Here on Martin Luther King Weekend, uh, we are reminded of how far our country has come in dealing with injustice and, and treatment of others, but we also understand that we got a long way to go. Because if we look around our world, we, we understand that so much of our world is not right. So much is surrounded with injustice and, and struggle and question and division. You know, we see around every corner, uh, cancer taking another life. We see war tearing nations apart. We see evil going unpunished. We see Those neglected and abused and and issues and struggles and, and see, as a Christian, it can be tough to handle these issues. Right? We sing about in Christ alone and, and we sing about his goodness and who he is. But then we see the reality of the struggle in this world. And so what do we do with that? One of the biggest or most common questions I get is, as a pastor over the last 20 years, is really, what do we do with hell, evil and suffering? And, and I wanna encourage you this morning that it's not just Christians that deal with these questions, is that every person. has to wrestle with where does evil come from or how do we handle suffering. And so what I wanna attempt to do this morning is that rather than stray away from the difficult topics, let's actually lean into those. And, and my prayer and hope is that to give you a framework to help you better understand because when we ask honest questions, We're gonna find actually a deeper faith. And so if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down, that Jesus doesn't ignore our broken world. Jesus overcomes it. So he doesn't ignore the brokenness in our world, but rather he overcomes it because The person next to you is also going through hard times. The person next to you also has questions. Your neighbor down the street, who doesn't believe in God, also has questions around suffering and struggles and doubts. The difference is for Christians, is that believers have a framework or understanding of these difficult topics. That not only can we understand aspects of it, about where it came from, why it's here, but also what can we do with it. See, for the believer, hell actually names the justice that we long for. Evil names the darkness that we feel, and suffering names the pain that we carry. But through it all, the cross actually names the victory that God gives over all three. And so here's what I wanna do this morning, as we're gonna jump into these three topics, uh, super uplifting, I know. Um, but here's what I wanna do though, is that we all face it, right? You, you came in with a question or a struggle or battle or a hard situation. And so rather than just come in and be like, God is good all the time, all the time, God is good, we're all in a cloud someday. Here's your harp. Um. I wanna give you the tools to actually go into the week with the real tough stuff of life, because, because it was made for real life. And that if God talks about it, if Jesus talks about it, we should talk about it too as a church, OK? Don't let ignorance be your way out of, of running away from tough topics, but rather, if you ask honest questions, you're actually gonna have a deeper faith. So let's talk about 3 difficult truths today. First one, I'm reminded of, uh, when I was younger, I was sharing my faith with a young gentleman, and he, and he talked back to me. He was like, yeah, one time I picked up the Bible, I read it, and I was like, what the hell? And I was like, exactly. So we could label this section, what the hell? But uh here's what I want you to write down instead. Um, hell is real, eternal, and taught by Jesus. OK, hell is real, eternal, and taught by Jesus. Uh, did you know in our culture today, less and less people actually believe in the existence of hell itself? But what's what's interesting about this is that, uh, I think it's because we actually are pretty privileged in our country. Uh, because a, a hellless universe makes sense when you're comfortable. But actually, for most parts in the world, other places where there's persecution and oppression and things like murder and rape and attack, like, hell is actually a framework for justice. You see, hell takes the full story of sin and takes it to its natural conclusion. Because hell is a rejection of the presence of God. And so if you reject all things God, and all things good, then what you want is a life apart from God. And so people, when they end up in a place of hell actually end up in a place. In some sense, they're actually asking for. And I think intuitively, in our hearts, we know. The reality of a hell exists because we have a sense or longing for justice. But our, our objection to hell is actually not a philosophical one or mental one, but probably an emotional one. Because we really like justice. Except when it comes to our lives, right? Like, and you know how I know we like justice? Is how many versions of NCIS are there? Right? Like, I mean, it's just like, like NAS, the moon, right? Like, how do you fight crime without gravity, right? Like, I don't know. Like there's enough shows like Law and Order, like we love true crime shows, we love all these