Sermon Transcript — July 14, 2007
The God we serve is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. That's one of the ways He describes Himself on several different occasions. The creator of the heavens and the earth and sea and all that's in them. I'm afraid we sometimes take that for granted because God seems to think that's pretty important and He makes that statement in rather bold terms. It's who He is. It's a major identifying sign for us when we begin to get on our knees, for example, and talk to God. Who are we talking to? To whom are we speaking? We are speaking to the creator of the universe, to the creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, a magnificent, wonderful, glorious God as Mr. Ward mentioned even in the opening prayer in praising God.
Let's take a brief look this morning at some of the things that we know God has revealed to us. First, God's power, God's intelligence are infinite. We cannot begin to comprehend God in His real state. All we have to go on is what He has revealed to us in 'dumbed down' language — if I can call it that - that is, human communication. God has communicated with us on our level and so He has explained Himself, defined Himself and revealed Himself through language that we can relate to. But does it really, fully describe Him and allow us to comprehend the greatness and the glory and the power of God? He describes His spiritual glory in physical pictures that we can grasp. And, no doubt, He intends that, obviously, but it is my belief that they are poor representations of the reality.
For example, we know that Moses was instructed to make the Tabernacle in the wilderness on a pattern that God had given him which He said — later Paul tells us — was representative of the very presence of God, the throne of God, the habitation of God. And so, the Tabernacle in the wilderness was modeled after the reality in the heavens. Now, how many of us believe that the heavenly Temple surrounding God's throne or including God's throne - however you would describe the total — is made with badger skins? Probably not very likely is it that the spiritual housing of God is made with badger skins or any of the other multitude of materials and colors and designs and art work that God gave Moses to build the Tabernacle. My point is this, the Tabernacle was physical. It was to represent to man God's presence and God actually put His presence in it and He made it beautiful. You look at all of the design and all the colors and all the various materials, but it was a tent. And it was made of physical things, yet it was intended to help man understand that God has a spiritual Temple in the heavens.
By the same token God, in revealing Himself to us sometimes describes Himself in almost human terms, what we call anthropological terms. He appears to be like a human. Now, of course, we are made in His image and so we should expect some of that and yet does God have, really, the limitations either of mind or body that we have? Well, of course not. Unless we think about it, unless we meditate about it, unless we listen to what God tells us, it might be easy to just take for granted the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. We don't have to work very long to try to create something, whether you are building or whether you are drawing or painting or whatever creative act you might be doing to realize how tough it is to create something. Yet, God created it all. So God's power and intelligence are infinite.
Second, God's purpose for man is tremendous — almost overwhelming in its grandeur because God's purpose is to transform flesh and blood from the dust of the ground into spirit, everlasting life, into the very family of God. God is reproducing His own kind in that sense with building a family over which He will rule forever in righteousness and love. God's purpose for man is so awesome and so awe inspiring. Again, we can't really comprehend that. We believe it. We look forward to it. We hope for it. We want to be part of it, but it's hard for us to really see it in our mind's eye, isn't it, because it's too wonderful for us, to paraphrase David.
Third, God's law. God's law is perfect, converting the soul. Again, as David puts it, God's law converts the soul. That law is complete and thorough and governs every aspect of life, both physical and spiritual. God's law is perfect. It is God's expression of His love to mankind, to His creation. It's a reflection of His perfect righteousness in providing for the wellbeing of His creation. God's law, in other words, is for us. It's good. It's holy and just and pure. And it's one of the most wonderful elements of life that we can possibly have. You dare say almost the most wonderful except that would exclude God, Himself. The full truth of God and God's law is a marvelous reflection of His perfect righteousness, His love, His desire to serve His creation, His desire to see us prosper both physically and spiritually and ultimately become a part of His family.
