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[Instrumental music]

KIRK: This is the big mother question for people,

no matter what your background is

or what your belief systems are:

is there any real justice in the world

and why do bad things happen to good people?

If there is a God of love and power

and he can heal and he can do miracles,

why doesn't he heal all the amputees

and eradicate cancer and pain and suffering

and all these kinds of things?

Where is this God?

And so I want to answer that question based

on what we can know from experience,

and from history, and from God's word.

There's always going to be a question mark

this side of heaven.

I think we get to find out

the big answers on the other side

in ways that will, you know, amaze and thrill us.

But for now, how do we get through?

How do we deal with it in a way

that doesn't make us want to just crawl into a hole and die

and give up all faith or hope

that God is there and that he cares?

I think, I think about it even more now that I'm a father.

My wife and I have six precious little kids.

There's nothing in the world that I wouldn't give up

to keep them healthy and happy.

And my wife and I have been serving at a camp

for terminally-sick children for the last 20 years

and so we've met over 100 families who are struggling

with things like cancer and terminal illnesses

and this is a question that comes up every summer for us:

Why doesn't God heal my baby girl?

As a dad, I wanna fix things.

I wanna fix problems and the one problem

that I would do anything to be able to fix, I can't fix.

I can't...I can't make this, this cancer go away.

And so, yeah, it's a question

that's been on my mind a long time.

[Vocalizing] ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh...♪

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Well, actually I got home, I actually got home with Jack.

Um, where were we?

What was... Oh, I was at Living Waters.

Um, we got home in three hours of traffic

and the funny things was,

is that I was talking with Chelsea on the way home

and she was telling me about the day.

And I was telling her about all the things

that we accomplished.

We went down to a local college

and were witnessing to these kids.

Had some great witnessing conversations.

Got to share the gospel with them, you know.

They stepped right into an apologetic trap

and I was like, "Yes!"

You know... [chuckles] and a great day of witnessing.

And I get home, Jack was in the house before me,

and as I'm just gathering stuff out of my Jeep he says,

"Dad, Luke said Matt died."

I said, "What?"

And he says, "Well, that's what Luke said."

So I got on my phone and I called, uh,

I called Matt's dad and he answered, "Hello?"

"James, it's Kirk."

"Hey, Kirk."

I said, "What's going on?

I heard something's going on with Matt?

I don't know anything. What happened?"

And he just said, "Well, Matthew went home

to be with the Lord today."

[Somber instrumental music]

KIRK: I was like, "Wow."

You know, I was expecting it,

because I knew he was that sick, he was days away,

but, you know, just, you know, you hear that news

and I had just seen him.

So, you know, you get that lump in your throat where,

you know, your throat closes up and you can't talk.

And so he was, he was pretty choked up

and he was just saying how...

he told the story that... [sniffs]

He said, "Yeah, Matt,

Matt went to be with the Lord today."

He said, "He went peacefully, he went quietly."

And he told the story of how, you know,

they were with him pretty much 24/7.

He was sleeping in their bed

and how he had a real hard time breathing last night

and they gave him some medicine to help him sleep.

And then the next day they just left for just a few minutes

to go get some lunch in the living room, in the kitchen,

and their daughter had a funny feeling

and she went back in to check on him.

And she came out and said, "I think Matt's not breathing."

And he was gone.

[Somber instrumental music]

KIRK: When I was talking with Matthew's dad he said,

"You know, the hardest part is," he said,

"A couple days ago, Matt was laying in his bed

and I was sitting on the side of his bed

and he looked at me and he said, 'Dad,'

he put his hand on his chest and he said,

'Dad, I feel so weak.

I don't have anything left in here.'"

Then he held up his arms, and he said,

he made a circle with his fingers and said,

"But Dad, my arms are this big."

And he said, "I don't know if I can make it this time, Dad."

'Cause he had been battling cancer for ten years.

And then he looked at his dad, he said,

"He looked me right in the eyes and he said,

'Dad, can you fix me?'"

And his dad said, "Buddy, the only one

who can help me fix you right now is God."

And he said Matthew just looked down

and just nodded his head and he knew...

that God was not gonna heal him this time.

KIRK: Of course, the question that we can't help but ask is,

God, why did you let this happen to such a good family?

James and Marcy Sandgren, they love you.

