So have you ever been in an awkward conversation? Ever been in an awkward conversation? I was reading a story a few weeks ago about an Uber driver, He had a customer in the car and they were driving into a new bridgework area and the Uber driver was looking at it, It was super confusing and he goes, men, I wonder who the genius was that designed all of this mess. Mhm. The guy said, well today's your lucky day, My name is mike, I worked for the engineering department in the county and I'm the genius who designed this bridge. He was the guy. We've all had those moments right where we're in an awkward conversation. Well today we're going to try to go across a bridge and it's going to be a bridge. That might sound confusing at first and the reason why is because we're going to try to go across the bridge of suffering a little bit. Today, we're going to try to look at what it means to to cross the bridge of suffering, but why would that be confusing? Well confusing in this sense. We're going to try to look at the bridge of suffering in the concepts of the greatness and the goodness of God and how is that confusing? Well, think of it. If we use a few questions here, um if God is good then why are their tragedies? If God is powerful then why am I going through this difficulty in this hardship. If God is so good then why does trouble come in the first place you hear some of the confusion there? It's the notion of if God is good and if God is great now, why is there suffering, why am I suffering? So is there an answer to that? Well, not one that is complete and full, but we're going to take a shot at trying to encourage our hearts today with the answer for why God is still good and great even in suffering. And we're going to ask James, the half brother of jesus, to help us. Lieutenant James, chapter one beginning with verse 16. James wrote a letter in the very first chapter of the letter, he said, this do not be deceived. My beloved brethren. Now, this verse is a bridge all by itself, it's bridging us from versus one through 15 into verse 17. And so what's been happening in one through 15? Well, James has been writing about trials and troubles and difficulties. He's been saying that trials are part of life, Trouble is part of life, tragedy is part of life. All of these things are part of what it means to be alive. And this is true for christians as well, christians are not exempt from the difficulties of life. Christians don't get a pass when it comes to trouble or or trials and he wants them to understand look just because you're following, jesus doesn't mean that life is going to be like floating on a cloud in Candy Land, that's that's not reality, we will face suffering, we will face trials. But that's where the confusing part comes in because when we're suffering, when the trial is there, When the trouble is there, here's what happens. We begin to think wrong things, We all do it, we begin to think wrong things or people are prone to tell us wrong things in the middle of our suffering. What kind of suffering? What kind of things are being said to us in our suffering? Tell me if you ever heard anything like this? Well, God must be holding back for you because with all the bad stuff going on in your life, he can't really be good or God must be weak. Maybe he doesn't care because with all the evil in the world, he can't really be powerful. That's the bait. So you see the bait is God is weak. God is helpless. God is is useless. So why would you turn to God? He's just a figment of your imagination. He's just he's just a fairy tale to try to help you through a bad day. That's the bait. Don't take the baby because on the other end of that bait, on the other end of the hook is eternal everlasting death. On the other end of that hook is this separation from all that is good and happy and holy and beautiful. On the other end of that hook is separation from the grace and mercy of God, Even if just temporarily and that hook is dangled in front of us. That bait is dangled in front of us all day, every day. It's happened to me this weekend. That bates been dangled in front of me. This this notion that if if this isn't going right and if something is wrong in the middle of that temptation or that trial or that tragedy, we say God, what are you doing God? Why are you working this out now? It's not wrong to say that. Okay, we're going to have those moments. We're going to have those moments where in the middle of everything falling apart, we're going to say, why is this happening? Why God? Why why are you doing something to change that? That's fine. Just don't be deceived by the question. The question is fine. Turning to God is fine, but but don't be deceived by the question because the question might lead you to say, well, what I'm questioning is true. Instead of God being true. What James is doing is he's telling the church, don't be deceived. Don't be deceived into thinking that because you're christian, you're not going to have tough things happen to you in life or that they shouldn't happen to you. He says, don't be deceived. Don't check out in times of trouble. Don't don't check out and hang up your salvation in the middle of everything going wrong. He says, don't be deceived your sin. It's your fault. It's not someone else's fault because that's what happens in trouble, right? We we even ignore our own sin in the midst of it, James says, don't be deceived you. You can't blame your sin on other people and you can't blame it on God. You can't say that your temptation or your sin or anything in the moment is God's fault. Because temptation and sin has an everlasting restraining order. It cannot get near God. Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. And he also says this don't be deceived thinking that the enemy wants to kick, scare or discourage you. He wants to steal, kill and destroy you. James very nicely is trying to give us a great sound bite. Don't be deceived. And now what he's doing is he's trying to make a bridge from sin and troubles and trials and tribulation, temptation, all of us. He's trying to make a bridge to hope. And what's the hope. Listen to what he says in verse 17, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above. He says, don't be deceased. God is good. No matter how many times you think he's not. God is good, he is good and his love endures forever. He's the giver of all good things. He's the gift and he's the giver. It's his nature as his character. He creates the gifts and he gives the gifts? But let me ask you a question. Can we take a really good gift from God and mess it up. Yeah, I mean, I've had three Reese's cups this morning. You know, I mean, my body is a pretty good gift, but I probably didn't need three recess. All right. Let me just confess. I just had three Reese's cups. Like that's what I was doing. Getting some water and some races. I need some chocolate, some sugar and some water. So, you know, we have this good thing called our body, but we don't always do the right thing with it. Right? So there are gifts that God gives us and we mess up what's happening in the middle of that gift. And that's just a helpful reminder because what we're tempted to do when things start falling apart when we end up in the dark, when we have trouble or trials, what we're tempted to do is to turn against God to say God, why is this happening? We we tend to blame God when the trials come. And I think it's very interesting that James is writing about trials and troubles and tragedies and temptations and difficulties in the middle of all that he uses the word good and perfect. Those two words don't don't seem to match here. But what he's saying is this, God gives us the necessary good. God gives us the necessary perfect for life for our happiness. He gives us what's necessary for our happiness. No, if you're like me. That math doesn't make a whole lot of sense? Right? You're like angles like trials. Don't make me happy troubles. Don't make me happy difficulty doesn't make me happy. I think God is using the wrong happiness calculator. When it comes to me, joe was an extremely wealthy man. He lived maybe about 2400 years before Jesus was born. Job lost 20,000 head of cattle, his livestock to lightning and two thieves. He lost almost every single one of his employees To lightning or two murderers. And he lost all 10 of his Children to a violent storm. And the way the history records this in the Bible, it seems that all this happened to him in one day. So how did he respond? How did he respond to to something that's really beyond our ability to comprehend 20,000 livestock, all of his employees, all 10 of his Children. When the middle of his trial, in the middle of his pain, he turned to his wife and said this, shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity. Now look, this is strange to our natural way of thinking, right? That that doesn't sound how you would respond to trials and difficulties. But it's a reminder. Sometimes the trial is the good and perfect gift from above. We don't like that. Okay, it's fine. Let's just confess it. We don't like it. Some of you right now are saying, I don't believe in God, if that's true. It is, it's just our sinful nature. We fight against God. But sometimes the trial is the good and perfect gift from above. See our way of thinking says this, Hey, I won the lottery man, what a good and perfect and fantastic thing that happened to me. But we all know that the story goes on far too often that the person that wins the lottery doesn't end up in financial paradise, right. Everything falls apart. It's our natural way of thinking will say, hey, when all this money, that's a good thing. But often it's not a good thing and in a similar way we wouldn't think of being nailed to a cross crucified, executed on a cross would be a good and perfect gift that doesn't sound like a good and perfect gift. However, there was a thief that because he was nailed to a cross next to the savior of the world. Right now. He is in paradise. See our natural way of thinking is to look at the trials and the troubles as always bad and evil and awful. And yet sometimes God is in the