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Sermon of
09-07-02
"Where Was God During 9-11?"
by Dr. David A. Farmer, pastor
Scripture - Romans 8:28; "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 started out as a normal day for most Americans. People got up and got ready for work just like ever other Tuesday morning. Kids went off to school. Some working people drove to work. Some took busses, or subways and others trains. There were people who were getting ready to take plane flights.
That morning, after devotion I personally went out to work in my garden. After my shower I went into my office at home and turned on CNN just like I have for years. I like to see what had happen while I was a sleep. Usually it's the same old news. Earthquakes, murder, storms, and so on. But this morning was different. It wasn't the same old news.
No, I watched in horror along with the whole nation as the World Trade Center towers fell down. And out of that terrible tragedy a year ago, came the question, "Where was God during those minutes September 11, 2001?"
For the past year there have even been some people who normally would not acknowledge God's presence has asked this question. So where was God?
Where was God at 8:46 a.m. ET when American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 with 92 people on board crashed into the north tower? Where was God 9:02 a.m. when a second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, another Boeing 767 with 65 people on board strikes the south tower? Where was God at 9:38 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with 64 people on board crashed into the west side of the Pentagon? A place where about 20,000 people work, including most of the nation's highest ranking military officials.
Where was God at 9:59 a.m. when the south tower collapsed? Where was God at 10:28 a.m. when the north tower collapsed? Where was God at 10:42 a.m. when United Airlines Flight 93, another Boeing 757 with 45 people aboard struggled with the terrorist and crashed in Somerset County, Pa?
Friends where was God in all this? What was He doing during those painful, agonizing, distressing, and heart breaking moments? What was God doing before 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time? What was God doing after 8:47 a.m.? This morning I would like to use a few passages from our Bible to bring some perspective to this question.
I have here some one-year-old newspapers. Here is one dated Wednesday, September 12, 2001. "Hitting Home - Attack on America." It shows one of the towers as it began to fall. The next paper is dated Thursday, September 13, 2001. It shows both towers as a jet hits the South Tower. Same date and newspaper headline; "On the Trail of Terror - Investigators make arrests, link terrorists to Bin Laden." Friday, September 14, 2001; "Making Progress." Saturday, September 15, 2001; "Patriotism and Prayer. Nation rises to feet, falls to knees." Finally, Sunday, September 16, 2001; "We're at War. President Bush tells soldiers, public to brace for long struggle." Here is a Time magazine with President Bush holding up an American flag standing on top of the rubble.
Well, here we are just 4 days away from the one-year anniversary of the attack on America. A lot has happened in this past year. Our country has learned a lot since this invasion. Some good news, a lot of bad news.
Here is a USA Today Paper dated September 3, 2002. The headline says "Delay meant death on 9-11." Here is a "Focus on the Family" magazine called "Looking Back." Yes we have learned a lot over the past year.
I heard a Gallup Poll survey that was taken not to long ago about how the attack of 9-11 affected the lives of Americans. This poll included the twin towers, the Pentagon, and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. The poll said that 20% of Americans knew someone that was missing, hurt, or killed. 58% of men and 82% of women say that cried because of the attacks.
Seems almost everyday since 9-11-01, our Government announces some new news about how the attacks could have been worse as if 9-11 wasn't already bad enough.
I would like to start this morning's sermon off with a question. If you had had inside information 9-10-01, would you report them to stop 9-11 from happening? If you knew before hand that those terrorists were about to attack how many here would have turned them in? Please, raise your hand if you would have stopped the attack from happening if you could have? Be honest, you see my hand raised too.
Next question. Do you think God has that sort of power? Yes? Then why didn't He stop the attacks? I mean doesn't He care about us?
Friends, how do you deal with the feelings that maybe God betrayed us? You do know that is what some people feel and think? They think if God has that sort of power and authority then why didn't He intervene and stop the attacks from happening. Now I know the answer we Christians so often like to give, "We live in a fallen world and sin has to run its course." And we often use our scripture in Romans 8:28 to prove that in the end all will turn out OK.
But friends, really when we are faced with such a tragedy as 911, how do we expect people to accept that all will turn out OK in the end? And do we really believe that ourselves? How can we say, preach, and believe that God is good in the face of any tragedy? Please turn with me to John 11:35. This is known as the shortest verse in the Bible.
"Jesus wept."
But why did Jesus weep? Lets' see if we can figure it out. Hopefully you know the story here John 11. Listen to verse's 1-6;
"Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
V:2 It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
V:3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. V:4
When Jesus heard [that], he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. V:5
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
V:6 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was."
Did you catch the part in verse 6 where Jesus stayed 2 more days after finding out Lazarus was sick? Why would Jesus do this? Doesn't He care about Lazarus? Today we know the whole story. We know that the delay of 2 days was for a divine purpose. We know that if Jesus permitted Lazarus to die, then Jesus would have the opportunity to demonstrate His divinity and give evidence that He was indeed the resurrection and life.
Now look at verses 32-35; "Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. V:33
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, V:34
And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
V:35 Jesus
wept."
Jesus cried. In His humanity Jesus was touched with human sorrow. Because of His identification with humanity, Hebrews 2:18 says;
"He is able to aid those who are tempted". NKJV
Listen to this quote from Desire of Ages page 533. The author is writing about Lazarus and Jesus; "Though He was the Son of God, yet He had taken human nature upon Him, and He was moved by human sorrow. His tender, pitying heart is ever awakened to sympathy by suffering. He weeps with those that weep, and rejoices with those that rejoice."
Why did Jesus weep? Because He cared about Lazarus that's why. And Jesus cares about His children today too. Could Jesus have stopped Lazarus from dieing? Yes. But then God would not have been glorified. Do you know by saying we would have stopped the attack on the towers we are actually saying we know more than God Himself. We're saying that we have better insight on what is good and what is bad for this world. Don't believe me? Turn with me to Acts 7.
Do you recall the story here? Stephen is about to be stoned in theses verses. This is where Paul 1st comes in contact with Christianity. Look at 54-60;
"When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. V:55
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, V:56
And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. V:57
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, V:58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
V:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
V:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
What if God had intervened in the stoning of Stephen? Would Saul have ever become Paul? I don't know. Maybe. But the point is God chose to allow the stoning of Stephen to introduce Saul to Christ.
Another time is when Paul prayed for God to take away his "thorn in the flesh" mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. Stephen was stoned because he preached Christ and Him crucified.
Paul was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and finally put to death, because he was a faithful messenger of God. Paul was in prison when he wrote 2 Timothy 4:7-8;
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith: V:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing."
Why didn't God intervene? We find that the apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos,
"for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus
Christ" Rev. 1:9.
Abel, the very first Christian of Adam's children, died a martyr's death. Noah was mocked as a fanatic and an alarmist.
Hebrews 11:35-40 in the NIV says that; "...Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37
They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. 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, and in caves and holes in the ground. 39
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made
perfect."
Again, why didn't God intervene in all these cases? Doesn't God care?
Listen to Paul's message to the Philippian church, in the midst of their persecutions;
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say,
Rejoice" Philippians 4:4.
Daniel 3:17,18 talks about the 3 Hebrews. If they did not bow down to the image they were to be cast into the fiery furnace. Yet, these faithful young men would not bow down. God didn't save them from the flames, He saved them in the flames. If God stopped everything that we see as bad then how will His word be spread?
Where was God during 9-11? My Bible says He wept with the rest of the world. Yet He was very active too.
I would like to finish by reading something that was emailed to me. It's called "Where my God was..."
"Where my God was..." How many of us have heard that question "Where was your God when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was attacked?"
Well I know where my God was the morning of September 11, 2001, He was very busy! He was trying to discourage anyone from taking these flights. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard. He was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm. Not one of the family members who were called by a loved one on one of the highjacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background. On one of the flights he was giving strength to passengers to try to overtake the highjackers.
He was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. After all, only around 20,000 were at the towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings held over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself. How many of the people who were employed at the World Trade Center told the media that they were late for work or they had traffic delays.
He was holding up 2 110-story buildings so that 2/3 of the workers could get out. It was another miracle that the top of the towers didn't topple when the jets impacted. And when they did fall, they fell inward. God didn't allow them to topple over, as many more lives would have been lost.
God also sat down and cried that 19 of His children could have so much hate in their hearts that they didn't choose Him, but another god that doesn't exist.
He sent people that are the best trained for disasters and had them save the few that were still alive. And then sent many others to help in anyway they could.
And God still isn't finished. He holds the loved ones that were left behind in His arms. He comforts them daily.
And God will continue to help us in what is to come. He will give the people in charge of this great nation the strength and the wisdom to do the right thing. He would never leave us in our time of need.
So when anyone asks, "Where was your God on September 11", you can say "everywhere"! And although this may be without a doubt the worst thing we may ever see, we can see God's miracles in every bit of it. Keep praying for those who don't believe in God. Can you imagine going through such a difficult time and not believing in God. Life would be hopeless.
There is more I could say about what God was doing and where He was during 9-11. But let me close with these verses of hope and comfort;
John 16:33; "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the
world."
Romans 8:35, 38-39; "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...
V:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
V:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 10:13; "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear
it."
2 Corinthians 1:3,4; "Blessed be God,..., the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
V:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
God."
And finally Psalms 34:7,8; "The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. V:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in
him."
Friends, God cares for His children and what happens to them. He is with us when we hurt. He is with us when grieve. We just have to trust Him in all things - even when things don't look so good.
At the bottom of this sermon I have given you a list of promises. Please take time to look at it and read the promises that God gives us. You will find the verse's you just read plus many, many more.
TRIALS
As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord chasteneth thee. Deut. 8:5.
The secret things belong unto the Lord. Deut. 29:29.
He will keep the feet of his saints. 1 Sam. 2:9.
So let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let
him deliver me out of all tribulation. 1 Sam. 26:24.
Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Job 5:17.
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Ps. 23:4.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them. Ps. 23:4.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them.
Ps. 34:17.
The Lord . . . shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. Ps. 55:22.
O God . . . thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Ps. 66:1012.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Ps. 126:5.
Whom the Lord loveth he correcteth. Prov. 3:11, 12.
The Lord trieth the hearts. Prov. 17:3.
I have refined thee, . . . I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction. Isa. 48:10.
Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. Jer. 10:19.
Though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion. Lam. 3:32, 33.
Many shall be purified . . . and tried. Dan. 12:10.
I . . . will try them as gold is tried . . . I will say, It is my
people. Zech. 13:9.
He is like a refiner's fire. Mal. 3:2.
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer.
John. 16:33.
Tribulation worketh patience. Rom. 5:3.
All things work together for good to them that love God. Rom. 8:28.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation? Rom. 8:35.
Patient in tribulation. Rom. 12:12.
Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rom. 12:14.
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. 1 Cor. 10:13.
Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory. 1 Cor. 15:57.
Blessed be God . . . the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation. 2 Cor. 1:3, 4.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. 2 Cor. 4:8.
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us. 2 Cor. 4:17.
I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation. 2 Cor. 7:4.
God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us.
2 Cor. 7:6.
There was given to me a thorn in the flesh . . . lest I should be
TROUBLE
exalted above measure. 2 Cor. 12:7.
My grace is sufficient for thee . 2 Cor. 12:9.
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. 2:3.
All that will live godly . . . shall suffer persecution. 2 Tim. 3:12.
Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Heb. 11:36, 37 .
Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. Heb. 12:6.
Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous. Heb. 12:11.
The trying of your faith worketh patience. James 1:3.
When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life. James 1:12.
The trial of your faith . . . might be found unto praise and honour and glory. 1 Peter 1:6, 7.
If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently,
this is acceptable with God. 1 Peter 2:20.
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you . . . but rejoice. 1 Peter 4:12, 13.
If any man suffer as a Christian . . . let him glorify God on this behalf. 1 Peter 4:16.
Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7.
These are they which came out of great tribulation. Rev. 7:14.
In the time of their trouble . . . thou heardest them from heaven. Neh. 9:27.
Man is born into trouble. Job 5:6, 7.
He shall deliver thee in six troubles, yea in seven. Job 5:19.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job 13:15.
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. Job 14:1.
The Lord also will be a refuge . . . in times of trouble. Ps. 9:9.
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to
help. Ps. 22:11.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth
, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Ps. 34:17.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Ps. 43:5.
God is . . . a very present help in trouble. Ps. 46:1.
Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee. Ps. 50:15.
Thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Ps. 59:16.
Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Ps. 60:11.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. Ps. 77:2.
In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee. Ps. 86:7.
I will be with him in trouble. Ps. 91:15.
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me. Ps. 119:143.
My help cometh from the Lord. Ps. 121:2.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me.
Ps. 138:7.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom
there is no help. Ps. 146:3.
The righteous is delivered out of trouble. Prov. 11:8.
He that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. Prov. 11:17.
What will ye do in the day of visitation . . . to whom will ye
flee for help? Isa. 10:3.
The former troubles are forgotten. Isa. 65:16.
We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! Jer. 8:15.
Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. Jer. 10:19.
The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble. Nahum 1:7.
Let not your heart be troubled. John. 14:1.
All things work together for good to them that love God. Rom. 8:28.
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. 2 Cor. 1:4.
We are troubled on every side; yet not distressed. 2 Cor. 4:8.
We were troubled on every side . . . . Nevertheless God . . .
comforted us. 2 Cor. 7:5, 6.
Lest I should be exalted above measure . . . there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. 2 Cor,12:7.
From henceforth let no man trouble me. Gal. 6:17.
I suffer trouble. 2 Tim. 2:9.
Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you. Heb. 12:15.
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