Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.
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Thanks for joining us. All right, well, good morning
Islands family. I'd give it a 8 out of 10.
I get this time of morning. I give it a 10 out of 10.
You all did great. For those who don't know me, I
am Ernie and I have the privilege of filling in here
periodically when Steven is is not able to be here.
So it is always a joy and a privilege.
And I know I say that every time, but I truly do mean it.
It is like coming back to family.
So if you're new here, I couldn't encourage you enough to
join the Connect event. I'm an outsider insider kind of
guy, if that makes sense. But man, when you come to a
place and Miss Stella gives you a hug and says, I love you, she
means it and it's beautiful. If you want to go ahead and turn
to the book of Daniel, if you have your Bibles, I'm sure
that's the place you spend a lot of time in in your your
scriptures. They're going to be in Daniel
this morning. There's a question that I hope
sticks with you the rest of your life that I want to ask you this
morning because I think it could be really helpful.
And that's my goal this morning is to offer you all hope and to
help you. Here's the question probably
won't make sense to the very end, but stick with me, OK here.
What if you could hear the narrator's perspective of your
life? I'll say it again, what if you
could hear the narrator's perspective of your life?
I want to tell you about a conversation I had.
Actually, I think it was 3 weeks ago today.
I have a friend that used to be part of my church when I was a
pastor and younger man younger than me, which is easier and
easier to come by these days. And we've been friends for quite
a while. And I know that he's been on
this journey. Are you guys familiar with the
term deconstructing your fate? Yeah.
So he's been on that journey.
And I've known we've we've had some great conversations.
And it's not like the fiery Ernie preacher conversations
where it's like it's just asking questions, listening, trying to
understand. Don't ever go preacher mode on
people that are deconstructing their faith, by the way, I'll
tell you that now. Don't do that, please.
I didn't realize this. He's in the military, and he had
been in a part of the world where he had an NDA.
And recently that that was lifted and he was able to open
up more of his story. And he was very clear, Hey,
Ernie, I'm at a point now I'm no longer a Christian, OK?
He had been in Afghanistan and we pulled out.
And I know that could be a hot button topic, so forget all the
political whichever way you land there.
But he had seen human atrocity at a level no human being should
ever have to see. He came back to a wife who no
longer wanted to be a wife. God, if you've been married more
than 5 minutes, you know how complicated that discussion.
He also in the dialogue, he knows a lot of my story parts of
it. You, you all don't know, you
know, about us losing a child and particularly a part that
there was something I'd been praying over for like 3 years
and when the answer finally came, it unleashed the hell in
my life that I would not wish on to anybody.
And this guy knows it. In the course of the
conversation, this is Ernie. Why haven't you looked at God
and said, what the heck? But he didn't say that.
He didn't even say the age it was anyways.
Like I would tell you the acronym, but then you would
think of the word and we don't need to do that this morning,
but you get the point. The truth is I have, but he
knows. But then he got more pointed and
he said, Ernie, why are you still a Christian?
Like, I've closed that chapter in my life and I want to fully
close it. And then he told me this, he
says, But there's this little piece.
There's this little piece I can't snuff out.
He says the. Only reason why I'm still.
There, Ernie is you. Because you.
Make no sense to me. You shouldn't be a Christian
anymore. I don't say that in any way to
can any accolades on me. Trust me, I don't want that on
my back. But I promise you this look at
me. There are other people watching
you. So my goal today is try just to
try and give my friend an answer as to why I'm still a Christian.
And it's not always intellectual guys, when we began to
deconstruct our faith. And maybe you're here and you're
there. And I am not in any way offering
the slightest bit of condemnation.
I love my friend and he knows he doesn't have to believe what I
believe for me to love him and maintain his our friendship.
But I think there's probably two groups of people here today and
maybe online. There are those who desperately
need to hear my answer and there are those who one day will.
