SUMMARY KEYWORDS

god, jesus, creation, evil, pain, jevon, fam, friends, sin, exist, world, science, work, good, book, song, unjust, pray, lord, suffering.

SPEAKERS

Phil EuBank, Jevon Washington

‍

Well, hey, Good Morning, Menlo church. So good to see you. I have the honor to introduce you to a friend of mine, a very close, very longtime friend named Jevon and Jevon is preacher, a pastor, a father, a leader, a community leader trying to make a difference in the city where he lives. He loves Jesus deeply. He loves His bride and his kids. He loves the church and loves people and he loves technology. So what's not to like about Jevon? Right? Here's the thing though, Jevon can be a little bashful, a little shy, a little understated, so if you'll help him feel a little bit more welcome to be here at all of our campuses right here at Menlo Park. Would you give him a Menlo Church welcome?

Oh, man. Man, what's going down y'all? If you don't know what that means it means how are you? That’s what the translation is. Man, it's a pleasure to be with you guys today. I come all the way from Seattle, Washington, I brought a little bit of my friends with me called The Clouds. Two people clapped, so we know who is getting beat up after service because other people are like, no, we want, we want all sun! Man, but it's a pleasure to be with you. When Phil asked if I would come and preach, I was like, man, that would be amazing. And the topic is Does God Exist?

And I was like, oh, that's easy. It's easy, because I have these conversations with my friends all the time.

Living in Seattle, a lot of my friends they don't yet trust Jesus. So wherever you are at today; if you're a person who calls yourself a follower of Jesus, or a person who has trusted Jesus, welcome. If you're a person who's you know, not yet a follower of Jesus, and you're wondering, like, is there a god, I've got good news for you; there is. And also if you're wondering about pain and suffering, I would also like to encourage you to know that because God is real, pain and suffering? God is not the author of it, but He will use it so that you would know more about the purpose of your life. Amen.

So before we do that, I know Phil, he usually you know kneels when he prays, but I do not have the supernatural and spiritual gift of flexibility. But we're going to pray and ask that God would guide us here today. Join your hearts with mine.

God, you are so amazing. You are something other than we have ever seen. Your work, your handiwork, your fingerprints of all the things that you have done continue to speak and transcend across time, and space, and distant galaxies that we can't see, or newly uncovered. We pray that you today, God the Holy Spirit would come invade this place. Would you come and do a work in our hearts so that we may see your truth of who you are, and how you've designed the world. We thank you for all these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

And also to have another confession. I'm a chocolate preacher, which means this; if you're quiet it means I need to preach longer. Now don't get it twisted. There's a clock back there that's counting down on my time, and that's like kryptonite to a chocolate preacher. So I'm gonna need you to be graceful to me so I can be graceful to you. Can I get an amen? Okay, I just want to make sure we're on the same page.

The topic of the existence of God, does God exist? If you would meet me in Psalm 19, verse 1. Psalm 19, verse 1, this is what the word of the Lord says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” Now God is a Spirit so He does not actually have hands. It's what the author is using to understand how God is communicating. It's called anthropomorphic language, meaning that he's trying to help you understand that he's identifying with you, but basically saying that the heavens, all of the heavens declare and proclaim His works. The four points that I have for you today is Confirming God's Existence, The Problem of Pain, Embracing God of Mixed Grief, and lastly, Who Is God?

Now, off the jump we're going to talk about three things to answer this question, Does God Exist? And then if so, what do we do with pain and suffering? We're gonna look at it through science, creation, and the existence of evil. Those will be our sign or lampposts that actually point to the reality of God as a creator, versus that there is no God. So, thank you, I heard that amen right there, see blessed and highly favored you've made the Lord blessed with a double portion. There's an amazing scientists that I love; he had some amazing hair, which I do not anymore. And his name was Albert Einstein. Albert Einstein says this about science and about God, “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” You know why he says that? Because the more science continues to look at all of creation, how could a person not see that there is some kind of divine design?

When I talked to my friends about preparing for this sermon, we kind of did one of those DTR ones. Hey, I know, we're friends. I know, we say we love each other, but I want to take our relationship to the next level. I want to have a conversation about four questions. I want to sit down with you and ask you, number one: Do you believe in the existence of God? Number two: What's your current worldview? And why did you choose it? Number three: How does your worldview handle suffering and pain and evil? And number four: Would you consider Jesus and His claims, if good be proof to you?

