When God Doesn't Make Sense: Part 1 - "When God Seems Inattentive" with Craig Groeschel

glad to have all of our live churches with us today all of our network churches those of you on the other side of computer screens at church online I believe that you are not there by accident but it's in God's purpose and plan that you're here today and I just want to tell you we're launching into a brand-new three-part message series called when God doesn't make sense and I know if you're like me there's not a week that goes by that when you look at things going on in current events maybe when you look at things going on in your own life there's so much pain so much heartache so much confusion in this world that it's really really easy to look on and say I don't like the way that's going and that's what I want to talk about for the next three three weeks when we see things that don't really make sense and I will tell you going into this message series this is a really good time to invite somebody that may have walked away from their faith because they were hurt by circumstances or someone who's going through a really difficult time this is a perfect time to invite them I also want to tell you and just kind of warn you as we walk into this three-part message series that many of you are not going to like this message series this doesn't feel real good it's not hilarious there's not a lot of tweetable little things you can say there's no practical steps it's simply not a feel-good message at all there are no easy answers and so I just wanted to tell you that so you'd be really glad you came to church today say I'm thrilled to be here but the reality is sometimes life is very very difficult and what we're going to do in this series we're look at three different stories from the New Testament we're gonna look at one today where God seems inattentive we look at one next week where God seems late and in week 3 we're going to look at a messages my favorite in the series week 3 is when God seems uncooperative I also want to give credit to Andy Stanley he's a pastor very good friend of mine in the Atlanta area for the idea behind this series Andy about four years ago taught on a similar theme I'm obviously going to make it my own but came up with this idea and I listen to Andy and one other preacher every single week if you want a good additional kind of spiritual meal every week listen to Andy Stanley if you want some leadership ideas Andy and I actually teach six leadership events in six different cities together every year and he's got an amazing leadership podcast I'd recommend to you as well but I wanted to give him credit for the idea behind this series and I want to dive in and just kind of acknowledge that there are many times when God doesn't make sense truth is that a lot of people can make it even more difficult for you when you hear their stories about how amazing God is you might be dealing with something really challenging and you're praying for a miracle and your friend in your life who comes and goes you won't believe it I was Black Friday shopping and I pull up in God it gave me the perfect parking spot Wow you're like happy for you hashtag you make me sick you know I've got real problems and you do that and then you hear you like the amazing preacher stories because all of us preachers we have the amazing miracle perfect preacher stories to just wow you and how God it always does exactly what we need and then like the time I was on an airplane because every good preacher story starts on the airplane and I was sitting next to a crack smoking palm reader and she said do you mind if I read your palm and I said that may because I always speak in King James when I'm witnessing to people and she grabbed my palm and said you're the lines are hand they actually form a cross I said that's because Jesus my Savior died on a cross for me she said there's unusual heat coming from your hands I said that's the love of God may Himself manifest for you I led her to Christ right there on the plane the pilot overheard it came out ask about Jesus I led him to Christ he got so excited he turned the plane around flew over the 1040 window we all parachuted out into an unreached people group I preached and LED them all to the Lord and now some of the tribal elders serve as the executive directors of the Billy Graham association and all glory goes to God for His goodness in every single way right that's how the preacher stories go and you you see your friends a lot of times and everything seems to be going well for them and they're they're blessed and they're not even serving Jesus the way you are like wait a minute I'm more faithful and they're getting blessed and I'm not all of our churches how many of you would say honestly there seems to be a time when you were praying and it didn't really seem like God was listening it seemed like God wasn't doing what you knew he could do or God's timing wasn't your time how many would say that's true for you be honest raise your hands good news is you're not alone the bad news is sometimes God doesn't make sense from our perspective what I want to do today is raise the question what do we do when God seems inactive what do we do when God seems silent what happens when you're praying and you don't hear anything you don't sense that God is with you I'd love for you to write this down if you're taking notes thought we're going to internalize today and that is this just because God is