So I'm going to do my best to try and help you, all the while
admitting you may hear this may shock you all and I hope this
doesn't happen. But a month from now, you've
Steven may stand up and say man already said he's no longer a
Christian. I don't intend on that being the
case, but if I'm being gut level honest, it's a razor's edge.
Happy Sunday. So let's pray we're going to get
into this. Lord help.
Help to build the foundation of faith through Your word that is
unshakeable. Use me.
Use my story. Use Daniel to help us to begin
to earnestly ask to keep this question for the remainder of
our lives. What would the narrator say?
The first story was being told. Holy Spirit, we invite you to
speak. We pray the prayer of your
servant Samuel. Speak now for your servants are
listening in Christ's name, Amen.
All right, we're going to be in Daniel one.
I want to read just the intro to the book of Daniel in my ESP
Bible just so it gives you a bit of context.
What's going on exile to Babylon and six O 5 BC.
So we're just going to say roughly 3000 years ago.
So we're going to be learning from a young man that existed
3000 years ago, give or take 200 years.
Daniel was one of several young men chosen to serve in
Nebuchadnezzar's court. When Persia conquered Babylon in
539, Daniel was again given a position of power.
So he saw two different regimes, the Babylonian Empire and then
the Persian. 1 He remained faithful to God in both of those
hostile environments. He remained faithful to God in
both of those hostile environments.
From the interpretation of dreams to the familiar stories
of the fiery furnace, the lion's den, and the handwriting on the
wall to the prophetic visions, the recurrent theme in Daniel is
God's sovereignty over human affairs.
The recurring theme is God's sovereignty over human affairs.
And if you live long enough, you're going to question that
God is not going to feel sovereign over your affairs, and
he sure as heck isn't going to feel good over your affairs.
And Daniel is going to have every reason to question that, I
would venture to say more so probably than most of us in this
room. And that's a bold statement.
I don't know your story. I know mine.
And what we're going to see this young man go through is
incredible. And so this theme of God's
sovereignty is written all over the book in the historical
sections, chapters one through 6.
God supernaturally rescued Daniel and his friends.
The rest of the book consists of visions of the future judgment
and deliverance by the Messiah. Some of Daniel's prophetic
themes are echoed in the New Testament, especially in
Revelation. There we go, Daniel one in the
third year of the reign of Jehokim, king of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged
it. And the Lord gave Jehokim, king
of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the House
of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the House
of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his
God. Then the king commanded Ashwin
as his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel,
both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without
blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed
with knowledge, understanding, learning and competent to stand
in the King's palace and to teach them the literature and
language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned to them a
daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine
that he drank. They were to be educated for
three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand
before the king. Among them were Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.
And the chief of the units gave them names that I'm not even
going to try. Anybody want to?
We always call him Shadrach Meshach Nabinegas.
So there's a lot to unpack here. So who was Daniel?
Daniel was a part of either the royal family or the lead of the
lead of Jerusalem. That's who he was.
His nation had just been conquered by Babylon.
That God had been prophesied like you could read Isaiah lot,
some of the Old Testament prophets said this is what's
coming. Israel or Judah, excuse me, the
northern tribe, Israel had already been a conqueror by
Syria. Like they have rebelled against
me and they're going to be punished for it.
And Daniel just happened to get caught up in the whirlwind of
world circumstances and the sin that his nation had done and God
was punishing them. And there's so much here to
unpack, though, about what's going on. 1st off, did you
notice the house, the the articles that were taken from
the temple? This means, yes, you noticed it
all right. And so Nebuchadnezzar took some
of the articles from the temple of Yahweh, Israel's God, and put
them in the temple of his gods. Here's why that's important to
our story and understanding the culture of the ancient Near East
for the ancient year East where Daniel was existing, basically
gods were more like geographical, like gods of
certain areas and you had gods depending on who you were, gods
of fertility, God of like giving you far, blessing your farms and
all of that. But what was very significant is
when one nation conquered another, essentially that was
saying our God is better than your God.
