God is Still Good Even in Tragic Situations (Part 1)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:05.799 I Am Yours, I am yours, I am yours. Send Me, 2 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:11.390 Lord. I am welcome to the Gospel Center pro life podcast and this episode 3 00:00:11.429 --> 00:00:14.589 we're going to talk about the goodness of God, as God really good in 4 00:00:14.669 --> 00:00:17.949 the midst of our suffering, and how can we help abortion minded women to 5 00:00:17.989 --> 00:00:25.059 see that God is good. Stay with us, Lord. I felt show 6 00:00:25.699 --> 00:00:37.770 passis touch your heart. Welcome to the Gospel Center pro life podcast. We 7 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:41.609 appreciate you guys listening and, as always, we appreciate if you guys would 8 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:45.250 share this podcast and the other episodes that we have. We put out a 9 00:00:45.409 --> 00:00:50.399 new episode every Thursday morning at five am. So if you're an early riser 10 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:53.679 like Vicki is, she's the one who tells the sun it's time to rise, 11 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.600 you'll be able to get it that early or anytime after that. So 12 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:03.600 every Thursday morning these go out and this is really centered around helping people who 13 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:07.150 are in pro life ministry or thinking about getting involved in pro life ministry, 14 00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:11.709 helping to equip you, helping to encourage you, helping to provoke thought. 15 00:01:12.069 --> 00:01:18.150 So we deal with Biblical topics and light of abortion and an abortion clinic ministry, 16 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:22.420 and we deal with practical stuff, just last week we put out one 17 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:26.019 about signs, how to use signs effectively add an abortion center. Pretty practical, 18 00:01:26.500 --> 00:01:30.700 also very biblical. And then sometimes we deal with more like heart issues 19 00:01:30.819 --> 00:01:36.409 and things like that, and so this episode we're going to deal with the 20 00:01:36.489 --> 00:01:38.569 goodness of God. Yeah, I mean we can even think about it in 21 00:01:38.849 --> 00:01:44.730 light of sixty five million babies that have been killed in our country and the 22 00:01:45.370 --> 00:01:49.079 countless hundreds of millions, billions of children that have died in the womb and 23 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:55.239 outside of the womb, just all of the the eels in the in the 24 00:01:55.400 --> 00:01:59.200 mess that we deal with as a in a fallen world. Yeah, man, 25 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:00.549 is God still good in the midst of that? But, of course, 26 00:02:00.629 --> 00:02:04.670 again, bringing it home to the issue that we're dealing with, issue 27 00:02:04.709 --> 00:02:07.590 of abortion. Is God still good in the midst of that? Right, 28 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:13.710 is God still good as we deal with Moms and dad's and these situations day 29 00:02:13.789 --> 00:02:17.099 in and day out, and we see just some of the real dire situations 30 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:23.259 that these folks are in and they're coming to an abortion center and sometimes we 31 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:25.900 have to look at those situations, look at those stories and encourage these moms 32 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:30.050 and dads that God is still good in spite of this in spite of the 33 00:02:30.129 --> 00:02:34.169 stuff that you're dealing with. so that's just one facet of this thing. 34 00:02:34.289 --> 00:02:36.810 But, Vicki, if you would, you've written an article like you do 35 00:02:36.930 --> 00:02:38.810 often times, and this is actually going to go on our sidewalks for life 36 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:43.210 website and the blog. Are you there? Yeah, but kind of lay 37 00:02:43.289 --> 00:02:46.879 out what was behind this thought, because we talked about a little bit and 38 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.159 you laid out an article here. What was your thinking in these? A 39 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.280 few things. I know what kept me from God for many years, while 40 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:59.110 I was still explore in whether God was real or not, was seeing all 41 00:02:59.229 --> 00:03:02.229 this suffering. It's very common question. There's so much suffering, there's so 42 00:03:02.349 --> 00:03:09.349 much evil. If God is good, why does he allow it or or 43 00:03:09.469 --> 00:03:15.819 even cause it? You know that I was struggling even with thinking through. 44 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:19.900 Does he cause if he allows it, he could prevent it. He doesn't. 45 00:03:20.979 --> 00:03:23.500 So, just at a personal level, that had been my experience, 46 00:03:23.699 --> 00:03:29.449 was questioning the goodness of God and having that be a stumbling block in coming 47 00:03:29.490 --> 00:03:32.569 to him. But then as a counselor out on the sidewalk, it seems 48 00:03:32.689 --> 00:03:42.159 increasingly God is bringing me people, women who tell me stories that just break 49 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:50.080 my heart, that are suffering from early in life throughout to the point at 50 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:54.639 which they arrive at the abortion center. And so many of them have asked 51 00:03:54.750 --> 00:04:01.949 me, how can God be good I don't see his goodness in my life. 52 00:04:01.949 --> 00:04:06.789 Yeah, so I want to tell you the story