by Pastor James Lee
2015 is past, so we’re well on our way in the New Year. Some of us, freshly resolved, have been enjoying our daily Bible reading or Scripture memorization which we gave up on too soon last time. Some of us have lost a couple pounds and feel the energy and hope ironically from sore muscles and more steps accrued on our pedometer. But for others, our goal to pray an hour each morning before work has hit a pothole, or our fitbit has become just another cool watch (?). Dear brethren, wherever you find yourself, persevere and endure and keep your focus on the Lord in humble affection. Charles Spurgeon once humorously quipped, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.” Our discipleship is daily and hourly and moment by moment, and our God is actively at work in us. His promises remain true, so then, let your labor NOT be in vain. Passivity or discouragement is not faith, God-centered discipline is.
As one means of encouragement, I thought it might be helpful to meditate on God’s sovereign handiwork just looking back at 2015, even as we move forward in 2016. Perhaps part of our outlook for today at the office or our future in our ministries is disconnected from a functional theology that is distorted in practice from our profession? Let me say it another way. What we believe or don’t believe about God doesn’t change God, but what we believe or don’t believe about God changes us. And it would serve us well to cultivate a humbled gratitude for what the Lord has already sovereignly and graciously done… that God’s past faithfulness to us will spur us forward in faithfulness today.
It’s significant that the Word of God frequently exhorts us to “remember”, to recall, to remind ourselves of various truths, for our soul’s sake, for His Church’s sake, for His glory’s sake. Just the word “remember” occurs at least 168 times in one of our English translations of the Scriptures. God’s people were told to “remember His covenant” (Gen. 9:15-16), “remember” Israel’s former slavery in Egypt (Ex. 13:3), “remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness” (Deut. 8:2), and to remember how the Lord “remembered” Hannah. The psalmist sang, “I shall remember the deeds of the LORD. Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will mediate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds. Your way, God, is holy; What god is great like our God?” (Psalm 77:11-13) Isaiah recorded, “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:8-10) Jesus warned, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32) as well as commanded, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19) Paul preached, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:35) and “Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ.” (Eph 2:12) Therefore, it will edify us to meditate on God’s Fatherly handiwork in our own lives, or rather to mediate on it, accurately, humbly, and gratefully
We live in a culture that measures a company’s success based on measurable profit margins and stock prices, and are far less concerned about what goes on within that company internally and the direction it’s going. Those of us who are immersed in a homogenized suburban bubble might unknowingly refer to those “poor people” as a kind of separate “class”-ification, than viewing them as people just like us, equally made in God’s image, facing different circumstances. We’re tempted to impatience when our expectations for change in our world, in our church, in our spouse or children, and in other folks is coming too slow, in a different way, or seemingly not at all. We rightly don’t want “to waste our life”, be productive for the Lord, and be fruitful in doing His work. Nevertheless, we are prone to wander and we don’t always feel it. We must not say we are better, but that Christ is better by far.
Sinful comparisons to other people and other churches, discontentment of where God brought us and who God brought us, the greener grass conspiracy, the lies of instant fixes and popular shortcuts and reverse engineering of impactful ministries are the regular temptations and transgressions of God’s people. Stephen Altrogge asked, “How is it possible to be so blessed by God and so unhappy at the same time? To live like kings and behave like ungrateful pigs? To have more than any generation in history and yet still crave more?” We tend to focus on what we don’t have rather than on what we do have. We’re impatient. Sometimes we functionally think that God needs our wisdom and help and that our leaders need more of our great “suggestions” (or criticism) than our support, prayers, real solutions, and faithful co-labor. We give into the Devil’s deception and our own prideful arrogance that only we know better and could do better or that there is a better circumstance or better place or better ministry or better this or that, so we can always find something wrong wherever we go, rather than being a servant, rather than seeing what’s good, seeing how God loves the people and ministries we quickly size up. The spiritually short-sighted will always measure success like this world. They will never measure that against Moses 40 years of exile before being called or Sarah’s barrenness or Jeremiah’s zero converts or Elijah’s depression or our single brother Paul at the end of his life being abandoned by all in Asia or Isaiah executed or Tyndale’s decades suffering or Jim Elliot’s “early” death.
God never wastes anything! God is working even in our waiting! Some things take more time than we like. He is actively at work in my life and your life and in our church’s life, in ways we would not plan, in timings and paths we would not expect or desire or consider as valuable steps and blessed journeys and holy processes and loving preparations. Most people think of Romans 8:28 in the context of our trials, and we should. But that alone is insufficient. Romans 8:28-30 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” God works “some” things for good?! No, we’re told in v. 28 that God works “all” things for good! And what is the context? Our salvation, calling, justification, sanctification, glorification… so that we might be conformed to the image of His Son!
Let me remind us that in 2015, there was nothing wasted by God, nothing that wasn’t ordained and planned and purposed for our good and His glory. Our trials and victories, our internal conflicts and our reconciliations, our personal struggles and our finding God’s help in our time of need, our yet unanswered prayers and our answered prayers, our greater understanding and deepening of relationships. If we pray that God will open our spiritual eyes, we’ll see that the Lord has accomplished many wonderful things in our lives, “small” and “big” and everything in between, and they’re all gracious and undeserved and impactful. Not everything will meet our preconceived expectations or external standards, but that doesn’t mean profound and wonderful things weren’t accomplished.