very midst of that moment, in the very midst of the most overwhelming time in our life job, experience some devastating things but he didn't lose his faith when he was probably most overwhelmed. He turned to his wife and he said honey, we take the good, we take the bat, we take them both and there we have the facts of life, the facts of life. That's not what he said. This is what he said, He said, sweetie, we're going to take the good and we're going to take the bad and I'm guessing he had to repeat it maybe for his own art. We're going to take the good and we're going to take the bad. Why? Why would he say that? Because he knew God, He didn't know things about God. He didn't have a christmas story in an easter story about God. He didn't just know some stories about noah and moses or or maybe some other random, he knew God, he knew that God was holy, Holy Holy, He knew that God was sovereign, that he was good, that he was majestic, that he was perfect in love, that he was perfect and mercy, perfect and grace, perfect and care and that he was all those things from everlasting to everlasting to everlasting, they never stop, joe knew he could trust God, no matter what Jon Wilkin says this, God promises to deliver his people, no matter what. That's a catchy phrase sounds like something we might sing in a song on sunday morning, You know, it has a has a good feel. Maybe throwing a little rhyme, it would be great. But do you believe it. Do you believe that if you're a believer, if you're a christian, that God will deliver you, no matter what? Do you believe that? Do you believe that God will deliver you from suffering. Even if you never leave the hospital, Do you believe that God will deliver you no matter what? See, we have lots of wrong thinking when we're in the dark, we have lots of wrong thinking. When, when trouble comes our way, we we are quick to forget the greatest things about God. When trials and troubles come and what James is doing is trying to help us. Hey, don't be deceived. Don't take the bait. Don't believe the lies. He's trying to help him get across the bridge from suffering to hope he's trying to help them. See that there is a deeper joy, a deeper satisfaction, a deeper love that they can have in and through God, even in the midst of the bad as well. Chamber said this, It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. This is good because that's kind of the opposite of what we've heard, right? God's teaching you something. I'll be honest when you're in the hospital and somebody's life has fallen apart, don't tell them. God is teaching them something. Okay, Just avoid that phrase. Just just be there. Okay, sometimes just be there. Just pray for them. Just just hug them. Just hold their hand. Chambers said it's not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials through every cloud he brings. He wants us to unlearn something. See we got stinking thinking. We need to unlearn something. He goes on his purpose in the cloud, his purpose in the storm. The trial of the trouble is to simplify our belief. You must get to the place where there is no one any more save jesus only. That's that's old english language to say this. You have to get to the point where jesus is your everything and when you're at that point, that's the only place you'll really be satisfied. That's it. I love timmy's prayer just a moment ago, we seem to be so occupied with so many things, but God help us be satisfied in you. We're only going to be satisfied when we learn to unlearn some things. So what do you need to unlearn? I'll give three for all of us. Just three things. We need to unlearn. We need to unlearn that God is not in the clouds. See, we're convinced that when the bad stuff happens were quick to say, well, God is not in this. We need to unlearn that God is not in the clouds. We need to unlearn that God is not in the pain and we need to unlearn that God is not in the suffering, He is holy, he is good, He is sovereign. He is in all things and the clouds simply remind us this. Hey simplify things down and the trials and the troubles and the different. Let's let's simplify things and the simplest thing that happens to us in the storms of life is the gospel reminds us simply this for, this moment for this situation, for this trial for this difficulty for this. You have jesus for this, You have jesus, there's never a moment for a believer where that's not true. Whatever the circumstance, whatever the situation for this, you have Jesus save only jesus, jesus, jesus, Sama said this about God, you are good and do good. Yeah, that's again, it's nice bible verse be good in a song, but it's hard in the moment, right? It's hard in the moment, in that dark moment when everything is difficult, it's hard for us to say, you know, God's he's good and he does good. But we need to say it and we need to remember it and we need to pray it and we need to sing it. We need to do whatever we have to grab hold of this, that God is good, He is great. He does good. And the greatest good that God has ever done for you is sending jesus. The