of one that really 53 00:04:06.990 --> 00:04:11.900 brought this to a to ahead for me. Okay, it was a woman 54 00:04:11.939 --> 00:04:15.459 that I'm at not all that long ago at the abortion center, and she 55 00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:20.060 her story was probably the most tragic I've ever heard. She was raised in 56 00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:27.490 a socalled Christian home. At Age four she was raped by the father's best 57 00:04:27.649 --> 00:04:33.569 friend, but the parents did not follow through on prosecuting him or bringing him 58 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:38.170 to justice because he was the father's best friend. Well, so, right 59 00:04:38.250 --> 00:04:45.079 away here's this four year old who is betrayed by those who are charged to 60 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:49.000 protect her, her own parents, and she not only was she not protected, 61 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:55.990 but her whole concept of justice and the Justice of God. This man 62 00:04:56.230 --> 00:05:00.709 was not brought to justice. So she now has learned two important truths in 63 00:05:00.790 --> 00:05:05.389 her little eyes, that her those who were supposed to protect her did not, 64 00:05:06.420 --> 00:05:11.860 and there is no justice for people who do evil, terrible things. 65 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:17.660 She's only four and this is her experience. Then, understandably, as she 66 00:05:17.819 --> 00:05:24.329 grows up, she turns to some pretty bad things. Drugs, promiscuity, 67 00:05:25.529 --> 00:05:30.129 rebellion, and her parents separated, I believe, divorce shortly after this rape. 68 00:05:31.449 --> 00:05:38.000 But she grew up a very troubled young lady, no wonder, and 69 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:41.560 her parents, or her mom I guess, at that point sent her off 70 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:46.399 to a Christian Rehab after she ran away. I think she ran away as 71 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:50.509 a teenager. She sent her to a Christian Rehab where this young ladies said 72 00:05:50.509 --> 00:05:59.589 she really wanted to find God and she was very moved by a wonderful sermon 73 00:06:00.310 --> 00:06:06.100 and then an altar call and she said she was determined she was now going 74 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:12.500 to fully submit her life to God. So she said she she asked Jesus 75 00:06:12.579 --> 00:06:16.459 to be her lord that that night, after this sermon, and within a 76 00:06:16.660 --> 00:06:24.370 week one of the camp counselors at this Rehab Facility, Christian Rehab Facility, 77 00:06:24.529 --> 00:06:29.850 raped her well, and she said that there were several people in that facility 78 00:06:30.050 --> 00:06:35.800 that reported having been sexually abused by this this man, but the facility apparently 79 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:43.000 did nothing. So again repeat of what happened to her when she was for 80 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:46.430 and now here she has just submitted her life to God. So it's not 81 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:53.790 only her heavenly father that didn't stand by our I'm sorry, her earthly father 82 00:06:53.910 --> 00:06:57.230 that she felt didn't stand by her, but now it's her heavenly father. 83 00:06:57.269 --> 00:07:00.029 Yeah, who, here she is, doing everything right in her eyes, 84 00:07:00.069 --> 00:07:03.500 and those were the words she used with me when she was recounting this story. 85 00:07:03.579 --> 00:07:06.740 I did everything right and did everything I was supposed to do at that 86 00:07:06.899 --> 00:07:12.779 point, repented, turn to God and my life fell into a deeper abyss. 87 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:21.449 Yeah, so, following that she ended up just down a continuingly bad 88 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:29.089 path. Yeah, and she was left, left home and out of the 89 00:07:29.170 --> 00:07:33.519 Rehab left home and ended up in working in the sex trade. Well, 90 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:40.079 we're again understandable, given her background, that that's often what happens when you've 91 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:46.870 been sexually abused at a young age. You end up in a promiscuous drug 92 00:07:46.910 --> 00:07:51.629 or addiction lifestyle. And she said what she knew it was dangerous. She 93 00:07:51.790 --> 00:07:57.790 knew that she was really kind of asking for trouble. But while entertaining in 94 00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:05.819 a private room one of the men, she was drugged by him and I 95 00:08:05.980 --> 00:08:11.889 think Babe went unconscious and was raped and became pregnant. Yeah, from that 96 00:08:13.529 --> 00:08:18.490 she kept the child. She she didn't want to abort. I guess there 97 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:22.490 was still that in her upbringing that she knew that that was a step too 98 00:08:22.649 --> 00:08:26.009 far for her. But she was still working in the sex trade when I 99 00:08:26.089 --> 00:08:33.799 met her with a young child, and so I spent a lot of time 100 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:37.080 talking with her, ministering to her, kind of befriending her, sharing the 101 00:08:37.159 --> 00:08:41.429 Gospel with her. And when we would talk about God, her question kept 102 00:08:41.470 --> 00:08:46.789 coming back to is God really good? Yeah, I sure haven't seen it. 103 00:08:48.070 --> 00:08:50.830 She said that several times. I have not seen the goodness of God. 104 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:58.100 Yeah, and so I I knew where I had been as an unbeliever 105 00:08:58.940 --> 00:09:05.580 and where I saw her in asking a