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Summary

There would be complaint with regard to what is occurring so let's go back to Isaiah chapter 45 9 to 12 and Isaiah addresses this of that which would occur 14 Woe to you 45 verse 9 Woe to you who strive with your maker earthen vessels with a potter Does the clay say to the one who fashions it what are you making or your work has no handles Woe to anyone who says to a father what are you beginning or to a woman with what are you in labor Thee says the Lord the Holy One of Israel and its maker will you question me about my children or command me concerning the work of my hands I made the earth and created humankind upon it was my hands that stretched out the heavens and I commanded all their host Luther writes that that in this in this passage here the supreme temptation of why me is being addressed Luther Luther wrote this When such trials of why come beware that you do not answer and allow these attacks to get control rather close your eyes and kill a reason and take refuge with the word do not let the why Get into your heart. Absolutely nothing Absolutely Nothing So Luther cautions about the why me here the potter exercises complete control over the clay The clay are the word of his hand So we then can have confidence we can have confidence with regard to whatever we are experiencing here That that is being formed whether it is good or whether God allows challenges into our lives No matter whether we are broken or whether we are whole our one purpose is to do what but to bring glory to God And we are called to bring an empowered to bring glory to God not only in the good times but also in the Challenging times and God removes the why off of the table because Emory thing that God allows is for here comes the phrase again His ultimate good is ultimate glory in our ultimate good And so we can then say Because I know who you are in light of the cross because I know who you are in light of the word I can trust you then potter So we as the clay don't turn and say Why me Why me instead how can I give you glory God and empower me to give you glory amidst all of that That is the purpose with regard to why we are here is to bring him Glory take a look at chapter 45 verse 13 I have aroused Cyrus in righteousness and I will make all his path straight He shall build my city and set my exiles tree not for price or reward says the Lord of hosts God is in charge of all of history all of history God is in charge of even even heathen nations to carry out his will And so as one looks at the at the world and when has there ever been a generation that has not asked what's the world coming to Right, that's a universal question right As we look at the world and we say well, what is the world coming to as God's still in charge? Here's the second point underneath that He remains hidden outside of the revelation of Scripture because outside of the revelation of Scripture We have no Reliable information about him none If we want to know who God is and what God says we must turn to his word because that's where he has revealed himself and that's where he has spoken We don't turn inward To ourselves we turn outward to his word Here's a third subpoint of that God has revealed to us what it is we need to know in his word So that tells us right Then we're not going to know everything nor are we going to understand everything. Let's go to Isaiah 55 We'll peek ahead a little bit Isaiah chapter 55 verse 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts Nor are your ways my ways says the Lord For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts God is smarter than us Right God's God And we're the creature And that means we will not always understand his ways But he has given us enough to know So when we don't understand his ways We return to that which we know Which is what he has revealed to us in his word We return amidst things we don't understand to what we know His incredible love for us that through Christ he has opened up eternity for us that our sins have been atoned for We turn to what he know we know all of his attributes that he's omnipotent omniscient etc We return to what we know that we are here amidst things we can't understand I'm its God reserves in his own counsel To give him glory And that's freeing For us because the opposite course of action Is when we don't understand his ways we are tempted to do what but build an idol And why do we build an idol out of anything We build an idol so that we can control it We can control it We can say Here's God Because I And if we fashion it then Then we say thus say if me I have fashioned then a God Instead of Saying I will not fashion the God of my own making and turn to the God of my own making In attempt to control a God that I can't always understand but I will rest in the surety of who God is Reveal to his word and that'll be enough That'll be enough Because there are those times in life right where we say I don't understand this God. I am and there is no one beside me But the evil shall come upon you which you cannot charm away Disaster shall fall upon you which you will not be able to ward off and ruin the shall come on you suddenly of which you know Nothing Isaiah already saw the downfall of Babylon already saw When you go to 48 You've got some classic law and and gospel that go on in chapter 48 The first portion of chapter 48 Is is really giving the law against the house of of Jacob the hardness of their hearts the second portion of 48 Um is a word of invitation To leave Babylon and to trust in the Lord So let's go to a 48 will pick up in in 17 Thus says the Lord your Redeemer the Holy one of Israel I am the Lord your God who teaches you for your own good Who leads you and the way you should go Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments and your prosperity would have been like a river in your success like the waves of the sea Your offspring would have been like the sand in your descendants like its grains their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me Go out from Babylon flee from Caldia Declare this with a shout of joy proclaim it Send it forth to the end of the earth say the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob Verse 20 here tells the people this word of prophecy that when the time comes they are to announce to the ends here of the earth with Shouts of joy their redemption here from Babylonian captivity And when you think of us God has redeemed us in a much greater way hasn't he Then a release of the people out of captivity we've been redeemed through the cross of Jesus Christ and may we As his redeemed people announce with great joy what God has done If God called the people to announce with great joy here The redemption from the Babylonian captivity how much more how much more Do we have the joy and are we cold to express that joy and that reality In terms of what God has done for us in Christ So We've seen here now today the raising up a Cyrus The return of the Jews to Palestine to rebuild Jerusalem in the temple That word of prophecy here Ultimate purpose Deserving the people out of which the Messiah will come and redeem the world We've seen that