“Cage of Assumptions”

from the book “Wild Goose Chase” by Mark Batterson

Sunday, October 31, 2010: Genesis 15:1-6

Introduction: In this series, we are talking about six cages. So far we have talked about the “cage of responsibility” and the “cage of routine.” We have talked about how our responsibilities can cause us to make excuses of how we cannot do the work of God, and how our routine can lead us to boredom and forget the exciting adventure that God wants us to live. Today we are going to talk about Abraham and the cage of assumptions.

There is great wonder in kids. One of the best parts of their wonder is how they don’t make assumptions about what can and cannot be done. They believe their parents are invincible and that anything is possible. The only limitation to them is their God-given imagination. Of course, as they grow up and see that there are limitations, this wonder starts to dim, and they, like us adults start to make assumptions about the world around them.

As adults, we stop make-believing and we start making assumptions. We have trouble believing that “all things are possible for God.” We start getting in the rut of thinking the same way, and doing things the same way. In living like this, we lose some of the spiritual adventure that God wants us to experience. We lose the edge on our faith, and we end up in the “cage of assumptions.” I think Abraham gives us a good example of how to get out of the cage.

I. Getting in the cage- (Genesis 15:1-6; Isaiah 55:8)

a. Abraham and Sarah- Here is the scene: Abraham and Sarah are

childless. Their deepest desire is to have children, but Sarah is barren. For decades they have lived with the pain of being childless. In their culture there was great shame in this. Your children were your legacy. Your children were what kept your family line in tact. We can only imagine how every time one of Sarah’s friends got pregnant, every time she heard a child laughing, she felt that familiar pain in the pit of her soul of her wanting children, but not able to have one. Abraham and Sarah felt the ache of emptiness and the confusion of helplessness, because what they wanted most, they could not have. But one day, God makes a promise. He says, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.”

But it is not just what God says. It is what God does. If you look at this passage very carefully, it says that He took Abraham outside. Now, I think it is easy to read a passage like this, and read right past it, but let me preach between the lines, if you will. Abraham was holed up in his tent, maybe even isolating himself from others. When God decides to take him outside for a little faith lesson. God took Abraham away from his manufactured environment so that he might look up into the night sky and to count the stars. Who knows how long it took, but when God was done, God had taught Abraham an object lesson that he would never forget.

See, Abraham would never look into the night sky the same way again, because those stars in the sky were a nightly reminder of the promise that God had given to him; a promise that included children!

Illustration- Last August my family and I went to visit my mom and sister in Prescott, Arizona. We stayed with my sister and her husband, who live outside of the main city. Because of where they live, there are no street lights, which makes it very dark outside at night, and allows you to see how many stars there really are. It is amazing how many more stars you can see when it is dark around you! In fact, one night, Tami, Tyler, Tiffany, my sister, her husband, and I were all outside looking at the stars together. As we looked into the sky that literally stretched billions of light years in every direction, it was a reminder of how big God is. There is something about looking into the night sky that helps you to put the majesty of God in perspective. It reminds us of how small we are and how big God is. This is a very healthy and a holy experience.

b. The object lesson- So why did God take Abraham outside? Why did He

tell him to look into the night sky? Why did He tell him to count the stars? I think the answer is so obvious, it eludes us. As long as Abraham was inside his tent, his vision was obscured by an 8-foot ceiling. This ceiling kept the promises of God out of sight, and as the old adage says, “out of sight, out of mind.” I think God wanted to remind Abraham of how big He was, so He told Abraham to go outside and do a little stargazing. I think it was God’s way of saying, Abraham, don’t put on 8-foot ceiling on what I can do.

A.W. Tozer once said, “A low view of God is the cause of a hundred-lesser evils. But a high view of God is the solution to 10,000 temporal problems.” I think this is what happens in many of our lives and how many of us end up in this cage of assumptions, and how many of us forfeit the spiritual adventure. What happens is this. We tend to reduce God to the size of our biggest problem. Or reduce Him to the size of our greatest fear or our worst sin. And what we end up with is a god, small g, that looks an awful lot like us and seems to be about our size. This is one of the greatest mistakes we can make. You know what? What we think is our biggest problem isn’t our biggest problem. OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT WE THINK GOD ISN’T BIGGER THAN OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM!

God says to us, in Isaiah 55:8—“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Try to get your mind around this: Our sun is about 93 million miles away. If you were to drive a car 65 miles an hour, 24 hours a days, 365 days a year, (no rest stops, no gas stops) it would take you more than 163 years to get there. But the light that warms our face on a sunny day is only 8 minutes old because light travels that fast. Now here’s the thing, our sun is the nearest star in our tiny little galaxy called the Milky Way. But astrophysicists have discovered galaxies very, very far away: I heard that the farthest one from us is 13.7 billion light years away. God deals in great distances!! And God says that His thoughts are that much greater than our thoughts. Quite humbling, isn’t it?

Yet, we live in this tiny little cage of assumptions. What I’m trying to say is that when you enter into a relationship with Christ, when you begin to chase the Wild Goose, all assumptions are out the window. Why? Because God exists outside of our space-time dimensions. He is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent (or another way to say it is that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present).

II. God can do all things- (Philippians 4:13; Ephesians 3:20; Romans 4: 18-

21, 8:31; Mark 9:31)

a. Faith- It takes faith to believe what we read in scripture, because much of scripture goes against what we can logically understand; scripture goes against what we can put into perspective. Let me read you a few wonderful verses from the Bible that reminds us of how we need to open our minds to what life is like with God:

Philippians 4:13—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Ephesians 3:20: “He is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us.”

Romans 8:31—“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Mark 9:31—“All things are possible for those who believe.”

By virtue of being in relationship with God, God takes the ceiling off of our lives, and I think that is the heart of the story here with Abraham. I think God tells Abraham to look up in the sky at these stars, and reminds Abraham that He is the One who made them. God is telling Abraham, AND US, to quit assuming, and start believing. From this point on in his life, that’s exactly what Abraham does. Now Abraham has his moments of doubts, he has his fears, he got frustrated. But listen to the way that Romans 4 captures his faith. Starting in verse 18 and reading to verse 21: “Against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believes and so became the father of many nations just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and Sarah’s womb was also dead, yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God has the power to do what God had promised.”

