8:46 AM: Flight 11 crashes into the WTC north tower. 9:03 AM: Flight 175 crashes into the south WTC tower. 9:37 AM American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. 9:59 AM: The south tower of the WTC collapses. 10:03 AM CDT Flight 93 crashes into the ground at Shanksville, PA. 10:28 AM: The World Trade Center north tower collapses. Terrorists
killed 2,751 people that day.[i]
9/11/2001 ranks w/ the attack on Pearl Harbor… the Shuttle disaster… & the assassinations of Kennedy & King in our nation’s conscious. Most are connected to 9/11 through TV. However, many have experience something of their own 9/11…
For instance: A friend’s husband passed from cancer in July. He was 58. A few weeks later her youngest son was killed. During an argument he was pushed… fell… & hit his head on a curb. The man who did this was a family friend. It was completely unintended & unintentional. But still a tragedy!
How do we process these things? If our theology can’t deal with those & worse… well… listen to Pr 24:10… “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”
My goal… by remembering what happened on 9/11… is to encourage you so that you will not faint “in the day of adversity” (God willing). We’ll read a lot of Scripture because that’s where we hear from God. I’ve placed these texts in your outline…
The question is: Can God handle whatever happens IN our life or TO us? My answer is… Not only CAN He handle it, but He HAS done so already for all His Children! Let’s think together…
First, What can God do? (Anything) Why? (Because He is GOD). This is huge!
Genesis 18:14 Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Jeremiah 32:17 Ah, Lord God! It is You who has made the heavens & the earth by Your great power & by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You.
Isaiah 59:1 The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or His ear dull, that it cannot hear…
Matthew 19:26 Jesus… said, “With man this is impossible, but w/ God all things are possible.”
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be glory in the church & in Christ Jesus thru-out all generations, forever & ever! Amen. (NIV)
The two most important things to God are: 1) His own glory, 2) Our holiness. That means our physical health… our TEMPORAL safety & security… & everything else in life never
come before His MAIN priorities. Let me press this a little…
Because God will not share His glory with anyone (Is 48:11) & He wills our sanctification (Ro 8:29), HE does what WILL bring those about. If it’s best to happen through pain or blessing… that IS what He’ll do. If it is best accomplished thru silence or a massive display of HIS power (tornado, hurricane, earthquake, financial collapse, etc)… that IS what
He’ll do. Not only that… If HE deems it best for us NOT to see His hand at work, then again… that IS what He will do.
The point is… HE is God, we aren’t! HE knows what’s best… not us! We are to honor, glorify, & praise God in all things at all times. When Satan killed Job’s 7 kids, he tore his clothes & said, “The Lord gives & the Lord takes away… blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). Then during his own severe physical sickness Job proclaimed about God, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).
This kind of faith in the midst of tragedy is rare. But when you see it, you know you’re in the presence of a person who walked with God BEFORE the tragedy happened. Those people have their life… & it’s events… in a right Biblical perspective. That is why it is written in 1 Jn 2:15…
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh & the desires of the eyes & pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Now the question is: How can WE have the faith that isn’t tied to this world? How can we… in the midst of the most severe tragedies… honestly affirm that God is STILL worthy of worship?
Answer: It’s granted to everyone who seeks God. To everyone who trust in Christ & puts Him first in life. That’s why Jesus said what is recorded in Mt 6:33… “Seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God…”
We “seek first the kingdom of God” by believing unconditionally what God says about Himself.
Is 46:9 Remember the former things of old; for I am God, & there is no other; I am God, & there is none like Me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning & from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, & I will accomplish all My purpose…”
Do you believe God? Do you believe what GOD said about HIMSELF? Faith begins by admitting & recognizing that GOD IS GOD. Faith doesn’t begin with blind trust… but by objective belief in absolute truth! Christians don’t “just trust God blindly.” Christians trust God BECAUSE we know Him personally. We rationally believe every truth HE proclaims about Himself.
Consider what Nebuchadnezzar said about God. In Dan 4:28-37, BECAUSE Nebuchadnezzar was prideful & didn’t glorify God for his blessings… God made him go crazy for 7 years. Nebuchadnezzar was driven from men… ate grass like an ox… his body was wet with the dew… his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers… & his nails were like birds’ claws (Dan 4:33). Then… after 7 years of insanity… GOD restored Nebuchadnezzar. Dan 4:34-35..
{Nebuchadnezzar Said}: (God’s) dominion is an everlasting dominion, & His kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35 all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, & He does according to His will among the host of heaven & among the inhabitants of the earth; & none can stay His hand or say to Him, “What have you done?”
Do you see why I say that God’s #1 priority is to glorify Himself AND make us holy? I don’t want it to take something like that to happen in my life for me to glorify God. But if that’s what it takes, God will do it. Both for individuals AND nations! THAT is Isaiah 48:10-11…
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it, for how should My name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.
Our time is growing to a close… Jesus spoke about when towers fall. Luke 13:1…
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled w/ their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell & killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus’ point was we live in a broken world where tragedies happen… to all people… sinners & saved alike. The issue was not how people die… what kind of person they were OR if it
was “fair.” THE issue is that eternity is coming & it must be prepared for now.
THE most senseless evil tragedy the world has ever seen was the arrest… beating… & murder of God’s Son Jesus Christ. Yet God willed ultimate good thru the ultimate evil of Jesus’ death {Ac 4:27-28}.
It was because of the senseless cruel murder of Christ on the cross that God forgives sinners of their sin of unbelief. It is because Jesus died in the most unfair means imaginable that sinners are saved from God’s Wrath. In closing listen to Rom 5:8-11…
God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God thru our Lord Jesus Christ, thru whom we have now received reconciliation.
IF we trust God for eternal matters (Our salvation), then CERTAINLY we can trust Him with temporal things! Even when we don’t understand… we can still trust God because of who He is!
If you are not saved or sure of your salvation… trust God thru Jesus today!
[i] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/10/national/main4250100.shtml