Epiphany Series, God is With Us: Although I May Not Feel Him

"God Is With Us: Although I May Not Feel Him" sermon from 2/13/11, Psalm 42

When was the last time you were flooded with the feeling or sense of, “Where are you God?” You know, those times when everything you feel makes it incredibly hard to really know God is with you. What are we to do in these times? Are we really alone? It can sure feel like we are!

Well, those first few lines should give you a feel for where we are going this morning. Once again, though, as for a quick recap, for the last 4 weeks now we have been taking notice that God is with us! I’ve tied this to the season of Epiphany, for that’s where the word Epiphany comes from; from when people have an experience where they see God unexpectantly, or come into a better understanding of something about God and they respond with praise for they’ve noticed God’s presence with them. In this series we have piggy-backed off the season of Christmas where we celebrate Jesus being born and given the name Immanuel, meaning God with us, and we’ve sought to become familiar with God with us in various ways. In our first message we looked at the story of the Wise Men coming from the East looking for the Christ child born King of the Jews. As they found Him they found God Himself with them and they established Him as King of their own lives. In the end they left a different way from which they came. Secondly, we looked at an even older story of God showing Himself to be with Jacob in Genesis where in a dream while escaping his home environment Jacob saw a structure connecting heaven to earth and angels ascending and descending upon it. With this he heard the voice of God saying, “I am the God of your father Isaac and his father Abraham… Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land…” bring you back home safely. Jacob wakes up and declares, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” In that place God showed Himself to be real to Jacob. He and His angels stepped out from behind the scenes and Jacob saw an even bigger reality present with him and among him than he had ever imagined. In response he turns in worship to God, pledges himself to Him; makes Him his personal God. Thirdly, I gave a message on how God is with us: All Glorious & Powerful. For this we looked at song sung by Moses and the Israelites as they stood on the other side of the Red Sea after being set free from captivity in Egypt. They had witnessed God as their strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield, stronghold, and salvation. They didn’t just know God as with them sporadically, but they saw Him as their everything in this life, an intimate ally all glorious and powerful that is duly involved in all things, cares about all things, so that we might praise and glorify Him in all things! And lastly then, last week we looked at a short passage from the minor prophet account of Zephaniah as we sought to see how God is with us: As Astounding Lover. The passage we looked at tells of how God looks and rejoices over us in gladness and exults over us in loud singing. The passage said, He will renew you (silence you) with His love, and we took the opportunity to revel in the love God has for us in Jesus Christ, in whom our judgments have been taken away, we have been made righteous, and in whom we can rise to new life, empowered by the astounding love of God!

This morning then, we again move forward into another message on how God is with us, and we’ll look at how God is with us: Although We May Not Feel Him. For that turn with me and follow along as I read from Psalm 42…

1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

So, I’ll ask again, when was the last time you were flooded with the feeling or sense of, “Where are you God?” Those times when everything you feel makes it incredibly hard to know God is with you. What are we to do in these times? Are we really alone? The Psalmist in Psalm 42 is definitely in one of those moments!

It’s almost funny to me. I’ve heard the beginning lines of this Psalm quite often. It’s a prayer or cry to God that I have turned to often, and many others as well, as a heartfelt plea to see God, for He quenches the thirst of our souls. He, as the hymn ("As the Deer") we sung says, can be known as a friend and brother, even though He is a King. He has this way of reaching within us and satisfying our deepest desires & longings even better than our most favorite drink (yes, even more than Mountain Dew) or refreshing/beautiful commodity. So, just as we long for those things in how they satisfy, the hymn goes on to say, “I want you more than gold or silver, only you can satisfy…” And not to forget the opening of the hymn which are taken from our passage for this morning of Psalm 42 and as well as the chorus, we do pant after & long for God, especially as He shows Himself to be our strength and shield amongst the things in our lives, much like how we’ve noticed Him as with us over the last two weeks, as All Glorious & Powerful and Astounding Lover. But what about the rest of this Psalm? When I read further than these first few lines I realize, man, this Psalm is hard! That’s probably why I can say I haven’t heard or looked into the rest of this Psalm much before. When we read into the 3rd verse and following we are struck with the reality that the author is facing what may be the hardest time of his/her life and has been flooded with the feeling of “Where are you God?” The author says, “My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’” The author longs, and has known, and wants to know again, God as strength, as shield, as friend, brother, lover, but God is nowhere to be found. What are we to do in times like this?

A book I read some time ago speaks to all this quite well. The book is called “Faith Is Not A Feeling” and if you’ll remember that phrase you are well on your way. I read it at my Pastor’s request close to when I first became a Christian, but it was originally written in the late 1970’s. The first chapter begins with a story of when the author had gathered along with 35 other women for a leadership retreat within Campus Crusade for Christ at a conference center in the Big Thompson Canyon near Loveland, CO. They had gathered there the day before a humongous flood hit that exact area on July 31st, 1976. The author and a few others had barely escaped death & injury and many others weren’t so lucky. As word of the devastating conditions that were heading their way reached the conference center this warning sprung out to all in the building, “EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY! HIGH WATER IS COMING! DON’T TAKE ANYTHING WITH YOU! GET TO HIGHER GROUND!” All those words are important when faced with a flood, but especially the last phrase—“Get to Higher Ground!”…

One more quick illustration to bring in here is one we all received in our church mailboxes this past week (read from Focus on the Family flyer “An Attitude of Love”)… In this short article the encouragement is sort of like, take the high road, maybe the road less traveled, and go out of your way, in terms of your spouse, to make him/her know of your attitude of love. We cannot depend on our feelings. Our feelings are fleeting. We cannot base our relationship with our spouses on them, and we most certainly cannot base our relationship with our God on them. More often we need to lead our feelings. Our attitude of love will sprout feelings of love.

This is all an example; this get to higher ground, or take the high road with your attitude of love instead of relying on your feelings, of what is described and acted upon by the author of Psalm 42… And it’s what is needed in times of great despair when our feelings tell us one thing, but our hearts and minds know another. In the rest of this Psalm three things are apparent to me that the Psalmist does in his time of despair, when he doesn’t FEEL God… Three things that help him get to higher ground (notes fill-in), or are his way of taking the high road (notes fill-in) in his attitude (notes fill-in) of love for God.

