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.
Showing posts with label God's sovereignty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's sovereignty. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 May 2016
Wednesday, 4 May 2016
Seeing God's planning
Often God's planning remains unseen. We see the circumstances but not everything that has taken place beforehand and rarely do we stop to think about it. Last night in Gospel Group we were studying Nehemiah 1 and one verse particularly stood out for me "I was cupbearer to the king." This verse follows Nehemiah's prayer, grief and fasting for the state of God's people and God's place. There is lots to challenge us in Nehemiah 1 from Nehemiah's concern for God's glory, to his care for God's people, his devotion, his big view of God, his drawing down and praying through the covenant promises of God.
But I found that little line tucked away at the end of chapter 1 to be the most encouraging. God has been at work sovereignly to place Nehemiah in just the position from where he can be influential in rebuilding his kingdom. And all of it was unseen until that moment. It reminds me of the bleak destitution of 1 Kings 16 before in 1 Kings 17 and seemingly from no where Elijah appears fully formed as God's prophet. God is sovereignly at work working out the details and his plans and purposes. That doesn't remove the need for us to work, pray and plan but it does liberate us from the tension and the stress.
But I found that little line tucked away at the end of chapter 1 to be the most encouraging. God has been at work sovereignly to place Nehemiah in just the position from where he can be influential in rebuilding his kingdom. And all of it was unseen until that moment. It reminds me of the bleak destitution of 1 Kings 16 before in 1 Kings 17 and seemingly from no where Elijah appears fully formed as God's prophet. God is sovereignly at work working out the details and his plans and purposes. That doesn't remove the need for us to work, pray and plan but it does liberate us from the tension and the stress.
Wednesday, 3 December 2014
Are we on the defensive when it comes to evangelism?
How do you feel when someone starts asking you questions about your faith? ‘How can you believe in God when there is so much suffering in the world?’ ‘How can you believe in the Bible when we now understand so much more about the universe because of science?’ ‘What about other faiths?’ How do you react when someone asks you those sorts of questions? What about when someone mockingly says ‘You don’t believe that do you?’ as if they expected you to be cleverer, or less gullible, or more enlightened. We tend in both those situations to go on the back foot, to go on the defensive, either in our answers or by going quiet. We almost apologetically answer the questions if we know the answer, or we mumble something about ‘finding out’ as we feel got at. Or we come away thinking this is what I wish I’d said.
Those reactions come from a faulty understanding of what is happening when we’re questioned. As we look at Acts 5v12-42 this morning my prayer is that our thinking will be turned on its head. Because we’ll realise that as we’re questioned God is with us, he wants the gospel proclaimed, and he is sovereign even over any hostility we face. And secondly we aren’t on the defensive the world is because it is opposing God and can never win.
God is at work through his people(12-16)Give us an astonishing snapshot of the church gathered and united and its ministry in, and effect on, Jerusalem. Luke highlights the “many signs and wonders” that the apostles are doing. So great is their reputation for doing the miraculous that just like with Jesus people come from all the surrounding towns and bring their sick and possessed(16) and they are healed. In fact there are so many healings that people just long for Peter’s shadow to fall on them(15). Do you remember the purpose of the signs and wonders? (2:22)They were Jesus accreditation by God that he was the Son of God and the Messiah, Saviour and Lord, that God was at work in him and therefore people should listen to his words. Now God is at work through the apostles in just the same way. Accrediting them as his spokesmen by signs and wonders, calling people to listen as they preach about Jesus risen and still at work by his Spirit. Every wonder and sign shows that God is at work through his church and apostles and that he approves of their message, that their message is his good news to the world.
Their signs and wonders and teaching produces a curious but normal set of reactions. People are both fascinated and yet fearful, amazed attracted and afraid. People know the opposition the church faces, they know what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, they can see the power and authority of the apostles, some are amazed and think well of them but are too afraid to join the church(13). But others “more and more men and women” come to faith in Jesus. There’s a curious fascination with the church but a fear of joining for some, but others come to faith. We shouldn’t expect any less, God is at work through his people.
But they aren’t the only reactions(17f). As we’ve seen before the gospel preached always brings two reaction; faith and opposition. (17-18)The high priest and other religious leaders are filled with jealousy, so they arrest the apostles and throw them in jail. But God sends an angel for a prison break and tells the apostles to go back and preach again in the temple courts. Before the confused Sanhedrin have them arrested again and brought to trial.
It’s a slightly comical incident isn’t it? Can you picture it? The jury are all gathered together and told the apostles will be brought out, the captain of the guard is sent to get them. But they aren’t there and a confused captain reports back that the jailed is tightly locked up, the guards are still stood at the doors, but when we opened the doors we found no-one inside(23-24). No wonder everyone’s puzzled. No trick brick in the wall that opens a secret passage, no tunnel dug with a spoon, no insider among the guards. They are just gone, disappeared, it’s as if they were never there in the first place.
