This morning I had the privilege to preach in the church that we have been staying at. I wanted to share my sermon notes for you all to enjoy! I felt that the Lord wanted to share on his intentionality and how purposeful He is and always has been.
Good morning everyone!
This morning I want to talk about the intentionality of God, and if you could please open your bibles to John chapter one.
Now, when I say that we are going to talk about the intentionality of God, I mean that we are going to take a look at some key points in scripture to see that Christ is more intentional than our brains could ever comprehend, and what that means for how we live our lives today as followers of Christ.
John chapter 1, verses 1-5.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Let’s pray.
Now before we really dig into this scripture I want to discuss some fundamental truths that really changed my walk as a Christian.
The first fundamental truth that I would like to talk about this morning is that we are designed to be in relationship. We have all kinds of relationships. We have relationships with our spouses, friends, families, at work- everyone that we know we have some sort of relationship with. We were created this way by God. When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden, God came down to walk with them and be in relationship with them. In fact our very salvation grants us relationship with God here on Earth, and for the rest of eternity in heaven.
And since we are designed for relationship, we are looking for love in all sorts of places.
Now with that fundamental truth, I want to address another point. The Bible is the greatest love story ever told. And if we are designed for relationship, and looking for love in many different places, the only place we can ever find love that truly satisfies is in the name and story of Jesus.
Scripture tells us in 1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
And that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” -John 15:13
And God gave us things such as marriage and family to get a better understanding of what God is like, but even still the only relationship that truly satisfies us is the one with God Himself.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have friends, or get married. In fact, the great commandment that the Lord gives us is to love God and love others, and by loving others we are loving God and gaining a greater understanding of who He is.
Now, this love story is so good, that it’s been written for all of eternity. The first five books of the Old Testament are sometimes called the Torah. God gave the Torah to Moses to be given to the Israelites. And if you look deeply at the Torah, you will find that the entire story of our salvation is told, and the Israelites can anticipate a savior. You see creation in the garden, sin in light of grace at the fall, what it looks like to love others and love God in the commandments, and countless others. You see that one day there will be a savior to redeem and restore the relationships we had with God in the garden.
Then, we have the rest of the Old Testament which consists of prophets and stories that reveal a more complete character of the Messiah that is to come. The same Messiah that God says will crush the head of the serpent.
We get a clearer and clearer picture of Christ until the day He makes his appearance in the manger, in the town of Bethlehem.
As we enter into the Gospel in the New Testament we have Christ as He fulfills the Old Testament prophecies and laws, through His life and death, and the resurrection through which we have received grace beyond compare that we may have relationship with our creator for now and forever.
Now this morning as we look at the intentionality of God we are going to look at some of the scripture in the Old Testament that points towards our salvation that is to come, to show how intentional the God that we serve is.
We are going to start in the first three verses of John, chapter one.
But first I want to look at verse 14.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I want to make sure that I start by reading this scripture because it makes known the mystery of the first three verses. It tells us that the Word became flesh, and we see His glory in Jesus.
“1 In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
So as we read through this passage, we can replace “the word” with the name of “Jesus”, because verse 14 shows us that the Word is the glory of the one and only Son.
1 In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Now I want to address that the life and death of Jesus was entirely necessary for our salvation, and without Him we can not be in relationship with the Father. But this brings up a serious question.
Jesus was sent to die and bring full communion between heaven and earth, yet He was there before the creation of the world.
So how does a world without sin need a savior?
We need to remember here that Genesis was written for Israel, God’s chosen people through which He is going to redeem the world. Israel is a redeemed people in a fallen world, and Genesis is a story to teach them about the Redeemer that was to come. In other words, it invites us to look at the creation story through the light of the Savior. In fact, one of the most well known scriptures about salvation points back to the story of creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here!
Just as Jesus creates us new the moment we walk into relationship with Him, He created the universe.
So we can look at creation and admire the incredible intentionality that our God used to point us to Him and salvation.
Now, the God we serve is all powerful and could have easily created the universe in one moment, however He doesn’t. Why?
Scripture tells us in Romans 1:20
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”Jesus is telling the story of the redemption to come, in the first chapter of the whole bible.
So lets talk about redemption and then talk about how the creation of the universe tells the same story, and how we can find that in John.
God is forever, and has always been.
We are sinners that fall short of the glory of God and we are without purpose until we find purpose in Christ. We search and search to be rich, or successful, or to be good at something but they all leave us empty.
Christ convicts us of our sin, and we know the difference between right and wrong.
There is nothing that we can do to earn grace, Romans 5:8 tells us “8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He invites us into His family and He sets a purpose for our lives.”
Genesis 1:1-3
“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
This is the story of salvation!
We see that in the beginning was God, as stated in John chapter 1.
He sees us: formless, empty, dark- yet God is still near, and He never abandons us.
He convicts us and calls us, and He calls it good!
Let’s look at the next two verses in John chapter 1.
“4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Christ is the light that shines above all else, and He is so intentional! When we are in the midst of our sin, formless and purposeless, He calls and convicts us and says “let there be light!” And the light which is Jesus will never be overcome from within us. From the very beginning of time He knows that He is going to redeem the earth, and us. And He has never left us.
The Spirit of God is hovering over the waters, just waiting patiently for us.
Patiently waiting for people that you and I care about to turn and see the light and find purpose in Jesus.
He then goes on to create everything in 7 days. In Israel, at that time, the number 7 signified total completion and holiness.
