My Sunday Sermon
Today’s scripture reading has a verse that sticks out at us in Isaiah 45:7 which states “7I form light and create darkness,I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.” So what this verse states is not only does God bring all good occasions but also all-bad occasions So what does this mean for our lives.
Let me take the first question that has been asked many times in the past month, Does God want for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina to occur? I give an answer that would qualify me to be a Politician someday. I say No, but at the same time I say Yes. I better explain. I say no, for God is not the author of Evil or Sin. (James 1:15). For God did not cause Hurricane Katrina for Hurricane Katrina like all natural disasters are caused by human sin. Scriptually as Romans 5 states when Adam and Eve sinned this sin ruined God’s ideal, this sin extended to all people for all times, and the nature of this sin corrupted all of creation-of which weather would be included as stated in Romans 8. We can all point to times where our suffering occurred because of not only the sinful behaviors of others, but also our own sinful behavior.
For God never wanted people to sin, and for such consequences to occur. Heaven is where the ideal will of God occurs. Where everything God wants occurs and in heaven there is no such thing as suffering. But at the same time-Scripture emphatically states that God knows all things(Isa 46:10, Job 28, Psalm 90, Romans 8:29, Ephesians 1), and knows the future of all things( I John 3:20, I Samuel 15:29), while at the same time being all-powerful . So this is why scripture speaks in verses like Isaiah 45:7 about God controlling all things even disasters. This is why Amos 3 says if not disaster comes do not I the Lord bring it, similar sentiments are expressed in Lamentations 3-. So since God knows bad things are going to occur, God can allow it for God’s own reasons. So when something like Hurricane Katrina comes, or someone gets hit by a bus? This is nothing new to God, but God has known it would happen from eternity but God didn’t want it, since God didn’t want people to sin and suffer sin’s consequences. So if someone were to ask me did God cause Hurricane Katrina? I would say no in that it was caused by human sin, but yes in that God knew what was coming, and has reasons for allowing suffering and those reasons will be explored today.
The second question people might ask is did Hurricane Katrina come to New Orleans since it was more sinful than Our Town? To this I answer no. For as Romans 3:23 states “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God this means all people have fallen short of God’s standard for salvation”. No one in this room has lived a life without sin. We have sinned so frequently, we cannot even remember, everything we have done wrong before God. Scripture speaks of a sin as a instict in Romans 8. So no one here is less guilty before God than anyone in New Orleans. We need to confess our sins every Sunday, as much as anyone down there. The reason disaster didn’t strike Our Town is only because of the Grace and the love of God. Let me put it another way, if I were struck by lightening and killed walking home today. God would be totally in the right, as I have sinned and would hence deserve it. Although as a devout Vikings fan, God is probably punishing me in a different way. But it is by the Grace of God and the love of God that not only am I saved, but that anything of benefit comes to my life.
For the concept of Grace is what separates Christinanity for every other world religion, where Karma is the prevailing thought. By Karma, I mean the idea that our relationship with God is totally cause and effect, we do bad then God punishes us, we do good then God rewards us. Basically, the idea that you get what you deserve. But what separates Grace from this, is the idea that you might have sinned before God, it doesn’t howmatter many times, but God still loves you, and forgives us by his cross
Now back to why God allows bad things and suffering to occur-
The first reason is to bring people to God. This might sound kind of a strange, but let me explain. Imagine a world, where as soon as you just get up you are no longer tired, then you make breakfast and nothing is ever dry or burnt, then you have a nice-relaxing drive to work, then you love every second of your work day, then you come home and there is never any conflict of any sort. Now, if we lived in a state of Bliss like this. How would one ever have any sort of need for God’s salvation, since life is perfect what would you be saved from. If the world was always ideal how could one realize their sin and their need for Christ’s salvation. One of the seemingly strangest passages in the Gospel occurs in Luke 13 when the Tower of Siloam falls down, and kills 18 people. People ask Jesus why God allows disasters like this to occur? Jesus makes clear that people aren’t affected by natural disasters since they are worse sinners than other people, but to remind us of our need for repentance, of not trusting in ourselves but trusting in God for our salvation. For what Jesus says here follows along the line that God allows sin’s consequences to take shape, to show the separation between people and God because of Sin Hence, leading people towards God’s salvation in Jesus Christ.