1) He recalls the positive and uplifting about his past (Proverbs 13:12):
The first is, he recalls the positive and uplifting about his past. In a sense, he remembers the good ol’ times. He says in verse 4, “These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.” This person seems to have been a leader in the church. He led others in the procession to the House of God and in glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving. The way he writes it I get the picture of joyous occasions, times of great exuberance in the Lord! Something has happened since that time and where he finds himself now, but these are times that he clings to; that help him get through the hard times. Something else God seemed to be telling me to share with you along with each of these three points is a Proverb for each. Here I’ll share with you Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” The Psalmist is experiencing a moment of hope deferred, and as the Proverb says, his heart is sick. Yet he recalls in this moment a time when God brought forth fulfillment of a longtime desire to lead and be a part of something in his life. That to him was a tree of life, for at a time of heart-sickness this fulfillment still sprouted life within him. What are those moments in your life; moments you can recall that still spring up life within you even when flooded with despair?

2) He recalls his God (Proverbs 9:10):
The second thing the author of Psalm 42 does is, he recalls his God. He says in the second part of verse 6, “My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.” Eugene Peterson, the author of The Message translation of the Bible translates Psalm 42:6 this way, “When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse everything I know of you.” What is something you know to be true about God, but that you need to recall in your heart because it’s the last thing you feel towards Him at some given moment? Do you need to recall in your heart that God is your provider, or comforter, or lover, or grace-giver for it may not feel like He is any of those things presently, but prior knowledge and experience of Him in your life tells you He is those things? The author of Psalm 42 recalls the places of the land of Jordan, Hermon, & Mount Mizar. These are past places for the Psalmist. Likely places where he experienced the very needs from God he needs right now; provision, comfort, love, etc.

The Psalmist continues in verse 7-8, “Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me. By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Now, it’s not necessarily easy to understand what the Psalmist is saying here, but I think this explanation I found online helps… “Outwardly, the depth of misery and pain weighed heavily upon him…” All the waves and billows God could let thunder against him and come over him had seemingly come; he was flooded to the depths in misery. “But there is a depth that is greater and much more powerful than all of that; the depth of God’s love…” “By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” What an awesome reality! Read that tomorrow as a Valentine from God. This is who God is, and what He is about! Remember our fall series on Jeremiah? This is why I wanted to take us through that series; to notice and come to know God as Everlasting Lover. This is why knowing God is with us as we heard last week, as astounding lover, is important. The depth of God’s love is deeper than our deepest sorrows! The Proverb I’ll share with you here is Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” In times when we don’t feel God as our provider, comforter, lover we must continually fear/revere Him and recall our knowledge of Him the Holy One, our Everlasting Lover.

3) He determinedly decides to hope in his God (Proverbs 3:5-6):
Lastly then, the third thing the author of Psalm 42 does is, he determinedly decides to hope in his God! The Psalmist repeats a sort of chorus twice in this Psalm as he says in verses 5 & 11, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my help and my God.” The Psalmist does here what is maybe most difficult, but also most helpful; he determines to rehearse the truth he knows in his heart out loud despite his circumstances. His feelings and emotions have him feeling one thing, but he knows his God to be another, to be bigger than all that; to be his Help and his God whom he is certain he can hope in and will raise him up to praise Him once again. You could say in this Psalm that the author is sort of preaching to himself. He says, “This is how I feel right now, but I know my God is more than this.” Our feelings are fickle, but our God is constant! Another quote from Eugene Peterson says this, “Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God—it whets our appetite.” Worship has a way of causing even more worship within us. In times when we don’t feel like worshipping, it is the very thing we need to do! The Proverb I thought I’d share with you here is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

So again, in times when we are flooded with feelings that scream the question, “Where are you God?”, when we don’t feel His presence with us, we must GET TO HIGHER GROUND, or take the high road in our attitude of love for God. We do this when in those moments we recall the positive and uplifting about the past (the times of fulfillment that God brings forth in our lives that are trees of life in times of hope deferred), recall our God (rehearse everything we know of our God…), & determinedly decide to hope in our God always (rehearse the truth we know in our hearts out loud despite our circumstances, worship whether we feel like it or not)! That’s how we’ll make it to higher ground and up out of the floods that rise upon us in this life, all along praising our help and our God!

Epiphany Series, God is With Us: Although We May Not Know It...

"God Is With Us: Although We May Not Know It" sermon from 1/23/11, Genesis 28:10-22

If you recall, sometime ago, back towards the end of July and into august I gave a few messages on the subject of Grace. I first spoke on what’s so amazing about Grace (God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense) and then I went into specific messages on both of our Sacraments that we practice in the Reformed church because John Calvin (a Reformed Church church father) often refered to them as means of Grace. The Belgic Confession (a statement of faith in the Reformed Church) says in Article #33, “We believe that our good God, mindful of our crudeness and weakness, has ordained sacraments for us to seal the promises in us, to pledge the good will and grace of God toward us, and also to nourish and sustain our faith.” These Sacraments are means of grace in that the good will and grace of God is pledged toward us in them. There are both signs and means of participation in them. Both show forth certain promises and are signs of what we have on the part of the grace of God in Jesus Christ His Son, and there is a participatory element in each in that when each is practiced something sacred takes place; something between us and God, through Jesus Christ His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This makes them, as the Belgic Confession goes on to say, “Visible signs and seals of something internal and invisible, by means of which God works through the power of the Holy Spirit.” I bring this up today because of that last line, “they are visible signs of invisible realities” by means of which we see God. We see that God is with us. We in remembrance recall His works, and see and experience God in a tangible and real way that He has worked before and still works today.

So, this all fits with the current sermon series I introduced last Sunday. I am trying to help us see that God is with us, and I’ve tied that into the season we are in right now, Epiphany. That’s where the word Epiphany comes from, from when people have an experience where they see God unexpectantly, or come into a better understanding of something about God. We celebrate at Christmas time that God came to be with us, Immanuel. Throughout the rest of the year we need to remember that God is STILL with us, and is always. That’s how we are sustained and able to keep faith; being able to continue to know and see God for He is with us, Emmanuel.

So, this morning we are going to look at another passage showing how God is with us. Last week we saw how God is with us in Jesus Christ. We saw how the Wise Men came looking for the Christ child born King of the Jews, only to encounter God Himself and leave a different way from which they came. I said the same can happen for us, what’s needed is for Christ to become who we are starry-eyed over; He needs to become the center of our lives, the source, our King. Today we are going to look at a story from Genesis where God shows up unexpectantly to Jacob, who if you’re familiar to the greater story, comes to be known as Israel and is the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Turn with me to Genesis 28:10-22 and follow along as I read…

10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14 and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed  in you and in your offspring. 15 Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God (“Bethel”), and this is the gate of heaven.”
18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel (House of God); but the name of the city was Luz (cease to exist, lost, departed) at the first. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you give me I will surely give one-tenth to you.”

So here we have the common story known as Jacob’s Ladder, or as some of you more rock enthusiasts might know it (myself included) from Led Zeppelin, the Stairway to Heaven. Jacob, as our passage says, was on his way to Haran from Beer-sheba where he left his immediate family. Jacob had recently received a blessing from his father, Isaac which was actually supposed to go to his twin brother, Esau who was the slightly older brother. Rebekah, Isaac’s wife and the boys’ mother basically tricked Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of Esau. To this Esau was enraged, and the fact that Isaac was near death only added to it. Esau began to console himself by planning to kill Jacob and to this Rebekah insists that Jacob flee to Haran to her brother, Laban where he is to take a wife for himself from the Canaanite people and remain there until the fury of his brother Esau turns away from him. It is on this journey to Haran that Jacob has this peculiar experience described in this passage.

Before going too much further I’d like to read to you from a children’s book we have that we received as a gift sometime before Carrie Ann was born. It’s not a book that Melanie and I necessarily like completely. It’s ok, but I am not completely satisfied with it totally (I’ll get into why in a little bit). It’s entitled “What Does God look Like?” and it goes like this… (book not available)

I guess what gets me kind of worked-up about this book is that repeated notion in it that says “God looks like nothing because there is nothing to see.” It says, “Everyone and everything gives us clues that God is here. Clues that point to the One we cannot see.” While I can see how you can say that these things are true, it bothers me. To me, it makes God out to be just this invisible force or thing among us and behind everything. While you can say this is true to a point, if this is all God is then quite frankly, I think he falls short. I want no part in and don’t believe in a God who is just in the background and stays there. Seriously, that does nothing for me! And I think the very opposite is what Jacob responds to in this story. God in this story steps out of the background and becomes real to Jacob, part of his very existence, an ever-present reality in his everyday life!

Jacob, on his way to Haran, witnessed something he had never encountered before. He was basically trying to escape his reality as he knew it as he left his family, and in a dream (something that to many of us is an escape from reality in itself) he encounters something more real than anything he has ever seen before. Let’s reread about this dream and Jacob’s initial response to it quick… it says, “And [Jacob] dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families on the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God (Bethel), and this is the gate of heaven.’” Sounds a lot better than the children’s story I just read, huh?

God here basically pulls back the backdrop and lets Jacob see what’s behind the scenes; what’s really going on, that more than meets the eye reality I’ve been talking about lately. This has happened to me before. When I was in college in my first year, before I knew God and all He has for me in Jesus Christ I had a crazy encounter. I happened to be attending a campus ministry movie night with a girl I was dating at the time and something pretty awesome happened. Someone spoke towards the end of the event and proceeded to lead us in prayer. He encouraged all of us present to give over everything on our minds and hearts to God, whatever was burdening us, hard-pressing us, lift it up in prayer to God. I happened to be struggling with quite bit coming there that evening. I was still living the party lifestyle in college and just during the week prior I fell into some scary circumstances two different times with good friends of mine while we were drunk. These experiences scared me and had me re-thinking life and all there is, and also the hardships from my past and childhood were budding up against all of it as well. This is what I carried with me to that campus ministry gathering that evening. It was quite the heavy load. And as it came time to follow the instructions of the speaker I took him up on his offer and laid all of this on God giving it to Him. What happened next was crazy. I basically felt this presence come over me, swoop through me, and it seems as if I was lifted up in the air being held in this humongous set of hands and this sense of a whisper telling me “everything’s alright. I am here and always have been; I am with you... I am fully aware of everything, and I will take care of you.”

Now, I didn’t have quite the same response to this experience that Jacob appears to have had in his. This experience frightened me, and for the rest of the night I couldn’t help but keep looking into the sky wondering what had hit me, passed through me. Our story of Jacob says that “he was afraid”, but I believe this means in more of a reverent/worshipful way for he declares “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” That was not my response at all. We were both awe-struck, but I was flat out scared, and I also felt secure in it though too. I just didn’t understand and what had happened fully. But I’ve definitely never forgot it, and it led me sometime afterwards to worship God and want to follow and know Him more.

What happened in both of these instances (both Jacob’s and my own) is that God peals back the layers and shows that Him and His angels are right here with us, among us; they are real! Jacob has this dream and he sees this structure connecting heaven to earth and angels ascending and descending upon it and it showed him some of what is really happening, and is here all around us. You see, I think it’s very common for us to think of ourselves as us down here and God and His angels and all that short of stuff up there, somewhere off in the distance, disconnected. But Jacob’s dream shows that this is not what it’s like at all. God and His angels are right here among us, with us. They are real; Interacting with us, and nature, and everything! So, in a sense I can agree with what the children’s book says, that God and His angels are in the background, behind the scenes and we can’t necessarily see Him/them. But what gets me is that line, “there is nothing to see”, THERE IS PLENTY TO SEE among us and in us and this world! God is everywhere and in everything and when you actually see that, it’s amazing; you can’t help but be awe-struck.

And there’s at least one more thing I want to point out to you here. This is something I discovered, that God showed to me, this past week in my studying for this message. The story says that Jacob rises early in the morning and takes his stone-pillow and sets it up as a pillar in that place and pours oil over it, anointing it. It then says that “He called that place Bethel (meaning, “House of God”), but the name of the city was Luz at first.” I read that line and it struck me as odd. “Why would it tell me that the name of the city was Luz at first”? Well, I looked up the Hebrew word “Luz” and the verb form of the word means “cease in existence, be lost, departed or left.” That place where Jacob laid his head went from being known as really nothing imparticular to being renamed and discovered to be the “House of God and very gate of heaven.” It’s almost as if to say that God came into existence in that very place and therefore that place couldn’t be known for nothing and as nothing anymore. God became something real to Jacob that day. He broke into his existence; made Himself known, and knowable. Those are words I used to describe the Advent season and what Advent meant in December. God may be very much invisible, but He definitely makes Himself, and is, visible too. God is with us… May He become real to you!... Show you He is here, and may you respond with worship towards Him!