The fourth thing we might say we know, and I'm certainly not giving you a complete list, but rather a survey — the fourth thing is mankind made in the image of God has never succeeded in walking with God. He has never succeeded in walking with God. From the garden of Eden man sinned and cut himself off from God's presence. Mankind has remained cut off from God's presence ever since in spite of the myriad of religious beliefs and practices extant in the world. Man is under the influence, yea, under the control of Satan, the Devil, who is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning, as Christ described him. Therefore, as the apostle Paul says in the book of Romans, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Further, Paul says, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and that's a reference to eternal death — what we often call the second death from which there is no return and there is no resurrection.
So, mankind has been cut off from the beginning, incapable of knowing God, following God and, therefore, paying dreadful penalties for that ignorance and the consequent disobedience. But the creator of mankind is not content to allow man such a fate. He is simply not content to let man come to his own utter, complete destruction including a second death from which there is no return. The loving, creator God is not content to allow that to happen. Instead He says to the prophet, Isaiah, Isa. 46:9-11 - along in there - He says, I am God, and there is none else. He goes on to say, My counsel... all my counsel ...will stand, and I will do all my pleasure. God's going to see it through to the end. God's going to complete the process. God's going to finish the work. God is going to restore man which brings us to five.
The fifth point, God's plan of salvation is magnificent. God has accounted for every human being who has ever lived on this earth. Every one — billions and billions upon billions which is beyond, again, our comprehension even to count those physical numbers. Oh, we could do it supposedly with computers and census takers, we can figure it out mathematically, but you and I can't comprehend what it is now, almost six billion people — or have we crossed that threshold in the world — we've crossed the six billion threshold somebody says. Six billion people.
Can't even begin to comprehend those numbers. I can hardly comprehend this size congregation. I'm just preaching to 25, 50 at the most, maybe 55 or 60 on a holy day. Come in here and there's lots of you. Of course, I have standing room only in my congregation. We have a small hall and set up the chairs to fill up the entire room and then we fill up all the chairs and so we have a full house. You have lots of empty chairs. I will not call them holes in the congregation — that would be a mistake, wouldn't it. Lots of empty chairs.
We can't account for those billions of people, and yet, God knew them all and if God says he can count the hairs on your head and mine, which He does and He can — and some of us that doesn't take a lot — God has counted the hairs on the head of every human being who has ever lived. Oh, I say He has, He could. He probably didn't bother, but He could have counted the hairs on the head of every human being who has ever lived — billions. And so, God knows. He has a record. He has an understanding and He has determined that every last one of them will have, at some point, the opportunity for salvation.
And even the word, salvation, of course, is limited too, by our human capacity, by our human understanding, because salvation indicates we have to be saved from something. That even doesn't get to the point of what we were supposed to be before we needed saving which is a bigger picture and part of the truth that God has also revealed to us: His purpose for creating man in the first place. But He has determined that every human being will have the opportunity for salvation. Yet He's not rushing around franticly to furiously save all of them, take them out of Satan, the Devil's clutches. Instead He has laid out a long term, carefully considered plan that progresses layer upon layer upon layer down through time and circumstance until that process gives everyone the best possible context for success — at least, so it appears to us. I can't say that dogmatically, but it appears to us from our experience that God calls people at the best time and place for them to succeed spiritually.
God is not interested in calling us and watching us fail. God wants us to succeed. God wants us to be a part of His family, a part of His kingdom and He calls us and gives us that opportunity. And He is calling to salvation today not the masses, not those billions, not even millions in terms of conversion at this time as far as again we've seen evidence. But rather a small handful of disciples to make up His church in this age. Disciples, students, followers, people who are willing to become part of what He's doing.
Sixth, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the miraculous method by which the Father has chosen to redeem sinful mankind. Because the wages of sin is death, God chose to send Jesus to live in the flesh - and to die in the flesh - to pay the penalty for man and it's a miraculous system, a miraculous plan, a miraculous action. But that's what God determined. And then by a resurrection from the dead, Jesus became the firstborn of many brethren. He established the pattern for future resurrections, the resurrection of His brethren beginning at His second coming; the resurrection of those who accept the sacrifice of Christ and yield their lives to God in return.
