2015-07-12 Luke 12:22-34 Why Not Worry? (2): Devaluation and Denial

WHY NOT WORRY? (2): DEVALUATION AND DENIAL (Luke 12:22-34) Date ??? Intro – Need a cure for anxiety? Maybe the Psychiatric Hotline will help. Their message goes something like this: “Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline. If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly. If you are codependent, please ask someone to press 2. If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6. If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call. If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press. If you are depressed, it doesn’t matter which number you press. No one will answer.” I think most of us have felt that way at some point in time. We’ve placed a call for help but no one is listening. Anxiety builds. Well, Jesus has an answer to anxiety. It’s not at all the answer you would expect. His answer is in Lu 12:31, “Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.” Worry diminishes God. Faith enlarges God in my life and crowds worry right out of the room. So Jesus’ answer to worry is, “Get over yourself, and get on with God’s agenda.” When we do that, little by little, anxiety has to leave the building. But when we let anxiety reign, bad things happen. Jesus sites 7 to help encourage us to change our outlook. Destroys God’s Peace (22, 29, 32) – V. 22 says, “Do not be anxious about your life.” The word “anxious” means divided, distracted, or fractured. It pictures someone whose mind is taking off in all directions, lacking focus and thus worried about everything. Jesus is saying, “Get under new management. Leave the worry to the Lordship of Christ.” Defies God’s Perspective (23) – God’s view is v. 23, “For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.” That truth underscores this whole section. Life is more than what you see, hear, smell, taste and feel. If it were not, survival would be the name of the game. But in God’s forever universe, physical survival ranks way below being prepared for God’s kingdom. Seek that, and the rest will take care of itself. III. Devalues God’s Provisions (24, 27-28) Worry not only diminishes God’s person, it devalues God’s provisions. Worry says, “What God has given me is not enough, and I don’t trust Him for what 1 I need, so I’ll worry about it.” It sounds stupid when you say it that way because it is stupid. If God’s promises are true, then worry is a waste of time at best and an insult to God at worst. That’s Jesus’ point in these verses. His command in v. 22 is “do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.” So, work for what you will eat and what you will wear, but don’t worry about them. Don’t let those become the focus of your existence. That’s the command. Jesus gives two examples. V. 24 concerns food: “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” Jesus chooses the most despised of unclean birds for His illustration – the raven. Despised by man, declared unclean by God, and yet – with no means whatsoever to provide for themselves, God feeds them. So why would you who are the apple of His eye worry. Certainly you must work. As the bird must hunt, you must work, but trust the Father rather than worry about what you do and don’t have. If He feeds the despised raven, He will surely feed you. Jesus is really asking here, “Who do you think keeps all of this going? Who do you think created and maintains the balance of nature? Why do you think you can improve your lot by worry?” Now, that’s how things are generally. Certainly there are times when in God’s providence drought comes, birds die of starvation and so do people – even believing people. Does that mean He has failed of His promise? May it never be, Beloved. It simply means that for some greater kingdom good God has seen fit dry up the resources. Because life is more than food. Rom 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine?” To meet His greater ends, God may withhold food. But that could never separate a believer from His love. The issue is to trust Him and His provision. A little poem makes the point: Said the Robin to the Sparrow,/ “I should really like to know / Why these anxious human beings / Rush about and worry so.” / Said the Sparrow to the Robin, / “Friend, I think that it must be / They have no Heavenly Father, / Such as cares for you and me. Worry devalues what God provides. Vv 27-28 makes the same point regarding clothing: “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!” Once again, Jesus’ point is that God not only clothes the flowers of greatest beauty in nature – he even 2 clothes the grass that has a very short existence and then is used for fuel. How much more will He care for those who have an eternal destiny. So, don’t worry! See, the question isn’t do I have all the food I want and the latest in fashion? The question, do I have the appropriate food and clothing to fulfill God’s mission for my life. That’s the question. What do the ravens and the lilies and the grass have in common? They are all doing His will. They are all doing what they were made for. They are all fulfilling their mission in life, however lowly or short-term. They, of course, have no choice. We do. And what Jesus is urging is – do like them. Fulfill God’s agenda for your life rather than your own and He’ll take care of the rest. You put His will first and He’ll make sure you have all you need and more. It may not look like you think. It may not be caviar and oysters Rockefeller. But you’ll have all that God intends for your best good and for