{"id":11823,"date":"2016-02-16T01:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/?p=11823"},"modified":"2016-02-16T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T16:49:11","slug":"god-was-is-and-always-will-be-at-work-for-you-to-his-glory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/2016\/02\/16\/god-was-is-and-always-will-be-at-work-for-you-to-his-glory\/","title":{"rendered":"God Was, Is, and Always Will Be at Work for You to His Glory"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Pastor James Lee<\/em><\/p>\n

2015 is past, so we\u2019re 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, \u201cBy perseverance the snail reached the ark.\u201d<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

As one means of encouragement, I thought it might be helpful to meditate on God\u2019s 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\u2019t believe about God doesn\u2019t change God, but what we believe or don\u2019t 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\u2026 that God\u2019s past faithfulness to us will spur us forward in faithfulness today.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s significant that the Word of God frequently exhorts us to \u201cremember\u201d, to recall, to remind ourselves of various truths, for our soul\u2019s sake, for His Church\u2019s sake, for His glory\u2019s sake. Just the word \u201cremember\u201d occurs at least 168 times in one of our English translations of the Scriptures. God\u2019s people were told to \u201cremember His covenant\u201d (Gen. 9:15-16), \u201cremember\u201d Israel\u2019s former slavery in Egypt (Ex. 13:3), \u201cremember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness\u201d (Deut. 8:2), and to remember how the Lord \u201cremembered\u201d Hannah. The psalmist sang, \u201cI 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?\u201d (Psalm 77:11-13) Isaiah recorded, \u201cRemember 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.\u201d (Isaiah 46:8-10) Jesus warned, \u201cRemember Lot\u2019s wife\u201d (Luke 17:32) as well as commanded, \u201cDo this in remembrance of Me.\u201d (Luke 22:19) Paul preached, \u201cRemember the words of the Lord Jesus\u201d (Acts 20:35) and \u201cRemember that you were at that time separate from Christ.\u201d (Eph 2:12) Therefore, it will edify us to meditate on God\u2019s Fatherly handiwork in our own lives, or rather to mediate on it, accurately, humbly, and gratefully<\/p>\n

We live in a culture that measures a company\u2019s success based on measurable<\/em> profit margins and stock prices, and are far less concerned about what goes on within<\/em> that company internally and the direction it\u2019s going. Those of us who are immersed in a homogenized suburban bubble might unknowingly refer to those \u201cpoor people\u201d as a kind of separate \u201cclass\u201d-ification, than viewing them as people just like us, equally made in God\u2019s image, facing different circumstances. We\u2019re 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\u2019t want \u201cto waste our life\u201d, be productive for the Lord, and be fruitful in doing His work. Nevertheless, we are prone to wander and we don\u2019t always feel it. We must not say we are better, but that Christ is better by far.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s people. Stephen Altrogge asked, \u201cHow 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?\u201d<\/em> We tend to focus on what we don\u2019t have rather than on what we do have. We\u2019re impatient. Sometimes we functionally think that God needs our wisdom and help and that our leaders need more of our great \u201csuggestions\u201d (or criticism) than our support, prayers, real solutions, and faithful co-labor. We give into the Devil\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s barrenness or Jeremiah\u2019s zero converts or Elijah\u2019s depression or our single brother Paul at the end of his life being abandoned by all in Asia or Isaiah executed or Tyndale\u2019s decades suffering or Jim Elliot\u2019s \u201cearly\u201d death.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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, \u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/em> God works \u201csome\u201d things for good?! No, we\u2019re told in v. 28 that God works \u201call\u201d things for good! And what is the context? Our salvation, calling, justification, sanctification, glorification\u2026 so that we might be conformed to the image of His Son!<\/p>\n

Let me remind us that in 2015, there was nothing wasted by God, nothing that wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019ll see that the Lord has accomplished many wonderful things in our lives, \u201csmall\u201d and \u201cbig\u201d and everything in between, and they\u2019re all gracious and undeserved and impactful. Not everything will meet our preconceived expectations or external standards, but that doesn\u2019t mean profound and wonderful things weren\u2019t accomplished.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ve heard testimonies, and seen babies born and people grow, and watched a marriage proposal with every member there. We\u2019ve seen folks willing to stretch themselves further than they ever did before, and our Alliance grow in its commitment to the MVP. We\u2019ve 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\u2019ve been a Christian 30 years, and one thing I\u2019ve 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\u2019t met doesn\u2019t mean God isn\u2019t working and accomplishing everything, everything He intended. Abraham Lincoln once said, \u201cGive me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.\u201d<\/em> 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\u2019t know when\u2026 but He does. And it would be a mistaken attitude and outlook to think God isn\u2019t doing anything right now\u2026 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.<\/p>\n

God delays for good reasons as does in\u00a0answering\u00a0right 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, \u201cYou 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\u2026 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.”<\/em> Perhaps 2015 was a year of leanness and tough financial choices? Do you know that\u2019s a blessing as much as having \u201cmore\u201d 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\u2026 and not money. Affluenza is a spiritual disease, and we don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

In a small congregation\u2019s 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\u2019re 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\u2019s God\u2019s blessing us all! And He\u2019s brought some new people, everyone we love so much! We\u2019ve had non-Christians come and ask questions and become our regular friends. We\u2019ve been able to encourage many visitors because they let us know that in emails even when it was their only visit. Those \u201csmall things\u201d are really quite big! Kent Hughes says success is serving, loving, believing, praying, holiness, attitude, and faithfulness. Why? Because that\u2019s how God defines success\u2026 and it\u2019s not necessarily<\/em> bodies, bucks, and buildings. Hughes encourages, \u201cThink of what it would mean if we were faithful<\/em>, living in profound obedience to God\u2019s Word and working long and hard at our tasks; serving<\/em> with a foot-washing heart; loving<\/em> God with all our heart, soul, and might; believing<\/em> what we believe; praying<\/em> with the dependence and passion of Christ; living pure holy<\/em> lives in this sensual world; manifesting a positive, supportive attitude<\/em> in the midst of difficulties! If that is mediocrity, then give us more this blessed mediocrity \u2013 for it is success!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Leeman wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019 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, \u201cThey represent me. Sin against them and you sin against me!\u201d How wide, long, high, and deep Christ\u2019s love is! It covers a multitude of sins and embraces the sinner\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The typical mindset among professing believers is aptly described by the real high-gloss magazine article titled, \u201c223 Ways to be Happier and Get What You Want, Without Doing Any Work.\u201d<\/em> God blesses those who are faithful, and you and I might not always see that, or be thankful for that, but He\u2019s 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\u2019s always mercifully and lovingly and powerfully at work in our lives, sovereignly in our sanctification. He\u2019s 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\u2019t 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, \u201cIf we act only because our path is clear of difficulty, this is not Faith. Faith acts upon God\u2019s Word whatever the difficulty, and to walk by faith brings highest glory to God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s continue to walk by faith, not by sight. The Christian life is not a sprint, it\u2019s a marathon. It\u2019s a seed not quickly sprouting, it\u2019s life in Christ deeply rooted. It\u2019s not drawing a line in the sand for which we refuse to give God our entire life, it\u2019s denying oneself daily no matter the earthly prospect or valuation. It\u2019s the joy of being His forever\u2026 even today. God was, is, and always at work for you to His glory. Be encouraged and fight the good fight of faith!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Pastor James Lee 2015 is past, so we\u2019re 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors-corner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11878,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11823\/revisions\/11878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighthousebc.com\/beacon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}