Guidance: God Guides Us!
Sermon Text for Sunday February 1, 2009
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: As I read the Scripture readings for today
the idea of “God’s guidance kept coming to mind and the more I read them the
clearer and clearer that theme was revealed.
I believe that God wants to remind us all today that He will guide us
all through the calms and storms of our lives.
“He will guide us” – what are we getting at here? If you spend any amount of time reading the
Bible you will sooner or later get the idea that God loves you and has a plan
for you and is seeking to guide you into that plan. The challenge then is to submit to God’s
guidance even when it doesn’t seem to make sense.
This idea is so contrary to the
prevailing modern mindset that claims that we captains of our own fate and that
if we don’t take charge nobody will. And
so
We know the answer to this don’t we – she would
become the
But today we stand in a nation
driven by a culture defined by one’s bank account or one’s potential to have a
large bank account or by one’s ability to get the job done no matter what! It’s a culture that looks at the Christian
virtues with sad eyes but inevitably chooses for the way to power in this
world. We are, in many ways, like the
rich young ruler who wanted the
God will guide us into His plan
for us – but His plans may very well not be the plans we would choose for
ourselves!
How many men and women have you
known who have spent massive amounts of time, money
and energy seeking a dream that always seemed to elude them. O yes, a few achieved it, but I would venture
to suggest that when they got it they still had their insatiable desires
driving them to more and more. There’s
never enough for the soul driven by fear or greed for at the end of the day the
material achievements cannot satisfy a soul made to be complete only when in
perfect relationship with his or her Creator.
Nothing else satisfies. Truly
Do you believe
as a Christian that God has a plan for your life and that if you can learn to
listen for His guidance He will lead you sometimes miraculously and yes most
times through very ordinary means into that perfect plan He has designed just
for you. Incidentally, He designed you
just for it too!
An Example:
Last week I visited with Chaplain Ann Marie and Chaplain Megan Hoose. I was on a
scouting expedition. I’m always looking
for areas of need that we at TCC may be used either in a volunteer capacity of
even in a paid capacity. I’m always
looking for ministry positions to plug our people into – ha!
Anyway as our conversation
began to come to an end I was asked about our people and what TCC was all about. I mentioned our focus on discipleship and the
belief that we are made in the image of God and then I told them about the idea
that George MacDonald believes that the human imagination is the “imago Dei” in
us!
Now when I said that Megan Hoose gasped and her eyes welled up and she exclaimed “That
was the title of my Theology thesis at Northeastern Seminary!”
And I exclaimed, “I suspect
that this is perhaps the primary reason I’m here today! God is so so good
isn’t He?”
Well we exchanged emails and I
promised to send her the documents written about this by George MacDonald and a
few others and she promised to send me her thesis. I don’t think this chapter is finished yet-
God has a few more surprises up His sleeve.
Who knows what God has in mind
but can you grasp the odds against the two of us knowing about our common
interest were it not for the sovereign guidance of God?
Can anyone relate to what I’m
saying here?
3. Focus on Scripture. So let’s turn to God’s Word to see what we
can learn about God’s guidance in our lives shall we?
I’m going to summarize what our
4 readings briefly tell us about guidance and then I’m going to focus a little more deeply on our first reading in
Deuteronomy.
So in our reading from Deuteronomy we heard
the prophet Moses telling his people that God was going to raise up a leader
from their own midst and put His own words in his mouth. In other words God was going to guide them
through prophets who must speak His words and His words only and thereby God
will guide His people. God never left
His people without guidance.
Woe unto that prophet who
didn’t speak God’s words. His punishment
was death. I suspected that there are a
lot of “wannabe” prophets who are glad that this penalty is not carried out on
them. The modern day abuse of the
prophetic “word” is not only testimony of the lack of fear of these wannabe
prophets purporting to speak God’s words for Him but also the lack of real
spiritual authority in the Church which is willing and able to rebuff these prophets.
In our Responsorial Psalm God is promising to
guide us but we must promise not to harden our hearts so as to not be able to
hear and respond to His guidance.
Ah! Our hard hearts which deafen
our ears to God’s many nudgings throughout our
days.
If you can’t hear from God it
may be that you need to soften your hearts to Him.
Now how do you do that? How can you and I soften our hearts so that
we can hear God’s guidance for us?
The fact is that we most
certainly can harden our hearts so how then can we either not harden them or in
the event that they are hardened – how can we soften our hearts?
A few of the Beatitudes speak directly to that
question:
Matt. 5:8 Blessed
are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Matt. 5:9 Blessed
are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Reading God’s word softens our hearts – makes
them supple – tender to God’s whisperings.
God promises us that if we draw near to Him He will most assuredly draw
near to us – James 4.
Quiet waiting prayer softens our hearts. Times of solitude – just sitting in His press
I’ve often found that when I
withdraw into God’s Presence He invariable meets me there and my challenge is
to learn His language – the subtlety of His promptings. It has been said that God is a
gentleman. Yes, in most cases He is but
there are times when God hits me over the head with a four by four.