Faith is not logical, but faith isn’t illogical either. Faith is theological. Meaning that we are adding God into the equation so that what we’re able to imagine isn’t just determined by our human ability, but about what God can do in and through us. What I love about Romans 4 is that is says that Abraham faced the facts; he wasn’t out of touch with reality. But it also says that he was fully persuaded that God had the power to deliver on His promises. F.B. Myer once said this, “Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God. Faith puts God between us and our circumstances.” Listen to that again: “Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God. Faith puts God between us and our circumstances.” Faith is not mindless ignorance, it simply refuses to limit God to the logical constraints of the left-brain; it puts God between us, and our circumstances.

b. Assumptions that keep us caged- It is important for us to understand that these words to Abraham aren’t just for Abraham; scripture is written for all of God’s people of all ages! So think about this: What 8-foot ceiling have you put on God? What assumptions have kept you caged? What promises have you given up on? Let’s talk about a couple of assumptions that I think keep us from chasing the Wild Goose and keep us from living the spiritual adventure that God ordained for our lives.

The first assumption that we often make, that I think keeps us from really living the spiritual adventure that God wants us to live— is…..I’m too old. Ninety-year-old women don’t have babies. Is that a fair assumption? It’s biologically impossible for a barren, post-menopausal woman to get pregnant. Or is it? This is the possibility Abraham had to wrestle with, in the end, because Sarah was 90 years old when she finally got pregnant! Remember how last week I talked about how God is using Bruce Kunkel at the age of 94! God is the God of second chances, and it may feel like time has passed you by (even if you’re 30 or 40 or 50 or older). It is less about our actual age, and more about our frame of mind.

On the flip side, there is the assumption that you’re too young. Many kids and youth and young adults believe that you have to be a certain age, and have certain experiences before you can be used by God; before you can live the spiritual adventure. Having done youth ministry for 20 years, I can tell you that youth are very capable of living the spiritual adventure, and making an impact for the Kingdom of God.

Don’t forget that Mary (the mother of Jesus) was probably a teen-ager, maybe 16 years old. What a huge responsibility! And the disciples, many of them 20-something probably. And David, was but a child when he took on Goliath. You are never too young. It is wonderful to see how Jared Ropati and Haley Fike are stepping up and serving as Deacons, and trying to let God use them for His glory.

You see, once we start down this road, our assumptions continue: we aren’t ready; we aren’t experienced enough; we aren’t educated or trained enough; we aren’t spiritual enough. Too often we allow what we cannot do to keep us from doing what we can do, and we allow who we are not/ to keep us from being who we are. I think we allow the fear of failure to keep us from even trying, or we allow the fear of looking foolish to keep us from daring to be different. And because we fail to step out in fail, assuming that we can’t do it, we never accomplish those “good works” that God prepared for us to do.

Steven Kisling, is the 49-year-old editor of Spirituality and Health, and he is a rower. He rowed at Yale in 1980, and 28 years later, he decided to train for the Olympic team; he decided to make his comeback 28 years later. Unfortunately for him he did not make the team. He didn’t even come close to making the team. You might be sitting there right now wondering why I would share this story. If you are wondering that, right there you are making the assumption that the only real value of a story is if there is success attached to the end of it. What I want to point out about this story is the fact that he tried out. He said, “Had I stopped to squarely face all the numbers from the beginning, I would have concluded that winning was impossible because rowers have gotten faster over the last 28 years. But that seems to me like choosing to never live because you know that you are going to die. We were careful not to lie to anyone, especially ourselves. Instead we chose to suspend belief.”

The point of the comeback was not that he thought he could win, but rather to not be afraid to try. “We showed up,” Kisling said, “with a lot of talent out there, but there was a lot of real, raw talent that didn’t show up. They didn’t want to take a crack at it because they were afraid of losing. He who gets embarrassed loses first. You’ve just got to show up.” There are many other assumptions we make that hold us back: church has to look a certain way; sharing our faith needs to be done by a specific method; I have to have ENOUGH money first before I can start giving to God…. I could go on and on, but I hope you get the point. Our assumptions keep us from even being open to listening to God and hearing what God would have us to do in and through our lives.

Conclusion: The truth is, progress in every area depends upon those who challenge the assumptions. Doesn’t it? We see this very profoundly now with the internet. Amazon assumed that to sell books you don’t have to have a bookstore. They do it by their displays online. In fact, Tyler just got his I Touch from Amazon, and they shipped it to him without any tax or shipping cost! Wikipedia assumed you don’t need door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, in fact you don’t even need books. You can buy most anything online now. The internet has changed the sales world breaking the assumptions that were held.

Have you ever wondered why the Pharisees, the religious leaders were so threatened by Jesus? Because Jesus challenged every assumption in the book! I think spiritually, we have to be careful that we don’t just live in this cage of assumption but we find ways to break out of that. As I look at my own Wild Goose chase, I think the defining moments are the moments when my assumptions were challenged and I had a choice to make, and I had to let God lead me past what I would normally do. I had to take a step of faith beyond my assumptions, and follow God’s lead. We did that last week when we had the band play all the music without an accompanist, and I thought they did a great job! We did it when we did our “Return to Bethlehem” production, which required about 50 people and $1000 to make it happen. I have always been open to letting God lead, even when it takes me away from what I’ve always done.

You really have to choose: hold on to my assumptions, or hang on to God. You really can’t do both. I want to challenge you to do that in your own individual life. Quit assuming and start believing. Don’t assume that you can’t start the business or write the book or get the job or save the marriage or overcome the addiction or experience the miracle. Quit assuming and start believing. Quit putting an 8-foot ceiling on what God can do.

Last thought: when Abraham believed, how long did it take for God’s promise to come true? It took 25 years!! When we trust God, and step out in faith away from our assumptions, it doesn’t always happen in a day, or a week, or even a year. After 25 years Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. At just the right time, she became pregnant. Waiting 25 years for God to fulfill His promise must have seemed like an eternity to Abraham and Sarah, and it had to be spiritually confusing and emotionally exhausting.

By doing this God broke through the 8-foot ceiling and proved once again that nothing is too hard for him. Let God break you of your assumptions, so that He might do great and wonderful works in and through your life. Amen.