His glory. It may not be designer jeans and Gucci purses – but it will be what you need. Let Him do the worrying. You’ll be amazed how when His agenda becomes yours, some of the things you thought most necessary drop off the list altogether. Seek His kingdom first. That’s the principle. So, do I have the food and clothing necessary to seek His kingdom – to fulfill His intention for my life? That’s the issue. Let me show you what happens when we get anxious about the wrong things, Beloved. Turn to I Kings. This is King Solomon’s story, and it follows a typical Hebrew literary structure (a chiastic pattern) that bookends beginning and end and puts the critical element in the middle. Let me show you. In I Kings 1 Solomon inherits the kingdom from his father David. At the corresponding end to the section in chapter 12 a majority portion of the kingdom is taken from Solomon’s heir, Rehoboam, by Jeroboam. In chapter 2 Solomon’s kingdom is established under God. In chapter 11, Solomon’s kingdom is disestablished because he has gone after other gods. Therefore God says, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant” (I Kings 11:11). You see the symmetry between sections. In chapters 3–4 we see Solomon's wisdom and literary gifts, which God uses for good. In chapter 10 Solomon's wisdom is misused for selfishness and splendor and his own glory. In chapters 5–6 Solomon builds the shell of the temple, but the utensils have not yet been crafted and set up. In 1 Kings 7:15– 9:9 Solomon finishes the utensils for the temple and dedicates it. 3 So, what’s left right in the middle? In the middle Solomon interrupts building God’s house, the temple, to build his own palace. Note I Kings 7:1, “Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house. (Skip to 7). 7 And he made the Hall of the Throne where he was to pronounce judgment, even the Hall of Judgment. It was finished with cedar from floor to rafters. 8 His own house where he was to dwell, in the other court back of the hall, was of like workmanship. Solomon also made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter whom he had taken in marriage.” So, in the middle of building God’s house, he got focused on his own – further emphasized by the fact that while it took 7 years to build the temple it took 13 years to build his own. What happened? He lost sight of God as his first love. So all that had been built in the first 6 chapters unravels in the last 6 because of Solomon’s failure in the middle. Put it simply – he got worried about food and clothing and lost sight of God’s kingdom. It became his agenda, not God’s, and it all came apart. Dr. Jekyl became Mr. Hyde. He devalued God’s provision which required a king not have many wives. He took 300 wives and 700 concubines and never had a worry-free day in his life. Did that make him an unbeliever? No – but it made him unfruitful, unproductive, unfaithful and unhappy. Read Ecclesiastes if you don’t think so. Professor Bruce Waltke shared that during the 1990’s when he taught on these chapters at his church it was at a time when the stock market was going gangbusters. Remember? An elder in his church told him that other elders had resigned from leadership to seize the moment – focused on making money. He said, “I was thinking of resigning too until I saw what happened to Solomon in this passage. I decided I was not going to put my portfolio before God.” Good decision. I guarantee it saved him a lot of anxiety beginning about 1998. IV. Denies God’s Providence (27) What does that mean? It means anxiety tries to control the uncontrollable. Anxiety is a denial of God’s providential working in my life. Look at v. 25, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” There is some debate whether the language used here means add a single hour to life or add an inch to your height. Either way the answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it? I can’t add an hour to life or an inch to height – not by worry. I can eat healthy and exercise and from a human perspective extend my life a bit. But I can’t worry myself to greater height or to a 4 longer life. That’s God’s decision; that’s providence, and I can’t change it. I can worry myself to death; but I can’t worry myself to life. Neither can I worry myself to great height. But that doesn’t stop people from trying. I had a guy who worked for me one day call me into his office. I sat down and he said, “Well, do you notice anything?” I said, “No.” “Oh, think about it,” he said, “you are shorter than me.” This guy had gone out and found a short chair for visitors (or a tall chair for himself, I forget which now) to make himself taller than his visitor. I later found that he wore lifts in his shoes. Frankly, I hadn’t paid any attention to his height one way or the other, but that was of greater concern to him than his work. He didn’t last long, by the way. Beloved, to worry about that which is beyond our control is to deny God’s providential care. Listen, we are not perfect and we are not going to live physically forever because of the Fall. It has had a devastating effect on all we know. But even given those effects, God says in Psalm 139:15, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” That means that even in our imperfect state and limited lifetime, God has made us to be just what we need to accomplish His chosen purpose for our life. He has. We are perfect for His purpose. And when we worry about that which is outside our control, we are denying His providence. In doing so we are diminishing His value in our