Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 17 September 2023
God is sovereign. Do we know what that means?
It means that in any situation God is in charge. God is the boss … and more. The
job He wants done will get done. His business is always successful. The
question is simply do we work for the boss or not?
The Salvation Army Doctrines 6 and 9 read:
- ·
We
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an
atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.
- ·
We
believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued
obedient faith in Christ.
Monday, I heard these two stories from two
different people within moments of each other. First, Rena came to chat with me.
She shared that on a particular day, she was able to pray with a friend about their
family member whom Rena did not know. Later in that same day she met that very
family member! God then used Rena to connect with her friend again and now
whatever happens, I am sure Rena will continue to pray for them and Rena will
forever be a part of that miracle and all of them and each of them will see
some of where the hand of God is moving. At the very least God has used this
Divine encounter to encourage those who needed encouragement and I am very sure
God will use that meeting to inspire more prayers, more support, and more
miracles!
Within moments of that, Nancy, our Admin person
at the Army here shared with me this story: She was called for jury duty. And of
all the people that I have heard who have been called for jury duty in all my
years living in this community she is the first one who actually had to show up
in person. When myself, Susan, Lisa were all called, we each showed up to see a
sign on the door that read that jury selection was cancelled for the day. This
was not the case for Nancy. Now I don’t know whether this was good news or not
because I don’t know whether she was eager, willing, or wanting to do jury duty
or not.
On the day in question she showed up, was let
into a room with a bunch of other people, and then they had a lottery of sorts.
They drew 12 names to be on the jury (or more, I do not know) and the rest of
them were told to wait around in case one of those chosen was disqualified. Most
people went outside. Nancy returned to the courtroom. Lo and behold, the
accused was able to come out from behind the plexiglass cage and walk out into
the courtroom. Nancy could see that she was obviously distressed and asked her
if she was a praying woman and if she was could she pray for her. She did. She
was able to pray with this woman in her time of real significant need. She was used
by God to offer some comfort and access to the Lord’s strength in the lady’s
time of need. Now whatever happens in this trial: whether the woman is
convicted, absolved, imprisoned, released or something else; Nancy will
inevitably be praying for this woman. And whatever miracles the Lord performs
in her life from this point on, Nancy was able to be a part of it.
God has used Nancy and Rena and the others in
these stories to do His will. They were invited to participate in praying with
people and in following God’s lead and they chose to do so. Forever they then
will experience the blessings related to that.
I think that is the way that the Lord works
with us all every single day – just maybe sometimes not as noticeably as it was
this past week with Rena and Nancy. God loves us all and as a result, He not
only wants us to be with Him, He wants us to be a part of what He does! This is
important!
This is something I think that our society is
losing as we drift further from God in our community. We have less people
volunteering for things. More people want to exchange everything for money – they
sell things they don’t need any more instead of giving them away; they want to
be paid for everything that they do – and they want to make sure that they are
paid what they are worth! (Whatever that is!? Like a monetary value can be
attached to our time and effort... that whole idea sounds ludicrous to me.)
Do you know what both the richest and the
poorest people in our country have in common? Neither of them have to work!
Rich people fly of to Paris for lunch and poor people walk down to the Bread of
Life. Most rich people make their money from ‘investments’ – whatever that is –
not producing anything at all, just making money off the work of others.
Poor people; people struggling with addiction,
people struggling with unemployment, people living with physical disabilities,
people living with mental health issues… I think we do all of us a big disservice
when we don’t let each other work. We strip all meaning from our lives. I think
this is very, very wrong. I am always encouraging our folks to let people
volunteer.
God doesn’t need any of us to accomplish what
He wants accomplished. God can do anything. God just loves all of us. And as a
result, God lets us join Him in His work that He is doing. God is taking care
of the lady Nancy met who is charged with murder and God is taking care of everyone
else related to that case. He didn’t need to ask Nancy to pray for her and He
didn’t need any prayers to help this lady. God however let Nancy pray with her.
God loves Nancy (just like He loves that lady) so God gave Nancy the
opportunity to help this lady when she is in significant need.
God loves us and so He wants to work with us. He
wants to spend quality time with us working on something meaningful. Some of
the most wonderful times in my life have been working alongside my children at
Toy Runs, Fall Fairs, Parades, Food Drives, Soap Box Derbies, Christmas Meals,
Kettles, and many other things. My children have been helping me out since they
were in pre-school or before. Maybe sometimes I didn’t need their help to get
done what needed to be done but I did need their help for the experience of us working
together to serve God by serving our neighbours. We build memories and a
relationship through loving God and loving others.
No one needs to starve in our world much less
our country. God has provided enough food for everyone to be taken care of – it
is the same with shelter and other necessities. God has provided for each and
every person on this planet. There are more than enough resources. God loves
each and every person – if He didn’t He could just place our food in front of
us like a guard and slide it under the door of a prison cell never engaging
with us whatsoever.
God loves each and every person though so He chooses
not to do it that way. God wants to involve us in what He is doing. He hands us
the food and tells us to pass it on to one another. He does that because He
loves us.
I am going to tell you one more story. When I
was young my father was watching some telethon on TV and I was there. They were
asking for money. My dad then took out $5 and gave it to me for helping with
the yard work for the summer. He said I could spend it on anything that I
wanted to spend it on. I knew he was watching the telethon. He said I could
spend it on absolutely anything that I wished. I could see that the telethon
was on. He told me that I could have it now. I knew that he wanted me to donate
it to the telethon. He told me that money was up to me to figure out how to
spend as he dialed the 1-800 number to the telethon. He told me that really I
could spend it on whatever I liked as he handed me the phone. And - though I was really tempted not to - after
all of these not so subtle hints I donated the money to the telethon. As a
result, yes the people who received money from the telethon benefited but even
more than that, I did. I remember this moment to this very day. My dad could
have given that $5 directly to the telethon and sure they could have and would
have and did use it – but this way its use was magnified – as this little encounter
affected me – and by extension everyone that I have ever helped in my entire
life (and I work with The Salvation Army!) and probably that donation was
magnified 1000 times over.
This is the same with God and us. God loves us
and wants to involve us in what He is doing. He has given you a metaphorical $5
and He wants you to feed your neighbour with it; will you do it? He has given
you a gift of something else and He wants you to pray for your neighbour with
it; will you do it? God has given you something else and He wasn’t you to talk
to your neighbour; will you do it? God wants to spend time with you as you
spend time with your neighbour – working alongside them, helping them, praying
for and with them; will you do it?
My friends this is integral to the Christian
faith. God doesn’t need us to do anything. But because God loves us He wants to
spend time with us doing what He loves to do. He loves us so He wants to work
alongside us helping our fellow person who is in need in our community – and you
know what – when we do that, do you know who gains the most in this encounter? Not
the person you are supposed to help (though they gain too). It is us – and God.
Because we get to spend time working together helping and loving others and
each other.
Let us pray.
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