May 27, 2018 "When It's Over", Rev. Dr. Howard John Wesley

I want to share a little bit about the origin of today's sermon there'll be a little bit briefer than normal but prayerfully it will resonate with some of us it's been one of those weeks I had a 30 page paper due on Friday the last of the semester and truth be told he was wearing me out a while ago putting some overnighters this weekend that's just not my norm so been tired the Holy Spirit intervened in a major way on Tuesday though giving us one of the best Bible studies we've had in a long time as we began to talk about not only how to read the Apostle Paul but how to deal with Scripture overall when Bible study was over I indicated to everyone listen I've got a paper to write I'm leaving I'm a little bit stressed I'm tired but I've gotta get this paper done on my way out his sister pulled me to the side and said pastor there's a young lady in the back who wants to pray with you I was a little frustrated I'm on my way out I've got a paper to write it's it's one of those weeks and I literally heard the Holy Spirit say don't ever be in such a rush that you can't pray with somebody so I put on my big boy pastor boots walk to the back a little unwillingly but following the Holy Spirit and I met a young lady and our conversation almost brought me to tears tsk rose she said I'm giving up on God I don't want to be a Christian any longer and I'm not coming to church anymore strange cuz she was there on a Tuesday night we talked some more and she began to share with me all the bad things that were happening in her life couldn't catch a break if it wasn't one thing it was another this was said pastor I've been praying and God ain't answering I've been coming to church nothing's happening been reading my Bible and it's still getting worse she looked me dead in my eye and asked me what's the point why should I keep believing in God and all this is still happening to me I didn't know really what to say and I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that because she dug her heels in I was ready to give up on God and it was seemingly nothing I could say to her there's going to bring her out at that moment so I said all that new to say I said can I pray with you her response you can try nothing you say is gonna make me believe in God I knew at that moment I couldn't fully minister to her and so I asked her if she would be open to have a conversation later she said to me what's the point you're not going to make me believe in God I said can we at least sit down and you allow me to hear everything that's happened to you she gave me a phone number and either she gave me the wrong number who I wrote it down incorrectly because I wasn't able to catch her and what I was going to share with her has now become what I share in this sermon because I believe she is not the only one that has reached a place where if the truth be told you've wanted to ask what's the point I know you can't really identify yourself because it's Sunday its sanctuary it's nine-thirty you look Baptists and you need your neighbor on your pew to believe that you walked in and all is well with your walk with God but but if I know you the way I know me somebody today is either there has been there is on their way there of looking at what you're going through and you're wondering how could God let this happen to me know somebody tell me preaching to you right now he's preaching to you I want you to hear a reading from a book that causes us to wrestle with these issues it is one of the most dangerous and difficult books in all the Bible it's right in the middle of your Bible when you open up to the middle you're probably going to get to job and I want you to hear a few verses from the last chapter of job story in chapter 42 if you're physically able won't you stand the scripture will be on the screen you can read along silently as I read aloud then job answered the Lord and said I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you you asked who is this who hides counsel without knowledge therefore I have uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me which I did not know listen please and let me speak you said I will question you and you shall answer me I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you therefore i abhorred myself and repent in dust and ashes so it was after the Lord had spoken these words to job that the Lord said to Ella fast the temanite my wrath is aroused against you and your two friends for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant job has now therefore take for yourself seven Bulls in seven Rams go to my servant job and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering and accept him lest I deal with you according to your folly because you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Jo pass so Elif asked the temanite and bildad the shuhite and zophar the name of theit when and did his lord commanded them for the Lord had accepted Jo and the Lord restored job's losses when he prayed for his friends indeed the Lord gave job twice as much as he had before when it's over you may sit in the presence of the Lord the book that follows Jobe the book of Psalms is arguably the most loved book of the Bible everybody in here knows one or two Psalms you know Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want somebody here you know Psalm 30 weeping endures for a night but joy comes in the morning maybe you're familiar with Psalm 150 let everything that has breath come on help me preach praise ye the Lord if you like me you like Psalm 37 fret not thyself over evildoers neither be thou envious of the workers of iniquity for in due season they shall wither and be cut down like the green grass somebody here you've hung your hat on Psalm 27 the Lord is my light and my salvation the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid be Wallace everybody in here knows a psalm because the Psalms are the most loved scriptures but Joel is the most lived scripture you may never read Joel you may not have memorized any of the content but you have walked in every verse of this book because it's