Matthew loves you.

Kylie loves you.

The whole family goes to church every Sunday.

They sing songs.

They're still singing songs on Sunday.

Why didn't you heal their son?

Where are you in this?

Why did you let this happen?

This is the faith-wrecking question of so many people.

This is the question that turns Christians into atheists.

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people

when we know he could stop those bad things?

Does it mean that God doesn't exist, like some wanna say?

Does it mean that God does exist,

but that he's not able to stop it?

Or maybe he doesn't know it's gonna happen until it happens.

Or is it that God is able, but that he doesn't care?

Or he's just not listening to you and your prayers.

But this was a good family.

If you can't answer the question,

"Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people,"

it can destroy your faith

and prevent you from moving forward in your life.

You'll go crazy.

But to answer that question

requires understanding the character and nature of God,

the one who made all this and is allowing these things to happen.

But understanding that is like trying to pour

the entire ocean into this coffee cup.

It just won't fit; it's too much information.

So what do you do?

Well, the best way I know how to get a grip on what God is doing

is looking into the book that he wrote

and understanding that there is an author

who is writing the greatest story in the world.

The great drama of life is being enacted right now

on the stage of this world

and you and I are characters playing roles in this.

And I'm not saying this just because I'm an actor,

it's because that's really what's going on.

And everybody we know, everything we experience,

every mountain, every stream, every ocean, every bird,

every sun, every moon, every star

are props that have been placed strategically

where they are in order to assist

and ultimately make sure that this story is told.

And right in the middle of this story written by God, history,

you and I are making real-world choices

with real-world consequences

and somehow God is steering the whole thing.

So let's go back to the very beginning of the story.

This is dirt.

God's whole story starts with, with dirt.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: He makes the dirt.

He calls it the land, the earth.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: And in the dirt, he causes seeds to come forth

that grow into plants and fruit-bearing trees

and then he takes the dirt and forms a man out of it.

And God takes the dirt

and causes a mist to come up from the dirt

and cover the face of the ground.

So he's working with mud and shapes a creature

that is made in his own image.

He breathes the breath of life into his nostrils

and he becomes a living creature,

the main character of the story.

[Breath Blowing]

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[Loud Crash of Thunder]

KIRK: And this creature is called man, Adam.

He is made of the earth, that's what Adam means,

it means earth, it means dirt.

And he's not like any of the other creatures.

Not only is he made in the image of God,

he's given the authority to rule over every other creature.

He's given privilege and authority

to name every other living creature.

I mean, when you have authority to name something

that means you have authority over their life.

And Adam's naming everything, elephants, giraffes.

And so here he's, he's naming animals as they go by,

male and female, and male and female.

And it had to have been just a pounding question

in his own mind, "Where is the female for me?

Where is my partner?

Where is the counterpart, someone for me?

Everyone else has one, but I don't."

This was the only thing that was not good in the story,

but Adam had no ability to provide for himself

what he so desperately needed to make it good.

He was incapable of doing that.

He needs someone else to provide that for him.

And then Adam gets put into a deep sleep

and while he's sleeping,

God is busy forming a new creature for him.

It would come out of his side and this creature would be

something that his eyes had never seen,

with a voice that his ears had never heard,

and something his mind never could have imagined.

She would be bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh,

and they would be naked and not ashamed.

[Dramatic Crashing Sound]

[Instrumental music]

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KIRK: So now man is no longer alone.

He has his woman and the two of them are beautifully,

perfectly designed to compliment one another.

The two have become one flesh.

Adam says, "This is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman."

He names her and they become one flesh.

So here you have, just think about this,

here you have God taking

the creature he made in his image,

breaking him into two, removing part of him,

he becomes two, and then the two become one.

So one becomes two, two become one,

and that oneness is seen most clearly in the birth

of that union of male and female,

a child that's half dad and half mom.

There's a picture of complete humanity right there

in marriage and the birth of a child.

And then God gives them the assignment,

the great mission,

and that is to be fruitful... multiply,

have lots and lots of babies and fill the earth

and subdue it, rule it,

take dominion over all of God's creation.

Just as God used heaven as the pattern

for the Garden of Eden, everything was perfect,

everything was good, everything provided.

It was very good.

