Golfstat Weekend Devotional
In this third video, CGF East Region Director, Korky Kemp, concludes our Sunday devotional series answering the top 10 questions students ask our staff. Check out Korky’s responses to the final set of questions.
Partial Transcript
We are on the 3rd part of a series on the top 10 questions people ask… We’re going to be covering:
7. Why are there so many hypocrites?
8. Why do bad things happen to good people?
9. How do science and God match up? If I believe in science, can I still believe in God?
10. What does God say about dating, marriage, men and women?
These are conversational answers—as if we’re sitting across from each other at lunch, and the question came up…
If Christianity is true, then why are there so many hypocrites?
[Partial Transcript] A hypocrite is a person who says one thing and does another…there are people that call themselves believers, or there are people who go to church, and only God knows their heart. We can’t judge who may or may not be believers. And there’s people who go to church that obviously are believers.
And so, if a person’s a believer, does that mean they’re gonna be perfect?
Are they hypocritical if a believer sins?
Absolutely not.
Believers are forgiven, right? By God, through faith—not by works—and still sin. I still sin…
Often times, there may not be a true belief behind what people say. It may be an outward show. And, if you think that, there you’re in agreement with Jesus, who saved his harshest criticism for the “religious” people of the day who were just for outward show and their hearts weren’t changed:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence….on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness….You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”
I think the beauty, what I’ve experienced in my life, and for people who come to faith, (is) you see God changing you from the inside out. And so, we don’t try to put on this outward show of self-righteousness, but it’s more of, “God change us from the inside out.” It’s a true heart change…
Just because someone claims to be a Christian and is hypocritical, doesn’t disqualify the whole faith system. I think to be fair, you probably need to base your judgment on the object of faith The object being Christ, him crucified and the forgiveness of sins. The object not being the people who claim to be Christians.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
[Partial Transcript] In 1999, if you remember, Payne Stewart won the U.S. Open here in North Carolina at Pinehurst… Later on that year, Payne boarded an airplane that lost pressure in the cabin and the plane ended up going down. Payne ended up dying in 1999…2 or 3 years before that, Payne Stewart had come to faith and everybody asked Payne:
“You know, you used to be so egotistical, so self-centered. And now we see you and you care for other people. You have compassion. What’s going on?”
And Payne was able to share the faith…When Payne passed away, his memorial service was on CNN. Most of the PGA Tour guys were there…hundreds, if not thousands, of people came to faith as a result of hearing Payne’s story and as a result of him dying and having that memorial service. So that’s one instance, where we can see, “OK it’s terrible that Payne died, but there’s been a ton of good that had come out of that.”
But not (in) every instance can we see the good…Ultimately, this side of eternity, we may not know all the answers…
Why doesn’t God just get rid of all evil? If God were to get rid of all evil, if lightning were to strike every time something evil happened, then who of us really would have made it to our 16th birthday? (Especially) in the light of Jesus words, where he said… if you look at a woman with lust in your eyes, you’re guilty of adultery…
2 Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
Evil, ultimately, is gonna enter the world when man chooses against God.
Why do bad things happen to good people? As we compare ourselves to others, we’re always gonna come out ahead, right? But if we use God’s standard, and God’s standard is perfection, then, maybe we’re not so good…A great video to go along with that question is on YouTube: Ravi Zacharias’ “How Can a Good God Allow Evil?”
Aren’t Science and God directly opposed to each other?
[Partial Transcript] Usually, when people ask this question, they’re referring to creation versus evolution, or the age of the earth… Einstein believed in God when he saw the complexity of the universe… Through nature, you see ordered information and you know there’s got to be a designer behind that…when you see intelligent order, you know there’s go to be an intelligent designer…
The Language of God – Francis S. Collins
Within Christian circles, you’re gonna have people who believe in a young earth–6,000 to 10,000 years old. You’re gonna have people who believe in an old earth–4.5 billion years old. You’re gonna have people who believe in a literal, 6-day, 24 hour creation, and you’re gonna have people who see that “day” as we could say, like, “The day of Tiger Woods,” which is not literally one 24-hour period, but a period of time… Within Christians circles, you’re gonna have all different kinds of thought, but they’re all gonna know…that God created.
There are some who believe in what’s called biologos or “theistic evolution,” which is that God created the earth about 4.5 billion years ago, and that through the evolutionary process, God orchestrated events…One of those guys is Francis S. Collins. And he’s the head of the Human Genome Project. Currently, he’s the director of the National Institutes of Health. He wrote a book called “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.”
If I’m sitting with you at a coffee table…I’m gonna tell you we are not a cosmic accident. Your life has meaning, has value and purpose, That you’re made in the image of God…
Aren’t science and God directly opposed to each other? Definitely not. I think that, as some scientists have said, “Science is the language of God.”
There’s a great video on YouTube: Lee Strobel – Case for a Creator… I encourage you to watch that. It’s an 8-minute video that goes through the complexity of one human cell and how a lot of scientists would look at that and think, “There’s no way that this is some random chance.”
What does God say about dating and marriage?
[Partial Transcript] Huge question. Most of you all are in college and you’re probably thinking, one day, you wanna get married, maybe one day have kids, “What kind of person should I look for?” An older series done on the Song of Solomon by Tommy Nelson, I highly recommend (Newer title from this author)… We have a loving and caring Father, who knows what’s best for us, wants what’s best for us, has given us his word on what’s best for us, then we’ll become the men and women that he desires for us to be. But if we disobey the Father, then there’s consequences…
A quick, five-point theology on human sexuality:
- God created sex…
- Sex is designed to be pleasurable…
- Sex is holy…
- Sex is reserved for marriage…
- Within marriage, sex is freely given…
God blesses living his word out in marriage. And I think that God can forgive, you know, none of us are perfect. God can forgive any mistakes we’ve made in the past, but a lot of times, there’s consequences that go along with that.
Another topic within this conversation that is often had is the topic of pornography. And statistics show that if you’re a male listening to this, there’s a 90% chance that you would have what’s called a sexual addiction—that you look at pornography on a regular basis. And there’s a 25-30% chance, for the females listening to this, that you have the same…Jesus said that if you just think about a person in a lustful manner, that’s a sin…
A great video on that is by Mark Driscoll, called The Porn Path:
…Another great video is by Matt Chandler, called God and Sex
Another one on YouTube, by Shaun Alexander, the Seahawks NFL MVP Running Back. He’s got a video entitled, Dating, Sex, and Celibacy.
Again, the staff at College Golf Fellowship, we’re here to help you. And I know this is a huge issue in today’s culture. And I think there’s a healing when it moves from being a secret problem, to there’s a confession, and then there’s a growth pattern involved with prayer and accountability and submitting our lifestyle to God…
So, that finishes up the Top 10 Questions that people ask…there’s good answers to question people ask.
