Title: WHY ME?
Text: Rom 8:28
Date Preached: March 6, 2011
COPYRIGHT © JOE LA RUE, 2011. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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INTRODUCTION
A. As most of you know, I’ve got a broken ankle. Let me briefly share with you how this happened.
It was about 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb 10, and I was driving north on Seventh Street in Terre Haute. Seventh is a four lane road running north to south all the way through Terre Haute. Anyway, someone in the left turn lane turned directly in front of me, leaving no chance for me to avoid her. I hit her in the very front of the passenger side of her car.
The entire front of my little Toyota was instantly crushed; and, because I was pressing on the brake, my ankle was instantly crushed, too. My airbags deployed, and thankfully I had my seatbelt on.
I spent all day Thursday in the emergency room in the hospital in Terre Haute, waiting to see a doctor. Finally, at 4:30 the doctor looked at my X-ray and said, “We can’t treat this here. You need to get to a major hospital.” My ankle was broken in a very bad way. First, the fibula—that’s the smaller of the two bones running from the knee to the ankle—had snapped a few inches above my ankle, and the bone was pushing against the skin. The injury that the doctor was most worried about, though, was the break in the ankle joint itself. He told me that it was compressed in upon itself, and it would take a specialist to fix it.
So they loaded me into an ambulance and took me to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. A group of orthopedic surgeons, called Indy Ortho, practices there. These are the surgeons that NASCAR drivers use when they’re injured. I arrived at Methodist at about 7:30, and they had to do a bunch of new X-rays before the doctor finally saw me at about 10 p.m. He was very concerned. He said that the fibula had been pressing against my skin long enough now that there was a risk that the skin would die. He said that he needed to operate immediately and get the injury stabilized, and then he’d operate again to fix the bones after the swelling went down.
So I had the first of my two operations that night. Thankfully, the skin was alright. I had the second operation six days later. The doctor inserted a bunch of pins, screws, and metal plates to hold the bones where they need to be. All told, I was in the hospital for two weeks, from February 10 until February 23, which is quite a long time. And the doctor says that I cannot put any weight at all on my ankle for at least three months, and maybe as long as five months.
B. Obviously, this was not part of my plan: I would have preferred to have not broken my ankle, and to not be bedridden for three to five months. And when things don’t go as we’d like, and when undesirable things happen, there’s a question we sometimes ask: “Why me?” Have you ever asked that question?
“Why me? Why did I get sick? Why did I get laid off from work? Why did I have this relationship problem, or go through this divorce? Why do I have to be alone? Why do I have to have money problems? Why do I have to go through this? Why did this have to happen to me?”
And of course, there’s a variation to the ‘why me?’ question, and that’s, “why him?” or “why her?” This is the question we ask about the ones we love.
“God, why does she have to be sick? Why does he have to go through this? Why her? Why him?”
C. Have you ever asked one of those questions? Most of us have. That’s why it’s important that we understand how the devil uses those questions to deceive us, and depress us, and draw us away from God. And what we need to realize is, even though sometimes unpleasant things happen to us, God is still in control, and He is working all things together for good!
F. Trans: But first, let’s consider how the devil uses the “why me?” question to deceive us, depress us, and draw us away from God. If you have your Bibles, open with me to the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, chapter 20.
I. THE DEVIL USES THE "WHY ME?" QUESTION TO DECEIVE US, DEPRESS US, AND DRAW US AWAY FROM GOD.
A. Jeremiah was a prophet, specially chosen by God to speak God’s Word to the people of Judah. And Jeremiah fulfilled his mission. He stood fearlessly before the people and kings of Judah and proclaimed that God was going to come in judgment against them if they did not repent of their wickedness and return to Him.
As you might imagine, that message wasn’t always popular. So, in chapter twenty, verse 2, we read that one of the leaders of the people had Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks. And Jeremiah started asking the “why me?” question. Look with me at verses 7-8.
7You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. 8Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
Do you hear what Jeremiah is saying? “I’ve been working hard for You, God. I’ve done what you wanted. Yet all these bad things are happening to me! Why me?” And the devil uses the “why me” question to hurt us, in at least three ways. First,
B. The Devil Uses “Why Me?” To Deceive Us. That’s what he did to Jeremiah. Look at verse 10 with me. Jeremiah complains, “All my friends are waiting for me to slip[.]” Now, was that true? Probably not. But the devil deceived Jeremiah, and got him to thinking that he was all alone.
