I remember a time in High School when a member of our church asked me to drive his car back from an event in another town. This was a very nice car. I was intimidated. I don’t think I ever drove so carefully in my life because I did not want to do anything to ruin his car.
An opposite example would be the advice given if you’re planning to buy a used car. The advice is to never buy a former rental. That’s because too often renters will abuse the car since it doesn’t actually belong to them.
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Ownership makes all the difference
My wife and I listened to a podcast where Jim Putman was talking about discipleship. Like we often do, we’ll ask each other what stood out about the message. We both honed in on a part of his message that came down to ownership.
Jim told the story of talking to his father. He believed in Jesus but didn’t want anything to do with the church.
His dad asked him: Whose church is it?
The point was that the church was Jesus’s idea. It was what He put together to allow His people to grow together and to strengthen and encourage one another and to join together in worship. If you believe in and worship Jesus, maybe it makes sense to follow His plan.
The other point that Jim’s dad made was, if the church doesn’t seem like it’s what God wants it to be, shouldn’t we try to make it what He wants instead of abandoning it altogether?
The Church is Jesus’s Plan
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18 (NIV)
Jesus said “I will build MY church.” It’s not our church. It’s not my church. This is not your church. It belongs to Jesus.
I hate to think how often I have my plans and my ideas and the things that I want to accomplish without ever really thinking who the church actually belongs to.
But when it’s HIS church and we let Him have HIS way, when we let HIS church be what He wants it to be, stand back. Nothing can stop it.
God knows what He’s doing.
Just ask Job.
The book of Job tells the story of how a man had it all. Then Satan took away his family and His wealth. Job remained faithful. Satan took away his health. Job remained faithful.
And yet while Job was faithful, that didn’t stop him from complaining. He’s questioning God and asking why God is doing this. God finally speaks up.
God says, did you make this world? Where were you when it was all put together? What part did you have in weaving together this incredible masterpiece of life?
It’s like God is saying “Do you think maybe I know what I’m doing here?”
Things happen that we don’t understand. We don’t know why certain things are the way they are. Lately that’s been very true here at GMCC as we’ve struggled with our minister search. But there was something about reading through Job lately that was very powerful.
Job taught me I don’t need to know why God is doing whatever He is doing with His church. I don’t have to understand it. But God knows what He’s doing.
And the realization hits: It’s not about me. This is God’s church, not mine. We may not see all the other things God is weaving together. We don’t see some of the things God does behind the scenes. In the end, God knows what He’s doing.
Rejoicing that it’s not about me
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 9:7b-10 (NIV)
It’s hard to rejoice when God says no. Rejoicing does not come easy when things don’t go the way we thing they are supposed to do.
God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient.” He may as well have said “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
This is God’s Kingdom. It’s His church.
What do we do with that?
We recognize God’s ownership.
We can let go of our need to control. Instead of trying to make everything happen according to the way we want things to happen, we can let go of the ownership and let God do what God does.
We rejoice in the sufficiency of God’s grace
Rejoice when we don’t vote in the person we wanted to be our minister.
When things go south, or when the answer to prayers is different than what we wanted, we can rejoice.
Because God’s strength is greater than anything we can bring to the table. His grace is sufficient.
In the end, it’s God’s church. And here’s the thing: God is faithful. When we accept that, we can let go of what we want and trust in what God wants. We can let go of our control and trust in God’s faithfulness.
It’s God’s church and He knows what He is doing.