Suinday Sermon

 

Evil

Isaiah 59:1-2

1 Surely the Lord’s power is enough to save you. He can hear you when you ask him for help. 2 It is your evil that has separated you from your God. Your sins cause him to turn away from you, so he does not hear you.

The greatest event in all of history is the entry of Jesus Christ into the world. There is nothing that compares to this single moment in time. Jesus is both God and human at that same time and so we have God who lives a fully human life knowing the joy of human life and the suffering. I have talked about how the birth of Jesus has a sad side effect for me that we do not think about very often but nags at me on a regular basis because I know that Jesus has come to deal with my sin. It breaks me that God has to die because of my sin but that also makes me aware of my sin and my need for God to save me. Jesus dying on the cross is the most tragic event in history but is also the greatest statement about who God is and how God works. As powerful as what happens on the cross is it is the resurrection that alters all of history. When Jesus walks out of the tomb the very fabric of the universe is changed. No longer can the evil of sin terrify us and instead God offers life instead of death. We hope in a God who does the hard things because He is interested in telling us the truth about who we are. God speaks to us about the real world and tells us the truth about how our sin is killing us because God wants us to know what is true so we can look to Him for the answers we need in life. Our hope is in Jesus because it is Jesus who dies to deal with our sin and that single truth requires us to think about who we are and what we are doing with our lives. When I think about how much love God has for us to tell us the truth about our sin and to then take our sin on Himself so we don’t have to die just over whelms me. Jesus offers life instead of death and that is something the world needs to know. We as the church should shout the hope God gives us from the top of mountains. When we learn the magnitude of God’s love for us it should make us seek God with all of our hearts. Knowing the truth about sin and the God who wants to redeem us and being willing to live by the truth God gives us is something else entirely. God loves us more then we can imagine but we have to decide that we want that love and that we will live by the truth God gives us. Dealing with what Jesus does both on the cross and walking our of the tomb only has any power if we will then accept the authority of God in our lives. There is never a point at which God forces us to obey Him but God does invite us to come to Him because it is only in Him that we change the sin that brings death to the hope in a God who gives life.

Believers in the living God are people who subscribe to the idea that the super natural exists but to often we don’t want to admit to the concept because it makes us look crazy. The problem with not acknowledging that God is outside what we call the natural order of things is that we give up the power of a redeeming God. What God calls sin has consequences that are attached to both the normal physical universe we see and also an unseen realm that reaches much deeper. To believe in the living God means we trust that what God says is true across all time and space. God is the truth and it either shapes that universe and beyond or there is no truth and we are just random events. All we have to do to understand what I am getting at is ask the simple question why does math work. Everyone knows that math works because we have seen it both in our personal experience and it working out all across the universe. And proving math works is simple because when we get math wrong we get disasters. But proving why math works is whole different issue. Math is this fundamental thing that points to something more profound then we can imagine. I use this to help us understand that we live in a world where the thing we think proves rationality actually shows us the super natural. Believing in the living God can be a similar kind of thinking. The wisdom God gives about how to live our lives is solid stuff that when we live by the ideas and concepts God teaches the world is a better place. Even if you do not believe in God but live by the ideas in the Bible you are a better person and life is better. So the same question can be ask that we posed for math, why do those ideas seem to work and ignoring them seems to bring problems. All of this points us to something that we cannot see but is there. The best answer to what is out there is a spiritual world that has God at the center. This is why Jesus tells us to dig deep and build not on the sand of what we see but on the reality of a God who is true and right.

It always fascinates me that people believe that humans over the course of history are getting wiser or smarter. All I have to do is read scripture and I see the same issues that people are struggling with now are the same thousands of years ago. People still kill people like Cain did because they thought they deserved better then what they got. In the Ten Commandments we find truths that have not changed since the time they were written. God makes it clear that humans today are the same broken people we find in history and our verse speaks to the evil that is in the heart of every human. It is so important that this verse starts with an acknowledgment of the power of God. The human condition is not because God lacks the power to fix things. Just look at the cross and understand the Jesus came to deal with the broken state of humans. This verse makes it clear the problems we face are not a topic about God not being able to deal with the problems we as people face. God clearly wants to fix us and calls to us to come and find that He has the answers we need as we grapple with the problems people face. One of the things the Bible does is give us humans wisdom about how to live our lives with real strength and power. There is not place in the Bible that God promises we won’t face problems and Jesus even tells us we will have to cope with the trials of life. Even Jesus must manage the troubles that life gives. Pain and suffering is not on God and yet God wants to be with us as we work through the things that we have to struggle with. Evil is not from God but from us which should tell us so much about what is wrong with us and why God has to get involved. Our verse tells us that it is our fault that we are not what we should be and that God wants to change things but we have to choose God over ourselves. The empty tomb tells us God has the power to fix the evil that is in us and that God wants to teach us how to over come the evil that is in us. It is up to us to open ourselves to God and to let Him into our lives if we want the evil in us to be changed. God calls to us and God knows our situation but we have to choose God and decide that what God says is right and we need the answers God gives us. Seek God because He is the answer to the broken condition we find ourselves in.

One of the basic principles that we taught our kids growing up was that choices have consequences. It did not matter what choice you made but you had to know what the cost and benefits were. We as parents could not force them to make the choices we wanted them to make so we wanted our children to be prepared to make good decisions. It is the same with our relationship with God. We are never forced by God to make the right choices but God wants us to be informed about the price we pay for the choices we make. This verse makes God’s thinking so clear that it is almost painful. There is no time where God will force us to obey Him but God does want us to know the cost of not obeying. This verse tells us that we can sin all we want but sin cuts our relationship with God. It needs to be clear here that God is telling the Israelite people this because it troubles God when we cut ourselves off from God. God is the source of life and truth and when we reject God all we have left is lies and death. In this verse God is explaining that it is not God’s problem that we are in trouble but that God wants to help us but we have shut God out. Look at that second sentence in this verse and understand that God is trying to tell us what is true. These words tell us what is true and what the real problem we face is. We need to face that we are evil people and only God can change that. This is the testing place. To admit we are evil and need God is a hard thing and we as humans want to avoid that so we make evil about other people instead of ourselves. God does not hide things and this verse is one of the truest statements about reality and we need to accept it. The good news is that God wants to save us from the evil we have and God has gone to great lengths to fix the evil in us. Jesus on the cross tells us how evil we are and what God is willing to do to deal with our sin. Let us seek this God who wants to redeem us not destroy us. There is hope for us but it takes humbling ourselves and learning to live by the ideas and concepts God teaches.

God loves us more then we can know and God knows the evil that arises when we reject God and choose our own path. It cannot be stated loud enough that God calls to us not to destroy us but to save us and to make us into what we were meant to be. Our faith is based in the idea that God is able to change people and to make them what God wants them to be. It is us up to us to face the truth that God teaches and to answer for the evil that is in our hearts. Once we have admitted our sin and come to God to seek His forgiveness we have a God who hands out grace and mercy with wild abandon. We have a God who wants to save people and who has the power to do that but we have to choose to let Him save us from our sin. Take this verse for what is says means confessing our sins and ask God for help to live that lives God longs for us to have.