Now pause for a second. You're Daniel.
You're meant to experience this cathartically.
Your nation's been conquered, and I don't have time to go into
the atrocities like we just get in a couple lines.
Let me just say it this way. Daniel was not put on a back of
a horse and carted back to Babylon and a real cushy rot.
Do some Googling if you want about what the Babylonians would
do to people they conquered and Daniel and his friends.
Their nation had been conquered, their nation had been conquered,
they had suffered immensely. And what's a very important
detail is they came from nobility.
So was Daniel blue collar or white collar?
White collar through and through.
Educated, smart, intelligent, and up to this point we don't
know, probably living a pretty great life.
When I think of nobility, I don't.
I don't. Know what that's?
Like, but I can't help but imagine you probably got
servants, you probably got a bit of ego about you, and all of a
sudden the rug just gets snatched out from underneath
them when it's hard enough to go through hard times.
But let's face it, if you kind. Of been in the coal mines your
whole life and you get dragged somewhere.
It's like, yeah, this sucks. But I mean, I know.
Hardship in life. Does that make sense?
So when you've been living. Here and you get dragged down
to. Here that makes the.
Difference of belief and trust that much.
Wider we're meant to understand that and then.
Who is Daniel placed? Under not his name, but what is?
What is this title? Anybody want to chief of
eunuchs? Do you know what that means?
That happened to Daniel and his friends.
It's implicitly here. Excuse me.
It's it's explicitly stated in Isaiah.
This was prophesied about that some of that king of the time,
his children, some of a seed as lineage were to be made eunuchs
in the House of Nebuchadnezzar. So there is no doubt that Daniel
and his three friends have been made eunuchs.
And I don't know how to say this other and just say it.
To be made a eunuch in the ancient Near East means for a
young man your testicles will be removed.
And they did this for various reasons.
Sometimes the kings would put. Eunuchs over their harem.
I know ladies, this is crazy. But men had kings, had harems of
women. And guess what, you don't.
Have to worry about. When you put a eunuch.
Over your harem, that guy. So now imagine, imagine what are
circumstances telling Daniel at this?
Point. Snatched from his.
Homeland taking on a journey. Remove his manhood, his
masculinity removed from him as a young man.
I will never propagate my name. I will never.
Have children. I have every reason to turn my
back on God. I have every reason to say God
can't be real. Now we don't get.
That from Daniel, but Daniel. Was a human being just like you
and I you? Can't tell me that he.
Didn't go through that. You can't tell me that.
There weren't the guttural cries.
You ever done this like in your car or maybe laying out
prostrate in your bathroom or wherever?
Why? God, why that type of prayer?
Because Daniel, I'm telling you, it doesn't say it here, but I
know we had to be saying. That or the age-old guard in
question that mankind has wrestled with it still to this
day. And I understand it is not an
easy question. How can God be all powerful and
all love him? And this happened to me and that
has been enough to catapult many of us of the deep end.
And let me say this, if you're here today or you're watching or
whatever, if that's you and you just, you had enough of the pain
and you chose to just. Show out and you chose maybe you
couldn't take it anymore so you. Turn to the bottle, or you turn
to drugs, or you turn to anything and everything.
That we can as human beings. You are not without hope.
You may not have went the way. Daniel did, but I want to.
Encourage you with something. You're not without hope.
You are not left aside. Like as Carl Jung once said,
every addiction is just a misplaced.
Prayer. You.
Just you. Just wanted the pain to.
Stop and God. Wasn't showing up in your story
the way. You thought he.
Should and so you took. Matters in your own hands.
Been there, done that. You are not.
Without hope I don't want. Daniel to discourage you.
I want you to walk away encouraged.
And I want you to believe, I believe for you that if you're
hearing this is because the God of the Bible, the God that Sean
was talking about has opened the doors wide, still has them swung
open for you. If you're breathing, there's
hope. And Daniel had every reason.
