Weary

Wrong Made Right in Jesus

• Please turn to Malachi 2:17, page 802 in the pew bibles.
  • Invite Pastor Dana up to read & pray. 
• Who do you look up to? Who do you want to be? Wish you could be like? 
  • Comparison happens often. We want a different life, especially in seasons where we don’t know who we are, we are not getting the things we really want, and life is not working out the way we want it, our minds can drift to a different life.  
  • When I was young I wanted to be like my biological dad
    • Even though often he would be MIA or in county lock up, I was enamored by seeing things like this throughout my youth.  
    • Pic #1 of my dad / Pic #2 
    • His moral compass mattered little, but I know back then I would have anything he did to gain his acceptance & acclaim. 
  • Others who seemed to know who they were.
  • Breakfast Club pic
    • To me, if you got high, you got the girl
  • Publishers clearing house, lottery, How many already know what they would do if they won the lotto? Tithing at the top of list? 
• Healthy, happy, good marriage, enjoying retirement, successful kids. When we see people who do not love God get the things we really want, it’s like putting a magnet next to a compass, our true north begins to vier off course and the way we are called to live begins to be less of a priority. And slowly our north begins to go S. 
  • Show video of kid going down slide

Main Point this morning- What’s Wrong Mades Right in Jesus

#1. What’s Wrong? Vs. 17

• Forgot who they were, not getting what they want, and life is not working out the way they wanted it to, BUT, there where those who seemed to have everything they wanted. Who was it? Those living contrary to the will and ways of the God they served. 
  • Over time their compass viewed from true north and slowly, what was wrong become right.  
• Read “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD.”
  • Making a moral statement base on life circumstances. 
    • What is the gauge of their world view? Success and prosperity= blessings of God=Good
  • What is the proper gauge for our world view? The glory of God! 
• Read “Where is the God of justice?” 
  • The fire on the Conception, hurricanes in the east, abortion, politics, war, tragedy, How can you let this happen, God? I do not understand, are you just? Where are you? When will you “right the wrongs”? 
• How does God feel about their claims? 
  • He’s Weary. Toil, tired of complaining & ungrateful people, I feel his pain. 
  • Is God capricious? Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior? 
    • Does the way God feel base itself on human behavior? No. 
    • Impassibility of God, which historically means…
  • “Those who predicate any change whatsoever of God, whether with respect to his essence, knowledge, or will, diminish all his attributes: independence, simplicity, eternity, omniscience, and omnipotence. This robs God of his divine nature, and religion of its firm foundation and assured comfort.” Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics
    • Immutability of God: God is unchanging (Good news for those who believe)
      • We are not to minimize who God is to make him in our image. 
      • But this also DOES NOT mean, “God is the great computer programmer in the heavens”  who simply keeps things in order.  
  • The historical answer is: Not impassivity, unconcern, and impersonal detachment in the face of the creation. Not inability or unwillingness to empathize with human pain and grief, either. It means simply that God’s experiences do not come upon him as ours come upon us. His are foreknown, willed, and chosen by himself, and are not involuntary surprises forced on him from outside, apart form his own decision, in the way that ours regularly are. J.I.Packer
• God is understandable, but he is not limited by our understanding. 
  • He is not capricious, but he does love for kids. Who he is is NOT based on human involvement but he does involve himself with humanity by choice! 
• One day he will make all things right… 

#2. Mades Right, Vs. 5-6

• Justice will be had. Which should scare you. AS his ambassadors we take part in the work! We care for the widow and orphan, the oppressed, the foreigner, we take a stand against the New Age philosophies, and sexual purity. 
• We are salt & light, a city on a hill, the CHURCH! 
• The answer to both “what’s wrong” and how it’s “made right”?

#3. In Jesus, Vs. 3:1-4

• vs. 1, trinity. 
  • “Before me” and “the Lord…. his temple”
• vs. 2, be ready. He takes what’s wrong and rights it. But how? 
  • The shadow of the cross. 
  • Suffering- fire and soap, speaks to the cross
    • When we don’t know who we are, we look to the cross 
    • we are not getting the things we really want, we adjust our desires based on the cross
    • and life is not working out the way we want it, we run to the cross

Application—> 

• Identity in Christ. Don’t know who we are
• Desire in Christ. Not getting what we want
• Trust in Christ. When life isn’t working out the way we think it should
• 3a. Bring offerings
  • Our responsible act of worship based on the cross! 
• vs. 4, And God’s pleasure? Our continued faith in the cross to be enough for all things wrong made right in Jesus. 
• Gospel—> communion