God uses broken things. While I was on vacation in Southern California, I decided to attend Saddleback Church for one of their Sunday morning services. I was completely unaware that the morning sermon that day would be the first Pastor Rick Warren had preached in four months following the tragic suicide of his twenty-seven year old son. I can’t think of a more painful experience in life than losing a child. To say I was moved by the words of Rick and his wife Kay would be an understatement. In the aftermath of their initial season of grief Rick Warren shared three responses to life when you just don’t have any answers: 1. When life doesn’t seem to make sense we can have peace because we know that God loves us and wants to be with us. God is too good to ever be cruel and too wise to ever make a mistake. Then why does a good God allow evil? Because… 2. Everything on earth is broken but we can have joy because we know that God is good and has a greater plan. The message of the gospel is that God uses suffering and brings forth good. Anyone can turn good into good but only God can turn bad into good. “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. 3. Life is a struggle but we can have hope because we know there is more to the story. I’ll never forget the words of the late Chuck Colson who went to prison for his role in a corrupt Nixon Administration. He had started a ministry called Prison Fellowship to bring the gospel into the prisons all over the world. He was preparing to speak to a crowd of prisoners when he had a profound thought: “As I sat on the platform, waiting my turn at the pulpit, my mind began to drift back in time…to scholarships and honors earned, cases argued and won, great decisions made from lofty government offices. My life had been the perfect success story, the great American dream fulfilled. But all at once I realized that it was not my success God had used to enable me to help those in this prison....No, the real legacy of my life was my biggest failure—that I was an ex-convict. My greatest humiliation—being sent to prison—was the beginning of God’s greatest use of my life.” As I shared last Sunday, God uses broken things; broken clouds to bring rain, broken earth to bring grain, broken bread to bring us life. Offer up your brokenness to God and trust that he will use you to accomplish His glorious purpose. This Sunday we will continue the theme of why God allows suffering and evil. See you then. --Gary Brandenburg, Lead Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church Dallas fellowshipdallas.org
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 06:12:59 +0000
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