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How important are we? Really, how big a deal are human beings? That all depends on your worldview, doesn’t it?

 

If your worldview is one of naturalism, human beings are no more important than any other collection of physical matter in the universe. There is no way that an honest and consistent naturalist can call one stack of chemicals worth more than any other stack of chemicals. Thus, in that worldview, if it remains consistent, humans are worth exactly the same as a dog, a tree, a rock, or a cloud. Sure, we can do a different kind of work and show advanced thinking, but none of that is intrinsic value.

 

On the other hand, many people in the world come from a humanistic perspective. These have given themselves a high position in their estimation of worth. We look at our lives and we assume that we are the center of the universe. We determine that we have the right to shape our own lives, our own moralities, and our own version of what we will call truth. We say that all that fits our liking is good and all that opposes it is bad. We clamor for open-mindedness so long as the things others believe do not challenge our own morality.

 

But those who have a biblical worldview must see things differently. All throughout Scripture, those who know the God of the Bible understand that the Lord, he is the one who determines all that is true and right. God is the one who made us. God is the one who commands us. God is the one who determines morality. God is the one who lets us know what is our value. And all of creation around us is designed to show us the glory of God.

 

Psalm 8:3-4

 

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

 

The psalmist in the verses above makes a proper judgment of himself as he looks at the universe around him. He sees the heavens. He looks at the sun, moon, and stars, and he realizes his smallness. The psalmist neither assumes himself to be the reason the universe exists nor does he assume himself to be a collection of randomly united chemicals. Instead, the psalmist sees the vastness of space, lets that remind him of the majesty of the Creator, and wonders aloud how God, in the midst of such a creation can still value mankind.

 

In that thought is the answer to any question of human value. We are worth something, not because of chemistry or function, but because God has valued us. The Lord has looked upon us and granted us worth. He created us for a purpose, and his purpose is what makes us special.

 

Thus, the naturalistic worldview is not true, for we have worth. The humanistic worldview is not true, for our worth is not self-determined. The proper worldview is a sense of awestruck humility as we realize that, in the midst of a massive and glorious and intricate universe, the Lord looks at us and cares.

How big of an obstacle are you facing in your Christian walk? Is there something that you know the word of God calls you to do or to be that you think is just too much? What part of your following the Savior is too hard?

 

In Genesis 18, God comes to speak with Abraham and Sarah. They are 99 and 89 respectively, and they have had no children. The Lord promises that, within the next year, when they are 100 and 90, God will give them a son. Sarah, of course, laughs at the concept. But God is not amused.

 

Genesis 18:13-14 – 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

 

The question that God asks is super-significant. Is anything too hard for God? Of course, with a cup of coffee in my hand and the Bible open before me on a Monday morning, the answer is easy. Of course nothing is too hard for God.

 

But the real question is not for in my quiet time. It is for my daily life. It is for your daily life. Is anything too hard for God? Is there a call the Lord has given you that is too hard? Is there a command that the Lord has put in his word that is beyond his ability to help us fulfill? Is there a promise of the Lord in his word that he is not strong enough or faithful enough to fulfill? And of course the answer is no. Nothing is too hard for God.

 

So, what are you facing that you think is too hard? Has God called you to confess a sin that you do not want to confess? Has God called you to put away a sin from your life you think is too difficult? Are you facing a fear or a depression that you think cannot be overcome? Are you battling to come out of a sorrow or grief that feels bottomless? Nothing is too hard for God.

 

The Lord wants his followers to understand that, if we are his, there is no command of his that we cannot follow. He wants us to grasp that, if something is in his will, it can be done. He does not fail. The Lord does not promise us easy lives, but he shows us in the word time and time again that he is strong and faithful. He shows us that he can do in us what we could never do in our own strength. He reminds us that nothing is too hard, nothing is impossible for the Lord.

 

Let this give you hope. Let it give you confidence. Let it call you to repent of faithlessness and doubt. Let it move you to cry out to the Lord for the strength and courage to obey him in all things.

In reading the story of the life of Abraham, we see multiple places where Abraham attempts to take control of his circumstances. Sometimes the Lord allows Abraham to cause himself some disastrous consequences. Other times, the Lord simply tells Abraham how things will go.