greatest good that God has ever done is giving jesus to the world. He is good simply because of that. You see, God has promised that he will deliver his people no matter what and he's promised to do it through jesus, that's the plan. Nothing can change that. If you're a believer. If you're a follower of jesus, you will be delivered by God and it will be through, jesus. That doesn't mean you'll be delivered from every individual storm in life, but you will be delivered completely when the storm of death arrives. It's the promise. It can't be changed. James is trying to get us in the in the grim dark moments to to look at God and to see that there's a reason we should keep crossing that bridge from suffering and and confusion and and worry and fear and stress and anger keep crossing the bridge into hope and why 17? These good and perfect gifts coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. The Father of Lights, the creator of Lights, This is who God is the one true creator God. Dr. Chandra Whitman sing as a mathematician, astronomer and astrobiologist. I think it was about 30 years ago that he made this comment about the universe. To believe that a mindless accident made all this is simply incredulous. The odds against life having evolved by blind chance are about the same as the odds against a whirlwind blowing through a scrapyard and assembling a perfect Boeing 747. Just don't make sense. There's no way we can look at creation to go. Yeah, I think this just happened. I think it was just something that came to be, it was just a bang of molecules. Now there's there's something about creation when we look we go, it has a creator. Think about that painting, you know, I don't know if it's true, but I feel like it's true. My father in law, I think has kept every single painting that my wife and my sister in law have ever drawn in their life. I think he's got all of them, you know and why? Because he he loved every moment of them creating. It's not hard for us to believe. We believe it with every other thing in life. We see something that is created, we go, yep, it's got a creator, but for some reason the world looks at the majesty of creation says, Yeah, I think it just happened. It didn't there is a creator of lights, but it's interesting. That's not the angle that James is really approaching here. It's not looking at the creative attribute of God by calling him the father of lights. What he's saying is this is that God never shifts, God never moves. He's not like a like a shadow that changes. And most specifically he doesn't shift and change when it comes to the way that he gives good gifts. It doesn't change. He's not a shadow. He doesn't shift now. If you don't know this, you are a shifty person and so am I. You know, we shift, right? I mean we might be all happy and laughing and hugging and handshaking one minute and we might be a jerk or jerk at the next minute. You know it happens. Think about jesus the crowd, Oh, Hosanna, jesus, we're so happy and so blessed to have you so good that you're here great. Three days later the crowd what shouted crucify him. See we're fickle. You know, we we shift from time to time. Our opinions change in a million different ways. God's not like that. He doesn't change. He's always the same. He's always good and he always does good. A w Pink said this, God cannot change for the better because he's already perfect and being perfect. He can't change for the worse altogether. Unaffected by anything outside himself. Improvement or deterioration is impossible. How about that? Right? Improvement or deterioration is impossible. You know what? I'm dizzy in the songs. I'm getting old. You know, I'm deteriorating. You know, there's all kind of ways. I'm not improving. And guess what? So are you? It's it's who we are. It's part of being human. Those things never happened to God. He never fades. He never fails. He never gets dizzy. He never needs a Reese's pieces. I don't know, maybe he does. But God doesn't need anything. He's he's good. Why? Pink says this, God is perpetually the same. He only can say I am that I I am. He's it. None of us get to say that I am that I am doesn't shift. He doesn't move. He doesn't change. He's always the same. His goodness is perfect and the triumph and the tragedy, his goodness is perfect and the horrible and the happy. He can't change. He is good and he does good. What do we know about the sun and the stars? The light from the sun and the stars always shine Even when we can't see it, the clouds may be up there but the sun and the stars are still shining. The love of God the mercy of God, the grace of God, it never stops shining. He's the father of lights in the sense that his light never stops. No matter what darkness were in, the light never stops. There is no shadow of turning with God. There is no shifting of power with God. And that's good news because you know, we live in a world that's constantly changing and shifting right. We live in a world where everything can be different an hour from now. You know a world where your family can be