Pastor Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings check out pastors homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar
Taking
Offense At God
A girl of seventeen remembered the
brutal treatment which she had received from men. She was not comfortable
talking to the pastor in front of her and was downright skeptical when he told
her that Jesus was Lord, that he was the master of all things, that he was
Almighty and that he would help her. She scoffed at the pastor and with
bitterness in her voice demanded to know:
Tell me then. Where was your Master when these men were doing this to me
(Fred Veerhuis: Shit Happens. Grace Surprises,
Good question and rather than having an
answer for her many of us indeed ask the same question with the same bitterness
in our voice. God, where were
you? God, indeed where are you? Some
months ago a member of our congregation shared how as an eight-year-old student
he loved the pastor chaplain at his school and then he shared how this much-loved
pastor chaplain suffered a heart-attack and died at a public award ceremony in
front of the whole school including him. Why would God do such a
thing? As young as he was this
student took offense at God which he carried for fifty years until
recently.
You may be here in church today and you may
know that there is a God but you have issues with him and therefore you stay
away from him. It could even be that you still attend worship services and even
look like a dedicated Christian but deep down you have taken offense at God and
therefore have removed your heart from him.
This is not uncommon and is in fact
something I myself struggle with a
lot. God, why is there such slow progress in saving people from an eternity
in hell? Dont you care? Why dont you heal more of the suffering around us?
These are questions which are rather
familiar to me. In 2002 I became part of the local Christian Leaders Network
steering committee. We were seven pastors but then one close friend was taken
by surprise when an unexpected temptation caused him to sin and then that sin
kept a stranglehold on him until his ministry was destroyed and his marriage. I
am still grieving over that.
And then only a few weeks ago another
pastor from the steering committee
Herman Ruyters from the Rangeville Community Church he has been ordered to take an extended break because of burn-out.
What is going on? In the beginning
of the year Herman shared with us a prophetic picture where we were given a key
to the city of
In my prayers I ask nicely (or not so nicely): God,
is that how you want it? Where is the victory? Sometimes it is hard not to take offense at God. And furthermore in a
rather perverted way is there not also a certain attraction in carrying an
offense against God? As sinners we may be on the backfoot but now we have a
righteous or
self-righteous cause and we point the
finger of blame at God. Listing our grievances we feel justified to sulk and be passive and retreat into our comfortable shells entertain bitterness and then
depression because we think that the
ball is in Gods court and we expect him to make an effort toward us. By rights
God should acknowledge the offense and then apologize to us.
Isnt that scenario perversely
attractive? We take the moral high ground over against God. Now if that is
the current situation, the question is: How will God respond to you and me? He
could silence us by making sure that we remember who is in fact God. When the
man Job challenged him in the Bible, he asked him a few humbling questions
Job 38:4: [Job,] where were you
when I [God] laid the earths foundation
Job
38:12: Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its
place
Job 38:17: Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Job 38:19: What is the way to the abode of the light?
And where does darkness reside? God
could pressure us with these questions and maybe slowly it would dawn on us that since we cannot
answer these questions we may not be able to answer the questions of our taking
offense against God. We are humans and do not know what only God knows. Thus, stop
pointing the finger of blame at God.
However, God not going down the route of pressuring us deals in an even more surprising fashion
with offended humans. Jesus told the story of a father
with two sons. The younger son demanded the familys inheritance while his
father was still alive, then wasted the fathers wealth, returned home broken
and destitute but received the unforeseen welcome of an overjoyed father who had
forgiven him, himself had carried no offense and said Luke 15:22-24:
Quick!
Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on
his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Lets have a feast and
celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is
found
Now the older son of the story is the
one that represents those of us who are tempted to take offense at God. He came
late to the party which was thrown for his younger brother. And looking on from
afar in a twisted way this very act of goodness from his dad
taking in the lost brother made him
take even more offense. He decided that he didnt want to go in and thus
maybe like us he chose to take the
moral high ground over against his dad the character representing God.
What should happen at this point? The
way the father of the story continued to treat the older brother is
instructive. He didnt get angry with his obstinate first-born but in full view
of all the party guests he humbled himself and went out to woo the other lost
son. Luke 15:28 I read from the Bible:
The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out
and pleaded with him. Pleaded with
him! Yet, the offended heart of the older son made him blind to the pleading
goodness of his dad. Finally, he spoke what he had nursed in his heart for so
long Luke 15:29-30:
Look [Dad]! All these
years I have been slaving for you
Yet you never gave me [anything]
The father responded with these words Luke
15:31: My son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours.
