Why Do I Sometimes Feel Like God Has Forgotten Me?

Why do I sometimes feel like God has forgotten me? First up today, a Taco Bell employee is being praised for saving a man's life after he passed out in the drive-through lane. Sonya Frazier was working her usual shift at the Taco Bell in Clarksville, Tennessee last week when she and her co-workers noticed the drive-through line had completely stopped. One of Sonya's co-workers ran outside to investigate and discovered a man passed out in the driver's seat of his van. As she rushed out to help, she told another employee to call an ambulance. Sonya once served as a home health care worker and she'd taken multiple first aid courses for certification, so she began giving the man CPR as they waited for the ambulance. Well, he was taken to the hospital and it turns out he's going to be okay, and Sonya and the man later connected on Facebook and he thanked her for saving his life. Wow, yeah, and I love Taco Bell too, so good stuff happening there. As long as you can get that chalupa, you're in good shape there, brother. Oh, you don't feel great afterwards, but while you're eating it, you know, it's nice. So great that Sonya was in the right place at the right time.

That is very cool. Well, let's get to the first question of the day. Christy emailed us and she asked this, do we have to confess our sin to the person we sinned against to be forgiven, even if we've confessed it to God repeatedly and asked for his forgiveness? Hey, Christy, such a practical question and I think one that can plague each of us individually, you know. I mean, it's not easy to go to someone and to say, I've sinned against you, please. I mean, I think we'd often rather it be the case that we can just, let me just go to the Lord and deal with this with him and then not worry about going to the other person. Well, first, there's the reality that the ultimate offended party when it comes to our sins is God himself. You just think of Psalm 51 verse 4, David saying this against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Christy, what's so interesting about David's words there is that Psalm begins a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba.

Now think about that. I mean, talk about sinning against your brother and your sister. I mean, David had committed this heinous sin, not just against Bathsheba, but also against her husband. David got her husband killed.

David murdered Uriah. And yet, as David is confronted with his sin, as Nathan the prophet brings this to light before him and says to him, you are the man, you're the sinner. David's response in prayer is to go to God and to say, God, I know that, above all else, you are the most offended. In other words, more offended than Bathsheba, more offended than Uriah, than anyone else, God is the ultimate offended party when we sin.

We have to grapple with that. Now, you also have the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, verses 23 and 24. Jesus said, so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. In other words, if you've sinned against someone, is someone holding something against you?

Do they have something against you? Well, go to them, Jesus said. Confess your sin. Problems with our brothers and sisters in Christ are indicative of a deeper heart issue.

Right now, I'm preaching through the book of 1 John. John says in 1 John that we can't say we love God and at the same time hate our brother. Now, it's not always possible to ask for forgiveness, although it's easier now with telephones and airplanes than it was 2,000 years ago. But the reality is, Christy, I think that if we've sinned against someone, yes, we can go directly to the Lord and he's the ultimate offended party and we confess our sin to him. But I think God, Jesus, also calls us to go to that person to say, forgive me, to pursue reconciliation. I mean, it's a part of how we should just operate as the body of Christ because we are a family. I don't think it's healthy for us to have these conflicts with our brothers and sisters, especially in Christ, to be unwilling to deal with them and then to go to God as if everything is okay.

No, there's something wrong with that. And so I want to encourage you, if you're listening, is there someone out there who you've sinned against? The relationship, it's been strained and you've been going to the Lord, you've confessed your sin to God, but you've never gone to that person and said, you know what, I really shouldn't have done that.

Please forgive me. Boy, I think that that can be so healing and I think it's so important for us to do as the body of Christ. The world should see our love and unity for each other as Christians. Thanks, Christy, for your question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

And if you have a question for us, we'd love to hear from you. Here's the phone number. It's 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-The-Core.

Hi, this is Ken in Oklahoma. I'm calling with a question about Matthew 7 verses 13 and 14. In verse 13, it says, the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it. I was wondering why it says people that go down the broad road end up in destruction. I thought that people that go down the broad road end up in hell and their soul is not destroyed. When I see this word destruction, I think that they no longer exist, but other places in the Bible, it says that people continue to exist in hell. So I was wondering what that word or what that phrase might mean.

Okay, guys, thank you very much. Hey, Ken, thank you so much for that question. And what a thoughtful question. I love to see that you're digging into the scriptures and that you want to understand what each word means. And this is a debate that's happening right now among many people in different churches. When we die, if someone is separated from Christ, are they just destroyed, annihilated? Or is hell this place of conscious torment and eternal suffering? Historically, the Christian church has embraced the latter view, primarily that hell is this real place where people are aware of their existence and they're being tormented because of their sins by essentially the just wrath of God. But there are others who have said, well, this word here, I mean, as you bring up, the idea of being destroyed, well, does that mean that people who are outside of Christ, what ends up happening with them is that they just cease to exist, that they're annihilated.

