“Why Me???” – FBC Morning Light (10/6/2023)

Well a good Friday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading we're reading Jeremiah 13 and 14, 2nd Timothy chapter 4, so we're wrapping up the second letter of Paul to Timothy, and Proverbs 29. And so we're rounding out this week again in Jeremiah.

We've looked at some passage in Jeremiah every day this week. I hope the challenge of listening to one of these Old Testament prophets isn't too heavy for you. If it is, well, hey listen, it's God's Word, and you know we need the heavy and the light.

We need the things that confront us and really just kind of convict us and challenge us that are hard to hear. We need to hear the hard things too. And so again you get to these Old Testament prophets, and though they were prophesying to Israel or to Judah a couple thousand years ago, or more than a couple thousand years ago, their messages are very timely.

The Timeliness of Jeremiah's Hard Message

And again we see this in Jeremiah chapter 13. Have you have you observed this interesting phenomenon when some disaster, natural disaster, hits? And it can be, you know, localized or it can be a regional one.

I think, for example, some examples here of like a massive hurricane strikes, and it causes much widespread devastation, and people suffer greatly. Or I think about the fire that happened a couple few weeks ago in Hawaii, and you know, who knows how many people actually died in that.

Or the cataclysmic flooding in Libya a few weeks back, where thousands of people have perished in the broken dams that swept people away into the ocean. Or, you know, more man-made cataclysms like, you know, these mass shootings that kill a bunch of people and so forth.

Well, what what I see often in these calamities is somebody gets interviewed, and they basically ask the question, you know, where's God in all this? Why would God do such a thing? Why would God let this kind of thing happen?

And, you know, I understand the angst, and I understand the depth of emotion that's behind the question, but what's fascinating to me is that people who ask such questions are rarely, if ever, rarely, I shouldn't say never, rarely are they people who have a consistent, ongoing relationship with God.

In other words, they're not believers or followers of Christ, haven't trusted Him as their Savior, they don't have any church connection, you know, do they even have a Bible? Never read, it's never paid any attention to.

They spend any time in prayer? Nah. But then when crisis hits, they're screaming at God, and saying, you know, why is this, why has He done this thing? Why has God done this? You know, like lashing out at God.

I bring that up because of what we see in chapter 13, where God's people, God's people are going to be experiencing great calamity for their sin and their defiance against the Lord, and the Lord says in verse 22, if you say in your heart, why have these things come upon me?

Why has all this calamity occurred? Why has it happened to us? How could this happen to us? Why? The Lord answers. He says, for the greatness of your iniquity, your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare.

Why has all this come upon you? Because of the greatness of your iniquity. So I wonder how many of the screamers against God, when calamities strike, stop to ponder, is this something that I've deserved?

Is my life marked by sin against the God of the heaven? Is my life consistent with the life that the Creator wants me to live? Does my passion of heart include finding out who God is, what God is like, and what God likes, and then living accordingly?

Well, I would suggest to you that would be the only appropriate response. Don't cry out and lash out against God. Consider, what have we done as a people? What have I done as an individual that really merits this and so much more?

And then, let such a one ponder and consider, as he has the breath still to cry out and scream against God, that he's going to face that God someday, and there's going to be an eternity to deal with. And it may be, unless he turns to Christ and trusts in him, it may, it is a cataclysmic one.

Oh, let's not go there. Let's be sure that we are in Christ Jesus, that we are followers of Christ, and that, you know, when calamity comes upon the follower of Christ, he doesn't cry out and say, where's God in all this, and to shake his fist at God and all this?

He says, what's God trying to teach me in this? How can I grow? What do I need to learn? How can I be a better servant of Christ? And so forth. So this is a pretty challenging passage before us today.

Responding to Calamity with Repentance and Faith

Well listen, we're coming up on the weekend, and Sunday is the Lord's Day, and I hope you'll gather with God's people, and our church on Sunday, we're studying in the adult Sunday school class, we're studying the book of Acts, and Sunday morning service, the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation will be on, this coming Lord's Day will be on letter number five, I believe it is.

No, letter number four, I had to stop and think, which, where we are in the process. But anyway, it's been a good study, and then Sunday evening we're in the book of Proverbs. So I encourage you to come, gather together with God's people this coming Lord's Day.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for the challenge of this passage, and I pray that we wouldn't be living in such a way that would be bringing calamity upon ourselves. Oh Lord, I pray we'd keep a short account of sin, and keep our hearts in tune with you.

And this we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Friday, and hope you have a wonderful weekend, may the Lord bless you in it. Good day.