Could it be that God might speak the same
words to us: My son my daughter
you are always with
me and everything I have is yours? We are busy taking offense at God but he is pleading a different
reality with us. The lost are coming home and we are invited to share the joy
of the home-coming party. The Bible explains Luke 15:7:
there will be . rejoicing in
heaven over one sinner who repents
It would be so healing to snap out of
carrying offenses and recover some of that rejoicing. Just imagine: a party of
joy dancing with our Father in
heaven for every single repentant
sinner who now dines on the fattened calf in eternity. I want that joy and I am
sure that you also want that joy. If God is as good as the father in the story
which Jesus told, then I dont want to miss out.
However, there are still unanswered
questions. What else could be said? I come back to the opening story. A girl of
seventeen remembered the brutal treatment which she had received from men. She
scoffed at the pastor and with bitterness in her voice demanded to know: Tell me then. Where was your Master when these
men were doing this to me?
Here is how this incident continued. The
pastor said that he didnt know what God was doing but that he would ask Jesus
to tell her. The contempt in the eyes of the girl told him what she thought of
this what a load of rubbish.
However, he began to pray and when he
couldnt think of anything else to pray, he switched to this language of
tongues (words given by the Holy
Spirit which the speaker does not understand). The young woman was alert and listening in much the same manner
that a dog cocks its ears when it senses something. The pastor saw that reaction and impulsively held his hands in front of
her, in the manner of a book, and continued to use this prayer language. As she
focused on his hands, her eyes almost popped out of her head. She stared, and
stared, with such intensity, as though she was watching a video clip.
The pastor stopped praying. She looked
at him. He asked: What was Jesus
showing you? When
they were doing that to me
they were doing it to him too. The
pastor simply nodded. She asked: But why did both of us have to suffer
like that? The pastor said the
first thing that came into his head, and from that day to now, he has been
certain that what he said was true: So that when you were ready to face
this, and deal with it, you would know you could leave it with him! The girl nodded, able to accept what was
said (Fred Veerhuis: Shit Happens. Grace Surprises, Mount Colah: Ferryhouse
Publishing, 2006, p115).
When horrible persecution came on the
first Christians beatings and
torture Jesus appeared to the chief
persecuter and asked him this question Acts 9:4:
Why do you persecute me? Jesus
felt the pain that was happening to his people. He asked: Why do you
persecute me? This means that the strange vision, which
the girl received, was true. What was done to her was also done to Jesus so
that she could leave it with him when she was ready to deal with the pain.
Consider your own life. We are not alone and God is not removed from us.
The ultimate proof for that we find on
the cross. We may take offense at God for the wretchedness of a world in crisis
but the truth is that God does not owe us anything. On the contrary it is he
who could have taken offense at us. He created a world that was beautiful and
pure without any pain or death but then we managed to spoil his precious
creation. We managed to sin. Our first human ancestors disobeyed the goodness
of God with the consequence of righteous judgement and a fallen world. The
Bible says Romans 5:12:
sin entered the world through one man [or the
first human couple Adam and Eve], and death through sin, and in this way
death came to all people, because all sinned
That was deserved. We may not think so or want to accept that but where
there is a holy God there is righteous judgement of sin.
Yet, I repeat: God did not take offense
at us but rather did the unthinkable and shared our predicament. All of our
suffering, all of our judgement, all of our pain he took upon himself, paid the
price for our sin in his own body so that we could be healed and set free.
The Bible says 1 Peter 2:21-25:
Christ [the one
who came from heaven to earth; the Fathers only begotten son] he suffered
for you
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they
hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no
threats
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree [on the cross]
by
his wounds you have been healed
The world is no longer a paradise but
whatever happens in this world bad
and twisted it is not God that is
causing offense. Jesus proved the opposite. We look at the cross and we see a
God who is on our side suffering for us and with us.
I still have questions but now finally
this one question is settled: Does
God care? Does he love me? Yes, he
loves you. Your circumstances may not make any sense but God has not abandoned
you. Look at the cross. That was for you. He loves you more than life itself.
Do not harden your hearts by carrying an offense waste fifty or more years
in nursing resentment against God. Jesus
wants to heal you by his wounds.
The other week I bought with keen
anticipation a new book from the Koorong catalogue. It is by the missionaries
Heidi and Rolland Baker who have amazing stories to tell from Mozambique,
Africa. I bought the book because they planted about three-thousand churches in
only five years and I wanted to learn how they were able to do that. I was
intrigued by how powerful the Holy Spirit was through them opening the eyes of the blind, making the deaf hear,
multiplying their food, raising the dead even (53 reports of raising the dead)
Wow!
Let me read from the book and listen to
what I have initially missed in my preoccupation with the wow-factor: Outreach this week was in a nearby village. I
preached a salvation message
and nearly everyone wanted to receive Jesus as
their Lord and Savior. I felt God ask me to challenge the people to bring the
blind, deaf and crippled to be healed. I held a deaf mute man in my arms and
prayed for him to hear and speak in the name of Jesus. His tongue was
immediately loosed and his ears opened up. For the first time in fifteen years
he spoke and heard! It was beyond beautiful.
