You know, we are now in November and feels like the school year just started a couple of weeks ago. But since it’s November, everyone on the youth team has been discussing ways in which we can make Friday nights more meaningful to you. And I really think that last Friday was an awesome night- who was here last Friday night? Who thought it was like the best RISE708 in the past year? Who thought the youth band rocked the house? There is one thing you should all know- not a Friday night goes by when anyone on the youth team does not pray that it will be the best night of your life. And the one thing I pray is that when I have the honor of giving the message on a Friday night, is that I give you some stuff that you can use tonight, as soon as I’m done. And for those who know me, I hope by now that you realize that I like to talk about stuff that normally would be considered “untouchable” - untouchable within your family, and certainly untouchable at your school. But if you guys are thinking about it, I want to talk about it.
A couple of weeks ago I talked about death. No one likes talking about death. It’s depressing. It’s raw. It’s sensitive for a lot of people. But I knew that a good number of you were thinking about it that week. So we talked about it.
Tonight there is another untouchable - an untouchable that I know some of you have thought about, so I’m gonna talk about it. You may no think of it by name, but we all experience it, every day- we all experience and think about evil. Because maybe
the most often-asked question is this:
If God is such a good and loving God, why is there evil? Why do bad things happens? Why to bad things happen to good people? Every day is just filled with terrible news. So you might ask, If God is such a good and loving God, why do I get lousy grades even after I study. If God is such a good and loving God, how come my mom, or dad, or brother or sister is sick with cancer? If God is such a good and loving God, why do my friends turn their back on me? If God is such a good and loving God, why do my parents argue all the time? Why did my parents get divorce
Earlier today I was driving around just trying to get a couple of things done, and I tune on this AM News radio station. And I’m listening to this news station, and there motto is something like “You give us 22 minutes, we give you the world.” In that time after about three minutes in the car, I turned it off because I was just tired of hearing about murder, about rap about little kids being abducted, about lying and cheating and stealing. We live in a world where there is a lot of evil. What’s the deal? Where is God with all this?
So I have two big question- 1) Why is there so much suffering and evil in a world created by God; and 2) If God created the world and is so powerful, why doesn’t he just stop all the evil?
1. Why is there so much suffering and evil in the world? Why didn’t God create it perfect?
The answer is that He did. God created a perfect world. I talked about this a month or so ago when I talked about Adam & Eve and the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us all about creation, what it was like in the beginning, that it was perfect. There was no smog, no bad drivers, no gossiping, no pain, no tragedy, no crowds, no suffering, no sadness, no evil. Just Adam and Eve in a perfect setting. But one of them told God basically to shove off. You might even ask, is God responsible for evil because He created us with a free will? God made us to love Him, but the only way it could be truly love, genuine love, is that if God gave us a choice. If I’m God and I created all these people to love me but I didn’t give them free choice, then it’s not love. All they would be would be robots.
A lot of you may think, and a lot of you may have friends that think God is up there in the sky somewhere, moving us. I’m just moving how God makes me move, like I am some sort of puppet, and it’s God’s fault. No, God says I’m going to give you free choice. Many of us have been turning our back on God for our whole lives. God says for love to be real, there has to be free choice.
I didn’t really understand this when I first became a Christian about five years ago. When I was preparing this message I came on to a story of a guy who became a Christian when he was in 10th grade. His name was Jeremy, and during the summer between his 9th and 10th grade, the people across the street from where he lived, the Chandlers, went on vacation. The Chandlers were the only people in Jeremy’s neighborhood that had a pool table. When they were on vacation, they asked me Jeremy to take care of their dog, a big German shepherd by the name of Max. To me, Max is just the perfect name for a German shepherd. Max lived in the house and in the back yard, and the Chandlers had one of those big doggie doors where Max can go back and forth between the house and back yard. As a ninth-grader, Jeremy weighed about 105 pounds and could fit through that big doggie door. But Jeremy was only supposed to take care of Max the dog when Max was in the back yard. But Jeremy got into their house because they had a pool table. And one day that summer Jeremy got into the Chandler’s house and was playing pool. It was a great summer day – he was in the Chandler’s house. And Jeremy was playing like his third game of pool. And Jeremy goes to break, and as he did, he hit the cue ball and then lifted his hand in the air. And right over the pool table was this huge Budweiser lamp. Like a stained glass window lamp. And when Jeremy lifted his hand in the air his pool cue hit that lamp, and it shattered all over the table.
