Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / 7 Wonders

Why Is Life So Unfair? 02/20/05

Title: ‘Why Is Life So Unfair?’                                                                                                                             Main Texts: Rom 8:28; Jn 16:33

PP Main Slide
Intro: John was 31yrs old, and a new father who had everything going for him. A great family, a beautiful wife, and a successful career. One day on his way to work he was met head on by a drunk driven who swerved into John’s lane of traffic; John died instantly leaving his family alone and devastated.

ILL: Amy was newly married and soon became pregnant. Amy was fun loving and a real joy to be around. Her obgyn visits were all fine. She went into labor and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, but the baby was stillborn.

Explanation:  Unfortunately I could go on with story after story of how bad things happen to good people…how life seems so unfair. Many of you here this morning have suffered from tragedies that just weren’t fair. No matter how spiritual we may be, we still ask ‘Why?’

Background: Perhaps well meaning people have tried to comfort you by saying things like ‘don’t lose your joy’ or ‘remember Rom. 8:28’. Take your bibles and turn to Romans 8:28.

PP Page #
If you didn’t bring a bible with you this morning, you’ll find one under the chair in front of you. Turn to page 862

PP Rom. 8:28
Read: Romans 8:28

For many who have experienced tragedy, we hold this verse up like a rallying flag when bad things happen. And rightly so. But I am not so sure we truly understand all the verse means.

Where Paul begins is very important to the text…he begins by saying ‘we know’. In other words, ‘It has been our experience’. The reason we can say God works all things out for good is because we have gone through some horrible times and it has been our experience that God used them for our good. We know by experience, we have gone thru it many times, and each time God had brought some good from it.

Also notice that Paul never gives the reason ‘why’ bad things happen, he just says that God uses them to bring about good.

Truth be told, we learn that God works bad things out for good because of all the times we have gone thru bad times and we must resign ourselves to the fact that we may never get an answer to the ‘why’ question.

PP Main Slide
Because God is more concerned with our response, to the bad things that happen in our life. And I believe the Bible equips us with the tools we need to respond in such a way that we can confidently say with Paul, I know by experience, that God will somehow work this out for good.

Transition: Before we look at the ‘why’ question, we fist need to understand the ‘what’. What causes the bad experiences in our lives
 
PP Causes
What causes the bad experiences in our lives?

PP God
1. God
    Yes, God sometimes is the cause for the bad experiences we have in life. Suffering does, at times, come from the hand of God. Sometimes, suffering is according to his will and purpose for our lives. Remember, God did not spare his own Son from suffering, he had a purpose behind it; he sent him to the cross to die… for our sin.

PP Matt. 16:21
Read: Matt. 16:21

Some bad experiences come directly from God himself.

PP Satan
2. Satan   

PP Geraldine   
Anyone remember who this is? Anyone remember what she is famous for saying?
    Flip Wilson’s character ‘Geraldine’ of ‘Laugh-In’ fame wasn’t telling the whole truth when she said ‘The Devil made me do it.’

PP Devil’s Advocate
If you get a chance to see this movie on TV do it. Don’t get the video because there is bad language and nudity, watch it on network TV. It is perhaps the most accurate portrayal of the devil that I have ever seen. Al Pacino plays the devil and he says in the movie that he can’t make anyone do anything…’free will, gotta love it’, he says…but he does influence people to make sinful choices.

PP 1 Pet 5:8
Read: 1 Peter 5:8

Yes, there really is a Satan, a Devil, and he can influence people to make bad choices which can then inflict great harm on themselves and others.

PP Our Own Sin
3. Our Own Sinful Choices and Action
Bad experiences often come because we make bad choices. Period!

PP Gal. 6:8a
Read: Gal. 6:8a

Bad things happen as the natural consequence of our sin, our bad choices. Often, although we rarely admit it, we alone are responsible for many of the bad experiences we have in life.