question that I think we know the 106 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:11.649 answer as believers. Yeah, the answer is well, Jesus loved loved us 107 00:09:11.690 --> 00:09:16.690 so much. God loved us so much that he sent his only son to 108 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:24.720 die this horrific death, brutal torture, and to pay the penalty for sin 109 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:28.759 that we deserve. So is God good? You only have to look at 110 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:35.000 the cross to know how good God is. But I do believe I didn't 111 00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:41.029 receive that message when I was looking at a world filled with bad, not 112 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:46.470 good. Yeah, and I felt like this young lady couldn't. She had 113 00:09:46.549 --> 00:09:50.190 heard the message of the Cross. She knew the message of the Cross and 114 00:09:50.429 --> 00:09:56.700 that was not she was not at a place yet where she could hear that 115 00:09:56.899 --> 00:10:03.139 that demonstrated God's goodness. Yeah. So what prompted me as I started exploring 116 00:10:03.179 --> 00:10:07.250 and writing about this was, is there a path through the Bible, a 117 00:10:07.450 --> 00:10:13.730 biblical, Biblical example of how do we lead someone to an understanding where they'll 118 00:10:13.730 --> 00:10:18.289 end up at the cross? That's ultimately, that's where you have to end 119 00:10:18.330 --> 00:10:24.919 up. But are there things in the Bible that can help us as we're 120 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:31.240 dealing with people who have really experienced very little goodness all? Now? Her 121 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:35.789 own sins certainly entered into it at at certain points. Not as a four 122 00:10:35.830 --> 00:10:41.350 year old, right, and and not as not as a woman who has 123 00:10:41.429 --> 00:10:43.710 just given her life to the Lord and she's raped by a Christian, so 124 00:10:43.870 --> 00:10:48.710 called Christian counselor so. So that was kind of that's the premise. That's 125 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:54.500 the background of what I was hoping we could explore, because we see it 126 00:10:54.899 --> 00:11:01.899 all the time at the abortion center. I hear this many times. God 127 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:05.009 is not good. God allowed this, this, this to happen to me. 128 00:11:05.610 --> 00:11:09.289 How can you call him good? Yeah, and I know one of 129 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:13.610 the things that for you guys listening, one of the kind of wise or 130 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:20.360 why are we touching on? This harkens back, I guess, to an 131 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:24.000 episode we did months ago about trust in God. Yeah, helping women, 132 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:28.720 helping abortion minded women trust the Lord, because that's what we want. They've 133 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.950 put their trust in abortion. We've encountered them at the abortion center and we 134 00:11:33.029 --> 00:11:37.549 want to try to influence them to convey that, to take that trust out 135 00:11:37.549 --> 00:11:39.870 of abortion and put it in the Lord. Yeah, but when there's this 136 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:46.070 big question of well, how can I trust God? Yeah, is he 137 00:11:46.190 --> 00:11:48.779 even good? I mean, look what he's allowed to happen in my life. 138 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:52.659 Look at the things that have happened in my life, and God didn't 139 00:11:52.659 --> 00:11:54.620 stop it. So, after all, if God didn't stop it, he 140 00:11:54.700 --> 00:11:58.299 must not be good. And so they really have a lack of trust in 141 00:11:58.340 --> 00:12:01.929 the Lord. Honestly, he meant there's two questions there. He must not 142 00:12:01.049 --> 00:12:05.250 be good or he's not powerful. Yeah, he was unable to stop it 143 00:12:05.409 --> 00:12:09.330 and of course we reject both of those. Yeah, but but those are 144 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:16.480 really critical questions for someone to to be asking an answered. It's the big 145 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:20.080 question, just not even having to do with abortion or dealing with abortion. 146 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:26.279 Minded women it's the question that everybody's asking. Really, if you get down 147 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:28.279 to it right and you're talking to people who are atheists or claimed to be 148 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:31.830 atheists, as I've said before, I don't think there are any actual atheist. 149 00:12:31.909 --> 00:12:35.590 I think most atheists take the attitude of there is no god and I 150 00:12:35.669 --> 00:12:39.990 hate him. You know, they're angry at God. And really, if 151 00:12:39.070 --> 00:12:41.990 you get down to the nitty gritty of people that say there is no God 152 00:12:43.789 --> 00:12:46.580 and they tell you initially, well, it's because of scientific evidence and because 153 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:48.500 Blah Blah, blah, Blah Blah. But really, and you know this, 154 00:12:48.659 --> 00:12:52.820 once you get into the conversations, they're going to start talking about the 155 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:56.740 goodness of God, they're going to start talking about the things that God has 156 00:12:56.740 --> 00:13:00.409 allowed in their lives. are going to start talking about hypocrites and church that 157 00:13:00.450 --> 00:13:03.450 they were raised in and all of this, or the wars in the Bible 158 00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:05.929 and the slaughtering by God. Yeah, are telling you him to slaughter other 159 00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:09.009 groups. That doesn't sound good. You know those kinds of question. Yeah, 160 00:13:09.049 --> 00:13:15.840 so a lot of it it's relational. It's not scientific or or any 161 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:18.039 of that. It's just relational. They don't trust the Lord because of things 162 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:22.279 that they've seen, and mostly it's really things that they've seen in other people. 