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I have been interested over the last
few years noting that in some school systems people are advocating that
we shouldn’t give tests to our children anymore. I think the reasoning
for that is that, one, there is too much competition on one hand; and it
hurt’s self-esteem on the other. But frankly, even though I’m sure it’s
all very sincere; I think that’s the wrong way to go because it just
doesn’t conform to reality. Life is about testing. We do that very
young in life. When we are young we have to get up, maybe if you have a
coffee table, and try to make it to the couch and learn how to walk.
Then we have the test of learning how to talk and the test of learning
how to get along with other children. As we grow up, and if we are
involved in athletics, we’re involved in testing there, as well. We
must have it. Without testing, without stress, we don’t grow. There
was a famous experiment done with a butterfly coming out of the cocoon.
A man noticed how a butterfly coming out of a cocoon had to struggle and
when it did, it flew away; but he decided he would try something. So he
cut the cocoon open as one began to come out and did it for the
butterfly and the butterfly couldn’t fly and it died. See, the stress
of coming out of the cocoon made its wings fill with blood and grow
stronger and it was able to fly. Nearly everything that is good in life
requires testing, requires stress, requires having to work for it.
That’s true of faith as well. In order for our faith to grow, we have
to test it. I think we have the wrong concept of faith. Sometimes we
think of it sort of as an abstraction, something that happens only in
here, in our brain; a thought that we have, “I believe in God” as an
intellectual exercise. But in the bible, faith is an act of the will as
much as it is a thought. It is something that we have to do and it has
to grow. It only grows by testing. That’s what I want to talk to you
about this morning, that is, how we grow our faith.
I have chosen a couple of scriptures
for you; and, given that it is faith, we could have used many. The
first is from Matthew, Chapter 9. A couple of blind folks come to Jesus
for healing and notice what he says about the necessity of faith. In
the bible again, it is an act of the will and it is also about trusting
in God. (Matthew 9: 27-30)
As Jesus went on from there, two
blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
When he had gone indoors, the blind
men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do
this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said,
“According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was
restored.
Later the apostle Peter writes a
letter to the church. People were wondering why if Jesus is our Lord
and God is in control that they were suffering. Peter answers that by
saying that testing is necessary to produce a great faith. (1 Peter 1:
3-9) He says:
Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new
birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade –
kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power
until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed. In this
you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith
– of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor
when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love
him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are
filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the
goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
Please pray with me.
Father, give us faith that is strong,
that can stand the storms of life, that can withstand doubt and
heartache and hurt. Give us trust in you, Lord, tested by trials,
refined by fire. Give us now, Lord, ears to hear as we hear your word
and we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I want to tell you a story. It’s
about Chippy the parakeet, a wonderful story by Max Lucado actually; he
found it in a newspaper. It goes something like this. Chippy the
parakeet never saw it coming. One second he was peacefully perched in
his cage; the next he was sucked in, washed up and blown over. The
problems began when Chippy’s owner decided to clean Chippy’s cage with a
vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and
stuck it in the cage. The phone rang and she turned to pick it up. She
barely said “Hello” when slurrrrrrrrp. Chippy got sucked in. Now the
bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum and opened
the bag and there was Chippy, still alive but stunned. But, since the
bird was covered with dust and soot she grabbed him; raced to the
bathroom; turned on the faucet; and held Chippy under the running
water. Then realizing that Chippy was soaked and shivering, she did
what any compassionate bird owner would do. She reached for the hair
dryer and blasted the pet with hot air. Poor Chippy never knew what hit
him. A few days after the trauma, the reporter who had initially
written about the event contacted the owner to see how the bird was
doing. “Well,” she replied, “Chippy doesn’t sing much anymore, he just
sits and stares.” Sometimes that is what life is like. When it rains
it pours. We feel like we have been sucked in and blown dry, seems like
it’s too much sometimes.
Well, what do we do when stress
comes? Do we run to God like we should; unfortunately, most of the
time, not. You know there is some kind of an idea that if we go to God
that’s almost like the last straw, that’s the last thing we have to do,
because death is near. It’s kind of like soldiers in a fox hole. If
the battle is coming, they finally call on the Lord. In the meantime,
we’re going to do what we want or we seek relief in other ways. Some of
us do it with a long list of pharmaceuticals on our counter. Other
people run to the refrigerator for the nachos, like me, or whatever it
happens to be; in my case, it’s usually ice cream. Others of us go
shopping when life gets tough. But if you are a guy, you turn on the
other drug, the T.V., or the Vikings game; or in our case now, the ipod
thing you can now do 24/7 and check your email every ninety seconds at
least, good stress relievers. Sometimes we just call and complain to a
friend about how bad life is; but then, of course, when you hang up,
life is still bad. There are all kinds of ways we deal with stress and
heartache and hurt and it is usually something else besides God. We all
turn somewhere. There is a story in the bible, in Jeremiah, chapter 2
and God says this to the prophet. He says, “There are two evils my
people have committed. They have turned from me, the spring of living
water and they have dug their own cisterns.” Now to modern ears that
sounds strange; but in the Middle East where it is pretty dry, in order
to have enough water, people dig wells. They make cisterns, which are
lined wells; and when it rains, water goes into those places as
storage. You might ask yourself, “What in the world is wrong with
digging wells?” The accusation of God toward his people is that “you’re
a bunch of well diggers.” Well he is using that as an image. He is
saying that “I am like a spring of water, fresh water coming up out of
the ground; and it is as though you bypass me to go the cistern, or to
dig your own cistern, your own well. That water’s O.K. but it has been
sitting around a while. It is not as good as a spring. Why do you
bypass me?” That’s exactly what we do.
You know, theologically speaking, we
would rather be caught dead than going to God sometimes. It is in our
heart. It is almost like it is in our DNA to not really trust God. It
takes work to do it. You know, that’s why God puts us under stress. C.
S. Lewis said that “pain and suffering are God’s megaphones to a deaf
world.” Often we won’t hear unless we are hurting. It’s too bad but
it’s true. Sometimes when we reach the end of our rope, the only place
we have to go is to look up and God knows this. So some of us are well
diggers; we come up with our own solution. One of my favorite series of
stories is about Abram and Sarai, or Abraham and Sarah, as they had
become. You have to know about these guys. These are the chosen
people of the time. God said to Abram, “You’re the guy. I’m your God
and you’re my guy. I am going to take you down to Palestine. I’m going
to take care of you. I’m going to make you a bunch of people. And it
is going to be good.” When they get there, God sends them through a
series of tests. The first is “O.K. you’re going to have a son. I know
you’re 70 and she’s 60 but you’re going to have a son.” They are
overjoyed. They haven’t had children yet. But then they start
waiting. Hmmm. Five years. Ten years. “What are you doing up
there?” Twenty years! Finally, Sarai, who was the brains of the outfit
-- actually Abraham was going “This is O.K. with me”, and you’ll see why
in a minute -- decides she would give her very young servant to her
husband and said “This is how God will fulfill his promise. I will give
her to him.” And Abraham is going to the young babe, “Oh this sounds
good to me.” They did have a child with disastrous results; but see
basically they decided they would take care of it on their own. Again
it is the same kind of a thing, a well-digger thing. God wants us to
turn to him. So there is the stress test. How will I handle stress,
the pressure test?
The second thing is the people
test. Life is very disappointing. I was in a WalMart the other day and
the scene we see all the time, the little kid walking through and
screaming out “I want that!” He wants to get candy or a toy or
something. This particular parent had a lot of strength and said
“You’re not having it.” The kid has just learned something about life
-- disappointment. It is kind of like the Princess Bride, you know,
isn’t that what that phrase is “Get used to disappointment.” The thing
that disappoints us most in life is people; because we invest in other
people, a god-like quality of making us happy or giving us fulfillment.
God never intended for that, for people or things to make us happy or
give us fulfillment. Now God does give us people and things to fulfill
our needs but he never intends for us to make them the be-all and
end-all. That’s what we do. It seems like every other commercial these
days is for e-Harmony.com. Now I have nothing against that kind of
thing, I think it can be a good service to people; but I have to admit a
few years ago when I was at another church in Texas, the first wedding I
did there was for a couple who had met on the internet. This was 1999
so that’s like back in the stone ages compared to what we are doing
now. I was just so shocked. “We met on a chat thing.” Anyway, they
turned out to have a great wedding and a great marriage. But we do it
all the time now. But the commercials seem to say to us “We can help
you find fulfillment in life. You are going to find happiness
everlasting.” Wrong! No! Even the best people, the people we love the
most and love us the most, disappoint us. It’s just the way it is. The
reason we are disappointed is because we invest in our wife or husband
or child, whoever it is, the power that they are not supposed to have,
to make us happy or fulfilled or just whatever. We are always saying
“If I could only have found the right person, or the right job, I would
be happy. No. Happiness comes from another place. So does
fulfillment. You know I want you to hear a comment. It’s from a person
that I would consider one of the mentors of my life. He is a very well
known writer. His name is Larry Crabb. Larry has a way of putting
things that just zing you. He’s one of those guys that tell you the
truth and you may not like to hear it; but it’s the truth. He says
this; he says “If you pursue the satisfaction God provides more than you
pursue God, you will get neither.” Let me read that again. “If you
pursue the satisfaction God provides, all the stuff and the people, more
than you pursue God, you will get neither.” It may seem quite unfair,
but God has rigged it to be this way. This is the way that God has made
it. It is not that God is actually being unfair or cruel but God is
God, He is the one who satisfies us. When we make other things or
people to be essentially idols, we are going to be unhappy and
disappointed.
