What in the World Is God Doing?

This is a sermon that explores ways that God reverses what Satan has meant for evil and turned it into something good. It also recounts some modern examples of God's power at work in the world today.

Written Excerpts:

Introduction:

The message I feel God wanted me to bring today is somewhat a repeat of the topic that I used for our Bible discussion on Wednesday night.

This message has also grown out of some of the information recently learned in the class on world missions that I’m currently taking at the college.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can find myself in a pattern of thinking that is not really very positive nor optimistic. I find myself sometimes caught up in reading and listening to all of the negative things going on in the world and I allow my mind and my spirit to grow worried or even despondent.

If you are sometimes like that also, then if we’re not careful, we can allow ourselves to begin to doubt whether God is still in control and whether He is really at work for good in the midst of all of the chaos, violence and trouble in the world.

I hope that the message today will be an encouragement to you as well as a challenge to you.

Today, I want to just share some observations and insights that relate to the scripture reading earlier in the service, as well as the scripture that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon (2 Cor. 5:18-21).

The passages that I chose for the Scripture reading today (1 Chronicles 29 & Isaiah 45), are just two of literally dozens of passages in the Bible that emphasize the sovereign power and purposes of God. They remind us that God is always in control and exercising His divine authority over the creation, and He will have the final word.

In 2 Cor. 5, the Apostle Paul reminds the Christians then and now that God has reconciled us to Himself through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He emphatically states that God has not only reconciled us, but He has committed to us the message of reconciliation that we are supposed to be sharing and proclaiming to the rest of the world, because…

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.”

There are two basic thoughts that I give you today to challenge each of us to greater faith and hope in God for the accomplishment of His divine purposes.

1. God has always been in control and He always will be.

2. God’s purpose and intent is to reconcile the world (humanity) to Himself.

For the rest of the message today I want to share with you “bits and pieces” of historical pictures that illustrate these two biblical principles I have proposed.

As you and I were taught the history of the world from biblical times to modern times, we learned about many different epochs of history and we’ve no doubt forgotten many of the important details.

Even so, we (or at least, “I”) tend to look at different periods of history that were characterized by horrific violence and darkness and conclude that somehow God’s purposes and God’s work was defeated and delayed.

However, I want to mention some specific examples to illustrate that God has always been in control and still is… and

God is always working to bring about the salvation of the lost and “reconcile the world to himself.”

Biblical Examples:

·        Joseph sold as a slave into Egypt (& subsequent bondage of Israelites for 400 years.)

·        Israel departs from God’s purposes, becomes “apostate” and is overpowered by Babylonians… 70 yrs of captivity.

a      Three Hebrew Men and Daniel (Some have theorized that the “Magi” who came to visit Jesus after His birth were probably descendents of those who were influenced by Daniel and other Hebrew slaves.)

·        Persecution of Christians in NT (Acts) leads to dispersion and lays groundwork for evangelization of Roman empire.

Historical Examples:

·        Vikings: (A description from Perspectives textbook.)  “The Northmen cease not to slay and carry into captivity the Christian people, to destroy the churches and to burn the towns. Everywhere, there is nothing but dead bodies – clergy and laymen, nobles and common people, women and children. There is no road or place where the ground is not covered with corpses. We live in distress and anguish before this spectacle of the destruction of the Christian people.”

a      Monks were sold as slaves; Christian girls were sold to Vikings wives and mistresses.

a      They engaged in witnessing to their captors and the Christian faith spread among the Vikings.

·        Chinese Cultural Revolution (Communism) – Christians and Christian missionaries were murdered and persecuted. Feared that the Chinese church were be destroyed. But decades later when the “bamboo curtain” lifted, it was discovered that the Chinese church had grown exponentially while “underground” and officially opposed by the government.

·        Even today with the rise of radical Muslim Jihadists, we are hearing reports of Muslims coming to Christ through the witness of Christians and even through visions and dreams some have had of Jesus.

Conclusion:

There has always been periods of major departure from God’s will and subsequent violence and darkness that grips entire regions of the world.

But…(lyrics from “I Heard the Bells”) God is not dead, nor does he sleep! God is continually working to fulfill His mission in the world in spite of what the Devil and the workers of iniquity do.

(Ralph Winter) “What will happen in the next few years? Will the immeasurably strengthened non-Western world invade Europe and America just as the Goths invaded Rome and the Vikings overran Europe? Will the “Third World” turn on us in a new series of “Barbarian” invasions? Will the OPEC nations, or the Chinese gradually buy us out and take us over? Clearly we face the reaction of an awakened non-Western world that is suddenly beyond our control. What will be the role of the gospel? Can we gain any insight from these previous cycles?”

None of us knows what the future holds for us and our nation specifically. But, one thing we can know for sure is that God is still sovereign.

He still has unlimited power and the world is moving toward His ultimate purpose and goal for all humanity.

What in the world is God doing?

God is still reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus Christ. He is using every conceivable means to redeem lost humanity and bring people into His kingdom.

To some extent I think it is “normal” for us to have a certain amount of concern or anxiety about the future because of the unknown. But, on the other hand I sense a level of excitement because I believe God is going to use the coming events to bring more people into the Kingdom and He is going to use His children to have an impact for good that we never dreamed we would.