Once again, we are overwhelmed with the news of a school shooting.

Once again, we hear the all too familiar tale of an aggravated young man taking the lives of innocent children in their regular learning environment.

Every time this happens, and it happens more often than we would expect, we are left asking the question, “Why do school shootings happen?”

Let’s consider the intentions and thoughts that are piled on top of each other in planning a school shooting.

I imagine it goes something like this:

• I am so angry.
• I have been made fun of enough. No more!
• People deserve to die.
• I will be the one that makes sure they get killed.
• I need a weapon to kill.
• My Dad owns some guns that will kill.
• I will sneak his guns out of his room while he is at work in order to kill.
• I have to hide the guns on the way out of the house so that my Mom doesn’t stop me from killing.
• I will wear my long trench coat so that I can get the guns out of the house to kill.
• I have to conceal the guns as I enter the school so that I can kill.
• My trench coat will ensure I can get the guns into the school to kill.
• Once I am in the school, I will have to pull the fire alarm to create a distraction so that I can kill.
• While everyone is running in panic, I will kill.
• After I kill others, I will kill myself.

As the story unfolds after each mass killing, we often find out that weeks or months of planning and plotting went into devising a less than 5-minute shooting spree.

For a notable and lengthy period of time, the intentions and thoughts of the school shooter’s heart were focused only on the act of murder.

In the text of Genesis 6.5-8, the answer to the question, “Why do school shootings happen?,” is answered.

The Scripture says:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 

These words are first and foremost describing the men, women, and children that lived thousands and thousands of years ago during the days of Noah.

One example of who these words were be describing would be the descendants of Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son. These men, woman, and children had forgotten all that God had done for their family.  They forgot that God promised to forgive and rescue Adam and Eve after they turned their back on God by disobeying His Law for life and love.  They forgot that after their ancestor, Cain, killed their other ancestor, Abel, God marked Cain as His own so that no one would seek revenge on him for what he had done.  God rescued Cain after he transgressed God’s Law for life and love.

Another example of who these words were describing would be the descendants of Cain. These men, women, and children, followed in the ways of their ancestor who killed his own brother.  This family line continued to act violently on the earth toward one another and toward outsiders.

The Bible often makes statements like, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” It is easy to believe that proclamations such as this are an over exaggeration or a complete mistruth.  After all, things can’t be that bad, right?

But, when we turn on the news and have to weep in sorrow while exclaiming, “Not again!,” our eyes are opened a bit wider to the timeless truths contained within the pages of God’s living and active Word, the Bible.

Even though these words were spoken thousands of years ago about a specific people in a specific place a at a specific time, this description of humanity continues to reveal the truth of how the heart and mind continue to work inside every man, woman, and child, to this day.

Here is the truth, we are the descendants of Seth and Cain.

We are Friday’s school shooter.

Every intention of the thoughts in our heart is evil continuously.

We spend our time thinking about, as well as plotting and planning the worst, even if we don’t always follow through with it in actions.

Let’s examine some of the deep and dark places our thoughts take us.

• We spend excessive time thinking about what we want and how we are going to get it. After we have planned and plotted our next move to increase our personal happiness, we may think about God but often we will not.  Our thoughts and the intentions of our words and actions do not give priority to God on a regular basis.
• We spend time during the week thinking about and planning the stuff we are going to do and the places we are going to go on Sunday morning during the time that we are called by God to be at church giving thanks to Him and praising Him for His love for us.
• We obsessively think about ways to get revenge on those who have harmed us. We think about ways to hurt those who have spoken badly against us.  Sometimes, in our thoughts, we even ponder murder.
• We think about cheating on our spouse or future spouse by thinking about and planning sexual contact with a neighbor, a co-worker, a friend, or even a fellow church goer.
• We plan to lie on our taxes to steal money from the government.
• We plan the lies we can tell to keep ourselves from getting in trouble.
• We dwell on the possessions that others have that we do not.
• We obsessively think about what it would be like to have that bigger or newer house with the landscaping and interior that looks like the pictures in magazines. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we don’t have instead of what we do have.
• We think about what it would be like to have that attractive and in shape wife that looks good in yoga pants or that attractive and muscular husband that looks good with his shirt off. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we don’t have instead of what we do have.
• We think about what it would be like to have a nanny, housekeeper, or landscaper like our friends have. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we don’t have instead of what we do have.

