Sunday Sermon

 

Celebration

Isaiah 55:12

“So you will go out with joy and be led out in peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees in the fields will clap their hands.

Of all the stories about World War Two the one that resonates with me the most is the work of General Eisenhower and the pressure that he felt about D-day June 6th 1944. The actual scheduled date for the invasion of German occupied Europe was not June 6th but the 5th. The problem was that on that day a storm was raging in the English Channel and it was not possible to safely land the thousands of men involved in the invasion. The choice was to cancel the landing for a much later date or to wait twenty four hours. Each of those choices had real consequences attached to them. It fell to the general to make this hard decision and the general choose to wait the twenty four hours. As it turned out this was a good move and things turned out great. But the general had also written a communication incase the invasion failed and the general took total responsibility for the failure. The level of leadership the general showed was remarkable. As I have gotten older, I have learned that leadership is a critical element in the success or failure of things and so I admire the general for what he did. I think that leadership is also one of the things that draws me to faith in God. We have a God who is the greatest leader ever and longs to lead us in our lives. From creation to the Ten Commandments to the Beatitudes to the Cross and beyond we have a God who knows what is important and wants to lead us into lives that are filled with hope and joy. Jesus is the most remarkable part of God’s leadership. Instead of God working from heaven our God gets involved close up by becoming human and suffering as all humans do. This allows us to know our God gets what is going on in our lives and is qualified to lead us. Next God fills a book with all the wisdom we need to get through life. Our God teaches us right from wrong because we need to know that. All of this is God leading us in the way we should go. If that is not enough God then sends His Spirit into us to lead us directly. God has not held back anything from us and has made all the hard choices so we can learn and be the people God made us to be. This is leadership of the highest order and it is what makes God worthy of the worship we give Him. God wants to lead us and to show us how to be the people that find strength when things are not what they should be and to show us how to move forward when it seems there is no way. Learning to trust this God is the only question we need to deal with because God has done everything else. When we listen to God’s directions and we follow where He leads us God promises that we will have all the things that really matter. Being loved by God so much that He will lead us into a life of meaning and purpose is such a wonderful and amazing God who is worthy of our worship.

The most important part of God’s leadership is fixing our broken lives. We are sinful people which means we are cut off from God and we need real help. It is from this point that God comes to our rescue. Instead of letting us die because of our sin God’s leadership changes things and offers a new way to live in right relationship with God. My wife is a top executive for a medical group and one of things she works with the most is broken systems. Everyone knows that something is wrong and knows things need to change but no one knows what to do. It is my wife’s special power to be able to see what is wrong and to lead people in fixing the system that is a problem. God so badly wants to fix the things that are wrong in our lives and so God speaks about them and teaches about them. It is not that God takes joy in pointing out our failures but God knows that if we don’t know what is wrong it is not possible to make things better. We are called by God to know that we can find healing instead of brokenness and God wants this very much. When we learn to trust God and let Him work in our lives our world changes. The power of the Bible is not that it tells us how bad we are but it tells us of a God who wants to save us from the death and destruction sin bring in our lives. So many people reject God because He seems to get in the way of us doing what we want but God is trying to block us from going down a path that only bring ruin to us. This is the God who we worship and it is the God who wants to bring peace, hope and joy into our lives. God loves us so much and we treat that love as if God owns us something instead of celebrating God and learning to be the people God calls us to be. Let us follow this wonderful God and learn from Him because God only wants to fix our broken and desperate lives.

A thing that has confused me over the last few years is the issue of the Ten Commandments and it being published in school rooms. If the purpose of education is to teach young people about the world and to have them think about how the world works it seems the Ten Commandments is an essential part of that education. Even from a secular point of view it points children to the basic fundamental moral laws of the universe. Why would we not introduce them to our children. From my perspective the even better part of this is that God gives these to us. Think about this, we don’t have to learn about these basic rules of the universe on our own but God hands them out to us so He knows we have them. Think about how much pain and struggle that this relieves us from. We have this amazing God who instead of making our lives hard works to make our lives better. The verse we are considering describes it better then anything I could say. In the verse God is leading the Israelites and you cannot miss the deep sense of celebration found in it. God leads the people and because of it they find peace and joy. Who does not want peace and joy in their lives? This is what God offers and we think we know how to get peace and joy better then the creator of the universe. To find that God wants our lives to have joy peace in them is almost overwhelming and is a stunning rejection of those who think God is trying to punish them. Nothing in scripture speaks to God hating us and wanting to punish us. Yes, those who refuse the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God will find that rejecting God ends in pain but that is not what God wants for us. All of the Bible is filled with wisdom that God gives to us for free because He wants us to know joy and peace. The reason God wants us to know peace and joy is because that is what flows from the throne of God and when we stand in God’s presence we will know the peace and joy that God radiates. Also notice that God give this peace and joy while people are moving and I like this idea. God’s peace and joy are found as we live our daily lives. Worshiping God is not something limited to gatherings of people but it is how we are called to live each moment of our lives. Everyday should be a celebration of God and what He does in our lives. When we let God lead us we will find that peace and joy fill our lives and that is why we follow God and live by what He teaches us.

When I read this verse it reminds me of two other verses. First are the verses when Jesus is born and heaven celebrates so powerfully that even simple shepherds hear it. The next is at the end of Jesus’ life during palm Sunday where Jesus tells those who confront Him about the people celebrating and if that they did not celebrate the very rocks would. This part of our verse gives the sense of deep joy and festivity that flows from being led by God. In each of these celebrations we get a small view into what it will be like when we stand before God in His throne room. In revelation we are told that thousands and thousands of angels sing of God’s glory in one voice and it must be something to be hold. Over and over we find that those who stand in the presence of God sing and so I like that even the mountains burst in to song when God is leading. I want us to sense the joy that is coming out of this verse. To follow God will bring joy to us and we should worship and celebrate God because He is worthy of the worship we give Him. Again notice that the celebration is happening when things are in motion. The idea here is that we celebrate God not when we are sitting still but when we are in the middle of our daily walk through life. When God leads us we will find joy and peace even when we are working hard or we are struggling with issues in our lives. If we will not give God the glory He deserves then nature it self will and we will miss out on lives filled with a hope in the living God. If we are not singing and being active in our worship of God are we really giving God all he should get? Yes, I know that worshiping God is serious and approaching God with a sober and humble attitude is good but it does not mean we cannot celebrate like heaven does. Our verse opens up to us an idea about how to worship and how to give God the glory and honor that is worthy of Him. Let us seek to be people who are humble and come to God knowing our place but also be people who rejoice in the living God who leads us in the right ways. Sing to the glory of God because if we won’t the creation the God made will.

To close, I also want to show that reversing things can also be of help. Being led by God causes us to worship God and to give him the glory He deserves but if we are struggling with being led by God it often helps to celebrate God and to worship Him and to praise Him. Part of going to church is to help us remember that it is God who leads and we follow. The idea behind being led by God is that we humble ourselves and we remember we need God to be the one who leads and not us being in the lead. When we sing of God’s glory we reset things and we start the process of humbling ourselves and looking to God to lead us. God never says that His leading us will be easy but He does say that it is worth it. There is real blessing in letting God be the one who shows us the path forward in our live and if we want the peace and joy we long for we need God to lead us.