stories, and so we actually love justice, OK? We just don't like it for us. So where does this come from? Why, why is hell even in in existence? Well, if God never judged sin, then he would never actually be considered good. Right? Where is justice for those who are abused or raped or attacked? If there's no hell, there's no justice. And then the punishment is usually tied to the severity of the crime. And then the relationship. To which the crime is committed. Right? The length of punishment doesn't always equal the length of the crime. For example, it might take a few seconds to kill someone, but that the consequence could then be a life in prison, right? Cause you took a life, you took a soul. OK. So punishment is tied to the severity of the crime, but it's also tied to the relationship, right? So if you steal money from a friend, And they catch you I mean, that's disappointing, but if you repay the friend, say I'm sorry. Right? You might, you might be OK. But if you steal money from the government, You're called a politician, um. I can, I can, I can. So that gets the amen. OK, that's where we're at. All right, I get it. I know where we're at now. No, but if you steal money from the government, right, and give it to a terrorist organization, you're, you're potentially Considered Committing treason What's the difference? It's, it's the severity of the crime, and then it's the relationship that's broken because of it. Well, now place yourself in position of a perfect, eternal, holy God. That because of free will and choice, and we've been given that and just like I believe in the full sovereignty of God, but also in I'm a both and guy. So he believes uh we believe fully in the sovereignty of God, but in his sovereignty has given us free will and free will is required for love, is required for worship, is required for obedience. But if you have the free will to love and obey and worship and follow, you also have the free will to reject. And so you have to take that rejection to its natural conclusion with a which is a complete rejection against a perfect, holy, eternal God. So even from a logical standpoint, the only natural conclusion there is an eternal separation, rejection of the God. Who've sinned against. See, people say they want a world without hell, but yet they also want autonomy, moral choice, and self-determination. So rather than be scared of the topic of hell, and what if we changed the framing of it and we understood. That it's against the backdrop of sin and hell, that actually it's a canvas that the beauty of grace and mercy. It's painted upon. Right? You would not take medicine if you'd never admitted that you were sick. You would never understand forgiveness until you realize you actually need forgiveness. And so rather than be afraid of this topic, it should, one, give us an urgency to share the good news with the people around us, but also give us the humility to understand the beauty. Of grace. See, in Micah 6:8, it says, what does the Lord require? Well, to act justly, to love mercy and to walk calmly before the gods. So there is this idea of justice. In fact, there was a church here in the valley, who that was their theme verse for a while, and so they named pastors after those three components so that a mercy pastor and and and then they, but also they had literally had a pastor, a justice pastor. Wouldn't that be the coolest title ever? Like, hi, my name's John and I'm the pastor of justice. Maybe we can switch out titles. I don't know. You see, we long for it, but then also in 1 John 1:9, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. To cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In other words, it is his justice that gives him the authority to declare us forgiven. Right But don't just take my word for it. Jesus actually talked about this. And so if we just wanna ignore hell, well, we're ignoring the person who talked about the most, which is Jesus himself. A couple examples. Matthew chapter 8, verse 11 and 12. I tell you, many of you will come from the east and the west to recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. While the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Matthew chapter 13 verses 41 to 43, says the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. So he who he has ears, let him hear. Matthew chapter 25, I'm just gonna read two verses here, verse 41 and verse 46. Since then he will say to those on his left, apart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. He would go on to other places like in in Mark chapter 9 or Luke chapter 16, like hell was a very real reality for Jesus. And if it makes sense too, that if heaven is eternal, that hell could be eternal as well. Now there's different views on what hell looks like and we don't have time to dive into all of those, but what I want you to understand today is that heaven is real. OK, it's eternal and it's taught by Jesus and and within within the tensions and interpretations of Scripture, at the end of the day, I'm just gonna encourage you to go with the words of Jesus. Right. Embrace the tension and go with his teachings, OK? Pastor Alistair Beig put