Where Was God On 9/11

This is a very important day for our nation And, not surprisingly, we are engaged in a series called a God-worth knowing.

We began last week.

Our intention in the series is simple We want to discover or rediscover the great and glorious God that we serve.

Who is the Lord?

And that's a very relevant question to ask on this day.

I want to turn you with me to three portions of Scripture very quickly this morning, before I comment Genesis 45 and verses 4 through 8.

Genesis 45, 4 through 8.

So Joseph said to his brothers come near to me please.

And they came near and he said I am your brother, joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life, for the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.

So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

He has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt And turn quickly to the book of Genesis, chapter 50 and verse 15.

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

So they sent a message to Joseph saying your father gave this command before he died.

Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sins, because they did evil to you, and now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.

Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

His brothers came and fell down before him and said behold, we are your servants.

What Joseph said to them do not fear, am I in the place of God.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

To bring about that, many people should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear, i will provide for you and your little ones.

Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them In Romans 8, 28,.

And we know, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

Amen, father, we exalt you this morning and I pray that you reveal yourself to every heart in this room, as we recall the tragic events of 10 years ago, as our nation recalls it, as was already prayed this morning.

Break through, o sovereign, holy God, and reveal yourself to a new generation of Americans who desperately need to know the God of Scripture.

Oh Lord, in this place this morning, for men and women who are here who have not yet bowed the knee to the Son of God, i pray that by your grace, you would draw them this morning to the foot of the cross and to bow themselves to the Son of God who died for them.

We ask it in Jesus' name and everyone said Amen.

It was exactly 10 years ago this morning that our country was cruelly and viciously attacked by al-Qaeda, a group of radical Islamists who are bent on destroying the United States.

A new generation today that will remember the events of 9-11, just as our generation remembered where we were when President Kennedy was assassinated.

And there are probably young people in this room this morning who don't fully understand why we are so hated as a nation, and there are several reasons.

It's not an easy answer, but the primary one, of course, is that we are hated by radical Islamists because of our support for the state of Israel and because they are bent on destroying the state of Israel, they know the only way to do that is to destroy the United States, who is, and continues to be, the primary supporter of Israel in the world.

There is no doubt that 9-11 was the most terrible tragedy our nation ever faced on its own soil.

Yet, in the midst of tragedy, there are so many incredible stories and miracles that occurred on this day The hundreds, if not thousands, of people who were detained from work that day, got to work late and were spared, as well as the countless stories of those who were miraculously saved out of the crumbling buildings, people like Josephine Harris, a 69-year-old grandmother from Brooklyn who descended 50 flights of stairs in an attempt to escape the building.

Josephine had been hit by a car a few months before 9-11, and she walked with a limp.

And she descended 50 stairs and was met on the 20th floor by the firefighters from Company Ladders 6.

By the time she had made it down 50 flights of stairs, she could hardly stand.

They carried her down the further she could go.

When she reached the fifth floor, josephine said I can't go any farther, and they stopped there.

In that very moment the section in the stairwell where Joseph Harris and Company Ladders 6 were, the building around them, both up and below, crumbled.

The small pocket on stairway B between the second and fourth floors was the only part of the building that was spared, and Josephine was spared.

If they had been moving any faster, if they had been moving any slower, they would have been crushed by the debris.

There were other miracles.

That day, you might recall I think this is the greatest one that Republicans and Democrats together stood on the Capitol steps and sang God bless America.

That's a miracle And we will remember this day for the incredible acts of bravery and heroism, the many firemen and policemen who rushed into the building to save others and henceforth lost their own lives.

I read about the story again of Susan Reddick, a Jewish woman who lost her husband on Flight 11 that day, the first plane to hit the World Trade Center that morning.

And Susan, instead of living her life in regret, decided to dedicate her life to helping Afghan widows whose lives had been ravaged by poverty and war and oppression.

She started an organization that still to this day, gives great assistance to Afghan widows.

And of course, who would forget, ever forget, the brave men of Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, pennsylvania, because these men forced the cockpit and forced the pilots to crash instead of reaching their goal, which many believe was either the capital building or the White House.

Maybe most of us, or maybe many of us this morning, might not remember the events of 9-11 as much as you will remember the question that was constantly being asked in the print media, in the radio and television, again and again Where was God on 9-11?

The internet, print media, all of media was filled with this question Where was God on 9-11?

And apart from the fact that the people who were asking this question did not ask it, when members of the Hutu majority in Rwanda murdered 800,000 Tutsis, who were the minority, what were they really asking when they asked this question?

where was God on 9-11?

