TEACH US TO PROFIT

Eltham Baptist Church 30th Sept 2012

No. 391

"Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea." Isaiah 48:17-18

One thing we need to realise in these trying times is that God wants to continue to bless us, and He wants us to profit. It's not so much the sort of profit that comes from a big win in Lotto, but more of a profit that we've earned through His personal teaching and guidance. He says, "I am the Lord who teaches you to profit." He can do that if we'd listen. God isn't a killjoy who wants us to live in poverty. There is a mentality in the Church from the Dark Ages that considers poverty to be the only true sign of holiness and to prosper is downright sinful. It makes money out to be evil but this is not scriptural. It's the love of money that is evil and there is a big difference. Look here at John.
"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." 3 John 1:2

Scripture says plainly that God wants us to prosper and be in health. He wants us to prosper in finances and health as much as He does in our spiritual life. If you just go with the flow then you'd get the impression that God doesn't want us to be well. It seems like everything in life is against us being healthy or prosperous. Life seems to be constantly bombarding us with sickness and debt. It's a real battle to stay well, keeping colds away and our heads above water financially isn't it? I really love the word picture that God paints here in Isaiah 48. He has redeemed us, bought us back for the purpose of training us up to profit if we'd just listen, and then leading us in the right pathway of life. He says that if we'd listen to Him speaking to us by His word and by the Holy Spirit our peace would be like a river. Rivers are a force to be reckoned with.
"Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river,"

The other week we looked at what this word 'peace' meant in Hebrew. It's the word Shalom which covers more than just a nice feeling when all is well with the world. The word Shalom means total well being, healing and wholeness: and yes prosperity. It carries with it the implication of nothing missing, nothing broken. Shalom is a word that is so far, beyond our modern understanding of what real peace is. God wants to give us peace like a river. Have you noticed how you can't stop a river. You may dam it up for awhile but you'll need to let something go eventually. As children my sister and I spent many hours on the beach with our parents. We'd go fishing on lonely windswept beaches covered in drift wood and miles of sand and a few rocks. Not like many of the beaches you'd see in England that are covered in pebbles. Some beaches I saw there had to have sand trucked in to make them more user friendly and yet there were always heaps of people there. Every place we went with my parents in NZ there were small clear streams flowing onto the beach that were a great opportunity for play. One thing we'd love to do was block the stream with sand, wood and rocks. It was real easy at first if the stream was small. After a while there would be a breakthrough of water but you could get it under control with 2 of you throwing buckets of sand on it. The water would back up again and start pouring around the edges but you could fix that. Soon it was breaking through in the middle and on the sides at the same time and then be beyond redemption. You just can't stop the flow of the water. God says that He wants our Shalom to be like a river, breaking out on the right hand and the left with prosperity, health and total well being flowing out of your life. Don't you want that? We can have it if we listen to Him. He has instructions that He wants to give us to bring us to this place. Because of this blessing in our life the word goes on to say that 'our righteousness' will be like the waves of the sea. "And your righteousness like the waves of the sea." What does this mean? I thought God was against 'our' righteousness? Doesn't it say..
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6

We need to understand that there are 2 types of righteousness in the Bible. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:14 that we are to put on the breastplate of righteousness as part of the armour of God. Have you noticed that we all have 2 breasts as part of our anatomy? So there are two parts to our righteousness as well; the righteousness which is our right standing with God that Christ has given us as a gift - hallelujah. We stand before God in the righteousness of Christ and not our own righteousness which is as filthy rags in His sight. Phil 3:9, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Romans 3:22 The other type of righteousness is our righteous acts or good deeds before God. I can't earn His favour to get to heaven but I can show my appreciation to Him by doing good and blessing others. If you try to stand before God in this righteousness you will be rejected. The Bible is full of the good righteous acts of those who loved God.
"In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor." Acts 9:36

When we listen to God He says that our righteous acts will be like the waves of the sea. Have you ever tried to stop the tide coming in? You can't do it. There was once a King who tried to use his power to stop the tide and even as the King of England he didn't have that kind of power. Legend says that King Canute the Great, sat on his throne on the seashore, with waves lapping round his feet. Canute had learned that his flattering courtiers claimed he was "So great, he could command the tides of the sea to go back". Now Canute was not only a religious man, but also a clever politician. He knew his limitations - even if his courtiers did not - so he had his throne carried to the seashore and sat on it as the tide came in, commanding the waves to advance no further. When they didn't, he had made his point that, though the deeds of kings might appear 'great' in the minds of men, they were as nothing in the face of God's power. He stated; "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings. For there is none worthy of the name but God, whom heaven, earth and sea obey". Another fun thing my sister and I used to do at the beach was dig a hole in the sand and surround it with a high wall of rocks, wood and more sand as the tide came in. It was better if you had a shovel and bucket to aid the progress. Slowly the tide would advance with the first few waves failing to breach your fortress. Soon a big one would break through but you had time to fix that up. Suddenly you were overwhelmed with the advancing waves and you fortress was soon be swamped and you had to abandon ship and flee for higher ground. After high tide you'd return to the place and see no evidence that our fortress had ever existed. The folly of trying to stop the waves of the sea. God says that because of this river of peace (Shalom) our righteousness would be like the unstoppable waves of the sea. What does this mean? I believe it means that God will teach you how to prosper and be a blessing to man. You will be able each day to send wave after wave of righteous acts upon those around you. You may say that it's ok for you Pastor but I'm too young or too old and I can't get out anymore. There are many ways to do righteous acts. You can pick up the phone, write a letter, bake a cake or pray for someone. When we were in Bible College we were given the assignment of looking in the phone book and choosing someone at random to phone and ask if they had any prayer requests. One lady was just committing suicide by swallowing a toxic mixture and the call saved her life and she and her family then came to church. We need to do random acts of kindness in this life. Each year I buy some $2 Calendars and send them to folk in other parts of the world. Every now and then I buy a postcard and send it to folk overseas, especially older people in past congregations. Think of those who have blessed you in the past and bless them with an email or a letter now and then. I recently put together a booklet with prints of my past paintings and sent them to a lot of the folk who had ever brought a painting from me in the past, as a thank you. Visiting the needy and blessing someone else with your expertise is a good idea. God says He will teach you how to profit. You may say you are not clever and have nothing to give, maybe it's time to teach yourself something new. Why not go on a computer course or learn a new language. I'm always able to help people fix their computers with what I have learnt over the years. If you have good eyesight you could read to some older person who can't see that well. You may not be able to afford to support a child through Tear Fund but

could find someone who has already and get some information about the child and write an extra letter to the child or make a nice card. With the river of peace flowing from you into a sea of righteousness you'll truly be a blessing. Ezekiel 47:9, Isaiah 54:2-3 Psalm 85:10 http://hottersermons1.blogspot.com