it this way, he says, a God without wrath is a God without holiness. A heaven without hell is a heaven without justice. And so we don't like the teaching of hell. I get it. But just because we don't like something doesn't make it less true. And I think in our core, in our soul, we have a longing for justice, right? For those in the police force, for those in, in a place of order, we like structure. We like order out of chaos. Justice gives us that. We just don't like it. For us, OK? Here's the thing too Um, besides hell is now we have the topic of evil. OK, what do we do with evil? Well, here's what we know about evil. Evil actually describes our desire for justice and for moral standards. A real common question, maybe you've asked the question, or maybe somebody's asked it to you, is how could God be good when fill in the blank evil exists? And, and I always try to be sensitive in that situation, right? Because again, it's an emotional one. Usually there's like a trigger with it or a situation that happens. So I don't wanna be cliche with it, but rather actually double down, lean into it. And so I try to get personal with the person and, and I sympathize with them, and then I say, where, where do you think that outrage is coming from? In other words, how do you define evil? Because evil doesn't disprove God. It's actually the reverse, did you know that? Evil actually disproves atheism. Evil doesn't disprove God. It actually disproves atheism. Why? Because without God, there is no evil. There is, there's just simply events. For him There are things in this world that whether you claim to be a Christian or not, you can understand like that is not correct. Attack, murder, rape. Abuse, oppression. Like we, I think we know that we know certain things that are wrong. Nature doesn't. Those are just events. But what is it, the, the praying mantis, the female after mating with the male, like bites off the head, like throws it to the side. Like that's just nature at that point. Like Like lions in the wilderness are not having pride discussions about situational ethics. Right? Like, oh, gazelle, let's go, right. That's, so our questions with evil and struggle is actually not a bad thing. It actually just makes us human. Why? Because we were made in his image. Cause how do you define evil? What's wrong, it's not good. It's bad. OK, well, how do you define those? Well, you have to have a standard, and an objective rule or a place where it comes from that is good. And as Christians, we say that goodness, that standard, that morality comes from God. And that's why around the world in certain places where you have people of faith, you actually have higher standards of morality. And so evil actually is in against that. And the other thing to remember too is evil exists because free will exists. It, it started in the garden, right? Adam and Eve were walking with God. They had everything they needed, and Satan tempted them. To make a poor choice. And because of that, because of their sin. Because the rejection of God that we now live in a broken, fallen world filled with broken, fallen people. And I hate to break this to you, that includes the church. And I've had someone say to me before, John, I really want to go to church, but it's just filled with hypocrites. To which I always reply, it's OK, we got room for one more. Because all of us, when left to our own devices, make poor choices. Romans chapter 1, verse 18 and 19 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. And then in verse 22, it says, claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged their glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in their lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. They exchanged the truth of God. With the live man. And repeatedly chose self over God. And when people repeatedly choose self over others, it ends in a place of evil. And there is spiritual warfare at play. I really believe that. When some of these darkest things, darkest forces come in, that there is spiritual warfare there. But it it lands on us. Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But as we wrestle with evil, one, understand that the the our outrage actually points us back to God, right? Like why are you mad? Cause if there was no God, if there was no meaning, like why do we get upset at the evil in the world? But then 2 God has dealt with evil, and God will deal with evil, but he waits actually as a form of grace. See, in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9, it says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. See, God has dealt with evil over and over again. We see this time and time, right? Uh, the, the church starts in Acts chapter 2, right? Couple chapters later, some people lie about their giving and try to try to promote themselves up, and they're struck dead in the moment. More extreme things, like all the way back to Genesis, there was a flood that wiped out the evil on this earth. Now he promised not to do it again, but he did say he's coming back. And so he has dealt with evil. And we're gonna end the service with the greatest picture of that on the cross. But he says