Adam and Eve were to use the garden as a pattern

for the rest of the world,

to bless the world, to heavenize the world...

and make it beautiful.

Adam had one job and it was to tend and keep the garden.

In other words, to cultivate and guard,

to beautify and protect.

Well, if I said that to you, "Guard this.

Protect what has been entrusted to you."

The obvious question you should be asking yourself is,

"From what?"

And this is the worst part of the story, up until this point.

Adam is in the garden with his wife,

the most precious thing in the garden.

He is to be protecting her,

beautifying her, doing his job...

and a serpent enters the garden.

This is exactly what Adam should have been watching for.

He should have smelled him a mile away

and ran to him and crushed his head

the second that he saw him,

especially after he saw what he was doing to his wife.

This is the ultimate breakdown of a man's responsibility.

This is a story of a man throwing his wife under the bus

and using her as a guinea pig in the human experiment.

Remember God had said to Adam,

"The day that you eat of this fruit,

you will surely die."

And the Serpent says, did God really say...?

God did not really mean that you will die.

He just knows that if you eat of this fruit,

you will become like him.

Surely you won't die."

So who's telling the truth here, God or the Serpent?

And so Adam allows his wife to be deceived by the serpent.

He fails to protect her, he fails to guard her

and he watches while he stands there with her,

the story says, and watches her eat.

[Instrumental music]

[Singing and music]

[Singing and music]

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[Singing and music]

[Singing and music]

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[Singing and music]

[Singing and music]

[Dramatic instrumental music]

[Dramatic instrumental music]

[Dramatic instrumental music]

[Dramatic instrumental music]

[Crow cawing] Caw, caw...

[Crow cawing] Caw, caw...

[Singing and music]

KIRK: And we all know what happens in the story next.

God comes looking for Adam, "Adam, where are you?"

Well, Adam and Eve are hiding.

They're running from God.

They're filled with guilt and shame and fear

and they're covering themselves with fig leaves.

And then God pronounces a curse on the serpent

and the ground and on Eve's childbearing

because he knows that they're gonna have kids,

it's gonna be difficult,

and then he clothes them in skins of animals.

Now why did God do that?

Was it because the fig leaves were gonna wear out

and this was a better covering?

Probably, but have you ever thought about this:

God clothed them in the skins of beasts

because they had just listened to a beast.

Maybe it was a reminder of their sin.

God is saying if you're gonna act like beasts,

you're gonna look like beasts.

Because people always end up looking like

the gods they follow.

[Somber instrumental music]

♪ It's been so long, long hard days ♪

♪ and they don't say God's changed my ways. ♪

♪ Change my ways, those evil ways. ♪

♪ So I set out across that way

♪ to strike them down, to make them pay. ♪

♪ Change their ways, their evil ways. ♪

♪ But I can't cry, whoa.

♪ And I won't hide, whoa, hey!

♪ My evil ways

[Instrumental music]

♪ I found how their hate grow cold ♪

♪ That God rise up and damn my soul ♪

♪ 'cause I ain't changed, changed my ways. ♪

♪ I ain't changed.

♪ So I won't hide, whoa.

♪ And I won't hide, whoa.

♪ No, I can't hide, yeah, whoa. ♪

♪ I can't hide, hey... my evil ways. ♪

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

♪ But I can't hide, whoa

♪ And I won't hide, whoa, yeah

♪ I can't hide, whoa.

♪ No, I can't hide, hey... my evil ways ♪♪♪

KIRK: The first human being's blood has just been spilled.

There is a person dead for the first time

in God's perfect world.

I mean, if you're gonna tell a story about a family

and the family has two boys,

the worst thing that can happen

is you have one of the boys kills the other one

and the one that dies is the good one.

It wasn't the bad kid that died,

it was the good one, the innocent one,

the one who did the right thing.

His blood is spilled and God protects the murderer.

The bad guy doesn't die, the good guy dies

and then God places a mark on Cain

and it was a mark that protected him.

That told everyone around him if you come after Cain,

I am coming after you, with this mark on this beast.

I mean, we could almost wonder

if this isn't the first mark of the beast,

the original mark of the beast, and it's a mark of protection.

Why is this happening?

I mean, if I were writing the story

I'd have the bad guy die and the good one win,

but that's not what happens.

What's going on?

