Saturday, September 24, 2005

Deadly Sin: Pride (05-Sep-25)

Seven Deadly Sins M2 Pride
The Titanic was known as the "unsinkable ship"--a ship, “Not even God could sink.”
Back in 1912 it was considered a marvel of modern engineering. It was introduced as "the largest moving vessel ever made in history." The Titanic was the pinnacle of ship building achievement in terms of size, speed, and luxury.
Today we’re look at the saga of person who at height of his power thought he was unsinkable.
In the movie version of Titanic, Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) goes to bow of the ship, He raises both arms and he shouts, "I'm the king of the world!" (As a poor street kid, he was thrilled just to be on the Titanic).
The person we’re going to look at today really thought he was the King of the World. He actually was King of the entire world he knew of. He thought that he was unsinkable.
The person we are talking about is the great King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon.
Today we’re looking his ascendancy, why he crashed and how he came back.
If you have your Bibles please turn Daniel 4.
In Daniel 4 King Nebuchadnezzar begins by declaring to the world what God has done for him.
Nebuchadnezzar describes in vs. 4 being at his palace, contented and prosperous. He has this dream of a tree that so grew large that it’s top touched the sky.

Its leaves were beautiful, it’s fruit abundant. Under its wings, the creatures of the earth found shelter.

Then a voice from heaven came saying, cut down the tree, but let the stump and it’s roots be bound with iron and bronze and remain in the ground, in the grass of field.

Let him be drenched with dew of heaven and let hikm live with the wild animals and be given the mind of animal (a condition known as lycanthropy), until 7 times pass by him (which could mean 7 months, 7 seasons, or even 7 years.).

Daniel was called in to interpret the dream.

We’ll pick up the story in vs. 19.

19 Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him. (turned white) So the king said, "Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its meaning alarm you."
Belteshazzar answered, "My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries! 20 The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, 21 with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the beasts of the field, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds of the air- 22 you, O king, are that tree! You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth.
23 "You, O king, saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, 'Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump, bound with iron and bronze, in the grass of the field, while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven; let him live like the wild animals, until seven times pass by for him.'
24 "This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king: 25 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. 26 The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that Heaven rules. 27 Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue."
The Dream Is Fulfilled
28 All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 he said, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?"
31 The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, "This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. 32 You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes."
33 Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion;
his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
35 All the peoples of the earth
are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases
with the powers of heaven
and the peoples of the earth.
No one can hold back his hand
or say to him: "What have you done?"
36 At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honor and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before. 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
King Nebuchadnezzar is living with great power and in great luxury, but he’s cut down by God. He thinks he’s an animal and goes and lives in the wild for seven months or seasons or years… and he finally acknowledges God and is restored.

What does this episode tell us?

King Nebuchadnezzar was one the most powerful people of history, the King of all the world he knew of. He was the successful builder of what we now refer to as ancient Babylon. He created the hanging Gardens of Babylon in modern day Iraq, described by the Greeks as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar had powerful armies. He was fabulously wealthy. He was successful in way that no one here or even in our day will likely ever be.

By any world standard, we would define this King as being “blessed.”

But, in terms of God’s assessment he wasn’t blessed.

In our culture we tend people who “successful,” wealthy, and powerful as being blessed—but in God’s economy that’s not necessarily the case.

In fact, the state of being “successful,” wealthy, and powerful can be a place of great spiritual peril according to Jesus.

Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus is saying it is very difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God, and that’s only possible through God doing something miraculous in that’s person’s life.

Thomas Carlyle said for every one hundred people who can handle adversity, I can find you one who can handle success.

Why is having success, wealth, power such so dangerous?

What cancer grew in Nebuchadnezzar because of all of these in such abundance?

Pride.

(Now there’s a certain kind of pride that’s very healthy.

Someone has had defined good pride as faith in the idea that God had when he made us. Understanding that God has created us for a good and noble purpose is a good pride).

There’s a good pride, but there’s also a bad pride, a sinful pride.

This bad pride has traditionally has been considered the first of the 7 deadly sins.

Why was pride been considered the first deadly sin?

Part of the reason is because pride is a kind of foundational vice i.e, a gateway sin for other sins…

For example, prides causes a person to think they do not need to acknowledge God.

While King Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of this royal palace, he asked, “Is this not the great Babylon I have built, by my royal power and for the glory of my majesty?

Nebuchadnezzar assumes he is the great creator of Babylon.

So what’s wrong with him taking credit for Babylon the great? Was he not the one who led the building of Babylon and her great Hanging Gardens? Yes. Was he a not military and political genius under whose leadership the empire of Babylonia spread? Yes.

But who gave him his talents? Who gave him the health and the context where he could develop his talents? Who enabled him to be born into a family where he could one day become King?

Nebuchadnezzar’s sin of pride was that he was taking credit for things he had no right to take credit for.

As NYC pastor Tim Keller has said, he was committing the sin of cosmic plagiarism.

Lincoln Tatem is not only a talented musician, but he also a gifted composer and from time to time, we’ll sing a song that he has composed. Now if I stood up after he had played something he had composed, and I said, “I wrote that… you didn’t I was so musical did you? Aren’t I amazing?” and you knew that it was really Lincoln who had written the song (because you are part of the song-writer’s group here).

You would be sick to your stomach. You would be turning to the person beside you and asking, “Do you have a brown paper bag?”

When we take credit for something God has done, we’re committing a kind of cosmic plagiarism.

The greatest sin is not what we think it is… the greatest sin is to fail to love and honor God. The great sin is to break the first commandment to fail to love the Lord our God with all our heart soul, mind, and strength….

Pride causes us to sin directly against God by failing to love and honor God.

Pride causes us to sin against ourselves…

Joy comes out of sense of deep gratitude that we don’t feel we deserve. But pride causes us to think we deserve everything, we’re entitled to everything and we are not grateful for what we think we deserve.

When you some does for you and think you’re entitled to it and you think you’re entitled you don’t appreciate it. When you see something a gift you feel joy.

You hire to cut your grass, you’re not that grateful. But when your neighbor out the blue cuts your grass for you, you’re really grateful!

Pride destroys our joy because it makes think we are entitled to everything.

Pride also stunts our learning, it creates a roadblock to true understanding.

We see this happening to King Nebuchadnezzar in a dramatic way; he becomes like an animal… He loses his sanity…

While we not we may not lose our sanity, pride will darken our understanding.

How does this happen?

If we are proud, we will assume we know it all and don’t need to learn.

If we are proud, when we are presented with data that doesn’t make sense in our paradigm we’ll tend to mentally pack up and leave.

Pride says I’ve know everything, I’ve made up my mind… so try don’t confuse me with any new facts…

Pride can cause to turn from God, hurt ourselves by gutting our joy and by stunting our learning… and pride causes to sin others, because pride makes us we look down on others…

King Nebuchadnezzar, was ruthless to his enemies and oppressive to the poor, why? Because he saw himself as superior.

I think of Raskolnikov, the lead character in Dostoyevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov is a young, intelligent student, but poor. He comes across, an elderly pawn broker who has money. He reasons, he is far superior, far more worthy of money than this old hag, so he murders for her money…

What causes him to do that? Pride…

What causes people to commit crimes against woman or people of other races or the poor? Isn’t it the view their gender or ethnicity or social class is superior?

Pride is a cancer leads to all kind of sins… sins against God, ourselves, and others…

King Nebuchadnezzar is humbled by God…

He’s driven away from his palace, he begins to think he’s an animal…and lives in the wild…

This would be like someone today who was living in their 7 million dollar penthouse in Coal Habour, lost it and began to sleep every night with Raccoons in the bushes in Stanley Park.

But the fact is as Nebuchadnezzar’s success, wealth and power proved NOT to be a blessing, but rather a curse, Nebuchadnezzar’s loss his wealth, power and sanity was in fact not a curse… but in the end it proves to be a great blessing, as King Nebuchadnezzar here acknowledge to the world!

My father in law, who’s now retired during his career was recognized as a gifted, insightful business leader.

When things were going smoothly for the company he was leading, he was felt it was as if the company place of danger… as it would be tempted to become complacent, but when the company was in crisis, he saw this as a great opportunity for growth.

If you are in some kind of crisis—do you see as something bad (maybe it is bad in and of itself, I don’t want to minimize that), but do you also see as this perhaps as great opportunity, long term, to become?

For the prophet Jonah his best environment for growth was not a university or even his small group, but being in the belly of whale.

As we see in the story of Nebuchadnezzar and throughout the Bible, the economy of God is very different from economy of the world. What the world defines a blessed may be a curse, what world views as a curse may be a great blessing.

Nebuchadnezzar’s sin was pride and he didn’t know it.

The problem with pride, like sin in general, is that it darkens our vision so the more we have it the less we’re able to see it. Me proud?! “What are you talking about, I’m the most I know.”

So how would we know, if we whether we’re proud?

How do we know that Nebuchadnezzar had pride?

He walks across the roof of palace and says it this not the great Babylon I have built?

He doesn’t acknowledge God… for the good things in his life…

Do you we struggle with pride? One of the ways we can know is by asking ourselves—do we acknowledge God when good things happen to us?

This past week in our home Bible study, one of our members, who comes from a Buddhist background… moving more and more in a Christ-ward direction said,
“It used to be case when good things happen to me, I was glad. But I now when good things happen I think of God and I thank God.”

