Sick of seeing the bad guys winning?

Everyone has had those times where we have watched something so wrong happen without any ability to stop it.

We have the people who are just WRONG:

·        The person who gets the job you were more qualified for because they flirt and you don't
·        The person who accuse you of something that was simply NOT true but everyone believes them anyway
·        The person who appears to be your friend but makes snide remarks and jokes about you (all only "JOKES")
·        The person who tells you lies to your face and you know both know it but they do it anyway
·        The person who tries to get information out of you by pretending to be your friend - just so they can use it to gossip

Then you have the REALLY BAD GUYS:

·        People who sexually abuse kids

·        People who buy and sell girls & boys in the sex trade

·        People who abduct children off the street

·        Drug dealers making money while kids are overdosing in the gutter

·        Men who beat women

·        People who are cruel to animals

·        What about the drunk driver that crashes and kills their passengers and they live

·        People who torture & kill Christians just for speaking or handing out a piece of paper about Jesus

INJUSTICE. UNFAIRNESS. INEQUALITY. 

JUST PLAIN WRONG.

 

 

 King David wrote many songs (or Psalms) about this problem!

Psalm 12

¹ Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!
    The faithful have vanished from the earth!
² Neighbors lie to each other,
    speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.
³ May the Lord cut off their flattering lips
    and silence their boastful tongues.
⁴ They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.
    Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”

⁵ The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless,
    and I have heard the groans of the poor.
Now I will rise up to rescue them,
    as they have longed for me to do.”
⁶ The Lord’s promises are pure,
    like silver refined in a furnace,
    purified seven times over.
⁷ Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed,
    preserving them forever from this lying generation,
⁸ even though the wicked strut about,
    and evil is praised throughout the land.

Psalm 13

¹ O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
    How long will you look the other way?
² How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
    with sorrow in my heart every day?
    How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

³ Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
    Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
⁴ Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
    Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love.
    I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
⁶ I will sing to the Lord
    because he is good to me.

Psalm 14

¹ Only fools say in their hearts,
    “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
    not one of them does good!

² The Lord looks down from heaven
    on the entire human race;
he looks to see if anyone is truly wise,
    if anyone seeks God.
³ But no, all have turned away;
    all have become corrupt.^[a]
No one does good,
    not a single one!

Psalm 17

¹ O Lord, hear my plea for justice.
    Listen to my cry for help.
Pay attention to my prayer,
    for it comes from honest lips.
² Declare me innocent,
    for you see those who do right.................

This sermon is called:   God! WHY??

Psalm 10 A Psalm of King David   

¹ O Lord, why do you stand so far away?
    Why do you hide when I am in trouble?
² The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor.
    Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
³ For they brag about their evil desires;
    they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.

⁴ The wicked are too proud to seek God.
    They seem to think that God is dead.
⁵ Yet they succeed in everything they do.
    They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
    They sneer at all their enemies.
⁶ They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
    We will be free of trouble forever!”

⁷ Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.^[a]
    Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
⁸ They lurk in ambush in the villages,
    waiting to murder innocent people.
    They are always searching for helpless victims.
⁹ Like lions crouched in hiding,
    they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
    and drag them away in nets.
¹⁰ Their helpless victims are crushed;
    they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
¹¹ The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
    He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”

¹² Arise, O Lord!
    Punish the wicked, O God!
    Do not ignore the helpless!
¹³ Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
    They think, “God will never call us to account.”

¹⁴ But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
    You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
    You defend the orphans.

¹⁵ Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
    Go after them until the last one is destroyed.
¹⁶ The Lord is king forever and ever!
    The godless nations will vanish from the land.
¹⁷ Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
    Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
¹⁸ You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
    so mere people can no longer terrify them.

 

BUT should we consider this...

·        Maybe we have been the ones who have lied and caused injustices against other people?

·        Maybe we are the ones who have caused evil and prospered for it.

·        Maybe we are the one who have lied and manipulated to get our way.

·        Maybe we were the ones who has stolen or gossiped to advance ourselves?