And I'm telling you. If I was.
Daniel, I'm tapping out. Do you notice what was what was
going on here? Nebuchadnezzar wanted to
assimilate these wise men into Chaldean culture.
Smart. We're going to bring him in for
three years. We're going to teach him our
books. We're going to teach him our way
of living. And what's really cool.
If you want to, I'm telling you, if you want to learn to live as
a modern missionary, read the book of Daniel, especially the
first six chapters. Watch this man's life.
They didn't pitch a fit. Hang new man.
I got no leg to stand on. You don't go to the.
King and say no. But Nebuchadnezzar was smart.
Anybody here in sales? Just me, A couple of us, man.
If I get somebody to go eat with me, we're in a conversation.
Food is powerful. So remember, Daniel and his
friends came from nobility. What do you what kind of food do
you think they were used to? Probably their King's table.
And what were they offered? The meat and wine of the King's
table. Uh oh.
There's where our conundrum begins for Daniel.
Why? He was Jewish.
Nebuchadnezzar was a Pagan king. Guess what?
Meats on the menu if you're a Pagan king, every part of the
pig. Now he knew the laws of God.
He'd been raised in him, the dietary laws of the Old
Testament. Daniel was firmly under and it
was meant to be a sign in a statement to the world of how we
are different from you. Our God says there are certain
things we can't eat, certain things that we can't eat.
And that's what comes into play. Now, if I'm Daniel, I'm telling
you right now, there's probably a 99 out of 100 times a chance
that I'm saying, forget it, My God's abandoned me.
I've been screaming into the night, why?
And I get a chance to eat like a king.
And all I have to do is compromise my dietary laws.
All I have to do basically is say, hey, God, that was a good
run. But I'm here now and I'm just
going to do it this way because I'm hurting.
I'm disillusioned you, I'm angry.
So I'm just going to go. I'm just going to do like all
the others. Maybe you're different.
I hope you are. I hope you're like Daniel.
I just have to be honest with myself.
It takes like this and say, if that's me, I don't know if I'm
landing where Daniel land. And I will say that like
boastfully. I just say that honest.
And that's what amazes me about stories like this is there was a
real human, I mean a real human being.
This is not like mythology. Daniel was a real human being,
like you and I completely different culture, completely
different part of the world, but he was a human being.
Look what he did verse 8. But Daniel resolved that he
would not defile himself with the King's food or with the wine
that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of
eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself, and God gave
Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the
eunuchs. There's your narrator, by the
way. Do you see it?
All of a sudden we get a third person perspective.
God gave Daniel favor. You know who doesn't know that,
Daniel? He doesn't know that that's the
narrator. And we get the benefit.
Of that now reading. Into that.
So it makes the story start to make sense.
To us, but not to Daniel. Daniel's in the middle.
Of it, he's living it. He's not getting that narration.
This is after the fact, probably long after Daniel's dead and
gone. That this is written.
Don't know all the intricacies of that for you.
I probably should have looked a little deeper, but that's OK.
You get the point. And here's the question, what
would you do if your life was being narrated?
Because what you're walking through right now, what you're
in the midst of, or what you will walk through one day, I
can't give you a lot of promises.
And I know how hopeless it could feel and how dark and how hard
it can feel. But do you know what?
God may not be with you in the way he was with Daniel, giving
favor to the chief of eunuchs. Hope to God you don't ever need
that kind of favor. But what would the narrator say?
That's the question for you to ask.
And it's I don't think Daniel was entirely so different or
special compared to you. And I is God is our God.
So let's read on. And the chief of the eunuch said
to Daniel, I fear, my Lord, the king, who has signed your food
and your drink, for why should he see that you were in worse
condition than the youths who are of your own?
Age so you would endanger my. Head with the king, guys.
That is not hyperbole. That is real.
The chief of the eunuchs, to which Daniel appealed, and he.