whatever God makes of us Are we broken or whole our purpose is to give him glory We've seen How the hidden God speaks through his word and if we want to know Who he is and what he says We don't go inward We go outward to the word We've seen the total helplessness of idols and our temptation to create our own idols in whatever form When we cry out with the with the why me And we've seen how God has redeemed us in a much greater way No wonder we can announce with joy Well, we'll continue next week as we turn to chapters 49 to 52 If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke the second chapter, if you're using a Pew edition of the Bible, you can find this on page 51 in the New Testament. He was that amazing continuing in verse 48 when his parents saw him they were astonished and his mother said to him child why have you treated us like this look your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety is Mary distraught here is she angry is she actually scolding Jesus we have to remember that Jesus though he's holy and completely human he is holy and completely without sin there would never have been a time to scold Jesus he would never do anything to receive or deserve a scolding he was literally the perfect child it's really interesting some of the nostate gospels which are writings that are not part of our scripture they tell these secret truths which are not actually truth their heresies about Christ we are to know only what scripture reveals but there are ways that these nostic writers wrote about Jesus as child trying to give us these ideas of what he was like and they wrote of him creating clay birds and bringing them to life or blinding towns people because they had offended him kind of like a playground bully would that is not that does not jive with who we know Jesus to be that does not live with a perfect human or the divine so the nostic gospels are heresy and they are not true but it's very interesting that they are trying to put forth that Jesus would have these minor infractions against him as a child Mary would never have any reason to scold Jesus what we do have in scripture is that Jesus was filled with wisdom and he was in the favor of God he had the favor of God upon him Mary was never unaware of what the angel Gabriel had told her that he would be holy he will be called the son of God so more likely than scolding or being upset or angry Mary was most likely bewildered be bewildered of why Jesus had not gone with them and where he had been found we continue Jesus responded to them in verse 49 why were you searching for me did you not know that I must be in my father's house Jesus had no fear of being without his parents even the bravest of 12 year old usually want their parent at some point usually don't want to be on their own for three days but Jesus had no fear and he had no need to fear he also in this is showing where his priorities lie they always lie with his father his father in heaven and he's correcting Mary in this reference she has said that she and his father have been searching for him but he corrects her lovingly and says wouldn't I be in my father's house would I not be about my father's business correcting who his true father is but they did not understand what he said to them how many inscriptions in Jesus life before the resurrection really understood what he was saying time and time again his disciples are trying to ask him to explain further what he's saying he will tell them point blank what's happening to him or what is going to happen to him or who he is and they still don't quite get it it still doesn't completely compute with them they witnessed the transfiguration in yet they were still confused that he would be heading to Jerusalem to the cross only to be resurrected the limited understanding of humanity made for a confusion for Mary and Joseph at what he was saying they didn't quite get why he was in the temple or why it would be so important for him to be only about his father's business continuing in verse 51 then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them his mother treasured all these things in her heart and Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor Jesus was kind of in enigma he was never lost no one ever had to search for him and yet he confused them he'd be well-dored them he was about his father's business when he was born he was about his father's business when he was 12 and what we have mostly of Christ and his public ministry was that he was always about his father's business and his father's business is to seek out find and save the lost that is ultimately his father's business and the truth is that while Jesus was never lost even in his humanity we in our own flesh in our own selfishness in our own desires we are lost we are lost from our relationship with the Lord we are lost from our relationship with the father but Jesus was sent to seek the lost which means that Jesus was sent to seek you and he was sent to seek me and the exciting thing in this is that not only was he sent to seek us but he found us the fact that you're sitting in these seats right now hearing these words means that Christ himself has sought and found you and not only did Christ himself seek and find you but Christ himself sought found you died for you paid for you redeemed you he's not just tagging you telling you you're found he's tagging you telling you that you're found and you are forgiven through his blood in the second article of the Apostle's Creed Martin Luther gives an explanation saying I believe that Jesus Christ true God begotten of the father from eternity and also true man born of the virgin Mary is my Lord who has redeemed me a lost and condemned person purchased and won me from all sins from death and from the power of the devil not with gold or silver but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness just as he has risen from the dead lives and reigns to all eternity it sounds so simple it's so clear and so simple and yet we try to remain lost we try to convince the Lord that we're not good enough that we should remain lost but my brothers and sisters you are not lost you are found as a parent it was really scary for me to lose my child and I searched everywhere called to him every few seconds until I found him it is no different with our father in heaven as our father or as our Heavenly Father God did not rest until he gave the way to find us until he provided his own son to seek us and to find us and to redeem us when we feel lost or when we tried to convince God that we should remain lost I invite you to open up that small cataclysm look at what Martin Luther has said surely surely it can't be as simple as that and yet when you search the scriptures and you find what it says about the lost it is as simple as that Jesus said to his disciples you did not choose me but I chose you it is made clear in scripture that any who are lost God will find God will call and God will redeem is it really that simple when I looked for Ezra it really was simple to find him he did come when I called him Christ is calling you and he is saying come you are found you're found

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