Be With God
Welcome to Mosaic Camp Be With. It is so good to be with you, here, finally after months of fund raising and planning. Did you think that you would be with people from all over the world here? This is a beautiful Mosaic of peoples. What will it mean to be with each other this weekend? What will we encounter as we be with God. But, most importantly will learn what it means for God to be with us?
I really believe that if God is with us this weekend he will change us. He is in control of the spiritual climate. He does as he wills. My desire is to open up to his promises for us during our sessions and see that he not only desires to be with us, but that we are meant to take our everyday encounter with God and allow it to transformed our relationships with every person in our lives.
As God is with us, so those we are with will witness a profound difference in who we are. When God is with us, rivers of life flow where before only dry barren land was found. Fountains in the midst of valleys, pools of water in the wilderness, springs of water in dry land.
Its very possible that you’ve come to this weekend spiritually dry. There’s just nothing there to motivate or excite. The school year has come and is almost gone leaving you exhausted, frustrated, desperate, disappointed, may be even afraid. Summer is great, but spiritually, I don’t know where I am. I just need a rest. Well, here you go. A weekend to recharge, rejuvenate by being with God. Let’s pray this together, then I will pray specifically for our time together:
The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other. Let (our) heart(s) therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”
(1 Kings 8:57-61 ESV)
When do we normally talk about God being with us? - Christmas
God miraculously impregnates a virgin named Mary who gives birth to Jesus who is God incarnate. He lives and moves among mankind for a number of years teaching, traveling and all the while never sinning. The law keepers hated him, the law breakers loved him. He eventually is executed by Roman crucifixion baffling those who had hoped in him as their deliverer from present oppression yet approved of by those that feared losing their power over the people. Three days go by and he shows up again...alive, and more alive than before. He says some things to his followers then is raised into heaven.
Since then, his followers have propagated his story around the world and the Church has grown somewhat miraculously despite persecution and often bloody opposition. So much has its influence been that whole countries and world powers have turned 180º to appeal to this movement and stop fighting against it, even protecting it. Great changes in individuals and groups have come about because Jesus came to be with us.
But who is this God, this Jesus, that came to be with us and what difference did or does he make?
Have you ever had a time in your life where things were so difficult that you questioned God? When I graduated from AAI and moved to the US to start college I really questioned God. I grew up in Ecuador, fell in love with God here in Shell. He was very real, intimate and strong in me. In high school I stayed the course as best I could and felt the Lord had prepared me to GO to the nation of America and spread the Gospel. When I go there, things changed, I changed, other people changed. Life was hard, I wasn’t who I thought I was and others were not who I expected them to be. I worked a early morning job and did school on my own in my room. I felt alone, betrayed, powerless, forgotten and very uncomfortable. I would say sin crept in and I fell hard often, but looking back I realize that the sin was always there. These new trials and temptations only drew it out into the open and I saw its ugly effects. It was in me before, but now it was manifesting in my actions, my words and my choices.
Where was God? He had been so close before Then, all I saw was the glory of the Lord before me and everything was good, right and true! Now I was living in darkness, afraid, discouraged, despairing of everything present in my life. Did God leave me?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
(Romans 1:18-23 ESV)
What do we learn about God in this passage?
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
God didn’t change. He doesn’t change. When Job an Old Testament character was brutally afflicted physically, losing almost everything he had, he had similar doubts about God. Job was said to have been a righteous man, more righteous than any other. Yet, he suffered terrible loss: all he owned, all his children, his slaves, and his friends. He thought that perhaps he had been mistaken about God. He doubted that God had his best in mind. He doubted that God was with him in his suffering.
God eventually responds to Job. (Don’t you wish God would respond to your questioning him?) Job was quickly put in his place as the Lord revealed his invisible attributes, he eternal power and divine nature. God points to the intricate complexities of his creation. And says, “Where were you?” God, the Creator and sustainer of life puts Job in his place.