Actually, they were asking a question that philosophers as well as scholars have been asking for centuries, and this is the question if God is all powerful so that he could stop evil, and if he is all good so that he wants to stop evil, why doesn't he?

Why does he?

in other words, why does he allow evil to exist?

Now, let's be clear about something at the offset of this message this morning 9-11, along with other heinous acts carried out by men through the centuries, like Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini, are the work of evil men and their evil plans.

But still it brings up a question that the Christian cannot ignore Why does evil exist and why doesn't God intervene to stop it?

The fact is, when you read Holy Scripture, there are times in history when God breaks into human history and shuts down the plans of evil men.

I read the story of Esther again recently, where Esther, this Jewish maiden, finds herself the queen to the Persian emperor, with him, and she is right in a place, and God uses Esther and her uncle Mordecai to shut down the plans of an evil man named Haman.

Yet at other times, if we're honest, it seems like God is indifferent to evil.

In 2004, when a massive tsunami took more than a quarter of a million lives around the rim of the Indian Ocean, around the rim of the Indian Ocean, newspapers and print magazines were asking this question again Where was God?

Where was God?

And one reporter summed up the difficulty behind this question in a print media when, after the tsunami, he said quote if God is God, he's not good.

If God is good, he's not God.

You can't have it both ways, especially after the Indian Ocean catastrophe.

And by the way, that's the same point that J L Mackie makes in his book The Miracle of Theism, where he actually lays out a case against God.

And listen to what he says.

He says, quote if a good and powerful God exists, he would not allow pointless evil.

But because there is unjustifiable pointless evil in the world, the traditional good and powerful God could not exist.

Well, you notice something about Mackie's quote that, tucked away in his assertion that God could not exist if he's both good and powerful is his premise.

It's a hidden premise and it's simply this that since there appears to be pointless evil in the universe, it must therefore be pointless.

But I have a question for Mackie and for all of us this morning, and that's this Since we're not God, how can we know that evil is pointless?

How can we know that it doesn't serve a greater purpose, since we're not God?

And this is the question that Mackie refuses to answer in the book.

So these two things that God is all-powerful and yet God is immeasurably good has created insurmountable problems for the human race.

This is what caused Rabbi Harold Kushner to write a groundbreaking book in his time, which was called When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

Kushner was actually trying to make sense out of his tragedy in his own family and he deals in the book with the book of Job in the Old Testament and says the author of Job is, quote forced to choose between a good God, who is not totally powerful, or a powerful God who is not totally good.

Kushner ends up deciding that God is good, but sadly he's not all-powerful.

And he does want people to live good and peaceful and happy lives, but unfortunately sometimes he's unable to bring it about.

He's good, but he lacks power.

Well, i'd like to stand here this morning and start this message by saying and if you're a believer, you know this the truth of Scripture is it clearly teaches that both are true.

Our God is both good and all-powerful.

And the fact is, for believers, the truth of this, the knowledge that God is both good and all-powerful, is not merely a theoretical matter for philosophy, for philosophical debate.

It provides the basis for our ability to radically trust the God of Scripture in all things.

In theology there's a term for this.

It's rarely used today in the modern church, sadly.

It's called providence and it has been defined this way.

Listen to it.

Providence is God's constant care for, and his absolute rule over, all his creation, for his own glory and for the good of his people.

Now, we talk about providence occasionally, but isn't it interesting When you listen to people talk about divine providence?

usually they're using that term when things are going well, when something good happens.

You know, I filled out an application for a job And mistakenly it got put on the desk of the CEO, who shouldn't have even seen it first, and he hired me on the spot.

God and His providence gave me the job and I would agree.

Or I happened to frequent a store that I never go to, and when I went to that store it turned out that there I met my husband.

We call that providence and we like it when it leads to so-called good events.

But what about all the other stuff in your life that has happened to you or has happened to you now that you don't like or perhaps you can't understand?

How does providence fit into that picture?

Well, we learned from Scripture this morning that there is a good God and for those whom God has called and are part of His eternal plan, god is actually taking all things beloved, not some all things and He works them in our lives for our good.

The writer of the book of Romans stated it with no equivocation.

He said God is good and for those who are called according to His purpose, which is Christians, he is working all things to their good.

He doesn't say all things are good, but He says God is working so that it all is working for a good end.

And so in my life right now there may be people that oppose me and bad stuff that happens to me, but God, who is good in His absolute rule in my life is working it for my good and for an eternal purpose.

It's sort of like you ever done a puzzle and you take, you look on the box cover and you know what the puzzle is supposed to be.

You know what the finished product looks like, but you stand there with your peace and you have no idea how this fits into the larger puzzle.