When good things happen to you, do you in your heart do you thank God?

A sign there’s a healthy humility.

We also know that King is proud because as he walks across the roof of his palace, he says is this not the great Babylon I have built for my majesty?

Do we tend to use gifts to advance our self-interest (as most people do) or as means to serve God’s purpose and people?

Are our gifts being used for our glory as King Nebuchadnezzar did or for God’s and the good of people?

Now the fact is that no one has ever likely ever done anything from a total pure motive, but are we becoming people who increasingly view our gifts as from God for God and for others?

Or do things because will this look on my resume, will this help me into grad school, or impress someone?

Third question… Are we generous with our money? Daniel says in vs 27 says that King Nebuchadnezzar can show that he is humbling himself before God by being kind to the poor and oppressed.

Part of way we show that we become humbling is by giving to the poor, by giving to by giving to charity, by giving to God.

Do you see your financial resources as gifts from God to be used, at least in part, to help others or do you primarily see your financial resources as something you deserve to keep in their entirety because you’ve worked so hard for them?

When my wife Sakiko first became a Christian during her first post university job, one of the things shocked her was this call that Christians have to tithe, i.e. the call to give God the first 10% of their income.

She though 10%--that’s a lot.

Two things changed her perspective… 1st was discovering the others Christians in her church were giving 10% of their income to God…

But, the other thing that is she came over to recognize was that her mind, her family circumstances which allowed to pursue education as far as she wanted to, her gifts of writing and editing, her opportunities earn income because of these gifts… all came from God. So to give to back to God out what he had given to her ceased being a burden and became an act of gratitude.

Let’s say, you’re thinking of buying a condo or a house… you don’t have a lot of money and in order to carry your mortgage on the place you are hoping to buy you need a down payment of $30,000. But, you don’t have $30,000… you don’t have anything close to it…

You go a family friend who’s done well and ask that person to loan you $30,000.

The family friend says, this is the deal I will give you 30k, but what I want to give me back is 3k.

What I get to keep 27,000 toward my home, I just give back 3K. Would you say, “That’s unreasonable! How can ask me for that?” No, you’d say I love you. You’ll be able to give the 3k with joy.

When we really believe all that we have is gift, our capacity to produce whatever we have is a gift and when are asked to give 10% back of what’s given, to God, to the poor if we really see as gift we can do it joy…

In terms of the perspective of much of the world, doesn’t it seem, like being humble is a one way street down?

Many people think they will be much further ahead if they take credit whether they really deserve it or not, if they use theirs gifts for our self-interest and advancement, if they keep all their money and material resources to themselves ourselves.

But Bible says… If we humble ourself under the might hand of God and He will lift us up in due time…

The Christian life is filled with paradox: it is through giving that we receiving, it’s giving up ourselves to God that we find our true self, and it’s in humbling ourselves before God that we are lifted up…

If we humble ourselves and acknowledge our need Christ to lead our lives, we will be lifted up in this and the life to come.

Let’s pray (silently).

Perhaps some of us would like to take a moment to thank God for something.

Perhaps some of us want tell god that our talent and resources for Him and others.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Habakkuku 1 (05-Aug-14)

Habakkuk M1 When God Doesn’t Make Sense August 14, 2005
Big Idea: Even in the unsolved mysteries of life, we can know that God is working out his purposes.
Have you though about why in a wedding the groom always stands on the left or why pencils are typically hexagonal? Have you ever thought about why a useless gift is called a white elephant?
Grooms began standing on the left during the days when men captured women from neighboring villages. The groom wanted his sword hand free (his right hand) during the wedding to fight off a possible attack from his rivals. The 9 sided hexagonal can be made with the same amount of wood as 8 round ones. So hexagonal pencils are less expensive to produce. In years gone by, the King of Siam apparently gave people he was displeased with a white elephant. These animals were considered sacred and could not work, but had to be maintained.
Wouldn’t it be great if all of life’s mysteries could be solved so easily!
We know that this is not the case.
There are many unsolved puzzles in life in life. One of the biggest puzzles is why there so much pain and evil in the world?
Why the London bombings? Why 911? Why the violence on the downtown eastside? Why the domestic violence? Why do the evil seem to prosper?
The prophet Habakkuk wrestled with these kinds question in his day. In about the year 600 B.C. Habbakuk saw all kinds of violence, evil, and injustice committed in Judah and asked, “God why don’t you do something!”
Under the reign of King Josiah, who reigned in time not long before Habbakuk’s prophecy (over years 640-609 B.C.) Judah had experience some spiritual and social renewal, but that renewal proved to be rather shallow and shorted lived. Before long, Judah reverted back to its sins of violence and injustice.
This morning we’re going to look at Habakkuk’s angst over this and God’s response.
If you have your Bibles turn to Habbakuk (after Ezekiel near the middle of your Bible Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk)
Habakkuk 1
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet received.
Habakkuk's Complaint
2 How long, O LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, "Violence!"
but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk is a person who asked the questions we’ve asked? Why there is so much violence and evil? Why is there so much injustice? Why are there two standards of “justice” one for the rich and the poor? Why do the wicked prosper?
God, Why don’t you do anything?
Part of what the book of Habakkuk (and the many of the Psalms) shows us is that it is ok to honestly question God.
God can take it.
If a mother who puts her young son to sleep earlier than usual for misbehaving and the boy screams, “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you…” can take it, how much more can a God who is infinite in love?
God has feelings, but God is big enough to take our questions and complaints.
We can be honest in our complaints to God.
The key, however, like Habbakuk is that we direct our complaints to God in prayer…
Some people experience a tragedy in their lives and they allow that tragedy to turn them away from God…
We probably all know of someone who’s turned away from God, because of some kind of disappointment with God they’ve experienced. Perhaps we’ve been tempted to turn away as well.
In life we are going to experience all kind of questions about God without any easy answers. Habakkuk shows us that it’s ok to express our angst and anger to God. He shows that it’s healthier to express our complaint directly to God than to sullenly turn away from God in our pain.
The Lord answers Habakkuk:
The Lord tells the prophet that he is going to raise up the Babylonians to bring judgment on the people of Judah.
Look at verse 5.
The Lord 's Answer
5 "Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwelling places not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like a vulture swooping to devour;
9 they all come bent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10 They deride kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
they build earthen ramps and capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty men, whose own strength is their god."
God explains that he is going to raise up the Babylonians to bring judgment upon the people of Judah, but this answer does the not satisfy Habakkuk because the Babylonians are more evil than the people of Judah!
And Habakkuk issues his second complaint:
Habakkuk's Second Complaint
12 O LORD, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, we will not die.
O LORD, you have appointed them to execute judgment;
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
(Then in vss. 14-17 Habbakuk describes how the Babylonians regard their fishing nets as their God.)
Habakkuk cannot believe that God will use a people more evil than the Judeans to judge Judah.
What this passage is teaching us is that God does in fact respond to evil, but he may do it in a way that doesn’t always make sense to us.
Isaiah 55:9 tells us…
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
There are aspects of God’s character and ways that we will never understand.
Eastern thinkers have pointed trying to understand certain things with our rational minds will hinder true understanding. Zen masters have pointed out that the more we realize we don’t understand, the closer we may be to real understanding.
That’s rather abstract; let’s use a concrete example.
If someone who you only met once or twice came up to you and said I’ve read your Myers Briggs type ( ESTJ, extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging person), and I know you came raised by a single mom and on the East side of Vancouver and went to UBC and majored in electrical engineering. I’ve got figured you out.
Then there’s someone else comes up to you… who’s known you over 20 years and whose a really close friend: you’ve been through thick and thin together. And they say I thought knew you, but you still remain such a mystery to me, there’s so about you I still have yet to discover!
Who do feels knows you better? The person, who thinks they got you all figured out or the person who realizes that you are a rich, unfathomable mystery.
You feel like the person who realizes that they don’t know you fully, knows you better.
We are called to love God with our minds and seek to understand God’s character, but there are parts of God that will remain an ineffable mystery to us…
Later in Habakkuk, we read the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth be silent before him.
There’s a time to question God, there’s a time to study, but then there’s a time just to be silent before God… to realize we have no idea…
But, Habakkuk does not seem ready to be silent just yet… He’s deeply troubled by the fact that God is willing to use an evil people like Babylon to accomplish His purpose.
We see here in the passage that God can even use evil for his larger purposes.
Anne Graham Lotz has pointed out that we see war and violence because we have pushed God out of our lives. Other people have said that the violence in our world is evidence of the absence of God. There is some truth to this perspective.
But the disturbing truth of the book of Habbukuk seems to be teaching us is that God can and does work his purposes in through the chaos and violence of our world.
As Elizabeth Achtemeier points out, the turmoil and violence and death in our societies may not be evidence of God’s absence, but instead witness to his actual workings in judgment for his purposes.
If God could use the unjust, violence against his son Jesus Christ as he was nailed for his purposes, is it not conceivable that God could use other “terrible” things to further his purposes in the world?
Some qualifications:
The fact that God can uses evil for his purposes is the God is NOT to say God is the direct cause of evil. The forces of darkness and human beings are the sources of evil.
NOR can we say that because God can use evil for his purposes, WE have any kind of justification to enter to use violence or to be aggressors in war.

