Work of God 1987

The primary reason why so many of us have trouble getting the world of Scripture to mesh with the world in which we live and work every day is that these two worlds are based on two totally different views of reality. In Scripture, there is no doubt, no question from beginning to end of who's in charge. God is in charge.

And that in spite of all the wars and earthquakes and famine, the streets may be, you know, alive with all kinds of violence. And yet, over it all, God is there calling every individual, male, female, every nation to account. He stands over it, he observes it, and he calls it to account and he judges it.

That's the view in Scripture, clear cut. And it's the gospel of Jesus, clear cut. God is in charge.

Whereas the world in which we live every day is based on a totally different view of reality. The basis of reality in the world of everyday living in this country or anywhere on earth, really, is that there is no God. Oh, you can believe in God if you want to use God as a crutch to get you through.

But there is no God. The ones who have the brains or the power are the ones who take control. And they hold control until somebody who's smarter, who has more power, comes in and takes control away from them.

Detroit, 1987, Metro Detroit, 1987, is not ruled by God. It's ruled by people who know how to take power and make that power work for them. So the reality framework of Scripture is that God initiates, God controls, God judges, and no matter how bad things get or what goes wrong, God has the last word.

The reality framework of Detroit, 1987, is that man initiates, man controls, man judges, and man gets the last word. And even though we claim to be followers of Jesus, and we call him Lord, and we believe that one day he's going to come back and set things right, he's going to judge the earth, most of us seem to have a very, very hard time believing that Jesus is Lord over what's going on. And because we have so much trouble trusting, believing that he is in charge right now, we tend to conduct our church life like any other human enterprise.

We're afraid to trust that this thing is really in God's hand, it's his business, and he can run it. We think we have to get in there and run it for him. And so sometimes we complain.

If only there were more of the power of the Spirit in this thing. And the implication, of course, is that we've got something good going here. We set it up.

Why doesn't God bless it more? Understand, Lord, we'll control it. All we're asking you to do is add your blessing. But to have the blessing of God that he longs to give us and that we seek, that can only happen when we repent of our predisposition, our constant messing around with God's kingdom, thinking that we have to run God's kingdom for him.

Repent of that, step back, and fit in to what he's doing. See, it's not as if it's our work and then God has to fit in to what we're doing, and that's all too often the way we run this thing. It's God's work.

And we fit in to what he's doing. The Book of Acts is the description of the earliest days of the body of Christ on earth. And it's a refreshing book, marvelous book, because in it we see that even the apostles, all the believers, male, female, everybody in the Book of Acts had their vanity, had their problems, had their sin, had their fears.

But for all that, those people understood that God was doing something. God was at work, and it was their job to fit in. That was clear to them.

So they didn't try to engineer Pentecost and make the Holy Spirit come and prime the pump. The Holy Spirit came when God was ready to send him, and it was their job to wait. They did not devise a missionary strategy and then ask God to bless him.

In fact, most of the time they were dragging their feet as far as missionary outreach was concerned. But when the Spirit led, they followed. Get up, Peter, and go to the house of Cornelius.

Even if he is a Gentile, I'm sending you. And it's almost like the Spirit had to beat Peter over the head to get him to do it, but Peter did it. And it took persecution to get the elders to move out beyond the realm of the Jews.

And now we find Philip preaching to the Samaritans because that's where he was led. And then the Spirit says, OK, go over there and talk to that Ethiopian, Philip. Separate from me, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

Reading from Acts 5, verse 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name of Jesus.

Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

Background to this is that these apostles had been preaching Jesus. They were arrested and thrown into a common jail. In the middle of the night, the angel of the Lord comes in and opens up the door and says, Go on out, go over to the temple and preach some more.

In the morning, the guards come to pick up these apostles and drag them in front of the council. When they get there, the jail is locked tight shut, but the apostles are missing. They go back to report this to the council, and as they're reporting it, in comes somebody running and says, Those guys are preaching in the temple again.

Arrest them. Get them. They bring them.

And now, instead of standing there and behaving themselves and begging for mercy, they're preaching to the council. And these men are incensed. They're angry.

When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and ordered the men to be put outside for a while. And he said to them, Men of Israel, take care of what you do with these men.

For before these days, Judas arose, giving himself out to be somebody. And a number of men, about 400, joined him. But he was slain, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

After him, Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all who followed him were scattered. So in this present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone.

