God at Work
September 17, 2006
John 5:17-20
This weekend I have had the privilege of being the sole/only caregiver/Parent to Deb and my children, Luke, Ben and Emma.
Deb left on Friday with 15 other women from our church to attend the Women’s Retreat held at our Camp in Yelm.
Before she left, she left me theses lists and schedules - To do’s in order to keep us all functioning properly.
The Food schedule/A menu for the weekend.
The Daily Routine schedule.
She laid out the children’s Church clothes. Filled the Diaper box with Emma’s diapers and a dozen other things to make sure I had everything I needed to insure that her 3 children would be around when he returns tonight. These lists were just for our survival. For us to maintain, not to get any new work done. Not to tackle any projects, but simply to make it through until tonight.
Well, it’s Sunday. Between Grandpa and me, all 3 kids are alive and all of us are dying to have Mom back - not only for who she is, but for what she does. Those things she does that we don’t ever realize until she is off the scene for a couple of days. On weekends like this I realize that Mom does work/is at work in ways I will never know.
A man writes. When I lived at home, with my parents, I didn’t realize how good I had it. I had no comprehension of anything they did for me. The fridge was always full. Sometimes it would get nearly empty, but then, overnight, it would always magically refill. We always had water, electricity, and a telephone, I never thought about what they might cost. I always had a place to stay.
When I moved out, things were radically different. I had to pay rent. I had to buy food. I had to pay the electric, the petrol for my car, the water. It was tough. The place where I lived was not very nice either. I lived with three other guys and all of our girlfriend’s refused to use the bathroom in our house. It had no air-conditioning and the heating barely warmed the place in the winter. I often found myself thinking back wistfully about the years I lived at home. (From Gary MacDonald, SermonCentral.com John 5:16-19)
Yes?
As the line goes - "We don’t know what we’ve got ’till it’s gone."
But Friends, as people on the road of faith. As people trusting in and having a relationship with our God, we never have to be concerned about this. This we will never have to fear.
Friends, you and I have been given the assurance that when it comes to our God, He will never leave us nor forsake.
He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Friends, -our God - who worked 6 days to create this world.
-our God - who worked in the lives of Ruth, Esther, Malachi, Noah, Joshua and Caleb.
-our God, who led, fed, healed, brought victory in the pages of our Bible.
Is the same God, living and at work today.
Saints - Our God is always at work around you. Would you say that with me? Our God is always at work around you.
And make it personal, God is always at work around me.
He will never take off for the weekend.
He will never kick you out of the house.
He doesn’t have office hours.
He has no labor contract with days off written in the fine print.
He has never been absent.
missing
or on vacation as the prophet Elijah joked about.
He has been attentive to the sparrow and responsive to the Saints.
Our God is always at work around us.
This morning in Sunday School, our children and the adults studied this 1st reality. This week our 6 small groups did so as well. I encourage you to take part in these. And as you read the Book, the Journal or used your insert this past week, you were led deeper into this reality that our God is always at work around us.
A passage that helps us to understand this truth is found in John, chapter 5, page 1653-1654.
You’ll notice in verse number 2 that this story took place at a pool. A pool that didn’t attract the physically fit, strutting around showing off their curves and muscular physiques, but instead this pool attracted a different crowd.
Verse 3 - "Here a great number of disabled people used to lie.
The blind
the lame
the paralyzed"
Verse 5 - One man who was there had been an invalid for 38 years.
Verse 6 - Tells us that Jesus is there. He is at the pool. Jesus learns about this man, the man’s condition and his inability to be healed. And Jesus responds to this by asking the man, "Do you want to get well?" And then tells him to "Get up. Pick up your mat and walk."
But there was a problem and in the second part of verse 9, we read that this took place on the Sabbath day. When Jesus saw the man carrying the mat and because verse 16, "Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath the Jews persecuted him."
The problem with this was that
No Jew.
No good Jew
No faithful Jew like Jesus was to ever work on the Sabbath day.
It was against what God wanted.
It was contrary to the Creation story in Genesis 1 and 2 - God worked 6 days and took off 1.
So when Jesus, this leading and popular rabbi heals a man.