And then it just gets stranger, because where are they? They are back where they were originally arrested, preaching about Jesus in the temple courts, and so they are rearrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.
We have to ask why did God free them? When the Sanhedrin put them in prison for the night what were they intending to do the next morning? Put them on trial. God releases them but notice they still end up on trial the next morning. Nothing really changes for all their miraculous escape. So why did God do it? Why the temporary get out of jail free card? Why not tell them to run? Why send them back where they would get caught again?
There are two reasons. Firstly God is showing the Sanhedrin that they aren’t in control. God is and he is at work through the apostles and will decide what happens to them and when and where, not the Sanhedrin. And secondly God is showing that he wants the gospel proclaimed, God frees the apostles and sends them back out to “tell the people about this new life.” Sharing the gospel is God’s work, the apostles aren’t alone against opposition God is at work, God is with them, they are on his mission and he isn’t a silent partner or uninvolved. God Father Son and Spirit are invested in taking the good news to the world.
The Sanhedrin can only do what God allows them to do. Their power is limited. They can’t keep them in jail, they can’t arrest them by force because they fear the people. God is at work. Can you imagine the encouragement that gave the apostles as they went to face the Sanhedrin, God is sovereign, he wants the gospel preached, he is at work in us by his Spirit and he is sovereign over even the opposition, they can do nothing he doesn’t permit.
But there’s one other thing we need to see here. God is answering his people’s prayers. Do you remember their prayer(4:29-30)? Here God answers it as he empowers them to perform signs and wonders and to speak boldly, as he encourages them to do so.
Do you see how that transforms our thinking as we take the good news of Jesus to a needy world. God is at work in the church – we don’t just gather out of habit, we gather expecting God to be at work. That means when we gather together we should expect to hear from others how God has been at work in their lives and in our lives together. When we pray for God’s help in his mission to make the gospel known we should expect God to answer.
It means that as we share the gospel with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues we’re not alone. God wants Jesus proclaimed to the world, that’s why Father, Son and Spirit planned for Jesus to come and die and rise again so that the world might find life with God in him. So that people could be resurrected from being spiritually dead and given Jesus life and relationship with the Father. That’s why Jesus sent the Spirit, (Acts 1:8)the Spirit comes to enable and empower his people, us, to be his witnesses. God is with us as we share the gospel, God is with us as we answer out friends questions, God is with us as we face those who mock us for our faith, God is with us in their reaction whether it is hostile or trusting Jesus.
And God is sovereign even over opposition and how that shows itself. They can do nothing that God does not permit them to do. That doesn’t mean there will be no suffering as we share the gospel. Sometimes we may get the equivalent of the get out of jail free card, but other times that will mean suffering for sharing the gospel as in(40). But God is for his people, he wants Jesus to be made known, he is sovereign and he’s at work through his people.
To oppose the gospel is to fight against God(27-40)Why are the Sanhedrin so angry with the apostles? There are three reasons(28). The apostles disobeyed their charge to stop teaching the people. They are angry about the spread of the message they “have filled Jerusalem with your teaching” that Jesus is Saviour and Lord. Thirdly the Apostles are “determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
How would you react to being put on trial on those charges? Peter doesn’t go on the defensive. He turns the tables and puts the Sanhedrin on trial. (30)The Sanhedrin want the apostles to disobey God and they won’t. The Sanhedrin are opposed to God because God raised Jesus whom they killed to life and God has declared Jesus to be Prince or ruler and Saviour. In Jesus there is forgiveness if people repent and the Sanhedrin won’t accept him, and (32)they are ignoring all the evidence and the eye witnesses. In short the church is now the people of God and the apostles the leaders of God’s people. The Sanhedrin is in opposition to God.
(33)The Sanhedrin’s reaction is no surprise is it. They just want to kill the apostles. But God sovereignly intervenes again, at work even in the Sanhedrin through the actions of those who oppose him. Gamaliel speech is the key to this chapter really, especially(38-39). Other groups have come and gone, they didn’t last he says “Therefore, in the present case I advise you; leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts charts the proof that it is from God. As the gospel spreads and more and more people come to faith, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Gamaliel’s words are proven true – God is at work and opposing the gospel and the church is opposing God himself.
Again we need to realize that and adjust our thinking so that we live in the light of it. God is at work in the gospel and through his church. To oppose it is to oppose God and there will only ever be one winner. The church is unrelenting, it endures even though it faces opposition from without and within. That must change our thinking, it isn’t us on the defensive it’s the world on the defensive.
As a church as we take the gospel to our community and family and friends in the run up to Christmas we are to expect both acceptance and rejection. But we can confidently hold out the gospel because God is at work, God is with us, the gospel is God’s good news he wants the world to hear and we participate in his mission. And to oppose God’s church is to oppose God.
History tells us that. Under communism in the last century the Chinese governments aim was to eradicate Christianity, yet today more Christians will meet together in church in China than in the whole of Europe. That same growth despite persecution happened in Romania and other countries that were behind the Iron Curtain. It is happening today in places where persecution continues to be the norm. To oppose the church and the gospel it holds out is to oppose God and you cannot win.