Now so these are my actual friends who helped me prepare for this sermon. The reason why this is a very important question to talk about science is because a lot of answers that I got, and some of the answers that I hear a lot is that God in this existence is just like a boogeyman. Or it's a fairy tale, that there's no way that we can know. But the reality is, is that science continues to prove one of the arguments that there's a divine designer. Y'all we in that like, this is the Bay Area, like there's design on design on design, technology, amazing, but we know it had a programmer. And yet all of creation has been programmed, intricately designed intentionally showing us who God is. The author and theologian CS Lewis, he is a beast, if you don't know what that means. It means he's dope. He's amazing. CS Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, he writes this amazing book called The Screwtape Letters, where he's like a chief demon, and he's trying to train his young buck, nephew, Wormwood. He says, Hey, fam, if you want to get these people to not believe in God, you can do a lot of things to mess them up. Like for real for real. But don't try to mess them up using science, or to disprove God. This is what he says in his book, “Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defense against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about the realities that he cannot touch and see.”

You see, friends it's not God vs. Science. Science speaks to the existence of God. Like when you think about math. Now, I know, there's probably some beastly and amazing mathematicians. You think about people like John Lennox, who's this amazing mathematician, scientist and devout follower of Jesus. Y'all, I got a confession; I would do my math homework, and I would turn it in, and my teacher says, hey, fam, you got a lot of these questions, right.

Because what happened was, I found out in the back of the book, were all the answers, and that the Lord was my shepherd, I shall not one. He made me like down with all the answers. He provided them for me. But my teacher was like, hey, you got to show me your work. I see you got the right answer, but I want you to show me your work.

You see, friends when we look at creation. Science is God showing us His work. Science shows us His work. You want to understand how the Earth rotates? You want to understand how trees grow and plants get life and energy? How babies develop, how your mind works, how your eye can see? That's Him I'm showing you my work. So friends science is not science vs. God.

Friends, that is science. Science is the painting of God that allows all of the creation for us to see His works. With each proverbial stroke of the brush of God's creation; it's another insight into how he is made all things.

I was once asked by one of my friends; How do you understand and believe in God? And how do you handle lmiracles? And I was like, oh fam, that's easy. And he was like what? I said, watch this; peep game. Science is God's design and created order on how all things work. A miracle is God showing us His created order, and how it was supposed to originally function. It's not, let people who could not walk not be able to walk. They were supposed to be able to walk. People who could not see were not supposed to be blind. They were supposed to be able to see. Natural disasters, were not supposed to happen. But the whole earth and creation was supposed to be full of God's Shalom and peace. You see, but when sin enters into the world, all of creation becomes broken. You and I become broken, and creation becomes broken.

You see, oftentimes we find ourselves saying, because evil and pain exist, that means that God doesn't exist. There's no way that evil and pain and suffering can exist, because God doesn't exist. Well, friends, that's actually even more of a reason why God exists, because you even have a definition of what is evil, and that there's pain, and that they're suffering. Vs. the God who says, I ain't got nothing to do with those. But I will love you in the midst of those, that God is not the author of evil. But what the enemy uses for evil to harm and to destroy us in God's good Shalom and creation; God says, I will use it for my purposes.

Creation speaks to the glory of God. It speaks to the reality of a divine designer. Our creation is meticulously fine-tuned with the blueprints of how it's supposed to work and operate. But you may say to me, Jevon, but what about natural disasters? When they kill people? How does creation really supposed to glorify God or prove that God exists? Well, we're gonna get to that. You see, and like I said earlier; evil shows us what right and wrong is; injustice and justice. This shows us that there is such things as a moral objective truth, and that there is such things as a morality. Now, you may not find yourself a person who says, Yes, I adhere to the Torah, or the commandments and the invitation of Jesus to follow me, but I definitely hate that one sports team. I just hate them. Or you may say, I really don't like that one political party. God, if you just did away with them all the world would be fixed. If you just did away with evil God right now, the whole world will be fixed. You see, but the problem is, is that if He was to do that, it might be you first, and then me, and then everybody else.

You see, we are under the this weird false assumption that because evil exists, God is somehow absent. Well fam, I got news for you; God the Creator of the universe is not sitting somewhere in the cosmos on His crazy yacht, using stars as ice cubes for a mai tai, and the Big Dipper for a spoon for His soup. He's not absentee father. He's present. He's working now. And He sends His Holy Spirit to indwell us, and to go out into the world to partner with Him in His work of redeeming all of creation. That's the work of the gospel. And most oftentimes, friend, I found that there are two reasons why a lot of people say they don't believe in God; The existence of evil, which we've talked about, and the second is the witnesses who claim to be followers of Jesus.

