Becoming a Christian dramatically changes the outlook on life. Coming to conversion transforms our understanding of the world we live in, our own lives, and the nature of existence itself! How can we develop and maintain a perspective that encourages us to appreciate the newness of life that God has in store?
Eric Rank
Great and Small
Paradoxically, our lives are at the same time vanishingly diminutive and immensely important. Considering the enormity of creation, our lives occupy a mere moment in time. We are a mote in the universe. The impact we might make with the greatest of possible achievements in the history of man quickly fades from memory. Yet, in the grand plan of God, the Creator of everything, our lives are so significant that He would have still sent His Son as a Sacrifice for our sins if we had been the only person alive needing salvation. We are so small and the events in our lives are so trivial, yet our lives in the eyes of God are so awesome as to be of eternal importance.
Day to day, it helps to consider this paradox. In the good moments when we might have feelings of pride in our achievement, it helps to remember that what we have done is miniscule when zooming out to see the bigger picture. More emphatically, anything that we might be able to accomplish is only possible with God’s help. On the opposite end of the spectrum, in difficult times when we might face seemingly impossible circumstances, it helps to remember that our problems will eventually pass. Even if we face the most extreme situation of a threat against our life, it helps to know that in God’s great plan, this life is just a temporary physical existence that will give way to an eternal one. Accepting that our lives are relatively small and insignificant helps temper pride and cope with difficulty. Yet, believing that we are so important to God that He sacrificed His only Son so that we can live with Him eternally in glory is infinitely revitalizing!
It is a great relief when we understand the Truth of God’s plan and how we play a role in it. The experiences we now have that cause us to abound in joy or cower in grief lose their power to control us because we know there’s something much greater to look forward to. The Spirit of God is the only thing that makes it possible to understand the magnitude of God’s plan. “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). The future that we have is beyond the capacity of the physical man to comprehend without God’s Spirit. When we have the Truth inspired by the Holy Spirit working in our lives, it will function as a powerful guide. Knowing what God has prepared for us makes our hardships bearable and keeps our physical delights in their place.
Even though we understand God’s awesome plan, made possible through the Holy Spirit, what’s even more amazing is that we only have a glimpse of what the future holds. We can abstractly understand eternity and what it means to become glorified, but we are incapable of experiencing it right now. Without that experience, there’s only so much that we can know. “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Therefore, if we can only begin to comprehend what God has in store for us now while we are bound by our physical existence, how much greater will that glorious life actually be? The future God has planned defies all imagination.
Contemplating the greatness of God’s Truth must influence our perspective. The greatness of God’s plan for us does not need to diminish the meaning of the real experiences we have. We don’t have to be in denial throughout our lives believing that our experiences are of no value. On the contrary, the hardships and the good times alike are experiences meant to train us. Growing in our calling involves going through it all. Remember that Jesus Christ came to this Earth fully human as we are, so that He could experience life and suffer as we do. Just because we have eternal life to look forward to doesn’t mean that our lives now aren’t valuable. Rather, we understand how to keep it in perspective. Suffering in this life is difficult. But relatively speaking, our suffering now is insignificant in comparison to our great future. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). The experiences that we have now give us the opportunity to develop our relationship with God, which will lead us to glory so great that it will lift the weight of all our prior suffering.
We must spend whatever time we have left on this Earth growing closer to God and working ever closer to perfection. We have the hope of eternity to guide us through the good times and the bad, so that we don’t go astray. We have a great future to look forward to, and we have the privilege now to understand it. “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
Compassion
Compassion is a product of Christian love. It begins with empathy for others’ circumstances in life. When combined with care, concern, and a willingness to help, compassion bears the fruit of love. What can we learn about compassion from the example of Jesus Christ and instruction in the Bible?
We Are God’s Workers
Being a Christian involves work. What kind of work are we obligated to do as fruitful laborers in eyes of God? What does it mean to be productive in our work?
Hope and Faith Versus Fear and Doubt
What inspires you? Does fear and doubt seize you from moving forward? We can overcome the grip of fear and doubt by putting the power of hope for God’s promises to work in our lives!
Earnest
God gives us His Holy Spirit as a down payment for our complete redemption. In this way, He invests in our salvation. When we give our offerings to God on the commanded Holy Days, we demonstrate our willingness to give back to God as an expression of our gratitude for His gifts.
The Blood of Christ
NOTE: THE DATE IN THE SERMON SHOULD BE APRIL 20, 2024: Jesus Christ sacrificed His life so that all mankind can have the opportunity for salvation. Without His sacrifice, we would be doomed to condemnation, with death as the penalty for our sins. Fortunately, the blood of Jesus Christ washes away our sins to redeem us.
As Yourself
The Bible instructs us to love others as ourselves. Since this expresses a need to love others AND oneself, what does it mean to have love for oneself? What is the deeper meaning of self-love, how does it contrast with selfish indulgence, and how do we treat ourselves with kindness, patience, and honesty?
