Where is God? - Louie Giglio

the message today has been titled where is God and the question is everywhere right now in culture in fact I saw a pop up in my feet just a few days ago an op-ed piece in The New York Times and the title of it was where is God in a pandemic and I want to take that question on today because the answer is unbelievable and it's filled with hope you know last week we looked at two big questions that always rise to the surface at a moment like this the question of is God judging the world is this the end and the question if God is loving and good then why is all of this happening and why is this pandemic sweeping the earth but today we look at the question where is God people are dying the world is at a standstill people are afraid and desperate where is God and it's such a valid question you know sometimes I think in the church we've sort of wanted to push all the questions to the side and say oh you just have to have faith but I want you to know today that God is welcoming your questions because he wants to be able to shine a light on truth and shine a light on who he is so it's a great question it's a valid question a question we should be asking today and as we look to the answer to that question today I just want to say one more time we're not in any way trying to minimize the situation that we are in I'm gonna look to a spiritual answer today but in looking to a spiritual answer it doesn't mean that we don't understand and recognize that we need real time breakthrough to stop the spread of this pandemic and so the church isn't standing on one side or the other of science and faith today we're standing right in the middle you already heard on this gathering that in a few days from now we'll be an epicenter here at our Atlanta location of distributing is just distributing 35,000 pounds of resources through organizations in our city to the people who are most vulnerable it's not an either/or it's not we need to press forward for a cure or a vaccine for medical procedures equipment and supplies or we just need to believe God and trust God and have faith in God it's a both/and today but as we answer the question where is God I'm gonna lead us to a spiritual answer I believe that answer will permeate all areas of our life but I just want you to hear again we're not using this pandemic as a pretext to a message today we realize that we are up against a ferocious enemy and the consequences are staggering and if we don't see some kind of a breakthrough the difficult days the most difficult days are probably still ahead and in the middle of it all we asked today where is God to answer that question today I want to take us to probably the epicenter of where that question would be asked and that is on day 2 you're like what is day 2 what does that have to do with our lives well our story the story of Jesus has its penultimate moment and its climax in a three day window of time three days in Palestine over 2,000 years ago where Jesus Christ the Son of God gave his life for the sins of the world Friday we call it now Good Friday Jesus died for the sins of the world in fact in the scripture we read it this way 1st Peter chapter 3 reading in verse 18 it says for Christ died for sins once for all the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God he was put to death in the body but made alive by the spirit through her through whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison there once for all on Good Friday Jesus Christ died for sins to bring you to God so we know about day one but Jesus said on the third day I'm gonna come back to life and so we celebrate that day as Easter the day that the stone was rolled away we discovered the tomb was empty we realized that what Jesus did promised actually had come to pass that the Son of God dead on day one is very much alive on day three this is the story of God's redemptive plan for all mankind in all time and in history this is God's salvation plan day one Christ has died day three Christ is alive but I want to talk for a moment about day two I don't know if I've ever heard a message in my lifetime on the second day so I went to the Gospels of course because I wanted to revisit the story the eyewitness accounts of this three-day journey this 3-day work of Almighty God this three-day window of time where God was doing what you couldn't do and what I couldn't do when God was doing something that causes the human mind to strain to its greatest ability to comprehend I look down Matthew Mark Luke and John only one of the four Gospel writers gives any account of what happened on day two and that's in Matthew's Gospel in Matthew tells us that on the second day that the chief priests and the leaders of the Jewish community that had put Jesus on trial and sent him to crucifixion that they went to the authorities and said hey we want to make sure there's no hoax and so we want to seal the tomb we want you to set a guard we want you to put your authority on the tomb so that no one can go there steal the body and then come up with some Easter story that jesus is alive that's the only comment that we have from the four eyewitness account of day two all the Gospels as you read them and he died they took down his body this is day one and put it in a borrowed tomb the actual events they would have happened like this and we need to do just a little bit of timestamp history so that we understand today where God is leading us Jesus died at 3 o'clock in the afternoon we know this from reading the eyewitness accounts sundown on that Friday in Jerusalem would have come somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. let's just call it 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Friday a new day would have begun we're talking about a Jewish day not a Western day a Jewish day which would begin at sundown and end the next day at sundown so the day would begin at night you would wake up to see what God had done so Friday