“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.