I Introduction
  A. Oh to be a family that never has a crisis! What a glorious thought!
        1. Unfortunately life is not like that
        2. Crises do come – to all of us
  B. When they come, they tend to either
        1. Drive the family away from God and from each other
        2. Draw the family closer to God and to each other
        3. The CHOICE is ours
  C. Crises drive the family apart IF members
        1.   Isolate themselves from God and from each other
        2.   Take their frustrations out on God and on each other  “TRANSFERENCE”
              EG Wife-husband-dog-cat-bird-wife
  D. Crises draw the family closer together IF members
        1. Go to God and let Him comfort them (Word, prayer)
        2.     Reach out to each other, realizing others are hurting to (not just ME!)
  E. There is a choice
        1. We face it every time a crisis enters our lives
        2. The question we face will always be the same: what will be my reaction to this crisis?
            Will I let it destroy relationships or build them?  Will I let it destroy me or strengthen me?
        3. God’s advice: Draw close to ME and I will strengthen you and your whole family through you.
            2 Cor 1:3-7  “Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all
            comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we
            ourselves have received from God….”
  F. It is important to realize crises are vital to our own spiritual growth: they force us to face a personal dilemma:
        1. Either Jesus Christ is Lord of my life or He isn’t
        2. Either God is in control of my life or He isn’t
        3. Either God’s plan for my life is perfect or it isn’t.
  G. As we study this subject of family crises together, it is our hope that we will somehow
        1. Get the sovereignty of God (His control) out of our hearts and into our lives
        2. Enjoy the victory that is ours as children of the King
            a. When we bow to God’s control – PEACE!
            b. When be fight God’s control – TURMOIL!
            c. The choice is ours
  H. Major text: Bible; supplemental text: Yet Will I Trust Him (in library)
  I. Overall questions: (Write on BOARD):
        1. Who is God? Benevolent Santa Claus? Severe taskmaster? Neither? Both? Something else altogether?
        2. Where is God when I need Him? Close by? Far away? How accessible is He? How concerned?
            How involved will He get?
        3. Why must we have crises? Are there lessons to be learned? Can good come from bad?
            What part does God’s timing play?
        4. What do crises accomplish? Anything in me? In those watching me? Can there be a benefit to the kingdom of God?
        5. How can I have victory? By being passive? Active? Is there such a thing as being too passive? Too active?
            When should I submit to what life dishes out and when should I resist? Should I ever resist?
  J. To get our minds working, let’s address the questions on our sheets:
        1. When God calls people to Himself, does He call them to health, wealth, and success, or can suffering,
            financial difficulties, even failure, be part of His overall plan?
        2. Where do crises originate? With God? With Satan? With the Fall? Does it matter where they come from?
            What matters?
        3. For what purpose did God create us? Do crises allow us to serve this purpose?
        4. Does our loving God ever leave us alone in our crises? Does it seem that He does?
            What should we do with we feel forsaken?
        5. Should Christians expect physical healing while still on Planet Earth? Or should we always pray, “Thy will be done”?
        6. Is it possible to interpret God’s promises in such a way that it appears that He has failed to fulfill them?
            How can we avoid such an error?
        7. Is there any relationship between sin and sickness? Between faith and healing?
            Are all who are sick, sick because of a specific, personal sin?
            Are all who are healed, healed because they have great faith?
            How should Christians cope with the problem of aging? Ask for healing? (We’re first in line!)
        8. If God is omnipotent, He could eliminate crises, couldn’t He? Why, then, doesn’t He?
        9. Christ says He came to give us “abundant life.” Is it possible that the abundant life might include suffering? How so?
        10. Is it possible to become so grounded in our faith that crises will not shake us? If so, how do we become so grounded?
II Who is God? (today)
  A. Sovereign God
        1. EG  Class in Michigan: sovereignty of God in nature, nations, salvation, victorious living: “What is sovereignty?”
        2. Tom’s definition: “God can do any thing He wants to do, any time He wants to do it, any way He wants to do it,
            for any purpose He wants to accomplish.”
        3. At some point in every life a door will slam: on that door will be only one explanation: “The Sovereignty of God”
        4. At that point a response is called for:
            a. Either we bang on that door in frustration as the door continues to remain shut (EXASPERATED!)
            b. Or we bow in humble submission and wait for the door to open to new opportunities
            c. The choice is ours
        5. What will help us bow to God’s sovereignty, rather than fight is, is the realization that
            a. God is in control of everything that happens, good and bad (causes or allows)
                [Not author of evil but author how evil is used for His purposes.]
            b. God has a purpose in everything that happens
            c. That purpose is (1) His glory Eph 1:11,12  “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the
                plan of Him who works out EVERYTHING in conformity with the purpose of His will in order that we, who were
                the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.”
            d. And (2) our good.  Rom 8:28
            e. We can’t think of a better goal for our lives (and our crises) than this: to live for the praise of Almighty God, who
                created us to glorify Him, died to redeem us when we failed, and even now is preparing a place where we can
                fellowship with Him forever.
            f. It also helps to realize that how God deals with us will not be the same way He deals with anybody else.