This part of Jacob’s story ends with Jacob pledging himself to God declaring that if God would be with him, keep him in his way and give him bread to eat and clothing to wear and return him safely home, he would worship and serve Him always; the Lord would be his God! That’s basically the same pledge God made to him in his dream as He said “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” This is God’s pledge to all of us and all creation. This is what He is and has been working on, keeping to… Being with us, keeping us and creation wherever we go and whatever happens, and making sure we get safely back home. I pray that He would make Himself real to you and you would pledge yourself to Him, making Him your God and giving what you have been blessed with over to Him.

Advent & Christmas, Waiting Fulfilled!...

"Purposeful Waiting: Waiting Fulfilled!" sermon from 12/26/10
Matthew 2:13-23

Have you ever set out to do something, be a part of something, etc and once you get there you have this feeling of being unsettled? Well, this last week my wife and I finally saw a movie we’ve wanted to see for a long time. About a year and a half ago or so we even tried to see it in the theater only to arrive just too late and find out it had been sold out. This was supposed to be a date night for us that we had planned for. This made us had to go back to my wife’s parents’ house who were watching our daughter and spend some time with them (which wasn’t really a bad option). The movie we wanted to see that we finally saw was “Up.” Now, I am sure many of you have seen this movie. It’s about an elderly man named Carl who sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream of a great expedition traveling to a place called Paradise Falls in South America. He has dreamed about his chance to go here for a long time, ever since he was mesmerized by an explorer named Charles Muntz and the fabulous scenery and adventure the falls had to offer. In the process of his life, Carl meets a young girl with this same dream and aspiration. They get married and multiple times set out to fulfill their dream of one day having their dream home beside Paradise Falls. It turns out that they are never able to fulfill this dream together as something unexpected always seems to come up causing them to focus their savings on that instead and starting over. The movie then reaches the point where Carl’s wife dies and it’s at this moment, near the end of his life as well, that he makes up his mind, devising a plan of tying thousands of balloons to their home in hopes of floating to Paradise Falls. That gives you some background, but there’s something else I want to focus on here quickly too. In the movie, Carl does finally reach his dream destination, house intact, right beside Paradise Falls, and there he seems to have a revelation. It wasn’t all it was cracked up to be; he was unsettled. Sure it was beautiful and he fulfilled a lifelong dream, but something still just wasn’t completely right. He had held on so tight, striven for so long, tried so hard, only to experience a let-down in the end. Thankfully this let down doesn’t last as it makes him realize some things in life that are more important and the rest of the movie is about him giving himself to those things.

I’ll ask again, have you ever been there? You set out to achieve, do, be a part of something great, but once you got there you still just had this lull in your spirit and you feel unsettled. Maybe you’re feeling this way right now, today, because Christmas can do this to us. We can put all of ourselves into Christmas, wanting to have the best one imaginable for us, our kids, and family and friends only to reach the morning after maybe having a good time, receiving/giving lots of neat things, but then there’s just this unsettled feeling within. I’ll be a little honest with you… I often feel unsettled right after Christmas, and it’s not because I didn’t get everything I wanted. Mostly it’s because I am not completely satisfied with my everyday life between Christmases, from year to year. And, basically every Christmas I am not satisfied with the life of the Gospel within and around it in our society. I am always wanting this to be better expressed, better lived out, better noticed in all of the season, and the ways in which we fall short leave me unsettled.

So, are you maybe tired? You may be pretty happy with your Christmas, but you have to admit it’s pretty taxing. You may connect with this unsettled thing, and maybe you don’t. You may be like me and can relate to the couple things I mentioned. Regardless we have reached the day after Christmas, and now what? It can be like this a Christmas hangover, you reach the day after and you have to recover for normal, everyday life has returned or will soon be here.

I wonder if this is how things were for the people back in Jesus’ day as well. They had been waiting, wanting, yearning, preparing (planning & doing), anticipating fulfillment to come by the hand of God for a long time. I am sure there was much disappointment, unsettlement, as the waiting and striving continued on. Also, even after Jesus came I am sure at least some disappointment lingered too as Jesus didn’t meet everyone’s expectations. We get to these moments and we hope that everything hasn’t been for naught. What happens now, we ask?

Well, that’s where I want to take you this morning, what happens now, after the birth of Jesus, now that He has come, now that He is here. He’s been promised, we’ve been waiting, He’s come, now what… Turn with me to Matthew 2:13-23 and follow along as I read…

13 Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 Then Joseph  got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
16 When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 20 “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” 21 Then Joseph  got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 23 There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

So, what we have here is Matthew’s telling of the days, maybe months to a certain extent, after Jesus’ birth. Matthew’s is telling us what took place after the manger scene. Most manger scenes, or live nativities, I am familiar with end with the wise men coming and offering gifts, but what happens next? It seems to me like we don’t really get there usually in recognizing Christmas, and even Advent along with it. We have the build-up, the excitement and celebration… we get there and life goes on, right? Well, then what’s the point? Why all the hoopla if that’s all there is? Well, I guess that’s the difference, we know that isn’t all there is. There’s something more, something bigger, something behind it all, and because of it things aren’t like they always have been. Life as we know it, as the people in Jesus’ day knew it, was profoundly affected by this event. Really, there is more going on here than meets the eye (Transformers anyone…?), and there is in all of life. Behind life as we know it is a story, a drama unfolding that we are all a part of whether we take notice of it or not. That’s what the passage we just read from shows us. Let’s go back and take a closer look…

Verse 13 picks up right after the wise men left to return to their own country. Right away we can tell that the wise men and Mary and Joseph know that life isn’t just the same old, same old anymore (is it ever, really?—this implies that nothing’s really happening amidst it all, nothing’s really going on around us, everything’s just always the same). The wise men leave and it says in verse 12 that they went home a different way than which they came. Life as they knew it had changed and they couldn’t go back the way they came. As we encounter Mary and Joseph in the verses we read from as well we can see that they find themselves within this greater drama going on around them too, and they seem well aware of it all. So that’s at least one thing to take away from this passage… Life as we know it isn’t just life as we know it or the same old, same old. There is something going on, being played out, amidst it all… More than meets the eye…

