(Note: I am indebted to Rick Warren for the title of this message; the sermon itself is original)
One of the more troubling aspects of the modern age is the creeping de-personalization of our lives. More and more, as we go through the day, whenever we’re dealing with a branch of government, or a corporation, or an educational institution, or some part of the medical establishment, we feel like a number instead of a person. A statistic instead of a human being. Let me give you some examples:
· Last week, we were on vacation in Washington, D.C., and I went into a bank to get some cash. But this was like no bank I’d ever seen. There were no tellers in the room. Just a bank of television monitors on which you could see and hear the tellers, who themselves were in another part of the building. To communicate, you had to speak into a microphone and look into a camera. And to send things back and forth, you had to use one of those pneumatic tube thingies. And this is probably the wave of the future. Because a bank like that is virtually stickup-proof. A criminal can’t very well point a gun at a video screen and say, "Hand over all your money or I’ll shoot." But the price of that security was the elimination of any real human contact.
· At least that experience involved a real human being. Not so with voice mail. It used to be that there was a sneaky way to bypass the system. Most voice mail systems were set up so that if you dialed "0", you would go directly to an operator. But apparently, too many people caught on to that little trick. And so now if you try it, you get this message: "Our menus have recently changed. Please listen to all the options before making a selection." In other words, the only way to get to a person is by going through a computer.
· Or take buying gas. When you fill the tank up with unleaded, you no longer have to walk into the gas station and pay an attendant. Instead, you just swipe your credit card and pay at the pump. Convenient, yes. But also impersonal. In fact, these day you can buy virtually anything by mail or over the internet, so you don’t have to interact with people at all. Now, you do still have to go to the grocery store to buy food. But even there, you no longer have to interact with a clerk when you check out. Instead, there are lanes where you can check yourself out; scan the bar codes yourself and bag the groceries yourself.
· How about movies? In the old days, you had to go to a theater to watch a movie, and you experienced it with a room full of other people. Then, the VCR came along, so you could watch at home; but you still had to go to the video store. But now, you can order movies on demand through satellite or digital cable. Or you can rent DVD’s through the mail. No human contact is required.
· And finally, the work environment has changed. If you have a cable modem or DSL line, and you work in some kind of information-related field, you can probably get your employer to let you work from home at least part of the time. This has advantaes: It saves on gasoline, and you can go to work in your bathrobe if you want. But again, it diminishes your interaction with people.
I could go on and on. And I’m sure every one of you could supply your own examples. Yes, automation and technology have given us the kind of affluence that previous generations could only imagine. But it comes with a cost: that in our daily lives we are increasingly interacting, not with people, but with computers. Does that mean technology is inherently evil? Should we follow the example of the Amish, and retreat into our own cloistered world, avoiding the use of any machine more advanced than the iron plow? No. It’s true that Jesus said his disciples were not to be "of" the world, but he also said that we are to be "in" the world. And this modern, technological world is the one he’s placed us "in;" this is the world in which we are called to live out our faith. But what we can do, and must do, is bear witness to this fact: that no matter how severely technology may assault our humanity and our individuality, we still live in a universe which is governed by a loving, personal God; a God who knows and cares for each one of us by name. In fact, the more impersonal our world becomes, the more it needs to hear the message of the Christian faith; the message of a personal God who loves each one of us as individuals.
Remember what Jesus taught his disciples:
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." – Matthew 10:29-31
None of us is ever out of God’s sight. Nothing ever happens to us of which God is unaware. In fact, not only does he know what is happening to us, and what is going to happen to us, as well; but the truly amazing thing is that he cares what happens to us. The incredible, astounding fact is that we matter to God, more than we can possibly imagine. He is intensely interested in who we are and in what we’re going through, even down to the seemingly mundane details of our lives. And what should our response be to this fact? "Don’t be afraid," Jesus says. Don’t worry. Don’t be anxious. Because God is watching over you, at all times and in every situation. You can never do anything to remove yourself from God’s care; nor can anyone or anything else ever separate you from God’s care. As Paul wrote in the book of Romans:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." – Romans 8:35-39
And as David wrote in Psalm 139:
"O Lord , you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord . . .
"Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
"If I say, ’Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." – Psalm 139:1-4, 7-16
David understood that God does not view us simply as a mass of humanity, as some nameless and faceless collection of people covering the earth,. He sees us, and cares for us, as individuals. And
no matter what we do or where we go, He is there with us. As David says, "if I make my bed in the depths," "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea," God’s hand will hold us fast. He has known us intimately, each one of us, since before our birth. While we were still being formed within our mother’s womb, he was watching over us and caring for us. In fact, as Paul tells us, we were in the mind of God even before the world was created. Yes! Before any of this existed, God was thinking of you, and thinking of me. In Ephesians chapter one, we read,
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." – Ephesians 1:3-6
Every day, from the time we get up to the time we lie down, we’re being battered by an uncaring world, a world which seems to say, "You don’t matter. You’re just another face in the crowd. If you were wiped off the face of the earth, it would make no difference whatsoever." But that’s a lie. You do matter to God, and you matter tremendously. You matter so much that He gave the life of his own Son, Jesus Christ, in order to save you from sin and make you a part of his family. Before this world even existed, God was thinking about you, and preparing for you, and making plans for you. Plans to bless you, plans to call you to Himself. Plans to show his love to you in every possible way, both now and throughout eternity.
Did you ever notice how important individuals are in the Bible? Individual men and women, with names, and families, and histories, and personalities, and strengths and weaknesses? When God brought mankind into existence, did he create a whole race of people at one stroke? No. He created a single man, with a name – Adam. And a woman, with a name – Eve. When God decided that he was going to bring a great flood to destroy the earth, who did he preserve? A man, Noah, and his family. When God decided to create a people for himself, out of all the nations of the earth, what did he do? He called one man, Abraham. And then again, when God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, he called one man to lead them, Moses. Finally, when the second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, entered into humanity in order to become our Savior and Redeemer, He did it as a man; Jesus the son of Mary. God sees us as individuals, He loves us as individuals, and He deals with us as individuals. He is a personal God. Listen to what Christ says about us:
"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice." – John 10:2-4
If ever there were a group of animals that seem like an undifferentiated mass, it would be sheep. Cats are individuals. Horses are individuals. But sheep are not individuals. In fact, when we want to talk about someone who just follows the crowd, we say he’s a "sheep". But a shepherd of the first century saw things very differently. A shepherd lived with his sheep, twenty-four hours a day. He watched over them as they grazed. He slept in the sheep-pen at night. And over time, he learned to distinguish between them; he learned to recognized their unique personalities. And so, when he opened the gate and called them out, he didn’t just issue a general call. He called them by name; he called them as individuals. In the same way, Christ calls us, and relates to us, as individuals. He knows our names, our habits, our histories, our strengths and weaknesses. Why? Because he loves us. It’s that simple, and that amazing. He would give anything for us. In fact, He already has. Just as a shepherd would give his own life for the sheep, Christ willingly gave his life for us. As he said, in this same passage,
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." – John 10:11
As a shepherd knows and cares for his sheep by name, so our shepherd, Jesus Christ, knows us by name. And he gave his life for us as individuals. He died for you and I personally, not for some mass of humanity, but specifically for his people, whom he loved, and who were in his heart and mind before the creation of the world.
Again, look at how Christ ministered to people. Yes, he taught the multitudes. Yes, he fed the five thousand. But when he healed people, it wasn’t in great masses. If He wanted to, He could have waved his arms and cured hundreds at a stroke. But instead, he placed his hands on them, one at a time, and he healed them, one at a time. In the gospels, we see Christ constantly interacting with individuals – the woman caught in adultery, the rich young ruler, the woman at the well, a demon-possessed man, a paralytic, a blind man, a centurion, a tax collector. And so when Jesus saw five thousand people, he didn’t just see a crowd. He saw five thousand individuals, with names and histories and futures. In the same way, when Christ looks at you and me, that’s what he sees – not anonymous faces in the crowd, but his precious, beloved children, whom he knows intimately and cares for deeply.
Well, what difference does all this make? How does it affect our lives to know that God knows us, and loves us, as individuals? I can think of at least five ways.
