Hills Connect Youth Service (26-Jul-2015)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mt Barker, 7pm.

Click here for PDF file of sermon for printing.

May the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Tonight for our Hills’ Connect service, we have as our theme, as you already know, “Celebrating your .06”. Now, the reason for this is because it is said that there .06% of a person’s DNA which is supposed to be different from other people.

Now, I have to say that this theme for tonight was David Heyne’s idea—I’m not saying this to blame him. But I bumped into another pastor during the week, who thought that tonight’s intriguing, quirky theme was actually my idea, and thought that I was the nerd! (No offense, David!)

Anyway, as we’ve been already talking about—our theme for tonight has to do with the way in which God has created us, but also that he has created each of us uniquely. And I’d like to share with you some of my favourite bible verses about this. The first passage comes from Psalm 139, which we’ve already read from tonight. I’d like to read from Psalm 139, where it says: For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. You eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

When we talk about the way in which God creates each of us, one of the thing that strikes me about this is the fact that God creates each of us in the same way. Each of us have that in common—and most of us have most of what we have in common. Each of us was formed in our mother’s womb. We were all created in secret. And yet, no one who has ever lived in the history of the world has ever been anything like you, or like me. We are completely individual. And it’s amazing how God has been able to come up with all kinds of different personalities, and how we can also be so incredibly similar, and yet incredibly unique. Don’t you think that’s amazing?

So if we look at the Psalm 139, which I just read, it doesn’t say: You knitted us all together in our mother’s womb, or You knit people in general in their mother’s womb. The text says: You formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Do you see? This is personal. This is about me.

I have met so many people who consider Psalm 139 to be one of their favourite psalms. And then at the top of Psalm 139 it says: A psalm of David. This is one of King David’s psalms. And just think about his unique like. Here was a young man who called in a wonderful way for God’s purposes. He is even calls him a man after God’s own heart. We see him as the youngest boy in a family, where he had many older brothers. David ability to be able to fight off lions and bears when looking after a flock of sheep served him well later in life when he had to then fight off Goliath. Then we see him become king, and he became a wonderful poet too, writing these psalms that we find in the bible. And so, God formed his inward parts. God knitted him together in his mother’s womb.

But then, here we are 3000 years later. And we are still enjoying this psalm, and we are still enjoying these words and praying them and learning from them. And can you think about how many thousands and thousands of people all the way up to Jesus, and then even Jesus himself, and then after Jesus who have prayed this psalm? And each person who has prayed it has thought about the wonderful miracle of how God has created each of us in his own image, and yet, we are all completely unique, with completely individual personalities.

I’d like to share a couple of other verses with you about this topic. First of all, I’d like to read from Isaiah 43:1-4. We read there: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honoured, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

Isn’t that a wonderful passage? We read that God has created us, formed us, redeemed us, called us, and then how he protects us.

I have a particularly favourite passage about how God creates us so uniquely, and this passage comes from Job 10. I think you’ll probably enjoy this passage very much too! We read from verses 10: Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.

Isn’t that a great picture that the Holy Spirit gives there, that we are all shaped and formed like cheese? Now, when you listened to that passage, what type of cheese did you think of? I must say that I thought of something like Ricotta cheese, but maybe some of you thought of cheddar, or Camembert. Of course, we know there’s hard cheese, soft cheese, young cheese, old cheese, fresh cheese and the best of all, smelly cheese. What kind of cheese are you? Now, I’m not really much of a cheese connoisseur, but you know, I always think that cheese never tastes the same. For example, can you imagine of those blue cheeses with all the mould in them? Not one of those types of cheese is the same—the mould is never in the same place. It’s never exactly the same. And yet the same goes with us—none of us are exactly the same. Each of us have a different character—some of us a more smooth, or more bitey. You get the idea!

So it’s a great miracle that even though God creates us all the same, he still makes us all unique. Even though we have different characteristics and different personalities, we also have so much in common. It’s amazing to think about how different we are, but then we often make friends from people who are like us. It’s a real joy to find someone who is like us in so many ways!

But you know, there’s also a dark side to this topic. It’s not just that we are all created by God, but we are also all fallen people, we are all sinners. And just as we are all equally created by God, we are also equally fallen, sinful human beings.

But also, just as we are equally created, and yet different people, also we are also equally sinful, and yet we all sin in different ways. And sin cuts us off from God, and then the devil wants to come and accuse us. And sometimes we look at our own hearts and we might find there some particular sin which actually really bothers us. I know that I have my own particular struggles, and my own particular sin. And then I know there are certain things that I would never want anyone to know about. What about you? Do you have a pet sin? Something that really bothers you? You try to shake this thing off, but maybe you just keep on disappointing yourself, and you keep on doing what you hate doing.