is ending and the second day is beginning somewhere around 8 p.m. the Sabbath officially begins when you can see three stars in the night sky so somewhere 7:30 8 p.m. dusk is coming night is falling Sabbath is beginning day 2 is about to start so from 3 p.m. until let's just call it 8:00 p.m. there's five hours on Friday where Jesus is dead one of the leaders a man named Joseph went to Pilate and he said I want permission to take the body down from the cross and he had Authority and he was in the circles actually of the Jewish Council but he was also someone who'd become a follower of Jesus he went to Pilate got permission John adds that Nicodemus helped him they took Jesus body from the cross took it nearby to a tomb that was hewn in Iraq dis tomb of Joseph of Arimathea one of the upper class of the day had never been used before it says they took a linen and they rap Jesus body they didn't have time for all the official preparations because they were observers of the Sabbath and when 8 o'clock came everything would go still so in a very short period of time they winning got permission they went back to the cross they took down the body they hastily made preparations they got the body to a nearby tomb put it in the tomb and the scripture says put a stone in front of that tomb and now night falls day one is over now it's day two 8:00 p.m. the second day we all know how to fast forward right to the third day the third day by the way would have started at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday I hope everybody's you know staying along with the timestamp here because it's essential so it wasn't Friday he died Sunday morning he was raised from the dead no the third day morning would have started at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night that's the third day so technically Jesus died at 3 p.m. could have been raised instantly at 8 p.m. on Saturday 28 hours ish 29 hours of death and in the middle no comment no commentary no eyewitness accounts of anything happening in the moment this is the greatest place probably that you asked the question today where is God this man walked on water this man raised the dead this man did miraculous works this man had power and authority this man was like no one we'd ever seen before this man claimed to be the Son of God now he's dead and nothing is happening the city is still because of Shabbat and it doesn't seem like God is in the equation at all and so I want to ask in that context in that 28 hour window of time where was God because I think the answers are the same for us right now as we're asking the very same question I think God was a couple of places number one God was near do you understand that on day two when the believers in Christ now are afraid for their lives they crucified our leader they're coming for us they put him on a cross we're gonna be next and so where were the followers of Jesus they were dismayed they were bewildered they were frustrated they were afraid they were holed up for their own safety and probably asking the question what is going on and where is God in all of this but where was God in all of this while they were waiting on day two while they were afraid on day two while they were locked down in their homes on day two God was near I don't mean figuratively near I don't mean spiritually near I mean literally the Son of God was near to them on day two when Jesus was born they said call his name Emmanuel it translates to God with us this wasn't just some rabbi some teacher some holy man this was God in human flesh this was the creator of the universe in a human body walking on planet Earth and now he was dead in a borrowed tomb laying dead not far from where they were close enough so that in the account of John on Easter day it says when the women went to the tomb and saw that it was empty they came back to the followers of Jesus and said the tomb is empty and John says Peter and I took off running and we ran to the tomb now they could have been marathon runners they could have run 26 miles to the tomb but I don't think they had to run far at all I think maybe a few hundred meters got him to the tomb maybe a half a mile most got him to it to the tomb why because the whole time on day two when it looked like God was not near actually Jesus was very close to where they were and he's close to you and he's close to all of us in this moment not literally because Jesus is alive we already know what happened on day three but spiritually and in the spirit and through the spirit he is still Emmanuel and God is still with us God doesn't leave the scene and when times get tough he doesn't evacuate under pressure he's not looking for a safe retreat right now to be isolated from his creation if that were the case Jesus would have never entered into history if that were the case Jesus never would have died between common criminals Jesus was Emmanuel and he still is to this day why because God wants you to know you'll never be alone on this planet you'll never be alone through anything you walk through they'll never be a day a time a circumstance or a season where I am not with you right now the first thing we see when we ask the question where is God we get an immediate answer he is with us he is near the second thing I think that we see when we asked this question in the context of day one especially day two and day three is that God is working that's where God is right now God is working right now you're like it doesn't look like God is working I can't see that God is working I haven't had one headline come across my television in the last few days it said breaking news God is working look at the almighty at work all we've seen are the headlines that say the story is getting worse the news is getting worse the numbers are growing that statistics are going off the chart it doesn't seem like God is doing anything but here's the thing we've got day to day to the Sabbath was a day of rest it's that