Well, there are areas of our life or situations that occur to us or circumstances God providentially allows, and they're like pieces of the puzzle.

We don't see how it fits, But a wise and good God knows exactly where it fits and He will use it for the good He is.

Maybe the best way to understand this is to see it working in a life, because so much of Scripture is story narrative of people's lives, and I think the greatest way to see this is to see it flesh and blood fleshed out in a human being who's struggling to understand what is God up to Now.

I know no one in this room is thinking that this morning, but in case you ever do, there are many lives in Scripture that can be examined.

Who didn't understand at the time what providence was doing, but ended up exactly discovering God's perfect plan.

I don't think there's a better example in Scripture than the man Joseph.

Joseph is the greatest example for me, apart from the Lord Jesus, of God's providence working in a life to fulfill His divine plan.

I think most of you remember Joseph, but if you don't, he's the great-grandson of Abraham.

His father Jacob, his grandfather Isaac and great-grandfather Abraham were given incredible promises, and now God comes to a 17-year-old boy and shows him his sovereign destiny.

He says in a dream two dreams your mother, your father and your brothers will bow down to you.

God didn't say they might.

It would be nice if they do one day.

God said, joseph, i am calling you according to a sovereign plan.

Your brothers and your mother and father will bow down to you one day.

Now I've heard it said, and I think there's some legitimacy to it, that Joseph at 17 was pretty precocious.

You see, he was dearly loved by his father, more than his brothers, and I think he enjoyed rubbing that into his brother's face.

And he comes bouncing one day innocently saying I've had a dream.

It's a beautiful dream.

Y'all are going to bow down to me.

Now, prior to the dream, joseph is hated.

He's already despised because his brothers despised his father's favoritism.

And, by the way, those of you who think of Abraham, isaac and Jacob as this serene, wonderful, moral family, if you want to understand the depravity of human nature, study Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, you'll take courage.

From that.

And from the moment Joseph announced the dream, everything goes wrong.

His brothers hate him And you remember they plot I'm giving you the fast forward this morning.

They plot to kill him and he is rescued by one of his brothers and they decide to sell him to the Midianites, who carry him down to Egypt and the Midianites sell him to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh.

And now this precocious young Jewish boy who's only reported what God has spoken to him And what he's seen in his prophetic destiny is now a slave in Egypt.

But there's a strange statement made by Moses about Joseph, down in Egypt with his arms in fetters and a slave to Potiphar.

It says and I'm amazed at this, have you ever read it?

The Lord was with Joseph.

Now, that can't be.

If God was with him, he wouldn't be a slave in Egypt.

But that's not what it says.

God is working a plan and Joseph has no clue as to what.

How many have discovered in your life that you might have a promise from God that's legitimate.

Maybe it was given to you, god spoke to you and prophetically it was confirmed.

I've had many.

But how many have looked back over the months or years of finding how to fulfill that destiny and discovered you never imagined the things you would have to go through to get into your destiny What Joseph will figure out.

What some of us have not yet understood is he is exactly where God wants him, and we would read this story and say no, he can't be in God's will, because he's there because of the action of his wicked brothers.

Now, i'm not going to go into this in detail this morning, but there is clear biblical evidence that both things are true, that the wickedness of men is what it is and men are accountable and judged by God for wicked acts.

But God is sovereign and even through the wicked acts of men like Joseph's brothers he can fulfill his plan.

And no one come up to me and say how do you reconcile those two?

I won't, but both are true.

Joseph will soon learn what I think many of us have not learned that all things work together for good.

All things not the great things that happened to me and the rest is satanic, but all things work together for good.

So it says Joseph.

God was with him.

So what happens when God's with him?

Potiphar's wife begins to seduce him and he refuses to lie with her.

And, out of obedience to God, in his refusal to lie, he spurns her advances And she tells her husband and lies about Joseph and says Joseph tried to rape me and force me And Potiphar is forced to throw Joseph in prison.

And now a statement appears again in the text.

It's even stronger than the first one in chapter 39.

Listen to this weird statement.

It says the Lord, after being accused falsely of rape and being thrown into prison, the Lord was with him and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor.

And you remember what happens to Joseph in prison.

He's there with the butler and baker of Pharaoh, or the cupbearer and baker, and both of them have dreams and they don't know what it was.

And they tell Joseph.

And Joseph, who has this incredible ability to interpret dreams, tells the cupbearer.

This dream means in three days you will be restored and you will be pouring Pharaoh's wine.

And he turns to the baker.

This means in three days Pharaoh will have your head and you will be accounted guilty.

And then Joseph turns to the cupbearer and says please, don't forget me.

Please, i'm here by no fault of my own.

