Sunday Sermon

 

Learning

Isaiah 50:4

The Lord God gave me the ability to teach so that I know what to say to make the weak strong. Every morning he wakes me. He teaches me to listen like a student.

Aircraft amaze me and not because they are these great big machines that look cool or that they go fast but because of how they work. The basic concept of powered flight is that the speed of the air flowing around the wing keeps the aircraft aloft. For me the science and the math that is involved just captivates me. Objects that weight as much as some planes do should not be up in the sky and yet they are because the math tells us they can. Because we have learned a truth about how the universe works we can use it to make things fly in the sky and that amazes me. What is more fascinating to me is that this math and science directs me to the God who created the universe. By learning truths about the how the universe works we also learn there is this God who is the truth of all things and that is a wonderful thing. At the center of our faith is the fact that God is the truth and from that flows all other things about God. It is this truth that we trust in and have hope for. Everything God does is because He is the truth and either we trust that or we live in a world of no truth. Our faith is not about a God who does great things but in a God who is truth and so does great things. This does create a problem in the world because if God is truth then rejecting God is rejecting truth and that has consequences that are terrible and frightening. To reject truth is to end up in a world that has nothing that can be trusted and that means there is nothing solid we can count on. When we give up the truth of God we enter a world of evil and that is what is wrong with our world. In refusing to grasp the truth of God means we have nothing to count on and no way to measure anything. The idea that God is truth must shape the very foundation of our faith if we want to be the people God calls us to be. Grabbing hold of the idea that God is truth will help us understand how God can love people that have refused God’s wisdom and alternatively choose lies. Knowing that God is truth will direct how we live as people who seek want to live righteously. Best of all is that God’s truth can be taught and in doing so we develop an understanding of who God is and we will trust in that God all the more. Over and over Gods truth revels itself as what is fundamental to the human condition and what we need if we want lives that have meaning and purpose. We don’t seek God because He does miracles we seek God because he is truth and from that will bring a hope about who we are. Learning to trust God is all about learning to trust in the truth and if we trust in anything else we will miss the power and wonder of the God who loves us. Our faith is a place of hope and joy because we have a God who is the truth of all things.

Living in a family with mechanical and building professionals has made me quite aware of the power of measurement. Today we have laser measurements and the ability to stand in one place and know how big it is. There are other tools that help make sure things meet the standards that are required to build something. In the book of Amos we have one of those. God has Amos use a plumb line to measure how crooked Israel is and that same concept is still used today. A simple object of weight and a line can measure how out of alinement something is. We all instinctively know how critical measuring is to building something physical but it is even more important when we are building our faith. When we come to Amos and we have God measure how crooked Israel is it seems like God is being mean because He is showing Israel how bad they are but in fact it is God blessing the people of Israel. If God did not care about the Israelite people He would just let them be crooked because the only result of being out of alinement is bad things. But we have a God who knows how terrible sin is and God does not want the Israelite nation to suffer the damage being crooked will cause. So a loving God shows the Israelites how bad they are because they need to know that information if they are to fix things. That is why the teaching and judgement of God is so wonderful. God is not trying to wreck our lives but He is trying to prevent the wreck that will happen if we do not learn from God. We want God to measure us so we can know where we are and with God’s help we can then build a life that is what it was meant to be. We should rejoice that we have a God who is so interested in our lives and wants us to know how to live those lives to the fullest.

How easy is Bible reading for people? The answer to that question most often is not easy. Reading the Bible takes work and it will ask a lot of us as we do so. For many people there is little joy in reading the Bible and quite a bit of guilt and shame. Let it be said that most people that have spent any time in the Bible are going to have felt those same feelings. But with all that we have to see that the most joyful thing we can do is to spend time in the Bible. We have a God who wants us to know who He is and to teach us how to live our lives with hope and peace and that is what spending time in the Bible does for us. All the things in the Bible have one purpose and that is to teach us who God is and then from that to have God to teach us how to shape our lives in a meaningful way. That is why the verse we have is so great. God wants to teach us and to show us how to be people who are loving and righteous like he is. As we learn about how to live as we should we also learn about this God who cares very much about us. It has to be understood on the deepest level that God does not have to teach us anything and He could leave us on our own but that is not the God we have. Our God wants to teach us and train us and that tells us about our God. Yes, it is not always fun to learn from God because God is going to tell us the truth and we are not always a fan of the truth. Humans don’t like to be told that we have made wrong choices and those choices are hurting us but we have a God who tells us the truth not to be mean but to save us from those terrible choices we have made. The teaching of God is not to send people to hell but to redeem people. Those words in this verse that say “to make the weak strong” are such a joy to hear. It is such a fundamental truth that we are broken people and we have a God who wants to fix us. That is the kind of God I want. We need God to teach us and to show us how to live and so we should seek God each day and be in the Bible so that we can lean who God is and so God can teach us. Truth is such a great thing and when we embrace the truth of God we will find our lives our better but we have to face and deal with the things Gods teach us. Do we have the courage and are we willing to learn to trust what God has to say and to build the way God teaches us to build. We are weak and broken but we can rejoice in the hope that we have God who knows how to fix us and wants to do so.

This issue has been covered before but it ought to be said more often. We do not serve a silent God. The God who we find in scripture is not even quiet let alone silent but is very out spoken and He is very loud. The question for us is not that God speaks but are we listening? In the last phase of this verse we find the writer being taught by God to listen and that is a great point to make about how we should be practicing our faith. Thinking of ourselves as students of the living God will help us look at what God wants to teach us in a new light. Listening to God is a skill that we have to master to be the people God wants us to be. A lot of people want to tell God stuff and it is the natural part of being humans. In the book of Job we find Job just wanting to tell God what is going on but God even speaks to Job and tells him to listen. Also be aware the point of listening is not just to hear God but then to apply what God speaks about in our lives. We are to learn so we can then apply what we learned. It is not enough to just know how to measure things but the next step is to use the knowledge to build things. We need the information God has for us but the point of the information is to show us how to live our lives. God teaches us how to love people so we can then care about the people God calls us to care for. Listening to God speak about being generous and know how generous God is and then not being generous is a waste of our time. Listening to God has a point and we need to get that into our heads. Being in scripture is not because we want to learn the rules God has but to learn about the God who saves us. There is such joy in listening to God but it is a joy because we get to know God and then we learn how to live our lives in the right way. We should all want the hear what God teaches and find joy in it.

This verse has so many cool things about it that it could be several sermons but the most important point is that God teaches us and by learning from God we learn to trust in God. There is another step here that we need to consider. As people of faith who trust in the living God and who hope in the redemption God gives us we need to teach the rest of the world about this God we worship. One of the ways we do that is by living out the things God teaches us so people can see what God is all about. But we also need to be able to teach people about who God is. The idea here is not that we formally sit down and explain the Gospel to people but we teach people the principles about God that we have learned so we can make the weak strong. There are so many broken people out there and they need to know about this God who brings healing and teaches us how to be the people we should be. It is up to us to show the world the God who loves them.