Seventh, Christ has built His Church. Christ has build His Church and He is the living, active head of the Church today and He is coming again soon as King of Kings to marry His bride, the Church, and rule with her over all the earth and all the universe. Again, beyond our physical comprehension, yet something we know is spiritual truth, something that we have known our entire converted life, but something that is so awesome we never can quite comprehend and grasp it no matter how much study and meditation we might do upon it without God's special revelation and special inspiration. We can't even begin to comprehend that Christ is going to come and marry the bride and that the kingdom of God is going to rule over all the earth. But today, as we gather here on God's Sabbath day, we count ourselves among that small flock. We count ourselves as part of that bride of Jesus Christ that has been called out of the world and given access to the sacrifice of Christ and the ultimate salvation of birth into God's family. We, sitting right here today, physical flesh and blood, dust of the earth, count ourselves as part of the bride of Jesus Christ and the coming family of God.
Now this may be the longest introduction you have heard in a long time, but I've said all of that to ask this: surrounded by all of this wonderment, all of this awe about who and what God is, what is the key to our relationship with that God? What is true Christianity? Is it clinging to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Is it careful obedience to all of God's laws? Is it in-depth knowledge of the scriptures, understanding of God's word? Is it regular prayer, fasting and meditation, bible study? Our relationship with God, the Father, and Jesus Christ includes all of the above, of course. And yet, all of these elements, important as they are, will not be successful in Christianity without an underlying attitude and approach to God. All of those other elements are elements that are, in a sense, fruits and works and actions on our part to interact with God once we have come to an underlying attitude. We find that attitude partially expressed — focused, perhaps, in Micah 6. You know the scripture well. We begin in verse 6.
Mic. 6:6 - Wherewith shall I come before the Eternal, and bow myself before the high God?... What's the key to my relationship with God? ...shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
Well, were those required? Yes, but they fall into the same category as those other elements I just described to you as spiritual elements a little earlier. Is that what God is looking for?
Verse 7 - Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
What does God want? How big a sacrifice does He want me to make? Answer: verse 8.
Verse 8 - He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Eternal require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Interesting construction there. To do justly: that's the law of God, the perfect and wonderful, righteous law of God as our guide for doing justly. And to love mercy: because, guess what, we fall short in trying to keep that perfect law, don't we? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we fall short of that perfection of the law and we need mercy, forgiveness, God's patience, God's longsuffering, God's endurance — mercy in the broadest context of grace and God's love for His creation. So to do justly, to love mercy without which our just doings would not achieve anything. But the third element: to walk humbly with your God — a little less tangible perhaps in one sense, isn't it? It's not an action per se, it's like loving mercy, it transcends what you do. It's a thinking process. It's an attitude. It's a spirit. It's a way of thinking.
It's a way of life to walk humbly with your God. The key word, of course, is 'humbly', isn't it? Of course it would be fine to say, walk with God. But this says so much more than that. It doesn't just say to walk with God but, rather, to walk humbly with your God and I would submit to you today that that walking humbly with God is what makes doing justly and loving mercy possible because those elements must flow from God Himself and, therefore, we must be submitting to God and yielding to God and letting God provide those elements to us. Walking humbly with our God becomes a major key to being able to do anything else that God requires of us.
Let's go back to the book of Isaiah 66 - again to a very familiar scripture to most of us — Isaiah 66:1.
Isa. 66:1 - Thus says the Eternal: "The heaven is My throne, earth is My footstool... You know, it's all Mine. ...Where is the house that you build to Me? Where is the place of My rest? What do I need from you?
Verse 2 - For all those things has my hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Eternal: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word. Again, portraying an attitude — an attitude of trembling before God. An attitude of a poor spirit, a contrite spirit, a humble spirit. Now, we most often think of this in the context of repentance and well we should because contrition, being contrite is, in that sense, being repentant. But that's because we sin. We have to repent. We have to be contrite in order to receive that forgiveness. But it's describing more than just repenting. It's describing an attitude with which we approach God — a spirit, if you will, a humility, an approach, a recognition of who God is and who we are and the difference between us.
...poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at My word.