Big trouble! Jeremy runs out the big doggie door and Max is chasing him barking, and Jeremy finally makes it home. And doesn’t tell anyone what happened.
You know when you’ve done something wrong and feel incredibly guilty? Every time somebody looks at you, you look down. Well, the more Jeremy lived with it, the more he thought, The Chandlers are going to come home next week. They’re going to know it was me. They’re not going to think their German Shepherd Max was playing pool even though The Chandlers had one of those velvet paintings of dogs playing pool. So Jeremy confessed, and got in a lot of trouble. One of the consequences was that Jeremy had to go to the church and visit the youth pastor.
So Jeremy’s youth pastor asked him, “How do you feel about this?” Jeremy said, “I feel bad. I broke the Budweiser lamp.” Jeremy’s youth pastor talked to him about his spiritual life. “Are you a Christian?” asked the youth pastor. “I am,” said Jeremy. “I became a Christian this year. Then Jeremy says to the youth pastor, “If God loves me so much, why did He let that happen to me? All you guys at church always talk about God’s love, then why did He let me break the Budweiser lamp? It’s kind of God’s fault, isn’t it?”
Jeremy learned there for the first time how much God really loves him. Because his youth pastor explained, in very simple terms that in God’s ultimate love for us, God says, “Jeremy, or Emily, or Abe, or Kyle Buchanan, or Mollie, or Jordan…I love you so much I’m going to give you a choice. You can either love Me, or you can turn your back on Me.”&;nbsp; Because if God forced Jeremy from our story, or Emily, or Abe or Kyle or Mollie or Jordan or Shari to love Him, it wouldn’t be ultimate love.
So why is there evil in the world? Because God created a perfect world, and in that perfect world, He gave us choice. And with that choice, bad things happen. Bad things happen to good people.
Last week, there were three deaths of people who went to the church I used to go to. A motorcycle accident, a grandparent, and a 22-year-old who grew up in that church’s youth ministry, who sat in a chair every Friday at youth group like the ones you’re sitting in, who overdosed on drugs. Bad things happen. Evil is in this world. Is it God’s fault? No, God created a perfect world, and in that perfect world, He gave us choice.
There is evil within us, lurking, and it’s just ready to come out at any time. God created a world where evil can exist and we sometimes choose evil over good. But God didn’t cause the evil. So the answer to that question is, No. God didn’t cause the evil.
For love to be real, there must be choice- a choice to love or not to love. And for that choice to be real, there must be a consequence, a result if you choose not to love. If you can understand that and get your arms around that, you’ll better understand this whole idea of evil.
But the big question is not really why is there so much evil in the world, and didn’t God create a perfect world. No. The big question I hear over and over and over again and the question I struggle with everyday is this…Why doesn’t God put a final stop to it? Why don’t you, God, just stop it? Stop causing abuse. Stop causing tornados and hurricanes. Stop murder and stop rape and stop the lying and the cheating and the stealing. Stop cancer and abortions. God, please stop death!
But, the Bible says that God restrains evil all the time. There’s no telling how many times in your life, in unseen ways, that God has kept you from the evil of others.
Now you might be saying that’s great, but why doesn’t He put a stop to it finally? The comment I hear over and over again from people who don’t believe in God is this- if God is so powerful, so mighty, so loving, why doesn’t he just stop the evil right now, at this moment. Here’s the answer- The Bible says that He will. And just because He hasn’t yet doesn’t mean He won’t soon.
Proverbs 11:21 says, “Evil people will surely be punished, but the children of the godly will go free..”
