I Am God . . .
And You Are
Not!
Sermon for September 18, 2005
1. Good Morning!
Let’s Pray. O
Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing
to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen!
2. Opening comments: Well as I read the readings for this morning again and again a theme began to emerge and another Psalm – other than the one we read this morning - came immediately to mind. Please listen as I read Psalm 46 (if you have your own Bibles please turn with me to Psalm 46) and see if you can discern the theme:
Psa. 46:1 God is our
refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though
the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and
the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of
Verse 10 “Be sill, and know that I am God,” and I would humbly add 4 additional words – before you judge me for adding anything to God’s Holy Word – listen to what they are, “Be still, and know that I am God – AND YOU ARE NOT.”
Be still and know
that I am God . . . and you are not.
Yes, the theme is
God’s absolute sovereignty – God is God and you and I are not!
God is not
beholding to us but rather we are subject to Him! He is God and we are not!
God in Christ
mediated to us in the Holy Spirit is our all in all! He is everything! He completes everything. Without Him all eventually turns to dust!
How hard that
reality is to grasp!
3. But there’s ONE
other cardinal reality in our readings that is paramount and
critical to our reflections this morning – see if you can discern what it is as
I read the Gospel reading again:
Matt. 20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went
out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed
to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into
his vineyard.
Matt. 20:3
“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace
doing nothing. 4 He told them,
‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is
right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour
and did the same thing. 6 About
the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked
them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
Matt. 20:7
“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
Matt. 20:8
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the
workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going
on to the first.’
Matt. 20:9
“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10
So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But
each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began
to grumble against the landowner. 12
‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have
made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the
day.’
Matt. 20:13
“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you
agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to
give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I
want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Matt. 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Now I’d be
prepared to bet that most of us would react to this parable with a sense of
injustice. We’d tend to side with those
day laborers who had worked a whole 12 hours when they say their fellow workers
who had only worked a few hours getting paid the same amount as they had!
But there are
deeper more dominant themes running through this parable – can you see what
they are?
Look with me at verse 15: 15 Don’t I (God) have the right to do what I want with my own money?
Ah! Here’s the sovereignty theme - God is God and
He decides who gets what. In God’s
economy – “The last will be first, and the first will be last!”
We are subject to
God judgment – He is not subject to ours.
But look with me at the end
of verse 15: 15 Don’t I God have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or
are you envious because I am
generous?’
This is the second and dominant theme
of our readings today – God’s infinite generosity!
God’s generosity supersedes His justice! Justice would demand that the later workers
would get less but God’s generosity overrules His justice!
Thank God that this is true – were I to get what I justly deserved I would be frying in hell right now!
We see this theme of
generosity echoed in our Psalm reading for
today especially verses 8 and 9:
Psa. 145:8 The LORD is
gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. 9 The LORD is good to all; he has
compassion on all he has made.
The LORD is good
to all – even those who really don’t
deserve it – He has compassion on ALL He has made! – On all of Creation!
Let us never
forget the rejoinder in the Isaiah passage
– Isaiah 55: 8 “For my thoughts –
God’s thoughts - are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
God is God and
you and I are not!
Thank God for were “I” God –
all would get their just reward! – the tragedy of New Orleans would seem like
child’s play - were my sense of justice to rule the earth for just a day!
But thanks be to God – His thoughts are not my thoughts, neither are
my ways His ways!”
Let us never be envious of God’s infinite generosity – rather let us thank Him for it . . . again and again!
4. But there’s something else that needs to be focused upon here – its an imperative – a call to action! And it’s found in our Psalm reading.
Please turn back with me to
Psalm 145 beginning at verse 17 and concluding
with verse 18.
The first verse i.e., verse 17, summarizes what we’ve discovered so far
and this is that God is right in all that He does but He is also always and
ever loving and compassionate to all!
But it’s in verse 18 that we hear God challenging us! Please listen now as I read Psalm 145 verses
17 and 18:
Psa. 145:17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways and loving toward
all he has made. 18 The LORD is
near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Ah! We must call on Him!
The Hebrew word for “call” is arq (karah) and its basic meaning is “to draw someone’s attention with the sound of the voice in order to establish contact.”
It’s word indicating action! It’s not a passive word – Truly the Lord is near to all who “call upon Him!” - who get His attention – make contact with Him - with the “sound” of their voice!
Listen to another passage with the same meaning:
James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
God is inviting
us to “Call upon Him!” – to draw near to Him and He promises to draw near to us
– in all of His sovereign power and all of His Godly compassion!
What a majestic
promise!
Draw near to God
and He will draw near to You!
5.
Application: Now we
come to place where we must bring all of this to bear on our lives today.
God is God and
infinitely sovereign but God is also infinitely merciful and His mercy always
overrules His justice.
But the fact is
that we must “call” upon God – we must get His attention, as it were, in order
to establish contact with Him. We must
draw near to Him and He most assuredly will draw near to us.
Do you need to experience God’s infinite sovereignty in your
lives right now.
Do you need to know that God is in charge of everything in your lives –
RIGHT NOW?
Do you need to experience God’s infinite compassion – His
infinite mercy – His loving kindness? Is
there something in your life right now that has robbed you of a sense of God’s
love for you or those you love?
Then this morning
we together are going to “CALL UPON OUR GOD” and invite Him to touch us at
those places that we need His touch.
Remember now He
promises to draw near to us as we draw near to Him – as we “CALL” upon Him!
In the Book of Romans chapter10 verses 11-12 we read:
11 . . . “Anyone who
trusts in God will never be put to shame.”
12 For there’s no difference
between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”
All right in a few moments I’m going to “call upon the Lord” come and bless us!
I want to invite you right now to prepare yourselves for
this. Some
of you may simply wish to remain seated while others of us may wish to kneel
right where we are. Others may prefer to
come out into the aisle and kneel or stand with their heads bowed. Still others of us may wish to come forward
and kneel before the altar.
Please prepare
yourselves right now to call upon our Lord!
Now that we’re
ready – let’s pray “O Lord – sovereign and righteous and merciful Lord – we
call upon You – we invite You to come upon each and
every one of us with Your infinite power and Your infinite mercy. Come upon us blessed Lord – reveal Yourself to us! Show
us your infinite power and Your infinite mercy.
O Lord many of us
need Your touch today.
We need to know that You’re here with us in the
middle of our trials. We need, O Lord,
Your touch!” Come – we call upon you now
to touch us – to reveal Yourself to us.
Many of us also
Lord need you to touch us with your infinite mercy – Your infinite loving
kindness – Your love. O Lord we call
upon you to bless us with a sense of Your Presence right here amongst us – with
each and every one of us. . . .
Amen!