We don’t need to feel defensive, we need to pray and go trusting God, empowered by the Spirit.
And do you see the confidence these two facts bring the Apostles. God is at work through his people as they join in his mission of making Jesus known. And to oppose the gospel is to oppose God. (40-42)Even as they suffer for the gospel, they know events are not out of God’s control. In fact they count the dishonour of being flogged an honour because the stripes of their flogging echo those of their saviour. “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” And they never stop teaching and proclaiming Jesus as Saviour and Lord(42). They don’t take a step back, they don’t retreat, they don’t go on the defensive. Because God is at work and is for his people and they treasure God above all else.
Isn’t that helpful. Isn’t that encouraging. Shouldn’t that change our thinking. We’re not alone, we’re not on the defensive. God is at work through his people taking his message about Jesus to a world in need and we have the privilege of cooperating in his mission. God is with us by the Spirit and it is his powerful message about his Son that we have to share. And opposition is futile, they can do no more than he allows, because you can’t fight against God and win.
Those reactions come from a faulty understanding of what is happening when we’re questioned. As we look at Acts 5v12-42 this morning my prayer is that our thinking will be turned on its head. Because we’ll realise that as we’re questioned God is with us, he wants the gospel proclaimed, and he is sovereign even over any hostility we face. And secondly we aren’t on the defensive the world is because it is opposing God and can never win.
God is at work through his people(12-16)Give us an astonishing snapshot of the church gathered and united and its ministry in, and effect on, Jerusalem. Luke highlights the “many signs and wonders” that the apostles are doing. So great is their reputation for doing the miraculous that just like with Jesus people come from all the surrounding towns and bring their sick and possessed(16) and they are healed. In fact there are so many healings that people just long for Peter’s shadow to fall on them(15). Do you remember the purpose of the signs and wonders? (2:22)They were Jesus accreditation by God that he was the Son of God and the Messiah, Saviour and Lord, that God was at work in him and therefore people should listen to his words. Now God is at work through the apostles in just the same way. Accrediting them as his spokesmen by signs and wonders, calling people to listen as they preach about Jesus risen and still at work by his Spirit. Every wonder and sign shows that God is at work through his church and apostles and that he approves of their message, that their message is his good news to the world.
Their signs and wonders and teaching produces a curious but normal set of reactions. People are both fascinated and yet fearful, amazed attracted and afraid. People know the opposition the church faces, they know what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, they can see the power and authority of the apostles, some are amazed and think well of them but are too afraid to join the church(13). But others “more and more men and women” come to faith in Jesus. There’s a curious fascination with the church but a fear of joining for some, but others come to faith. We shouldn’t expect any less, God is at work through his people.
But they aren’t the only reactions(17f). As we’ve seen before the gospel preached always brings two reaction; faith and opposition. (17-18)The high priest and other religious leaders are filled with jealousy, so they arrest the apostles and throw them in jail. But God sends an angel for a prison break and tells the apostles to go back and preach again in the temple courts. Before the confused Sanhedrin have them arrested again and brought to trial.
It’s a slightly comical incident isn’t it? Can you picture it? The jury are all gathered together and told the apostles will be brought out, the captain of the guard is sent to get them. But they aren’t there and a confused captain reports back that the jailed is tightly locked up, the guards are still stood at the doors, but when we opened the doors we found no-one inside(23-24). No wonder everyone’s puzzled. No trick brick in the wall that opens a secret passage, no tunnel dug with a spoon, no insider among the guards. They are just gone, disappeared, it’s as if they were never there in the first place.
And then it just gets stranger, because where are they? They are back where they were originally arrested, preaching about Jesus in the temple courts, and so they are rearrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.
We have to ask why did God free them? When the Sanhedrin put them in prison for the night what were they intending to do the next morning? Put them on trial. God releases them but notice they still end up on trial the next morning. Nothing really changes for all their miraculous escape. So why did God do it? Why the temporary get out of jail free card? Why not tell them to run? Why send them back where they would get caught again?
There are two reasons. Firstly God is showing the Sanhedrin that they aren’t in control. God is and he is at work through the apostles and will decide what happens to them and when and where, not the Sanhedrin. And secondly God is showing that he wants the gospel proclaimed, God frees the apostles and sends them back out to “tell the people about this new life.” Sharing the gospel is God’s work, the apostles aren’t alone against opposition God is at work, God is with them, they are on his mission and he isn’t a silent partner or uninvolved. God Father Son and Spirit are invested in taking the good news to the world.
The Sanhedrin can only do what God allows them to do. Their power is limited. They can’t keep them in jail, they can’t arrest them by force because they fear the people. God is at work. Can you imagine the encouragement that gave the apostles as they went to face the Sanhedrin, God is sovereign, he wants the gospel preached, he is at work in us by his Spirit and he is sovereign over even the opposition, they can do nothing he doesn’t permit.
