The Riches

 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!  Romans 11:33......."Here is a fountain that will never run dry, a treasure that can never be used up, a wealth that can never be exhausted. All other pursuits and quests and interests pale, but the riches of God in Christ Jesus will thrill us forever. Hallelujah!.....How can any preacher ever run out of sermons, with all this to ponder and preach?" Vance Havner

Not just any preacher, but how can we who are His ever cease to wonder and be amazed at the depths of who He is, and the neverending riches He gives to them? How then can it be that so few of us ever even scratch the surface of knowing? How can we remain so ignorant and unaware?

I think part of it lies in that we have centered our faith around ourselves and not Him. We dwell upon all that He can give to us, do for us, and accomplish for and through us. We are earthbound in our thinking and though we may look to Him, we never seem to really see Him. He's our Helper, our Aid, and sadly, tragically, oftentimes just an Accessory to our faith. We know much about what He can do for us, but we know so little of Him. We think His riches are realized in our accumulation of the silver and gold of this world. We think they are our inheritance. We don't realize that it's He who is.

So many of the sermons preached today focus on His love. His love for us and all that His love brings us. Healing, renewal, provision, protection, and abundance. All of these are certainly part of what we realize in Him, but they are not in themselves Him. How many preachers take to their pulpits overwhelmed by the awesome wonder of who He is? How many even attempt to take their fellowships into the very throneroom of the Father. I have often thought that no greater thing can be said of a preacher than that He showed his congregation the Father, that he revealed to them a portrait of who He is. That He made real to them the wonder and glory of the three in One God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Every preacher is inadequate to come to describing this, but every preacher has the responsibility to seek to do so. Yes, we will fall short, but we must never stop reaching for words and images to do so. But we can only do so to the degree that we ourselves have beheld Him, seen His glory, and have partaken in the fullest degree possible of His riches. Too many messages ask us to love Him because of what He does. That kind of love is easily broken when we feel He is not doing for us what we think He should. When we come to love Him for who He is, all that He is, that is a bond and a love that is unbreakable.

I challenge you, and myself, to dwell upon the infinite depth of His riches today, this week....this life. Eternity will be about the ongoing discovery of those riches. May the yearning for those riches begin now, today, in all of us. Jesus said that "eye has not seen and ear has not heard all that the Father has prepared for those that love Him." Our flesh bound minds and understanding tend to put that "all" in terms of what can be counted and measured. He puts it in terms of Himself. May we yearn for the realization of it all. May the yearning begin today.

Blessings,
Pastor O