The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Why Suffering Is Good (EP 48)

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

In this video, Bryce talks about suffering Filmed By; Josh Rodriguez @whitehorse.studios MERCH👉 https://www.jesusinthestreet.com subscribe for more! Sow Into My Ministry One-Time or Monthly! Visit 👉 https://www.equipnet.org/missionaries/bcrawford (all donations are tax deductible) Download Our FREE Bible Plan https://growinfaith.readytoconnect.com/join-the-one-year-bible-challenge follow me on other platforms! Podcast Instagram 👉https://instagram.com/brycecrawfordpodcast Personal Instagram 👉 https://instagram.com/brycecrawford Merch Instagram 👉 https://instagram.com/ilovejesus Tiktok (main) 👉https://www.tiktok.com/@brycecrawford Tiktok (2nd) 👉 https://www.tiktok.com/@adventuresofbryce Snapchat https://snapchat.com/add/brycecraww Twitter 👉 https://twitter.com/ibrycecrawford #christianity #christian #Jesus #BryceCrawford #christiantiktok #christianvideos #holyspirit #Jesusheals #viral #christianvideo #venicebeach #evangelism

What's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and today's episode by the title of the video or the podcast, I really wanted to go over this essential question to the Christian faith, because I know non-believers and Christians always bring this up. And it is, if God is so good, then why does evil and suffering exist in the world? We're going to dive into it. But before we do, I wanted to talk about the shirt that I'm wearing. For a limited time, all in October, we have these breast cancer awareness. I love Jesus shirts. breast cancer is something that has plagued my hometown for a long time. I remember going to these breast cancer events, and it just would break my heart because I've known so many people or met so many people that have struggled with breast cancer. So we want to make these shirts in honor of breast cancer awareness month. So you can go get them at Jesus in the street.com. We have white and pink.

Go support us, Jesus in the street.com. But, I mean, as we know, cancer is evil. It's suffering. So if God is so good, then why does evil and suffering exist? I really want to talk about this, because whenever this question gets brought up, there's like three similar responses that happen. You have the first response where people say,

oh, it's just a psychological thing in your mind, evil and suffering is, so you can get over it in your mind. Some people say, well, God's just not all powerful. I mean, they say he is, but he's not, and that's why suffering exists. That's in direct contradiction to the Bible. Then you have another thing where people say,

well, God, I mean, he must not be that good. He must just be a distant father that created everything, and he's distant from his creation. But then that's in direct contradiction to the Bible, whereas other religions like Islam and Buddhism might endorse that idea in some way, shape, or form. That's in total contradiction to the Bible. But people try to run away from the fact that evil exists. But before I answer the question, we have to acknowledge that evil is real.

It's far worse than we realize. I mean, it's an invader. It's a parasite. Evil is like a malignant cancer in society. And it's so real, evil is so real that there is a primary focus of evil and suffering. the devil Satan himself embodies evil i mean we look at first peter and he's known as a prowling lion that prowls the earth i mean they even talk about him being the god of this world lowercase g and his character described in john 10 is one that comes to steal kill and destroy Satan and evil is in direct

opposition to the character of god of everything that is true good and beautiful Satan himself is in direct opposition to that and from the beginning of time all of humankind has embodied rebellion in their heart against God from Adam up until now every human being embodies evil I mean think about this you don't teach a baby to be selfish you don't teach a baby to throw frustrated fits and let they're angrily to sin you don't teach a baby to be selfish they naturally inherit that it's in their nature that's how they're born you don't teach a baby to be selfish you don't teach a baby to get angry and frustrated and pitch a fit and throw a tantrum and get angry and hit things you don't do it it's who they are that's how they're born it is their nature in Rome

