Content in Any Circumstance

Jeremiah Burroughs, the great Puritan preacher of yesteryear said that many men and women will in general say that they must submit to God in affliction. In fact, he says,

I suppose that if you were to go now from one end of this congregation to the other and speak thus to every soul: “Would you not submit to God’s disposal, in whatever condition He might place you?” you would say, “God forbid that it should be otherwise!” But we have a saying: There is a great deal of deceit in general statements. In general, you would submit to anything; but what if it is in this or that particular case that crosses you most?—then, anything but that! We are usually apt to think that any condition is better than that condition in which God has placed us. Now, this is not contentment; it should be not only to any condition in general, but for the kind of affliction that most crosses you. God, it may be, strikes you in your child—“Oh, if it had been in my possessions,” you say, “I would be content!” Perhaps He strikes you in your marriage—“Oh,” you say, “I would rather have been stricken in my health.” And if He had struck you in your health—“Oh, then, if it had been in my trading, I would not have cared.” But we must not be our own carvers. Whatever particular afflictions God may place us in, we must be content in them. (Jeremiah Burroughs, “Christian Contentment Described” in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

To discover more about Jeremiah Burroughs, a man hailed as “a prince of preachers”, visit these helpful links:

http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/meetthepuritans/jeremiahburroughs.html

http://www.challies.com/articles/the-puritans-jeremiah-burroughs

http://www.monergism.com/topics/puritans/jeremiah-burroughs-1600-1646

Matthew 6:25-34- Good for the soul

Friends, today simply be encouraged by Jesus’ words displaying God’s loving care for his people. Read Matthew 6:25-34 below.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Do not be anxious. Instead, trust the Lord.

God’s glory in human situations- Part 2

Israel was not guiltless in the Exodus account in Exodus 14-15. In reality, Israel was just as guilty of rejecting God as Pharaoh was. Even while God was saving Israel, they complained and said it was better to be slaves of God’s enemies than to trust God even when it seems dangerous. I wonder if you have every thought that way. I wonder if the thought of “It is better to live worshipping yourself, knowing it is not truly fulfilling or life giving, knowing that it is against God, rather than it is to trust and follow God because it is difficult” has ever crossed your mind. We certainly even saw Pharaoh have the opportunity to let God’s people go and his response is “Who is the Lord that I should listen to him?” Israel is saying the same thing!! Israel is saying, “Who is the Lord that we should listen and trust him?”! You, have probably also voiced the same thing.

When we begin to think that way, we forget something so important: IT WAS GOD WHO BROUGHT YOU INTO THAT SITUATION!! It is in these times that we often feel like God has abandoned us, but he actually has not at all. God is using this situation for your good, and for God’s glory.

The Egyptians were coming after Israel because God changed their hearts to do so. God had not abandoned Israel! God was with them the entire time. God lead them to the Red Sea, and not by accident. God works so that the world will know that He alone is God. He does that through situations in your life where you are called to trust God, even when it seems dangerous and difficult. God shows his glory in this world through the lives of his followers. And that is not a bad thing, that is a glorious thing!! Even when you are facing difficult circumstances, know that God does not abandon his people in difficulty! God delivers his people through difficulty, for the good of his people and for God’s glory. We do not need to return to sin, like Israel wanting to return to Egypt, we need to follow God. We need to trust him, especially when life is quite difficult.

We have a choice. We will either respond in anger towards God, or we will respond, like Israel in this situation, in fearing God and believing in him. This situation was not simply to show God’s power and faithfulness to his people, but it was “written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope,” (Rom. 15:4)

Maybe your life is falling apart before your eyes and everything you hold dear is falling away. And you begin to wonder, “Where is God in my circumstance?” I’ve been there. Perhaps your circumstance is so bad, I cannot relate. But I know someone who can. Jesus has been there. Jesus has faced more difficulty than you and for those who would trust in him.

Jesus says in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. That Jesus calls you today, in the midst of your difficulties, to trust him, even when it seems dangerous and scary, and to say, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

The result we see, is that it turned out for the good of Israel. They grew in their fear of the Lord. They grew in their trust in God and of his servant Moses. They trusted God more in this situation as the result.  Today, see the goodness of God by trusting him despite your circumstances, despite your temptation to reject him because it is dangerous, and then know that in trusting God, you will be better for it. I promise.

God’s glory in human situations- Part 1

Often times prayers of the saints will include things like, “God get your glory,” or “be glorified in this situation O Lord,” and a host of other phrases that use the words God and glory. But I often wonder how God actively accomplishes his glory in specific situations. It is a phrase that is used but I often wonder if people understand how it is applied.

This past week with the youth group, we considered God miraculous delivery of Israel through the crossing of the Red Sea. In Exodus 14-15, we considered verse 4 and v17-18 pretty seriously.                                                                                                                                                                 Exodus 14:4, “4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.”   Exodus 14:17-18, “17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

The questions we started asking we perhaps difficult questions to ask, and yet essential to understanding the character of God. To summarize it easily, God acts for his glory and calls us to himself to worship him, all for his glory.