  B. Master of Creativity
        1. His plan for each life if unique
        2. Comparisons with one another are fruitless and frustrating
        3. Examples (review)
            a. He healed Hezekiah  (2 K 20:5)
                He afflicted Miriam with leprosy (Num 12:10)
            b. He raised Lazarus  (Jn 11:43,44)
                He struck dead Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5)
            c. He delivered Peter from prison (Acts 12:7)
                He allowed John the Baptist to remain and eventually lose his head  (Jn 14:3, 11)
            d. He shut the lions’ mouths for Daniel  (Dan 6:22)
                He did not shut them for the Christian martyrs in the Roman coliseum.
            e. He protected Shadrack, Meshack, Abednego from fire  (Dan 3:27)
                He let Polycarp and John Hus be burned at the stake
            f. He delivered Jonah from death in water (Jon 2:10)
                He let the Anabaptists be killed by drowning
        4. Hebrews 11:33-38:  Some, others (review)
            a. Some  “through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised;
                who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of flames, escaped the edge of the sword,
                whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
                Women received back their dead, raised to life again”  (v.33-35)
            b. Others “were tortured and refused to be released so that they may receive a better resurrection.
                Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned,
                they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword, They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,
                destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and
                mountains and in caves and holes in the ground. These were ALL commended for their faith.”
            c. Whether we’re the “some” or the “others,” our job: to live for “the praise of His glory.”
                If we’re doing that we have VICTORY!
  C. The God of Scripture
        1. EG  Woman in bible study:  “God is love. He would never send anybody to hell.”
            (What are the flaws in her reasoning?)
            a. She isolated one attribute (love) at the expense of others (wrath, holiness)
            b. She created a god to her own liking, one that was easy to submit to, rather than searching out the God of Scripture,
                who does some things that are hard to understand.
        2. God is not a god of human imaginings (making a graven image)
            a. If we want to know what God is like, we go to the Bible
            b. There we find a comprehensive, integrated picture of Him, with some attributes that are pleasing and some that
                are hard to accept
        3. Draw a daisy
            a. Class:  list God’s attributes in the petals (love, mercy, justice, sovereignty, holiness, grace, wisdom, goodness, truth,
                longsuffering, omnipresence, omnipotence, immutability, etc.)
            b. Pluck a single petal, hold it up, realize you are looking at a single petal, not a whole daisy
                (woman: love only is not God)
        4. “Simplicity” of God
            a. God’s attributes cannot be separated from each other
            b. Every attribute of God is in every action of God
            c. Seemingly opposite attributes are sometimes linked
                1) Love and wrath:  Jn 3:16,36  ‘For God so loved the world…whoever believes on the Son has eternal life,
                    but whoever rejects the son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
                2) Mercy and justice:  Ps 101:1  “I will sing of your love (mercy KJV) and justice; to you, O lord, I will sing praise.”
                    Hab 3:2  “In wrath, remember mercy.”
                3) Kindness and sternness:  Rom 11:22  “Consider, therefore, the kindness and sternness of God; sternness to
                    those who fell but kindness to you.”
        5. God’s providence toward us can be a study of contrasts too:
            a. Poverty and wealth:  Phil 4:12,13  Paul writes:  “I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.
                I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in
                plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” (HANG IN THERE)
            b. Promotions and demotions:  Ps 75:7  “But it is God who judges: He brings one down, He exalts another.”
                1) A great verse if you’re the one being exalted
                2) Yet given time things sometimes get evened out
            c. How we are viewed by others:  2 Cor 6:4-10  ‘As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great
                endurance in troubles, hardships, and distresses, in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights
                and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in true love, in truthful speech and
                in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, through glory and dishonor;
                or bad report and good report, genuine yet regarded as imposters, known yet regarded as unknown;
                dying and yet we live on, beaten yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich; having nothing and
                yet possessing everything.” (PARADOX of being a servant of God)
            d. In God’s compensation during the hard times:  2 Cor 4:16-18  “Therefore, we do not lose heart.
                Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
                For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
                So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
                For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
                1) Hope for those of us in declining years (body deteriorating: spirit being renewed)
                2) Proper perspective – troubles are momentary in context of eternity
                3) Admonition – focus on the unseen (more real than the seen)
III     Conclusion
  A. Crises come to all
  B. The one who turns to God in His Word has special coping ability:
        1. He sees a God who is Sovereign yet caring
        2. He realizes God’s plan for him is unique and perfect
        3. He submits to that plan, knowing that in the end God will work all things for his good
        4. He seizes the moment, no matter how bad the circumstances are, to bring glory to God, his Savior and his Lord
        5. It’s an exciting way to live! It’s the ONLY way to live!