It's the Greek word apoleia, and it was associated with death and destruction in the ancient world. Although here, I do think it's referring to the eternal destruction that awaits false teachers. Let me just read the the passage in its context, reading a little bit further than verse 14. Again, Jesus said, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life.

And those who find it are few. Let me just stop there and say, talk about sobering words from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people today who will say, all paths lead to God, just pick whichever way you want, that kind of a thing.

We're all going up the same mountain, we're all headed to the same place. Well, that's not what Jesus, the eternal son of God taught. Actually, he said there's a broad way and a narrow way. And the broad way that is embraced by many, the quote unquote many paths that people often speak about what they lead to is not life, is not joy in the presence of God, they lead to destruction.

We want to take Jesus's words very seriously here. He continues, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. The healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.

Let me ask you a question. Does Jesus know you? Are you on the broad way that leads to destruction? Or are you on the narrow way, the way of Jesus? Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

We have to touch on that because it's so important, and it's something that so many people miss today. Now again, back to this idea of destruction. Here's how the word is used in other places of the New Testament. Romans 9 22, what if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? See, there it's associated with God's wrath, and it's associated with God's wrath, with God's judgment. Philippians 1 28, not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. So you have destruction sort of contrasted with the eternal salvation that we're given from God in Christ.

First Timothy chapter 6 verse 9, but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. One more, Hebrews chapter 10 verse 39, but we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. What's interesting about that text in Hebrews 10 is back in verses 29 and 30, it was talking about the severe punishment, the divine judgment that was coming on those who reject Jesus and trample on the truth. So this word destruction is often in the New Testament associated with God's judgment, with God's wrath, and that's why I don't think it's just referring to feasting to exist, that kind of thing. No, this is probably referring to that conscious torment that those who trample on Jesus reject the gospel experience for all eternity. Now, where we have to be careful is, you know, the Bible, the New Testament, as you noted, gives us some imagery as to what that looks like. You know, there's fire, there's everlasting burning, the smoke that continually rises, that kind of a thing, but we want to be careful that we don't essentially read all of that flat sort of wooden literally in the sense that, you know, hell is pitchforks and demons and just an eternal fire, that kind of a thing. No, I think what Jesus is getting at in those descriptions is that it's a horrible place. It is a place of suffering, and it's a place of conscious torment. Now, what that exactly is going to be like, I'm not sure entirely, and I think that different people are going to be judged on the basis of what they knew. There are some people who are going to be judged more severely because they had the truth, like these false teachers who heard it and then rejected it, and there are other people who are going to be judged, and it's going to be in one sense more merciful, and yet it is this reality, this conscious existence, and so I think that that's how we need to understand the word destroyed there. It's related to God's judgment, to God's wrath, and outside of Jesus it's what humanity faces. That's why we need the gospel, that's why we need the truth of Jesus Christ, the hope that we have in him, because apart from him we are still in our sins.

Ken, thanks so much for your question. What an important one, and boy, what a controversial topic in today's world, Adriel. I mean, we start talking to people about hell and Jesus being the only way.

There's a lot of pushback. Yeah, well, and part of it is, you know, we want to put our confidence in ourselves. We do have confidence in ourselves in that we think that, you know, I can find another way. I don't need Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins. I'm a pretty good person, that kind of a thing. The reality is we just don't understand the depths of our own sinfulness, and ultimately we don't understand the holiness of God, who God is, and that's part of the problem. We need to have a deeper understanding of who God is, and that's going to help us understand the reality of our sin and our need, our desperate need of a Savior. I was thinking in my own life how when I was single and had my wonderful Christian friends in my singles ministry, and I felt like a pretty good guy, and then I got married, and I was confronted with my sin, and then I had children, and I was really confronted with my sin. So it's something about marriage and children that God uses it to humble us, doesn't He? Oh, totally.

I think it's just being around other people. You know, the closer you are with other people, the more you realize it's hard to hide my sin. You know, other people can see it, and sometimes we don't see it, but that's one of the graces that God gives us in Christian community is other people who can encourage us, speak into our lives, and help to expose the fact that, yeah, there's selfishness in my heart that I need God to help me with.

And thank the Lord for His mercy. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I'm Bill Meyer, and we would like to tell you about a very special opportunity we have for you today. Yeah, if you've been blessed by Core Christianity, if you're growing in your understanding of God's Word, as you hear these questions and answers, I want to ask you to come alongside of us and become a part of what we call the inner core. You know, we're so thankful for each inner core member and their regular gifts that help us to accomplish the mission that we have, ultimately to help people grow in their understanding of who God is so that they might know who they are, their need of Jesus. New listeners discover Core Christianity every day, and your support helps us keep reaching people all around the world with your monthly donation of $25 or more. You can be a part of the team that's making it possible for us to answer these questions and share the core truths of the Christian faith.