interesting and quirky concept that God put into the fabric of our lives you know when God created the world on day 6 he created man and woman put them in the garden gave them stewardship responsibility and a relationship with him and then the next day came the seventh day and he said today we're gonna have a day of rest they didn't need a day of rest they just got there they didn't need a day of rest they weren't tired they didn't need a day of rest they were in paradise you see it wasn't rest because they were weary it was rest to stop and to remember and just set apart this day as holy unto God this is the day that we look up and we remember that God is the giver of all things that God is the creator and sustainer of all things that is Sabbath at its heart and day to when it seemed like nothing was working guess what day it was it was the Sabbath it was the day we remember that God is the creator and the sustainer of all things and it was the day that God was finishing the greatest work that has ever been done for you in your lifetime something that you could not do to other accounts in Scripture sort of give us peaks if you will into what could have been happy between day 1 and day 3 Ephesians 4 says that this Jesus has now ascended into the heavens and it says the one who ascended Ephesians 4 is the same one who descended into the lower parts of the earth in this very text that we're looking at in 1st Peter chapter 3 the very next verse says that Jesus and the power of that spirit when entreat to the spirits in prison now there are many many ways that theologians want to slice that particular verse and bring interpretation to it but where the Gospel writers don't say anything about day two to other places hen at the fact that somehow in some way beyond our comprehension or full understanding God Almighty was defeating death defeating hell defeating the power of the darkness defeating the power of our sin defeating the power of condemnation he was ending the reign of guilt and shame and he was conquering forever the grave this is what God was doing when it looked like nothing was happening God was accomplishing his greatest work now if you say well technically Lois he couldn't have been doing that on day two because day two is the Sabbath and on on the Sabbath we all cease from our labor well I'll just remind us that from 3 o'clock until 8 o'clock there were five hours on Friday that God could do all that he needed to do because with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day I did the math that means one hour in God's economy is 41.6 years that means five hours before sundown on Friday God had all the time in the world to do everything he needed to do and whether Jesus somehow in his authority defeated sin death hell and the grave or by the declaration proclamation of Almighty God or what it means in the text when it says he descended into the depths of the earth I'll tell you what was happening God was working God was accomplishing God was finishing fully the work of liberating us from the power of the darkness where is God right now he's working right now you say well I can't see it we'll just wait till Sunday because I'm telling you there is a Sunday coming there is a day coming there is a time coming when this too shall pass and when that day comes you and I are gonna see and understand we are gonna have comprehension oh my word God through it all through the pain and the hardship and the darkness and the death of this broken planet God was doing the miraculous God was doing the unthinkable God was doing the powerful work that only he can do just wait until day three and we are gonna see the stone has been rolled away but even until that day we've got the confidence of the past to give us assurance that we can trust God for the future nearby where I'm speaking from right now a few days ago people went into a parking garage across from the Cartersville Medical Center they tuned their car radios to the radio station in town and they began to sing an anthem from a course that a lot of us know called waymaker somehow the staff at the hospital found out about it and workers came out onto the roof of the hospital looking over at the parking garage and joined them in this confession and all of a sudden this video now is going viral all around the world why because there is some great anchor to be sunk into the truth of what God did on day one and what we know happened for sure on day three and that anchor is the anchor we need on day two in the bridge of that song we're gonna sing it at the end of this gathering says even when I can't see it you're working and even when I don't feel it you're working if I can't see it and I can't feel it that doesn't mean that God isn't here and it does not mean that he isn't working how do I know that day - God was doing something that none of us could do the third thing when we answer this question I believe is this and it's tied to that idea that we just talked about where is God I'll tell you where God is God is bringing about the greatest result possible right now and that is the salvation of many people in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 we find one of the verses that always become a beacon of hope for us in moments like this in the verse joseph is speaking joseph has been betrayed by his brothers he's been sold into slavery he's been falsely accused put in prison under the leaders of Egypt he has been passed over multiple times forgotten the situation is so bleak but at the end of it all here's his perspective looking at his brothers the same ones who put him into this position now that he's been raised up by God to be the second-in-command in the most powerful nation on planet earth at that time he said what you meant for evil God intended for good now we know that phrase and you'll hear that many times in these days what you meant for evil God intended for good but a lot of us don't know the last part of that verse