[This sermon was preached on January 31, 2016 at Cornerstone Christian Church, El Dorado Hills. It is a significant update of a previous sermon from January 2013 that you can find here.]
Avoiding the Epic Fail
Luke 9:37-50
Introduction
A few years ago, when my family and I were riding a bus in Ireland
to our destination, a man boarded and sat immediately in front of me,
disheveled and smelling of sweat. I remember thinking, “Here is someone in desperate
need of the grace of soap.” My mind wandered: soap is readily available, surely
he noticed, who goes out in public without an armpit double-check. Then it hit
me: we all stink. Stores spend aisle after aisle stocking products designed to
conceal this pungent, fundamental fact. Deodorant, anti-perspirant, cologne,
perfume, air freshener, etc. In fact, if we weren't all so focused on spraying
or wiping or spreading or applying these products every waking 24-hour
protection moment, we would probably be used to the fact that we all stink and
would be unaware. But once the first person tried to hide it, no one wanted to
smell our body odor.
In many ways, we try to apply this strategy of the grace of soap
to our spiritual lives, trying to hide the fundamental fact that we all
sin--that we all stink. Dallas Willard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy,
calls it the gospel of sin management.
We ignore it, we hide it, we mitigate its effects, we try to only enter
situations where it won't show, we excuse it, we emulate the lifestyle of the
stink free. All of the while, denying the fact that we are all stinkers. When
we see sin break through, in all of its destructive power, in someone's life,
we all think: they should have applied more soap--more forgiveness--more
careful rule following.
But the strategy of Christ is fundamentally different. It is the
grace of regeneration. As Paul says: "...since you have taken off your old
self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator." (Colossians 3:9-10)
The problem with the gospel of sin management it that it accepts
that sin (stench) is fundamental and that the means of better life is keeping
sin under control. But Jesus offers a different strategy: regeneration.
We miss out when we settle for a limited, spiritual life of stink-regulation! God’s plan—his kingdom—involves so much more. Here’s how Paul
described it:
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at
work within us, to him be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
for ever and ever! Amen - Ephesians 3:20-21
Got that? Now, if you want the epic fail, do the opposite:
1. First, you dream small dreams
instead of God’s dreams.
2. Second, power those dreams by
yourself instead of with God’s power.
3. Third, promote yourself instead
of God.
Ok. That's it. You can sleep now, you’ve got the main point.
You know I work in computers. One of the most
difficult types of failures to debug is called a “priority inversion” It is
will a low-priority program grabs ahold of computer resources and then won’t
let them go when a high-priority program needs them. Priority inversion has
taken down the Mars Rover, it has taken down Windows, it has taken down banking
systems, it has taken down my job performance…and let me tell you—priority
inversion can take down your life. We let little dreams sabotage God’s dreams
for us. We hold so tightly on to our resources that we are not free to grab
ahold of God’s resources. We are so worried about our maintaining priority,
that we never let God’s priority be promoted in our lives.
It can happen to us. It happened to Jesus’ best
friends in the second half of the 9th chapter of Luke’s
biography of Jesus. Four times in fourteen verses, his disciples will fail. From
a Bible point of view that’s not a very good track record. So what happened?
Well, let’s take a look. Turn to Luke, 9th
chapter, starting in verse 37. Jesus is on his way down from the mountain where
he was praying, and when he gets down, there is a huge crowd and lot of noise,
because of the first of his disciple’s epic fails.
Fail #1: Want To Appear Competent (vs. 37-40)
It says:
37 The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a
large crowd met him. 38 A
man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is
my only child. 39 A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into
convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is
destroying him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could
not.”
Jesus’ disciples could not cast out a particular
demon. Failure #1. The story only makes sense if you look back at the very
start of chapter 9, where it says: “When Jesus had called the Twelve together,
he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and
to cure diseases.” (Luke 9:1) Notice the word “all”. Something has happened.
Jesus is frustrated by this, and says so, and then heals the boy and restores
the family.
Before we look further at this first failure,
just a side comment about demons. When we read passages like this, we might
wonder whether this young man’s problem was something like epilepsy and those
in Jesus’ time just thought it was caused by a demon. Certainly Christians have
been guilty of assigning demonic causes to ordinary events. But look carefully
at verse 42. Luke (the author) is a doctor and he notes that Jesus “rebuked”
the demon and then healed him. That is, there were two problems: a spiritual
problem and a physical problem and Jesus recognized them both. Sometimes, in
America, we are so fond of ‘natural’ causes, that we miss the spiritual side of
things that many other cultures are aware of.