“Cage of Routine”
from the book “Wild Goose Chase” by Mark Batterson
Sunday, October 24, 2010: Exodus 3:1-5

Introduction: Today we continue our series, the Wild Goose Chase. Last week, we talked about Nehemiah and the cage of responsibility. This week we are going to talk about Moses and the cage of routine. If you brought your Bible, turn to Exodus 3, if not you can turn in your pew Bible to page 49. Exodus 3:1-5, “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.’ 4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’ 5‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’”
Illus.- Many years ago I was driving up into the mountains, and there was a thick cloud cover so that you couldn’t see above a certain point. But at one point I passed through the cloud cover and now I was above the clouds. As I looked out all I could see was clouds. I was on top of the clouds! It was almost like being on top of the world. And I began to think of the beauty and wonder of God’s creation. This kind of majesty really defies words. Last week we talked about how the Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose. Well, the Celtic Christians also had a name for this kind of majesty for God—they called them “thin places.” Places where heaven and earth seem to touch, where God seems to hold back the space time curtain and reveal just a little bit more of His glory; or places where, in a sense, the Wild Goose invades the reality of your life and you are never the same.

I. God shows up- (Exodus 3:1-5)
a. Getting your attention- I think Exodus 3 is one of these moments
for Moses; it’s a thin place, if you will. Moses is a fugitive. In his anger, he had killed an Egyptian task-master and he ends up fleeing Egypt and lands in a place called Midian. For 40 years he finds himself, not in a palace, as he had been before, but in the desert, tending sheep. It is easy to wonder if Moses at this point feels rather forsaken or forgotten by God. 40 years is a long time to be away from your people; to be in exile. It would be easy to feel abandoned.
It’s here that we pick up this story in Exodus 3:1. Now think about this: One day, Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. He was deep in the wilderness, near the Mountain of God. Something catches his eye. It’s a burning bush. That would startle you, but then he notices that the bush isn’t burning up. ‘Amazing,’ I’m sure Moses thought to himself. ‘Why isn’t the bush burning up? ’Moses then thinks he needs to go check this out closer!
We see that God is using this burning bush to get Moses’ attention. Which He does. And when Moses comes closer, God speaks to Moses out of the bush. Probably by instinct Moses answers back, ‘Here I am.’ He then probably wonders for a moment why he is speaking to a bush!
God continues to speak, telling Moses to take off his sandals, that the ground he is standing on is holy ground.
Last week I encouraged you to read the book of Nehemiah to get a fuller picture of the story. I hope you did it. This week I want to encourage you to read over the next few chapters of Exodus to see how this story unfolds: from the burning bush until the Israelites are safely away from Egypt. But let’s hit a few of the high points this morning… Moses has been tending sheep for 40 years. That’s 480 months, 2,080 weeks, or 14,560 days. He has had the same daily routine for 40 years; day in, day out. I wonder if at this point Moses is a little disappointed that this is what his life has ended up being. He had so much potential. Going from being the adopted son of the Pharaoh, with great responsibility, to being a sheepherder. He must have felt like he was underachieving. We see that Moses is caught in the cage of routine. He probably went out every day to carry out his responsibility, and knew the routine so well that he didn’t even have to think about what he was doing. God knew that He not only had to show up for Moses, but He had to get Moses’ attention to help him break out of this routine.
b. One day- In some versions of this passage they start out by saying
“one day.” One day. This phrase can really epitomize what a relationship with Christ is about. When you are in relationship with Christ, you never know when or where or how God could invade the reality of your life and turn your life inside out and upside down IN A SINGLE DAY. He can show up any place, anytime, and turn your life into a wild goose chase. You can think of it as holy anticipation.
Instead of it being a concern to you, you can look at it as a “I’m going to wait to see what God is going to do next.” Now, it is easy to get caught up in the daily routine. I understand this as well. Most of my days are not very glamorous; they are average days. I have a routine, and I think I do it well. But we also have to live in the “anticipation” that God can and will do something special in our lives “one day.”
Let me make a point here: I think that it is easy to assume that the people in the Bible were these wonderful heroes. And in many ways they were, because they were faithful in acting out the plan God had for them. But they also had many flaws and sins in their life. If you doubt me, just read up on David, Abraham, Moses, and so on, and see the mistakes they made. In many ways, they didn’t have a clue, just like you and me, until God came along and took them on a journey. A farmer named Noah had no idea that “one day” he would build a really big boat. The shepherd David didn’t know that “one day” he would be king. An orphan named Esther didn’t know that “one day” she would become a queen.
I think Moses thought that he would tend sheep until the day he died. He had gotten to that point where he thought that he was unqualified and disqualified to do anything more with his life. He had no idea that he would go back and confront Pharaoh and that he would become the human vessel that would reveal the glory of God in these ten miracles and he would be the one, after 400 years of captivity, to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and toward the Promised Land. Ah, but one day, one day, God shows up. God can show up any place, any time, and I hope we are ready for this by living with that reality.