But HOW is God glorified in this particular situation? When God says he is going to get glory, how does he do it?                                                                                                                                                                We could certainly see how God gets glory by delivering Israel through the Red Sea. That is certainly powerful. God gets glory in his even bigger deliverance of Israel from Egypt all together, and Exodus 14-15 is a culmination of what has happened for 14 chapters. Even the end of Exodus 14 describes that God’s people Israel when they saw all that had happened and saw the power of God, “the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord…” Then in Exodus 15 Israel is worshipping God. God is glorified in the situation through Israel’s worship of God himself. And yet while all those are certainly true and worthy to consider, the text gives a more specific way in which God glorifies himself. God is glorified in the destruction of Pharaoh. In verse 4, God is comparing his glory over something, specifically, over Pharaoh.

It is appropriate to ask, “In what way is Pharaoh attempting to get glory over God here?”  That will begin to shed light on how God gets glory over Pharaoh. God’s people are being taken out by the hand of God for the worship of God. Pharaoh, by stopping God’s people and taking them back to be slaves in Egypt, would no longer be God’s people in his mind, but his own people. And if Pharaoh can stop God’s people and take them back and make them Pharaoh’s people, Pharaoh could easily say he is more powerful that Yahweh.  By trying to reclaim God’s people, Pharaoh is in fact saying that he can defy God Almighty and take what is God’s and make his own.

It does not take much reading in Exodus 14 to see that that does not happen. Pharaoh does not win. Pharaoh does not succeed in taking God’s people back. We see quite the opposite. God allows Pharaoh to to come after Israel by hardening Pharaoh’s heart and then in being destroyed by the waters in the Red Sea.

God through Moses parted the Red Sea, and God’s people walked across dry land! The New Testament picks this idea up and talks about how Israel was baptized through the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10). And we know that baptism, at its heart is a sign of judgment, by going under the water. That is the very thing that happened to Egypt, except that they did not come up victorious.

Exodus 14: 28-30                                                                                                                                                        “28 The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. 29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.”

 How does God get glory in this situation?

God hardened Pharaoh’s heart for God’s glory. God brought salvation to God’s people through the judgment of Pharaoh for God’s glory. In saving His people and defeating their enemies, God’s glory is displayed.

God’s name was furthered, it was honoured, it was praised, and it was exalted, not simply at the saving of Israel, but also in the judgment of Pharaoh and his army.

Sometimes God is glorified in the saving of his people and their worship of him. In the same situation, God is glorified in the destruction of Pharaoh, to show his power, his might, and his holiness. While some are immediately offended by this, we should first consider why this matters. It matters because we need to face the reality that says one day we will die and face accountability for each thing we have done. But in that judgment, there will either be one on our side saying, “All his sins, I have already covered,” or “I do not know this person.” God, in his mercy, has provided the blood of Jesus to cover us so that we are no longer headed for destruction but headed for a place at the table of God. Either there will be deliverance or there will be destruction, and God will get his glory either way. Our question we must deal with individually, is what side we will be on? Will we be on the side of God or counted as his enemy? Will we be delivered or will we be destroyed?

There are other reasons why it matters, but if we do not tackle this one first, the rest will be lost. It matters because there is a powerful God who we cannot put in a box, but we must bow to. We cannot contain God, and it matters how we respond to him and his power. Will we be delivered or will we be destroyed?

 

 

Discernment: A Factor in Applying Philippians 4:8-9

This past Sunday morning, Pastor Bruce spoke about things that have the power to mould and shape our thinking. One of those areas was the multiple messages put out by the media, especially in regards to music. In a quote from the book, Soul Searching the Millennial Generation, he read:

We need to be wise and prayerful about all music intake. We must move beyond the naïve view that “Christian” equals good and “secular” equals bad. All types of music and media require discernment. (L. David Overholt and James Penner, Soul Searching the Millennial Generation: Strategies for Youth Workers (Toronto, ON: Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited, 2002), p.75.)

“So let’s be discerning. And let’s take to heart the children’s song which says, “O, be careful little eyes what you see!” and “O, be careful little ears what you hear!” because the things we see and the things we listen to shape what we think about. And Paul is concerned that we think about whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is commendable. … So, the command, here, ultimately, is to think about Jesus. … Think about Jesus and all unworthy thoughts will perish in his presence.” November 2014 Sermons

Newton’s Letter, On Controversy

On Sunday evening, Pastor Bruce read “On Controversy” by John Newton, the late 18th century preacher and hymn writer. Newton wrote the letter to a fellow pastor who was concerned over another preacher’s lack of orthodoxy. Here is an excerpt:

 

Be upon your guard against admitting anything personal into the debate. If you think you have been ill treated, you will have an opportunity of showing that you are a disciple of Jesus, who “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not.” This is our pattern, thus we are to speak and write for God, “not rendering railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing; knowing that hereunto we are called.” …

 

Here is a link to the entire letter.