You see, God is life. He didn’t just make stuff, he keeps it going with power and with intention. The Psalm writer acknowledges this throughout the Psalms:
I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. Psalm 3:5
You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great. Psalm 18:35
Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me. Psalm 54:4
Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. Psalm 55:22
So, what happened to me, to Job? What was God doing?
He does everything on purpose.
When I became a Christ-follower, I took on the term: disciple of Jesus. To understand better what a disciple of Jesus is, we have to look at the first disciples of Jesus.
When Jesus first began his ministry on earth he chose 12 men that would follow him wherever he went. My guess is that he could do ministry without 12 ordinary blokes bubbling behind him. Jesus does this for a very specific reason. In Mark 3:14 we see why Jesus choose these 12 men. You might have guessed already, but
...he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach. (Mark 3:14 ESV)
When I trusted God with my life, I gave him full rights to do as he willed. I said, “Take me where you will. Show me how much I must suffer for your name. I belong to you, do what seems right O God.” That was a good choice I made, but there is more to the story. In fact there is much that has been going on before I ever arrived on the scene. God has been working. There is a story between God and man that has been unveiling for a long, long time.
God, infinite, Most High, All powerful, all-knowing, loving, just and perfect made a creature in his likeness, man and woman. His desire was to have them experience a satisfying relationship with him full of love and adventure. Never dull, never lacking, always just what they needed.
Man, though intended for untold happiness decided that he/she could find happiness apart from God. When something is not fulfilling its intended purpose, it does not function correctly. It’s purpose is unfulfilled. This is the effect of sin. When God’s creatures do not trust him to satisfy them, they are left empty, incomplete and God does not receive the glory that he deserves. God wants us to experience his love and respond to him with trust and obedience. This is how we love him.
He has loved us by coming to be with us. He eliminated all that stood between us and him. No sin, no mistake, no rebellion can keep God away from his people.
When Jesus chose me, he loved me, he wanted me, even though I was an ordinary, broken, sinner, who was literally dead to our intended relationship. I could not love God, even if I followed the rules of the Bible, but he is with us anyway that we might experience the relationship we were intended for with him.
This is why this verse speaks volumes to me.
But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
(Isaiah 41:8-10 ESV)
Many challenges face us. For some of us they are like a wall of impending doom ready to fall on us and crush us. If you don’t know, Alaina, Zane and I are moving to the US so that I can complete my seminary studies. There are many fears. Will I make it? Will God be enough? Will he provide enough money? Will he provide any friends, people I can trust? Will I be able to trust my professors? Can I find a job, work and do school? Will it be like when went to the US last time?
May be you are asking some scary questions right now too:
Will I ever see my friends again?
Will I ever be free from this addiction?
Will my family ever love me, or accept me?
Am I important to anyone?
Can I trust anyone with this secret?
What if I don’t find answers to my questions or my doubts?
What if I’m ok with my life as it is and I don’t really need God?
God does things in our lives that give us the opportunity to trust him more fully. Its one thing to trust God when you don’t need him, but when he takes the supports of friends, family, money, comforts, controls out from under you, will you choose to trust him to hold you up?
I want you to put your name in this passage:
But you, ______, my servant,
______, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
(Isaiah 41:8-10 ESV)
This is true. Because God is with us, for our best interest, fighting for us with his life, we should be the most bold people on the face of the earth.
Ask yourself, “Is your faith self defined? Have you made yourself the Christian that you are? Or are you living proof of what God can do? If you’ve gone no further than your own legs can carry you and seen no more than your own eyes can show you and tasted no more than your own thoughts can convey to you, you are lost.
This is why you don’t live boldly for God, with courage and strength! You have no meaning beyond yourself! May the Holy Spirit lead you into some private room today to weep and repent and look to Christ alone, because authentic Christianity is miracle, not management. May you give up on yourself and delight in the sovereign Christ as all the Savior you need. He will fill you life with meaning, and you will make a difference for his Glory in the world today.” - Dr. Ray Ortlund Jr.
That difference happens in people’s lives as we will talk about tomorrow.
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