he's going to deal with evil. But the reason he doesn't, the reason he doesn't do it in a way that we like it to, is that for every day he allows evil to persist, is also another chance for more people to repent and come to salvation in him. Think about this for a second. What if God returned? The day before you got saved. What if he came back full of justice, dealt with all the evil of this world the day before you got saved? See, every day he doesn't come back is actually a gift, because while evil seemingly is winning, it's also an invitation back to him. There is an opportunity for people to repent and turn back to him. Oh, he's dealt with evil. Kick Satan out of heaven Kick Adam and Eve out of the garden. Right? Wiped out pagan worshippers and and nations and people like, we've seen it over and over again. But every day he waits is actually another chance for more people to turn. And some of you in your life right now have a protocol in your family. Or have a friend or coworker or somebody that you just want them to come back. Every day that God doesn't come back is another chance for that person to return. So while we long for him to deal with evil, it's actually an opportunity for grace as well. Right. Three difficult truths. Number 1, hell is real, eternal, and taught by Jesus. Number 2, evil describes our desire for justice and moral standards. And number 3, when it comes to suffering, we have to come to understand that suffering is tough, it's transformative. And it's temporary. Christianity is the only religion where God Himself really has the scars. If you've ever walked through a hard time, isn't it fascinating that the people that bring you the most comfort typically are the people who've been through similar situations? Who've been there, right? Well, in the same way, we have a God who understands. Who took suffering so serious that he came down and suffered as well. And that in that suffering is actually part of the refinement process. And so suffering can destroy you. But suffering can also transform you and and refine you and form you into a stronger person. Think about the most like healthy, strong, resilient people in your life. They've probably walked through some hard stuff. Right? Don't we want to be those kind of people? Right. We don't shrink back, that we go forward. How do we do that? OK, well, in Romans 8:18, it says, for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. And what happens here is that he's not minimizing the pain. That's very real. He doesn't minimize the pain of betrayal. He doesn't minimize the pain or loss of cancer. He doesn't minimize those who are grieving loved ones. He doesn't minimize betrayal here. But he says, when you compare it to the goodness and greatness of God. That's where we hang on to. So he's not minimizing the pain, he's elevating what's coming. He's taking our eyes and we're looking up to something greater that's coming. I always wondered, for those that don't have faith, where are they looking? Like if this is all there is. Like this does not make a good heaven right now. There's moments, right? We're praying for heaven to come down. But if this is all this is, like, What do we do with that? Or What if this life was meant to prepare us for the next? What if in this life we are reminded of the frailty of humanity. And the brevity of life, and that when you have a near death experience, or you experience a tragedy, what, what comes in is you, you hug your kids tighter, right? You, you focus on what's important, and it, and it forces you to look up. But we have a God who cares, and I know that because it says in Hebrews 4:15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, and yet without sin. We have a God with scars. We have a God who understands it, who entered our suffering, who entered our story. And comes along and says, come follow me. When my wife and I got into foster care, adoption, I, I had this idea in my head that, oh, we're gonna come and I was gonna, we're gonna pull up a life out of the trench, you know, we're gonna rescue. Uh, that was my, my thought. And then, uh, and then you don't realize how tough things are going to be with it. And so the reality is, now when you try to help somebody in trouble, you're not pulling them out of the trench, you're actually jumping into the trench with them. Right. And when you're, and think about it too, if you're struggling, Yeah, it'd be great if somebody pulls you out. But you know what helps even more is that if somebody jumps in the foxhole with you. Right. And says, I'm not moving past, but we're getting through this. Right? I don't know why this happened, but I'm here now. Let's go. Right. That's why it's so important that we have a God, Emanuel, God with us. Right? When you struggle, when you get, when you are hurting, when you get angry. Even in your anger actually points to God. Do you know that? Cause you don't get mad at imaginary things, right? Have you ever had a shake your fist at God moment? God, how could you? OK. Like I don't, like if I'm struggling, I don't go in my backyard and look up to the heavens and go, oh, unicorns. Like it's amazing to