eyes, but in the end it is we who are diminished, not He. To the extent that we worry about the uncontrollable, we diminish ourselves for we are wasting time that could be devoted to some positive good that He has planned for us. Jesus’ point is simple. Worry never ever in the long history of the world changed anything. Never. If there is something you don’t like and you can take some action to change it, go for it. But to worry about it is a fool’s game. And when we are worrying about things that are out of our control, the underlying assumption of our existence is, “God isn’t big enough for this. So I had better worry about it.” We diminish God by denying His providence. We’ve all heard the serenity prayer made famous by the theologian Reinhold Neibuhr: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, 5 the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” That’s a prayer to stop playing God about the things that are out of my control. You know what worry does? Worry assumes that God has stacked the deck against me. It assumes that I know better than He, so I must worry this situation back into line. Worry takes trust out of the equation. Worry leads to nothing but trouble. Ask Abraham and Sarah. God promised a child that would lead to a great nation and great blessing. Ten years on when Sarah was 85 and Abraham 95, nothing! Anxiety mounted. They were nearing the expiration date on making children. God had stacked the deck. So we get to Gen 16:1, “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.” Worry led to Abraham taking Hagar. He was denying the providence of God. He got a baby boy. He loved the boy. Fifteen years on God came again and said, “Now that you and Sarah are too old to do this on your own, I’m sending the promised son.” But Abraham loved the son of his anxiety and he responded as we often do in Gen 17:18, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” I love what I’ve produced. Let me keep that! But Isaac came. The promise was kept. God reigns despite our idiocy. But consequences abound. Abraham’s beloved son born of worry broke up his own family and he had to send Ishmael away. And ever since the world has teetered on the brink of disaster as the sons of Ishmael (the Arabs) and the sons of Isaac (Israelites) fight it out. That’s what comes of denying God’s providence, Beloved. We must embrace what we cannot change as coming from the hands of a loving Father who has a plan we do not see. When we do – oh what a load it removes. And it gives us the opportunity to see God high and lifted up – something that you can’t worry your way to, you can only trust your way to that revelation. Conc – Chuck Swindoll tells of a man in his church who had wrestled for years with turning his business over to God. He knew there were some business practices that would have to change, worried that it would ruin his business and would not do it. But after two decades of holding out his heart melted. He decided he had worried enough, confessed his rebellion, and told his pastor he was giving his business to God – lock, stock and barrel. 6 That very night his place of business caught on fire. He got an emergency call and arrived in time to watch from the street as his factory and warehouses went up in flames. One of his colleagues raced up, took and look, noticed the relaxed attitude of his normally uptight boss and asked, “Man, what’s wrong with you?! Don’t you know what’s happening to you? It’s – it’s burning up!” The man replied, “I can see that. But just this morning I gave this company to God. If He wants to burn it up, that’s His business.” That’s a man with a big God and no worries. Beats having a small god and lots of worries. Which are you!? Let’s pray. . "Man! Don't you know what's happening to you? It's – it's burning up!" He replied, "I know it Erie it I know it. No problem, Fred. This morning I gave this company to God, and if he wants to burn it up, that's His business. Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes, p. 240. 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” 1 Providence; God's sovereignty; Security; Protection; Safeguards; Playing God; Fear; In security; Anxiety; Worry; It happened over 50 years ago. The irony of it, however, amazes me to this day. A mural artist named J. H. Zorthian read about a tiny boy who had been killed in traffic. His stomach churned as he thought of that ever happening to one of his three children. His worry became an inescapable anxiety. The more he 1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ge 17:15–21). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. 7 imagined such tragedy, the more fearful he became. His effectiveness as an artist was put on hold once he began running scared. At last he surrendered to his obsession. Canceling his negotiations to purchase a large house in busy Pasadena California, he began to seek a place where his children would be safe his pursuit became so intense that he set aside all his work while scheming and planning every possible means to protect his children from harm. He tried to imagine the presence of danger in everything. The location of the residence was critical. It must be sizable and remote, so he bought 12 acres perched on a mountain at the end of a long, winding, narrow road. At the turn along the road he posted signs, "Children at Play." Before starting construction on the house itself, Zorthian personally built in fenced in playground for his three children. He built it in such a way that it was impossible for a car to get within 50 feet