So what about Adam and Eve before they sinned? What should their spirit have been? What should their attitude have been? They wouldn't have had to be contrite in the sense that we think classically of repentance, but they needed the same attitude, didn't they? They needed a complete and total acceptance that God knew more than they did, that God had an understanding they did not have. That God had the authority to tell them how to live. So, even without sin, a poor and contrite spirit is the attitude with which we interact with God.
Perhaps we need to look at our perfect example, Jesus Christ. John 5:30.
John 5:30 - I can of mine own self do nothing... Here's the Son of God, one who lived as a man for thirty-three and a half years without ever sinning in God's eyes, who kept God's law, who loved mercy — not because He, Himself, needed it in the sense of forgiveness because He loved it as God's way of life and the love for mankind that provided solutions to man's sins and problems. ...I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge... hear? Hear from what? Hear from the source - God, the Father. ...and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.
In a nutshell, here in John 5:30 Jesus says the whole name of the game is to submit Myself into God's hands completely and let God work in Me and through Me so that I don't mess it up. That's the perfect example for you and me. And, of course, He didn't mess it up! He didn't sin. He didn't fail to perfectly walk humbly with His God even though He was the Son of God.
Lots of places we could go to talk about that, but let's move on to John 15 because now Christ, Himself, takes that lesson and passes it on to us. We can certainly read it and pass it on to ourselves in that sense, but Christ, knowing the way we think, passed it on to us in very direct terms.
John 15:5 - I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.
Perfect parallel, obvious conclusion. Christ said, "I can of my own self do nothing. I do the will of my Father." He turns right around and says to us, You can't do anything at all without Me. Without Me you can do nothing. But if you cling to Me then you will bear much fruit."
Verse 6 - If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Verse 7 - If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
We have, then, a relationship with God that says, it doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what I want. To go back to the sermonette we heard earlier, it doesn't matter if it makes sense to me on the human reasoning scale. If God says it, that's good enough. God has a solution. It's a far better solution than I could ever come to. But I have to be willing to submit my life completely into God's hands to accept such a solution or I will be reasoning around it. The key to continual relationship with God and successful Christianity is surrender to God. If you want one word for the sermon just write down 'surrender'. In fact, I titled it, if you look for the CD, I titled it, 'I Surrender'. If there's one word that will fully express what I'm trying to say to you this morning — afternoon now — it is surrender. Surrender in that we give up our reasoning.
We give up our will. We give up the way we think and we yield ourselves completely to God and to Christ in us, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ so that we are doing God's will, not our own. And that's an every day - basically every minute of every day - challenge. I don't care how long we've been converted or how righteous we may be, and I'm not suggesting that we're not, we still fall short. We still face constant challenges to our righteousness. We face constant challenges that require us to make a decision between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing, saying the right thing / saying the wrong thing, feeling the right thing / feeling the wrong thing. On and on it goes. Our lives are made up of so many of those little daily decisions and judgments and situations. Sometimes they are huge. Huge conflicts. Huge challenges that everybody around us knows we are going through. Sometimes they are private little thoughts that all of a sudden sneak into the mind as a fiery dart of the wicked and you have to deal with it. And the only way to deal with it successfully is complete surrender to God's will and God's law in your life, God's power in your life which is even beyond that codification of the law.
James 4. James tells us a little about this attitude as well. James 4, let me just break in here and read the one verse instead of the context for time.
Jas. 4:6 - But he gives more grace... That's a conclusion to the fact that we need that constantly because our minds are carnal ...he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
So, our interaction with God and our capacity to receive His mercy and His forgiveness and His gracious love toward us is a humble attitude — just coming before God in a humble spirit. Verse 10, James repeats it.
Verse 10 - Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Again, humankind wants to exalt itself. Humankind wants to lift itself up, sometimes on the heads of other people, the bodies of other people. But the scripture says, humble yourself and God will lift you up. Now, this is not a sermon about humbling yourself per se, but it fits in the context of what we are talking about because to walk humbly with God requires a complete surrender to God that does not promote self, that does not exalt self, that does not push for personal solutions without God that we have reasoned to be good.
