There’s an age old question that mankind has struggled with for a long time, and it's a question that we talked extensively through in Christian ethics while I was at college.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Over the course of the last week I've seen a lot of things on social media that are troubling. Some of those things have been really horrible. I've literally had to quarantine myself from social media because after the first 48 hours, I was devolving into a depressive state, seeing all the death and destruction.

So many people are hurting, their families are broken in half. People have lost friends and loved ones and there is so much devastation that it is hard to wrap your head around it.

And you know, we tend to do OK when tragedy strikes adults. There is something in us that justifies it by saying at least they've been allowed to live some life, etc. But when we see little precious innocent kids, victims of tragedies, whether natural or terror, it hurts even more deeply.

This week has been a stark reminder of the frailty of human life. Psalm 103 gets really real: Psalm 103:15-16
15 Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.16 The wind blows, and we are gone—as though we had never been here.

Life is precious and so fast. Yet, in the Bible, we see these moments of divine provision and protection.
- We see Noah and the ark, which really hit home this week with the flooding.
- We see Joseph and God's constant protection over him.
- We see Moses with an army at his back ready to destroy him and the seas opening at his front to rescue him.
- We see Daniel safe in the lions den.
- We see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego untouched by the fire.

We see all of these incredible highlights in the Bible where God's protection came through and expect the same protection. These are five stories out of the WEF’s estimated 117 billion people who've ever lived. Those odds are 1 in 23.4 billion. The odds of being struck by lightning 3 times in a row is 1 in 27 billion.

We have to be very careful that when we read the Bible, we don't just consume the highlights and ignore the lowlights.
- The Bible suggests it took about 120 years for Noah to build the ark.
120 years of building a giant boat to save them from something called rain that never existed before.
I bet the Sumeria 411 Facebook Group was buzzing ridiculing him.
- Joseph was nearly murdered, sold into slavery, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned, forgotten about, all before we see his success.
- Moses was floated down a river as a baby because Pharaoh ordered the slaughter of thousands upon thousands of babies.
- Daniel and the others were conquered by a foreign enemy and dragged to a different nation, and forced to serve the very king that destroyed their homes.

Just because some Bible characters experienced God's protection doesn't mean that we should expect it, nor demand it. It doesn’t mean we can ignore the evil that was happening around them and to them, and then demand God rescue us at every tragedy.

Now, we want him to. We pray for him too. And it's not wrong to pray for God to rescue.

But the question today is not why do bad things happen to good people. The question today isn't why God allows evil. It's not even what it's got doing about it.

The question today is this:
How do I respond when prayers don't seem to work and tragedy befalls us?

In a moment like this, how could we not reference Job?

Job 1:1-12
1 There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.

4 Job’s sons would take turns preparing feasts in their homes, and they would also invite their three sisters to celebrate with them. 5 When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

6 One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. 7 “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”8 Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

9 Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

12 “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.

Can we just all collectively and humbly ask God that if ever Satan wanders into the heavenly court, that God not mention us by name?!?!

I want you to notice what Satan said to God highlighting Job:
v 10-11
“10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

If you ever wanted a clue into what Satan really thinks about your relationship with God, here it is. Satan thinks your relationship with God is so shallow, so meaningless, that you only serve him because of what he does for you. He thinks that all it takes for you to renounce God is to shake you.

Can I stop for a moment and highlight one thing before we move on? “You have always put a wall of protection around him.” It is easy for us to question when bad things happen, but when is the last time you thanked God for the protection he’s providing? I promise I am not trying to be mean here, but I know in my own life, I have been convicted this week of not being grateful for what prayers God HAS answered rather than being disappointed about prayers he hasn’t.

Moving on, here’s a really tough question:
Satans thinks your relationship with God is shallow. Is it?
Is he still God when things aren’t good? Is he still good when things around you are bad? Is he still God when bad things happen?

Let me ask it like this: What does Satan have to do to convince you that God isn’t good and he’s not worthy of your worship?

How strong is your relationship with God?
“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” ― C.S. Lewis

I don’t mean to imply that God allows tragedy merely to test your trust of him, but it is, incidentally, in the midst of tragedy we can fully test our faith’s hardiness best.

Right after the scene in chapter 1, Job lost everything save his health and his wife. Raiders, fire, more raiders, a powerful wind that collapsed the house where his sons and daughters were.