Though God can use any circumstance to further his purposes, we are not prophets and we cannot not presume to glibly comment on world affairs and say this is how God is using this…
But we can say that History is HisStory.
If God can use the good and the bad in history to accomplish his purposes, he can also use good and evil in our lives to achieve his purposes.
The apostle Paul in the book of Romans tells us that God uses all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
Paul does not mean that all things that happen to those who belong to God are good--some things are clearly bad that happen to God’s people, but God can use to them for God.
I don’t in any way want to minimize or trivialize physical suffering. In my vocation I witness a lot of suffering. But God can use even these evils for his purpose. I’ve heard people say that getting this stroke or the cancer was worst thing and it was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. It really clarified what was really important to me.
God can even use our sin to ultimately work for his purposes and our final good. This is not an encouragement to go out and sin, but if you have sinned God cans use even that!
An alcoholic can say, “Alcohol ruined my marriage, hurt my kinds, cost me my job, it doesn’t make any sense, but it was the best thing that happened to me.”
As Julian or Norwich in Revelation of Divine Love has said, “Sin shall not be a shame to humans, but a glory, the mark of sin shall be turned to an honor.”
Richard Rohr says that logically it doesn’t make sense, but theo-logically it makes sense.
So, life is filled with mystery, we don’t have all the answers.
There are times when like Habbakuk, we want to rail against God.
As was the case for the prophet there are times when God’s answer doesn’t satisfy us.
Habbakuk cannot understand how God could use evil to bring about good!
But see what Habbakuk does in 2:1
Habakkuk 2
1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
Habbukuk, instead of turning away from God, in his angst, climbs a watchtower, i.e., he goes to a high place where he can get some perspective and he waits for God to speak to him.
When you are perplexed or angry with God. Express that to God, question God.
And go up in your “watch tower.” Go to some “high” and private place where you can gain perspective and wait and see what God will do.
Prayer: Is there something I must wait on God for?
Quiet…
Benediction:
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible (and sometimes to us inscrutable), the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen

Habakkuk 2 (05-Aut-21)

Waiting on God Habakkuk 2 August 21, 2005
BI In the “in between time” the righteous will live by faith…
This past week my wife Sakiko and I did a Costco run. Whenever I’m at Costco, making my way to the check out line, I’m looking for the shortest and fastest moving line. I am scanning the line ups like a quarterback looking for a receiver downfield because I don’t like to wait any no longer than I have to.
No one likes to wait.
If you’re driving, how many of you are bothered when the light turns green and the person in front of you doesn’t move for 2 seconds (Do you say I’m glad for the extra time to meditate, let me try to get into the lotus position?).
We hate to have to wait for something to download on our computer (we don’t yeah! This I need this little moment of inactivity, I think I’ll do some stretching, some jogging on the spot, jumping jacks…)
Most of hate to wait! We see it as a complete waste of time!
But, much of life is about waiting… not just in line ups, in traffic or when we’re downloading something onto our computer, but we also have seasons of waiting. We wai for doors to open, we wait for people, we wait for prayers to be answered, and waiting can be frustrating…
So is waiting just a complete waste of time?
I part the answer to that question as we look at the life of the prophet Habakkuk.
Habakkuk new first hand about waiting.
He lived in about the year 600 B.C. during a time when Judah was filled with violence, evil, and injustice. He cried out, “How long on Lord, How long until you do something about the evil we see all around us?” God replied that he would raise up the Babylonians to judge Judah, but then Habakkuk was incensed that God would raise up a people more evil than the Babylonians to judge Judah and he waited again for God’s reply…
If you have you Bible please turn to Habakkuk 2:
1 I will stand at my watch
and station myself on the ramparts;
I will look to see what he will say to me,
and what answer I am to give to this complaint.
Habakkuk during a time when he was questioning God’s ways did not turn away from God in anger. Instead he went up to his watchtower, i.e. to a “high place.” He went up to get a greater perspective, and waited for an answer from God.
Listen to God’s reply.
The LORD 's Answer
2 Then the LORD replied:
"Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets
so that a herald may run with it.
3 For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
it speaks of the end
and will not prove false.
Though it linger, wait for it;
it will certainly come
and will not delay.
4 "See, he is puffed up;
his desires are not upright—
but the righteous will live by their faith—
5 indeed, wine betrays him;
he is arrogant and never at rest.
Because he is as greedy as the grave
and like death is never satisfied,
he gathers to himself all the nations
and takes captive all the peoples.
6 "Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying,
" 'Woe to him who piles up stolen goods
and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
How long must this go on?'
7 Will not your creditors suddenly arise?
Will they not wake up and make you tremble?
Then you will become their prey.
8 Because you have plundered many nations,
the peoples who are left will plunder you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
9 "Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
setting his nest on high
to escape the clutches of ruin!
10 You have plotted the ruin of many peoples,
shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
11 The stones of the wall will cry out,
and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.
12 "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
and establishes a town by injustice!
13 Has not the LORD Almighty determined
that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire,
that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.
15 "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors,
pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
16 You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed [e]!
The cup from the LORD's right hand is coming around to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.
17 The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.
18 "Of what value is an idol that someone has carved?
Or an image that teaches lies?
For those who make them trust in their own creations;
they make idols that cannot speak.
19 Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!'
Or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!'
Can it give guidance?
It is covered with gold and silver;
there is no breath in it."
20 The LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.
The prophet Habakkuk has been waiting for God to judge the people of Judah for all of its violence and injustice and God has told Habakkuk that he will raise up the Babylonians to judge Judah, but Habakkuk then furious that it is the Babylonians who will judge Judah because the Babylonians are more evil than the Judeans.
So, as we’ve seen, Habakkuk goes up to his watchtower and waits for God to say something.
God tells Habakkuk, that while he will use Babylon to judge Judah, but he will in turn also judge Babylon.
God tells Habakkuk that Babylon will be judged for its violence against Judah and we see poetic justice befalls Babylonian: the plunder is plundered vs. 8, the sham-er is shamed (vs. 16), the inflict-er of violence becomes the victim of violence (vs. 17).
Like Habakkuk, we may not see God’s justice at a particular moment in time, but overtime we see God’s justice more clearly. Who have envisioned the powerful, fierce Babylonians falling as she would?
Who could have envisioned some of the tyrants of the world coming to justice in their heyday? But with benefit of hindsight, we see Saddam Hussein caught in little square hide out underground, we see Hitler ending his life in his bunker, we see a Mussolini strung up by his feet.
When there is violence and injustice in the world, God does respond. As we see in Habakkuk, He will do in his time and he may well use a nation that is violent and unjust to judge the violent and unjust nation and this nation used to bring judgment will in turn be also judged.
While Habakkuk’s own people are being killed, pillaged and raped by the Babylonian army, Habakkuk now waits for God to exact judgment on Babylon.
Habakkuk has been given this revelation by God of the coming judgment upon Babylon.
Vs. 3 God says this revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger wait for it, it will certainly come and not delay.
From God’s vantage point the revelation does not delay. John Calvin has pointed out, God sees the future so no matter how far off the revelation is in our time, there’s no delay from God’s perspective.
But from a human perspective, the revelation as the text points out does linger… In fact, lingers for about 66 years (about 66 years after this prophecy Babylon falls).
Habakkuk’s journey with God involved a lot of waiting…
Much of our journey with God is about waiting…
As Andrea Havenor reminded us this summer if you were here, a lot of the Christian life is about is about living in the “not yet.”
Why is this the case?
Part of reason is because God has His own time table. In vs. 3 we read that the revelation awaits an appointed time. God has an appointed time to bring judgment to Babylon.
Sometime we wait because our timing is simply different from God’s timing.
In Barbara Kingsolver’s novel the Poisonwood Bible there’s a scene Leah…why God is allowing the ants to invade their village, and her African teenager, “Says life is not a mathematical equation is which we center.”
Sometime the reason we wait, as was the case with Habakkuk, is because the Lord His time table.
At other times God allows us to wait because he wants to do something deep inside us.
Not just Habakkuk, but everyone one of us here knows what it means to wait from something. To wait for a longing to be fulfilled, a hope to come to pass.
We may be waiting for the door to open to a school, a job, the success of a project, a relationship, marriage, waiting for children, or waiting for them to leave the home…
Or perhaps we’re waiting for guidance or healing or as it was for Habakkuk justice…
As it was for Habakkuk, waiting can be hard for us…
My New Testament professor in seminary, Dr. Scott Hafemann says, “The life of faith is not primarily an experience in which our longings are immediately fulfilled.” The life of faith is a life of expecting what God will do, as we trust him.
The apostle Paul in Romans 8 spoke we know God live with inner longing…
The great African theologian Augustine says:
The entire life of a good Christian is an exercise in holy desire (longing). You do not see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he (Jesus Christ) comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.
Suppose you are going to fill some holder or container, and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you set about stretching your sack or wineskin or whatever it is. Why? Because you know the quantity you have to put in it, and your eyes tell you there is not enough room. By stretching it, therefore, you increase the capacity of the sack, and this is how God deals with us. Simply by making us wait he increases our desire, which in turn enlarges the capacity of our soul, making it able to receive what is to be given to us.
Augustine says while we’re waiting, God is stretching our soul. He’s increasing our capacity for His presence and His joy.
This past summer, my wife and I attended a family reunion in the Bay Area of California. We spent in the Napa Valley, the wine country (show photo).
We took a tour of the Robert Mondavi winery… Ralph our guide explained that certain wines, from the time the grapes are harvested, can take 4 years of waiting until then they’re bottled (show photo to barrels). If it’s a reserve wine say, that’s say bottled and released this year, it may not peak until the year 2020. So from the time those particular grapes it’s may about 19 years for the wine to peak (4 year to produce the wine and another 15 to age in a cellar). Other wines take considerably longer to peak, like say a hundred years. You can produce a cheap table wine relatively quickly, but it takes times to cultivate great quality wine.
Have you wondered why certain wines so expensive, costing hundreds of dollars for a bottle (you know the kind none of us drink)? Well the vine might be 120 years old to begin with, maybe it took 5 years to produce the wine, and maybe it’s in been reserve for over 100 years.
As wine waits in darkness, it literally becomes more precious.
So it is with us… waiting may seem like a waste of time, but if we trust God, God will stretch our soul, making them into a very fine wine.
John Ortberg says, what God does in us while we wait is just as import as what we’re waiting for.
In fact in some cases, what God does in us while we wait may be even more important than what we’re waiting for.
What God in us in the “in between” time may be more valuable than the thing we’re waiting for.
So, the “in between” waiting time that characterizes so much of life, how shall we then live?
God says in Habakkuk that the righteous will live by faith… vs. 4
What does it mean to live by faith?
Notice that faith is contrasted with pride… Habakkuk says, “See he is puffed up (an image of pride), his or her desires are not upright but the righteousness will live by faith…”
Faith is contrasted with pride; faith is a humble trust in the living God, during the “not yet.”
As much as we don’t the “not yet,” the “not yet” can provide us with a great platform to exercise trust.
Once a promise comes to pass, we lose the opportunity to exercise faith for that particular promise. Paul in Romans 8:24 says who hopes that is seen is no longer hope. For who hopes what he or she already has? Not yet is a platform for trusting God.
How do we trust God in times of waiting? How do we live faithfully in darkness? (The word faith btw can be translated “faithfulness” and if we truly have faith we will be faithful?” So how do we live by faith in the “not yet” or how do will live “faithfully” in the “not yet.”
As respected pastor and Bible expositor Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones has pointed out in his commentary on Habakkuk, part of the way we learn to trust God in times of waiting and darkness is to acknowledge what we already know about God.
Habakkuk does this. What God is doing doesn’t make sense to him. How can God use nation more evil than Judah to judge Judah? But during this time of questioning God, Habakkuk proclaims what he knows about the character of God. He acknowledges God is everlasting, he says “Are you not from everlasting?” (ch. 1 vs. 12). He acknowledges that God’s eyes are pure (ch. 1 vs. 13).
Part of the way we exercise faith in times of waiting, in times of darkness, is to acknowledge what we know about God.
When God doesn’t seem to make any sense: when this injustice seems to be happening, this seemingly needless pain is crashing into our lives, when we experience that seemingly unanswered prayer, that unsolved question… we can recite what we know about God.
Darrell and Sharon Johnson are members of this community. On December 20 2005 their then 18 year old son Alex while hiking in Southern California fell down a 120 foot cliff and as you can imagine sustained some very serious injuries. He was retrieved by a helicopter rescue team and taken to hospital.
By the time Darrell and Sharon Johnson got there Alex was in a coma on life support.
As Darrell driving in his car after visiting, Alex in the hospital these words came to his mind: There is a God. A good God. A faithful God. A powerful God. There is never a time when God is not good. There is never a time when God is not faithful. There is a never a time when God is not powerful. There is never a time when God is not on throne of the universe.
When it’ difficult to trust God… as Habakkuk and Darrell and Sharon have done… we need to quietly take a step a faith and acknowledge what we know about God’s character: There is a God. God is good. God is faithful. God powerful. God is present.
Some of here are time of waiting, time of darkness a time and perhaps some of us are tempted to doubt God.
Perhaps here even in the cloud of unknowing, must acknowledge God’s goodness and our trust in him.
Silence
I close with this and prayer of Thomas Merton:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Benediction: May you always know that God is good and in your season of waiting may God himself purify you through and through so that you your mind, body, and spirit may be made beautiful until the day you seem him face to face. Faithful is he who called you and he also will do it.

