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"A
Future and a Hope" December
29, 2002 The Rev. Dr. John Ward As we focus on the Word of God it is nice, still, to see our
sanctuary decorated in Christmas fashion. How
many of you have already begun to take down some of your decorations?
Anybody? All right--a couple
of hands there. And how many of you
make sure that by New Year's it's gone? How
many do that? How many of you wait as long as you can because you really
like Christmas so much? All right!
A good mix. The longest our
home ever had a green, real, live tree up--we made it all the way to St.
Patrick's day once. Isn't that
cool? That was a special tree.
But I think we realize it's time to clean up around New Year's or so.
But if we wait a week or two it doesn't bother us, either. Now, on to our future. I'd
like to start out with something I picked up from MSN news.
You may be familiar with the organization Mensa.
That's an organization whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher.
Anybody here a Mensa member? There's one. All
right. Wonderful.
You may have been part of that group that was at a Mensa convention back
in San Francisco a couple years ago. Several
members who lunched at a local cafe during a break in the Mensa convention
discovered while they were eating that their salt shaker contained pepper and
their pepper shaker was full of salt. Now,
how could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only
the implements at hand? Clearly
this was a job for Mensa. Well, the
group did what a Mensa group would do. They
debated and they presented ideas. They
finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an
empty saucer. They called the
waitress over to dazzle her with their brilliant solution.
"Ma'am," they said, "we couldn't help but notice
that the pepper shaker contained salt and the salt shaker. . ."
And she said, "Oh, I'm sorry about that."
And she unscrewed the caps of both, switched them, and put them back on. That's the joke! Sometimes
as we face issues in our lives, whether it be individually, or as a family
household, or even as company, or as a church, sometimes when we're faced with
issues in our life, we have a tendency to rely on ourselves so much that we lose
sight of the goal. That's what I'd
like to talk about a little bit today. We're
facing a new year. We are in the
midst of thinking about our own new future, and that has with it problems.
And problems aren't always negative.
I've always thought problems to be like a math problem.
It's only a negative issue if you've solved it incorrectly or not solved
it at all. And even if you've
solved it incorrectly, if you check your work you realize it's time to
reevaluate, and change, and solve it correctly.
So even that can't be a bad thing. But
if you leave your problems behind, then they become negative.
So even as we face the issues of a new future in the life of a church, I
want us to rely upon the Lord for our future.
And this is what I'm going to talk about today.
We're going to cover specifically four areas in Scripture just to show
how consistent God is for us in calling us to be dependent on Him.
Let's go ahead and bring down the screen.
We're going to use overheads this morning for this.
Again, we're going to use four Scripture passages, and I thought it would
be better probably just to give you a brief synopsis of the Scripture passage
itself and what I'd like to say rather than have you try to keep up with me on
these passages themselves. The
first passage we're going to cover is from Exodus chapter 14.
Verse 14 is where the specific verse is, but I want to remind you of the
context of where this verse is coming from.
This particular passage of Scripture, of course, has to do with
Moses and the Israelites just being released by the Egyptians and they're now at
the beginning of their sojourn where they will soon head into the promised land.
And it didn't take too long for them to come across the desert and into
the banks of the Great Sea. Now,
here are the Israelites. They're
right at the banks of the Sea. And
all of a sudden they turn around and they see a little cloud of dust off in the
distance. As they wait and look a little longer, all of a sudden they
see that dust was made by horse hooves, and chariots, and soldiers, as the
Egyptian army is now coming to get them. They
feel literally stuck between a rock and a hard place because here they are at
the banks of the mighty sea, and behind them the Egyptian army.
And here's what God says to them through Moses.
I'll read to you from Exodus chapter 14: Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid.
Stand firm and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you
today. For the Egyptians whom you
see today, you shall never see again. [and
here's my favorite part of this verse, 14:14]
the Lord will fight for you. You
need only keep still. Isn't that a wonderful statement?
Here the Israelites, brought by God with a wonderful future for them,
could not see that future. In fact,
they saw impending doom. They were
caught with their blinders on looking at the immediate circumstances only and
God reminded them through Moses, "I will fight your battles for you.
