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"God’s Greatest Promises--Meaning"
October 14, 2001 Rev. Gary LeTourneau
In my sermon last Sunday, I introduced it telling about when Christie Wilson, in 1955 a missionary to Afghanistan, made an emergency landing at Kandahar airport. I had no idea that Kandahar airport was the focus of world news, even as I was speaking last week. You know that we’re now a nation at war. Some of you have shared with me your loved ones, grandchildren, who are serving in the armed forces and who perhaps may be in harm’s way. As a congregation we want to support you and to support them. I’d like to encourage you, if you have a loved one for whom you’re praying as they serve our country, or if they’re over there in that situation, in whatever capacity, if you’ll call the church office or just talk to me or John and give us their name and the capacity of how they’re there, we’re going to start listing them in the bulletin next Sunday so all of us can join you in praying for those you are concerned about.
A week and a half ago I was in Orlando, Florida for a meeting. (Someone kidded me about going to Orlando for a meeting, but I really went from the airport, to the hotel, to the meeting. I promise I didn’t do anything else!) We were hosted by First Presbyterian Church in Orlando, a glorious, beautiful, large church in downtown Orlando. The host pastor there said he was given very little time to talk about his own church, but he wanted to use it by introducing us to one of his members. The member he brought to the platform was baseball pitcher (now retired baseball pitcher) Orel Hershiser. I’m pretty sure he’s going to soon be in the Hall of Fame. I remember when he pitched his no-hitter, which is an incredible achievement. He appeared on the Johnny Carson Show after that. When he was asked, "What were you thinking about as you pitched that no-hitter?" Orel told Johnny Carson that in his mind he was singing the Doxology--the Doxology he had learned from his childhood in Sunday School. Then he sang the Doxology on the Johnny Carson Show! I thought that was pretty impressive. As he came to the platform and began to talk, he had a ziplock plastic bag with a baseball in it. He began to undo it and said something about, "I want to tell you about this ball." And I thought, "Oh, that’s the one he pitched in the no-hitter. That was his game ball." But that wasn’t it at all.
You see, in 1990--after he’d won about a hundred games--he damaged his shoulder and he had surgery, and had three pins placed in his shoulder. His doctors, his surgeons, told him that it was a career-ender. No major league pitcher had ever come back from that surgery to pitch again. Orel Hershiser worked hard at rehabilitation and he had a group of men who prayed for him, who laid hands on him and prayed that God would heal his shoulder. Then in 1991, a year later, on May 29th, Orel Hershiser was back on the mound again. He actually won more games after his surgery than before his surgery! But he kept holding this baseball up and we were trying to figure out what it was. He said that his first pitch was low and outside. The batter, Steve Finley of the Houston Astros. It was fouled up into the stands. You’ve all seen what happens to a baseball in a major league game when it gets fouled into the stands. Everyone tries to catch it. You wear a mitt to the game just so you are in a good position to catch it. But of all the places that ball could have gone, it was caught by Harry Scolinos. Harry Scolinos was at the game as a guest of Orel Hershiser, sitting in Orel’s season ticket seats. He was there to thank him and honor him for being a leader in the group that had prayed for Orel and for his shoulder. Several days after the game, Harry Scolinos gave the ball back to Orel Hershiser with a plaque that said:
May 29, 1991 "For nothing is impossible with God"
quoting from Luke 1:37. That, of course, was the ball that Orel Hershiser wanted us to see.
I’ve been thinking about that this last week and hereÔs my question for you: Was it just coincidence that the ball was fouled off to Harry Scolinos? What are the odds of that happening? Do you think God had His hand in that? Do you think we serve a God who’s that deeply involved in our lives? Our verse today is Romans 8:28:
If it is true, then there really aren’t any coincidences. If it’s true, then we can expect that even in something as bad as a career-ending shoulder injury, God can be at work to bring about something good. That’s what I want to talk about today. And I’d like to share with you what John Stott has called the "five unshakable convictions" we derive from Romans 8:28. Together they constitute one of God’s greatest promises for us--the promise that in life we will know that God is not only with us, we know that we’ll be with God forever--those were the first two promises--and third, that God will be working with us and in us in all the circumstances of life, both good and bad.
So what are these five unshakable convictions? It would be worth it to have your pew Bible open to Romans 8:28, on page 158. It says:
But do you see that little footnote "o" in verse 28? That’s an important footnote. Because if you look down at the bottom it reads, "Other ancient authorities express it a little differently." The way the first translation reads, it seems to say, "things work together." But "things" don’t really work. "Things" just happen. And the footnote has it better, I think, where it says, "God makes all things work together" or "In all things, God works for good." And that’s the first unshakable conviction we have as Christians: That God works. That God works in your life and in my life. No matter what’s happening, God has His hand involved.