of it. Next, the house, with meticulous skill he blended beauty and safety into the place. He put into it various shades of the designs he had concentrated in the murals he had hanging in 42 public buildings in eastern cities. Only this time his objective was more than colorful art – most of all, it had to be safe and secure. He made sure of that. Finally, the garage was to be built. Only one automobile ever drove into the garage – Zorthian’s. He stood back and surveyed every possibility of danger to his children. He can think of only one remaining hazard. He had to back out of the garage. He might, in some great moment, back over one of the children. He immediately made plans for a protected turnaround. The contractor returned and sent the forms for that additional area, but before the cement could be poured, a downpour stopped the project. It was the first rainfall in many weeks of a long West Coast drought. If it had not rained that week, the concrete turnaround would have been completed and been in use by Sunday. That was February 9, 1947 – the day his 18-month old son, Tiran, squirmed away from his sisters grasp and ran behind the car as Zorthian drove it from the garage. The child was killed instantly. Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes, p. 208. Reverence; Worship; Difference; Playing God; God's greatness; Respect for God; God's sovereignty; Transcendence; Methods; Change; Remember, from chapter 1, how I woke up after a night of hard partying and went to church, never to be the same again? As I reflect on what changed me 8 that morning (and what can change others), I've concluded it was the out-ofthis-world realization that God is God and I am not – that he's big and I'm small. That's a realization no human strategy, structure, or fashion can reveal. We can't engineer God's transcendent presence; we can only fall on our faces and beg for it. In fact, we rob this world of the opportunity to see God high and lifted up – above and beyond us – when we try to program him and fit him into contemporary categories of "cool." When the size of God groups us more than the size of our churches and leadership conferences, and when we become obsessed with surrendering our lives to God's sovereign presence, only then will we be redemptive way different and service cuts cosmic change agents in the world yearning for change. We Christians have been entrusted with an eternal, transcendent truth that can transform our weary culture and open others eyes to a world beyond our own: the story of a simple Jew who made a difference because he was different. Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable, p. 17. Never Give up; Pain; Suffering; Adversity; Providence; God’s care; Hardship; Good; It was a terrible fall, and it sickened those who saw it. John Pounds, a tall, muscular teen laborer at the docks of Portsmouth, England, slipped and plunged from the top of a ship’s mast, pitching headfirst into the bowels of the vessel. When fellow workers reached him, he was nothing but a mass of broken bones. For two years he lay in bed as his bones healed crookedly. His pain never ceased. Out of boredom, he began to read the Bible. At length, John crawled from bed hoping to find something he could do with his life. A shoemaker hired him, and day after day, John sat at his cobbler’s bench, a Bible open on his lap. Soon he was born again. John ultimately gathered enough money to purchase his own little shoe shop, and one day he developed a pair of surgical boots for his crippled nephew Johnny, whom he had taken in. Soon John was making corrective shoes for other children, and his little cobbler’s shop became a miniature children’s hospital. As John’s burden for children grew, he began receiving homeless ones, feeding them, teaching them to read, and telling them about the Lord. His shop became known as “The Ragged School,” and John would limp around the waterfront, food in his pockets, looking for more children to tend. 9 During his lifetime, John Pounds rescued five hundred children from despair and led every one of them to Christ. Moreover, his work became so famous that a “Ragged School Movement” swept England, and a series of laws were passed to establish schools for poor children in John’s honor. Boy’s homes, girl’s homes, day schools, and evening schools were started, along with Bible classes in which thousands heard the Gospel. When John collapsed and died on New Year’s Day, 1839, while tending to a boy’s ulcerated foot, he was buried in a churchyard on High Street. All England mourned, and a monument was erected over his grave, reading: “Thou shalt be blessed, for they could not recompense thee.” (Morgan, p. 101). It is the picture of a ship being tossed in a storm. Our English word worry comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word that means “to strangle.” “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow,” said Corrie Ten Boom; “it empties today of its strength.” (Wiersbe) Optimism; Pessimism; Negative; Positive; Worry; Hope; Tomorrow; Yesterday; Live for Today; Present; Never Quit; Persistence; Never Give Up; Optimism; Positive; Ace; (RD 2/84) Linus: “I guess it’s wrong always to be worrying about tomorrow. Maybe we should think only about today.” Charlie Brown: “No, that’s giving up. I’m still hoping that yesterday will get better.” Trust; Delegation; Confidence; Worry; Anxiety; Complement; Marriage; Marriage, help in; From 1900 to 1904, Nelly Taft was a well-publicized success is a minor-league First Lady in Manila. In her memoirs, she