Seeking Secular Souls

seeking secular souls and uh as we openGod's word um let's spow our heads andask God to open our hearts and our mindsthank you Father for the freedom weenjoy here to worship you to lift ourvoices in praise to follow the dictatesof ourconscience now father as We Gather heretogether I pray that we will hear yourvoice that the voices of our world willslowly Fade Away into the background andwe will hear your voice and your voicealone saying to every sinner gatheredhere today tenderly tenderly and softlycome home come home so father speakthrough me today this is my humbleprayer in jesus' name I ask amen while Iwas studying at new Bal and uh I over inEngland I I fondly imagined that when Igot out of new Bal i' would be workingin the city of London or somewhere likethat and I would be ministering tosecular folks and those secular folkswould have um everything in the worldthey'd have Ferrar they' have Porschesthey have nice houses they have Beachboats um but they would have agod-shaped hole in their hearts andlives that had not yet beenfilled and that my role as a minister ofthe Gospel was to figure out how toplace God or lead God into thatgod-shaped hole what I discovered wasactually quite uh strange what Idiscovered is that many people in thesecular world don't don't appear to havethat god-shapedhole in fact they're entirely busy withtheir own projects with their ownmaterial longings with their ownprojects with their own quest formeaning truth and significance within anentirely imminent and secular andmaterialframework they live in a material worldwith no consideration for thepossibility of an afterlife and littlesense of the transcendant in their livesthey are to quote Madonna Material Girlliving in a material world end ofquote the secular pursuit of meaningsignificance and truth it seems to havesatisfiedmany butalmost the exclusive secular humanism onoffer in the west today it appears tooffer the possibility of significancewithout the Transcendent dimension inlife and without moralresponsibility how did this happen whereare wetoday and how do werespond well let's understand where weare on the map oftime originally we'll call this S1 therewas what was referred to as secular andsacred professions the secular was thebutcher the Baker and the Candlestickmaker but the priest however pursued asacredvocation that is the traditionalunderstanding of the Divide between thesecular and the holy the profane and theholy the butcher the baker theCandlestick maker on one side being theseculars and the priests or the nun forpursuing doing a sacred vocation acalling fromGod then we moved historically into theS2era which is The Enlightenment era andBeyond almost up to about the year 2000secular now refers to a non-sectarianneutral and a religious space orstandpoint in the public sphere thepublic sphere is secular in so far as itis nonreligious at least allegedly soand according to secular disenchantmentTheory as societies EXP experientechnological advance and Innovation sothe gods and superstitions of our pastgradually fade away and we are leftdisenchanted sadder wiser and secular ona personal level the formula goes likethis maturity plus life experience pluswisdom plus unanswered prayers leads toa secular Outlook at the individuallevel and when you multiply that byeverybody in society you are left with asecularSociety in this stage religious beliefis an option but it cannot impinge onanybody else's quest forsignificance in the S2 era and movinginto the S3 era you may believe what youwant as long as it doesn't interferewith somebody else's chosen path inlife we now live in an area in Era inthe S3 era or the the postmodern erawe'll call it postmodern for the rest ofour time today where religious belief orany belief in God is merely one optionamong many other beliefs this is thepostmodernist mindset in which yourreligion can you can believe whateveryou want in the confines of your fourwalls of the church but woe beideanybody whose faith is actually to bepracticed in the marketplace or is to beexpressed in Daily Life Society nolonger upholds basic judeo-christianprinciples Christendom has passed theburden of proof is now on the believerto justify their faith rather than onthe secular atheist to deny that faithradical atheists such as Dawkins andHitchens offer maps to our no new postgood experience those maps are full ofthe graveyards of the Gods and Saintsand demons of the past allegedly so andthey focus on Natural Science in ourquest to understand the world in whichwe live and to uh help us find meaningtruth and significance the modern era inwhich we live it is not merely theneutral rational A- religious naturalworld we are left with when we've throwoff Superstition gods and demons no theS3 or postmodern era in which we nowlive or survive is a new socialimaginary a worldview a way ofconstructing meaning and significance inthe imminent in the material worldwithout the need for the Divine or theTranscendent that is the world in whichwe are now living in the