The Great Why of God
(God’s global Purpose from the beginning till today)
Daniel 3: 28-29 (p627) Sept. 25, 2011
INTRODUCTION:
I had spoken at the South East Christian Church men’s breakfast a couple of weeks before the package arrived in the mail…it was a book from my buddy Joe Donaldson…who now leads this Saturday morning study that Bob Russell use to lead…it’s a huge gathering of men…several hundred.
I had shared about being the prodigal in the parable…Joe sent me this book called “The Cross and the Prodigal” “To My bother Rick…this book has totally opened my eye to the richness and depth of this amazing parable….so I looked through it…each chapter seemed to start with an Arabic drawing…I didn’t get it….but appreciated Joe’s thoughtfulness.
That same day I had lunch scheduled with a friend…Let’s call him Dan (that’s really his name) I’d known Dan for 13 years…Dan was the youngest (or one of the youngest elders on the board when I came…Dan and I have butted heads on more than one occasion…but everything changed a couple of years ago..
Dan went from being in charge of His own company. Highly successful in this worlds eyes…to utter dependency on God…and God begin to d o some weird stuff…at the same time Dan’s security began to crumble…God began to open doors. Doors that he could have never imagined...or even wanted…Doors into world missions…God opened doors into the lives of people Dan at one time hated and would have just as soon seen annihilated from the face of the earth.
This journey would bring Dan, his wife and family into an open door to the Arabic World.
So as Dan & I ate lunch together on this same day I received the book from Joe Donaldson..He and his wife had just returned from living abroad in the Arabic world and going through language studies…and I said, “Dan, could we stop by my office and can I show you a book by Kenneth Bailey my friend sent me…And Dan said, I love Kenneth Bailey…I’d love to see it.!
As I opened the book in my office…Dan saw the Arabic Drawings…He said…we’ve just studied some of this…”that’s outside that symbol means “Son”…Outside the Father’s Will”.
And Dan and I stood in my office…tears in our eyes and Dan said…”I’m sorry…and I said, “Dan It is an amazing thing to see what God has done with you and your family…I ask him “would you trade where you’re at with Jesus right now…would you subtract all you’ve been through with what god has revealed in you and through you?” He said…”No Way” and I said, “Me too”
Most of us would choose the comforts of America…the security of what we have…or believe we must have.
Dan had the American Dream and discovered its rubbish in comparisons with “the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…it’s worth losing everything to be found in Him.” (Phil 2:7,8)
How can anything be better than the things I think give me security? …I’ll tell you…it’s when God takes them away and you let Him become your security. It’s when you realize your titles, your job, your money, your influence are trash in comparison with what God can give you…if you let Him.
But how many of us will really give up our security and comfort? How many of us want our children or grandchildren to serve as missionaries on foreign soil? We’ll write a check…we’ll pray…but don’t ask me or mine to go…I might not say I hate them or God…annihilate them. To Hell!
But unless we take the gospel to the ends of the earth, isn’t that where they’ll go? Jesus commands us to go…we are created a new so we each take the gospel to the ends of the earth…I propose that anything less than radical devotion to this purpose is unbiblical and self-centered.
Because from the beginning of history god had a twofold purpose in creating us. That twofold purpose
I ENJOY HIS GRACE AND EXTEND HIS GLORY.
God has everything…He is everything…so consider this question: Why did He create us? And as you all know I am not God…nor will I presume to know His thoughts…but it seems God tells us why He made us. First off
1) We were created to enjoy His grace…we are the only parts of creation that bear His image (Gen 1: 26, 27) God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created them…
We alone have the capacity to enjoy god in intimate relationship with Him…and the first word the Bible uses to describe that relationship is…”blessed”
God blessed them (v. 28)
God blessed them…the human race, not because of any merit or inherent worth in us…but simply out of pure unadulterated grace. God created humankind to enjoy His grace.
But that’s not the only reason he created them…the 2nd part of this equation is….”God blessed them and said to them…Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” ( Gen 1:28)
God created man and woman in His image for a reason ---so they might multiply His image throughout the world. He created human beings not only to enjoy His grace in relationship with him, but also to extend His glory to the ends of the earth.
Enjoy His grace…Extend His glory…this is the 2 fold purpose behind the creation of the human race in Gen. Chapter 1…
And the Bible is the story of this purpose whether we’re talking about Abraham in Gen12
Gen 12: 1-3 (p 8)
I will bless you Abraham (Grace) so you will be a conduit of that grace to all the nations of the earth (Extol My Glory)
Or the Heroes in our text Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
And I choose to focus on these three because of who they were and how God used them. They are Hebrew slaves in captivity….they are God’s representatives in a foreign Kingdom…And when King Nebuchadnezzar demands that everyone in his Kingdom bow and worship a 90 foot gold statue…they refuse even though the penalty is being thrown into a fiery furnace.