Proverbs 24 says “The evil have no future, and their light will be snuffed out.”
But still the question, why doesn’t God put a final stop to evil? Here’s a reality check for you…Some of us in here tonight just may be the reason He doesn’t. Could it be that God hasn’t put a stop to evil because He’s waiting. He’s waiting for you to turn from the world’s way and have a relationship with Him. Could it be that He’s waiting for you to quit playing games and just stop going to church because it’s part of your religion or just because everybody goes to Christ Community Church or Muellin Hill or First Baptist. I thing God is waiting for you to say, “The world doesn’t offer life. Jesus offers me life.” I think the reason He doesn’t put a final screeching halt to all the hurt and evil is because He wants for some of you to change. Look around you. Have you changed? Does your life honor God, or honor yourself. Do you dig God, or just dig yourself. Are you keeping God big in your life, and trying to make a deal with him that sounds something like this…I know I have all these issues and problems in my life God…but if you could just take care of about 30% of it, I can aboslutely take care of the remainign 70%.&;nbsp; Sorry folk, God just ain’t interested in making any deals with you.
That’s not Bob’s opinion. That’s not Derek’s opinion. Or Tim’s or Matt’s or Amy’s or Jess’s or anybody else on the youth team. That’s what the Bible says. 2 Peter 3:9 says “The Lord isn’t slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.” God, in His patience, in His mercy and in His love, wants to give some of you in here, now, in this room, a little more time. I think that’s why God doesn’t put a final stop to evil. He will. It’s just not right now.
Those are two questions most asked about evil…1) Why is there so much suffering in the world, and 2) Why doesn’t God just put an end to the suffering. That leads us to two huge Big Time principles regarding evil.
Number one -People are inconsistent in their HATRED OVER EVIL.
This is important for us to understand. You and I, many of us in here, are inconsistent when it comes to evil. We might say, “God, would you just stop all the murderers? Put an end to all the murders,” but where we’re inconsistent is we don’t want to stop gossiping, which murders relationships. Or we say, “God, would you put an end to drunk drivers? Drunk drivers kill people. Put an end to all that evil.” But where we’re inconsistent is we don’t want Him to stop drunkenness because that’s kind of a cool thing to do on Friday or Saturday night. We’re inconsistent. We say, “God, would you put an end to this terrorism thing? Would you get rid of all the evil that is out there with terrorism?” But where we’re inconsistent is we don’t want Him to put an end to the prejudice against other people at our school or our hatred of other types of groups or skin colors or ethnic backgrounds. We’re inconsistent. Many times, we are the hypocrites we accuse others, like our parents, of being in our lives.
Here’s the bottom line: We all cheat and accept a little bit of evil here and little bit of evil over there. A matter of fact, some of us really like a little bit of evil. That’s where the inconsistency comes in. But a little bit of evil can affect a big part of your life, can affect your relationships, can affect the world.
You see the inconsistency. We are so open to a just a little bit of evil in our lives. I think that’s a big thing for us to understand tonight. A lot of us are inconsistent. When we are hurt or suffering or there’s evil, we do this with God, “Why me?” But we don’t do that when good things happen in our life. When you win a championship game in soccer or football or basketball or volleyball, or you get date with the person you wanted for a long time or someone gives you some money, you don’t say, “God, why me? Why did I have to win that game?” We don’t do that. I think that’s important for us to think about as we hate the evil in the world or in others, but we don’t hate it in ourselves.
The second principle I want you to see is this - It’s okay to have questions ABOUT GOD .
It’s all right. It’s okay for Kyle Whitty to say, “God, I don’t understand. Why do some people live a long life and my sister didn’t?” Ashleigh Whitty suffered for so much of her life. She was in and out of hospitals all the time. We, as friends of Kyle or Ashleigh may say we have questions about God. That’s okay. It’s okay to say, “Why do some people get miracles in their life, and Ashleigh didn’t?” “Why is it that bad things happen?” It’s okay to have questions. There’s a lot we don’t understand.