If you are honest, you know the truth that evil overflows out of your heart and mind.  Even if that evil never enters into the light of the day, it is there, it is undeniable.

There isn’t one person who has lived or who is living now that would be comfortable having every single one of their thoughts and intentions spoken out loud for others to hear.

With a heart and mind that creates and imagines all kinds of ungodly and evil scenarios on a regular basis, there is no hope for you.  You deserve the same punishment that the men, women, and children in Noah’s day received.  You deserve to be blotted out from the face of the earth.  You deserve to be swept away in the flood of God’s anger and wrath.  You deserve to hear that God is sorry that he made you!

But, God does not treat you like the men, women, and children of Noah’s day.  He treats you like he treated Noah.  He favors you!

Noah wasn’t special by any means.

He was in the same boat as all of the other men, women, and children of his day.

Let’s follow the logic. God saw that all men had ungodly evil intentions and thoughts.  Noah was a man. Therefore, Noah was also guilty of having ungodly intentions and thought.  Noah deserved to be blotted out from the face of the earth with all of the others.

But, God looked at him and had favor upon.

God’s favor wasn’t earned by Noah. He wasn’t a good and holy man who deserved to be rewarded by God.

But, God lovingly looked at Noah and said, “I am glad I made you!”

Noah’s response was probably to look over his should to see if God was speaking to someone else.

Noah would have responded, “Who me?”

And, God would lovingly look at him and repeat, “Yes, you dummy! I am glad I made you.  You are my child. I will forgive you.  I will cleanse your mind and heart of the evil that is created and overflows from them.  I will call you perfect!”

God looks at you and says the same exact thing.  He says to you, “I am glad that I made you! You are my child. I forgive you.  I cleanse your mind and heart of the evil that is created and overflows from them.  I call you perfect!”

He is so glad that he made you that He freely forgives you of the evil intentions and thoughts that have driven your heart and mind up until this day.  His love is so great and all-encompassing that He even forgives you in advance for the times that your heart and mind will slip back into creating and dwelling on evil intentions.

And, all of this is accomplished, the forgiving, the favoring, the loving, through the gift of Jesus Christ who had perfectly pure thoughts every second of every day that He walked this earth.  God, your Father in Heaven, exchanges Jesus’ perfectly pure life on the cross for your continuously evil life.  Instead of blotting you out from the face of the earth, God, your Father, in Heaven, blotted out Jesus Christ from the face of the earth instead.

Why do school shootings happen? Because apart from a relationship with God, the Creator and Redeemer, the intention of the thoughts of the heart is evil continuously.

Why did Jesus die on the cross? Because the intention of the thoughts of your heart are evil continuously.

Jesus’ death on the cross in the place of sinners means that God’s favor can fall upon Adam and Eve, Cain and his descendants, Seth and his decendants, Noah, school shooters, and you!

Your thoughts are evil continuously.  But, Jesus’ thoughts were perfectly pure for you.

God’s favor upon Noah him made him a good and holy man.

Listen to the description of Noah after God’s love, grace, and mercy chose him to be forgiven, rescued, and saved from the flood.

“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6.9)

The apostle Paul, who wrote much of what we call the New Testament, in the Bible, encourages the church, in the city of Philippi with these words:

“Brothers [and sisters], whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8–9)

This is first a description of what the thoughts and intentions of Jesus Christ looked like.  Jesus’ heart and mind were always set on what was true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.  Nothing else ever flowed out of Jesus’ thoughts.  He thoughts were continually centered on loving God and loving you.

Here is the really, really good news:

The Bible tells us that through faith in Jesus’ perfectly pure thought life and then death on the cross that blotted Him out from the face of the earth, we are first forgiven of our evil thoughts and intentions, and, secondly, transformed by the Holy Spirit to have the mind of Christ.

That means, we are already given credit before God in Heaven for a perfectly pure thought life and then enabled on a daily basis by the continual working of God’s Spirit within us to have a heart and mind that are set on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

The apostle Paul writes to you, knowing that you who have faith are made, and are being made, into a good and holy person.

Therefore, pray this week that God, though the Holy Spirit that lives within you, will motivate you in your heart and mind to seek the things of the Kingdom of Heaven first, trusting that what you need will be provided for you.

And, pray this week that on a daily basis you would be driven to think about what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise.

Amen.

Pastor Fred.

May 20, 2018