Imagine if you went to a coffee shop, like Starbucks. Some of you guys are like, noooo; I know. Just get it walk with me, it's an illustration; you order your drink, and then they hand you a tire. That’s right, a tire. You'd be like, What are you doing? I ordered a coffee. Yeah, there's a tire. We will see that that's a disconnect, right? That would be something that doesn't work, right?

But because if you look on the sign outside it says it’s a Starbucks, but if I go in there and you want to give me a tire, that's a problem for me. You see, but how do you think people experience when we are supposed to be the images of God to display God, and we're saying that God is filled with love, grace, mercy and truth, but all they experience from us is judgment, despair and destruction. In a lot of ways, we have a problem with how we display the truth of God. Those are the two main ones that I kind of felt and heard continuously from a lot of people. Maybe God exists, but His witnesses are wack. And that is a legitimate barrier for people.

But friends, even in our fallenness, God still loves us. But friends, it's also an invitation to be invited to a journey to truly embody and believe, and flesh-out what we claim we actually believe. We can't say that we love God, but then hate our neighbor. We can't say that we love those people because they agree with us, and we hate these people, or we think they're crazy because they don't agree with us. Fam, that's the witness. Even in this room, you can help people move one direction, and one step closer to believing that God exists, if His people actually embodied and followed out in His spirit. If you can't say Amen, you can say ouch.

We even have our conscience; Romans 1: 20-23 says, “For since creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His internal power, His divine nature have clearly been seen, being understood that what was made so that people could be without excuse.” You see, the vastness of the cosmos is not just for us to marvel; it's a message. It's a cosmic message pointing to the Creator. Deep within us, as Romans would say in chapter 4:14 -15, it says that the law has been written on our hearts. It's been written on our hearts.

So we know when there's injustice, we know when there is wrong, we know when something's not right. And friends, I would say when you feel that angst, when you feel that something's wrong and that something is not right; that's actually an echo of you crying out for help, saying, how long Lord, will unrighteousness and injustice be allowed on your creation? You feel that? Creation feels that too; the natural disasters. Roman says that creation is groaning, that it cannot wait to see Jesus come and to make all things right again. So when we're saying Why hasn't God delivered and take away and wiped out all evil? Well, that's assuming that you're not evil. And it's also not understanding that God has already been doing His work. So much so that from the very beginning in the garden, when Adam and Eve forfeited everything; He started to bring us back into right relationship with Him, book after book, every piece of the story. And God doesn't just say, hey fam, clean yourself up. He says, I'm going to cover you. I'm going to cover you, and I'm going to do the work on your behalf.

The cross of Christ is one of the most amazing ways you can see how God deals with pain and suffering; that God would not allow pain and suffering and sin and evil and wickedness to win, but that he would bear our judgment. He would bear our judgment in our place for our sin. And for some of us today who may say; well, why would God need to bear judgment? That's mean that God would allow his son to die. Well, hold on. First, we just said that we think that God's unjust, because he allows evil to exist, but then we're upset when God actually displays His justice? You see, because underneath everything it comes to this; do you believe that you are in control? Do I believe that I am in control or is God in control? But there's a problem with pain.

CS Lewis writes this, in his book, The problem of pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” You see pain, suffering and evil, though they are not authored by God, God uses them as midwives to bring forth hope. When you see despair, when you see evil, only God who can control all things can not only give you comfort to say that I will use them for your good, not let them destroy you. And in fact, I will enter into relationship with you to be present with you. That is a beautiful picture, that God doesn't just leave us to ourselves, but He comes near in the person of His son.

The reality of evil and pain and suffering prove that God exists, rather than that He does not exist. We cannot make the mistake friends, because if we remember; every day we choose the same way like Adam and Eve. We may be like, man, if I was in the garden I would slap Adam, I would have slapped the fruit from his hand; like nah, fam. But yet, every day we partake of our own fruit that we want, then we go another way. And God says saying, no, hey, here's blessing, here's life, here's shalom, here's peace. No, I'm good. I'm going that way.

Friends, the Earth, our lives, evil, pain and suffering are not the result of God's doing. They're a result of our doing; of our volition to choose another way. So when you hear your favorite song, and you hear a bad rendition of it, and you're like, man, I love this Mozart song. It's amazing, its playing and playing and playing, and then someone gets up there and it's like angry cat; Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa baa. You would never be like, yo, Mozart, you're trash. Your songs are terrible. You would actually talk to the person who played it terribly right? So why is it when the world is broken we go to attack God, vs. to take accountability for our own actions.

