Sermon for Flinders Park Church June 2018

Over the last couple of years, my mum has become frailer and finds it impossible to do the things she used to do.  For years she ministered to drug addicts and street kids and people who just needed a mother.  A decade ago Mum moved into a lifestyle village and her house was too small for boarders, so she gave up doing what she had been doing.  But Mum still wanted to help people and she made endless blankets for homeless people.  In the last couple of years, even that got too hard for Mum to continue doing.  Now Mum has moved to a nursing home and I know that she feels frustrated that she is unable to help anyone anymore.

The truth is that we are culturally programmed to think of our value in terms of productivity.  We are constantly told that doing things is what makes us matter.  Even in church there is the same message.  Do things for God!  Work hard for God!  So when events overtake us and it is harder to do things than it was before, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that there is no purpose anymore.  This happens when someone loses a job and it happens when someone gets sick or becomes disabled.  It certainly happens to people as they get older and need more help to do ordinary things.  We all want to have purpose and we often believe that the only way life can have purpose is to constantly do things.  My purpose today is to change your thinking about this.

Instead of beginning with your individual purpose, I am going to begin with something far more important, that is, God’s eternal purpose.  We need a larger perspective on life than just what is happening around us.  What is God’s eternal purpose?  It is first and foremost to put Christ at the centre of all things.  Ephesians 1:9-11 spells this out for us: God “made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.  In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”  The creation was made in, through and for Christ (Col 1:16-17) and it is heading towards unity under Christ.  God’s purpose is to make everything conform to the glory of his Son.  He wants the whole universe to be subject to Jesus and to give him glory.  The church has a particular role in this plan.  “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Eph 3:10-11).

God’s purpose is cosmic in scope.  It does not change (Heb 6:17).  It cannot fail.  He says, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’  From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfil my purpose.  What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do” (Isa 46:10-11).  And again he says, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isa 55:11).  Since God’s purpose cannot fail, we must realise that whether or not we succeed or fail in what we do, God purpose will come about.  It does not depend on me accomplishing my goals or doing certain things.

And yet, even though our success or failure cannot change God’s purpose, he is so gracious as to give us a part within his purpose.  He includes us in what is he doing in the world.  First and foremost, being a Christian is a participation in the Sonship of Christ, rather than some deeds that we do.  We are sons of the living God because of Jesus (Gal 4:4-6).  Being God’s sons is what comes first, not doing things.  We join Jesus in his work, not the other way around.  In John 15 Jesus spoke about being the vine.  He said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  Our task is to remain in the vine, that is, remain connected to Jesus.  We draw our life from him.  And when we do this, then we bear fruit.  Let’s not confuse the order of these things.  We do not have relationship with Jesus because of our fruit; we bear fruit because of our relationship with him.

We so often fall into the trap of thinking that we are doing something for God.  It would be more truthful to say that God has done something for us.  “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,” (2 Tim 1:9).  Before we could ever do anything at all, God called us to be his.  His grace was there even before the creation of the world.  God called you because he wants to do something in you and he is doing something through you.  But we are not really doing things for God.  It is his work first, not ours.  Certainly we respond to what God has done and is doing.  But “it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose” (Phil 2:13).  God’s work is primary.  Ours is only ever done because he worked in us.

But, you ask, isn’t part of being a Christian serving God and others?  Yes that is true.  But the will of God for your life is not determined by you.  How you are to serve God and others is up to God not you.  The Lord Jesus “died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor 5:15).  Living for the glory of God means living under his lordship.  It is not your life any more.  The moment you said ‘yes’ to Jesus Christ is the moment that you died (Gal 2:20).  So if Jesus wants to change some aspect of your life, who are you to say no to that?  Just because you have served God and others in a particular way your whole life does not mean that you must go on doing that for the rest of your life.  It is not up to you, but up to Jesus.

Jesus Christ is lord over all.  That means that he is lord over the entire cosmos.  The circumstances of your life are not outside his lordship.  I have been in many churches where I have been frustrated because I could not use my gifts there.  Yet all that time, God has kept reminding me that the pastors of those churches are not my lord.  Jesus is.  It is the same with work.  It is not the way I would like things to be.  But my boss at work is not lord.  Jesus is.  If you are getting older and frailer and cannot do all the things you did before, do you think that this is outside the lordship of Jesus?  It is not.  Romans 8:28 affirms “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).  Nothing that happens in your life, whether good or bad, is outside the lordship of Christ.  Nothing has snuck in there without his knowledge.  Nothing has taken him by surprise.