You need only be still." Which
is a reminder for us not to be anxious about our own deliverance and needs that
we have in this life, but instead to trust in God.
Exodus 14:14 Be still God's deliverance will come. Don't be anxious about your predicaments. As you look at the slide there, it will say, "God's
deliverance will come." And so
we're called to be still and not to be anxious about our particular
predicaments, whatever they may be. If
God was for the Israelites as He commanded Moses to part the sea, God will be
for us as well. As strongly as He
was for them, He promises to be for us in Jesus Christ. So we're called, number one, to be still.
I want you to think about that for the rest of this time.
I want you to be still and ask yourself where does God want you to be
still now? Are you anxious about
the future of our church? Are you
anxious with anything with regard to your personal life, or family life, or
student life, or business life? Where
is God calling you to be still right now? Where
is He reminding you that He will fight your battles for you?
That's the first. Now let's
go to the second. Jeremiah 29:11 Be hopeful God's future includes your prosperity. Don't be anxious about your restoration. The second passage is from Jeremiah 29:11.
That's a real favorite of many of you, I know, and you're familiar with
it. It's a great passage and it
also comes at a particular, challenging time in the life of Israel.
Israel was now being carted away to Babylon to really suffer for a while
because it had turned its back on God and done everything that God told it not
to do. And so Israel received kind of a discipline from the Lord.
And it was a period of many years that they lived in exile in Babylon
until once and for all they were released.
There were false prophets who said, "Oh, this won't be long at
all." But those false prophets
were actually killed as a result of their false prophecy.
In Jeremiah, he had the opportunity to write a letter to those who
were in Babylon telling them to stay put where they were, to serve the Lord in
Babylon, because what was happening to them was a disciplining.
And you remember in Scripture it says, in both Old and New Testaments,
"God disciplines those whom He loves."
And it's true. He loves us. And
He calls us then not to be anxious in the time of our disciplining, but to live
through that and be faithful as well. And our second passage goes like this. Verse 10. I'm
going to pick up here on Jeremiah 29:11. For thus says the Lord, "Only when Babylon's seventy years are
completed will I visit you again. And
I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.
[and then he says this:] For
surely I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord.
"Plans for your welfare and not for your harm, to give you a future
with hope." I love they way another translation says it:
"I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
Plans for your prosperity and not your calamity."
I love that word "calamity," because life feels like that
sometimes, doesn't it? But God
says, "I know the plans I have for you.
Plans to prosper you, and not for your calamity, that you may have a
future and a hope." So you may be facing some calamity in your own life once again.
You may know what that is. And
you may be wondering if you have a future and a hope as well.
You may be in the process as well of being disciplined by God. And in fact, you may not even have thought that that was
happening in your life. You may
have thought it was something unfair, but perhaps it's God saying, "I need
you to grow up. I need you to be
mature. I need you to
persevere." And sometimes
that's what disciplining does. For
anyone who's had to discipline another person, you know why you've done it.
Not out of anger, but actually out of helping the person to grow.
And God grows us quite often, as well.
And so our future includes God's prosperity for us, and I want us to
remember that, which causes us then not to be anxious about our restoration.
If you're looking for God's restoration, look for it because it will come
to you. But if it's not coming now,
do not be anxious about it. Trust
in the Lord, that you have a future and a hope, and serve the Lord exactly where
you are now. That is to be hopeful.
Notice in these slides we've gone from "Be still" to
"Be hopeful." I kind of
have four "B"s here. There's
the "Be still," the "Be hopeful." The next one is called "Be disciples."
And let's also turn to that slide now. Matthew 6:33 Be disciples God will provide for you. Don't be anxious about your daily needs. This is a slide from Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 33.
This is not my favorite passage. I've
taught on this a lot and preached on this a lot, and you've heard me say this a
lot. Not my favorite passage.
Just the one most applicable to my life! It's the one that God always gives to me and says,
"John, are you being anxious again? Did
you forget that I'm your provider? Did
you forget that I will provide for you? Did
you forget that all you have need of, I will give to you?
Did you remember what I told you to do?"