Let me give you another example. Lloyd Ogilvie is Chaplain of the United States Senate. He’s a Presbyterian pastor. Prior to going to the United States Senate as Chaplain, he was pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood. There he had lots of exposure. He preached to thousands every weekend. He had a very popular television show. If you’ve ever heard Lloyd Ogilvie speak, you know he’s got this beautiful, rich voice (that we pastors pray, "Dear God, just one afternoon let me have a voice like Lloyd OgilvieÔs!"). He has written and talked about the difference between being in a very prominent, public position to going to be Chaplain of the United States Senate where he says, "Almost all of my work is done in five small group Bible studies." Bible studies with Senators, with staff, with families, with those who are touched by the activity in the United States Senate. And he’s written about his friend and Bible study attender Senator Max Cleland, Democrat from Georgia, if you keep track of those things. (It seems like you say "Senator," so you have to say "Democrat from Georgia.") You may know that Max Cleland lost both of his legs and his right hand in Viet Nam.
He came to the Bible study withdrawn and tired. He looked so distraught another Senator said, "Max, are you all right?" "Not really," Max said, "I’ve been having the same dream for 30 years. In my dream I accidentally drop that grenade, and I leap on it, and it explodes and blows my legs off." For thirty years he’d been reliving that moment. That night the study group gathered around Max and prayed that the Lord would heal that memory.
They had no way of knowing that two nights later the History Channel, having earlier interviewed Max Cleland, broadcast his story of that event, just as Max remembered it. After the show, a man from Annapolis saw it and phoned Senator Cleland. He said, "Senator, you have the story all wrong. You thought you accidentally dropped the grenade and leaped on it. That wasn’t your grenade. It was a young recruit behind you who had opened the pins on his grenade before jumping out of the helicopter. One of them popped out of the belt and rolled on the ground. You leaped on it to save us all. I wrapped you up myself and got you to the hospital. I was on the helicopter. I know how it happened." It wasn’t a tragic accident. It was a heroic sacrifice.
Ogilvie goes on: "Max came to the next Bible study a new man. He said a gigantic load had been lifted off of his shoulders." The group had been studying Romans 8:28, our text. They had concluded that the way to read it is: "God works all things together for good." And now, reports Lloyd Ogilvie, when Senator Cleland is hurrying around in his wheelchair around the Senate, he’ll call out to the Chaplain whenever he sees him: "Remember, Lloyd: Things don’t work out. God works out things."
Do you believe that? That’s what the text says. The first unshakable conviction of Romans 8:28: God works out things.
Second: God works in all things. Whether it’s a blown-out shoulder, or a grenade accident, or the loss of a job, or the loss of a loved-one, or a terrorist attack on the United States on September 11th, God works in all things.
Third: God works in all things for good. Please notice very carefully, because I’ve heard this verse misinterpreted. It doesn’t say that all things are good. It doesn’t say that if you just understand theologically what’s happening from God’s perspective, you would see that all things are good. That’s not so. There are bad things that happen. The Bible is fully aware of the fact that "it rains on the just and the unjust" alike, and that bad things do happen. But what that verse is saying is that in all things, from the best to the worst, God is at work for good.
How can that happen? In every one of these three messages on God’s greatest promises, I’ve tried to give you one key verse that opens up how it’s true. Today’s verse is Genesis 50 verse 20. I’d encourage you to turn to it in your pew Bible. It’s on page 48 of the Old Testament, right at the beginning. In Genesis chapter 50, verse 20--I have to set it up to tell you the story. It’s about Joseph. (Joseph with the multicolored dreamcoat, if you’ve seen the musical.) Joseph, one of the youngest sons in a family of 12 others, who was a sort of snotty kid that the older brothers couldn’t stand. They took him out and threw him in a hole in the ground to die in the desert. They felt bad about it, and so instead they pulled him out of the hole and sold him into slavery in Egypt. Now, there’s nothing good about brothers murdering a brother. There’s nothing good about brothers selling a brother into slavery. You know how the story ends up. Joseph, in Egypt, goes on to become second only to Pharaoh in command of Egypt. He, in a dream, had learned there would be a famine and had led the whole country to store up food so they had plenty. His brothers came to seek to buy grain from Egypt, and they didn’t know that they were dealing with their brother. They thought he was dead, but he was the one selling them the grain. Well, Joseph reveals himself to them. They are fearful at first, but then they become reconciled. Then Genesis 50 verse 20 explains how God can work even in bad things like murder and slavery. Joseph says to his brothers, "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good."