safe and healthy and happy today or tomorrow. Your life can be devastated by fire or by storm. But we live in a world where we can feel great today and tomorrow being the I. C. U. And so because those are true because of those realities, it's very good to know that God is good today and he'll be good tomorrow and he's good forever. It's good to know that he does good today and tomorrow and forever. And it's even greater to know that the greatest good God has done for you is to give jesus for you. The greatest good that God has given the world is to give the world jesus in your moment of trouble in your moment of trial and everything is falling apart and you're thinking, man, God, why aren't you doing something? Can I just tell you God has done something? He's done this something you need more than anything else because the medicine is good, the surgery is good, The new job is good. The pay raises good, the a on the test is good, the wind and the game is good. All those things are good and great carving the turkey super. But what I need most is to be saved. What I need most is that when I laid my head down at night that I have confidence that I am God's and he is mine. God has done the greatest good he could possibly do in your life in every moment by giving jesus to the world. Simple question, are you a christian? Have you truly turned from sin and turn to jesus? Are you trusting in jesus as your ultimate gift for everlasting life? If so then there is this one thing that can keep your heart and the darkness. This this one thing that can keep your heart and your mind and your soul steady when everything feels like it is shaking and about to fall apart. And what is that one thing Hebrews? Chapter 13: verse eight puts it this way, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. If that's true and it is then dear christian here is the one great hope of your life. You are never alone. Never it's not possible for you to be alone. You'll feel alone, you'll feel alone and some of you know that moment right? You know that moment after after someone you love died, you felt alone, you know that moment after that frustrating thing happening with your spouse or your kids or something that were you feel alone, we all know the concept of thing alone. But if you're in christ and jesus is the same yesterday and today forever, you cannot be alone and that matters. So what does that look like in real life when Maria was adopted from china a few days after her birthday she was running out into the driveway to greet her teenage brother Will who was driving home from something at school will never saw Maria, she was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day. Her earthly adopted father was famous popular christian singer named steven Curtis chapman months maybe even a year or so later. He wrote some songs about their pain and what they experienced in losing Maria by the way. She was only five years old when she died and one of the songs he wrote, I'm going to read to you and I'm going to read you the whole song just because it it has some good stories that I think connect with all of us and all of us in some of the moments of life. But he wrote a song about the bridge because that's what happened initially. They were in the bridge on the other side of suffering and pain and hurt. But in the gospel in christ they were able to cross the bridge. They didn't take the bait in their pain, they didn't take the bait in there, hurt, they weren't deceived, they knew the truth, they clung to the truth and they made it across the bridge. This is what he wrote when you think you've hit the bottom and the bottom gives way and you fall into a darkness that no words can explain and you don't know how you will make it out alive, Jesus will meet you there when the doctor says, I'm sorry, we don't know what else to do. And you're looking at your family wondering how they'll make it through whatever road this life takes you down, Jesus will meet you there when the jury says guilty and the prison doors close, when the one you love says nothing, just packs up and goes when the sunlight comes and your world's still dark, Jesus will meet you there when you failed again. And all your second chances have been used and the heavy weight of guilt and shame is crushing down on you and all you have is one last cry for help, jesus, we'll meet you there. He knows the way to wherever you are. He knows the way to the depths of your heart. He knows the way because he's already been where you're going. And then it closes this way when you realize the dreams you've had for your child won't come true when the phone rings in the middle of the night with tragic news. Whatever valley you must walk through, jesus, We'll meet you there two years. Don't take the bait. Don't take the bait. God is not a shifting shatter and the greatest good he's ever done for. You can't be changed. And that is giving jesus to you. Have you received him? Have you taken hold of his salvation? Listen, whatever you're facing this thanksgiving holiday, jesus, we'll meet you there.