[Somber instrumental music]

KIRK: When we ask these big questions about why,

why do these things happen?

Why does pain and suffering exist in a world like this?

We gotta get a perspective

that is much bigger than where we are right now

and we open up the Bible.

This is God's story and this is where he explains

how to make sense of this world that we're living in.

But when we open it up,

we start out with this wild story of creating a world

and a universe out of nothing.

And then God creates man out of dirt

and then he creates a woman out of a side of a man

and we think, wow, that's amazing, and it's beautiful

and I can buy that.

Then we can see how man falls into rebellion and sin

and then there's the story of Cain and Abel

and that's a very sad story,

but you can, you can believe that.

You see people doing horrible things

and taking people's lives.

But that's a story about brothers and bad things

that they're doing to one another

and we can believe that

because we see that happening all the time.

But then the story takes this drastic turn to what God does.

The world gets so filled with violence

and corruption and wickedness,

God decides to unleash a giant flood.

He decides to break open the great fountains of the deep

and the windows of heaven open up

and water floods the whole world

to the point where everything dies.

Everything that has breath on the land and in the air

completely perishes, except for one man, Noah,

and those who are with him on the Ark.

From a storytelling point of view,

that is such a hard sell.

It's funny because I've been in plenty of meetings where

you're trying to pitch a story to Hollywood executives

and you're trying to convince them

that this is the greatest story in the world.

-EXECUTIVE: Hey, Mr. Cameron. -KIRK: Good to see ya.

-EXECUTIVE 2: How you doing? -KIRK: Good to see ya.

EXECUTIVE 3: Hey, Mr. Cameron, good to see ya.

KIRK: But if this was the story and this was the script...

EXECUTIVE: How's it goin'? How's Jack?

KIRK: That I had to pitch as a story.

EXECUTIVE: So, what's next?

Give it to us.

KIRK: I can't even imagine getting to the point

where I tell them that the hero of the story

actually floods the entire world that he made and everyone dies.

Because God gives man a choice

to either obey him or to rebel against him

and man chooses to rebel against him, as you know,

that sends the whole world down a path of destruction.

I would imagine that they would say to me

you need to go back to scriptwriting school.

Clearly, you missed a few classes.

That's not how you endear the hero to the audience.

We see the apex of evil.

EXECUTIVE: Hmmm.

KIRK: We see humanity is destroying itself.

This part in the story is such, it's such a hard sell.

And before man destroys the entire world,

God steps in and he raises up a man named Noah.

[Silence]

KIRK: Who has a, who has a heart after God...

EXECUTIVE: Hero.

KIRK: He's blameless in the sight of God...

EXECUTIVE: Hero. [makes trumpet noise]

KIRK: Who begins calling everyone else

to turn from evil...

-EXECUTIVE 2: Oh, he saved them. -KIRK: And turn back to God.

EXECUTIVE: He's a savior. He's a savior.

KIRK: And the way God commissions him to build a giant ship.

EXECUTIVE 3: Like a cruise ship?

EXECUTIVE 2: Ooh, cruise ship.

EXECUTIVE: Oh, I like that.

EXECUTIVE 3: I'm thinking like a cruise ship maybe.

That can appeal to people.

Who doesn't like a cruise ship? I know I do. I do!

EXECUTIVE: Midnight buffet!

Ooh, attention travelers, Midnight Buffet.

EXECUTIVE 3: I know you got that martini deal.

EXECUTIVE: Like how many desserts can you have

at like, one in the morning?

EXECUTIVE 2: I gained ten pounds on my last cruise.

KIRK: Hey guys, guys, I know we all love cruise ships,

but this is not...this is not about a cruise ship.

It's a three-story, massive cargo barge.

With Noah and his family, they're inside together

with two of every kind of animal...

EXECUTIVE: Well, but he's,

he's with his family and the animals?

KIRK: Yes.

EXECUTIVE 2: All right, this is where

the family movie comes in.

EXECUTIVE 3: The animals could possibly talk to each other.

Kids love talking animals.

EXECUTIVE: Absolutely.

KIRK: No.

There is a complete deluge of the entire world

and everyone in all the world...

EXECUTIVE: Gets into these cities, I'm seeing it, cities.

And everyone's on these floating cities.

They're like pirates, but they create

all their own little sub world and culture.

