SERMON for the 19TH SUNDAY after PENTECOST: September 21, 2008
"Looking for God in All the Right Places"
In der Liebe Christi,
Rev. Kurt Hering, Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church
Layton, UT
TEXT: Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let
the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to
the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely
pardon. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts". Isaiah
55:6-9
Hide and seek may be the greatest game of all times. It can be played by
almost everybody - all ages, regardless of most disabilities can play the
game in one form or another. You can have the people hide from each other or
hide an object that everyone looks for or even play it while stationary by
looking for something hidden in plain view like you might do when riding in
a car in the game "I Spy with My Little Eye." The hiding of something in
plain view the finding of something right under your own nose is fun and
challenging. And the game has been around forever - something that
generation upon generation have in common and to which they can relate.
And Hide and Seek also brings up the obvious revelation contained within
that rather silly question: Why is it that whenever you are searching for
something it always turns up in the last place you look?
So the question that is placed before us by the Lord's prophet in this
morning's text is this: Why is it that having found God and the hope, peace,
joy and life that comes only from Him revealed to us in His Word and that
Word made flesh, we keep looking elsewhere? I cannot think of any other time
or instance, whether it be a lively game of hide and seek or in the mundane
task of looking for misplaced car keys that anyone is foolish enough to keep
on looking after they have found the object of their search.
And yet so much of religion, even Christianity itself, is bent on trying to
find and attain what has already been revealed and freely given to us by God
through His church - the forgiveness of sins, life, salvation, the kingdom
of heaven. All these are yours right where God has hidden them in plain view
for you in water and the Word and bread and wine.
So dear people of God, Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him
while he is near. The heavenly game of hide and seek is over. "Ollie, Ollie,
oxen free!" When our Lord Jesus Christ cried out on the cross, "It is
finished!" salvation was complete. And when the waters of baptism poured
over your heads you were found by God and he by you.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.
Isa 65:1_5 "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found
by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I
said, 'Here am I, here am I.' All day long I have held out my hands to an
obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own
imaginations - a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering
sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among
the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of
pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat; who say, 'Keep away; don't
come near me, for I am too sacred for you!' Such people are smoke in my
nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day. (NIV)
The game of hide and seek for God and His kingdom is over! We can and must
stop looking for God inside ourselves: Matt 15:19 For out of the heart come
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander. (NIV)
The game of hide and seek for God and His kingdom is over! We can and must
stop looking for God for God in nature: Rom 1:16_25 The wrath of God is
being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men
who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about
God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the
creation of the world God's invisible qualities__ his eternal power and
divine nature__ have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been
made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they
neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking
became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed
to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual
impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged
the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather
than the Creator__ who is forever praised. Amen. (NIV)
The game of hide and seek for God and His kingdom is over! We can and must
stop looking for God in our own special thinking: 1 Cor 1:17_19 For Christ
did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel__ not with words of
human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the
message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us
who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will
frustrate." (NIV)
The game of hide and seek for God and His kingdom is over! We can and must
stop looking for God or come to Him by our own deeds: Isa 64:6_7 All of us
have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like
filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep
us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you
have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.
(NIV)
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith__ and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no
one can boast. (NIV)
The game of hide and seek for God and His kingdom is over! We can and must
stop looking for God as if He is not already here and heaven is something
reserved for tomorrow, . . . . or the moment after we die: James 4:14 Why,
you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a
mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (NIV)
Yes, Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. . .
.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
Isa 30:19_22 O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.
How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will
answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water
of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you
will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will
hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Then you
will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with
gold; you will throw them away ... and say to them, "Away with you!" (NIV)
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins
have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (NIV)
Matt 11:25-27 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,
and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good
pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows
the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and
those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. (NIV)
Matt 16:16_18 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this
was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you
that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of Hades will not overcome it. (NIV)
Luke 10:22_23 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one
knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is
except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Then he
turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see
what you see. (NIV)
1 Cor 2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him?" But we have the mind of Christ. (NIV)
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Rom 1:16-17 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God
for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the
Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a
righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:
"The righteous will live by faith."
2 Cor 4:10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that
the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (NIV)
Eph 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs
together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in
the promise in Christ Jesus. (NIV)
1 Pet 1:20_21 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was
revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God,
who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope
are in God. (NIV)
Eph 3:8_11 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace
was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for
ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was
that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made
known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his
eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)
Dearly beloved of God, we can stop looking for God in all the wrong places.
For when we find Him in His Son, as we have found Him here today, we find
all those other things too - in all their truth and beauty.
In Christ we find true Nature - He created it. John 1:3_4 Through him all
things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (NIV)
In Christ we find true Wisdom - Prov 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."(NIV)
In Christ we truly find Ourselves & Deeds - Eph 2:10 For we are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do. (NIV)
In Christ we find true Life - John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was
the light of men.
In Christ we find we truly always have a wonderful and beautiful tomorrow -
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Eternal life, that's a whole lot of tomorrows.
Now that you have sought and found Him in His Word, what will you do? Keep
looking? Or tell others what you have found?
The hide and seek game for heaven is over. "Ollie, Ollie, oxen free!"
God grant you the faith, the will, and the voice to call out to your little
part of the world at home, work, school or play that all are out and all are
free, that all are welcome to seek the Lord where He may be found, and to
call on Him while He is near. - in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost. Amen
____________________________________________________________
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