it says what you meant for evil God intended for good to bring about the saving of many people God right now where is God he's doing the greatest thing I do believe that God is helping and giving grace to everyone who needs it in this moment you're like glue you don't need prayers we don't need platitudes we don't need all the preachers telling us about all that God and is it's doing good with what what was meant for evil we need real-time help we need respirators and we need ventilators and we need masks and face shields and we need more hospital beds and more ICU units this is what we need right now we don't need all this spiritual mumbo-jumbo while the world is in a crisis and I just want to remind us I would say amen to that I would agree fully to that we don't need any spiritual mumbo-jumbo at any point in our lives and we do need every amount of our wisdom and our faculty and our ability to come to bear to bring salvation to people but to bring deliverance to people and healing to people in this situation that's absolutely where we are today but God is in all of that you're like I don't see God in any of that I want to just remind you that Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said God causes the Sun to shine on the just and the unjust and he causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust it rains on the unrighteous man's yard and the righteous man's yard the Sun comes up for the one who honors God and the Sun comes up for the one who curses God do you know what that's called it's called the grace of God and I believe everyone who is fighting this pandemic right now is experiencing help from heaven whether they know it or not because you can't get through times like this without help from Almighty God but God's doing something more than just giving breath in mental capacity and computing ability and strength and resource to people he's doing something more than that and that is he's trying to leverage what is happening on earth to bring about the salvation of many people I hope you hear my heart in saying this today as humbly as I can but the greatest tragedy I can think of if someone who comes through medical care and survives a scare with kovat 19 and goes right back to a life that is without hope and without God and without purpose and without eternity only to die in another season in another day without the creator who made them for himself God is working right now and what is he doing he's working to do the greatest thing he can do which is not to see one person come to faith but to see millions of people come to faith not to see a few people have a spiritual wake-up call but to see millions of people have a spiritual wake-up call and come to life spiritually come to peace with Almighty God come to know forgiveness of their sins come to know what it means to have the burden of guilt and shame lifted off of their lives once and for all to live with purpose and with meaning and with hope and with faith and with the power of God's Spirit in their life with a view not just of this life but the life to come in a relationship with Almighty God now and forever this is what God wants to do there's a number it's gonna come on the bottom of the screen right now it's a number you can text in at any point texting the word alive and when you do that you're saying I'm putting my faith in Jesus I'm acknowledging my need for a savior I'm admitting that my life has fallen short of God's glory and I'm asking Jesus to forgive me I want to be born again I want to come alive spiritually I want a new relationship with God I want to know that I have eternal life and I'm just trusting that right now while we're in the middle of this message someone is saying I want to get saved I don't know if I can wait to the end of the talk I need to get saved right now I want to put my faith in Jesus right now I want to confess my sins right now I want to ask for his forgiveness and believe him for salvation right now I want day one and day three to become my day one in my day three I'm texting in I'm putting my faith in Jesus I coming alive I'm one of the many who are gonna be saved because of this pandemic that is sweeping the world but I think there's one last thing to ask the question what is God doing in the middle of this pandemic and where is God and it all and that is that God is extending mercy that's where God is in the midst of this today that's where we were last week to 20 inches to Mercy but that's always at the heart of God is to extend mercy to you judgment is coming this passage that we read about Jesus dying once for all for the sins of the world to bring you to God it says in the next few verses down a reference to the days of Noah and the days of Noah because judgment came on planet Earth Noah built an ark and invited everyone that he knew to come into the shelter of that ark we don't know exactly how long it took him to build it and how many conversations he had with people along the way but we do know from another place in Scripture that Noah was called a righteous preacher so what does that mean it means that while he's building this Ark when no one's ever even seen the need for a boat he's telling people God's making away God is making away God is making away we know from the text that the world had fallen into wickedness in these days that all manner of unrighteousness with sweeping planet Earth that people had turned their hearts away from God and turned to their own ways but God was providing a way he had a man building a boat in the middle of nowhere who was saying to people come to the Ark come to the Ark come to the Ark come to Mercy do you know that right now in this moment the USS comfort in the USS see are moving into port one in Los Angeles California one in New York City they are ships in a class called the mercy class and they are providing shelter for people to come and receive medical care in the midst of this crisis - mercy class ships are moving