Why would a God of love allow this to happen to three obedient followers…Is this how God treats those who risk everything for Him?
King Nebuchadnezzar looks at Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and says….”If you do not bow down and worship this image; you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what God will be able to rescue you from my hand?
Daniel 3: 16-29 (p 627)
The very King who declared that everyone bow down to His authority was now declaring that anybody who spoke against God should be cut to pieces.
The reason God let these guys be thrown into the furnace was so when they came out on the other side smoke and sweat free this pagan King would declare that the god of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is worthy of praise in all nations and languages…God really is in the business of blessing his people in unusual ways so His goodness and greatness will be declared among all people.
I can testify that it’s on the other side of the furnace that God’s protection and power becomes a witness to the unbelieving world.
And I’d rather walk with Jesus in the furnace than without Him in the world.
Here’s the Radical truth that’s hard to grasp in a comfort loving and deserving culture.
II JESUS DIDN’T DIE FOR JUST YOU.
We have the tendency to believe if god loves “Me”… I won’t have to go through the furnace…
We love to disconnect the grace of God and the glory of God…
David Platt writes: “We bask in sermons, conferences and books that exalt a grace centering on us…but if that grace is disconnected with its purpose the sad result is a self-centered Christianity that bypasses the heart of God”.
If you were to ask the average Christian sitting in a worship service on Sunday morning to summarize the message of Christianity, you would most likely hear something along the lines of “The message of Christianity is that God loves me.” Or someone might say, “the message of Christianity is that God loves me enough to send his Son, Jesus, to die for me.”
As wonderful as this sentiment sounds, is it biblical? Isn’t it incomplete, based on what we have seen in the Bible? “God loves me” is not the essence of biblical Christianity. Because if “God loves me” is the message of Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity? God loves me. Me. Christianity’s object is me.
Therefore, when I look for a church, I look for the music that best fits me and the programs that best cater to me and my family. When I make plans for my life and career, it is about what works best for me and my family. When I consider the house I will live in, the car I will drive, the clothes I will wear, the way I will live, I will choose according to what is best for me. This is the version of Christianity that largely prevails in our culture.
But it is not biblical Christianity.
The message of biblical Christianity is not “God loves me, period, “as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is “God loves me so that I might make him—his ways, his salvation, his glory and his greatness-known among all nations.” Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel: God Is.
Jesus love “me” this I know, for the bible tells “me” so is very true…but it is not the ultimate propose of god to exhalt you or me…He loves us…So we can extend His love to others…We are not the end of the gospel….”God Is”
Listen to God’s startling words from Ezekiel 36…He is recounting His works…He is addressing the sins of His people and He describes the reason for what he did among them….
Please remember…neither God…nor His purpose Has changed!.
Ezekiel 36: 22-23 (p614)
What a statement ….God says, “When I do these great things among you…and through you it’s not for your sake….but that my Holy name will be glorified among the nations.”
This is the continuous global purpose of God…it has not changed…He doesn’t love Americans more than the other nations…It’s why his followers are commanded to “take the gospel to the ends of the earth”.
It’s the same story in the New Testament as Paul, Peter, James and John led the church through persecution and suffering to spread the glory of God to the nations.
“Jesus didn’t die for Just You!”…He died for the world…all of it….every Nation.
QUOTE – David Platt
“Here is a foundational truth: God creates, blesses and saves each of us for a radically global purpose. But if we are not careful, we will be tempted to make exceptions. We will be tempted to adopt spiritual smoke screens and embrace national comforts that excuse us from the global plan of Christ…and in the process we will find ourselves settling for lesser plans---plans our culture and our choice dream more admirable, more manageable and more comfortable.”
I’m not suggesting that like Dan and His family you’re called to go overseas…I’m not suggesting that like Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego you’re called to demonstrate the power of God to a foreign King so God is Exalted, but I’m not ruling it out either…It’s important that we be on the same page with God…and when He rewrites your page it’s not only for your benefit, but for His glory in the world.
As we look at the purpose of God in scripture shouldn’t every Christian’s heart be ultimately consumed with how we can make God’s glory known in all the world?
6, 783, 421, 727 and counting…that’s the population of the world….According to the most Liberal estimates 1/3 of that number are Christians, (religiously, socially, politically…probably not all followers of Christ)
But even if we assume they are all followers of Christ that leaves 4.5 billion (that’s billion with a “B”) people who if the gospel is true are separated from God in their sin and will spend eternity in Hell. 4.5 billion…and most of them are outside the U.S.
[My desire is to be a church that sees the world as our mission…ask Garen, Sherry, Jennifer if those children in Haiti are less valuable than ours. It may require a fiery furnace…or a removed all, all securities…but my prayer is…God shower us with your Grace…but exalt your name in the world]