Just a few pages over in 1 Peter 5. Peter says it very directly. He repeats what James said. In the end of verse 5,
1 Pet. 5:5 - for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.
Then the instruction — verse 6.
Verse 6 - Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
So an attitude of putting ourselves into God's hands - in this case where we are using 'humble yourselves' — putting yourselves directly into God's hands, allowing God to make the judgment, allowing God to work it out. It's not just a matter of doing that when we have to repent. It's not just a matter of doing that when we want to crawl before God and say, God, I'm sorry. That was dumb thing I did and I want you to please forgive me." Oh, sure, that's the right time to be humble, but it's not an isolated situation. It's an ongoing attitude, a way of life, day to day thinking. It's a perspective that says, "God is the ruler of the universe. God is the creator of all things. I'm a little speck of dust on this earth and the only way I'm going to succeed is if God decided to do something with me because otherwise I just disappear." Here today, gone tomorrow, as we say.
Going back to Psalm 51. Of course, David had to repent deeply of what we would call serious or dramatic sin, very public, obvious sin. And we often use this chapter and turn to it and study it on the basis of his repentance as well we should. But, again, I'd like to take it a little bit beyond that in terms of what he is actually saying here in Psalm 51 because in Psa. 51:6, let's break in there, he says,
Psa. 51:6 - Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts... Again, that's the heart, that's the attitude, that's the approach. That's not just the physical action, we might say, of keeping a particular law. ...you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shalt make me to know wisdom.
Verse 7 - Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Clean me up. That's the result of the need for forgiveness because of his own sin.
Verse 8 - Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
I have to be healed and restored spiritually. It's an analogy of spiritual breaking of bones.
Verse 9 - Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Verse 10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God... Now, this is kind of a transition, kind of a combination of creating a clean heart by purging the ugly, purging the filth, purging the sin, but it's also a request for an approach and an attitude. Create in me a clean heart, a heart that can know God and know wisdom, a heart that can have a right attitude. Notice: Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Verse 11 - Cast me not away from your presence; and take not your holy spirit from me.
Verse 12 says - Restore unto me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free spirit.
So David is saying, "I need to be able to think like you think. I need to be able to be in touch with You in such a way that I am motivated to serve You without fail - a clean heart and a right spirit." That's David humbling himself before God.
Coming down to verse 16 he makes the same kind of statement that Isaiah did - For you desire not sacrifice; else would I give it: you delight not in burnt offering.
Verse 17 - The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
So it is that attitude, that frame of mind, that complete submission to God that is the hallmark of David's relationship with God here. It's not just his momentary repentance from evil. It is a desire to be in harmony with God, to be in contact with God at all times, to think like God thinks, to have God's mind and spirit working in him continuously. Restore the joy of your salvation. Create a clean heart. Renew a right spirit. That's the approach. That's the attitude.
So how do we evidence this kind of surrender; this kind of yielding ourselves completely to God? Well, as I said earlier, we heard in the sermonette, Proverbs 3. Let's go to Pro. 3 which tells us how to do this.
Pro. 3:5 - Trust in the Eternal with all your heart... okay, we could stop there. That's a wonderful statement. Trust in the Eternal with all your heart... and we might say that sounds great, I think I'll do that, but there's a slight problem with us just accepting that and doing that because there's some other constant, conflicting need in our lives and it's covered in the next line. ...and lean not to your own understanding;
Those two are directly opposite and we are addicted to the second part. Leaning to our own understanding. I know. I understand. I have what it takes to solve my problem. I can do it my way. Sometimes as Christians we like to be, as the old saying says, we like to have our cake and eat it, too. We want to have God's blessing, we want to have God's way, we want to be part of God's Church, we want to be part of God's people, but we want to reason around it our way. We want to determine the solutions we want - or the answers we need - the comfortable way which is the way that feels good to me; the way that seems right to a man. This is the crux of Christianity right here in the Old Testament.
