Seeing God At Work In Your Life

Ash Wednesday

Prayer -  

Heavenly Father, we thank You for those who have gathered in Your House tonight to begin our journey with you through this season of Lent; to begin a time of prayer, renewal, and repentance as we journey with you to the Cross and then celebrate Your resurrection on Easter Sunday.    We ask that You would be with us on these days of Lent and that we would grow closer to You and we pray this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Gospel Lesson from Matthew, chapter eleven talks about repentance.

Gospel – Matthew 11:20-24   Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than you.”

Sermon –

I have to show you my diamond…I have absolutely the biggest diamond you have ever seen in your entire life! (But Pastor merely held up a baseball-sized rock!) How do you like it? This is one whopper of a diamond isn’t it?

Now you are probably saying, “Pastor, that’s not a diamond! It’s just a rock!”, and if were to say, “Well, this might look like a rock, but it actually is a diamond!”, you would probably think I’m crazy. But if I really believed that this is a diamond, and you believed this is a diamond, and millions and millions of people believed this is an actual diamond, what do you think would have occurred?

Something would have had to happen, some outside force would have had to come in and convince all of us that this rock is actually a diamond. In fact, probably only God could convince millions of people that this is actually a diamond. Now, hold that thought for just a moment…

During Lent we are doing a series titled Making Sense Out Of Life.Life is so confusing and so difficult, and we look at the situations we face and wonder just what in the world is going on so our Lenten series involves trying to make some sense out of life. During Lent, we will be looking at seven principles from the Bible. Last Sunday, week one, we looked at the first principle, God is always at work around us. Also last Sunday we talked about that God’s goal is to turn each of us into a PEG, a Person Experiencing God.

Last Sunday we talked about several Bible verses illustrating this principle but one we didn’t talk about was Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt - millions of people leaving Egypt where at least they had food, water, and clothes and going out into the desert where there had nothing. Just try and make some sense out of that - they were going to starve to death! What was that all about?

That whole experience was about God being at work around them and turning each of them into a PEG, a Person Experiencing God. When they went out into the wilderness they experienced God every day - God had to feed them and provide for them. And as God provided for them, the people experienced Him. Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “God humbled you causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna.” God was at work in their lives causing them to hunger and then feeding them; the Israelites actually experienced God providing for them.

Then last Sunday we talked about Eutychus in Act chapter 20 who fell asleep, fell out of a window and died because Paul preached too long. Try to make some sense out of that one. You can’t, until you apply the first principle: God is always at work around us and His goal is to turn each and every one of us, including Eutychus, Paul, and everyone at that prayer meeting, into a PEG, a Person Experiencing God. Did those people at the prayer meeting actually experience God? Yes, they did - Eutychus was raised from the dead! Talk about experiencing God! Now all of a sudden life begins to make sense.

And last Sunday we talked about Miss C who, about three weeks ago had a terrible experience, one of those experiences that makes us wonder why in the world something like this would happen. Miss C is in college and she broke her leg in numerous places, and she can’t get to classes. It’s hard to make sense about an accident    like that until you remember first principle: God is always at work around us and that God was out to turn Miss C into a PEG, a Person Experiencing God. And she actually did experienced God as he brought her computer back to life, and as He arranged getting her cast off a week early.

And my promise to you last Sunday was that if you showed up tonight you also would become a PEG, a Person Experiencing God.   I promised that you would become a person who would actually experience God just as the Israelites in the desert did, just as Eutychus did, and just as Miss C did.

So, are you still holding that thought about my diamond? Well, imagine that all of us actually believe that in, with, and under this rock is a diamond - a real diamond, the biggest diamond you have ever seen. That would, of course, take a miracle; it would be an act of God!

And do you want to see an even greater miracle than believing that this rock is a diamond? I’ll show you a greater miracle. (Pastor held up a communion wafer and a small glass of wine) What do you see here? (The congregation responded, “The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.”) This little piece of bread, a communion wafer, and this little bit of wine, is a far greater miracle than believing that my rock is a diamond. When we have communion, you know that this bread and wine are actually the body and blood of Jesus Christ!

Wow! Have you experienced God? Who in the world would believe such a thing? It doesn’t make any sense to say that this communion wafer and this wine is the body and blood of Christ. We all know that the Bible says it is many times, but who could believe that God, Himself, the Savior who hung on the Cross, who died and paid for your sins and my sins to reconcile us to Himself, is in this bread and wine? But it is absolutely true!! I believe it, you believe it, millions of people believe it today, and billions of people throughout history have believed it.

So what does this mean? Who had to convince us? God, Himself, convinced us! I Corinthians 2:14 says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”   We cannot believe it unless God enables us to believe, unless we actually experience the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who enables us to believe that in this bread and wine are the body and blood of Christ. When I held up the bread and wine you all said, with conviction, that it was the body and blood of Christ.   God is at work here, the Spirit is at work, and you have experienced God!

And here’s another example: (Pastor held up a piece of paper) Can you see what’s wrong with paper? It has a big smudge on it! Would you write a letter on this paper? Would you use it to apply for a job? No way! The smudge ruined it; the paper is no good and we have to throw it away. But here’s the interesting thing. You have inconvenienced yourself on a cold winter night to come out on slippery roads into church to have a smudge put on you. Think about that. Why has that occurred? Because you have experienced God. John 16:8 says, “The Holy Spirit will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin.” That smudge you are going to receive is a reminder that dust we are and to dust we shall return, that we are sinful and only the Holy Spirit could convince you of that! By getting that smudge on your forehead, you have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, you have experienced God.

And John 16:13 says that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. I mention this because it’s such a good illustration about how we experience God.   When I took Experiencing God for the second time last fall, a gentleman in the course said, “I really struggled with that bread and wine, body and blood of Christ thing. But I prayed that the Spirit would reveal the truth, and He did!”  

Did that gentleman experience God? Did he experience the power of the Holy Spirit? Did he experience John 16? You bet he did,    just as you have experienced God tonight.

I was talking to one of our members recently who told me that for about a year and a half her job has been absolutely miserable. Monday as she was driving to work she was praying about her job and when she got to work, her boss handed her a letter that said, “You’re fired!”

Make some sense out of that one! That’s really tough! But you can make some sense out of it if you were in church last Sunday when we talked about the first principle: God is always at work around us and He wants to turn you and me into a PEG, a  Person Experiencing God. She knew that God is always at work around her and she said that when she got that letter, she began to experience God because a great feeling of peace came over her, a great feeling of relief.

But there was another problem. A member of her family has health issues and she needs health insurance. Later on that day she found out about a plan she could enroll in and now she has health insurance! Did she experience God last Monday? She certainly did! In all the difficulty of life, in all the things that go wrong, in all the things that we try to make sense out of, God is at work.   She experienced God!

Tonight you have experienced God. Those people in the desert have nothing over you, Eutychus has nothing over you, Paul has nothing over you, and Miss C has nothing over you. You, too, have experienced God because He is always at work around us. And no matter what you face during the rest of this week, no matter what you face during the rest of your life, know this - it may seem confusing and it may not make any sense until you remember one thing: God is always at work around us and His purpose is to turn us into a PEG, a Person Experiencing God so that in those situations that the world looks at as so terrible, so confusing, so bizarre, and so hard to understand, we can say, “I am experiencing God.” And that is absolutely the greatest thing in the world! Amen.   

Prayer -  

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You that it is true. We thank You for Your Holy Spirit who touches our lives and most of all we thank You that Your plan for us is that we would experience You. And we pray that you help us to remember that in those difficult situations You are at work and You are at work so that we would experience You. Thank You, God. And we pray these things in Jesus’ Name. Amen.