God's Silence Series

URBAN LEGENDS:

God’s Strange Silence

Today we’re going to get back to our series called Urban Legends. We actually started this series way back on October 6th. So it’s been a while since we’ve talked about this. Maybe you’re familiar with some urban legends that are out there. How many of you are familiar with Bigfoot? How many of you have heard of the Loch Ness Monster? How many believe that there are alligators living in the sewers?

But the whole series really began during a series of discussions that I’ve been having with a co-worker. This co-worker is named Mark. Now Mark is like many unbelievers these days. He has questions. To make it even more difficult to witness to Mark, he comes forward with these great, intelligent questions.

The truth of the matter is that Mark isn’t alone in his questions. There is this huge amount of information that is readily available on the Internet. So we deal with a society around us that has a lot of information, and though some of it isn’t correct, they usually come forward with questions about our beliefs.

So today we’re going to talk about God and, in particular, we’re going to look at why so many non-Christians hold about the existence of God. These are serious things to look over and quite frequently these are issues that cause stumbling blocks in leading other to Christ.

Now the best analogy that I can think of for this goes something like this. When Katy and Michael were a little younger they both had braces. And at the dentist’s office that did all the work on there braces there was this really cool set of books. Now these books are written by this guy named Mark Handford. Now personally I find these books really intellectually stimulating. Because these books have absolutely no words on the pages. Maybe you’ve heard of them. These books are called “Where’s Waldo?” and they’ve sold over 50 million copies in 28 different countries. So this guy was really on to something.

Now the whole point of a Where’s Waldo book is to find this geeky looking guy named, you guessed it Waldo. And Waldo looks a little bit like me. He’s tall and thin, wears glasses, and has brown hair. But Waldo almost always wears this red and white striped shirt. Something that somebody cool, like me, would never wear.

But here’s what’s really cool. Waldo is on every page. He’s on every page in every single Where’s Waldo book. But sometimes you’re going to doubt it.

So it works something like this. There are times that you find Waldo really easily. It’s like you’re looking at the book and there’s Waldo. There he is again on that page. And here he is on this page over here. But there are other times that you can’t find Waldo no matter how hard you look. He just doesn’t seem to be there.

God’s kind off like that, isn’t he?

There are days that I get up in the morning and I just know God is there. It’s a cool, fall morning. You can smell the leaves in the air. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. The leaves are reds, yellows, and oranges. There’s a great big pumpkin in the garden. God is right there. Every place you look He’s easy to see.

But there are other days, even for me as a minister that I can’t seem to find Him. He just doesn’t seem to be around. Everything seems to be going wrong. The dog ate the kid’s homework. The car won’t start. The coffee pot is leaking. The coffee cup is leaking and now the coffee is all over my shirt. And where is God?

No I know by faith that He’s always there. But it doesn’t always seem that He is. So I can understand why so many non-Christians question whether or not God exists at all.

Now, as we get started I’d like you to turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 1:18 – 25. Now this is Paul writing this message to the church of Corinth. And he’s really trying to show them something that is super important. Now I want you to know that I’m not trying to dismiss people like Mark, I think they’re great. I love the questions that they are willing to come forward with.

But here’s what Paul has to say about all of this. Beginning in verse 18.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.