163 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:26.590 I want. I mean it's often times it's the hypocrisy in the church, 164 00:13:28.149 --> 00:13:33.710 and certainly understand that. I've seen hypocrisy. But the reality is in 165 00:13:33.990 --> 00:13:39.350 any system that we deal with, there's going to be some hypocrisy there, 166 00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:41.419 right, there's going to be people. Anything that's been touched by human beings 167 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:46.740 is going to have components of sin in it. Right, it's going to 168 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:52.940 be off track in some way. But we have to trust God's word, 169 00:13:54.580 --> 00:13:56.970 and God's word tells us that God is good. As a matter of fact, 170 00:13:56.370 --> 00:14:00.129 he is the very standard of what it is to be goods matter of 171 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:03.090 fact, without God we would have no standard of measure what is good, 172 00:14:03.129 --> 00:14:07.129 what is moral, what is what is correct right, what is in line 173 00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:11.919 with truth? Yeah, if without God, without the one who is the 174 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:16.600 truth, truth doesn't really matter. It's kind of irrelevant. Yeah, but 175 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:22.000 yeah, that's not really the topic of this podcast. It's really helping folks 176 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:26.789 sort through we have to sort through these things. You can't give what you 177 00:14:26.830 --> 00:14:28.629 don't have. If you don't understand, have your mind wrapped around that God 178 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:33.230 is good, how are you going to help a mom at an abortion center 179 00:14:33.269 --> 00:14:37.669 see that God is good in spite of her difficult situation and that he can 180 00:14:37.710 --> 00:14:39.860 see them through. It's ultimate again, an issue of trust. If you 181 00:14:39.940 --> 00:14:43.940 don't think someone is good, if they if they aren't good as far as 182 00:14:45.580 --> 00:14:48.580 morally trustworthy, then they're not going to be trustworthy at all. Right, 183 00:14:48.659 --> 00:14:52.500 right, and if that's who you're depending on to get you out of this 184 00:14:52.740 --> 00:14:56.889 mess and you don't feel you can depend on them, then you're going to 185 00:14:56.929 --> 00:15:00.730 take matters into your own hands, which is subortion. Yeah, it's what 186 00:15:00.850 --> 00:15:03.370 they choose. Yes, so I I went through the Bible. Will Not 187 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:05.889 through the whole Bible, but I was. I was trying to come up 188 00:15:05.929 --> 00:15:13.200 with biblical examples of lives that endured constant suffering. Yeah, and there are. 189 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:16.759 There's there's lots of them. Sure, there's lots of lots of examples 190 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:22.029 at least, of people who certainly suffered an entire life of suffering, like 191 00:15:22.149 --> 00:15:26.669 the life I just described in that young woman, not so much, but 192 00:15:26.750 --> 00:15:30.269 there are some. I actually did find some. But the first one I 193 00:15:30.429 --> 00:15:33.029 thought of was Jeremiah. Happens to me. I've been working through the book 194 00:15:33.070 --> 00:15:39.820 of Jeremiah. Okay, time so, so Jeremiah was. He certainly endured 195 00:15:39.860 --> 00:15:46.820 a great deal of suffering during his forty years of ministry. Yeah, absolutely 196 00:15:46.899 --> 00:15:50.169 so. God called him to speak to the he jeremiah five is one of 197 00:15:50.169 --> 00:15:54.250 the scriptures that many pro life folks use. I've used it before, right 198 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:58.330 where God calls Jeremiah. Before I formed you, I knew you and set 199 00:15:58.370 --> 00:16:03.210 you apart as the as a prophet to the nations. Yeah, and Jeremiah 200 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:08.120 is on to talk about how he's a youth and how can he fulfill this 201 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:11.200 call? And God says, don't say you're a youth if I've called you 202 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:15.840 before I formed you. I knew you and set your part as a prophet 203 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:22.669 to the nation's. So that's the call of God early in Jeremiah's life. 204 00:16:22.429 --> 00:16:27.470 But God warned Jeremiah that you're gonna be rejected in Jeremiah, some refer to 205 00:16:27.470 --> 00:16:30.710 him as the weeping prophet. Right, and rightly so, because he had 206 00:16:30.750 --> 00:16:37.139 a pretty sorrowful life. He did he, I mean he he acted out 207 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:42.179 some of God's judgments in in very painful ways. He was told not to 208 00:16:42.379 --> 00:16:47.330 marry, he was told he could not go to celebrations, he could not 209 00:16:47.450 --> 00:16:51.809 go to parties. Yeah, he was supposed to be mournful and suffering and 210 00:16:51.929 --> 00:16:56.090 