Hymn 259.
Collosians
1:23, “If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul am
made a minister.” I have been thinking of this matter of being
settled. A few days after September 11, we were driving through Seattle. Above were military planes. They passed over lots of times. We had
seen commercial planes doing this before but not F15s. We never
thought we would ever see this. Was it necessary? No, it was an
overreaction. Yes, it was proper to shut down all commercial planes. Yes, but we did not need F15s flying over the major cities of America
to protect the people. It was an overreaction. The reason for this was
that the U.S. was unsettled, so they overreacted. God wants us to be
settled because, if we are unsettled, we will overreact. It will be
obvious that we are unsettled. We are all dust. Dust is prone to
be unsettled. In God, we can be settled. Jesus saw the precious
privilege of being a part of the kingdom that would not be moved. God is settled. God’s kingdom is very settled. There may be an
issue if we remain part of this kingdom. The kingdom is very stable. There is no issue that it will continue. Satan has very effective
tools to unsettle us, to come to the condition where we will feel
uncomfortable in the presence of God. We need to be settled in Christ,
be settled in the Holy Spirit, and settled in God. Psalms 1 speaks
of the tree planted by the river. The roots going to the source. There is fruit. There will never be quality spiritual fruit if
we are not settled. Peace, rest are some of the things that settle us.
There are a few people in the bible who were settled. We are like dust. It is so easily unsettled. Just takes a puff of wind, and it is
all disturbed. Noah was settled into the work of building the ark. This
was the work God had for him to do. He settled right into it. It
took a long time. It was not without opposition. When the ark was
getting big enough, people would be asking questions, "Why build the ark?" He would tell them how God felt about sin. His neighbour
would say to him, "Do you think that I am a sinner?" Noah stayed settled.
Joshua was settled. It does not matter what you do but, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. He was settled. Ruth was
settled in following Naomi. Jephtah was settled in sacrifice. Daniel
and his three friends had it settled. They were not going to bow down to
the gods of the king of Babylon. When the music played, they were to bow
down. A little voice would be telling them, "Now is a perfect time
to adjust your shoelaces." If you think that these men had faith before
they entered the fire, now think of the faith they had after the fire. If we settle things, God will do things for us. We will have
more faith than we ever had before. An anchor, pillars, a foundation are pictures of being settled. There are many things in life that are not fair. If we are not settled, these things are going to move us. Ecclesiastes 4:4, “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour, this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.” This is not fair. Consider a man who works hard, does well. His neighbour envies him, and they cannot have good fellowship. 5:8, “If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgement and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter, for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they.” This is not fair. This oppression and perverting of judgement that we see around us. 5:10, “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase, this is also vanity.” This also is not fair. 7:15, “There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.” This is not fair. 21, “Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.” This is not fair. 8:11, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” There is nothing fair. 9:14, “There was a little city, and few within it, and there came a great king against it and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man.” This man was forgotten, not fair. All these things in life are not fair. Life is not fair. We need to remember that eternity is fair. If we expect life to be fair, it will unsettle you. God is fair. Eternity will be fair. Life is not fair. We should not expect it to be. Romans 8:28, this is a verse that has
meant a lot to me over the years. It is a favourite verse. “And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God.” All
things, all work, Paul could say, "We know." He was not guessing, not
hoping. Things will work for good. These promises are for the New
Testament church. They are not for everyone. This verse helps to
settle us. If we think that things work against us, we will get
distressed and disgruntled and frustrated. We know that all
things work for us. This makes a tremendous difference to our
attitude and spirit, when we know that all things work for us. In our
experience, we cannot choose dark or fine days. We can have faith to
believe this verse. It will make a difference to our spirit. Luke
22:42. Jesus prayed 3 times asking his father to remove this cup. This
was the hardest struggle that Jesus had faced up to this point. It
was not something that he had settled for the first time. It was to
keep them settled. "Not My will be done" is a prayer that is important. One thing is more important when we pray, "Thy will be done." If
we are willing to pray this prayer, we will find that there are more
angels sent to us to strengthen us. This prayer becomes more important
with the passing of time. In the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the words
of Jesus were simple words coming from the depth of His heart, When
greater challenges came, His words were just keeping things settled.
