Larry Siegle · II Cor. 4:16-18
Link to sermon video: Where Is God… When? – L Siegle
The ‘Blessing’ for Life’s Uncertainties
“Where is God…When?”
(II Cor. 4:16-18)
Series: The BLESSING
Thesis: WHAT can prepare us as we face the uncertainties of daily living?
INTRODUCTION
1. The title of this series is The Blessing
2. This is the first lesson in our study: WHERE IS GOD…WHEN?
3. There is no question in our understanding that ‘the Bible’ was completed 2,000 years old and remains…
a. The Bible is a collection of 66 books that have been received as canonical—meaning “the list of sacred books and
writings that are accepted as genuine” based upon an examination of those evidences that demonstrate the
characteristics of inspiration
1) The Bible is divided into two sections:
2) The first 39 books (OT) that records the progression of redemptive history from the time of “creation” and
those events associated with the development of Old Covenant Israel until the end of the Assyrian and
Babylonian captivity and the expectation of the time when Messiah would come into the world.
3) This is from 4000 years BC until 400 years of silence before the entrance of Jesus Christ into the world.
4) The last 27 books (NT) records the fulfillment of both promise and prophecy from the (OT) Old Covenant and
the manifestation of what the purpose of redemptive history and how it was realized in the establishment
of God’s Kingdom in the New Covenant.
b. The OT presents the problem of the entrance of sin and death (Rom. 5:12) and the process through which
deliverance (salvation) was provided to overcome what had taken place from the “beginning”
4. 2,000 years have elapsed since the closing words of the Scriptures were recorded, and silene that has followed,
causing a vast majority of people who are now asking the question: “Where is GOD?”
FEAR OF ABANDONMENT AND OF THE “UNKNOWN”
1. The issue involves the “unknown” and the ‘feeling’ that somehow this GOD is no longer involved with humanity, that
He has stepped aside and now just watches “from a distance” what is happening—the concept of deism.
a. Where is God in the lives of people whose marriage and relationships begin to crumble and fall apart?
b. Where is God when we see our children making terrible decisions, living in rebellion determined to go their own
way?
c. Where is God when we become unemployed, unable to pay the bills, losing our cars, our houses, a decline in our
retirement savings, pressure on every side?
d. Where is God when our parents grow old, are sick and suffering, we or our friends and loved ones are involved in
an accident that affects every area of their lives?
e. Where is God when our own health and vitality begins to decline, the doctors discover a serious illness or
terminal disease, stealing away all hope of recovery and regaining our strength to live and enjoy daily life?
f. Where is God when we or someone we love becomes addicted to alcohol, prescription drugs, or other
substances, trapped in an endless cycle, repeating the cycle over and over again?
g. Where is God when people are murdered, children are abducted, in places where starvation, sickness, disease,
and poverty affect millions of people…
THE VALUE OF EVERY PERSON AND EVERY STORY…THE NEED TO KNOW
1. If God is all-loving, and all-powerful, and all-knowing, could He have created a world where there was no pain, and
no suffering?
2. The answer is absolutely YES, but we could not live there, for the very same reason that if you ask AI to create a
beautiful, 30 second prayer of praise and adoration, the end result would be empty and meaningless.
a. In order to have world where genuine love is present, it must also be a world where there is freedom of the will
to “choose” or to “reject” it.
b. God created “all things” in balance (up, down, right, left, in, out). In order to know what it is like to stand on a
mountaintop, it is also necessary to have a valley below set in contrast with it.
1) There is moral evil that relates to attitudes and choices made that reflect a negative contrast with what can
be seen as good. (War, theft, murder, etc)
2) There is natural evil reflected by what happens in our closed environment—hurricanes, tornados,
earthquakes, floods, draught, etc.
3. Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist has stated, “There is no such thing as good or evil. DNA neither cares or
knows. DNA is just is, and we all dance to its music”. (We just are the way we are and we cannot think, act or be
anything other than being programmed by our DNA).
THE INVISIBLE GOD WE WORSHIP
1. God, as described in the Scriptures is beyond the feeble limitations of our human senses (see, smell, touch, hear,
taste).
2. The testimony of the evidence of an “unseen” (spiritual) being is pictured in an illustration given by Anthony Flew
who had been a renounced atheist and debater: Parable of the Invisible Gardener
“Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and the weeds pulled and cleared. One explorer says, “Some gardener must tend this plot.” The other disagrees, “There is no gardener.” So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen. “But perhaps he is an invisible gardener.” So they set up a barbed-wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol with bloodhounds. (For they remember how H. G. Well’s The Invisible Man could be both smelt and touched though he could not be seen.) But no shrieks ever suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry. Yet still the Believer is not convinced. “But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.” At last the Skeptic despairs, “But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?”—
3. The evidence is in the existence of the Garden itself, that care has been taken to tend to it.
WHAT CAN BE SEEN TESTIFIES TO THE NATURE AND EXISTENCE OF THAT WHICH IS UNSEEN
1. FAITH describes the “foundation” of what is “seen” that came into being from He who is “unseen” (Heb. 11:1, 2).
2. Life in this “closed” environment (the physical universe) operates in the ‘seasonal’ cycles related both to life and
Existence (Eccl. 9:1-3, 9, 11, 12)
a. The perspective of Solomon throughout this book of the Bible is “horizontal” (life “under the sun”)—a life lived
apart from God, just what we experience each day, nothing to look forward to, nothing to find peace or purpose
or meaning— there is a difference between LIVING and EXISTING.
3. LIFE is not simply. Quantity but rather it is also Quality… God wants to provide each of us with a balanced perspective
and to understand the “blessing” that He has given us, through which He sustains us, and from which we are lifted up
to stand in His presence (Psa. 5:1-3; 3:3-5).
THE INTEGRITY AND NATURE OF GOD MUST BE CONSIDERED
1. GOD is good, righteous, and hears the cries of those who love Him.
2. It will be seen that God is “bigger” than whatever it is that we may encounter in life—the unexpected circumstances
and situations.
3. “I know the LORD will make a way for me, If I walk in heavens light, shun the wrong and do the right, I know the Lord
will make a way for me”
4. We are going pull back the veil and look into the very heart of God, to begin to peer into the “unseen” realm and to
know the genuine love and care of our Father.
CONCLUSION
1. God’s purpose, from the very beginning has been to create people who, went presented with the truth of God’s love
for them, are willing to receive the blessing and gift of “eternal life” rather than the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23).
2. God wants people to lay aside their sense of “fear” and “uncertainty” knowing the enduring nature of God and His
willingness to meet and to supply all of our needs (Phil. 4:19)
3. The gospel of Christ is the “power of God” to bring deliverance (salvation) and to empower us to walk in “newness of
life”
4. Are we ready to surrender to God’s will today?
Outline (Word document): The_Blessing_I.docx