not a one of us in here who's graduated from fifth grade who has not reached a place in life where you look at what you're going through you envision the god you believe in and something don't match body in here has come to a place where you've wanted to ask the question all of us have to ask all of us have to answer why does God allow bad things to happen to good people I know you want to look saved and your Bible is big and you know the third verse of blessing quietness but there's not a one of us in here who've we be honest can say that life has not at some moment put you in a place where you wanted to look at God even if it was in the privacy of your own prayer closet and ask God why why would God let this happen to me beloved in the language of theology and Seminary this is the issue called theodicy we come to church to learn theodicy everybody say theodicy if you know roots Theo you know God and the disi has something to do with justice here's a good definition of theodicy theodicy is the Christian attempt to defend and define God's holiness and God's justice in the midst of experienced evil say it again the Odyssey is the attempt of the believer to defend and define the holiness and justice of God in the midst of experienced evil cliff no version the Odyssey is when the believer tries to reconcile an evil a tragedy a sickness that you are going through and yet still believing the God you believed in before the tragedy knocks on your door it is the question of wondering how could God let this but in my life how could God be holy how could God be just how could God me everything the preacher said he is and yet I'm still going through this I'm trying to live right I'm trying to walk right I've been praying I go to church I read the Bible I'm nice to folks I don't even like and yet this still happened to me theodicy this wrestling with the justice and the holiness of God in the midst of experienced evil the reason it's difficult is that it draws into conflict two characteristics of God that before you go through evil you held in harmony can I teach today I don't know if we'll shout but we're gonna learn something that when the believer when one who loves God and trust God and is trying to do right by God goes through evil and tragedy two characteristics of God that you held in harmony are now in conflict with each other because in the midst of theodicy in the midst of your job situation in the midst of evil that doesn't seem right to you two characteristics of God are fighting with each other the omnipotence of God and the love of God because when you get in your job moment when you're in a theodicy struggle when you can't understand why God would allow bad things to happen to good people love and omnipotence are challenged and dr. Scruggs people land in one of a few places some say well that means God doesn't love me because if God is omnipotent and God can do whatever God wants to do and yet God allows me to go through this that must mean that God's love must be questioned how could a loving God let it go down like this how could a loving God let mama die like that how could a loving God let that be my diagnosis I've never smoked a day in my life how do I get lung cancer God must not love because if God can do anything and God chooses not to do something that means God does not love but if you don't reject God's love then you're forced to reject God's omnipotence because if God loves me and cares about me and this still happens that must mean God can't do anything about it he loves me but the fact that it's lung cancer must mean that God can't so God is not omnipotent then márcia there's some who come to the most dangerous place not only is God not love and not only is God not omnipotent God ain't real because the cross road of a job experience and the theodicy struggle seeing bad things happen to good people causes people to give up on God you can't convince me a God is real I've been praying I've been reading Bible I go to church and it still has not changed there is no God and what is the point all of us have gotten there all of us have reached the point where you may not testify on Sunday but you know that life revolves around this question it's the question that's in all of Scripture and then everyone who believes in God the question goes like this if God dot dot dot y dot dot dot fill in the blank if God loves me why is this happening if God has his prayer why are my prayers not being answered if God is real why is this hell happening to me anyone who has at the Odyssey moment anyone who's honest about walking in job's shoes anyone who knows that the truth of the matter is that you've been in that place where God didn't make sense to you when God's will didn't make you feel good you're forced to wrestle with a secondary question that literally undergirds the first it's not right to get deep today can we can we put on thinking minds because when you have a theodicy moment and you wrestle with God when you've got evil that doesn't make sense tragedy that you should have been protected from sickness that should never have found you it forces you to ask another question and that question is this how much evil is God responsible for stay with me you all know the story of job right let me give you the cliff note version in case you fail Sunday School Joel Joel lives in a land called us the Bible says he's the holiest man in the land Jobe is so holy God brags on him God says there's no body like so you imagine what it feels like to have God brag on you God brags on Joel cuz job is earned it job is righteous you go ahead and read job when you get to chapter 1 verse 1 it's his religious resume he's upright he fears God he shuns evil and he does what is right job is the brother who's righteous in God's eyes Joe goes to church err Sunday Jobe reads his Bible everyday Joe prays in the morning at noon and at night Jobe is the brother men want to be when they grow up chapter one ends with a troubling scene were taken to the throne room of God and there we're told that the host of God is there in God's presence and while the host of God is in God's presence Satan the