Didn't come all arrogant, he stayed humble and said hey come
on man. I can't eat this food.
He's like. You don't realize what you're
saying, Daniel. If you look worse than the
others and there's an investigation and the king finds
out I wasn't giving you the fare from his table, but I'm giving
you vegetables and water. Guess what happens to my?
Head, quite literally, it will be removed from my body.
Daniel was asking this guy to risk his life for him, and
because God had given him favor, he does.
Then Daniel said to the steward. Who was the chief of?
The eunuchs that is signed over these guys.
Daniel. Yeah, you know the names.
Test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to
eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the
appearance of the youth who eat the King's food be observed by
you and deal with your servants according to what you see.
So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10
days. At the end of 10 days, it was
seen that they were better in appearance, in fatter in flesh
than all the youths who ate the King's food.
So the steward took away the food and the wine they were to
drink and gave them vegetables, which, by the way, you're
supposed to laugh at that, You know, every time.
I mean, when I read it, I just kind of laughed.
And I was like, man, Daniel, you talk about stepping out of the
frying pan and into the fire. What do I mean?
All right, so Daniel's made his choice and his three friends
have, right. But there are others there.
Can you imagine? Matt, you're getting the King's
meat and wine. All of a sudden this sucker
comes up and says I want vegetables and water and it
works. And for three years.
Do you know what you. Get for three years vegetables
and water I. Got some stuff I want to say to.
Daniel, I don't care who. Your God is like why did you do
that? I guarantee.
You he got some blowback. For that one, for that move.
I. Guarantee you he did.
There were some of those people. There is like.
Come on man, we had the good stuff.
And now you're giving me. Broccoli and water.
That ain't me. That maybe.
You. That's my.
Wife, she'll take the give me the meat and.
Wine all day, like let's do it. And I just kind of laugh at that
story. And then we go on.
And these four years, God gave them learning and skill and all
literature, wisdom, and Daniel had understanding and all vision
and dreams all given from God, which is very important for the
narrator to tell us that. Because if you keep reading in
the very next chapter, Daniel's ability to interpret dreams and
visions saves not only his life and his friends lives, but the
lives of all the the wise men, including the magicians and
astrologers and Nebuchadnezzar's court.
Because the man was a madman. But the narrator tells us, he
set me up. You're getting a foreshadow for
what's about to. We're not going to get into it
today, but I love how the story begins to unfold.
And once again, we get the narrator's perspective.
These four youths, God gave them learning and skill and all
literature and wisdom and the King's going to test them and
they're going to be better than all the rest.
That's how the story influence. So why am I still a Christian?
Because of stories just like this.
And you have to learn to root that into your story.
See, Daniel resolved long before this moment.
You don't resolve typically in moments like this.
And you know how I said I would probably eat the the meat and
drink the wine? But Daniel had resolved at some
point in his story, at some point in his life, not to defile
himself with the King's meat or with food that was
inappropriate. He took seriously the laws of
God and he took seriously worshipping his God through
them. And he had built this pattern
and established it. And at some point we all have to
resolve, come hell or high water, I am going to follow
Jesus. He's worth it for me and my.
Story. Here's how it.
Came 15 years old became a Christian Jesus kind of
radically stepped into my story when I wasn't even looking for
him. He had the nut the gall to
intrude on my life and save me come on Jesus and I lived like
that for about two weeks I was a sophomore in high school.
I still remember to this day, and I despise this term to this
day, Reverend, like all of a sudden, you know, because for I
was already pretty Pagan. And so pretty quickly it was
like, oh, do you hear about Ernie Banks?
And I mean, I remember having Mr. Pool wording my, my algebra
2 teacher, which is yet another reason why I hate algebra.
But he started calling me Rev in the class.
And, you know, not in a friendly, fun way, but in a
derogatory like, Oh, here's Ernie.
So that lasted for about two weeks.
