Where is God?

[Music] you know i love coming up to these foothills this is close to where i live in albuquerque these sandia mountains part of the rocky mountain range and it's just so beautiful because when i come up here it's like i'm away from the city away from the problems i see the handy work of god i love to photograph in these foothills and so i see the majesty and the wonder of god in this stuff i see the rocks i see some of the deer that are running out here the bible says is the deer pants for the brooks of water so pants my soul after you o god it's a really good place for me to to think about my life and who god is and who i am in relation to god but at the same time i know i live in a world where people are always asking where is god really i mean it's such these are difficult times this is people's hearts are broken people's lives are threatened people are scared more than ever before where is god in all this and what does the bible have to say about you know in this crazy world we live in so much volatility and so much unpredictable events it's important that you have your life built on something solid a solid foundation a rock fortress but the question i get asked a lot is does the bible predict all this stuff that's going on we're living in a time when afghanistan has gone back to the taliban rule live in a time where there's been a worldwide pandemic there's hurricanes that happen during seasons of the year so many catastrophes that occur and people look around go i mean is this predicted in the bible does god know all this stuff why doesn't he do something first of all god god knew all about it before it happened you know one of his qualities is that he is all-knowing theologians call that his omniscience he knows absolutely everything also beyond that god is omnipotent he is fully in control he's all-powerful so that makes him sovereign that's the word we use god in heaven is sovereign and that does bother people because they go wait a minute how can how can a sovereign god how can god be all powerful and all loving because if he was all-powerful that's one thing but if he's all loving and he's all-powerful couldn't he stop the catastrophes from hurting so many people well you know there is a great scripture in the book of habakkuk where he was wondering about the events going on in his day and he didn't understand why god would allow bad things to happen to his people and god said habakkuk i'm i'm working a work in your day that if you even had any idea you wouldn't believe it and he was working a work behind the scenes he was doing incredible things so first of all god knew all about what is going on in the catastrophic events of our world a second thing that's important to know is that god doesn't tell us everything he tells us some things he tells us certain things he tells us many things but he doesn't tell us everything there's a scripture in deuteronomy 29 29 where it says that the secret things belong to the lord our god but the things that are revealed belong to us into our children so the things that god has revealed are the things that we look at so god knew all about the things that are happening god doesn't tell us everything but he tells us something certain things and then number three the bible does predict many things many bad things in fact did you know the bible actually predicts much worse things than a pandemic or hurricanes or war in afghanistan if you read the book of revelation or you read things like matthew 24 jesus great discourse about the end times he talks about a time when the world will be at its wits end book of revelation describes half of the population of the world almost half of the world being utterly destroyed by god during that time so much much worse and jesus said there's going to be distress of nations with perplexity listen to that verse distress of nations with perplexity the word perplexity could be translated no way out people will be so distressed so discouraged so perplexed that they won't see a way out of the problems it could make a case that we're getting close to that now but i don't think so here's here's the real issue i think is what should we be doing about it okay we know god knows certain things he doesn't tell us everything he predicts many things that are going to happen including distress of nation what should we be doing now about the things that we see well listen to psalm 11. david has a very simple short little psalm where he says in the lord i put my trust how can you say to my soul flee as a bird to your mountain for look the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow on the string that they may shoot secretly at the upright and heart then he asked this question if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do and the word foundations means pillars of state when you look around and the pillars of your government seem like they're falling apart and they're not very strong if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do but he goes on the lord is in his holy temple the lord's throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids test the sons of men the lord test the righteous but the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates and upon the wicked he will rain coals fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup so i'm not going to go through the whole song but there's a few things that's important to recognize first of all david says god sees his stuff he knows his stuff second what what is happening in terms of the judgments that are around us or the catastrophic events is simply a preview of coming attractions for the unbelieving world god is going to judge this world and if you think it's bad now it's going to get much worse so this is a kind of a wake-up call to the world of what can i do now to prevent something far worse happening to me in terms of eternal judgment so god sees things this is a preview of coming judgment but first and foremost this psalm says we can trust the lord in the lord i'm going to put my trust he says you know you may if you've got one around a coin in your pocket or a dollar bill pull it out because it says right there in god we trust in god we trust that's sort of the motto of our nation now i don't believe that's true i don't think we actually are trusting in god i think we're a nation that has turned from god and isn't it interesting that people where's god where's god we've kicked him out of government we've kicked him out of schools we've kept kicked him out of public life and then when he doesn't show up we go well where's god and so we've left god god hasn't left us so the question is do you trust in the lord is he somebody you put your trust in and then finally when you look at the world around you and you complain about how bad it is and wonder where god is and why didn't god do anything i have a question for you why don't you do something why don't you be part of the solution why don't you join god's cause his redemptive cause give your life to jesus christ surrender your life to him he's the god of hope he's the god of help and why don't you be part of that hope why don't you be part of that lifeline why don't you build your life on a rock that will last for eternity then you can help stabilize people who are faltering up the path and pull them to safety yourself you can be part of god's solution for this hurting world i hope that you are you

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 3,548

Rating: 4.9737706 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermon, Calvary Church, Jesus, Gospel, prophecy, sovereign, revelation, trust, God

Id: teQiEq9EZFg

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021