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Introduction:
Tuesday, September 11, 2001—four years ago today: This date will
forever be engraved in that part of our mind that stores
information we wish we could forget but cannot. Pearl Harbor, the
assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the
explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and the Oklahoma City
bombing. I was in ninth grade returning from the high school band
hall when I learned of the Challenger Explosion. Marita and I were
visiting a small church in middle Tennessee on Wednesday evening
during our honeymoon when we were told about the Oklahoma City
bombing. On 9-11, I had left the Early Bird Café in Beaumont,
Texas, where I had picked up a cup of coffee, and was traveling
down Phelan Blvd. when I heard the radio announcer say between
songs that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. I
thought, “Oh No! Some air traffic controller is going to be in
big trouble.” Moments later, as I was about to turn on to Dowlen
Road, Elton John’s Bennie and the Jets was interrupted
and the DJ announced that a second plane had flown into the second
of the Twin Towers. I thought, “Oh No! This was no air traffic
controller mistake.” A few moments later, in my office, I called
one of my elders at the time, David Rogers, and he mentioned he
had just seen something about the Pentagon. I thought, “Great,
now the rumors of full scale attack are beginning.” Then, on the
television, I learned it was not a rumor. I thought, “Oh No!
What is going to happen next?” The rest was a mixture of shock,
sorrow, fear and anger. Not only do we remember the horrors of
9-11, even now four years later, we are in the midst of the
aftermath of the numerous tragedies surrounding the most recent
hurricane to ravage the Gulf Coast, Katrina. Whether we are
remembering 9-11, suffering from Katrina or facing our own
personal tragedy, there are lessons we must learn regarding how to
handle it when tragedy strikes. Discussion: I.
God may not have planned this,
but He will use it. A.
In the many funerals surrounding 9-11 and in those that
will surround Katrina, I am sure preachers have “comforted”
the grieving by saying, “We don’t know why God chose to end so
many lives so tragically, let us trust God’s plan. He knows
best.” B.
We must trust God and He does know best. But the events of
9-11 and Katrina were not necessarily instigated by God. The Bible
is quite clear that God has created a world in which He is not the
only acting force. 1.
No doubt, God is an active force in the world. He is not,
as some suppose, simply watching the world unfold. Passages such
as Romans
8:28; I Corinthians 3:6-7 and I Peter 1:4-5 all demonstrate God is active in our world. Is it
possible that this is part of God’s judgment on a nation that is
becoming more and more decadent and sinful? Of course. But without
scripture declaring such to be the case, we cannot lay this act
directly at God’s feet. 2.
The Bible is also clear that God has given Satan freedom to
act. I
Thessalonians 2:18; II Corinthians 12:7 and I Peter
5:8 all clearly
demonstrate Satan’s presence and activity. 3.
God has created a world wherein man has a free will that
affects the direction of our world and sometimes even God’s
action. Jeremiah 18:5-12
demonstrates this. God may promise a certain action, but if men
change their course, God will change His response. 4.
Finally, the Bible also speaks of the working of time and
chance (Ecclesiastes 9:11). C.
In all Biblical honesty, we must notice God’s own words
in Job 2:3. While we know Satan was the direct cause of Job’s
suffering, God said He had Himself been incited against Job.
Nothing can be accomplished in this world whether by Satan,
man’s free will or time and chance except God has permitted it.
In that sense, and that sense alone, can all things in the world
be attributed to God. We know of one limitation God always
maintains on all other forces in the world. According to I Corinthians 10:13, God will never allow anything that will force
us to sin. Nothing will happen that we cannot overcome and remain
faithful to God. Other than that limitation, God allows the other
forces to work in the world. D.
However, we cannot leave this point without also
establishing one major and almost inconceivable fact. Despite
God’s permission for Satan, man and time and chance to work in
this world, God still has an ultimate plan that no one can
overthrow. Romans 8:28
demonstrates that God causes all things to work together for good.
God will not allow even a tragedy of 9-11 or Katrina magnitude to
overthrow His plan. He will weave even these into the tapestry of
His ultimate will for mankind. The true biblical comfort is not
that God planned and executed 9-11 or Katrina as part of some
massive unknown plan. The comfort is that despite Satan’s and
man’s attempts to act and establish their own plans, God’s
plan will be accomplished and those who love Him will be saved. II.
“Your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm
23). A.
Sheep being led through the valleys to the summer ranges on
the mountain top tablelands faced numerous dangers: rampaging
flooded rivers, avalanches, rockslides, poisonous plants,
predators, storms and more. Just so, we are encompassed about by
dangers and dread from numerous sources and in many ways. Perhaps
the fears we all had surrounding 9-11 and Katrina highlighted our
own vulnerability. B.