Then what happens is that the devil cuts us off from God, and says, “Your sins are too unique, too individual, too serious for Jesus’ blood to cover.” Have you ever felt like this?

And yet, it’s not true—Jesus really did die for each and every single one of your sins. He died for the ones that you have in common which every other person on the planet, but he also died for the sins that you think are unique. And sometimes, you might look at your personality and your sin, and you don’t even know where your personality stops and your sin begins. And you might think, “If I was without that part of me, I don’t know what I’d be like.”

Jesus died for you. He has called each of you by name. He has created you so incredibly uniquely, and this is so important, because it also means that he has such a unique love for each of you, and he forgives you not just in general, but for all the unique things, all the things that disappoint you uniquely, and all the things that you wrestle with by yourself and on your own. You are never on your own—Jesus is always with you.

But someone told me something recently which I’ve been thinking about more and more. Sometimes I’ve looked back at my life, and I’ve thought, “Why did God let that happen to me?” I might look at some tragedy that happened, or some problem that I struggled with, and I think, “I know Jesus loves me, but why didn’t he help me out of that problem sooner? Why did he leave me struggling with that for so long?”

But then, God knows how unique each of us are, and he knows where all of our vulnerable points are. And sometimes I wonder if God takes away his guard just for a moment, so that we are tested for a little while. It’s not God who tempts us. God doesn’t want us to sin, but at the same time, he still wants to prepare us for service in his kingdom.

Jesus forgives us completely, and yet sometimes we have to wrestle with things for a while, and we suffer and struggle with things that are completely unique to us. But then when these things finally come to an end, then Jesus shows us just how loving he really was all the way along. And then, we realise that the things we struggle with have been things that other people are struggling with. We are not as unique in our problems as we might have thought, and then we realise that we have developed a sympathy for those people who are like us, and we are able to show love to particular people who other people are not able to. For example, let’s say someone got really sick with some kind of disease, and then they recovered. And all the time through the sickness, they found that people just didn’t talk to them the same anymore. People didn’t like being around them, because they thought it was depressing being with a sick person. And then the person gets better, and they feel a bit betrayed by their friends who really weren’t there for them when they were really in need. But then God is able to use them in a new way—he opens our eyes to other people who are sick and who need strength and support, the strength or support that we didn’t get when we needed it.

So what I mean to say is this: God has created us all, but has also created us individually. Jesus has died for us all equally, but he has also saved us each individually. And also the Holy Spirit works in us through all kinds of troubles and sufferings, so that when we come through it, the Holy Spirit can use us in a unique way to serve in his kingdom.

Today in our morning services, we read readings about Jesus walking on the water. Isn’t it amazing how Jesus does this? And yet, what a hopeless group of disciples are there in the boat. And yet, Jesus cares about them, and he wants to use these people with their unique personalities, and their unique problems, all for him, and all for his service. And with Jesus, nothing is impossible. He can even walk on water.

So what do you think makes you different? What makes your particular brand of cheese unique? How has God created you in a unique way? But also, when you think about Jesus and the way that he died for you and the way he has forgiven all of your sins, what are most grateful to Jesus for saving you from? And yet, where is Jesus going to lead you? How is he going to use you? What is he going to do specifically with you? What kinds of things do you think hinder you in serving Jesus? Remember Jesus walked on the water—nothing hindered him. And even we read that Peter came out and walked to Jesus on the water.

So it’s a wonderful gift to be able to be here with this group of unique people, created uniquely and individually by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s a wonderful gift to be able to come and hear God’s word, and to hear the forgiveness of sins for us. It’s a wonderful gift to be gathered by the Holy Spirit in the one place. But it’s also a wonderful gift to be sent by the Holy Spirit into our own unique corner of the world, with our unique family, our unique circle of friends, and our unique circumstances. No-one has ever been you ever before. No-one has ever lived the same life that you have. And yet, Jesus have saved you, and has died for you, and risen from the dead for you, he has baptised you as his own child. And now he calls you—he chooses you, and he sends you, where you have never gone before. If you have God’s word, then you will have everything you need. If you have forgiveness of sins—and Jesus promises you the forgiveness of sins—then you have everything. And nothing is impossible with God.

So let me finish by reading once more from Psalm 139:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderful made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

Amen.

Dear Jesus, bless us tonight generously with your Holy Spirit. You have created us, you have saved us—and yet we do not know where will send us. Use us for your service, and for your kingdom, and send us wherever you want. Make our hearts willing to serve you, that we can be used in all of our uniqueness for you. Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all. Thank you Jesus for love toward us. Amen.