I want to challenge you in this way – and I challenge you because I and everyone on the youth team cares deeply about each of you and care about your spiritual journey – just because you don’t understand God, don’t dismiss Him. That’s inconsistent too. The reality is there are a lot of elements of life that we don’t understand, but we don’t dismiss it.
Think about a steak, a good, juicy, great steak. Most of us in here will eat that steak, but we don’t fully understand where it came from. It came from a cow, but you don’t know all that the cow ate. You don’t know what the cow was injected with. You don’t know where the cow lived. You don’t know the process that cow went through to get that steak. But what do you do? You don’t dismiss the steak because you don’t understand the process.
I want to encourage you. Just because you don’t fully understand God, don’t dismiss Him. If we could possibly understand everything about being God, He would be a very small God.
It would be like explaining Albert Einstein to a first-grader. They’re not going to get it. It would be like even explaining square roots. A first-grader just ain’t gonna get it. But it doesn’t mean there’s not an answer and that the answer isn’t true. That first grader might be able to tell me how many Chicklets she could cram in her nose, but she couldn’t tell me the square root of six. But there’s still an answer, and that answer is true.
God said this in Isaiah 55- God said this- “’My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.’”
Friends, I’ve said this a million times - our mind is a finite mind, and God is an infinite God. I don’t want to worship a God that I can fully understand, that’s small enough to fit in my pocket. I’m not saying God is mysterious and, because He can’t be fully understood, don’t even try. That would be wrong. That’s a cop out. And that’s what most people outside those doors do. I’m saying that on this side of heaven, we’re probably not going to have a full understanding of everything. Including evil.
But I do want to say this to you…the suffering and the evil that you’re either experiencing or that you and I are around is not going to last forever. As a matter of fact, it’s a really short term in the big scheme of life.
Imagine it’s January 2nd, the first day of school, you had a terrible day. It was an incredibly bad day. You were walking to school, and somebody came by and drove in the gutter, and the water and all that dirty slush splashed on you. You had your favorite clothes on, and you’ve got to go to school anyway. You go to school ,and somebody trips you. You skin your knees and rip your pants. Then you walk into your first period class, and somebody opens the door, and it bashes your face, and you break your nose. They take you to the hospital, and instead of operating on your nose, they pull your wisdom teeth out. You’re drugged out on Novocain anyway, so you don’t know what’s going on. You’re driving home, and you get in an accident. Your mom was driving your car, so now your car is totalled. You walk in your house, and your cat’s dead. It was playing on the piano, and the lid fell on it. It’s dead. Then you go upstairs to your room, and your little brother has taken all of your CDs and played Frisbee with them. They’re all scratched and ruined. A friend calls you on the phone and says, “I’m dating your boyfriend/girlfriend.” You just have a terrible, terrible day. Nobody would like that day.
But then imagine the next day. You get a phone call. You have just been nominated Teenager of the Year by Time magazine and you’ve been given a ten million dollar grant to spend any way you want. You walk outside, and there’s a new car in the driveway for you. Every day, something like that happens. You’re allowed to play golf with Tiger Woods, and you beat him. Life is going well. You walk through the hallways of your high school and people stop and applaud when you walk by. That happens for every day for the rest of 2009, like 363 days or so.
Now fast forward to January 2, 2010- thei first school day of 2010. And somebody at school stops you in the hallway and says, “How was last year?” What do you think you’re going to focus on? That one day when your cat died? Of course not! You’re going to say, “It was great! Incredible! I’m a millionaire, I got a new car, people applaud me when I walk down the halls of my school. And to top it al off, I am indeed a stud or studdette.” You’re not going to talk about that one day you tripped and you skinned your knees and your wisdom teeth are gone. You’re going to focus on all the great stuff.
A few years ago I was at an office Christmas party and met one of my co-worker’s relatives who’s 102 years old. She was incredible to talk to. The woman looked pretty healthy. And we’re talking about her life. And I said, “Let me ask you a question. One hundred and two. Has it gone by fast?” She said, “It really has. I really can’t believe I’ve lived over a hundred years.”