And this is part of the gospel, that it levels everybody. It doesn't matter how good of a person you think you are. It doesn't matter how much bread you have, how famous you are, how not famous you are, what school you go to; it flattens everybody to say we are all in need of God. And for us when we say nah, I don't need Him. That's what leads to brokenness, devastation, and vandalism of God's Shalom. The Scripture say, there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.

There's one interesting quote from Richard Dawkins, he's a non-Christian philosopher, who says, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction,” in all fiction, “jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving a control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; and misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infantcidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal,” I don't know how to say that word; I'm dyslexic too, the world's broken, “sadomasochistic, capriciously maevolent and bully.” Like, that's what he thinks about God.

Now, if you have this view, I get it. Because if you believe that God was like this, would follow a God like that? I wouldn't. Because here's what's also interesting, as he says that, but then continues; remember, he just said God is petty. That’s something that we would say about somebody on the street; he petty, saying that God is petty and unjust and an unforgiving control freak. But yet he writes this in his next paragraph, “In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won't find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice... There is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference… DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.”

Now that sounds really sad. And the reason why it sounds really sad is because it's a particular belief of no hope, because the view of how you view God is unjust. But the interesting thing that he says that God, this character of God, is unjust, but yet he says that the reality is throw God away, but yet at the same time, you're just gonna find that there's not really any justice in life. So if we believe what Mr. Dawkins has stated, then yeah, what a pity. We just exist. We're just walking pinyatas that get whacked around and all our pain and suffering, there's nothing good that can come of it, and we just exist.

You see, but Jevon if God does exist, and why does He allow evil? Friends, don't let us make the mistake that God's patience; that He's not willing that any should perish means that He's okay or condoning injustice. The fact that you know what injustice is right now? Is God telling you stop injustice. Why don't you change anything? God, I gave you my spirit. Go make wrong things right. This person is poor, they need help. Give them some money. Don't say to them, hey, God bless you, and be well. That's what the book of James says.

You see, friends, God is putting the world right because His spirit is here right now. And He has sent His Son to die to make all things right, and will one day return and wreck shop and set up His kingdom and show everybody his eternal love, grace as hesed. That's been His plan. He's been doing it. But even in suffering, God's redemptive ripples have continued to be seen.

Remember, Joseph, he was betrayed, but he told his brothers, you intended it for evil to harm me, but God intended it for good. You see, friends, God is not the author of evil. He is not the originator of sin. But see Jesus, in Isaiah calls himself the suffering servant. He is the one who comes to suffer in our place, on the world's behalf for sin. So it is not as if God dipped out on us, as a dad, or a parent who just leaves. He comes near. He comes near in the Incarnation through His Son.

Job, a man had personal pains, he cried out, questioning God after he'd lost his whole family. And yet, even in his anguish, he affirmed; I know my redeemer lives. In church in our moments of divine distress, we have to remember Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who was unable to empathize with us in our weakness.” We got company. You know, they know the saying misery loves company? Guess what? We got company and Jesus. If you're downcast, if you're heavy laden, guess what? You got company? If you're broken in need of hope, guess what? You got company. Jesus comes near. He comes near as a suffering servant. You see, we are to embrace God in the midst of grief.

I love what CS Lewis again says in the Chronicles of Narnia, he says “Wrong will be right when Aslan comes back in sight, at the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth, winter meets death and when he shakes his mane, we shouldn't have spring again.” Fam that's crazy; you don't want to see those teeth of that lion. The lion that doesn't need defending. But when Jesus Christ conquers all Satan, sickness, sin and death, what a roar. What a beautiful roar that he says you will be protected by me.

Friends, God, He is actively working in the world, and He's pulling back the curtain showing us His kingdom and how creation was supposed to be. Or as New Testament writer, NT Wright would say he, God “has drastically launched this project through Jesus. Those who belong to Jesus are called, here and now, in the power of the Spirit, to be agents of that putting-to-rights purpose.” We are called to put the world right. God puts us right to put the world right. So when we see wickedness and injustice, because there is a God, we know that there is righteousness, we know that there is justice; we are to follow in Him in His invited plan to make wrong things right?