But there’s one other thing we need to see here. God is answering his people’s prayers. Do you remember their prayer(4:29-30)? Here God answers it as he empowers them to perform signs and wonders and to speak boldly, as he encourages them to do so.
Do you see how that transforms our thinking as we take the good news of Jesus to a needy world. God is at work in the church – we don’t just gather out of habit, we gather expecting God to be at work. That means when we gather together we should expect to hear from others how God has been at work in their lives and in our lives together. When we pray for God’s help in his mission to make the gospel known we should expect God to answer.
It means that as we share the gospel with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues we’re not alone. God wants Jesus proclaimed to the world, that’s why Father, Son and Spirit planned for Jesus to come and die and rise again so that the world might find life with God in him. So that people could be resurrected from being spiritually dead and given Jesus life and relationship with the Father. That’s why Jesus sent the Spirit, (Acts 1:8)the Spirit comes to enable and empower his people, us, to be his witnesses. God is with us as we share the gospel, God is with us as we answer out friends questions, God is with us as we face those who mock us for our faith, God is with us in their reaction whether it is hostile or trusting Jesus.
And God is sovereign even over opposition and how that shows itself. They can do nothing that God does not permit them to do. That doesn’t mean there will be no suffering as we share the gospel. Sometimes we may get the equivalent of the get out of jail free card, but other times that will mean suffering for sharing the gospel as in(40). But God is for his people, he wants Jesus to be made known, he is sovereign and he’s at work through his people.
To oppose the gospel is to fight against God(27-40)Why are the Sanhedrin so angry with the apostles? There are three reasons(28). The apostles disobeyed their charge to stop teaching the people. They are angry about the spread of the message they “have filled Jerusalem with your teaching” that Jesus is Saviour and Lord. Thirdly the Apostles are “determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
How would you react to being put on trial on those charges? Peter doesn’t go on the defensive. He turns the tables and puts the Sanhedrin on trial. (30)The Sanhedrin want the apostles to disobey God and they won’t. The Sanhedrin are opposed to God because God raised Jesus whom they killed to life and God has declared Jesus to be Prince or ruler and Saviour. In Jesus there is forgiveness if people repent and the Sanhedrin won’t accept him, and (32)they are ignoring all the evidence and the eye witnesses. In short the church is now the people of God and the apostles the leaders of God’s people. The Sanhedrin is in opposition to God.
(33)The Sanhedrin’s reaction is no surprise is it. They just want to kill the apostles. But God sovereignly intervenes again, at work even in the Sanhedrin through the actions of those who oppose him. Gamaliel speech is the key to this chapter really, especially(38-39). Other groups have come and gone, they didn’t last he says “Therefore, in the present case I advise you; leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
Acts charts the proof that it is from God. As the gospel spreads and more and more people come to faith, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Gamaliel’s words are proven true – God is at work and opposing the gospel and the church is opposing God himself.
Again we need to realize that and adjust our thinking so that we live in the light of it. God is at work in the gospel and through his church. To oppose it is to oppose God and there will only ever be one winner. The church is unrelenting, it endures even though it faces opposition from without and within. That must change our thinking, it isn’t us on the defensive it’s the world on the defensive.
As a church as we take the gospel to our community and family and friends in the run up to Christmas we are to expect both acceptance and rejection. But we can confidently hold out the gospel because God is at work, God is with us, the gospel is God’s good news he wants the world to hear and we participate in his mission. And to oppose God’s church is to oppose God.
History tells us that. Under communism in the last century the Chinese governments aim was to eradicate Christianity, yet today more Christians will meet together in church in China than in the whole of Europe. That same growth despite persecution happened in Romania and other countries that were behind the Iron Curtain. It is happening today in places where persecution continues to be the norm. To oppose the church and the gospel it holds out is to oppose God and you cannot win.
We don’t need to feel defensive, we need to pray and go trusting God, empowered by the Spirit.
And do you see the confidence these two facts bring the Apostles. God is at work through his people as they join in his mission of making Jesus known. And to oppose the gospel is to oppose God. (40-42)Even as they suffer for the gospel, they know events are not out of God’s control. In fact they count the dishonour of being flogged an honour because the stripes of their flogging echo those of their saviour. “rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.” And they never stop teaching and proclaiming Jesus as Saviour and Lord(42). They don’t take a step back, they don’t retreat, they don’t go on the defensive. Because God is at work and is for his people and they treasure God above all else.
Isn’t that helpful. Isn’t that encouraging. Shouldn’t that change our thinking. We’re not alone, we’re not on the defensive. God is at work through his people taking his message about Jesus to a world in need and we have the privilege of cooperating in his mission. God is with us by the Spirit and it is his powerful message about his Son that we have to share. And opposition is futile, they can do no more than he allows, because you can’t fight against God and win.
