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A few weeks ago, Haley, my wife received a phone call informing her that her first cousin had suddenly and tragically passed away at the age of 57 due to a stroke. Wayne was a pastor in Indiana, and he may have been the kindest person I've ever known in my life. The voice on the other end of the line was Wayne's brother. Ken made the phone call while he was still in shock, and he just said, Stroke. No warning, no goodbyes. I can't believe this has happened. And then over and over again, he just kept repeating this phrase. It's not supposed to be this way. It wasn't an argument, it wasn't a theological statement, it was just his shock finding the only words that fit. And I couldn't get that sentence out of my head. Probably because I've felt those same feelings before, and I'm sure you have too. I've heard it expressed in hospital hallways. I've heard it on the phone from people after they got their biopsy results. I've heard it from people that have been judged, dismissed, and overlooked for nothing more than the color of their skin. I've heard it from people holding divorce papers that they never imagined they would be holding. It's not supposed to be this way. And I have no doubt that some of you walked into this service today feeling those words all too real in your own life right now. Maybe you're barely holding on. Maybe if you're not already, you're on the verge of getting bitter at God because you're wrestling with some really hard, honest questions. How do I know? The middle of this week, I had this deep sense of urgency, and I felt the Lord completely changing the direction of what I was supposed to preach this weekend. Wednesday afternoon, I completely switched directions to focus on this, to focus on you. And just know, because of some personal things that I won't go into detail about today, I'm not preaching to you as a distant voice outside the suffering. My family is facing some personal challenges that we would probably describe as some of the most difficult of our lives. And I've found myself saying in this season, it's not supposed to be this way. There's not a single one of us immune to suffering, grief, loss, heartache, and injustice. And the hardest part isn't just the pain that comes with it all. It's the questions. God, where are you? If you really love me, why is this happening? How does a good God allow so much evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? These are age-old questions. And there have been books written to address them that span thousands of pages. So obviously, I'm not going to be able to adequately answer them in the next 20 minutes, but I do want you to understand something today. I'm not afraid of these kinds of questions, and neither is God. I'm not going to give you tidy, neat answers because tidy answers make poor medicine for the soul. But I believe the scripture gives us something better than tidy, it gives us truth. Jesus tells us clearly that this life is not going to be an easy one. He even tells us that hardship is supposed to be expected. He says plainly in John 3, in John 16, 33, in this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. Jesus addresses attention here. Our trouble is promised, but so is his overcoming. And the key is for us to learn how to live in the space between those two realities. And I think doing so starts with that very true statement. It's not supposed to be this way. That short little sentence says four things at the same time. It says something true, it says something honest, it says something convicting, and if we let it lead us where it's supposed to, it says something comforting. It's not supposed to be this way. That's true. It's true. Here's what I mean. When somebody dies, especially somebody that's young or somebody like Haley's cousin Wayne, that was died way too early in the middle of a good life, the kindest person doing God's work, their families are reaching for some type of comfort in their loss and grief. And far too often, what church people offer is well-meaning, but it's shallow. We throw around empty Christian cliches in the face of grieving with things like, oh, he's in a better place, or everything happens for a reason, or God needed another angel. Friends and family and the people feeling loss need more than our empty cliches. They need truth that is anchored in the Word of God. And that statement, it's not supposed to be this way, is not only true, it's biblical. In the opening chapter of your Bible in Genesis 1, when God creates the world and all that is in it, six times there it says creation is called good. And then on the sixth day, when God created man and woman, he looks at the pinnacle of his creation and God says, This is very good. In the world that God created as he intended it, when it was as he intended it, there was no decay, no disease, no diagnosis, no divorce papers, no hatred, no hunger, no funerals, no war. And when God was finished creating it, he looked at it and said, This is very good. And the second chapter of Genesis paints this beautiful picture of what life was supposed to be when it was lived in the world as God intended it for us. He walks in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve, and they experience his unfiltered presence. They are unhindered, they are unafraid, they are unbroken. There is nothing missing, nothing wrong. They are whole, they are complete, they are with him. That is the way it was supposed to be. That is what God intended. It was never supposed to be this way. Which is why when Paul writes about death in 1 Corinthians 15, he refers to it as something that is unnatural. He doesn't call death a transition, he doesn't call it a passage, he doesn't call it