Participants: J. D. Quinn (Host), Troy Fitzgerald
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000406
|
00:01 Do you ever wonder why God rarely
00:03 answers the question "why?" 00:04 Stay tuned, we'll be right back. 00:31 As we mentioned a while ago, 00:33 we're gonna be answering the question, 00:34 why God rarely answers "why?" 00:37 Today, we have as our guest, 00:39 Pastor Troy Fitzgerald, welcome. 00:43 Thank you, good to be here. 00:44 Tell us a little bit about yourself Troy. 00:46 Well, I'm a pastor 00:48 at the Walla Walla University Church. 00:50 My responsibilities mainly working with young people 00:55 and the young adult crowd, the college students. Amen. 00:58 So I live there only 12 years now. 01:04 Married. Yes, I am married. 01:05 Julia, my wife and I got two boys Cameron and Morgan. 01:10 They're the joy of my life. 01:11 Amen, young, old. Well, I am old, yeah. 01:15 Thank you for noticing 01:16 but no they are 12 years old and 7. 01:21 So Cameron is 12 and Morgan is 7. 01:23 My wife is always young and I'm getting, 01:26 I'm getting wiser right here. 01:28 That's, that's another way of saying it. 01:29 You look mighty good, thank you, yeah. 01:31 You got a nice tan and I understand 01:33 that you have just come back from some place. 01:35 Just working with some student 01:37 missionaries in Hawaii, so that's great, yeah. 01:39 That's been nice. Amen. 01:41 Somebody has to go. 01:42 That's exactly right. I said here am I, send me. 01:44 Amen, amen, tell me about your education Troy. 01:48 Well, I went to college studied Theology 01:55 went into pastoral ministry 01:57 and then I got a Masters in Education 01:59 because I wanted to learn about the art of teaching. 02:03 Figured that pastors really spend a lot of time teaching 02:07 in their work and their field and I just didn't know much 02:11 about the whole art of learning 02:13 and so I did a Master's degree 02:14 then I finally did my Ph.D. in Leadership. 02:17 In Leadership. Yeah. 02:19 And as we know today, Leadership is so important. 02:21 You can have all the education you want, 02:23 you can know the Bible but you need to be have 02:26 that leadership in order to lead. 02:28 A world needs people to just engage others 02:34 in being an influence on the world around them 02:37 and I think that just takes a certain mindset to faster, 02:40 but we all have that capacity and everyone of us 02:43 we have leadership qualities 02:45 but to study with that might look like in the life 02:47 of local churches what I was really passionate about. 02:50 Amen, yeah, and I know that 02:52 you've authored five or six books. 02:54 Yeah, a few of them. 02:55 Amen, and I know that the latest one, 02:57 one that I found quite fascinating 03:00 is 20 Questions God Wants to Ask You, 03:03 Life-Changing Encounters with the Divine. 03:05 Yes, that was a struggle for me 03:08 because that's what I ended up doing. 03:11 I ended up taking all of my questions, 03:14 the unanswered things as I looked at my world, 03:18 there was so much I didn't know and I thought, 03:21 you know, why isn't God responding to me, 03:22 why doesn't He help me solve this problem, 03:25 why doesn't He answer this question? 03:26 And as I went to scripture I just bounced into people 03:31 who--they might have had similar questions for God. 03:35 But God would return with a question for them. 03:40 And the question often times redirected their life. 03:43 If they answered the question 03:44 it changed their life in one way or another. 03:48 So as I went through scripture 03:50 I looked at all these encounters 03:51 with God and people. 03:53 For me that just seems to be the most important moment 03:57 in history is when God comes face to face with people. 04:01 Either in person or through His word 04:04 and I believe that today. 04:05 In fact the greatest symbol of that is Calvary 04:08 where He comes in more contact with us 04:10 than at any other time. 04:12 He grabs on to us and He secures us for eternity 04:15 and so there are these moments 04:16 where we have this contact with God. 04:19 And in scripture He speaks and that's what I love 04:21 most as He asks a question and when God asks a question, 04:25 you get a window into his heart 04:27 and perhaps even a doorway into his will for our lives. 