When life throws you a curve ball, trusting in the sovereignty of God means we aren't thrown by it

God is sovereign.  That absolute fact matters.  Nothing that I face today will take God by surprise.  Whereas life may, and frequently does, spring surprises on me all the time.  Just when you thought things were settled and you knew what the future looked like along comes a surprise.  That would be unsettling were it not for the sovereignty of God and the conviction that God is working all things for good.

The latest curve ball has come in the shape of issues with the building we meet in.  Hiring a school inevitably means that we have to make compromises, compromise over what and when and how, compromise over what we can and can't do, when and how we meet and so on.  We have been incredibly blessed with the generosity of the school and the incredible support of the headteacher, office and cleaning staff who have repeatedly gone out of their way to make us welcome.

But there have been growing pressures in terms of building use.  The area we have for Sunday school is not ideal, especially with large number of children, and we can only use the facilities as and when they are available which largely rules out the day time.  There is also a new and pressing issue, when a child is excluded from school they are excluded from the premises both during and outside of school hours.  Last week sadly this happened which means effectively we have family who are part of our wider church family who are excluded from church as one of their children is excluded from school.  So suddenly the need to find new premises becomes more urgent.  But what is reassuring is that God new even though I didn't that this issue would present itself last Thursday.  God knows even though where don't where we will meet in the future.

And so this week alongside all the usual sermon preparation, visits, assemblies, bible studies, 1-2-1's, admin and making the church family aware of this issue I'm spending time looking for a new home for Grace Church.  There are no obvious venues, the secondary school don't want to do Sunday lettings, there is no community hall in the area, not even a pub with a function room.  But still God knows and is good.  There are some available office units and commercial premises though they are a bit set apart from the residential community and they are expensive but available to buy or to let.

So whilst the future is once again somewhat uncertain our trust is that God knows and he is with us.  Someone from church text me reminding me of our first memory verse of the year this morning: "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened, and be not dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."  Again God's timing that one of the verses we have learnt is so relevant at this time.

So we'd value your prayers.  Prayers for quickly finding venue.  Prayers for wisdom as to whether to buy or rent and where to buy or rent.  Prayers for finance whether we buy or rent as realistically our rent needs to be as cheap as it is at the minute and if we buy we need to find external sources of finance.  And lastly prayers for unity within the church family over this issue as we move forward so that others watching on are won for the gospel.

Trusting God through change

I like change, well perhaps I should rephrase that; I like the idea of change, the reality and its accompanying uncertainties is a bit more testing.  As a Church we have enjoyed five and a half years being based on a Sunday morning at a local primary school, where we have been very well looked after and where we are comfortable and everything is familiar.  However, God has been opening doors for us elsewhere, in another school elsewhere in our patch as we think about it.

And so this Sunday sees us hold our last service before we move.  But we aren't just moving our Sunday morning service, if you are going to change you might as well change lots of things at once.  So we will be launching with a new name, because people in the new area don't see themselves as Doncaster and particularly not South Doncaster, and launching a new toddler group to be run out of the school where we will be meeting on a Monday afternoon.  We are also looking to get involved in this area in other ways which weren't open to us where we were before.

This change brings with it a profound sense of gratefulness to God for his provision for the past 5 years and for his clear guidance of us to this point.  But it also brings a renewed need for us to pray as we effectively relaunch, needing workers, needing wisdom, needing God to move by his spirit to save those who are our neighbours and friends.

Isaiah 1 - A Tale of Two Cities

For some reason the audio recording of this morning didn't work so here are the notes:

Isaiah 1 A Tale of Two Cities

 

Lots of countries have an annual address; in America it’s called the State of the Union address, in others the State of the Nation address. The leader of the country outlines the situation the country is in, the challenges it faces and the government’s hopes and plans to overcome them and secure its future.

 

In Isaiah 1-5 we hear God’s state of the nation address for Judah. Through the prophet Isaiah God speaks to his people, he describes their condition, attitudes, and their future if they continue on their current course. But he also outlines what he will do about it, his plan to save them and restore them to a joy filled relationship with him, and he challenges them to turn back and put their trust in him.

 

Judah is a small nation, two tribes split from Israel, with a Davidic king, but facing pressures from Assyria and Egypt. Historically Judah had been at its strongest when it was most reliant on God, ruled by a king who trusted Yahweh, but God’s state of the nation address peels back the presentable exterior and exposes the rotten heart of a city, people, and nation.

