Hurricane Message
On Wednesday night, at our weekly prayer, pastor asked us a question. She wanted to know what our opinion was of the cause of hurricane Katrina. She wanted to know if we believed that the hurricane was caused by the wickedness of the people in New Orleans. We consider this for a moment, and cited the debauchery that goes on in that City, with its voodoo and drinking, and “girls gone wild” behavior not only at Mardi Gras but throughout the year.
While those are valid points people were quick to respond that we served a merciful God and although his judgment may not be withheld forever, we could cite scriptures that supported another cause for the destruction. This morning will look at those scriptures.
But first I want to share with you something that happened to me on Friday evening. I was invited to take part in a prayer vigil on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I was not expecting to participate, I was just planning to go and pray whit them. But I was asked to lead prayer on the topics of peace and order.
Just this past weekend, a choir was visiting New Faith from Mississippi. They ministered at the weekend service and were scheduled to go home last Monday. However the news had forecasted that Katrina would make landfall on Monday so they decided to stay put for a couple days. On Tuesday they received calls from home advising them not to return so quickly. By Wednesday they had received word that all 44 of them had lost their homes, businesses, and places of employment. One had even lost a loved one.
On Friday night, still stranded in Illinois, this group came to the prayer vigil to minister. The group leader got up and shared his testimony. He thanked the people of the church for their support throughout the week, providing his choir with shelter and food and supplies to take home. He shared how he and his wife of 23 years had just moved into a new home and now it was gone.
Then he did something that was shocked many people, he testified of the goodness of God. And praised him, and praised him, and praised him. He and members of the choir danced and ran the aisles of the church. They praised God for being their strength despite all circumstance.
When he returned to the pulpit he said something that caught me quite off guard. He said that God had caused this hurricane. He said that God had wanted something better for him than his brand new home. He said that god had to move him out of the way to bless him more abundantly.
Now, how many of you know
· it’s hard to stand in agreement with someone who praises their god for being a thief? Their god stole their brand new home.
· it’s hard to stand in agreement with someone who praises their god for being an oppressor. He took away their jobs.
· it’s hard to stand in agreement with someone who praises their god for being a murderer. He took a loved one from a member of his choir
· it’s hard to stand in agreement with someone who praises their god for being a destroyer, he sent the hurricane.
I’m sorry, although I can empathize with his suffering, I cannot stand in agreement with that man. We do not serve the same god.
· My God said “the thief comes to kill, steal and destroyed. He has come to give us life and life more abundantly”.
· My God is a giver a life. “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”
· My God comes not in the wind, or the rain, or the earthquake, my God comes in the stillness after the storm.
· My God rebukes the wind and the rains and says “Peace be still”.
So when it came time for me to pray for peace and order,
· I reminded that people assembled that God had not given them a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind.
· I reminded them of whom God is. He is their peace, their comfort, their shoulder to cry on.
· I reminded them that God was not the god of chaos, but the God of order - where all things are done in decency.
Then I prayed that the Holy Spirit be pored out like a flood in that place so that God might be who he is, to those people.
Turn with me to Romans 8:18
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Boy that’s a difficult passage to understand. Let me read it to you in another translation. This is the New Living Translation.
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
20 Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse.
21 All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
That makes a little more sense. Let’s look at this passage in more detail. Paul is addressing the very real problem of suffering and pain. And we will all agree that a lot of people in the Gulf States are suffering right now.
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.
Paul doesn’t minimize their suffering. He knew a lot about suffering. He himself had endured hardship, beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck, hunger, illness. And because he had endured these things, he could say first-hand that there was hope. There was coming something that was so wonderful, it would erase all memory of their suffering. Paul described it as “the glory that was to be revealed.”
19 For “all creation is waiting”
Are you telling us Lisa, that all creation: animals, and trees, mountains and oceans, and rocks, and even the earth we walk on is waiting for God to show them his children?
Yes, I am.
Sin brought distortion not only into man’s relationship with God but into the universe in which he lives.
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly
Waiting eagerly means with earnest expectation, like a watchman standing on tiptoes straining to see beyond the horizon.
One translation reads “it waits in frustration”. Picture someone pacing back and forth waiting for someone to arrive who is late in coming.
“all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day”
When is that future day? When Jesus returns.
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
So what is that glory in vs. 18? It’s the revelation of who God’s children really are. It is so sad that in this world today, it is not easy to distinguish between God’s children and non-believers. People who call themselves Christians walk, dress, and talk much like everyone else. Many unbelievers have high standards of behavior. And many professing Christians give little evidence of their salvation. But, at the appointed time, God will reveal those who are truly His.
Col. 3:4 says, “when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then [we] also will be revealed with Him in glory”
20 Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse.
When was that? Flip over to Genesis 3:17
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Now that seems kind of harsh. Before the Fall, no weeds or poisonous plants, no thorns or thistles or anything else existed that could cause man misery or harm. But after the Fall, the earth would carry the consequences of Adam’s sin.
What did the earth do to suffer the punishment of Adam’s sin? Nothing. It’s like this, when someone is injured, they carry the consequence of that injury. When someone is sent to jail, their victims & families suffer the consequence of that action.
Sin has consequences. And nothing man can do will ever change that. We can’t cure disease. We can’t reverse the effects of pollution. We can’t bring back extinct animals no matter how hard we try. The earth is cursed and will suffer the consequences of sin UNTIL Jesus returns and reveals his glory.
Until then, back to Romans 8:
21 All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
God even provided hope for creation. When time is complete, when the Gospel has been preached to every tribe and nation, when Jesus returns and the children of God are free from sin, Satan, and physical decay, then the Creation itself will be restored to its original, pre-sin state. One day ALL creation will bring glory to God.
Think about it this way: When you see a beautiful sunset, are you not awestruck by God’s handiwork? You all know that feeling.
Now how do you feel when you are all bit up by mosquitoes, or when crabgrass takes over you lawn? Not the same feeling. Mosquitoes and crabgrass don’t reveal his glory and prompt us to praise God.
22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
How do these groanings manifest? Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, floods, tsunamis, volcanoes.
It’s a hard thing for us to comprehend, that there would be no choice. That we would have to endure hardships like this. Why didn’t God stop the hurricane? Surely he could have, he’s God. But that would make him and scripture a liar. And we know God cannot lie.
In physics, the 2nd law of thermodynamics refers to the principle of Entropy. It states that all matter and energy is in a constant and irreversible state of decay. If you look at the example of a simple garden plot, if the garden is not cared for, it will deteriorate. Weeds and insects will destroy it.
Lightning strikes the ground in dry areas and forest fires spread uncontrollably. The consequence of sin on the earth puts it in a state of Entropy. It will deteriorate.
But then what do you call Spring - the time of year when the earth is renewed? I call it God’s grace -the reminder every year that although all creation is decaying, God still controls the earth’s destiny.
23 And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
Like creation, we suffer the effects of sin. We live in a sin-damaged world. Our bodies are subjected to sickness and disease, old age and decay.
And yet we have hope. We look forward to the day when Jesus returns and we shall be free from the very presence of sin. Then we can put on new bodies and inhabit a new earth where nature has been delivered from bondage -- The day when creation itself is restored.
So you see, just as sin brought destruction through man to the earth, the earth will be restored through God’s glory displayed in man.