What in the world is God doing?

After Keiyeng and my 5-week break, I had the privilege of planning the sermon series for the rest of the year. Having thought and prayed through "What is at the centre of God's heart?" (see my previous post), it became more and more clear to me that we Christians need to constantly align ourselves with God's heart.

In Romans 12:2, we are called not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For me personally, this has been a very exciting sermon series to plan and prepare. Of course I'm not preaching through this series for my own edification alone. I truly do believe that this series is of eternal good for all of SLE. It is of eternal good for SLE because these sermons get to the heart of what God has done, is doing and will be doing.

I don't think I have been as moved and changed in sermon preparation as in this series. Here is why:

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (14th August)
Before we can look at "what in the world is God doing now", we have to look at what He's done. Reading, meditating and praying through 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 blew my mind, stretched my heart, and humbled me before the God who so graciously gave His Son as a substitute for my sin, so that I could be given the righteousness of God, be welcomed into His presence, and have the joy of intimate communion with Him forevermore.The title of the sermon was Keeping the main thing the main thing. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, as the Apostle Paul says, reminds us to to return to what is of first importance.

John 17:1-5 (21st August)
OK, so Jesus has died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. What is going on now? The answer is: God the Father is glorifying His Son. "To glorify God" is most Christians' answer to their purpose in life (and rightfully so). But I have always been a bit unsure as to what people thought it meant to "glorify God". John 17:1-5 is a great answer. Glory refers to God’s value, riches, splendour and dignity. Jesus asked that God the Father will rejoice in, proclaim and show off Jesus’ value, riches, splendour and dignity to the world. That is what God is doing now. In turn Jesus wants to rejoice in, proclaim and show off God the Father’s value, riches, splendour and dignity to the world. This reminds me of a favourite quote from John Piper: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him".

Matthew 13:31-32 (28th August)
This was last Sunday's sermon - the title was Growing the Great Tree House. This message reinforced to me that we need to see the church as Jesus sees it. The kingdom of heaven is a glorious phenomena – it began so small (seemingly insignificant and irrelevant) as to be symbolised by a seed. But that seed grows and becomes a tree. The purpose of the tree is to becomes a tree house. This tree house is the kingdom of God - where God's people live under God's rule in God's place. The tree house is a place for people to find rest and refuge (as Jesus offered in Matthew 11:28-30).

Last week (in the John 17:1-5 sermon) we saw the need for passion for Jesus; the natural outworking of passion for Jesus, is compassion for people. I love this quote from Tim Keller (Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York): "Christianity is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints".

John 14:1-7 (5th October)
This is the sermon I'm currently working on (Filling His Mansion) - so you'll get to hear it this weekend. I haven't gotten very far yet. The idea for the sermon came from the Q&A time at the Brisbane Leadership Training conference (see my last post). Please pray for my preparation - that I will grasp what God has to say in this passage, speak it clearly, and be transformed by it too.

I hope and pray that God will use this sermon series to move you to cherish Him more. Flowing on from this, may we be drawn more and more into the great plan He has in glorifying His Son in and through people in all places as they come to see Him as He truly is, and bow down and worship Him.