The second is that we ultitmately don’t know God ways. For instance in the Old Testament, when Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, nothing but bad should have come out of this, but as soon as Joseph saves Israel from the famine. He tells his brothers who had sold him into slavery ,. When standing before him, asking for forgiveness, Joseph Said“What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” So something that in our mind would seem so horrible, God meant that for good. In John 9, The disciples came across a man born blind, something that no one would say is a good thing, but Jesus said this happened not because this man was sinful, but so the work of God could be displayed in his life. So as Isaiah 55 says our ways are not God’s ways. Our knowledge of how the universe works together, cannot even begin to be compared with God’s knowledge. This is how God answered Job when Job asks why God allowed him to lose his wife, his children, and his possessions. God didn’t answer Job with a direct answer, since it is maybe possible Job couldn’t have comprehended a direct answer. For when God is all-powerful, knows all things, and knows the future, it is possible we cannot comprehend why he allows suffering, since we are so different in our base of knowledge and power. But God assured Job, how he did he care for creation. The evidence of God’s care creation is what we do know about God, and how it relates in times of hardship.
Now as a Pastor you deal with some very traumatic situations. One of the great Professors at Luther Seminary,Dr. Walter Sundberg told me what to say when someone asks why God would allow their spouse to be dying or , their child to be in a car crash, and I am going to tell it to you today? I don’t know why God would allow this to happen, but what I do know about God I know from the cross. I know God loves us as Romans 5 says, while we still sinners, Christ died for us. Even though, we didn’t meet God’s standards of perfection, God still loved us, and died for us. God wanted to see our suffering end, so he suffered on the cross for us. For on this Cross, the sin of the world put Jesus to death. When Jesus was up there dying, it looked like the worst thing one could ever imagine for his followers. For when God seemed the most absent, he was in fact the most present.
All this happened so God could claim us as his own. So no matter how bad anything you have done in the pass, God forgives us by faith and makes us totally right before him. We know God loves us, because God came to Earth to save us. So that we may spend eternity with God in heavenly paradise. God’s salvation should assure us about the nature and love of God above all else.
Each and every person is this room is going to go through hard times in their life. You’re probably picturing those hard times now. I think the second scariest idea when it relates to bad things happen, is that God is in charge, and God has a reason for allowing this. But the scariest idea is the bad things, you are going through and from pure chance with no purpose, and a God who can’t help. When these bad moments come. You’re going to be like me and not know why God would allow something like this to happen, or how God uses it for his purposes. But take heart in what we do know about God. That God suffered on the cross, so a day would come when we no longer suffer. That inspite of our sins, and imperfections, he died on the cross for us, and rose again so that we may live, not eternally in the troubles of this world, but in blissful paradise in the world that is to come. This is how inspite of our suffering, we know God loves us.
Amen
Let me take the first question that has been asked many times in the past month, Does God want for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina to occur? I give an answer that would qualify me to be a Politician someday. I say No, but at the same time I say Yes. I better explain. I say no, for God is not the author of Evil or Sin. (James 1:15). For God did not cause Hurricane Katrina for Hurricane Katrina like all natural disasters are caused by human sin. Scriptually as Romans 5 states when Adam and Eve sinned this sin ruined God’s ideal, this sin extended to all people for all times, and the nature of this sin corrupted all of creation-of which weather would be included as stated in Romans 8. We can all point to times where our suffering occurred because of not only the sinful behaviors of others, but also our own sinful behavior.
For God never wanted people to sin, and for such consequences to occur. Heaven is where the ideal will of God occurs. Where everything God wants occurs and in heaven there is no such thing as suffering. But at the same time-Scripture emphatically states that God knows all things(Isa 46:10, Job 28, Psalm 90, Romans 8:29, Ephesians 1), and knows the future of all things( I John 3:20, I Samuel 15:29), while at the same time being all-powerful . So this is why scripture speaks in verses like Isaiah 45:7 about God controlling all things even disasters. This is why Amos 3 says if not disaster comes do not I the Lord bring it, similar sentiments are expressed in Lamentations 3-. So since God knows bad things are going to occur, God can allow it for God’s own reasons. So when something like Hurricane Katrina comes, or someone gets hit by a bus? This is nothing new to God, but God has known it would happen from eternity but God didn’t want it, since God didn’t want people to sin and suffer sin’s consequences. So if someone were to ask me did God cause Hurricane Katrina? I would say no in that it was caused by human sin, but yes in that God knew what was coming, and has reasons for allowing suffering and those reasons will be explored today.
The second question people might ask is did Hurricane Katrina come to New Orleans since it was more sinful than Our Town? To this I answer no. For as Romans 3:23 states “All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God this means all people have fallen short of God’s standard for salvation”. No one in this room has lived a life without sin. We have sinned so frequently, we cannot even remember, everything we have done wrong before God. Scripture speaks of a sin as a instict in Romans 8. So no one here is less guilty before God than anyone in New Orleans. We need to confess our sins every Sunday, as much as anyone down there. The reason disaster didn’t strike Our Town is only because of the Grace and the love of God. Let me put it another way, if I were struck by lightening and killed walking home today. God would be totally in the right, as I have sinned and would hence deserve it. Although as a devout Vikings fan, God is probably punishing me in a different way. But it is by the Grace of God and the love of God that not only am I saved, but that anything of benefit comes to my life.