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Recognising I'm not sovereign
This week is going to be a bit different. All the normal things are going on; meetings, conferences, preparation, toddlers, preaching, pastoral needs and so on... But come Thursday I will largely be out of them for the next two weeks. With my lovely wife having an operation I'm going to be on daddy duty for a couple of weeks. Someone did ask me if I was looking forward to my holiday - I tried not to give them that look which said 'You clearly don't have 4 children or need to balance their needs with visiting your recovering wife who will be an hours drive away in a hospital ward!' Not sure how successful I was?
It has made me pause because I am not very good at letting go of things. I'll no doubt leave a list of things that need doing in my absence, I'll do everything I can to set it up so it runs smoothly without me. But the fear is about the stuff that simply won't get done, there are things those stepping in or up just don't know. And straight away it exposes my messiah complex. I think everyone involved in any sort of ministry has one of these and behind it is the desire to be needed, to be relied upon. It becomes particularly dangerous if we set the church up so that it has to rely on us. But I am not the one the church needs to rely on - something which I think is harder for someone who has planted their church to say for all manner of reasons.
You see that is so clearly shown when things start to go differently than we imagined and prayed for. When people leave and the church shrinks rather than grows, when a project or activity has to fold due to lack of people to man it, and so on... All of these things show us we are not sovereign. We can't solve them by just trying harder, or by implementing the latest strategy in the latest 'I grew a church from 2 to 2000 in just one week' book. God is sovereign and so the only right response is to pray.
An enforced two week break reminds me of that, as I have to set aside the 'I can do' mentality and step back into the 'I can pray' approach which if I'm honest ought to be the only approach but often gets crowded out the the tyranny of the to do list. I'm praying God will teach me that lesson once and for all in the next two weeks because it's true whether we learn it or not - I am not sovereign.
It has made me pause because I am not very good at letting go of things. I'll no doubt leave a list of things that need doing in my absence, I'll do everything I can to set it up so it runs smoothly without me. But the fear is about the stuff that simply won't get done, there are things those stepping in or up just don't know. And straight away it exposes my messiah complex. I think everyone involved in any sort of ministry has one of these and behind it is the desire to be needed, to be relied upon. It becomes particularly dangerous if we set the church up so that it has to rely on us. But I am not the one the church needs to rely on - something which I think is harder for someone who has planted their church to say for all manner of reasons.
You see that is so clearly shown when things start to go differently than we imagined and prayed for. When people leave and the church shrinks rather than grows, when a project or activity has to fold due to lack of people to man it, and so on... All of these things show us we are not sovereign. We can't solve them by just trying harder, or by implementing the latest strategy in the latest 'I grew a church from 2 to 2000 in just one week' book. God is sovereign and so the only right response is to pray.
An enforced two week break reminds me of that, as I have to set aside the 'I can do' mentality and step back into the 'I can pray' approach which if I'm honest ought to be the only approach but often gets crowded out the the tyranny of the to do list. I'm praying God will teach me that lesson once and for all in the next two weeks because it's true whether we learn it or not - I am not sovereign.
1 Samuel 23
Here are the notes from Lighthouse:
David is God’s anointed king, but he is on the run. Saul is determined to kill him and David and his band of men are left running from place to place seeking safety. Humanly speaking the situation looks unpromising, the future looking purely at the circumstances is uncertain. The bookies wouldn’t offer great odds on David living very long let alone on his becoming king. But this chapter focuses on the rock solid certainty of God’s word in the midst of the swirling uncertainty of events. But it does more than just that, God doesn’t leave David alone to make do and live by his wits until he is king, God guides David, God calls and encourages David to trust him, and God rescues and protects David.
God Guides(1-13)
There is a growing contrast in these chapters between David and Saul. In the previous chapter Saul puts a whole town to death here David saves a town and then is concerned to protect them from Saul’s murderous anger. David is concerned to be guided by God whereas Saul has repeatedly ignored God’s word and has set himself in opposition to God and his plans. As you read each successive chapter it becomes clearer and clearer that Saul is a king like all the other nations had and David is a king for the people of God.
The chapter opens with a report to David that Keilah is in trouble, it’s being attacked by the Philistines. David wants to rescue the town and when he asks God(2) is told to go. However his men are less certain, they are aware that they’re already under threat and to attack the Philistines could be potentially disastrous. David asks again(4-5) and is assured that God will give them victory. And so they go down and rescue Keilah.
(6)Seems like a bit of an aside, it’s at Keilah that Abiathar (the son of Ahimelek who has escaped Saul and Doeg) joins up with them. The verse even tells us he brings the ephod with him. But it’s not an aside, there have just been questions raised by David’s men about God’s guidance. This is God’s answer - the ephod contains the Urrim and Thummim – God’s given means of guiding his people in making decisions. Now when David seeks God’s will there will be no doubt from the people.
The contrast is immediately made with Saul – David has God’s means of guidance and has been guided by God. But Saul does not and has not. In fact Saul is left to speculate on what an event might means and he gets it badly wrong, blindly assuming God is giving david into his hand when he is not. God isn’t handing David over but will again guide him to safety because he keeps his word.