west well youmay ask how did we get to thisstage well the Reformation era had threekey beliefs and this is kind of a broadsweep of History here the first of thethree key beliefs of the Reformation erawas this that the natural world was acreated Cosmos with purpose that pointsto Greater spiritual realities at thetime of the reformers there was therewas assumption in among philosophers andChristians and theologians that weinhabit a cosmos the cosmos has aCreator the cosmos has multiple levelsof order and design in it and we findour home in that our natural home inthat Cosmos and we are not alone in thatCosmosthere is a Creator who has interest ineach one ofus the second basic belief of theReformation era is that Society isgrounded in a higher Transcendentpurpose Jesus Christ talked about thekingdom of God many of his Parables wereabout living in the kingdom of God whenJesus cast out demons in Matthew chapter12 he said well if it is by if if if Icast out demons among you by the Fingerof God then you should know that thekingdom of God has now come upon youwhen Jesus announced Ed his preaching hesaid repent for why the kingdom of Godis at hand Jesus announced that thepresence of a kingdom of God Augustinelater 400 years later wrote about thecity of God a foundational book forwestern civilization and within uh thecity of God and the kingdom of God wehave this idea that yes we live in amaterial world but everything in thismaterial world points to a higherpurpose that nothing happens by chanceand nothing we do in life is purely forthe purpose of this life alone buteverything we do has a concern for theafterlife or for the EternalHereafter the third core belief of theReformationera was that we have porous selvesporous it means that um you know thingscan move in and out like like osmosis wehave poorer selves that means we areopen to mul multiple spiritual actorssuch as the Holy Spirit we are open toreceiving Grace to experiencingforgiveness and receiving love in theReformation era we have poorest selvesbut now we live in a very differentworld in the S3 era there are five keybeliefs we'll briefly go over the firstis that we no longer have poorest selvesbut we have bufferedselves buffered selves what do I mean bythat it means that we're immune tooutside influence we are no longer ableor willing to receive Grace forgivenessor love that every man or woman truly isan island unto themselves and I don'tcare what is happening out in widerSociety I have no responsibility to whatis happening in Widder Society all I'mconcerned is my personal quest forpersonalfulfillment I now have a bufferedself the the poorest self is open andthus it is vulnerable open to Blessingsor curse possession or Grace the bufferself is a closed mind insulated andisolated for the poorer self of the reof the Reformation going without God isUnthinkable for the buffered self oftoday today the S3 era a life withoutGod is the only viableoption in the pre S3 era points numbertwo there we had what was known as TheCommon Wealth that comes from the thecommon wheel it used to be in Englandthat you would have a town and aroundthat town people would have theirkitchen Gardens but around the townthere was common grazing land andeverybody's cattle and sheep went out tograze in the common wheel and everybodywas cons concerned about what happenedto the common will because what happenedin the common whe affected our commonwealth and so people were concernedabout how you live people were concernedthat you follow the religious rituals ofthe society because if somebody rejectsthe religious rituals of the societymaybe you'll bring God's displeasure onthe common wealth and everybody willsuffer that was in the late Middle Agesbut now we no longer live in that kindof society we live in a society wherepeople are disengaged from what ishappening around them in the world we weare no longer a communal Society in theS3 era seeking a commonwealth we aremerely a random collection of randomindividuals each seeking their ownmeaning within their bufferedselves in the S3 eraToday We Live Without Eternal concernswe focus on a good life today ofpleasure and experience colloquially wecall that your bucket list have youheard of a bucket list people say to mewhat's in your bucket list I actuallydon't have a bucket list other than tospend time at home I don't have a bucketlist because I believe there is aneternal life waiting for me in heavenabove where God has said I hath Not SeenNor Ear heard nor have entered into theheart of man the things that God hathprepared for those that love him so whydo I need a bucket list today why do Iwant to go to Rome or why do I want togo to Naples or why do I want to go toBangkok when one day it's going to burnanyway it does me no good today I'veseen enough old cities in the worldthey're all full of genuine localartifacts made in China CH okay after awhile you become somewhat cynical aboutthe world in which you live when you'vetraveled around the world as I haveafter a while you know I go I sit in aplane and