Posts
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The many disordered and broken voices
of the world want us to buy their misrepresented
realities and much of the time we do.
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Governments
want us to buy the hype that we humans can make things right.
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We see it in every election and we
hear it from the political spin doctors, but injustice and oppression continue.
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Social
media wants us to buy their marketing that our value is
in how many likes, followers, and friends we have.
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What social media does not tell us is
that all those likes, followers, and friends cannot replace meaningful,
face-to-face relationships.
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In truth, researchers have found that
the growing use of social media is connected directly to the rise in mental
illness and suicide.
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Popular
media broadcasts the vibe that only the beautiful
people, their styles, interests and voices are important.
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Translation: the rest of us aren’t.
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There are also the so-called good
Christian distortions of the gospel.
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Such as, it’s what we can do for God
that makes us valuable to God, and it’s how well we keep the rules that makes
us worthy of heaven.
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Such lies create a performance-based
legalistic church culture, rather than a church culture built on the grace of
God in Christ.
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We end up feeling guilty when we do
not perform, and we either judge or feel judged when behaviour does not measure
up to our rules.
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None of this is normal; it is
disordered and abnormal; it is damaging people and destroying relationships.
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The disordered and broken voices that
are attempting to rule and reign over the world need to be overruled.
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Where
are the voices of comfort?
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Advent reminds us the world is
disordered and broken and we need God to tear open the heavens and come down.
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The Bible teaches that God’s reign is
going to destroy every other reign and rule.
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As God’s people, we need to be the
voices of truth, proclaiming his reign, rather than loading guilt on ourselves
and others because we have bought the performance lie that it’s all about
doing.
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In Isaiah chapter 40, God calls the
prophet to comfort his people with words of good news: good news that God is
coming, that he is going to level the playing field by making a highway,
silence all other voices, his word and not our word is the final word, and he
will be fully present in strength and power, but will gently lead and care for
his people like a shepherd.
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Isaiah speaks to a people who have
been demoralized by Babylonian propaganda, reduced to scavenging to fill their
starving bellies, crushed by Nebuchadnezzar’s armies, and whose leaders have
been dragged off into exile because they listened to the disordered, broken
voices of the world instead of listening to God.
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Isaiah speaks comfort to a people who
have given up and resigned to living in captivity.
o Isaiah 40:1-11(CSB),
“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
3 A
voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord
in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
6 A
voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All
humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. 7 The
grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord
blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. 8 The grass
withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”
9 Zion,
herald of good news, go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise
your voice loudly. Raise it, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here
is your God!”
10 See, the Lord God comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him.
11 He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.”
10 See, the Lord God comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him.
11 He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.”
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God sent Isaiah to be the voice of
comfort and good news to a captive people, a people oppressed under the thumb
of an unjust and vain, foreign tyrant, a people who had mostly given up.
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Through
Isaiah, God
pronounced pardon, forgiveness for the sin of his people. He would punish
them no more.
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Through Isaiah, God declared that he was going to make a highway for his people to
return from captivity and cross the desert from Babylon to Judea.
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Through Isaiah, God announced human ways do not endure, God’s ways, however, are
eternal.
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God was not about to let Babylon have
the final word on Israel.
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Through Isaiah, God announced he would restore his people in his kingdom and he
would protect them and care for them as gently and as personally as a shepherd cares
for his flock.
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God
would be with his people!
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Just as God called Isaiah to be a
voice to his people announcing good news, so also God is calling us.
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Believe
God is still calling us to comfort the broken with news of his victory.
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The
broken do not
need to hear the church voicing a
legalistic, performance-based false Christianity.
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The broken need to hear voices of
comfort, sharing the assurance that Jesus
Christ has paid the penalty for their sin.
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The broken need to hear our voices
declaring that God has made a highway
out of the desert of captivity to sin, injustice, & oppression.
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The broken need to hear our voices
sharing the good news that they can walk
with Jesus on the road, he is with them, and they will see his glory.
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The broken need to hear our voices
declaring God will keep his word and it
is the final word.
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Human ways won’t last, but God’s ways
last forever.
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Only God is fully reliable; he is
unchanging, but we are not.
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The broken need to hear our voices
crying out that the disordered, unjust, and
oppressive human reign and rule is at an end.