The next lady had not heard anything in twelve years. I put my fingers
in her ears and commanded her ears to be opened in the name of Jesus. Her smile
lit up my world as Jesus opened her deaf ears.
Next, some mission students brought me a little boy around twelve years
of age. He had been completely blind since birth and was sent away from his
village by his parents to beg in the city
was with me on the truck. I spit on
my fingers and put them on his eyelids. I held him in my arms and rocked him
back and forth as I felt the deep love the Father had for this boy. When I
asked Jesus to open his eyes, he saw light for the first time! He looked around
in amazement as his eyes were opened by the glorious love and grace of Jesus. I
held him close and began to weep at the beauty of what Jesus had just done.
After such a fabulous miracle, others pressed forward to receive their
healing. A lady with a crippled foot for ten years leapt for joy
No matter
what we go through, we will get through because we are in love with the One who
is altogether lovely. He continues to call us to care for the orphans and
widows. We took in many more this week
I am truly undone by the love of Jesus
(Heidi and Rolland Baker:
The Hungry Always Get Fed. A Year Of Miracles,
Chichester: New Wine Ministries, 2007, p39-40).
Do you know that it took me quite a
while to understand what was going on in this book.
The miracles are great and I we
together want to do mission work just
like that here in Toowoomba but these miracles by the hands of Heidi and
Rolland Baker have not yet changed the fact that Mozambique especially
where they serve is destitute,
starving and ravished with disease. These missionaries could take offense at
God constantly because of what they see every day but they dont. The miracles
come out of something else that they know. Did you catch the phrases which I at
first missed:
I held him in my arms
as I
felt the deep love the Father had for this boy
his eyes were opened by the
glorious love and grace of Jesus
No matter what we go through, we will get
through because we are in love with the One who is altogether lovely
I am
truly undone by the love of Jesus
In this book written in the slums of
At one stage Heidi experienced the
miracle of an entire hospital being healed wow but then the next day
they were praying for four of their church kids who were really sick. They had
measles and malaria and in the end two of them died. She said: Bear in
mind that the children who had died were our
babies, our precious children. She grieved much.
The very next Monday she found herself
lying face down on a grass mat with the mother of one of the little girls who
had died. She lay down with this woman and wept with her, holding her in her
arms. It was then that God said to her:
Heidi, its about love. Its not always about victory. Our whole life cannot be about victory and
glory but so Heidi says and so the Bible says it must be about love. Love
is patient and kind and long-suffering. Gods love is the kind of love that is
extravagant, bottomless, ceaseless and endless. Thats what you need when you are
on the floor holding a grieving mother. We all need a download of holy love
that so motivates us, it doesnt matter what anyone does to us we just love (p58-59).
I for one do not want to take offense at
God when other people seem to experience so much love from him. Do you not desire
the same? Is it not worth seeking after this: the love of God which is
extravagant, bottomless, ceaseless and endless no matter what the
circumstances?
The Bible promises this to us all 2
Corinthians 1:3-5: Praise be to
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God
of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles
For just as the
sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our
comfort overflows. Romans 8:31-39:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or
sword
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. (These Bible verses are not just theory but are meant
to be experienced. They were written by people who had experienced the love of
God in the midst of the very hardships that are mentioned: famine and nakedness,
danger and sword
)
I close by making this practical. If you
are tempted to take offense at God, change your prayer life and make the change
permanent. Before you may launch into many words and a busy prayer agenda, be
still. Be still and let God happen to you. Let the love of God happen to you. Experience
the truth of the Bible. Let God love you, immerse you in his embrace and heal
the bitterness that doubts his goodness. Be assured: he will come to you as the
Father of all compassion and of all comfort.
One last
practical hint. It is not hard to be loved by God. A healing
evangelist saw that in one of his meetings there was this person who had a
strained and tense look on his face. He was literally begging and begging for
an encounter with God. He said to him:
Young man, you wont get anything by begging. Just relax. Its so easy when
you surrender. Thats what he did and
almost instantly the Spirit of God came over him.
The healing evangelist writes: It will never happen if you try to. Its like
learning to swim. If you struggle to swim youll begin to sink, and you may
even drown. Thats why the swimming instructor first teaches a child to relax
and learn to float. Swimming comes naturally when you dont fight it. And
thats the way it is with surrender it comes instinctively to a yielded heart
(Benny Hinn: Good Morning, Holy Spirit, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers,
2004, 99).
What about testing whether this is true?
What can we lose? We may have taken offense at God and we may feel that we have
had good reasons to do so but nevertheless right now can we be willing
to let that go at least for a season so that we can be open for something better: the love of God. Be
wrecked and ruined by his love until nothing in this world attracts you like he
does. Do not stop until you know and experience this love. Amen.