and I I read the inlightmagazine and it says this this this cityhas a this this part of the world has aparticularly ancient history you thinkwell technically everybody's historygoes back to the exactly the samespot and they say you can eat the localDelicacies you know um in some parts ofthe world the Delicacies are you knowyou don't want to eat them you knowroasted house flies and stuff like thatwhat I want when I arrive in a countryis where do I get beans rice andCoca-Cola it's the only safe food I caneat so I don't have a bucket list but inthe modernera there is a lowering of the bar inwhat it means to live a life well- livedin the Reformation era there were thedemands of the mundane that is gettingthe Harvest in in Autumn and there werethe demands of the Eternal the ultimatequestion am I saved or am I lost it wasassumed that human it found its ultimatemeaning not in the mundane but in theTranscendent which required sacrificesin the mundane known as a holy life butnot everyone could enter a closer ornunnery so religious festivals wereorganized to provide regular touchpoints for the Eternal into the lives ofthose who were dominated by the mundaneit's in this context that Carnival cameinto being Carnival was a sanctioned wayfor those living under the pressure ofthe me of the mundane to blow off theSteam and to blow off the pressure thatarises from living in the mundane butalways having to worry about theEternal however in the modern S3 erapeople have stopped being burdened bythe requirements of Eternity the demandsof the Transcendent and now we simplydiscuss what does it mean to have humanflourishing within a purely materialimminent Godless world without questionsof Eternal consequence to burden ModernMan the focus switches to living thebest life you can now which for mostwesterners as a life of pleasure seekingand entertainment that is your bucketlist two other key beliefs of the modernera time has no intrinsic significancein the Reformation era time wasmulti-layered yes we ate at Sun up weslept at sun down there was also a sensethough that history was moving forwardto a definite end the history was movingforward to a conclusion that history hada purpose the time is not just theendless cycles and The rhythms of natureto know that God is in control and he'sleading history inexorably to aconclusion that conclusion is the returnof the of Jesus Christ to establish akingdom that will never pass away thatwas the Reformation assumption but nowwe live in a world in which time has nomeaning the clock simply tick tocks awaymeasures our projects but time is flatand it has no intrinsic significanceeven though when you ask many peopletoday in the secular world what theythink is happening to the world manypeople will say well something'shappening in the world the world isspinning out of control the world iscoming to a boil something's about tohappen seculars sense the significanceof time but philosophically they deny itand they have to live with this kind ofinternal schizophrenia philosophicallyspeaking finally in the ref in themodernera we now live in a philosophicalUniverse it used to be in theReformation as I've already mentionedthat we lived in a cosmos created by aloving creator with a physical andspirit spiritual hierarchy in which wefind our natural home in the modern erathanks to modern philosophy andevolutionary biology we now live in acold and feeling Universe metaphoricallyand metaphysically we are a randomcollection of particles arising from arandom explosion of random nothingnesswe are drifts literally andphilosophically in a cold uncaring andpurposeless universe when I climbed themountain in Canada to see the birerShale last July there was a guide fromthe Canadian Park service and he saidare you guys all kitted out they take 12people up a day to see the bir yourShale that's where I broke my leg and hesaid are you guys all kitted out and hesaid yes he says do you have rainyweather gear I said well no I was justin his shorts and t-shirt it was July hesaid you will suffer on that mountain Isaid okay he said Cy said the mountainsdon'tcare the mountains don't care whetheryou live or die whether you go up or youcome down safely the mountains don'tcare don't think for a minute that thereis any sympathy or compassion on themountain the mountains don't careand thisprocess happened because first as wewent through the enlightenment thenthroughEvolution our philosophers andscientists said we must distinguishbetween God andcreation and actually you end up justwithnature and then disenchantment Burnsaway the superstitions of the cosmos eraand we left with the natural laws of theuniverse we then learn to be contentwith the natural worldalone and now we've reached thepoint where we affirm the sufficiency ofNature and the material world withoutthe need for God that is ourphilosophical progression over the last500years we now live in a universe that ismeaningless a universe that has no valuea universe that really doesn't carewhether you live a good life or a poorlife or a