So again, our passage leads us into some of the unfolding drama within as it says, “Now after they had left (the wise men), an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream (one indication that some more is going on here) and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.” Then the passage says, “This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’” That’s the phrase I want us to take notice of this morning, “This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet…” This phrase alone is repeated two more times as Joseph and Mary continue to live and act within the greater story going on, unfolding among them in regards to the Christ child as it says in verse 17, “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah…” and in vs. 23, which reads “so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, ‘He will be called a Nazorean.’” What Matthew is pointing out is the answer to the question I brought up in the introduction…, He’s been promised, we’ve been waiting, He’s come, now what? Well, now the stage is set for the fulfillment of what has been promised, and it appears that God doesn’t waste any time. In the matter of 10 verses and three different but related strings of events, the prophecies of Jesus begin being fulfilled, almost like a domino effect… One right after another!

As I said in the Christmas Eve message Friday night, God promises to use our uncertain times (they’re not uncertain to Him) to accomplish in the fullness of time His bigger and better purposes all around the world, and deep within us. That’s what God (as Father, Son, & Holy Spirit) has been doing since the very beginning. So what does this mean for us? Well, we can be confident in knowing that God knows what He’s doing, has a plan, and is (always has been) working out that plan.

It has been counted by many that there are over 300 (most references I found say about 360) prophecies foretold about Jesus the Messiah, and Jesus fulfills every one of them! We see three right in our passage for today and there’s already some that precede these as it had been foretold that a virgin would be with child and give birth to a son, his name is to be Immanuel meaning “God with us” and Jesus meaning “he saves”, he would be born in Bethlehem, he would come from the line of David and the people of Judah, and so on, and so on… Do you realize how absurd this is?! 360 prophecies foretold, many even hundreds and thousands of years before Jesus was born and He then fulfills them all! Seriously, I could have ten coins in my hand and the probability that I could shake them up, pour them out, and they would all come up heads (or tails) is about 1 and 1000. Anyone here seen the movie Dumb & Dumber? Well, I love that part where Jim Carey’s character, Lloyd, is asking his love interest, Mary, what his chances are that they could end up together. She replies, “Oh, about one out of a million.” To which Lloyd says, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!” Well, that’s kind of like what I am getting at here, but to a whole nether level entirely! Get this (this is out of a devotional book I’ve been reading), if you add together the probabilities of just 13 independent and non-related prophecies being correct, the chances are 1 in 10 to the 138th power (that’s 10 with 138 zeros behind it!) of them all being fulfilled. And then another crazy thing about Biblical prophecies is that they aren’t just independent and non-related. They’re all interconnected, and that’s even more unheard of considering that many were told 100’s or years apart and by completely different people who didn’t even know each other. This goes to show that there is something of insurmountable proportions going on in all things, and we are smack-dab in the middle of it!

This is why I have entitled this message for this morning Waiting Fulfilled. For the last 5 Sundays now we have been hearing messages about the Advent season tied to the theme of waiting. I have tried to get across to you that something is upon us. That’s what Advent is all about. It’s the sense or recognition that something is upon us, is on the verge or brink, the cusp of breaking into our existence; of making his presence known. God literally does this! He Himself breaks into our existence making Himself known in a whole new and glorious way. It is because of this I have tried to make the argument these last so many Sundays that in light of our present Advent of today as we find ourselves waiting as well for Christ to come again, what is upon us, we can wait Hope-filled, Love-filled, Peace-filled, & Joy-filled. Well, what we find here, in our passage for this morning, is that for the people of Jesus’ day, their waiting had been finally fulfilled! They saw what had been promised unfold right before their very eyes. Can you imagine having that experience?

Well, we can have that experience today too. I’ll tell ya, and I know I am not the only crazy one (and I am not on drugs or drunk either), but I see God at work all over the place. It’s not always easy or clear, but the closer I get to this story (hold up the Bible), the more I understand my own story and the one unfolding all around me. The closer I get to this story and understanding my own within it, the more fulfillment I see within and around me and the less unsettled I become. This is much the reason why I believed and became a Christian in the first place… It’s was like a light went off… God has been at work since the very day I believed, and even way before that. I know because my life has gone in the direction it has solely because of Him! Right here, in my hand (hold up the Bible), are the tellings of His story throughout all time, and even beyond. You want to get cued in to the story? Do you want to experience fulfillment in your life and the world around you, especially considering all that happens, all you do, and have striven and waited for? It’s right here, in God's Word, in Jesus Christ! Let it/Him open your eyes, fill & change your heart, direct your life, and Jesus will become your source of life until when all things are fulfilled, and beyond!

Fall Jeremiah Series, Fought For Love...

"Symbols of an Everlasting Love: A Fought For Love" sermon from 10/24/10, Jeremiah 25:15-29

So this morning we enter into our 7th week on our current sermon series through the OT book of Jeremiah. We have been engaging this OT book through the use of symbols in which God shows to Jeremiah that have messages to him and God’s people within them. The title of this series has been Symbols of an Everlasting Love for that is the message behind the messages. For the people remember God saying to them in Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Behind all of God’s actions, everything He does and says, is His everlasting love. Love is such a complex subject. There really is a lot to it. I Corinthians 13 proves this as it says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.” It is my hope that through this series we have come into contact with more of the fullness of God’s love and the many ways it is expressed and shown by Him to His people. We have already looked at this in a variety of ways. First, we know God’s love for us in how He knows us deeply to the core, and how He calls us, seeks us out to join Him and be a part of what He is doing. Secondly we know His love toward us is a FULL love and also a committed love. He has devoted and committed Himself to us and He desires us to do the same with Him. Thirdly we’ve talked about two wonderful aspects of God’s love toward us; God as the Potter and we the clay, and also God as the Great Shepherd and we the flock under His great care and leadership and sending of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, to be the Lord Our Righteousness. Finally then, last week we talked about how all these things put together develop in us a Ripened Love in our hearts toward God. A state in which we are ready, willing, and wanting to know God more and be His; in this we offer ourselves as a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; God takes pleasure in us as first-ripe, delightful fruit.

