Why Does God Allow Evil? (Part 2)

One of the books that come up in the late 80s very popular book was a bestseller by Rabbi Harold Kushner in the title of the book was when bad things happen to good people, you know, the tragedy of this erroneous and heretical book is that from that time on. It has been preached from thousands of footprints in churches that is really the sad part is what the rabbi said either God is all-powerful, but not all good or if God is all good. Then he is not all powerful and Kushner concluded that God is all loving but not all-powerful. Kushner said God was doing the best he could, and God is growing and learning and evolving. Just like we are.

God hasn't figured things out yet. That doesn't say whether he will ever figure them out, but is that he hasn't gotten figured out. As a matter fact his final conclusion was that we need to pray for God. The first time I heard this is really if we need to pray for God to whom shall we pray this pure blasphemy of the highest order is both blasphemy in Judaism or Christianity for the Old Testament and the New Testament again and again and again tells us that God is all-powerful, that God is all good that God is Almighty, all at the same time, the Old Testament and New Testament tells us that one of us a good is all yours. The question, how can bad things happen to good people who are the good people. If you look in the Old Testament.

Isaiah says without God. All of our good works is like a filthy rag in his sight you go to the New Testament of Romans 323 and it tells us that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So the question is the wrong question. The right question should be, how come.

Good things happen to bad people, for that confirms the words of Jesus in Matthew 545.

Jesus said that the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous for good things happen to bad people. In fact, the Bible tells us that evil which manifests itself in suffering and pain of all kinds appears to us humans with our finite mind rather limited capacity appears to us to be senseless appears to us to be pointless. God doesn't argue that hundreds of you shouldn't do that.

That's God's is where we from our point of view. We see this, but the Bible immediately goes on to say, but God is our sovereign God.

He is all-powerful God is all loving God at the same time, an evil can only be a steppingstones to serve his ultimate purpose, which is for good, as I said in the last message that I had gone through some suffering and pain in very early parts of my life and into me that was kind of appeared to be pointless and purposeless. That's how it appeared to me at the time that the evil I have experience in manifested itself in in suffering for things that totally out of my control. It appeared to be a dream crusher. It appeared to be a whole snuffer. It appeared to me at the time as a live destroyer. It appeared to be a despair producer but then I look back now and I see that the very evil that was abhorrent to me. God used as a stepping stone to accomplish his good purpose in my life now as I look back I can tell you several things that I've learned from that suffering from bad experiences of pain that appear at the time to be pointless and those of you taking notes.

I have six things the Lord taught me through these experiences that I have had to go through in the very early part of my life. First of all that pain pressed me closer to the heart of God.

Secondly, that pain gave me a friend Seaview to see the power of God over evil and how he can turn evil into my good and thirdly it provided me with an opportunity to testify to the power of God and the sovereignty of God over evil.

Unfortunately it help me to focus more on my return on home where I'm going to be spending my forever not just a few years in this life and for things it empowered me to help others who are going through the difficult times in life and sex with pain taught me suffering taught me is how to pray for others.

When the going through tough times. To those who refused to believe in God because they say if God is true is all loving, he must not be all-powerful because he is not stopping evil.

Why did he allow evil to exist. I can say to them that evil is precisely what causes people to believe in God.

How do you know the good… Evil, how can you make the distinction.

Furthermore, God did not create us as robots to believe in God is to be able to see that he has all power and all my over that evil. For God did not and does not just sit idly by watching carelessly observing the suffering of his creatures know he enters into our suffering. He shares in our suffering he endured the crushing pain of seeing his son, the second member of the Trinity experiencing a cruel and shameful death upon the cross, seeing his son into your hell itself so that everyone would come to him will be able to defeat sin and death and evil that afflicts the world seeing his son, who is the most innocent of all become a curse for us so that everyone who would complement believe in him and obey him and surrender to him may receive life more abundantly part of that life of obedience part of the life of trust. Part of that life of surrender to our sovereign God is what I call learning to develop the 5020 vision summaries of Michael I Dr. Strayer the best version is 20/20 ready to get the 5020. Hang in there with me the 5020 vision is uniquely given to those who accept these two facts number one that evil exists number two that evil can never, never, never frustrate God's perfect plan for his children. But before I explain to you what the 5020 vision is I want to remind you that basically there are two kinds of evil. If I use that word with the implication of suffering and pain.

There is an evil that I bring upon myself by my own choices. God doesn't cause it.