I had no foundation and like discipleship and the heat was
too much for me. I didn't like it.
So you know what I did? I didn't consciously deconstruct
my faith. We didn't know any terms like
that back then. I just decided, hey, I'm going
to live life on my own terms, and I did.
Before the next four years, I spit at Jesus over There's no
and over again as a young man. And at 19, he had the gall to
come back. Not that he ever left, but he
had the gall to kind of work some stuff in my life, like a
chastisement. That was pretty harsh to me at
the time. It felt terrible At 19.
Now I let back that was nothing but it was enough to bring me to
a place of brokenness and surrender.
It came for me to a .1 day and I had known.
There have been moments where I I knew that what I was doing was
wrong. But it came to a point and I met
Jesus and that moment, not a religion, not a baptism, not a.
Confession I met. Jesus.
And I found. Someone like so when, when, when
Sean or I or whoever says the the the doors are open wide.
The reason why I could tell you that.
Was so certainty. Is because they were for me
still they shouldn't have been. They should have been closed.
They should have been. You had your chance boy, I'm
done with you. And he wasn't.
And I met a Jesus and I fell in love with him and I told him if
you will take me back I will follow you all of my days.
And I had no idea what I was committing to as a 19.
Year old young man. No idea, but I have never gotten
over. Jesus.
And his love, and his grace, and his mercy.
And I have had the serpent on so many nights whisper.
Into my ear. Had enough?
Yet is he still worth it, Ernie? And somehow, by the grace of
God, I can look at my friend and say the reason I'm still a
Christian is because I'm a kept man.
I'm a loved man, and regardless of what life throws at me, I
have something historically to look back upon.
The cross of Jesus, the death, burial and resurrection of the
Son of God. And somehow, somehow, miracle of
all miracles, when I was a young man in the 1990s, yes, I lived
in a. Different century than some of.
You. Jesus came radically throughout
my. Story.
And there are so. Much that I don't understand.
The older I get the less. I feel like I understand.
But there is one. Thing that I.
Cling to. Is Jesus and his love and his
mercy even when it feels like the opposite.
I also have the narrators story. I have an answer.
So do you. You may not know it.
Can you throw Romans 15 on there?
Do we have that? This is Paul written 1000 years
war after Daniel. All right, 600, we'll say 1000.
Whatever was written in former days, Guess what was written in
former days? The book of Daniel.
He's writing to Christians. Why is Daniel there?
It was written for your mind. Instruction that through
endurance a good people. Do you have to endure a good
meal or enjoy a good meal? You know when you need
endurance? When you're in the gym, or are
you pulling the 3rd consecutive 12 hour shift or the babies are
up at 2:00 in the morning to get that, You don't need endurance
for the good times, you need it for the hard times.
So through endurance. And through the encouragement of
the scriptures, through the encouragement of Daniel's story,
do you know what you and I are supposed to take away from
Daniel's story? We might have hope because you
and I are never going to have the narrator show up in our
story. But what we have to trust is the
same narrator who was narrating Daniel's story.
Guess what he's doing in yours? He's narrating it, which could
be really tricky and really hard, but we have.
Something firm. And resolute to stand on.
I can go to the book of Daniel and I can imbibe that.
Into my life and say OK God, OK I don't like what?
You're doing right now. It hurts.
I don't want to keep. Believing, but I want.
To trust you. Because of this.
Story I will trust you. I will resolve like Daniel.
I will be resilient by the grace of God.
There is power. For me to believe and have hope
and keep going. So that's why I'm still a
Christian and all this begins to change my perspective.
The question of how could God be all powerful and all loving and
allow evil in the world? It's not just a something that
perplexes theologians or theists.
It's also a problem for atheists when you get on the
philosophical side. Here's what I want to tell you.
You guys know jiu jitsu? Obviously I do.
One of the keys to jiu jitsu that.
What I understand theoretically, not experientially, is that what
you do is you you kind of flip your opponent's power against
them, like you learned to kind of transfer that power against.
