God's Got It--Saying Goodbye & Entering Retirement.

God’s Got It

Joshua 1:1-9 1 Thessalonians 5:1-24 12/5/2022

It has been said, that the only person who likes change is a baby with a dirty diaper. Change means that a transition is taking place. We are witnessing the end of one thing and the beginning of another. We have all experienced one chapter in our life ending and another beginning. Sometimes we know what to expect, other times we are unsure of what the future will bring.

One of the promises we have from God, is that God will always be with us. God is always outside of our transition looking at them take place. Therefore no matter what the transition, we still have access to the same God as we did before the transition took place. In other words, “God’s Got It.” When we have God, we have all that we need. Everything else is just an accessory in our lives.

We serve an incredible God with big plans for all of humanity. It’s God’s will that every person born gets the chance to hear about Jesus Christ and the tremendous love that he has for them. It’s God’s will for everyone to know the joy of being saved from their sins so that they need not fear punishment when they stand in the presence of the Lord after they die.

It’s God’s will that we would love God, so that they can spend eternity with God. It’s God’s will that when we die, everyone would hear the words well done, my good and faithful servant and that no one will ever hear those dreaded words, “Depart from me, for I do know you, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Although these things are God’s will, they will not all come to pass. God gave each of us the gift of the freedom of choice. We are free to accept what God has to offer or to reject it. We like to use the term forever when it comes to our love for each other in relationships. But the truth is, the only forever relationship we are going to have is our relationship to God.

Some of us will reject the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ. Some of us will not be interested in the love he has for us because other things look better at the moment.

Some of us believe that our sins do not matter, and that there is no heaven, and there is no hell. Some of us believe we are good enough on our own to answer for our sins and we can be our own Savior.

But the amazing thing about God, is that regardless of what we believe, God still pursues us with his love like beagle dog chasing after a rabbit. God sees value in the soul of each and every human being. That is why Jesus chose to build his church.

We the people of God, have been given the honor and privilege of letting others know about the love of God. That’s why we come for worship, that’s why we feed the poor, that’s why we love each other, that’s why we try to let our light shine.

God’s big picture is the saving of humankind . God desires that everybody who wants to be with God can be with God. For God has promised the creation of a new heavens and a new earth in which we can spend eternity with God.

God’s vision includes those who have come before us and the generations that are still waiting to be born. Each of us is called to serve God in our own generation.

It is so important to recognize that Jesus said, “you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you that you should go forth and bear fruit.” It’s amazing how sometimes God literally calls us on the phone. And yet neither we who are receiving the call, nor the person who is making the call knows that God is on the line.

It was over 3 decades ago when Pastor Toby and I received a phone call from a Gail H. Banes asking if we would be interested in coming to speak at Glenville Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, OH. Glenville was a small congregation that the denomination thought should be closed.

The Presbytery didn’t see how that congregation could move forward and figured it would close. Our salary in Boston was already low, and to come to Cleveland would mean taking a $5000 pay cut.

What on paper looked like an easy decision to say no to, in our spirits we felt God was saying, this is where I am appointing you. We had no idea what a tremendous jewel God had hidden inside of that small congregation. Nor could we have foreseen the diamonds that would be added to it in the new members who were yet to come into the life of the church.