Ashes
Church Dedication Message
Sunday, July 15, 2007 – 2 PM
By Pastor Jim May
Isaiah 61:1-4, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations."
As I stood there looking it seemed like the vision before me was just a dream, or maybe a nightmare. The beauty and work that had been put into the object before me was forever lost, gone in an instant.
Carefully, the body had been brought together. With a creative hand, the body had been formed, beautiful in its appearance, unified in image of its Creator and perfect in its ways. But in a moment of time, all was lost. Beauty was now destined for the ash heap. The handiwork that had gone into its creation was forever marred and ruined. What a sad sight that was.
Yet even in the midst of sorrow, and with a mournful spirit, the work of restoration began. To bring this creation back into its former position would require a lot of work and would exact a high price. But the end result of removing the ashes and bringing the creation back into its profitable condition would be worth the price.
The vision before me was one of ashes, destruction, death and as I beheld the scene my spirit was mournful and heavy.
No, this wasn’t a burned out building beside the highway that I beheld. It was something far more significant than that. It was man, created in the image of God, formed from the dust of the earth into a perfect body that God had so lovingly and wonderfully made with his own two hands. God had take special care in this creation for he wanted it to be just right. Every part of this creation was undertaken with the utmost of planning, the greatest thought and design, to make sure that it was exactly as our loving God wanted us to be.
Everything else in creation had been simply spoken into existence. God had said, “Let there be light”, and light burst forth in abundance to dispel the darkness that had moved upon the deep making a division and caused the first day in the realms of time to appear in the infinite eternity where God dwells. Then he spoke the atmosphere, into existence, and caused it to make a small sphere in the vastness of empty space, giving it the perfect elements oxygen, nitrogen and all the ingredients needed for the habitation of his ultimate creation, man.
Into this sphere of atmosphere God spoke again and the earth, dry land, appeared out of the waters and God began to form the beauty of nature that we see all around us. Then God spoke again and the dry land sprang forth with life. Green covered the dry land as grass and trees, shrubs and bushes filled the land to provide both food and beauty for the ultimate creation that was yet to come. This was the 3rd day of his handiwork and God was pleased with what he saw.
On the forth day, as darkness once again surrendered its power to the light of God, he spoke once again and billions upon billion of stars appeared in their appointed places in the vast universe of outer space. We have never seen the edge of this space that God spoke into existence for our God is so great, so wonderfully omnipotent that there is no measuring his power. Our fastest space probes could never reach the end, no matter how many lifetimes it would travel, for there is always more to see of God’s great handiwork.
The stars were there to give us light, not just a twinkle of light in the night, but light that would enable us to understand the love, power, glory and majesty of God and his great plan for the ultimate creation that was yet to come. They are there to help us judge the time, determine the seasons and to keep track of God’s plan as it unfolds before our very eyes.
Then he spoke the animal kingdom into existence, bringing forth every fish in sea, every bird that sails upon the winds of the air, and every animal, and creature that moves upon the dry land. All of these things God had so wonderfully made by the Word of His mouth. His voice sounded and his power created and it was perfect and complete.
Then God stopped speaking, came down to the very earth that he had just spoken into existence, bent down, brought himself low and began to form something out of the dust of the earth. He was creating his crowning achievement by forming man in his own perfect image. Everything that God had done had all been designed with man at its center for this was to be the object of His perfect love. Man would be the only part of this creation that could choose to return the love back to God that God would give to him.
God formed man and woman and breathed life into them, giving them an eternal soul for it was His intention that they would live forever, in perfect harmony with their creator.
But something dreadful happened. In a moment of time, all of the beauty of God’s creation turned to ashes. Sin entered through the disobedience of man and God perfect creation was forever cursed. The innocence and perfect beauty was forever lost.
At the end of August, last year, at around 1 AM on a Tuesday morning, Pat and I sat on the tailgate of my truck watching 5 years of hard work go up in smoke. At that point we had told no one of about the fire. What good would it do? We may as well let everyone sleep for there was nothing that could be done but sit back and watch the dark billows of smoke pour from everywhere it could. Firemen were doing their best but the heat and smoke was too intense to enter for a long time. Finally, after a few hours, it was under control and we were allowed to enter to see the damage.
It was a scene I shall never forget. Everything was black, covered in a thick, sticky, smelly smoke. The strong odor of chemicals of all sorts was in the air making it hard to even breathe. As we looked at the devastation, our spirits were heavy, and our thoughts were mournful over the loss of all that never be regained. How could this have happened?