____________________________

Let's turn to: Romans 3    

New Living Translation (NLT)

All People Are Sinners

⁹ Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles,^[c] are under the power of sin. ¹⁰ As the Scriptures say,

“No one is righteous—
    not even one.
¹¹ No one is truly wise;
    no one is seeking God.
¹² All have turned away;
    all have become useless.
No one does good,
    not a single one.”^[d]
13 “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.
    Their tongues are filled with lies.”
“Snake venom drips from their lips.”^[e]
14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”^[f]
15 “They rush to commit murder.
¹⁶     Destruction and misery always follow them.
¹⁷ They don’t know where to find peace.”^[g]
18     “They have no fear of God at all.”^[h]

¹⁹ Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. ²⁰ For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Christ Took Our Punishment

²¹ But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses^[i] and the prophets long ago. ²² We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

___________________________

OK so it says that the only righteous and blessed people are the ones who accept Jesus as their Savior and by faith believe his sacrifice has forgiven them and made them righteous. 

So if we are the righteous, holy and blessed ones why does it still look like complete injustice sometimes?

·What about the people who don't know God, who make so much money that they would laugh at our measly $200 Electric bill... BUT those who know and love Him have to scrape together to pay the measly bills. Injustice?

·        What about the pain of disappointment when we tried our best and put our whole heart into following the Bible and doing what God asks - only to lose out to another Christian who has lied and cheated us. Injustice?

Have you ever said to yourself...GOD WHY??????

·        Have you ever decided, "I'm gonna fight this till I see justice!"

·        Have you ever been so consumed with the INJUSTICE of something that you become consumed by it?

       Maybe you talk about the problem all the time so everyone knows the injustice against you and that you didn't do anything wrong.

       Maybe you think about a situation often and rerun it in your mind until you get angry and frustrated that you can't change it.

       Maybe you tell yourself how useless you are that you did nothing to make the situation better.

       Maybe you blame yourself or are very hard on yourself over a situation that was beyond your control.

       Maybe you lived a lie believing it was the truth and you've vowed to yourself you will NEVER be tricked (by no man or woman) again!

If it was something that got fixed ... then it would not be an injustice now would it? No... we all have to live with some injustice.

It is how we deal with it that matters.

·        You may have to come to a point where you admit and acknowledge that there is injustice that may never be changed.

·        You must give yourself permission to grieve over the fact that what you wanted to "be" just isn't the way it is.

·        You need to mourn over the thing that was lost.

·        Stop working on making it right and tend to your own feelings of pain, failure and anger by getting appropriate counselling.

·        Fighting for JUSTICE obsessively can cause what you have right now to enjoy, to crumble around you. And that would be another injustice!

We all have a story...some more tragic than others... but we all do.

We could spend all day talking about OUR stories. What happened to us and how bad it was... but let's instead focus on the most UNJUST STORY OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE...

JESUS CRUCIFIXION.

The only human who never did a thing wrong was murdered.

Now I don't mean he was a "good boy" I mean he was completely sinless. He never committed a sin. He was innocent in every way.

1 Peter 1:18         

¹⁸ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹ It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 

2 Corinthians 5: 21  

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,^[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

A perfect man...and this is what happened to Him:

 

Yes it appears as though the bad guys win there doesn't it?

·       If Jesus was God and was also sinless

·       If he was so powerful and mighty

How did He allow these things to be done to Him?

This is where we make the mistake... we think:

·       To be decieved

·       To be manipulated

·       To be lied to

·       To be beaten

·       To be forced against our will

Is a reflection on how WEAK we are. THIS IS FALSE!

These injustices are not a reflection of how weak we are it is more of a reflection of how weak they are that they resort to this kind of behaviour.

What did Jesus do in the garden of Gethsemane when he knew the CRUCIFIXION was coming?

He went to the garden to pray for the "cup to pass from Him"... and what was the last bit... "not my will but Yours be done Father God".

What happened to him then... he sweated DROPS OF BLOOD!

How weak was Jesus CHOOSING to endure the cross for us.

That is strength in the face of injustice.

IT TAKES STRENGTH to say to God I don't understand and I don't like it... it is not fair... but I am going to keep doing what you say no matter what.

·       It is hard to choose God.

·       It is hard to choose HUMILITY

·       It is hard to choose not to react in anger

·       It is hard not to medicate your pain with alcohol & drugs

·       It is hard not to believe the lies you hear in your ear so often

·       Sometimes it's hard just to get out of bed and face the world

JESUS UNDERSTANDS. He knows how hard it is to say "not what I want Father, but what YOU want."

Jesus IS alive.

He not only beat the Devil hands down... but he also beat the power of death!

He is NOT dead HE is alive and he is sitting at the right hand of our Father God.

Talk to Him! He died to get to know you!