God the Ground of Hope in Our Lives

Pr Malcolm Dennis
22-01-2017

Hebrews 12:25-29
25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”[e] 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Psalm 46:1-11
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and *the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,*
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar,kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come and see what theLord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields[d] with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exaltedamong the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

We will experience shakings but we will not be shaken in the midst of the shakings. God wants to establish and lay inside us conceretely by the Spirit of the Living God. We cannot put our trust in anything that is in this world. Everything that comes to us is transcient. Nothing cannot eclipse or take the place of God in our hearts. 

Life in this world is very volatile. Ideas, technologies, successes, churches, ministries, our own health and lives... Nothing lasts forever.

When we experience shakings, we experience loss, we experience things taken away from us.

When the shakings come, there is a tendency in our hearts to look for formulas and magic prayers. God will dismantle these kinds of false thinkings.

The psalmist is telling us that our own life is limited, short. 

In 1 John 2, we read that the world is passing away. 

The psalmist is telling us that God is our refuge. The good old days are gone. Let go of the past. What God will do today will be a new thing, a better thing in the sight of God. We have to look to God who is a present help in times of trouble and hear Him. 

God doesn't work the same in each of our lives. It doesn't mean up and up all the time. It could be downard mobility to the grave like Jesus experienced. It doesn't mean that you're not successful or not progressing. God wants to lay in us the solid ground of hope in this season of time. Otherwise we might not be able to reconcile our expectations of God. This is a way of how God matures us, changes the way we were falsely thinking or guided. So that in the midst of these contradictions, we are not shaken and able to hear His voice, turn to the Word and come before Him, and adapt to changes. 

Purpose and direction can only be found in Him. As Paul said, we can be in Christ or out of Him. The only way in is not by reciting verses or through mechanical prayer. He is infinitely holy, pure and righteous. We cannot manipulate our way into the presence of God. We have to go in as we are. We have to come before God as we are without any pretentions. If we pretend, we cannot go far in. 

Luke 18:9-14
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The Pharisee and the tax collector. The former uses mechanical prayer whereas the latter prays what was sincere intellectually. 

Something inside our hearts must be made right so that grace can be parked inside. 

The tax collector came before God to be merciful to him. He regarded himself a sinner. Just because Jesus came into our lives, we are still not good. That's why we can be corrupted and susceptible to the devil. For God to deal with this rottenness in us, Jesus Christ had to shed His blood and die on the cross for us. He is God's gift of righteousness planted in us.

How do we come into the presence of God when we are so full of crap, we are rotten? It is impossible. 

But we can come as we are before God. Like the tax collector. Although he had done many dirty and corrupted jobs and became unclean in his dealings with the Gentiles, yet he was in touch with the depths of his own heart and soul and brought it all to God truthfully and said it as it is.

The big question: Are we as aware like the tax collector of the inward condition of our own soul? Jealousy, greed, power craziness, crookedness etc. We need to listen to what's going on with the depths of our hearts. 

The only way is to feel what we're going through deep inside our hearts eg disappointments, deep jealousy, and other unsettles accounts inside our own soul. 

God wants to lay Himself as a solid ground of hope.

Jesus Christ is perfectly spiritual and fully human but yet on the cross he said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

We have the right to express our painful suffering and expressions. It is human to do so. Jesus himself did it.

Like the psalmist in Psalm 139: "Search me, God, and know my heart."

God knows we are rotten. Grace and mercy have been provided so that we can be cleansed and be healed and that we can be stronger. God is our refuge and our strength.

Only by the grace and love of God can He put back the broken pieces in our lives. 

We need Him to help us to put things right. Come as we are to Him. Only He can help us to be a disciple and He can guide us the way forward.