II. God invades our lives- (Matthew 4:18-19; 1 John 1:9)
a. Bruce and me- I don’t know if you saw it, but 8 days ago, on
Saturday, October 16, on the front page of the Press Telegram was a picture of Bruce and Helen Kunkel. The Press Telegram had heard about Bruce’s autobiography, and decided to do a story about the book and about Bruce. What intrigued them was the fact that at the age of 94, mostly from memory, Bruce was able to write his own autobiography, and self publish it. Even more, last Monday I got a call from Bruce, telling me that he was going to be interviewed on the radio; this happened two days ago. I said to him: “Bruce, it is amazing how God is giving you opportunities to share your story.” And he responded: “I guess you’re never too old to be used by God!”
NO! We are never too old, or too young, or too anything. None of that matters to God. What matters is that you are willing to be a servant for the Lord.
If you are really chasing the Wild Goose, you have no idea where you might end up.
I guess it has been quite a few years now, but back when I was in college I started out as a computer programming major. Computers had really become big back in the late 70’s, and I knew that the future was in computers. The problem is that a computer programmer just sits in front of a computer all day, and I am a people person; I need to be with people. So I changed my major from computer programming to music. I did enjoy music (still do), and I thought that teaching would be the way to go. WRONG AGAIN. After I graduated with a Music Education degree, God led me to seminary to pursue a career in ministry!! So while I was in seminary I was working as a junior high director for a church. As I watched the minister preach, I thought to myself, I’ll never be doing that, I will just do youth ministry. You know what, NEVER SAY NEVER TO GOD.
I hope you’ll live with that reality, with that hope that God can “one day” invade your life just like He did with Moses. It can change in a moment. Now, notice the response Moses had: he is caught a little off guard. Yet his response is simple. Really I don’t think anybody can predict how they would respond if God showed up to them in a burning bush! Moses’ initial response was great; he simply said: “Here I am.” He says it like God doesn’t know where he is. OR maybe it is more out of a sense of boredom having done the same thing day after day; a sense of being forgotten. God is finally showing up, and Moses says ‘here I am.’
b. Resistance and release- Many of you know the story: Moses puts
up some resistance; he second guesses himself. He doesn’t believe he is capable of doing what God is asking him to do, and so he tries to put God off. I want to suggest that this is where the Wild Goose chase begins, when you say, “Here I am.” I want to be very explicit. 2,000 years ago, Jesus extended an invitation, He said, “Come follow me.” That invitation is still on the table, and the Wild Goose chase BEGINS the moment we put our faith in Christ and decide to follow him.
But here’s the mistake I think many of us make, we feel like God just came to save us from our sin. He does that, the moment we put our faith in Christ, when you confess your sins, “He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness,” as 1 John 1:9 tells us. He takes care of the sin problem, He takes care of the past. But I think some of us live as if that’s it, and we’re good to go. We live with the thinking that there doesn’t need to be anything more than that. But it is so much more than that. God takes care of the past to invite us into the future so that we can truly live the spiritual adventure and so that we can realize the God-given potential that He has given to us.
I really believe that God came to save us from boredom. I mean, look at this story at face value. Moses has got to be bored out of his mind. Maybe occasionally, his flock would get attacked by a wild animal and there would be a little rush of adrenaline and it would be an exciting day for Moses. But the next day, back to staring at the backside of sheep. In each of us we have an adrenal gland. God created this adrenal gland. God is the one who designed us in a way that when we experience something exciting or adventurous, we experience a rush of adrenaline. I think what happens to a lot of us is we are just bored silly with our relationship with God, so we try to get that rush of adrenaline in the wrong way. Moses got a rush of adrenaline when he killed that Egyptian taskmaster, but it was sinful. But I want you to notice what happens. When God begins to redeem us and when we say, “Here I am, I’m going to chase the Wild Goose,” I want you to notice what happens. Do you think that Moses experienced a rush of adrenaline when he walked back in to confront Pharaoh? What a rush of adrenaline I’m sure he felt! What about when he took that staff for the first time and he threw it down and it turned into a snake? What a rush of adrenaline, in a God-ordained way. What about the Egyptian army breathing down his neck, Red Sea right in front of him. What a rush of adrenaline! IT’S A HOLY RUSH OF ADRENALINE. Moses is bored silly and God came to rescue and save him from his boredom and said, ‘Let me invade the reality of your life and let’s see what happens.’

III. From spiritual formation to spiritual adventure- (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
a. Spiritual routine- In Exodus 3:4 we see that God calls Moses by
name to capture his attention. The simple fact that God has to capture Moses’ attention tells us that God had lost Moses’ attention, or Moses had stopped paying attention to God. I think that’s what routine does. Just like responsibility, that we talked about last weekend, routine is a good thing. We need routine. Without routine, life is absolutely chaotic. Most of us have a morning routine that involves a shower and toothpaste and deodorant. On behalf of your friends and family, continue with that routine, it’s a good thing. But here’s the catch, once a routine becomes a routine, you need to disrupt the routine.
Let me put it in physiological terms. If you work out your muscles in the same way every time you go to the gym, eventually your muscles will adapt to the routine and you will stop growing. What you need to do is confuse your muscles by disrupting the routine, maybe changing the order of the exercises, or doing different exercises for the same muscles, and your body will begin to respond again and grow again. The same thing is true of spiritual routines. You might know them better by the name spiritual disciplines: things like prayer and fasting and Bible study and fellowship. It is so easy to forget to regularly do these disciplines or to go through the motions. When this happens, at some point we stop worshiping God in spirit and in truth and we just go through the motions.
Sometimes God has to call out: ‘Chris, Chris, I’m over here!’ and sometimes He has to do something to catch our attention. Maybe it is a diagnosis we find out about, or a tragedy in the family, or your kids getting into trouble. These are the more severe experiences that can remind us that we have forgotten about God. Hopefully God doesn’t need us to go through something so drastic for us to remember about the need we have to be close to God. Sometimes just disrupting our spiritual routine can help us to discover God again more fully.
b. Take off your sandals- How to disrupt your spiritual routine:
NUMBER ONE. Try a new translation of the Bible. This is very simple, but different words cause different synapses to fire. Our pew Bible is the New Revised Standard. When I quote from scripture in my sermons, and when I teach at the adult Sunday School class and the Wednesday night Bible study I use the New International version. I also have the version called “The Message,” which is a more narrative style of the Bible. Different versions can give you deeper insights as well.
NUMBER TWO. Do a fast. The Bible talks often about fasting, and how through fasting we are drawn closer to God as we remember that we are to rely on Him for all of the needs in our lives. When I fast, I let those hunger pains lead me to be a little more diligent in my praying for others. NUMBER THREE. Keep a journal. A gratitude journal, a prayer journal, a dream journal. I journal about once a week and use it to reflect on what God is teaching me, and what is going on in my mind and my emotions about my life and ministry. NUMBER FOUR. Go on a retreat. Retreats are great opportunities to get away from the routine of life and let God impact you deeply in your spirit. I am glad to say that the Session just approved setting aside $10,000 to be used toward retreat and missions opportunities, and I am hoping that sometime next year we will have a church retreat. More spiritual formation takes place in a weekend retreat than in six months of weekly meetings!! NUMBER FIVE. Plug into a small group. We will be starting small groups in late January, and I hope that you will really think about being a part of one. I have been in many small groups myself, and these are always very meaningful and help bring a lot of spiritual depth to my life.
We need to understand that these spiritual disciplines are all meant to lead us into an encounter with God. God told Moses to “take off his sandals,” because Moses was there encountering God. There are many people who have experienced “miracles,” but I believe encountering God is a miracle in and of itself. And when we read the Bible, or fast, or go on a retreat, or study the Bible together in a group, we are encountering God, and in essence we should be taking off our sandals and honoring God with the experience!!!
In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 we read: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. These commandments I give you today are to be upon your heart. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up. Hide them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gate.” God told the people this so that they would not forget who He was, but also so that they would not get bored with Him.

