WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.080 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.960 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:10.720 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:19.359 I was 19 when I first kind of went through a series of storms. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.640 And the story we're gonna look at is a storm at sea. 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:27.679 And we often use that as a metaphor for suffering in life. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:35.840 And you know, when I was 19, I went through my first serious series of storms, of sufferings of sort. 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:47.359 I had a friend that was really like a brother to me in high school who was facing serious addiction with drugs and alcohol, and our relationship was deteriorating very quickly. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:01:00.000 In that year, my friend of mine was on a road trip to Southern California, and he died in a car accident in that matter of months of that same incident with my friend. 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:03.600 And then my parents were getting separated and they would head for divorce. 00:01:03.840 --> 00:01:06.319 This was all within like really a couple of weeks. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:08.799 Felt like it was kind of storm after storm. 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:11.519 I don't know if you've ever had those moments in your life. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:18.079 And, you know, I was working at a church, I was an intern at a church, kind of trying to find my way in ministry. 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:20.640 And I think the people there were very concerned about me. 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:22.319 A lot had been going on in my life. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:28.799 They were concerned that maybe something was, you know, happening, that I would not be in church or I would be out of the ministry or something like that. 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:31.439 There's this woman that came up to me during that season. 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:33.040 You know, she approached me at church one day. 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:39.120 She said, Chris, I woke up and uh in the middle of the night last night, and I had two thoughts. 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:44.719 I thought about you, and I thought about Luke chapter 22, verses 31 through 32. 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:46.879 And I was like, I don't have the Bible memorized. 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:48.000 Like, what is that verse? 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:52.879 Um and she read it to me, you know, or she she had it memorized. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:59.040 She said, It's when Jesus approaches Peter, because he's about to deny Jesus. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:11.120 And Jesus says to Peter, Peter, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:19.039 This was the first time in my life, she gave that to me as just kind of a verse to think about during this season of suffering. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:25.680 It was the first time in my life that I thought that perhaps the difficult things in my life were more complicated than I originally thought. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.599 That I actually opened my mind to a possibility I had not really considered. 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:31.360 I was thinking things were very simple. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:32.639 Have you been here before? 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:44.159 You know, you believe in God, God is in control, he's powerful, therefore, everything that happens in this world happens because of God being in control. 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:56.159 But this verse really messes with that paradigm because it incorporates the thought that perhaps not everything in this world is designed by God, but some things could be designed by his very enemy. 00:02:56.560 --> 00:02:59.280 There are counter forces at work, right? 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.960 In addition to this, it also opens up this possibility of human responsibility, right? 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:11.199 Jesus says, I've prayed for you that your faith might not fail, that your faith might not fail, Peter. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:18.560 And suddenly the paradigms of suffering started to kind of open up for me a little bit, that perhaps not everything that was going on in my life was from God. 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:26.879 And that in fact some of the things that were happening were because of human responsibility, and just because we live in a world that is deeply fractured at its very core. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:39.039 This was the first time in my life where suffering became more complicated, and because of that gave me a kind of peace, a strange peace, that actually some of the things that I was ascribing to God were not God at all. 00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:41.520 What storms have you been through in your life? 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.520 What difficulties have you faced? 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:49.280 How have those storms reinterpreted who you are as a character, as a in your character, as a person? 00:03:49.520 --> 00:04:01.840 You know, throughout literature, storms have always been a key metaphor, motif that story writers use to talk about the difficulties of life, to change a person, to arrest their character and rearrange it. 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:08.879 You know, you think about Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey, or you think about Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, or even Jonah and the whale in the Bible. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.840 You know, all these stories are about a physical storm, but they're also teaching us about something else. 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:25.680 We're looking today at a physical storm that should teach you the complexities of suffering, the difficulties of suffering, the intricacies of God's sovereignty through this story from Paul. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:34.800 I'm gonna tell you the story first, because the biblical narrative in Acts 27 is it's almost 37 verses, 38 verses long, and we don't have the time to read that much. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:40.639 So I'm gonna tell you the story, and then we'll pull out the verses from it to show you these intricate, interesting moments. 