Romans actually teaches us that because of Adam's seed, we inherited death. For Adam's seed, there was death, but for Christ's seed, there's life. We're going to get into that later. A little, little hint and teaser for you guys. But Satan embodies evil. So evil is very real. It's a thing in this world. We can't avoid it. But in the same way that evil is very real, the Bible also affirms that God is more good and more loving than we could ever hope or imagine or wrap our minds around. I mean, he seeks us out to save us from the evil of the world. That's God's ultimate goals to save humankind from sin so much so that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to live in the same wicked world,

to experience the same temptations that we do, except he didn't fall victim to them, to the point where he submitted himself to even death on the cross and three days later defeated death. I mean, Jesus Christ shares in our suffering. So he knows exactly what we're experiencing. I mean, look at the Garden of the Gassimony. Jesus Christ was sweating drops of blood because he was experiencing the weight of all the sin of the world, past, present and future on his physical body. He was sweating drops of blood in the garden. So if anyone is going to understand the evil and suffering of the world, the evil and sufferings that you and I experience,

it's going to be Jesus Christ himself because he lived in the world. He lived in the same wicked world. He's shared in our suffering. That's a beautiful thing. So no, he's not a distant God. He's actually, he actually humbled himself. came and served us to the point where he understands the evils and sufferings that we experience. So now we know that evil is a real thing. If God is so good, that why does evil

and suffering exist? Let's look at 1 John 3.8. The Bible says, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. The reason I read this verse first is because a lot of people look at suffering and they say, well, my mom has cancer. And because my mom has cancer, God caused the cancer to happen. God caused this harm on my mother. Or he might say, someone might say, oh, well, diseases and famine and all these nasty things, God is the cause of the wickedness. He's the reason that all this sin and wickedness is in the world. No. sin and the devil are the reason that suffering exists and that sin exists.

Sin is plaguing this world and suffering is plaguing this world because of sin and the devil. And it says whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning of time. That's why when Jesus rebukes of Pharisees, he says that their father is of the devil. Because they weren't right with God. They were outwardly, but their heart wasn't. He's sure of the devil. but he says the reason that Jesus came was to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus hates sin so much.

He came to abolish it himself because he knew no man could do it because we're all wicked. He knew that there needed to be a perfect sacrifice for the imperfect world. So he came to abolish it himself. Now let's look at the reason for suffering. It's two passages of scripture I want to look at. Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. Romans 512 says, Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin

and so death spread to all men because all sin. So through the one man, Adam, because of Adam, his rebellion against God, we inherited sin. Every human being is inherited sin. That's why every baby that we mentioned earlier doesn't have to learn selfishness and frustration and anger and naturally inherits it. So it's from one man's disobedience

that we receive because of our sin, we deserve death, and death is spread to all men because of sin. And then when you look at 1st, Corinthians 15, 21, it says, for as by a man came death, by a man has also, for as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. So through one man, all have sin and all deserve death, but also through another man who is also fully God. We can receive new life and a resurrection from spiritual death.

So then you have this thing of, here's the reason for suffering, sin, and disobedience towards God. And now because of sin, there's suffering and evil in the world. But there's hope in this. We don't have to be hopeless. Jesus Christ is the hope. He's the antidote for the sickness of the world. So now we know that God isn't the cause of sin.

But we have to understand, if God is so good, then why does evil and suffering exist? The answer to the first part of this question is, well, God doesn't cause it. Because of sin, evil exists, suffering, exists. But what is also a positive of suffering that we see in the Bible? Is that suffering produces endurance and steadfastness

in the faith. Let's look at Romans 5 through 5. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So we know that we can rejoice in the sufferings,

rejoice in the sufferings that we experience because we know, because of our sufferings, when you endure sufferings and hardship, it humbles you to a point where you're not relying on yourself anymore. Suffering can reduce self-reliance, and it can have us run towards God and to rely on something bigger than ourselves because in suffering, we know that we can't save ourselves.

We need something bigger than ourselves. So we rely on Jesus Christ. Suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character and longevity and character produces hope. And because of that character within us, it produces our hope and the author and perfector of our faith. Jesus Christ, he becomes our hope. And we look to him and we say, man, Jesus, get us through this time. You have abolished sin and wickedness in the world.

You can help us in this hope does not put us to shame. When we rely on ourselves, we fail ourselves to the point. We may bring shame on ourselves, but God will not give up on us. And the reason we don't have to be put to shame is Romans 3, I mean, as Romans 5 through 5 says, it says, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given us. And James 1, 2 through 4 says, counted a joy, actually. So counted a joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing. And it says those who endure to the end will be saved in James. So God may not be the cause of suffering, but God can allow and use suffering to produce good character and good fruit in our lives. So that's why he says, counted a joy. Because when you endure suffering, when you endure hard things, God can use the hard times to fine tune your heart to become more like him. The testing of your faith that produces steadfastness and good character and let it have its full effect on you. Don't hinder it because it will make you perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So the beautiful thing about suffering is God can use suffering. God can use evil and suffering in this world on his children.