And you would think that was enough, but the very next chapter, the same scene unfolds in heaven's court, and Satan tells God "he still trust you because he has his health." So Satan afflicts Job with all sorts of boils and sores, and we pick the story up in Job 2:9-10
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

No one wants the afflictions of Job, but everyone wants the faith of Job. But that leads me to is the question, "how?" How can we respond with the faith of Job when we feel like we are in the midst of the afflictions of Job?

1. We worship
I know… The notion of responding and worship is difficult to palette,
because what we are saying here is that our response to what seems to be a lack of God's protection is to worship his sovereignty, his total control of everything. Sovereignty is defined as supreme control and authority over. And this is the conundrum: We see the chaos around us and the chaos screams, “God is not in control.”

Daniel 4:34-35
34b His rule is everlasting, and his kingdom is eternal. 35 All the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop him or say to him ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’

1 Chronicles 29:11:
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Over and over again we see Bible verses that remind us that God is in control, that he is sovereign, that he does as he sees fit. But why does he protect some and allow others to befall tragedy?

Isaiah 46:9-10
9 Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. 10 Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.

God has a plan. And let me tell you with full assurance that I do not always know what that plan is. I do not know why some live and some die. I do not understand why little girls are swept away. I do not understand why some are left all alone. I wish I did but I confess to you church that I am not God.

The reason we worship in response to tragedy is because in these moments when we have no clue what is going on or why tragedies are happening, we have the opportunity to shift our focus from what we are not to who he is. Stephen Curtis Chapman wrote in a song the crux of what I am talking about:
God is God and I am not. I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting. God is God and I am man. So I’ll never understand it all, for only God is God.

Job’s wife scoffed at him and told him, “Curse God and die.” His response was not to question the goodness of God, not to demand no bad thing ever befall him, but to acknowledge the truth: even when I can’t see it, God is still in control, even when it hurts, he is still a good God with a good plan.

Look back at Job 1:20-21
20 Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. 21 He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

In the midst of tragedy, the last thing your flesh wants to do is worship, but the simple act of declaring that God is still good even when what’s happening around you isn’t, that response is an act of faith. We don’t curse God and die like Job’s wife. We worship God and live out the faith we confess like Job.

2. We experience his presence
This is different from worship. Worship is active, meaning something you do. God’s presence is experienced.

Verses pertaining to God’s presence:
Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Exodus 33:14
And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Notice that there are moments that could cause fear and dread. The Bible doesn’t say we would be exempt from them, just not alone in them.

And then there’s the verse I didn’t want to bring up. Isaiah 43:2
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.

The easy way out of this one is to call it all a metaphor and call it a day.
Interestingly enough, we do see the allegory in “rivers of difficulty,” and “the fire of oppression,” but the start of that verse is the only part that could be metaphor only, literal only, or perhaps both.

When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. God doesn’t promise literal rescue here. Just literal presence. And if you look at the context of Isaiah 42-43, you will find these are Messianic prophecies, where God is actually promising metaphorical and literal salvation through Jesus.

What would you prefer God’s rescue or his presence?
Clearly both, but the only way to have both is through a relationship with Jesus. It might not be physical rescue, but for a Christian, passing away is the best thing that can happen to us! We go to Heaven!

This however, is only some consolation for us left here on earth, but knowing our loved ones are free from hurt, pain, sickness, disease, this broken and fallen world, it provides peace. The key for us is to make sure that we experience and embrace his presence here and now in spite of what happens in terms of rescue. His presence is where peace lives.

Yet, Satan wants you questioning, doubting, frustrated, to curse God. And your flesh wants to follow suit. Why? Because fleeing God’s presence is what satan did in the prelude of creation. When satan began to feel the pride that would be his downfall, he sought others to feed his pride rather than going to God to stop it.

We so easily fall into this trap as well when things go badly. Our first step should be towards him, even when we don’t understand him, but our flesh wants to get away and isolate from him.

More than peace, more than comfort, more than grace in the midst of the trial, we need God’s presence. We need the constant power of the closeness of God in times of tragedy and tumult.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine Can peace afford.
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee; Every hour I need Thee;
Oh, bless me now, my Savior! I come to Thee.

In the midst of trials and pressure and pain and tragedy, you have a choice. You can isolate and be overcome in the grief of loss, or you can run to Jesus, even when you can’t understand why, even when your heart is broken and hurting.

