Sermons

It’s not hard to find institutions that seem all powerful. Nobody can stop them. They’re all over the world. The Mafia. Islamic State in Northern Iraq. The regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. In some parts of the world, the United States, even our own nation, can feel that way. Even in our own country, maybe the government, maybe your employer, seem unstoppable. They can do what they want.

This is nothing new. In Bible times, there were regimes that felt just like that. Institutions, nations, leaders, so powerful, nobody tells them what to do.

It’s hard to imagine your life being on any path, other than the one you’re on.

If your life is going well, you tend to think it will always be like this. If you know God loves you, he’ll always do so.

Or perhaps life’s going badly. You’ve made some big mistakes; maybe you feel you’re paying for them. God will always judge you. He’s written you off.

It’s inevitable. Inevitable God will bless you. Inevitable God will push you away.

It’s easy to feel like that.

Who determines Olivia’s destiny? The kind of girl / lady she’ll end up? The course her life will take?

John and Emma would love to think it’s them, I’m sure. Parents, godparents, friends – all have an influence, but they don’t determine anything. Sorry.

There are two people who do decide the outcome of Olivia’s life.

Most people today, if they believe in God at all, think that they are alright with God. He approves of them. They’re in his good books.

That extends to most of us as well.

The trouble is, if you think that way about God, you stand to miss out on an awful lot. If you don’t have a right view of yourself, you lose in the long run.

Are you ever tempted to give up? Give up your job? Give up as a Christian? Give up living?

Isaiah chapter 35 was written for people who were tempted to give up.

It’s a little tricky – it was written for them, rather than to them. Isaiah ministered from around 740 BC to 680 BC – roughly the 8^th Century before Christ. But lots of what he wrote was written for the people who would live some time later – in the 6^th Century.

Who’s got their hand on the tiller of history?

That’s our question for this morning.

Sometimes you look out at the world. You see conflict in the Ukraine, decades of peace seemingly being unpicked. You see violent people taking a hold of parts of Iraq and Syria. You see Christians on the receiving end of the worst atrocities. You see some in Scotland wanting to be independent, and the actual vote going the other way, and at least one half of that makes you scratch your head.

How do you make the most of your life? That’s the subject of our passage today. But let’s start with a bit of background.

The book of Ecclesiastes describes one man’s search for meaning in life. Most of the book was written by someone called “The Teacher”. Some kind of wise man with a public ministry in ancient Israel.

How did he get on with his quest for meaning? Pretty well. Look at verses 9 and 10 in our chapter: He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

Sadly, we live in a world where there is much pain, much sadness, much suffering.

This is not academic. Many of us live with hardship on a day-to-day basis. And if it’s not us, it’s friend we know, love and care for.

What does God have to say about this? We’re tempted to put God in the dock sometimes. To ask him what he’s playing at.

The Bible contains the story of a man who wanted to do just that. His name was Job. He lived about the time of Abraham. He was a righteous man. Not perfect. Not sinless. But very good and upright.

Today’s Bible reading will come from the book of Job.

I thought I’d introduce it to us before we hear our reading.

Job’s a long book, tucked just before the Psalm in our Bibles. It tells the story of a man named Job, who probably lived about the time of Abraham. We’re told he was rich and righteous. He was rich, with 7 sons, 3 daughters, and so many cattle that he was the greatest man in the east. He was righteous, obsessively devoted to God, concerned that he and his family did not sin.

It’s easy to feel discouraged by the state of the church.

The state of our church: Why can’t we be bigger?

The state of the national church: Why are we such a laughing stock in the media, portrayed as out of date and in decline?

The state of the church around the world: Why are Christians in places like Iraq subjected to such horrendous persecution?

God knows how we feel, and he’s given us many passages in the Bible to encourage a despondent church. And 2 Chronicles chapter 17 is one of them.