Your Wandering Is Not In Vain (1 Corinthians 15:58b)

Sometimes Christians believe that if they know the will of God, then everything is crystal clear. Pride can misdirect. But it does not follow that all dead-ends are the result of pride. Indeed, wandering often seems to be fully in the purposes of God for our lives. Because God's goal is not ours.

We see a mountain, and we want to know how we will get over, around or under that mountain or, even whether we will avoid the mountain altogether. We don't think that perhaps that any of those alternatives might be correct, because God is not worried about the mountain, but about us and the kind of people we will be by dealing with the mountain in dependence on God. That is faith doesn't move the mountain, faith trusts that God can move the mountain even if it still remains unmoved right now.

This is certainly true in working with a church. How many times have we seen an opportunity for ministry, prayed for wisdom on how to pursue it, consulted wise friends and jumped in with 100% effort. Then it fails. So we take a deep breath, gear up again and jump in again. Failure. And again. And again. We wonder what is wrong. We double-check our motives, our prayer registry, our commitment level. All ok, but no results.

This is why Paul wrote:

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. - 1 Corinthians 15:58b

There is a tendency to pull back in our efforts, because we think it is not working. But, in fact, it is working...on us. It is not in vain. In fact, this very keeping-on-going helps us fully understand God's love (cf. Romans 5:3-4).

 

This verse reminds me of another similar thought expressed by Paul elsewhere:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. - Galatians 6:9

The sense is flipped, but the meaning is the same. In the first it is: do A (give yourselves fully) because you won't lose B (results of your labor). In the second it is: don't give up A (doing good) because you will gain B (harvest).

 

The wandering, not the overcoming, is producing what God wants. The very frustration, and how we rely upon God in failure, is the path God uses.

 

How I wish he would skip it sometimes! How I am tired! But faith says the result God has planned is better than the one I envision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avoiding The Epic Fail (Luke 9:37-50)

Avoiding the Epic Fail
Luke 9:37-50

Introduction

You want to know how to really fail in life? Just read these two verses with me.

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 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 9^th chapter of Luke’s biography of Jesus. Four times in twelve verses, his disciples will fail.  From a Bible point of view that’s not a very good ratio. So what happened?

Well, let’s take a look. Turn to Luke, 9^th 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)

Look at the next verse:

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? 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 had success (verse 6), they were still not confident that it would still work. Second, they were a part of the perverse generation. This means that their desires—their want-tos—their motives—were off-the-mark. That is, 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 experts. But we want to appear like we're competent and capable. We don't just want someone to be helped, but we want to be appreciated as the type of people who help, or the type of people God uses to help. Let me reassure you: 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. But we hesitate because we doubt God. We procrastinate because all our energy, checkbook and slots in our calendar are taken by our plans, dreams and desires.  Our want-to is broken.

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. Afraid of what?

·         Maybe they were afraid to look dumb in front of the others.

·         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.

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. The scariest thought to me is that God would put me through a season of drought of good ideas.

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 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 when we want to appear important. The disciples 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? [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 few years 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 FCC does for God. The win is what FCC and Natomas and Lakeside and Ignite and Bayside and Cornerstone do and beyond, for God. The win is not what Tim does, or Max does or AZ 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 may 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 perfect selfless act of Jesus, the innocent son of God given on the cross which can combat it and restore our broken soul.

·         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 2013 new year’s resolutions were your plan, self-powered and self-promoting.  Maybe for 2013 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

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[1] The Relentless Passion of Francis Chan, Mark Galli, Christianity Today, posted January 4, 2013. Retrieved on January 12, 2013

As Strong As The Weak Places (1 Corinthians 8)

7 But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. - 1 Corithians 8:7
 

This chapter of Paul's 1st letter to the Corinthian church is dealing with one of the controversial topics of Paul's day: eating meat that was sacrificed to idols. Strangely enough, I remember thinking about this back when I was a boy, because a friend of our families was a Buddhist. Each year this friend's temple would put on a giant barbeque, with all the proceeds going to support the temple's operations for a year. Growing up, I never really thought about this, and it was really tasty chicken. But one year, it bothered me that I was helping to support a Buddhist temple. So I asked my family not to buy any for me.

Now, I look back on that and wonder whether it was worth all of the angst I felt at the time. I don't think so. It is chicken. No more, no less.

But this verse has helped me to deal with a lot of other issues in my life, whether books or music or movies or even social situations. Because my conscience is weak. Sometimes the thing itself is not bad, but the associations that I have with it are bad. So, I should proceed no further. Maybe, at some time in the future, my conscience will be strong. At that time, it will be different.

I ran into this again last year when I found that one of my favorite Christian artists had gone astray. The songs had always spoken to me deeply. So I used this test: Were my thoughts being drawn towards God or was I being distracted by this artists behavior? In this case, push and prod as I might, God was still the focus. So I still listen.

I've always thought: I am the strong one, able to look on weakness of other brothers and sisters (see Romans 14). But I am not. I am full of weak places, requiring the mercy of God and my family.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. - 2 Corinthians 4:7

What Will Make You Happy? (1 Corinthians 7)

29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.
 

"If only I _____ I would be happy." Fill in the blank. If only I...

• Was married.
• Had a stable job.
• Had a decent place to live.
• Could eat 3 meals a day.
• Pray 1 hour a day.
• Could be sure of my retirement.

Whatever you place in that blank defines you, your pursuits, your frustrations and your mental state of mind. And anything other than God in that blank will leave you disappointed.

In the 7th chapter of Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul says, essentially, "If you can live without, live without. And if you can't, then go for it. Either way, don't lose your focus on God." Is it more distracting to be married or unmarried? Circumcised or uncircumcised. Free or not free. Or maybe it is the angst of choosing between the two.

Married, single or undecided can all take you away from God. Rich, poor or middle-class can all take you away from God. Stable job, no job, terrible job can all take you away from God. But they are not the issue. God is the issue. Anytime anything else becomes the issue, it has to go.

Today, we are fretting about something. I have guests coming over tomorrow. My front door doesn't lock. People at my job expect me to be a superstar. Each of those has the potential of derailing my life by claiming to be the ______.  Jesus, you are the only one big enough to fill my _____.