Friends, you may never get the answer to all of your pain for your loss of your loved one, to the loss of your friends, to the loss of the trauma of your job or what was done to you. The enemy will always seek to make you think that God hates you and that His character is bad. You see, but friends, God is not hating you, His character and who He is comes near. He is present with us, never to leave us never to forsake us.

Well, who is this God? Who is this God? There is a song by Jack Richards and Richard Mullins, it says this; the reason why this is important is because we may be thinking that God, He is chillin, He's kicking it. He ain't coming back. Like I said, He's on vacation. Who is God? This is what the song says. In Genesis, He is the breath of life. In Exodus, He is the Passover lamb. In Leviticus, He is our high priests. Numbers, He is the fire by night. Deuteronomy, He's Moses voice. In Joshua, He’s salvations choice. Judges the law giver. In Ruth, the kinsman redeemer. First and Second Samuel, our trusted prophet. In Kings and Chronicles, He's our sovereign.

Ezra, He's the true and faithful scribe. Nehemiah, He is the rebuilder of broken walls in our lives. In Esther, He's Mordekaiser courage. In Job, the timeless redeemer. In Psalms, He is our morning song. In Proverbs, He is our wisdom’s cry. Ecclesiastes, He is our time and season. In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream.

He is, He is, He is. In Isaiah, He is the prince of peace. Jeremiah, He is the weeping prophet. In Lamentations, He is the cry for Israel. In Ezekiel, He is the call from sin. In Daniel, there is another in the fire; we know the song about that right? In Hosea, He is a forever faithful. In Joel, He is the spirit's power. In Amos, He is the arms that carry us. In Obadiah, He is the Lord our Savior. In Jonah, He's the great missionary. In the book of Micah, He's our promise and peace. In Nahum, He is our strength and our shield. In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's pleading for our revival. In Haggai, He restores the Lost heritage. In Zechariah, our fountain.

In Melaka, He is the son of righteousness, rising with healing in His wings. He is, He is. In Matthew, in Mark, in Luke and John, He is God, He is man, He is Messiah. In the book of Acts, He is the fire from heaven. In Romans, He is the grace of God. In Corinthians, He is the power of love. In Galatians, He is the freedom from the curse of sin. In Ephesians, He is our glorious treasure. In Philippians, He is our servant's heart. In Colossians, He is the Godhead, the Trinity, His supreme bossiness - that was what I added into it. In Thesalonians, our coming King. In Timothy, Titus, Philemon, He is our mediator between, and our father and our faithful pastor. In Hebrews, He is the everlasting covenant. In James, He is the one who heals the sick. In First and Second Peter, He is our shepherd. In Jude and John, He is the lover coming for his bride. In Revelation, He is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, guess what y'all, I’m not done.

He is the prince of peace, the son of man, the Lamb of God, the great I am. He is Alpha and Omega, He is God. He is our Savior. He is Jesus Christ the Lord. He does exist. He is faithful, He is present. He's here now. He has seen the brokenness of all creation. He has seen the brokenness of your life, He has seen the pain and trauma that you've gone through. And He said, Guess what, I'm gonna come here and be with you, my people. That is God.

So friends, if you today have said, I cannot accept this God because of trauma, and evil, and pain, and suffering. Friends, I tell you today that God is not down with those either. You may have never heard that. But I want you to know, He's not about that life. He's not about people worshipping a political party vs. worshiping Him first. He's not about that. He is not for their side, or their side. He's for Himself, and all of creation testifies of Him. Like Muhammad Ali would walk into the ring and say the champions here; Jesus steps in onto the scene of sin and death, and pain and trauma, and He says hope is here. Love is here. Grace is here. Shalom is here.

Hesed is here. Purpose is here. The purpose for you and I in our life is to know Jesus. And we can know that God, because He ain’t out there kicking it. He came near. And he's here today. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.

As I invite the worship team to come forth, I want to encourage us in this, that there will be pain. There will be trauma. There will be hardship and there will be difficulty. But Jesus says, be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. As the Beaver would say, in The Lion, the Witch in the Wardrobe; Aslan is on the move. And when he roars, winter will be no more. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this time. We thank you that you alone show us who you are. And that sin, wickedness, evil, pain and suffering; they can't take away from your glory. Your glory is out of love, shalom, care, and grace. So God, if there is someone here today, who does not know you, I pray that they would get to know you today. That this is an invitation for them to get to know the true God, the God of love, grace and mercy and of justice. That when there is injustice, because He is righteous, and He is just, He will fix those things, because that is who He is. We thank you for all of these things. In Jesus's good name we pray, Amen.

‍