Conclusion: The Wild Goose chase isn’t just about getting to a particular destination, it is about enjoying the journey, the spiritual adventure that we are on. Living in the moment day in and day out. Seeing the miracles that are all around us all the time. It is about saying to God, “Here I am.” It is about taking off our sandals and worshiping God right here and right now. It is about a moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Holy Spirit that literally turns every day into a spiritual adventure. I hope you will begin today to finds ways to get out of your routine, and keep your relationship with God fresh and alive. Amen.

“Cage of Responsibility”
from the book “Wild Goose Chase” by Mark Batterson
Sunday, October 17, 2010: Nehemiah 1:1-11; Matthew 8:18-22

Introduction: If you have ever been to the zoo, you know you see lots of wild animals, but they are behind cages. While they are not tamed, by putting them behind cages, out of the wild, their wildness has been tamed some. I wonder if churches are doing the same thing to Christians. In a sense we try to tame the wildness from Christians in the name of Christ. We try and remove the risk, the struggle, the danger, and maybe we end up with caged Christians.
At the heart of what the Wild Goose Chase is about, is knowing that we long for something more; something a little less tame. It’s about entering into a relationship with Christ and then chasing after the Wild Goose so that we live our lives the way that God originally intended.
Today we start a 6-week series called Wild Goose Chase based on the book by Mark Batterson. This name, “Wild Goose,” refers to the Holy Spirit. It was the Celtic Christians who called the Holy Spirit this; An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose. That’s a great description of what it’s like to live a Spirit-led life. We aren’t going to know where we are going most of the time, and this produces great anxiety in us. But there is another name for this, and that is ADVENTURE. A wild goose can’t be tamed or tracked. When we add the Holy Spirit into the equation of our lives, we won’t know who we will meet, where we will go, or what we will do. So this morning we start with the first cage: the ‘Cage of Responsibility.’

I. Irresponsible Responsibility- (Matthew 8:18-22)
a. Live life to the fullest- In the movie BRAVEHEART, starring Mel
Gibson, the main character is William Wallace. William Wallace has been fighting for freedom for his people, and he is captured. There’s this moment before he is about to be tortured and executed and he says this: “Everyman dies, not every man really lives.” With these words we realize an important truth: we need to try and live life with an ‘I have lived life to the fullest’ attitude. All of us are born, and all of us will die: we have a birth certificate and some day we will have a death certificate.
The sad truth is that many people die long before the date on their death certificate. That happens in lots of different ways: for some people, I think it is pain or brokenness or loss that robs them of life, the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, and life is taken away; I think for others, it is disappointment and failure and we just lose some of that life inside of us. But for many of us, it is more subtle, in that our day-to-day responsibilities numb us to the possibilities around us and the passions within in us. And it happens slowly, most of us don’t even know how or when it happens but at some point, if we’re honest, we stop living and we start dying. It’s almost like we’re buried alive by our pain or our disappointments or our failures or debt or our responsibilities.
There is nothing wrong with responsibilities. We all have responsibilities. I have responsibilities as a husband, as a father, as a pastor and I need to embrace those responsibilities. You need to fulfill your responsibilities. You need to take out the trash, you need to save for retirement, you need to pay your bills, but it is so easy to get buried alive by our day to day responsibilities and totally miss out on the opportunities for spiritual adventures that are all around us all the time. I think what I’m talking about is epitomized by one encounter that Jesus has with a man in the Gospel of Matthew.
b. Don’t make excuses- In Matthew 8, verses 18-22, Jesus gets into an
encounter with a scribe. The scribe seems to be moved by Jesus’ teaching because he says to Jesus in verse 19: “… ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’” This sets off the thinking of following Jesus, and one of His disciples puts a stipulation on his intent, as he says in verse 21: “… ‘Lord, first let me go bury my father.’ And Jesus said, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” Now there are a few different takes on this by Bible scholars. It is possible that he was putting off following Jesus until his father died, maybe his father was sick and he was just waiting until that moment. It is possible that this young man didn’t want to follow Jesus to ensure that he got his father’s inheritance. It’s possible that he was afraid of leaving the family business while his father was still living. But I think part of us as we hear a story like this sympathizes with this young man? Like, what’s wrong with that? It seems reasonable and responsible, to look out for his family and bury his father.
But here is an important lesson I’ve learned in reading the Bible. When you are tempted to sympathize with someone other than Jesus, when something doesn’t make sense, there is a little dis-equilibrium, I think we need to take a closer look at what’s happening in the story. We need to get deeper into the scriptures and try to figure out what is happening here. You need to ask yourself: ‘Why am I feeling the way I am feeling?’
Here’s the line of thinking we need to have in regards to this passage: I think this young man was doing what many of us do. He was turning a responsibility into an excuse, and Jesus saw through this smokescreen. He was allowing a responsibility, the need to bury his father, to get in the way of his greatest responsibility and his greatest opportunity, which was following Christ. We do the same thing all the time. We turn our responsibilities into excuses and that is when our responsibility can become a form of irresponsibility. What happens is that our less important responsibilities begin to replace the more important responsibilities; and that’s when we’re practicing irresponsible responsibility.