The Bible tells us, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10).  We can be sure that the circumstances of our lives have not somehow taken God by surprise.  He prepared good works for us to do and those good works have been in God’s mind and heart since before he made the world.  He knows what our circumstances are.  He knows that I can’t work full time doing what I have trained for.  He knows that some of us are getting older and frailer.  He knows that my mum is in a nursing home.  Yet, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, there are good works for us to do that God has prepared for us.  They may not be what we were expecting.  They may take us by surprise.  But they are never something which takes Jesus by surprise.  He has known all along.

We can find a very helpful example of different life circumstances in the life of the apostle Paul.  There are times and seasons in life.  These are not always what we expect or necessarily want.  However, these things are firmly within the sovereignty of God.

In three separate chapters of Acts, the call of God on Paul’s life is described.  The first time, the Lord told Ananias “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15-16).  The second time Paul recalled that Ananias said to him, “The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.  You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:14-15).  The last records the words which Jesus spoke to Paul directly, “I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.  I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:16-18).

Given these three statements, it is plain that Paul knew what the call of God was on his life.  And yet that call did not involve only one activity.  Paul spent many years conducting missionary journeys.  He also spent a number of years in prison on separate occasions.  What did Paul do in prison?  Prisons were uncomfortable places.  Paul would have been chained to two guards, except when in Rome, where he was chained to only one.  This would no doubt have left the guards as a captive audience for the gospel (e.g., Phil 1:12-13).  But it would have been difficult to plant churches while in prison.  This did not prevent the Lord Jesus from using Paul according to the will of God for Paul’s life.  The time in prison left Paul with time to think and to write letters to churches.  Paul wrote several letters from prison.  Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon were written from prison.  Second Timothy was written at a time when Paul expected his life to end soon, because he was in prison.  The church throughout the centuries would be in serious lack in regard to much Christian doctrine if it were not for the epistles which Paul wrote in prison.  The time in prison was not wasted time then.  It was fruitful.  It was another means by which Paul could fulfil his call.  Same gifts, same call, different manifestation.

So let’s consider how we can learn to be comfortable with different manifestations of God’s purpose in our lives.  Or to put it another way, how can we embrace the changes in our participation in God’s purposes?  God’s purpose for the world does not change, but the way in which he chooses for us to share in his purpose changes over time.  Even if you have the same gifts and the same call of God, what you do can change quite a lot over time.  This was so in the life of Paul and it has been true in my life.  When my children were small I was very limited in what I could do outside of the home.  Now I have much more freedom.  My job has changed and yet God has been doing more writing, teaching this church and other things.  Change no doubt is present in the life of others too.  Perhaps there are things you could do once that you cannot do now.  But by the same token there are things that you can do now that you could not do before.

Getting older is no hindrance to God.  The Holy Spirit is at work in people of every age.  As the prophet Joel foretold, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).  But there are some things which older Christians are able to do that younger Christians cannot.  In Titus there is an instruction given to older people.  “Teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good.  Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God” (Tit 2:3-5).  Being older gives you life experience.  Many of you have known Jesus longer than I have been alive.  You have wisdom that comes only with years of walking with God.  Passing that on to others is important.  In addition, one thing older people have that younger people do not have is time.  There is time to pray that you did not have when you had a job.  There is time to read the Bible that you did not have so much time for before.  There is time to write to people or make phone calls.

Here is another thought.  What if instead of serving others, you bless others by allowing them to serve you?  “The Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35).  If you allow others to help you, you will be blessing them.  It is possible to make a difference by allowing others to do things for you.  Not only will other people be blessed by helping you, but you will also learn that God can bless you without you doing anything to prove yourself worthy of that blessing.

Changes in life are inevitable.  However, there is no point in life where you become without value.  Our value does not come from what we do.  It comes from the one who gave his life for us.  If Jesus died for me then I cannot become more valuable by doing something.  How much more valuable could I be?  Our culture tells us that productivity makes us valuable and important.  As people get older they may become less productive but God does not say that we are less important.

It is okay to do things differently.  It is okay for life to change.  You don’t have to work to prove anything to God.  He is not seeking people to do things for him.  He is seeking people to allow him to work in them.  He is seeking people who trust him and who surrender to him.  That surrender might involve allowing others to look after your needs.  It might involve letting God set you different works to do.  It always involves trusting that God is in control of your life and your circumstances.