(9-13)Straight away we see the value of Abiathar and the ephod as David seeks God’s guidance. He asks two questions; will Saul come and destroy the town because of David? And will the people hand him over? The answer is yes to both, and so they leave and keep on moving. God guides David and keeps him safe.
We aren’t God’s anointed king but we are his people and are promised God’s guidance. We don’t need an ephod or the Urim and Thummim we have God’s word and his Spirit. We know God as our loving heavenly Father and trust in his sovereignty and goodness as we listen to him and make decisions based on who we know him to be.
God Encourages (14-18)
These verse are the meat in a betrayal sandwich. (1-13)We see the potential betrayal of the people of Keilah, (19-24)we see the actual betrayal of David by the people of Ziph. And in between we have this little story of Jonathan strengthening David, don’t skip over it because who knows where David would have been had it not been for this God given encouragement.
Firstly God encourages David in Saul’s being unable to find him, God keeps David and his men safe. But God also directly sends encouragement in the form of Jonathan who although his father can’t find David appears to know exactly where to go. Jonathan’s friendship and presence would have been an encouragement to David in itself. But physical presence is not encouragement enough, what distinctively marks out this encouragement is he “helped him to find strength in God.” Isn’t that a fantastic description of what Jonathan does for David.
David is on the run for his life for crimes he didn’t commit. He’s been driven out and he’s on the run, harried and hunted from place to place. Even his good deeds are met not with gratitude but potential betrayal. It would so easy for David to despair or begin to doubt God’s promises as one thing piles on top of another. But God sends Jonathan not just to be an encouragement by being there but to strengthen his hand in God.
How does Jonathan do that? (17)He calls on him not to be afraid, not to let the circumstances drown out God’s promises and sap his certainty in God’s word, but instead to trust in his safety from Saul and that he will be king. Jonathan calls David to remember God’s promises and character and to live in the light of them, and leaves with their covenant of friendship renewed.
God sends Jonathan to encourage David, to strengthen him, to help him remember. God’s grace and love is seen in guidance and rescue but also in the sending of a friend to encourage his embattled servant and stir him to continue living out his faith.
Don’t you long both to know Jonathan’s and be a Jonathan? Aren’t there times in life when we need a Jonathan who gets alongside us and encourages us in God? Someone who strengthens our faith by their presence and their commitment to us but also by reminding us of the promises of God and the wonder of the salvation that is ours.
Hebrews 3:12-13 is just one of many verses that call us to be Jonathan’s to one another in the church. “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness.”
Do you see the danger, it is that circumstances lead us to become hardened bit by bit until we turn away from the living God. How do we ensure that doesn’t happen? We encourage one another daily. We encourage each other by our physical presence together be it meeting up for coffee, gospel groups, or on Sundays. We encourage one another not just by our presence but by God’s word and reminding one another of the gospel and its application for our lives and our hope.
What will this look like? It might mean phoning someone who is struggling, meeting up with them, modelling God’s grace when they can’t see it for themselves. It might mean offering to pick someone up in order to get someone to church or gospel group when they just don’t feel like it. It will mean listening, it will mean praying for and with people, it will means reading God’s word together appropriately and over time. This doesn’t happen instantly. Jonathan is not a new person on the scene, he’s someone with a track record of committed godly love for David. We need to cultivate these relationships, because the danger of not doing is too terrible to contemplate.
Whose hand this week can you strengthen in God by calling, by seeing, by sharing an encouragement? By praying for them?
God Sustains and Rescues(19-29)
After Jonathan leaves notice that the situation doesn’t get better, in fact it gets worse. Now it’s not potential betrayal its actual betrayal. And by(26) it looks like the end, David and his men are trapped and the net is closing in. It’s like the chase scene in the movie where capture is inevitable as they try to escape but are surrounded on the mountain.
But then in another of God’s great ironic twists David is rescued. Not by something David does, not by Jonathan, not by any Israelite, but by the Philistines(27-28). The Philistines who David defeated when he slew Goliath, who he has just fought (1-5) are God’s means of saving David from Saul. This isn’t coincidence, fate, karma or luck it is God again taking the evil purposes of those who oppose him and working them for the rescue of his people and his plan.
Turn to Psalm 54 where we see David’s reflections on this betrayal. David’s prayer is for salvation and vindication as he is under attack and his life is under threat. What hope is there when the godly are persecuted, when they are harried and harassed by those who oppose God?
(4)“Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.., You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.”(7)
What is our confidence when opposed, when under attack, when persecuted, when the plans and promises of God look uncertain? It is that God is our help and Saviour. He sustains through his guidance, through the encouragement of his people and reflection on the truth that he is sovereign and ultimately judge. Our future is secure and we entrust ourselves to him, not just when it looks that way but even more so when it does not.