The next test is the persistence
test. Will I keep my commitments? You know this month is like the Harry
Potter mother load. We have the movie coming out “The Order of the
Phoenix” and then we have the last book, which I have ordered. I like
Harry Potter. I really like Harry Potter. Now some Christians have
sort of said “Oh it’s all magic and that sort of thing” but if you don’t
like magic or wizards and that sort of thing, don’t read Tolkien or Lord
of the Rings or any of C. S. Lewis’s stuff. But Harry Potter is really
just about good and evil, about an orphan who has to struggle against
all kinds of odds. It’s just a great story. In one of the books, Harry
worries that he is a lot like Voldemort, the bad guy. Dumbledore says,
“Yeah, you are like him in some ways. You’re very persistent; you’re
very powerful; you have a lot of initiative; but what makes you
different than Voldemort is your choices. You have chosen the good.”
And that’s right. We are made who we are by our choices, our
commitments on every level. We all know (it may have been the same one
hundred years ago) but in our time, there are different temptations to
get rid of those commitments. We make all kinds of promises and yet
after a while they don’t seem as powerful. I don’t know how many
weddings I’ve done and how many people have vowed “till death do us
part”; but fifteen years later those promises seem a little bit dim and
hard to keep. Or it is hard to keep the promises of having integrity in
a business when making one little choice that might be a little shady
will actually give you a lot more profit. The question is “Can we trust
God enough even when our marriage isn’t quite what we’d like right now,
or our business, or whatever it happens to be? Can we trust God enough
to do the right thing; that He will take care of us even so, even if we
don’t have as much money as we might have, or whatever, or happiness?
It is a matter of trust. It’s a test! It’s a test.
Maybe the biggest test is
priorities. What are your priorities? I’m reminded of a story of
some hunters that went out to hunt deer and they went off two by two.
They got out to the forest, went out two by two. A few hours later,
Harry comes back, dragging an eight point buck, just a big old thing,
he’s dragging it. All his friends say “Where’s Bob, where did you leave
him?” “Well Bob fainted about two miles ago back on the trail.” They
said “You left Bob and brought the deer in?” Harry said “Well it was a
choice that was tough but I didn’t think anybody was going to steal
Bob.” Insert fishing or golf, or whatever…. It is easy to say “I trust
in the Lord” that “God is first.” We could put it on a t-shirt and wear
it. We might sincerely believe that, but we just have to ask ourselves
some questions. You know “the greatest commandment,” Jesus says, “is to
love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul.” Honestly,
do we do that for two minutes a day? Now, please, I said this to the
early service, I’m not really yelling at you or getting after you, I’m
saying this to myself. We all have to repent about this. God really
isn’t first as we would like Him to be. We constantly have to ask
ourselves, “Who is first?” Maybe a practical way of looking at it would
be to ask, “What do you think about the most?” I think for most of us
we are thinking about what we are worried about the present time. Do we
have enough money, or what about my child, or whatever it happens to
be. Whatever we are worried about at the time. Or speaking of money,
what does our checkbook look like, as far as priorities go? Or where’s
our time spent? Those would be good questions to ask. If you are like
me, you will find that maybe my priorities aren’t so good. I think the
place to begin is just to admit that. God knows it already. God knows
all about you and your failings and He still loves you; but He wants
what is best for you and for me. What’s best is Him. What’s best is
Him. To make that relationship with God be more real; to pursue Him in
everything that we do; and even when things are tough, to ask “where is
God in this tough situation?” because God is always there. We pursue
the Lord because that’s what life is all about. We can look at God’s
promises and believe them. In Isaiah it says, “This is what God
says--if you come back to me and trust me, you will be saved and you
will be strong.” Later it says “God blesses those who patiently endure
testing. Afterwards they will receive the crown of life that God has
prepared for those that love Him.” And on and on and on; all those
promises. But right here and right now, it is all about the Lord. It
is not that we can’t have other things; it’s a matter of what’s first
and what’s real. You will be tested; but God does that because He loves
you and wants you to come closer and closer to Him. In the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let us pray.
God, we thank you for loving us even
when we don’t love you too much. Thank you for taking care of us even
when we are pursuing our own ends. Draw us close to you, Lord; draw us
once again to you as the Lord and giver of life, the One who is the
living water, the One who is the source of everything. We pray these
things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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