So partner with us. Head over to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more, or give us a call at 833-THE-CORE. I was really hoping that we could come up with a decoder ring that we could send people in the inner core, but so far we don't have one. Yeah, you know, you hear these like, you know, teachers who they'll send like sweat rags to people and anointed water or whatnot. We really, we just can't do that because we don't see that anywhere in the Bible.

So what we're going to stick to is these Bible studies and those other resources that we've come up with and send that kind of stuff out. We do not want your sweat rags, Adriel. Yeah, I know. Nobody wants that, trust me. Let's get to another question.

This is an email that came in from Ashley and it's actually a pretty serious one. She says, growing up, I never fit in with people my age. I've always fit in better with older adults, but they don't share my struggles. I feel invisible in the church and in the world. I don't know why I'm here and why the only things I'm successful at are being alone and a failure.

Every step I take forward doesn't seem to matter or pushes me back a mile. Is God punishing me? Is everything I'm constantly going through because of some sin I or my family has committed? If I'm not being punished, then why is my life miserable? I know I'm a sinner and God is just, but there has to be more to life than this. What is God asking from me? Am I asking too much by wanting the basic happiness that everyone else my age has instead of being forgotten?

Wow, tough one. Oh, Bill, let's just take a moment to pray for Ashley right now. And you listening, join us in praying for our sister, Ashley. Heavenly Father, we come before you and we want to pray for Ashley. We ask God that you would give her your comfort, that you would help her to know the presence of your son, Jesus, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. God, we pray that you would send her friends, companions, especially in the body of Christ, Lord, that she wouldn't feel alone and that she wouldn't feel invisible, but that she would know that she's seen by you. And Lord, that you would also, as I said, bring people into her life who can encourage her and walk with her. And maybe they're not going to be, Lord, the people in her same age group.

Maybe they will be. We don't know, Lord, but I do pray that you would bless her with that rich community that you give us in your body, that you would encourage her, that you would bless her, Lord, that you would lift her spirits right now, even as we answer this question in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, Ashley, first, I just want to say to you that God has not forgotten you. I think of the beautiful words of David in Psalm 139.

I want you to hear what David said there, and I want you to receive this for yourself. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down. You are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high.

I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.

The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you." Actually, God has not forgotten you. And God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, is with you. Now, you might feel like you are now you might feel like a misfit, but here's the reality. The church is for people who don't feel like they fit in. Now, sadly, I know that sometimes the church can become like an affinity group, cliquish, you know, everybody, you know, kind of in the same stage of life, and we fit together. It seems like we fit together really well, but just think of Jesus's early disciples.

They were a group of people who really didn't fit together. I love, you know, mentioning the fact that you have among Jesus's initial 12, Simon, the Zealot, and Levi, the tax collector. Two people who are on the opposite ends of the spectrum, two people who normally wouldn't get along, you wouldn't invite them both to your birthday party, and yet Jesus says to both of them, follow me. You might not feel like you have a lot in common with the people in your church, but that doesn't mean that Jesus hasn't called you into the church and that you're not a part of the church. You are, through baptism and by faith in Jesus Christ, a member of the body of Christ, and it sounds like you're in a church, and I'm so glad to hear that you are.

I know that life in the church is not an easy thing and that sometimes we can feel like we're invisible. I do want to encourage you to reach out. You know, the desire for community and for companionship isn't asking too much.

Frankly, I think it's wired into us. If God hasn't given you that to the degree that you want, despite your efforts to reach out, I don't know that you should conclude that God is just punishing you or withholding, you know, something good from you. Remember that God is a good Father who wants to give us good gifts.

Trust in Him. Continue to pray and to pursue healthy relationships within the church. Again, reach out to your pastor, the leaders in your church. Express to them how you feel.

Help them to care for you by saying, here I am. Look, I'm a pastor and I'll admit that we're not perfect. We fail. We miss things. You can help us, though.

Reach out and pursue. Continue to pursue what it is that God has placed in your heart, looking for that community, while knowing that Jesus has not abandoned you. I mean, you have that promise in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5, where he says to his people, I will never leave you nor forsake you. That's for you, Ashley, and he's made you a part of the church. And while life in the church is, as you know, is not always easy, while we don't always have the kind of fellowship that we would like to have, I want to encourage you to keep pressing in, to rest in Jesus's goodness, in his love for you, in his presence, and to continue to seek him. The temptation is going to be to throw in the towel and say, I'm just invisible.

Nothing matters. Don't do that. Know that the Lord loves you. Know that he wants good things for you, and continue to pursue that in the life of your church. God bless you. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.