Jesus often spoke of the crucifixion from the beginning of his ministry.
In Matthew 14, we find Peter on the water. He saw the waves, the storm. Though Peter was an experienced fisherman, he was afraid. He
had every reason to be. Once a year, the wind came from the east and
blew very hard. The mariners did not move far from the shore on
the sea of Galilee. Peter was walking towards Jesus. He started to
look around, and he started to sink. The key for Peter being
settled again was to focus on Jesus. Peter could have minimised the
storm to 6 inches high, and not 6 feet high or 26 feet high. To
maximise or minimise the waves was not the problem. Peter's safety rested
in focusing on Jesus. When we were young on the farm, I remember seeing
a coyote. In the spring of the year, the coyotes were hungry. They looked for a lamb. I saw the coyote and then saw dad. He
had a rifle. He just slipped out of the house quietly, just watched
the sheep and the lambs. We saw the coyote make a grab for a lamb. The lamb just ducked under the belly of the mother. He walked
around the mother, showed his fangs, and made another grab. The
lamb would just duck around the other side. As I watched this I could
not understand why Dad did not do anything but he just waited and
watched. Later I knew better why. Dad saw the whole picture where I
could only see part of the picture. Dad did not want to hit any sheep
behind the coyote. Secondly, he did not want the coyote coming back. I
was impatient because I only saw a part of the picture. I got
unsettled, but Dad was patient and settled. We want to make it easy
for God to show us the whole picture. It will settle us. Psalms 23,
David lists 10 qualities, 10 reasons why he wants to be a sheep, to be
led, to lay down, etc. The last, “I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever.” He had things settled. He thought of the benefits of
being a sheep. He expressed his purpose. As we focus on the
benefits, it will help us to be settled. If we focus on other things,
it will unsettle us. People in the world count sheep to go to sleep, but
we count our blessings to keep awake. Matthew 18 speaks to us of the
spirit of a little child. It tells of offences, unforgiveness. These
are things that will unsettle us. The key to being settled is to
have the spirit of a little child. Firstly, that helps us to be settled
and will also help those around us to be settled. Luke 15 has 3
parables. One is the story of the prodigal son who was a waster. He
made some bad choices and went into the far country. There the
fun ran out, as always. He came back to a feast. He appreciated now
the love and care of his father, the compassion. He had the best of
the best. Feasts don’t last forever. He needed to be able to
work with his older brother. If the younger son remembered, in his
spirit, the bread in his fathers house. In the world, the bread ran out. He would be able to work with his brother, focusing on his father and
on his father's house. It would not be easy to work with his brother who
did not like him. It would give him balance, if he focused on his
father and his father's provision. In the north of Alaska, we stopped
on the top of a mountain pass and saw some sheep. Among the sheep
was a lamb. It was doing well. It was settled but some things were
happening. There was a golden eagle, the biggest eagle of all, an
enormous bird taking a pass over the lamb. Pass over and over to try
to knock the lamb off the mountain top. Then, he would be able to feast
on the lamb. He came close a few times, but that lamb was balanced. It
did not overreact. It watched and kept close to the mother - a balanced
watch and a balanced walk. The lamb did not overreact to the cliffs,
did not overreact to the eagle. In its balance, there was safety.
The blood of Jesus helps us to be settled. One thought that tries to
unsettle us: "I wonder how ever I could be forgiven." I have believed
enough in what His blood can accomplish. This is absolutely sure, and
this thought will settle us. Acts 4:29. Here the church prayed for boldness. They did not pray for God to change the situation, but prayed for boldness. In the prairies, there is some soil that is light. There are two things that you can do to settle the soil. You can plant rows of trees. You can plant the seed by direct drilling, not ploughing the soil, leave the stubble as this holds the soil in place. It is the life in the trees and death in the stubble that holds the soil together. Both sides, life and death, help to settle us. There is lots in our nature and in the world to unsettle us. We do not need perfect circumstances to be settled. The car can break down. The cows can come out through the fence. We don’t look to that but for what God makes available to us to settle us, which stabilises us in His kingdom and makes us happy and be an influence for good. We can be settled and stable. There is every reason that we would be. |