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:41.680 This is what happens. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:48.959 Paul is under arrest, and under arrest, he's being transported to Rome. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:54.160 His transport includes a centurion, a Roman guard who owns his life. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:05:01.360 As they're about to set off to go to Rome, Paul warns the centurion and everyone about to board the ship. 00:05:01.519 --> 00:05:06.000 He goes, I'm an experienced sailor, which he is, he's been on several missionary journeys at this point. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:08.079 He says, the weather doesn't look good. 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:13.839 He says, as we go out into this storm, I believe the ship would not only be lost, but we will all die. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:18.319 The centurion says, You don't get to make the calls because you're in prison. 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:20.079 So we're gonna get on the ship. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:24.720 So they get on the ship anyways, and lo and behold, a storm, a great tempest arises, right? 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:30.160 The nor'easter comes and there's this massive winds and waves, and things are very bad. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:35.120 And Paul tells the people, look, I told you that this was going to go wrong. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:43.759 I told you that there was a possibility because we live in such a complex world with storms and various unpredictabilities, that this is gonna go wrong. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:49.519 And he says, at the same time, he said, last night, I had a vision. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:52.319 I had a dream, which is very common in the book of Acts. 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:54.399 People have dreams and visions and things like this. 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:58.800 And he says, an angel of the Lord appeared to me and he said that no one will die. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:02.480 But we have to be very careful and very wise. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:08.720 So I believe that God has told me no one will die, but there has to be wisdom handled here, and we're gonna have to run this ship aground. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:17.600 We're gonna have to bring this ship to an island and wreck the ship in order to save our lives, which was a tactic in first century nautical experiences. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:20.800 So Paul says, this is what we have to do. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:28.959 The men start to panic and they start to gather the life raft together, and they start to, the one boat on there that could get them off of the main ship. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:37.360 And as they're doing that, Paul says, if you leave, we won't have enough sailors to really get to where we need to go, and we will absolutely die. 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:41.920 He says this at the same time of saying, we will absolutely not die, because I believe God told us. 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:46.879 You see the two hands of suffering kind of already playing into this story here. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:52.639 Well, the men decide to cut the cargo, turn the ship loose, or turn the life raft loose. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:07:00.399 The men stay on the ship, they guide it sort of to safety, they wreck the ship, but every life is spared and everybody's okay. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:01.360 That's the story. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:02.560 That's how it ends. 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:03.600 What do we learn from this? 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:06.560 What do we learn from this story in Acts chapter 27? 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.680 We learn two sides of suffering. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:15.439 We learn the complexity of it, and on the other side of the coin, we learn the course. 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:18.959 The complexity, what is God's role in suffering? 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:20.240 And the course. 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:21.279 What's the point? 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:22.160 Where is it headed? 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.319 When we go through storms in life, where is it head? 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:25.600 Where do we go from here? 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:28.240 And we're gonna do all this in about 20 minutes, okay? 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:29.199 Sound good? 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:33.600 Okay, uh, the complexity and the course. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:35.439 First, the complexity of suffering. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:36.800 What's God's role in it? 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:41.839 You know, this story it reveals this complex nature of human suffering. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.360 Uh look at these bunches of verses. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:47.839 If you have your bulletin, just open it to Acts 27. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:52.480 Verses 9 through 11, verses 21 to 26, verses 31 to 32. 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.600 Okay, these little sections will show you three different realities. 00:07:55.839 --> 00:08:02.959 That the world is broken and unpredictable, that humans have responsibility, and that God is sovereign, all three. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:04.319 Look at this. 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:13.360 When Paul starts in verse 9, he says, Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only to the cargo and the ship, but also our very lives. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:15.040 That's him right before they leave. 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:25.519 He goes, I am, I perceive the world is an unpredictable place, and I'm just looking at the way the world operates and my experience as a sailor, and we're going to die if we get on this ship. 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:31.439 One thing Paul recognizes as someone who's, by the way, this Paul was a person saturated in the Old Testament. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.200 He was a Pharisee, which meant he was a Jewish scholar of the Old Testament. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:40.960 Part of his vision and uh worldview was that the world was a dangerous and unpredictable place. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:45.759 It was not some place that is safe and under complete control like a computer algorithm. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:49.039 No, the world is a dangerous and unpredictable place. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:52.080 Christians often say that the world is broken. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:09:03.759 That the world in its very nature, uh, through through nature itself, through the ways even our physiology works, does not work perfectly like a computer algorithm. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.559 The world is a dangerous and unpredictable place. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:09.600 It is broken, it is fractured as its core. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:17.279 And later, when they're on the ship and they're suffering, he says, Men, look at Acts 27, 21, men, you should have listened to me. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:23.440 He said, I was telling you that we live in this broken world and that things could go wrong, and then says, You should have listened to me. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:26.960 Uh, because now we might incur injury and loss. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:29.200 Yet, verse 22, look at this. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:34.320 I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you. 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:38.720 Later in verse 26, he says, but at the same time, we've got to run this ship aground. 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:42.080 Do you see the tension at work in Paul's language? 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:44.240 The world is a broken place. 00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:50.159 We have some responsibilities, we've got to get this ship to the ground, but also God is sovereign. 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:51.679 God is in control. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.000 There won't be any loss of life here. 00:09:54.240 --> 00:10:02.879 You see, later in Acts 27, 31 and 32, when the men are trying to get out of the ship and bail, they're trying to get on the life raft and get out, he stops them. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:07.840 He says, unless, look at, unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved. 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:09.440 Well, which is it? 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.879 Is God in control and everyone will be saved? 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:16.159 Or unless these men stay on the ship, then we'll be saved. 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:17.200 Which is it? 00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.120 It's both. 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:32.480 See, the biblical understanding of suffering in this world is much more complicated than our simplistic understanding of a God who is entirely manipulating the world like a computer algorithm. 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:33.679 It's more complicated than that. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:35.279 The biblical writers have always said this. 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:48.559 And in fact, some of the great teachers and preachers on this passage that I read and listened to, Tim Keller, Oz Guinness, Willie James Jennings, these scholars that pull out this exact fact from this text, they all say, which is it? 00:10:48.799 --> 00:11:00.480 Is it A that the world is a broken and unpredictable place, therefore that's why suffering happens, B, that humans are responsible for all of the world's suffering, or C is God sovereign and he's responsible for all the suffering? 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:04.159 Scripture says it's actually D, all of the above. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:19.120 That we live in such a world where God is totally in control and sovereign, that he is sovereign over everything, but at the same time has given responsibility and has created the world in such a space and place that it is not a perfect world. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:22.399 When God created the world, he said it is good, it is good, it is good, it is good. 00:11:22.559 --> 00:11:23.600 Genesis 1. 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:25.279 He didn't say it is perfect. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:27.440 There is actually a great Hebrew word for perfect. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:29.440 It's never employed in Genesis 1. 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:31.279 Why is it not employed in Genesis 1? 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:34.639 Because God was not creating a perfect world, a complete world. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:36.399 He was creating one that was good. 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:39.440 And you and I don't get to choose the kind of world in which we live. 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:44.159 And a part of the biblical writer's imagination was that this is a complicated subject. 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:49.840 Humans are responsible, the world itself is fractured, and God is still sovereign. 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:51.440 God is still sovereign. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:12:01.279 The broken and fractured world that we live in is the environment of God's activity, the space in which He desires to work and will, His way. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:04.480 The writers of Scripture, they understood the complexity. 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:10.879 We do not live in a computer algorithm, but we also don't live in complete chaos. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:16.879 We don't live in a computer algorithm, we don't live in chaos, we live in a cosmos. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:21.919 A universe that has both predictable features and unpredictable features. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:25.039 We have things that we can absolutely count on. 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:30.480 We can measure a mountain, we can see its mountain range, but also an avalanche can happen. 00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:35.360 We know weather patterns as best we can, but we also understand storms occur. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:38.240 Predictable biology and mutation. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:39.679 We live in a cosmos. 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:42.879 We live in a place that is both predictable and unpredictable. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:45.919 We don't live in a computer algorithm and we don't live in chaos. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:51.279 We live in God's cosmos, his space, that he is working and willing his way together. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:52.960 That's how he's decided to do it. 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:58.080 Through a broken and predict and unpredictable world, human responsibility and God's sovereignty. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:01.919 This means there is disease, things we can't control. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:03.679 We live in a broken world. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:08.240 There's storms and things that happen that we just can't explain or understand. 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:10.639 But there's also human responsibility. 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:14.799 We make bad choices that create this world's chaos, right? 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.440 And contribute more to the chaos. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:25.360 And at the same time, God sits on a throne and is completely sovereign over this world. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:28.159 He's never panicked about a thing that happens. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:32.639 He's never surprised at the moments and storms that come. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:40.879 You see, if you only have one of these three, A, B, or C, you'll develop a specific kind of immaturity. 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:46.879 And one of the things the Bible is inviting us into is to take all three in order to develop a kind of mature heart. 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:53.039 You see, if you have one of the three, you'll have one small faction of immaturity. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:59.120 You'll have anxiety, for example, if you think that the world is just a dangerous and unpredictable place. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:04.879 If you just take that option and you say, we just live in this broken world, it's unpredictable, it's dangerous, you'll be racked with anxiety. 00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:11.279 You'll never want to leave, you'll never want to do anything, you'll never want to take any risk, you'll never want to love anyone because you'll be afraid of betrayal. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:18.720 You'll never want to do anything or take a job because you'll be afraid that something will happen because you think this is a dangerous and unpredictable place. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:26.639 Also, you you might develop not only anxiety, but you might develop arrogance if you just pick the human responsibility thing. 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:28.480 I need to make my own life. 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:30.159 I need to make my own choices. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:32.799 I am the captain of my own ship. 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:34.000 I own my destiny. 00:14:34.159 --> 00:14:34.879 I've got a plan. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:36.320 I gotta do me. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:49.440 Not recognizing that an honest look of your life would be mostly an accumulation of things given to you that were outside of your control: family of origin, location, race or ethnicity, financial status, and suffering. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:54.399 Things that happened to you that you didn't choose that contributed to the kind of person you are today. 00:14:55.279 --> 00:15:00.320 Anxiety, arrogance, or the apathetic, apathy. 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:06.080 If you just say, well, God's in control, it'll be this kind of let go and let God theology, right? 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:08.399 This kind of Jesus take the wheel theology. 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:10.720 Well, everything will be fine because God's got it. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:19.200 Well, at the end of the day, you need to go get a job, you know, or like you need to fix, you know, you need to take steps towards health and healing in your life. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:21.679 Like, there's human responsibility that you must take. 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:27.840 You see, a balance of these three helps develop in you a kind of maturity that God is inviting you to. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:35.440 In order to produce this kind of maturity, we need to receive the strange gift of God within suffering. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:40.799 Suffering itself is not really the gift so much, but there's a gift within it. 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:44.720 There's something buried behind the storm, behind the difficulty. 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:53.120 See, it's not about the difficulty, it's about the thing behind the thing, behind the curtain, pulled back to see what God is really giving you, what he's really gifting you. 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:58.159 The storm is here to show you something about God and about yourself. 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:01.519 And the storm is kind of a perfect metaphor, is it not? 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:06.639 The raging sea outside of our control, and the boat that's within our control. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:09.039 And the balance between those two things. 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:15.440 That's perhaps why the Bible uses storms so often in the Gospels, Joe and I mentioned earlier, and right here in the book of Acts. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:20.639 But it's not just about understanding the complexity, Paul also understood the course. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:22.240 Where are we headed? 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:23.200 What is the point? 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:25.360 Why suffering? 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:27.440 The course of suffering. 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:32.320 Paul knew he was headed somewhere and that the world was headed somewhere. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:39.200 He had like a personal course and a corporate course, like a collective course of where the world was heading. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:43.440 The personal one was that he really knew God was bringing him to Rome. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:55.840 In fact, if you looked at earlier texts in Acts, Acts 23.11, Acts 19.21, I have these printed in your bulletin, you'll see two places where Paul, it says, was resolved in the Holy Spirit, because he needs to see Rome. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:00.720 Later it says, the Lord stood by Paul, telling him you must testify in Rome. 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:02.399 He had a personal understanding. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:09.279 God is designing me, setting a course, sovereign over my life to put me towards Rome. 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:13.519 And whatever happens to me going to Rome, I will be within God's will. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:16.400 And if I die, I will live. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:18.480 And if I live, I will live. 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:18.880 Right? 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:21.839 To live is Christ, to die is gain, Paul will write later. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:24.000 I know I'm on the right course. 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:37.279 He also knew a collective course, that God has a purpose in this world, that it is not left spinning out of control, but God can take the evil and suffering and repurpose it and set a course. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:48.720 He knew, Paul knew that where he's going and the storm he was in still would contribute in some way to his own good and the good of the world. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:57.680 We are mostly unconvinced of this. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:04.400 I, like you, grew up reading the great writers who question this very thing, right? 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:06.319 It's like the oldest question. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:08.079 Why would God allow these storms? 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:10.480 Why evil when there is a good God? 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:17.440 Albert Camus or David Hume, George Orwell, Christopher Hitchens most recently, all articulate this idea. 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:21.599 Hey, if you have to choose between a good God and evil, you might as well choose evil because you can see it. 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:22.880 You know it. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:24.559 You can count on it. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:27.599 This kind of nihilism fades into our culture. 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:29.359 That there's basically no point. 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:31.279 It's just chaos, right? 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:43.279 But many Christian scholars have always said, well, just because we can't see the course of suffering, you know what makes us think there is no course? 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:48.720 This is a constant argument amongst Christian theologians through time, right? 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:55.519 The truer statement than, well, we can't reconcile a good God with an evil world. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:59.039 The truer statement is we can't think of a reason. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:03.680 We can't think of a reason for how to reconcile a good God with an evil world. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:13.920 Alvin Plantinga, the philosopher, he says this: given that God does have a reason for permitting these evils, why think we would be the first to know? 00:19:14.240 --> 00:19:24.480 Given that he is omniscient, and given our very substantial epistemic limitations, the limitations of what we could possibly know, it isn't at all surprising that his reasons escape us. 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.039 Scripture does not always tell us the course. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.400 In fact, it rarely rarely tells us the course. 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:35.039 The whole book of Job, you're waiting, like, is there an answer here? 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:37.599 There's no real answer in Job. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:45.519 Scripture doesn't always tell us the course, but invites us to trust the wisdom of God in his course he sets. 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.319 Let me give you a few examples of what I mean by this. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:19:50.640 This is God's sovereignty at work. 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:59.680 The ability to permit and limit suffering and to enact his power over it to change that suffering into something good. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:01.440 Okay, I'm gonna say this again. 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:13.440 God's sovereignty is not only his ability to permit and or limit suffering, but his power to change its very course into his and our good. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:19.839 We know this because we need to read backwards from this moment of Acts. 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:22.480 Read backwards into the Old Testament. 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:29.119 You look at a man like Paul, who is arrested, left for dead, falsely accused. 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:32.079 It should remind you of several people in the Bible. 00:20:32.400 --> 00:20:38.720 The first it should remind you of is in Genesis, the end of the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible in the Old Testament. 00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:42.319 It tells the story of Joseph, one of Jacob's sons. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:48.880 Jacob being the father, you know, with Abraham and Isaac, the father, the lineage of Israel. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:54.640 And Joseph is proud and arrogant, and his brothers are resentful and bitter. 00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:57.039 And his brothers leave him for dead. 00:20:57.200 --> 00:21:11.359 They falsely accuse him, he is arrested, he is taken into prison, but through his harrowing journey of sufferings, he somehow arises to the topped of the Egyptian political system. 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:13.440 He receives immense power. 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:16.559 And there's this great famine that comes across the land. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:31.359 And Jacob's brothers who ditched him and betrayed him and left him for dead, now come back begging to the brother who is in power, who was once arrogant, but who has changed, who has allowed the complexities of suffering to shape his character. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:37.039 In the end of the book of Genesis, after this kind of like, it's like a Russian novel. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:41.200 I mean, it's filled with drama, sex, violence, deceit. 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:49.440 At the end of it, there's Joseph sitting with his brothers as they're begging him for their food and their life. 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:52.799 He's in a position of power, he could easily let them starve. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:59.599 But he says this to them in perhaps my favorite verse in the entire Bible Genesis 50 20. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:16.240 He says this to his brothers, to you, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about it that many people should be kept alive as they are today. 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:31.839 If you're reading that in the NIV translation, you'll read this You, brothers, intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:35.279 Thousands after this are saved from starvation. 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:39.440 The entire economy of the ancient world is reworked. 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:42.079 The family of Israel is preserved. 00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:45.359 Relationships between the family are restored. 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:46.799 What happened? 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:56.559 God took the evil intentions hidden in the fabric of this world and he repurposed them and reworked them, taking the wicked motives and making them good. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:59.599 Now notice and be very careful here. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:02.799 It does not mean that the evil things are good. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:06.240 The evil things remain evil things. 00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:08.079 They remain with evil intentions. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:21.279 He looks at his brothers, he says, You meant this for evil, but God took the intentions of you and of this broken and fractured world, and he reworked the intentions to bring about something that you could have never done. 00:23:21.599 --> 00:23:26.400 This is why Paul on this ship could say what he said. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:36.160 And it's also why Paul could write what he wrote a couple of months before that, probably actually a couple of years before this shipwreck, when he wrote a letter to the Roman church that he was about to go visit. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:42.640 He sent a letter ahead of him before he was gonna go to Rome, he sent a letter to them, and in this letter, he wrote one of the most famous New Testament Bible verses. 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:47.839 So I'm giving you old and New Testament famous Bible verses in context here, Romans 8.28. 00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:59.279 And we know, look at this, that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:01.839 Read that verse so carefully. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:04.880 It is not saying that all things are good. 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:20.720 It is saying that God works the quote unquote all things, the good and the bad, that he collects the good and the bad, and he reworks and repurposes them for the good, the singular objective good of his own nature and character given to us. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:32.400 A remarkable teaching of God's sovereignty, hidden in this verse, that God would see the all things of this world, the evil intentions, and rework them for good. 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:38.240 All things are not good, but in the all things of life, God is working them, setting them on his course. 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:41.279 That's his sovereignty, that's how powerful he is. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:43.279 What did Paul and Joseph both have? 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:53.759 They had an understanding that not everything in this world is good, but that everything in this world can be used, repurposed, redeemed for God's glory and goodness. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.160 Nothing is unusable in the hands of this mighty God. 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:04.319 Nothing is wasted, nothing cannot be taken, there is nothing that is in this world that he cannot pick up. 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:06.079 There is nothing that he is afraid of. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.680 There's this teaching out there that's like God can't be around sin. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:12.319 The cross would rebuke that. 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:17.359 It's not that God can't be around sin, it's that sin cannot stand the presence of God. 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.680 That sin itself cowers in fear, that evil itself cowers in fear. 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:23.519 It says what Tim Keller says. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:31.519 He says, God uses the worst things in this world, the vast displays of evil, to bring about the very opposite of evil's intent. 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:35.440 Keller also says this in the end. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:40.160 God let Satan and evil have enough rope to hang himself. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:47.039 He let evil to intend something, but accomplish its opposite. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:50.160 That's how powerful God is. 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:56.480 Some of you know I'm a massive gospel music fan. 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:04.000 And I I'm not talking about like I like Christian contemporary music and everything, but I love real traditional gospel music. 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:15.279 And I think I love it so much, one, the music is so good, but the theology in gospel music, around this issue in particular, is so sound. 00:26:17.359 --> 00:26:28.079 You know, the black church has existed as this beacon of good news to say that we live in an unpredictable world with human responsibility and God is sovereign. 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:36.960 And in their music, there is a reckoning with the deep pain of the African American community here and the hope of Jesus Christ. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:38.079 It's unbelievable. 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:39.440 There's just no music like it. 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:43.039 And there's something in there that just can't be replicated. 