Skeptic: Week 1

Our world appears to be spinning out of control, doesn’t it? We look at all the evil things people do to each other and we see so much suffering and we wonder why God doesn't do something about all of this. It all just seems so unfair.

• Why do some people live long lives and other people die young?
• Why do some people get their prayers answered and other people are still waiting?
• And here is the big one. Why doesn’t God do something about suffering?

You have been through stuff that stunk and I have been through stuff that stunk. Why doesn’t God do something about that? Have you ever noticed that God gets a lot of blame for the bad stuff that happens to us, but should he? The first thing I want all of us to understand is that…

God is not the creator of evil and suffering

People have come up to me and have said, “why didn’t God create a world where there was no evil or suffering in the first place.” Are you ready for the answer? He did!

Genesis 1:31 says “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

In the beginning everything was perfect. There was no evil and suffering in our world. In the garden of Eden there were no weeds, and the animals just hung out with Adam without once thinking about eating him.

Everything was perfect. The water was pure, the air wasn’t polluted. The fruit was delicious and Adam and Eve were naked all the time. It was perfect.

And then Adam and Eve ate from the one forbidden tree and everything was broken. Sin came into our world along with death and disease. And now we live in a world filled with pain and suffering because of our sin. Because of our rebellion against God.

Why did God give Adam and Eve a choice? Why did he have to put a forbidden fruit in the garden? God wanted a relationship with us and the only way you can have a relationship with another person is for both people to choose to be in the relationship. If you like a girl and the girl doesn’t want anything to do with you, you need to understand you are not in a relationship with that girl. And if you keep following her wherever she goes…that makes you a stalker and not her boyfriend.

For a relationship to work both people have to want the relationship.

• Two people are friends because they choose to be friends.
• Two people are married because they have chosen to be with each other till death do them part.

God didn’t want to force himself on us so God gave every one of us the ability to choose for him or to choose to be against him. God gave us the choice to choose a relationship with God or to choose to have nothing to do with God.

God could have created us as robots or machines that were programmed to say, “I love you, God” but that wouldn’t have been love. Adam and Eve made their choice. They choose to rebel against God and as a result three kinds of evil came into this world. The first is

MORAL EVIL

The Bible says in Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”

Moral evil is what we do to ourselves and to others as a result of our bad choices and our rebellion against God. We look around our world, and we see the effects of it every night on the news.

• We see someone who has been shot. We see a car that's been carjacked.
• Someone killed someone else.
• Someone lied, someone gossiped, someone one let their anger get the best of them and let their profane words fly along with their fists.
• Someone got behind the wheel of a car drunk and plowed into a family.
• Someone overdosed.

Moral evil happens every day over and over again causing all kinds of pain and suffering. Why are we hurting? Because we did something that caused our own pain. We ignored what God wanted and did what we wanted. Why do other people hurt? Sometimes it’s because someone's choices have affected them and have hurt them.

Never forget that 95% of all the evil and suffering in this world is because we continue to rebel against God. But there is a second kind of evil that was caused by Adam and Eves sin and that is what we call

NATURAL EVIL

These are things like earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and tsunamis. These are natural phenomena that cause pain and suffering. These too are the result of sin having been allowed into the world.

When we told God to get lost, nature began to rebel. The earth was cursed. Genesis 3:18 says that because of sin, nature was corrupted and thorns and thistles entered into the world.

Romans 8:22 says, “For we know that up to this present time all of creation groans with pain like the pain of childbirth.”

Nature is longing for Christ to return to set things right again. And then the third kind of evil that we now have is…

DEMONIC EVIL

There is an evil spirit at work in the world today. Satan is alive and well and he does everything in his power to make you as miserable as he possibly can. In fact, the Bible says,

“Our enemy the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

We know all about his work. We have all been tempted and led astray. We have all felt his powers of seduction to make us believe that sin would somehow satisfy us. We all have the scars of past mistakes made.

The obvious question then is “Couldn’t God have seen ahead that all this was going to happen? Didn’t he know how this was going to end up?” The answer is “Yes.” So why did he go ahead and create us?

Let me ask you a question. Why did your parents have you?

They knew before they gave birth to you that there was a real possibility that you would endure pain and suffering and yet, they still had you. What is wrong with them?
And your parents knew that there was a chance that you would rebel against them and maybe want nothing to do with them but they still had you.

Why did they do that? Because they also knew that there was a very real possibility of having a loving and personal relationship with you and in their mind it would all be worth it.

God knew that people would rebel against Him but he also knew that many people would choose to follow him. And it was worth it for those people.

So here we are in a world that is just messed up. Where is God in the midst of this pain and suffering? Sometimes when we are suffering and struggling, we feel so alone. Sometimes we come into church and we are sitting in that seat and you feel like there is no one else around you that understands what you are going through.

Jesus does. Jesus understands what it is to suffer.

• Is your family having a hard time putting food on the table? Jesus didn’t have a home.
• Ever feel like your family doesn’t understand you? Jesus' family thought he was crazy and they came to take him away.
• Have you ever felt the pain of someone who was close to you that died? Jesus wept at the grave of one of his closest friends.
• Have you ever been betrayed by a friend? Jesus felt a kiss from a friend, Judas, on the night that he was betrayed.
• Have you ever prayed and didn’t get the answer that you wanted? Minutes before Jesus was taken away from the garden of Gethsemane
• Jesus prayed if there be any other way of saving you and me he was all for it. Yet there was no other way.
• Have you ever felt like life isn’t fair? Jesus never sinned yet was crucified on a cross for the sins that we committed.

Jesus entered our world of suffering and faced everything that you and I face on a daily basis. He took on all the sin that we have committed and suffered and died so we could be forgiven of our sins. And if we ask him into our life, he places his Holy Spirit inside of us to comfort us and help in this messed up world.

Psalm 56:8. David writes these words; “You've seen me tossing and turning through the night. You've collected all my tears and you've preserved them in your bottle. You have recorded every one of them in your book.”

We have a God who literally goes through the pain with us. See, the answer to the problem of suffering and pain is not an answer. It's a person. It's the person of Jesus who will walk with us in the midst of that pain.

And I have got good news for those of us who have asked Jesus into our life. There will be a day that Jesus will set things right again.

Evil will be gone. Sickness will be gone. Death will be gone. God has created heaven for those who love him. It’s a place where there is no evil. It’s a place where there is no more sin. There is no more pain and no more suffering. It’s a place where everything is just the way it is supposed to be.

Here is the question. Have you chosen to reject Jesus or to accept Jesus? God won’t force himself on you so if you want him to be in your life you can choose to have him in your life. And if you don’t want him in your life, you can choose that too. Which choice will you make?

I’m choosing Jesus. I’m so glad I don’t have to face any of this on my own. How about you?