The other day I was driving past Texas Stadium and thought back to when it was built in 1971 with the hole in the roof "so God could watch his team play." It's hard to believe that in four years the stadium will be replaced.
Our family was living in Atlanta when the Braves' baseball stadium was imploded so the new Olympic field could be built. The boys and I watched the explosion, as what took years to build took about 10 minutes to demolish. The stadium where Hank Aaron became baseball's all-time leading home run hitter is no more.
Builders have broken ground on the new Yankee Stadium, scheduled for completion in three years. It's hard to imagine that the "house Ruth built" won't be used much longer.
Not much about the future is certain in the present, is it?
Through our study of the Seven Churches of Revelation, we've learned about the present-tense issues of God's people in the first century. Since human nature doesn't change, their temptations and problems are still ours. These letters are preserved in Holy Scripture because they are still relevant to us.
Now Revelation turns from the present to the future: to "what must take place after this."
As we are three weeks away from some significant new opportunities as a congregation, it seems appropriate for our congregation to discuss the future. Our nation is moving closer to mid-term elections and possible major shifts in political leadership. Most relevant of all, you and I are facing fears about the future this morning, and need to know how to trust them to our Father.
What about tomorrow most worries you today? Your job? Your health? Your marriage? Your children? Where you'll go to college? What you'll do when you graduate from college? If you could ask God to take care of one part of the future, what would it be?
Let's learn precisely that kind of faith this morning.
We are dealing with one of the thorniest, most debated issues in all of theology today. Scholars call this "sovereignty and free will." If God knows all that is going to happen, does that mean that he chooses it? If he does, what part does free will play, if any? Conversely, if we are free in our choices, how is God sovereign? If we can choose against his will, how is his will done?
Three options are most popular today.
One: God controls everything that happens, so your free will is only apparent. You may think you chose to come to church today, but you did not. Your actions and even your thoughts are controlled by God.
Perhaps you saw the movie The Matrix. Its plot is simple and chilling: this world is only apparent. The reality is that you and I are hooked up to an enormous computer, our bodies providing its fuel. The machine causes us to believe that we are living in a real world, doing real things, but we're not.
Some people believe that our apparent free will is something like that--we think we make our choices, but we really don't. The next word I say was chosen for me by God before time began.
Two: God controls nothing that happens, and does not even know the future. "Process theology" teaches that God is all he can be today, but he will be even more God tomorrow. He can predict the future, better than we can, but he does not know it. This approach is popular with some traditions, but I doubt many of us would consider it. So we'll move on.
Three: God partners with us--as we work, he works. God is sovereign over his creation. We must open the door of our hearts on earth, but God is responsible for access to heaven: "there before me was a door standing open in heaven."
God knows the future, "what must take place after this." He knows the plans he has for us--plans to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).
But God invited John to partner with him in recording that future: "Come up here..." John apparently had a choice to make, or the Spirit would simply have taken him into this vision without Jesus' invitation.
God wanted to reveal the future to his seven churches and the Church, but used John to write down his revelation. John used his own vocabulary, different from that in other books of the Bible; yet the Spirit inspired and used that vocabulary as well.
I mentioned the other day that astronomers now believe the number of stars in the universe to be one followed by 27 zeroes. We don't even have a name for that number. But God has a name for every star it counts: "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name" (Isaiah 40:26).
Psalm 139:4 declares: "Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord." Isaiah 46:10 quotes the Lord: "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."
Ours is a partnership with God. We do what God calls us to do, and he does what we cannot do.
He knows the future, but knowing is not controlling. I know you are here, but I did not make you come. He controls the eventual outcome for the sake of his Kingdom, but we choose whether or not we will be part of that Kingdom. He glorifies himself by using our rebellion, though he does not choose it for us (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4).
He wants us to pray every day, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." When last did you mean those words?
Now, let's apply this conversation. Does anything about your church's future worry you today? The new service? Our college and young adult ministry? Our transition after Tommy Sanders' move to the faculty of DBU? Your class or ministry area?
Join a partnership with God. Ask him what he wants you to do. Perhaps he wants you to volunteer in helping the new service build the Kingdom, or to be part of the college ministry, or to teach in the children's area. Undoubtedly he wants you to pray for whatever area concerns you this morning.
Then he wants you to trust him to do what you cannot. Trust his sovereign power. Ask him to save souls, to change lives, to make our church even greater for his Kingdom. Do what you can, and trust him for what you cannot.
What about your country's future worries you today? The war on terror? The mid-term elections? The economy? The ethical issues of our day? Stem cell research, genetic engineering, immigration reform, same-sex rights, euthanasia--we are facing great challenges as a society.
Join a partnership with God. Ask him what he wants you to do. Perhaps he wants you to enlist in the armed forces, or establish an email support system for those who have. Perhaps he wants you to volunteer to serve the political candidate of your choice. Perhaps he wants you to be a voice for his word and will in the ethical debates of our time. Undoubtedly he wants you to pray.
Then trust him to do what you cannot. Trust him to use the war on terror somehow to advance his Kingdom. Trust him to use the elections, or the economy, or the ethical issues of our day for his glory and our good. And he will.
What about your personal future worries you today? Your health, or finances, or school, or family? Name your fear, specifically and honestly.
Then join a partnership with God. What does he want you to do to improve your health? Are there tests you've been avoiding? A diet you've resisted? Exercise you've not begun? What about your finances--is there a job search you've delayed? Work you've not completed? What about your school--are there relationships to mend? Studies to excel in completing? What practical steps should you take from the present into the future today?
Take them, then trust God to do what you cannot. Trust him to guide your steps into his future plans for your life. Trust him to make a way where there's no way, to redeem your past and present for his glory and your good. Know that your hand is in his, and that he will never let you go. Believe that one day, like Joseph, you'll be able to say to your fears: "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (Genesis 50:20).
A week or so ago I told our Men's Bible Study the amazing story of Alfred Nobel, the man who got to rewrite his obituary.
The year was 1888. Alfred's brother had died, but the local newspaper confused the names and thought Alfred had died. And so the next day, reading the paper, he found his own obituary. And he was horrified to see its title: "The Dynamite King."
Alfred Nobel had invented dynamite. He thought his invention would be an instrument of peace, and that no one would use such deadly power for destruction. But he was wrong, of course. The newspaper pictured him as someone who spent his life gathering a great fortune from the manufacture of weapons of destruction. So far as the world knew, that was true.
And so Alfred Nobel made a new resolution. In his last will and testament he deeded his great funds to an award honoring those who work for peace and harmony in the world--the Nobel Peace Prize.
What about your obituary would you like to rewrite today? What about the future do you need to deal with this morning? Where is God calling you to partner with him? Where is he calling you to trust him?
We're going to pray about that issue today. Join me on your knees, before your Father's throne, right now.