When he does this work.
This good work on the Sabbath day.
The Jewish leaders get a bit edgy.
Jesus’ words to these disgruntled self-righteous people condemning him for not taking a day off from his healing ministry is our truth for today. Verse 17 (Would you read it with me?)
Verse 17, Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
And in verses 19 and 20, he explains this further:
Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself, he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does."
Jesus informs his adversaries of a truth they wanted to deny. "that his Father is always at his work."
If you are using your own Bible, I’d encourage you to underline the word always.
God the Father is always at his work,
not mostly
not normally
not sometimes
But always.
This is the testimony of scripture.
Whether Paul was in Jail
or Jonah in the whale.
No matter if a person was in a boat
or on an island.
No matter is the person was surrounded by lions
or holed up in cave.
God was there, present and at work.
The Bible declares further that there is no time no age in which he has been absent.
Psalm 139, affirms that God created or inmost being. Knitting us together in our mother’s womb. (v. 13)
leave us or forsake us.
Paul from even his jail cell, locked up in chain seemingly abandoned and left incapable of joining God in his work writes of a confidence in knowing that "he who began a good work will carry it on to completion (1:6) and later he writes, "it is God who works in you." (2:13)
To prepare for this 8 weeks of teaching, I started in July to read through and do the Experiencing God journal. How could I lead you through this if I hadn’t done it already myself?
This journal has been with me everywhere I’ve been.
Its truths have been read by me, nearly every day.
And over and over again, no matter
my location
my situation
my hearts condition I have been blown away at the number of times I have recognized and acknowledge God’s work around me.
When I begin to believe the words I had us read. John 5:17 - "That God the father is always at work and that Jesus too is working."
I began to see for myself in new ways God at work around me.
I experienced/I experience God when I realized/realize that God is continually working.
When I know this is the case, I became aware that the Almighty God is
active in me
around me
and he wants to be active through me. That’s the second thing, - we experience God when we join him in his work.
In verse 19 - Jesus says he did nothing on his own, nothing by himself. He did only what he saw his Father doing.
Jesus joined God in His work
In the kingdom of God
there are no cutting edge Christians
there aren’t any innovates
or pioneers really.
In the Kingdom of God people do not initiate a work.
No - people who God is using are people who have joined God.
Joined him, come on board with Him and carried out what he was already doing.
They step in line with God
Success/Results/living a significant and meaningful/make a difference for God kind of life doesn’t happen because a person is innovative but because their submitted to God and looking for God’s work going on all around them.
In Acts 16 - Paul and his companions were on a ministry blitz-traveling and teaching to all sorts of people. In verse 6, we read that: Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us. After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Paul, this man used mightily by God, did not choose to do things on his own.
He didn’t make his own plans.
He instead joined God in his work.
He adjusted his itinerary to join in on God’s work for him.
Paul experienced God when He joined God in his works.
You and I will experience God when we realize God is at work and then join Him in that work.
I believe in coming today, you desire to experience God. That is a desire of your heart. I also believe that you want to join God in His work.
Perhaps like me, you’ve tried to do something spectacular for God, some good work, but it failed because God wasn’t in it.
Perhaps like me you’ve been exhausted at times because your work that you were intending to honor God with hasn’t done anything.
Yes?
The Experiencing God books reminded me this week of 1 thing that only God can do.
One thing that God is always behind.
For people who may have a hard time identifying where God is working, if you see this, the Bible declares clearly that God is in it. He is at work.
In Romans 3:10-11, we read these words,
"There is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
All have turned away."
And in John 6:44, Jesus says, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them."
How do we recognize God at work? When can we join him I that work? When you and I hear a friend, a family member, a spouse-
inquiring
questioning
beginning to pursue God
These texts tell us that God is at work in them.
God has given them that desire.
God is drawing that person toward himself.
And a way for us to join God in his work is to answer that person’s questions, invite them to your home group, tell them about church.
God has awoken that person. And we will come to experience Him when we come along side God as he draws that person toward Himself.
Saints
Our God is always at work around us.
We experience God when we realize he is continually working.
We experience God when we join Him in His work.