a graduation, he calls death an enemy. He says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. It's an enemy, an intruder. Why? Because it was never supposed to be a part of our story. It wasn't in God's original plan. So in a moment of heartache and loss and suffering and disease, when someone yells out, it's not supposed to be this way, that statement is not a failure of their trust in God. It is simply the ache in their heart for Eden. They are longing for the world they were truly made for. But then he realized something. You can't call something unjust unless somewhere there is a standard of what just is. Lewis says the sense of justice that is imprinted on us is the imprint of our creator on our souls. That ache in your chest that says, this is wrong, this is not the way it's supposed to be, that is not a malfunction. That is a memory. It is the ache in your heart for Eden. Our Creator wrote it into our DNA, and that ache is an echo of the world that you were made for. The statement, it's not supposed to be this way. It's true, but it's also honest. Sadly, one of the things I've learned as a pastor for 36 years now is that the church is often the least honest place in the world in moments of heartache and suffering. We try to function in this toxic positivity and we label it as faith, and we live on cliches and Christianese, and we rush through grief and ignore loss and put on masks of pretending. For the sake of appearing spiritual, we fake it. We're not authentic and honest about what we or others are going through, but we need to learn from our Lord's example. Remember what he does in John 11? He's standing outside Lazarus' tomb and he knows. He knows he is about to raise Lazarus. Resurrection is moments away, and yet it says, Jesus wept. Get that. If the one who held resurrection in his hands still wept at a tomb, that means grief, heartache, and brokenness are not failures of faith. They are the appropriate human response to a world that groans under something it was never built to carry. And Jesus isn't the only one that shows us this. A third of all 150 Psalms, a third of them are Psalms of Lament. Psalm 13 opens with this How long, Lord, will you forgive me? Forever? How long will you hide your face from me? That's in your Bible. God doesn't edit out the honest questions. The prophet Habakkuk looks at a world full of violence and injustice and says, Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? The Bible is full of godly people, people of faith asking real hard, honest questions of God. Listen to the question that Jesus asked on the cross in his darkest hour. It's a quote from Psalm 22 My God, my God, why? Why have you forsaken me? Catch that. Even the Son of God asked God why? So please understand, your honest questions are not an insult to God. They are, can actually be an act of trust and courage and faith because you're going to the right place with your questions. You're still talking to him, you're still asking him. That is an honest faith. And notice this Paul doesn't tell us that we're not supposed to grieve. Being a Jesus follower doesn't protect you or insulate you from grief. It just changes the way you experience it. There is a way to grieve with hope. There is a such thing as a hope-filled grief. The tears are honest, the questions are honest, not knowing what to say is honest, but the hope is still real. They can coexist. And if saying out loud it's not supposed to be this way helps, then say it. That's not weak faith. It might be the most transparent, honest act of reverence in your life. It's not supposed to be this way. That's true. It's honest, but it's also convicted. It's convicting because it exposes us, the human race, for what we are. It really wasn't supposed to be this way. But the reason it is, it's on us. Why is the world like this? Why is there evil in the world? Genesis 3 answers the question everybody asks under their breath. God gave the human race a garden and a choice. He didn't make robots because love is not love if it's forced. If there is no freedom to say no, then there is no real yes. So he gave us the dignity of a real choice, and we chose our own way over his. And when we did, we overthrew God from the throne of our hearts. And Scripture is honest about the cost of that choice. God says in Genesis 3, cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you will return. We destroyed the world God originally intended with our sin. And what we're living in right now is the result. We are living in the world that our sin created. Paul puts it plainly in Romans 5. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. And in Romans 8, Paul said that ever since that day, creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Cancer, strokes, broken bodies, broken minds, broken families. That's the groaning. That's Eden lost, still playing out generation after generation. This, and this is the convicting part. The ache we feel in our hearts today from all the loss, suffering, war, injustice, death, and grief is not something that snuck in from the outside. This is the inheritance of a sin-infected human race. We don't live in the world God made. We distorted that world. We now live in the world we made when we chose our way over his. The heartache, the pain, the suffering, the loss. It's not all God's doing. It really wasn't supposed to be this way. That statement is true. It's honest. It's convicting because it exposes us for who we are, sinners. That distorted God's plan. But here's where it turns. It's also comforting. People often ask the question, why do bad things happen to good people? And Jesus alludes, in a way, to an answer to that age-old question in Luke 13. He's there in a crowd, and somebody comes up to him and brings him news that Pilate has slaughtered some worshipers that have gone into the temple to worship. And after receiving the news, Jesus turns to the crowd he was talking to and asks them, Why do you think this bad thing happened to those people? Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee? Is that why they suffered? He said, No, not at all. And to drive his point home further, he references a tragic current event that they must have all been aware of when he says in the very next verse, and what about the 18 people who died when the tower in Siloem fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? He answers, no. You see, Jesus will not let us turn suffering into a scorecard. The people that are hurting the most are not the ones that deserve it the most. Please hear that. If you've ever been told that your pain was a punishment, that's not the voice of Jesus. In a fallen world, suffering doesn't check your resume. The only true good person who ever lived experienced the worst suffering unimaginable. Now I can't tell you why. Why now, why her, why him? Even Job never got a why. What he got was a who. I can't tell you why, but I can tell you three things. God didn't cause it, and he's not going to walk away from you while you're in the middle of it, and he's not finished with it. Because Scripture doesn't end in Genesis 3 when all hell broke loose. It ends in the book of Revelation when God restores what was lost in Eden and He renews the world back to the way He intended it. It says in Revelation 21, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying, for the old order of things has passed away. Listen to that closely. It doesn't say God is going to explain suffering. It says he will end it. Not manage it, not reframe it. He will end it. And the old order, that is the order where strokes and cancer and divorce and racism and grief and goodbyes too soon end completely. The old order will be gone because the whole world is headed back to the way it was supposed to be. The way God intended it. We're just not there yet. That means every one of us lives in the in between. Eden lost behind us, Eden restored ahead of us. Suffering, grief, loss, and heartache are simply the tolls we have to pay to walk this road in the middle. Theologians call it the already, but the not yet of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has broken in through Christ, but it has not yet come in full. And we live in the tension of the in-between every day. And many of us are feeling the full weight of that tension right now in our lives. But every so often, something happens in our life that makes the not yet of the kingdom of God come closer. A worship moment, a sermon, a prayer time, a conversation, an unexpected moment in the presence of God. And my prayer today is that this conversation pulls the not yet of the kingdom of God a little closer to you today. That in your suffering you get a hope-filled glimpse of what is to come. In Romans 8, Paul says, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Not because the suffering is small, but because the promise of what is to come is just that big. There is a moment at the end of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, specifically the return of the king, where Sam wakes up Gandalf and asks, Is everything sad going to come untrue? That is the question underneath all our questions. And the gospel's answer is yes. And when Jesus makes all things new, he doesn't just erase the evil, he redeems it. What was meant for harm becomes a part of the glory because God doesn't waste pain, and in the end, he's not gonna waste a single one of your tears. The psalmist said in Psalm 56, you keep track of all my sorrows, you have collected all my tears in your bottle, you have recorded each one in your book. He tracks them and collects them because he has promised not to waste them. If you need some help today, some hope today, in the middle of your own heartache, listen closely to me for the next few minutes because I want you to understand where all of this is headed. There is a day coming when the one who was condemned by a corrupt court will sit on the throne as the judge of the whole earth. Isaiah said. With righteousness, he will judge the needy with justice, he will give decisions for the poor of the earth, and this just judge of all the earth will do right. There is a day coming when every wrong is gonna be made right, every injustice answered, every hidden sin brought to light. Nobody is getting away with it, and nothing will be forgotten. It won't always be this way. There is a day coming when the one who wept at Lazarus' tomb is gonna personally wipe the tears from your eyes. Not an angel, not a delegate, not a stranger, him, those same nail-scarred hands that were nailed to the cross is gonna wipe your tears away. It's not always gonna be this way. There is a day coming when Isaiah's vision is gonna become a reality. The lion and the lamb are gonna lie down together, the predator and the prey, all at peace, because even the food chain is gonna get redeemed. And if God can make the lion lie down with the lamb, he can heal your family, he can mend what's broken, he can restore your body, and he can reach your prodigal. It's not always gonna be this way. There is coming a day where John looks around heaven and sees a great multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, language standing before the throne of the Lamb. Every nation, every tribe, every people, every language. And you know what's missing from that picture? Dividing walls, hatred, fear, rankings. They're all standing before the same Lamb in the same light, singing the same song. It is not always gonna be this way. There is a day coming when