Pro. 3:5 - Trust in the Eternal with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding;
What did Christ say? I am the vine and you are the branches... without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
So, translation: my own understanding produces nothing! My answers, my conclusions, my solutions, my understanding of the problem, my responsibility and response, if I can in dealing with it, is going to produce nothing.
And so, in verse 6 I find the action - In all your ways... when is that? Every moment, every thought, every action, every situation ...in all your ways acknowledge Him...
That's what David was saying when he said, create in me a clean heart, create in me a right spirit. ...in all your ways acknowledge Him... acknowledge that He is the creator of all things; acknowledge that He has a plan for bringing you into His family; acknowledge that you, of yourself, can do nothing. ...and He shall direct your paths.
You will find a solution, you will find an answer, you will reach the goal that He wants you to reach. Now, many, many sermons could be given on the details of each of these elements in terms of obedience to God's law, in terms of loving mercy, in terms of walking humbly with God, and in terms of how we yield ourselves into God's hands day in and day out. We are talking here the overview principle of surrender to God. Now, in the Protestant world generally speaking, there is a process they call conversion which they also call surrender. And they have their special songs for it and their special announcements to make and so forth. I've been there and done that way back many, many, many years ago.
And the idea is that you are supposed to surrender your life to God. And you know what? In theory, that's correct. But most of the time that surrender in most people's lives is a momentary, emotional response to feeling guilty about whatever it is they happen to be feeling guilty about when the minister is giving that altar call and they 'surrender their lives to God'. I did it. It didn't change me. Didn't have anything to do with how I lived from there forward. Made me feel good at the moment. And, of course, they also told me that saved me so why did I have to worry about anything after that? Aw, it's not true of everybody, but in classic religious terms, that's what happens. People "surrender to God" in a momentary burst of emotion and then it's over.
But our surrender to God is a day after day yieldedness, humility, walking with God asking God to renew a right spirit within us, not reasoning around what we know to be our responsibility whether it's to a major law of the Ten Commandments that we can easily identify or whether it's to some feeling we have toward our neighbor or our mate or whomever else it may be where we are compromising with God's truth. It's an ongoing process.
Let's go back to the book of Micah where we started except not exactly to the same verse. Let's go to Micah 7:7. Of course, he's in the midst of describing sins and complexities of life and the dangers of family and friends and trusting people and so forth, and as a contrast to that - as a contrast, if you will, to leaning to your own understanding or to anybody else's understanding for that matter.
Mic. 7:7 - Therefore I will look unto the Eternal; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
Verse 8 - Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise... Here is an absolute conviction of victory, an absolute conviction that even though I have to go through every kind of possible conflict and trouble and defeat even that seems like total defeat, I will rise again. ...when I fall, I shall arise... and of course, that is true of even of physical death. We die, but we will be resurrected. ...when I sit in darkness, the Eternal shall be a light unto me.
What did we read? In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. ...the Eternal will be a light to me.
Verse 8 - I will bear the indignation of the Eternal... I am going to suffer some for my righteousness, for trust in God. I'm going to be looked at as an idiot for following God's way. But ...I will bear the indignation of the Eternal, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause, and executes judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
That's where we are, brethren, that is our hope as we sit here on the Sabbath day recognizing that our God is the creator of the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them; that our God is far beyond our comprehension and our ability to put into human thinking and human reasoning; that our God is great and wonderful and good and that God is going to bring us into His family. But that naturally, humanly and under the influence of Satan, the Devil, and this society we tend to go our own way. We tend to want our way. We tend to reason and conclude different solutions than God does.
And we need to return to the attitude of Micah here and David in Psalm 51 and Solomon's advice in Proverbs: in all our ways, acknowledge Him and let Him direct our paths (Pro 3:6). Christ's own words, cling to the vine and let Him work in us and through us because without Him we can do nothing. We look at all the evidence of who and what God is and what He's doing. And then we look around us at our world, at our lives and our personal convictions, our personal character, our personal weaknesses and troubles and problems. There's only one solution and that solution is to look at that God of the universe and say, "I surrender. I surrender!"