YOLO: Don’t let AirPods tune out God’s megaphone! / Pastor Jeff Struecker

Almost everybody in this room knows somebody who has been or is going through struggles.

Quite honestly, for all of us in this room, it might happen to you soon.

This problem of pain theologians have wrestled with for thousands of years.

And they've said, if there's a good God, then why would he allow human suffering? And one of the most brilliant voices for Christianity of the last century, a guy who I have the greatest respect for, an Oxford professor who was an atheist, who became a passionate follower of Christ, C.S.

Lewis, once described it this way.

He said, you know, God whispers to us during the normal circumstances of life.

He whispers to us during the everyday occurrences.

He sometimes speaks to us in our conscience.

But God uses pain as a way of shouting to us.

C.S. Lewis described it this way.

Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a dead conscience.

And if there's ever been a society in history, if there's ever been a time in human history that it is harder to hear from the voice of God, it might be today in our country.

No one faces more challenges.

No one goes through more distractions than we do.

Just take the digital distractions of screens and TVs and all of the things clamoring for your attention on your smartphone, like social media or the news or 50 other things.

If you were to just take those alone, it's very hard to hear the voice of God.

and then add on top of the digital distractions all of the personal stuff that we go through like the pressures of work and the demands of family and 50 other things and then add on top of all of that not only the personal or the digital things but add on to that the things that you and I struggle with emotionally.

And what you have is a recipe for disaster.

And I think that for most of us Christians in our day and in our society, it gets really hard to hear the voice of God.

Would you guys agree? Sometimes He sends that pain our way to grab our hearts.

And I have a challenge for you today before we even dig into the Scriptures.

The challenge is, don't let AirPods, don't let your distractions tune out God's megaphone.

The guy who created this phrase, God's megaphone, C.S. Lewis, he knew a thing or two about pain.

In fact, C.S. Lewis watched his wife suffer terribly and die because of cancer.

And he wrote a little booklet after that called A Grief Observed.

Almost everybody in this room knows somebody who has been or is going through struggles.

Quite honestly, for all of us in this room, it might happen to you soon.

This problem of pain theologians have wrestled with for thousands of years.

And they've said, if there's a good God, then why would he allow human suffering? And one of the most brilliant voices for Christianity of the last century, a guy who I have the greatest respect for, an Oxford professor who was an atheist, who became a passionate follower of Christ, C.S.

Lewis, once described it this way.

He said, you know, God whispers to us during the normal circumstances of life.

He whispers to us during the everyday occurrences.

He sometimes speaks to us in our conscience.

But God uses pain as a way of shouting to us.

C.S. Lewis described it this way.

Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a dead conscience.

And if there's ever been a society in history, if there's ever been a time in human history that it is harder to hear from the voice of God, it might be today in our country.

No one faces more challenges.

No one goes through more distractions than we do.

Just take the digital distractions of screens and TVs and all of the things clamoring for your attention on your smartphone, like social media or the news or 50 other things.

If you were to just take those alone, it's very hard to hear the voice of God.

and then add on top of the digital distractions all of the personal stuff that we go through like the pressures of work and the demands of family and 50 other things and then add on top of all of that not only the personal or the digital things but add on to that the things that you and I struggle with emotionally.

And what you have is a recipe for disaster.

And I think that for most of us Christians in our day and in our society, it gets really hard to hear the voice of God.

Would you guys agree? Sometimes He sends that pain our way to grab our hearts.

And I have a challenge for you today before we even dig into the Scriptures.

The challenge is, don't let AirPods, don't let your distractions tune out God's megaphone.

The guy who created this phrase, God's megaphone, C.S. Lewis, he knew a thing or two about pain.

In fact, C.S. Lewis watched his wife suffer terribly and die because of cancer.

And he wrote a little booklet after that called A Grief Observed.