04:32 So I just scan through his scripture 04:33 and found all the places and I picked 20 of them 04:36 because of the whole 20 questions idea, yeah. 04:39 And I chose 20 that were 04:41 significantly meaningful for me. 04:44 Well I know that I've read part of this book 04:46 and I mean, I just really I'm really enjoying it. 04:48 Praise God, I can't wait till we get past this 04:50 and I'm going to finish reading it again. 04:52 Now I do know that there is one question 04:55 that people tend to ask more than the others? 04:57 What would that question be? 05:00 Well, people want to know why? 05:03 Why? Why God, why did this happen? 05:07 Why does this always happen to me? 05:10 Why me and not them or why them and not me? 05:15 Talking to a lady the other day who lost her daughter 05:18 and her grand daughter to cancer, why them? 05:22 I'm 83 years old, why them and not me? 05:25 So basically what people are looking for 05:28 some sort of explanation to a problem or tragedy 05:33 that they face in the world. 05:35 And that--and that becomes problematic in itself, 05:39 just the whole idea of looking for an explanation. 05:43 I guess biblically speaking 05:44 Job was quite an example, was he not? 05:47 Yeah, I think that Job and that was one of the people 05:50 that I focused on in this book. 05:53 But Job was clearly an example of someone 05:57 who I'm sure had his questions why? 06:00 He even came up with his own explanations 06:02 but that's the problem. 06:04 We as humans want an explanation. 06:08 We want somebody to color in the context 06:10 as to why these things happen 06:12 because in our minds there are two things going on. 06:15 The first thing that's going on is that we believe 06:18 that what's happening to us isn't right? 06:22 It isn't fair, it isn't just. And it's certainly isn't good. 06:27 So part of us inside just we know that there should be 06:31 a good, there should be a justice, 06:33 there should a right way and this comes headlong into 06:38 and that's where we get the whole notion of grief 06:41 and sadness and disappointment 06:43 is because what we thought should be doesn't happen 06:47 and yet we also live in a sinful world 06:51 and we know that things go wrong 06:53 and things are broken and bad things do happen. 06:57 And we are a part of that. 06:58 We are not outside of that. 07:00 And that was Job's problem. 07:01 He's sitting there and just living his life 07:05 on earth and, you know, 07:08 and God draws attention to him, it says. 07:12 You want that kind of-- I know you don't want 07:14 that kind of attention but God initiates this story, 07:19 He is up in heaven and Satan comes walking to 07:23 and from as the Chapter 2 says and God says, 07:28 "Have you considered my servant Job?" 07:32 I'm sure Job, if he knew what was going on, 07:35 would've been hiding and shushing God saying, 07:38 no, no, don't draw attention to me. 07:41 I don't want that. 07:44 And he becomes the story of sadness 07:48 and disappointment, injustice. 07:51 And yet through it all he tries to explain 07:54 to his friends that God has every right to do this. 07:58 That God is able. That God is working. 08:00 That I must have done something wrong. 08:03 Let's not point our finger at God 08:04 and even puts his flag in the sand and says, 08:07 even though He slay me, I will trust in Him, amen. 08:12 So Job struggles with it though. 08:13 I think he gets to the end of his rope 08:15 and he has to shake his fist 08:17 and have in a little bit and see. 08:19 What is going on, which is the question 08:23 that I think many of us ask. 08:25 I've asked that, I mean, I've lost, 08:29 yeah I have lost probably 10, 12 kids in my church 08:33 in my community of faith in the last 10, 12 years. 08:36 It seems like every year we have a tragedy 08:39 that hits some of our young people. 08:43 And I go up to the cemetery 08:44 and there are these gravestones of kids, 08:47 teenagers, children who are four years old. 08:50 Twelve-year-old boy we lost in a house fire. 08:54 Young girl we lost to leukemia, 08:57 you know, accidents, car accidents, we lost some 09:02 kids in a drowning accident, heart failure. 09:06 All these things, you know, 09:07 it just makes your soul cry out. 09:10 Why, what is going on God? 09:12 Why, why is this happening? 09:15 And the truth is we don't really 09:18 hear very many answers from God. 09:23 We don't ever hear God explain 09:26 what's wrong or what happened 09:27 or explain his actions or more importantly his inaction. 