There is an unnoticed danger in our lives. It is an evil that has crept in has convinced us that it isn’t a threat. The danger is the deception that comes from our own hearts. In a world fixated on pursuing and achieving your hearts desire, we need to take a step back and ask, “Does my heart even know what is best for me?”
Observations:
- Confidence, Confusion & Contradiction – Sometimes it is hard to make sense of evil in our world
- Theodicy – Sometimes God and God’s sovereignty are confusing
- Moral Evil – Sometimes we are required to wait for an answer
- Faith – Sometimes the answer is unexpected
Conclusions:
- Wickedness will not go unpunished
- The timing of judgment is set by God
- The problem of evil is a problem of the heart
- God’s judgment over the evils of our hearts is death
- But God offers you salvation and life through Jesus
Application:
- Don’t grow weary in doing good
- When you face discouragement, faith starts with a confidence in God
- Orient your desires in the direction of your Shepherd
Matthew 7:3-5
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Revelation 22:10-11
“Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near. Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy.”
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Genesis 2:17
“You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 3:19
“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Romans 6:23a
“For the wages of sin is death…”
1 Peter 2:24-25
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Galatians 6:9
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”