New Sermon Series: I WILL BE YOUR GOD

THE PROMISE OF GOD
The natural tendency we all have is to invest in certain people, things, institutions, opportunities, pursuits, and activities looking for them to “deliver the goods” in our lives. We tend to give ourselves to those people and things which PROMISE us the most.

From relationships we look for companionship, love, pleasure. From career we look for significance, worth, power. From material possessions we look for reputation, happiness, security. And these are just a few samples. In these examples people, career, and money can easily become functional idols in our lives. An idol is anything that takes the place in your heart that only God should have. It is something from which you seek life, fulfillment, joy, hope. Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, says, “The human heart takes good things…and turns them into ultimate things. Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle said it this way: “Idolatry is taking a good thing and making it a God-thing and that’s a bad thing.” We are looking to have the goods delivered in our lives.

So then my question is: How’s that going for you? How’s it working? To what degree are the “goods being delivered” to you by whatever it is that you are looking to in your life?

What if there was one source from which ultimate “delivery” of all these things would and could come? The answer to that question is: there is just such a source, and he is God.

Don’t misunderstand; the point here is not to reduce God to some sort of “cosmic delivery boy” who brings us what we think we need. That is, in fact, the very opposite. The point to embrace in all of this is not that God delivers “the goods” but that he delivers himself – which is infinitely more and better.

There are those who would describe that which God promises to deliver as health, wealth and prosperity. There are others whose characterization would reduce what God offers to little more than fire insurance, a way to remove the risk of hell when you die. Still others would suggest that their pursuit of God, religion, or faith brings some sense of inner peace. And then there are the many who seek God only when crisis comes and desperation sets in. Add to that the reality that all of us, to some degree, are looking to idols in our lives (which we do not think of as God or gods at all) for meaning, comfort, security or hope, and what you end up with is throngs of people looking to “get” from their preferred “god” but not looking to encounter God in any real, meaningful, relational way.

Standing in contrast to all of this is the God of the Bible. From the beginning of God’s revelation of himself in the Old Testament book of Genesis to the end of it in the New Testament book of Revelation, he is not about giving us things or meeting our needs, but instead he has determined to give HIMSELF to a people. The recurring promise of God throughout the Bible is “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” We have a God who has promised himself to us. The name Immanuel means “God with us,” and that is precisely what we have through 1) Jesus – who was born and lived for a season among us; 2) the Holy Spirit – who was sent to be present with us now; and 3) the certain promise that Jesus will come again and take us to be with him forever. God does not just promise to give us stuff or do us favors; he promises us a relationship with him that is sure, rich, and eternal. All the things we desire and needs we feel are either fulfilled or cease to matter in relationship with God.

Join us on Sunday evenings this Fall as we explore the reality of a God who promises us nothing less than himself. The question we will ask ourselves over and over again in different ways is: Do we want what we think God has to offer us, or do we want Him - Immanuel, God with us?