Sunday Sermon

 

Things Happen

Isaiah 55:11

The same thing is true of the words I speak. They will not return to me empty. They make the things happen that I want to happen, and they succeed in doing what I send them to do.

A few years ago our family had a real crisis on our hands. My grandmother who we affectionately called “Granny” died without leaving a recipe for her pie cookies. The whole “pie cookies” issue is a story for another time but the loss of her famous pie cookies was a real problem for all our holiday celebrations. Over the next few years there was a friendly competition between family members to figure out how Granny made her pie cookies. When I looked at this, I noticed that the recipe problem had two parts, first was the list of ingredients needed to make the cookies and second the instructions of how to put ingredients together. Both of those things are needed in the right way to make the cookies. It struck me that God, unlike Granny, has left us a recipe for our faith. I like the idea that we don’t have to guess about how our faith is made but we have both an ingredient list and the instructions about how to use those ingredients to create a life of faith in the living God. We are so blessed by God because God wants us to know how our faith works and wants us to understand what our faith is all about. That God has written down everything we need to create a life of faith is so helpful because we then don’t have to guess about things we have this great list of things we need to have in our lives. What is really great is the list of ingredients tell us who God is. We start with truth because before anything else God is the center of all things that are true and real. Next we have the natural parts that flow from a God who is the truth and that is both love and righteousness. Because we have a loving God He will always tell us what is right and will always do what is right. There is so much we can cover here. Our God is generous and humble and so we should include generosity and humility as ingredients for our lives. One point I want us to notice is that the things God is and the things God then calls us to are not just a list of properties to have but they all require that we take action. To love people means to take action or to be humble means we live in a certain way and that is where the instructions about our faith come into play. Mixing all those things together is not easy so God explains to us how they are to be used in our lives. We are to be humble because we know our place in relationship to God not because being humble is something to achieve. The level of blessing we have from God about our faith is a wonderful and amazing thing. God does not leave us to blindly build faith but He gives us all we need to know. There is a recipe card that explains our faith because God wants to fill our lives with the hope and joy that faith gives us. And we trust in God because He does not leave us alone but has explained the central concepts about what is important in life.

It cannot be said enough that the word of God is so critical to the health and happiness of people. God knows how important the instructions He gives about Himself and about life are and that is why He has made sure we have so much of His words. God does not give us His words because he wants our lives to be miserable but He gives us His words because we need to know what is true and right and without His guidance the evil that is in our hearts will control us. This is why taking the words of God very serious is a needed part of our faith and trust in God. The great thing about the words God gives us is they are powerful and transforming. Knowing the power of the words of God can be shown with Jesus. It is not the miracles alone that got Jesus in trouble, it was the words He used that spoke the truth that caused people to want to kill Jesus. In the Gospel of John we find the story of Jesus and the woman at the well and again it is Jesus’ words that cause a profound change in this woman’s life. Or we can go to the temptation of Jesus and we see that Jesus just quotes scripture to confound the enemy. There is a reason God has given us so much material to learn from and is it because we need what God has to say. Even secular atheist see the power of the wisdom of God and have started talking about taking back things they have rejected before. God provides for us a vast store house of His words so we can know with certainty what He was thinking and how He wants us to live our lives. What a blessing that we have a God that gives us this kind of power and because of that we know we can trust in the God who gives us so many words. The only question to us is what will we do with those words? God lets us choose to either study and learn or to ignore His words but God wants us to know one will produce lives filled with joy and peace while to ignore God’s words means we will struggle alone in an evil and hostile world.

Twice a year we have to clean out the chicken coop and replace the bedding. If you have never had to clean a coop let me make it clear it is nasty thing to do. Even though it is only about a hours worth of work when we are done we are covered in dust and chicken poop so it makes us uncomfortable. My wife and I start talking about the need to clean the coop about two or three weeks before we actually do it because we keep putting it off. Then there is that moment when we both know we can no longer avoid the task and so we agree to go take on the coop. Up until those words of agreement are said nothing changes with the coop and once we says those words the coop is almost half way done. I reference this because our verse speaks of God doing the same thing. We have a God who does not sit around and just say things. Our God says things because it reveals what He is thinking and what God thinks about God acts on. God speaks words because there is s need to get something done and what God says He will accomplish. It does not matter what it is or what it takes because we have a God who is true and righteous so all His words mean something. The best example of this is Jesus and His death burial and resurrection. God promises over and over that He will redeem His people once and forever and that is what God does. We have a God who acts on what He tells us and that is such a powerful thing that helps our faith. When God speaks about the death that sin brings it is because it is true and it also means that God is going to do something about that. Taking what God says seriously is a fundamental part of our faith. This concept of God speaking about what is going on is so serious that God sends His Holy Spirit to us so He can speak to us. Leaning to listen to what God has to say is where our faith really starts to take off. People want to know what God is planning or what God is doing and we don’t have to guess about things because God tells us what He is doing. Our God is not silent and God’s words have real meaning which tells us what our faith should look like. The power of what God says to us is at the center of our faith and trust in Him and so we need to know what God says. Let us hear the words God says and know they are words filed with power. Nothing God says is untrue or false and that is where our faith in God should start.

The power of God’s word is stated in such a great way in this verse. We have God stating that His words will not return empty to Him and that is just spine tingling to think about. When we hear these words there is only two to ways to take them. First is to not take God at His word and to believe that God is not that powerful so we can ignore God or the second thing is to fall on our face and to worship a God who’s very words have power. Thinking through this process it amazes me that people who say they believe in God don’t long to hear God speaking and don’t know the power of God’s words in their lives. No one says that knowing what God has to say about how to live our lives is an easy thing. Some say that the Bible is hard to read and sometimes can be very boring. Then there are those places where God speaks to us and convicts us about something on our lives. Reading through those places can be even harder and often we want to avoid those things but not knowing God’s word is the worst thing we can choose. Here is the real secret of this verse and that is that what God says is true even if we don’t know it or believe it and it will have an effect on our lives no matter what. When God speaks about sin and the cost of sin God is telling us a truth that does not change. Sin will either destroy us or we will seek the God who can save us from our own sin. When God says His word will not return to Him empty He is speaking the truth so we should become part of that process. Our God will not force us to obey Him but He does tell us what is real and true and that does not change whether we believe God or not. Knowing what God has to say is life changing and God longs for us to know Him and His word. Why do you think that God provides His words to us for free with no cost but to simply listen, learn and believe. To know God and what He says is a blessing that God offers all people because he wants everyone every where to know what is true and what is right.

There are many verses in the Bible that have great power and speak to who God is and we need very one of them but for me this is one of the best verses that directs us to the power and glory of God. I believe there is so much to be learned from this verse that to explore it rightly would take more then this short work. That God makes such potent statements about who He is and the effect of His words causes me to want to know more of this God. When I think about the idea the just God’s words are so authoritative what happens when God really wants to act but we know that because Jesus is what happens when God does more then speak words. The glory of our God is revealed in this verse with such a simple statement that it almost seems to small. The living God is so big and yet these basic words about the effectiveness of God’s words tell us so much. Let us seek to know more of this God.