Sunday Sermon

 

Look to the Lord

Isaiah 55:6

So you should look for the Lord before it is too late; you should call to him while he is near.

In the twentieth century if a family wanted to make a statement about their commitment to knowledge and education they bought a set of encyclopedias. Most people under the age of twenty probably have never heard the word encyclopedia let alone has seen a set of books but the word was almost as common as “Goolge” is today. When someone wanted to speak about how smart a person was they talked about “encyclopedia knowledge.” In those books that encompassed a set of encyclopedias was a vast storehouse of information that when studied could be transformed knowledge about the world and how it worked. Part of what makes the Bible so powerful is it also serves as a storehouse of wisdom and information about life and how it is to be lived. In fact, the Bible could very well be called an encyclopedia because when it is read and studied it produces knowledge about how our lives are to be lived and what it means to be real humans. One of the things that has happened lately is even those who do not believe in God have started to read and study the Bible because there is wisdom about life that is very useful to all humans. There is a reason the Bible has held its special place in western society over the last few thousand years and it is because God offers wisdom about how the world works that is not found any place else. An example of the information that is in the Bible that can change our lives is that God explains how broken we are. Then, because we now know what is wrong with us God speaks to us about how to fix our flawed lives. This information is transformative and we need to know how wonderful it is that God provides this wisdom to us for free. I do get the concept that encyclopedias often set unused for long periods of time but when people needed information those books came in handy and the Bible is better then any encyclopedia. Unlike encyclopedias, the material in the Bible applies to our everyday life and so reading the Bible will help us live our lives each day. Just one example will help us see the power and strength of what God gives us. We are told to love people and Jesus tells us to love even those who hate us. Jesus says that loving people is second only to loving God so we need to take what God is saying seriously. What if we lived each day loving people like God loves us, how would that change our world. That one simple piece of knowledge will give us so much power over our lives it will be hard to imagine we never thought about the world in any other way. Our God wants to equip us with more knowledge and wisdom then we have a life time to learn and all we have to do is spend time in the Bible. I know that Bible reading can often be hard and it is not simple reading but it is worth the effort because through the Bible God teaches us and explains to us how the world works and the steps we need to take to be the kind of people we long to be.

When people want to learn more about a subject they often go to college and if they want to learn really complex subjects they often get a Doctorate level of study. Things like rocket science or medicine needs considerable study and training. When I think about that it often confuses me because the most difficult subject of all things is how to live our lives as people and yet we seem to do the least amount of training or education on the issue. Humans are complex beings with lots of things going on inside of us at one time and yet we spend so little time really understanding who we are and what is going on in us. That is why I love the Bible because it is a basic text centered on the human condition and what it means to be real people. If we want to answers to the questions and problems, we as humans the Bible is a great place to help us deal with the complicated issues of life. Often humans struggle with the question of evil and what it means and where it comes form. There is good news on that front because God explains in some detail what is going on. If we want a high level of training about life and what it is all about we need to spend time in the Bible. God does not hide anything and tells us the truth about who we are and what is going on in the world. Some people would say we have grown beyond the Bible and we need new training the matches our world but what I find in the Bible still speaks to the heart of who we are as humans. The fact is that humans have not changed and we find the same problems and battles today that are in the Bible. To find real answers to real problems I think that the Bible has the best track record for helping us learn how to live the lives we were meant to have.

I find it interesting that we have a God who is THE TRUTH and yet we reject that God. There are a lot of reasons people reject God but the fundamental reason is that to answer to God is inconvenient. To live by the ideas and principles God teaches means we are going to have to let our own personal desires and wants go. The problem is that God is The Truth even if we don’t want to admit it. To reveal the truth of God it takes a very large book because truth is a more delicate subject then we often want to give it. We throw truth around like it is some object we can control but the fact is truth controls us and we need to grasp in a very deep place the reality of that. In our verse we are told we “should look for the Lord” and I like the idea that the issues we face as humans are not God’s problem but ours. We have a God who calls to us and hands us all of His wisdom and knowledge and all we have to do is take it. This places the responsibility about our lives squarely in our hands. God has all the answers to all the questions we could ever ask but we have to choose to look to the Lord for the solutions. It always amazes me that God chooses not to force us to live by His wisdom but offers it to us and all we have to do is take it. It does mean we have to accept that God is right and we are the basic problem and that can work against us. That is why God offers answers for free. We can test what God says and find if it is true or not. All we have to do is look to the Lord and let Him tell us what is true and instead of God being mean we have a God who invites us to look to Him for the answers of life. Looking to God though can be a complicated thing because we have so many other things screaming to get our attention. We as people have to make a choice about what we are going to spend our time and attention on. A principle that is taught in many places it the idea of where we look is where we will go. In the shooting skill this is true and also with driving and flying. Golfers are taught this idea that were you look is where the ball will go and so I want us to grasp that looking to the Lord has profound implications and we need to make the choice to look to God because He has the answers and can give us what we really need and want in life. Our God cares very deeply about who we are and has filled a book with all the wisdom we need but we have to look to God. The great joy we have is when we look to God we find a God who knows what is going on and cares about the struggles we as humans have.

There is a term that I used to make fun of but I have come to understand that it is really related to our relationship with God. FOMO, (Fear of missing out) feels like a real stupid idea but in fact our verse points out it is connected to something deeply spiritual. The last words of the first phrase of the verse we are looking at have really help to reshape my thinking on FOMO. In the words “before it is to late” we find the foundational concept of FOMO and it is related to our need to seek God. Because of grace we do not feel the full weight of our sin so we think we are all right and we think we have time but these words tell us God has put a limit on our opportunity to look to God and find the salvation from our sin. Each person is granted one life time and in that life time each person is given the chance to choose God or to reject God and our verse helps put a sense of panic on that choice. God is begging us to choose Him before we miss the chance. When we feel FOMO in our lives, we should think about the thing we should fear missing the most. There will be a time when God closes the book on our lives and judgement will be carried out and we should really fear what that means. God desperately wants us to choose Him and to find joy in eternity but God will abide by what we have decided and if we have not chosen God He will let us live without God and that is going to be a terrible place. “Before it is to late,” should motivate us to look to the God who wants to bring peace, hope and joy into our lives. It should not take FOMO to drive us to God but to know how much God loves us and longs to bring healing to us. God calls us to look to Him because He has the answers we need and He wants to give us those answers for free but we have to choose to listen and then live by what God says to us. Instead of FOMO, let us feel the longing we have for God in our hearts and give into that.

I want to close this material out with the words from the second phrase of the verse. We are told we should call on God while He is near and I think that is a great way of seeing our faith. We have a God who is not far away but we have a God who wants to be close to us. God wants to be so close to us He offers to come and live with us through the Holy Spirit. Think about that. The God who made the universe wants to be with us and wants to spend every day with us. We do not have to go searching for God because He is right here with us and all we have to do is look to Him. Take the words of this verse to heart and look to God and call out to Him. Our God waits to hear our voice and longs to be involved in our lives. There is healing and there is life when we look to God. Our hope is not in some rules about life but about the God who calls to us to learn how to live.