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The reign and rule of God in Christ
arrived 2000 years ago, is present now, and will come in all its fullness when
Jesus comes again.
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The broken need to hear our voices saying of Jesus, “Here is your God!”
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We must all stop listening to voices
that misrepresent reality, offering no comfort, and instead listen to the one
who is the voice of truth, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Whoever is still faithful in this
broken world must declare God’s victorious presence whose power is in his
gentle, humble leading.
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The broken need to hear our voices
sharing the good news that God is present, his reward is with him, he himself
will protect, gather, carry and lead all those who turn to him.
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Believe
God is still calling us to comfort the broken with the news of his victory.
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What
stops us from being the voices the broken need to hear?
What prevents our voices from speaking good news to the outcast?
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First, God’s call is outside our comfort zones.
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Taking a stand against oppression for
order, justice, and truth is unpopular and uncomfortable.
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We are afraid of what might happen to
us.
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We lack confidence that God will keep
his promise to give us the words we need to say.
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We are afraid of being turned down,
shut down, mocked, scorned, ridiculed or persecuted.
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God’s call is outside our comfort
zones, but we must face our fears if we are to obey and bless the outcast and
the broken.
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Second, we don’t know how to connect with the culture.
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The culture around us is changing so
dramatically and so quickly, that many of us feel at a total loss for what to
do.
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All the things we used to do many
years ago that worked to get people through the door, so they could hear the
gospel no longer work.
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That scares us because it means we
must learn to try new things.
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It scares us because it means we must
learn how to share the gospel with a culture that knows nothing about the
Bible, next to nothing about Jesus and has lost interest in the church.
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It means we can no longer rely solely
on our pastors and programs to get people through the doors to hear the gospel.
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But it is more than just a scary time;
it is also a time of great opportunity for God to use each one of us to impact
our neighbours for God’s kingdom.
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It is a time for us to pray and
believe that God is going to answer our prayers.
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We don’t know how to connect with the
culture, but God does.
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As we prayerfully pay attention God
will show us where he is working.
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Third, Busyness.
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Our busyness and the busyness of those
whom we are trying to reach for the kingdom makes it difficult for us to
connect.
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What can we do about the issue of
busyness?
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The answer is about focus.
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We can either let our busyness be the
focus, or we can look for the opportunities God is already sending our way
right where we are.
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When we believe God is still calling us to comfort the broken with the news of
his victory, then we must not allow busyness, feeling disconnected from the
culture, or our comfort zones to control our witness.
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These three hurdles must be
surrendered to God in prayer.
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Believe
God is still calling us to comfort the broken with the news of his victory.
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Well, now what must we do?
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First, we need to declare and believe for ourselves that the penalty for our sins has been paid.
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To be a comforting witness to the
broken, we cannot be enslaved to the legalistic, performance-driven, false
version of the gospel.
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To be free of that, we must embrace
the violent grace of the cross of Jesus Christ.
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Each one of us must know that Jesus
paid our debt, so we could be set free.
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We must stop judging, stop performing,
and embrace the freedom of grace.
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Second, we must confess our sins and be
vulnerable with each other.
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That means we must stop pretending.
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Scripture calls us to bear one
another’s burdens which fulfills the law of Christ, loving one another.
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When we don’t share our struggles,
when we keep our battles to ourselves, when we don’t confess our sins, we shun
vulnerability.
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When we pretend everything is fine and
it’s not, we rob each other of the opportunity to bless one another.
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When we share the load of our burdens
our siblings in Christ are blessed to know they are not alone in their
struggles.
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When we share our struggles, confess
our sins and are vulnerable, we move into intimate fellowship and are blessed
by each other’s support and prayers.
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The broken, unbelieving world can see Jesus
in us when we don’t pretend we’re perfect.
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Third, we must listen for God’s voice in his written word regularly.
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The closer we are with God, then the
clearer we will hear his voice.
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Fourth, we must believe God will give us the words we need, and believe we will see
the opportunities he sends us right where we are.
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Fifth, we must trust that God is with us when we are uncomfortable especially in
our weakness.
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“For when I am weak, then I am strong”
(2 Cor 12:10b, CSB).
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Believe God is still calling us
to comfort the broken with the news of his victory.
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