PP Sin of others
4. Sinful Choices and Actions of Others
Many times we are brought into bad experiences as unwilling participants because of the bad choices and actions of others…can anyone give an example of this?
    -911, adultery, murder, rape

PP Ps. 144:11
Read: Ps. 144:11

Plain and simple, horrible things happened because
•    Some people choose evil over good.
•    Some people choose to sin.
•    Some people choose to act in such a way that results in devastation or even the death of others.
Bad things happen often because of the sinful choices of others

PP Corporate Sin
5. Corporate Sin
This is a little more difficult to understand. Corporate sin is the accumulation of sin since the Garden of Eden. It is because of the ‘corporate’ nature of humanities sin that the world is diseased and broken.

PP. Gen 3:17-18
Read: Gen. 3:17-18

Before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden and the ground was cursed, there were no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no tsunamis…no, what we call, ‘natural’ disasters. The world today is not like God created it.

PP Rom 8:22
Read: Romans 8:22

Just as we groan for the day when we will be perfected, made holy by God’s presence, so the earth groans, as it awaits the new heaven and new earth
    …where there will no only be no more crying, no more tears and no more death
    …there will be no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no tsunamis, no more natural disaster because the earth will be made whole one again..

PP Main Slide
Transition: There are many causes for the bad experiences in our life and we need to acknowledge them if we are to move beyond the pain. Sometimes people can’t get beyond this point and it changes them.

PP People
What kind of people do these bad experiences produce?

PP Wanderer
1. A Wanderer
This person has become bitter and disillusion by their pain and grief. They are a wanderer because they distance themselves from God because of the bad things that have happened to them. And, they blame God for bringing the bad experience their way or for not intervening to change the bad situation.

They wander away from God…a little further each time something bad happens to them.

PP Wonderer
2. A Wonderer
These are the ‘why’ people. They are stuck, treading water in the same spot, wondering ‘why this has happened.’. They become obsessed with what might just be an unanswerable question.

PP Worshipper
3. Worshipper
These are people who through their bad experiences, pain and suffering have become radically dependent upon God. They understand their need for him in such a time of tragedy. They believe that their ‘faith in God may not get them out of the bad situation, but it will certainly get them through it.’

PP Main Slide
Transition: What kind of person has your bad experiences made you? It’s my hope and prayer that you will all end up worshippers because you understand that the truth of Rom. 8:28, is total and radical dependence upon God. Knowing that God has a purpose behind all the bad and good that he allows in our lives.

PP Purpose
What are the purposes of the bad experiences in our lives?

What are some of the purposes behind the bad things that happen to us?

PP Teach
1. To teach us something.  What?
PP consequences to wrong actions
•    That certain actions and decision have painful consequences.

PP Prov 6:20-29
Read: Prov. 6:20-29

What Solomon says here specifically about the bad choice of adultery can be applied generally to all bad choices… sinful choices have bad consequences.

PP Trust in God
•    To trust God completely.
    It is easy to talk about God, our relationship     with him and how we trust him…it’s more     difficult to live that out when bad     experiences come.

PP Prov 3:5-6
Read: Prov. 3:5-6

    It is sometimes only in life’s valleys that we turn completely to God for his deliverance, guidance,     protection and provision.

PP Equip Us
•    To equip us for the future.

PP 1 Sam 17:31-37
Read: 1 Sam 17:31-37   

    When David went to Saul to volunteer to fight Goliath he     was asked why he thought he could defeat Goliath. David replied ‘I have already fought a lion and bear, God     protected me then, he will protect me now.’ The lion and bear were part of David’s boot camp, part of his training for facing and defeating Goliath.

Bad times just may be preparing you for something even     greater God has planned for your future.

PP No other way
•    What God could not teach us any other way

PP Heb. 12:10
Read: Heb. 12:10

Sometimes like a stubborn old mule, we need a good kick in the but to see what God is trying to teach us…sometimes there is no other way.

