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WHY> Week 4: Why Is the World So Messed Up?

October 5^th, 2008

I think this is the deepest of all the questions we are considering.

There are some times in life where we get all shaken up. It could be the phone call that every parent dreads that comes in the middle of the night about something that's happened to one of their children. It could be a spouse sits down with you and says, “I'm done. The relationship is over. I'm leaving.” It could be when you find yourself on the phone with your doctor and you hear the word “cancer.” It could be any number of things. It could be a meeting with an employer that you get blamed for something you never did. Our world gets all shaken up. We look at it and sometimes in life we can make some sense out of it, but other times no matter how hard we look we can't understand what is going on. We look, we look, and we look, and say, “God, what are you up to?” All of it confuses our mind.

As we come to this whole topic this morning, “Why Is the World So Messed Up?” I want to be the first to tell you that I certainly don't have all the answers. I've got a lot of questions.  Someday when I stand before God I intend to ask a lot of different questions. My best friend at the age of 26, passed away on the operating table while the doctor why trying to amputate his leg which was overrun with a large tumor.  Jesus, why did this happen?

Some of you may be here and you may be in a painful situation. You may be hurting

emotionally, physically, or psychologically. I really wish I could bottle up all of your pain and

take it away. Then we could all go home. But I can't do that. You can't do that. What I want to

look at this morning is how we can survive in a messed up world. It's messed up, and no

matter what we talk about in the next thirty minutes, we are going right back out those doors

into a messed up world. How do we survive in this messed up world?

Romans 8 is one of the most powerful sections of the Bible. If you have your Bible you might want to turn there. In this chapter the apostle Paul writes about suffering, pain, life, and hope in God, and what we can hang on to in a messed up world. 

Let’s read Romans 8:28-39.

1)    The first thing he challenges us with is the fact that we can believe that God is not finished. (Romans 8:28-30)

Believe God is not finished. He starts in Romans 8:28 with what has become a well-known Bible passage. He says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” He comes out and says, “You know what? In all things God is working for the good. Not just for everyone, not just for any situation, but for those who love him and for those who have been called according to his purpose.” If you love him, you've been called according to his purpose. You have this promise that God works all things for good.

Now it doesn't say that it's all good. Clearly some things that happen in our world are not good.  But God can take a very evil, difficult, and painful situation and can bring good out of it. The Bible says He will. What Paul is telling us in Romans 8:28 is this: God is not finished. No matter what we are going through. No matter how painful it is. No matter how hard it is to navigate through. God is not yet finished. The story isn't over. The concluding chapter is yet to be written. He's still at work.

You may say, “I feel so tired.” God isn't finished. “I feel so worn out.” God isn't finished. “I feel so hopeless.” But God is not finished. “I can't see a future.” God is not finished. “I'm overwhelmed with the issues before me.” God is not finished. There is no light at the end of my tunnel. That's an oncoming train. But God is not finished. He's not done with you. He's not done with this life. He's not done with the story of the world and the story of creation. There is a conclusion that is coming. It is the promise of heaven that is held out from even the early chapters of the Bible that points forward.

It is much like when a woman gets pregnant.  Once life begins, that is not the end of the story.  The mother needs to give birth. Pregnancy is a process with a wonderful conclusion at the 9 month mark.  In the same way, God isn't done with birthing his creation.

Paul is saying that God isn't finished. The story isn't done. Don't make your conclusions based on just what we see around us right now. God isn't finished yet.

2)     Another thing we can remember when it comes to living in a messed up world is this: Know that you are not alone. (Romans 8:31)

When we are suffering and struggling sometimes we feel so isolated. We feel so alone. Sometimes you come into church and you are sitting in that seat and you feel like there is no one else around you that understands what you are carrying, the burdens that you are facing, the issues that you are up against, the loneliness that you feel. The Bible promises us that no matter what we go through we are not alone. Paul looks at it this way in Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” If God is for us, then who can be against us? This is an amazing passage of scripture.

When Joni Eareckson Tada was a young woman, she dove off a floating dock at a lake.  The water was very shallow and she broke her neck.  She's lived for the last several decades as a quadriplegic. Joni is somebody who knows what suffering is about. She wrote these words: “God does not give advice. He does not give reasons or answers. He gives one better. He gives himself. God wrote a book on suffering and called it Jesus. This is why God is good. He is good because He gives himself.”

He will give himself to us in the midst of our suffering and in the midst of our pain.  The Bible calls it a peace that we can experience that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7). As I've worked with hurting people over the last many years, what I've begun to realize is that it's not just a Bible passage that people hold on to when they are suffering and hurting.  It is God through the Bible that helps Christian persevere through their pain.

3)     Another thing we can do in the midst of a messed up world is this: Rest in God's love.  (Romans 8:37-38)

We can rest in His love. There are times when you are hurting and you don't feel like doing anything. You don't want to go to church. You don't want to be encouraged. You don't want to talk to friends. You don't even want to open the blinds. You say, “Just give me a tub of ice cream, and turn the TV on.” You just shut it down. Instead of doing this, you need to know that you can rest in His love.

I've talked to people when they are suffering and hurting or going through frustrations in life.

They often think, “God is getting back at me. This is because of something I've done.”

Or I'll talk to people and they'll say, “I made this relationship mistake,” or, “I cut this corner in my business professional life.” Or, “I made a mistake here.” It was three or four years ago, or ten years ago, or twenty years ago. I've carried that with me, and I really feel like God is getting back at me now.  Somehow in the midst of their pain they feel that God no longer loves them. It can happen to any of us when we are hurting.

Look at what Paul says in Romans 8:35, “Who should separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”

Understand this right off the bat. Paul is assuming that we will face trouble and hardship and nakedness and danger and sword and famine -- that all of these things are part of the life journey. “But know in all of these things we are more than conquerors” How? “Through him who loved us.” That's Jesus. Romans 8:38: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creations, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Are you resting in the love of God this morning?

Let’s close by thinking logically about what are some of options God has when responding to the problem of suffering and evil.

1)    God could destroy us.  He could just wipe out the human race. No people=No problem.

2)    God could handpick the evil people and eliminate them.

3)    God could step in and override every evil act.  Make people unable to die.

4)    God could choose to stay out of things and let us fend for ourselves.

5)    God could periodically step in without us knowing.  We would never see it happening.

6)    God could get a taste of what we go through, by experiencing the evil of the world personally and knowing what it feels like.  We would know exactly how God responded to everyday frustrations, disappointments, and suffering.  And he would do this by sending Jesus.