Today we enter into yet another aspect of God’s love toward/for us, but I am not sure it’s an easy one. As we have been on this journey through the book of Jeremiah I have known this Sunday was coming and truthfully it’s had me a little concerned because I’ve wondered how I would approach it. You see, the plan we have been using through Jeremiah is from a Bible study format I have followed in the past. So I didn’t totally come up with this by myself and I am aware of where we’re going each week. Our passage for this morning follows the same theme of symbolism with a message, but it also shows God in a way I am not sure is easy to perceive Him as; that is angry.

Many of us have heard the description of God from Scripture (and I use it quite often and am quite fond of it) that God is “The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…” We speak easily and often of His steadfast love and faithfulness, and even His mercy and grace; it’s easy to come away feeling especially loved experiencing & connecting ourselves to these things. But when was the last time we took a look at something else mentioned in that description; God’s anger (slow as it may be)? The image of God’s wrath I think we can easily avoid greatly (truthfully I don’t really like thinking about it either). I am thankful for the description I just mentioned in that it says God is slow to anger, but it doesn’t say He is without anger. Also, the description of love found in I Corinthians 13 says that love is not easily angered, again it doesn’t say without anger or not angered. How are we to understand God’s anger in light of His love? That’s an important question, and one that I hope we can engage well this morning. First off, just as we talked about love being different then we think (never in a song or on a tv screen…) during our message on Worshipful Love, so is anger (God’s anger) different then we think. When we think of anger we think of someone who gets mad or ticked off at something. God’s anger is much more deeply profound than this. God’s anger is centered on injustice, and He’ll do whatever it takes to make things right. Another thing that comes to my mind is that I think we can have a tendency to only want to picture, esteem, and think of God as only a “nice” (kind, polite, etc) God. However, I don’t think this does God and His being complete justice. In our passage for today God declares that He cannot withhold His anger forever towards His people or anyone. Justice will be His, meaning all things He will make right! Ultimately God must act in a way in which complete justice is served. But in this I believe we can see another aspect of God’s love, what I am calling A Fought for Love. Before talking too much more, let’s open our Bibles to Jeremiah 25 and read verses 15-29…

15 For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16 They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.
17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: 18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, an object of hissing and of cursing, as they are today; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people; 20 all the mixed people; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines—Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; 22 all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea; 23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have shaven temples; 24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples that live in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; 26 all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach shall drink.
27 Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, get drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.
28 And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink! 29 See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.

And again then, here we have another message from God to Jeremiah with specific imagery in it. The symbol within this passage is a wine cup and I have this represented here in this wine-cup to my left. There is also imagery of wine cups in front of me on our Communion table. The wine cup in today’s passage holds different connotations to it than these I have here and ones we’ve become accustomed to in church settings. The wine cup God showed to Jeremiah is said to be a cup of wrath. Now I feel like I can’t help but admit that this is a tough passage and subject to dive into today. I pray God helps me do it well and in a way that is pleasing and honoring to Him. Also, I pray as we get to the end and see the full extent of what God did in order for there to be justice and make things right that we’ll respond to Him even more in love and worship. So let’s run through what’s happening here in this passage then… Let me set the stage...

“For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to [Jeremiah]: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.” Jeremiah was instructed to take a wine cup from the hand of God and make many nations drink of it; 17 nations to be exact. This wine cup would make them stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword God was going to send among them. What is this sword? Well, most often in God’s Word His very Word is said to be a sword. Because of this I connect what’s happening here with I Corinthians 1 starting at verse 18 where Paul says, “For the message about the cross is foolishness (idiocy, out of one’s right mind, like being drunk) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And Paul goes on to say in the second part of verse 20, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” This was how God was going to display His anger and bring justice, as well as thwart the nations; through the message of Christ crucified!

You see, the description of Jews and Gentiles used by Paul covers the nations God instructs Jeremiah to make drink of the wine cup of wrath. The first nation listed to drink is Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials; in other words, the Jews. Secondly, the rest of the nations listed are those of the Gentile nations, basically everyone else, because in Paul’s day you were either a Jew (a descendant of Jerusalem, Judah, and therefore Israel) or a Gentile (of other origin). What the passage signifies is the coming judgment to all peoples. First, we are already aware of God’s judgment on His very own people in their taking out of their land and homes and into exile. This was done because the people turned from God to other nations and their gods (basically the other nations mentioned in our passage today). And to be just, God couldn’t just let His own people suffer as verse 29 tells us as it says, “See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment?” If God’s very own people were going to suffer so were those nations who never called on His name, led His people astray, and never really loved Him or His people. It was declared in our passage and also earlier in Jeremiah 25 what the extent of all this would be. Those who drink of the cup would fall to rise no more and God’s people who suffered defeat at the hands of Babylon and were in exile would remain so for 70 years but God’s hand wouldn’t remain against them forever (verse 25:11-12). As we saw last week, He would keep His eyes on them, bring them back, build them up, plant them, give them a heart to know God, and be their God. For these are His people, His beloved; He couldn’t just leave things in this state! SO HE INTERVENED! He did so by bringing physical destruction to these other nations; that’s how God’s people were finally able to return to the land after 70 years. However, how He did so in a much more lasting way as well in which we’ve already looked at… through the message of Christ crucified…

You see, this imagery of a wine cup is weaved throughout Scripture and God’s greater story. Now, I am sure I can’t get to the complete greater depths of this imagery, however let me just show you how this is linked to Christ and the Gospel. If you follow the account of Jesus in the Gospels you come to the night when Jesus was betrayed… When we hear those words (or at least when I do) we think of the Lord’s Supper for its often recited… “On the night when Jesus was betrayed He took the bread… in the same manner also after they had eaten Jesus took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new testament in my blood given for the forgiveness of sins…" When we partake in the Lord’s Supper we partake in the body of Christ broken for us and the blood of Christ shed for us as we remember and claim for ourselves the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And as John 6:54 says, “Those who eat my (Jesus’) flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day…” This small verse ties back into our passage from Jeremiah. Those who remember and claim for themselves the sacrifice of Christ on the cross will be raised on the last day. Whereas those mentioned In Jeremiah 25 and those to whom the message of Christ crucified is foolishness will fall and rise no more. For you see, after Jesus has His Last Supper with His disciples He goes with them to the Garden of Gethsemane where while there Jesus is deeply grieved and falls on the ground in prayer, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, but not My will, but Yours be done (Matt 26:39).” Jesus takes on Himself the cup of God’s wrath, the cup of God’s punishment to mankind, therefore providing a means for those who believe to be raised on the last day, saved from judgment by the power of God.