silent doesn't mean God is absent just because God is silent doesn't mean he is absent just because you don't hear him doesn't mean he doesn't hear you just because you don't feel his presence doesn't mean that he is not with you just because God is silent doesn't mean that he is absent and to illustrate this principle today we're going to look in Mark's Gospel Mark chapter 6 and we're look at a very difficult story about John the Baptist now some of you may not have grown up around church and you don't know who John the Baptist is let me give you a little context I'm going to explain to you kind of what happened and then I'm going to show you in the Bible what happened if you don't know who John the Baptist was he was actually Jesus's cuz okay he was the cousin of Jesus and he was a crazy prophet this guy he preached fierce he's here to prepare the way for the Lord he's preaching repent of your sins and be baptized he wore animal skins okay imagine a guy free imagine freaking animal skins that makes you a cockier preacher he ate locust who does that wild honey he didn't take mm-hmm off of anybody and so the common people really liked him because he didn't put up with anything in fact there was kind of a massive scandal in in society and he got up into the King's business to correct him and this is the story I want to show you today king herod antipas was the king and herod antipas was married to a woman but suddenly Herod Antipas took an interest in his brother's wife everybody go whoo that would be very good at all so when I hit her so go whoo you can do it better okay so he's married he takes an interest in his brother's wife and what did he do well King Herod actually divorced his wife and married his brother's wife her name was Herodias hopefully she was better looking than her name implied and scandal broke out okay you know the King marries his brothers what well John the Baptist gets all up in the Kings businesses that you shouldn't be doing this so Herodias the wife hated John the Baptist okay I just told you the story now I want to read it to you and it'll make more sense as we read in Scripture mark 6 verse 17 through 19 okay for Herod this is the King Herod Antipas for Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and he had him bound and put in prison he did this because of Herodias remember this is the this is the other woman his new wife he did this because of Herodias his brother Philips wife whom he had married now why did he do this because John had been saying to Herod it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife so John the Baptist is all up in the King's business don't do this verse 19 so Herodias the wife nursed a grudge against John and wanted to do what somebody say loud he wanted to she wanted to kill him okay that's why you don't mess with women okay they're pretty and they smell good but if you cross them someone will cut you okay that's all I'm gonna say I got about 15 funny things I'd like to say but because they'll cut you I'm just gonna back off but it is okay so Hara just hasn't arrested she wants to kill him it goes on to say but she was not able to because why Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be a righteous and a holy man so what do we have we've got Herod the King who has them arrested because Herodias his wife is really angry he doesn't kill John the Baptist because he actually says I think this is a probably a man of God if you look at this from a distance here's the context we've got John the Baptist the cousin of Jesus preaching on behalf of Jesus my only mission John would say is to prepare the way of the Lord he preaches fiercely repent and be baptized turn away from your sins he says I am unworthy to even untie the sandals of Jesus he says I must decrease Jesus must increase whenever someone wanted to follow Johnny said don't follow me follow Jesus John the Baptist faithfully served Jesus he's in prison for doing what is right and Jesus didn't come to rescue him what but it makes sense okay I don't know about you but if I'm John I'm thinking you're my cousin okay you're my cousin I've been serving you I've been trying to stay in the background doing everything for you now I'm in prison surely you're going to break me out you can come and do some of that Jesus power stuff poof you know chains fall off guards die it's be amazing okay Jesus doesn't do it what do you think John felt what do you think he felt do you think he's like his faith just was unwavering or do you think he had his doubts let's take a vote just for fun all of our churches nobody went down it's no fun without you okay how many think he probably stayed strong in his face raise your hands up raise your hands it excellent how many think he wavered he wavered how many say I am abstaining I have no idea what is going okay god bless you thank you for your honesty right now John the Baptist is human he's human he was serving Jesus and Jesus didn't bail him out and he started to have his doubts John the Baptist started to have his doubts how do we know this well another gospel not mark where we're reading but Matthew's Gospel gives us insight to his emotions Matthew 11 verses 2 & 3 says this when John who was in prison heard about the deeds of the Messiah now let's stop there how did he hear we're not totally sure we're guessing probably some of the disciples came to visit John in prison so you can imagine John's in prison and a Jesus follower comes to visit he