II. The story of Nehemiah- (Nehemiah 1:1-11)
a. Nehemiah’s sad news- If you have a Bible I want you to open it up;
or if you didn’t bring your Bible you can use a pew Bible. We’re going to look at the passage in Nehemiah, chapter 1, on page 424. As I said earlier, we are going to talk about six stories and six cages over these next six weeks. This week I want to encourage you to read the whole book of Nehemiah. I think if you take this time and spend some time in the Book of Nehemiah this week, what will happen is, you’ll begin to apply God’s word to your life, you’ll begin to get insights all the more about what we are talking about this morning. Nehemiah 1:1-11: “The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year (referring to the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign), while I was in Susa the capital. One of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They replied, ‘The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.’ When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. I said, ‘O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments; let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. We have offended you deeply, failing to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, “If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name.” They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great power and your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!’ At the time, I was cupbearer to the king.”
b. What is the passion?- Now there is no way I can tell you the whole
story during our time together this morning, that is why I encourage you to read the whole book of Nehemiah this week. To get into it though, let me give you a little bit of back-story. In 586 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea and took many of the Jewish people captive back to Babylon. In 538 B.C. Zerubbabel lead the first remnant back to Jerusalem, about 43,000 Jews. In 458 B.C. Ezra returned with a remnant of about 18,000 and Nehemiah picks up the story at around 445 B.C. The bottom line is this, the Wall of Jerusalem is in total disrepair and the significance of that is this, for an ancient city, a wall was it’s first and last line of defense, so the city of Jerusalem is defenseless. So it’s a cup-bearer in Babylon, Nehemiah, has this passion to go back and to rebuild the wall. Against all odds, he goes and in 52 days, he rebuilds the wall of Jerusalem! He then goes on to serve as governor of Jerusalem for more than a decade. But here’s what I want you to see. It all starts with a single desire. Somehow this cup-bearer gets it in his mind, in his spirit that maybe God is calling him to do something about this problem. He doesn’t let the fact that he is not qualified to do it deter him. As far as we know, he has never even been to Jerusalem. As far as we know, he has no education, no experience that would qualify him to go and do this. Why is it a cup-bearer in Jerusalem who makes this happen? It doesn’t make total sense to me, but I know this, the people that God uses are the people that receive God-ordained passions, that sometimes seem crazy, that sometimes seem irresponsible, but in the midst of what might be a crazy idea, they run with it and truly make a difference.
When God puts a passion in your heart, you need to take responsibility for it. That’s where God’s people struggle to advance God’s Kingdom. So often the kingdom doesn’t really advance because we don’t really live that spiritual adventure because we don’t act on the passion that God has put in our heart. But you’ve got to act on it, whether it be human trafficking in a third world country, or inner-city education or helping to minister to the homeless, whatever that passion is, you need to take responsibility for it. You need to own it. You need to see the problem and then become the solution to it.

III. What do you want?- (Nehemiah 2:1-5; Psalm 37:4)
a. Identifying our God-passions-In Nehemiah, Chapter 2, the story
continues: the king sees that Nehemiah is sad and asks what is wrong. Nehemiah tells him about how his city, the city of his ancestors has been destroyed. The king asks Nehemiah what he wants, and Nehemiah tells the king he wants to rebuild it!
The king asked Nehemiah a very pointed question, what is it that you want? If I asked you that same question, what would you say? What is it that you want? Can you identify, what your God-ordained passion is? I think most people don’t get what they want because they really don’t know what they want, especially pertaining to their God-given passions. They’ve never really defined what they want out of life, never set any goals, never identified what those passions are, never defined a dream, and they have no idea what they want. Really, we are out of touch with the heart of God.
So how do you identify those passions? And how do you know they are from God? And how do you act on them? To discover our passion, we have to discover where the connect is between us and God. We have to look at what makes us sad, and/or mad, and/or excited. This helps us to figure out our passions, and then leads us to our God-ordained passions.
This is where the sovereignty of God comes into play. When you start trying to put a connection between who God made you to be, the passions of your heart, and the passion that God wants to give you for His Kingdom, God will get a hold of your heart, and lead you on a wonderful, fulfilling journey! Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” The bottom line is that you need to really look at what excites you, angers you, saddens you… Then as Nehemiah was moved by the sadness of his city being destroyed, and asked God to help him carry out the vision God put in his heart, so we need to ask God to help us carry out the vision God puts in us.
b. Getting out of the cage- Nehemiah had to leave where he was living and
go to the city of his ancestors to carry out the vision he had been given by God. Often times our God-ordained vision will lead us out of our cage of responsibility. That doesn’t mean we become irresponsible, or leave our family, or our jobs. But it probably does mean that God will take you out of your comfort zone and give you something new to do.
Illus. You might be familiar with MADD. M-A-D-D: Mothers Against Drunk
Drivers. The goal of this non-profit organization is to stop drivers from driving drunk, and even more, to stop under age drinking by pushing for a stricter alcohol policy. The Irving, Texas–based organization was founded in 1980 by Candice Lightner after her 13-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. She became so passionate against drunk drivers that she was led to start MADD.
Before this Candice was not necessarily a person who sought to make national policy changes; not a person who spoke out in public. But this event, and her God-passion took her out of her comfort zone, and helped to make some important changes in the law.
It is easy to feel this emotion, through which God is trying to speak to us, and then let it go without acting on it. God is going to reveal something in our hearts if we just seek to be connected with God. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, God begins to download new desires within us. He begins to get a hold of our heart. Or He conceives those things within us and they birth these new desires. They are almost unexplainable and inexpressible but something makes you mad, sad or glad and you don’t really have a handle on it, but you feel like God is doing something in your heart that you can’t explain and that’s how it starts. Then we have to act on it. Listen, it was irresponsible for Nehemiah to give up his position, he had a great job, cup-bearer to the king, part of the administration and in a sense, it seems like he is throwing all of that away, but I think Nehemiah knew something that so many of us have to learn the hard way—if you succeed at the wrong thing, you fail. All of us know successful failures don’t we? People that are really successful and really unhappy. And they succeed at things that just don’t really matter.
Stephen Covey once said: “You can climb the ladder of success
And then realize it is leaning against the wrong wall.”