First of all, it means that God’s plan for each of us is unique. Our God is not a cookie-cutter God, using identical methods to stamp out identical little disciples. He loves variety and diversity. And so, if God is working in your life differently than He is in mine or in someone else’s, it doesn’t mean that he loves you more or less. His plan for you isn’t better or worse than his plan for someone else, it’s just different. But for some reason, people have a tendency to pick out one ideal for the Christian life, and then judge every other life, including theirs, by that model. And unfortunately, the ideal we’ve chosen is usually different than what God has chosen for us. And so, if we’re single, the model for the Christian life becomes marriage and family. If we’re serving God in a secular occupation, the ideal becomes vocational ministry – pastoring, or missionary work. If God has given us skill in music, we long for the ability to teach. No matter how God has gifted us, or where God has placed us, we want something different. We wish that God would do something in our lives to bring us closer to the ideal. But he won’t. Because it’s not God’s ideal, it’s ours. God’s best for us is what He’s actually doing in our lives right now. And our joy and peace is going to come, not from trying to be something or someone else, but from being the best "us" that we can be, in the circumstances where God has placed us. Does that mean we never seek change? No. But it means that if we do seek to change, we do it out of a sense of God’s calling, and not because we think that what or where we are is somehow inferior. Where you are now, and what you are now, is the result of God’s sovereign love for you. And that knowledge allows us to be thankful in every circumstance. As Paul reminds us in Romans chapter twelve:
"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us." – Romans 12:4-6
Second, God’s love for us as individuals is an incentive to prayer. Because when we pray, we’re not just looking up to the heavens for help; we’re not just trying to harmonize ourselves with the energy of the universe. And we’re not presenting our appeals to an indifferent or hostile deity. Instead, we’re coming to our Father, who knows us and loves us, who delights in doing good things for us. When I go to God in prayer, He doesn’t say to Himself, "Oh, someone is praying." He doesn’t even say, "one of my children is praying." He says, "Alan is praying. Alan Perkins, the son of G___ and M___, the husband of C___. Alan, whom I called to faith in August of 1968. Alan, for whom my Son died on the cross. What can I do for you, Alan, my beloved child?" That’s how God responds to our prayers.
Third, the truth of God’s personal love is a comfort in times of trial. Because when we suffer, we know it’s not because God has forgotten us, or because He no longer cares for us. On the contrary, it’s because in love, he is doing something in our lives that can only be accomplished through pain. We aren’t just victims of a blind fate, or pawns being tossed around by an uncaring, random universe. We are the sons and daughters of the king, and he knows, every second what we are going through. We are infinitely more precious to him than any number of sparrows, worth even the price of his own son’s blood. And so if we are suffering, it can only be because that suffering is producing something good in our lives, something of great value, something that is abundantly worth the cost.
Fourth, God’s personal love serves as a model for us to emulate in our love for one another. For example, are you demanding or expecting that God will work in someone else’s life the same way he has worked in yours? If so, you need to repent. We all have our own faith journey to follow, and someone else’s may not look like yours. That’s OK. Let God deal with them as He sees fit. Are you valuing the contributions that others are making to the life of the church, even if they differ from what God has gifted and called you to do? Remember that God want’s disciples, not clones. And are you taking the time, and making the effort, to really get to know your brothers and sisters in Christ? God isn’t satisfied to have a superficial relationship with His people, and neither should we be. Our fellowship should go beyond the trite and trivial; our love for one another should make a real difference.
Fifth, and finally, the fact that God knows and loves us by name, personally and intimately – that fact should motivate us to seek after Him, so that we might know and love Him in the same way. Just as we shouldn’t be satisfied with a superficial relationship to one another, we shouldn’t be satisfied to have a superficial relationship with our God. Christ, through his death, has removed every barrier, has removed every obstacle, has made it possible for us to truly know God. Not only that, but he invites us to do so, and desires that we do so. Listen:
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. – Proverbs 8:17
"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." – Hebrews 11:6
Won’t you do that this morning? God is seeking you now, today, even this very hour. He knows you better than you know yourself, and yet he loves you more deeply than you can imagine. Yes, he sees the sin and weakness, the flaws and failings, but he loves you fully and completely in spite of them. Won’t you determine this morning that you will seek after God with all your heart, that you will seek to know and love Him as He knows and loves you? Because that’s the ultimate goal of this whole enteprise – the Christian religion, the life and death of Christ, and even the creation of the world. All of it happened for one reason, and one reason only: so that we could know and love God, and He could know and love us, for ever and ever. And that should be the overriding purpose of our lives even now, just as it will be our purpose and joy throughout eternity.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