sorrowful because he's coming to the Israelites with the message that they are going to 211 00:16:56.129 --> 00:16:59.769 go into the Babylonian the Babylonians are going to capture them and they're going to 212 00:16:59.769 --> 00:17:03.399 be in captivity for what was it? A Long Time? Yes, seventy 213 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:07.160 years. Seventy years. And there were plenty of prophets at the time, 214 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:11.079 false prophets, yeah, who were saying, Oh, Jeremiah's full of it, 215 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:15.869 he the he's just prophesying lies, this is not going to happen, 216 00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:19.190 and that's what they want. That's what the people wanted to believe. No 217 00:17:19.309 --> 00:17:22.789 one wanted to believe that they're going to be going into captivity, captivity with 218 00:17:22.829 --> 00:17:33.859 the brutal Babylonians. But Jeremiah remained remained truthful and despite the ridicule and the 219 00:17:33.259 --> 00:17:41.460 persecution, he continued to give God's message to people that did want to hear 220 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:44.730 him. So you said, first of all, he was rejected. I 221 00:17:44.769 --> 00:17:48.930 mean, that's a great verse. Yeah, about doesn't this sound like a 222 00:17:48.049 --> 00:17:52.049 Fun Gig? I'm going to give you. This is God talking to in 223 00:17:52.130 --> 00:17:56.089 Jeremiah Twenty seven. Okay, Yep, I'll read it. You shall speak 224 00:17:56.130 --> 00:18:00.200 all these words to them, but they will not listen to you, and 225 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:04.839 you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. Sounds Great. 226 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:08.400 Thanks for this called Lord. Thank you that you've called me to a 227 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:12.430 people that are just going to outright reject me. Yeah, and and push 228 00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:17.190 me to the side. And if you guys have been on the sidewalk for 229 00:18:17.269 --> 00:18:19.670 any amount of time, you guys know what this is like. Exactly. 230 00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:25.630 One brother told me, brother Greg and Raleigh. He's just a good brother 231 00:18:25.710 --> 00:18:29.619 who reaches out of the abortion centers. There, said brother speaking to me, 232 00:18:29.980 --> 00:18:33.259 you've mastered the Ministry of rejection. That's right. It's like, wow, 233 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:36.500 I've never heard of that way, the Ministry of rejection, because, 234 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:41.329 let's face it, the majority of the women at the abortion centers are choosing 235 00:18:41.329 --> 00:18:44.930 to kill their children. That's right. We may see. We just saw 236 00:18:45.049 --> 00:18:48.650 today, praise God, three babies that were saying as prodortion center here on 237 00:18:48.809 --> 00:18:53.210 the trope drive, but there they were. But almost thirty thirty MOMS, 238 00:18:53.289 --> 00:18:57.440 something like that, between three five and thirty. There's maybe, in our 239 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:02.160 natural mind, good reason to be discourage, because is the vast majority are 240 00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:06.880 killing their children. Yeah, and the vast majority are rejecting us and many, 241 00:19:07.799 --> 00:19:11.069 well, maybe not many, but maybe a good portion. That could 242 00:19:11.069 --> 00:19:15.910 be very discouraging. You're actually not just ignoring what we're saying that some even 243 00:19:17.549 --> 00:19:22.269 being very allowed about their opposition to what we're doing at right given given us 244 00:19:22.309 --> 00:19:26.740 all kinds of vile the finger and yelling terrible things and even threatening yet I 245 00:19:26.819 --> 00:19:32.380 mean it is, it is an exercise and how to how to deal with 246 00:19:33.019 --> 00:19:37.180 ongoing and constant rejection. Yeah, and that was Jeremiah's life. He preached 247 00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:41.250 forty years. Unless I mistake him, but I believe that's that's how I 248 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:47.849 can preach. Think that's right. No success. Yeah, no one listen 249 00:19:47.930 --> 00:19:49.410 to him, just like I'd warned him. Yeah, no one. He 250 00:19:49.569 --> 00:19:52.839 was never listened to. I just can't imagine. I've been out on the 251 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:57.599 sidewalk eight years and that the rejection can really get to you at times. 252 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:03.519 Yeah, absolutely, imagine doing that forty years with no visible yeah. Yeah, 253 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:07.230 and what he was doing the entire time was he was obeying the Lord. 254 00:20:07.269 --> 00:20:11.950 Yeah, it was in relationship with with the Lord, constantly getting the 255 00:20:11.069 --> 00:20:18.470 message from God. And so, because here's the thing. If we're constantly 256 00:20:18.549 --> 00:20:22.819 rejected, we certainly should examine ourselves and think, okay, maybe I'm off 257 00:20:22.940 --> 00:20:25.700 base some, maybe I'm doing something wrong. Yeah, maybe I'm doing something 258 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:29.700 wrong right, but if you're doing what you're doing in line with God's word, 259 00:20:30.500 --> 00:20:33.859 then you don't need to worry about that. Yeah, but for Jeremiah, 260 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:37.130 he was certainly doing in long with what he was supposed to do, 261 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:40.329 in line with God's word. He was speaking the very word of God there, 262 00:20:40.369 --> 00:20:42.730 Yep. And yet was rejected. As a matter of fact, again, 263 00:20:42.769 --> 00:20:47.210 the Lord warned him, yeah, we'll be racket what will happen? 