Habakkuk (05-Aug-28)

KSS, relevant to life.
Even though…. Joy Habakkuk 3 August 28, 2005…
SIMPLIFY STRUCTURE and work on transitions:
Big Idea: When we go deep in our relationship with God we pray for God’s purposes to be advanced and we rejoice in God even in adversity.
We have some friends who have a sailing club here in the city. For a couple of years, they’ve been encouraging us to learn how to sail…
This summer Sakiko and I were learning some of the basics of sailing.
Once in a while our skipper would say something like, when you become a skilled sailor you’ll be able to sail single handed (i.e., with no crew), across the Georgia Strait or you’re be able going to tell which way the wind is blowing from without look on the windex (wind indicator) or you’re going to be able to navigate your way around the Coast of B.C. with having to rely on GPS global positioning satellite technology…
If you have a hobby, whether you are a beginner or an expert you probably have some idea as to what it would look like to be an expert…
If you are snowboarder, a painter, a guitar painter, you can probably identify what characterizes a master in your field…
Many of you here would consider yourself to be people want to have a growing connection with source of all life…
So we what would a person who is deeply connected to God look like?
(That’s likely a more difficult question than asking you to describe what an expert in your hobby looks like. It’s a difficult question, but an important to wrestle, because it’s unless we have vision of what the person deeply connected to God looks, it going to be hard to become that kind of person).
The prophet Habakkuk at the end of the book in the Bible that bears his name, gives us picture of what it looks like to become who is increasingly connected to God…
At the beginning of the book of Habakkuk we see the prophet spouting angry complaints at God… It’s about the year 600 B.C. and Habakkuk sees corruption, violence, and injustice all around him in Judah and cries out to God, “How long oh Lord?!” How long until you do something?” And God replies, “I am going to do something that you would not believe, even if you were told. I am raising up the Babylonians that ruthless and impetuous people… to bring judgment on Judah. Habakkuk is not satisfied with that answer! He is furious that God would raise up the Babylonians a people more evil than the Judeans to judge Judah!
But Habakkuk goes up to his watchtower and waits for God to speak.
God reveals to Habakkuk that yes he will use the brutal Babylonians to judge Judah, but God also says he will then also in turn judge the Babylonians.
As Habakkuk spends time in the presence of God and as he learns more about God’s character… we see a person who comes to evidence a deep and mature trust in God.
This is particularly evident in his prayer in Habakkuk 3
If you have your Bibles’ please turn to Habakkuk 3:
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth . (we are not sure what shigionoth means, may well be some kind of muscial term that sets the prayer to music)
Habakkuk prays:
2 LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
We see Habakkuk coming before God in humble awe.
This is quite a contrast to the beginning of the book of Habakkuk where we see the prophet railing against God. How long, Oh Lord till you do something against these wicked Judeans? What are you doing raising up the evil Babylonians to judge the Judeans, why are you raising a people more depraved than the Judeans to judge the Judeans?
But Habakkuk, instead of turning away from God in his anger, waits on God for an answer.
As Habakkuk has spends time waiting on God and as God reveals more of his character to Habakkuk, the prophet recognizes more of God’s greatness…
It’s not as though all of Habakkuk’s questions about the presence of evil in the world are answered, but as Habakkuk spends time in God’s presence and becomes more aware of God’s greatness and he’s more inclined to humbly, trust God…
Notice how he prays in Habakkuk chapter 3.
He prays, “LORD I have heard of your fame and stand in awe of your deeds… Oh LORD.”
Habakkuk expresses wonder at what God has done… (and in vss. 3-15, Habakkuk recounts some the amazing ways God has works in the history…)
This posture of awe and wonder before God is in sharp contrast to the prophet’s anger at God in chapter 1 because of all the violence and injustice he sees about him…
In many ways, not much has changed in terms of Habakkuk’s world. He’s still living a place that is filled with violence, corruption, and injustice (a world that would be even more violent with the invasion of the Babylonians).
So why has Habakkuk changed his approach to God?
As Habakkuk has waited on God and learned more about God’s character, it seems that Habakkuk’s focus has shifted.
In Habakkuk chapter 1 Habakkuk was judging God through the lens of what he saw in the world… whereas in chapter 3, Habakkuk is now judges what he is sees in the world through the lens of what he knows about God.
As Habakkuk waited on God, his focus shifted… so that what he begins seeing what is happening in the world in light of what he knows about God. That mean he understands all that God is doing, but it does mean that even in the midst of the chaos and the pain of his world, he comes before God in humble trust.
This is somewhat abstract, let me illustrate.
Let’s say you have a dog that becomes very sick and so you take your dog to the veterinarian. The veterinarian needs to give your dog a needle. Let’s say your dog judges you--focusing on the fact that you handed her over to the vet and you let the vet prick her with the needle! The dog’s conclusion, you’re mean and evil.
Second scenario: let’s say the dog (somehow) focuses not primarily on the fact you allowed her to be stabled by needle, but focuses on your character and person and your track record of care for her. She still doesn’t understand why you are allowing her to experience the needle, but she can trust you.
It seems that as we progress through Habakkuk, Habakkuk judges God less and less through the lens of what his sees around him, and more and more judges his what he sees in the world through the lens of what he knows to be true of God. Instead of just looking at the problems in his world around he starts seeing them in the light of God.
Again this doesn’t Habakkuk know understands why everything is the way it is, but it does mean Habakkuk becomes less angry and more humble before God…
T
We chapter 3, we Habakkuk standing in awe of God then actively praying for God’s work to be furthered.
Habakkuk prays, LORD, I have heard of your fame, I stand in awe of deeds, oh Lord, renew them in our day, in our times make them know, in wrath remember mercy.
Amazingly Habbakuk has come to place where he trusts God enough to pray that God would further work in the world, even if that “work” is judgment against the world, and after praying would do his work even if that work is judgment he adds, but in the midst of wrath, remember mercy…
Habakkuk and his people are in the midst of a crisis: they are being invaded by the Babylonians and then their enemies in turn will be invaded by the King Cyrus of Persia.
And in midst of this chaos Habakkuk doesn’t just pray, “God would take away the crisis” an understandable and legitimate prayer! But that He prays that would God would do his work (renew your work in our day), fulfill his purposes, and be merciful (remember mercy).
And as the world and perhaps our world is in our crisis… our knee jerk response is typically to ask God to remove the crisis: We pray Lord please stop the war, Lord please don’t let our union go on strike (or maybe it’s Lord let the union go I need a salary raise and I need more spare time), Lord please take away this cancer…
There’s nothing wrong with this kind of prayer. Those are legitimate prayers. But as we go deeper in our relationship with God, while we do pray for deliverance, we also pray like Habakkuk that in our crisis that God would further work and be merciful… We come to place where God’s purposes our more important than our preferences. Like Christ, we pray, “Take this cup from me, but not my will, but “thy will be done.”
Lord I have heard of your fame, I stand in awe of your deeds, renew them in our day, in wrath remember mercy.
T… When we experience deep connection with God, it’s not that all the hard questions melt way, but we become people whole to trust God, we begin to see things in light of God, and we pray for God’s purposes to be furthered in our lives and in the world…
And the chapter 3 closes with this extraordinary affirmation of faith:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet, I will rejoice in God and be joyful in God my savior…
Habakkuk is living in a time of crop failure, a time when their livestock wiped out… these kinds calamities in agricultural society, would have devastated the economy.
Yet, he praises God…
In modern language like saying, Though I lose my job and financial life sinks, though I loss a relationship and my “friends” don’t want to have anything to do with me, though my health fails and I end up in hospital, yet I will rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my savior.
