We depend on people who deliver for quite a bit: groceries, take-out, and anything you can purchase online. Delivery people work hard to bring what you order to you in a timely and safe way. But what if the thing that they needed to deliver was you? I mean, usually they deliver their product on time. Usually the boxes aren't too torn up or crushed. Usually they don’t get stolen from your front porch. Would you entrust yourself to a “usually they deliver” courier?
It isn’t miles of highway and rainy days that are the obstacles that we need to be carried through though. It’s a life of hurt, fear, opposition, and sin that stands in front of us. It’s a gulf of punishment for our sin that no human effort can cross. For us to get through this life to our final destination takes the omnipotent arms of a God who works miracles for his people. It takes the infinite depth of love of a God who opened salvation for all people. And this God who carries us through life and into eternity is a God who delivers. Every single time.
“God Delivers” studies the ways that God delivers people on earth, how he brings them to their final home in heaven, and his heart that drives him with personal care for each person whom he calls his.
Week 1 - God Delivers from Judgment - August 1-3
Week 2 - God Alone Delivers - August 8-10
Week 3 - God Daily Delivers - August 15-17
Just as miraculous as the Feeding of the 5000 was God’s ascendency of Joseph to the position of ruler in Egypt. God moved national politics and global economies (not to mention the life of Joseph himself) to provide for the day to day physical needs of his people, Israel.
We who trust in Jesus are Israel today, and in the same way, God provides for us through natural means and his movement in the world and nature. May we praise him for what we so often take for granted, and learn to live with a heart of trust even if the shelves at the grocery store become a little bare.
Pastor Pat Brown preached this sermon on August 15, 2020 at the Family Worship Gathering of Bethany Lutheran Church’s Lynndale campus in Appleton, WI.