264 00:20:47.329 --> 00:20:51.920 And along with that rejection he was outright mistreated. Yeah, so he was. 265 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:55.680 I know at one point he was. He was beaten and left in 266 00:20:55.759 --> 00:21:03.240 the stocks. That's in Jeremiah twenty the religious leaders in Jeremiah Twenty Six said 267 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:08.230 that because his message was so aberrant to him, to them, that he 268 00:21:08.309 --> 00:21:12.470 should receive the death penalty. He should be killed to get a death. 269 00:21:12.710 --> 00:21:17.670 Yea, when he went to the king with with the word of God, 270 00:21:17.789 --> 00:21:22.460 the king burned his scroll with the word of God, and then I think 271 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:26.180 he came back. I think God said, well, here's another one and 272 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:30.059 go try it again, right, and the King Burns it again. So 273 00:21:30.420 --> 00:21:36.009 no one would listen to him. And and then after that episode he was 274 00:21:36.170 --> 00:21:40.250 tossed in a cistern, which I guess is like a deep well, and 275 00:21:40.329 --> 00:21:44.450 it was. He said he sank deep into the mud. Can you imagine 276 00:21:44.569 --> 00:21:48.599 what kind of yeah, ikey creatures we're down there in the mud with him, 277 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.400 king and left and left. When a fun place to be that? 278 00:21:52.759 --> 00:22:00.039 Now, now, so you know, Jeremiah, it does foreshadow the suffering 279 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:06.230 and torment of of Jesus. Yeah, but I can't imagine it was at 280 00:22:06.269 --> 00:22:12.710 all fun. And I do wonder how often he wondered God, are you 281 00:22:12.829 --> 00:22:18.380 really good? Yeah, because man, this doesn't feel like goodness. Yeah, 282 00:22:18.380 --> 00:22:23.619 yeah, and we think about the call of God and you, I'll 283 00:22:23.619 --> 00:22:27.460 tell people, oftentimes the best place to be is in the will of God. 284 00:22:27.859 --> 00:22:32.170 Right, we want to be in the will of God and almost like, 285 00:22:32.410 --> 00:22:36.809 I guess, in some sense in our American Christianity, we sort of 286 00:22:36.930 --> 00:22:41.210 think that Christianity is about us. We're even taught that it's about our comfort. 287 00:22:41.329 --> 00:22:44.880 God has invested in our comfort, but the reality is God is not 288 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.720 invested in our comfort. His commitment to you when you became a Christian was 289 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.599 to make you more like his son, Jesus, and that could bring joy. 290 00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:57.480 Jesus seemed to me to be a very joyful man in his earthly ministry. 291 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:02.029 Yeah, he was very joyful, but he also was very sorrowful. 292 00:23:02.430 --> 00:23:07.190 He wept over Jerusalem. He was rejected by the Pharisees and rejected by the 293 00:23:07.309 --> 00:23:10.990 majority of the people of his day. Right, is it cut a crowd 294 00:23:11.029 --> 00:23:14.740 out, crucify him? Right, rejected the son of God himself. So 295 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:19.180 the the Ministry of rejection, is part of the Ministry of the Christian it 296 00:23:19.380 --> 00:23:22.940 is. I and I want to interrupt just for a second because just as 297 00:23:22.019 --> 00:23:27.289 you said the Word Comfort, I was writing the word comfort because one another 298 00:23:27.450 --> 00:23:33.329 discussion I had with a mom yesterday, as she was we were discussing belief 299 00:23:33.490 --> 00:23:37.609 and faith and Anne, and she said she didn't believe what I believed, 300 00:23:37.849 --> 00:23:44.000 but she understood that it was a comfort to me, and that's something that 301 00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:48.759 makes me Bristle. I hear that all the time and this is why I 302 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:56.349 said so much of what God asks of Me Is the furthest thing from comfort 303 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:02.190 that you could imagine. I'm not comfortable standing in, you know, ten 304 00:24:02.269 --> 00:24:04.470 degree whether in the middle of the winter, for three hours at a time 305 00:24:04.589 --> 00:24:08.589 in front of an abortion center. It is not the that it is comforting, 306 00:24:10.619 --> 00:24:15.019 but it is that I am so grateful for what God has done to 307 00:24:15.099 --> 00:24:19.779 me that I am willing to do and want to do to serve him as 308 00:24:19.900 --> 00:24:23.490 he desires. Yeah, he to serve him. Yes, as believers we 309 00:24:23.609 --> 00:24:27.089 always have to come from the perspective that it's not about us. Right, 310 00:24:27.369 --> 00:24:32.170 what we do is about the Lord and it certainly God understands. If you 311 00:24:32.410 --> 00:24:36.089 read through the Psalms, you can see David crying out to the Lord, 312 00:24:36.130 --> 00:24:40.640 even in a sense, complaining to the Lord. Yeah, but it's a 313 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:45.079 different type of complaining. It's different than if you look at the children of 314 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:49.039 Israel coming through the Wilderness and Exodus, as their grumbling, grumbling and complaining 315 00:24:49.079 --> 00:24:55.950 against the Lord. It's more of this. It's a selfish grumbling and complaining 316 00:24:56.029 --> 00:24:57.869 that the Children Israe are doing, and God judges them for it. Yeah, 317 