Tanilba Bay Baptist Church
Worship

      • Genesis 12:1–3NIV2011

  • What does your heart desire?

    One thing about the new year is that it can feel a bit like a fresh start. It’s perhaps not strictly true. We do still carry whatever it is from the previous year… however, with the holiday period, and things tending to go a lot slower in January, we usually have a bit more time to re-group as we look ahead for what is to come.
    Now as we think about what is ahead, we need to think about what it is that we desire. Sometimes we might be able to articulate a specific desire. I know some people like to do New Years Resolutions.
    Perhaps you want to be fitter or healthier.
    Perhaps you have careers goals, or relationship goals.
    We can set these goals, but behind them, we start to uncover what our actual heart desires. Although it might not always be super straight forward.
    You see, take career goals - is the heart desire to make more money and be more important than others? Or perhaps we want to do well because we want to honour God with the talents he has given us.
    And so, it’s good to reflect not just on what the actual end goal is, but what is it that your heart really desires.
    There is a natural inclincation that our heart tends towards - and that is a self-serving orientation where we make our own interests a priority.
    When we accept Jesus, however, this heart desire begins to shift. With the spirit working in our lives, our heart shifts from self-centred, to God-centred… and more than that, when it’s God centred, our heart longs for wha God wants.
    Unfortunately, we sometimes can dress up what we’re doing as being for God when we’re actually serving our own interests.
    But to really assess how our heart aligns with the heart of God, the reality is, we need to know what God’s heart is.

    A mission heart

    Now, there are a lot of different aspects of God’s heart that we can learn throughout the Bible, but there is one specific aspect that I want to focus on today - his heart to bless all people.
    It’s this aspect of God’s heart that leads us to what we call mission.
    You know, it’s interesting to think about this word mission.
    The word itself comes from a Latin word which means “a sending”.
    So when we talk about mission, we’re actually saying we’re being sent by God to do his purposes.
    Now, when we think about Christian mission, our minds will likely think about what happens in the New Testament. It’s in the New Testament that Jesus dies for all people. It’s in the New Testament that Jesus tells his disciples to go to all nations and make disciples and baptising them. It’s in the New Testament that we see Paul and some others actually doing that.
    But you know, it can sometimes seem like this idea to spread was a bit of an afterthought.
    What I mean is this - God just wanted to bless the Israelites, which is what the Old Testament is all about, and then he decided to shift attention to everyone else later.
    I’m going to argue however, that God’s heart was for all nations right from the start.
    If we can see that this is not just an afterthought, then it will show how important this aspect is, and how important it should be for us.

    Creation - image of God

    So let’s start at the beginning.
    Genesis 1… God creates the entire universe.
    This creation was imense. Today, as we get better and better telescopes, and learn more and more about the universe, it just becomes all the more incredible what God did. He filled the universe with stars and planets. He filled the waters and the skies with the most amazing birds and fish. He crafted everything in the most spectacular of ways.
    And yet, the crowning glory of all of this was humans.
    Genesis 1:26 says: “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness...”
    It goes on to say: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”.
    God is pleased with all of his creation - but with humanity, it is very pleasing. There is a special relationship. Something different.
    What is important to realise at this point is that we’re not just talking about Jewish people here. At this point, Jewish people is not a category. They’re not going to form a nation for a long time to come.
    The people that bear the image of God is… everyone!
    This is a fundamental thing for us to understand. Every single person on this planet, whether they be in the most remote part of Africa, or the slums in India, or a homeless person in Australia… regardless of skin color, bank balance, political persusion, even sexual orientation… regardless of whether they are reside in a prison, or whether they work the streets as a sex worker… every single person on this planet bears the image of God.
    For this reason God loves them and cares about their situation.
    Right from the very beginning we can see that God cares for every human and this really matters.

    Abraham

    But let’s follow the story…
    Genesis 3, evil enters creation. Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
    All humanity is effected. The eyes were opened, but this also meant a recognition that people could put themselves in the place of God. They could serve themselves, not just God.
    Things go downhill fast. As humanity spreads, so does the evil desires.
    It looks like all of humanity is doomed - but remember, we’ve already established that God has a heart for all of humanity. So he comes up with a plan.
    It initially involves only one person - his name is Abram and when he’s called, he’s living in Ur of the Chaldeans.
    God is going to work through this man named Abram and through him he is going to restore humanity.
    The bible reading we had earlier describes where this all began.
    And sometimes I think we don’t quite appreciate how big a deal this all is.
    God speaks to Abram and just tells him to go and leave his country and he’s people. He goes on to give a promise which I’ll look at in just a moment, but really, it’s quite vague in one sense. It’s a big promise, but not a whole lot of detail - Abram just has to respond in faith - and this he does. He leaves his country and his people because God has a plan for him.
    Now we can break down what Abram is promised into three main ideas. The third of these promises don’t come in these three verses, but it is the promise that Abram will inherit land. The first promise however, which is in the three verses that were read earlier, God promises that he will make him into a great nation. This will be fulfilled in the nation of Israel which are the descendants of Abram, who will later become known as Abraham.
    But it’s the second of the promises that I want to focus on, and it all centres around blessing.
    In the three verses that were read, God says that he will bless Abram, but then he says: “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”.
    I want to just highlight this part for a moment because it is here that we really see God heart.
    We tend to focus on the initial goal which is to create Abram into a great nation, but the reason for this is because God values his very special creation - all of humanity. God desires to bless all people, and the whole reason he brings the Israelite nation into existence is so he can bless everyone.
    This is made clear to us right from the start.
    God’s heart is to bless all people.