If you can say that… you know you’ve established a deep connection with God…
Though none of us would voluntarily choose calamity and loss, adversity does provide a context in which a place like nothing else for us to demonstrate that God is our real God…
Every person of faith goes through seasons where they don’t feel like they are experience God’s blessing…
Part of the reason why God at times may allow visible blessings to be withdrawn from us… is so that like Job we can demonstrate that we don’t just relate to God because of the benefits we get from but because we want truly want we love God.
Now most people initially do come to God because of some kind of benefit they want: I need you spring me from this jam… I need wisdom… or forgiveness… or some thing from God… God welcomes us on those terms, but he wants to eventually come to the point where we relate to God because He’s God.
You know those lottery commercial, with the lines, “Be nice to people who play Lotto 649?”
If the only reason, you’re nice to your roommate, if the only you stay with your boyfriend is because he’s playing Lotto 649 that would be a pretty superficial relationship…
If the only reason we stay with God is because the great things he does for us, that’s a pretty superficial relationship.
Disraeli, the former Prime Minister of England, fell in love and married a lady twelve years older than he by the name of Mary. They had a legendary love and marriage. He used to tease her and say, "Mary, you know the reason I married you was because of your money." And she replied with a twinkle in her eye, "But if you had it to do over again, you'd marry me because of your love."
So it with our relationship with God… we may enter into our relationship with God… because we want something: deliverance, wisdom, a sense of peace, forgiveness… but God wants us to come to the place where we love God not just for his gifts, but for who He is.
We see that Habakkuk has come to this point as he prays:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my savior.
Habakkuk became a person who learned to rejoice in God even in the middle of great hardship.
Habakkuk was saying come pestilence, come famine, come hell or high water, Lord I “in.”
Are we can becoming a person who can say that to God?
Are we becoming the kind of person who can say, if I lose my job, a relationship, though my health fails…
Yet I will rejoice in God and be joyful in God my savior!
If can say, we know that we have deep connection with God because we know that God is our greatest treasure…
When Habakkuk talks about the fact that he finds joy in God even when the fig tree doesn’t bud and there are no grapes and vines, and though the olive crops fails, and there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls…
I do NOT believe he’s psyched himself up through power of positive thinking… I don’t believe that able to “praise” God by trying to be stoic, stiff upper lip, by saying “No use crying over spilled grace juice.”
I think he able to find joy in God because God was more important to him than figs, grapes, crops, and herds… all the things generate world security for him and his people.
A large family, of modest means, in Epsworth, England… watches in dismay as their house burns down…
There 6 year old son John is trapped in a burning house, but is rescued when one neighbor climbed on another’s shoulders and pulls him out of window.
No doubt John’s parents Samuel and Susanna Wesley were grieved to their home burned to the ground, but they rejoiced because they had something far more valuable, their son was alive.
The John and Susanna Wesley grieved like any of us would grieve over of the loss of their home and almost all of their material goods, but they rejoiced because had far more precious than a physically object, they had their son.

In the first century of church, many of the followers of Jesus were facing persecution and some imprisoned. Apparently some followers of Christ as went to visit their brothers and sisters in prison and thus it became known that they too were Christians. And people, kicked their work benches, stole their horses, ransacked their houses, and then burned to the ground… The book of Hebrews chapter 10 tells us that the joyfully accepted the confiscation of their property,

Why??? According to Hebrews 10: 34 BECAUSE they KNEW that they had a BETTER and MORE LASTING possessions…

When we experience a deep connection with God, even though we experience great loss and experience real mourning in that loss…

we can have joy in God because we know we have treasure in God that it is better and longer lasting than anything on this earth…
Habakkuk has come to know this and that is why he can say…
Though the fig tree does not bud, though there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields no fruit, though there a sheep in the pen and no cattle yet I will rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my savior…
A person with deep connection, prays for God’s purposes to be advances: Lord, I have heard of your fame and stand in awe of your deeds Oh LORD, renew them in our day in our time make them know, in wrath remember mercy…
A they can say… even though…
yet I will rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my savior.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Anatomy of Sin (05-9-18)

September 18 05 Anatomy of Sin
In the movie Grand Canyon, an attorney named Mack played by Kevin Kline is coming back from a Los Angeles Laker's game at the Forum and decides to take a short cut through a back alley to avoid traffic. His Lexus breaks down. Mack becomes surrounded by a gang of armed young men. And when things are looking about as bad as they can, the tow truck arrives, and out steps a An African man named Simon (played by Danny Glover), this is his turf so he knows how to negotiate with a gang:

Simon says to the gang leader, “Man, the world ain't supposed to work like this. I'm supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than it is.”

The world ain’t supposed to be this way.

God intended for the world to be a place of justice, peace, and compassion and things are not the way they are supposed to be.

We’ve seen this born out in New Orleans in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina. People were surprised stores were being looted, women raped, and helicopter’s trying to help being shot at… People were shockec to hear that government leaders did not do more to prepare for this hurricane when they had warned beforehand of it’s destructive force.

Here in Canada this week many were taken aback by at some of egotistical and cruel, cutting things said by a previous Prime Minister as revealed in those Secret Tapes.

From a Biblical perspective none of these things should not surprise us because the world ain’t the way their supposed to be.

The Bible teaches humans beings have potential for good, but because of sin we have the propensity to do evil.

Now I know that there are many who would challenge that statement, but over time, people have a tendency to move toward this kind of perspective.

I think of Dr. Ernest Becker, a former professor at UC Berkley and SFU professor and winner of the Pulitzer Prize wrote two books on evil. The first book on evil he called the Structure of Evil and in that book he said we the reason we have poverty and violence is because the privileged are oppressing others through oppressive social structures; therefore, the answer theses evils of poverty and war is good social science applied to government. Right after he died, his last book was published called Escape from Evil. In the preface he says, I am now in this book looking at humanity full in the face for the first time, in my previous works I failed to see how truly vicious human behavior is. He says I now see that there is needed some third alternative to problem of evil in our world apart from social science or despair.

People typically don’t start out saying people are horrible and at end lives find themselves saying humans are wonderful, it tends to be other way around.

In the book of Jeremiah, God’s people are asking why are things falling apart for us in our society (some time later they’d why ask are we being overrun by Babylon), why ain’t things the way their supposed to be. Jeremiah’s answer was NOT we need more cutting edge social science applied to government. His answer was our society is falling apart because of sin, because we have forsaken God.

Over the next several we going to do a series on Sin, specifically the 7 deadly sins and 7 heavenly virtues (as you have may noticed in the last year or so, the Vancouver Sun and CBC have run features on the 7 Deadly Sins).

Today we’re going to begin by looking at how the prophet describes sin.

If you have your Bible please turn to Jeremiah 2. We’ll be looking at various texts in Jeremiah, but lets begin with verse 13:

Jeremiah 2 gives us windows into the nature of sin…
Vs. 13 we read God saying through the prophet Jeremiah
13 "My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
Here is vs. 13 Jeremiah says one of the sins God’s people have committed is the sin forsaking of God.