universe that doesn't carewhether you have a happy marriage oryour husband is an alcoholic and beatsyou the universe don't careand if your husband beats you so be itbecause you're a random collection ofparticles and to you to for you toascribe meaning to yourself or sense ofright or wrong is to deny the underlyingphilosophy of the modern day West that'swhere we are brothers and sisters that'sthe world in which we live that's theworld in which we mustMinister the consequences of secularhumanism in terms of religious libertyare these firstly religion must declinebecause it is demonstrably falsesecondly religion is irrelevant we cannow cure disease and ringworm throughmedicine rather than throughprayer and thirdly religion is based onhierarchical Authority whereas modernsocieties are moving towards individualautonomy nobody wants to be told what todo anymore the laws of the land areimmaterial everybody has the right tofollow their own path and to find theirown meaning and significance in thismodern world in which we now live we arefree to sample and try differentphilosophies but we rarely commit toanything we can sample and we can trybut we're not willing to commit very feware willing to die on a hill anymore andto keep an open mind which is praised bysociety means you're not willing to sayanything about anything to keep an openmind means you don't know anything wehave incredible knowledge but we can'tactually make any value judgments aboutthat knowledge and woe beide the man orwoman who says in the Public Squaresomething is intrinsic wrong or rightbecause the concept of intrinsicallywrong and intrinsically right hasevaporated over the last 500 years welive in an era of philosophicalambiguity we're willing to experimentbut never to commit never quite surewhat to believe or how to live and we'rewary of falling for the next big thingwe live in a world of incredibleknowledge but we live in a world ofincredible uncertainty nobody knows whatto believeanymore uh you find this sometimes inpastoral Ministryuh I I tend to prefer perform uh leadingout at funerals rather than weddingsbecause at a funeral nothing worse cango wrong was at a wedding many thingscan gowrong and um you know when people say itwas a life well- lived 30 40 years agomaybe we would have understood what is alife well- lived but these days nobodyknows what is a life well lived you mayspeak with a spouse and she says well Idon't want you to say this from thefront pastor but every Saturday night hewas drunk and he beatme and so when you stand up there whatdo you say he was a good man no he lefthis mark on usyes we will all remember the point isthis we don't know anymore what is agoodlife philosophically in the west ours isa haunted age we are haunted by the godsand beliefs of our past and by thememory of the transcendentand so we've come to live lives thatseek a full flourishing in the imminentand the material and yet we are hauntedat moments of tragedy the death of achild the death of a spouse as we buryour parents we are haunted at thosemoments of tragedy by Echoes of our pastwhen there was a god when there was acosmos when there was a purpose whenthere was such thing as Graceforgiveness and hope we are Echo we arehaunted by the past and when when wehave come to those life events peoplewho never darken the door of a churchthey come to a church for a funeralthey're drawn to it by The Echoes thehauntings of their past in their secularworld and we we we think for a fewminutes that wouldn't it be nice if mymom's life actually had somepurpose it's nice to think that there isa purpose to it all our mourning tellsus that there there really is purposebecause why mourn if there is no purposeyour mourning has nomeaning and so we struggle in ourWestern Society our Western societiestodayare manifesting an existential sense ofloss from the past and profound levelsof personal emptiness this Brave Newsecular world the S3 era ischaracterized by profound personalemptiness in our Urban and our secularenvironment many feel a terribleflatness in the everyday cycles of lifeI know that if I have an iPhone 6 I canget an iPhone 7 and for about a day I'llbe happy with it and then the advertisis going to say well you don't reallyneed an iPhone 7 you need an iPhone 8and so that there are the endlessconsumer cycles of dissatisfactiontemporary satisfaction and then uhalmost two years of dissatisfactionwaiting for the next phone to comealong but that whether it's an iPhone678 9 or 10 doesn't change whether whenI call my wife she responds with love orwith harsh words it doesn'tchange in our materialabundance are at this existential senseof loss and flatnessis exacerbated because the growingmaterial manifestations of our imminentWorld cannot help us escape from thepressure of the loss of the Transcendentand from the pain of ourdisenchantment and so in the west weescape from themundane through various ways we havehigh levels of Escapist behavior inAmerica today to medicate the loss ofthe Transcendent in our lives alcoholdrugs the