Sermon – “Keep Your Imagination Focused On God”

26 In that day, everyone in the land of Judah will sing this song:

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

³⁶ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom beglory forever. Amen.

²⁵ Worry weighs a person down;     an encouraging word cheers a person up.

You know Karen said this morning beginning that you know we can come to church we can have a good time we can be encouraged we can be lifted up and I hope this morning’s message is one that is encouraging one that lets us up and and this helpless to see God with new eyes and a new imagination my message the title I think I had a typo problem in sending it to Rizana Yeah keep your imagination focused on God OK The Boltons one it’s just wrong OK So she had a typo keep your imagination focused on God That’s the title this morning before I began you know she spoke of Reverend Billy Graham who passed away this past week ninety nine years of age you know they say that he probably preached to over two hundred fifty million people that’s live that’s not counting the people that watched him on T.V. or heard him on the radio and they had a special with some well known pastors and a grandson of his and they were just sharing a little bit about you know they knew Reverend Billy Graham very well but they all spoke of a man that put in that position to preach to so many and reach so many lives and lead so many people to Christ but he was such a humble man he kept his humbleness to it all. Yes and I was someone else who was the best Christian you leave presents or his wife reboil very bill very sometimes we don’t realize. That’s right you know one thing that Billy Graham that you know or that the things that I had heard him say and preach one of thing to stuck in my heart the most when he said you know he says Billy Graham this is during a crusader preaching he says Billy Graham is not going to heaven because he’s preached to millions of people right Billy Graham is going to heaven because Jesus Christ died on that cross and said his blood for me because I’m a sinner I too am saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ what a powerful word that was. Keep your imagination focused on God we’re going to read from Isaiah Chapter twenty six verses one through nine let’s pray first Heavenly Father we thank you and praise you for your presence in our lives through your Holy Spirit and God We know that your spirit is here today may your spirit speak to our hearts may we enjoy May we just relish being in your presence today father have nine own way in this place today have your own way in our hearts today father encourage us and lift us up with your spirit and with your power may we serve you faithfully or May every word be spoken bring glory and honor to you into your kingdom in Jesus name Amen going to be reading from the New Living Translation and this passage that I am reading as is the title headed that passage is called a song of praise to the Lord in that day everyone in the land of Juda will sing this song Our city is strong we are surrounded by the walls of God’s salvation how it will you we can say that church are we are surrounded by the walls of God salvation open the gates to all who are righteous allow the faithful to enter Now I take the word of God as a promise and this next verse I’m taken is a promise it says this is Isaiah speaking speaking of God you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you all who stocks are fixed on you my friends take got to heart take that as a promise of God that he will keep you can keep you in perfect peace when you trust in him when your thoughts for your imaginations are fixed on him when they are focused on him first for trust in the Lord always for the Lord God is the eternal rock might get the message but he is the rock he is the firm foundation that the church is built upon there is no other foundation that anyone can build upon that will stand all other foundations will sink their sinking sand there’s only one rock that we can build our faith upon that the church can build upon and that is the Lord our God It is Jesus Christ His Son. He humbles the proud and brings down the arrogant city he brings it down to dust the poor and oppressed trampled underfoot and the needy walk all over it but for those sore righteous the way is not steep and rough you are a God who does what is right and you smooth out the path of Head of them Lord we show our trust to you by obeying your law lives or hearts desire is to glorify your name so how do we show that we trust God I just read it we show that we trust God by obeying His laws by obeying him we’re not going to show God that we trust him by disobeying him or we we’re going to show that we trust him by obeying his walls worst nine all night long I search for you in the morning I earnestly seek for God for only when you come to judge the earth will all people learn what is right my friends there is coming a day when all people will learn what is right there are those out there that might reject him and say there is no God and you shouldn’t put your if they think that we are foolish but there is coming a day wall people will learn what is right and they will learn to Jesus Christ is the Messiah that he is the son of the Living God there is come in a day where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is lord amen May God at His blessing so the reading and hearing of his holy word the Sporting I want to just follow this right up I want to read a passage I read in my upmost for his highest by Oswald Chambers in this was the reading for the devotional on February the eleventh that’s a good day isn’t it grandson It’s a good day at somebody’s birthday February the eleventh and it’s titled Is your hope in God faint and dying I’m sure Gary read this and verse three this is rendering of it that will keep him and perfect peace whose imagination is stayed on the then Oswald Chambers’ says this is your imagination stayed in God or is it starved the starvation of the imagination is one of the most fruitful sources of exhaustion and sapping in a worker’s life if you have never used your imagination. To put yourself before God begin to do it now it is no use waiting for God to come you must put your imagination away from the face of idols and look into him and be saved imagination is the greatest gift God has given us