EXECUTIVE 3: Yes, that's a great idea.

EXECUTIVE: Right, with animals,

they have to live with sea creatures.

And everyone forms like a, like a republic.

KIRK: No floating cities. [murmuring]

One ship with Noah and his family and the animals.

EXECUTIVE: So where are all the people?

KIRK: Drowned... dead.

EXECUTIVE 3: It kind of portrays God as the enemy here.

EXECUTIVE 2: Are we talking like babies and families?

EXECUTIVE: When you say everyone,

you mean just locally in that area.

KIRK: Everyone's bad, and not local, worldwide.

Everywhere, the whole world.

Everyone dies except Noah and his family.

And the reason God does this...

EXECUTIVE: If we go back to the boat and the animal thing.

[All talking at once]

EXECUTIVE 3: And the more I visualize this,

I see this more as a cartoon, more than a...

EXECUTIVE 2: Well, the animals talk.

EXECUTIVE 3: Yeah, absolutely.

EXECUTIVE: What if they don't know

that there are snakes on the boat?

EXECUTIVE 3: That would be great, I like that.

EXECUTIVE: "Hey! Who's going to feed us?"

Right? A cobra's like, "Oh!" [laughs]

That would be good...

KIRK: And then the water recedes,

the boat rests on a mountain.

Noah...Noah comes out of the ship

and he sees in the sky a giant rainbow.

EXECUTIVE: If we could make this more about the rainbow.

Like, this is the story of the rainbow.

This is not the story of God,

"I'm angry, I'm going to flood everybody!"

But how about we sort of make this, you know,

have you ever wanted to know where the rainbow comes from?

I can even see a song.

♪ Have you ever wondered

♪ where the rainbow comes from? ♪

EXECUTIVE: Focus on the rainbow.

EXECUTIVE 2: I can see kids all over the world

painting rainbows in their rooms.

EXECUTIVE: Yeah.

EXECUTIVE 3: Things would spike on Pinterest, that's for sure.

EXECUTIVE: Yeah.

KIRK: Well, then God sends out a dove

and this dove comes back...

EXECUTIVE 2: How about an eagle? Not a dove.

EXECUTIVE: Yeah.

And that eagle, pfhtt, kind of comes to me

in slow motion like ramping,

you know, what I mean, like, "Pfft." "Caw!"

EXECUTIVE 2: That's good.

Well, he lands right...

it could even be a falcon.

EXECUTIVE: Even better, yet... Noah, "pfft," right?

And then comes down and just perches right there.

EXECUTIVE 3: That's our hero moment.

EXECUTIVE: You know what that is, guys?

Poster moment.

EXECUTIVE 3: Hello! EXECUTIVE: Poster moment...

EXECUTIVE 2: I can see it, yeah. You know, we can actually...

[Instrumental music]

EXECUTIVE: Back to you, Kirk.

KIRK: Guys, this is not a kids' story.

The story can't change.

The story has to be this way.

EXECUTIVE: I think what we're all saying here is

this is a fantastic movie, we love, we love the story,

we love where you're going, we love all the characters...

EXECUTIVE 3: And we love you, Kirk.

EXECUTIVE: We love... we're all huge, huge fans.

EXECUTIVE 3: Look at that smile. EXECUTIVE: Kirky Kirk fans.

My neighbor was like, "You're working with Kirk?"

I was like,"Yeah."

He's like, "Tell Kirk I love him."

But what I don't want to do is go back to my neighbor

when they ask and say what kind of movie is Kirk making

and I say, well, he's making a movie

about a God who floods the whole world.

But, and I want you to hear me on this,

from a marketing standpoint,

from a storytelling standpoint, if we focus on the ark,

the family, the adventure, the animals and the rainbow,

and sort of try to skip over...

I'm not saying you can't have this part,

but if we just focus on those three elements,

that's a story people want to hear.

You don't want to be telling a story about death.

It's not what people want to hear.

People don't want to go to a movie and hear about death.

[Instrumental music]

EXECUTIVE [in echo]: People don't want to go to a movie

and hear about death.

[Instrumental music]

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KIRK: The problem with stories that we think we know so well

is that sometimes we become so familiar with them

that we get confused because we overlook details

that actually make the story make sense,

the details that actually complete the whole story.

Think of Adam and Eve.