God didn't do it that had nothing to do with it. I chose it. Let me explain the old proverbial hand on the stove nuclear chart. Don't put your hand on the stovetop is going to burn you, but they do it anyway and when their bones allow mommy I'm sorry that I'm sorry, forgive them, of course, the foolishness and when we do the same thing choose wrong things wrong people, wrong relationships, wrong things and then we cry out to God all God, I'm sorry for my foolishness. God forgives us because that's his promise is his promise, but the scar will remain. The scar will stay there for a long time is now.

You can expand this to any area of your life all the wrong choices that you made in your pay the consequences for it is the that is one kind of evil but as a second type of evil and suffering that happens totally out of your control.

Somebody bring you pain that you even did not see coming from out of left field that evil that happens to you with her to be the storms and the hurricanes and earthquakes and all the things that told out of our control.

That is the one that the Bible says God uses as a stepping stone to turn it around and bring good out of it for his children unless what I will be focusing on today and that's what I called the 5020 vision. It is Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 Genesis chapter 50 verse 20. Joseph looks at his wicked brothers who did wicked things.

He looks him in the eye by the way the Bible does not gloss over wickedness know we do that now. This cultural feelings are not thinking and not we feel and are a guy could do some wicked things this again yeah but he's not a wicked person really only a wicked person does wicked things, these brothers were wicked, they did wicked things and there were wicked, evil is evil and good is good and don't mix the two, but not recalling good evil and evil good, when Joseph looked in his wicked brothers nice and he said to them, you meant it for evil but God turned it for good.

Having the 5020 vision would give you the ability to see that even in the times when the wicked appear to have the upper hand. God is working his purposes out even when it appears that the injustice is rolling like an ocean wave.

God is working his purposes out even in the times when lies and deceptions are believed to be the truth. God is what working his purposes out even in the times when the innocent is suffering in silence.

God is working what his purposes out even when people including your friends appear to have forgotten you and forsaken you. God does not, and he's working his purposes out. In fact, the story of Joseph is so familiar. All the kids know about the coat of many colors and I don't want you familiarity to rob you of a new inside the Lord may give you today okay distorted.

This well-known a young man whom God gave a dream of achieving great things he naïvely as a teenager blurbs without the his older brothers and tell about his dream. They get mad and they get envious and they determined to destroy the dream by destroying the dreamer first to throw him into a dark pit. But then they decided to make some money out of it and sell him to slave merchants then they took the coat of many colors dipped it in the blood of a goat and took it over to their father and they said your son has been devoured by a ferocious animal then the slave merchants to whom they sold the boy they take him to Egypt and there they sell him to the chief of security of Pharaoh and their he gets acute. This is really where the most injustice, bloating, injustice where he gets accused of the very sin that he rejected the very sin that he refused to commit. Talk about injustice, and he ends up in Pharaoh's dungeon where only the high officials were sent to prison and there he ends up interpreting dreams of these high officials who fell out of favor with Pharaoh and those dreams come true. One gets killed and the other one gets promoted into Chief of Staff of Pharaoh, the man who gets promoted into the Chief of Staff Joseph system. Remember me to Pharaoh. He doesn't for two years.

He forgot by accident right when Pharaoh himself had a disturbing dream.

The Chief of Staff want to kiss up to Pharaoh and tell the boss here II got some information all of a sudden. He remembers Joseph he can interpret the dream for you. So Joseph is brought out of the dungeon, cleaned up and he comes in and he interprets the dream for Pharaoh and ends up running the country. The superpower of the day all of the evil that Joseph has experience for 13 years.

Not just once but several times. All of that appeared to be unnecessary and senseless and pointless suffering of this injustice that was taken place. Not once but several times you are and I would've said that is senseless. That does not make sense, but I wanted to think with me just from the human point of view not only look at it from God's perspective, you just from the human point of view. What would have happened had Joseph at the first sign of experiencing injustice and fairness on the part of his brothers or even able to run away from them all run away from the slave merchants who were taking down to Egypt. Suppose he cried out to God all God is God, I am not happy God, you want me to be happy when present in the Bible.

He wants us to be holy. Suppose he managed to escape and run away from these people escaped got back home okay his daddy will be happy. Jacob would've been delighted his daddy would've loved it. His daddy would have been delighted, but his brothers probably be more angry than ever and this time they really killing what would've happened years later when the famine hits all of the children of Israel would've died all of the future profits from Moses all the way to the birth of the Messiah would not have taken place. The people of God would been destroyed.

