AT THE CHURCH
Sunday, March 20th ... 9:15 - 11:30 Sunday School & Worship
12:00 Benefit for Joey Alexander @ Rocky Acres Music Barn
4:00 PM - Golden Age Mtg., Fellowship Hall
6:00 PM -Youth Fellowship
Tuesday, March 22nd ... Noon Prayer in the Parlor
7:00 PM - Bible Study
Thursday, March 24th ...7:00 PM Choir practice
Sunday, March 27th ... All Day STUFF THE TRUCK
9:15 AM... Sunday School Opening
9:30 AM... Sunday School
10:30 AM... Worship Service
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Friday, March 25th... Jody Vidal
THIS PASTOR’S VIEWPOINT
I could easily say, “Shopping is shopping.” But, just because I’m not an enthusiastic shopper, doesn’t make that a true saying. There are different kinds of shopping. There is shopping for self, for family, for old friends, for a new friend and then there is shopping for groceries and gifts, holidays and work-around-the-house days.
Each one requires a different approach. I can’t help but recall of the greeting card company that says, “When you care enough to send the very best,” which implies that if you don’t use their product you really don’t care enough.
For some people we spend a lot of time in trying to find just the perfect gift, something that not only reflects our feeling for the recipient, but is also something that person would really want to have.
I thought of this gift giving thing as I read in my daily Bible reading this week Numbers 29:2 (NLT) “On that day you must present a burnt offering, very pleasing to the Lord.” The important part of that command is found in the second part of the sentence, “very pleasing to the Lord.”
You see, God looks at the gifts we bring to him with a critical eye. He isn’t fooled with something we have thrown into the offering plate just to make us feel good. That isn't what giving is all about, especially with God.
When we deposit our gift in the offering plate it should be with the idea that it is not only pleasing to God, but that it really reflects that we do “care enough” to give “our very best.” However, and this may surprise many, the gift giving does not end as the usher takes the plate away, it has actually only just begun for the week.
The giving continues throughout the week as we give of ourselves in service to our Lord Jesus. It’s is called discipleship. It is the part of giving ourselves over in response to his command to “follow me.” It requires our time, often our comfort, and always our heart and love, but, I can say without reservation that this part is always “very pleasing to the Lord.”
Sermon for Sunday, March 20, 2011
CAN WE REALLY TRUST GOD?
Choosing Christ at the Crossroads, #2
Sermon Text: Romans 4:13-25
13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”[c] He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”[d] 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
When Communist forces invaded Vietnam in the 1950s, Hien Pham, like many Vietnamese Christians, was arrested and jailed for his beliefs. After his release from prison, Pham made plans to escape Vietnam. He secretly began building a boat. Fifty-three fellow Vietnamese made plans to escape with him.
One day, four Vietcong soldiers came to Pham’s house and confronted him. They heard he was planning an escape. Was it true? “Of course not”, Hien Pham lied to them. If he had told the truth, the Vietcong might have killed him and arrested the other fifty-three participants. But after the soldiers left, Pham felt uneasy. Had God really wanted him to lie? Didn’t he trust that God would provide for him under any circumstances? Even though it made no logical sense, Pham believed that God wanted him to tell the truth, even at the risk of his own life. So Pham resolved that if the Vietcong returned, he would confess his escape plans.
What would you do in Pham’s place? What happens when our fears collide with our faith? This morning we are continuing the sermon theme for the Lenten season, Choosing Christ at the Crossroads.
Very few of us, hopefully none of us, will ever be in a position where following Christ puts us at risk of imprisonment or death. Maybe if we were in that situation, our choices would seem clearer.
For every day we live, we are being tested. Do we live according to the best that we know or do we settle for something less? Let’s face it, most people today are settling for something less.
The great novelist Flannery O’Connor, has written these words in one of her novels, “You shall know and do the truth . . . and the truth will make you odd.” We may feel odd in today’s world when we live truthfully.
In 1998, for example, 20,000 middle-and high-schoolers were surveyed by the Josephson Institute of Ethics a non-profit organization in Marina del Rey, Calif., devoted to character education. Ninety-two percent of the teenagers admitted having lied to their parents in the previous year, and 73 percent characterized themselves as “serial liars,” meaning they told lies weekly.
Despite these admissions, 91 percent of all respondents said they were “satisfied with my own ethics and character.” That’s a scary thing when we knowingly misrepresent the truth and we are “satisfied with my own ethics and character.” Living truthfully may make you odd in today’s world. It would be easier, of course, if the life of faith were easier.
Hebrews 11 defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Don’t expect much respect in our society if you claim allegiance to a God no one can see, or to promises that will only be fulfilled in the future.
Today, our Bible passage is about Abraham, one of the early “fools for God.” Abraham is seventy-five years old when God first calls on him to leave behind his home and extended family to go to a land God has chosen for him. When God called Abraham, God also gave him a promise: if Abraham would obey God, God would make him and his descendants into a great nation.
Here is the first place where doubt could have crept in. The very laws of biology and nature that God put into place seem to work against this promise. Abraham was seventy-five years old and had no descendants. Then, twenty-four years passed. Twenty-four years of Abraham faithfully following God’s leading. Twenty-four years of joys and sorrows, peace and turmoil. Twenty-four years of waiting for God to fulfill God’s promise.
Comedienne Kathy Buckley said, “I have learned that faith is having the patience to wait, knowing that all things will be done in God’s time. I only wished I owned one of God’s watches.”