This is a wonderful passage for us. Matthew records this. Jesus
is speaking in the Sermon on the Mount. He's beginning to finish that up, and He says a wonderful
passage here. You're familiar with
it. It begins at verse 25: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, or about your body, as to
what you shall wear. Is not life
more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air. They
neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not of more value
than they? [and then verse 27 here
is the one that gets me the most] And
can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
Isn't that a great reminder? How
many of us, by worrying or being anxious, can add one ounce of a solution to the
thing about which we are worrying? That's where I always pull the darts out each time.
Oh, yes. Well, Jesus
continues on: And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you that Solomon in all of his
glory has not clothed himself like
one of these. If God so clothes the
grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,
will He not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?
Therefore do not worry saying, "What shall we eat?
Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear?" For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things, and,
indeed, your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But strive first for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all
these things will be given to you as well. Verse 33 tells us what to do when we fight the temptation to be
anxious about our daily needs. And
in the slide here, we see that we're called to be disciples.
We're not only to be still, to be hopeful, but to be disciples.
And that is the way in which we overcome worry, because we remember that
God provides for us. We do not have
to be anxious about our daily needs. This
is a trusting statement. Do we
really believe that God is our provider or not?
Isn't it interesting that instead of trying to provide for those things
that we worry about, what we're called to do instead is to look away from them
and focus on God, and growing up, and being an adult in our understanding of who
we are as God's followers. It's
counterintuitive, isn't it? When
we're lacking something and we're worried about it, we usually throw ourselves
right into that issue to solve that. God
says, "Why don't you let me provide for you?
Why don't you instead grow in the grace and knowledge of who I am for you
and who you are to be for me?" And
that's for us to be disciples. Now, the fourth slide shows us about what it means to keep an
eternal perspective. I call this
one, "Believe," but I'm kind of cheating.
As you see here, "Be still," "Be hopeful," "Be
disciples," and "Believe." I
wanted to have four "B"s in the message because it's easier to
remember, but what I really ought to be saying is "Be keeping an eternal
perspective." But it just
didn't sound right to me. Revelation 21 Believe Keep an eternal perspective. Don't be anxious about your mission, ministry,
impact. So, "Be still," "Be hopeful," "Be
disciples," and "be keeping an eternal perspective." This is wonderful for us to remember because as we get caught
up in our daily tasks and our daily needs and our regular calamities, it's
important for us to have perspective of all that happens to us.
As we face the new year in 2003, we will likely have a new pastor.
We have already done the wonderful work of organizing the Pastor
Nominating Committee, and we voted on them, and they will begin to do their
work. We have strong people that we
voted into that position, and they now have the task of putting into print who
Faith Presbyterian Church is, and then they have the task of reading many, many
dossiers that will come in. (That's
what we call our resumes. They're
called dossiers. They're multi-page
things, and the Pastor Nominating Committee is going to have to receive all
those. And they'll get well over
100 dossiers for a position like this in a church like ours.)
And we can get pretty excited about the successes we've had so far.
I've told you it couldn't be a better time for us to be in transition
because we have 12 years of solid ministry from Gary LeTourneau, and that gave
us some stability. We also have
much momentum because of that because we've had a stable staff.
We've also had great lay people, obviously.
And you've been given permission to do the ministries that God has called
you to do, and so we have momentum. We
have a wonderful session. We have
wonderful deacons. We have
wonderful people in place. And so
it becomes a good time for us. We
can understand the successes that God has given to us, which will make it easy
for us. We're not desperate to find
somebody. We don't have to take our
time. Neither do we have to rush.
We can listen to the Lord, and I'm excited about that.
But I want us to be keeping an eternal perspective for all we do.
Let me start with the Revelation 21 verses because I want you to know
what this is all about. I think too
often we get short-sighted in what we do. Our
goal is to be a successful church. That
makes sense. To have good
ministries. That makes sense. To do God's will for the people in our community.
That makes sense. But I want you to remember what it's all for.
Because when we're victorious sometimes, we get full of ourselves.
And I want you to remember something.
And I want to begin with chapter 21, starting with verse 21 of the book
of Revelation: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the
first heaven and the first earth passed away and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of
God is among mortals. He will dwell
with them as their God and they will be his people.