me. Like I have like atheist friends and then people go through hard times. They're like, oh, I'm praying for you. I'm like, oh thank you. Wait, what? Cause in your lowest, deepest, darkest moments of questions. The fact that you have a question is pointing to the fact that you've been made for something more, right? You're hurting and because you long to not hurt. You struggle because you, you, you know, in your soul that there is something better out there. And while you don't like God or you might be mad at God, you are longing for connection with him to make sense of it all. And so even in our questions and our doubts and our struggles. We can turn to him and he's actually gonna use that to shape us. It says in Romans 5:3-5, it says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, not knowing that suffering, uh, knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and 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 through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, hope doesn't always offer a present explanation, but it does give you A future restoration, a future redemption story. It says in 1 Peter 1:6-7, says, in this, you rejoice that though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. So that by the testing genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to the result in the praise and glory and honor of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do you know why we struggle? is because all of us are longing for a revelation 21:4 moment. Is that there comes that day when he's returned. And, and he wipes out Satan. Right, they're cast in the fire for all eternity, and we enter this new heaven, new earth, and we get this incredible verse in Revelation 21:4 that says, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain. No former things have passed away. No cancer, no betrayal, no more brokenness, no more loss. Complete wholeness, redemption, restoration, face to face with the God who loves us. That's what we're longing for. That's what Christianity offers. See, we're not the only religion that tries to handle suffering. I just don't like what the other religions' answers are, if I'm just being real. And let me just walk through a couple of comparing worldviews. OK, in Buddhism, It says suffering is an illusion. Let's just ignore it. Part of the, part of that is is self-denial of things of this world, so just deny suffering. Does that work though? Atheism says suffering is meaningless. It doesn't exist. OK, tell that to your racing mind at night when you can't go to sleep. You can't just deny its existence. In Islam, it says suffering is fate, the fate of Allah. And that was an early teaching too, not just of Islam, but people in that in in Jesus' day, like when somebody was sick or hurting, right? They came to Jesus with questions like, OK, so who sinned? The the person or their parents? And Jesus says, uh, uh, neither. Right Is that in the complete dark brokenness of this world that God will have glory, and to show you that I have power over all of this, lame person, you get up and walk, blind person, you're gonna see. So he does physical miracles to give us a taste of the spiritual reality that's available to you and me. And Hinduism says suffering is karma. Right? And we like that, we like a good justice story, right? Oh, they got what's coming, OK? Come on now, like, even at the smallest scale, we love it. Right? Like on the way here, some of you were driving through, someone speeds through the red light, and then they get stuck at the next light and you pull up next to them, you're like, oh, yep. You know it's true, right? You know it's true, OK? We all want that justice a little bit. OK. But in a serious tone. There are other things in life that we cannot explain as karma. You're gonna tell me child cancer is karma. You're going to tell me victim of abuse is Karma or fate? What did that child do? No. You're gonna tell me we're in a broken world filled with evil demonic spirits and broken evil people? Yeah. OK. Secularism says suffering is to be avoided, right? We all do this too. If we have a painful reality, we're gonna then turn to something to numb it or distract us from it. It can be serious like drug, drink, pleasure. Right? Buying things, materials, it can be something as simple as doom scroll scrolling. That's a that's another issue that's tough for us is that now in a day and age, where you know what's going around around the world, that's heavy, right? Anyone ever had a good day until you pulled up your phone? Or, or turn on the news. Years and years ago, you didn't know what was going outside of your village. Now, if there's an earthquake around the world, or there was a murder across the country, or like, you know it immediately. What do we do with that? Where do we go with that? We just distract ourselves, numb ourselves, turn to drink, drug, scrolling, distraction, players like, I don't want to deal with this, so I'm gonna go here. Or You turn to Christianity. And you see, suffering can actually be redeemed. Suffering can be redeemed. So where does all this meet? Where does hell, evil, and suffering converge? And this