The promise to Abraham would've been destroyed the Egyptian civilization would've vanished.

Now that my not move you the deeply but it would upset me.

I would be here, but in every step. God used evil as a steppingstone and steppingstone to serve the ultimate good. Think about this. Of all the people on the earth.

Joseph is sold to the Egyptians. Amanda could've sold them drama nights in our markets and the mosquito bites and all the other people in all the earth, but of all the people on their list selling to the Egyptians, why very important point here. Maybe lost a lot of people Egyptians are clean-shaven, they saw the heading Hebrews as unhygienic under this a fact of history and so they would not intermarry with them.

Why is that important.

So God's people remain a peculiarities of the old English word or remain distinct. Joseph is the only one of my then Egyptian. Thus, the Hebrew people were able to remain as distinct people for 400 years in the land of Egypt. Not only that, but Joseph could've been sold to any old Egyptian family but no, it would've been sold to the King's chief of security Wi-Fi so that he would learn Egyptian culture who are highly because later he was going to be on their breath away from Pharaoh, but that's not all that's not all Joseph was thrown into a prison nonideal prison guard prisons in Egypt but not annual prison. He was sent to Pharaoh's prison that the special prison in which all these high officials are worked in Pharaoh's palace got out of favor. There was center. The all government inmates. Why because there is going to meet the Chief of Staff. He would not have met him through into the other prisons. Why so that the later in God's timing. The Chief of Staff will remember Joseph and introduce him to Pharaoh that please please please just listen.

Listen carefully when a person accuses God of either incapable of overcoming evil or that he is the author and date perpetuates evil. Those who say I can't believe in a God who allows evil to happen to the innocent. These folks do not know the God of the Bible.

They never taken the time to know the God of the Bible never tried to crack the Bible to understand the God of the Bible. Those who refused to believe in God and these folks would be the very folks who would look at those 13 years of Joseph's life and that would have said all these 13 years that are filled with evil and hatred and injustice and false accusations of false imprisonment, there would see it as senseless suffering but the 5020 vision. Joseph expressed goes exactly like the flip recorded accurately you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it or turned it for good, so that you might be kept alive. That's a 5020 vision is he an angry person will send God why why God this is a young man with great dreams. This is a young man with pure and righteous motives God this is the young man who sought daughter you live Joseph 5020 vision helped him to combine site and foresight. In hindsight that's with the 5020 vision does not beloved friends. I don't know about you, you might be a person who spoke may be covered with a thick dark cloud right now you may be a person whose pillow is been staying with tears you might be a person whose loneliness is crushing you into despair right now. Your life may seem unbearable right now. Your dark within your dark prison may seem inescapable right now your future seem to have come to an end right now feeling more is gripping you like a vice. Right now listen to me. I tell you, on the authority of God's word hold on hold on. I am turning what was meant for evil to your good.

I am turning your darkness into night. I am using evil as my slave, so that that will not be your master. I am turning the wiles of men into the will of God. I am turning the schemes of man into the serving of God's plan. I am telling Satan's plots into my perfect purpose.

I'm telling the ugly and the bad into my eternal glory not beloved, likable, not God is calling the shots. Believe it or not, is still in charge see a little not his here with you is here with you whether you feel it or not, for he said I'll never leave you nor forsake you until I take you safely all the way home with me in heaven a man I was thinking about this and the 5020 vision are reminded of a story written many many years ago back in 1915, the Mexican bull weevil really got very very bad and it hopped across the country. Line returned to the southern part of the United States, the bull weevil really become so bad particularly in the state of Alabama. In fact, that year, 1915 60% of all the cotton crop which was the mainstay of their economy was destroyed their utter disappointment turned into despair, but the farmers of Alabama were forced to experiment and diversify their crops and very experimented with peanuts, so by 1917, a new crop proved to be not only a blessing by the source of prosperity. On December 11, 1919 40s later the city of enterprise, Alabama erected a monument, not to the peanuts to the ball weevil. You see when you have the 5020 vision you're able to erect a monument to all the pain that you fixed. With the following inscription and profound appreciation of the bull weevil and what it has done as Herald of prosperity. What was thought to be a tragedy. The 5020 turned it into a great blessing 5020 vision can turn the tears of history into return the last thanks for listening to this message from Dr. Michael use that recently featured on leading the way.

If you'd like to know more about us, please visit LTW.org that's LTW.Ward