 

1. A Broken Relationship produces Broken People

I wonder what you think of when you hear the word prophet? We tend to think of someone who tells the future, but that’s only part of what they do, the prophets are covenant watchdogs, calling Israel back to the covenant God made with them at Sinai. They remind them of the character, love, grace, mercy, and glory of God and call the people to faithfulness to Yahweh their saviour.

 

Isaiah is no different, and v2 starts off with an ominous covenant formula. Turn to Deut 4:25f, as Israel stand on the border of the Promised Land Moses warns Israel about the consequences of unfaithfulness, especially of idolatry. (26)He calls heaven and earth to be witnesses to the broken covenant and warns Israel they will lose the land and be scattered. So as Isaiah calls on the heavens and earth to listen, as witnesses, he is calling Israel back to a covenant they have broken but which God keeps. (29) Reveals the fertility worship of the Canaanites they have engaged in, and (2-4) show Judah’s rejection of God. Despite being God’s child whom he has raised, cared and provided for Judah has rejected God. Whilst animals recognise their master and provider Judah will not recognise and come to God who has kept and provided for them. And that broken relationship, that wrong heart, has led to sin, guilt, evil and corruption(4).

 

And as God looks on Judah he gives two graphic images of what he sees. (5-6)Judah is like the victim of a mugging, bruised, beaten, broken. And (7-8)like a flimsy broken down shack in the face an enemy army. Judah is weak and sick because she has forsaken God.

 

As Judah heard this they think they are strong, under King Uzziah they are prosperous, they’ve won military victories against the Philistines and Ammonites. He has undertaken great building projects, has a well trained and equipped army, is famous, but doesn’t stop the idolatrous worship in Judah. His success led to pride and he was afflicted with leprosy. As Judah look around them as Isaiah speaks the people would think God’s diagnosis was off. They look secure, they look strong, they look wealthy. But God doesn’t judge as they do or as the economist or general does. God sees a weak and impoverished nation in danger because their only real hope is in God not money, military or territory, and they have turned their back on him.

 

Judah’s state of the nation speech would be very different from God’s, but (9)the only reason Judah is not destroyed is God’s grace. Even as they have turned their back on God, he has not turned his back on them, in mercy he gives them his diagnosis, and by grace promises a remnant will survive.

 

How do you judge your security and future? We’re no different from Judah we judge our security independently and materialistically – money, savings, job, family, health, our plans. Isaiah warns us that what matters is how God sees us. What secures our future is dependence on God not ourselves, and so it is foolish to trust in anything other than God. What would our state of our hearts address unearth? What would God’s? God graciously calls us from independence to dependence, from trusting ourselves to trusting our glorious almighty Father, saved by the son, and living by the Spirit. God graciously calls us this morning back to him, maybe you have begun to wander in your relationship with God, maybe things have grown a bit cold and distant. God this morning by grace shows us his character, he waits and calls us back to him, but he also warns us that a broken relationship produces broken people.

 

2. A Call to Return and Repent

(10)Would have shocked and horrified Judah and its leaders, why? Because Yahweh compares them to the leaders and people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Two cities which were a by-word for sin and deserved destruction in judgement. Two cities from whose destruction only Lot and his daughters escaped alive. God calls them to listen as he outlines Judah’s sin, rejection of him, rottenness of heart, and failure to love him.

 

Again it is not obvious externally. If we’d gone there as mystery worshippers we would have given them high scores for their religious service and practice. They offer multitudes of sacrifices, burnt offerings, and incense, they regularly go to the temple, they keep new moon and Sabbath festivals, they pray frequently(11-15).

 

But their worship is disconnected from life. God hates their sham, show, religious expressions of love and worship, because that’s all it is. Their faith is only skin deep, it is a practice not a reality. It would be better if you stopped says God because I hate it, I’m not listening, I’ve had enough. I guess we might think that’s a bit unfair, after all they are doing what God said they should do. They are keeping the covenant.

 

But they aren’t because these things were meant to be signs of a deeper reality. They were a way to express love, gratitude, thanks and devotion. They weren’t the means of earning God’s favour, they were an expression of gratitude for God’s grace which had delivered and kept them day by day, they were a way to enjoy knowing God.

 

(15)Is a brilliant play on words “your hands are full of blood”, blood of both the pointless animal offerings but also of the innocents they oppress(16-17).