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:00.430 but if you look at David, it's like an honest I don't know 318 00:25:00.430 --> 00:25:03.349 about I don't know if complaining is the right word, but crying out to 319 00:25:03.430 --> 00:25:07.740 the Lord, it's a broken heart. Yeah, that is it. That 320 00:25:07.900 --> 00:25:12.740 is crying before God. Yeah, and one preacher said it really helped me 321 00:25:12.819 --> 00:25:17.539 a lot. He said reading through the Psalms as helpful because it gives us 322 00:25:17.579 --> 00:25:22.049 an allowance to call out to the Lord, not in a complaining way, 323 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:26.569 but in a relational way, to bring your petitions before the Lord, to 324 00:25:26.650 --> 00:25:30.490 bring your weakness. Psalms really help us to open up and show our weakness, 325 00:25:30.490 --> 00:25:32.690 because we can kind of, in one sense, hold back. We 326 00:25:32.769 --> 00:25:34.410 don't want to be reverent. That's good, we shouldn't be a reverent to 327 00:25:34.450 --> 00:25:37.119 the Lord, but sometimes we don't want to be honest with the Lord and 328 00:25:37.240 --> 00:25:41.240 the Lord sees our hearts. So like Jeremiah, he's calling out to the 329 00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:48.400 Lord throughout his ministry, before the Lord. And one point in Jeremiah Chapter 330 00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:52.869 Twenty, this is Jeremiah crying out to the Lord and he says in Verse 331 00:25:52.910 --> 00:25:57.230 Eight, Verse Verse Eight and nine, it says, for when I spoke, 332 00:25:57.269 --> 00:26:00.069 I cried out, I shouted violence and plunder, because the word of 333 00:26:00.069 --> 00:26:04.099 the Lord has made me a reproach in a derision daily. So he's he's 334 00:26:04.380 --> 00:26:07.180 crying this out to the Lord, like your word has made me a reproach 335 00:26:07.299 --> 00:26:11.539 in a derision daily, he says. Then I said I will not make 336 00:26:11.619 --> 00:26:15.900 mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word 337 00:26:15.579 --> 00:26:18.529 was in my heart like a fire burning shut up in my bad owns. 338 00:26:18.529 --> 00:26:22.930 I was weary of holding it back and I could not. So He's saying, 339 00:26:22.970 --> 00:26:26.490 I'm dealing with this struggle, I'm being rejected, but I can't help 340 00:26:26.569 --> 00:26:29.809 but speak your words. I tried not to and I could write, I 341 00:26:29.930 --> 00:26:33.960 couldn't mean not this sence. He can identify with that right. Can constantly 342 00:26:33.079 --> 00:26:38.519 reject it and you're constantly people are mocking you or whatever you could identify with. 343 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:41.519 Okay, I just I'm not going to speak anymore. I'm done. 344 00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:45.720 Yeah, I'm done, but Jeremiah Says No, your word in me is 345 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:47.910 like a fire shut up in my bones as like I can't help it. 346 00:26:48.390 --> 00:26:51.589 I have to speak your word, I have to speak your truth. But 347 00:26:51.710 --> 00:26:55.910 there is this fight in Jeremiah and I like the humanness here, because we 348 00:26:55.990 --> 00:27:02.019 can sometimes in our minds as believers, disconnect these biblical figures like Jeremiah, 349 00:27:02.380 --> 00:27:07.299 like David, like the Apostle Paul and others, just kind of make them 350 00:27:07.339 --> 00:27:15.460 they're like these sort of speak holy priciful superheroes. There parts of stories that 351 00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:18.130 we read about we don't really connect with their humanity. Yeah, but Jeremiah 352 00:27:18.250 --> 00:27:22.930 certainly was a human being. He certainly knew what rejection rejection was not fun. 353 00:27:23.170 --> 00:27:26.369 He certainly knew what it felt like to be rejected and he cried out 354 00:27:26.369 --> 00:27:30.319 to the Lord. So I'll say, just to bring it home for us 355 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:33.960 and again, you can't give what you don't have. So if we don't 356 00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:37.160 have that relationship with the Lord and we don't get honest before the Lord and 357 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:41.799 crying out to God in our suffering and our frustration in our rejections, then 358 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:45.349 we can't encourage abortion. Amount of women and men going into an abortion center 359 00:27:45.390 --> 00:27:51.549 to do that. So the point here is that God is relational. God 360 00:27:51.670 --> 00:27:55.710 knows our suffering, God knows the things that Jeremiah was going through and God 361 00:27:55.750 --> 00:28:00.700 had a relationship with him, and that sort of redeems it all. It 362 00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:04.299 does. But but God, despite his love for Jeremiah and the relationship, 363 00:28:04.859 --> 00:28:08.500 he didn't let Jeremiah off the hook. Yeah, he didn't say, you're 364 00:28:08.539 --> 00:28:12.490 right, you know, what you've endured is more than any human being should 365 00:28:12.490 --> 00:28:18.009 be asked to endure, and so go home and I'll find another prophet to 366 00:28:18.690 --> 00:28:23.690 speak speak my words. He sent Jeremiah back on on the same path. 367 00:28:23.809 --> 00:28:30.400 He's a path of really a lot of suffering, and I actually find I 368 00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:36.319 know it's kind of a strange comfort to find, but I do because it 369 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:44.309 makes me feel like if I am suffering in following God, it doesn't mean 370 00:28:45.710 --> 00:28:49.750 I'm on the wrong path or I'm sinful necessarily or anything like that. It 371 00:28:49.910 --> 00:28:56.380 could just be that is a road that many have traveled, including Jesus, 