But we have one to whom we can turn for comfort: our
Shepherd, Jesus Christ (John
10:14-15). The rod and staff of the shepherd comfort his
sheep. The panic the sheep feel in the face of danger is assuaged
by the presence of their armed shepherd. The rod and staff, tools
of discipline, protection, inspection, guidance and rescue do not
scare the sheep but comfort them. We have this rod and staff in
God’s word. His word comforts us by protecting us from sin,
steering us away from danger, helping us overcome the tempter,
drawing us together and closer to God, rescuing us from our own
undoing and leading us to heaven when our life is ended. No wonder
Paul commended God’s word in Acts
20:32. C.
Repeatedly, people have stated that there are no words of
comfort in such tragedies. While nothing can be said that causes
our emotions to vanish, we, as God’s children have great words
of comfort. Our Shepherd is with us no matter what happens. Hebrews
13:5-6 demonstrates such. Romans
8:31-39 demonstrates that even in the face of warlike attacks
or phenomenal acts of nature, we will not be separated from God
against our will. D.
When we see the comfort our Shepherd gives, we recognize
the compassion Jesus had for the masses in Matthew
9:36 when He saw them as sheep without a shepherd, which leads
to our next lesson. III.
We must bring the shepherdless sheep into Jesus’ fold
quickly. A.
As Jesus looked on the multitudes with compassion, so must
we. The majority of Americans have no shepherd. We need to bring
them to the Shepherd, before it is their turn to die. B.
I wonder how many of the people who died on 9-11 and in
Katrina had Christian friends who had yet to speak to them about
Jesus? How many Christians in those areas are now grieving not
only because people have died, but also because some of them were
friends or family whom they had yet to tell the gospel? For them,
there would always be tomorrow. For them, there were always
reasons why “Right now is not the right time.” How many of
them heard sermons about urgency of preaching the gospel and
instead of being pricked in their hearts to talk to friends and
family, they raised their own defenses to condemn preachers for
challenging them too much? How many of us have done likewise? C.
If right now is not the right time to point people to the
Shepherd, when will it ever be the right time? As Matthew
9:37-38 says, the harvest is plentiful but we need workers.
Actually, we need to be workers. We need to be workers who sow the
seed. We need to be workers who water the seed. We need to be
workers who bring forth fruit to God’s glory, reaping and
gathering souls for Christ (John 15:8). IV.
Our lives go on, but we look for a better place. A.
One of my favorite poems is a chilling poem by Robert Frost
entitled “Out, Out—“ It tells of the death of a young
Vermont boy who he cut off his hand while cutting wood. The poem
ends with the reaction of his family and co-workers, “And they,
since they / Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” B.
Following tragedy, our lives go on. We still have to work,
eat and sleep. Businesses must be opened. Merchandise must be
bought and sold. No matter how close we are to the tragedy we
still must continue doing the things that make up our lives. We,
since we are not the ones dead, must turn to our own affairs. C.
But we do so with the reminder that this world is not our
home. The thing that helps us turn to our own affairs is
recognizing that a world like this one, in which we have to live
with such dreadful memories and fears that it will happen again,
is not God’s plan for eternity. We are looking for a new heaven
and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (II
Peter 3:13). D.
We are reminded that our hopes and dreams are not in this
world, for even the greatest works of man are only temporary. We
are reminded of Jesus’ statement in Matthew
6:19-20. The things of this earth are destined for decay and
destruction. Therefore, we must look for a better place; we must
lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. We comfort one another
with the words of I
Thessalonians 4:15-18. E.
Do you remember in Luke
13:1-5 how Jesus responded when men brought up to Him
tragedies of His day? “Unless you repent, you will all likewise
perish.” Jesus was not claiming those tragedies were of
necessity God’s specific judgment on the people involved,
anymore than we can claim our tragedies are God’s judgment. The
point is, we are all going to perish. Unless we repent of our
sins, our perishing will also be a tragedy. Today, our lives may
go on. But we must look for the new heaven and new earth. We must
prepare for our own demise and death, lest our deaths be as tragic
spiritually as 9-11 was nationally. Conclusion: If there is any other lesson we learn from these tragedies, it is that none of us are immune from death at any time. Ecclesiastes 9:12 demonstrates the unknown and sudden nature in which death will overtake us all. We do not have tomorrow. We do not even have the rest of today. This week, men and women died. Black, white, Hispanic and Asian died. Rich and poor died. Educated and ignorant died. Young and old died. Management and labor died. Somebody just like you died this week. You may be next. Are you ready for it?
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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