It's easy to be caught up with the serpent and the rebellion

and the fruit on the tree

and God pronouncing a death sentence

and being expelled from the Garden.

But what should captivate us above all other things

is the fact that God is demonstrating

his mercy and his kindness,

his care, his protection and his grace towards them.

I mean, think about it, God did not kill Adam and Eve.

He didn't abandon them.

He didn't throw them into Hell.

He begins providing for them.

He gives them clothes, he gives them food.

he gives them more children.

He sends angels to watch over them

and He gives them a promise.

When they were filled with guilt and shame and fear,

He gives them a promise

that must have filled them with hope.

A promise that God would send someone, a descent of Eve,

who would crush that serpent's head and fix all of this.

When you're standing in the midst of a crime scene,

it's easy to notice and be shocked

by bloodstains on the ground,

but what should shock us even more

at this point in the story is

the grace and patience and kindness of God.

Think about it, if ever there was a time

where God could have said, "I am done with the human race.

I am going to end this right now," it was here.

Adam rebelled against God.

And the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Now his son murders his brother and lies to God's face.

While he was talking to God, God heard Abel's blood crying

through Cain's lying teeth, but God didn't kill him.

And he didn't forget about Abel.

He wasn't oblivious to Abel's cry.

Abel's blood had a voice and it cried out from the ground

and reached God's ears in Heaven,

and Abel made it into the Faith Hall of Fame.

He's been given a lasting legacy and will be forever remembered

as an example of someone who approached God

the right way, by faith.

There's only one world.

The world that Adam and Eve lived in,

Cain and Abel lived in, is the same world that we live in.

We breathe the same air, we walk on the same ground

and we look at the same ocean.

During the days of Noah,

this was not about God destroying the world,

humanity was destroying itself.

Men had filled the world with so much wickedness

and violence that they were going to completely kill

and annihilate one another.

All they needed was more time,

but God mercifully steps in and cuts that short.

He puts a period at the end to stop evil.

[Waves crashing]

KIRK: He packs the whole world up into a wooden box

and fills it with everything needed for a brand new world.

He floats it on top of the ocean

while he deals with all of the evil below.

And when He's finished, it rests on the top of a mountain

and He opens the wooden box

and everything is there to start all over.

A new man, a new woman, children, a family,

food, animals.

Noah plants a vineyard.

We're back in a garden.

We're starting over, a new and better world

is being birthed through tragedy.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: The world has been born again.

And then God gives them a promise,

a brilliant sign in the sky, a rainbow.

KIRK: Let's think for a minute about the rainbow,

The promise that God put in the sky,

this symbol that would be a permanent promise

that He would never again use water

to flood and destroy the world.

It's interesting that the word "rainbow" is not the word

that God uses when he promises Noah.

The word he uses is "bow," just simply my bow.

He says, I'll place my bow in the clouds.

I will hang my bow in the clouds.

Well, what's God's bow?

His bow is only one thing,

it's what God says he will bend and he will dip the arrows

and point them at the hearts of his enemies.

God's bow is his weapon of judgment,

it's a war bow of wrath aimed at his enemies.

And God's saying, I'm going to hang that up in the clouds.

He's putting it away.

He's not using it, he's hanging it in the clouds.

In essence, he's suspending his judgment

and he will no longer use water to flood

and destroy all flesh and the world.

But have you ever noticed how the bow is positioned?

How it's oriented?

Look at the way it's hanging.

It's hanging like this.

If it were a bow, the string would be stretched

along the horizon.

And where is the bow pointed?

Where would the arrows be directed?

Where?

Up to Heaven.

Where is God?

In Heaven.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: The next time we see God pouring out his judgment

and wrath for the sin of the whole world

is at the cross where Jesus Christ hangs and dies.

He, himself, God himself, becomes a man, a perfect man

and then he takes upon himself

the judgment for the sin of the world.

Could the rainbow possibly be pointing to that day?

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: When God's judgment and wrath comes to him

instead of upon his creation?

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: I mean, let's just fill in the distance

between the bow and the cross.

God washes the world clean of sin,

he drowns evil and gives man a brand new chance.

You have a new beginning, but you have the same old heart

and the same pattern starts to emerge again.

Man is pushing God away.

He wants to get out from under the authority of God

and make a name for himself.

