It's All About God. Period. by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Isaiah 40:21-31

40:21  Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 
40:22  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; 
40:23  Who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 
40:24  Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 
40:25  To Whom then will you compare Me, or who is My equal? says the Holy One. 
40:26  Lift up your eyes on high and see:  Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because He is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. 
40:27  Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"? 
40:28  Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. 
40:29  He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 
40:30  Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;
40:31  but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

          Again and again I hear people asking the question, and see people posting the same question on internet message boards: "What has happened to us?  How can there be so much discord in politics, so much rudeness in society, in everyday living?  Those who worship Christ are being slaughtered and thrown in prison in nations all over the world.  What has happened to the Christian influence in America, in the world?"

          I'm tempted to respond that Satan is loose in the world, in our nation, in our cities, in our homes, and even in our churches.  But then, he has always been loose.  He was loose in Jesus' time, as well.

          What has changed?  Nothing.  Least of all the sin nature of mankind.  Those of us who have turned our lives over to Jesus Christ stand in the light of the gospel, and we see clearly the crude, devastating and bloody effects of sin in the world around us.  Those who have not accepted Christ stand in the darkness of this world, and they see nothing wrong, even though God has always said it is sin.

          In today's scripture Isaiah is speaking to those Jews in Babylon who were taken there under the power of others.  It's a message of hope, and it is often preached as a sermon of motivation.  But for us today, taken into a downward economy under the power of others, it should be read as a warning of the power of Almighty God, a reminder of who He is to those who know Him.

          But for those who do not have that kind of relationship with Jesus Christ, Isaiah's words may well sound like a threat, for they hold a mirror up to the unbelieving, to the wavering, to the unsure about the supremacy of God Almighty.  And some in the pews of Christ's church today will complain, "That doesn't sound like the love of the gentle Jesus we know.  That's too harsh."  But I submit they say that because they know only one facet of the Christ, of the Jesus, yes, who loves us, but also the Jesus who went willingly through the barbaric, bloody, and finally deadly crucifixion on the cross at Calvary; went through it because of His love for the Father, and for you and me.

          What then, shall we silence Isaiah when he sounds too harsh?  Shall we silence the Jobs among us who decry sin and disobedience to the Father?  Would we then feel better about the things we do in defiance of God, those things that make us feel good, for now?  Shall we instead all join hands and sing "I Believe I Can Fly," and ignore the reality that gravity insists on in this world?

          What we need instead is another Amos.  The prophet Amos wrote in about 750-760 B.C., sent of God to warn the forever wicked Northern Kingdom; sent of God to call them to repentance for their self-righteousness, their sins, their preference for worshipping wooden and stone idols rather than the Living God.  Today the idols we worship are more often made of glass and electronics, and those of flesh tend to be sports, business and entertainment heroes.

          Listen to what the words of Amos addressed and see if these sound familiar.  Amos was both devastated and sickened by the sins of the people, and he didn't half-step in calling out their evil transgressions of self-indulgence, violence, class hatred, indifference to human suffering, ostentatious religion, hatred of righteousness, insincerity, hypocrisy, superstition, filthy immorality, and more.  In warning against their sins before God, Amos was warning them that God was prepared to intervene and punish them, which came to pass as their enemies conquered them and carried them off to exile as slaves.

          Oh, for an Amos today.  For all of these sins, which are boldly present in our America today, bespeak apathy and complacency, otherwise they could not survive among a caring church of Christian worshippers.   Those who allow such illicit, harmful, damning behavior to continue are as guilty as those who indulge in it.

          Isaiah, in chapter 6, verse 5, when he saw the Lord God high and exalted, cried out "Woe is me!  For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips..."

          Like Isaiah, we are a people of unclean lips, and we see and hear it all about us.  In our apathy and our complacency, we allow it to continue without comment.

          Years ago on a certain college campus an "Apathy Club" was formed.  It was advertised and a meeting place and date set.  No one showed up.  Not one soul.  Those who thought it was such a good idea, were too apathetic to attend.

          We can smile at that, and yet a fog of apathy and complacency has descended across the Christian church in this age.  It is usually expressed as "I couldn't care less," or "Live and let live," or, more often, when one's spiritual state is questioned, "I just don't know."  That latter, of course, also translates to "I don't care."  And there you find the basis for the perversion of worship today in what passes for the Christian church.  They do not know the Christ, they don't believe God means what He says in scripture -- the inspired word of God -- and they don't care.  As long as they can continue with their favorite sin and pretend to worship God, they don't care.  But Jesus made it crystal clear in John 14:17-18: “If you love Me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”  Yes, it's an imperative ... "If you love Me, you will obey what I command..." but it is also a promise, a promise to believers from the Christ.

          The world we see today, the society in which we live and work and make our way, the governments which govern us at the various city, state and federal levels, have all left their originally intended purpose, and have become the mawkish tools of men and women for their own enrichment, their own good pleasure.  Without the God-given ethical basis upon which they were originally founded, it is no wonder they serve only a few, and no one is willing to sacrifice their promise of success to help those they were selected, elected and/or appointed to serve. 

          Without God we are but a caricature of what was intended.  God's creation has taken it upon himself and herself to design their own future, to feather their own nest, to take care of themselves first and everyone else can have what's left.  Mankind's judgment has superseded God's grace.

          But that is specifically what both Isaiah and Amos were warning against.  There is a God, and regardless of what we think, say or do during our short lifespan on this earth, He is still in charge.  In the end, the end we must all come to, even those who do not believe in Him will see Him ... at the judgment.

          Seek Him now.  He promises if you seek Him you will find Him.  He also promises the unjust will reap their own reward.  And for the record, no one keeps promises like He does.  Amen.

Week of Worship

February 5 - 11, 2012

Invocation:  Almighty God, creator and keeper of the world and all that is in it, help us, we pray, to know the duty You have assigned us and to so live our lives that the world may be a better place for all Your creations.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Read: Psalm 32

Daily Scripture Readings

Monday                Luke 14:7-14

Tuesday               Luke 9:57-62

Wednesday          Luke 14:25-34
Thursday              John 6:60-71

Friday                   Acts 4:32-37

Saturday               Romans 15: 1-13

Sunday                 Job 7:1-7; 1st Corinthians 9:16-23; Psalm 147:1-11; Mark 1:29-39

Reflection: (silent and written)

Prayers for the church, for others, for yourself.

Hymn: "Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service"

Benediction:  And now as I leave this place of quiet to return to the duties which await me, go with me, my God; and keep me all the day long.  Amen.