From His Heart

Guest (Male): Here is a good question: Why do bad things happen to good people? We will find out today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You say, "I am walking with God the best I know how and I just lost my job. And my neighbor across the street who does not give two hoots about God, he just got a promotion. I am serving God on the mission field and I just got cancer. That does not make sense."

"I am walking with God, I am serving God, I am giving to God, and my spouse just told me they are leaving me for another. My family is disintegrating on me and I do not understand it. Why do bad things happen to good people?"

Guest (Male): This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. We are beginning a series today that answers some of life's toughest questions. It is entitled, Now That's a Tough One: Answering the Difficult Questions of Life. Pastor, I know that in this series you will address questions about the salvation of those who have not heard the name of Jesus, and can someone lose their salvation? How can you know the will of God in your life? You will start today with a message called, "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" What made you select these and other difficult questions to teach on?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I just looked through the scripture and in my own mind, what are the things that cause me to really question? What have people asked me before concerning how could this be true, or how could that be true? There are basic questions and deep questions that people have. What does the Bible say concerning those questions? In this series, we just try and pinpoint those areas where people have an itch and scratch where they are itching and say, "This is what the Bible says concerning this key question."

Guest (Male): Today on the broadcast, you are going to do a lot more than just scratch the surface in answering the question, which is the title of the message: "Why Do Bad Things happen to Good People?" Remember, if you cannot be with us for the entire broadcast, you can listen again anytime at fromhisheart.org. There you can also download Pastor Jeff's sermon outlines and notes. Right now, open your Bible to the book of Acts chapter 14. Here is Pastor Jeff Schreve to find the Bible's answer to this often-asked question.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: One of my favorite comedians is a guy named Steven Wright. I do not know if you have ever heard of Steven Wright. Steven Wright has a really weird sense of humor. His delivery is what makes his jokes so funny. I do not have that kind of delivery. But some of the things that Steven Wright says... he tells his audience, "I was Caesarean born, although you cannot really tell, except when I leave the house, I always go out through the window." He says weird stuff like that.

He asks some weird questions in his comedy routine. Questions like this: "If Barbie's so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?" That is a good question. "Why are there five syllables in the word monosyllabic?" Last question: "Why doesn't the fattest man in the world become a hockey goalie?" I love that. Lots of tough questions.

Tonight we want to look at the tough question that so many people ask throughout the ages: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why on earth, God, do bad things happen to those people who are trying to do good, who are trying to walk with you? Yet so many people who have really tried to walk with God have experienced so many bad things. You say, "I am walking with God the best I know how and I just lost my job. And my neighbor across the street who does not give two hoots about God, he just got a promotion. What gives there? Why do bad things happen to good people?"

Acts chapter 14, verses 21 and 22. The Bible says this: "And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, 'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.'" Through many tribulations. That word tribulations, thlipsis in the Greek, is also translated afflictions, anguish, distress, persecution, and trouble.

Paul and those who were with him on his missionary journey were encouraging the disciples, encouraging those people that were wanting to walk with God, that had heard the gospel and believed the gospel and obeyed the gospel and given their hearts to Jesus. He encouraged those folks and strengthened those folks and told those folks, "You are going to have tribulation. You are going to have not just a little bit of tribulation, you are going to have a lot of tribulation. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God." Why do bad things happen to good people? I want to give you seven possible reasons.

Reason number one: because you may have done something wrong. Why do bad things happen to good people? Maybe you did something wrong. Good is a relative term. We talk about being a good person. Well, we are not a perfect person. I am not a perfect person, you are not a perfect person, Billy Graham's not a perfect person, the Apostle Paul was not a perfect person. No one is a perfect person. Jesus is the only perfect person. He still had a lot of problems in his life. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But one of the reasons that we can run into bad things in our lives is because we have done something wrong.