Forsaking God is particular sin God’s people have committed, but all sin involves the forsaking of God at some to one degree or another.

We tend to see sin as breaking some kind of abstract moral code.
Or perhaps we sin as the missing of a target or the aiming at the wrong target.

Biblically speaking, sin includes these things…

But the heart of sin involves forsaking or turning from God…

All sin can be traced back to a forsaking of God, to a turning from God at some level: All sin can be traced back to failure to love and trust God.

All sin has a godward dimension to it.

Professor Bruce Waltke, who taught Old Testament for many years at Regent College, as a boy play to love football on the street near his home (in New Jersey). One day Bruce and his friends were playing on the sidewalk in front of Bruce’s house. Bruce’s mother had said that it ok to that there, there was just one rule, “Don’t kick the ball.” But as Bruce was holding the ball, the temptation was too great… and he dropped the ball and kicked it. He got great air, but not great aim. The ball sailed sideways and smashed through a neighbor’s window.

Bruce says he can still hear his mother screaming, “Bruce!” Bruce said his sin was so against his neighbor, but against his mother who had made the rule.

When we sin, we may hurt others in the process, but all is sin ultimately is against God.

King David, committed adultery and then tried to orchestrate a major cover up which included the murder of the woman's husband Uriah. Later he prayed in Psalm 51:1-4.

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
David’s sin of adultery was against the woman’s husband, against Bathsheba by forcing her to break her marriage covenant (and in that culture a woman in Bathsheba’s station propositioned by the King would have had little choice, but to comply), but David’s primary sin as later he recognized was primarily against God…

When we sin, we sin not only against human beings, but we sin against God in that we break God’s commandment, and we fail to trust and love him…

For example, if we lie… if we say “It’s in the mail (when it’s not), Canadian post is often late.” It’s not simply a breaking of some abstract law, but a failure to trust God… (I am going to look like such a schmuck if I don’t say it’s in the mail because I said it going to be there by today—it’s a failure to trust God for our identity OR we think we’re going to lose this client if I don’t say it’s in the mail… a failure to trust God for our financial well being)…

Another example, if we act in ways that discriminate against women, or against people of color, or the poor, or are cruel to animals, or pollute the environment, we’re showing a lack of respect for what God has made…

Sin is not simply the breaking of a rule that hurts a person, but sin always has a godward dimension to it.

Think of sin that you struggle with… can you trace sin back to a forsaking of a God, a failure to love and trust God?

As Jeremiah says, God’s people have committed a sin of forsaking of God, the spring of living water… All sin involves the forsaking of God and ironically involves the forsaking of ourselves.

Because when turn from God, we also from the only spring of living water… there is none other…

Cornelius Plantinga jr in his engaging, thoughtful book Not the Way it’s Supposed to be: A Breviary of Sin (recommended in the outline) defines sin as the breaking of Shalom.

God has intended the world to be a place of shalom: we tend to define shalom as simply cease fire or peace, but Biblically shalom includes the idea of wholeness, wellness, a flourishing that springs from the blessing of God upon something.

Sin is what disturbs Shalom…

Irenaeus, says the glory of God is a human fully alive…

Sin diminishes life… sin corrodes our soul.

If a human being commands you to do something sound ridiculous… Says your partner says never eats at a restaurant that ends with a odd number… you ask why? And the person says, “Cause I said so…” It sounds arbitrary, petty, and hollow.

But when God commands us to do something—it’s never arbitrary, petty or hollow… God’s decrees are always consistent with the ways things are…

A father tells his young daughter not to leave her bike out in rain, but to store it in it garage, his father is not trying to make life miserable for his daughter, he understands enough of the 2nd law thermodynamics and the principle of entropy to know that if the bike left out in it will rust and will not work as well.

When a doctor says to a man with high cholesterol, he must cut back on red meats and highly fatty foods; she’s not saying that to wreck his life. She saying that because she knows given his heart condition, too much red meat and fat could kill him!

God doesn’t offer his commands as way of wrecking our life but as way for us to live in shalom, as way for us to flourish…

Do you see that if you honor God’s word that you will flourish.

Whatever we sow, we tend to reap with interest.

We love others, we’ll receive love.

If we hate others, people will tend to hate us (probably with 5% interest added!).

Many people tend to think of God’s commands some abstract “ought to’s”

God’s commands are not so much about “ought-ness” for the sake “oughtness” as they are about the way things are.

If you’re checking out an apartment on the 12 floor to rent. And the manager says to even when you’re running behind schedule, don’t jump out off you’re twelve 12th floor to your care, use the elevator. That’s not so much about “moral ought-ness,” as it is describing the way things are in light of the way things are.

When God commands us to do something, God’s commands are not about some “abstract, moral oughtness” as much as they are about describing the ways things are…

If drink that the spring of living water, we will flourish. If forsake the way of God, we forsake ourselves because like the like the law of gravity, we don’t God’s laws, as much as we break ourselves over them.

Sin is about turning away from the spring of living water, sin is the vandalism of shalom… forsaking of ourselves.

As we continue in the text in describing the sin of God’s people Jeremiah says:

We have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

When we turn from God we turn from the spring of living water… we also turn to cisterns that cannot hold water…

When we sin, we’re turn from God the source of the life, the one for whom we were made and there is a vacuum in our souls that we need to fill…

This is true of everyone of us… if don’t turn to God we’ll turn to something else for meaning…
Vs. 11. God says through Jeremiah, But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.
If we don’t turn to the source of living water we’ll turn to something else for meaning…

When I was working as part of a corporation in Japan, when people discovered I was a Christian, they often would say I’m not religious. I’d often say, oh but you are religious… your religion may not be Christianity or even Buddhism, but you’re religion is your work… this is what you’ve devoted your life to it, it brings you meaning… it’s your de facto religion…

If we’re not turning to the spring of living water, we’ll look for living water in something else our career, our reputation, a person, in some kind of recreational pursuit, in beauty, in a role we play, needing to be needed…

But, nothing but the real God can fill the place that we need in our heart for God…

Last Sunday, just before Emily has baptized, she said I believed happiness and fulfillment sprung success and achievement. That meant, having a job I enjoyed, a stable income, a healthy marriage, and a loving family. All of these things I acquired and enjoyed, but I still felt an emptiness that I could not quite explain.

If we turn to something that does not satisfy, we’ll tend to need more and more of what doesn’t satisfy…

This of course of basis of addiction…

Vs. 14. Jeremiah as says the result of sin, God’s people have become slaves—which would prove true literally in Babylon and spiritually as they addicted to sin…

Vs. 24 of Jeremiah describes God’s people wild donkeys in heat that cannot be restrained, that’s a very graphic picture of addiction.

If are not to turning to the spring of living, we’ll be a turning to some other we hope will quench our thirst… maybe that sometimes seems to bring initial level satisfaction, but the next time it doesn’t bring same level of satisfaction, we need more and more just get first level of satisfaction… and we trapped…

(use the pot and water illustration)…

If we don’t turn to spring of living water, we’ll turned to broken ciscerns that cannot hold water…

How are we healed from something that that destroys shalom, our well being and addicts us…

Notice vs. 19.
19 Your wickedness will punish you;
your backsliding will rebuke you (as obedience is its own reward, sin its own punishment).
Consider then and realize
how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the LORD your God
and have no awe of me,"
declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

Jeremiah in verse. 19…describes sin again as forsaking God… And as not be in awe of God…

The key to breaking the power of sin is to become people who are in awe of God…

I’ve shared this image before, but I believe it’s worth repeating. In Greek mythology, Homer tells about the enchanting Isle of the Sirens, where there were beautiful creatures part human, part bird and these Siren creatures sang melodies so beautifully that any person who heard them would become enchanted. Passing sailors who heard the Sirens' songs would hurl themselves overboard and swim to the island of the Sirens. Lured by these strange maidens the men would die upon the jagged rocks around the Isle.
So when Odysseus was about to pass the Isle of the Siren by ship ordered his men to plug their ears with beeswax so that they could not hear the Sirens' songs. Then he ordered his men to tie him to the ship's mast so he would not jump into the sea and swim ashore.
But when the Greater Adventurer Jason, needed to sail past the Isle of the Sirens He invited the greatest of all musicians was named Orpheus to come with him.
When the time came when Jason and the Argonauts had to sail past the dangerous isle of the Sirens, Jason had Orphesus play more beautiful music than the Siren and they were able to sail past the island unharmed.
When it comes to sin there are times, when we need to fill ask someone to fill our ears with beeswax and tie him to mast so that he is not exposed to deadly temptation.

But we also expose ourselves to beauty of Jesus Christ we can be free from this destructive force called.

Thomas Chalmers the great Scottish preacher in his famous sermon, the expulsive power of a new affection said, the only way to break the power of a beautiful object on the soul is to show it an object more beautiful. The answer to temptation is not just saying no (that’s part of it), but it is also saying “yes” to the beauty of Jesus Christ.

Expose yourself to the beauty of God: whether that beauty is discovered in the Word, in prayer, in people, in nature, in art, but mostly his beauty as seen Jesus Christ.

