“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:6-11)
I sat down to start a Bible study with two ladies in Minnesota. I had known them for years. Now, finally, they were willing to learn about the Bible. I can remember we were sitting at a table in the park on a hot summer day. I started the class by asking each lady, “If you were to die tonight, where would you go?” The first lady right away said, “Into the ground. That’s it. I know you’re going to talk about some kind of afterlife, but I don’t believe it. When you’re dead you’re dead.” The second lady got very quiet. She said, “I don’t know. I hate thinking about it. I try to avoid death and never ever talk about it.” I remember thinking, “How is this going to work?”
So I did what I’ve been trained to do as a Lutheran pastor: I taught God’s Word week after week. We started with sin and how sinful we are. Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick” (Matthew 9:12). That’s us! We talked about God’s grace and how he loves sinners like us. “It is by grace you have been saved… and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). We talked about how faith in Jesus is the difference between those who go to heaven and those who go to hell. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). We talked about creation and the Trinity and baptism and the Lord’s Supper. For weeks and weeks.
Finally, after a few months, it popped into my mind to ask that same question again. Remember the question I had started with? “If you were to die tonight, where would you go?” They both looked at me like I was crazy and said at the same time, “What do you mean, Pastor? It’s simple. When we die, we’re going to go to heaven with Jesus.” I was a little surprised. “Really? That’s great! But why?” “Because Jesus is our Savior!” How did that happened? How did their thoughts change so drastically in just a few months? Because God’s Word works! Do you believe that?
I shouldn’t have been surprised. That’s God’s promise! “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s Word works as consistently and certainly as the rain and snow. When it rains, the ground always gets wet. There’s never a time when there’s a heavy rain, and you say, “Nope, it didn’t take. It didn’t water the ground.” Impossible. In the same way, the Word works.
It doesn’t always seem that way. God’s Word doesn’t work according to our timing. It doesn’t always work the way we expect it too. For every story like the one I just told, there are other stories of when the Word didn’t seem to have any results. It can seem like God’s Word is the most foolish thing in the world. But that doesn’t change the truth: God’s Word works. Like a seed growing under the ground, God’s Word works in hearts in ways that we can’t see. Just like it did for those two ladies. Just like it’s doing in your heart right now. God’s Word works!
But it sure seems like we have forgotten that. Know why I say that? Because I see Christians insulting and criticizing and using sarcasm with the best of them. I see Christians spouting their political opinions as if their lives depended on them. I see Christians loading guns and preparing for battle. I see Christians insisting on their traditions. In short, I see us Christians acting like everybody else. If God’s Word works, why are we mocking people on the other side? If God’s Word works, why are we insisting on our own preferences. If God’s Word works, why are we trusting in politicians? That makes no sense! What happened to the Word?
There’s a key passage in the book of Ephesians that says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). Listen to that again: “Take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Christians have been given one tool. One weapon. What is it? The Word of God! So let me ask you this: When was the last time you actually read the Bible? This hits home for me. Often I don’t make time during the day for God’s Word. Too many important things to do! Then when I have a free moment, I have a half-thought of picking up a Bible, but I don’t. Instead, I scroll through Facebook or read the news or look up sports scores. But if the Word is like rain, what happens to grass when it doesn’t rain? It dies.
When God’s Word isn’t a daily part of our lives, here’s what happens: We lose the ability to discern what comes from God and what comes from us. I know you can relate to this. You and I hear so many thoughts and ideas every single day. But we’re not quite sure which are really from God and which are people’s opinions. Here’s the result: We start to assume that whatever I think must be what God thinks. I mean, how could God not agree with what I think? Do you fall into this? When God’s Word isn’t a daily part of our lives, we begin to assume that our thoughts must really be the same as God thoughts. That whatever I think must be what God thinks. Right?
