TO TREASURE
AND PONDER THE WORKS OF GOD
When I was in junior high school, I
decided that I needed a place to keep my treasures…an old cigar box served well
as the home for ticket stubs to special ball games, valuable baseball cards,
even letters from girlfriends! Once in
a while I would pull it out and look through it and remember the occasion that
prompted me to keep the various memories alive.
In my spiritual
life I have not been as careful to keep the treasures of spiritual
highlights. Occasionally I have kept a
journal and once in a while have take the time to remember back to the great
moments of God’s special goodness in my life…and even to times of brokenness
and a painful realization of my unworthiness and sinfulness.
But the Lord
wants us to treasure Him and ponder, consider, reflect, and meditate on His
works, His word and His wonders. In the
passage in Luke, Mary demonstrates a godly manner as the events surrounding her
captured her heart and mind. Unlike
many of us who witness God’s grace at work and never give it another thought,
Mary honored the Lord by giving those things a special place where they could
be treasured and pondered.
THESIS: The powerful love of God should never be taken for
granted but every encounter we have should be treasured in our hearts and
pondered in our minds as reasons for praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.
I. ENGAGING
THE HEART AND MIND
Eccl. 7:25
So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and
the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the
madness of folly.
--So much of the use of our minds consists of accumulating,
storing and retrieving information without ever taking the time or effort
necessary to understand.
--Today and for the next couple of weeks, we are going to
follow the example of Mary and actually ponder, or consider, or reflect on, the
works, the word and the wonders of God—especially those associated with the
gift of His Son.
Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured
up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
--We must engage our minds to ponder these things and our hearts to treasure them.
A. A GROWING AWARENESS OF THE MESSAGE BEHIND CREATION
--All creation declares the glory of God and reveals His
magnificent design and radiant splendor.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power
and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has
been made, so that they are without excuse.
--Creation itself proclaims the indisputable truth that a
wise and omnipotent Creator is responsible for the heavens and the earth.
Psalm 33:6, 9 By the word of the LORD the heavens were
made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host... 9For He
spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
· Recognize the
Handiwork of God
· Look for the
Designs of God
· Marvel at the
Brilliance of God
William Dembski, in his book The
Design Inference, argues for a way to distinguish between events which must
occur either by chance (randomness),
necessity (law) or design (a plan). Christians have often accepted their place
in discussions about the origins of life and the species—a place presumed to be
one of an inferior and irrational perspective about such “scientific” topics.
The truth is that neither random
chance nor the regular, predictable processes of laws of nature can account for
the “complex, specified sequences” of much of the core essentials of life. For example, DNA sequences are made up of
chemical sequences which cannot occur randomly, nor will they occur predictably
according to any laws of nature. They
cannot be explained apart from the existence of design.
In spite of all the protests to the
contrary, Intelligent Design has forced its way into the arena of realistic
explanation for our origins and its opponents have no recourse but to attack it
as faith based instead of relying on the merits of their case.
For a clear discussion of this
subject and others related to it, Total
Truth by Nancy Pearcey offers cogent thinking and meticulous research to
support the case for a sound alternative to the origin theories currently
dictating what we must think about such things, or choose to be poor thinkers
at best and dishonest deceivers at worst.
--Knowing that we need reminders, the Lord has built into
all creation the testimony that He is gloriously, wondrously more than we could
ever imagine!
--Instead of relying on the contents of past relics
preserved in an old cigar box, God flings the stars across the face of the
universe and carefully constructs the infinitesimal inner workings of a living
cell to serve as keepers and reminders of the treasures we have in Him!
B. A DEEPER APPRECIATION FOR THE MAJESTY OF THE CREATOR
Psalm 8:1, 3-4 O
LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth, Who hast
displayed Thy splendor above the heavens!...3 When I consider Thy
heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast
ordained; 4 What is man,
that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for
him?
· Value the
Creator More Than His Creation
· Treasure His
Works with Awe
· Give Thanks
for Every Indication of His Might
--The most common error we make is to become so
impressed with the magnificence of creation that we lose sight of the Creator.
--The creation bears witness to Him and serves to remind us
that what we see is only a dim reflection of how awesome and immense and
powerful God really is.
--We do treasure what He has made, but only as the
created turns our hearts and minds to look beyond them to the Creator Himself.
--And so the more we
appreciate His majesty, the more we are inclined to sing:
Our God is an
awesome God, He reigns from heaven above
Lord of all
creation, of water, earth and sky,
The heavens
are your tabernacle, glory to the Lord on high
God of wonders
beyond our galaxy, you are Holy!
O Lord my God,
when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made
I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power
throughout the universe displayed…How great Thou art!
--Does all creation declare to you the glory of the
risen Lord? When you see His works, are
you called to worship and give thanks?
C. A THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATION OF THE MAKER OF EACH CREATURE
--When we have learned to appreciate and gain a
growing awareness of all that God has done, then we can apply our minds and
hearts to a careful consideration and focus on the only One worthy of that kind
of meditation and reflection.
· Consider and
Gain Insight into His Sovereign Power
Isaiah 41:20, 22
so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of
the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it. …22 “Bring in [your idols] to
tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that
we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things
to come,
--No created being deserves the kind of attention and
affection which should be reserved for God alone.
--Three words in the NT are translated as “consider,” each
suggesting a thorough and comprehensive treatment of the matter at hand:
Learn Thoroughly – To note accurately, deliberate well – Matt. 6:28 “So why
do you worry about clothing? Consider
the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin (NKJV)
View Thoroughly – To contemplate carefully – Heb.
13:7 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to
you; and considering the result of
their conduct, imitate their faith.
Perceive Thoroughly --To understand clearly and fully– Heb.
10:24 and let us consider
how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds
--When Mary treasured the things of God and
pondered them, she really mulled them over, thought about them, took time to consider
what they meant about His character, His power, how immense and beyond
measuring He really is.
Most of the time, we are in too big a hurry and are too busy to
actually consider and ponder the power of God.
As a result, we fail to recognize what He has already made known about
Himself and never really treasure Him for who He is.
· Focus and Set
Your Heart on Spiritual Reflections
--As our minds begin to weigh carefully the
awe-inspiring “big-ness” of God, we quickly realize that we need to fix our gaze
on Him and make sure that our lives focus on Him.
Col. 3:1-2
If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things
that are on earth.
--When our minds get their proper focus, then
our affections will follow and apply what we see and consider to our hearts.
Prov. 24:32
When I saw, I reflected upon it; I
looked, and received instruction (NASB)…I applied
my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw (NIV)
How is it possible that we can become sentimental and
reflective over a pair of ticket stubs in a cigar box but have trouble making
it a priority to “ponder anew what the
Almighty can do, if with His love He befriend Thee?”
We cannot treasure what we will never
give a place in our minds and our hearts.
God has surrounded us with reminders of His glory in all of creation—His
works declare that He is the Lord!
Like Mary, we must not allow the glorious
occasions of divine revelation that come our way to pass by without
notice. Men who can tell you every
stroke of a round of golf and women who can describe every piece of furniture
in the house of a mere acquaintance often find that they cannot come up with
even one fresh thought they have had lately about the Lord.
In His own way, the Lord gives us
reminders in creation so we will not forget to praise Him. And here this morning, we come to the table
given for our instruction and reflection and as a holy remembrance of what God
did for us in Jesus Christ.
At the table today, as you eat the bread
and drink the cup, treasure up these things and ponder them in your hearts and
minds as you give thorough consideration to the greatness of the Father’s love
for you! Come, let us worship Him!
Providence
Baptist Church
© David Horner 2004
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