God, make your
Face
shine upon
Me
The Purpose
Driven Life
Part VII
Sermon by Manfred Schreyer
Read Part: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | of this Sermon Series
(Num 6:24-26 NIV) "' "The LORD bless you and keep you; {25} the LORD make
his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; {26} the LORD turn his face
toward you and give you peace."'
(Psa 119:135 NIV) Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your
decrees.
In my time in the ministry I have heard a lot of stories people shared
with me. Stories that have impacted my life, the reaction to circumstances,
my view of humanity and my view of God.
I have met people that have never experienced a purpose in life. Others
that were violated by rape or molestation; I have spoken to couples where
who shared that they have no love for each other anymore; I have spoken to
people who have murdered someone; I have spoken to people who have given up
their child for adoption; I have spoken to people to where caught up in the
usage of drugs, adultery, pornography, and I could go on with a long list .
. . of people who found themselves in clinical depression others who were
ready to commit suicide . . . people who lost their loved one, who got
married, who received their new born child as a gift, etc.
Our life can be observed as a great paradox. There are those moments where
we are overwhelmed by the wonderful gift of life and then there a times when
some of us find ourselves strangled by circumstances in life.
When we observe life, we can easily come to the understanding that life is
corrupted with evil.
I heard from those who lived longer then I have lived that our time is the
worse of time. Well, it is NOT! Very early on in the history of creation God
was so angry, because the world that he had created had become morally
bankrupt. God had become so disgusted with the human race that He as ready
to wipe it out.
I recently spoke with someone who had committed a very violent crime and
almost killed the person. And in that conversation the individual stated:
that person had it coming. These are the statements of corruptness of the
human mind, where all conscience is missing, where there is not a tear of
hope.
The person who was almost killed in fact (at least according to the this
person) had indeed treated him in a very horrible way. Treated the person
with no respect, dignity, fed the person with lies, cheated the person
almost daily, etc.
When I sat with the individual, I thought that that must have been the
state of humankind during the time of Noah.
Yet when you read the story about Noah, God took notice of Noah. The bible
tells us that Noah was a pleasure to God. Noah was a pleasure, because Noah
accepted the will of God.
What God really wants from us is the deep desire from us to love God with
everything we have. He wants us to take all of our own desires aside and
make room for Him. God in a way longs for our love.
There is no greater objective in this life then to get to know our God in
an intimate relationship.
Do you remember the commandment of Jesus to love our God with ll of our
heart, mind and soul?
Nevertheless, love alone is not enough . . . unfortunately.
I know people who believe they have given their life to God, but they have
only placed a safe bet. You see they see God being part of a religion. Here
is their equation: If in fact there is another God like Buddha . . . Buddha
seems to be more accepting of other Gods. Most of the man-made religions
allow to worship multiple deities and the common phrase today is that there
are many ways to God So people take that statement with the full knowledge
that our God does not accept any other God. And that is where they place a
safe bet: They commit their life to God with their tongue. They now believe
that if they die and God should not exist as described in the bible they
have nothing to lose since the other gods are accepting. But if the God of
the bible exists they have placed a safe bet on Him.
Those who are doing that live a lie! Yes, they even participate in church,
they even participate in the life of the church, but the one thing that the
God of our bible is asking of them they do not . . .
They do not trust God completely. You see, when God told Noah to build the
ark, Noah did so without any question. Noah built a ship not to survive, but
because it was asked of him.
All of this seems very simple to you and to me, but the reality is that we
would have not built the ship. And I will tell you why:
As we look today to the word of God, we end up in endless interpretation.
Because when we do not know the reason for some of the things God tells us
in His Word, we find a reason. Even when we do not know what the
consequences are we establish them. Because we think we are so knowledgeable
of everything. We just know . . . And if we do not know we just follow our
instinct.
Allow me to say this: When God spoke to Noah that He would flood the earth
with rain, I mind you that Noah had never seen rain, because until that time
God watered the earth from the ground up. Ref. Gen 2:5-6.
If God would have spoken to us today about an upcoming flood, we would
have not been so much concerned with building the ark, but we would have
founded a think-tank to interpret the word: rain. And then we possibly
would have come to the conclusion that we do not need an ark, but that we
need to convince God that there is another way to look at the situation.
But the story tells us that Noah built the ark . . . over a very long time
. . .
Trust in God . . . constant trust in the word of God, eternal trust in the
love even in the moments of discouragement.
We look at the Word of God and we think that God changed His mind over the
years. We believe that it does not mean now what it once meant. We believe
that God meant it differently than what it means now.
Well, let me say this: It took Noah a 100 years to build the ark. Not a
single day with a sign of rain. Days of mocking by others who though he was
a nutcase.
Noah could have easily said the flood is not coming, there is no sign
of the promise given, this is all crazy . . . but Noah trusted God with
all that he had. He placed his entire energy to follow the will of God. He
did not sit down and re-interpret the word spoken to him; he was not
influenced by those who ruthlessly opposed his doings. No, he loved God so
much, that he gave it all and he trusted God with all he had.
He obeyed every instruction, every detail God had brought to him, Noah did
not alter anything . . . Noah followed exactly the model God gave him.
Gods face was shining upon Noah, because the flood did come and it
destroyed everything
The moral of the story?
God does not owe us an explanation as much as he did not owe Noah an
explanation. God says that understanding of the things can wait, but not our
love and loyalty to God. God wants our trust, and by our gift of choice we
have the power.
Not to follow His will lead to suffocation of the eternal glory.
Disobedience will lead to the cries of those who are grounding in the waters
after they die. Noah had no ropes others could hang on to; he did not offer
last minute reservation, Noah did not open the boat to let those in who
barely hung on to the trees which the flood uprooted . . . it was too late.
With the Word of God and the commands we cannot pick and choose.
The world we experience with all the horrifying stories I mentioned before
is the decay caused by the standards we set for ourselves in society. We are
to blame for the crimes that are committed. We are willing to trust our own
will and interpretation of how things should be . . . but we are not willing
to accept the offer God makes to us in His word.
You cant choose. You cant have one foot on the ark and the other touch
the ground.
My plea is just like the one from King David: (Psa 119:135 NIV) Make your
face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.
Read Part: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | of this Sermon Series
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