There is a good person in the Old Testament. He was such a good person that God called him as one of His prophets and gave him a special assignment: "Arise, Jonah, and go to Nineveh and preach to the Ninevites because their wickedness has come up before me." Jonah was in Israel and God said, "Arise, go east to Nineveh." Nineveh is in modern-day Iraq. That is the capital city of the Assyrians, that is where I want you to go. Jonah arose. God said go east and Jonah said, "Forget that, I am going west."

He went down to Joppa and he boarded a ship and paid the fare and was trying to get to Tarshish. Tarshish is 3,500 miles away from Nineveh. He tried to get as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could. Jonah did that because he hated the Ninevites. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, and the Assyrians were really bad guys. He did not want to preach to them. He just wanted them to die, and he did not want to go. So he fled from the will of God and from the plan of God to go to Tarshish.

What happens when Jonah is on his way to Tarshish? A big storm arises and the ship is about to be broken up. Jonah chapter 1, verse 4 says the Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. The sailors he was with were freaking out. They find out what the problem is when they cast lots. The lot fell to Jonah. They said, "Tell us what is going on." He said, "I am fleeing from the presence of the Lord." They asked how he could have done this. Jonah says, "If you want the sea to be calm, throw me into the sea."

They did not want to do that, but finally they did not have any choice, so they threw Jonah into the sea. Jonah got swallowed by a big fish. A bad thing happened to a good person, Jonah, because he did something wrong. Maybe you are running from the Lord. You know God wants you to go to Nineveh, so to speak. He wants you to do a specific thing and you are saying no and going the wrong way. You can run, but you cannot hide. A bad thing can happen to you when you do something wrong.

Reason number two: maybe you have not done anything wrong, but maybe someone else has done something wrong. Bad things can happen to you when someone else does something wrong. The Bible says in Romans chapter 14 and verse 7, "None of us live to ourselves." We do not live in a vacuum. The things that I do affect you and the things that you do affect me. Our lives intersect and are intertwined in this world. I can get in my car and drive to a restaurant after this service and I can get hit on Richmond Road head-on by a drunk driver. I did not have anything to drink and I did not do anything wrong, but I am affected by it.

There is a good example in the Old Testament of someone who did something wrong that affected a whole group of people who did not do anything wrong. That story is found in Joshua chapter 7. When Joshua and the people defeated Jericho, God had told the people, "Everything in the city belongs to me." He called it "under the ban." You are banned from that stuff, it belongs to me, so do not take anything out of Jericho. But there was a man there named Achan. As he was going through the city of Jericho after the walls had come down and there was a great victory, he saw a Babylonian coat that he liked.

He thought it was pretty cool and since no one was seeing him, he grabbed it. Then he found some silver and he found some gold. He took those articles back to his tent and buried them. He thought no one saw and no one knew. He told his wife and his children not to tell anybody. But God saw. The very next battle was against a little dinky place called Ai. It was so dinky it is just two letters. They go up against Ai and Israel says, "Joshua, do not send a lot of people against Ai. We are playing the seventh-grade B-team. We are going to wipe them out."

They just sent a few thousand, but they did not do so well. Thirty-six men of Israel died and the rest fled for their lives. Joshua did not understand it. He said, "God, I do not understand this." God says to Joshua, "Israel has sinned." The whole nation sinned because of just one guy and his family. Achan was the one who sinned. The Lord says in Joshua chapter 7 and verse 12, "Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst." Achan did something wrong and Israel suffered. They had 36 funerals because of Achan's sin.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Maybe you did something wrong or maybe somebody else did something wrong. Reason number three: maybe it is because Satan is attacking you.

Guest (Male): Today's message is called "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" and it is from Pastor Jeff's powerful series, Now That's a Tough One: Answering the Difficult Questions of Life. We will be airing messages from this series for the rest of the month, but you can find out more about this timely series when you go to fromhisheart.org. Just click the listen tab.

This month is devoted to answering life's big questions. Pastor Jeff's latest six-message series, Life's Big Questions, addresses six of the most profound ones that you could ask. It is available for your gift of any amount to From His Heart in the format of your choice on CDs, DVDs, MP3 download, or on a USB flash drive. You can make your gift by calling 866-40-BIBLE or simply go to fromhisheart.org to make your gift.