    Law

    But, you might argue, that’s all well and good that this comment is added to this initial promise, but it would certainly seem that the Old Testament only really cares about the nation of Israel.
    In one respect I can appreciate this sentiment, after all, the Old Testament does follow the story of these people - and for good reason. You might point to the difficult passages where God commands the Israelites to wipe out other nations as proof that God only cares about Israel. Now it’s not my intention to explore that issue in depth now, only to say that God has his reasons and he is always just.
    Actually what we start to see is that God wants these nations to live just and honourable lives as well.
    And so, as we start to dig a little deeper into the Old Testament, we start to see time and time again how God has a heart for all people.
    One place we see it is in all the laws. Now I know as you read your bible and you get to the second half of Exodus and then into Leviticus and Numbers, when it starts listing all the laws it is very easy to just gloss over it all… but surprisingly, in these laws, we find protections even for foreigners.
    Take for example Leviticus 19:33-34. They’re told not to mistreat the foreigner. And even more radically, it says “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as you native-born. Love them as yourself”
    Later in Deuteronomy 10:18, we read how God blesses the foreigners. God has a heart for all people even in the Old Testament.

    Psalms

    Perhaps your still not convinced. So let’s turn to the Psalms.
    Again, we might see the big focus that the Israelites get in the Psalms, but right through these Psalms we can see lots of evidence of God’s heart for all nations.
    Psalm 96 is a good example of this. This Psalm recognises the many marvellous deeds that God has done among all people.
    The praises of God were never meant to be limited to just the Israelites. They are for all people, because right from the beginning all people belong to God.
    The Psalms talk about God sovereign work among all nations. Even in these Old Testament times, God works cares about all people.

    Prophets

    And then we come to the prophets. There was this time after the mighty reign of King David and before the coming of Jesus where quite a number of prophets were raised up in Israel and spoke God’s word - many of which were recorded for us and now make up books in our Old Testament.
    Well, among these prophets again we see evidence of God’s heart for all nations.
    Isaiah 2, which we actually looked at during the start of Advent, describes the mountain of the Lord where all nations stream to God. Right throughout Isaiah, we read phrases such as “a light to the nations”, bringing “salvation to the ends of the earth”.
    Many of the other prophets contain similar ideas.

    Seeing Israel’s real role

    The point of all of this is that while the nation of Israel certain does take the focus in the Old Testament, there is a clear aim to it all, and that is that they were always intended to be a blessing to all nations.
    Israel is very precious in God’s sight, but they were really a vessel in which the gospel can be given to this world so that God’s heart for all nations can be realised.
    We need to hold the nation of Israel in it’s rightful place. They were chosen by God. They have a special place in God’s scheme. From Israel comes salvation. But from Israel comes a blesssing to all nations.
    We are blessed because of what God did through Abraham and Israel.

    Having a mission heart

    So, what do we make of all of this?
    Well, I want to suggest that if you are a Christian and you want to reflect the heart of God, then you should have a heart for mission and all people.
    Mission is not just for the really keen people - it’s for all believers.
    The reason I’ve spent as much time as I have going through how God’s heart for all nations is right through the Old Testament, is because I don’t want there to be any thought that maybe mission is an afterthought.
    One of the problems when churches have a mission committee or a mission coordinator is that we compartmentalize mission. Whereas, mission should actually be fully incorporated into everything we do.
    When we think of mission in the broad sense of having a heart for all people, then everything we do as a church should be about mission.

    Having a focus

    Now, that being said, for practical reasons, each of us will likely have a slightly more narrow focus on where the majority of our attention is directed.
    For some, it might be a particular people group in the world.
    For some, it might be a specific sub-culture in our community.
    Quite likely, there will be a number of different points of focus, and that’s okay, but we can’t focus on every single group throughout the world, mostly on account of the fact that we are finite beings.
    So think about who it might be that God has laid on your heart. For international groups, there are obvious challenges in getting to them in person, but you can pray for them or learn more about them.
    For people that God has laid on your heart that are closer to home, think about how you can pratically care for them. How can you be a blessing to them?
    Perhaps through words of encouragement. Perhaps by practial help like providing meals when things are tough for them.
    Perhaps the best way we can bless them is by sharing the gospel with them. Letting them know that there is a God that loves them and that they can have hope in a world that is so lacking in hope.

    Conclusion

    I started by talking about goals we might have set for ourselves as we start a new year.
    Goals are great because they put a specific target to what we want to achieve, but I want to urge you to reflect on where your heart is at. In your hearts desire, do you actually want to see others being blessed.
    Where you heart is actually focussed on yourself being exalted, think about how you can shift it so you’re actually being a blessing to others.
    This is God’s heart. This has been his heart from the moment he created us humans.
    If this is God’s heart, then let it be ours as well.
    Let me pray...
Tanilba Bay Baptist Church
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