Now, I have to bring this in… My wife has done a great job with the bulletin; especially this week as she hasn’t been feeling the greatest. And she picked out a great quote for this message for the “wisdom from the back page” in your bulletins. Check it out with me… Martin Luther once said, "Christ took our sins and the sins of the whole world as well as the Father's wrath on his shoulders, and he has drowned them both in himself so that we are thereby reconciled to God and become completely righteous.” Now that’s the Gospel! This is how God made things right. Injustice broke into the world when Satan disbanded himself from God. Ever since God has been working, fighting, providing to make things right and redeem His creation. The greatest of His works has already been done, and the next greatest is yet to come; the 2nd coming of Christ and the resurrection of mankind. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did send His Son into the world to condemn the world (leave it in its judgment) but to save the world through Him (John 3:16-17).”

So, why do I call what’s shown in this passage of Jeremiah 25 and God’s cup of wrath for the nations “A Fought for Love”? Well, because that’s what the Gospel story (the message of Christ crucified) shows me, a God who is willing to go to the greatest lengths and depths to win back those whom He loves with an everlasting love! God wasn’t willing to give up. He knew justice had to be fulfilled and all things made right, and He provided for the perfect means of doing so. Read Isaiah 43:8-14 (I just added this last night, but to me this is a great example of this…)

Ultimately, the theme of Jeremiah is judgment followed by redemption. That’s what we see for the people of God throughout the book and Jeremiah’s ministry to them. I’d say this too is the over-arching theme of God’s complete greater story in Christ Jesus as well; judgment followed by redemption. One question I think we need to ask ourselves (if you take anything away from this message it should be this) in light of the things I’ve covered for today is (at least I had to ask myself this this past week)… Do you serve a passive God? One characterized by niceness, kindness, being polite and “loving” in that sense… Or, Do you serve an extremely passionate God? One whose passion drives Him to fight for those whom He loves and provide redemption even at the greatest cost of Himself! If your answer is the latter, there’s only one thing left to do; repent and believe, give your heart and your life to God your everlasting Lover!

Fall Jeremiah Series, Ripened Love...

"Symbols of an Everlasting Love: Ripened Love" sermon from 10/17/10, Jeremiah 24:1-8

Have you ever felt like you were extended good fortune because you haven’t had to endure certain thing(s) that another has had to? Or, maybe you’ve considered certain things in your life to be blessings or curses that aren’t necessarily. Sometimes things that seem like good fortune turn out not to be, and sometimes things that seem like bad fortune turn out to be for your good, or not as bad as you suspected. Most of you are probably familiar with the phrase blessing in disguise. I had a little experience with this earlier this past week. Not necessarily a blessing in disguise from what I can tell, but Monday morning my wife, daughter, and I went to visit a shut-in of ours and as we were getting back into our car to leave I did what I often do while strapping our daughter into her carseat; I placed my Bible and daily planner on top of the car with intentions of crabbing it before getting in the front seat and driving off. Well, I imagine you can all guess what happened next. I totally forgot about my Bible and planner, proceeded to get in the front seat, and took off. Twenty minutes later when we arrived back at the parsonage I realized what had happened, and suddenly my day was ruined! Does this ever happen to any of you? Something “out of the ordinary” happens and it just sets your whole day off. Suddenly it seems like something is against you and it’s hard to get past it. This sort of thing happens with me and sports too. I have learned that I have to be careful on Sundays while watching football because it’s been easy for me to let how the Packers game turns out dictate the rest of the day. Seriously, this seems ridiculous, but I’ve had problem with this in the past. Some of you just lost all respect for me out there with that confession (last night was a great night in sports, BTW). What I am getting at here though is that it’s easy for us to have a warped view of blessing and curses (good/bad fortune). It’s easy to think that if “good” things are happening in our lives (i.e. good weather, good health, prosperity) God must be on our side (and that may be true), and if seemingly “bad” things are happening that God/world is against us, we’ve been cut off, or we’ve done something wrong, etc. These are the sort of things we will be exploring in our message for this morning.

So, let me back up and give a quick run-down again of the things we have talked about in our current message series. We have been following a series based on the OT book of Jeremiah through the use of symbols in which God shows to Jeremiah that have messages to him and God’s people within them. The title of this series has been Symbols of an Everlasting Love for that is the message behind the messages. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Behind all of God’s actions, everything He does and says, is His everlasting love. We began this series with visiting Jeremiah’s call story as we discussed how as God’s people we are Deeply Known and Lovingly Called; God deeply knows who we are and has a plan and purpose for each of us. After that we got into our first message tied to a symbol as we looked at what God had to say to the people through Jeremiah as he stood in front of the temple of the Lord and expressed God’s desire for a Worshipful Love (deep, devoted, close love) between us and Him; not just a love where our perceived needs are met. From there we continued on with another aspect of our love relationship with God and talked about Committed Love and how it can become spoiled and rotten if we don’t nurture it properly and leave it to become dried up or maybe even swept away under something. And for the last two weeks we have looked at two aspects of God’s love toward us; God’s Shaping Love as He is the Potter and we are the clay & His Shepherdly Love as He is the true Great Shepherd always tending to His flock as is needed and He sent the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ that He might be for us The Lord, Our Righteousness. This morning then, we will move ahead with a message I am calling, Ripened Love as we look at Jeremiah 24. Turn their with me in your Bibles and I will read verses 1-8…

24 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. This was after King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the artisans, and the smiths, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 5 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. 8 But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt.

So, once again, God has a peculiar message for Jeremiah and the people of Judah centered around a symbolic vision He gives to Jeremiah. So far we have looked at four others, each with a specific message for Jeremiah and the people dealing with something to do with their present circumstances. Today in God’s message for Jeremiah He shows Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket full of good, first-ripe figs, and the other filled with bad, non-edible figs. I have this sort of represented here to my left in this basket and the fruit décor within it. This at least gives you a picture of what Jeremiah saw. What is God trying to get across to Jeremiah and the people this time?

