This week is going to be short. The sermon was short, and the crowd was smallish. It wasn't small, but it wasn't the usual size either. Here's the scripture from the service. This is the last sermon in the series, too.
1O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
2For You have made a city into a heap, A fortified city into a ruin; A palace of strangers is a city no more, It will never be rebuilt.
3Therefore a strong people will glorify You; Cities of ruthless nations will revere You.
4For You have been a defense for the helpless, A defense for the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; For the breath of the ruthless Is like a rain storm against a wall.
5Like heat in drought, You subdue the uproar of aliens; Like heat by the shadow of a cloud, the song of the ruthless is silenced.
6The Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.
7And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
8He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.
9And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
Isaiah 25:1–9 (NASB95)
Isaiah was a prophet (yes, I just heard the song's chorus. If you know, you know.) This passage is all about who God is and what He will do. It has some prophecy in it as well. Read through it with a pencil or a highlighter and note all the references directly to God. Also, note all the things He will and won't do. It is very enlightening, but the two parts that stuck out to me are verses seven and the last part of nine.
Verse 7 prophesies all people will know who He is. We will all have the veil, the mountain, the face covering cast over all people destroyed. The lies that shroud who God is, the justifications we use to explain why the Bible is from God, and the pieces of evidence (or lack thereof) used to obfuscate His actions all will be gone. All of it will vanish. We will only have ourselves, naked and bare before Him, and who He is revealed in all His glory. What a terrible and wonderful day that will be.
For Christians, the latter part of verse 9 bolsters our courage as the God of scripture manifests to all the world. We who believe in His return will see the righteousness of God on full display. I suspect it will look different than the image that flashed through everyone's head as they read this paragraph. I wonder how different His reappearance will be from what we think it will be? Whatever it will be, we will be glad and rejoice because it will confirm His salvation for the faithful.
I want to make a stark and clear distinction on what a Christian return of God means over all other religions and one in particular, which will be obvious but remain nameless. The second coming of Jesus Christ, the return of God to His creation, does not require action on our part. Not only does it not require it, but nowhere in Scripture does it tell us to take action to make it happen. In absolutely zero cases in the Bible does it say the faithful should be killing anyone, doing violence to anyone, blowing up anything, or advancing any cause in any way to make this reappearance occur. God will return by His power, under His authority, in His own time. We are not required or commanded to do anything to make that happen, nor can we stop it by any action of earthly Man.
1Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.
2For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
3While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
4But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;
1 Thessalonians 5:1–4 (NASB95)
That was what occurred to me as I read the scripture.
When Pastor Joe started, he read from Colossians chapter 1. He didn't say what verses (It would be helpful to my notes if he would), but I'm going to quote verses 10-18 because they are the ones that seemed to be closest to what he read (I was also scribbling notes on the passage above and had to stop in mid-thought to make my notes on his passage too.)
10so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.
17He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
18He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:10–18 (NASB95)
The things that stood out to me were endurance, patience, and forgiveness of sin. I think the church fails to talk about sin. The silence on this subject is deafening, and I think it's because the progressive wing is too afraid it drives people away. It certainly drives away the weak-willed progressives who don't like to hear that something they do might offend God. They simply cannot stand the message from the pulpit when it preaches that humans, specifically they themselves, might fall short of God's approval in some fashion. Well, I'm here to tell them all that they do.
That's not a "holier than though" opinion. That's not to say I'm better than them. It's a scriptural and real-world fact. We all offend God at some time (and for some of us, like me, multiple times a day) and need a Savior.
10as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one;
11There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;
12All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one."
Romans 3:10–12 (NASB95)
We all know that scripture, but those who cherry-pick the Bible for the passages that tell them they are saved, good, and righteous they likely throw this one out or avoid it. It's a hard truth. We all offend God in some fashion. We're fallen human beings. Thanks to Adam and Eve screwing it up in the Garden of Eden making the first bad decision, we are condemned to sometimes make bad choices that offend God. The good news is Jesus came to fix that, and He did.
1Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
3And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Romans 5:1–9 (NASB95)
This is why people leave churches and go "church shopping." I was in that camp. I realize that now. I wanted someone I agreed with rather than someone God sent to accomplish His goals. I have no idea why the current split in the United Methodist Church is in His plan if it is, but I can see how He might use it for His purpose.
Regardless, those who leave a church over what the pastor says could be considered ignoring God's message or desire for us. I will say that I know many people who have left my church. Most of them, myself included, leftover principles. I was going to say that I don't think they made the wrong choice, but a thought occurred to me about that. Perhaps we did make the wrong choice. Instead of quietly walking out of the church, perhaps we should have rallied around our faith, stood our ground, and fought the progressives who implemented their decisions we believed to be ungodly. I don't know. What I do know is the following scripture came to mind over my own actions of leaving.
1I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:
2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.
3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,
4and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
5But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
2 Timothy 4:1–5 (NASB95)
I don't know if we are in THAT time, but we are certainly in a time like that. Most of that has little to do with the sermon, but perhaps not. I'll let the reader decide.
Patro Kristen Lee began her sermon by talking about the time the Isaiah scripture was written. It is near the fall, or at least talking about that time. The Israelites were surrounded by enemies, much as they are today. They were invaded and at war but losing. As Pastor Lee spoke, I couldn't help but note the dichotomy of things of the flesh and others of the Kingdom of Heaven, meaning spiritual. We so frequently read something in the Bible and try to connect it to the world of the flesh, the body, and material things when, in fact, God is talking through His instruments to mean things of the spiritual world. Unfortunately, being in the flesh as humans, we constantly make the mistake of thinking everything God does is all about what happens down here to these earthly vessels. It is not, and He does not, but that is our mistake that will not go away so long as we remain here.
That's one of our great needs as human beings is the power of discernment. We need to be able to discern when scripture is talking about something for the fleshly world or something for the spiritual world, the Kingdom of God. We will not always get that right, but we should strive for it.
One of the recurring messages in the sermon Sunday was how God provides for His people. Sometimes, He provides physical needs, but other times He determines spiritual needs are more important. Regardless, He does provide. The challenge is on our end. By that, I mean we have to not only be willing to acknowledge a higher power in God but ask Him for help, and then when we ask Him we must be willing to listen to what He says. It's easy to see the Hand of God in our lives in hindsight. The trick is to actively look for Him in the here and now. Our problem many times is that we don't want to acknowledge what He is asking us to do or do it because we disagree with it or it is hard. That doesn't negate that He is there or directing us. It is our rebellion to try and make God into what we want Him to be for us rather than letting Him mold us into what He needs us to be for Him.
We closed the sermon with a song, Who Shall I Send? That scripture is haunting me right now for reasons I don't think I'll go into here. The more my fingers move on the keyboard, the more likely I will dive into things I'm not ready for yet, so I'll close with the scripture and let you take it where you will. But I will leave you with this question: where is God trying to send you?
1In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
2Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."
4And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
5Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7He touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven."
8Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Isaiah 6:1–8 (NASB95)