the last enemy, the one that took your mother, the one that took your child, the one that took your spouse, death is gonna meet its end. And we will say death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, oh death, is your victory? Where, oh death, is your sting? It's not always gonna be this way. This is our anchored hope. It is not a wish, it is not some uncertain, I hope so kind of hope. It is a promise signed in blood, sealed by an empty tomb. And the Bible doesn't just say it's not supposed to be this way. It says the one who holds the pen that is writing the story of history has already written the last chapter, and in that last chapter, he is sitting on the throne saying, I am making everything new, not some things, everything. The diagnosis redeemed, the verdict redeemed, the world new, the body new, the tears gone. It won't always be this way. People of God, hold on. The fight is long. I know it may be dark, but the scripture says weeping endures for the night, but joy comes in the morning. And the one that walked out of a grave is coming back to finish what he started. It won't always be this way. That's the good news of the gospel. The Bible doesn't just tell us it's not supposed to be this way, it tells us that God did something about it. The cross of Jesus Christ is God's defiance of everything wrong in this world. Jesus didn't just observe our grief and suffering from a distance, he entered into it. He wept at a tomb, he bled on a hill, he experienced the very death that Genesis 3 unleashed and he let it do its worst to him. Romans 6 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus took the penalty of death that was meant for you onto himself, so that the gift of his life could belong to you. And when you put your faith in him, an exchange happens. He takes your sin and your death and gives you his eternal life. That's why he said in John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. That's not a wish. That's a person. And Jesus isn't just pointing our way to a restored Eden, He is the way to the restored Eden. Ken was right when he called Haley. It's not supposed to be this way. But here's the promise it won't always be this way. So here's your invitation today. If you've never put your trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord, that means you've been carrying your pain by yourself. And you don't have to. If you're sitting here today, not sure, not absolutely sure where you would spend eternity if this was your last day to live. This can be the day that changes everything. Jesus is not far from you right now. He is as close as the mention of his name, the close, as close as your next breath, your next whispered prayer. Call out to him. I need you, Jesus. Forgive me. Come into my heart. I surrender my life to you. If you're a believer this morning, but you're tired. Maybe grief has so grabbed your heart, suffering that you become angry, and in your anger, you've drifted. Maybe you've even stopped praying because you stopped believing it would even matter. Today, yes, you're feeling the full weight of living in the between. You're living in the full not yet of the kingdom of God, or the full reality that the kingdom has come, but it's not yet here. But hold on to the promise. It's not always going to be this way. Turn your heart back to Him. Grieve. But not as those who have no hope. You don't have to earn your way back. Just turn your eyes back to Jesus and say, Lord, I'm yours. I've been yours. Would you help me carry me in this season? I want you to stand with me, if you will, across the room today and I'm gonna ask our prayer teams here in Saxe and if all of our locations would make themselves available to serve you today. My heart is heavy for you. It has been since Wednesday. It's been heavy for people that have hung around religion and hung around church but really never put their trust in Jesus. Put your full weight on him. You can trust him, but he's trustworthy. He's not scared of your doubts, he's not scared of your questions. Put your weight on him. You don't have to do this alone. And if you're a believer and you're hurting and you're angry, you're not that far from a whole lot of people the Bible tells us about. Some of our heroes of faith. Just come back hurting and angry. Just have an honest faith, not a hiding faith, an honest faith that brings all that to him. Keep going to the right place. I promise you, he'll meet you there. Just come back home to him. The greatest honor of our life today at every location, every prayer team, if you're living the dark night of your soul, that's what the great history of Christian writers have called that darkest hour of your life, the dark night of the soul. And if you're in that hour of your life right now, we would love to help shoulder that load with you in prayer. If you want to surrender your heart to Jesus and somebody to walk you through that, we'd love to do that today, Lord. I pray over this room today as people unpack this word in the next few moments and days, that there would be revelation. There's so much we blame you for. It's not on you, God, it's on us. You've done everything you can to redeem what we've messed up, and we can experience some of that now as we put our faith in Christ, and we're gonna spirit experience it fully when you renew all things. God, would you give us the grace in this season to live in the in-between, to suffer in grief, but not as those who have no hope. Today I pray you'll bless them and keep them, that you'll make your face shine down on them, that you'll be gracious to them, that you'll turn your countenance their direction, and that you'll give them your peace today. In Jesus' name. Amen. These altars are open today. God bless you.