Why is Jesus frustrated? Look what he says:
41 “You
unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “How long shall I stay
with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
What was the root cause of the disciple's epic
fail with the demon? He mentions two keys to their failure: first, the
disciples were a part of an unbelieving generation. That is,
even though they had all of the power and authority they
needed to do this job (see verse 1), and they had practice
(see verse 2) and they even had success (verse 6), they had slipped
back into not believing—or not trusting—God. They failed.
Second, they were a part of the perverse generation.
This means that their desires—their want-tos—their motives—were off-the-mark.
They had switched from “look what Jesus can do” to “look what we can do”—they wanted
to appear to be competent. Casting out the demon has become about their
competence--their abilities--not God's abilities.
Now before we get too hard the disciples, what
about us? Most of us aren’t demon caster-outers. Our version of the Serenity
Prayer goes: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can, and the firepower to make the
difference.” We want to appear like we’ve got it all together. We don't just
want to help someone, but we want to be appreciated as the type of people who
help, or the type of people God uses to help. I am a master of hinting at what
I’ve done and hiding or excusing what I didn’t, and so are you. Our want-to is
broken. Jesus gives us the keys to the kingdom, and we drive off on the victory
lap as if it is ours.
Do a little experiment with me: Breathe in.
Breathe out. Try it again. Where do you get the power to take that breath? From
God, that’s right. Where did you neighbor get the power to take his or her
breath? That’s right—same place--from God.
It is not religious, spiritual, church-related,
demon-exorcism tasks that require God’s power. It is every task. Taking one breath without God is about as effective as
taking one breath without oxygen. Very unfulfilling.
In fact, there's a bit of misinformation floating around among Christians. We often
hear: “I tried to do it in my power, and not in God’s power.” It’s all God’s
power, start to finish, beginning to end.
Look at this a different way: You have exactly
enough strength to do everything God wants you to do tomorrow. You have exactly
enough time to do everything God wants you to do tomorrow. Because God gives it
to you.
We fail when we want to appear competent, on our
terms. We win when we humble ourselves, throw away our plan, follow God's plan
and allow God to be competent:
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace
to the humble.” – 1 Peter 5:5b
Fail #2: Want To Appear Smart (vs. 44-45)
Let’s look at failure #2.
42 Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the
ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy and
gave him back to his father. 43 While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said
to his disciples, 44 “Listen
carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden
from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask
him about it.
Luke tells us that while everyone was excited
about the external miracles, Jesus repeats His message to the disciples about
His suffering and death, and they still don’t get it. Jesus is trying to
prepare them for the time when he is gone, and they must continue the job that
he started. Their failure is not so much that they didn’t understand (what’s
new?), but that (in verse 45) they were afraid to ask about what they didn’t
understand. They looked around, and none of the other disciples were raising
their hands, so they didn’t raise theirs.
What were they afraid of?
· Maybe they were afraid of Jesus, after he had
just chewed them out.
· Maybe they were afraid to hear the answer,
because it might contradict what they wanted. They were afraid of the truth.
· Maybe they were afraid to look dumb in front of
the others.
There are so many things that I don’t
understand. There is such a huge gap between God’s understanding and my
understanding. But we can ask.
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God,
who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5
How often I have relied on this verse! God is
the creator of good ideas. We just discover them. This is true in my job. It is
true in my relationships. It is true in this church. Jason LaRock, is an
inventor, with a couple of patents to his name. I've got some. I have a friend, Vincent, who
has over 300 patents. Was God surprised by what we came up with? Did God go,
“Gee, I never thought of that?” No! But when we delight in what we find--what
he’s already thought of—he draws us in and say, “Let me show you what else I’ve
got.” Why not draw upon the genius of God?
We do not fail for ignorance. We fail for holding on to ignorance
and not asking God.
We fail when we want to appear smart. We succeed when realize and
rely on God as the smart one.
Fail #3: Want To Appear Important (vs 46-48)
First, we fail when we know what to do but don’t trust God enough do
it.
Second, we fail when we don’t know what to do and don’t ask.
Let’s look at the third failure, found in verses 46-48:
46 An argument started among the disciples as
to which of them would be the greatest. 47 Jesus,
knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48 Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes
this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the
one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.”
The third failure comes when we want to
appear important. Jesus just told them he will be betrayed, suffer and die.
But the disciples skip right over that because they have their spiritual
calculators out, punching in the numbers of converts, demons cast out, sick
healed and prayers answered, trying to determine who has the highest score. But
that misses the point. We don’t win. God wins. And those points on
the scoreboard? They are God’s. He draws people to himself. He rebukes
demons. He cures sickness. He answers prayer.
It is God’s grace from start to finish.
But then we ask…who got more grace points? [sound of Jesus
smacking his own forehead]
We even see this in the church.