and it ought to be devoted entirely to him if you have been bringing every thought into captivity to do B.D.’s of Christ it will be one of the greatest assets to faith when the time of trial comes I want to pause for a minute when the time of trial comes that is right in line with Scripture because the scripture tells us there will be trials and tribulations when it comes so if you’ve have your imagination it’ll be changed to Christ when that time a trial comes you will get through it he will get you through it because your faith and a spirit of God will work together learn to associate ideas of God with all that happens in nature the sun rises the sun sets the sun in the stars the changing seasons and your imagination will never be at the mercy of your impulses but will always be at the service of God we have sinned with our fathers and have forgotten then put us and then put a stiletto in the place where you have gone to sleep God is not talking to me just now you might say but he ought to be remember whose you are and whom you serve Oswald says pros provoke yourselves by recollection provoke yourselves and your affection for God will increase tenfold your imagination will not be starved any longer but will be quick and enthusiastic in your hope will be explained in expressively bright make your imagination be focused ONLY GOD state on God Merriam Webster to Spawn’s imagination as this as the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses were never before wholly perceived in reality so it’s an imaginary something that is not present before you use your imagination to think what it can be or is going to be it is a creative ability it is the ability to confront and deal with a problem it’s resourcefulness like use your imagination and get us out of here right now when Karen and I were a young newlywed couple there was a show on T.V. called MacGyver and now there’s a new McGyver I kind of like the old MacGyver better but for those that are young and have not heard of MacGyver MacGyver would every week he would finding self in some harrowing situation that he needed to get out of and you know if he had a roll of duct tape and a couple paper clips in a Swiss Army knife and a couple of the resources he might find he would always be resourceful enough to get them out of that situation he had a very imaginative mind right we need to use our imagination it is the thinking or active mind it is a creation of the mind especially. An audio wise or prolific creation children often have a great imagination child development experts agree that a child listen to this children a child with a strong them listen to this parents also start a child with a strong imagination is usually happier more alert better able to cope with life’s twists and turns because we have twist and turns right and more likely to grow into a well adjusted and secure adult more than those that do not have a great imagination it’s amazing to watch children and in our imaginations know they can be so creative and resourceful in using their ears their imaginations parents and grandparents don’t dissuade your kids from using your imagination Now I know you know when that child is three years old or four years old an airplane without imaginary friend encourage it it’s fun they’re using the you know they have that imagination going but now after twenty five an airplane with that imaginary friends you have some worries on your hands. But but those kids with the imagination my friends there are the ones are going to grow and be that architect or that inventor this says I can I can imagine we’re going to put a man on the moon someday they’re the ones it’s going to create that most amazing building that you’ve ever seen they’re the ones it’s going to say I’m tired of taking a boat to get to the other side I’m going to build a bridge there or the wants to grow up and become a doctor and say I can imagine one day we’re going to take a heart out of this person’s been an accident and put it in this person that needs a new heart they’re the ones who grow up to be these wonderful offers the right amazing books. You’re going to be the artist to make paint the most beautiful pictures you’ve ever seen don’t dissuade your kids from using their imaginations God wants to use them to do great things believers God wants us to use our imagination God wants us to be the ones to do the great thing is we receive that God wants you to do great things usually magination as Oswald Chambers says the allow your imagination to be stayed focused on surrender to God and that is in no way going to limit our imagination it’s going to do this the opposite it’s going to make us do great things because it is state owned God because he has a great imagination listen to what it was Isaiah forty says twenty five through thirty one to whom would you compare mate who who can you compare to God No one God says who is my equal is anybody here his equal no one asked the Holy One look to the Heavens Who created all the stars he brings them out like an army one after another calling each by its name because of his great power and it comparable strength not a single one is missing O.J. How can you say. How can you say the Lord does not see your troubles over Israel how can you say god ignores your rights have you never heard have you never understood the Lord is the everlasting God the Creator of all the earth he never grows weak or weary no one can measure the depths of his understanding he gives his power to the weak and strength to the powerless even use will become weak and tired and young man will fail in exhaustion but those who trust in the Lord will find new strength they will soar own wings like Ingles they will run and not grow weary and they will walk and will not faint Howley Lou you when you trust when you surrender your imagination to God He can do these things and I believe that Roseanna found some images that I would like to put up on the screen and you think God doesn’t have an imagination just look at the things he created in the sea fish you know we get to school on all day and talk about the many different species and types of fish God has a wonderful imagination the next one I don’t know how many we have look at the birds the flowers and the birds God has a very colorful magination a wonderful magination what do we have next people now if you can’t look at all the different types of people