With that gift, we will also send you Pastor Jeff's booklet called The ABCs of the Christian Life. It will help you learn how beneficial a healthy fear of God is in your life, an understanding that brings joy and freedom in Christ. Again, you can get the series Life's Big Questions and the booklet The ABCs of the Christian Life when you call today 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromhisheart.org. God bless you for standing beside us, helping us reach the world for Jesus. Now let's continue with the message, "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?" Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Why do bad things happen to good people? Maybe it is because Satan is attacking you. The modern-day theologians and the liberal guys who like to rip apart the Bible and say Genesis is myth and Revelation is mystery like to look at all this stuff in the Bible and pull out all the miracles. One of the things they do not like is the idea of a personal devil, a real being called the devil. They say the devil is just a force or symbolism for evil. Listen, the devil is a real being.

He has a real army of demons. The devil was created a beautiful angel named Lucifer, but he rebelled against God and God kicked him out of heaven and he became Satan. When the devil rebelled against God, he did not do it all by himself. He took a third of the angels and won them over to rebel against God too. God threw all of them out and they are all now fallen angels, known as the devil and demons. He is real.

The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 10, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you."

The devil is out there and he prowls around. He is looking for someone to attack and devour, and he causes suffering among God's people. But as we learn from the story of Job, who was terribly and horribly attacked by the devil, the devil is limited as to what he can do to a child of God because God puts a hedge of protection around His children. The devil has to get permission to come after you. Do you remember Jesus at the Last Supper said to Simon Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you as wheat"? He could not just take out Simon; he had to get permission. It could be that you are being attacked by the devil and you are suffering as a result.

Reason number four: maybe bad things are happening to you because God is testing you. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 12 says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." I do not know if it is something you did wrong or someone else did wrong, but I do know that God does test us. When you go through fiery trials, do not be surprised. Peter says the Lord is testing you. Those fiery trials and difficulties are a test of your faith.

When I was in school, every class I took always had tests. There was always classroom time where you had to take notes and pay attention because there was a test. In high school especially, we would have some kind of movie or special speaker and we would ask the teacher if we were going to be tested on this material. If they said no, I closed up my notebook and checked out mentally. God does not want you to do that in life. God wants you to learn and grow, so He says that every trial is a test. A faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted. So God tests us.

Abraham was given a promise that he was going to have a son, and 30 years later he had that son and he loved him. His name was Isaac. In Genesis chapter 22 and verse 1, the scripture says that after these things, God tested Abraham. God said, "Abraham, Abraham," and Abraham said, "Here I am." He said, "Abraham, take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, and offer him up to me as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of Moriah." Abraham obeyed God. He took Isaac and they walked to the mountains of Moriah. It was a three-day journey.

With a heavy heart and bewilderment, he did not understand why God was doing this. He did not have the benefit of Genesis chapter 22 and verse 1 where it says that God was testing him. He did not know that. God did not say, "Abraham, I am giving you a test. I am going to ask you to sacrifice your son, but do not worry because I am not really going to do that. I am going to come through at the 11th hour." All he knew was that God told him to do it. He put his son on the altar, tied him there, and drew back the knife to plunge it into his son's heart.

As he had the knife back, God says, "Abraham, Abraham!" Abraham said, "Here I am." God said, "Abraham, do not stretch out your hand against the lad, for now I know that you fear me because you have not withheld your son, your only son from me." It was a test, and he passed the test. Why are bad things happening to you maybe right this moment in your life? Because God is testing you. Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you for your testing.

Reason number five: why do bad things happen to good people? Because God is teaching you. All the time God is testing, and all the time God is teaching. I think we would all agree that one of the greatest Christians who has ever lived was the Apostle Paul. You talk about bad things happening, he had bad things in spades. He had some great and awesome and incredible things that happened in his life, and through his life. One of the great things...