372 00:28:56.940 --> 00:29:02.380 and why should I be exampt maybe the path of suffering is, for whatever 373 00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:07.460 reason, a valuable and critical path, or God wouldn't set us on it. 374 00:29:07.619 --> 00:29:11.170 Yeah, and I know not all suffering is the same and not all 375 00:29:11.250 --> 00:29:17.009 suffering is is like Jeremiah suffering, where God said this is what you will 376 00:29:17.049 --> 00:29:22.849 endure. But there's many other examples where suffering was the way of life and 377 00:29:22.890 --> 00:29:26.799 there was a purpose, which we're going to explore, I think, later 378 00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:32.400 in in why all of these biblical figures endured some of this suffering. Yeah, 379 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:37.680 ultimately Jeremiah was proven right. Everything he said was going to happen indeed 380 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:41.029 happened. Yeah, absolutely, and then ultimately we can say, when it's 381 00:29:41.029 --> 00:29:45.390 all said and done, Jeremiah's with the Lord probably turn ity. Yeah, 382 00:29:45.750 --> 00:29:51.069 right. So that's why we have and I think in speaking to abortion minded 383 00:29:51.109 --> 00:29:56.019 women, we have to for ourselves and then with them to help them see 384 00:29:56.299 --> 00:30:00.900 from an eternal perspective. Right. Yeah, because if always sees what happens 385 00:30:00.940 --> 00:30:04.019 here on this earth, we're going to miss a lot of what we are 386 00:30:04.180 --> 00:30:08.650 created for. Yeah, human beings were created for eternity. Yeah, and 387 00:30:08.930 --> 00:30:12.890 created to be relational to the Lord, to relate to him. Yeah. 388 00:30:14.289 --> 00:30:18.730 And of course we're not going to in this podcast figure out all the the 389 00:30:18.890 --> 00:30:22.480 problem of evil, in the problem of suffering that men and women have grappled 390 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:27.279 with since humanity began. We're not going to figure that out. Yeah, 391 00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:30.880 but one of the things that we are going to continually say, and one 392 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:33.599 of the things, I think that as sidewall counselors and ministers of the Gospel, 393 00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:37.950 we need to point people to, is that God is bigger than it 394 00:30:38.069 --> 00:30:42.230 all. Yeah, that eternity. One preacher says, you're dead a whole 395 00:30:42.230 --> 00:30:47.150 lot longer than you're alive. You might stick been mind, you might spend 396 00:30:47.630 --> 00:30:49.619 eighty years and maybe ninety years, maybe a hundred years on this earth, 397 00:30:51.339 --> 00:30:52.579 but you're going to be dead. I mean, think about George Washington. 398 00:30:52.619 --> 00:30:56.500 He died when he was like, what in his s or something? Yeah, 399 00:30:56.539 --> 00:31:00.099 and he's been dead for what two Hundred Years Now? Maybe I'm not 400 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:03.740 doing my math correctly. You've been dead for longer than he was alive. 401 00:31:03.779 --> 00:31:07.690 Yeah, he's just one example. Everybody is is in that same state, 402 00:31:07.890 --> 00:31:11.410 right. So we need to be thinking from an eternal perspective and we need 403 00:31:11.490 --> 00:31:15.650 to help others to think from an eternal perspective. And Bible tells us God 404 00:31:15.769 --> 00:31:19.480 has put eternity in the heart of man. We know that there's something after 405 00:31:19.559 --> 00:31:25.359 this life. So helping abortion minded MOMS and dad's to help them to see 406 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:30.599 from an eternal perspective really helps that. To look past, not to marginalize 407 00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:37.390 or mental minimalize the current suffering and the temporal suffering, but to say that 408 00:31:37.430 --> 00:31:40.869 the temporal suffering is just that. It's temporal. It doesn't last forever, 409 00:31:40.910 --> 00:31:42.829 right, and that's actually we're going to get into that, that idea a 410 00:31:42.910 --> 00:31:48.420 little bit later on and as we're going through this framework. But but also 411 00:31:48.740 --> 00:31:55.779 that even in the midst of suffering that we can't always find a purpose. 412 00:31:55.900 --> 00:31:59.740 But I think in all the examples were going to go through there was a 413 00:31:59.980 --> 00:32:04.490 purpose revealed. Maybe not in that person's lifetime, although I think in most 414 00:32:04.529 --> 00:32:08.490 cases they were. And when, when you can see that there is a 415 00:32:08.650 --> 00:32:16.720 divine purpose, that is a positive purpose, it makes suffering much more endurable, 416 00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:21.839 like going through an operation that you know when you come out of it 417 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:24.720 you will be healthier and there is a positive outcome. So I think I 418 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:30.470 love what you said and I totally agree that an eternal perspective is absolutely necessary. 419 00:32:30.710 --> 00:32:35.589 But I think in every one of these cases we can also find something 420 00:32:36.069 --> 00:32:40.509 positive even in the midst of what they were going through, even in the 421 00:32:40.589 --> 00:32:45.220 midst of that suffering. For Jeremiah, he was proven right and he did 422 00:32:45.299 --> 00:32:47.579 get to see that day. Yeah, he did get to see that everything 423 00:32:47.660 --> 00:32:58.259 he had prophesied actually came to pass. Give me our love for love, 424 00:33:00.970 --> 00:33:10.009 give me our love for gratitude. I know it will cost me my love. 425 00:33:14.720 --> 00:33:17.160 No things too precious in some you