and think that God doesn’t have an imagination I mean look he created me. And he created you know us and He created you He has an amazing imagination and then next the stars in the sky just leave that one up if you will for a bit look at the stars in the sky or God created the heavens and every store he knows every store he created each and every one of those stars you know we like to go camping and camping is a great place or great time to just sit back and or laid down and look up at the stars and we had the kids this fall and they just lay him down looking up at the sky what an amazing time because you don’t have all the lights that man made lights you just got darkness and you can look at the Gods beautiful creation look at his imagination when you look at the stars at night do you ever want to count them how many there are well I tell you what I did a little research if you wanted to count the stars and in the universe if you had perfect vision you can see stars down to the magnitude of six but to make an accurate count of the number of stars you would need to travel to the northern and some of the Southern Hemisphere and since the skies so vast you would have it would take several months to do this. So if you would travel to the north northern and southern hemisphere over the couple months you may be able to count up to nine thousand stars that’s it nine thousand stars that’s with the naked eye but if you had a good pair of binoculars that number would jump from one thousand to two hundred thousand that much because you’d see that much deeper because you would see to a magnitude of nine but with a small telescope with a magnitude of thirteen it would jump from two hundred thousand to fifteen million stars does God have an imagination a large observatory could resolve billions of stars but that really doesn’t answer a question does it how many stars are out there in the universe according to astronomers our Milky Way is an average size barred spiral galaxy measuring up to one hundred twenty thousand light years across they estimate that the Milky Way contains up to four hundred billion stars of various sizes and brightness you know as we peer through our telescope so they can see fuzzy patches in the sky which astrologer say and no are other galaxies like ours and these massive structures contain more or less stars than our own Milky Way So there are probably one hundred seventy billion galaxies in the entire universe so if you do all of the math you add all of those other galaxies with our galaxy the number of stars they say could possibly be number one followed by twenty four zeros which is a septillion stars but there could be more or could be a lot less so does our God have an imagination a minute and we could go on then and talk about the many different species of animals the many different species of fish and one and one and all but we’d be here all day and you’re going to get hungry a bit but that’s how great God’s imagination is twenty six three in four said you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because you trust because he trust in you trust in the Lord forever for in yeah the Lord is everlasting strength. Often times we will lack perfect peace because we let our minds go astray they go astray from being focused on God they go astray from focusing on how awesome and powerful or got is when I look at the stars when I look at the Creation How awesome is or God but sometimes we’ve refined ourselves reverting back to depending on our own resources depending on our own strength and often times we let our own imagination run away with fear over things that may never come to pass come on have you ever done that you’re magination run away with things that have never that may never come to pass when you fear the worst will happen your own thoughts may help bring it about you hear that when you fear the worst your own fears may cause it to come about fear a writer once said is the wrong use of imagination it is anticipating the worst not the best that can happen I found a little story one night and I’m just going to read it to the way not all the paper there was a salesman one night traveling home and it was raining we had a flat tire so I pulls off the side of the road and gets in the trunk and gets back there search and there’s a spare there’s a Jack but no la Grange so it’s raining outside but he he looked down away a little bit and he seen a farmhouse had a porch light on he thought well I’m going to walk down there and visit this farmer Surely this farmer will have a La Grange So as he’s walking along a begins to rain harder but his imagination begins work he says well that’s surely this farmer will have a log ranch he says farmers you know they’ve got lots of tools a lug wrench and sure the farmer will you know Commodore let me in farmers usually pretty concrete but as you walk along it starts raining harder and as magination then begins to run run with him a little bit as he’s going along he says well you know it is awful late it’s really late and it’s almost in there the night. That farmers in he’s nice warm dry bed cozy in the house like he’s probably not really going to like being woken up but as he goes on he says well he says he’s probably going to get mad he might get angry and yell when I knock on door and wake him up as he goes along the thought well what right does he have to be mad on the one is stuck in the tar flat but he keeps on going on he’s like we has no or he says he’s probably just a Grumpy Old Plod Anyhow if he goes but in a guess of the house he stomps up the steps and he pounds on the door and the light comes on and when the comes up Who’s out there he says you know darn well who it is and I wouldn’t take the love bridge if you impose a last word wrench on the earth and he storms off his imagination just ran wild with him didn’t he began thinking OK farmer’s going to help me to he’s just a grumpy old fart he’s not going to help me anyway keep your old lug wrench we’ve got to think the best we can’t let our imagination run away we feel that pain can say oh. I forgot I’ve got something bad now or down healed Romans eleven thirty three thirty six Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out fruit has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor or who has first given to him and it shall not be repaid to him for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom Be The Glory forever amen instead of and allowing our imagination to run wild with which would negatively negatively affect our trust in him we should turn every thought toward him towards his word Here’s an encouraging scripture Jeremiah thirty three one through eleven Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time while he was shut in the court of the prison. Picture that he’s in the court in the prison saying Thus says the Lord who made it the Lord who formed it to establish it the Lord is his name Listen the Lord says Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know my friends call to the Lord will hear in that darkness hour as that song says cry to the Lord he will hear you you know when we were children I know for some of us were older and it’s hard to think back to that time we had that great imagination but most of us when we were kids what do we think of our parents we thought they were great I think we thought our moms us bars and prettiest mom there was or dad the strongest of my dad can beat up your dad right we thought our parents were great that they could do anything when we first became believers it’s not that the way we thought of God our God is awesome he is great but sometimes as years past believers imagination cons it fades away a little bit doesn’t it we just get into that routine our faith seems to fall away a little bit but our God is the same today or God is just as powerful today he’s just as strong today as he’s ever been or God is an awesome God or God will wow us if we allow Him If we look to the stores we look his beautiful creation Molokai three three three seven says. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver he will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness than the offering of Judah in Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord as in the days of old as in the former years and I will come near you for judgment I will be a swift witness against sorcerers against adulterers against perjurers against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans and against those who turn away an alien because they do not fear me says the LORD of hosts for I am the Lord I do not change therefore you are not consumed oject of sons of Jacob yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and not kept them returned to me and I will return to use as the Lord of host my friends God is the same today he does not change he still the awesome powerful God who created all things he will give us strength if we will cry out to him if we will turn to Him Our God is unchanging he is the God of the impossible second Corinthians ten three three six says For though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of war of warfare warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your district when your obedience is fulfilled my friends I’m think we’re you know we’re talking about our minds our imagination and our thoughts bring every thought into captivity when you think of a war they take prisoners of war and take people captive but there’s a spiritual war going on there’s a war going on for the minds in the imaginations of men in the minds of even believers my friends don’t allow the devil to take your mind captive but bring every thought into the captivity in obedience of Jesus Christ surrender every thought to him I WILL CHAMBERS said provoke themselves by a recollection one definition of provoke is to anger to irritate or to annoy it means to create dispute the author I’m sure that’s not what we are to do but there is another definition it means to excite to action excite to action to stir up to call forth to stimulate to influence brothers and sisters that’s what we are to do as believers we too are to excite to action. In the Bible there are several places where the word provoke is used and there are several aspects to this word in the Greek one of the definitions is incitement to good to stir to action Hebrews ten twenty three and twenty four says let us hold fast profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works that’s what we are to do amongst ourselves against among our brothers and sisters and even the world to provoke and to love and to good works were not to provoke by irritating or trying to Agger one another but to provoke with love and good works to stir up to stir up our good example the way we live our lives that’s the main focus today to encourage to stir up to bring back our recollection recollection of how great and powerful our God is my God is God He is the one true God and he has a powerful magination and may his imagination fill us God does not want us to be a bunch of doll footy duddies. Good think the good English there isn’t but that’s the doesn’t want us to be he wants us to soar Isaiah said but those who wait on the Lord shall renewed their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be where they shall walk and not by that is for us that’s for his people he wants us to soar with his help with his power with his strength proverbs twelve twenty five this is New Living Translation worry weighs a person down Amen we’ve all been there worry will weigh you down an encouraging word cheers a person up how do you you know many years ago I’m not proud of this but I worked up at Virginia logic in power come the amount storm for a year and. I was a little wander back then now and I’m up to want to come up with this idea but we had a foreman there that is foreman was you but he was going to maybe up be a good word to use I don’t know but the men the mechanics one day the devises a little plan when you see his name was forced when you see force today telling So you feel right so once you don’t look so good so I mean we just kept it up all morning he went home by lunch time. I’m not proud of that I was part of that. Yeah I mean we had an convince He was second he went home. Yeah yeah but I’m not proud of that instead we should have been encouraging you look great today men you look wonderful you look strong man the Lord’s been good to you. Don’t discourage but encourage cheer others up proverbs seventeen twenty two says a merry heart does good like a medicine but a broken spear dries the bones dries to bones friends keep your imagination and I say it to you keep your imagination but keep your imagination stayed on God and may he use you to do great things may use you to soar like an eagle a man a man.