That’s not to say it wasn’t bad, what you did and what happened. But God intended it for good. How does God work in all things for good? He can take the harm, and even the evil, and intend it for good. The greatest example is what happened on the cross. There’s nothing good about the Son of God dying as a common criminal. It was intended to harm. But God intended it for good. And that’s how it works today in your life and in my life.
The last two unshakable convictions: God works in all things for good for those who love Him. Remember what Jesus said the greatest commandment is: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind." That’s who God is working for and with, for those who are called according to His purpose, who know and love Jesus Christ, and are called to His purpose.
Now let’s think about how this might work in our lives. Say you lose your job. That’s not good. As Christians we don’t have to put on a plastic smile and say, "I know God’s going to make this better" and "There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," and whatever else we say. It’s not a good thing to have economic insecurity. It’s not a promise even that you’re not going to face hardship. There’s not a promise there even that you’re going to get a better job as a result (although all those things sometimes may and sometimes indeed do happen). The promise is that in the hardship and in the loss, whatever it is, God will be with you and will be working in you and in the circumstances so that you can look back and you can say, "I can see how God was involved. He was involved for my good, even in the bad."
I’ve shared with you that when my family thinks of bad things, when we grieve as we all are, and visit all past losses and opportunities for grief, as we do, Joan and I think of our son Nathan, who died at nine days of age at Children’s Hospital. That was an awful tragedy for us. There’s no way I’m ever going to look back at that and say it was good. But here’s what I will say about it. About three months after Nathan died, we were invited, as all families are, to be part of a "grief group" at Children’s Hospital. The only qualification for entry is that you’ve lost a child at Children’s Hospital. I didn’t want to go. It was the last place in the world I wanted to be. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to be with other people. We got there and we walked into the room. It was led by the chaplain and a nurse from Children’s Hospital. There were about 20 chairs for the eight or nine couples and the leaders who were in the room. There was a box of kleenex--a new box of kleenex--between every other chair around the room. I took a look at that setup: "I don’t want to be here!" It was the last place I wanted to be. It was a hard night. We just went person by person around the room and shared what had happened, and how we had lost a child, and what it meant to us. And we all cried together.
But you know what happened? I walked out that night and even then--very early-on--I said, "Joan, there’s something different about you and me. We know God. We know Jesus. We have hope. It’s a part of our life." I could see how God was working even in the very worst to make it better. I know some of you have had the same experience because you’ve shared it and you’re living right now as living examples that even in the greatest loss and tragedy, God works with us for good. That’s the promise of Romans 8:28. It means that no matter what happens in life, you and I have a lifeline we can grab on to. It’s the lifeline of hope--because we know God isn’t just with me, God’s going to work in this circumstance, and I can try and discover what it is.
And, incidentally, a common theme in all the stories I’ve told today is prayer. That’s the way to see how God’s working for good. I can pray, and I can see how God’s working, and I can look for where it is that He wants me to go in this circumstance.
Let me close with one more story. It’s about Bobby Kennedy in 1968, when he was running for the Democratic nomination for President. He spent an awful lot of his time in the poorest neighborhoods of the United States. He was one day in Spanish Harlem. He had already spent five hours in Spanish Harlem, and Kennedy was caked with dirt and soaked with perspiration. His guide and host that day was former boxing champion Jose Torres, a hero in Spanish Harlem. As they went to get into the car, Torres wondered why this rich man’s son came to the ghettos and worked so hard and long (often 16 hours a day). At the car Torres asked, "Why are you doing this? Why are you running?" Here’s what Bobby Kennedy replied: "Because I found out that my world wasn’t the real world." The implication is once he found out what the real world was like, he knew he had something to do.
I think it’s quite likely that just about everyone in this world on September 11th discovered that "my world isn’t the real world." How are we going to respond to that discovery? We’ve got something to do. God’s still alive. God is still active in our midst. Even in the midst of tragedy, God is working for good. By prayer, and by working, and being open, you and I have a mission, and a purpose, and meaning in life. Let’s pray together.
God, I thank you that even in the very worst of circumstances, you’ve promised to be our God and to be with us, and to work in that situation. I pray today for anyone in our congregation who is facing a loss or a hardship. Maybe it’s a lost job, or a lost relationship, or a lost person, a concern with an illness. God, I pray that even today you will break into their life and be the God who brings hope, and begin to show them, little step by little step, how it is that you work for good in their lives. Thank you that we know you. Thank you that we can call on you for comfort and for presence. I pray for any today who haven’t yet opened their hearts to yours. I pray that even now they will open the door and let you come in and be with them and show what a tremendous God you are. Thank you for our church and our congregation. Help us to know what it is we need to do in light of what the world is really like. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Rev. Gary LeTourneau Senior Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota
[Transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00 a.m. worship service on October 14, 2001] |
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