 

God doesn’t want big religious gestures but everyday covenant faithfulness, a people who having experienced his love and grace as helpless, oppressed, fatherless orphans show they are his children by expressing that to others. Again Isaiah’s charge is based on the covenant which reveals the character of God and calls Israel to be like him, Deut 10:17-19, Deut 24:17-22.

 

God isn’t interested in a Sunday faith but in a moment by moment faithfulness that reflects his character, grace and glory. God longs for his people to treasure him and therefore be like him, not in bold promises but everyday love, care, concern and mercy. In grace he highlights their sin and calls Judah to turn back and repent and he will cleanse them, or they will face judgement just as the covenant promised.

 

One of the problems we have as a church today is that in reacting against the social gospel which says we are just to love people and serve them not proclaim the gospel we have gone to the opposite extreme. But as God’s people, like him, following Jesus, having experienced his grace and mercy, his rescue and love we must be concerned with social injustice.

 

Jesus calls us to love our neighbour as ourselves, James instructs the church to look after the marginalised. The Bible calls us to be open handed with what God has given us not tight-fisted.

 

Within a short walk of a UK church in a population of 10,000 you will find on average:

• 1200 people living alone, 580 of whom are pensioners
• 375 single parents
• 250 unemployed
• 1700 living in low income households
• 1100 people living with some mental disorder
• 1280 people caring for a sick, disabled or elderly relative or friend

They are staggering figures, they ought to open our eyes to the need around us. But they won’t open our hearts only understanding what God has done for us, the love and mercy he showed us, only seeing his heart beat for the oppressed and poor will we be motivated to love and serve these people.

 

We will never eradicate injustice or poverty this side of eternity but God still calls his people to reveal his heart, his love by contending for justice, by being a voice for those who have no voice, by being open handed with what he has given us both in terms of money, possession, energy and time.

 

We mustn’t isolate ourselves from such need we must be willing to help uncover it. How? Well it will be present in your workplace, in the playground, amongst your friends, in your street, we begin by just taking time to build friendships. By taking time to speak to people, to help people, to care for people, in ways that show we are for them and which encourages them to open up to us because they know we love. Not grand gestures but everyday faithfulness.

 

Worship is not in the big and the grand but in the little everyday actions and reactions to the needs of others around us which reveal a heart that loves and gives like God’s.

 

God in grace again calls us to ask his forgiveness for our wrong worship for living one way on Sunday but another during the week, and invites us to be what he wants us to be, a people who having experienced his love, mercy and grace live life with his heart beating in us through his Spirit.

 

3. A People Restored by God’s Grace

The chapter closes with a contrast between two cities, two Jerusalem’s. It begins with the failure of the current Jerusalem to be all that God intended it to be. It’s a prostitute not faithful, full of murderers not justice and righteousness, dross not silver, rebels and thieves. God’s people have become everything they shouldn’t be.

 

But God is not done with Judah yet(24). God will judge them as he promised faithfully keeping his covenant. In a terrifying passage he (24-25) describes himself as turning his hand against Judah who has now become his enemy. God’s anger is not like ours, he’s not simply seeking to release all the pent up rage, to lash out until he feels better, or until Judah are emotionally manipulated into to repenting.

 

No God’s anger is righteous, it is purposeful. His wrath filled judgement is designed to purge and purify(25-26) and it will result in a city that is everything Jerusalem should be; a faithful city, a City of Righteousness, with leaders who rule rightly as God’s regents. God outlines his plans and dreams, his vision for his people and he will accomplish it.

 

Notice that God doesn’t give Judah a blueprint to follow, in fact what is the only response he requires of them? (27)Repentance and trust in him. Just as God saved Lot and his daughters from Sodom and Gomorrah so he will save a remnant purified through the exile. God will accomplish this, man cannot, so Isaiah calls Israel to trust God not themselves. To forget their independence, hear God, recognise the accuracy of his diagnosis and the amazing deliverance he promises and repent and trust him. Because God has a glorious future in store for his redeemed people, where they will be everything he intended them to be, a light to the nations, a glorious advert for the joy of knowing and serving Yahweh the Saviour.

 

It’s a staggering vision of what God wants his people to be. God’s redeemed people are to reflect his heart, love, glory and grace to a watching world. That call hasn’t changed. Ephesians 3:10. The church is an outpost of the kingdom of God declaring God’s splendour, love, grace, mercy and glory experienced in Jesus to the world, giving them a glimpse of what it means to be loved by God, to know God, and to enjoy being part of God’s plan and purpose which he will accomplish, while we wait for the coming of the kingdom in all its glory.

