SERMON DATE AND TITLE: 2008-06-01: "When God Lifts His Hand"
This page contains the complete audio-only sermon in downloadable SWF flash format, which will begin playing upon opening this page
The sermon outline is also included here.
Want a download or CD copy? Read this.
WHEN GOD LIFTS HIS HAND
SERMON STARTER
The most famous sermon concerning God’s judgment and the lifting of His Hand of Protection has been preached by the now famous Rev. Jeremiah Wright. His controversial passionate statement will never be forgotten, “God damn America!” If you will remember the context of the sermon it was given in 2003 on the anniversary of 9/11. The actual Sunday after 9/11 Rev. Wright asserted that America caused the terrorist attacks by its own terrorism and genocide.
Actually, Revs. Falwell and Robertson broadcast on nationwide television on the morning after 9/11 that America caused the terrorist attacks because of our immorality and rebellion toward God. Does this sound familiar? Personally, I felt the same as the two reverends, but I felt their timing for their doomsday proclamations of God’s judgment was very poor and certainly not comforting to a grieving nation. They later apologized for their poor timing. Rev. Wright has never apologized for his remarks and stands behind his statements today.
In this sermon I explore God’s judgment and some thoughts I have been pondering for some time. This is the decade of calamity and catastrophe. The trauma isn’t experienced by the United States alone, it is world-wide in nature.
“For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:22,23
WORLD-WIDE CATASTROPHES:
Nine-Eleven in 2001
Hurricane Isabel in 2003
Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami of 2004
(Killed more than 225,000 in 11 countries)
Hurricane Katrina in 2005
S/W China Earthquake in 2008
(7.0 Richter, 68,000 dead)
World Oil Prices Soar in 2008
World-Wide Food Shortages
US stops feeding the world and feeds gas tanks instead
NATIONAL CATASTROPHIES:
National Homeland Security Crisis
Poor National Boundaries
Economics
Devaluation of dollar / Stock Market unstable
Travel by Airline or Car Cost Prohibitive
Housing Market Collapses
Natural Disasters
Earthquakes, Tornados, Floods, Hurricanes
Economic Crisis
Leading Toward the Devaluation of the US Dollar
PERSONAL CATASTROPHIES:
Loss of Employment or Underemployment
Relational Failure / Divorce
Death of a Close Loved One
Foreclosure on House or Property
Personal Rejection or Failure
Trouble with IRS or the Law
Global Disaster Watch:
http://home.att.net/~thehessians/disasterwatch.html
This sermon explores the protecting hand of God and what happens when His hand is lifted. This decade is truly a time of change. It is a time when things we have always taken for granted can no longer be assumed. God’s paradigm for America and the world has changed. There are certain things you will not be able to count on any more:
Cheap gasoline
Weather
Terra Firma (Earthquakes/Mudslides)
High Paying Manufacturing Jobs
Stable Marital and Family Life
National Security
Affordable Health Care
Affordable, Healthy Food
Affordable Mortgage Payments
Gas Guzzling V-6 and V-8 SUV’s, Trucks and Autos
Over-Promising Politicians
The one thing you can always count on: “The Word of the Lord endures forever!” 1 Peter 1:25 We can always count on Him and His Word is true. Don’t forsake Him in the tough days ahead. He may lift His Hand for a moment, but His mercy is everlasting!
Pastor Phil <><<
Eg. 60’s Song, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
June 1, 2008, Pastor Phil Roland
Sheepfold Ministries
WHEN GOD LIFTS HIS HAND
When God’s protective Hand is Lifted from our lives
2 Thessalonians 2:1-10
"We are in God’s Hands. What happens when God lifts His Protective Hand from us individually, corporately or as a nation? We must abide in His Will.” Pastor Phil Roland
I. WE ARE PROTECTED BY HIS HANDS – Matthew 10:27-30
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. "I and My Father are one."
A. Many benefits from the Hand of the Lord
1. Provision in this life – Eccles. 2:24
“Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his
soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of
God.”
2. Protection from harm – Psalm 118:14-17
”The voice of rejoicing and salvation Is in the tents of the righteous; The
right hand of the LORD does valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is
exalted; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. I shall not die, but
live, And declare the works of the LORD.”
3. Revelation – Ezekiel 3; 8; 33; 37; 40:1-4
“In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on
the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was
captured, on the very same day the hand of the LORD was upon me;
and He took me there. In the visions of God He took me into the land of
Israel and set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the south was
something like the structure of a city. He took me there, and behold, there
was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze. He
had a line of flax and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the
gateway. And the man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes and
hear with your ears, and fix your mind on everything I show you; for you
were brought here so that I might show them to you. Declare to the house
of Israel everything you see."
4. Abiding Presence – The Hand of the Lord was upon His
prophets and “Called Ones”
B. The Hand of the Lord is against our enemies – Egyptians, Philistines
Those who oppose us as we serve Him, oppose Him
C. The Hand of the Lord brings Unity and Obedience – 2 Chron. 30:12
“Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey
the command of the king and the leaders, at the word of the LORD.”
II. WE ARE INSCRIBED ON THE PALMS OF HIS HANDS
“Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted. But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me." "Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.” Isa. 49:13-16
A. We are not forgotten by God – Deut. 4:30,31
"When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days,
when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice '(for the LORD your
God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the
covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.”
B. He will not leave us or forsake us - Hebrews 13:5b; Isa. 43:1-3
“For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
“But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed
you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your
name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the
fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the LORD
your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;”
III. WHEN GOD LIFTS HIS HAND
A. Natural Consequences of Sowing and Reaping – Gal. 6:7
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will
also reap.
1. We mustn’t interfere with natural consequences
2. Path of Codependency
3. The Codependent reaps what another sows
B. Disobedience that leads to Judgment –
1. David / Census – 2 Samuel 24:13
“So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, "Shall seven
years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months
before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days'
plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take
back to Him who sent me."
2. Ezekiel’s prophesy – Ezek. 5:7,8
"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have multiplied
disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not
walked in My statutes nor kept My judgments, nor even done according to
the judgments of the nations that are all around you'; "therefore thus says
the Lord GOD: 'Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute
judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations.”
IV. WHEN THE RESTRAINER IS LIFTED
A. Something has turned over world-wide spiritually in this decade
B. Enemy has been allowed to attack our “sacred cows”
1. National Security
2. Economics
3. Travel
4. Housing
5. Natural Disasters
C. We have God and one another – 2 Chron. 7:14
"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and
seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and
will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
WHEN GOD LIFTS HIS HAND, Text:
2 Thessalonians 2:1-10
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers,
2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.
3 Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
5 Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things?
6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.