into port one called comfort and one called mercy it's just so clear that in moments like this when we ask the question where is God God is pulling into port with an arc called comfort and mercy God is pulling into your town pulling into your driveway pulling into your condo right now pulling into your world pulling in to our lives saying I have a place that you can come and find mercy and right now more than ever the world is hearing the story of day one and the story of day three the finished work of God who while he was resting on the Sabbath actually was finishing the Earth's greatest work but do you know in Noah's day [Music] only eight people survived on the ark only eight people Ranta mercy [Music] we need a miracle medically [Music] we need a miracle but we need a miracle spiritually because God is near and God is working God in fact is doing the greatest work right now and God is extending mercy to you and to me so what does Sabbath mean to you you're like Lois I'm not Jewish I don't observe the Sabbath and there's always a push in a poll is that Saturday or Sunday that we should gather to worship listen all of us are created by God and all of us are called in to Exodus 20 all of us are called in to the longest of the 10 commandments the most words of all the Ten Commandments and it is the one about remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy you don't work don't let your maidservant work don't do any work on this day but set apart this day the word says sanctify the day keep the day holy what does that mean keep the day about God keep the day about the Creator why because God knew that we needed Sabbath because of our fallen sinful patterns and ways Sabbath is God's gift to mankind so that we would never miss the magnitude of the absolute and uncontested sufficiency of God to both create all things and fully rescue all those he has made what does that mean to you it means that we're not owners we're stewards that's what happened on the seventh day of creation I made all this I'm just asking you to be in charge of it I did all of this by myself you didn't make any of it including you I created everything and now I'm just asking you to be a steward of what I am putting in your hands do you know what Sabbath means it means that we are guests in God's creation we were put here for entrepreneurship but mostly we were placed here for relationship with him you know what Sabbath means it means that we are not the maker we are the made you know what Sabbath means to you and me it means that our lives are about his glory his life in existence isn't about our glory Sabbath means all the praise goes to God and none of the praise and worship goes to me Sabbath means I am here to acknowledge and amplify the greatness of God and to spend my days telling him how great he is do you know what Sabbath means it means that we are dependent and not independent do you know what Sabbath means it means that we are not in control God is in control do you understand a day you've never been in control I've never been in control covin 19 is no respecter of persons it's an invisible enemy and it doesn't care who you are it doesn't care if you are rich or if you are poor it is no respecter of any person and no matter what you do where you go you cannot fully totally be in control heart disease I don't care who you are either accidents crashes they don't care who you are cancer doesn't care who you are the grave doesn't care who you are we've never been in control we've only fooled ourselves to think that we're in control but Sabbath day too it brings us back and tells us all over again we are not in control but there is some good news our God he is in control he's in control of this world he's got a story board that is unfolding he is still a sovereign God and he's in control of you and in control of my life you're saying but Louie we built a safe house the only safe house is the Ark called comfort in mercy for this is the end of Psalm 23 for your goodness and love we said growing up some translations for your goodness and your mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever the scripture says the name of the Lord is a strong tower in the righteous run into it and they are saved the only safe house is the Ark of the Comfort in the ark of the mercy that is called Jesus who on day two showed us that what God had finished was only to be seen in full God who seemed to be resting and was fully in control in doing the one thing that only he could do saving our lives saving this world forgiving our sin raising us up out of the grave and reconnecting us in relationship with God they cannot be assailed the comfort in Mercy in New York in LA they have no offensive weapons on board they're not coming into port to declare war they're coming to extend mercy but they do have defensive weapons on board and if you attack them you're gonna get a rebuttal and in the Ark of God's comfort in the Ark of God's mercy today in the person of Jesus who's reaching out for you today you can come and find the shelter in this storm and when anyone tries to assail you there are enough defensive weapons on board to protect you until the moment in time that Jesus fully perfects his plan for you and brings you home where is God he's here right here right now [Music]

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 161,773

Keywords: louie giglio, passion city church worship, louie giglio sermons, passion city, giglio louie, louie giglio 2019, city church, passion, giglio, passion city church sermons, Atlanta, sin city, temptation, passion church, louis giglio, cumberland, depression, victory, victory in jesus, Where is God?, where is god when it hurts, where is your god now, where is god now, passion city online, Passion City Church Online, passion city church, worship music, worship, live music, live worship

Id: NGsDCAtd0PQ

Length: 39min 3sec (2343 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 30 2020