My brothers accused me falsely and I shouldn't even be here.

And exactly as Joseph interpreted the dreams, it occurred In three days.

Pharaoh restored the cupbearer and took the head of his baker.

And then it says did you ever read it?

Two years went by and the cupbearer forgot to mention to Pharaoh the dreamer who interpreted his dreams.

Two more years until Pharaoh had a dream that he couldn't interpret And he mentioned it to the cupbearer, who suddenly remembered after two years hey, there was this Jewish guy in the prison when you put me in prison and we didn't understand our dream.

He interpreted the dreams and Pharaoh brings Joseph out of the prison after many years of not understanding what is happening to him, suddenly he's ushered into the presence of Pharaoh.

The spirit of God falls on Joseph.

He interprets Pharaoh's dream And in the council of Joseph he said there is coming seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine.

Joseph should find a man and make him the overseer of the land of Egypt and begin a plan, an agricultural plan, of bringing food into the storehouse to prepare for the seven years of famine.

Pharaoh's looks at Joseph, says where can I find a man like you and whom is the spirit of God?

I will make you.

From this moment on, you sit at my right hand and all of Egypt bows its knee to you.

Only in the matter of the throne will I be greater than you.

And eventually Joseph's brothers, who are experiencing the famine in the land of Canaan, hear that there's food in Egypt and come down to Egypt.

And at this point they don't even recognize their brother.

His appearance is Egyptian, he's the Lord of the country and no one is sustained or given food apart from Joseph and you come into his presence and must bow down and the brothers, the eleven brothers bow down to Joseph without knowing who he is.

Joseph is so moved he leaves the room and weeps and comes back, and then, of course, he toys with them and tells them their spies in order to prepare them for the revelation.

And then Joseph, in chapter 45, after holding their brother in prison and making the brothers bring Joseph's younger brother, benjamin, back to the land, joseph puts everybody out of the room and reveals himself to his brothers.

But he reveals himself with this statement God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth.

So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

Now, in one sense that wasn't true.

Joseph could have said, because it was his evil brother's intent that he was there.

He could have said you know, you guys are wicked and I'm here and lost 20 years of my life because you're wicked.

Now God used it, but you're wicked.

And at one point he does point out there wickedness.

But at this point in his life, joseph's piece of the puzzle that never made sense has now come together and he's seen the whole picture.

And now Joseph is only conscious not of first causes or second causes, but of the first cause and he says you didn't send me here, god did.

And then he acknowledges their evil intent.

But listen to his summary.

At this point He says you meant it for evil, god meant it for good.

Joseph could have said all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Providence is the ability of our God to superintend the affairs of planet earth for his own glory and for the good of his people.

And this morning, right now, in your present circumstances, while you hold your piece of the puzzle and wonder what's going on in my life, are you trusting a sovereign God that you, if you're a believer, are living out a divine plan?

I'm not suggesting that everywhere you're walking is exactly right or you don't need to change anything, but right now, while you hold that piece and wonder what's happening, are you aware that God in his providence, who is both good and all powerful, is working all things to the good in your life to bring you to a divine plan Which, by the way, the next verse aptly describes the plan for those whom he foreknew.

He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.

And unless you make that the primary purpose in your life, not just getting to heaven, not just getting rich on earth or finding my niche in my vocation, but that God is working in my life to conform me to his holy image.

He called me an eternity past to that end, he predestined me to that end, and when he's done with me, i will look, smell, think, act and taste like Jesus.

But guess what?

the story of Joseph is really not about Joseph.

It's about another innocent man who also was delivered up by his brothers, who hated him, who also had a dream, not only that his mother and father And brothers would bow down to him, but that one day every created thing in the universe will bow its knee to him.

And just like Joseph could not fulfill the divine plan unless he was delivered up by his brothers, so the God of heaven purposed that this man be delivered up to death by his brothers.

In fact, even that was not a miscarriage of justice, though it was because Peter, on the day of Pentecost, looked at the Jewish people who agreed with the crucifixion of Jesus and said this Jesus you delivered up was delivered up according to the divine plan or definite plan and foreknowledge of God, and you crucified and killed him by the hands of lawless men.

In one sentence, peter identifies you are wicked in what you did to the Son of God.

But God delivered him up according to a definite plan in his foreknowledge, but like Joseph, this one, who was delivered up after three days, was raised up like Joseph, to sit on the throne of his father only his father being greater in the throne from which he now sustains his brothers, who don't even yet know him, but to whom he will one day reveal himself.

And now he sits on the throne, and all provision, everything the human race ever needs, is in him.