00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:50.079 And one of the most famous gospel songs ever written is called Take My Hand, Precious Lord. 00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:51.920 It's by a man named Thomas A. 00:26:52.079 --> 00:26:52.720 Dorsey. 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:58.400 And his story of how he wrote this song illustrates the complexity and the course of suffering. 00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:00.799 Take My Hand, Precious Lord. 00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:02.559 It was written in 1932. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.680 In 1932, Dorsey was 32. 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:06.960 He was born in 1900. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:08.640 So this is a long time ago. 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:12.559 He was newly married, and he had a baby on the way. 00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:16.720 And his baby was about one month to the due date when he took a gig in St. 00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:17.440 Louis. 00:27:17.680 --> 00:27:18.559 And he traveled to St. 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:20.000 Louis from Atlanta. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:24.160 And he was at the time a jazz and soul singer and a gospel singer. 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:27.359 It was very common during that time to kind of have a foot in both worlds. 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:30.880 He was singing jazz and soul and he was singing gospel music. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:31.759 And he went to St. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:37.039 Louis and he was about to get on stage to go on this gig when a young boy ran up with a Western Union telegram. 00:27:37.119 --> 00:27:40.640 And on the Western Union Telegram it said, Your wife just died. 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:41.920 That's all it said. 00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:55.279 And he received that telegram and obviously took the next train back to Atlanta, where he found in the hospital his wife dead, and that she had given birth to this baby boy. 00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:01.039 Only to that night lose his baby boy. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:04.559 These are his words. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:10.720 I buried Netty, his wife, and our little boy together in the same casket. 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:13.680 And at that moment I fell apart. 00:28:14.319 --> 00:28:16.799 For years I closeted myself. 00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:21.839 I felt that God had done to me an injustice I could never forgive. 00:28:22.319 --> 00:28:24.640 I didn't want to serve him anymore. 00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:27.119 I didn't want to write gospel songs. 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:32.000 I just wanted to go back to that jazz world I once knew so well. 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:38.640 In that moment of his despair, he had a friend who knew exactly what Dorsey needed. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:49.039 He drove Thomas Dorsey to a practice room at a little black college in Atlanta and gave him the whole night in this practice room with a piano. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:53.680 He didn't even say anything, he said, just stay in this room with this piano. 00:28:53.920 --> 00:29:02.160 And it's there that Dorsey said, The Lord met him in the midst of the storm, and he wrote these words to the famous song, Take My Hand, Precious Lord. 00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:07.119 Precious Lord, take my hand, it says, Lead me on, let me stand. 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:10.480 I am tired, I'm weak, and I'm worn. 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:14.480 Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:18.559 Take my hand, precious Lord, and lead me home. 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:25.839 Always in gospel music, there is a projection towards the eternal, towards home, towards heaven. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:33.440 Because this world is broken and it is filled with suffering, but God has set it on a course to head home to heaven. 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:36.000 This is not making lemons out of lemonade. 00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:38.319 This is not just have a little hope. 00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:43.839 This is firm, fixed, sovereignty of God, heaven language. 00:29:44.319 --> 00:29:49.200 He sang this song to his friend who dropped him off at the rehearsal space later that night. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:56.640 And that friend was a minister of worship at a little church in Atlanta, decent-sized church in Atlanta, that next Sunday. 00:29:56.799 --> 00:30:01.920 His home church was called Ebenezer Baptist Church, where their lead pastor was in their second year. 00:30:02.079 --> 00:30:04.480 His name was Martin Luther King Sr. 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:08.079 It was at this church that Martin Luther King Jr. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:13.839 grew up hearing the sounds of Take My Hand, Precious Lord, which he would say was his favorite song ever written. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:16.000 He requested it at numerous rallies. 00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:19.119 He even requested it to be sung once he died. 00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:27.359 A song that sustained and inspired not only the civil rights movement, the civil rights movement's most important leader, Barnun. 00:30:27.839 --> 00:30:33.839 The storm of a wife dying, the suffering of a wife and a boy dying is evil. 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:35.599 It is not good. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:37.839 These things are not good. 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:40.559 The death was not good. 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:58.160 But God took the evil intention that this grief could have been for Dorsey and repurposed it, charting a new course for Dorsey and potentially maybe even this country, to channel it into a song that would change and sustain the trajectory of the civil rights greatest leader. 00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:09.200 How can we say that God cannot repurpose evil things to good things when this is just one example of the many things God could do with evil things? 00:31:09.440 --> 00:31:11.200 How can we be sure? 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:13.279 How can we know where we're headed? 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:22.160 How can we be sure that this course applies to all of us and doesn't just apply to these unique stories of Joseph, of Paul, of Thomas Dorsey? 