December 31, 2013
(Watch Night/New Year's Eve/New Year’s Day)
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 “Whatever was, is, Whatever will be is”
Psalm 8 (UMH 743) Revelation 21:1-6a
From time to time, God tests us—as Abraham was tested—to see just how much we trust God and how much we can be trusted with God’s future plans and blessings for humankind. God tests us to see if, like Martin King and Mandela, Sojourner and Bethune, we will make ourselves available to God’s deeper calling on our lives. You may very well be tested to see just how faithful you are to God and God’s mission for your life and the lives of others.
Our lives are punctuated by sacrifices—sacrifices of our time, sacrifices of our energies, sacrifices that affect our families, sacrifices now, with the hope of a better future. God shows us where God wants us to be, what God wants us to do.
1) We really don't have control of anything. We could stop breathing in the next moment if that is God's will, and real faith is surrender. Real faith is KNOWING that it's all in God's hands, and he's GOT IT. It's kind of cliché, but he really does have the whole world in his hands, and there is a time for everything under heaven. Solomon in Ecclesiastes begins by looking at the two extremes of life a time to be born and a time to die. These are the bookends of our earthly existence. There is a time when you are born and there is a time when you die and everything else takes place between these two times.
We should note that nearly every other time mentioned in this chapter involves a choice. We can decide when to plant or when to uproot or when to kill or when to heal or when to weep or when to laugh or when to mourn or when to dance. But there are two things we don't decide. We don't decide when to be born. And as God has ordained, we don't decide when we will die. This is really the heart of the entire teaching. You're here, my friends, because God said so, and when it's time to exit, that's up to God too. There have been those who have thought they could play God, and decide the end life on their own timetable. But in their failed attempts, many have conceded that it's God, not man who decides when it's time to go. You have little control over anything, if you cant control your fait then you are but a part of the story.
As we, like Abraham, look up and see God’s possibilities, even in the depths of our trials and tribulations, our sufferings and shames, we will be able to respond with hope, like Abraham, knowing that the worship of God will sustain us in the test. Even to the point of our own child on the chopping block we hold to our faith and worship.
And so, we continue in readiness to sacrifice.
Sometimes we work two and three jobs so that our young’uns can get an education.
Sometimes we burn the midnight oil so that our dreams and the dreams of others will come to pass.
Sometimes we position ourselves to give up the very thing we love, so that God can do far more with that love than we ever dreamed of.
But we go, as children of God we go, like ancestors of the Motherland, who remember that we’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, trusting in God’s Holy Word. God has never failed us yet, so we go. Even tonight as we gather like African Slaves and former slaves gathered at the End of slavery waiting to here if we were going to be free and have a chance at equality
We go: trusting and believing that the Lord will make a way somehow.
The Lord will provide. And as we go, and as we do what the Lord says do,
God intervenes in the midst of our tests.
God shows up in the midst of our trials.
Now I know you fear God. And there are rewards for passing tests, you know.
However there are some things that bother me about our faith that I have discovered since being here. You all have trained yourselves to say God is Good. Is that really it is that the reach of your faith that God is Good. That statement God is Good
I have had said now for years I don’t really like God is Good. It is not the best way to define God, our understand the Power and the magnify of God.
2) God is Good is that really the limits of your faith. I challenge you as you move into 2014 to see God as more than Good.
I mean is God what we understand as Good
Was it Good during The Boston Marathon when two brothers Set Bombs to kill folks for running a race
Was it Good; the Government Shutdown when the federal government decided to refused to let folks work as opposed to funds programs that help the poor and unemployed
Was it Good; the Moore, Oklahoma Tornado that basically wipe a small town off the face of the earth
Was the Zimmerman Trial I cases where the guy was clearly guilty of murder and a jury refused to find him responsible for killing (GOOD)
Was it Good; the Typhoon Haiyan were folks in an entire country where left homeless and without (Good)
Was it Good; when church folks ridicule of the New Pope who is trying to move the church in a new direction of dealing with the oppressed was that (Good)
Was it Good; When 1000’s of People died Syria Conflict The Syrian regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad, launched a violent crackdown last year on activists demanding more economic prosperity, political freedom and civil liberties.
Was the refusal of Governments in states like Tennessee, Arkansas like South Carolina to expand Medicaid so sick persons could get better is that (Good)
Yet we do understand that God was in control of all these things so Is God (Good)
As we face a new year, we are optimistic about the road ahead. We made progress this year.
We were thrilled to see eight states take real steps to protect children instead of guns.
We were thrilled to see major expansion of mental health services and treatment for children and adults in a number of states. And we were thrilled to see more people have access to quality, affordable health care than ever before in America.
We have worked really hard with coalition partners and with your support to protect the poor during these perilous budget-cutting times and help make these and other changes for children.
So someone would ask has it been a Good Year and I would say Yes
But I would also say that Good is way to small to understand the source of the universe
I tell you to say God is Good is to make God something we understand you can even begin to understand God
Move 3) God is
So tonight as you move into a new year of God Size vision don’t limit my God by size, I feel that what we need to start to say is God is GOD. God is Super, God is Everything and God is Just and God is Able to Do all but fail. Our is you must simplify GOD IS!
Yes what we need to understand is We can not define God by what we think. But, by what God is Doing or has dune. The God we need to talk about and describe is the action God or God in action. So for me and my House I know my God by what he does for me. If you ask me about my God he is; The God that woke me up this morning, he is the God that started me on my way, he is the God that put Food in my table, the God that put strength in my Body. He is The Supreme Being, the Self-Existing, the infinitely perfect, the eternal, the All-good, the all-knowing and the almighty.
Lets see if I can just tell you a little more about what I mean about God!
What do we mean when we say that God is the Supreme Being?
When we say that God is the Supreme Being we mean that He is above all creatures, the self-existing and infinitely perfect Spirit.
What do we mean when we say that God is self-existing?
When we say that God is self-existing we mean that He does not owe His existence to any other being.
I am who am. (Exodus 3:14)
What do we mean when we say that God is infinitely perfect?
When we say that God is infinitely perfect we mean that He has all perfections without limit.
What do we mean when we say that God is eternal?
When we say that God is eternal we mean that He always was and always will be, and always remains the same. "
What do we mean when we say that God is all-good?
When we say that God is all-good we mean that He is infinitely lovable in Himself, and that from His fatherly love every good comes to us.
What do we mean when we say that God is all-knowing?
When we say that God is all-knowing we mean that He knows all things, past, present, and future, even our most secret thoughts, words, and actions.
What do we mean when we say that God is almighty?
When we say that God is almighty we mean that He can do all things.
So when Someone ask What is God? Stop saying he is just Good. No You Witness and say like the author of Ecclesiastes What ever has been is and whatever will be is because God is! In other words whatever is, is God If you like it or not it is still God. If its the way you think it should be or not, its still God. Where ever has been in the history is God, what ever has been in the bible is God, What every has been in your life Good or Bad is God. And What ever is coming next is still My God.