evil one shows up let me just pause so you know that whenever God is present and the host of God are gathered Satan always shows up don't look at nobody don't don't look Satan shows up God has conversation with Satan he goes through something like this hey Satan where you been sings response chillin just doing what I like to do messing with folk trying to find somebody that I can wreak havoc on Judy God says to Satan have you tried job God volunteers job for struggle now Lord I love you with all my heart and I want you to brag on me to one day but the one thing I don't ever need God to do on my behalf is volunteer me for struggling God allows it and Satan performs it so the question then becomes who's responsible the hell that job goes through the losses job endures the death job sees the sickness job wrestles with is it God or is it Satan who's to blame for the tragedies we go through who's responsible for the evil who has to give an account for the sickness is it God's allowance or is it Satan's work beloved this this issue that we wrestle with in job is an issue theologically that divides the body of Christ now we don't always talk about it we stay at surface level but in the depth of our beliefs there are two categories of people in this church there those who are over here and then those who over there if I ask the question correctly and ask you which camp you're in you're gonna find that some people on your pew are over here and some people on your pew are over here on this side are those who maybe by not identification align themselves with the theology of a French reformed theologian named John Calvin John Calvin John Calvin is where the theological position of Calvinism comes from Calvinism is the routing of the Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church so whenever you see reformed or presbyterian know that by default that's a Calvinistic theological perspective teach past was Calvinism believes that everything is predetermined by God everything is the will and the work of God Calvinism even says that even the evil you go through the sickness you endure the tragedy that falls on your lap that's God's will now you may not understand it and you may not like it but God is in control of it and God is doing something in your life that our human minds just cannot understand so a Calvinist can see a child killed by a drunk driver and say it's God's will you'll like it you don't understand it but God is in control some of us are Calvinists if you've ever looked at someone in a struggle and told them God will never put more on you than you can bear you are a Calvinist have you ever had somebody tell you that and you weren't [Applause] you want to tell them something because the Calvinist says it's all God God is doing it God is in control God is working it out don't question it let God be God that's this side those who say God's in control then over here are the freewill people the people who believe in human choice and the people who say that all evil is not God because this group has a problem saying that even the bad things are God at work this group is like me this group isn't going to standing at a funeral until a mother your child being killed by a drunk driver is God's will this group believes that evil is the result of human choice that we make sinful decisions that have consequences in our lives and the lives of people around us and the lives of people to come after us that sin and our willful disobedience of the will of God brings evil and tragedy into the world that is multiplied so that our children inherit a more sinful world than the one we were born into because our sins multiply the destruction of God's plan and that the world has consequence because of our choice that evil is not God's will it's the consequence of choice so when you stand over here this group gets you because this group looks back at you and says well then you've got to answer why God didn't stop it if it's your choice and God knows it's going to be a consequence why doesn't God stop you from making the choice why doesn't God stop the drunk driver before the child is hit why doesn't God in his omnipotence make the car not start why don't God makes a drunk driver get arrested before the child has been hit this group looks at you and says you gotta give an account for why God doesn't stop your choice your answer has to deal with the depth of another term called soteriology can we get deep today's that all right I haven't lost you touched my tongue you better wake up you better wake up this just a kindergarten today no soteriology pretty Becca please soteriology is really about the doctrine of salvation you're standing on human choice affects salvation because this side also believes salvation is a choice if sin is a choice or salvation you gotta choose God you've got to choose to surrender to Jesus Christ god never forces you to do anything you have to choose it God offers salvation but you must make a decision to say yes to what God has offered because human choice is involved in salvation you can choose to be evil and you can choose to be holy this side over here that's what we believe the tree in the Garden of Eden was all about Adam has to make a choice God's not gonna force him Adam has to choose and unfortunately Adam chose wrong now if you get this then now you got them because when we say salvation is a choice we have to come back over to you all because you all have argued that there is no human choice that everything is God's will and so in that Calvinism and Presbyterianism holds to a doctrine called double predestination God passed was he can so deep in the center double predestination is tied to what you've heard is the doctrine of the elect because remember for this side there's no free choice it's all God's will so the Presbyterian Calvinist side says this that salvation is not really a choice salvation is predetermined by God you may think you chose but God already knew that was going to be it you are the elect of God God has predetermined that you would be saved in one that you had a choice is that you became what God had already predestined you to be