BLOG

This is the sermon that Pastor Nate presented at Worship @ Wakonda, Jun 29, 2019

This week at VBS we talked about God’s plan for us. God’s overall plan for us is that we know him through Jesus Christ. We know that because we read it in the Bible. God’s specific plans for us day to day are a lot of times harder to figure out.

It’s kind of like the guessing box that we did as a part of our nature walk yesterday. The kids had to reach into a box and without looking guess at what was in the box. Sometimes they got it right away, and a lot of times it took a little bit longer to figure out.

That’s a lot like the story of our lives. In fact, many times it’s only by looking backwards in time that we can we God’s plan for our lives.

This was certainly true of Bishop Given Gaula of Tanzania. Bishop Given is a dear friend of our family. Just last week my daughter Bethany returned from her second trip to Tanzania to serve alongside of Bishop Given’s ministry in the Anglican church in the poorest and most spiritually needy area of that country.

The Lord is doing tremendous work among people who are caught in the spiritual bondage of witchcraft, superstition, demonization, ancestor worship, false gods, severe addictions and basically life without Jesus. In fact, Bishop Given himself was set free from a life of oppression to these forces.

The bishop’s mother grew up in a family which were first generation Christians. As she got to the age of being ready to get married, her parents wanted her to marry a Christian man. That was a big task since Christianity in Tanzania at that time was very small.

When she did get married they believed him to be a follower of Christ, but that was not the case. He was and remains an alcoholic who was terribly abusive to Given the whole time he was growing up. He was so selfish and hard-hearted that he would take what little money the family had to buy food, for they were terribly poor, and use it to get drunk.

In spite of all of the terrible difficulties that Given and his mother faced, God had a plan. They were a part of God’s story.

One day when they had eaten very little for many days and had become desperate for food, Given, who was still a young boy, decided to go to a far away village to sell Guava fruit. This is how they survived.

But the journey was a very dangerous one due to the hyenas and lions in that area. But he had no choice. He set out on his journey but he was soon too tired to even go on because he was so malnourished and because his load was so heavy. He had to rest for the night and finish his journey in the morning.

Before long he heard the howls of the hyenas coming toward him in the dark. He could do nothing but remain perfectly still. They were so close at one point that they should have discovered him and killed him.

However, for no apparent reason, they turned around and left. When asked why he replies without hesitation that God sent his angels to surround him with a cloak of invisibility.

He was still trembling when out of the darkness he heard a group of men coming toward him. Each one of them held a weapon in their hands to defend themselves against wild animals. They were shocked to see a boy traveling in an area where adults are afraid to go.

They had compassion on him and had him travel with them and they carried his heavy load of fruit for him. Given says that they walked that night over 20 miles.

Why do I share this story with you today?

Because it is when we look back that we can see God’s plan in our lives.

Bishop Given serves the Lord in this very area of heartache and pain which he lived through as a boy. Only now he sees people coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. At the time he couldn’t have even dreamed about it, but now God’s story has become clear.

We all have a story – a story of God’s presence in our life. It is a unique story which he gives as a gift to us. It is a story of his love, a love which is unlike any love we have ever known.

Although it is unique to us and personal, it is a common experience for everyone whom he has called to himself. Throughout history this is what God does. He intersects our story with his story so that we can see his glory.

This is what God did for his people the Jews, and the great thing is that we can read about it. We can see how he loved them and how he made them his people and how his love for them was proved to be steadfast, unchanging in spite of everything his people did to reject him.

The same is true of our own story with God. In spite of everything that we have done and all that we do to turn away from him, his love for us remains steadfast and unchanging. His love is unlike human love which shifts so easily based on our emotions and circumstances.

Yet the Lord knows this about us.

He knows that we so easily stray from him.

He knows that our desires for the things of the world get the best of us.

Still, he calls to us, in the same way that he called to his people the Israelites when they were ready to cross the river Jordan and enter into the land which God has promised to them as a homeland. He reminds us that he is the best thing in life because he is life. He knows the best things for our lives because he made us.

Not only did he design and expertly craft us to be exactly as he wanted us to be, he made us in his image. Because God made us to be like him, the best life we could ever have is to know, love and follow him as closely as possible.

He made us to work best when our thoughts resonate with his thoughts. He made us to work best when our desires match up with his desires. He made us to be fulfilled and satisfied and complete when our ways follow his ways.

This is why he tells his people Israel the following words found in Deuteronomy 10:12-13.

“12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”

You would expect a loving Father to want the best for his kids. Our heavenly Father who never wavers in his love for us has shown us the things which lead to the best life.