Why would we run to his presence?
Philippians 4:7
Peace that surpasses all understanding.

Not just peace when you can’t understand how you could be at peace,
but peace when you can’t understand why things around you aren’t peaceful.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

When would he just be near and not mend that broken heart? I believe that there are circumstances in life that are so excruciating that a broken heart is simply the byproduct, and its repair takes time. It seems to me the solution for your broken heart is found in closeness with God.

Hebrews 4:16
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

If you need grace, he has it to give in the midst of our need. It is grace that fills in the gaps of the pain and brokenness

One more: 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.

If you want peace and grace, mercy, comfort, it is found in God’s presence.

So let me encourage you now: remember, worship and experiencing his presence can be different. While worship involves your active engagement, experiencing his presence just involves your willingness to come to him.

You don’t have to speak. You don’t have to move. You can just be still in that moment and know his is still God.

We worship. We experience his presence.

3. We comfort each other
2 Corinthians 1:3-4:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God

Sometimes we are the means by which others are comforted. Sometimes we are the recipient of comfort from others. But whether we are the conduit, the recipient, or both, we are to comfort each other in times of tragedy and chaos. And we need to be in community, not isolated, for this to happen.

Galatians 6:2
Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

This is not just an imperative, but a specific part of God’s plan that we share the burdens we are carrying. Some here today are hurting so badly from the events of the last 2 weeks. They need their burdens of grief and heartache carried. Some today are overwhelmed with the incessant pressures of life. They need their burdens carried.

Isaiah 61:1a-2b, 3
…the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To comfort all who mourn, 3 to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

A family in our church lost their daughter several years ago, a young woman in her 20s. She was vibrant, full of energy and joy, and everyone who knew her was encouraged just being around her. She was senselessly killed by a cruel hearted person who was convicted and incarcerated.

When it happened, as a pastor, I didn’t know what to do or say. They don’t teach you how to handle these things in Bible college or seminary. I literally sat under their car port that week and literally said, “I don’t know what to say.” What could I say? She’s in a better place?

How do I comfort someone who is experiencing tragedy that is inconsolable?

I specifically remember her mother saying to me, “I know ‘God works all things together for good,’ but whose good? We had it pretty good already.”

Over the course of this last week, I’ve felt that fresh and anew. How can any good come from this tragedy? How do I respond to that? How do I answer the whys and how come didn’t God help?

I didn’t know how, so we as a church family just tried to do two things:
Be present. Be normal.

We didn’t try to solve their problems or give some homily to stop their grief. We weren’t trying to be “pastoral” or “above the grief.” We were present. We cried with them and laughed with them. We hugged in some moments and just sat in others. We were there.

We tried to just be normal, too. It’s amazing how bringing normalcy back into someone’s life after a tragedy has the power to help bring healing. Getting some food together, greeting them at church with a smile not grief response all helped. All of this brought comfort to them.

I don’t know what is going to comfort you as you deal with the tragedy you are currently experiencing, but I do know this: I’d rather go through pain surrounded by godly people doing their best to comfort me rather than going through pain in isolation.

I wish I could snap a finger today and everything would go back to the way it was on July 3rd. I can’t do that. But I can do whatever possible to help comfort you today as I am comforted by you today.

Isaiah 57:1-2
Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. 2 For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die.

I again confess I don't understand and I don't pretend to have any answers. But I do know this: The same God that was good before the flood is still good after it. The same God that was loving before the grief is loving after it. The same God that was sovereign before the tragedy is still sovereign after it.

And I also know that if we are going to find peace in the midst of pain, goodness in the midst of tragedy, grace in the midst of heartbreak, it is only gonna come from one source: from our Great God.

I don't know what is swirling in your heart right now or what specific trial or tribulation you are currently facing, but I do know this, there is peace to be found in worship, joy to be found in his presence, and comfort to be found in your church family.

It's OK to be upset. It’s OK to cry. It’s OK to have frustration. It's OK to wonder why. But I'm simply asking you today to allow the Holy Spirit to fill your heart allow his peace and grace and mercy to flood into every part of your being, to allow your loving Father to comfort you personally and through the conduit of godly people around you.

As we worship, I'm asking you to respond and allow God to do what he promises: simply to be near.

The altar is open. Let’s encourage each other and worship together.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?