Here’s the problem: God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” According to God, our thoughts are not God’s thoughts. Not even close! God doesn’t say, “My thoughts are higher than your bad thoughts.” Or, “My ways are better than your sinful ways.” Even our best thoughts are nothing compared to God’s. Whatever you think your most holy thoughts are, those are not God’s thoughts. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
So how much higher are the heavens than the earth? I looked it up. The clouds? 10,000-60,000 feet up. That’s pretty high up. The sun? 93,000,000 miles up. That’s really high up. The closest star? 4.24 light years away. That number doesn’t mean much, does it? A light year is about 6 trillion miles. So 4.24 light years away would be 25 trillion miles. The closet star is 25 trillion miles away. That’s the number 25 with 12 zeroes behind it. That’s pretty high! That’s how much greater God’s thoughts are than our thoughts. About 25 trillion miles. So how foolish is it when you and I turn away from God’s Word and rely on our own sinful thoughts and evil ways?
So the prophet Isaiah says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” To us who like to think that our thoughts are the best thoughts in the whole world, that our way is the best way in the whole world, God says, “Let go of your thoughts and your ways and turn to me.” There’s a word for that: Repentance. Repentance is when we turn away from our sins. We confess them. And we turn to God in faith. An ancient pastor said, “Show God your face, not your back!”
Because here’s the thing: “Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” When God says that his thoughts are so much higher than ours, here’s the greatest example. It’s something we could never have thought up on our own. When sinners repent and turn to God, what does he do? He has mercy. He freely pardons—forgives! In our hearts, we never could have come up with the idea that we’re saved by Jesus’ death on the cross. That the forgiveness of sins is free. That we’re saved by believing in what God’s Word says about Jesus. Those have to be God’s thoughts, because they don’t come from us!
Imagine you had a friend who was incredibly rich—billions and billions of dollars rich. Then imagine that this rich friend was also incredibly generous—he loved giving money away from a kind and generous heart. If you had a friend like that, what would you do? Here’s what I’d do: Go to him—a lot! Wouldn’t you? We have a God who is incredibly rich in mercy—oodles and oodles of mercy. And our rich Friend is incredibly generous—incredibly generous with his forgiveness. He freely forgives us for Jesus sake. With a Friend like that, what do you do? Go to him—a lot! Turn from your sins, take them to Jesus, and rejoice that he freely forgives.
We could never have thought this up on our own. A guy told me recently that every religion is the same. He’s almost right. Every single other religion in the world teaches you that by doing good, you will gain the prize. That makes sense. That’s our thought: Good people get saved for doing good. But that’s not God’s thought. That’s not God’s thought at all. In fact, that’s as far from God’s thought as the heavens are above the earth. Here’s God thought: Sinners are saved by God’s grace through Jesus. God’s Word is different than every other message in the world.
Friends in Jesus, God’s Word works. It’s worked in your heart—today! Do you want to change hearts and lives? Do you want to have an impact on our messed-up world? “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, … so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Don’t share that nasty blog post—even if it makes your sinful nature feel good at how it mocks your opponents. Don’t spout off on your political opinions—unless you’ve decided that your political opinions are more valuable than God’s Word. Don’t fight any battle with sarcasm or insults. Turn from you ways. Turn away from your thoughts. Turn to the Lord. Turn to his Word. Open it. Read it. How about one chapter a day? When you get up… Before you go to bed… Don’t scroll your Facebook feed one more time. Read the Word. Don’t turn on another show. Read the Word. The Word works! And when that Word is living and growing and working in you, let it out, like rain. Let it water the people you love. You’ll be surprised at how it works!
Steven was the last guy I expected at our new membership class. I asked him why he was there. He said, “This is the only church I’ve ever attended a second time.” I was thinking, “How is this going to work?” Know what we did? We studied God’s Word. Sin. Grace. Faith. Creation. The Trinity. Jesus. Baptism. We were sitting in his kitchen for that lesson—baptism. We finished, and he said, “I want to be baptized.” I said, “Great! Let’s schedule a Sunday at church.” He said, “No, I can’t wait. Right now. Right here. Can I be baptized right here?” So there in his kitchen, this grown man was baptized into God’s family. How is that possible? God’s Word works!
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