Date Preached ________
Where Preached _________
What Does God Call Us to Do in the Middle of Tragedy?
Selected Scriptures
This has been a couple of weeks that our country and our church will never forget. Preaching involves at least two responsibilities. The first is to explain the Bible and relate it to life. The second is to take life and explain it in light of Scripture. My goal this morning is to accomplish both of these purposes.
Like you, I have experienced a wide variety of emotions over the last two weeks. I’ve been in shock, disbelief; I have been concerned about our friends to the south. And I’ve been ambushed by a flood of tears on several occasions as I try to imagine the grief that thousands of families are experiencing right now. It’s normal, natural and necessary to allow our emotions to come out. Jesus said in Matthew 5:4: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
Why did God allow this tragedy?
There are three main opinions I have heard people talk about over the last two weeks that are relative to this question. The first is this one: God caused it, for either a testing or a punishment. Deuteronomy 31:29 – says: In days to come, disaster will fall upon you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD and provoke him to anger by what your hands have made."
The second opinion is this: Satan caused it, to bring harm and destruction to those he hates - everyone. Example of Job - Satan was behind the entire series of disasters that happened to Job.
And the third opinion is this: God allowed it (though maybe not causing it directly) for reasons we may never know.
So which is it? I don’t know. It might be all three, or combinations of one or two, or it may have happened for reasons that fall outside of all these reasons. We simply don’t know.
But one thing I can say with absolute assurance: God is still in absolute control, and He can and does work in the midst of even such huge tragedies as this one.
So What Should We Do When Tragedy Strikes?
1. Put Your Faith in God.
When we think about strengthening our faith, we can learn from the story of Job. The Bible says that Job was a perfect man, a righteous man, a man who turned from evil. but, in one big swoop everything that had meaning and purpose or made sense for Job was lost.
The Sabeans rustled all his oxen and donkeys and killed all the herdsmen.
Fire struck the sheep and the shepherds and burned them up.
The Chaldeans raided the camels, carried them off, and put all the drivers to death.
A whirlwind swept across the desert, struck his eldest son’s house, and killed all of Job’s sons and daughters while they were dining.( Job 1:13-19)
To top if off, Job broke out in running sores from head to foot, and in disgust his wife said to him. "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9)
There he was. Job the righteous. Job the affluent. Job the successful. Job the powerful. Everything was gone. His world had crashed. Everything was wiped out.
What would you do? What would you do if you lost it all? What would you do if your children were taken from you? What would do if your spouse said, "Curse God and die?"
Look at Job and his response. Here was a sick man sitting in an ash pile. Notice his action: "Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped" (Job 1:20).
He remembered the source of His strength. He remembered the hope of his future. He remembered that God said that He would never leave him nor forsake him. It is rather strange, isn’t it? Everything was lost, and Job fell down on the ground and worshipped.
In essence, Job is saying, "Even though, tragedy has struck my life and I’ve lost it all, I trust God and I know that everything will be all right." We read in Job 19:25,26
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.
It is my hope that we keep our faith and be reminded that we are not alone. I believe that God will supply us with a power that is greater than ourselves to bring us through the difficulties that we face.
In 1 John 5:12 – we see these words: He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Jesus said in John 3:18 - Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
You see, outside of Christ we are all condemned. And the Bible says that all have sinned. And so if we are not in Christ, we are punished for our sins, as we deserve.
You have to remember something very important here: there are no innocent people in hell. Only sinners are in hell. And the Bible is very clear that we are all born as sinners with no hope of heaven on our own merit.
Jesus offers the chance to escape the punishment if we will only take it.
2. The second thing that I think God has called us to do is to pray!
This is something that we can all do. I realize that we all can’t go to the Gulf region. I also know that there will be some going but not all of us can go. I also know that we all can’t house some of the evacuees, we all can’t send supplies, but there is something that we can all do and that is to pray for our friends and our brothers and sisters in the Lord. What kind of prayer list do we need to have and what do we need to be praying for?
Pray that the needed manpower, funds, and other resources would get to the needy quickly, and that fraud and corruption would not rear its ugly head to delay the needed help.
Pray that survivors would be found quickly, they are still finding survivors almost two weeks into this thing. And pray that families would be re-united, there are so many families who haven’t heard from one another.
Pray for and give to the relief effort.
Second: Pray for the Christian message of hope. In the middle of all this, the message of Christ can shine, bringing hope to those without it, and offering comfort as people find out that the God of the universe was not asleep at the wheel, was not busy, or whatever during this tragedy, He was right there, and He still is there, wanting to reach out and comfort the people affected. Pray that the message would be given clearly, and that those who hear it will hear the compassion imbedded in the good news of Jesus.
Third: Pray for God’s comfort for those who have lost loved ones.
No amount of words from us will be able to fill this need. This is a God-sized need, and only God can fill it adequately. And so I encourage you to lift up these people, asking God to move in as only He can. This is not just a hypothetical situation for them. It’s real, and it hurts more than they can describe. Ask that God will surround them with His comfort and His love. So we need to pray for God’s comfort.
I hope that they are praying as well just as two men did on September 11, 2001. I read this story in this week’s lookout. Two men were on the 81st floor of tower #2 of the World Trade Center, desperately trying to avoid the fate that was claiming so many that day.
Stanley Praimnath, an assistant vice president for Fuji Bank Limited, found himself trapped after the United Airlines plane crashed into his building. He was buried up to his neck in debris, isolated behind collapsed walls, while a wing of the airliner burned nearby.
Knowing the desperation of his situation, he began to pray to the Lord, asking him to please send someone to help. While praying, he saw a beam from a flashlight and heard someone on the other side of the debris. Praimnath yelled to draw his attention, but the oth4er person could not get through to him.
Parimnath then cried out to the person on the other side and asked him if he knew Jesus, and if the could pray together for God to help. The two men joined in prayer still separated from each other amid the wreckage.
After they prayed, Praimnath was gripped with the knowledge that he could kick through the wall separating them. As he began to break a small hole through the wall, Brain Clark reached through and pulled Stanley to freedom, and together they began the long descent to the street, escaping the building just minutes before it collapsed.
Theirs is an amazing story of faith and reliance on God in crisis. Like Paul, Stanley Parimnath used the opportunity of the crisis to let others know about his faith in God. and like Paul, the story of his experience has encouraged many more to speak the Word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
If it will work play the segment off of MSNBC on “Victims Turn to Religion”
3. The third thing that I think God wants us to in a tragedy is to be called into action!
Let me read out Matthew 25: 34 -46
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37"Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40"The King will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41"Then he will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44"They also will answer, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45"He will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
I think that what ever we can do for these people will not only be for these people, but it will also be for Christ. We may be being called to clothe them, we may be being called to help rebuild, we may be being called to send them food and supplies, we may be being called to help them out. What ever it is will also be done unto Jesus as well. There are so many opportunities to serve and to help out. All we have to do is look for those ways and they are there.
Romans 8:35, 37-39: says: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, angels nor demons, things present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
One way we can look at these types of disasters and see the ever-closer return of Jesus. Folks, tragedy can hit at any moment. If you have Christ as your Savior, then at least you’re prepared to meet God.
And on top of that, God’s Holy Spirit has placed in you a desire to live for God. And one of the ways we please God is to reach out to others in need. So while we may not understand the "why" of what happened, we can do something to help alleviate the suffering of those going through it.
Bottom-line: assigning "blame" or "cause" is not the issue. Reaching out to those who have been affected is. We are not immune from tragedy and neither are we alone. Call on God. He will be with you.