He says to fear him which means to honor and respect him for the Almighty and Great God that he is.

He says to live with a lifestyle of obedience to God and all that he commands.

He says to love him.

He says to serve him from the inside out, that is, with all our heart and our soul.

These things, says the God who made us to be like him, are all for our own good.

But still we tend to live in a way which says we are not convinced that this kind of life is in our best interest. When push comes to shove, we so easily doubt that God’s ways are the best ways.

We are so easily swayed by our desires for love, acceptance, to be understood, to not be rejected, to be safe and secure, to feel good, etc. These desires when they do not line up with God’s desires are never good, and they don’t lead to good things.

All relationships are built on trust. The key question for us to consider in response to the things which God says are for our own good is this:

Can I trust God?

Can I trust that what he says is for my good is the best thing for me?

It is when we see God clearly for who he is that we realize that we can trust him…in everything. Our story is radically changed when we see God for who he is. So the scripture passage today gives us a picture of the God who invites us to be a part of his story.

Let’s take a closer look.

Deuteronomy 10:14 To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.

God is the greatest

God created and owns everything. The earth, the sky, the universe all belong to him. He is greater than everything we can see and know.

Deuteronomy 10:15 Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.

God loves his people

Even though God is greater than everything, his love is not for the earth or the stars or the animals. His love and affection is on the people whom he has chosen. His faithful, committed love is for those of us whom he has invited into his family.

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

God is impartial

He is not swayed by our offers of obedience. He doesn’t treat some people better than others. He loves and cares for all people equally.

Deuteronomy 10:18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

God cares for the oppressed

Some people might say that God is impartial because of the injustices in the world that he does nothing about. But this is not his nature. He cares deeply for those who are in need. The fatherless and the widows were those who had no one to provide for them. The foreigners were those who were outside of God’s family, in other words, those who were spiritually oppressed and lost.

Deuteronomy 10:21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. 22 Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

God does mighty things for his people

The greatest thing that God does for us is to bring us out of our spiritual darkness and oppression and bring us into the light of his presence.

He brought his people Israel out of Egypt which in scripture is a symbol of the world which is opposed to God.

He took them through the wilderness where he showed them how great and mighty he was for them.

He brought them into a place of life and rest.

What he did for Israel is an example to show us what he will do for us.

Yet, the one thing that can get in the way of what is good and what is best for us is a hard human heart. So God told his people Israel, and he tells us his people today, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.” (Deut. 10:16)

When our heavenly Father says, “Do this,” the default of our sinful nature is to say, “I don’t want to.”

What is so messed up is that so often we can’t even see what’s best for us.

We can’t see that there is nothing better than doing what God says for us to do. God has designed his commands and his ways and our relationship with him to be the best thing for us.

When we obey, it opens the way to knowing God in all of his glory.

Moses obeyed God, and God revealed his glory to Moses. But not everyone wants to know God and his glory. The people of Israel said, this is too much for us. Show yourself to Moses, talk to Moses, but keep us out of it.

Not everyone who believes in God wants to obey God because there is a cost to obedience.

The cost of obedience is giving up the desires of the flesh.

The cost of obedience is dying to self so that God’s life will flow powerfully through you.

The cost of obedience is that when God says, “Follow me,” you say, “Yes, Lord! Not my will but your will be done.”

There is a cost.

It’s not the cost which Jesus paid on the cross. Only he could redeem us from sin. The cost we pay is different.

We will pay the cost of being fools in the eyes of the world around us.

We pay the cost of speaking the truth in love while others accuse us of hatred.

We pay the cost of standing alone at times under the withering heat of lies, persecution and rejection.

Yes, there is a cost, but on the other side of loving obedience to Jesus Christ is knowing his glory.

This is why we live – for his glory. To know God in all his majesty and holiness and glory is greater than anything else in this life. We live not only to know God’s glory but to show it to the world.

Have you hardened your heart to saying yes to God?

Have you made conditions on what God says to you?

Have you closed off your heart to his work in you?

Have you closed off your heart to his heart?

Then the Lord would say to you to cut away your hard heart. Release the control of where God turns your head so that he can show you the best life that you can live. Allow God’s story to intersect your story, so that you can see his glory and so that he can receive all the glory.

The Lord told his people Israel, “I know the plans I have for you…plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) That’s God’s story.

If we will soften our hearts and submit to the Lord then our story will intersect with that story. We need never be afraid of surrendering to the Lord and submitting to his will and his commands.

Only good comes from it.

What about your story? Do you want your story to intersect with his glory, or will you live for your own glory and honor and will and desire?

Submit your heart to him, and you will see how awesome and glorious he truly is.