Sunday Sermon

 

Great is the Lord

Isaiah 52:15

But now he will surprise many nations. Kings will be amazed and shut their mouths. They will see things they had not been told about him, and they will understand things they had not heard.”

We are in a spiritual battle with ideas that are so destructive and dangerous that when used those ideas wreak havoc for decades and even centuries. There are people who think they can rewrite the basic principles of humanity. Simple ideas that men and woman are broken by sin and need to redeemed if they are to be what they should be are rejected and replaced. Instead of the need for redemption it is supplanted with the idea that everyone is good and we just have to encourage the good and take away bad influences. Biblical wisdom that has been tried for millennia are thought to be old fashion and we need new ideas. The problem is that those new ideas have failed whenever tried. In America we are learning those lessons the hard way. More than ninety percent of men in prisons grew up without a dad and we now know that if you want your kids to stay out of prison all that is needed is a dad present in the home. There is a deep connection to the idea that God calls Himself our father and we need men in our homes for kids to grow up in the right way. This applies to us as adults also. We need God in our lives because He is the one who teaches us how to live our lives as they were meant to be. Biblical wisdom has an impact that should knock us over. God pours out His teaching to us not to control us but to set us free from the destructive lies the enemy tells us. Look at the Ten Commandments and see how they are not rules we have to follow but they are principles and concepts that bring peace and joy into our lives. Believers in the living God should stand amazed when they read what God has to say about life and what life means. We have this God who just hands out information about life and so many people just ignore what God has to say because it requires we submit to the authority of God. Why are so many people of faith ignorant about how wonderful God’s teaching is and that it brings a sense of hope that is found no place else? On a regular basis I ask my congregation what is God saying to them about their lives and if they don’t know I want to know why. God speaks to us and wants us to know the information about how the universe works. The whole point of why the Holy Spirit comes to us is to teach us so the question is what is the Holy Spirit teaching us. Do we even know what God has to say about what is going on in our lives and the world around us. God wants us to be righteous people but what does that mean. If we are not learning from God we will believe the lies of the enemy and that is what scares me. Jesus deflects the temptations of the enemy not with super natural power but with knowing what scripture says. Letting God direct our lives is worth the work and we have a history that tells us that is true. Are we willing to spend the time and effort to learn what God has to say to us or will we just let lies destroy us?

It needs to be made clear that as much as I love the wisdom of God that is not what our faith is built on. God’s wisdom shows who God is and what He is up to but our faith is in the fact that Jesus comes and deals with our sin by dying and then speaks to the life God gives by stepping out of the grave. Our faith is in the God who gives us the wisdom. We trust not in the act of Jesus but in the fact that Jesus acts so we can be with God. We can understand what God wants from us and how we should live by starting in the garden. In the garden Adam and Eve have a safe place where they can spend time with the God who created them and loves them. Faith is about having a relationship with God and trusting in who God is. Next is Abraham and his relationship with God. Abraham is not perfect but over his life time he learns to trust in who God is. We could go one with Moses and David and Peter and John. Each person learns to trust in God but they do it because they encounter the wisdom of God. As we learn who God is we learn about this God who longs to solve our problems and bring healing to our lives. But we need to know that God does not just give us solutions because doing so would not help us. God works with us as we live our lives to change the course of what we are doing to make us into what we should be. In the Beatitudes which is found in the opening parts of Matthew chapter five we have this list of things God tells us are true and they give us real hope. It also means there is work in each of those verses. If we are to be what God calls us to be we will have to let God work in us. Trusting God to help us become what God wants us to be is not easy but it is worth the effort. Developing the trust in God we need will be hard but in doing so we get to be with the God who loves us and seeks to make us into people worthy of Him.

One of the lies from the enemy that is used to confuse people is the idea of the power and authority of God. Because there are commands and laws people think God wants to force people into a coercive and controlling relationship but that is such a lie. Our God never forces people to accept His agency over us but He does invite us into a place of healing and restoration. Yes, God does express laws and commands because they are true and they give direction. Just like the law of gravity. No one is required to obey the law of gravity but to disregard such a thing is foolish and very harmful. We have a God who explains the dangers of the universe and tells us how it works. The Ten commandments are not some random set of rules but they are an account of how the world works. The greatness of God is based on the fact that God is the creator so He knows how things work and that is what our verse is about. When we stand and think about the God who simply spoke and things came in to being we should be amazed. In the first phrase it talks about kings being surprised by God and this speaks to a God who is in control of all things unlike people that call themselves kings. People want to dismiss what God has to say because they think they know better then God and then they find out their answers for things in life are not even close to the answers God gives. Nothing compares to the wisdom of God and God gives it to us for free why would we be so arrogant to think we have better wisdom then God. In the next phrase we have the idea that kings will shut their mouths because when they see how wonderful God is and what God offers to all humans they will have nothing to say. This is what happens in the book of Job. Because he is suffering Job just wants to talk with God and see what is going on. Over and over Job calls out to God because he wants answers to his suffering. But when God shows up Job is silent because he see how great God is and Job has no questions. We have this wonderful God who is better then anything we can imagine and we think we can even speak to God. They only person who spoke face to face with God was Moses and it is said that Moses was the most humble man ever to live. We need to bow down and place ourselves at the disposal of God instead of standing and telling God what we want.

In every heart there is a longing for God’s glory in our lives and this explains why everyone thinks they are going to heaven. There is something deep in the human heart that longs for God and this is the greatest gift from God. In the last two phrases of our verse we have people knowing about God without ever hearing about who God is. This also tells a truth about humans and the God who made them. Humans know what is right and wrong. People don’t believe there is right and wrong until wrong is done to them and in that moment they prove there is a God. I really like the idea that people will see things and they will know something about God because it is true. We as humans react to beauty and there is no feeling like what beauty generates in our lives. There is this stirring in our hearts and that is us understanding there is a God. It is also the same way with pain and suffering. People who do not believe in God will shout at God and curse God because they are hurting. In this deep part of our lives we know there is a God who brings life and deals with our pain and we want that God to do something. God made us to seek Him and our hearts look for God even if we don’t believe. In the last phrase it speaks about understanding things and God put in us this thing that makes us seek a higher power. There is no culture in all of history that has not made images and given sacrifices to some god because we grasp at the bottom of our souls there is something greater then us at work. In the modern age I believe that science tells us how small and insufficient we are and we long to have someone explain the universe to us. The Jesus who died on the cross and walked out of the tomb is the God who tells us about all the things we need to know. Our hearts are built to long for God because God wants us to come to Him and to find the hope and peace we need in our lives. We need this God who loves us and speaks to us about a life of meaning and purpose.

The reason we celebrate both the birth of Christ and His death and resurrection is because it is the ultimate demonstration of the greatness of God. We are told that Jesus gives up the glory of God and becomes human because we need our sin dealt with and only God can do that. Jesus humbles Himself not to demand that we obey Him but to die for us. Our verse speaks about the fact that we know things about God without ever hearing about God and the sin issue is the central concept we all understand. At some point we all grasp that we are not what we should be and some how we know there is this God who judges us and we hope that God will be merciful to us. This hope in God is based on the idea that we are created by God and God breathed His life into us and so we have this sense about God. But it is Jesus who proves what we feel deep inside of us and that is why we fall on our knees and sing of the greatness and glory of God.