opioid addiction porn Sportsthe NFL NBA NHL endless entertainmentbinge TV watching signing up for Netflixand watching series after series of yourfavorite show and ultimately suicidethese are all characteristics of awestern society that has abandoned thepossibility of the Transcendent and yetpeople have this sense that there mustbe something better than just going towork and getting the latestphone we have a search for significanceyou know if if you listen to the thesports radio the debate is is Tom Bradythe greatest quarterback of all timehave you heard that debate I have afriend here who saysno he's not okay I say he is but thedebate is ultim ultimately meaninglessbecause if Tom Brady is a randomcollection of particles throwing arandom collection of particles to arandom collection of particles why isthat significant it's not significantbecause Randomness has no purpose bydefinition in our Western Society wedebate we debate what are the top 100movies in America the top fivequarterbacks of all time and people arestriving for significance in a worldthat philosophically denies is thepossibility ofsignificance and this Search for escapemeans in America for the last two yearslife expectancy has dropped For theFirst Time In Our Lifetime why is thatwe are seeing what the epidemiologistsare calling deaths of Despair deaths ofDespair and they are not just deathsamong uh folks who are unemployed andhave no way out the deaths of Despairare being seen among middle-aged peopleat the top of their career people whomay be 45 to 55 who've accomplished allthis world has to offer and who knowthat all they now have is a gentle Glidepath to a urine soap cushion in thenursinghome and they don't want to face itthey've done everything they want to dothey've done their bucket list anddeaths of Despair in America are on therise suicide among teenagers suicideamong successful professionals is all onthe rise and so the results in Americaand in the west around the world thereis a Search for escape there we'reexperiencing you might call called theNova effect you the bursting starthere's an explosion in searches foralternative spiritualities and answerswhere everybody must find their own pathHindus would call that Dharma everybodysearches for their ownpath that's the world in which we livewhen I got out of Newbold and realizedthat as I ministered in London thatsecular folks weren't out there sayingI've got this god-shaped hole I need tofill it they weren't asking thatquestion they were living almostfulfilled lives going to the rata andwatching rugby and what I'm listening toManchester United play Liverpool and I'mworrying about their stock options inthe London StockExchange they very little space for Godin those lives except in moments ofCrisis except with an Unexpected death acancer diagnosis or when you're made ununemployed and your whole material worldcomes crashing down around your ears sohow does God respond well I love Isaiah55 Isaiah 55 is a beautiful Passageho everyone that's thirsteth Come Ye tothe waters and he that hath no moneyCome Ye buy and eat yay come buy wineand milk without money and without PRIprice Isaiah looks forward to theBabylonian exile he's writing to Jewswho've gone into Exile who've settled inBabylon in the heart of the greatestnation then on Earth they've Built Homesthey've set put down their Roots they'veraised families they've got flourishingbusinesses they are materially well offin the heart of the greatest nation thenon Earth and Isaiah doesn't accuse themof doing something wrong he simplythrows a pebble into their pool ofcomplacency and he says does this reallysatisfyyou does this really satisfy you and wetoday living in the heart of thegreatest nation ever seen on Earth withall material wealth we have Isaiah saysto secular Minds today does this reallysatisfy you do you know in your heart ofhearts that you were designed that thethat the purpose of your life is to getan iPhone 10 rather than iPhone 9 isthat the purpose of yourlife Isaiah uses the imagery of a waterseller in the Middle East to emphasizethat just as everybody needs water soeverybody today needs to hear thisinvitation from God the vendor isn'tinterested only in sales no the word hoExpresses in in the Hebrew the idea thatof deep pity God has a profound concernfor Souls who are struggling in thematerial world who are living in thematerial world who don't see any senseof the Transcendent and God is sayingyou're thirsty there is something youdon't have and I want to offer it to youwe serve a God who loves and a God whosaves a God who reaches out and he sayseveryone that thirsteth everyone in themodern day world who has material wealthbut really has secular poverty everyonethat's that's thirsteth God has aconcern for our souls today for peoplewho cannot shake off the idea that theyshould have a sense of purpose those whocan't shake off their sense of loss fromthe gods of the past whose thirsting isnot for physical water but who actuallywant to find meaning and purpose andsignificance in life