That helped me understand. What if you lived to be a hundred years? It’s going to seem like a very short time.
That’s the point I’m trying to make. Worst case scenario: let’s say you lived to be as old as that woman. You’re 102 years old, and every day of your life has been a bad day. Every day of your life has been filled with pain or suffering or confrontation with evil. But then, because you place your trust in Christ and you go to heaven, let’s imagine fifteen million years later, and after having experienced fifteen million years of God’s love and joy and grace and peace and forgiveness of sin and peace of mind, never a tear, never a time when you’re crying or suffering or in pain. Fifteen million years of pure joy and happiness, and somebody comes up to you in heaven and asks, “How has it all been?” You’d say it’s been great. But the other person would press you and ask, “didn’t you have 102 years pretty bad? 102 years full of problems, full of conflict, full of disease, full of disappointments, full of heartaches and depression, 102 years full of evil” But, if you place your trust in Christ, you would say this, “Yeah, I gotta admit that there were alot of tough times during those 102 years on earth, but fifteen million years in heaven compared to 102 on earth? There’s no comparison. Over all, taking it all into account it’s been great because of what God’s done in my life.”
So, where does all this bring us. Like I said when I began, I always want to try and give you guys something you can use tonight. I may not always be successful, but I want to try tonight. So here goes- there are three big decisions that I want to challenge each of you to make tonight.
Decision No. 1 - You must decide to deal with the evil WITHIN YOU.
We all have evil in us. I have evil in me. You have evil in you. We might as well just admit it. We don’t admit it freely to other people out loud. But haven’t you had some awfully dark thoughts and wondered, Where did that come from? I get in traffic; I want to hit my horn. I want to give the universal sign of displeasure. Just ask Stephen. That goes through my mind. Where does that come from? That energy to do something that I know is wrong? It’s the evil within me. There’s evil within me, and it’s within you.
Have you ever been tempted to cheat at school? You know you shouldn’t cheat, but you want to look. Where does that come from?
I want it my way. I want what’s best for me. I’m not thinking about anything else. That selfish, sinister side. It’s in you. And it’s in me.
The Bible tells us about it. In Romans 7 it says,
“I need something more, for if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I realize I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it. I decide not to do bad, and then I do it anyway. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. I’ve tried everything, and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Thank God, Jesus Christ can and does.”
The problem with evil within you and the problem with evil within me, the reason it’s a problem, is you’re not strong enough and I’m not strong enough – we are not strong enough to take care of it by ourselves. We need God’s help.
That’s why Jesus died on a cross for you. When Jesus died on the cross, He faced all the pain, all the evil, all the suffering of the world. He took it on Himself, and He died. He took the hurt you fell when your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you. He took the hurt you feel when your parents fight and they blame you. He took the hurt when you worked so hard on that school project, and you got a lousy grade. He took the hurt when your friend or family member died or got sick. But the Bible says He didn’t stay dead. Three days later He came back to life, proving that He’s God’s Son. That means He has the power to help with evil. He overcame it. He proved that, and if you ask Him to help you with the evil within you, help you live the life you were created to live, He says He’ll help you do that. But you’ve got to make that decision. It’s your call. A friend can’t do it for you. Your parents can’t do it for you. Derek can’t do it for you. None of us in the youth team can do it for you. You have to decide. “I want God’s help in my life through His Son Jesus.”
There’s a second decision that you need to make. You must choose to Defeat evil WHERE YOU CAN.
Pretty much anybody could donate blood or help Mario next week prepare Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless. But as Christians, we can go and we can begin telling people that there’s help for the evil in their life. There’s help for the evil in this world. It’s through God’s Son Jesus Christ. We can operate not just on the physical realm like what are you going to do to help the homeless or where you can give your mooney to help put missionaries in some far-away place in the world that you never have to see or touch. That’s important. But we can help people in the spiritual part of who they are. We can help them deal with their own issues and their dark side. We can help them because Jesus helped us. We can start bringing to those evil situations a lot of hope and a lot of good, and good will overcome evil.