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:29.680 We know this because when the storm is about to end, Paul gathers all the sailors and he says this to them, Acts 27, 34. 00:31:29.839 --> 00:31:32.640 Therefore, he says, I urge you, take some food. 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:35.680 The journey is about to end. 00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:36.640 It will strengthen you. 00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:41.039 And look what he says: not a hair is to perish from any head of you. 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:47.440 And after he said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and he ate it. 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:49.359 And they were all encouraged. 00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:53.519 This is before their lives are spared. 00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:55.680 How does Paul have this peace? 00:31:55.839 --> 00:31:57.920 How does he have this complete security? 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:01.440 It's actually hidden in the line when he says, Not a hair of your head will perish. 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:03.279 Do you know where he gets that line? 00:32:03.519 --> 00:32:05.759 He gets that line from the teachings of Jesus. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:09.359 Luke, who's writing this story, is in the boat, actually. 00:32:09.599 --> 00:32:10.720 He says he's in the boat. 00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:12.079 He was there during the storm. 00:32:12.319 --> 00:32:15.680 He wrote a gospel, an entire narrative of Jesus' life. 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:20.559 And in Luke's narrative of Jesus' life, this teaching from Jesus is in Luke 21, 18. 00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:23.440 Not a hair of your head will perish, Jesus says. 00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:25.839 By your endurance you will gain your lives. 00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:32.880 He says this in the context to his disciples, where he says, You're going into a world that is broken and unpredictable. 00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:36.640 There will be wars, there will be persecutions, there will be injustice. 00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:39.279 You are heading out into the bad lands. 00:32:39.519 --> 00:32:46.160 However, the promise remains that not a hair of your head shall perish, and by it you will gain your very lives. 00:32:46.720 --> 00:32:53.440 Unfortunate English translation, the King James uses the word souls, because that's probably the better term from the Greek. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:58.960 That not a head will, not a hair from your head will perish, but you will actually preserve your souls. 00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:00.720 How can Jesus say this? 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:03.920 How can Paul repeat Jesus' saying to these sailors? 00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:09.839 How can we be assured that through our suffering, even if we die, we would gain our souls? 00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:12.640 Because that's exactly what Christ did. 00:33:13.039 --> 00:33:17.440 Jesus was the one who not only lost every hair of his head, but lost his very life. 00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:33.759 And yet, with the intention of evil, the crucifixion of Jesus, the bloodied and battered body of Christ, the Son of God, the evil intentions that were built into that moment, God repurposed and worked to the resurrections for his good and our good. 00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:35.920 Death was not the end of the story there. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:38.000 Death is not the end of our story. 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:40.240 For Paul, it was a good ending. 00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:45.920 He landed somewhat safely on an island and he makes his way to Rome, which we'll pick up to next week. 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:49.200 But not all of our stories will have happy endings. 00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:53.519 Some of our suffering will be so unimaginable we won't know what to do. 00:33:54.160 --> 00:33:56.160 This is why we take communion. 00:33:56.799 --> 00:34:09.519 Because in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus, we remember that our faith is not resting on outcomes, but on promises from God. 00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:14.480 And God says, if we lose our lives, we will gain it. 00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:26.320 Proof is in the cross that at this moment on the cross, Jesus dying, losing his life, was giving it and repurposing it for all of humankind. 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:35.039 And so no matter where we go, we know the course and the sovereignty of suffering, which is that God can take the evil things and work them to good. 00:34:35.199 --> 00:34:42.639 He can even take the most evil, wretched thing, death itself, and repurpose it here into life for you and for me. 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:52.559 And so let's receive God's good word not on something we might do, but something he has done to prove his goodness in the midst of such terrible time. 00:34:52.719 --> 00:34:59.920 The hope of the broken bread is this: for all the reasons we can think of of why God might allow suffering, we can eliminate one. 00:35:00.079 --> 00:35:03.199 We can eliminate the reason, the suspicion that he may not love us. 00:35:03.440 --> 00:35:10.800 And we can stand on the sure ground that he does and that he's offered his life and proven that life is stronger than death. 00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:11.920 Let's pray. 00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:36.719 People going into difficult places. 00:35:37.840 --> 00:35:47.599 So, Lord, we pray that this worship and this communion would be a healing agent into our life right now. 00:35:47.760 --> 00:36:01.679 That it would be reminding us of your goodness, that death itself was not an enemy that you were scared of, but something you took hold of, repurposed, and gave it to our good. 00:36:01.840 --> 00:36:08.400 Give us, God, the faith to see in communion and in our worship as we sing to you your goodness in the midst of storms. 00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:11.119 God, we need you to do that in Christ's name. 00:36:11.280 --> 00:36:11.760 Amen. 00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:14.239 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:36:14.480 --> 00:36:19.519 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:22.000 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:28.079 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.comslash card.