The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 7th February 2010 by Robin Hawkins
"If God Doesn't Show Up, We're in Trouble!"
- Phil 4:10-20
Before going away, I spoke about "Sowing & Reaping". This is the principle that if we give to God, He will give back to us. But it's not just about money, but every area of life. If we sow love and friendship, that's what we'll get back. But if we sow deception and dishonesty, that's going to rebound on us. "Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind" predicted Hosea. Or "What goes around, comes around" - as they say.
I wonder, do we have any testimonies here resulting from that teaching? Anyone who gave to God in faith that He would give them what they needed?
I've been deeply exercised by these things while we've been away, and have given a lot of thought to them. I had been going to speak this morning on something completely different, but that'll keep. I believe there is still much that needs to be said on this issue. I know there are quite a number of us who are struggling financially at the moment, so this will be particularly relevant for you. But actually, all of us have got to learn to trust in God only for all our needs.
So this is my first question this morning: "Who are you depending on for your needs? Now many of us are blessed with jobs that provide regular income. Those jobs are God's provision for us and we should always be thanking Him for them. However, as some of us are discovering in these times of recession, jobs are hard to come by, and the ones we have we can't depend upon to always be there.
Some of you have asked the church for help and we've helped where we could. But you perhaps need to know that in this last year, we spent, lent, gave 10% more than we received in. Now I'm not saying that to put pressure on you to up your giving, but it stands to reason, that we won't be able to do that for very long. So I come back to the question: Who are you depending on to meet your needs?
Let's cut to the chase: God's goal is for us to be dependent upon Him in everything. When it comes to material provision, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. If He has to sell one in order to meet our needs, that's what He'll do.
THE CHAIRMAN'S SONG
The paradox in all this is that when things are going well, and we have a good job and a good income, we tend to forget that God has provided it, and rely on our income. There was a wise old bird called Agur who realised this, and his prayer is recorded in Proverbs 30:7.
" give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise I may have too much and disown You and say, "Who is the Lord?" [Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonour the name of my God.]" It's actually when we don't have enough that we are cast upon God in utter dependency. This is when we have to keep reminding ourselves that God loves us and keeps His covenant with us. He know exactly what's going on in our lives - He knows what isn't in our bank accounts before we do. He knows our thoughts, our reactions. He is on our case. You are not forgotten or abandoned. He is all-powerful and can teach the Bank of England a thing or two about Quantitative Easing - or creating money where there was none!
God's willingness and ability to provide is not in question. Neither is His wisdom. Remember, His primary goal is to make us like Jesus, and prepare us for eternity. So in those times when He doesn't appear to be coming up with the goods - what's the issue? What's He after? There might be more than one answer to this question:
1. It might be: Stop being lazy. You could get a job if you tried. So we have to do our part. Slightly more contentious is the possibility that we might have to put our own ambitions on a back burner - you know, that desire to be a Professional Footballer - while we get what we can to pay the bills!
2. It might be God wants to be more than a cupboard love - we just go to Him when we want something. He might want to use the situation to get us to build up our relationship with Him, get into the Bible a bit and spend time with Him. That builds our knowledge of God, and our confidence in Him.
3. Assuming we're doing our part, I want to suggest to you that what God is looking for is faith. We need to see life as a Discipleship Course. Jesus never missed an opportunity to disciple the 12. If they were arguing about who was the greatest, He'd take them aside and teach them about servant-leadership. If people needed feeding, He'd tell them to do it.
Faith is what pushes God's buttons. He delights in it - simply because we're not just saying we believe that God is all powerful, all-loving, and knows what He's doing - we're acting on it. We don't panic when He doesn't turn up immediately. We know He'll be there when He has to be. But He will put our faith to the test - to see if we really are going to act on what we say we believe. He will find ways of drawing more faith out of us. Will we press on through? Will we keep on believing?
Christian testimony is strewn with examples of what I call 1159 faith - God showing up at the last moment! George Mueller set up orphanages in the 19th Century - by faith. He was totally dependent upon God. He told of times there was no food to set upon the tables, but they gave thanks for their supper anyway - and as they did there was a knock on the door and a gift of groceries.
The early days of Teen Challenge were similar: a lot of money was needed for a stage payment on their Rehab Centre. Without it they would have lost the Centre. Dave Wilkerson was confident God would provide. The midday deadline was approaching. Nothing in the morning mail. The workers went into the chapel and gave thanks for God's provision. Suddenly there was a knock on the front door with a Special Delivery envelope. Inside was a cheque for the $15,000 needed.
This kind of 1159 faith is something God's asks of us for a season. It doesn't seem to happen like this for everybody, but He will test our faith one way or another; because He's training us to stand in faith. Once we've learnt the lesson, our supply comes in quite naturally, and as needed.
Jesus taught us to give anonymously. There's a number of reasons for that, but one of them is so that the person on the receiving end gives thanks to God, not the giver. When we see our gift coming from the Lord, it increases our dependence on Him, rather than others. I wish when we give as a church we could do it anonymously, but it's not so easy from a practical point of view. But I want to see people dependent on the Lord, not the church.
So my goal this morning is to point you to Father God as your Provider, and to raise your faith-level to trust Him alone for what you need. Who He uses to meet that need is up to Him. It could be anybody, but that's between Him and them, and it's best that you don't know, lest it takes your eyes off God.
Once we get to this place of seeing God as our Provider, you may find your faith is such that you don't need to tell others of your needs, but you take them instead to the Lord only. That's a good place to get to, if you can do it, if your faith will stretch to it. Hudson Taylor did that, and one or two people in this church live like that, so it's not an impossible place to get to.
Listen, this stuff works! I'm not preaching this to fill your minds with more information, but because I want to give you the best way I know of getting your needs met. We've already seen that Northern Rock is extremely rocky right now. To quote Larry Norman, "Jesus is the Rock that doesn't roll". He's the one sure thing that you can depend on. Let me urge you to put your trust in Him, not only for this life, but also for eternity. Amen!