For if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God.

You might even be found opposing God. This man, Gamaliel, had enough humility to recognize that this disruptive movement, what was shaking up the city of Jerusalem, might possibly be the work of God. The work of God.

And that's precisely what the apostles regarded it to be. It was not a man-made revolution. It was not initiated by men.

It was not conducted by men or controlled by men. It was the work of God. So, what goes on in this body? Whether the life of God is manifested here, whether the word of God is clearly heard here, whether lives are changed here into the image of Christ, and whether the community, the world, the city around us, feels the impact of what God is doing through us, depends upon whether we approach our body life as the work of man or as the work of God.

If we approach it as the work of man, that's what it will be. If we approach it as the work of God, that's what it will be. If we, with our own hands, try to control it, modify it, manipulate it, and bend it to fit our own taste, the spirit simply will draw back, and we will become just one more religious cluster.

But if we seek the face of the Lord, and submit to His direction, and listen to Him, He will direct us, move among us, change us, transform us into the prophetic people He's calling us to be. Reading a passage in Ephesians 5, which we all too often don't even notice because we're busy when we're reading that, thinking of the relationship between husband and wife, and whether wives are submissive enough or husbands are loving enough. But beneath this particular pair of verses, or triad of verses, is a teaching that we need to see as applying to ourselves, right here.

Ephesians 5, 25. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that the church might be presented before Him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Here we see the church described here as the work of Christ.

He loved us, the church, gave Himself up for us to death, feeds us, cleanses us, washes us with the Word, so that as a work of God we can be presented before Him in splendor, without blemish, holy, without any spot. Such a work has to be the work of God. We can't do it.

All we can do, and all that we must do, is fit in. It's the work of God. The body of Christ, if it's really the body of Christ and not another Christian club, with Christian icing on the outside and the flesh ruling from the inside.

If it's the body of Christ, our job is to fit in to what God is doing. And we need to fit in in four specific ways. First, we need to open our eyes and see what He's doing in our midst.

Second, we need to understand that it's time for us to enter into what God is doing. The work of God in our midst, we enter into it. Third, we feed on that work of God going on among us, letting it become manna, living bread for us every day.

And fourth, we allow that work of God to enter into us and rule us. Easy to remember, because these four things are precisely the things that were done by the Israelites, often against their will, and they finally yielded. And when they did, those who did survived.

When they left Egypt, back to the Promised Land. First thing we see, they stood on the bank of the Red Sea and saw the salvation of God as the waters parted. Then they entered into the salvation of God.

The waters parted and they went right down into it. They didn't just look at it. Then thirdly, they gathered manna from the desert floor, and that manna became living bread for them.

And finally, they got to the rock. Moses struck the rock, out came water, and that water represented the spirit of God, allowing the work of God to enter in. And those who submitted to what was really meant by that survived.

First, we need to open our eyes and see the work of God. God is working among us, we have to open our eyes and see it. Chapter 14, verse 10 of Exodus.

When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they were in great fear. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have brought us here to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Let us alone, let us serve the Egyptians, we said, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. And Moses said to the people, Fear not.

Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. So they were in a bind.

They were between the Egyptian armies and the Red Sea. They don't know what to do. The situation looks totally hopeless.

And we find ourselves in a similar bind. In many ways, we as a congregation are not located in the ideal spot. We don't have the ideal resources.

You know, in many, many ways. And we often find ourselves feeling like the Apostle Peter. We toiled all night and took nothing.

We went out there fishing. Nothing seemed to be happening like it should. And now the Lord says, Look, I'm in the boat.

And I'm telling you, launch out into the deep and let down the net. And that's what's been going on, particularly in the last year. And we have seen in the last year more evidence of the power of God to change human life than we have ever seen in the past.

But the strange thing is that it's so easy to walk by it and not even notice. God is at work. Lives are being changed.

Sometimes it's our own life, and we're too dumb to see it. People walk right past the Son of God and say, Who's this little fellow? And the Spirit of the Lord is saying to us, Open your eyes and behold the one who stands in your midst, my son. You're at the burning bush, for goodness sake.

Get down on your knees, take off your shoes and worship him. Open your eyes and see what God is doing in your midst. Second, God is at work among us.