Well, as with all the messages in this series, the imagery is specific; specific to the people’s circumstance and to the symbol and what it represents in itself. So again, our passage opens with saying, “The Lord showed me (Jeremiah) two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. This was after King Nebuchadrezzer of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the artisans, and the smiths, and had brought them to Babylon.” So let’s break that first verse down. The Lord showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs placed before the Temple. This represents two sets of people before the Temple of the Lord. Secondly, Jeremiah continues to place this vision within the context of the day and the peoples’ circumstances. He tells us that this had occurred after the people had been taken into exile in Babylon, the land to the north.

The passage then goes on to say, “One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’ I said, ‘Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs, very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.’” As a quick side not, I chuckle sometimes in hearing Jeremiah’s response to what he saw. It sounds sort of like caveman speak… This just goes to show me that visions from God, or things He may show you and/or me in His Word, conversation, prayer, etc aren’t necessarily all that complicated (rocket science). Visions from God are both simple and yet compelling at the same time. I just say that to encourage you against thinking that all of God’s messages are extremely complicated, or our tendency to complicate the message ourselves because we think, anything from God must be complicated. God speaks to His people in terms, visions, etc they can understand. That’s how He’ll speak to you too.

Getting back to verses 2-3 then, Jeremiah sees two baskets of figs, one with very good, like first-ripe figs, and another very bad, non-edible figs. These were placed before the Temple of the Lord. One thing this stood for is the offering up of first fruits to God. Those very good, first-ripe figs were who God considered to be a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Himself. These were like first-ripe figs, the most tasty and delightful; worthy of preservation, saving, and cherishing for all time! The other group, the very bad, non-edible figs are then the opposite; not worth much, dirty, dried up, spoiled, etc. We’ve heard these descriptions in our sermon series already (dirty, dried up, spoiled, good for nothing) in reference to Jeremiah and God’s people of Judah, but who was God using them in reference to here? That’s what the rest of Jeremiah 24 fills us in on.

Verses 4-8 go on to say, “Then the word of the Lord came to me (Jeremiah): ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans (a.k.a. Babylonians). I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. But thus says the Lord: like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so I will treat King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt.” Here’s where my opening questions on good/bad fortune come in. How would you have felt to be among the many taken into exile; those not able to stay in the land and their homes? And then let’s turn that around. How would you have felt to be among those who stayed in the land and didn’t necessarily lose their home or were able to somehow escape to Egypt? I imagine if you were among these second people you may think some good fortune had come your way. How else could you explain not experiencing some of what the many others had to go through? You may even have said thank you to God for such “good fortune”.

God turns this sort of logic around on the people though. He declares the opposite of what you might think. God’s people, those that endured being sent away, being torn down, plucked up, scattered, not attended to by their shepherds, etc. These were who God regarded as very good, first-ripe fruit. The others, those who remained in the land or sought to escape harm were those to be considered bad, non-edible (spoiled, marred, etc) fruit. The “bad fortune” of those taken away to exile God was going to turn to good. Some of you may recall a similar thing happening to the OT character of Joseph in Genesis, a son of Jacob/Israel. If you remember he was thrown into a pit and sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph had to endure many years of trial and struggle, but he also had the Lord’s good favor with him every step of the way. At the end of the story Joseph is exalted and it seems like his good fortune finally matches his favor and as he is reunited with his brothers he has this to say them, “Do not be afraid (they had reason to fear for their brother they had cruelly mistreated had been placed in power over them)! Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20).” I think of this same sort of thing in light of the Chilean miners who had been trapped underground and now rescued just the other day. They could have very easily felt like “bad fortune” had come their way, and some of them probably did (at least for a time). But their story has been turned into one of hope and amazement and awe where the miners themselves show immense courage and survive-ability (if that’s even a word), and people, a nation, and others come together to help, watch and cheer the saving of their lives. Also, listen to this email I received from a friend of mine who works for Campus Crusade for Christ here in the U.S… (email not available).

Well, God was now going to do this same type of thing with His people, Israel who had endured exile and great trial (and who were enduring it at the time of this message). His favor was with them through it all and He had what I count to be six promises for His people: 1) setting His eyes on them for good, 2) bringing them back to the land, 3) building them up, 4) planting them, 5) giving them a heart to know the Lord, and 6) being their God. Such are the things that mark those whom God loves with an everlasting love!

God does this with us today too… Listen to this passage from I Corinthians 1:26-31, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” You see, none of us have been saved by God because of some “good fortune” afforded to us or some higher standing we may have on this earth. That’s the opposite of grace! God regards those He calls highly just because of who they are; His creation, those He loves. You and I are afforded salvation not for anything we have done or can do, but because of God’s love and grace extended to us in Jesus Christ His Son. Those of us in the faith may not look like much, may not have much, may endure many trials, but God is with us, and therefore who can be against us!

There’s still something else to point out in this passage as well; God desires to make His people ripe for the picking! Jesus says in Mark 4:26-29, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with this sickle, because the harvest has come.” This is what God does among His people. In this are the things we’ve talked about over this series of God and His everlasting love. In the seeds being planted, He’s the one who plants, waters (cares for and watches over), grows (shapes & leads as the Potter and Great Shepherd), and then HARVESTS; picks His people when they are ripe for the picking; ripened for an intimate love affair with their God, the Planter, Potter, Shepherd, and Lover!

When You’re In Love; A Heart to Know God, Returning to Him With Your Whole Heart:
One last thing then… I have brought this book Crazy Love up in this series before and I said I refer to it here and there throughout it. Well, I want to read another exert from it (pg 100)… This is the type of love, Ripened Love, God wants with His children. This isn’t a love sprung out of duty or obligation or guilt (all of which can be much of our reasoning for in our attempts to be close to God). It’s a love sprung out of a ripe craving to know God and love Him more over all else, because all else doesn’t measure up to God and the love afforded through Christ Jesus our Lord. Who as Paul says, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ...” (Phil 3:8-9). Paul’s great craving, tenacity, exemplary life of faith sprung out of a ripe love God had grown up in his heart. I pray our desire would be that God would do a similar ripening in each of our own hearts, giving us a heart to know Him and returning us to Him with our whole hearts!