09:32 Remember in the ICU units in one case, 16-year-old girl 09:38 who is being held together on life support 09:42 and as I was standing there one of the grand parents 09:46 were struggling with all of this, 09:49 so it just looked wrong, 16-year-old girl 09:52 having to be kept alive by electronic systems. 09:57 And she said to me, she says boy, 10:00 God has a lot of explaining to do. 10:03 He's gonna have to answer some questions about this one. 10:07 And I felt just--yeah, I resonated with her. 10:10 Oh, my God, I really did want 10:12 God to say something or respond 10:15 even if you're just gonna paint the picture 10:17 of hope for us again and again and again, 10:19 that's fine but sometimes it's just silent. 10:24 And I think that's what Job had for a while. 10:27 So he had the silence of God. 10:28 And then as he questions God 10:30 and pushes him God--God comes to him with an answer 10:35 but that answer comes in the form of questions. 10:38 I looked at these questions and they're stunning. 10:41 God doesn't explain anything to Job. 10:45 He levels Job with two, three four chapters of questions 10:50 and I mean they're profound. 10:54 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? 10:57 Tell me, if you understand. 10:59 Who marked of its dimensions? Surely you know Job! 11:02 Who stretched a measuring line across it? 11:05 On what were its footings set? 11:07 It just keeps going over and over with these questions 11:10 about how it all began. 11:12 Who shut up the sea behind doors Job 11:14 when it burst forth from the womb, did you do that? 11:17 Have you ever given orders to the morning, Job? 11:20 That must have been amazing 11:22 and I'm paraphrasing a little bit. 11:24 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal, 11:26 its features stand out like those of a garment, 11:28 you had something to do with that I am sure Job, right? 11:31 Have the gates of death been shown to you? 11:34 Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? 11:37 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? 11:40 Tell me, he says this tell me if you know all this. 11:45 Where Job is the abode of light? 11:48 And you can just see Job 11:49 getting pummeled with these questions. 11:52 His question is, "why is all of this happening to me?" 11:56 Then God says where you there 11:59 when I started this whole thing, tell me? 12:02 And all of these questions 12:03 and it literally goes on chapter after chapter. 12:07 Job stops and he says, I get it God, 12:09 I get it, you know everything, you're big. 12:13 God says, brace yourself again 12:15 because evidently I'm not big enough for you. 12:18 I need to be bigger and that is the point, 12:20 God is not being mean, he is not been arbitrary. 12:24 He is trying to get Job to see how big he really is, 12:30 to the point where Job will lest it, amen. 12:34 And that's the point 12:35 that he is making with all these questions. 12:37 So it is not just one question 12:39 that God asked but many. 12:40 But the question is, "Job, 12:43 have you considered how big I am?" 12:48 That question is hard to answer in the ICU unit, 12:54 it is hard to answer by the graveside, but it's possible. 12:58 And that is the message we have from God's word 13:01 and that's the question we have from God 13:03 and it just pulls us towards him asking us, 13:08 do you really know who I am? 13:10 So the why question get switched-- 13:14 Yeah, I can see that. 13:15 No longer a question of why, but who? 13:20 Who is this God? Who am I to you? 13:25 Because may be if we can answer 13:26 that question it will make all the difference. 13:28 Well, I don't know if you've ever had 13:30 to try and explain things-- 13:31 Oh, most certainly. 13:33 We deal with it daily or we attempt to deal with it daily. 13:37 And they're so many times whenever 13:38 we don't have the words 13:39 that we just stop in the middle of a sentence 13:41 and just say, let's invite the Holy Spirit and may be, 13:45 you know, we can claim 13:48 that information is coming from the most high. 13:51 And I don't know what is about the human mind, 13:53 but God made us this way, so I'm not gonna 13:55 apologize for it but we want to know. 13:58 We want explanations and the problem is that 14:02 we see so--we see with such a small perspective, 14:07 we see through a peephole this great grand thing 14:11 called life on earth 14:12 and it's not enough to know everything. 14:16 In fact, if God tried to explain to me 14:18 all the things that are going on, 14:19 I wouldn't have the tools to understand them, 14:22 but what is it in the heart of a human that just cries out 14:26 with loss that's, what we go through. 