Confidence In Troubled Times

Confidence In These Troubled Times

TEXT:

INTRODCUTION:

1 This morning I would like to talk to you about how to have – Confidence In These Troubled Times.

2 I’m sure we can all agree that these are uncertain times.

3 We’ve lived in a nation surrounded by 2 great oceans that seemed to insolate us from the uncertainties and tragedies endured by the rest of world.

4 Then, 2 jet liners crashed into the World Trade Center and robbed many of their security.

5 This week there was an article in the paper about a 68-year-old man who was going back to work. He had been a stockbroker, lawyer and mortgage banker. He thought he had it all figured out and had everything under control. Since 9-11 he had seen his retirement dwindle by half.

6 We have seen a generation of students taught in our universities that truth was not absolute. "It’s all relative," They were told. "Do whatever think or feel in your heart works."

7 Pragmatism was the guiding light.

8 Now we see fruit of the pragmatic relativistic world view in Enron, World Com, etc.

9 There are now question about he possibility of war with Iraq and what effects it will have on us.

10 Global warming – is the sky falling? Are the ice caps melting? Or, is it just junk science?

11 We can’t even agree on whether or not Coffee is bad for you.

12 I must admit there are times that these news events bother me, but they are unable to reach the core of my soul because I have a sense of security that can only come from God.

13 Let me share, with you, a few reasons for "Confidence in these troubled times."

14 I am confident because I know:

1) There is a God who loves,

2) There is a God has saved me,

3) There is a God who cares for me

4) There is a God who will take me to heaven to meet loved ones who have gone before.

DISCUSSION:

I. I know there is a God who loves me.

A. I know there is a God because it just makes sense.

1. The existence of God is so obvious that the Bible Never tries to prove his existence it just assumes it.

(Hebrews 3:4 NKJV) For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.

(Psalms 8:1,3 NKJV) O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, {4} What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? {5} For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. {6} You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, {7} All sheep and oxen; Even the beasts of the field, {8} The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas.

(Romans 1:18-21 NKJV) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, {19} because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. {20} For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, {21} because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

B. I know there is a God (and he is the God of the Bible) because fruit of unvief.

1. The Muslsim religion

2. Liberal MO

3. Famous Men who were Infidels.

a) Voltaire, French Revolutionary thinker: "Strike out a few sages and the crowd of human beings is nothing but a horrible assemblage of unfortunate criminals, and the globe contians nothing but corpses. I tremble to have to complain once more of the Being of Beings in casting an attentive eye over this terrible picture, I wish I had never been born."

b) Goeth, the German Philosopher: "I have always been esteemed one of Fortune’s chiefest favorites; nor will I complain to find fault with the course my life has taken. Yet, truly, there has been nothing but toil and care; and I may say, that in all my seventy five years, I have never had a month of genuine comfort. It has been the perpetual rolling of a stone, which I have always had to raise anew...men will become more clever and more acute, but not better, happier and stronger in action.