now when they take this stance we got them when they take that stance we got them because if salvation is the will of God and it's not your choice so is hell so the doctrine of the elect becomes difficult because now you've got to give an account for you saying that God has determined your going to heaven but she's going to hell and there's no way out of it Sheetal is don't take it personal [Applause] do you live with those are the best people I know she loved Jesus but on this side now because you believe everything is the will of God even evil you have to give an account for God creating people to go to hell and that doesn't set well with us so when you get to that point y'all start coming back over here because we got the human will the free choice now listen in the extreme none of us are the extremes really really very few of us are all the way over there are all the way over here most of us are you know weak depends on what's going on I might be maybe it's God's will maybe I brought it on myself I don't know we we just we waffle we I'm right about here I don't believe that every bad thing that happens is God's will I don't believe that evil we experience is God's will at work I don't believe that a child getting hit by a drunk driver is God's will I believe that we make choices that bring evil into the world but here's what I do believe that in the midst of that evil we serve a God who is able to step in the mix of the evil we experience and God can work it for good God can turn it around God can redeem it God can transform it God can bring some good out of it that God is not always the responsible party but God's the one who fixes it so when Adam chooses incorrectly God puts in place a plan to fix it call Jesus so that there's a way to correct the evil that has been done if I have faith faith is what gives God access to the evil you are experiencing faith is what allows God to get in the midst of something that God may not have willed for your life but God wants to clean up and turn around the holy book of Job really hinges on job's confession in chapter 13 verse 15 where job says this if God slays me I will trust him if God kills me imma have faith in Him if mama still dies imma believe in God nothing will break my faith in God I love it faith is what allows God to work it together for good faith is what allows God to take the weeping of night and turn it into joy in the morning if you don't have faith you have lot God out of your experience faith gives God access see if I explain this um dr. scrubs about a year ago I took my oldest son down into Carolina we want to go visit a boarding school that he was thinking about going to and I asked my mother to pick up my youngest son from school so my mom would go get Cooper from school and which came back home she found out that she had inadvertently locked the garage door and they are locked out of the house they can't get in the house my mom and her 80 plus year old self decides she's gonna try to break in the house [Applause] she literally tries to break the garage door banging on it if you go to my Chrysler now their debts from her using her cane trying to trying to open the door she couldn't get in the house she steps outside she looks up and she sees that one of the windows to the kitchen is open she tells Cooper I want you to climb on grandma's car get up on the roof of the car and get to the window climbing through the window and come open the garage door this is why she can't keep the kids she's telling my ten-year-old son get on top of the car and climb through the window and braking the house thank God the boys got enough sense that he called me he said dad we are locked out of the house grandma's trying to break in the house we can't get in she wants me to get on her car and climb through the window and come through the kitchen he said to me dad can you give me access to the house he knows that on my phone I have the app that controls the alarm and the front door so he calls and says dad tap your phone so that the door will unlock and I can come in the house without trying to break in the house so I get on my phone I tapped the app I hit unlock even though I'm miles away the door unlocks he can walk in the house he goes downstairs he opens up the garage door my mama says how did you break in the house Cooper says I didn't have to break in I just made a call to the one who gives me access so that I can get into the midst of the house and I can handle the situation Hey listen the Lord is not going to break into your experience God needs you to have faith to give him access to the sickness access to the death access to the heartbreak access to the layoff but if you have faith do me a favor touch somebody tell them if you have faith God has access if you believe God can change it if you hold to God God will work it out if you don't give up on God God will make a way faith gives God access so I know I'm Baptists and the president of Baptist is in the house I'm supposed to give you three points I just have one point that I'm gonna say three times don't give up on God don't give up on God don't give up on God faith is the only thing that can hold you together in a moment like this don't give up on God what faith allows you to do is to see that God's not done in this moment every scholar will tell you that the reason job story doesn't end until you get to chapter 42 it's so that when you read through job you'll get a glimpse of a God who restores a God who fixes it a God who lets you know that no matter what you're going through now you're 42 chapters coming faith faith says Theron I know what I see today but in my eyes of faith I see something more okay I'm done give you the best best illustration a few weeks ago like many of you I took my kids to go see The Avengers we like Marvel movies we like superheroes we went to go see Avengers I did not like Avengers if you've seen it that's a horrible ending anybody seen the movie okay okay I'm Jessup I was mad in Avengers we just got black panther hi y'all hi y'all hi y'all go I mean I'm mad I am I saw Black Panther like five four five times I don't wanna see ventures ever again I was I'm not so maddening that movie my son literally my youngest son was crying at the end of the movie I'm setting my cellular system I mean he walks when the movie was over you know with Black Panthers over we stand up clapping we at the end of Avengers everybody was just sitting there like nobody moved everybody sitting in disbelief like in the world did this happen this one's supposed to happen we're watching it it is everybody's disappointed true story brother behind me gets up he's walking out the theater and I hear him holler yo this is some he is furious he's walking out cuz he's mad and I just hollered at him brother don't leave yet because if Marvel does what Marvel does at the end of the movie if you just sit through some credits there's going to be a sneak preview of something that lets you know this story ain't over yet I came by to talk to somebody who's sitting in this theater man with God disappointed with God angry with God don't walk out yet don't quit yet there's another story coming eyes of faith see that God's not done yet the Bible says that God gives Joel back all ten of his children ten of his children were killed job gets in back we often shout about that but any parent here knows you can't replace a child if you've ever lost a child having another one doesn't take away that pain but it shows that God knows I can't promise you that it'll go back to the way it was and all your dreams will be fulfilled and every prayer will be answered the way you want but I promise you this God acts something back to our lives God puts something back in the equation that makes life livable again all you got to have is faith so my message is simple this morning as we close don't give up on God I know some bad things have happened all of us have been there you've lost loved ones things happen to you that should not have happened to you I'm over here it may not be God's will but God can fix it if you have faith so this morning rather than ending with an invitation to discipleship I want to pray with the job's in the sanctuary somebody came with Church today on the brink of giving up and I want to pray with you I'm gonna open the altar for you to come and I'm gonna actually do me a favor Church if it's not for you you don't have to come sit but let people come without you trying to figure out why they're coming don't be that prayer person one eye open one eye closed trying to see you know how Saints are Hiroshi was after all to him he must be fallen let people that people come if you know what it's like to walk in Jobs she was come on to the altar let's pray together I want to pray with those who need God just to help you strengthen your faith we're not asking God to do anything other in this moment than to increase our faith to help me believe that in the midst of this disappointment it's not over that God is still at work God still has other options God can add something back to my life that helps to make life livable as they're coming won't you even now into that space of Prayer hallelujah God come on as they join us at the altar let's bow Father here we bow in your presence on holy ground and our very presence in this place is a sign that we still believe it would've been so much easier to stay at home to give up and to walk away Lord I hope you see that I still have some amount of faith in me that you're able to work this thing out my name is Howard but I got job written all over me don't understand why these things happen trying to figure out how you could love me and letting me go through this the Lord I trust that you're real I know that you love me and I know you can do what needs to be done the devil is attacking my faith and I refuse to let him win so lord I declare right now in this moment of prayer that I trust you I declare through the words of my lip I know that you are real job said I used to hear about you now I've seen you Lord I declare that I see you with my eyes and I know that you've not abandoned me you've not forsaken me it feels like it but that feeling is not true so lord I ask now that you would speak to your daughters and your son's about what it means to continue to have faith in God even now in spite of what you've heard in spite of what's going down in spite of the prognosis and the diagnosis have faith in God even if that just means believing that God is real and continuing to talk to God even when you don't get what you're talking about Lord we bow before you and ask you like the brother who came on behalf of his son lord I believe help my unbelief help me O God in the places where my faith is feeble where my belief is faltering where my mind gets worried where my heart is anxious where doubt creeps in god given me a faith that defends against all that that i might see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living I just believe this is not the end and that you're able to do something else God work it in me now teach me what it means to walk by faith and not by sight but I believe in spite of I believe in the midst of I believe even though all is happening around me I still believe and trust in my god so here this job prayer and show up for us the same way you did for job restored to us in Jesus name we pray amen amen and amen as you return to your seats were getting ready to leave this place if you're with us today and you desire the great gift of salvation in Jesus Christ are you with us and you desire to become part of the church family immediately after our benediction our servant deacons will be at the altar to welcome and receive those whom the Lord will bring on this day to this place as the Holy Spirit we call you we will welcome you we are grateful today for the voice of the Psalms of praise our gonna bless us in our final selection and then we leave in the Grace and the peace of our God [Music]

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

Views: 119,090

Rating: 4.7655172 out of 5

Keywords: Alfred Street Baptist Church, 2018, When It's Over, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, Job 42:1-10

Id: SVZHi5oN97k

Length: 48min 47sec (2927 seconds)

Published: Tue May 29 2018