14:30 We want someone to say 14:31 something about what is happening. 14:34 And that's why we look to God for 14:36 but in this case he turns it back on us and says, okay 14:40 Oh, we certainly do know 14:41 that his ways are harder than our ways 14:43 and, you know, so about faith 14:45 we have to just have an understanding 14:47 of his mercy and his grief. 14:50 And having that understanding just as you said, 14:53 having an understanding with that also means 14:56 having an experience with it. 14:58 I have to learn that I can trust. 15:01 I mean, I learned a lot about hanging 15:05 on during these moments because I think 15:07 that is probably what we need to do 15:09 the most is learn to hang on to God. 15:13 Asaph in the 73rd song describes a crisis 15:18 that we went through a faith crisis 15:20 where he said all the right things. 15:22 He said surely God is good to the upright, 15:24 and he is right by their side. 15:27 He says I used to think that but now I don't anymore 15:31 because look at the wealthy, the corrupt, 15:34 and all the people out there that use 15:37 there greatness for their own gain. 15:39 They're stepping on God's people. 15:42 And he goes and he just describes the horror that, 15:47 they're evil people out there that are-- 15:50 that are just growing and they're wealthy. 15:55 And I have got a lot of friends 15:56 who are graced, oriented, blessed people, 16:00 God trust them with the resources, 16:01 that is not who, that is not who Asaph is talking about. 16:05 He is talking about people 16:06 who use their wealth for corruption. 16:10 He says and they just get wealthier and wealthier, 16:12 while we just get poorer and poorer, 16:13 so there's something wrong with that 16:16 and then the beautiful message in the middle 16:18 of all that is somehow he steps into the sanctuary 16:22 and he goes in and he gets a glimpse of God 16:25 and he gets an experience and he says I learned, 16:29 I learned that I can trust you. 16:31 I learned that your ways are high, 16:33 I learned that this can work. 16:35 And God turns it all around for him 16:37 but there is this moment where he goes through crisis. 16:40 I believe there are a lot of people out there 16:42 that endure that and they struggle but it is a journey. 16:47 It's a journey that, you know, many of us, 16:49 as we walk this road home, 16:51 we're gonna to have to learn 16:53 to understand who God is in that. 16:56 One thing gives me comfort is that I understand 16:58 that he has my eternal benefit in mind at all times 17:02 and because his ways are hard there're so many things 17:05 I don't understand but if I can just hold on 17:07 to that fact, you know, that I know that you love me 17:12 so much that you want me to spend eternity with you. 17:15 You want me to fulfill my destiny, my true destiny 17:20 and that is just--that is to be with you forever. 17:22 That's right and that question, 17:25 is there enough to stand on? That's the crucial one. 17:29 You bet, Nathan, he was a young person in my church 17:33 who is in my Youth Sabbath School. 17:34 I remember it was about two to three months 17:37 before he died in a car accident, 17:42 we were talking about sadness 17:43 and how do we hang on to God during the tough times. 17:46 I was going through it kind of in a superficial way. 17:49 I had no clue what the future events would be. 17:51 But Nathan came up probably with one of the best 17:54 illustrations that I've ever heard about people 17:58 who are struggling to hang on. 18:00 He says do you know--he said you ever--you ever go 18:03 to the rock climbing wall where these young people 18:06 strap on the belts and they learn 18:08 to climb on a flat wall. 18:09 They have these rock ledges, 18:12 these little bumps on the wall that they climb up 18:15 and scurry up and come down, 18:17 and some of the holes are very large, they're big, 18:21 stick both feet on, on those and it is very comfortable 18:25 on the side of that wall as comfortable 18:26 as you can be I suppose. 18:28 He says and then there are these, 18:30 just these little bumps these nub that stick out 18:33 just barely enough for you to get 18:36 the edge of your foot on it and I'm waiting for the-- 18:41 waiting for the application and he says sometimes in life 18:44 we have this big large blocks that we can stand on 18:47 and we know that God is there. 