We need to enter into that work. Exodus 14, 21. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land.

And the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being walled to them on their right hand and on their left. They didn't just stand there and look at it and say, Praise the Lord.

Isn't that marvelous? You know, turn to another channel. It's news time. They went down in.

They took their bodies, their minds, and their possessions, and they entered into this path in the Red Sea, which God had opened for them. A person can come to fellowship for years with the mentality of a spectator. I'll watch this.

I'll see what goes on here. I'm going to observe. And at times I may find it necessary to critique what's happening.

From the shore, from the distance. But the life of God cannot come to us and change us until we take the leap of commitment. Until we say, OK, I've waited up here long enough.

I'm going to go down into those waters with my brothers and sisters. I'm going to walk into that path. I'm going to commit myself to the work that I see God doing, and I'm going to let him fit me in as he shows and chooses in the unity of the body.

And when I do that, when I commit myself to his work in the midst of his people, my body, my mind, body, mind, whatever the mind is, I'm not sure. And all that I have, the minute I do that, I come to life in union in the body with the life I never had when I was out there as a lone ranger. The expert on all fruit, fruit inspector.

God is at work among us. We need to feed on that work as living bread from heaven. We skip over now to Exodus chapter 16, verse 13.

In the evening, quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, dew lay round about the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost, on the ground.

When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, Manu, Manu, what is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, it is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. And that bread became their life for the next 40 years until they entered into the promised land.

And that bread, that manna, was the foresign of the one who not only works among us here right now, but who feeds us with himself. He is our life. We draw life from nothing else.

Jesus alone is our life, nothing else. Now when we feed on him, listen to him, submit to him, walk with him, do his will, we live. When we allow ourselves to become distracted and start drawing our strength from other things, even if they're religious things, spiritual things, we die.

Or when we allow ourselves to feed on, to give sustenance to our souls on resentment, bitterness, lust, covetousness, or even plain old laziness, and it's got to be daily bread, not just once in a while, but every day I feed on what God is doing. I feed on the living bread which came down from heaven and gives life to the world. When we do this, when we feed on him who draws us together, holds us together, sends us forth, and makes us more than conquerors, we live and we bear fruit.

Finally, God is at work among us. We need to let that work of God come in and rule us. Now we jump to chapter 17 of Exodus, verse 3. But the people thirsted there for water.

And the people murmured against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with these people? They're almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and taking your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock and forage.

You shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. They drank of that rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ. We drink of that rock, and what we drink is the life of God.

When we drink the life of the Spirit of God, we are, in fact, taking the work of God right inside. And so the water jars were filled with water, and it becomes the wine of the kingdom. Or so in this passage that Johnny read today.

The woman at the well opens herself up, and Jesus fills her with living water. And to which he says, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And what we drink is the Spirit of God, the life of God, the holy nature of God.

See, but to drink this in, we have to make room. We have to yield. We have to open up.

It's not, give me this, give me that, do this, do that, oh yeah, give me the Holy Spirit too. It's, Lo, I come to do your will, O Lord. Your will, not mine.

Every reference to the Holy Spirit in Scripture is based on that premise. Luke 11, the classic passage about the coming of the Holy Spirit. A friend of mine is coming on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.

It's not, give me something so I can do some tricks with. Give me your life, that I can feed this person who's thirsty. Lord, let me have your life, that I may do your will.

Fill me with the living water, so that I can slake the thirst of your thirsting ones. And he will. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. That the church might be presented before him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That she might be holy and without blemish.

That's what God is doing in this place. He's raising up here and in many other places too. We're not saying this is the only one.

We're not saying this is the only one within five blocks. We're saying he's doing it everywhere where people submit, but he's surely doing it here. He's raising up a people, he's doing it.

With us or without us, he's going to do it. He offered himself up for us. He sanctifies us.

And he's making us ready. That we may be presented before him holy, in splendor, without spot or wrinkle. Our job is to fit in.

Nothing happens until we do. We need to open our eyes and see what he's doing. We need to enter into what that work is by committing ourselves to it.

We need to feed on his work among us as living bread. And we need to let that work come in as the spirit of God. To rule, to be born in our corporate and individual life.

We will open our eyes and see what God is doing. And if we will, submit to it. There is absolutely no limit to what God will do through this body.

Let's just take some time in silence.