He doesn't cause it, but he can use it to fine tune our hearts to become perfect and complete and give us endurance and steadfastness in the faith to be more like him. 1. Peter 1. 3 through 9th is His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and exiless by which he is granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love.

for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we say because of suffering, we know from the other two passages, God can use suffering to produce endurance and steadfastness, and these characteristics of endurance and steadfastness produce fruit in our lives. And he says if these qualities are not increasing, then you become ineffective and unfruitful in your faith. But if these qualities are increasing,

if you are producing good character through suffering and evil and through the sufferings of the world. We are producing steadfastness and good character. We are producing fruit and we are straying away from ineffectiveness and unfruitfulness. For whoever lacks in these qualities is so near-sighted that he is blind and having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. I mean, literally look at the life of Job. If you want a prime example of endurance through suffering, look at Job.

I mean, we see Job was a man of righteousness. He had a big family and a large family at that time was a sign of wealth and prosperity. He had a lot of cattle. So if he had wealth and a big family, that was a sign of righteousness. Because back in that time period in Deuteronomy 17 and 18, we saw that those who were obedient to the Lord received blessing. So it's like, man, his outward lifestyle, big family, wealth, they did dinners together, it says, in Job 1. Like that showed that he was being obedient to the Lord. it was blessings from the Lord.

And Satan comes, strips it all away. And he strips it all away. And he says, for I came into this world naked and I will leave this world naked. I came into this world with nothing. I will leave this world with nothing. Everything will perish. But Lord, you remain good and you remain the same. And he ripped his robe and he shaved his head and he mourned godly.

He godly mourned. And then Satan attacked his health. And you know what's crazy? As we even see something interesting here, Satan attacked his health and his close brothers even tried to get him to stray away from God. So we even know it's good to have good brothers of the faith around us who can encourage us and build us up. But we even know that sometimes our brothers can be wrong. Our brothers and sisters are not God. So we must weigh our brothers and sisters words and our mentor's words with the Holy Spirit because they can even be wrong. We saw Job's friends

were obviously wrong and his wife. They were trying to get him to stray away from the faith. but through this the endurance produced good character and good fruit and because of Job's steadfastness and obedience God returned what Job initially had double and there's a passage in Job where he says for my ears had heard

but now my eyes have finally seen that you are good and man the evil and suffering in the world is so interesting because I reflect on my own life and I think of like how awful I was. I mean, I wronged so many people. Suffering and evil is in this world. I remember losing both my grandfathers and thinking, God, why are you causing this? I seen so much suffering.

I've experienced so much hardship and I thought like, man, like God, you don't even care. But there was this promise in Revelation 21. We're at the end. end of this age of suffering, at the end of this age of suffering, Jesus is going to return in glory and he's going to wipe away every tear. Jesus Christ killed suffering on the cross, defeated death three days later. And when he returns again in glory, he is going to come to destroy all sin for good. And he's going to come to wipe away every tear. and every ounce of suffering. So to think that God doesn't care about suffering is foolish

because he sent his son fully God to experience this wicked world to show us how to live and took all of the wickedness and evil in suffering on the cross and killed it through his obedient sacrifice. And just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent for all of the sickness in Israel to be healed, so the son of man was lifted up. and if we look to him, we shall be saved from the wickedness of the world.

He will wipe away every tear and every ounce of suffering. That is his promise. Jesus, I thank you that you love us enough to abolish suffering through your obedient sacrifice. God, thank you that you care about suffering. God, thank you that when we are in suffering and we think that you don't care, that you have shared in suffering with us, that you know better than anyone else what our sufferings may look like. Jesus, we just thank you for who you are. God, I just ask that you move in our hearts, remind us that you love us.

You are hope. Jesus, we thank you for who you are. God, we bless you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for watching and listening to this episode. I pray that this episode encourage you guys. Guys, if you love what we're doing, if you love the podcast,

follow us on Instagram, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok at Bryce Crawford podcast. I love you guys. Go visit Jesus in the street.com. Get these limited edition. Breast cancer awareness shirts. I love you guys. Stay safe. See you guys in the next episode.