Them right. So wait.
Here's what I want to tell you. I want to.
Teach you how to do that because that question I've resolved in
my heart. Is a garden question.
Here's what I mean. How could God be all?
Loving and all powerful. And allow this well.
That's the same thing that the the serpent offered Adam.
And Eve in the garden, just in a different package.
If you eat this tree. God knows you.
Will be like who? Him discerning good from evil.
And that's what that question is.
I get to Satan, say I Ernie, you get to be the decider of what's
good and evil. You get to be the judge of God.
And so here's how you jujitsu that question.
Here's how you begin to fight. Here flip it on its.
Head and say the same question. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Wait a minute, snake. Wait a minute, Ernie, talk to
yourself. I mean, don't say Ernie, that'd
be weird. How about this question?
How? Could God be all loving and all
powerful and let someone perfect like His Son die in my place?
That might be a better question to ask and answer in those
moments. And that's how you begin to flip
it. And it's not a denial.
Sometimes you have to live with the pain.
Sometimes you have to live with the why.
You will not get the answers you want always.
But there are solid places to land, my friend.
There's solid places to land that matter.
They're far better than where you're landing.
And deep down inside, you know it.
And you have to trust when life doesn't make.
Sense because Daniel did and then lastly, I'm still a
Christian because I believe the end of the narrator story told
from a first person perspective being in this Jesus is coming
back and everything that was made wrong in the garden will be
made right and the wonder and the beauty and the mystery of
the crosses. This is process of Romans.
God could be both just and the justifier of the ungodly.
What does that mean? Some of you have been so wrong
in life. You have been robbed of justice
and you know it and I know it. And there's no way morally,
ethically or legally, you can get what should be coming to you
if you. Have a problem?
With God's wrath, which is what he's talking about, justice will
come. One day on the ungodly.
He's going to clean house. If you have a problem with that.
I would say you've probably never been robbed of justice.
Because if you ever have, then it begins to make more sense
because you long for it. It's unfair and there's nothing
you can do about it. And that robs you of authority.
It robs you of autonomy. It just, it's infuriating to
have someone do evil to you and not be able to respond in kind.
And even Paul says that it drives me crazy.
Love your enemy. Pray for those that despitefully
use you. And you don't want to know what
I tell Paul sometimes in secret moments about that.
You don't. But I bet you would too.
I bet. You do too.
And that's the beauty of it all. One day Jesus is coming back.
And listen, do you know who deserves God's wrath when he
comes back? Every one of us.
But for all who've embraced Jesus, we get love, grace and
mercy. And maybe even those who've
wronged. You it'll be settled on the.
Cross. And if not, if not, justice will
finally come in the form of a king who roots out all evil.
Believe it or not, that is good news.
My friend who saw atrocious evil God was not black to it.
It's only a matter of time. Or for the all who've
perpetrated you, they'll either bow to Jesus now, for they'll
bow to whom. And I still think that's the the
most logical story of all of them that I hear.
All the religions, all the philosophies still just makes
the most sense to me. So I hope for you today you can
continue to ask the question, what?
What did the narrator say of my story?
And let that bring you hope through all the darkness,
through all of the pain, through all of the suffering.
And it won't be long. I mean, our lives are not that
long. It won't be long and King.
Jesus will return and we. Will walk in that victory for
the rest. Of our lives.
And all this, I don't even know if it'll be a wisp of a memory.
Just don't know. All right, let's pray.
Yeah. Father, I pray that this
question would stay with us and we would be able to honestly and
openly dialogue with you, dialogue with ourselves, and we
would keep coming back to this and say there is a narrator and
he has good in mind. Father, thank you so much that I
still believe that is a gift for you.
I pray that for everyone of my hearers, maybe for the first
time or maybe for the millions, how they would be able to say I
believe or I still believe. Help us, we pray in Jesus name,
Amen. The.