September 21, 2014 – Pastor Tim – “Does Anything Matter?”
Psalm 8:3-4,
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
When considering God’s heavens, David wrote, What is man that You are mindful of him? David after looking at all of God’s creation, stops and says, “God did, You even think about it first before You created man, what motivated this thought? Pizza!
The Old Testament circles around this question. Why is God still mindful of man? While toiling in Egypt, the Hebrews slaves could hardly believe Moses’ assurance that God would concern Himself with them.
Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes tries to ask and answer this question, “Does anything matter?” What matters is only what matters to God.
Ecclesiastes 12:6-8,
Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
Or the golden bowl is broken,
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,
Or the wheel broken at the well.
7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”
Positions, possessions and money won’t matter.
In verses 13-14, King Solomon goes on to say,
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
When we discover what matters to God, what we do will matter.
The Israelites made a stirring declaration at a low point in their history as Isaiah prophecies that they would be taken away captive to Babylon.
Isaiah 49:14b they lamented, “The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.” And God answered them in Isaiah 49:16 saying, See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
For the believer, God has given a series of promises throughout the Word, in which He sets the stage of hope for deliverance from hostile enemies. He foretells of the birth and sacrificial death of our Lord and Savior.
Do we matter to God? God’s answer is found in
Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
(God with us) God sent His Son.
Romans 5:6-11, For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
The fact of Jesus’ coming is the final and unanswerable proof that God cares.
2 Corinthians 5:18, Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
All God’s children matter to Him!
And our ministry is to do, to be involved in the things that matter to God.
The way we end up wondering if God cares is by forgetting what real matters… and what matters? reconciliation.
God’s plan is to reconcile all His children to Himself.
And He wants our help!
Would you like to know what matters… love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, relationship…these are the things that matter. There will be plenty of time for judgment and you and I won’t be the judge.
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