Flood

This week at camp, we talked each evening about part of what it means to trust God. We talked about having courage and we talked about God’s healing power. We likened the relationship with God we sometimes settle with to a bird bath when God desires an ocean for us. Tonight, as we have come home to all of the difficulties that life has to offer, I want to speak with you about what an honor it is to experience the flood of God’s grace.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water. So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse.’ And it was so. God called the expanse sky. Evening came and then morning: the second day. Then God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and He called the gathering of the water seas. And God saw that it was good.”[1]

God’s progressive work on the earth

            I hope to just share with you regarding God’s truth and our trust this evening. One of the truths regarding God’s creative nature is this: God’s work both in creation and in recreation is progressive. In Jeremiah, chapter 33, we read that God created what He created in order to establish it. I was not a mature Christian at the moment at received the lordship of Jesus Christ in my own life. I needed to grow, and that growth was a part of God’s perfect plan. Still, there is much growing to do on my part! Here, in the creation story, we read of a God who first creates material, water, and then uses that material to intimately create an earth where His people will reside. God’s progressive work is evidence that God desires intimacy, not only with humanity, but with all of creation.

God’s progressive work in our lives

            Just as God has always worked progressively, both in creation and recreation, we can always know confidently that He is always working within us and through us. It is called sanctification and here is the best part, God began working in us before we even considered His name! Today He works in us. Tomorrow He will work in us. For the rest of our lives and afterward, God will always be working in us both as individuals and as a community under His authority and lordship.

Separation of water from water

            God acted, separating water from water and creating the sky and the atmosphere all around us creating a perfect habitable planet for His people to live and to be in relationship with Him. For us, this creates a perfect picture of the nature we were born into, with both body and spirit which are separate but of the same essence and connected together eternally. The body and spirit were not always separate, though. Before mankind’s fall from the graces of God, the body and the spirit acted as one. Now, just as God enables nature’s rain, He has enabled through Christ our body and our spirit to connect with one another as His grace rains in our life. We experienced that grace this week at camp and my prayer is that all of these students and adults continue to experience that grace throughout their lives and throughout the life of this church!

Need for spiritual rain

Each person is in need of spiritual rain. Our souls are in need of constant revival and revitalization. If our carnal or physical existence never meets with our spiritual existence in Christ, we quickly become burnt out on our faith and on life.[2] We get tired more easily and we lose a passion that we once encapsulated. We lose our spiritual fervor and fail to accomplish the work that God has set aside for us to accomplish as individuals and as a church body. This is the importance of coming together as a church. This is the importance or spending time alone with God. If we do not enter into God’s presence, we will never receive that grace like rain. We will never receive rest. We will never accomplish the work that God has for us to accomplish either as individuals or as a community.

Separation of land and sea (look at the continents)

God declared, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” God separates the water from the land in order to make possible the existence of creatures made in His likeness. As we put our imagination glasses on I want us to think about the statement as it is presented in scripture. If God gathered the waters into one place, then the land also occupied one space on planet earth! It may be scripturally relevant to note that there was a God-designed Pangaea that beheld God’s personal Garden of Eden. Unfortunately continental drift caused this super continent to break apart separating land from land and sea from sea. In this current world, there must be separation between one body of believers from another due to doctrinal and theological differences in local church bodies. It is no coincidence that in Revelation, chapter twenty-one and verse one, John mentions that there would no longer be any sea. The sea had come to symbolize separation even as John was separated by the sea from other believers. God’s people will one day not only experience a recreation of the body-spirit connection, but will also experience a complete unification with the entire church body! We should do everything we can to encourage such a unity now, as we live on this earth that has so been impacted by man’s fall.

Need for recreation

All of this being said, there is, and will always be a need for recreation in our lives, in our hearts and our minds. My challenge to you is to never disable yourself from the work God is doing in your lives and in this church. If God is not finished, we have no right to ever give up the work that God has given us to do. Revival should be experienced everyday as we stop to thank God for everything He has done, is doing and will continue to do. Let it be know that God is King! Share the life that you have with others around you, and let no one within your circle of influence have the excuse: I was never told. See, God will put the world back together. God will unify His people under His name. God will do away with all imperfection, and unless we are found in Christ, we will be done away with because we are imperfect. The only worthwhile life is a life in Christ. Let there be light!