Our Universal Search for Awe

OUR UNIVERSAL SEARCH FOR AWE Spring Valley Mennonite; September 13, 2020; Psalm 139:14, 145:3-5 It is so good to be back together! Alice and I have missed being with you but are grateful for the gift of a Sabbatical time of rest and refreshment. We are grateful for Mike Hiebert for filling in these past two months and know that you enjoyed his ministry here. Alice and I give praise to God for His protective hand over us during our travels this summer. As we visited many amazing and beautiful places, I was reminded that all the wonders of creation are fingers pointing to our AWEsome God Who created all things. And God not only created all things to the praise of His glory, but He also maintains them for mankind as an expression of His grace, mercy, and compassion. We worship an AWEsome God! School has resumed in most places, and I wonder if English teachers still require students to write an essay on "What I did during my summer vacation." I had some personal expectations attached to these past few months other than just having a time of rest and time for visiting family. The Covid pandemic did force some readjustments to our schedule, and we give praise to God for His protection as we traveled. Despite the restrictions, which mainly involved wearing a mask everywhere, we never felt particularly in danger. Everyone pretty much practiced social distancing, except on the airplanes, which were pretty full. We were also able to visit a number of churches over the summer and were encouraged by the biblical messages we heard. We saw Pastors enthusiastically preaching God's Word. As we traveled, we saw Christian T-shirts, both for sale in shops but also being worn. We saw families bowing in prayer over meals in restaurants. And everywhere we traveled, in communities large and small, we saw churches. We were encouraged by these indications that there are people of faith everywhere. God continues to build His kingdom! We are part of what God is doing in the world. He is active and His plan is moving forward. One of the things I was able to do this summer was to read. I have been an avid reader all my life and having extra leisure time gave me the opportunity to read. Of all the books I read this summer, one stands out as the most personally impactful. It is a book by someone who has become one of my favorite authors, Paul David Tripp. The name of the book is simply "AWE." Tripp's premise for the book is that one of the most controlling things in our lives is our search for AWE. This morning I want to share a few thoughts on the subject of "AWE." We are all attracted by AWE. AWE is defined as "A feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder." Synonyms for the word help nail down the meaning, words like wonder, amazement, admiration, reverence, veneration, and respect (repeat). Thinking of those words, we can see how AWE relates to our relationship with our AWEsome God. We may not be aware of our search for AWE, but it is truly our lifelong pursuit. We are "hardwired" for AWE. Our attraction to AWE is a longing to fill an emptiness of the soul, and it explains why we are attracted to AWEsome things. Our desire for AWE is a God-given motivation, and it may be argued that many, if not all, of our problems are caused by trying to fulfill this AWE-vacuum with anything other than God Himself. I. GOD HAS CREATED US WITH AN AWE CAPACITY God has made us in such a way that we can take in the AWE we desire. We have eyes and ears and noses and taste buds and the ability to feel. We have brains that can process all these sensations so that we can tell the difference between beautiful melodies and harmonies and just noise. We can differentiate between the stink of something dead and the perfume of a lilac bush in bloom. We can savor the taste of a grilled steak and reject milk that has soured. In addition to the five senses, God has given us the ability to experience, evaluate and express emotions, to feel and express things like love. As Psalm 139:14 states, "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works and my soul knows it very well." Not only did God create us with an AWE-capacity; to help us in our search for AWE: II. GOD CREATED AN AWESOME WORLD We had the opportunity to see some AWEsome parts of God's creation this summer: Northern Michigan with its crystal clear Great Lakes, the stark Badlands of South Dakota, the majestic Pacific coast of Oregon and Washington with forested mountains reaching down into the sea, stately Mount Hood and Mount Saint Helens as we flew over them, the Cascade mountain lakes and Smokey Mountain apple orchards. What a beautiful, diverse, and AWEsome world God has created! Our capacity for AWE was stretched and stimulated by the variety of God's creation. But one doesn't have to travel to marvel at God's creative genius: few sites match the beauty of a ripe wheat field blowing in the wind, or the Kansas sunrises and sunsets, or the majesty of thunderstorm clouds with lightning flashing across the sky! All creation cries out Glory! Psalm 19:1 explains why we are so stimulated by the creation: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." Again, every wonder of creation is an enormous finger pointing to God. God has designed every created thing to be AWEsome because it reflects on the creator. We are to rightly rejoice and admire the wonders of creation, but we are not to stop there. We are to worship the Creator Who spoke these things into existence. God is the One who gave the artist the talent to create a masterpiece-by the way, think of that word: masterpiece-everything of beauty is a "piece of the gifted talent given by our Master!" As we drive, signposts are valuable indications of what is ahead. But the sign is not the reality. A sign warning of an upcoming curve is not the curve. A sign with the name of a town is not the town. A sign advertising an attraction is not the attraction. All God's creation are signs pointing to God Himself, the only One who can fully satisfy our sense and search for AWE. And this idea brings into focus the truth that: III. WHERE WE LOOK FOR AWE SHAPES THE DIRECTION OF OUR LIFE I don't think it is a stretch to equate "AWE" with worship. Expand your definition of "worship" to include devotion, pursuit, dedication, and commitment. To what things are we pursuing, devoted, and dedicated to, where is my deepest commitment? Our deep commitments give definition to where we look for AWE. For some it is their family, others their career. Things that should stay as hobbies sometimes capture our sense of AWE and dedication, like hunting or fishing or it could be horses or rodeo or (dare I say it?) sports? None of these things are wrong in themselves, but know that our search for AWE controls us, our decisions, and the course of our lives. For example, if we are dedicated to material things, we will spend our energy, time, and life focus on working so we can afford an ever-greater pile of stuff. I saw a bumper sticker once that said, "Whoever has the biggest pile of stuff at the end of life wins!" It is also true that you never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer! If our focus is on material things as our AWE source, we find that although we may have a beautiful home filled with valuable things, we will end up dissatisfied and discontented. Misplaced AWE will always leave us dissatisfied. So where does this leave us? IV. WHY DO WE STRUGGLE SO WITH MISPLACED AWE? Let me ask this question in another way, for we have established that AWE equals worship: why do we struggle so with misplaced worship? It is because ever since the events in the garden of Eden there has been a war going on, a war for worship. Our first parents chose to find their sense of AWE in themselves, yielding to the lie that they knew better than God what would satisfy. Their choice of disobedience ushered in sin creating within all of us a hunger for something to fill the void. Blaise Pascal, a mathematician and philosopher from the 1600s is often quoted as saying, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator." In the garden, Satan tempted with the one thing Adam and Eve didn't have-what they shouldn't have and what they could never have: God's position. You see, Satan held out idea that all they had to do to be equal to God was to step over His boundaries. If they ate of the forbidden fruit they would be like God, knowing good and evil. We have to ask, "Why would they ever want to know about evil?" That desire was met, and mankind has been attracted to evil ever since. This explains the fascination mankind has with the darker side of life. Jesus said "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." (John 3:19-20) This is the danger: that we know better than God of how to fill our AWE vacuum, that we let AWE of self override AWE of God. This is the essence of sin: choosing our way instead of God's way. Since the garden decision AWE of self has driven every selfish, sinful, and immoral thing we do. We choose self-worship, self-rule over God- worship and God- rule. So, war rages within us. The Bible chronicles the results of that fateful decision. But the Bible also gives us the solution to sin and its effects. In the fullness of time, Jesus was born. His purpose was to be the perfect sacrifice which paid for all our sins. We need only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved. Salvation includes being progressively saved from the power of sin in our lives, sin manifested in the ways we try to replace our AWE and worship of God with awe of anything else. As we walk in the light, giving over control of our lives to the indwelling Holy Spirit, all the lesser things of life give way to the worship and commitment to our AWEsome God. We are to give up lesser things and love God supremely. In God alone can our search for AWE be satisfied. We then can live reflecting His glory, rather than seeking our own glory. I will end with a quote from Tripp's book: "Whether we know it or not, the awe of every human being-that desire to be amazed, blown away, moved and satisfied-is actually a universal craving to see God face-to-face. All the awesome things in creation point me to the awesome God who created and holds them together, and his presence is the destination where my hunger will finally be satisfied." "It is true; your capacity for awe is a longing for another world. It's a craving for what this fallen world will never give you. The awe capacity of your heart cries out every day to be enveloped by the glory of God, freed from the seductive voices of competing glories. The quest for awe is a cry for the heaven that God has guaranteed for every one of His blood-purchased children." So, we say, "Even so, Come Lord Jesus!" 2