And bad goes to worse

and eventually you come to the Tower of Babel

where they're all together as one people,

in one place, with one language.

You have a one-world government

building a tower to reach to the heavens,

so that we will not be scattered all over the earth.

Well, that's exactly what God told them to do.

He told it to Adam, "Be fruitful and multiply,"

spread out and fill the earth.

He told the same thing to Noah.

And that's precisely what they're not doing.

So God confuses their language, they have no more communication

and they are forced to scatter and disperse.

And all of that develops into the Babylonian Empire

and then we see the Assyrian Empire.

These are cultures of death, human sacrifice, idolatry,

wickedness, violence, immorality.

Moving into the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire.

And the Romans conquered the Greeks militarily

but the Greeks' morality infected and conquered Rome

and brought Rome to the darkest, bleakest,

most wicked culture on the planet.

This was a culture of death.

Now meanwhile, we see that God

has still not given up on his plan

and he is starting a brand new nation

in the middle of this culture of death.

He raises up a man named Abraham, who starts a nation

through his family called Israel.

And it's through these promises

that God brings that man, that new and better Adam

into that ultimate culture of death,

that the Son of God, the author of life, is born.

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Let's just talk about Jesus for a minute.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: This is the man that God promised Eve in the Garden

would come as one of her descendants

and crush the serpent's head.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Precisely what her husband Adam did not do.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: The last Adam, Jesus,

was the one who would protect his bride.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Adam failed to protect her in the Garden.

Jesus succeeds and is victorious in a garden

and he protects his bride.

He crushes the serpent's head.

KIRK: He is the one who is going to reverse the curse.

This is the new and better Adam, the last Adam,

who is going to raise the dead,

heal the sick, give sight to the blind,

turn water into wine, feed thousands

and restore the whole world back to its maker

and his people back to their mission

of heavenizing the earth.

He comes and fulfills all the law and the prophets

and then his own people kill him.

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: I mean, that's how the story goes.

It's Jesus facing his own team being fully corrupted,

a religious hypocrisy that is at its worst and the Roman Empire,

which is in charge of the whole world.

And together they conspire to kill Jesus.

But then he's resurrected.

So hopes are back up that he is who he said he was.

That this was the redeemer who would set people free

from fear and guilt and shame and death.

This really was him, but then he leaves.

He's only back for 40 days and then he leaves.

And he leaves his followers in this culture of death,

which has only gotten worse.

They were sawed in half, they were fed to the lions,

they were burned at the stake, they were crucified upside down.

More tragedy in the story.

At what point does God say, "Enough?"

Enough of death, I'm done with it.

KIRK: It's exactly at the moment that Jesus dies on the cross.

Jesus flips death on its head by dying for his enemies.

You see, all throughout history, the manifesto of empires was

you kill your enemies and take over the world.

Jesus comes in and says, I'm going to show you

how you use death to change the world.

And in love, he comes and lays down his own life

for his enemies.

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Three days after he was placed into a tomb,

everything changed.

Nothing is the same.

The funeral is no longer the finish.

The grave is not the goal.

Jesus said, "Unless a kernel of wheat

falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it will multiply and produce abundant fruit."

Matthew is a seed who was planted in the earth

and already I'm seeing signs of life.

Every graveyard is a garden.

In fact, they used to be called Grave Gardens

because they're full of seeds,

people who love God planted in the earth.

And one day each of those seeds, like Matthew,

will burst through the mud on top of their grave

into a brand new world.

When Jesus rose from the grave, that was his victory lap.

The battle had already been won.

The resurrection was good publicly humiliating evil.

This was life swallowing up death.

This was rubbing the Devil's nose in the fact

that he had just been stripped, de-fanged and neutered.

And when Jesus ascended into heaven,

he wasn't abandoning his disciples,

he was going to his father to present all the spoils

from his decisive win.

He had just won his bride, he defeated the Devil

and he was going to sit down on his throne

and receive all authority, power and dominion

both in heaven and on earth.

He put all his enemies under his feet.

I can even hear the words of the father saying,

"Well done, son. Well done."

And the son saying, "There's just one more thing,

let's give 'em power."

And the story goes on to the whole world being lit up

with the good news that light overcomes darkness.