PP The Work of God
2. To display the work of God in our lives
PP Jn 9:1-3
Read: Jn. 9:1-3

Understand that sometimes bad things happen so that we can see the work of God. I could give many examples of how God has shown his greatness through someone’s suffering...
•    Missionaries on the field who have little and suffer greatly often produce wonderful fruit,
•    People who have suffered physically and when God heals them they have such a testimony of God’s grace and goodness
Bad experiences often come to display the work of God.

PP Faith
3. To strengthen our faith.

PP Rom 5:3-4
Read: Rom. 5:3-4
PP James 1:2-4
Read: James 1:2-4

Wouldn’t you agree that it is often in our most difficult times that we learn the greatest things about God. Think about it, qualities like patience and endurance can only come through hard times. Faith is a character trait that needs to be exercised, and often it is best exercised through bad experiences.

PP Help others
4. To help others.

PP 2 Cor. 1:4
Read: 2 Cor. 1:4

When you have gone through a tough time, you have more compassion, more heart experience and this enables you to comfort those who are suffering in a similar way. When you have received comfort from God, it is easier to give away what you have experienced personally. And the effect is often great on the one who needs comfort…even if it is just a hug at the right time. We may not like this one because we suffer so that we can comfort others.

PP To reach us
5. To reach us
ILL: C.S. Lewis wrote ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures; speaks to us in our conscience; but shouts to us in our pains. It’s his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’

It is often said that you can’t get an alcoholic to stop drinking until he has reached rock bottom. The same can be true for some who reject Christ. God may have to break him or her before he can make them new again through faith in Jesus Christ.

PP Lk 13:1-5
Read: Lk 13:1-5

When asked why do bad things happen, Jesus replied the same way twice…. ‘But unless you repent, you too will all perish.’

We think we deserve good things to happen to us, that God owes us an easy life. When bad things happen we get upset because that’s not the way it should be.
Instead of wondering why bad things happen, Jesus reminds us that we are fallen sinful people living in a fallen sinful world. We should be amazed and thankful that we are given another day to live.

Jesus makes his main point…repent, turn from your life of sin and rebellion against God and turn to forgiveness by God through faith in Jesus Christ.   Sometimes bad things happens so we can make a right connection with God.

PP Home
6. To remind us of this eternal truth…this place is not our home

PP Jn 16:33
Read: John 16:33

Key here in Jn 16:33 is the word ‘this’. We get so busy in the things of life: making a home, family, career, ministry even, that we forget that this is not our home and that we are only here temporarily. Jesus is preparing a place for us…right now. Friends..we are not home yet.

Transition: Well, where does all this lead us? How can we respond to the bad experiences in our lives?

Conclusion
PP Response
How can we respond to the bad experiences in our lives?

We have only two choices as I see it
PP without God
•    We can go through our bad times without God or
PP With God
•    We can go through our bad times with God.

God may not always take away all your pain and suffering, he may not always keep bad things from coming your way BUT he does promise to walk through them with you. In the cosmic battle of good verses evil, when everything seems out of your hands and life seems unfair, you still have a choice.

•    Accept the bad things that come your way and allow them to bring about God’s purpose for them.
•    OR become bitter, walk away from God,  and very often suffer all alone.

I want close with a poem I got from a pastor who spoke on why life seems so unfair. It is my prayer and hope that you heed it’s message.

PP God’s Boxes

 
God’s Boxes
I have in my hands two boxes
Which God gave me to hold.
He said, "Put all your sorrows in the black box,
And all your joys in the gold."

I heeded His words, and in the two boxes
Both my joys and sorrows I stored.
But though the gold became heavier each day
The black was as light as before.
With curiosity, I opened the black,
I wanted to find out why,
And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole
Which my sorrows had fallen out by.

I showed the hole to God, and mused,
"I wonder where my sorrows could be."
He smiled a gentle smile and said,
"My child, they’re all here with me."

I asked God, why He gave me the boxes,
Why the gold, and the black with the hole?
"My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings,
The black is for you to let go."
 

This is your time to let go.
Lay your burdens, your hurts, your pain and suffering down at the foot of the cross.
Let Jesus bring you the comfort only he can offer.