A Walk In The Valley Of Doubt

Why Me, Lord?

Text: Psalm 73

Introduction:

You know it’s going to be a bad day when:

You call 911 and they put you on hold

You see a 60 Minutes news team waiting in your front yard

Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles

You turn on the news and they are showing emergency routes out of the city

Your twin sister forgets your birthday

Your horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels down the freeway.

Some of us can relate to a want ad seen by Barbara Johnson: LOST DOG: with 3 legs, blind in left eye, missing right ear, tail broken and recently castrated.

Answers to the name of Lucky!

On a bit more serious level … each of us in this room has asked ourselves “why” at some point.

That is what this passage is all about.

I. Surely God is Good… But...

A. Verses 1,2: I know that God is good to Israel, and to those who are really righteous...

But what about me?

I have nearly lost my hold on things

I am losing perspective on all of this

B. I began to look at other people. (verses 3-12)

Their bodies are strong

They seem to be free from burdens

Yet, their hearts are evil

They are corrupt, verse 8.

They deride and slander with speech

They say they have heaven in sight, but they are earthly

Their words are cruel and hurtful

Yet, they seem carefree and strong

C. Jeremiah felt the same way. Jer 12:1-4

II. Is It Worth It All?

A. Verse 13: “I began to wonder if it was worth it all”

B. Have I been trying to do right in vain?

Have I been too innocent and naive?

Am I hurting myself by following God?

C. Lenin thought that those who believed in God were worse than fools. “Every man who occupies himself with the construction of a god, or merely even agrees to it, prostitutes himself in the worst way, for he occupies himself not with activity, but with self-contemplation and self-reflection, and tries thereby to deify his most unclean, most stupid, and most servile features and pettiness. Consequently, anyone who believes in God is not simply in error; he is mentally deranged.” This is why believers in the Soviet Union were frequently judged insane and committed to mental institutions.

D. Is Lenin right? Are we just fools, mental cases?

By the way… Lenin is long gone from this earth.

I like to know what he thinks about it all now!

E. How can we handle a world where the sun shines on the good and the bad? Where the wicked seem to prosper and enjoy health and wealth, while the righteous seem to suffer and struggle?

Is there an answer to be found?

III. Only To Be Seen In The Sanctuary of God

A. Until we lift our eyes to the bigger picture, we miss the richness of the life that we do live.

B. When we lift our eyes off people and events, we began to see Jesus, our final destiny!

IV. Some Of The Reasons Life Seems Unfair

A. God’s goodness is to lead sinner to a place of repentance

They often mistake that for His blessing

Therefore, they are without excuse before God

B. God deal in special ways with those He loves

God and bad happens to all

In the Christian life, each event is for a purpose, to deepen the nature of Jesus in us.

Corrie Ten Boom: “If God sends us on stony paths, he provides strong shoes.”

C. We take our eyes off of Jesus, and put them on the temporal situations of life.

Jesus, is the author… and the finisher of our Faith!

ESV: The founder and perfecter of our Faith

He even shows us the lesson in action:

Hebrews 12:2 “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We have a superior way of life!

D. We learn our deepest lessons in the “why” times of life.

If nothing else, rejoice in the wrong...

1 Peter 4: 12-19

Illustration: Personal list of benefits of having been hurt by others.

V. We Have Something That Can Never Be Taken Away

A. God is with us!

What else could we ask for?

He is our guide

He is our counselor

He holds our hand (our strength)

B. Verse 26: God is my strength and my portion

literally, “My Rock”

Psalm 18:2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

My Portion: Lam 3:24; The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Forever!!!!

Conclusion:

John Wesley sometimes gets put down by theologians. Yet his practical preaching saved England from a bloody civil war, and led many souls to discover a living Jesus.

One day he was walking with a troubled man who was expressing his doubts about God goodness being seen in the troubles of his life and the world around him.

“What shall I do about worries and troubles?”

Wesley looked across the field by the road and saw a cow looking at them over the top of a stone wall. “Do you know why that cow is looking out over the top of that wall? he asked… “Because he can’t see anything trying to look through it!”

We can spend our lives feeling trapped and confined by the walls the world puts up around us, and the situations that seem to holds us down and in … or we can choose to look up over the walls at Jesus and His plan for us and for the world’s future.

Jesus IS the Bigger Picture!