18:49 And God will bring us truly 18:51 and we know the hope that we have. 18:53 And then Nathan said but sometimes 18:55 all we have is a nub where all the things 18:57 that we have learned in our grief just kind of fall away, 19:01 but we have enough. We know Christ, 19:02 we know what he said is true and that he is coming home 19:06 and sometimes just that little nub of hope is enough 19:10 to put the full force of your weight on. And he said-- 19:15 It is fantastic. Certain that is how-- 19:17 and you know what I just think of that lesson 19:22 that he shared with me and then it's true 19:25 sometimes that's what we have. 19:26 We hang on to that one verse or that one song 19:31 and its that one story from scripture-- 19:33 I was talking to a woman the other day 19:35 and she says there is just one passage I hang on to 19:39 and it just happens to be another one of the questions 19:41 that God asked, it is that that passage 19:43 about being the resurrection and the life, 19:44 Mary and Martha since I always read that story 19:47 when I think about the husband that I've lost, 19:49 I loved him. We were married for 60 years. 19:54 My heart is going out to her, she says, 19:56 and I don't know if I'm Mary or Martha 19:58 but I knew I was mad. 19:59 And I knew I had questions for God but then he comes 20:02 and he asked that question, 20:03 I'm the resurrection in your life. 20:06 You will live again if you believe in me 20:08 and Jesus says, "Do you believe this?" 20:14 And she says, "Everyday, 20:15 I answer that question, yes Lord, I believe."Amen. 20:21 So all she has is that little nub 20:23 but she's putting the full force of her weight on it. 20:26 So how would you explain the issue of sin 20:28 and tragedy versus God is good. 20:32 You know, well that's the problem is that, 20:34 I think sometimes our quick reactions, 20:37 we try to explain a way because we think somehow 20:40 if we cognitively answer this question 20:43 that somehow people who are grieving will feel better. 20:46 And that's just not the case, but some of the answers like, 20:51 well, we live in a sinful world 20:52 or that's not God doing that, that's Satan or-- 20:56 you know, even worse that's God's will. 21:00 All of these answers just they don't help. 21:04 I was trying to describe this to, 21:06 to somebody the other day who was trying to blame Satan 21:11 for everything that's gone wrong in this world. 21:15 And it is true, Satan is the one who brought sin, 21:19 but the problem is that God let Satan do it 21:23 and we can't let God off the hook. 21:26 Let me give you an example, 21:27 if you have a--if you have a playground in a schoolyard 21:32 and there is a 13-year-old boy just beating up 21:35 on a kindergartener, you know, 5-year-old, 21:38 whose fault is that? Well, of course, 21:42 it's, it's the 13-year-old's fault. 21:44 He is inflicting the pain, right? 21:46 But what changes if you put the principal 21:48 in the yard standing right next to them? 21:52 Who's responsible now? 21:56 Well, it's still the 13-year-old 21:58 inflicting the pain but the principal 22:02 is allowing it to happen when he could stop it. 22:05 And see that's where this part gets difficult 22:08 for humanity is if we believe everything 22:11 we believe is true about God, that He's powerful 22:13 and He's loving that He is good 22:17 and He has done things in the past. 22:20 And He's choosing not to right now. 22:23 What gives? What's going on? 22:26 Somebody needs to explain that to me. 22:29 But my response to that is--is that, 22:32 it's the beauty of that analogy is that God 22:36 is big enough to take responsibility for everything 22:41 that has happened on earth. 22:42 Is He, is He the one that started sin, no way. 22:46 It's not in His character. Amen. 22:49 But it is in his character to let us chose. 22:52 And the bottom line is this even though we chose it, 22:56 Adam and Eve, even though Lucifer brought it, 22:58 God wraps his arms, his big, wide graceful arms 23:04 around the whole problem and says, "I will solve it. 23:09 You're not gonna like everything that I do. 23:11 You're not gonna understand every angle I come from. 23:15 You're not gonna appreciate my timing all the time 23:19 but I will solve it. I will answer. 23:22 And I will bring you home and when you get there, 23:25 you'll look back and you'll smile, 23:27 knowing I did this thing perfectly. 