 

As we read this story and see it unfold, we need to keep our focus on the real story God is telling us. Yes, we can learn from Abraham’s faith and his failures. Yes, we can learn from the miraculous way that God provides. But the big story in the book of Genesis is how God makes the promise of one to come to rescue his children, and how
God preserves that promise even when people do everything they can to mess it up. And the life of Abraham shows us God’s sovereign hand at work.

 

Take a peek at this one instance of Abraham attempting to give his 2 cents on how the plan of God should go.

 

Genesis 17:17-21 – 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

 

Abraham is 99 at this point. He had a son 12 years earlier. And now God is continuing to promise Abraham a son, Isaac, to be born to Abraham through Sarah. Abraham still has trouble believing that this will come to pass.

 

Even worse than Abraham’s doubt, at least for the main point of the story, is Abraham’s attempt to alter the line of promise. Abraham asks God to simply let Ishmael be the one who carries the promise of God so that this whole thing with Sarah does not have to happen.

 

Notice, in this case, that God does not entertain the suggestion from Abraham. In this instance, God has a plan, and God will carry it out. Abraham and Sarah will have a child together at ages 100 and 90 respectively. That child, Isaac, will be the one to carry the line of promise from God. Isaac will be the next step in bringing to the world the Messiah. And
Abraham has no say in the matter.

 

If you read the rest of Genesis, you will see things like this happen with each step of the process. God chooses Jacob over his brother Esau. God shapes some crazy life circumstances to make Judah the one of the 12 sons of Jacob who carries the promise. God performs a miracle to determine that Judah’s son Perez will be the one carrying the promise. In all this, God shows us that he is in control.

 

All of the Bible is about the promised one from God, the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus. All of the Bible is about God doing what man would mess up. All of the Bible is about God showing us that he is holy, glorious, just, merciful, and sovereign (among so many other things. God is in control. God will carry his plan to completion. We can trust him. We must submit to him. We should give him glory for accomplishing all that he sovereignly wills to accomplish. And we should learn not to try to change his plans as if we could ever have a better idea.

I think we all know that, as believers in the 21^st century, there are a lot of pressures to compromise. Our world is more aggressively against the basic standards of morality in Scripture than in any time of the existence of the United States. Basic assumptions about human life, about sexuality, about the goodness of following God are all no longer understood truth. Yes, I know that the world has always been bad in this way or that, and I know that many generations have said that things are worse than ever, but in the measure I am presenting, we are living in a unique age for the US.

 

As the world and its understanding of morality moves away from the basic Judeo-Christian ethic that was ingrained in the founding fathers of our country, even those who were by no means Christian, the church has a new type of obstacle to face. For centuries, we could survive, even be respected in the culture, while holding to our values. Even those who disagreed with or simply refused to live by Christian ethics did not, for the most part, condemn the church for her ethics. But that is changing.

 

The big question is: how will we live in this era? How will we function? Will we hold to the word of God? Will we fold under pressure?

 

Genesis 12:10-13 – 10 Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.”

 

Just after God promised Abram that he and his family would be the chosen people of God, a famine hit that sent Abram to Egypt. On the way, Abram realized that he was in danger in Egypt. His commitment to his marriage put him at risk. Abram feared that the men of Egypt would kill him in order to take his wife from him.

 

This put Abram into a crisis point. Should he be faithful to the morality of marriage? That would put him in danger. Or, might he compromise on this particular moral issue in order to survive?

 

We all see what Abram did. In an immoral move, a cowardly move, an abusive move, Abram commanded his wife to lie about their marriage. Abram stepped away from the standards of God in order to try to win for himself safety in a hostile land. And the word of God is clear as the story continues that this was wrong, faithless, and dishonoring to the Lord.

 

Do you see the parallel? We sit in a land that demands that we let go of the standards of God. This could be in the area of marriage and sexuality. It could be in the area of elicit drug use. It might be in the area of other forms of basic morality. But our world tells us that the morals of society are changing and that we must adapt, even approve of what the Bible forbids, in order for us to be safe and accepted. What will we do? Will we compromise?

 

Every time a church steps away from the word of God in order to please the culture, we are like Abram saying, “No, she is my sister.” Every time we pretend that it is OK to do that which God forbids, we dishonor the Lord. Every time we hide the word of God in order to gain the favor of the town we live in, we fold under pressure.