a sense of arecognition of the Transcendent in theirlives and ultimately peace with God thetext says they have nomoney God asks us to recognize that weare spirituallybankrupt we cannot find meaning in ourbuffered selves the material Paradisethe world offers provides no answer tothe existential questions of life wheredid we come from who are we today andwhere are we going the philosophies ofour Western world are empty they areflat and they are without hope and Godis inviting any such person into arestored relationship with him for theprice has already been paid on Calvaryand God offers meaning purpose and aboveall else he offers Grace and the offeris made to everybody everyone that Serthirst not just the Jews of Babylon butno one is excluded no one is predestinedto be lost nobody is predestined to besaved God does not interfere with ourfreedom of choice but he still offersthe Living Waters to any who willreceivethem the text goes on in verses 2 andthree why do you spend money for thatwhich is not bread and your labor forthat which does not satisfy hearkendiligently unto me and eat ye that whichis good and let your soul Delight infatness now this text doesn't mean letyour soul Delight in fatness you knowsince I broke my leg I put on 20 somepounds and I don't like fatness inmyself and I'm working hard to get ridof it okay it's astruggle this isn't what God is talkingaboutthough God is saying why would you eatdrink and be merry expecting thattomorrow you will truly die and thatwill be the end of it when God isoffering you the off the gift of eternallife do you really look forward to urinesoak cushion in a nursing home or do youlook forward to the resurrection whenyou'll see your loved ones again at thegravide of your loved ones do you grievewithout hope or do you grieve with hopewhy do you labor under the tyranny ofthe Urgent and the latest email butignore the real the the important thingsof life God wishes us to Delightourselves in his grace he asks us toseek first the kingdom of God and hisrighteousness and all these materialthings will be given to us sufficientfor our needs he offers life in theimminent with a promise of theTranscendent he says here in theseverses listen three times God wishes usto live he wishes us to pay attention tothis matter not merely to live likebrute Beasts going going to work cominghome going to work coming home he hewants us to lift our eyes Beyond thisreality and to ask ourselves questionsokay I drive to work every day but whereis my lifegoing I know where I came from when Icome to work but what is my past reallytellingme even the sure mercies of David therein verse three David was a great sinnerhe was a lying murderous and adulterouspolitician nothing much Chang changesdoesit but when his sins were pointed out byNathan he sincerely repented and becamethe recipient of Divine Mercy God'scovenant with David included not onlyGrace for David in his time but also aneverlasting promise that extended downto Jesus Christ the son of David to thekingdom of Grace that is on offer todayand ultimately to the kingdom of Glorythat will be established when Jesusreturns in the Clouds Of Glory and Godoffers any secular mind today any whowill listen the opportunity toparticipate in that glorious Covenant ofGrace and Covenant of hope it is as ifin our descent into a modern secularWorld we've become so focused on theball game in the park that we've know wewe haven't noticed that the stadium roofis closing over our heads and we nolonger can see the stars and this versehere God is saying young man young womanlift your eyes and I will pull back thestadium roof and you will once againgaze with Wonder at the stars aboveyou'll have a sense of the vastness ofMy Universe and you have a sense of thefact there is a Creator a god of orderand a god of love verse four and fivebehold I've given him a witness to thepeople talking about David a leader anda commander to the people Thou shaltcall a nation thou knowest not andNations that knew not thee shall rununto thee because of the Lord thy Godand for the Holy One of Israel for hehath glorified it just as David wasforgiven in his time of material successas the king of jerus Jalem and he wasrestored to an eternal Covenant God isoffering us today when we are so fixedon our secularJourney we're so fixed on our journey toour secular goals that we know we don'trealize we are profoundly lost and hisinvitation is for all people of allNations the passage goes on seek ye theLord while he may be found secular mansecular woman call upon God today whilehe is near let the wicked forsake hisway than the righteous man his thoughtslet him return to the Lord and He willhave mercy upon him and to our God forhe will abundantly pardon now the callof verses 1 through 3 is repeated inverses 6 and 7 but now there is a moralemphasis in verses 1 and two God isappealing to people who are livingpurely material imminent Lives who haveno concern for the Transcendent and nowGod is emphasizing the moral nature ofof man we are moral beings we