God Cares

Sometimes when I’m at a busy airport, I find myself sitting and watching, people watching. Have you done that before? I sit there, and I wait, and I see all kinds of people pass by me, hundreds, maybe even thousands, depending on how busy it is. Men and women, there’s people of different ages, there’s people of different cultures and languages, all passing by me. And every single one of these people has somewhere to be. Every single one of them has their own problems, their own goals and ambitions. Every single one of those people has things that are important to them. Every single one of those people has a story to tell. And every single one of those people, they are the main character in their own personal life story. But at the same time, every single one of them is accountable to God. And so as I sit there watching, I wonder, have all of them repented? Now, I want you to imagine that you’re at a large theme park, maybe Universal Studios or Disney World, and it’s a busy summer day. The smell of sunscreen and churros are in the air. And as you’re making your way to the next attraction, you have many people passing by you, hundreds, maybe thousands of people passing by you. You see people with hats and sunglasses. You see some people that already are starting to get sunburnt. To your left, you have teenagers taking selfies. To your right is a young couple holding hands and wearing matching Mickey ears. You see a child crying, and you see a parent trying to console them with ice cream. You see others sitting on benches eating turkey legs. And then there are others who are waiting in line to take a picture with Donald Duck. And as you stand there, as you see all these people rushing by, all these strangers that you will probably never see ever again, but for that fleeting moment, you share time and space with those people. And as you stand there, maybe you think, hmm, do all these people believe in Jesus as their Savior? Sometimes, I have similar thoughts when I’m driving. When I’m driving, I have a car in front of me. Sometimes, there’s a car behind me. There’s cars turning left, cars turning right. But then I remember, oh wait, it’s not just a car, is it? There’s people inside of that car, too. And so sometimes I think, does this faceless stranger beside me read the Bible? Have you ever had these thoughts, brothers and sisters? Maybe it’s better that I don’t actually receive these thoughts and receive answers to these questions that pop up in my head. Because my gut feeling is that more often than not, I will be disappointed. No, that person doesn’t trust in Jesus as their Savior. No, this person has never even heard of the gospel before. Maybe this person has heard the gospel, but they rejected it for whatever reason. And as I start to think about that, I must admit that I feel a bit overwhelmed. Because as the truth is, is that every single person is accountable to God. Every person that you will ever see is a person for whom Jesus died on the cross to take away their sin. Now the question is, do they know that and do they believe it? You see, there’s a sense of urgency here, brothers and sisters. And the prophet Ezekiel also felt that sense of urgency. You see, the southern kingdom of Judah had just been ransacked by the Babylonians. Jerusalem was destroyed, many people were brutally killed, and many others were sent off into captivity. Why did this happen? Why did this happen? Well, just like the northern kingdom of Israel before them, the southern kingdom of Judah also had rejected God. They had also worshiped false idols and prostituted themselves to false gods. They did many detestable things, and they promoted wickedness and corruption. And so God sent prophet after prophet after prophet to them to warn them and to say, hey, change your ways, turn away from sin, and turn to God. Because if not, there will be judgment. (congregation applauding) Unfortunately, most of the people did not listen to the prophets. And so what God said would happen did happen. The Babylonians came in, destroyed, ransacked, and took people off into captivity. And now, the prophet Ezekiel is addressing the survivors. And he’s saying to them, look, God is not happy that this had to happen. God takes no pleasure when wicked people die. Yes, God is a just God, but he is not happy to dish out that type of judgment. So don’t be like those people. Learn from their mistakes. Repent. So, does God care? Yes, very much so. So much so that if it meant sending his chosen people into captivity so that he could preserve the people so that he could preserve the line of the savior, then he would do it. And he did. You see, nothing was going to stop God from fulfilling his promise of sending the Messiah. Does God care? Yes, more than we can understand. He cares so much that he himself was willing to take on human flesh, come into our messed up world, and die a brutal death for that messed up world. So, brothers and sisters, what are the sinful things in our life that we have an iron grip on? What are the things that we need to repent of? Does God care? Yes, he does. And he has done everything for you so that you will live in eternity with him. Believe it. Amen.