This Blog consists of the 'notes' from my sermon preached Sunday the 10th of Jan. You can get the MP3 @ http://www.goodnewschurch.org.au/record.html
Psalms 102:18
‘Let this be written for a future Generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord’
If I asked you to write something down on paper that brings Glory to God and then I placed it in a time capsule, to be opened in the future... what would you write?
In a time capsule kind of way the Psalmist continues: ‘the Lord looked down from His sanctuary on high, from heaven and he viewed earth.’ Not only did He view earth but He listened ‘to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.’
God Acted.
The context:
*This scripture most likely comes at a time of oppression by the Babylonians, and it is probable that it was written by four different authors who added to the psalm over a period of time.
*We know that Israel had a tough time with neighboring cities and nations spending a fair amount of it's history moving in and out of exile, oppression and war.
To write this statement then is to speak to a situation the writer knows his readers are either currently in or one day will find themselves in and he offers hope, reminding them of Gods favourable actions throughout history.
So we return to the opening sentence: 'Let this be written for a future generation not yet created' and I ask you:
What could you write, or better yet, how can you live in a way that will ultimately bring ‘a people not yet created’ into relationship with God?
What we do today, this week, this year will affect the future. Our actions effect a people not yet born.
NEW THOUGHT: Change happens, duh. But as we begin to understand the things that change in our lives it then becomes our responsibility to effect those changes.
There will be changes to governments, laws, and human rights, even things simple as trading hours, road rules, and train time tables (that's a story for another Blog). And with that knowledge it’s our responsibility to effect those changes so that they remain favourable to the Christian way of life.
Effect change, before change is badly effected.
It’s only been until recently that I’ve come to fully acknowledge my future and that it is heavily looming over me!
I’m sure that we are all at different stages in our future awareness, but today I want to draw out some ideas that will get our minds on the things ahead so that we can help Shape the Future.
1. Be Future Minded
To effectively change the future you need to be aware of it.
Prov 16:9 ‘A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” The second part of the scripture gives no indication that making our own plans is wrong the thing is that if we are tuning our hearts to the beat of Gods, then our plans are going to be where God guides our steps anyways.
2. Be Future Focused
Ever seen me watching a movie? Try talk to me and I won’t hear a word coming out of your mouth because I will be so focused on the show.
In a similar sense we ought to get our attention on the future so that when present day struggles come to distract us we won't loose our Focus.
If we focus our attention on today, then we will get another day. But if we focus on the future, we will get a life time of influence.
True success is seen over a period of time and with great effort. Don’t be disappointed when the tomato plant doesn’t give you tomatoes after one day of being planted.
3. Be Future Orientated
If future minded is the thinking, and future focused is looking, then future orientation is the positioning.
Dictionary.com says: to direct or position toward a particular object, to adjust with relation to.
We need to adjust our lives with our futures in mind. We need to always be taking re-evaluations of our situation and seeing where we line up in terms of our goals. Position yourself for a Powerful Future.
4. Be Future Purposed
To know the Goal of the future.
Looking back to the scripture we see the ultimate goal is; that one day those who don't know God will come into relationship with Him.Our purpose as a Church is to introduce human kind to a Loving, caring God. A God who did in fact create them out of love and then purposed to be in relation with them.Everything we do we should be purposefully creating a future were people meet Jesus. Well that's it. Good on you if you made it to the end, was quite a big one.
Let's be praying for Salvation's and our Futures.
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10.20am. After a big Welcome from Ps Sam and a great poem from Niki Glover we had a special item from the Worship team, 'This is Home' by Switchfoot, and boy the song seemed to fit the situation so perfectly.