At LBCOC, we established our singles ministry, welcomed new faces, witnessed to many non-believing friends, and helped people find churches, even if it led elsewhere. We’ve heard testimonies, and seen babies born and people grow, and watched a marriage proposal with every member there. We’ve seen folks willing to stretch themselves further than they ever did before, and our Alliance grow in its commitment to the MVP. We’ve seen reconciliation when conflict occurred. Without asking our facility, we were given a new larger room for Sunday worship service at an earlier time, both answers to longtime secret prayers of our leadership team. God is sovereign, and none of those things are accidents. I’ve been a Christian 30 years, and one thing I’ve learned and relearned from the Lord is that His timing and His ways are not the same as mine. And just because my expectations or yours aren’t met doesn’t mean God isn’t working and accomplishing everything, everything He intended. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” God chose to take 80 years to mold a man named Moses before he led His people out of bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. God promised the Savior-Seed, the Messiah, but glorified Himself in the millennia before Christ was finally sent. We eagerly await His return, we don’t know when… but He does. And it would be a mistaken attitude and outlook to think God isn’t doing anything right now… because of one expectation of His return not having come to pass. Yet, let me suggest that that is exactly what you and I sometimes do. We celebrate what happens up front, but not always what goes on behind the scenes. We value the produce of fresh peaches on a summer afternoon more than the work of labor to produce them or the faith of farmers who lost them in a storm. We admire the trellis, and we forget the beauty of the vine.
God delays for good reasons as does in answering right away, but He is always at work, always at work, perfectly and wisely. One reason is that we would know not just that God loves us, but how deeply God loves us. Robert Murray McCheyne said, “You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then he is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm… Every wise workman takes his tools away from the work from time to time that they may be ground and sharpened; so does the only-wise Jehovah take his ministers oftentimes away into darkness and loneliness and trouble, that he may sharpen and prepare them for harder (and greater) work in his service.” Perhaps 2015 was a year of leanness and tough financial choices? Do you know that’s a blessing as much as having “more” might not always be the best thing at that time? Not having much can tempt us to be discouraged, but it can also teach us to be good stewards and force us to trust God… and not money. Affluenza is a spiritual disease, and we don’t need a rich relative who won the lottery, because our Father is infinitely rich, and He is providing and He will provide, as long as we seek first His kingdom and not our own.
In a small congregation’s life with limited manpower, losing members is always difficult, emotionally, financially, and physically. LBCOC had six precious church members transfer elsewhere, but we rejoice none of them left because they wanted to leave or because of conflict or because they were drawn to something better down the street. Because for them serving Christ, not serving self, was always at stake. And we rejoice because now they’re all active members at their new churches within a few months and that they keep in touch and are a blessing to their new churches. That’s God’s blessing us all! And He’s brought some new people, everyone we love so much! We’ve had non-Christians come and ask questions and become our regular friends. We’ve been able to encourage many visitors because they let us know that in emails even when it was their only visit. Those “small things” are really quite big! Kent Hughes says success is serving, loving, believing, praying, holiness, attitude, and faithfulness. Why? Because that’s how God defines success… and it’s not necessarily bodies, bucks, and buildings. Hughes encourages, “Think of what it would mean if we were faithful, living in profound obedience to God’s Word and working long and hard at our tasks; serving with a foot-washing heart; loving God with all our heart, soul, and might; believing what we believe; praying with the dependence and passion of Christ; living pure holy lives in this sensual world; manifesting a positive, supportive attitude in the midst of difficulties! If that is mediocrity, then give us more this blessed mediocrity – for it is success!”
Jonathan Leeman wrote:
“There’s a temptation I have noticed that you and I are susceptible to: we can love our vision of what a church should be more than we love the people who comprise it. We can be like the unmarried man who loves the idea of a wife, but who marries a real woman and finds it harder to love her than the idea of her. Or like the mother who loves her dream of the perfect daughter more than the daughter herself. We start loving the idea of a healthy church more than the church God has placed us in. When Christ died for the church, he made it his own. He identified it with himself. He put his name on it. That’s why persecuting the church is persecuting Christ (Acts 9:5), and why sinning against an individual Christian is sinning against Christ (1 Cor. 8:12; cf. 6:15). Individually and corporately, we represent him. Think about what that means. It means that Christ has put his name on immature Christians, and Christians who speak too much at members’ meetings, and Christians who wrongly give their unbaptized children communion, and Christians who love shallow praise songs. Christ has identified himself with Christians whose theology is underdeveloped and imperfect. Christ points to the Christians who wrongly oppose biblical leadership structures and the practice of church discipline and says, “They represent me. Sin against them and you sin against me!” How wide, long, high, and deep Christ’s love is! It covers a multitude of sins and embraces the sinner… If you love your children, you want them to be healthy. But if you love your children, you love them whether they are healthy or not.”
The typical mindset among professing believers is aptly described by the real high-gloss magazine article titled, “223 Ways to be Happier and Get What You Want, Without Doing Any Work.” God blesses those who are faithful, and you and I might not always see that, or be thankful for that, but He’s graciously working for us anyway to His glory. Even as we should regularly and rightly reevaluate ourselves and our ministries, remember that He measures productivity very differently than us. He’s always mercifully and lovingly and powerfully at work in our lives, sovereignly in our sanctification. He’s making us more ready for something greater than we might plan, or in ways that is greater in His eyes than we envision. I don’t know what exactly, or how or when, but I trust and believe He is doing it and He will do it. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The greater the task and reward, often the greater and longer the preparation. Robert C. Chapman challenged, “If we act only because our path is clear of difficulty, this is not Faith. Faith acts upon God’s Word whatever the difficulty, and to walk by faith brings highest glory to God.”
Let’s continue to walk by faith, not by sight. The Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s a seed not quickly sprouting, it’s life in Christ deeply rooted. It’s not drawing a line in the sand for which we refuse to give God our entire life, it’s denying oneself daily no matter the earthly prospect or valuation. It’s the joy of being His forever… even today. God was, is, and always at work for you to His glory. Be encouraged and fight the good fight of faith!