I believe that our God is
always and ever calling us to find Him behind and under His many
disguises. The fundamental disposition
of looking for our beloved Lord in all things keeps our hearts ever watchful
for Him and thus subtle and tender.
In our Second
To be able to hear from God was
have to set Him and His guidance at the highest priority in our lives so that
when He speaks to us we are ready to hear from Him. We must keep our hearts always tuned into
Him! And not let anything or anybody else
get between us and Him.
And finally our Gospel reading we see Jesus,
God incarnate, teaching the people.
Jesus came to teach us the way of return to His Father – our Father –
through Him. God the Father,
sent God the Son to guide us back to Him.
Can you see it – God is always seeking to guide you and me back to Him!
This is not rocket science – its
being willing to pay attention to the Savior of our Souls!
Now I want to return to the reading from Deuteronomy
for a moment: Remember now the prophet
Moses is speaking:
Deut. 18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. Ah – did you hear that a prophet is not self-proclaimed but rather is “raised up by God. He or she is a gift to us from God. Let’s read on: 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
Deut. 18:17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; Ah! Did you hear that the profit is not an outsider, but is called forth from among the people. Let’s read on: I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. Ah! Another lesson – the prophet must speak God’s words not his or her own! Now this is the tricky part – how to know what is or what is not of God – that ability to know the difference is known as the spiritual gift of discernment. A pastor had better have this gift or the Church will be in trouble. And the pastor had better exercise that gift with great wisdom and humility never assuming that his discernment is without error and for that reason we have formed a “Prophesy discernment group” that I will call into session if a prophesy comes to me that I am not sure about and even if I am sure I may choose to assemble them to validate or invalidate my discernment. There is great wisdom is the council of many.
Now let’s read on: 19 If anyone
does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will
call him to account. Now listen to the
last verse, verse 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I
have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other
gods, must be put to death.”
I suspect that many wannabe
prophets are very very happy that this last verse is
no longer literally applied – ha!
4. Primary
focus: Now the primary focus for
this reflection is that God will guide us in whatever way He chooses and our
challenge is to pay attention to Him.
Before we close I think it wise
to ask yourself this fundamental question – “Do I really
believe that God wants to guide me and will guide ME?”
Oh, most of probably understand
and believe that God guided some super prophets and some good men and women
throughout the ages but do we really believe that God wants to guide US – you
and me?
Think about that for a moment
will you?
You see if you’re unconvinced
that God wants to guide you throughout your life it’s very easy to just keep on
going the way you’ve always been going.
The problem is that when you’re not convinced that God wants to guide
you you’re not obviously paying attention to His guidance. It’s the attentive person convinced that God
is all about them who sees and hears from God!
But I suspect that MANY IF NOT MOST people who call themselves
Christians fundamentally don’t believe that God will guide THEM.
Now there are all sorts of
reasons why many of us are in that place of unbelief but today is not the time
to explore those – the fact is though that many of us really aren’t
fundamentally convinced that God wants to and will actually guide them.
Evangelist Paul Rader had many
a talk with a banker in
Arriving at the facility, Rader
saw the banker standing in the doorway. "Oh, Rader," said the banker,
"I am so glad to see you." "I received your telegram," said
Rader. "That
Paul Rader found his friend under deep conviction of sin and he pointed
him to Christ as a perfect Savior. That man accepted Christ and his heart was
filled with joy. "Rader," he said, "did you ever see the sky so
blue or the grass so green?" Rader replied, "Sometimes we sing"
Steering
By Higher Compass
Before the days of modern navigational aids a
traveler made the Atlantic crossing in a boat equipped with two compasses. One
was fixed to the deck where the man at the wheel could see it. The other
compass was fastened up on one of the masts, and often a sailor would be seen
climbing up to inspect it.
The passenger asked the captain, “Why do you
have two compasses?”
“This is an iron vessel,” replied the
captain, “and the compass on the deck is often affected by its surroundings.
Such is not the case with the compass at the masthead; that one is above the
influence. We steer by the compass above.” Do we also as Christians?
To Do Thy
Will
I am not sent a pilgrim here,
My heart with earth to fill; but I am here God’s grace to learn,
And serve God’s sovereign will.
He leads me on through smiles and
tears,
Grief follows gladness still; but let me welcome both alike,
Since both work out his will.
No service in itself is small,
None great, though earth it fill; But that is small that seeks its own,
And great that seeks God’s will.
Then hold my hand, most gracious
Lord,
Guide all my doings still; and let this be my life’s one aim,
To do, or bear thy will.
Source
unknown
Bobby Richardson, former New York
Yankee second baseman, offered a prayer that is a classic in brevity and
poignancy: “Dear God, Your will, nothing more, nothing
less, nothing else. Amen.”