1. It’s the same thing the devil did to the prophet Elijah. He is the one who challenged the prophets of the false god, Baal, to a contest. They each would prepare a sacrifice, and whichever God sent fire from heaven to light the sacrifice was the true God. The priests of Baal called out for hours for Baal to send fire, but no fire came. Then Elijah called to God, and fire came down from heaven and burnt up the offering. (1 Kings 18)
Well, right after that tremendous spiritual victory, the devil went to work on Elijah. The wicked queen Jezebel vowed to kill him, and Elijah began asking the “why me?” question. We read in 1 Kings 19 that Elijah complained to God that he was the only faithful person left alive. But that wasn’t true: the devil had deceived him! God told Elijah that there were still 7,000 faithful people in Israel who, like Elijah, were taking a stand for God. (1 Kings 19:18).
2. When we ask “why me?,” the devil takes the opportunity to deceive us into thinking that we are all alone, just like he did to Jeremiah and Elijah. Jesus told us that the devil is “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44). And when we ask, “Why me?,” the devil lies to us and tells us that we are the only one who ever experiences rough times. We are the only one that things don’t work out for. Everybody else has it better than us.
3. Have you ever thought those thoughts? Probably. Most of us have. The devil plants them in our mind. And from that opening, the devil uses the “why me?” question to depress us.
C. The Devil Uses The “Why Me?” Question To Depress Us. That’s what he did to Jeremiah. Look back at your Bibles with me, at Jeremiah chapter 20, verses 14 and 18.
14Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! . . . 18Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Jeremiah is so ‘down’ about what’s going on that he just wants to die. The devil deceived him into thinking that he’s all alone, and that nothing is working out right, and so Jeremiah wants his life to be over. The devil used the “why me?” question to depress him.
1. The devil did the same to Elijah, when he asked “why me?” The devil deceived him into thinking that he was all alone, and then he depressed him. The Bible says that Elijah sat down under a bush and prayed that he might die. He said, “I have had enough, LORD . . . . Take my life[.]” (1 Kings 19:4).
2. And the devil tries to do the same to us. We start asking,“Why me?,” and the devil convinces us that we’re all alone. Before we know it we’re sad and depressed.
a. Now, that isn’t what God wants for us. God wants so much better for us. Jesus said that He explained to us about how much God loves us “so that [his] joy may be in [us] and that [our] joy may be complete.” (John 15:11). Because we belong to Jesus we are “a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17, NKJV), our minds are being “renewed,” (Rom 12:2), and we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37).
b. God doesn’t want us to suffer the pain of depression. He wants so much better for us. But the devil uses the “why me?” question to try to bring us down and depress us, just like he did to Jeremiah and Elijah.
3. So, first the devil uses the question to deceive us, then to depress us. Then third,
D. The Devil Uses The “Why Me?” Question To Get Us To Doubt God. That’s what he did to Jeremiah. Look back at Jer 20:7-8.
7You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. 8Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
Do you hear what Jeremiah is saying? He’s not just asking, “Why me?” He’s blaming God for his predicament. That’s how the devil frequently uses our “why me?” question: he gets us to doubt, or blame God.
1. We hear the questions all the time: “Why did God let this happen?,” or, “Where was God when such and such occurred?” We heard it following 9-11, and the Indonesian tsunami, and the Haitian earthquake. But we’ve also heard it on a smaller, private scale when life seems to be going badly and events that we don’t desire happen, and someone asks, “Where was God?” “Why did God let do this to me?”
2. That question comes about as a result of the “why me?” question. The devil uses “why me” to deceive us, then to depress us, then to draw us away from God. And remember: that’s what the devil wants. The Bible says that our “enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet 5:8). The devil wants to drag our souls to hell, and so he tries to get us to renounce our faith in Christ. So he tries to get us to blame God, to draw us away from God.
E. That’s why the “why me?” question is so dangerous: the devil uses it to deceive us, then depress us, and finally to draw us away from God. When we wallow in “why me?,” we are putting our very souls at risk.
F. Trans: What we need to do, when we think, “why me?,” is remember what the Bible says: God is in control, and he is working all things together for our good.
II. WHEN WE'RE TEMPTED TO ASK, "WHY ME?," WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT GOD IS IN CONTROL, AND HE IS WORKING ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD.
A. Turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, and look with me first at verse 28. The Bible says,
28And 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.
Now, those of you following along in the NIV may notice that the words I just read are slightly different from what you have in your Bibles. I read the passage from the New American Standard Bible. The NIV words this a little differently: “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him[.]” I think, though, that the New American Standard has the better sense of the original Greek text: God causes all things to work together for good.
So, let’s quickly consider what this verse is teaching us about God, and life. First,
1. God Doesn’t Cause Bad Things; He Uses Bad Things To Bring About Good For His People. Now, this distinction is important. The Bible doesn’t say that God causes the bad things that happen to us. It says that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. That means that your bad situation, whatever it may be, was not caused by God. Contrary to the lie that the devil whispers in our ears, it is not God’s fault.
a. So, why do bad things happen to us? Simple: we live in a fallen world. Our parents, Adam and Eve, sinned against God. And when they did, the perfect world that God created was affected. Now, because of the Fall, bad things can happen in our world. Sometimes bad things happen because of the sins of others—certainly, that was what caused 9-11. But sometimes bad things just happen, because the world we live in is messed up.
b. Regardless, God doesn’t cause bad things. Look at Rom 8:28 again—“God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” The great Reformer, John Calvin, explained that this verse indicates that, “[B]y a wonderful contrivance he turns those things which seem to be evils in such a way as to promote their salvation.” (John Calvin, Commentary on Romans, Romans 8:28-30, available at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom38.xii.ix.html (last visited March 5, 2011)).
That’s what God does: He takes all the events in our lives and uses them to shape us into the people He wants us to be, to make us fit for heaven. Sometimes those events are good. Sometimes they aren’t. But God uses them all, and brings forth good from them all. Sometimes the good is apparent in this life. Sometimes we have to wait for heaven. But God is taking our difficult times and causing them to work with all our other situations for good.
c. So that’s the first thing we learn from Rom 8:28—God doesn’t cause bad things, but He uses bad things to bring about good for us. The second thing we learn is,
2. Even When Things Seem Bad, God Is In Control. This is what King David recognized when he wrote the words of the Twenty-third Psalm: “4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me[.]” David knew that God was in control. And that’s what the Apostle Paul says here, in Rom 8:28. Look at it again with me:
28And 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.
God causes all things to work together for good for Christians. He’s in control, even when life seems to be out of control. We have painful, difficult, and unpleasant situations and events in life. But don’t think for a minute that what we face is greater than God’s power and ability. He is in control.
a. That’s why the Apostle Paul writes in verse 31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” In the midst of our difficulties and despair, God is in control. In the midst of all that’s wrong, God is still what’s right.
b. And because God is in control, the Apostle Paul wrote in verse 35—look at it with me, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” And in verse 37 he answers the question; look at it—“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
(1) Did you hear that? We are more than conquerors! We have health problems; but through Jesus, we are more than conquerors! We have money problems; but through Jesus, we are more than conquerors! We have relationship problems; we have job problems; we have disappointments and distresses and fears; but in the midst of everything, no matter what assails us in life, through Jesus we are more than conquerors! We can overcome everything life throws at us because of Jesus.
(2) God has not forgotten us when bad times come, and we are not alone. Those are the devil’s lies. No, God causes all things to work together for good so that we can overcome whatever life throws at us. Sometimes we see that we overcome in this life. But, as Don DeWelt noted in his commentary on Romans, “The final note of victory will be struck when we one day pass from the presence of these earthly trials to be crowned above them in the presence of the one who loves us.” (Don DeWelt, Romans Realized (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1959), at 137).
CONCLUSION
A. Some years ago, Charles Schulz pictured Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy’s dinner on Thanksgiving Day, but it was just his usual dog food in a bowl. So, Snoopy took one look at the dog food and said, “This isn’t fair. The rest of the world today is eating turkey with all the trimmings and all I get is dog food. Why? Because I’m a dog, so all I get is dog food?”
He stood there and stared at his dog food for a moment, then he said, “I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey.”
Snoopy started to play the “why me?” game. And he was saved by realizing that he didn’t have it so bad after all.
B. Similarly, when we are tempted to play the “why me?” game, we should resist the temptation. The devil is a liar, and he uses that question to deceive us, depress us, and draw us away from God. Instead of giving in to the devil’s temptation, we should instead focus on God’s truth: God is in control, and he is working all things together for our good.
C. Call for decision.
