2022-09-04 Longing to see God Move

Psalm 136 is an amazing Psalm. The repeated refrain, “His love endures forever.”, reinforces again and again that God is truly a God of love. It begins by talking about how great God is. He’s the only God who does great wonders, the first of which is his creation of the earth and the universe. The Psalmist then goes on to describe the wonders God did when he brought the nation of Israel up out of Egypt, through the desert and into the promised land. All of these wonders are recounted in the first six books of the Bible, Genesis through Joshua. Can you imagine seeing the wonders that God did? Certainly, no human being saw the creation of the universe. Only angelic beings could have seen that. The creation of everything physical out of nothing. Most astrophysicists believe that all that currently exists, the earth, moon, planets, sun, stars, galaxies and everything in between all came to exist in what they call the Big Bang. As a kid I used to mock that idea. I shouldn’t have. They’re simply saying what Genesis 1 tells us. God spoke and it came to be. It must have been amazing!

Can you imagine seeing the plagues of Egypt as they unfolded? Most of us appreciate the power of a big thunderstorm. That was nothing compared to the wonders God did in Egypt. All freshwater turning to Blood, Frogs literally everywhere, then Lice or gnats, then flies, then the death of most of the livestock, then boils on the people, this was followed by Hail, then all the vegetation being eaten by Locusts, the ominous three days of darkness and finally, when nothing else had changed Pharaoh’s mind, the death of all the firstborn, including Pharaoh’s son. The devastation would have been almost total. Then when the Israelites left, the Egyptians freely gave them whatever they asked for, gold, silver and precious stones. The gods of Egypt were shown to be impotent, and Egypt was devastated and plundered. To top it off, when the army followed the Israelites into the sea, they drowned. Can you imagine seeing all these wonders with your own eyes? Never mind the pillar of fire or cloud, manna falling out of the sky, and God speaking like thunder from Mount Sinai after they crossed the Red Sea. That generation of people saw all of these wonders in less than a year’s time. I think it’s cool that I’ve seen a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse and a comet in my lifetime. That’s nothing compared to what they saw.

When I was a kid, reading western books I had an impossible dream, to be able to travel back in time so that I could see the prairies like they once were, a sea of grass and immense herds of buffalo.

Have you ever wished to see wonders like these? Things that now seem impossible? Have you ever wished to see God do amazing things? Things that would cause people to bow down in worship. That would draw people to our Holy God, that would cause people to repent and turn back to the God who rescued them?

Rescue Your People Again Lord

The plagues in Egypt were done by God for one over-riding purpose, to rescue the children of Israel from slavery, to give them hope and a future where they could be free and love God with their whole hearts. Yes, God’s glory was revealed, yes, his power was displayed, and all the gods of Egypt were shown to be nonexistent, figments of the imagination, but these were side benefits, the main point was to rescue his people and out of the chaos, create a nation of God followers.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to see this happen again? Our western world has by and large abandoned God, just as the nations of Israel and Judah did in Isaiah’s day. In that day and age, only a few people still worshipped the true God and gave him their complete allegiance. The rest abandoned him for idols or worshipped Yahweh (God’s Hebrew name for himself) plus idols. Isaiah saw this apostasy and yearned for God to ‘do it again’. Turn with me to Isaiah 64. (read Isaiah 64:1-12) (blank) Do you catch Isaiah’s longing? He longs for God to come down like he did on Mount Sinai and make himself known. He longs for God to do the kinds of wonders that he did in Egypt, that would make it plain that he was all powerful and Lord. He longs for God to come and once again redeem his people. He longed for the people of Israel to once again turn back to God and avoid the destruction that would surely come their way if they didn’t. This was the longing of all the prophets of God. Elijah often felt completely alone. God reassured him that he wasn’t, that there were still 7000 who had not bowed their knees to Baal. He wasn’t alone. But think of it. Ten whole tribes of Israel and only 7000 who had remained true to Yahweh. That’s it. Everyone else had given in to Baal worship. They had abandoned God and pursued Satan’s path.

I long for what Isaiah longed for. I look around in Canada and think of all the people who once worshipped Jesus as Lord and no longer do. I think of grandmothers and grandfathers whose children and grandchildren have abandoned God and gone their own path. I have cousins and nephews in that category. How many people in Canada have a Christian heritage but have walked away from faith? Then I also think of new Canadians from other lands who’ve never heard the good news of Jesus. I long for them to know him. To have the real, full life that God promises those who follow him. They don’t know, they have no sure hope of life after death. I long to see people come to faith through the ministry of our church. To have our church filled with people who have discovered for the first time that they are loved by God, that Jesus is the Saviour who died for them.

God Came Down

Isaiah’s longing for God to come down did happen. Just over 2000 years ago a baby was born in Bethlehem to a virgin named Mary. The angel Gabriel called him Immanuel, God with us. He came to rescue not only the Jewish people but all the people of the world. After his temptation in the wilderness and he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit of God and he went home to Nazareth. When he was invited to read the scripture in the synagogue, he read from Isaiah 61:1, 2 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (blank) This was Jesus’ mission. To rescue all people from the oppression of sin and being enslaved by it. To rescue all people from spiritual blindness and spiritual poverty. Jesus came to heal and make whole. Both physically and spiritually. He came so we would have life. And it happened. Remember what happened in the gospels? How thousands of people flocked to Jesus. Everywhere Jesus went he proclaimed the kingdom of God. The deaf could hear, the blind could see, the lame walked, and he cast out demons. He became their shepherd. They knew he loved and cared for them. They couldn’t get enough of him. They longed to be in his presence, to experience the wholeness that flowed out of him. And the crazy thing is that people from all slices of society were drawn to him. Joseph of Arimathea of the Jewish ruling Council and Nicodemus one of the Pharisees were his followers. Joanna, the wife of the manager of King Herod’s household was his follower. Ordinary fisherman and Galilean peasants were his followers. Greek demoniacs and prostitutes and tax collectors were his followers. Even a Roman centurion believed he was from God.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Bible tells us that the group of followers of Jesus had shrunk down to 120 in Jerusalem. That’s it. The large crowds were gone. That doesn’t mean that Jesus’ ministry had no effect. How many people in Galilee still believed he was the Messiah? How many people in the countryside remembered the power of God that had flowed through Jesus and healed them of their diseases? I have a hard time believing that the paralytic who had been healed after being lowered through the roof had stopped believing in him or the blind men who could see or the parents of the girl who was raised to life or the lepers that were cleansed. I’m sure they still talked of the one who had healed them and loved them. The countryside and the city of Jerusalem couldn’t forget. Can you imagine what must have happened to all those people when the news spread out of Jerusalem that Jesus had been crucified? How many tore their clothes and threw dust on their heads in mourning for the one who had given them life? Then, can you imagine when those same people began to hear rumours that his closest disciples claimed he had risen from the dead? “Could this really be? Was their hope after all?”

The Power of the Spirit

Then, the Spirit came. Turn with me to Acts 2. (read Acts 2:1-4, 14-41) (blank) It was like gas being thrown on a pile of dry smouldering branches. Whoosh! Earlier I said I wished I could go back and see the prairies as they were. As a Christian, I would much rather go back and see the scene that day. To see 3000 people come into the church after one sermon. 3000 baptisms. As amazing as this sounds, this wasn’t the last time something like this happened. It’s happened many times throughout church history. Mass turnings to Jesus. Is this how God always works? No, actually, more often it’s like Jesus’ parable of the yeast and the dough. It spreads invisibly, a little at a time, few people here, a few there. But occasionally, the gospel leaps forward. Occasionally it advances rapidly. Often it starts small and slow and then snowballs. If God could do it in the past, he can surely do it again.

This is what I long for. I long to see a movement of the Spirit of God. To see the kingdom of God advance in power. A visible outpouring in the lives of us, in the lives of the people around us. Not so that we can be impressed by miracles and wonders, but so that the miracles and wonders lead to transformed lives, people reconnected with God.

Recently I heard a story of a miraculous healing of a Colony Mennonite lady in Bolivia. Abe and Margaret Harder are an EMMC pastor couple in Villa Nueva, Bolivia. A young family is part of their church. The mother’s parents still live in a nearby colony. Recently this mother/grandmother was ill and was diagnosed with a large abdominal tumour and was told that she needed surgery. Abe and Margaret asked if they would be willing to be prayed over. Usually Colony Mennonites refuse such offers, saying that they have their own ministers who can pray. The young mom asked and surprisingly, her mother agreed. So, when the parents stopped in to see their kids on their way to Santa Cruz for an appointment, Abe and Margaret went over. They placed the lady in the middle of the room on a chair and they all gathered around her, kids, grandkids and Abe and Margaret and prayed. Off the parents went to their appointment in Santa Cruz. After examining the mother repeatedly, the Doctor expressed his confusion at not being able to find the tumour which earlier tests showed was clearly there. He told her that he wanted her to go to another specialist who would surely be able to find it. The Colony lady simply said, “no, we don’t need to, I know what happened, God has healed me.” Now she and her husband host a gathering of people willing to be visited by Abe and Margaret to study God’s word and sing together. The amazing part isn’t the miracle, it’s that they’re now hungry for the good news of Jesus! After Jesus sent out the 72 and they came back rejoicing that the demons submitted to them in Jesus’s name, he responded, ”do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” We don’t rejoice that miracles occur, but that they occur in order to draw people to God, so their names can be written in heaven.

Longing for More

Don’t you wish that you could rejoice because people are coming to faith in Jesus through the ministry of our church? Don’t you long for broken lives to be healed? For broken relationships to be mended and broken souls redeemed? Don’t you long to see your friends and family who are separated from God be reconciled to him and worship him? Don’t you long to see friends who are living in fear be released from that fear by the power of God? To see those who are disillusioned with church return to the body and have their faith reinvigorated?

I’m going to be honest with you, 2022 has been tough. The pandemic restrictions finally ended in spring, but right when it looked like GFC was back on track, I began to hear news that so and so was leaving and so and so had found a different church. It hasn’t ended. Just this week I heard of a few more. For a pastor, it’s a punch to the gut. For most of them, I understand their reasons. Sort of. This kind of thing has happened for as long as I’ve been a pastor. And even though I realize that most of them haven’t left the church of Jesus Christ and are still in the body of Christ, it hurts every time. I’ve given up counting how often Corrina and I have given up 6 or 7 evenings to do pre-marital counselling with a couple only to see them, leave our church.

I long to see this trend reversed. That people would find hope and healing in our church and then stay. That people would experience the presence of God here in such a way that they could hardly wait to get back. That God would meet them in a powerful way in spite of our imperfections and foibles.

There’s a few more things I want to speak to.

There’s a war raging inside of me.

I’m 57. I only have a short time left on earth. I want to make the most of the time I have left. But what does that look like? The message our world tells me is to do what you love most, pursue your bucket list – travel, pleasures, etc. I see some people my age already taking early retirement. Life looks easy for them. And yet, it looks empty. I want it and don’t want it. The pleasures of this world call me and draw me. Many of them are good things! Gifts from God. It’s so easy to make them the focus of my life. But is that what God has called me to live for? Or is there more? Are what we long for and what he wants for us connected?

I also realize that I am not superman. I have limited abilities, limited gifts and limited strength. What does this mean? I want to see God do more, I want to see God reach others through me and our church. But i It has become apparent that I can’t make a big turning to God happen. Not even a little one. No matter how much I strategize or work, I can’t make it happen. It’s not that God doesn’t want me to pour out my life and give him my best, just that without him working before and behind me, my best efforts will be futile. He is the only one who can bring about a turning to him. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing I can do. What can I do? I can till the soil, I can pursue God, I can keep working at the things under my control, I can fast. But when all is said and done, on my part that is, the only thing left that I can do is to pray. Ultimately, it’s up to God whether or not he will move and shake things up. So I will pray that God will do far more than I can ask or imagine.

There’s one more thing I have begun doing. Right after Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, a demon-possessed boy was brought to Jesus. The disciples had tried to drive it out and failed. I can identify with them. The father said to Jesus, “if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus replied, “”’If you can’? Everything is possible for one who believes.” The father responded by saying “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief.” (blank) I don’t know about you, but I resonate with that father. I recognize my failures, by mistakes, my inadequate effort, my lack of faith, my lack of practice, my lack of prayer. And yet I long for more. And even my longing for more isn’t enough of a longing. I have begun praying that God would create in me a deeper desire for him, for his presence. I pray that God would help me overcome my unbelief and my distractions that keep me from pursuing him wholeheartedly.

What about you? What do you long for? What do you wish to see God do? In your life? In the lives of your loved ones. In the lives of people you know who are broken and far from God. .

Q & A/Longings

I invite you to pray for spiritual awakening, to pray for a fresh encounter with God. I invite you to fast and pray that many people will come to faith through our church. That God would reinvigorate these old bones. Our fall sermon series is called “Hungering to Know and Be Known”. We want to look at various aspects of pursuing a deeper connection and relationship.

Let’s pray

Benediction: Ephesians 3:20, 21

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