3.19.23 Sermon Afterthoughts
Greetings Church Family,
The bronze serpent! What a fantastic story! What great news for you and me that God shows his patience and kindness to those who can often be impatient, ungrateful, and grumbling. What we sing is true: Our God is a God of amazing grace! From a distance of a few thousand years, it can sometimes be difficult to see how so little has changed in human behavior. Even now, I'm sure you would say that you have seen God work in powerful ways through your life and still, just like Israel, we are prone to doubt that He will care for us, that He is working for our good, or that He is going to finish what He began in us.
Even in the book of Numbers, God is working for the ultimate good of His people AND the eventual glory of His Son. Looking back, we can see that this bronze serpent, this curse on the pole, was pointing to the day that Jesus, the Son of God, would take on himself the curse of sin. Israel was told to look and live. You and I are given the same good news: Look to Jesus on the cross and not only will you be healed of the poison of sin, you will be given the gift of eternal life. This is true for anyone at any place at any time. You may be impatient like Israel. You may even be a murderer like Paul or an adulterer like David. No matter what sin you have committed, you can come to him in confession and faith and be healed.
Not only is this healing a complete forgiveness of sin and declaration of righteousness, the Spirit of God will, throughout this life, be at work in you to make you in practice what you have been declared in reality. The Bible calls this the process of sanctification. God is at work making you holy and cleansing you of sin. One day, this process will be complete. One day, you will be made like Him for you will finally see Him as He is. To see Christ is to be made like him, so brother and sister, Look to Jesus. Below are questions for consideration.
1. How does the fact that we will one day see Jesus affect your today?
2. What sin in your life have you grown content to live with?
2. How does the Bible call us to fight against our sin? How are you pursuing that work in your life?
Join us in giving thanks for Bobby and Judy Sanderson in their faithful love and service to this church for 24 years. The Lord has been kind to this church through them. Be in prayer for them as Bobby retires at the end of this month.
Beside you in the fight of faith,