Conclusion: We need to identify what it is that God wants us to do. Here’s a word of caution. I think figuring out what you want could be a very selfish endeavor. So you better make sure that what you want is what God wants. How do you do that? Unfortunately there is no set formula. I wish there was, but there isn’t. The way it happens is that we just let God’s Spirit work within us, and we seek to live a Spirit-filled life. Then God will stir up in us certain desires/passions.
Illus. I’m learning this along with you, so let me give you a personal example. Ever since our Focused Living Training, a few years ago, I have been moved by mentoring others. There is almost nothing I enjoy more than walking with people and helping them to find their God-given passions, and then finding ways to live them out. I wish I could do this even more than I do, and maybe in time God will give me that opportunity. As I open myself to God, God gives me more and more opportunity to do this, for His glory!
It starts with us being obedient with the little things. If we are obedient with the little things, then those desires that God conceives in our hearts will become reality. The Wild Goose, the Holy Spirit, will show up in wild places at wild times and He will take you places you never imagined going by paths you never knew existed, if you are open to Him conceiving those God-ordained passions in your heart. You never know how God is going to conceive a passion in your heart; it might take the form of sadness or anger or joy, but once that passion is conceived in your heart, you need to do something about it. Imagine a church full of people pursuing God’s ordained passions. If all of us came out of the cage of responsibility and actually took responsibility for the things that made us mad or sad or glad, we would turn this city upside down. To do this we must chase the Wild Goose. I hope you will do this, starting today. Amen.

“Just in Time”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Introduction: I don’t get up too early that often, but when I do I notice how it is relatively quiet, and seemingly calm. The sun is just rising bringing light to the day and showing off the beauty of God’s creation. Sometimes life is like this. There is a sense of calm, and beauty, and peace. No noise. No rushing. No crises. As Christians, we think that all of life should be like this. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was?

The truth, however, is that life can be very noisy; very hectic; with many trials and crises. We wonder why God has allowed these trials into our lives. We wonder why God’s protection isn’t over us more. We wonder why God doesn’t jump in quickly and take care of the problem.

It reminds me of most TV dramas. There is always a situation that arises. The drama is set. We are on the edge of our seats. Someone is in trouble; their life is in danger. Will someone come and rescue them in time? And as always, it is just in the nick of time that help comes and the crisis is resolved. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but God seems to come “just in time” as well. This is what I want to talk about this morning, how God acts in our lives “just in time.”

I. Why Do the Trials Come? (John 8:39-59)

a. Jesus- We tend to forget that Jesus’ life was no bed of roses. From the beginning of His life, to the end, Jesus dealt with much chaos in His life. Think about this with me for a moment: I’m sure the donkey ride from Nazareth to Bethlehem was not a pleasant one in the womb; lots of jostling around! Then the family had to flee to Egypt to avoid King Herod trying to kill Jesus. We don’t get much about Jesus’ growing up years, but we see that after He starts His ministry, He encounters many trials and much opposition.

There are so many passages that I could take us to, but let’s just look at one: Let’s read from the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verses 39-47 and 54-59: “‘Abraham is our father,’ they answered. ‘If you were Abraham's children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would do the things Abraham did. ⁴⁰As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹You are doing the things your own father does.’ ‘We are not illegitimate children,’ they protested. ‘The only Father we have is God himself.’ ⁴²Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. ⁴³Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! ⁴⁶Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? ⁴⁷He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.’…⁵⁴Jesus replied, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. ⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.’ ⁵⁷’You are not yet fifty years old,’ the Jews said to him, ‘and you have seen Abraham!’ ⁵⁸’I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ ⁵⁹At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Here Jesus is teaching, and gets questioned about His heritage, that He is not a true heir of Abraham. Jesus turns it back on them by telling them if they were Abraham’s true heirs, they would love Jesus, not hate Him, because Abraham foresaw Jesus’ coming. He definitely stirred the pot by calling them children of the devil. At the end of the exchange they try and kill Jesus.

Jesus experiences separation from His family, oppression from the religious leaders, and abandonment from His disciples at the time of His crucifixion. Jesus definitely had trials in His life! At any point, He could have said ENOUGH and decided to experience a different path, being that He was God in the flesh. But Jesus knew that this was His path, and that this path would lead Him to where His Father wanted Him to go.

b. Us- In life, I see people’s trials all the time: being a single parent; family issues; abuse; divorce; lack of money; health issues; and death. Life is full of trials and crises. It is easy to ask God why. It is easy to get overwhelmed, or feel like your life is hopeless. It is easy to get beaten down and feel like you don’t have the energy to do what needs to be done.

Illus. A few weeks ago Tami went to South Dakota with her mother to visit her grandma for her 90^th birthday. She was gone 4 days, and during that time I was a single parent. I had to get the kids ready for school and to school. I had to pick them up, then help them with their homework, and then get dinner ready. I had to take care of the house. And of course, I had to make sure they were ready for the next day and then got to bed on time so they could get adequate sleep. Since it was such a short time, I didn’t have to worry about doing all the cleaning and the laundry and shopping. During this time I got a taste of what it was like to be a single parent. It is quite challenging.

Each trial, and each issue has its own challenges that can make life difficult. We can easily ask God: Why? OR, we can wonder: Where are you God? It can feel like God has left you alone to deal with your trials. These times seem so long when you are walking through them.

Illus. Pearls have long been appreciated for their beauty and value. But how is a pearl made? Well, the interior of the oyster shell is lined with a material called nacre, which is produced by the oyster’s mantle. In order for a pearl to develop, an irritant of some sort--must situate itself between the oyster's shell and mantle. When this particle sets in, it irritates the oyster and, in an effort to protect itself, the mantle begins to cover the foreign object with layers of nacre. As time passes, these layers eventually form a pearl. Typically, this takes about three to five years.

Did you catch that? An irritant gets under the shell, which causes the oyster to develop a beautiful pearl. Without the irritant, the pearl would not be formed! We need to understand that God can use the irritants, the trials, the challenges of our lives to bring about the beauty that God wants to bring into our lives. Does this mean that God causes the irritants? For the most part, no. But God can allow them to occur, or they occur by the situations of our lives, or they occur by our own doing.

II. How is Jesus’ Yoke Easy? (Matthew 11:28-30)

a. My yoke is easy- In Matthew 11:28-30 we hear Jesus say these words:

“‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’” We hear these words, and hear Jesus tell us that we can have rest from our burdens, and think that Jesus will make our lives easy. But be careful, because the word EASY doesn’t mean easy in the sense that nothing difficult or challenging will happen. But rather, easy in the sense that we will have the skills and abilities and help we need to get through the challenges that we face.

In regards to a YOKE, a yoke is used for an ox in training to be connected to an experienced ox. As the two ox pull the plow, the experienced ox knows what he is doing, and can guide the inexperienced ox. In so doing he helps the ox in training to learn obedience, and learn the path he is to plow. So Jesus connects us to Himself, and we can learn obedience and the path we are to travel in the midst of our journey.