 

Friends, may we never be like Abram here. We will be tempted. The pressures will come to bear. What will we do? May we cling to the promise of God, the word of God, and the standards of God. May we rather be ridiculed, ostracized, or even persecuted than to fold under the pressure of the world to turn from the way of God for a supposed safety. 

 

For most in the world today, the concept of being ruled by a king is a very foreign thing. We do not have in our minds a genuine picture of yielding ourselves to someone with absolute authority in the land. And here I am not talking about a brutal dictator, nor am I talking about a figurehead monarch, but simply a single person who is the total ruler of the land.

 

But when Scripture talks about the Lord, the Bible talks in kingly terms. God is not the head of a government that keeps him in check. God is not the president who must compromise with a congress or the prime minister making deals with parliament. God is the supreme, the sovereign, the only Lord and king.

 

A common thread in the Bible is the fact that humanity, at the core of our sinful nature, has tried to throw off the rule of God and be our own masters. In Genesis 3, the woman was tempted by the idea of herself being her own master, sitting in the place of God.

 

Also hear the words of the enemies of God in Psalm 2.

 

Psalm 2:1-3

 

1 Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

3 “Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

 

Verse 1 tells us that the scheming to come is in vain. They cannot win. But the rulers of the earth, the people who should be bowing down to God as King are scheming. And the language is that of revolt. They act as though being ruled by God is to be bound, tied up, imprisoned. And so these enemies of God have determined in their own lives to throw off the bonds of god and be free, their own masters.

 

But the remainder of Psalm 2 shows us that God is not threatened by the schemes of the kings of the world. He is not thrown off his game by people thinking that they will be their own masters. Instead, the Lord scoffs at our foolish schemes. The Lord promises to send his own King, his Son, into the world to rule. And God commands all, from smallest to greatest, to bow to the Son before it is too late.

 

What should we take away from such a Psalm? I suggest two kingly thoughts. First, recognize that, when we sin against God, whether we think it to be big or small, we are rebelling against the king. WE are saying that we want to burst the bonds of God and be unrestrained in our self-rule. This makes us see our sin as more ugly, more rebellious, and more ungrateful, which is exactly how we should see it.

 

We should also grasp that, in our determination to escape the rule of God, we are making two great mistakes. One is the simple fact that we cannot win. WE will be ruled by the Lord. The other is the fact that the rule of God, if we will submit to it in Christ, is not a burden but a glorious grace.

 

Christians, think of God as your King. Do not let that thought slide past you too quickly. The Lord you have asked to be your Savior is also the Lord who claims absolute authority over every aspect of your life. He is good. He is wise. He is kind. But he is King. To battle against him is crazy and self-destructive. To surrender to him is wise and right.

It’s a new year. At this time, we all love to make plans for somehow modifying our lives and doing things better. We plan to exercise more, read better books, eat better food, and all the rest. And while all this is good, I would like to propose to us one simple commitment for the year that carries with it a promise of the blessing of God.

 

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

 

Psalm 1 starts off the worship song book of the Bible with a simple reminder. We are blessed by God when we walk, not in the ways of our naturally evil hearts, but when we instead make our lives and focus center on his holy word. The blessed person is one who delights in the word of God and meditates on it, reading it, studying it, applying it, obeying it.

 

We should be careful not to look at this passage as a do this to get that sort of passage. God has never been like the pagan fertility gods of the world’s false religions. God does not perform for us on a payment system. Rather, the point of the passage is that the one who loves God will love his word and obey it. The one who loves God’s word and obeys it will experience the blessings of God because he or she is a child of God. Loving the word of God is both a symptom of being a true child of god as well as an avenue to the blessings of God.

 

As this new year begins, I would urge us all to love the Lord our god by loving his word. In doing so, we will experience the glory of God and the soul-satisfying blessings he promises. This is good and wise.

 

How then will we love the word of God this year?

