Sunday Sermon

 

Lead by the Lord

Isaiah 58:11

The Lord will always lead you. He will satisfy your needs in dry lands and give strength to your bones. You will be like a garden that has much water, like a spring that never runs dry.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge story has always fascinated me. To reduce the initial construction price from an estimated $11 million down to a cheaper budget, engineers replaced the original deep, rigid open-truss stiffening design with shallow, solid steel plate girders. On November 7, 1940, moderate 42-mph winds caught the rigid, unyielding deck design, creating a violent twisting aerodynamic resonance and the structural forces then quickly snapped the cables and tore the entire bridge apart. That bridge did not break apart because it was built wrong but it broke apart because a choice was made that ignored what was true and instead chose to follow what was easier. I think about that often when I think about God. We have a God who tells us what is true and what is right because He loves us and wants us to build lives that will stand against the forces that want to destroy us. The problem is that what God asks of us it is not easy and will cost us something and we as human’s often don’t want to pay that price so we look for cheaper and easier ways to build our lives. Ignoring the truth God gives us is foolish and very stupid but because our lives are not immediately wrecked by our choices we think we have gotten away with the choices we have made. Of course that is not true and we will always pay for ignoring the truth God teaches us. What I love about God is that God does not want us ruined by our wrong choices which explain why God calls to us and tells us what is true and real even when we don’t want to hear it. The reason God can tell us about the authentic things in life is because God is TRUTH. Let us be clear about exactly what that means, God does not just know what is true but God is the truth and all truth flows from God. This is why disregarding what God has to say is so inadvisable. Once we give up seeking, the truth God gives us we reject all hope of basing our lives on anything real. Constructing our lives on what is fake and false can only lead us to places of brokenness and God knows this and it is why God calls to us and wants us to know what is true. What Jesus says in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter seven is that we cannot just build on the sand but we have to dig down and find solid ground to build our lives on. That firm rock is God who is what is true and real. All things flow from this fundamental understanding of God and what God is all about. God’s love and God’s righteousness arise out of the fact that God is truth. The desire God has to save us from the destruction sin brings into our lives is about God being the truth. Let us stand in the light of what is real and grasp the idea that all things that matter come from the true and living God and our hope is only in that and nothing else.

We can talk all we want about the idea that God is the truth of the universe but at some point we then have to examine what that means. How does God being the truth effect how we live and what we are supposed to be? The great thing about God is that He never leaves us without the answers to the issue we are facing. God revels the truth of who He is in a very substantial way by giving us the wisdom we need to live in this world. Humans are in desperate need of the information God gives to us and that material is hard-nosed and as practical as it can get. God speaks to us about the evil that is in the human heart because we need to know how bad things are for us. We are given the Ten Commandments because we need to know what standards look like and what boundaries we need to live by if our lives are to work like God means them to. I love that God translates His being the truth into real and valuable directions about how to live our lives. The purpose if this material is not to punish us but to set us free to live with hope, joy and peace. Seeking to live by the wisdom of God will cost us something but the price we pay will be worth the cost. When we live by God’s wisdom, the world gets better not worse because truth in action can only make us humans better. It does take being willing to listen and to live as God says but we are living by truth and that means we are going to find our lives have a deeper meaning and purpose. The wisdom of God leads us to be connected to God and when we are connected to God we find strength and power to do things we never imagined before. God pours out His wisdom to all who will learn it which means even people who do not believe in God can know what is true and real that is the power of God being the truth. Learn the wisdom of God and it will lead us to the God who loves us enough to die for us and who offers to us the life we were made for.

Being an amateur military historian has had me think about how leadership works and what is needed for it to work. Famous generals seem to have something different then most leaders of military forces. I recall reading about Roman armies and the wins they had and the losses they suffered which had me consider the power of leadership. A Roman army seems to be only as good as those who were leading it. Roman armies under bad leaders will lose more often and under good leaders who win. It was not the caliber of the army that matter that much but character of the person leading it. Also, consider the American revolution. General Washington made that whole process work and without him things might have turned out differently. I speak about leadership because it has a direct effect on lives of faith. Our verse speaks about God leading us through life and I want us to think about what it means for God to really lead us. This verse makes it clear that God wants to lead us and that being willing to follow God’s leadership will bring blessing to our lives and the culture at large. It needs to be certain that we were made to be led by God and when we don’t let God lead us we end up in bad places. Once we grasp that concept learning where God is leading us and what it means to be lead gets easier. We as humans require God’s leadership in our lives if were are to be all God wants us to be. God also knows that we as human are not equipped or even designed to lead ourselves. The good news is that God calls to us and invites us to follow Him as we blaze a trail through our lives because He knows the paths that will lead us into lives filled with wonder, joy and peace. Knowing God wants to lead us and following God are two different thing and we have to make a choice about listening to God and letting Him lead us. There are going to be times when we want to go one direction but God is leading us in another and it is at those moments that we will have to choose God’s leadership over our leadership. It helps us to know that God is the truth and to follow God will lead us into what is true. Also God hands out wisdom so we can know what is the right way to go even if we don’t like it. What God wants is that we choose to follow Him and we choose to live as He calls us to and all the rest is just work. Being willing to humble ourselves means God can work in us and that will always produces good things.

If God is leading us then the next question we have to ask is where is God leading us to. The basic and simple answer is into a deeper and more complete relationship with God. As true and right as that answer is it does feel a little circular and it does not feel very satisfying. A smaller but more fulfilling answer is that God is leading us to be the righteous and loving people God meant us to be. Both of those answers end with us standing in the presence of God singing of His glory so either one will help us understand that the leadership of God is to lead us into a better place in life and the world. Look at the verse it talks about our personal need and growth but it also lifts our eyes to see that we are to have an effect on the world around us. That word “satisfy” is such a wonderful word. God knows what we long for and God wants to satisfy our deepest needs. The dry land of our broken lives needs help and God is there to lead us as we navigate life through hard times. We could explore the idea of God satisfying our dry lands for a long time because God wants us to know what His leadership means. But God then goes on when He speaks of strength for our bones. We as humans have a hard time standing up right when things get hard and God will teach us how to stand against temptation so we can fight the evil sin brings. This is leadership we need and we want. Humans don’t know how to deal with all the struggles and pain of life but God does and He will lead us through it all. Now things go even deeper as God speaks of us being a source of water. God is leading us so we can have influence in the world we live in. People being lead by God will by the very nature of being close to God have a deep effect on the world we live in. We are to be a spring that brings life to the world and adds beauty to a world that needs these things. Christian people are to feed the souls of people and in that feeding we change the world for the better. That is what God is leading us to and it is a wonderful place to be lead to.

Another question that comes to mind is why would God want to lead us? This is what tells me about the God we have. God wants to lead us because we need to be led. Best of all is that God does not lead by force but He invites us to come and learn how to live our lives as they were meant to be. As much as we need God to lead us and as hard as it must be for God not to just barge in and make us follow Him God will let us choose if we want the peace and hope that God offers. Human leadership ends in corruption and confusion but God’s leadership ends with us being more fulfilled and able to do the right thing even when it is hard. We have hope because we have a God who longs to lead us and is willing to teach us all that we need. Seek God with all of our hearts and we will never be disappointed by where God leads us. Trust the God who created the universe to lead us to lives the will have deep effects on our world.