God is the one who sustains us as we face struggle, persecution, when we come to the end of our strength God sustains. God’s plan will not be thwarted, God will build his kingdom. The question is will we trust him as he does so? Will we trust in his word, his sovereignty and his reign and rule?
David is God’s anointed king, but he is on the run. Saul is determined to kill him and David and his band of men are left running from place to place seeking safety. Humanly speaking the situation looks unpromising, the future looking purely at the circumstances is uncertain. The bookies wouldn’t offer great odds on David living very long let alone on his becoming king. But this chapter focuses on the rock solid certainty of God’s word in the midst of the swirling uncertainty of events. But it does more than just that, God doesn’t leave David alone to make do and live by his wits until he is king, God guides David, God calls and encourages David to trust him, and God rescues and protects David.
God Guides(1-13)
There is a growing contrast in these chapters between David and Saul. In the previous chapter Saul puts a whole town to death here David saves a town and then is concerned to protect them from Saul’s murderous anger. David is concerned to be guided by God whereas Saul has repeatedly ignored God’s word and has set himself in opposition to God and his plans. As you read each successive chapter it becomes clearer and clearer that Saul is a king like all the other nations had and David is a king for the people of God.
The chapter opens with a report to David that Keilah is in trouble, it’s being attacked by the Philistines. David wants to rescue the town and when he asks God(2) is told to go. However his men are less certain, they are aware that they’re already under threat and to attack the Philistines could be potentially disastrous. David asks again(4-5) and is assured that God will give them victory. And so they go down and rescue Keilah.
(6)Seems like a bit of an aside, it’s at Keilah that Abiathar (the son of Ahimelek who has escaped Saul and Doeg) joins up with them. The verse even tells us he brings the ephod with him. But it’s not an aside, there have just been questions raised by David’s men about God’s guidance. This is God’s answer - the ephod contains the Urrim and Thummim – God’s given means of guiding his people in making decisions. Now when David seeks God’s will there will be no doubt from the people.
The contrast is immediately made with Saul – David has God’s means of guidance and has been guided by God. But Saul does not and has not. In fact Saul is left to speculate on what an event might means and he gets it badly wrong, blindly assuming God is giving david into his hand when he is not. God isn’t handing David over but will again guide him to safety because he keeps his word.
(9-13)Straight away we see the value of Abiathar and the ephod as David seeks God’s guidance. He asks two questions; will Saul come and destroy the town because of David? And will the people hand him over? The answer is yes to both, and so they leave and keep on moving. God guides David and keeps him safe.
We aren’t God’s anointed king but we are his people and are promised God’s guidance. We don’t need an ephod or the Urim and Thummim we have God’s word and his Spirit. We know God as our loving heavenly Father and trust in his sovereignty and goodness as we listen to him and make decisions based on who we know him to be.
God Encourages (14-18)
These verse are the meat in a betrayal sandwich. (1-13)We see the potential betrayal of the people of Keilah, (19-24)we see the actual betrayal of David by the people of Ziph. And in between we have this little story of Jonathan strengthening David, don’t skip over it because who knows where David would have been had it not been for this God given encouragement.
Firstly God encourages David in Saul’s being unable to find him, God keeps David and his men safe. But God also directly sends encouragement in the form of Jonathan who although his father can’t find David appears to know exactly where to go. Jonathan’s friendship and presence would have been an encouragement to David in itself. But physical presence is not encouragement enough, what distinctively marks out this encouragement is he “helped him to find strength in God.” Isn’t that a fantastic description of what Jonathan does for David.
David is on the run for his life for crimes he didn’t commit. He’s been driven out and he’s on the run, harried and hunted from place to place. Even his good deeds are met not with gratitude but potential betrayal. It would so easy for David to despair or begin to doubt God’s promises as one thing piles on top of another. But God sends Jonathan not just to be an encouragement by being there but to strengthen his hand in God.
How does Jonathan do that? (17)He calls on him not to be afraid, not to let the circumstances drown out God’s promises and sap his certainty in God’s word, but instead to trust in his safety from Saul and that he will be king. Jonathan calls David to remember God’s promises and character and to live in the light of them, and leaves with their covenant of friendship renewed.
God sends Jonathan to encourage David, to strengthen him, to help him remember. God’s grace and love is seen in guidance and rescue but also in the sending of a friend to encourage his embattled servant and stir him to continue living out his faith.
Don’t you long both to know Jonathan’s and be a Jonathan? Aren’t there times in life when we need a Jonathan who gets alongside us and encourages us in God? Someone who strengthens our faith by their presence and their commitment to us but also by reminding us of the promises of God and the wonder of the salvation that is ours.
Hebrews 3:12-13 is just one of many verses that call us to be Jonathan’s to one another in the church. “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness.”
Do you see the danger, it is that circumstances lead us to become hardened bit by bit until we turn away from the living God. How do we ensure that doesn’t happen? We encourage one another daily. We encourage each other by our physical presence together be it meeting up for coffee, gospel groups, or on Sundays. We encourage one another not just by our presence but by God’s word and reminding one another of the gospel and its application for our lives and our hope.