know whensomething is right we know whensomething is wrong if you come and punchmy daughter it doesn't take aphilosopher a degree in philosophy tosay oh what you did is wrong I knowinstinctively it's wrong I don't need tobe told you punching my daughter iswrong and we're all moral beings we allhave an innate sense of right and wrongof justice as well there is an urgencyin this call both in our materiallifestyle and in our secular worldviewsecular man is profoundlylost and our repentance and turn to Godmust touch the inner man as well as theouter lifestylethe language is now moved from the groupto the individual the unrighteous manlet him forsake his thoughts God isappealing to us as individuals In thispassage keep your uh fingers in Psalm 45we'll just turn to one verse here inPsalm 145 this isn't up on the screenPsalm145:17-19 it says there some of my favoriteverses in the Bible105 145:117 my version says the Lord is just inall his ways and kind in all his doingsisn't that beautiful he is just in allhisways but there is a kindness in all hisdoings the Lord is near to all who callon him to all who call on him in truthhe fulfills the desire of all who fearHim he hears their cry and saves thembeautiful promise is from God the Lordfulfills the desire of all those whofear Him He also hears their cry and hesaves them we serve an amazing God whoDelights to hear from returning secularmen and women secular Minds that havebeen lost in this secular world but turnnow to God and God says why would youturn to me he says because my thoughtsare not your thoughts neither are myyour ways my ways sayith the Lord for asthe heavens are higher than the earth soare my ways higher than your ways and mythoughts than your thoughts you see asecular man thinks about time but Godthinks about eternity secular man thinksof self God thinks of blessing hiscreation secular man thinks of gain Godthinks of providing a blessing man hopesfor today but God knows tomorrow God'sthoughts also differ morally from oursour thoughts are governed by the desiresof Fallen sin God's thoughts are drivenby righteousness and S sacrificing LoveThe Sinner focuses on his sin and histemporal Pleasures but God focuses onthe sinner's restoration and eternalpurpose God's ways truly are not ourways and his thoughts are higher thanours as that the passage comes to an endhere it says the rain cometh down andthe snow from Heaven obviously um theyhad snow in the Middle East back thenand returneth not thither but WTH theseed and maketh it bring forth and Budso that it may give seed to the sewerand bread to the eater so shall my wordthat go forth out of my mouth it shallnot return unto me void but it shallaccomplish that which I please and itshall prosper in the thing wher to Isent it what is God saying here sayingthat we do not live in a cold impersonalmeaningless Universe we live in a cosmoscreated by a loving creator that isinfused with purpose and the fact thatevery animal in the world today will eatits fill that's remarkable you everthought aboutthat um I was once in in Israel and Iwas on a kibutz having a gap herebetween high school and and college andum they asked us volunteers to dovarious jobs I was on kabut with 600people 400 soldiers 200 settlers on theLebanese border and um one day they madea very unwise request they said Conradwould you prepare the meal for the kabuttonight now I knew how to spread Miteand peanut butter onbread but I didn't know how to feed 600people so I went to the kitchens and Ifound the cold trays of chickpeas Ididn't know whether they were cooked ornot but they were sitting in the fridgeso I laid them out I found whateverloaves of bread I could find and I laidthem out I found this big bucket of likebrown fatty stuff I wasn't quite surewhat it was so I laid that out as well Ithought maybe they'll just spread it onthe bread I don't know what this is butit looks good to meum I was never asked to feed that Kutzagain the point is this have you everwant wondered how God can feed trillionsof living creatures every dayeffortlessly do you see trucks haingfood for the animals in town no yet Godfeeds trillions of living creaturesevery singleday we live in a world that is infusedwith the grace of loving creat creCreator the natural world exists forman's blessing to ensure our daily breadand to ensure our human flourishing thecycles of nature are not random but theyreveal in their Grandeur and intricatedesire God's character of Love at adeeper level the word of God representshis will and the word of God is endowedwith God's power to create Genesis 1 toheal and restore Matthew 9 to raise fromthe dead John 11 to judge and condemnHebrews 4 to impart spiritual lifespiritual meaning purpose and blessingsDeuteronomy chapter 8 to the Jews intheir anticipated Babyloniancaptivity Isaiah promises that if theyrepent they will be restored to theirHomeland to Jerusalem and these last twoverses of this beautiful passage reflectthat nature itself will sing for joy asGod brings his people back to Jerusalemand but for