Trust and Obey - GCSE Presentation Evening 26/11/21

Covid 19 has been serious and weird! Just before our final assembly Friday 20th March 2020 I was given a very nice thank you card from Y11 in which Elias made the following rather amusing comment “Can always rely on you to predict future catastrophes”. I must confess that there are aspects of this current crisis that have taken me by surprise, with its twists and turns, and I am still trying to make sense of it all. I feel like asking God what is going on and when will this stop. This not knowing the end outcome reminds me of a recent TV adaptation of a Dickens Novel ‘Our Mutual Friend’. I knew nothing about this book so as I got drawn into the characters I particularly warmed to this older fatherlike person who appeared to be genuinely caring for the hero of the book. Then suddenly in the penultimate episode it turned out he was a rogue who had arranged for the transferral of all the wealth and estates due to the hero to his own account, leaving the hero penniless. I was genuinely outraged and fumed for the next 7 days that this was a totally arbitrary plot device and that Dickens had no right to mess about with my emotions by such an artificial contrivance. I duly sat down to watch the final episode in a suitably disgruntled frame of mind only to find out that this plot twist had been introduced because our hero had fallen in love with a person and he wanted to make sure her love for him was genuine and not influenced by his wealth. Therefore he arranged for her to believe he now had no money and as he had hoped she still loved him. Therefore my reading of the older man as a kindly fatherlike figure was still correct and it was out of his love for our hero that he briefly played the villain. In some ways our life, as Covid has shown, can change suddenly and in an unpleasant direction. The classic example in the Bible is found in the book of Job. The ultimate moral of the story of Job is that God is the author of this world and we need to trust Him even if we do not understand what is going on.

I suspect as you have been growing up over the last few years there has been some anxiety about this thing we call being an ‘adult’. When I was 14 or 15 I remember thinking what was it I needed to be to be an ‘adult’ - well having spent 40 years being an ‘adult’ I still not sure that I fully know the answer, but for me the most obvious word that sums up an important part of being an adult is ‘responsibility’ - in the end if a job needs doing there are no more parents or teachers to do it for you. However, judging by the adverts I see on TV, I suspect most people seem to think that being an adult involves being successful or being true to themselves. From a Biblical perspective, being true to yourself is possibly not the wisest course of action, and as regards success, I am sure it has its attractions, but it will elude most of us and ultimately God is the only qualified judge in that contest. The truth is that most of us will just end up muddling along. As an expert in muddling along I can safely say it carries very little stress and it allows you mental space to enjoy the view and cultivate gratitude for the many blessings life does bring. What I have learnt is that the most important thing we can do is to cultivate a heart that listens to God and obeys what He says. Now for most of us here that will mean doing the obvious things like working hard in our chosen occupation, helping others and bringing glory to God in the process. (In reality a life which puts God first will often have its successes, but that is the by-product of a life well lived, rather than a central aim of life. As the Bible says ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain’ 1 Timothy 6:6.) With regard to obedience to God in many ways this is a process: it takes time to learn what God is saying to you but the best place to start is to obey what He has written in the Bible. As you mature spiritually you will increasingly find God will give you the direction and understanding you desire. I remember as a new Christian wondering what it would be like to hear God speaking to me and directing me. I thought if I closed my eyes he would direct me along the pavement. Well I quickly gave up that experiment and instead adopted more tried and tested methods: by developing my own devotional time in the morning, making church prayer meetings my priority and learning to sing hymns with great enthusiasm during church worship times^[1]. The result has been that without realising it I have gradually learnt to discern God’s voice and have developed a spiritual life that never existed before I became a Christian.

I realise that the two conclusions I have arrived at form the beginning of a lovely old chorus I used to ask Mrs Virr to teach in Hymn practice. The chorus goes as follows:

        Trust and obey!

For there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus

But to trust and obey.

When we walk with the Lord,

In the light of His word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will

He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey!

For there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus

But to trust and obey.

This may seem, even by my standards, to be a rather old fashioned conclusion, but that fact in itself may be very significant and I will conclude by telling you why.

When the pandemic first started I wanted to know what was going on from God’s perspective. The most obvious observation which I arrived at, which was confirmed by many I spoke to, was that God was shaking the nations (Hebrews 12:25-29). Another conclusion I heard, which was from a special sermon about this subject, was that this pandemic was ‘the beginning of the birth pangs’ (Matthew 24:8 KJV). However the third response to this question came from a parent I was talking to in June 2020. When I asked them about this subject he responded by saying they had been asking the Lord this same question for a number of days and that morning the Lord had led him to Jeremiah 6:18.

        This is what the Lord says:

        “Stand at the crossroads and look;

        Ask for the ancient paths,

        Ask for the ancient paths,

        Ask where the good way is, and walk in it,

        And you will find rest for your souls. (NIV)

I found this interesting because this need to return to the old ways seems to be consistent with Paul’s instructions to the Thessalonians during a time when there was little love for the truth and therefore much confusion (2 Thessalonians 2:15):

        Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you

        Were taught, whether by word or by epistle (NKJV)

In these strange and uncertain times, as you embark on that great adventure of adulthood, may I commend to you these two great principles to live your life by - Trust and Obey - for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.