For the concept of Grace is what separates Christinanity for every other world religion, where Karma is the prevailing thought. By Karma, I mean the idea that our relationship with God is totally cause and effect, we do bad then God punishes us, we do good then God rewards us. Basically, the idea that you get what you deserve. But what separates Grace from this, is the idea that you might have sinned before God, it doesn’t howmatter many times, but God still loves you, and forgives us by his cross
Now back to why God allows bad things and suffering to occur-
The first reason is to bring people to God. This might sound kind of a strange, but let me explain. Imagine a world, where as soon as you just get up you are no longer tired, then you make breakfast and nothing is ever dry or burnt, then you have a nice-relaxing drive to work, then you love every second of your work day, then you come home and there is never any conflict of any sort. Now, if we lived in a state of Bliss like this. How would one ever have any sort of need for God’s salvation, since life is perfect what would you be saved from. If the world was always ideal how could one realize their sin and their need for Christ’s salvation. One of the seemingly strangest passages in the Gospel occurs in Luke 13 when the Tower of Siloam falls down, and kills 18 people. People ask Jesus why God allows disasters like this to occur? Jesus makes clear that people aren’t affected by natural disasters since they are worse sinners than other people, but to remind us of our need for repentance, of not trusting in ourselves but trusting in God for our salvation. For what Jesus says here follows along the line that God allows sin’s consequences to take shape, to show the separation between people and God because of Sin Hence, leading people towards God’s salvation in Jesus Christ.
The second is that we ultitmately don’t know God ways. For instance in the Old Testament, when Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, nothing but bad should have come out of this, but as soon as Joseph saves Israel from the famine. He tells his brothers who had sold him into slavery ,. When standing before him, asking for forgiveness, Joseph Said“What you meant for evil, God meant for good.” So something that in our mind would seem so horrible, God meant that for good. In John 9, The disciples came across a man born blind, something that no one would say is a good thing, but Jesus said this happened not because this man was sinful, but so the work of God could be displayed in his life. So as Isaiah 55 says our ways are not God’s ways. Our knowledge of how the universe works together, cannot even begin to be compared with God’s knowledge. This is how God answered Job when Job asks why God allowed him to lose his wife, his children, and his possessions. God didn’t answer Job with a direct answer, since it is maybe possible Job couldn’t have comprehended a direct answer. For when God is all-powerful, knows all things, and knows the future, it is possible we cannot comprehend why he allows suffering, since we are so different in our base of knowledge and power. But God assured Job, how he did he care for creation. The evidence of God’s care creation is what we do know about God, and how it relates in times of hardship.
Now as a Pastor you deal with some very traumatic situations. One of the great Professors at Luther Seminary,Dr. Walter Sundberg told me what to say when someone asks why God would allow their spouse to be dying or , their child to be in a car crash, and I am going to tell it to you today? I don’t know why God would allow this to happen, but what I do know about God I know from the cross. I know God loves us as Romans 5 says, while we still sinners, Christ died for us. Even though, we didn’t meet God’s standards of perfection, God still loved us, and died for us. God wanted to see our suffering end, so he suffered on the cross for us. For on this Cross, the sin of the world put Jesus to death. When Jesus was up there dying, it looked like the worst thing one could ever imagine for his followers. For when God seemed the most absent, he was in fact the most present.
All this happened so God could claim us as his own. So no matter how bad anything you have done in the pass, God forgives us by faith and makes us totally right before him. We know God loves us, because God came to Earth to save us. So that we may spend eternity with God in heavenly paradise. God’s salvation should assure us about the nature and love of God above all else.
Each and every person is this room is going to go through hard times in their life. You’re probably picturing those hard times now. I think the second scariest idea when it relates to bad things happen, is that God is in charge, and God has a reason for allowing this. But the scariest idea is the bad things, you are going through and from pure chance with no purpose, and a God who can’t help. When these bad moments come. You’re going to be like me and not know why God would allow something like this to happen, or how God uses it for his purposes. But take heart in what we do know about God. That God suffered on the cross, so a day would come when we no longer suffer. That inspite of our sins, and imperfections, he died on the cross for us, and rose again so that we may live, not eternally in the troubles of this world, but in blissful paradise in the world that is to come. This is how inspite of our suffering, we know God loves us.
Amen
posted by Stew at 9:06 PM
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