was like oh Jesus coming Jesus come and she's coming and the guy says let me tell you what Jesus is doing what he's doing what he's doing and he starts talking about miracles he's like yeah Jesus did this thing and cast a demon out of a boy and Jesus made deaf ears open up and the first miracle Jesus did was turn water into wine water into wine okay I'm John and I'm thinking myself he's doing party tricks and he's not saving me okay then I'm asking what kind of wine was it because that's the miracle it's given Baptist problems for centuries you know real wine must have been fermented non-alcoholic wine surely it was John the Baptist John the Baptist wasn't John the Episcopal they'd be like glory to God he won't want you anyway so so so I've been doing this all weekend long I just gotta have some fun okay when John was in prison he heard about the deeds of the Messiah he sent his disciples to ask Jesus okay so here's Jesus is doing all these miracles so he says hey go ask Jesus this for me and here's what he says go ask Jesus Jesus are you the one who is to come or should we expect someone else what is that it's doubt I thought you were the one that's pretty sure you're the one of us preaching that you were the one but because I'm in here and you're out there and you're not doing anything about being me in here I'm not so sure you're the one anymore are you the one or should we expect someone else then in verse four Jesus replies let me tell you what Jesus does not say Jesus doesn't say oh tell him I just haven't gotten to him yet tell him I've been really busy doing miracles but I'm going to come there and do that magic power stuff or I'm sending Peter and Thomas and Peter's come with a sword and Peter's going to cut some heads off and we're gonna break out at midnight we've just been planning the the Prison Break he doesn't say any of that instead this is how Jesus replies John says are you the one or should we expect someone else jesus replied go back and report to John what you hear and see the blind receive sight the lame walk those who have leprosy are cleansed the Deaf hear the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor in other words the mission of God is being moved forward go tell them all the good news and then Jesus says telling this blessed is anyone who doesn't stumble on account of me okay I'm excited about all those you know people being healed and all that stuff and I'm excited about the good news being preached but you tell me blest if I don't stumble while I'm waiting here in prison on you to get me out and you didn't even come and tell me this yourself you sent a messenger to tell me that it's like when someone group text you something personally you couldn't even text me at a group text me you didn't come and tell me this yourself and John evidently starts to doubt are you the one what happened next well the King threw a big keg party I don't know the kennel that kegs or not but if the future let's all get drunk party and everybody got drunk they're all drunk he loves everybody I Love You Man you're my best friend you're my best friend we're all my best friends you know they're all drunk and if you think the story's weird it gets weirder I mean like it's really weird now okay so Herod Antipas is drunk his wife Herodias his daughter is named Salome she's a teenager and she does a dance King loves the dance we don't know what kind of dance it was okay and the purity of my pastoral mind I'm assuming it was probably a ballet dance she's on point got a little tutu and she's amazing okay may not have been she may have been twerking I don't know if they twerk in the first century think she may have been dancing with a pole I don't know what it was okay but whatever it was the drunk guy who as amazing as the best dance I've ever seen whoa whoa I thought that's such a good death I get anything you want you whatever you want and what he's doing he's showing off he's the king he's drunk and he's a bum I would give you anything you want and he's thinking she's a teenager what's he gonna want and who I found give me a pony I want two tickets to a Justin Bieber concert you know he's thinking something like that she goes to her mom and says well what do I ask for what is Herodias to cut you lady say okay I want the head of John the Baptist go ask him for the head of John the Baptist so he's stuck okay he just bragged and gave his word so if you don't know the story this is how it goes he said go and execute John the Baptist and right as the executioner was about to behead John the Baptist the earth shook and a giant earthquake came and seven angel the Lord appeared with flaming swords and struck everybody blind except for Herodias and said you have to watch this as he gave everybody hemorrhoids up on the spot and then suddenly the angel came in and swooped the sword and the prison door threw open and the shackles fell off and as the music began to swell and the smoke begin to rise John the Baptist stepped out his face was planted blue and he yelled freedom right that's how I'd have done it I'm telling you he look like Mel Gibson and the whole thing man he's coming out he's like it's amazing and then go with me in the American version of Christianity then he gets given the keys to the city and he gets a raise and he gets the perfect home in the suburbs and he marries you know he loves his dressed in animal skins he marries a smoking-hot animal skin model this is how it happens this