 

• Read it – You will not love the word of God if you spend no time in it. Make this a priority.
• Read it with a plan – I like to use a Bible-in-a-year plan. But that is not the only way to read. However, choosing to read a different passage every day, whatever pops into your head at the time, is not wise. That will leave you outside of the context and flow of Scripture. And reading without a plan makes it far easier to skip.
• Read with someone – It would be wise to find a friend or three and see about reading through the same plan or the same book together. This will not only promote accountability, but it will also give you a great topic for conversation as you share convictions and insights together.
• Attend worship – This would be a good year to make worship attendance a higher priority. You need to be with the people of God hearing the word of God faithfully taught. 

 

We could say so much more, but for now, let me simply encourage us to love the Lord by loving his word. This is a way to start 2018 aimed at the blessings of god.

When you pray, Christian, my guess is that you declare God to be good. Often, you will do so based on the things that the Lord has done for you. He has healed a family member, allowed a friend to get a job, or brought new people to your church. God is so good.

 

But what do we do when the Lord does not do these things? What do we say when the family member does not get better, when the friend does not land that new job, or when the church is shrinking though the elders are faithful? What then? If God was good for giving us what we wanted in the first example, is he no longer good when we do not get what we want in the second?

 

Of course we know, looking at a computer screen, that God is still good and worthy of praise no matter what our circumstances. But how hard is it for us to say that when we are in a hospital room or a funeral home? Those are the places where the rubber meets the road.

 

We need to be ready for the good times and the bad. We need to be personally prepared to declare the Lord good whether or not we have what we want in this life. We will not figure it out and get it right in the moment of pain. WE must have it figured out beforehand. As I heard John Piper say once, the hospital room is not the place to work on someone’s theology. We need to have a biblical theology of the goodness of God and of response to sorrow and suffering worked out before we actually face the pain.

 

Many books of the Bible show us hard-to-understand suffering. Habakkuk, one of those minor prophets that we seldom spend time on, is a great example. When the book opens, Habakkuk is bothered that God is not taking action to clean up the world and judge those in his nation who are doing wrong. God tells the prophet that he is at work, bringing the Chaldeans to be his instrument of judgment. Habakkuk can’t believe it, knowing that the Chaldeans are even worse than the people he is complaining about. But God will deal with them too.

 

Eventually, as the book unfolds, as Habakkuk asks questions and realizes the sovereignty of God, he comes to a place to accept that the will of the Lord is more sure and more perfect than anything Habakkuk could come up with on his own.

 

Look at the prayer of Habakkuk as he gets ready to close this short book.

 

Habakkuk 3:17-18

 

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herd in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

 

Though the world go wrong, though everything I want fails, I will take joy in the Lord. This is glorious. This is not a prayer that declares God to be good only when we get what we want. Instead, it is a prayer that truly glorifies God as the prophet says that, no matter what his earthly circumstances, God is good and worthy of praise. No matter how hard life is, the joy of the prophet will not be in whether the nation is sustained or whether things go his way. The joy of the prophet will be in the Lord, his only source of lasting joy.

 

What would it look like for you to grab this prayer and start making it part of your character? How valuable would it be for you to have this in your pocket as a truth before a time of suffering hits? This is a pair of verses worth memorizing and meditating on. Life is hard. It gets tough. Things do not work out always in the way we want. Will we still find our joy in the Lord?

 

Friends, God is good. He is good when we are full and when we are empty. He is good when we get better and when we do not. He is good when the nation is praising him and when he must judge the nation for rebellion. He is good when the world believes in him and when the world hates all who truly follow him. God is good because God is good. God is our source of joy, because he designed us so that he is the only one who truly fits our longing for joy.

 

Today, whether you are in joy or in pain, consider bowing before the Lord and declaring him good no matter what. Speak to the Lord and let him know that he is your joy no matter what the circumstances. Of course we would prefer pleasure and ease. And sometimes he gives us those things. But we must be ready, before the hardest times come, to declare him good at all times, in all circumstances. And this is the joyful truth: he is good. God is perfect by definition. He is holy. May we see this and let it prepare us to rejoice, not in circumstances, but in the Lord who made us.

How easy it is to be defensive. How easy it is to turn away from reproof. How easy it is to fight back or switch off or excuse away the words we do not want to hear. But, if we desire to live godly in this hard and fallen world, we must prepare ourselves to receive reproof graciously.

 

Psalm 141:5a

 

Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;

let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;

let my head not refuse it.