And if you want that, there's only one way to get it You have to come into his presence and bow down, just as no one received grain and sustenance in Egypt unless they came into the presence of Joseph and bowed before his authority.

That's what Paul reminded us of when he led the baptismal candidates this morning.

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and that he now sits at the right hand of the Father as Lord, what Paul means there is not you just say the word Lord, but that in your heart God, by his spirit, has revealed that this heavenly Joseph, rejected by his brothers, scorned by his people, crucified, was raised up by the Father and now sits on the throne of the Father and all human beings are sustained by him.

To quote the book of Hebrews, he now sustains all things by the word of his power.

Others are men and women who realize that one day the whole universe will bow to this one, but who now have bowed the knee in anticipation.

They've bowed the knee and said Jesus, our heavenly Joseph, is Lord One day.

Everyone will do it.

Now we've done it in advance, because God has revealed to us that this crucified Galilean carpenter is in fact God Almighty, the Son of the living God, and he now occupies the highest place in the universe.

And now he is calling all men everywhere to repent, to turn from wickedness, to acknowledge that we have lived our lives in defiance of him.

Repentance is not a little quick.

I'm a sinner and that's the end of it.

Repentance is the recognition that I am a rebel, that this Joseph whom God raised up and made to sit at his right hand as Lord, and I have spurned him, i have rejected him and I have rebelled against him and I've spit in his face.

The whole human race has done that.

But now the Father is calling you to repent and acknowledge the Lord Jesus and come to him.

And when you do, as Joseph's brothers discovered, that the very one they rejected now sustains them, you will discover that the very one you rejected is now your heavenly Joseph, who sustains you in all things.

The story of Joseph, the story of Jesus, is the story of divine providence.

And now, if you're a believer, the good news is there is no part of your life.

You may be holding your piece of the puzzle this morning saying what is going on in my life, and I can't tell you the answer to that, but I can promise you that if you're in Christ, all things will work together.

It's amazing, as I look back over my history, even my periods of rebellion and stupidity, god used as incredible teaching tools to change me.

Everything ever is wasted.

Stand with me, aaron.

Come please This morning when we call the prayer team up.

There may be many of you here this morning That have never bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I say that, i don't mean physically that you have to get on your knees.

You can if you want, but you've never really let And acknowledged by the Spirit of God, showing you that Jesus is Lord.

You've never made Him Lord of your life.

You've never responded to the gospel.

The gospel says repent and believe the gospel.

Jesus first words in Mark, chapter one, in his Galilean ministry repent and believe the gospel.

And believing the gospel is not just some intellectual ascent where I just say a prayer and then I'm fine.

It's a recognition that if the gospel is true and this man, jesus, is Lord of all, lord of heaven and earth, i have been living my life in rebellion and anarchy to his Lordship.

And if you feel this morning, i'd like the prayer team to come please, if you feel this morning that the Holy Spirit is awakening you to that reality that Jesus is Lord.

We're going to be singing a song in a minute, but I invite you to come to pray with people.

You might not have questions about the gospel.

Maybe you don't understand what Lordship means.

Maybe you don't understand what baptism means, because in response to the gospel, jesus said you must be baptized.

These men are here this morning.

If there's other prayer team members, come quickly And these men and women will pray with you and you can receive counsel from them.

But here's my prayer, and we're going to end with this, and then we're going to worship for a moment.

And when we're done this worship song, those that are visitors.

If you're here for the first time, remember to come back to our coffee bar.

We would like to meet you.

But this morning I'm going to pray for you, those of you that have never really bowed the knee.

Maybe you've been in church all your life, but the truth is you wrote rule your life.

You make your own decisions.

You are not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus.

I pray this morning that the Holy Spirit, through the gospel, is awakening in your heart a desire to say Jesus, i believe you are the Son of God, jesus, i believe you are Lord, and I want to respond to the gospel Father this morning, throughout this building, as the gospel of God went forth, as the truth of your sovereign Lordship was announced.

I pray, lord, that you draw men and women.

I pray that men and women would respond to you this morning and recognize the one they have spurned and rejected, the one who they have turned from in unbelief.

And, lord, grant grace this morning for men and women to believe the gospel and repent and be saved.

Lord, let them come this morning and say I want to follow Jesus and begin to become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, i pray that this decision be made by the spirit birthing in their heart faith, not by some emotional response, but, beyond that, the conviction that Jesus is Lord.

So draw them now, father.

In the name of Jesus, amen, and we're going to sing this song.

And, by the way, if you have other prayer requests, we're not going to bring you up to the altar.

Just come, these guys will pray with you.

But if you're here this morning and you feel like the Lord's awakening your heart to Jesus, come down and pray with these men.

Let's sing.