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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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Welcome to the Daily Blade. We are going to do a deep dive into John, chapter 11, and in so doing we are going to talk about, this week, a whole bunch of philosophical and theological ideas that a lot of people question when they come to the Bible or Christianity. The first one we're going to talk about is why do bad things happen? John, chapter 11, verse 1, says Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister, Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was ill. So the sister sent to him, being Jesus, saying Lord, he whom you love is ill. But when Jesus heard it, he says this illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now you would think maybe, especially if you are Mary and Martha, because Jesus loves them, then maybe they would be protected from anything bad ever happening.

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Now the way the question often goes is this all right? If God is all-powerful and all-knowing and all-loving, then how can a good God allow bad things to happen to good people. Well, the question in and of itself is a bit flawed. So just to put this on the bottom shelf for you, there are no good people. There was only one good person. His name was Jesus and he was crucified on our behalf. But I understand what people are saying. Why do comparatively good people have terrible things happen to them that seem to be out of control? Now I am going to give you five theological realities to explain why bad things happen, why there is pain, why there is suffering. Number one it is collateral damage of the fall. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, chose to rebel against God, that sin. When it entered the world, it held the door open for all pain, all strife, all hurt, all malice. Anything that you have ever experienced that was painful or traumatizing to you is at least collateral damage of the fall, because the whole creation was cursed and everything goes into chaos, from the macro level, like tornadoes and hurricanes, all the way down to the micro level, like cells won't obey. So one of the reasons bad things happen is collateral damage of the fall. The second one is this Sometimes it's an attack of the demonic, because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but there is a demonic activity based on the king of demons himself, Satan, and he is a thief and he comes to steal and kill and destroy.

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And, quite honestly, if you don't believe in a spiritual, dark realm, then you're just too dumb to talk to. Maybe you've never met a person with an addiction that feels like there's a thing not them trying to get them to do a thing that is going to kill them. What do you call that? Just poor choices? How do you explain human trafficking and the abuse of children around the world? You think that's just a choice somebody makes. You don't think there is dark and demonic things of this world? And the sad thing is, if you are not aware of the demonic, then you're already going to get beaten, because it is the person that is unequipped to fight that always loses the fight, so it's collateral damage of the fall. Sometimes it is an attack of the demonic.

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Sometimes the reason bad things happen to you is because of you. Sometimes you are just experiencing the consequences of your sin or your dumb decisions, and if you play stupid games, you're going to win stupid prizes. I've talked about this before, but the number of people in my church that have come to me and say pastor, I need you to pray for me. The devil is attacking my finances and I go well, tell me more about your story. And essentially what they're doing is they're trying to buy things with money they don't have. And I go listen, darling, I got some news for you. You are the devil. You're so dumb. The devil doesn't need to attack you because you are inflicting wounds upon yourself. So sometimes the reason bad things happen is because of our own sin. And sometimes the reason bad things happen is because other people sin, and it's not your fault, but people make terrible decisions against you and you were abused or you were molested. It's because of sin, somebody else's sin.

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And then the fifth reason is sometimes it comes directly from the hand of God. Now, this is a hard one to get your mind around, but the reality is it's all through the hand of God. If God didn't cause it, he at least allowed it. Like, how about Paul's thorn in his flesh? God himself said he gave it to Paul to keep him humble.

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How about Joseph in Genesis 50, when he looks at his brothers and said what you intended for evil, God intended for good. So God intended that he would experience human trafficking and false imprisonment and domestic violence, and yet God was in charge. Or see the cross, the most brutal thing that ever happened in humanity. God sent his son and we killed him, and yet the reality is is no matter whether it's collateral damage, attack of the demonic consequences of your own sin or other sin, or directly from the hand of God, it is all under the sovereign rule and reign of King Jesus. The Bible says that God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. You see, in this particular account, in John 11, Jesus says this illness does not lead to death and the reason is because it's going to lead through death unto the glory of God. Come back tomorrow and we'll keep diving into John, chapter 11.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.