I’m sure Abraham wished he had one of God’s sundials so he could understand the Almighty’s timing. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God reminded him that he would father a mighty nation. And this time, Abraham fell on his face and laughed. Wouldn’t you? Abraham and Sarah were well past the age of bearing children. The idea of starting a family now sounded more like a pipe dream than a promise.
If we were to go through the Bible and make note of all God’s promises to us, we might laugh too.
• Did God really mean that He would never leave us nor forsake us?
• Is God’s grace really sufficient to meet ALL our needs?
• Can God really make all things work together for the good of those who love Him?
Like the promise to Abraham of a son in his old age, God’s promises to us are vast and awesome beyond our comprehension. For this reason, few who claim to follow Christ really base their lives on God’s promises. When we come to a crossroads, we are more likely to choose the path of least resistance, the way of the crowd. What feels good? What looks right to the neighbors?
What does faith look like today?
• Faith looks like the family who denies themselves a newer car or a bigger house in order to tithe to the Lord’s work. They believe in a promise they cannot see, that they are storing up for themselves treasures in Heaven.
• Faith looks like the man or woman who, in the face of peer pressure and socially-sanctioned promiscuity, chooses to save sex for marriage. They believe in the promise that their body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that God can help them resist temptation.
• Faith is the businessperson who leaves the office at a reasonable hour to make his or her family a priority, because they believe that godly children are a greater legacy than a plaque on the office door.
• Faith is the employee who does not pad the expense account or steal clients or take office supplies home, even if “everyone else is doing it.” They believe the promise that, “The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.” (I Samuel 26: 23).
What an abundant life of adventure and peace we are missing out on when we don’t choose the way of faith!
But back to Abraham and his fit of laughter. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, wasn’t any more dignified when she heard the news. Author Dave Meurer claims that Sarah laughed because she was secretly thinking, “Surely the Lord would not make me go through menopause TWICE?!?”
Christian humorist Martha Bolton, in her book A Funny Thing Happened on My Way Through the Bible, envisions what a baby shower invitation might look like for ninety-year-old Sarah. In one column are the gifts for the baby: pureed foods, a bib, gum ointment, a walker.
In the other column are the gifts for the mother-to-be, Sarah: pureed foods, a bib, gum ointment, a walker.
Do you imagine that Abraham began carving a baby rattle for his intended boy? Did he clear some extra space in a corner of the house for a crib? Did Sarah begin letting out the seams of her clothes in anticipation of her expanding belly? The Bible doesn’t fill in these little details, only the most important detail: they believed God’s promise, in spite of its impossibility.
Listen again to our Bible passage for today: “Hoping against hope, [Abraham] believed that he would become ‘the father of many nations’ . . . He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’”
Abraham is a powerful example of this eternal faith principle: Faith is not based on our external circumstances. It is based on the nature of God. Look again at verses 19 and 21: “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”
Pastor Peter Lewis makes the point that the Tempter’s greatest weapon against believers is the weapon of doubting. No matter how mature our faith may be, we will still be nagged by small doubts. Is God real? Is God really good? This question lies at the heart of the believer’s “crossroads moments.” A believer may be immune to every other temptation, yet still lie awake nights wrestling with his doubts.
In twenty-four years of waiting, Abraham had plenty of time for doubts. He had hundreds of opportunities to turn his back on God and go his own way. And yet, the Scriptures tell us that not only didn’t he waver in his faith, but that his faith actually grew stronger as time went on, as he gave glory to God.
Admittedly, Abraham’s story is powerful and exciting. But why did it matter to the Roman church to which Paul was writing this letter? The Roman Christians were a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. The Jews still followed the laws of Moses in addition to the commands and precepts of Christ. This caused a serious rift in the early Roman church. Not unlike a Baptist trying to lead a Reformed congregation. In his letter to the Roman church, Paul was demonstrating that from the beginning of time, our acceptance by God has been through faith, not law. And the faith that saved Abraham and his descendants, the faith that made him the father of a great nation, is the same faith that saves us today through Christ Jesus.
In fact, the book of Second Corinthians reveals this amazing truth when it says, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you . . . was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.” (II Corinthians 1: 19-20a). All the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus. He is the final fulfillment of the promise to the descendants of Abraham, the Jews, and to all of humankind.
It is faith in Jesus that saves us. Faith that he walked in our shoes, faith that he bore the penalty for our sins, faith that he died, faith that he rose to life again, faith that he intercedes on our behalf in heaven, and faith that someday he will return to claim his own.
We never resolved the story of our friend, Hien Pham, did we? Pham finished building his boat, and his friends made the final plans for their daring escape. To their horror, the Vietcong soldiers returned and demanded to know if the escape rumors were true. Hoping against hope, Hien Pham confessed his plans to escape.
Imagine Pham’s surprise when the soldiers replied, “Take us with you!”That evening, Hien Pham, his fifty-three friends, and four Vietcong soldiers made a daring escape under cover of night on a homemade boat.
But wait, that’s not the end of the story! They sailed straight into a violent storm. Pham reports that they surely would have been lost, if not for the expert sailing skills of, you guessed it, the four Vietcong soldiers. The escapees landed safely in Thailand. Eventually, Hien Pham emigrated to the United States, where he made a new life for himself.
Hoping against hope. Being fully convinced that God is able to do what God has promised. What does faith look like? A white-haired old man with a goofy grin on his face as he delights in his squirming baby boy. What does faith look like? A husband or wife, facing the tragedy of divorce yet finding that Christ is ever present through their crisis. What does faith look like? You and me setting aside our own fears and surrendering our lives to a Savior who has promised to return for His faithful.
I pray that in the “crossroads moments” of life, you will choose the way of faith also.
Amen
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