God calls us to turn from sin and to be holy and whole. He calls also calls us to be joyful. Robert Murray Mcheyne, another Scottish minister, once said to his congregation, you think knows but you to be holy, but he also wants you to be happy. As journey with God, we discover that light and heat, holiness and happiness are the same thing.

Please pray with me, this prayer that I use almost everyday from the Common Book of Prayer…
Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Vision Message Psalm 127(2005-Sep-11)

BI: Unless we work with the Lord our labor is in vain
On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for UCLA. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his direction and ran sixty-five yards toward the wrong goal line. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, ran him down and tackled him just before he scored for the opposing team. Several plays later, UCLA had to punt. Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, deflating the UCLA team.
That was a just football game (a big game but just a game). None of us in the “game of life” want to get to the end of our days, only to realize we’ve been running really hard with the ball, in the wrong direction!
At half-time the UCLA players filed off the field and into the dressing room. As others sat down on the benches and the floor, Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, and put his face in his hands.
A football coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during halftime, but coach Price was very quiet.
Then just before the 2nd half of the game was to begin, Coach Price looked at the team and said, "The same team that played the first half will start the second." The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He didn't budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Riegels didn't move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, "Roy, didn't you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second."
Roy Riegels looked up, his cheeks wet with tears. "Coach," he said, "I can't do it. I've ruined you. I've ruined the university's reputation. I've ruined myself. I can't face that crowd out there."
Coach Price reached out, put his hand on Riegels's shoulder, and said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over."
Even if some of us suspect we’ve running hard in the wrong direction, the game is not over for us, and we can adjust and make sure we’re running in the right direction.
A great Psalm that can act like a life compass for is Psalm 127.
If you have a Bible please turn to Psalm 127.
Psalm 127
This is a psalm of Solomon or concerning Solomon.
A song of ascents. Of Solomon (some believe it’s by Solomon, but the inscription also can mean concerning Solomon).
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.
3 Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.
5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies at the city gate.
The Psalm begins with the words unless the Lord builds the house its builders labor in vain.
House here can refer an actual physical house; it could also refer to the raising of a family.
The psalmist says unless the Lord builds the house its builders labor in vain.
This doesn’t mean that no human work can flourish without God’s conspicuous intervention, but it does mean that ultimately a work done without God will be empty, it will not last, as Psalmist says, it will be in vain.
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—
If our work is not in line with God’s plan, the Psalmist says even if we work very hard rising early, staying up late, toiling… ultimately our work will be in vain.
Stephen Covey speaks about climbing to the top of the proverbial ladder, only to realize that it leaning against the wrong building.
A person can work very hard rising early and staying up late toiling to make a living, but with out God’s blessing the person fail to build a LIFE.
Because unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…
Philip Parham tells the story of a wealthy industrialist who was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting, relaxed beside his boat.
"Why aren't you out there fishing?" he asked.
"Because I've caught enough fish for today," said the fisherman.
"Why don't you catch more fish than you need?" the rich man asked.
"What would I do with them?"
"You could earn more money," came the impatient reply, "and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you'd have a fleet of boats and be rich like me."
The fisherman asked, "Then what would I do?"
"You could sit down and enjoy life," said the industrialist.
"What do you think I'm doing now?" the fisherman replied.
There can be a kind of vanity to work simply for the sake of gaining more and more….
There can be a kind of vanity in pursuing “success” just for it’s own sake…
There’s a kind of vanity that causes to give our health (whether physical or relational health or soul health) to get wealth and then we’re forced to give our wealth to get our health back…
So the Psalmist--says we are to work on the projects that God has chooses for us…
When it comes to our work… we are to make our choices not just because it generates a lot of money or only because it’s prestigious or just because one of our parents wants to go in that direction, BUT because there is a sense God is pleased with our doing this work…
(That doesn’t necessarily mean that our work will be “religious” in nature, our work may be secular or considered menial but we sense this what called us to do at least for now…)
When it comes to our work as a community, this Psalm calls us work on those things that God called to work on…
When I first came here to Tenth 9 years ago, I was intimidated by the challenge of pastoring a historic church whose “glory years” were considered have been back in the 50’s…

An older minister and mentor, Leighton Ford and I were sitting in my car not far from the church and I asked him from some counsel…

He paused and said, “Remember that God is an artist, and he will not lead to copy others seek God for his unique vision for this place….”

We will learn from others, but we don’t do things just because it “works” somewhere else, but because God has led us to do something as a community… We don’t want to just do something because it’s a good idea, but because it’s a God idea…

Because unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…
When Psalmist says that unless the Lord builds the house, it’s builders labor in vain… he is not saying he is NOT saying that we are NOT to work and he’s NOT saying we are NOT to work hard, but he says unless our work is done with the Lord’s guidance that work will ultimately be in vain…
We are to work and work hard in those areas where we sense the Lord is guiding BUT we also relax because we know that true success is not primarily the result of our efforts, but true success is result God building something...
Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…
Notice again vs. 2:
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Sleep and deep rest are gifts from the Lord.
Falling asleep and resting, believe it or not, serve as an excellent illustration of how our lives are to be lived.
We cannot forces ourselves to sleep. As some of us know firsthand that the more we try to force ourselves the sleep, the less we actually are able to sleep. You’ve got a big exam or interview early tomorrow morning and you say, shoot is already past midnight.. the more intensely you try to sleep, the less you can actually, you can’t force yourself to sleep, but there are certain things you can do to fall asleep.
You can go into a dark room, lie on a soft bed, close your eyes… or perhaps like my friend you can grab your math textbook and put by your head… certain things can help foster our sleeping, but sleep is ultimately a gift from God.
(By the way, the original Hebrew here can read simply, “He gives his beloved sleep” or “He gives to His beloved in sleep.” And both happen to true… sleep is a gift from God and it’s as we know that God provides for us in our sleep that we can really sleep… so in more ways than one sleep really is God’s gift… But as we’ve said there we do to foster this… lying down on soft bed in a dark room and reminding ourselves that God will provide even while we sleep…)
So with our life work that God has set out for us, there things we can do, certain things we cannot do that we trust…
The Psalmist tells us that children are a gift from God. (BTW, in this culture children would have been especially valued. We live in a time of birth control and many parts of world there is a desire to limit populations, but in this ancient agricultural society—more kids more farm hands and as the Psalmist says at end the Psalm children can protect aged parents from their enemies).

Children were and are gifts from God.

And certain commentators have pointed out the gift of children are proof positive that we can’t really do anything, but trust God for life’s great gifts.

Well, that not entirely accurate. Children are gifts, but there is something we can do about to foster their conception and healthy development…

Again this can be metaphor of the way we are to live life: we are to work hard at what we can do, but to trust God to bring about what we cannot…

So, it is with our lives, there certain we can do, but there are things only God can do…

Many of us here are just now returning to school: There are certain things we can do as students. We can show up for class, we can do our assignments, we can resist the temptation to cheat, but only God can make us make us wiser, deeper, and God shape our character.

There are certain we can, there are certain only God can do.

In our work, we can work hard, seek to improve our skills, but only God can bring meaning to our work, only God can build a lasting legacy through our work…

In our spiritual lives, there things we can do and certain things only God can do…

This truth is also brought clearly in the ministry of Jesus. Our small group this past week, we studied John 15. In that passage, Jesus says I am the vine you are the branches, if a man or woman remains in me and I in him or her, he or she will bear much fruit, apart from me, you can do nothing.

In our spiritual lives we can choose to abide in Christ (perhaps through the Word, prayer, nature, in our daily work or wherever we seem to be meeting Christ), that’s our work, but only God can cause to the bear fruit of a Christ-like character.

Thomas Merton was a partying student at Columbia University in New York City. He was converted to Christ and later was called by God to become a monk in a Trappist monastery.

Thomas Merton, in his autobiography the Seven Storey Mountain, describes 2 kinds of monks at his monastery. There were those who tried to scrupulously live out every rule: they tried to make themselves saints by sheer concentration and effort as though their growth in purity depended all on them.

Then there were those who did not seek to purity themselves, as if none of it depended on them.

Both types of people ending falling away from the monastery.

Merton said those who flourished spiritually those exercised a certain effort, but also relaxed, trusting that God would carry them…

In our spiritual lives, there are certain things we can do, and certain things only God can, so we don’t of a take the posture or a marine, but we don’t take the posture of over a super laid-back, beach bum either. We make an effort, but we relax because we realize there are only certain God can do…

Here at Tenth in our ministries… we want to work hard in things that God has called us to do, but to trust God…

There are certain we can do, we can mobilize a team to place Mexico, as we did this summer. They can build a house as we saw in their PowerPoint presentation, but only God can give that single mother Refuhyo and her family a sense this house was given to them by God…

We can facilitate a ministry, where we serve a meal and introduce some of the ssential teaching of Christian faith through a ministry like Alpha, but only God can bring a person on a person friendship with his son Jesus, and led to commit themselves through baptism as he’s we’ve seen this morning with Emily’s Collacut.

As we go forward in this new year, we’re going to offer ministries for children, young people, young adults, adult adults, for seniors…. And we can foster ministries, but only God can transform lives… we trusting God will do that…

In this coming year, we’re planning to rebuild the part of building has do deteriorated to the point where we haven’t able to use for more than 4 years… we can plan and we can give, we can pray, and we can rebuild, but only can build spiritual daughters and sons in that place…

We plan to hire a pastor of missions and outreach in this coming year who can help us wisely and strategically steward our resources so that reach out outreach more effecively to people in need in Vancouver whether materially, socially or spiritually in Vancouver and around the world, but only God lead to the candidate of His choice and only God can bring social, spiritual, and cultural renewal to Vancouver and the world.