What will this look like? It might mean phoning someone who is struggling, meeting up with them, modelling God’s grace when they can’t see it for themselves. It might mean offering to pick someone up in order to get someone to church or gospel group when they just don’t feel like it. It will mean listening, it will mean praying for and with people, it will means reading God’s word together appropriately and over time. This doesn’t happen instantly. Jonathan is not a new person on the scene, he’s someone with a track record of committed godly love for David. We need to cultivate these relationships, because the danger of not doing is too terrible to contemplate.
Whose hand this week can you strengthen in God by calling, by seeing, by sharing an encouragement? By praying for them?
God Sustains and Rescues(19-29)
After Jonathan leaves notice that the situation doesn’t get better, in fact it gets worse. Now it’s not potential betrayal its actual betrayal. And by(26) it looks like the end, David and his men are trapped and the net is closing in. It’s like the chase scene in the movie where capture is inevitable as they try to escape but are surrounded on the mountain.
But then in another of God’s great ironic twists David is rescued. Not by something David does, not by Jonathan, not by any Israelite, but by the Philistines(27-28). The Philistines who David defeated when he slew Goliath, who he has just fought (1-5) are God’s means of saving David from Saul. This isn’t coincidence, fate, karma or luck it is God again taking the evil purposes of those who oppose him and working them for the rescue of his people and his plan.
Turn to Psalm 54 where we see David’s reflections on this betrayal. David’s prayer is for salvation and vindication as he is under attack and his life is under threat. What hope is there when the godly are persecuted, when they are harried and harassed by those who oppose God?
(4)“Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.., You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.”(7)
What is our confidence when opposed, when under attack, when persecuted, when the plans and promises of God look uncertain? It is that God is our help and Saviour. He sustains through his guidance, through the encouragement of his people and reflection on the truth that he is sovereign and ultimately judge. Our future is secure and we entrust ourselves to him, not just when it looks that way but even more so when it does not.
God is the one who sustains us as we face struggle, persecution, when we come to the end of our strength God sustains. God’s plan will not be thwarted, God will build his kingdom. The question is will we trust him as he does so? Will we trust in his word, his sovereignty and his reign and rule?
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Working out the sovereignty of God in little things
I think we are pretty good at seeing God's sovereignty in big things - our job, a change of career or something similar, but one of things the Bibel keeps presenting us with is the sovereignty of God over the little things. Take for example Saul, God is sovereign over teh donkeys getting lost, which way they wander, which way Saul and his servant search, their ending up near Samuel's town, Saul's servants thinking, his 'just happening' to have a coin in his pocket. Or take the book of Ruth - God is sovereign over who Naomi's sons marry, over their going back to Bethlehem, over Ruth 'just happening' to glean in Boaz' field and so on. God is sovereign over the little everday mundane moments in our lives. That is incredibly important for us to realise because it means that nothing in our day will be wasted. No day is ever a day over which God is not sovereign. It means I can face each day confident in my loving heavenly Father's care.
Sunday, 27 November 2011
God's strange sovereignty
This morning was one of those mornings when you stand back afterwards and say I am so glad that preaching doesn't depend on me but on God. It started with an early morning text message saying the person who was due to preach was too ill, I promptly set to work with the bible and Isaiah 9v6 and some arrow prayers as I went, and was almost finished when my laptop decided to shut down, and yes, you guessed it for some reason auto-save hadn't worked. On boot up there was just a menacingly white screen and cursor blinking mockingly at me, taunting me. And so I started all over again at 9.20am, for a service starting at 10.30am.
This side of the tension I can say its good that God works as he did. It reminded me again that preaching is God speaking through man's (my) foolishness. That he was sovereign over every illness, every computer glitch and this was in his purpose, once I had that perspective it was less frustrating, exploring again what God wanted me to learn from the passage and from his divinely ordained circumstances. God is good, his word is powerful, I must trust him and his way even when it is not the way I would choose, and as one who preaches his word I am only ever reliant on him to open my eyes to see his truth, and open my lips to have anything worthwhile to say.
This side of the tension I can say its good that God works as he did. It reminded me again that preaching is God speaking through man's (my) foolishness. That he was sovereign over every illness, every computer glitch and this was in his purpose, once I had that perspective it was less frustrating, exploring again what God wanted me to learn from the passage and from his divinely ordained circumstances. God is good, his word is powerful, I must trust him and his way even when it is not the way I would choose, and as one who preaches his word I am only ever reliant on him to open my eyes to see his truth, and open my lips to have anything worthwhile to say.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Learning big lessons
One of the bible's big lessons is made abundantly clear in the final chapter of Genesis 50. God works even through man's sin and evil for his glory and his people's good. Yet despite seeing this again and again I wonder if it is one of those biblical lessons we are most prone to forgetting.
Circumstances and false expectations seem to drive this our of our minds.
Monday, 19 May 2008
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.
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.
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