The way that the yoke is easy, is that we don’t have to deal with all of our issues and trials on our own. The way that the yoke is easy is that we don’t have to carry the load by ourselves. The way that the yoke is easy is that we are given the strength and wisdom of God, and we are able to utilize this to persevere through our trials and overcome them! The yoke is easy in that we don’t have to be anxious, or stressed, or feel guilty.

When the disciples were on the boat, and the storm came up, and they panicked and got upset at Jesus for not caring, they were not taking up the yoke of Jesus. When Jesus awoke, He calmed the storm.

When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water, and Jesus called him to come out, and Peter started walking on the water, Peter was taking up Jesus’ yoke, but then he got scared, and released the yoke, and sunk into the water.

As the yoke is easy, so the burden is light. If you have ever been carrying something that is heavy, and you are doing okay for a while, but then it starts to get too heavy, and becomes and burden. Then someone comes along and helps you carry it, and the burden becomes light. This is how it is when we take the yoke of Jesus upon us.

b. Developing a deep trust- It really is an issue of trust; gaining a deep

trust in God. The truth is, the only way we can develop a deep trust in God is to go through the trials of life, see how God has our best interests at heart, and see how God comes to us “just in time” and understand that God will work things out on our behalf. It is interesting how our trials are what is needed to bring about trust.

It is also about having a perspective of trust. Whether it was my concern for finding a wife in my 20’s, Whether it was my trying to live on $600 a month, when half of that money went to rent. Whether it was Tami and I trying to get pregnant for 3 years. Life is full of challenges; full of struggles. When I finally gave it over to God, I mean really gave it over, I took up the yoke of Jesus, and Jesus began to walk with me.

Just in time, God led me to Tami. Just in time, God gave me the full-time ministry opportunity at Bel Air Presbyterian Church. Just in time, God took Tami and me to Colorado where we got pregnant not once, but twice. God does things “just in time,” but we need to trust God.

But it isn’t always easy to trust. Lets not get too hard on ourselves. The disciples had Jesus in their midst; the disciples saw Jesus first hand; the disciples experienced the power of Jesus at work, and still they had trouble trusting. Every time you think they would finally learn to trust, they would question Jesus about who was the greatest, or how He could talk to a Samaritan woman, or challenge Him in His talking about His death. Ultimately their world was rocked when Jesus was arrested, and then crucified. They didn’t know which way was up.

It wasn’t until Jesus left this earth, and they encountered their own personal trials that they finally started to trust Jesus. We don’t like the challenges, but they are what allow us to have faith, and trust, and experience God’s power in our lives!

III. A Jesus-Character in us- (John 1:12, 15:18-20; 2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

a. Likeness- They say that the longer you are married, the more you and

your spouse will look like each other. I’m not sure if that is true, but may believe it to be true. Maybe it is because married couples share so much, and spend much time together, that the nature of their physicality becomes more like the other. God said that in marriage the two become one. Maybe this is part of it. If you have gone through our Alpha class, you have seen Mary give the illustration of how many owners choose dogs that look like them. She then passes out a picture to show this to be true.

LIKENESS. We are said to be created in the image of God. So, we are created to be like God. We are created with the likeness of love, and creativity, and thinking ability, and compassion, as well as many other likenesses. However, because of our sinful nature, we often don’t act much like God. People look at us and question whether we are ‘children of God.’

In similar ways, children are like their parents. Since the DNA of both parents are passed on to the child, the child will carry the traits of each of their parents. They will get the traits of size, and shape, and looks. They will have similar skills and brain capacity. They will be LIKE their parents in many ways.

In John 1:12 we read: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” When we believe in Jesus as our Savior, we become His child. As His child, we are then adopted into the family of God. Just like an adopted child doesn’t naturally have the likeness of his or her adopted parents, so we don’t have the natural likeness of Jesus. This likeness has to be developed. It is developed by our walking with Jesus, being guided by Jesus, and learning from Jesus.

b. A Jesus likeness- One of the main goals of salvation, really of life

itself, is to learn how to be like Jesus. We want to develop a Jesus-character in us. Why is this? Because Jesus, God in the flesh, came to this earth not only to die for our sins and bring salvation to all who believe, but to help us understand how we are called to live on this earth. Jesus came to restore the meaning of our living.

We struggle to follow this example because we are distracted by all of the challenges, and struggles, and trials in our lives. These trials come into our lives, and we focus more on them, and less on Jesus. These trials come into our lives, and we forget that God is there with us, and begin to doubt God’s power, God’s love, God’s presence. This is just what Satan wants from us. As the apostle Paul said in

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” We are hard pressed, but not destroyed.

They say that what doesn’t destroy us makes us stronger. I say that what doesn’t destroy us makes us more like Jesus. The apostle Paul knew that there would be hardships in life. Being a Christian wouldn’t keep him from these hardships. Jesus told us that we would suffer. In the gospel of John, 15:18-20 Jesus told us that the world would hate us just as it hated Jesus. But just as an oyster produces a pearl from the irritations it experiences, so Jesus will produce in us great and wonderful fruit through the irritations of life.

Conclusion: There is a window in your heart. For you to see God, this window must be clear. But right now it needs cleaning. You can’t see God clearly. Some pain or trial dirtied this window of your heart. Maybe it was that loved one who died. Maybe it was the financial strain that has come upon you. Maybe it was the fight you had with a family member or a friend. This pain came upon you, and now you can’t see God clearly.

In fact, you might even blame God some. Either you blame God because He hasn’t removed the problem, or because you feel like He shouldn’t have allowed the problem to come into your life. You are waiting on God.

How would you finish this sentence: If God is God, then….”

If God is God, then there wouldn’t be this financial struggle.

If God is God, then people will treat me fairly.

If God is God then my prayers will be answered quickly.

Let me tell you this: God is a God who answers His promises. God has promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you. That doesn’t mean that these challenges won’t come into your life. And it doesn’t mean that they will be dealt with immediately. But, “just in time” God will come and work things out. Do you trust God in this? Will you take His yoke? If you do, the character of Jesus will be yours, and you will be able to endure, AND flourish as Jesus did. Amen.