 

Remember that psalms are songs and prayers. The words above are the words of a worshipful prayer. The psalmist wants the Lord to bring into his life righteous people who will reprove him. Even more, he wants to receive it well.

 

Why is this necessary? We are blind to our blind spots. Though that should be obvious, you’d be amazed how often it is that we do not see our own failings. Just consider how often you see someone do something or hear someone say something and then you think to yourself, “How can they not see that is wrong?” If that happens to people around you all the time, why would you think that you do not do the same? When you walk into a room, you see everyone except yourself. When you evaluate lives, you often evaluate everyone except yourself. And this is why you need others to speak into your life.

 

How can you be ready for reproof? First, like the psalmist, ask God to give you righteous friends who will be daring enough to speak into your life. Pray, asking the Lord who loves you to bring such people into your church and your circle of friends.

 

Second, be open with your friends. Do not hide who you are. No, do not revel in your folly either. Just be real. And ask honest questions. Give the godly and mature around you the right to speak into your life.

 

Third, be wise enough to keep your mouth shut when someone risks speaking into your life. It is so easy, so very easy, to find a way to nitpick the reproof you receive. You might get mad at them for how they say it, for when they say it, or for a minor error they make as they try to make their point. But if you do this, you will keep them from speaking into your life in the future as you miss the point that you need to learn in the present. Listen. Be humble. Be gracious. Assume that your friends who are risking much to speak into your life are wanting the best for you.

 

Finally, act. Be kind and thankful to friends who will speak into your life and to the Lord who would give you such friends. Then, when the heat of emotion has died down, honestly take a look at what they said. Your friends could be evaluating you wrongly. But if they are, there is probably still something wrong in your life or personality that led them to that conclusion. Be humble. Be godly. Repent when you need to repent. Perhaps even follow up with your friend after a while to see if they see a change.

It is hard to hear hard truth. But it is good. May we pray as the psalmist prayed that God would give us righteous people to speak into our lives. May we respond in a right way to honest reproof. May we prepare for it, receive it well, and react to it wisely for our good and God’s glory.

What if I told you, Christian, that there is something you might be doing that is keeping your life from the spiritual sweetness you want? What if I told you that there is something about your life that you can work to change that will increase the pleasantness of your experience here on earth? Would you want it? Would you do it?

 

Psalm 133 (ESV)

1 A Song of Ascents. Of David.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is

when brothers dwell in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil on the head,

running down on the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

running down on the collar of his robes!

3 It is like the dew of Hermon,

which falls on the mountains of Zion!

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,

life forevermore.

 

What would give us all a more pleasant life as believers? According to the word of God, there is a glorious sweetness when brothers dwell together in unity. I think it is safe to say that this is a pointer to the fact that it is good, very good, when the people of God are strongly committed to one another. If we want a sweet life in the here and now, part of how to get it is to be deeply committed to the local church.

 

God wants you and me to see just how sweet it is when the people of God share their lives together in a common, unified cause. This is what the church is about. We are those called out of the world and gathered together for worship and mutual edification under the word of God and in the Spirit of God.

 

Now, examine your own life, Christian. Are you committed to your local church? Do not think, by the way, that you are if it is easy for you to skip the gathering of the saints together for worship. Do not think that you are committed to the local body if it is easy for you to have weeks go by without you connecting with other Christians other than in passing in a church hallway on a Sunday morning. We are to dwell together. Our lives are to interconnect. This cannot happen if we are skipping church for just any old thing that comes up. Nor can it happen if we are keeping to ourselves in every aspect of our lives other than a plastic smile on a Sunday morning as we go through the motions of the worship service.

 

Let me urge us all as believers to be sure that we are committed to life together in Christ. That means we do not forsake the gathering of the saints for worship (cf. Heb. 10:24-25). It also means that our lives are lived in a connected fashion. So go to small groups. Go to Sunday School classes. Go to home-based Bible studies. Go to prayer groups. Get together for coffee or dinner or whatever fits your style. Speak to each other in kindness. Genuinely care. Make the people of God be a delight to your soul, and you will find that what God has shown us in Psalm 133 is true. It is a good, pleasant, fitting thing when we live together as family in unity.