hope.

2. In this world, even the most righteous
people sometimes suffer.

3.  He’s secured, heir to a family
fortune.
 Owner of real estate holdings in
Manhattan, including an elite
hotel.
 Revenues from inventions.
 Seats on the board of directors
more than twenty corporations—
all contributed to a fortune
estimated at between one hundred
million and two hundred million
dollars.

4.  His future seemed secure.
 When he married, he and his
young bride honeymooned
in Egypt and Europe.
 For the return voyage to
America, booking on the
safest ship ever built—the
SS Titanic pride of the
White Star line.
 Within days, John Jacob
Astor was dead.

5.  Titanic was believed to be unsinkable. But it
sailed an ocean full of hazards, and when
crew members made crucial mistakes,
ignoring warnings of icebergs, the great ship
went down.

6.  At 26 a vice president, and the
youngest partner in a major
New York company dealing
in international finance.
 F. T.’s future seemed secure.
 He was supposed to be
driving to Hartford,
Connecticut, for a business
meeting that morning, but he
stopped at his office for some
reason.

7.  A business partner contacted
F. T. at his desk on the 105th
floor of the World Trade
Center south tower on
September 11, 2001, just
minutes before the first plane
hit.
 Before the fateful morning, F.
T. Aquilino had safely
worked in the World Trade
Center for years.

8.  The building had
withstood decades of
storms and winds; the
airliners that struck the
buildings and brought
them down did not
malfunction.
 F. T. Aquilino was
dead.

9.  At this point, you may be
expecting me to say
something like, “IF
THESE MEN HAD PUT
THEIR TRUST IN GOD,
THEIR SECURITY
WOULD HAVE BEEN
ASSURED, AND THEY
WOULD NOT SUFFER
SUCH LOSS.”

10.  Take for example, John the
Baptist, of whom Jesus said,
“’among those born of women
there is no greater than John.”
(Luke 7:28)
 Surely his future was secured.
 On the contrary, John never
seemed secure.
 He lived a life of privation in the
desert on a subsistence diet of
carob beans and wild honey.

11.  Although his
preaching gained him
notoriety.
 John earned the
displeasure of Herod
and especially Herod’s
wife.
 And in a memorable
episode, Herod’s
promise to his
stepdaughter literally
cost John his head!

12.  Together, Astor and Aquilino
had blessings, character,
fame, fortune, family, talent--
-yet none of that brought
them security.
 Everybody wants security.
 Lots of people offer it.
 Entire industries exist to give
it.

13.  Financial planners offer
security for retirement.
 Insurance companies
offer security in case of
property damage or loss,
or security for the family
in case of death.
 Others offer alarm
systems to give security
from crime.

14.  And government
exist primarily as an
effort to keep its
citizen secure:
 Secure from:
-foreign aggression,
secure from crime,
secure from disease,
even secure in old
age.

15.  All of these companies and
institutions do provide a
limited measure of security.
 Yet as long as we live in a
broken world filled with
broken people, nothing can
guarantee us security.
 Foolish men helped sink the
Titanic. Angry men brought
down the Twin Towers. An evil
man and an evil woman killed
John the Baptist.

16.  But that is not the end.
The Bible indicates that
human evil affects the
planet itself; that broken
people have caused the
broken world.
 Genesis tells us that when
Adam sinned, God cursed
the ground(Genesis 3:17)

17.  At creation, God gave Adam
dominion—rulership—over
the earth, over the planet
itself.
 So when Adam rebelled
against God, the planet
suffered.
 Later, when men filled with
violence, God brought a
great flood, and the Bible
tells us that disaster
permanently altered the
planet as well.

18.  Ever since the Flood, this
broken world has itself
become dangerous place for
the human race who broke it.
 Throughout the ages of
recorded history, drought,
flood, volcanic eruption,
earthquakes, hurricanes,
tornadoes, and tsunamis
have exacted planetary
revenge, killing untold
millions, giving the lie to
humanity’s illusions of
security in this world.

19.  Today’s advanced
technology tempts us to
think that we can achieve a
measure of security in this
life -----
That everyone will live
long and prosper without
God.

20. -- Our prosperity,
coupled with
sophisticated financial
instruments like
stocks, bonds, and
mutual funds, allow us
to accumulate money
for our retirement, so
we think we don’t
need God to provide
for our future.

21.  Medicine can detect diseases early
and can treat or cure conditions
once considered fatal.
. Scientific instruments monitor the
movements
of the earth’s crust. Satellites track
the weather.

22.  Our advance communications
systems bring all of this
together to warn us of
impending danger.
. And our means of
transportation can move us to
places of safety, rescue us from
dangerous situations, and
rapidly take us to medical
facilities for treatment – even in
cases of trauma.

23.  Increasingly, in this advanced
world, people live without
reference to God. It follows that
if we don’t need God’s
assistance to live the good life,
then we don’t need His advice
about how to live well.
 We feel free to ignore all the
codes of conduct and
restrictions on behavior that
God gave us.

24.  Princess Diana, in the bloom
of youth, dies suddenly in a
car crash.
 John Ritter, a TV actor with his
own show, collapses and dies
without warning of an
undetected vascular disorder.
 Planes and ships go down,
taking with them the rich and
the mighty.

25.  A tsunami strikes in Indonesia,
sweeping wealthy tourist’s as
well as poor villagers to their
deaths, many never to be found.
 A bridge collapses in
Minneapolis during rush hour.
 The rich, the poor, the righteous,
and the profane all die together.

26.  These terrible events bring us
face to face with the reality
that despite all our advanced
technology and institutions,
security in this world remains
an illusion for all.
 Those who trust in God may
die just as those who do not---
suddenly, at an early age,
without warning. But there is a
difference…

27.  Abraham was one of the
richest men in the ancient
world. At God’s direction,
Abraham gave up the
relative safety of his
birthplace, setting out on a
long pilgrimage.
 Hebrews 11:8 “By an act of
faith he lived in the country
promised him, lived as a
stranger camping in tents.”

28.  When Sarah died, Abraham
had to pay an exorbitant price
for a place to bury her.
 Yet Abraham’s faith remained.
-- “Abraham did it by keeping
his eye on an unseen city with
real, eternal foundations –the
City designed and built by
God.”--

29.  In this world, we have no
security. The forces of evil
and of nature will continue
to strike unpredictably and
with fatal results. Our only
security is in God, for this
world---and the next.