Who's In Charge Here? A Christian Response To The Tsunami Series

Mes#: 445-090105

File #: job01-01

Text: Selected passages from Job

Title: Who’s In Charge Here?

Introduction:

· Christmas 2004 will be forever remembered as the Christmas with the most tragic natural disaster in human history.

· People around the world have been witness to this most tragic event.

· We have watched the news casts and we have been horrified to the images we have seen.

· An email that came through from Craig McKenzie, missionary to Penang, Malaysia gave this account. He was preparing for their Christmas Day service just as the earthquake hit around 9:15 a.m.. The church meets in a local hotel

I noticed the windows sort of buckling a bit…then I heard a larg band, like someone dropped a hug steel plate. As I walked out of the elevator I was greeted by the sight of the worship team leaving rapidly. The floor was moving under them. Pastor Craig and the tem evacuated the hotel. That afternoon he picks up the story “About 1/45 this afternoon we noticed some large waves in the distance. We were able to watch the tsunami roll into the bay right in front of us. It was confirmed that people died in Batu Ferrengi just to the south of us. Cars were overturned. One roald had a few boats scattered down it along with sand and debris. The poor, as usual, will suffer the most. We are all OK and are thankful! There are so many in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia who will forever affected. Please pray!

· For Pastor Craig, he talks about their lives never being the same. How can they. How could they live in the midst of such devastation without being forever changed.

· There is a sense where our world will deal with this devastation for many years to come.

· As Christians, we have had our faith stretched. In many ways I have easier answers to the planes slamming into World Trade Buildings in 2001.

· As I was watching one Spiritual leaders interviewed on the evening news this week, he said, “Everyone’s faith has been challenged. It doesn’t matter what religion.”

· That is true. Our faith has been challenged this week. It has been shook, but I tell you today, “Our faith has not been shattered.”

· This week we go to the Scriptures in search of answers to our questions, “Who is in control? Why did God allow this to happen? What do we do next?”

· In search of answers to those questions, we are going to spend the next two weeks grappling with what has happened. It is a series called

“A Christmas To Remember - A Christian Response To The Tsunami”

· So where do we go to find the answers. Turn in your Bibles to the book of Job.

· Job knew what it meant to face struggle and despair. He saw devastation all around Him. He found himself asking the tough questions.

· Let’s pick up this story.

Assurance #1: God Is In Control – Satan’s Power Is Limited (vv1:10-12; 2:6)

· In this passage we learn a lot about our God and the enemy of our souls.

· We learn that ultimately God is the one in control, and Satan, or the “Accuser”, is one who can only ask permission from God to orchestrate his evil plans.

· Our first reaction may be to blame the accuser of our souls. Maybe even allowing this to be cast onto Satan as a Spiritual act.

· In Job we see that Satan was instrumental in causing difficulty and destruction around Job’s life.

· The sickness, the loss of livestock, the loss of his family, the loss of his assets, the loss of his health, all are linked directly back to Satan, the accuser.

· But in all the power that Satan seemed to possess, his power was limited to that which was allowed by God.

· But we must first realize that in all of this

i) Satan does not have ultimate power, God does

Satan needed to ask permission, it was Satan who had to come to God

· The first two chapters of Job demonstrate that although Satan is in rebellion, hi is still accountable to God.

· Originally an angel of God, Satan became corrupt through his own pride (2 Peter 2:4)

· Although Satan attempts to hamper God’s work, he is limited by God. As much as he may wish to be a god, Satan is still a created and finite being.

· He controls people. He has even been able to control people who walked in the physical presence of Jesus. Near the end of our Lord’s earthly ministry, he predicted His own death. Peter resisted the thought that such a thing could happen. Even with the passing of nearly 20 centuries, Jesus’ reaction to Peter is a shock. "Out of my sight, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men" (Matthew 16:23).