is the part where I love Christianity is why I'm a Christian. It's the cross. The cross provides the answer for all three. See, God so loved the world, created it in its beauty, but then within his love, there was freedom to choose and freedom to love him. But then in that we chose ourselves, we rejected him, which then created the Bedwalker Foundation, which would develop evil, and evil leads to suffering and suffering requires justice, and justice has this place of hell. But then now we have nothing to do with that. And so God comes down himself. Lives a perfect life, dies on the cross. Now the perfect picture of God's justice and His grace, God's wrath and his mercy, the payment required for it, but then also the freedom and forgiveness found in it. And so through all of that, it comes together in the beauty of the cross, and when we believe in Jesus, we now find restoration and redemption and meaning in him. And we become a new creation. That's why it says in 1 Corinthians 5:21. It says, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. See, in Romans one, we exchange the goodness of God for a lie. In 2 Corinthians 5, we see that God exchanged his life for ours. God, God doesn't ignore the broken world. He actually overcomes it. So what does that mean for you and me today? OK. There's many applications. Let me just share with you 4. Number 1, For the guilty? God's patience is inviting you back. Don't be fooled, God will not be mocked. That's why as our world gets darker, I I'm not afraid. I'm really not. Like God's truth and justice will be had. He, he's gonna bring it though. Right I can love, I can share, I can serve. I can be bold, I can stand up for the truth. But understand every day that he waits to come back is actually an invitation to respond to him. Number 2, for those who are oppressed, God's justice is coming, so hang in there. If there is no God, evil is just an activity. But for those who have struggled and, and, and been hurt and in pain, like understand that God's justice is real. And we can hang on to that goodness. Number 3, for the skeptics in the room. Understand that your outrage actually points to your deeper longing for God. It's good that it breaks us. It's good that it hurts us. Cause that means we care And we care because God cares. And what hurts our heart hurts God's heart. And we have story after story after story of him coming down. Near to the brokenhearted. And so your outrage is actually not against God, but evidence that you long for him. And then lastly, for those who are suffering. Know that your pain is not meaningless. That God has entered your story, and that sorrow does not get the last word. In closing, I just want to read something I put together here and just processing my own thoughts. And Whatever you're struggling with today, I want, I want you to process these things because it's OK to ask tough questions. Because when we ask honest questions, we end up with a deeper faith. See, as Christians, it's OK to struggle with the challenges of hell and evil and suffering. Struggling and doubting doesn't make you a bad person or a poor Christian. It just simply shows that you're human. And as Christians, we can take courage in the fact that our faith does not stay stuck in hell, evil and suffering, because Jesus answered every question at the cross. At the cross, evil is exposed, suffering is embraced, judgment is executed, hell is absorbed, mercy is offered, and resurrection begins the process of restoration. And because of that moment, our story doesn't end with despair, it moves toward hope. The cross tells us that God is not indifferent, God is not distant, and God is not silent, that He steps into our pain, He carries our sin, He defeats our enemy and ushers in a kingdom where evil loses, tears are wiped away, and suffering becomes a seed that ultimately blooms into glory. We don't pretend that the world is not broken. We simply refuse to believe that brokenness gets the final word. That in Christ, suffering is not meaningless, evil is not ultimate, and hell is hell is not victorious. The empty tomb is proof that what feels tragic today can become triumphant tomorrow. Amen. Whatever you're struggling with today, I pray that we take that to him. Don't shy away from those questions. Give them to God. He will give you the answer because he is the answer. Will you pray with me, dear God. Thank you that even in these topics of hell and evil and suffering, we can find hope and truth in you. God, every day you wait to come back, is it another patient opportunity for us to respond to you. But the reality of eternity should give us confidence in the sense of justice, but also the opportunity to turn our lives to you. And it's on the backdrop of justice that the gift of grace and mercy is so beautiful. So thank you for saving us and loving us. We ask that you deal with the evil. In in ways that only you can, and when you come alongside those who are suffering. And give us the hope for tomorrow and the strength for today, because sorrow does not get the final word. We love you, Jesus. We bring all our questions and doubts to you. And and we pray. Amen.