Many thoughts ran through my mind. Why did God allow this? Did we leave something on? Was there a candle left burning, a light on or something in the kitchen? Was it the work of an arsonist? An electrical short, or what? Satan began to put a few thoughts in my mind too. Was this God’s judgment for something that either I or someone else had done wrong? Was this God’s way of allowing our church to fail? Would we be able to rise from the ashes, or was this the end of Victory Temple. Perhaps we had no been what God wanted us to be. Maybe, somehow, we had lost God’s blessing and had missed the mark. But I knew that this wasn’t God’s way. He may chastise, he may correct, but he doesn’t utterly destroy his church. The doubts that Satan tried to place there were quickly replaced with the thought that God still cared; that none of this was a surprise to Him; that somehow God already had a plan; and that somehow, we would rise again.
The scriptures came to me and I hinged my faith upon them. Two scriptures that really became a rallying cry for me were these:
Matthew 16:18, "… upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
And the one that Bro. Pack quoted on Friday night from Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
No, I didn’t know what step to take next. I stood in absolute shock not knowing what to do or which way to go, but I had the calm assurance that somehow God would work it all out to our good. What good would all of my preaching and teaching to the flock do, if I could not stand in faith now! It was time for me to either trust God or walk away. At times like that you discover just how strong your faith really is.
Suddenly my thoughts went from the scene around me to the rest of the church, the true church, God’s people, whom God had brought together to make into this body of Christ that met here. What about them? Where will we go now and what can we do? God, I need your help. I need your direction.
On that day, so long ago, as God beheld the ashes of his wonderful creation, I’m sure that his heart was grieved beyond description. There was a heaviness upon Him as he walked through the garden trying to get Adam and Eve to come out of hiding, and face up to what they had done. All of the perfect beauty of God’s Creation was gone in an instant as judgment for sin had to fall upon it. Death began to reign in the place of life. Decay and destruction became a way of life instead of production and growth. From that day on, everything in God’s creation began to die and is still dying today.
But it didn’t take God by surprise, anymore than our church fire did. He already had a plan in action that would give man and woman the way to rise from the ashes of destruction to walk with God again. That plan was to send his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to this sin-blighted world, to walk among men and overcome the same temptations that had overcame man, and then to die as the perfect blood sacrifice that would satisfy the holiness of God and fulfill all of the requirements of God’s Law.
Jesus came, lived a perfect life, gave his life upon the cross and shed his perfect innocent blood that each of us could rise from the ashes of death to a new life in God. God’s plan is a perfect plan, if we just walk by faith and do his will. As long as our faith is in Jesus alone, and we depend upon his grace and his shed blood, we can walk with God in the cool of the day, through the garden of this world anytime we want to.
God has given us the ability to have Isaiah 61:3, "...beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."
He has done the same for our church today. As we look around us, we can see that God has a perfect plan for our church. Truly the gates of hell shall never prevail if we just walk by faith and do his will.
Truly God has blessed us so greatly. There can be no denying that fact that He is with us, and has been with us through it all. Every step of the way, He was holding us up, supporting us with his own hand, leading us by His Spirit, and giving us the path to walk through this Word that shined a light upon the path that we must walk before him. His plan was perfect and it could not fail, as long as we walk by faith and not by sight.
The final point is this. God has brought Victory Temple to a place of real victory. He has fulfilled Isaiah 61:3 in us this day. He has given us, "...beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness”. But why did God bring us this far? What is his purpose for our church? Why are we still here after all that we have had to go through?
The rest of Isaiah 61:3 gives us that answer: “… that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."
God brought us here, gave us this church building, so that the church could carry on God’s work in this area and anywhere that our ministry can reach.
God has planted us by the living water and as it says in Isaiah 44:4, "And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses." You and I, and every child of God, must stand grow and trees of righteousness before the world. People all around us must see us as upholding the standards of holiness and righteousness in our life. We must be a testimony to the righteousness, holiness and faithfulness of a loving, merciful God, but also as the God who must be a Just God and judge sin in the camp.
Our church, represented by each of us who make up the church, must live our lives in such a manner that we bring glory to God. It’s all by his work. It’s all by His grace! And we must never fail in our assigned task to point everyone to Jesus Christ and his grace.
We have risen from the ashes by God’s grace. Let us make sure that we do all we can so that every lost soul can rise from the ashes by God’s grace too.