That love overcomes hatred and life overcomes death.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: We have a God who is not immune to pain and suffering.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: He's not a God who's sitting out on a cloud somewhere

with his arms and legs crossed and his eyes closed,

with a smile on his face, not paying attention

or not caring about the things that are happening right here.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: He stepped into it.

He entered our world of flesh and blood,

of pain and suffering.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Of tears and death, he tasted it,

he's experienced it, he fully, completely gets it.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: He hung on a cross, alone,

nails through his hands and his feet,

his arms and his legs twisted, his back ripped open,

his face bleeding from the thorn pricks around his head.

his mouth dry and unbearably thirsty,

plunged into God-forsaken darkness.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: And he did it for us.

He understands, he can help.

That's the God that's for me.

That's the God that's for you.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: I know there's a question mark

that still hangs over the subject of suffering.

Why?

Why didn't you heal my friend when I know you could have?

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: Why doesn't he heal your pain or my pain?

But I have a peace about Matthew's life and death.

I watched his mother and his father and his sister

walk Matthew to the gates of Heaven.

[Instrumental music]

KIRK: One father handing his son to another

and I have peace about that

because I've already seen my God use

the most horrific and tragic events in history

for the greatest things in the world.

He was there at the fall.

He was there at the flood.

He didn't take his hands off the wheel.

He was there in the crucifixion.

And the worst, most tragic thing that has even happened

to the most perfect and pure and innocent person turns out

to be the greatest thing the world has even seen.

It brought the salvation of God to the world.

And so I have hope that every tragedy in my life and in yours,

every future tragedy and every future pain

and struggle and suffering and death,

God can and will use those things for his greater glory

and for our good, because that's what he's been doing all along.

Through all of the pain and the suffering and the grief,

God is working out this same unstoppable purpose for you.

He's forming in you the character needed

for the assignment that he has for you.

Every father, every daughter, every mother, every son,

he's creating a sense of commitment in you.

God is developing a confidence that only those who experience

trials and tragedy can have.

Only though a Matthew kind of process

can you have that unshakable faith

and overwhelming confidence in God

because he is a God of purpose.

And he floods your heart with a compassion for other people

so that you can help them when they go through trials.

What's being created in you

because of your painful experience,

this is the very apex,

the ultimate expression of the very heart of God to others.

And that God of purpose and love and power

somehow transforms that question mark

into an exclamation point for me and reminds me that God is good,

we can trust him, and his purposes are unstoppable.

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

[Instrumental music]

♪ I cut my teeth on the back of an old church pew, ♪

♪ I learned to walk in the ways of light and truth ♪

♪ and I was told not to speak till I was spoken to. ♪

♪ I heard it preached,

♪ what I should and I should not do ♪

♪ and the choir sang...

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh... ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh

♪ I tried to be a good boy,

♪ but I ain't a boy no more.

♪ I've seen some things that a man just can't ignore ♪

♪ and this world's gonna see what I'm standing for. ♪

♪ I've kept my peace, but I can't hold my tongue anymore. ♪

♪ You can't buy my silence, you can't still my voice, ♪

♪ you can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise. ♪

♪ Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth ♪

♪ but there's a time to speak and the time is now... ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh... ♪

♪ Woh, oh oh oh oh oh oh

♪ The squeaky wheel is always getting greased. ♪

♪ Well, I've been sitting still, ♪

♪ parked here on the side of the street. ♪

♪ Always tiptoeing, trying not to wake the beast ♪

♪ oh, but here I come,

♪ all you monsters had better run from me. ♪

♪ You can't buy my silence, you can't still my voice, ♪

♪ you can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise. ♪

♪ Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth ♪

♪ but there's a time to speak and the time is now... ♪

♪ Oh, the time is now, yeah, it's now. ♪

♪ Oh, the time is, time is now, yeah. ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh... ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh.

♪ You can't buy my silence, you can't still my voice, ♪

♪ you can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise. ♪

♪ Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth ♪

♪ but there's a time to speak and the time is now ♪

♪ You can't buy my silence, you can't still my voice, ♪

♪ you can't keep me quiet, I will bring the noise. ♪

♪ Try to beat me down, tell me to shut my mouth ♪

♪ but there's a time to speak and the time is now... ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh... ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh... ♪

♪ Woh oh oh oh oh oh oh