Where Is God Amidst The Confusion

WHERE IS GOD AMIDST THE CONFUSION?

• Rev. Dave Smith (M.Div.)

The Bible tells us … apart from Jesus Christ …

- the wisest man who ever lived on planet earth … was King Solomon

Solomon wrote:

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" There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot," (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 NIV)

- Last Tuesday each of us went about our lives … unaware of the Time

- Each of us went about our lives unaware of the tragedy that was taking place … for Amanda and her family.

For all of us it has become …

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A TIME OF CONFUSION

• There is Shock

- at the tragic loss Amanda

- it as left everyone with a surreal feeling of total disbelief

• There is Disappointment

- that we cannot simply wake up from this bad dream

- that the doctors and medical community could not have done more

- that there were so many things let undone

- so many tings left unsaid

- and that we can’t re-write the ending of this story

• There is Discouragement

- that things could be so desperate

- so quick

- so unpredictable

- so unexpected

- so seemingly undeserving to such a wonderful person

- or that any of us didn’t do more

• There are Unanswered Questions

- Why didn’t we see this coming?

- How could such a thing happen in our day and age?

- Why?

- What good can come from a situation like this?

- Where is God in the midst of all this?

Not only is this a time for Confusion it is also…

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A TIME FOR SORROW

It’s a time of sorrow because

- You will not be able to see Amanda as you have in the past

- There will be an empty place in every classroom

- A touch that will not be felt

- A smile that will not be seen

- A laugh that will not be heard

- A voice that is silenced

- A wedding Isle that will never be walked

- Grandchildren that will never be held

- And a love that will be remembered, but not experienced first hand.

- This is a time of sorrow

If ever there was a time … and a need for hope it is now …

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A TIME FOR HOPE

• “The Christian gospel is a message of hope based squarely upon the character, work, and nature of God.”

- The gospel is the story of hope that came to the earth in the person of Jesus Christ.

- Hope that is seen is not hope at all …

- So we need to cling to a hope and a faith that is not based upon what we see …

- But upon God himself

- Because without Him … nothing else makes sense!

- Where would we be today w/o hope?

When a tragedy of this magnitude comes along there is a wide range of emotions … and searching …

ANSWERS ARE NOT EASILY FOUND OR GIVEN!

- As hard as it seems …. we need to acknowledge that God is not accountable to us.

- We may never fully understand why He would permit such an act to take place, when it was clearly in His power to stop it.

- The only clue that we have is Deut.29:29 …

• “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children …” Deuteronomy 29:29

- There are some things that will always remain a mystery … this side of eternity

- And so we need to depend upon God in His infinite wisdom and justice to work things out for His children…

- Because we are hope- less Apart from God

- In time like these the best thing we can do is to call upon God for healing…

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A TIME FOR HEALING BROKEN HEARTS

God promises to be near the broken hearted:

God says … Rom. 8:35-39

• “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? … For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the 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 that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”

- Ps. 34:18 says … “The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

- He removes fear from His people: Ps.23 says … “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff they comfort me.”