Seeing the World Through God's Eyes

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our first livestream service of 2021. Obviously, this Sunday is much different than our usual livestream. I am coming to you this morning by myself from the parsonage instead of our usual livestream from the church. I have a couple of announcements this morning before I share with you the message for this morning.

As most of you are already aware, we have experienced a tragic loss this week, as Denise McCarriher died on New Year’s Eve. Our thoughts and prayers have been with David and the rest of the family. There will be a viewing at Copeland Funeral Home in downtown Coraopolis on Tuesday from 2-4 & 6-8. The funeral will be held at the church on Wednesday at 11:00. There will be a viewing prior to the service from 10:00 - 10:45. We will also be livestreaming the funeral service on our Facebook Page.

We will hopefully be back to in person worship services starting next Sunday. We will monitor the recommendations from our governor and let you know if there is a change to this. Either way, we will continue to livestream the services both here on our Facebook page and also on our website.

We will be collecting diapers and wipes for Choices Crisis Pregnancy Center during the month of January.

I invite you over the next few weeks to consider with me that in spite of the circumstances around us, we live in a World of Possibility - God wants to use us in these challenging times! In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus says to His disciples:

Matthew 6:9–10 NIV

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

My Decision: I choose to see what God is doing in the world and join Him in it.

Introduction

Do you ever wonder about these words from the Lord’s Prayer? “Your kingdom come, Your will be done , in earth as it is in heaven.” Christians have prayed these words for centuries, and yet it seems as if it is far from being answered yet. Could this be His kingdom on earth? Is His will really being done on earth as it is in heaven? Maybe this ought to be our focus for 2021.

The weather was a perfect 72 degrees and there wasn’t a breath of wind — and yet the young couple couldn’t seem to make any progress in moving their canoe across the lake. The others in their group were nearly to the other side, but Jennifer and Chad weren’t even close to halfway.

At first Jennifer hadn’t minded their slow progress. She was enjoying having Chad all to herself. At times they would chat quietly; at other times they simply sat in silence or pointed out loons and other wildlife to each other.

But the further the distance grew between themselves and the others, the harder she paddled. The harder she paddled, the more aware she was of their struggle.

Jennifer couldn’t help being a little angry. Chad was supposed to be the best paddler in the group, and she was certainly working as hard as she could. Clearly he was not doing his part.

She glanced back once to be sure he wasn’t actually backstroking, but she couldn’t tell. He just winked at her. Jennifer faced forward, dug her paddle into the water, and gave her full effort to moving forward. He wasn’t taking it seriously, so she would have to do it on her own.

When she saw the first canoe reach the other side, she couldn’t stand it anymore. “What’s going on?” she said, turning around to face Chad. “Why aren’t you doing anything?”

She saw his shocked look at the same moment she felt a thin rope under her fingers on the edge of the canoe. And then it hit her. Earlier that morning she had dropped anchor so she could fish without drifting away—and she never pulled it up.

It wasn’t Chad’s fault at all. It was hers.

We’ve probably all been in a similar situation! It’s easy for us to overlook our own responsibility and blame somebody else – anybody else. But we also do that to God sometimes, don’t we? We struggle to fight against the problems of this world without making any progress, and we wonder why God isn’t doing anything. We may be tempted to think that we are doing our part, but He isn’t doing His. All-the-while, we never realize we’re the ones who dropped the anchor, and now we’re plunging deeper and deeper into apathy, excuses, and hard-heartedness.

Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, but all too often it feels like God is not listening to this prayer. Our world gets more complicated and difficult. If that’s the case for you, as it often is for me, I want to encourage us to step back from our frantic efforts, hold off on our accusations, and let’s see whether we’ve dropped an anchor that’s holding us back from seeing the truth of what God is doing.

The Myth: God’s not Doing His part

It’s not surprising that any of us wonder whether God is at work in the world. This world can be a pretty ugly place. Our marriages and relationships struggle; our kids go astray; our jobs aren’t what we dreamed about; Covid-19 has sidelined so much in our world - our finances are in shambles; the economy is a mess; we get more and more cynical about our political leaders; people are hurting; sickness abounds. Loved ones die. Why doesn’t God fix these things?

And when you look at the bigger picture, it seems even more bleak sometimes. People are dying of starvation around the world, hurricanes and storms devastate entire communities, earthquakes, famine, and wars abound.

One issue that we don’t like to even think about is human trafficking. But there are people out there, like Ruth Ada Kamara, for instance. When she was 18 years old, she left her small, rural village in northern Sierra Leone to join an older female friend who had invited Ruth to travel with her to Liberia for vacation. The women had been neighbors for three years, and Ruth was excited for the opportunity. The friend arranged Ruth’s travel and documents.

But shortly after they left the country, an older, graying man joined them and Ruth’s friend disappeared.

Ruth had never been to Liberia before and was unfamiliar with the language and people. Not knowing the city, she didn’t know how to leave on her own. And besides that, she had no money, travel documents, or even identification. When she asked her new traveling companion about her concerns, the man informed Ruth that he now owned her — he had bought her at a fair price from Ruth’s friend. He raped Ruth, whipped her and beat her.

And that was just the beginning.

For more than two years, Ruth was trapped in a room without enough food or any way to communicate with the outside world. She was forced to serve as a sex slave to numerous men, and was tightly controlled by her owner. We don’t like to think about the reality of this situation, but it is happening.

So, is this really a world of possibility? Is God able to affect these things? Does He really care?

I wish the Bible gave direct answers to every question we have, it doesn’t, but it does reveal who God is — and especially who God is in relationship to us. Many verses tell us directly that God is good and that he loves us. God created a good world – when you study the intricacies of all that He created, the vastness and beauty of the universe, or the vastness of the tiny building blocks with which He created it all – we read in the creation narrative that each day He declared what He had done as “good.” and humans are the crowning achievement of his work; he gave us everything, including the freedom to return his love; we turned away from him over and over again, and he pursued us as many times; ultimately he sent his Son into our broken world to die on our behalf so that we would never have to be separated from him and all the good he has planned for us. God cares.

The Bible also reveals God’s power. He demands holiness. He hates evil and does not tolerate sin. He is radically beyond all of creation, and we simply cannot fathom his greatness. Listen to

Job 38:1–18 NIV

1 Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: 2 “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? 3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. 4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? 12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, 13 that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? 14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. 15 The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken. 16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? 17 Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness? 18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

God cares, and He is All-Powerful.

You’ve probably seen God at work over and over again, restoring and healing. We sometimes miss His hand at work because we see the evil all around us and notice those times that it seems He is not working. It is God who opens wombs to make new life; he captures people’s hearts and transforms relationships; at times, he heals broken bodies through divine intervention - although if we are completely honest, we sometimes wonder why He sometimes does and why He sometimes doesn’t. I have heard many a doctor admit that while they are able to manipulate the flesh, only God heals. God is active in the world today.

Perhaps it is hard to see God at work because we are much better at paying attention only to the problems. Sin has caused so many problems in our world today, and we don’t see that we’ve dropped anchor and are paddling in vain. I think we’re especially susceptible to this in America because we are able to take care of ourselves most of the time. In fact it is often seen as weakness to have to rely on someone else in America – we pride ourselves on being able to pull ourselves up “by our own boot straps.”

The church in many places across Africa is growing so fast that there are not enough leaders to handle all the new believers. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37). People who had never heard the name of Jesus before are encountering him and responding in faith. Demon-possessed people are being set free; AIDs victims are being healed; enemies are becoming friends. Entire communities are giving their lives to Christ and then sharing the good news with others who carry on the good news to still more.

God was also very much involved in Ruth’s life: After two years of slavery, Ruth confided in a client who became sympathetic to her situation. The man paid for Ruth’s freedom and brought her clothes. Ruth was free, and married the man who saved her.

The war in Liberia drove Ruth’s family to flee to Sierra Leone, but Ruth’s husband was killed. The war spread into Sierra Leone, and Ruth and her child ended up in a refugee camp in Guinea. There she met Janet, who showed her God’s love, and told her about Jesus. Ruth gave her life to Jesus in that refugee camp.

God is not sitting on his hands. He is still freeing the captives today just as he did in Bible times.

Do you trust him? Do you believe that he cares and that he can? How have you seen God at work in the world? If you can’t think of anything, take some time this week to look around for the anchor you might have dropped that is preventing you from seeing his hand. Or maybe you need to get out of the boat and walk on water — in other words, go to the places where God is at work rather than waiting for him to come to you.

The Truth: God Wants US to Do His Will

If God cares and God can, why doesn’t he? Why is there any evil in the world at all? Why does he save one victim from trafficking, but not another? Why does he let a person become a victim in the first place? These questions plague every Christian at some point in their walk with God, and there are no simple answers.

What we do know is that God has a mission, one that began with sending Jesus Christ to die for you and me. And that mission involves us. Even when Jesus walked the earth, he didn’t do everything himself. He called people to join him in God’s mission. When the disciples saw a crowd of hungry people and turned to Jesus for help, he said, “You feed them.” Certainly it was by his power those few loaves and fishes turned into a meal for thousands, but it was the disciples who did the work of taking the food to the multitude and of picking up the extra pieces.

Praying for God to let his kingdom come requires a radical kind of faith. What we’re saying is that we want to be part of God’s work in the world. We are saying: God, take my efforts and abilities and gifts that you have given me, and help me use them to make your kingdom a reality here on this earth.

Through us, people like Ruth are saved from sexual slavery. Through us starving children are fed. Through us lonely people are loved. Through us God’s kingdom comes.

Considering how almighty our God is, his choice to call us to join His work in the world may seem odd. Why doesn’t He just perform some sort of miracle and take care of the problems in the world? Wouldn’t it be easier for him to do it himself?

I think God’s desire to let us do the work is a gift to us. First of all, it is a sign that he has given us this world in full confidence of our ability to care for it. Maybe he believes in us more than we believe in ourselves. But, God knows that when we reach out to help others rather than getting caught up in self-centeredness, our lives are enriched. The old saying, “It’s better to give than to receive,” became a cliché only because it’s true.

The true story I told about Ruth has another character who is easy to overlook: Janet, the woman who led Ruth to Christ. Janet is an American who chose to live her life in service to desperately needy people in another country. She was providing care to refugees who otherwise wouldn’t have survived, and by so doing introduced them to Jesus. She was able to see first-hand how the love of Christ transformed lives over and over again. She experienced the thrill of being used by him to bring his kingdom here on earth.

We don’t need to go to Africa to experience that. When you bring a meal to a hurting person, or put someone else’s needs before your own, or volunteer here at church or in some meaningful ministry in our community, or take time from your busy schedule to meet for lunch with someone who is lonely, or apologize, or give money to a worthwhile cause — all of these things take the focus off yourself and free you to join God where He is at work.

God wants us to do his will. We sometimes become paralyzed by our search for His will in our lives, but discovering his will is much easier than we make it out to be. His will for those of us who have a personal relationship with Jesus is to bring his kingdom here on earth – that means caring for the poor and weak, being kind and gracious, loving others as we love ourselves, and giving God all the glory.

The Thrill: God Empowers Us to Change the World

If we find ourselves grumbling about this world, perhaps we’ve dropped an anchor without realizing it. Here are some ways we prevent ourselves from joining God to make the world a better place:

We get caught up in our own problems and don’t have the time or emotional energy to help others.

We become comfortable in our wealth and/or happiness and do not even notice the problems of others.

We feel helpless and discouraged, certain that our small part won’t make a difference.

To lift the anchor and become effective in bringing God’s kingdom here on earth, we have to take the focus off ourselves. Certainly there are times when we are hurting and can’t be on the frontlines, but in time we have to allow God to bring us healing and restoration — for our own good and the good of others.

Certainly we are meant to enjoy the blessings God gives us, but we are not blessed for ourselves only, we are blessed to be a blessing. Certainly the problems of this world can be overwhelming, but we can be confident that God cares and God can — and he can use us to transform this world.

God empowers us, as imperfect as we are, to do his will. It’s his way. God simply doesn’t use the top-down approach, though his greatness is certainly far beyond us and he could. Scripture says that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). We really can pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done” with the radical faith that will lead us to seeing it happen.

Ruth knows what it means to pray this prayer. Years after she had been saved, both physically and spiritually, she was back in Sierra Leone and working at World Hope International. Janet, who knew nothing of Ruth’s story, invited Ruth to become a public awareness officer for sex trafficking in their country, to stand up for the girls who were being stolen from their homes just as Ruth had been.

Who knows how God will call you to join his work in bringing God’s kingdom here on earth if you begin praying that prayer with radical faith. God wants to use you, not only your strengths, but your weaknesses, to bring His will to this earth. Will he enrich your life by helping you to use your blessings to bless others? Will he use you in huge, earth-shattering ways or will he lead you to small daily acts of kindness that bring his kingdom into your home and community? How will He use you? How will He use us?

Now is the time to pull that anchor out of the deep groove of complacency we’ve created and make an impact in the world.

Conclusion

When you look at the world, what do you see? Many people see chaos and disorder. Some see a personal playground. Others see both a world of great need and a world of nearly limitless resources. Over the next five weeks we will learn to see the world not as the economists, the pundits, or the politicians see it — but as God does.

You will come to envision God’s purpose for yourself, and you will be motivated to use your time, talent, and treasure to join his work in your life — and the world around you. You will see endless possibility!

This Week: Identify one way that you can serve your church and community — and do it.

Prayer needs:

Denise McCarriher family

Gary Shutak - Lenny & Esther Baun’s son-in-law