Limitations
Human beings have physical limitations that determine the boundaries of possibility. God is limitless in His power. What happens when we put the power of God to work in our lives?
How is God faithful?
Several passages in the Bible indicate that God is faithful. Knowing of the limitless power of God, this raises the fundamental question–what does it mean for Him to be faithful? Normally, we consider faith in the context of believing in something that we cannot empirically know, yet trusting that belief as truth (compare Hebrews 11:1). To ascribe this kind of belief to God does not fit, because God has the power to know everything. In fact, as we will see, the word “faithful,” when applied to God, could be misunderstood as referring to God’s “faith,” which it does not. So then, what does it mean for Him to be faithful?
Answering this question requires carefully reviewing the context of the passages in which the Bible declares that God is faithful. What we will see is that the characteristic of God being faithful expresses his reliability and trustworthiness. Throughout the Bible, the description of God being faithful describes His dependability and fidelity in keeping His promises; which includes bringing as many as will submit to Him into His Family.
Early in the history of Israel, we see how God chose the people to have a physical relationship with Him. He did not choose them for their physical prowess, but because of their relative insignificance on the Earth. “‘For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments…’” (Deuteronomy 7:6-9). This statement, explaining the rationale for choosing these people to be His own, ends with a description of God being faithful.
That God is faithful explains the character with which God keeps His covenant with His chosen people. God being faithful reinforces the commitment and reliability of His covenant. Even though Israel would eventually fail to uphold their part of the covenant to obey God and keep His commandments (compare Jeremiah 3:8, Hebrews 8:9), God’s commandments are enduring and steadfast because He is reliable. God is faithful to keep His covenant with His people as long as they live by their commitment.
Bible commentaries support this interpretation of God being faithful as a description of His steadfast reliability. Commenting on Deuteronomy 7:9, Matthew Poole’s Commentary says, “The faithful God; true to his word, and constant in performing all his promises”. The commentary from the Cambridge Bible explains God being faithful as…”[One] who shows Himself One to be trusted, i.e. by His deeds.” This way of explaining God being faithful makes perfect sense in the context about the covenant He makes with Israel. In this agreement with them, He is perfectly trustworthy in keeping it, as long as the people obey and fulfill their part of the contract.
In the following prophecy in the book of Isaiah about the Messiah, we again see God described as faithful: “Thus says the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: ‘Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the LORD who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You’” (Isaiah 49:7). In contrast to the unreliability of man, who rejects God, we can see that God is the One whom we can trust and rely on.
Commentaries on Isaiah 49:7 are consistent as well. Barnes’ Notes on the Bible explains what it means for God to be faithful: “Because of the Lord that is faithful – It is because Yahweh is faithful in the fulfillment of his promises, and will certainly bring this to pass… God is true, and constant, and will adhere to his promises. He will not deceive. He will not promise, and then fail to perform; he will not commence anything which he will not perfect and finish.” On the same passage, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown expands upon the meaning of the word saying, “faithful—namely, to His promises.”
The characteristic of God being faithful or reliable involves us personally as well. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he states that Jesus Christ gives converted Christians grace and forgiveness (compare 1 Corinthians 1:4-8). Paul concludes with a declaration of God’s faithful character in the matter: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). When God calls us to conversion, He does not revoke that opportunity. He is faithful to keep His promise of salvation to us. The only way to forfeit the opportunity to inherit salvation is by willingly and irrevocably rejecting Him.
When God chooses people, He does it with a faithful commitment to uphold His promise of salvation and He proves it by His actions. He offered His Son as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins (compare John 3:16). He provides His Holy Spirit that lives and works in our lives to help us overcome sin by living according to the Spirit (compare John 14:15-17). In his letter to the Philippians, Paul writes, “…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). God the Father and Jesus Christ will not give up on us, and with Christ being our most reliable advocate, They invest earnestly to our success.
Our role is to overcome the world, Satan, and our carnal nature, which is at enmity with God (compare Romans 8:7). It is that carnal nature, allured by sinful desire and the temptations of Satan and this evil world, which can lead one to deny God and reject His plan of salvation. Fighting against temptation is our job. Fortunately, God knows this and He is right there, waiting to help us. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Again, we see that even in the most difficult of our tests, God demonstrates His reliability by providing us with a way to overcome. We can trust in Him.
Our Christian conversion requires that we have faith as well (compare Hebrews 11:6). We have faith in the promises of God because He is faithful to keep them—we can trust Him. “[L]et us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:22-23). We have a tremendous opportunity in our lives to overcome sin, receive the gift of salvation, and find our fulfillment as glorified members in God’s Family. God is absolutely reliable in fulfilling His promise. He demonstrates His reliability by providing everything we need to succeed in our calling. Our job is to put our faith to work, trusting Him.
Lead Writer: Eric Rank