is what God does and then they have children and they have a cat named Herodias boom take that right that's how we want it to happen right that's the American version of Christianity when you always get the promotion you always get a better car you always get a better house and you're never ever sick because God is here to serve us right it's all about us right God exists to serve us right God is here to make our lives better right that's the purpose of God isn't it here's what happens verse 26 the king was greatly distressed but because of his oaths and his dinner guests he did not want to refuse her so immediately he sent an angel with orders to bring John's head the man went beheaded John in the prison and brought back his head on a platter one more time the man went beheaded John in prison and brought back his head on a platter now if I can be real honest and you don't get mad at me and called me a heretic I don't like the ending to that story I'm guessing John wasn't going like that's the way I planned it right that it makes sense I do not like that what do you do when God seems inactive what do you do when God seems silent what do you do when God doesn't make sense okay if we take a step back from this which I think we need to do and let's ask ourselves this okay a couple thousand years later what was John the Baptist greatest desire what was his purpose what was his calling to prepare the way for the Lord did he accomplish that he actually did okay what was God's purpose to send his son to die on a cross that we might have an opportunity to be forgiven did God accomplish his purpose yes he did okay so we can agree that even what John the Baptist wanted was accomplished he just didn't like the way it was accomplished God's purpose ended up being fulfilled it just wasn't according to John's plan can we agree God's purpose was fulfilled it just wasn't according to John's plan proverbs 19:21 is a verse that's ministered to me for years it says many are the what somebody help me out many other plans in a person's heart but it's the Lord's what it's the Lord's purpose that prevails many of the plans you see there are so many times what we're going to say this is what I think should happen this is the way it should play out this is the way if I were God I would do it this is my plan many of the plans in a man's heart in a person's heart but it's the Lord's purpose that will prevail I'll tell you how this is playing out in my life right now and I'll tell you just very transparently there's a situation that's been painful for my family on the scale of how horrible things are it's not up here some of you all have this up here and I acknowledge that this is more kind of middle level but if you're a parent you understand our pain my my 17 year old daughter Anna my third daughter is just precious to me i him crazy about this girl she's brilliant she's godly she's beautiful she served Jesus is faithfully with more passion than most of any age and she's so faithful well she used to be a dancer and dancing was her dream the reason I stay she used to be a dancer is because 26 months ago we were at my campus and Amy asked her to go pick up joy our youngest from life kids and so Anna walked across the lobby with the stained concrete floors and evidently someone who spilled some water and just walking to pick up joy she slipped on the water and messed up her knee pretty severely and so she was not able to dance and we thought you know six eight weeks things would be better and what it didn't get better we tried some therapy and then we tried some doctors and then we turned up the prayers and prayed like crazy praying praying praying getting all our prayer warriors to pray pray pray pray went to the best doctors had the most amazing care did the injections then did the surgeries then did more injections and more therapy and 26 months later she's still in pain can't walk for very long without the knee swelling up and still can't dance okay so as a parent I hate that hate that but I'm not in despair it's not my plan but I honestly trust God's purpose I've seen his faithfulness and I believe in his faithfulness one of the reasons is because something similar happened to me my dad was a pro baseball player minor-league pro baseball and so he raised me to play baseball and I had probably a pretty decent chance of doing something in baseball was most likely heading to college and maybe beyond I went before I was going to pitch in a championship game the night before I went to take a few swings and a batting cage took the first pitch inside jammed me and crushed and shattered my hand and so I wasn't able to pitch the next day okay years later no big deal when you're that age you know championship game you're pitching like so thing ever devastated where is God this isn't fair this isn't fair then for whatever reason it got in my mind and I was actually afraid to get in the box and I was always hesitant I was stepping out and I just couldn't hit and I was so devastated because I was a good batter and now I'm afraid I was letting my dad down and I had all these emotions of not being good enough for him and so I decided to take a year off and play another sport I just tried something and I ended up making it I was so afraid to go back and fail I took up another sport my freshman year of high school and managed in four years to actually get a college scholarship well I went to this other school I never would have gone to in