And in that creation we get to enjoy His masterpieces that all point back to Him.
I once had a great visual given to me of Jesus at creation, deciding what to create as He sets the stage for His redemption.
And He says, “We need an animal so prone to wander that if they take their eyes off of their leader, they will be in lost. Let’s create sheep so I can show my people what they are like when they take their eyes off of me. I am the good shepherd.”
And He creates us with a soul, and a face, and hands, and teeth.
And Scripture only gives us the SMALLEST insight to what some of these mean.
In Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 29 and 30.
29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
He’s showing us that in the same way our teeth rot by eating sugar, if we take in the indulgences and pleasures of sin, we will not only be invisibly less healthy, but the effects are going to start to show in our lives for all to see.
I look around at creation and wonder the ways that my fingernails point to Christ.
And Jesus calls himself the living water.
Water is fascinating.
Our bodies are 80% water.
We need to take water in all throughout our day.
A small amount of water will keep us alive, but the more we intake the more our body thrives.
The more we have, the more we realize we need.
Our planet is covered with water, and sometimes we can’t control it.
Water makes everything grow.
Rain comes in like the love and grace we don’t deserve.
I even think of the floods in Penang, people’s houses are three feet under water. Water is powerful. It can give and take away more than anything else on this earth.
It cuts rock in rivers.And my favorite thing about water and Christ is that we have only explored about 5% of the world’s oceans.
We could spend our entire lifetime studying Christ and we will never be able to understand even a fraction of how good He is and always has been.
So, if we serve a God that is so intentional what does that mean other than He is really big, and we will never understand His goodness?
It means that He had us on His heart from the very moment of creation, and we are on this earth with purpose. It means that if God has set the world in motion from the creation of the universe, then He undoubtedly has a plan for this time, and our lives.
When the Lord first revealed to me that He wanted me to leave on the World Race last September, I was upset. I had a good job, a great church, great friend and community, a great ministry, and I was applying to buy a house.
I had only about two weeks until it was time for me to leave to the other side of the country to attend training for this eleven month mission trip.
I quit my job.
I did not have a place to put my stuff and not enough time to sell it, so I gave it all away.
I took the money I had saved to buy a house and put it towards my trip.
Everything I had worked for was being put aside, and I could see God in the middle of it. He lined up people in need for me to give specific things to, and has always been faithful with finances.
But I had expectations.
I came into this year thinking that if God wanted me to go that bad, and had me leave everything- there must be something great that is going to happen. I thought I would see demons cast out, people would be healed, people would come to know Jesus- and our first two months were manual labor.
We used a wheelbarrow to move rocks uphill, and we built a playhouse.
I was upset with God. I didn’t want to be on the Race. I was investing in people back home, and my time could have been better spent at home.
I prayed one day and the Lord brought me to the passage where Peter cuts off the ear of the guard.
In John chapter 18, verse 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”
He was telling me that I needed to “drink from the cup” the Father had given me. And I knew that meant the World Race. I was on the Race, but I didn’t trust that the Lord was using it for my good. I had lost sight that God is intentional and has a plan bigger than I could ever understand.
Now that we are in the last month of our Race, I have taken some time to reflect on this year and learn on a more personal level the intentionality of God.
The job that I left has undergone many changes.
The community that I left looks much different.
The Lord provided different people to take over my role in ministry and invest in the people I cared about.
While being gone, my relationships with my family is better than ever before.
And the direction of my life has completely changed.
He has given me such hope for the future that lies ahead and has given me glimpses of what that will look like.
I have taken some of these glimpses and tried to make my own sense of them and run with them, but the Lord wants me to wait. He wants me to wait on Him and trust that I am in this exact place for a specific reason, and the glimpses He has given me are so that I will know when the timing is right.
And so if our God is that intentional, that means that you are sitting where you are this morning for a specific reason.
If you were not supposed to be here, there could have been traffic to keep you from getting here.
Or I’m sure those of you with kids can come up with a hundred reasons that could have kept you from making it this morning.
(And if you are reading this blog, its for a specific reason!)
I don’t want you to miss the point, because in Romans 8 scripture tells us, “28 we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God is intentional, and working things for good in our lives, to those of us called according to his purpose.
Now, it is important that there is an enemy whose intentions are to seek, kill and destroy.
John chapter 10 verses 9-10: “9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
So, if we are children of God we have the ability to roam in the pasture, and enjoy the life that God has given us with the people that we are have in our lives. But if we are sheep and it rains, rather than being scared and losing trust in the Lord, we should trust that He is growing grass.
Our God does not delight in our suffering.
But He went before us and already endured the cross.
Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 and 2: “1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Our eyes need to be fixed on Jesus. He is the climax of the best love story ever written and the reason for our salvation, so that we can experience life to the fullest. And it has always been that way.
The Israelites looked forward to Jesus, although His name was not yet revealed. They knew salvation would come through the Messiah. Their hope was in Jesus.
And we look backwards, to see what Jesus has already done. He went before and endured the cross.
But we can have joy, knowing that there is a race marked out for us, and we have an author and perfecter of our faith, and He gets it, and He is working things out for the good in us.
Lets pray.
I gave this sermon this morning, and I had some incredible and crazy interactions afterwards. I had originally wrote a sermon about the Gospel under persecution, but the Lord changed my plan- and I am so happy He did!
This will be my last sermon for the year, because we come home in 10 days!
I also just got fully funded! Praise the Lord!
I look forward to sharing more stories with you all soon!