And God himself will be with them. He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
And death will be no more. Mourning
and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed
away." And the one who is
seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new."
Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and
true." Then he said to me,
"It is done. I am the Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To
the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Those who conquer will inherit these things and I will be their God and
they will be my children." Let me continue with verse 22: And I saw no temple in the city, for it's temple
is the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory
of God is its light, and it lamp is the Lamb. The reason I added this one as well is that it allows us to keep an
eternal perspective on what we do here, not only in our personal lives as
Christians, but also in our family lives as corporate believers, and as our
church family. It's important for us to realize that no matter how successful we
are in the life of the church, friends, the life of Faith Presbyterian Church,
even though it has been in existence for 115 years, that's just a blip on the
eternal screen of time. And so we
want to be successful, but we don't want to be full of ourselves.
We don't want to think we're the next best thing since sliced bread.
We want to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, knowing that what all
this is about is not filling up our pulpit, not filling up our pews, not filling
up our classrooms. It's about the
Lord Jesus who said He will return again. And
when He comes again, will He find faithful people who keep life in perspective,
who indeed will be still, will be hopeful, will be disciples, and will believe
that this is about God and not about ourselves. One of the biggest crimes we have, I think, is that we try to get
ahead of God. And if you think
about what has been said here in these four examples from the Old Testament to
the New Testament, from the second book of Scripture right to the last book of
Scripture, you see the pattern here of a God who is consistent and who will
continue always to be with us, and that He will always be in the forefront if we
let him. And if ever we try to get
ahead of God, that's when we have the biggest problems.
I'm thankful that God has us on a leash sometimes.
You may find that restricting, but I don't.
Because for me it's not running away from God that I'm trying to do.
It's trying to lead God that I try to do.
And many of you may understand what that means.
But God has a gentle reminder for us:
Why don't you let me be God for a while? Rick Warren, who is pastor of Saddleback Church (this is a church
in southern California. It rotates
through 15,000 people. Yes, that's
15,000 people weekly at their worship services.) I believe it's been successful not because of its growth, but
its growth has come as a result of its attitude.
Rick Warren said this: "God
is looking for people to let God be God."
God is looking for people to let Him be Lord of our lives.
And I think in these passages, we're reminded of that as well.
No need to be anxious. No
need to worry. God is with us. God provides for us. God
calls us to be still and promises to fight our battles for us.
God promises a future for us. We're
called to follow Him in 2003, to be the church that is ready for the next
pastor. Are we going to spend time seeking only that pastor?
Or are we going to be spending time seeking what God has in store for us,
to prepare ourselves for the next person who will be our leader?
Let's pray together. Dear God, I thank you for the giftedness of this church in so many
ways. I think of the leadership
that you've given to us, both those who are professional as well as those who
are lay. And for the people that
you give us, Lord God, and call the body of Christ at Faith Presbyterian.
Lord, I ask that you bless each one of us here this morning as we prepare
for a new year both personally and corporately as a church.
Lord, help us not to worry when that time might present itself.
Remind us to be still, to be hopeful, to be your disciple, and to know
that whatever it is that concerns us, is very small in light of eternity.
Lord, we promise to trust in you for our future, to have a future and a
hope that was not brought about by our hands, but by yours.
Lord, help us to open our hands up to you as we prepare to be a people
ready for a new pastor and new leadership.
Lord God, I thank you so much for the life of this church.
May you continue to remind us, Lord, in every way you need.
If you have to discipline us, Lord, we may not like it, but we know that
we need it, so you do that. Lord,
to remind us that you are the warrior in our battles.
You remind us, Lord, of that. When
we are down, Lord, remind us that we have a future and a hope and you will
provide that for us. When we're
anxious about our daily needs, Lord God, turn our heads from those daily worries
and turn us towards you. And, Lord,
let us keep all of our problems in perspective.
They are very, very small. In
Christ's name we pray. And all
God's people said, "Amen."
The Rev. Dr. John Ward Associate Pastor for Discipleship Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota [Transcribed from an audiotape of the
worship service on December 29, 2002.] |
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