a million years where I ended up meeting Christ in my life was transformed at the end of my college years I met Amy and we ended up falling madly in love and six kids later we're still going strong and that led us into the ministry and so here I am today preaching a message when God doesn't make sense and I can trace it all back to the event that I never ever wanted to happen but God's used it to bring about his purpose in my life it wasn't according to my plan it was the worst thing I could have imagined but God's purpose prevailed so when I look at Anna my precious 17 year old dancer who cannot dance I do not fear just because this didn't go according to our plan I now wonder how is God going to use this to fulfill his purpose what's he doing what's he doing how are we going to see his goodness because I have learned that I do not don't miss this I do not and you should never interpret the goodness of God through our circumstances instead we interpret our circumstances through the goodness of God don't miss that we don't ever interpret is God good based on my circumstances we interpret our circumstances through the goodness of God my faith is not in our plan my faith is in God's purpose whenever you think was to plan what's the plan what's the plan God may say now's the time to trust my purpose trust my purpose because this is how good our God is our gut Romans 8:28 our is so good that he works in all things to bring about what if you noticed a it allowed to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose purpose I don't understand the plan but I trust God's purpose I don't understand the plan but I trust God's purpose in fact you can write that down if you want to you don't have to understand the plan to trust in God's purpose so you've got a higher level pain right now you don't have the financial resources and you don't know how you're going to pay your bills and that is horrible you're praying for someone who's sick and they're not getting better that's horrible you're praying for a relationship to get better and the person continues to go the other way in a devastates year you've got migraines and you pray and even a doctor after doctor you can't seem to get it fixed you can't figure out why why why why why why why why why you don't have to understand you only have to like the plan and you can still trust God's purpose his character his goodness he is always good he is only good he can not be anything but good our God is good and Jesus experienced this himself you think that we're better or immune to hard times Jesus himself who knew what was coming on the cross knelt down in the Garden of Gethsemane and called out to God father if there's any other way please remove this cup of suffering he knew what was coming on the cross and essentially this is what Jesus prayed essentially he prayed father I don't like this plan but may your purpose come to pass that's what he prayed not my will but your will be done and you know what mankind did to Jesus is they beat him senseless senseless till he didn't even look like a human being they lashed him on the back until his internal organs were exposed they stripped him naked and and and put him on a cross and drove stakes through his wrists and through his feet and hung him to be exposed and shamed as they spit on him and mocked him and you what Jesus did right before his death he looked up to heaven at one point he cried out my God my God why why have you forsaken me in other words why do you seem silent what do I feel you right now what I see you doing something my God my God why have you forsaken me just because God is silent does not mean God is absent just because you don't understand in the moment doesn't mean that God isn't still good and is still doing something because everything in our Christian faith hangs on that moment when God seemed inactive and yet God was hurting even more than Jesus was as he watched his son endure everything he did on the cross why for us so that his purpose could be fulfilled that we might have forgiveness and a chance to know God by the grace and the shed blood of Jesus Christ so the next time you feel like I don't understand you're not alone Jesus looked up to God and said why just because God is silent does not mean his absent you don't have to understand the plan you'll have to like the plan to trust that his purpose will be fulfilled many of the plans in a person's heart but it's the Lord's purpose that is fulfilled we don't have to understand to trust his goodness just because he seems absent just because he seems silent does not mean that he is not with us because our God will never leave us and he will never forsake us so no matter what you're going through today even if he seems silent it does not mean he is absent we will continue to interpret our circumstances through the goodness of God and not vice versa because God you alone are always good and all of our churches that ask you to join me in prayer father we ask that your Holy Spirit would administer to people today because God I know so many are hurting and so many are facing situations that they simply don't understand would you do a work God in a way that only you can to bring healing in our lives at all of our churches right now I just want to see a show of hands at a moment of those of you who would say don't raise them yet but about it there's something in your life that doesn't make sense something you don't understand it could be a physical sickness in your life or somebody you love it might be might be a career challenge it might be a financial obstacle it might be that you're facing persecution in some way it might be that there's relational tension it could be any number of different things and you say yes or something that doesn't make sense and I need God's help and faith to trust his purpose if that's you today would you lift up your hands right now all of our churches and say yeah there's something like that in my life and there's so many people father I want to start by praying for miracles because I know you're a miraculous God you could do all things that everything is possible for you God so I pray for I pray for financial miracles God for those who are hurting and need employment I pray you to open up doors and open up the windows of heaven as your their provider and bless them god I pray for miracles there'd be obvious it comes from you that I thank you that you're a healing God that Jesus is a great physician we pray for Supernatural physical miracles and bodies God that would be so obvious this could only be from God God you brought about healing God we pray for relationships to be restored marriages to be healed God for parental and children relationships to find healing and forgiveness and grace that we pray for every type of miracle knowing you're a miraculous God and God went for whatever reason you don't do what we think you should do and we know you could do we ask for the grace to trust your heart to trust your purpose even when we don't understand and don't like the plan god I pray today that your presence would bring comfort that as we cast our cares upon you God that you would minister to us in a supernatural way you guard our hearts and our minds our souls in Christ Jesus God for those who maybe have been mad at you or walked away from you for a season because of something that happened I pray God that we would not interpret your goodness through our circumstances but God we would interpret our circumstances through your goodness trusting in you God give us the grace to trust in your purpose even when we do not understand the plan as you keep praying today at all of our churches nobody looking around there are some of you right now you are you're hurting so much in life you're so low that you don't know what to do this is just my opinion so take it for what it's worth but it's my opinion I believe there are times when God may allow us to get to a place where we're so low we have nowhere else to look but up maybe that's why you're hurting today because you need to look up and call on him there are others of you you're on the top man you're killing it you're you're making money you're having fun you're doing everything you've always wanted to do and yet there's a there's an aching on the inside there's a longing there's a there's a there's a sense that there must be something more you have everything you wanted and yet there's that you want something more let me tell you what God may have allowed you to have everything you want to recognize that you don't have everything you need you need him you need him we talk about a God that doesn't make sense let me talk let me tell you about a God that doesn't make sense a God that loved us loved you so much that he became one of us in the person of Jesus willing to die in our place so that we could be forgiven shedding his blood on a cross being raised from the dead three days later so that anyone and that includes you anyone no matter who you are no matter what you've done no matter how dark your life feels no matter how bad you've been anyone who calls on his name would be saved Jesus when you call in his name all of your sins are forgiven the old is gone and the newest come and there are those of you you are here for this moment you may be on the bottom and all you can do is look up you may be on the top and you're still empty it's time to look up it's time to look toward Jesus and say I need you I need your grace I need your forgiveness and all of our churches there are those of you this is why you're here and you know it it's your time why is this happening it's so that you would meet the Grace and the love of a God who sent his son for you all of our churches you say that's me I need Jesus I need his forgiveness today I give my life to him today by faith I surrender my life that's your prayer and lift your hands high right now all of our church and say yes that's my prayer lift your hands and say yes I surrender right back over here over here as well god bless you others of you right here in this section saying yes buy back here toward the back over here toward the back as well god bless you guys others today who say yes Jesus I need you I surrender to you Church online would you click right below me I would love it if all of you would pray aloud with those around you pray Heavenly Father today I give you my life Jesus be my Savior the Lord of my life forgive me of all my sins make me brand new fill me with your spirit so I could follow you every day of my life my life is not my own today I give it to you thank you for a new life now you have mine in Jesus name I pray what you worship big worship loud welcome those born into God's family today you

Channel: Life.Church

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Keywords: Craig, Groeschel, lifechurch

Id: RY3dehq9RVY

Length: 36min 19sec (2179 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2015