Jared:
So, someone posed the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Pastor David:
Oh yeah, you're asking that question? Okay. There are a lot of reasons for it, but the primary reason is that we are in a sinful world. That's the primary reason.
Pastor David:
It rains on the just and the unjust, so the consequences of bad things are a result of sin, just the overarching nature of sin. Once Adam made the mistake, the whole Earth and everything in it became subject to that single disobedience. So, you go to Roman's chapter 8, which talks about how all of creation is groaning and waiting for the redemption of the sons of God. So, because their redemption is connected to ours, and so it is the consequence of sin, what we would call in a general term Adamic Sin.
Pastor David:
So, when that happened, sickness entered the world. Strife entered the world. Disease entered the world. Chaos entered the world. Selfishness, everything associated with sin entered the world. And so then the Bible tells us later on that wherever there are these certain things, all the potential of sin itself can be realized.
Pastor David:
So, even making right decisions, right choices, loving God, and serving God doesn't preclude that because I'm in a sinful world I'm exempt from the effects of that in the Earth. So, just because I'm in the Earth, I'm going to still experience the ramifications of the chaos of sin, still going to experience it. Still have to deal with it. And that's where the grace of God becomes so critical, how necessary it is for the grace of God to be active in my life, because how do I manage the things that are not congruent with my behavior?
Pastor David:
So think about it this way. Our whole life is built on basically two ... what's the term I'm looking for? Two flows of life. So, mercy and grace, mercy and grace, mercy and grace, mercy and grace. So, I'm either, as it relates to God, I'm either not getting something I do deserve, or I'm receiving something I don't deserve.
Pastor David:
So, we always love to say, "Why does this happen? I'm a good person. Why does this happen to me?" And so then we say, "Well, great. Yeah, that's not fair." But, I would also say, "Is it fair that you get away with things that you do deserve?"
Pastor David:
Where you don't experience the consequences of things that you should experience the consequences for. So, we always tend to look at it from the one angle, and we refuse to look at it from the other. And the truth is, is that I'm either leveraging mercy, or I'm leveraging grace as I'm moving through life. And I'm either leveraging, "Hey, I'm not receiving the consequences, something I really should get," so thank God for those days.
Pastor David:
And then there are times I am receiving something that I don't deserve, but thank God for those days.
Pastor David:
So, it's always ... they're always contending with each other. Because, if we really experience the consequence of our own actions, understand the wages of sin is death. So, how much sin do I have to do to deserve death? We measure it, right?
Jared:
Tiniest amount, right?
Pastor David:
Yeah, we measure it. So, how much arsenic does it take to kill you?
Pastor David:
So, we tend to measure it. "Well, my sin isn't as bad as their sin, therefore I shouldn't experience the same consequence." But to God, all sin is death. All sin is.
Pastor David:
And so that consequence is always there, and if I don't experience that consequence, purely by the mercy and grace of God. That's it. So yes, good is still not God.
Pastor David:
Therefore we're grateful for the mercy and grace of God that he affords us when we're not getting the things we do deserve. And we also celebrate the times when God gives us things we don't deserve.
Pastor David:
It's kind of that balance in life. And I know that's the thing that people get stuck on, and I get it.
Pastor David:
I get why they get stuck on it. But, I would really challenge people to understand that you don't deserve everything that happens to you, but you also benefit from the fact that you get away with things.
Pastor David:
And God sees it all.
Pastor David:
And he'll give us the strength and the grace to manage it from both directions.
Jared:
Absolutely. And that's the thing I think too, is that being a teaching moment for you. Do you know what I mean? And it really, like those moments are really where I think God gets a lot of work done in the relationship with you. And also, I mean there are so many people that I look at here, and my heart just breaks because they're such a testimony. Do you know what I mean?
Pastor David:
Yeah, right.
Jared:
The attitude that they have with the situations that they're dealing with-
Pastor David:
It magnifies the goodness of God. While they're struggling through something, they've got joy, they've got peace. They still serve. They still love. They still give. They still ... and you're like, "Man, they're going through so much, and how can they be this way?"
Pastor David:
Well, that's a testimony to the goodness of God.
Pastor David:
And you would never see the depth of their walk with God without those times.
Pastor David:
And while it's difficult to watch them experience that, we can celebrate the incredible testimony, like you said, that they have as they go through it. And so, you never like to watch somebody go through it poorly. But you can always celebrate those that go through it well, with the grace of mercy of God.
Pastor David:
So, that's so important and so helpful and such a blessing.
Jared:
Absolutely. Well, thank you sir. That was great.
Pastor David:
My pleasure. That was a good one.
Jared:
Yeah, it is. It is.
Pastor David:
That was a good question. It's not a softball, it's a challenging question.
Jared:
Right. I think it's something that can be answered easily but explained ... like it takes a little bit more to explain it. You know what I mean?
Pastor David:
If you don't have a God context, it doesn't make sense to you.
Jared:
For sure.
Pastor David:
If sin is not an issue, if you just think everybody's good, therefore everybody deserves the best, and we don't see it from God's point of view at all, then it's going to be incongruent.
Jared:
Right, right.
Pastor David:
But, if you understand it from God's point of view, then you become grateful, and you're filled with thanksgiving because ... and appreciation, because God's merciful and generous with us on a consistent basis.