us today the passagepromises secular Minds if we lift oureyes acknowledge God and his claims uponus our sense of loss will be replaced byspiritual Bounty eternity can be addedto our 70 plus years meaning will Infuseour meaningless lives we will find ourrightful place in a purposeful cos usrather than remain lost in a cold randomUniverse the Transcendent will Infusethe imminent with meaning hope willconquer Despair and life will life willbe worth the living somebody once askedme what is it like to fall in love andlet me give you the examp theanswer life can be like a black andwhite movie when you fall in love themovie suddenly becomes glorioustechnicala it's the same movie buteverything is different when weexperience God's love in our lives thatblack and white movie that is on thisendless loop never stops playingsuddenly it has glorious Technicolor wesee meaning and purpose all around uswhere previously all we sh saw wasShades of Gray and Shades of Gray andShades of Gray so what do we say inconclusion todaywell coming back to my leg which isplaying a major part in my life rightnow I uh I was going to speak at theHope campmeeting and I booked five months in ADVadvance to climb up to see the burgerShale you have to book months in advancecuz so many people want to say it see itit's a national park in Canada it'sground zero for the intelligent designmovement it's a fascinating spot whereall the body plans known into existencetoday they all came into existence atthe same time in the in the um in in theuh the the levels of the Earth in the umgeological timescale and I walked up there wereturquoise Lakes the Lakes there arestunningly beautiful the air is cleanthe skies are blue there was virginForest but there were two worldviewsworked up that mountain the first viewwas my secular guide he was completing apostgrad program in in evolutionarygeology he was committed to randomEvolution to billion-year geologicaltime scales to a random cold Universewithout God and a secularhumanism and he walked up that mountainbeside me and at the bottom of themountain he said don't fall he said themountain doesn'tcare I however know I'm a child of theLiving God the creator of this universewho has an eternal purpose for me andyes if I do fall down on that mountain Iwill lift up my eyes to the hills fromwhence cometh my help my Help ComethFrom The Lord who made the heavens andthe Earth looking back on that accentI'm not happy that it happened it's beenexpensive and painful but I'm trulygrateful to God that it did happen sohow do we respond today well if you'vealready given your life to Jesus Christrecognize this in precisely moments ofpersonal crisis that your secularneighbor friend or loved one is mostopen to forgiveness Fellowship hope andGrace don't try and share the gospelwith somebody while they're watchingtheir favorite NFLteam but if they're mourning the loss ofa child who just received a cancerdiagnosis when their buffered self hasbeen shattered and suddenly for a briefmoment in time they have a poorer selfthey're open to receive Grace to hearabout love and to experience hope so weweep with those who weep as Christianswe mourn with those who mourndemonstrate God's love manifestforgiveness and bring hope in the hourof Crisis or the season of pain be theliving presence of God in the Brokennessof your secular friend and prayceaselessly for the spirit to breakthrough their buffered selves with thelove of God and if you have not givenyour life to Jesus Christ and to quoteMadonna you are a material girl livingin a material world and to quote mcj YouCan't Get NoSatisfaction there is truth to whatthese singerssaying why wait for your personal crisisfor your secular worldview to crumblebefore your eyes into nothingness beforeturning to God hear again God's graciousinvitation to live abundantly today andreceive the gift of eternal lifetomorrow ho everyone who thirsts come tothe waters and you that have no moneycome buy and eat come come buy wine andmilk without money and without price whydo you spend your money for that whichis not bread and your labor for thatwhich does not satisfy those secular manlistencarefully and eat what is good anddelight yourself in rich food inclincline your ear and come to me listenthat you may live it's my prayer thateveryone here today will indeed hear Godwe'll turn from our secular worldviewand our secular existence and we'llrealize that there is more to this lifethan merely 70 plus years in a pensionand a in a grave listen to God speakingto you today he's calling you back tohim to the promise of forgiveness forthe past meaning for today and Hope ForTomorrow respond to God's day with faithmaybe with a penitent heart arecognition of the sins of the past andGod whose thoughts are not our ourthoughts whose ways are higher than ourways he will forgive and he will blessus with the gift of his son Jesus Christmay God bless us today as we live inthis secular world but may we live notas seculars but as Born Again childrenof God with an eternal promise ahead ofus