This years as a community we are going to raise our sails, we going to the point bow of our boat in a way that we sense is consistent with God’s leading, but we are going to trust God to fill our sails… we’re going to trust move us ahead…

Because we know that unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain…

Song and prayer…

Sunday, September 04, 2005

05-09-04

Strength for the Journey Isaiah 40 September 4, 2005

In the mid-nineteen nineties, I was driving with my brother from Montreal to Southern California (I was on my way to Southern California to get involved in a church planting ministry and he came along for the ride).

When we drove through Colorado, we decided to climb one of the 14ers, one of the mountains over 14,000 feet, in San Juan range. We’re amateur, recreational hikers and we ending up taking a wrong turn en route to the peak, adding probably a couple of hours to our climb, but we end up making it to the peak.

The following day we drove to walked in and around parts of the Grand Canyon…

That evening, we were dead tired, but we decided to drive as far as we could…

Really late somewhere between Arizona and Southern California we came to a Wendy’s drive through:

When we drove up to the counter to order, a young woman through the intercom said “Welcome to Wendy’s, can I help you?” My brother woke up and said, “I’d like a Big Mac, this is Wendy’s, ok how about a Whopper? this is Wendy’s, I’ll have a soft Taco, this is Wendy’s… Whatever you have, I’ll take it…

I remember we felt tanked out, but had we still had a long way to drive that night…

Have you been really tired, but realized you still a long way to go, “miles to go before you sleep?”

This is exactly how the people of Judah felt as their decades of captivity as prisoners of war in Babylon was coming to an end. They were tired and discouraged and had trouble believing that they would ever return to their homeland.

Many of the people of New Orleans are “exiled” in Houston and they are weary and disheartened and many likely have trouble envisioning how they’ll return

The people of Judah had been guilty of corruption, greed, violence, social injustice, and idolatry. God had allowed to be invaded by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. and they had been carried of as exiles in Babylon (members of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been invade and exiled in the year 722 b.c.).

Psalm 137 describes how the Israelites wept by the rivers of Babylon. They speak of how their captors wanted them to sing them some of their native songs, but how they had no song in them.

And on the banks on the rivers of Babylon the Israelites began to question whether God was greater than the gods of the superpower Babylon… they began to question whether God cared about their plight as POWs and was willing to save them…

God responds the complaints of his despairing and weary people and demonstrates how he stakes up the gods of Babylonia through a majestic text…

If you have your Bibles please turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 40…

Listen to what God says…

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service (in Babylon) has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
Yes, God judged his people for their sins, but judgment would not be his last word for his them…after years of exile in Babylon and he now brings his people a message of comfort.
3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD [a; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. [b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
God, in this well known passage, tells the Israelites he is building a highway for Himself and his people. Every valley shall be raised up and every mountain made low, the rough ground shall be made level.
Why is God building a highway? He’s building a pathway of deliverance for his people from their land of exile Babylon to Jerusalem.
The people of Israel would have seen the highways the Babylonians built for their gods to parade them before the people. But they would witness are far more glorious highway built by the Lord, Yahweh to deliver them.
In vs. 8
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
God says, I am promise to deliver you and you can count on my word.
The grass withers and the flowers fade, but my word last forever.
Then God gives us series of pictures that reveal His character to us:
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
This text speaks of God’s wisdom.
No god in Babylon or anywhere, knows how many liters the oceans of the world carry, or the cubic feet of the heavens, or the weight of the hills and the mountains, but the Lord Yahweh knows.
The text also suggests God’s breathtaking capabilities:
What’s your favorite beach in the area?
Think of the fact that God holds that body of water, along with the Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian all the great bodies of water in the world in the palm of his hand (globe).
Notice vs. 15
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
Yahweh had power over of the king of Babylon and over all the rulers of the world?
Who are the most powerful figures in the world? President Bush? Tony Blair. Secretary General Koffi Annan? Prime Minister Koizumi? Pope Benedict? Bill Gates?
Compared to God they are but a drop in the bucket…
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
As we said, the Israel were comparing God to the gods” of Babylon.
The Lord says…
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
According the research done at the Australian National University there about 70 sextillion stars in the known universe, that’s 70 with 22 zeros (new slide). That means about 10 times as many stars in the known universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches and all the deserts of our planet.
God calls each of the stars 70 sextillion stars in our universe and the others we don’t know about, by name.
Some of us can barely remember the names of people in our extended family, but God knows the stars of the universe.
The next time your out So out of city… maybe in countryside or on some remote island, if clear out, stare up that star spangled sky…
The starry host eloquently declares the creative power and glory of God, God holds the waters of the world in the palm of his hands, the nations are but a drop in the bucket compared to him….
With bold strokes Isaiah, has portrayed God as powerful beyond our imagination.
Although, Isaiah has portrayed God as all-powerful, the Israelites are still not sure that God is able and willing to redeem them…
They wonder, “Has God abandoned us?”
Notice vs. 23
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Many of us in theory at least believe that God is all powerful, what theologians describe as omnipotent. Many of us believe that God created the stars, the oceans, the mountains, but sometimes perhaps we wonder if God is able to help us…
And so God says…
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
God is the everlasting God. He has no beginning. No end. He does not grow old, forgetful, or senile.
My grandmother is 92 years old. She still plays tennis. At one point she was the 2 number in the nation of Japan in her age category, but I said only 3 or 4 people in your age category.
She’s proud of athletic ability, but she’ll be the first to say I am not quick as I used to be…
Isaiah 40 tells us God is everlasting and does not grow tired or weary.
Psalm 121 tells us that God never slumbers nor sleeps.
Isaiah 40 tells us that God is aware of the situation of the Israelites and he is aware of our plight as a man or a woman.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak…
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40 shows us that God is great And gracious,
Mighty and merciful…
The Creator of all things and compassionate…
He is willing and able to renew us…
I need his renewal in my life… how about you?
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
Even lithe athletes like Marcus Nasland, Venus Williams, A-Rod, and Lance Armstrong grow tired and weary…
If God is able and willing to renew us, why are so many of his followers tired and weary?
The reason: renewal isn’t automatic. It’s conditional on our waiting on God.
Notice vs.
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength . They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
The word renew strength… literally means to exchange strength, and it is used to describe changing clothes.
In order to exchange our weariness for God’s strength, we must wait hopefully in His presence…
We must come to God in prayerful silence confident that God is God, not applying for the job, that Gd will fulfill his promises and purposes for us in His time.
The Hebrew word translated hope in our text is translated by King James as wait and the Hebrew word may be rendered hopeful waiting or waiting hope.
Through the writings of some Catholic monks, I’ve received some new insight into what it means to be a posture of hopeful waiting or waiting hope before Lord
I’ve been seeking to about 20 minutes each morning, in what’s been described as “Centering prayer.”
Each morning I seek to sit (not in the Lotus position, which I can do), but sit silently before God.
Whenever my mind wanders as it always does, I use a simple, sacred word to return to God.
My word is wait, for others that simple sacred word the enables us to return to God may be Jesus or trust.
If my mind wanders 1000 times, I just have 1000 opportunities to return to God.
Richard Rohr points out that prayer is awareness of God… we can express that awareness through words, but also in silence. He says we can express our dependence on God in words, but experience that dependence in silence.
As come before God in prayerful silence, it may seem like an extravagant waste of time, but we are expressing our dependence on God… and we are exchanging our weariness for His Strength.
If this kind of centering prayer appeals you might consider getting the book Centering Prayer by M. Basil Pennington (recommended in the sermon outline).
There something about becoming aware of God’s presence in nature, in the Word or in prayer whether spoken or in silence that lifts us up…
As we come into contact with God, with the God who made us, we receive supernatural strength… and instead of stumbling and falling…. And as Isaiah says, we mount up on wings like eagles, as we know eagles soar effortlessly not with the strengths or its wings, but on the power of the winder as the wind lifts the eagles higher and higher….
As we wait in God’s presence, we will find ourselves mounting up on wings like Eagles, running and not being weary, walking and not fainting…
Our text began today…
With a promise that God would make a highway for his people to come home and ends with a promise that God would exchange their weariness for his strength.
And as we come to the table, let us remember that God has also created a highway to Himself through the bridge of his son, Jesus Christ…
As he gave the Israelites the strength for their journey by exchanging their weariness for his strength…
God prepares for our journey to Him to holy God by exchanging our sins for his purity.
Jesus lived the perfect life that we were called to live, but didn’t.
Instead of being rewarded for that perfect life, on the cross He took upon himself the punishment that we deserved for our sins…
He got what we deserved.
When we come to Christ, Jesus perfect record is transferred to us. On the cross he got what we deserved for our sins and when we come to Jesus Christ, we get that perfect record of Christ, transferred to us—so in far as God is concerned he see as though we were sinful.
The great exchange.
God gave us the gleaming clothes of righteousness for our filthy rags, so that we walk the highway to a holy God.
This is why on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it and said this is my body… broken for you… this is my blood shed for you…
Whether you’re a member, if you decided to follow Christ…