23:29 " I think that's what's going on in our minds 23:33 and I hope that, that might help some people, 23:37 respond to this God, we don't want 23:39 to set him outside of the problem. 23:42 We want to enable God in our minds 23:44 to be the solution to it. 23:47 That's why He did a Calvary, He solved it for us. 23:49 Amen. You know, and I bring this up, 23:51 why in the world do we want to concentrate on problems, 23:54 when we can concentrate on the problem solver. 23:56 Beautiful. That's exactly it. 23:59 And that's why we switch 24:01 from the explanation, to the personification. 24:05 That's why we go from wanting an answer 24:08 to the one who is the answer. 24:10 He is--I am the resurrection and the life. 24:15 And it's like that little story, 24:17 that quick story that comes about, 24:18 where the father's traveling with the son in the car 24:22 and a bee comes in the window and it's buzzing around 24:25 the little child, the child is deathly allergic 24:27 to the bee sting and so he cries out 24:29 to his father, help me, help me. 24:30 Father grabs the bee in his hand 24:32 but only seconds later lets it go 24:34 and the bee starts buzzing around again 24:36 and child cries out, why, why did you let it go? 24:38 It's gonna sting me and he holds out the palm of his hand 24:41 and there's a, a swelling in the middle of his palm, 24:43 he says that, "Bee can't hurt you anymore." 24:46 And that's the truth for us. 24:47 It's that there's nothing 24:48 that can separate us from God now. 24:51 His plan is perfect. He will bring us home 24:54 and in the meantime we have to let him 24:56 like Job be big enough, large enough, 25:00 responsible enough to seal this up for us 25:05 and, you know, as I look at those questions 25:08 and I'll continue to ask them because I think God is okay 25:12 with me coming to Him 25:13 and saying look I don't understand this. 25:15 Amen. I don't understand why 25:18 the Lord helped me put the pieces together. 25:20 His answer to that is, is not well, here's what I did then, 25:25 and here's what I did then, 25:26 and this is what's going on, you can't see that. 25:28 His answer is no, get to know me. 25:30 Look at me, I'm the answer. 25:32 Focus on my character. 25:34 What I've said to you in the past. 25:36 Don't let what you don't know confuse you about 25:39 what you do know about me, We are going home. 25:42 Amen. And this will be just a glimpse. 25:46 And that's why, you know, 25:47 why knowing why is so important. 25:50 And we gain that through the relationship 25:53 through asking Him questions 25:56 and I, I totally agree with you. 25:57 There's nothing wrong with asking questions. 26:00 Father I'm in a crossroads here--. Yeah. 26:01 What do I need to do? 26:03 And then as you have so wonderfully done 26:07 we go from the why to the rock. 26:11 Yeah. To who? 26:13 And that's how Job finishes. 26:15 If you read that last Chapter Job comes to the place 26:18 where he says, "I shook my fist at you since I asked 26:26 and You answered, I asked again, 26:29 and you asked me a bunch of questions, 26:31 and I really don't have an answer for all of them.q 26:36 " He says, "I used to know who you are 26:38 because I heard about you, heard about you 26:44 but now, I've seen you, I've seen you, 26:49 I've experienced you, and everything." 26:53 Has his family been restored yet? No. 26:56 Has he been given the gift of a new life? 26:59 Has he been healed? No. 27:01 there in the depth of his tragedy, 27:04 it says, "I see you." 27:08 And it's more than enough. 27:10 It's more than enough that you are my God. 27:13 Again going back to what you initially said. 27:15 "Even though you slay me, I will trust you." 27:18 Is God big enough? Is God good enough? 27:21 Is God that responsible for us that we can answer 27:25 and say, Lord, you're God. Amen 27:29 I'd like to say that is the challenge 27:31 for everyone of us, you know. 27:36 This has been a-- this is a wonderful topic, 27:39 you know, why? And I do agree with you 27:43 that He just wants us to ask why 27:45 and He respects us we're His children. 27:47 Anyway we are running out of time. Yeah. 27:50 Just once again, I just wanna thank you 27:53 for being here, you know, you're just--I can 27:56 just see Christ written all over you, so-- 27:59 Praise God, praise God. 28:00 you're a wonderful servants of His. 28:01 Just want to thank you each one of you 28:02 for being with us today at Issues and Answers. 28:05 Being with us at 3ABN. We love you. 28:08 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17