Francis Chan a pastor from Simi Valley exploded
onto the evangelical scene a while ago when podcasts of sermons he gave at
his flourishing, 4,000-member Southern California church went viral. But then
in late 2010, he up and quit, saying, "I just want to disappear for a
while." One thing that bothered him, he said, was that "even in my
own church I heard the words 'Francis Chan' more than I heard the words, 'Holy
Spirit.'[1]
Pastors don’t need to hear “What a great
sermon!” They need to hear “What a great God!”
It happens to pastors, it happens to us. We
advertise our virtues on the job, so that others notice us. Only the beautiful
pictures end up on FaceBook. You spend time with the cool people, so that
you’ll at least look cool, too.
Instead of making the mission about me, we need
to make the mission about God. We don’t need to be important, we want
God to be important. Here’s what I want to highlight: lives changed,
books written, relationships healed, communities revived, symphonies
performed—by God. Does the stories you tell at work or school—or FaceBook--tell
a story where you are the hero, or where God is the hero?
We fail when we want to appear important. We succeed when we want
God to appear important.
Fail #4: Want To Appear Special (vs. 49-50)
This same attitude of “making the mission about
me” led to the fourth failure, in verses 49-50:
49 “Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving
out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” 50 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for
whoever is not against you is for you.”
Here is the irony. The disciples notice a man driving
out demons in Jesus’ name—the very same thing they failed to do back in verse
38—but he is succeeding and they want to stop him!
Why? “Because he is not one of us.” They seem to
say: “if we fail, so should they!” Spiritual envy. “If at
first we don’t succeed, neither should anyone else.”
They are embarrassed and outdone, so they won’t
give any credit. The Bible says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with
those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15) but the Tim Lewis translation says: “Criticize
those who rejoice; make fun of those who mourn.” Some of you have read my
translation.
This happens to us. Do you thank God for another
church’s growth, another believer’s growing life of faith, another marriage’s
closeness or another co-workers promotion? Or does their success immediately
cause a critical remark or thought in you?
The disciple’s motto was “Anyone who is not with
us is against us.” But Jesus’ motto was “Anyone who is not against you is for
you.” Jesus just redefined the win. The win is not what Cornerstone does for
God. The win is what Sun Hills and Vintage Grace and Lakeside and Lake Hills and
Cornerstone do and beyond, for God. The win is not what Tim does, or Max does
or Randy does for God. The win is when God appears uniquely as God.
We fail when we want to appear special or unique. We succeed when
we make God appear special and unique.
Conclusion
Imagine an app on your phone that decided that
the phone exists for its benefit. That inverts your phone’s mission so that
instead of serving you, it serves itself. What do we call an app like that? A
virus.
The virus of selfishness and pride always tries
to hijack our lives away from God and towards ourselves. The results are
destructive. We fail because we take the life that God has given and repurpose it
for goals for which it was never intended. The Bible says:
For where you have envy and selfish ambition,
there you find disorder and every evil practice. – James 3:16
We know this to be true. The worst and ugliest
moments of our lives are the results of our pride. But somehow we return again
and again to pride’s destructive influence. It was only the selfless act of
Jesus, the innocent son of God, wrecked on the cross which can combat it and
restore our broken soul.
Imagine for a moment if we could be genetically
re-engineered so that the pores in our skin no longer secreted
stench-generating liquids. Not all at once, but gradually. Fundamentally
changing who we are and how our body works.
This is exactly what the gospel does. It brings
to bear God's life-giving, regenerating Spirit in our lives so that, bit by
bit, sin is not the natural product of our lives. Paul said it this way:
"For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being
saved and those who are perishing." (2 Corinthians 2:15)
Yes, we still need to wash. But we can cooperate
with the Spirit's transformative work, not settling for sin-as-the-new-normal in our lives.
Here is the win: God love me. It is God’s grace,
I can’t take any credit.
·
We don’t need
to appear smart, because God loves me.
·
We don’t need
to appear important, because God loves me.
·
We don’t need
to appear special, because God loves me.
·
We don’t need
to appear competent, because God loves me.
“Anyone who trusts in him will never be put
to shame.” – Romans 10:11b
Maybe you’ve realized that your 2016 new year’s resolutions were
your plan, self-powered and self-promoting. Maybe for 2016 you can
ask God
1. To follow God’s dreams and plans instead of
yours.
2. To power those dreams with God’s power instead
of yours.
3. To promote God’s reputation instead of yours.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at
work within us, to him be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
for ever and ever! Amen - Ephesians 3:20-21
That is the epic win.
Some material from the
sermon “Getting It Wrong” by Steven Simala Grant, http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/getting-it-wrong-steven-simala-grant-sermon-on-faults-137584.asp?Page=1 retrieved
on January 8, 2013
[1] The Relentless Passion of Francis Chan,
Mark Galli, Christianity Today, posted January 4, 2013. Retrieved on January
12, 2013
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