The Bible says in 1 Peter 3, “Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you. No exceptions, no retaliation, no sharp-tongued criticism. Instead bless. That’s your job, to bless. Here’s what you do. Say nothing evil or hurtful. Snub evil and cultivate good. Run after peace for all you’re worth. God looks on all this with approval, but He turns His back on those who do evil things.”
We’re being challenged to overcome evil wherever we find it. Because each of you carry a very important message. You may not have ever thought about it, but every person sitting here right now, this very moment in this room carries a very important message to the world outside those front doors- That God loves this world and He proved it through His Son Jesus. In the places where’s there’s pain and suffering and evil, we can bring some good into that situation. That’s why the whole youth team, challenges you, as students, to be available to your friends and to be available to your family members when they suffer, when they’re dealing with their own evil, or when evil has impacted them in a painful way. Because you can carry the hope of God and the power of God and the love of God into what would have been just a totally bad situation.
There’s one more decision you have to make; you must decide to Depend on God even WHEN IT HURTS.
Paul was a guy in the Bible who wrote several books of the Bible. He really had a hard life. He wrote, “We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized. We’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do. We’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side. We’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken.”
Folks, we have to decide to trust God even when life hurts. There was a guy in the Bible whose name was Job. Job suffered in ways that most of us never will. The Bible says that all Job’s children were killed in a single day. His whole family killed in a day. He had a lot of kids. Imagine that. The Bible says that his source of income, his farming businesses, were all wiped out in a day. Totally taken away. Then the Bible says his health started to deteriorate in very painful ways. He started getting open boils and sores all over his body. This guy was suffering. His children had died. His money was gone. His health was gone. He asked God –&;nbsp;what is happening? At his lowest point, Job went after God pretty hard. “Explain Yourself to me.” he told God.
God could have done several things at that point. God could have just smacked Job and said, “How dare you ask me that question!” but that’s not what God did. Or, God could have just stayed silent: “I’m not giving you any explanation!” But that’s not what God did.
God didn’t explain to Job why it was all happening. But He spent several chapters in the Bible reminding Job how powerful He was as God. God said, “Job, I want to remind you, I created the world. Job, I want to remind you how strong and powerful I really am.” Why didn’t God just explain the suffering to Job? Why did God spend that much time telling about His own power?
I’ll tell you why. Job didn’t need answers to his questions. That’s not what really would have helped him. Because even if God had answered the questions Job had, Job would still have been in suffering. What Job needed at that point was to know that there was a God strong enough that he could depend on. What Job needed at that point was the ability to believe that God had not left the throne, that God was still king of this whole universe, that God was still powerful enough to trust. Here’s the one thing God wanted from Job. He wanted Job to trust Him even when Job was hurting.
Can we do that? Can we trust God even when there doesn’t seem to be light at the end of the tunnel? Can we trust God even when we’re going through a hard day, a hard month, a hard year? Bad family situation? Bad school situation? Bad girlfirend or boyfriend situation? Can you trust God even then?
Yes. We can. But we have to decide to do that. God will prove Himself dependable.
Let’s pray together.
I’m going to say a prayer that kind of sums up how I feel about this, and as I say these words, you might discover, “You’re saying how I feel.” This could become your prayer to God as well. You don’t have to say it out loud, but you could just say to God, “Yes, that says what I want, too, God.”
Here’s my prayer:
God, I’ll admit it. I don’t understand it all. I don’t believe I can understand it all because I’m not God. That’s why I need You in my life. I need your help to deal with the evil within me. I need forgiveness for evil in my life. I want to live the life that You created me to live. I know there’s going to be stuff I don’t understand. I know I’m going to suffer in life. Everybody does. But I’m deciding today to trust You. I’m deciding today as much as I know how to put my life and to put my future in your hands. Amen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment