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[00:00:12] I’m supposed to follow all that, AJ, thank you for the songs and just tie right in with what I believe the Lord has laid on my heart. The children are going out with Miss Candy for children’s church.
[00:00:31] What? What a good time we have already had in the Lord and just singing his praises. And I’m sitting there praying, and, Lord, have your will, have your way in this service. And I was about that close to just saying, I’m not even going to preach. We’re just going to keep seeing how great thou art.
[00:00:55] What Jesus did for us on the cross, not sparing His Son. He sang that beautifully. What Jesus did for us on the cross. All I need is Jesus been powerful already, hasn’t it? Good to be in the house of the Lord, to feel his presence, feel the spirit of the Lord moving amongst us.
[00:01:19] Speaking to us this week has been a roller coaster of emotions for many people, myself included. As I told you earlier that I’ve had all kinds of thoughts and considerations of things that I should do this week and make decisions as a family about my mother and Wednesday we had decided that we would take her off a ventilator and whatever the Lord wanted, that we wanted his will.
[00:02:03] The doctors told us she wouldn’t make she’s not going to do this. We’ve tried to take her off the vent three times and she’s not breathing. Her blood pressure dropping. You need to call the family.
[00:02:18] Lord, whatever your will is, we’re going to be at peace with that. Well, they took her off the bed and she began to breathe on her own. Her blood pressure started going up, and now she sits in a regular room out of ICU with no medication. The only IV she has now is to keep her body hydrated. But she’s up, talking, smiling, drinking.
[00:02:47] God had other plans and all things were in his plans. And for our family, that was somewhat of a roller coaster of emotions and things. And this tornado then comes and rips through our community. Was started in Alabama and went all the way to about the middle of Georgia, devastating everything in its path. Many families are on roller coasters of emotions and feelings and wondering what’s going on.
[00:03:21] Many times we ask God, why would you allow such hardships? Why would things become so difficult? Now, just hang on, man. This is not going to be a depressing message, but I just want to paint to you a picture of where we’re at in this world, this place we call own. Now, this is not our own people.
[00:03:43] Our home is eternal. We’re just passing through. Yes, we’re going to have hardships. Yes, there’s difficulties. There’s all kinds of things.
[00:03:53] And I want to try to help you to understand today why those difficulties come. Why do we face such hardships? I would like to use the story of Job. Now, I’m not going to read you the whole book of Job today, but there’s some important things in there about what Job went through, things that Job said, things that God said to Job that took place that help us to understand just the perspective of where we’re at, what’s going on here. And first, if we’re going to ask God a question, we’re going to wonder, why God?
[00:04:31] Do we have so many difficulties, so many hardships? Why do things hurt so bad? First we have to understand who we’re talking to. Who is God? What is he to me?
[00:04:45] And we’re going to look at those things. And then I hope then in just the next few minutes to answer some of those questions, these popular questions that people ask about God, to maybe clear those things up and put those things in perspective of a holy and almighty God. That’s where we need to begin. So I’ll just read Psalms 147 Five. I’ve got several scriptures because I believe from Genesis to Revelation, we understand the majesty and the holiness of God.
[00:05:17] So I obviously can’t give you all those verses. I couldn’t come up with just one singular text to tell you that. But one of my favorite psalms, Warden 47 five great is our Lord and great of power. His understanding is infinite. Psalms 19 one the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show his handiwork.
[00:05:45] Psalms 19 nine the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether, father, as we come together to study Your Word this morning, Lord, help us to always be reminded of Your majesty, of Your holiness as we bow before you and submit ourselves to you and to all that you have for us and to all that you allow. And the things that we go through, Father, that you know everything that happens to us, Lord, and you promise that you’ll never leave us nor forsake us that you’ll help us in a time of need, Lord, even when we don’t understand well, Lord, help us just a glimpse to get a glimpse this morning of just who you are, first of all. And help us to understand why things happen and the way things work in this world we have now, Lord, and just pray with you. Be with us next few minutes.
[00:06:49] Give me the words to say I pray in Jesus name, amen. All of heaven is David so beautifully saying, the mountains and the stars. And when I consider all those things, how great Thou art. The psalmist wrote, the heavens declare his glory, the firmament declares who he is, all of creation declares it all this beauty. And anybody ever been to out west and seen the Rocky Mountains, a few of you right, I suggest everybody ought to go and just stand there and look at the glory of God, the wonderful, these huge mountains.
[00:07:33] And I could just picture God just taking his finger and dragging across the ground and making 14,000 foot mountains. That’s the God we serve. He spoke. All this beauty and all this wonder, all the heavens and the universe that we live in, he spoke. And it was remember that when you question and ask God, Why?
[00:07:59] How could you? I’m not getting on to you. Many of us, when we go through difficulty, that’s one of the first things we want to do is, God, why right? Am I just the only one in here does that? Okay, I will make sure I’ve got company here.
[00:08:15] Misery loves company.
[00:08:18] We got to consider, who am I addressing when I am speaking to Him? This is the one that spoke all things in existence. This is the God who gave his only begotten Son that went through pain and suffering and death of the cross for you and me. He is majestic, he is holy. He is righteous judge.
[00:08:42] But he loves us and cares for us. Isaiah asks the question to those who may wonder. Isaiah 40, verse twelve through 14. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and melted out the heavens with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighted the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsel, hath taught him?
[00:09:23] With whom took he counsel? And who instructed Him and taught Him and put the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? There’s a good question for you. This world out here wants to just scream and holler, god, how could you? How could he do?
[00:09:45] How could a loving God you got all these questions, and Isaiah asked, who are you to even ask such a question? No one taught Him how to judge. No one taught him how to create the heavens and the earth. He is an all knowing God. He’s did all these things of his very own.
[00:10:06] No one instructs God. So we need to understand who we are talking to. As I said, Psalms 19 one, even the heavens declare all the stars, every star. Now, the Scripture says that God knows every star in the heavens, and he’s named every one of them. Can you do that?
[00:10:31] I can’t do that. That’s the God we serve. Is that sort of putting you in perspective? And I remember when I’d go out fishing in the ocean or we go on cruises, I know you all don’t think I occasionally go on a cruise, but you’re out there in that ocean and there’s no land in sight anywhere, you think, wow, that’s a lot of water. And I know as I went deep sea fishing, we went in a little 30, 40 foot boat, which I thought was big until we got out in that ocean.
[00:11:04] And I felt like an ant in the bathtub or no, an ant in a giant Olympic swimming pool. I felt so insignificant. That boat didn’t seem so big anymore. And while I was there, it was almost like God said, it’s not about you, Kenny. That’s not why I did this.
[00:11:26] It’s about me. This is how great I am. This is just a touch of my glory. This is a touch of my majesty I created. I spoke all this into existence.
[00:11:42] This is who I am. This is the God we serve. And you know, the amazing thing to me is that in all this creation did you cover up my clock intentionally? Let’s cover it up. In all this creation, in all this wonder and all this do you know he chose you and me as his centerpiece?
[00:12:12] Isn’t that offswipe that he loved you? He loved me. He loved me. He loved you so much that we are the sinner of all of his creation. He sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins.
[00:12:29] He cares for us more than anything else in all of creation. All of creation points to Him and tells us how great he is.
[00:12:41] See, he’s a god that’s without time. He’s not limited to space or matter. He’s omniscient means he’s all knowing. He’s omnipresent, means he’s everywhere, all the time. He is omnipotent.
[00:12:57] He is all powerful. That’s the God we serve. I told you I would use some of Job to help us to understand when Job went through his difficulty and he went through his hardships and his friends his helpers his friends. Your backslid job. You did something wrong job.
[00:13:18] You did all this. Well, they’re big helpers, aren’t they? And Job spent a lot of his trying time to justify himself to his friends. And through all that, toward the end of the book of Job and chapters 38, 40 through 40, you can go home and read them. That’s your homework.
[00:13:35] God and Job have a the Lord and Job have a conversation, namely the Lord. And Job replies some and verse 38. Let me read you just a little bit of that. Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind. Well, that sort of hits us home this week, doesn’t it?
[00:13:55] Sometimes even in a whirlwind, god has given answers even when it doesn’t look good. He says, who is this that darkeneth the council by words without knowledge? No, in our terms. Here, let me put you on layman’s. Term or country boy?
[00:14:15] Term. Who is this that don’t even have any idea what you’re talking about?
[00:14:20] Just speaking out of think. Wow. I used to read this and say, wow, Lord, that’s pretty tough. Job just been through a lot and you’re not giving him any slack here. God has explained to him who he is.
[00:14:37] Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee and thou answer me. Well, I wouldn’t want to be in Job at that time, would you where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou understandest. In other words, when I spoke and put the earth in existence and laid the very first stone of the foundations of the earth, where were you? Who are you to question me without knowledge?
[00:15:10] Who are you that speaks out of turn? Who hath laid the measures thereof? If thou knowest and who has stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? And who laid the cornerstone thereof?
[00:15:27] Chapter 40. Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him nowhere to you that arguing with me. Are you really trying to give me instructions?
[00:15:47] Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind and said, gird up thy loins like a man. I will demand to thee and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disengul my judgments? Will you ignore my judgments? Are you saying my judgments aren’t righteous?
[00:16:04] Are you saying my judgments aren’t true? When I allow this to come to you, will thou condemn me, thou that makest that thou may be as righteous? Will you question me? Will you wonder how could such a loving God do such a terrible thing? Are you questioning me?
[00:16:29] So you look right. This is God talking about. This is pretty rough, isn’t it? But see, I think we forget a lot of times just who God is, the holiness and the majesty of God and we just sort of flip it around. Yeah, he is all that.
[00:16:49] And as I said, a couple of weeks I get to call him Father. That’s a privileged, not a right. He’s given me that privilege because of his son, he says it goes on to say, hast thou to Job? Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like Tim?
[00:17:11] Deck thyself now with majesty and excellence. Can you deck yourself with majesty, with excellence, like I can? He says, do it if you can, and array thyself with glory and beauty. Do it like I do. Can you do that?
[00:17:31] Is what he’s asking job? I think of this when God is answering. When the Lord’s answering job, I think of Hebrews 1031. It says, it’s a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God. It can be fearful when our heart’s not right.
[00:17:51] You could go on and I could go through many, many scriptures. Romans 910 or 20 through 23. It talks about, can the clay say to the potter, Why’d you make me like this? No, we can’t do that. It’s not as right.
[00:18:07] The potter makes things as it pleases him. We said, wow, Brother Kenny, I thought you was going to encourage us today. I am encouraging you. We serve that God. We get to call him Father if we’re his children.
[00:18:22] But we got to remember who we’re talking to and who we’re asking. These questions when times gets tough, these questions that I’ll bring up in a minute and you say, well, wow, brother Kenny, so we can’t question God at all.
[00:18:37] I think, just look, if you go to Mary’s response, you know, when Gabriel came and said, hey, you’re going to have the Son of God, mary was blown away. Mary had all kinds of, well wait a minute now I don’t even have my husband, you’re going to make me pregnant, you’re fixed to ruin my life. Was that her response? No, she didn’t question God’s judgment and neither should we. Whatever God allows, whatever God’s done, we can’t question his judgment, but we can’t ask Him for understanding of his judgment.
[00:19:15] And that’s what Mary did. She didn’t say and she didn’t question his judgment. She just simply said, how shall this be? Okay, I got it. Don’t understand it.
[00:19:26] Hope my life’s not ruined here. I don’t know how I’m going to get through all this. Just can you give me a little glimpse of how it’s going to happen? So I just sort of got an idea. Lord, that was a great response of Mary that teaches us, don’t question his judgment.
[00:19:43] You can ask Him for understanding. You can ask Him for wisdom. James says, who lack wisdom or knowledge, ask of God. He gives it freely. But we can’t question why God does question his judgments.
[00:19:59] Question if he’s right or if he’s wrong. We should know that he’s always right, he’s always true. Does that make sense to you all this morning?
[00:20:10] So in light of all that and the difficulties we come to in these next few minutes, I’ve written down a few questions that I’ve heard over the years that people ask. And it says, why would God create a world with such hardship and suffering? Why would he do that? You want to know? My answer is he didn’t.
[00:20:32] Oh, wait a minute, brother King, you said he created all things. He did, but he didn’t create the hardship, he didn’t create the suffering. That was our doing. It says in Genesis 131, and God saw everything that he made and behold, it was very good. It was pleasing in the eyes of a holy God.
[00:20:55] He was fully satisfied with everything he had created. And evening, and the morning was the 6th day, there was no pain, there was no suffering, there was no disease, there was no sickness, there was no death. Everything was beautiful in every way to God. So what happened? Sin happened, disobedience happened.
[00:21:21] And that brought death, that brought sickness, that brought pain and suffering. But God didn’t create that. God created us for created a world that was out without all that, a people that would never die. Do you know that if Adam and Eve had not sinned, they would have been immortal. They would have never died.
[00:21:47] Even death is a result of sin. So the first thing we need to understand in questioning God and looking at this universe, this world we live in, and we wonder why it’s so bad and why it’s so chaotic. We need to understand we live in a fallen and sinful world that God did not do. We did it. We messed it up.
[00:22:09] We messed up his creation. But he’s working on straightening it all out. He’s already done it. We’re just waiting for the final results.
[00:22:23] Sin entered. Well, you say? Well, go. All right, here’s a good question, then. Why did God create sin?
[00:22:30] God didn’t create sin. Well, wait a minute. You said he created everything. No, he didn’t create sin. Sin is just not created.
[00:22:43] Sin is disobedience to the will of God. That’s what sin. Anything that’s contrary to the plan and the will of God is sin. So God didn’t create that. Again, where does sin come from?
[00:22:57] US. When we disobey that’s sin? God didn’t create that.
[00:23:06] We need to go back again and understand we live in a fallen world. Why did God create us when he knew we would disobey Him? Then we just go down the list, right? Well, he created a perfect world. We sinned.
[00:23:21] Oh, why did he create sin? Well, he didn’t. Well, then, if he knew we was going to sin and we was going to fall, why did he even create us to start with? Why didn’t he when Adam and Eve fell, why didn’t he just say, wham Zap, you’re gone dead, out of here. Pile me up another pile of dirt.
[00:23:42] Let’s make another.
[00:23:46] Yeah. I can’t help it. That’s just way the way I’d see things sometimes. Why didn’t he do that? Let me ask you this.
[00:23:56] Those who have children, everybody have children, most of you. You wanted to have children, didn’t you? You say, hey, we want to raise a family. We want these children. Did you know when you wanted to have family that those children would disobey you someday?
[00:24:13] Yes. You hope they wouldn’t, but you knew they would. At some point in their life, they’re going to disobey you. Did you not have the children when they disobeyed you, I brought you in this world, I’ll take you out thing? No.
[00:24:31] Why? Because you love them unconditionally. You want that relationship and the joy that children bring, regardless if they’re going to disobey you. I’ll fix that. God says, and he fixed it through his son, but he wants that relationship.
[00:24:50] He wants that fellowship. He wants a people that will love Him and obey Him and serve Him out of a free will. That’s why God didn’t destroy. He wants the same things that we often want as parents. I got to move on.
[00:25:07] I’m out of time. But I think this is important for us to get and to understand. Why would God allow a child to be deformed? Why would God allow cancer? Why would God allow all these diseases and think, why is this?
[00:25:22] And for years and years and years. And even today we look at that and say somebody messed up. The Jews believe that if someone was deformed, you see it in John nine where there was a man blind from birth. And the disciples ask him, Lord, who sinned, the father, the mother, or him? What was jesus’answer.
[00:25:45] Nobody did. It was done that the glory of God be revealed. And Jesus healed that man. God got the glory for what he was doing. So again, the deformed, children, cancer, all that, that’s a result of our sin.
[00:26:06] Again, those are those things. You can’t blame that on God. It’s a result of the curse of sin on this world. Why does God allow storms? There’s one that’s close to us for home.
[00:26:20] Why did he allow this tornado to come through here and do this? We question that and it’s rightfully so. Just, wow, such good people. You know what, he allowed that storm and in our community no one was hurt. So we’re looking at the negative rather than looking at the negative.
[00:26:40] Praise God that everybody’s okay. We can replace everything else. Yes, it may be difficult, it may be a trap.
[00:26:50] Believe what it is. In a lot of instances, I don’t know, that’s between them and God. Why God chose to let whatever houses be destroyed or lands or whatever, that’s God’s decision. I’m just going to trust that he knows that he is righteous and he does what is best and what is right and what is holy. And he’s dealing with people in a way that maybe I don’t understand.
[00:27:15] We see it when the disciples go on the boat. Jesus said, let’s go to the other side. They go out and you know the story. They get in the storm and the boats start to sink and they cry out, master, do you not care that we perish? You think anybody the other day thought that in that storm, lord, do you not care that we perish here?
[00:27:34] We’re losing everything. And Jesus stood up and said, oh, you of little faith. And he rebuked the winds and he stopped the winds. So storms come, difficulties come, not because somebody has sinned, not because somebody’s a bad person or a good person. These disciples were, I’d say, good people for the most part.
[00:27:59] They had their challenges like we do. But see, God had been jesus had been teaching them all along how to increase their faith was what they asked for. And the lessons that he taught them up to this point was about faith and how they trust God for all things. So he put them in a boat, in a storm and said, okay, did you learn anything? And they didn’t.
[00:28:23] They proved it. When they panicked, Jesus said, we’re going to the other side. They forgot that part. They just thought about the boat sinking. But God’s word says, I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.
[00:28:34] We’re going to the other side. That’s the faith that they should have had. Jesus didn’t say we was going out in the water to perish. He said, we’re going to the other side. That’s why he got on to them about their faith.
[00:28:47] So storms may come. Difficulties may come to test your faith of what God has taught you. Difficulties and trials may come that you may be a testimony to know. I talked to Daryl several times and texted several times, and not once have I heard him complain. He got hit pretty hard.
[00:29:11] Miss Molly is going through a storm right now and her complain, what you do in your storm can be a great testimony to those that don’t have the faith that you. I believe that God sometimes sends storms to the strongest of us to show the other of us how we ought to act for his glory. His Majesty, not mine. We got to keep that in mind. I got to move quick.
[00:29:44] I’m sorry, but this is so important.
[00:29:49] Why did God allow Job to lose all that he had when he was such a righteous man? We asked that a lot. He’s a good man. Why would the Lord have that happen? The answer is in Job 42 five.
[00:30:03] And Job acknowledged that I have heard of thee by the earring of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee there’s. The answer to all of Job. It wasn’t that Job had sinned. It wasn’t that Job had done wrong, and that Job deserved that. God told Satan that he was a righteous man.
[00:30:23] What God wanted was Job to come up to a little closer relationship in that trial, in that difficulty. All along, God was trying to draw Job closer to himself. And at the end, Job acknowledged that, hey, I’ve heard about you in Sunday school. I’ve heard the preacher preach about you and all that’s good. But you know what?
[00:30:45] I’ve experienced you now in a way that I never have. So sometimes our difficulties and our storms, if we’ll pay attention and we’ll listen to that still small voice of God, will bring us into a place of fellowship with God that we have never experienced. I believe that’s what Job experienced sometimes. I believe God allows, as I said, the strongest to go through difficulties. And it says, a testimony.
[00:31:17] And Job said in 1315, he said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. What a testimony that may have been to his friends. He tells us in his word that my ways are not your ways, saith the Lord. I learned that very well Wednesday with my mother. All the doctors said, all that we thought, all that we knew, mom was going home.
[00:31:43] My ways, God says, ain’t your ways. I’ve got other plans. Watch and see what I did. Now I understand my mother’s 87, and maybe her time here on earth is short. Before that moment, at that time, God showed me he’s in control.
[00:31:59] Not the doctor, not me, not no breathing machine. God’s in control and I’m trusting Him for it. In this storm God is in control and he’s working it for his glory, for his good. Difficult times will come. We need to understand that God loves us, that he knows what’s best for us and that he promises us he’ll never leave us nor forsake us.
[00:32:28] And that he’s bringing us to a place of fellowship that we may never have experienced before if we’ll stop our fussing and belly ache. I look at my grandchildren sometime and I know their mom and daddies have something great planned for them later that day or whatever and they just I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do that. I want to do that whining and belly aching the whole time and me knowing if you just shut up and do what they’re telling you, you’re going to have a great afternoon.
[00:33:02] I think God said if you just shut up and stop failing because sometimes I’ve got great things planned for you if you’ll just follow me and trust me, do what I tell you, I’ve got great things in store for you.
[00:33:21] We need to understand who he is. Yes, we can ask Him what’s going on. He used to have an old friend. He says the bigger the problem, the greater the miracle. I don’t know.
[00:33:35] I’m waiting to talk to some of these that have gone through this and this tornado and all but I can just imagine that God is showing up and he’s showing off as they say. Daryl’s probably experiencing some things that he had never experienced had just not taken place. Yes, it’s difficult. Rest is storm’s not fun. They tell that the trying of our faith it works patience and it does not enjoyable for the time but when it’s true god works all things beautiful in his way.
[00:34:13] Here’s a song and I know I’m overtime but I just felt like this laid on my heart that I just wanted to share with you and I’m not going to hurt you and sing it to you but I want you to listen to the words of this song. Many of you know it says I have had many tears and sorrows. I’ve had questions for tomorrow. There’s been times I didn’t know right from wrong. But in every situation God gave me blessed consolation that my trials come.
[00:34:53] Only to make me strong I’ve been a lot of places I’ve seen a lot of faces there’s been times I felt so all alone but in my lonely hours yes, those precious lonely hours jesus let me know that I was his own you know this song? Through it all.
[00:35:26] Through It all sing it with I’ve learned to trust in Jesus I’ve learned to trust in God through it all through it all I’ve learned to depend upon his word it’s a beautiful song. There’s one more. Verse that says I thank God for the mountains, I thank Him for the valleys, I thank Him for the storms he’s brought me through. If I’d never had a problem, I’d have never known that he could solve it.
[00:36:11] I’d never known that faith in God could do. Through it all sing it. Through it all I’ve learned to trust in Jesus I’ve learned to trust in God. Through it all through it all I’ve learned to depend upon his word, Father. Through it all we’ve learned to trust in you, lord, we fall so short sometimes and we just forget who you are or we get so wrapped up in our problems and those things around us, lord, we just get frustrated and we lash out sometimes.
[00:37:12] And Lord, we just ask for Your forgiveness as we stand before you are a holy, righteous, just God who loves us more than we could understand. Lord, we just pray for Your mercy. We pray that you would give us wisdom and understanding in these difficult times, that we would learn to just trust you to know that all the things, all the problems that come in all those way, you’re teaching us to trust you. And if we never had those problems, Lord, if we never had a problem, we wouldn’t look for you to solve. Lord, we thank you that you’re there for us.
[00:37:55] You’ll never leave us for forsaken. We thank you for your word, Lord. Just leading God is help us to be a witness and a testimony to those who don’t know you, who don’t love you like we love you, who don’t follow you like we follow you, who don’t trust you. Lord, help us to be a witness to those not just in our words, but in the life that we live before. In Jesus name I pray.
[00:38:22] Amen.