 

Isaiah calls us to lift our eyes, to see God, to hear his call to repent and return, and to see the glory of what he calls us to as he redeems us to be his people. He calls us to stop trusting in things which cannot sustain or save and trust in Yahweh. 

How to live with Questions

We live in a world that wants every question answered now, that's why people dedicate their lives to learning, to accumulating knowledge, some of it practical some of it very theoretical. That's why of the writing of Phd's there is no end.

There is a really fascinating phrase in Daniel 12:4 which contrasts the believers confidence in the face of catastrophe, suffering and persecution and that of the unbelievers. After the horrors of Daniel's apocalyptic vision of the days of Antiochus Epiphanes IV and the end times when God's people will seem broken he is told this "But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the times of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."

I need to see the contrast. In the light of the horrors that will unfold, the rising and falling of nations, kings and kingdoms, the oppression of God's people Daniel is told to seal up the scroll with the vision of future events. Not to hide it, but because after being copied and distributed another copy was written and sealed to be stored in the Persian library as a permanent record. God has revealed the future to Daniel. It is recorded so that those who trust God's sovereignty and his word will know how to live in the midst of this trial - knowing God and trusting his word.

In contrast there will be many who do not trust who will be searching frantically for answers for reasons for reassurance but they will find none.

Daniel does not have every question answered but he is given reassurance that is to enable him to "go on your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance." We can live with unanswered questions by knowing God which enables us to trust in his character.

Do I trust the promises of God?

How can I be sure that God will do what he promises? When Luke 12 tells me not to worry about food, clothes, what to wear, opposition, and even death, how can I not worry? Well the chapter exhorts us not to worry because of the character of the God we serve.

Because the disciple lives in relationship with the God who always keeps his promises, his or her Father is a faithful God. Just think for a minute about all the promises God makes in the Bible. If God was going to break one of them I think the one to break would be Genesis 2:17; as God puts Adam and Eve in the Garden he warns them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle and promises “for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Have you ever thought about the cost to God of keeping that promise? The keeping of that promise sees the ruin the perfect creation; it brings death into the world, not just physical death but spiritual death as a result of their rejection of God’s rule. Yet when Adam and Eve eat the fruit God keeps his promise and keeps on keeping his promise. He keeps his promise at such cost to himself that it sees his son take flesh, it sees Jesus pray in garden “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me…” and yet willingly go to the cross where he takes on himself the curse of corruption and death promised in Genesis 2.

So can I trust God to keep his promises to me? The living God does not lie and so God the Son gave himself at the cross, what more proof do I need that I can trust God? If God keeps that promise at that cost to himself then when God says he knows what I need, that he will give us what we need, he will do so.

The disciple’s decision is to live in the light of the God they have been brought to know in Jesus. It is a decision not to worry but to seek God’s kingdom. I need reminding of that as we plant a new church and face the unknowns. I am, we as a church are to seek a kingdom with different values and priorities; not to consumed with possession or worries about wealth or anything else but to be concerned with delighting God. To be in the kingdom is to be under the rule and reign of God, to seek the kingdom is to look to put that rule and reign into action.

The nearer it gets the bigger the risk feels

I'm sure you know the feeling, you have been planning something for ages and you feel fine about it. But then the nearer it gets the more nervous you begin to feel. You find yourself going over and over the plans and ideas and how it supposed to go. Then suddenly you begin doing things for the last time beforehand and it hits how close it is.

Well it is now less than a month until South Doncaster Community Church meets for the first time, September 2nd, it is four weeks on Sunday. Most things are in place which is great but I guess there are some big unknowns, that is what is meant to drive us to prayer.

This week has seen us holding a Holiday Club in the school in which we will meet. It has reinforced how good God has been to us in providing the school and the caretaker, who have been brilliant whenever we have met them or used the premises. The Holiday Club itself has been great with about 70 children everyday, and about 120 children and parents at last nights family fun night. Some friends of ours have been taking their children and one of the mums said to me last night that she has heard more about three days of Holiday Club than about a whole year of school and that he loves it. He has even been asking lots of questions about God.

It has been a great link event, raising the profile, making contacts, sharing the gospel, building relationships. Praise God for his goodness to us.