Transcript Responding to Calamities

Responding to Calamities
Saturday Service 29 Mar 2014
Cecil Ang
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts.”
Calamitous Events
Calamity is defined as a great misfortune or
disaster bringing grievous affliction
Examples
• 2001: 9/11
• 2003: SARS
• 2004: Boxing Day South Asian tsunami
• 2011: Mar 11 earthquake-cum-tsunami in Japan
• 2014: Mar 8 disappearance of MH370
Truths
1. Evil originates in the heart of man.
When tempted, no one should say, “God is
tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is
tempted when they are dragged away by their own
evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is
full-grown, gives birth to death. Jas 1:13-15 NIV
Evil activities will increase
God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that
they do what ought not to be done. They have
become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil,
greed and depravity. They are full of envy,
murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are
gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant
and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; …
Rom 1:28-30 NIV
Truths
2. Believers are not spared from the effects of
evil.
35 Women
received back their dead, raised to life
again. There were others who were tortured,
refusing to be released so that they might gain an
even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and
flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
37 They were put to death by stoning; they were
sawed in two; they were killed by the sword.
Believers are not exempt from evil
They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,
destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in
deserts and mountains, living in caves and in
holes in the ground. These were all commended
for their faith, yet none of them received what had
been promised, 40 since God had planned
something better for us so that only together with
us would they be made perfect. Heb 11:35-40 NIV
Luke 13:1-5 NIV
Now there were some present at that time who
told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate
had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered,
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse
sinners than all the other Galileans because they
suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you
repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen
who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty than all the
others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But
unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Truths
3. The tragic suffering or untimely death of people is
not due to the fact that they were worse sinners.
“Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever
perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?
As I have observed, those who plow evil and those
who sow trouble reap it. At the breath of God they
perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more.”
Job 4:7-9 NIV
Truths
4. God can use natural disasters or sicknesses to be
His instruments of judgment.
As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground
under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth
and swallowed them and their households, and all
those associated with Korah, together with their
possessions. They went down alive into the realm of
the dead, with everything they owned; the earth
closed over them, and they perished and were gone
from the community.
Num 16:31-33 NIV
Wicked did not repent
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these
plagues, did not repent of the works of their
hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols
of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and
of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor
walk; and they did not repent of their murders
nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor
of their thefts.
Rev 9:20-21 NASB
Luke 7:11-15 NKJV
Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a
city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with
Him, and a large crowd. 12 And when He came near
the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being
carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a
widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.
13 When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her
and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then He came and
touched the open coffin, and those who carried him
stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you,
arise.” 15 So he who was dead sat up and began to
speak. And He presented him to his mother.
Truths
5. Death does not have the final word in life.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep …
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made
alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then,
when he comes, those who belong to him.
1 Cor 15:20,22-23 NIV
Job 1:6-22 NIV
6 One
day the angels came to present themselves
before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come
from?”
Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming
throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you
considered my servant Job? There is no one on
earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man
who fears God and shuns evil.”
Job 1:6-22 NIV
9 “Does
Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied.
10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his
household and everything he has? You have blessed
the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are
spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out
your hand and strike everything he has, and he will
surely curse you to your face.”
12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything
he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not
lay a finger.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Job 1:6-22 NIV
13 One
day when Job’s sons and daughters were
feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s
house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen
were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,
15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them.
They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only
one who has escaped to tell you!” 16 While he was still
speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire
of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep
and the servants, and I am the only one who has
escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:6-22 NIV
17 While
he was still speaking, another messenger
came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding
parties and swept down on your camels and made off
with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I
am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger
came and said, “Your sons and daughters were
feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s
house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from
the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It
collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the
only one who has escaped to tell you!”
Job 1:6-22 NIV
20 At
this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved
his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship
21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with
wrongdoing.
Truths
6. God allows Satan to work his diabolical plans
through His permissive will.
We know that we are children of God, and that the
whole world is under the control of the evil one.
1 Jn 5:19 NIV
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him
in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he
said to him, “I will give you all their authority and
splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to
anyone I want to.”
Luke 4:5-6 NIV
Pray for Protection
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from the evil one.
Mt 6:13 NIV
My prayer is not that you take them out of the
world but that you protect them from the evil one.
Jn 17:15 NIV
Truths
7. Satan is constantly accusing us before God but
Christ is always making intercession on our behalf.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who
accuses them before our God day and night, has been
hurled down.”
Rev 12:10 NIV
Therefore he is able to save completely those who
come to God through him, because he always lives to
intercede for them.
Heb 7:25 NIV
Christ’s intercession for Peter
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you
as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that
your faith may not fail. And when you have turned
back, strengthen your brothers.” Lk 22:31-32 NIV
Truths
8. God will not allow us to be tempted (by Satan)
beyond our ability to bear it.
No temptation has overtaken you except what is
common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will
not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
But when you are tempted, he will also provide a
way out so that you can endure it. 1 Cor 10:13 NIV
Truths (Summary)
1. Evil originates in the heart of man.
2. Believers are not spared from the effects of evil.
3. The tragic suffering or untimely death of people is
not due to the fact that they were worse sinners.
4. God can use natural disasters or sicknesses to be
His instruments of judgment.
5. Death does not have the final word in life.
6. God allows Satan to work his diabolical plans
through His permissive will.
7. Satan is constantly accusing us before God but
Christ is always making intercession on our behalf.
8. God will not allow us to be tempted (by Satan)
beyond our ability to bear it.
Problem of pain and suffering
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ
not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for
him.
Phil 1:29 NIV
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in
our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His
megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
C. S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain
How should we respond to calamity?
1. Repentance: change of life’s direction; towards
God rather than away from Him
2. Compassion: reaching out to those afflicted
with kindness and love
3. Worship: acknowledging God as our Sovereign
Creator despite the circumstances of life
Rom 8:35, 37–39 NASB
35 Who
will separate us from the love of Christ? Will
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer
through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord.