Open...to God's Goodness

Prayer

“Stuff People Say” Video

So, it’s a little dated, but you get the idea. People who have so much, who are so richly blessed, and yet we find ways to complain - we continue to be discontent.

I came across something I had never seen before, about the root meaning in Hebrew for the word, salvation - according to Eugene Peterson, it means to be broad, to become spacious, to enlarge. He says that it carries the sense of being delivered from an existence that has become compressed, confined, and cramped.

I love that. It’s this whole sense that sin always makes our lives smaller, reduced, diminished. And God wants to save us - and not just us, but all of creation from that. To invite us into the largeness of his Kingdom - which is bigger and better and more wonderful than we’d ever hoped for.

Peterson says it this way, Salvation is God’s determination to rescue his creation; it is his activity in recovering the world. It is personal and impersonal, it deals with souls and cities, it touches sin and sickness. There is a reckless indiscriminateness about salvation. There are no fine distinctions about who or what or when - the whole lost world is invaded, infiltrated, beckoned, invited, wooed: “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

I hope what you’re seeing here is that God’s saving work in the world isn’t just about individuals and whether or not someone is going to heaven or hell.

It certainly includes that - but that it’s much, much bigger and grander than that - it encompasses all of creation - new heavens and a new earth.

Remember - in Genesis we learn that God made the world GOOD - and in spite of taint of sin in world today, it will be good again.

This sense of salvation as being broad and spacious - bigger - ties in so well with what we’ve been talking about in our sermon series, Open.

We began talking about what it means to be open to God, our willingness to fling the door wide open to allow Jesus into our heart as our Lord, to let him lead us.

Last week we continued by asking the question of our openness to others - how open - or closed - are to we others, especially those different from us. Are we willing to love all our neighbors? That love necessarily involves opening ourselves to others, making ourselves vulnerable.

Today, I want to finish up with a question of how open - or closed - are we to God and his goodness? His abiding glory, all around us?

That’s whole sense of salvation - to enlarge, broaden - God is inviting us into this, a richer, more full life. One marked by delight, wonder, awe - open to all the fullness of life that Jesus has to offer us. Remember Jesus’ invitation: John 10:10…“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

But one writer, Jeff Chesemore, points out that we should be mindful of the first half of this verse, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” That there are things and people who would steal life away from us, diminish it.

And sometimes - if we’re closed to God and his goodness - it could be us. We might be our own worst enemies in this.

Because a self-oriented life, a closed heart - is a small life. Confined, cramped. If life is all about my needs, my wants, that things should operate the way I want them to - that’s a compressed, diminished life, so much less than God has to offer.

That’s really what the video was demonstrating - life lived with a self-focus, everything should be set to meet my needs.

Helpful to be mindful of how we respond when things don’t go our way, how we want them to: there’s always plenty of examples of this - how we respond when the power goes out (like it did last week). Or Wednesday evening - both WiFi and phone service were out! It’s the worst.

Or driving around - that stupid driver is going soooo slow! Store packed full of groceries doesn’t have one thing I really want. Just shoot me.

God has so much more for us - if we’re open to it. Spend a little time talking about what it looks like to be open - or closed, as the case may be - to God and his goodness.

Open to the Goodness of God

Start with Romans 1:18-25...

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, 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 people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Paul begins here by talking about God’s wrath coming against humanity. I really appreciate Tim Keller’s description of God’s wrath as “settled opposition.” This isn’t about God raging against people, it’s God coming against us in our sinfulness, he can’t be for our destructive behaviors - he loves us too much.

But what I really want to get at is why God’s wrath is coming against people in first place. What’s going on here that’s causing all this? It’s a suppression of truth. Notice use of that word, suppression - truth confined, cramped, reduced.

Paul is making point that the glory and splendor and goodness of God is all around us - it’s so obvious, right smack in front of our faces. But because we suppressed truth, we can’t see it. We miss wonders of great God-reality that surrounds us.

But God’s made it plain as day - all we need to do is look at wonders of his creation, they all point to his power and glory and godliness. God is revealed in his creation. Psalm 19, which we quoted earlier, expresses this beautifully:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

Psalmist makes clear that creation speaks in entirely different way - no words involved, can’t hear anything they say…but what they express is unambiguous. Look at the description.

The heavens declare the glory of God, skies proclaim his work. This isn’t any mumbling statement, opinion tentatively offered - it’s bold, authoritative, spoken with full confidence.

And it’s expressed continuously - day after day, night after night. It never stops.

And it’s revealed everywhere - to the ends of the world.

So in other words, if you don’t hear what creation has to say, that’s on you, buddy. You’re not listening. You’ve suppressed the truth. You’ve closed yourself off.

Long ago, in college, I was praying with a friend of mine, Piper, and we were outside, could hear the sounds of nature. In the midst of her prayer, she expressed her delight in frogs, what funny little creatures they were.

It was such a beautiful, spontaneous moment of someone who saw and recognized the glory and goodness of God right there in our midst - and expressed her delight to one who made it possible.

And yet, somehow, we miss it. Storm the other night (when we lost power!), what an amazing demonstration of divine power...

You know it’s a suppression of the truth when we have more evidence than ever before of God’s divine nature and power being revealed in his creation: Big Bang theory - we know now that the universe has a beginning, there was a point in which time and matter and energy did not exist. So, how did it come about?? There’s Fine tuning principle - what’s that? We know that there a number of parameters that if they were just a fraction off - if they weren’t tuned precisely to this exact point - universe could not exist. Life wouldn’t exist (law of gravity, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, list goes on). Almost as if it were intentioned designed. So many things pointing us to God.

And yet, it’s getting worse for us - our culture today is becoming more blind to reality of God. Most recent poll on the number of Americans who believe in God dropped to 81%, which is lowest since they’ve been doing the poll, 1944. I’m convinced that we’re seeing the truth of this Romans passage happening right in front of our eyes today.

Problem is, when we close ourselves off to the truth of God, his goodness, wonders all around us declaring his glory - we become smaller, compressed.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...”

Futile thinking, darkened hearts…fools who trade the wonders and glory and goodness of God for something lesser. We give our hearts over to lesser things.

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory: If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Do you see what Lewis saying here? The problem isn’t that we want too much - we want too little. We settle for weak rewards of world around us rather than opening ourselves to life in Jesus Christ and all the rewards that come with it.

Irony is we often neglect or outright reject God because we think he’s going to deny us the goodness of life, cramp our style. That if we pursue God wholeheartedly, we’ll miss out - that’s our fear.

That’s how it’s been from the very beginning - Adam & Eve feared God was holding out on them by denying them the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So they ate the fruit.

But the exact opposite it true - our desires are too small. Our ambitions pale in comparison. We think cash will bring joy to our hearts.

So we settle for the smallness of those “gods” instead of all the good God as to offer us. That he alone can give us.

In C.S. Lewis’ book from the Chronicles of Narnia, the Last Battle, the characters have their final entry into the new land - New Narnia - and they are in utter amazement of its beauty and vastness. And surprised by the way in - which was through the door of a stable.

To quote from the book: “It seems, then, said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places.” “Yes,” said the Lord Digory, “Its inside is bigger than its outside.” “Yes,” said Queen Lucy, “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”

“A stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” Jesus - his fundamental goodness - he is bigger and better than anything else. As Jeff Chesemore puts it, he is the one who “beckons us into an enlarged, broadened, spacious life. It’s the thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy - to cramp and deny and make our world - and our lives - smaller.

This makes me think about a book by Brennan Manning entitled, “Ruthless Faith.” Which is kind of a strange title, isn’t it? Who would want a ruthless faith? When you think of being ruthless - you’re being cruel, mean, without pity.

But it’s exactly in that last sense that Brennan Manning means it, “without pity.” He says that one of our tendencies is to sink into self-pity. When things aren’t going our way, when we don’t think we’re getting what we deserve - or just what we want, when we’re disappointed, we aren’t being treated or recognized in way we want, we pity ourselves.

But a faith that is ruthless - without pity - is rooted in absolutely trust of the goodness of God. I don’t move into self pity because I know and believe that God is being good and gracious to me in this moment, right now, whatever’s happening in my life. Because God is good. He cannot not be good. And I’m open to receiving and knowing the goodness of God in my life. That’s ruthless faith!

I can think of an experience in my own life, when I found myself mired in self-pity - the longer I was single and still wanting deeply to be married. I struggled with that. Why, God? Why not me? I see all these other folks around me finding someone. Got the point that I convinced myself that I wasn’t going to be truly happy until I was married. Got to the point where I was living with a “if-then” mindset - if this happens, then life will be good, then I’ll be happy.

That was self-pity. I needed ruthless faith. I needed to trust that God is good, no matter my marital status. That I can know and experience his goodness, whatever the circumstances. I made the decision to claim God’s goodness in my life right then and there. To open myself up to it.

Funny enough, when you open yourselves up to the goodness of God, when you look to Jesus as the one who brings life - spacious, enlarged, full, you experience more of it. So, let’s talk about a few ways to do just that.

Spiritual Disciplines

Invite you this week to open yourselves up to God’s goodness. Make that orientation of your life this week, to look for and recognize God’s goodness and receive his goodness in that present moment (as opposed to video we showed at the beginning - poked fun at how we often focus on the negatives, what we don’t have that we think we should).

James reminds us that every good and perfect gift comes from above - every single one. So delight in those good gifts.

Talk a walk at night - look up, let the heavens declare the glory of God. I took a hike yesterday morning - at one point I looked up over the ridge - what is that blue thing over there - never seen that building…then I realized it was the sky - so perfectly clear and bright, vibrancy of blue.

As you eat your next meal - savor it! Cool water sating your thirst (God’s goodness). Delight in friends, family member (smile, wit, thoughtfulness), a great song on radio. We’ll be on vacation in Italy - you bet I’m going to be delighting!

Delight in those good gifts. Experience God’s goodness in the present moment. Quiet prayer…thank you, Lord. Praise you, Father.

Second thought - do you remember a Jim Carey movie called, “Yes Man”? He plays a guy who’s always turning invites and opportunities down. Says no to everything. Ends up going to a self help seminar where he agrees to live by one rule - Yes. To say yes to new opportunities.

Now, there are absolutely things we should say “no’ to - but how often are we our worst enemies? We make our lives smaller, more cramped because we live in fear and worry? We don’t want to be made uncomfortable. But growth only comes through discomfort. If we’re going to be stretched, grow - live more into the spacious, enlarged world God wants for us, we have to be willing to be uncomfortable. To be open to God’s goodness is to be willing to say “yes” to God.

Here’s the spiritual exercise - say Yes this week. Enlarge your world. Strike up a conversation with someone new. Go and meet that neighbor. Invite a friend to church. Take on a new challenge, new opportunity. How often do we say “no” because of fear of failure or embarassment or being uncomfortable?

I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous about the leading the Capernaum summer camp trip, being with those kids all day and all night for 5 days. But what an incredible opportunity to share the abundant life in Jesus with those kids! So I’m saying Yes!

One I’d strongly you encourage to consider is taking the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality class. My guess is that some of you are very apprehensive about engaging in a class like that. You know it’s going to make you uncomfortable. Yes it will. But I promise you that you’ll experience more of the fullness of life Jesus offers -his big salvation.

Inspiration - Psalm 145: The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

This is what it means to be open to God and his goodness. Let’s look to Jesus. Let’s come with open hands to the one who opens his hands in order to satisfy the desires of every living thing.