Living with the Loose Ends of Life
2 Amens
Living with the loose ends of life
Introduction
- I wonder how much you know about God!
- I imagine that most people here this morning have been a Christian for quite a while
- You have been coming to church for a long time – you’ve heard lots of sermons – you’ve been to many Bible studies – you have spent time reading the Scriptures yourself
- So you probably have a fair idea of who God is, how he has acted in history – and how he behaves now – Is that true?
- I’m going to play the devil’s advocate this morning – I’m going to say to you up front that your knowledge of God is fairly limited – and so is mine
- I want to say to you this morning that it is very important to recognise just how little we know about God – because recognising our ignorance will help us to live more productive lives as sons and daughters of the living God
How we learn about God – General Revelation
- If you came from outer space in a space ship and landed on earth – I wonder how you would know that God exists
- Well in fact you wouldn’t have to land on earth to know that God exists – his existence is made plain from the universe He created
- We see that in verses like:
Psalms 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. {2} Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. {3} There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. {4} Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
Romans 1:18-20
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, {19} since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. {20} For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
- We don’t have to come to earth to know that God exists – we can go anywhere in this amazing universe and we will see the work of his hands “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”
- And when we look at the universe we learn something about the God who created it – we see that he is a creative God – a God of beauty; We see that he is a powerful God – We see that he is a God of order and so on
- So if we never met a Christian – if we never laid eyes on a Bible – we would still know that God exists – and we would know something about his character and attributes
- So without even getting out of your spaceship, you could know a fair bit about God
- But you wouldn’t know enough to actually know him – to do that you would need to read a Bible or have someone explain to you what is in the Bible using verses like the following:
How we learn about God – Special Revelation
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 1:1-2
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, {2} but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
- These verses all come from the New Testament – obviously there are many passages in the Old Testament that tell us about who God is and how he has acted in history
- But I picked these verses because they remind us that the way God has revealed Himself to us is through his Son, Jesus – that is what the writer to the Hebrews is saying: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, {2} but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”
- When we read the Bible we discover some more detail about God’s character – and we come to understand that He has revealed himself to us through his Son, Jesus who he sent to live on earth about two thousand years ago
How we learn about God – the way of salvation
- And if we continue to read the Bible we will discover what Jesus did so that the people God created could have a personal relationship with their Creator
- We read that in verses like:
John 3:16
"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.
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
John 1:12
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--
- Verses like these tell us that Jesus lived a perfect life – that he died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin – and that he rose again so that we could have eternal life
- The Bible tells us that when we accept what Jesus has done on our behalf we are forgiven and accepted into God’s family as one of his children
- We could summarise this by saying that THE BIBLE TELLS US THE WAY OF SALVATION
- But as they say in the Demtel adds “But wait, there’s more”
How we learn about God – the way to live as a Christian
- Not only does the Bible tell us about the way of salvation – it also tells us about how we are to live as God’s children – we find that in the Old and New Testaments in passages like:
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; {6} in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Ephesians 5:8
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
- This of course is just a small sample – the Bible is full of passages that tell us about God’s standards and how he wants us to live as one of his children
- And not only does the Bible tell us how we are to live as Christians – it also tells about our ultimate destiny
John 14:1-3
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. {2} In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. {3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
- The Bible doesn’t give us a lot of detail about heaven – but God makes it plain through his word that heaven is the final destination for all who have put their trust in Him – and not only is it our destination, it is a fantastic destination because we will be living for eternity in the very presence of God himself
Summary of what we know about God
- So far we have looked at a number of things that God has revealed to us through creation, through the Bible etc – let’s put them into a summary:
God reveals himself to us:
Through Creation (General Revelation)
Through Jesus as revealed in the Bible (Special Revelation)
Through the Bible we can know:
Who God is
The way of salvation through Jesus
How God wants us to live as his children
Our ultimate destiny (heaven)
- And just in case you are concerned that I have left the Holy Spirit out of the equation, let me add another statement to our summary:
The Holy Spirit enables us to hear and understand what God wants us to know.
- We know this is true from verses like:
John 16:13-14
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. {14} He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
- So there it is – a rough guide to what God has revealed to us about himself and about how he wants us to live in relationship with him
- It’s a lot isn’t it?
- So how could I possibly claim that when it comes to God, your knowledge is fairly limited – and so is mine?
- Let me answer that with a statement – and then we will look at scripture that supports the statement
GOD HAS REVEALED TO US ALL THAT WE NEED TO KNOW
BUT GOD HAS NOT REVEALED ALL THAT THERE IS TO KNOW
- If we were to represent this in a diagram it would look something like this
- If we zoom into the red section we see that God has revealed much to us, in fact all that we need to know (this list is not exhaustive obviously)
The Story of Job
- Perhaps the best illustration of the limitation of human understanding of God is found in the book of Job.
- Job and his counsellors have speculated at length about how God acts, and then God issues this challenge:
Job 38:1-5
Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:
Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer me.
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
- For four chapters God questions Job’s arrogant assumptions about his knowledge of God’s ways. Then Job responds:
Job 42:1-3
Then Job replied to the LORD:
"I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
- Job and his advisers thought that they know how God acted – they thought that they understood God
- But God made it plain to them that their knowledge of Him was limited – in fact they were arrogant to assume that they could fully understand God
- The concept that human understanding of God is limited, is common in Scripture – let me give you a few more examples to illustrate what I am claiming
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Isaiah 55:8-9
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. {9} "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Ecclesiastes 11:5
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
- God’s thoughts are greater than ours – we simply cannot match his knowledge or his understanding – and to think that we can is a fairly arrogant position to hold
Ray Spear illustration
- I have a friend in Canberra – his name is Dr Ray Spear - he is a research nuclear physicist at the Australian National University
- Imagine that Ray is walking along with his 5 year old grandchild who says to him “Grandpa, can you explain to me the theory of relativity?”
- What can Ray possibly do?
- He has the knowledge and the understanding that is needed to give an explanation – but he knows that if he does give an explanation, his grandchild won’t understand
- That’s a good illustration of how it is with God and us
- God has complete understanding – and he could give an answer to the many questions we ask
- But in some cases, if he did – we simply wouldn’t understand
- As we have already seen – there is much which God has revealed to us – things like the way of salvation, how he wants us to live as his children etc
- But there are also many things that God has chosen not to reveal to us though the Scriptures, e.g.:
Ø The origin of evil
Ø The time and details of Christ’s return
Ø How God exists as a trinity
Ø The apparent unjust distribution of suffering
Ø How prayer works
Ø Why God doesn’t always heal
Ø The exact nature of predestination
- This list is not exhaustive and I’m sure you could think of things to add to the list
- Or it may be that you disagree with some I have on the list
- If we represent this in a diagram it might look like this
- The diagram shows that when it comes to things like the “Trinity” – we have some knowledge, but there is a lot we don’t know
- The same is true for things like suffering and prayer
- Note that I have put the “Time of Jesus return” in the category of things God has not revealed to us
- There are Christians around who spend a lot of time thinking about prophecies about the time of the return of Christ – even though Jesus made it plain that only the Father knows that time
- This list is obviously not exhaustive – there are many other topics we could have included
- But one thing remains clear:
GOD HAS REVEALED TO US ALL THAT WE NEED TO KNOW
BUT GOD HAS NOT REVEALED ALL THAT THERE IS TO KNOW
Trusting God without knowing
- I wonder if there has ever been a time in your life when you have had big questions - but you don’t seem to be getting any answers? PAUSE
- Perhaps something has happened in your life – and you can’t make sense of it – you simply don’t understand- Why could God be allowing this to happen? PAUSE
- When we moved to Canberra just over 25 years ago Margaret’s parents drove down to visit us
- On the way they had an accident and Margaret’s father was killed
- Why did God allow that to happen?
- After all we had been praying that they would have a safe journey
- Why didn’t God answer our prayer in the way that we intended? PAUSE
- Perhaps you have been through a similar situation
- Perhaps you too have had to face the death of a loved one
- Perhaps you have faced the diagnosis of a terminal illness
- Some people have faced the loss of their houses and their jobs because of some natural disaster – there are many people in Victoria in that situation right now
- The recent economic downturn has meant unemployment for many people – many have had their superannuation funds greatly reduced
- Why does God allow these things to happen?
- The answer may be: We don’t know PAUSE
- And not only don’t we know now – this side of heaven, we may never know
PAUSE
- We may ask God the question “Why?” – but for reasons that only He understands – we may not receive an answer
- How can we respond in this kind of situation?
- The beginning of the answer comes to us in Hebrews 11
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
- Faith is all about trusting God, even when we “do not see”
- It’s all about trusting God – even when we do not understand
- What is important is not the size of our faith, but the object of our faith
- Some people have a lot of faith in things that will let them down – they trust in their health or their wealth, only to find that these things fail them
- Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains – provided that faith is placed in the Living God who has the power and authority to do all things
- Remember the chorus “standing on the promises of God”?
- That promise is very relevant when we face difficult situations and have no answers
- Because it is times like this that the only reasonable response we can make – is to trust God to keep the promises that He has made to us
- Promises like we find in these verses:
Hebrews 13:5b
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
Matthew 28:20b
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
- These are just two of many promises like it in Scripture
- They remind us that God has our best interests at heart
- They remind us that no matter what happens, God is watching over us and guiding our path – even though we don’t really understand why things are as they are
- When the chips are down – and we are not getting answers to our many questions – all we can do is to cast ourselves upon God and say “Lord I don’t understand – but I know that you do – and I know that you have promised to never leave me nor forsake me – and so, heavenly Father, I come to you as a child – as your child – and I hand my situation over to you – and I trust you, even though I don’t understand
- Are you willing to do that? Am I?
- Because until we learn to trust God in this way – we will never learn to live with what I call “the loose ends of life”
- Unless we are prepared to accept that there are some things that God in His wisdom chooses not to reveal to us – we can easily become stuck in our growth as a Christian
- We focus on asking “Why Lord?” – when really we should be asking “What now Lord”
- That’s what happened when I had to resign my position as pastor of North Pine Baptist some years ago – it wasn’t until I stopped asking “Why Lord?” – and started asking “What now Lord?” – that God revealed to me the next stage of the journey – He led me into a new ministry, and that’s what I’m doing now
- Do you understand what I am saying?
Conclusion
- I don’t know your situation now – or what it will become in the coming days
- I don’t even know what I may need to face in the future
- But I do know this
- The time will come, if it hasn’t already – when it will be important for us to remember that although God has revealed to us all we need to know – He has not revealed to us all that there is to know
- There will be times when we will be required to trust God, even when we do not understand
- And when we come to the Father with child like faith – we will discover that God is utterly faithful
- He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us – and He is always true to His word
- He has called us on a journey with Him – and he promises to go with us on that journey – until that day when he calls us home into his presence for eternity – and our eyes will be opened and we will understand things that we could never understand in the life we live life now as we wait for heaven to be our home
- Let me read you a verse that reminds us of that, and then I’ll close in prayer
1 Corinthians 13:12
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
PRAY
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