pronounced her Philippine years among the happiest of her life. She enjoyed presiding over dozens of servants in the palace where she entertained a stream of visiting congressmen, generals, and assorted other VIPs. She especially enjoyed a costume ball in which she and Will receive guests dressed as the doge of Venice and his consort. Once, when a typhoon hit the Philippines, toppling trees and smashing windows, Nelly was up all night, checking on damage to the governor's 10 residence and supervising mop squads. Taft slept through the howling wind and breaking glass. In the morning Nelly was understandably cross with her somnolent spouse. "How could you sleep?" she passed. "Now Nelly," Taft said. "I knew you could handle it." Margaret Truman, First Ladies, p. 103. Trust; Anxiety; Faith; Peace; Rest; Worry; Victor Hugo said, “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake!” Submission; Submission to God; Ownership; Worry; Anxiety; Contentment; Piece; Peace; There was a man who gave his business to God. He had hassled over it for years. He had wrestled with it and fought it for two decades. One day he decided, "I've had it; that's enough!" He had heard from his pastor that Sunday morning about the value of turning his entire business over to God. It was when he drove away from church that he decided he had worried enough. By the time he got home, he had totally and unequivocally committed his business to God. That very night his place of business caught on fire. He got an emergency call. He rather calmly drove down to the commercial residence and was standing on the street, watching the place go up in flames. He was sort of smiling to himself. One of his colleagues raced to his side and questioned his relaxed attitude about what was happening. "Man! Don't you know what's happening to you? It's – it's burning up!" He replied, "I know it Erie it I know it. No problem, Fred. This morning I gave this company to God, and if he wants to burn it up, that's His business. Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes, p. 240. Acceptance; Control; Ace; Anxiety; Giving up; Worry; Ace; An astronomer at the Harvard once was giving a lecture entitled, "The Expanding Universe." In it, he pointed out that there are galaxies greater than our Milky Way speeding outward, moving away from us faster than the speed of light. This means that we are actually losing them. They are falling off the edge of the universe, so to speak. It is a mind boggling thing to think about. In the question and answer period that followed the lecture, a woman who appeared 11 to be terribly upset by this revelation, asked anxiously, "Prof., what are we going to do about all of those galaxies we’re losing?" To which the learned professor quietly replied, "Let them go, Mdm. Let them go!" Michael Hodgin, 1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, p. 12. Identity; Significance; Purpose; First place; God-centered; Life; Purpose in life; Meaning in life; Idols; Idolatry; Sin; Essence of sin; Sin, essence of; Identity, outside God; Self; Self-identity; Self, as god; Significance, of self; Purpose, of self; Self-glorification; God, not given first place; First place; Glorifying God; Life, purpose for; Purpose, of life; Sense of Self, apart from God; No other Gods; God’s jealousy; First commandment; Commandment, first; Ten Commandments; Sin – The famous Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a fascinating little book called The Sickness Unto Death in 1849. In it he defined “sin” in a way that is rooted in the Bible but also is accessible to contemporary people. “Sin is: in despair not wanting to be oneself before God . . . . Faith is: that the self in being itself and wanting to be itself is grounded transparently in God.” Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identify in your relationship and service to God. Sin is seeking to become oneself, to get an identity, apart from him. . . . . Most people think of sin primarily as “breaking divine rules,” but Kierkegaard knows that the very first of the Ten Commandments iS to “have no other gods before me.” So, according to the Bible, the primary way to define sin is not just the doing of bad things, but the making of good things into ultimate things. It is seeking to establish a sense of self by making something else more central to your significance, purpose, and happiness than your relationship to God. (The Reason for God, Timothy Keller, p. 162) God-centered; First place; God comes first; God as priority; Heart; Surrender to God; Submission to God; Submission to Christ; Priorities; God, comes first; First Place, God; Heart, God first; Surrender, to God; Submission, to Christ; Priorities -- Denise Jackson talks about Christian advice she got when her husband Alan Jackson left her: “’Denise,’ she said [friend Bobbie], ‘we love you and we are so for you. But we need to pray a different prayer. A bigger prayer. We need to pray not that Alan will come back, but that you will be the woman God is calling you to be. Of course we want Alan to come back. But that’s secondary. The first thing right now is 12 that you seek God with all your heart. My prayer will be that God will show you what incredible love He has for you.” (Denise Jackson, It’s All About Him, p. 118). God centered; Testing; Tests; Test; Testing, reveals first place; First Place; Supremacy of God; Test – Tony Dungy was playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers when he got mono before the 1978 season. This prevented him being able to practice for awhile, left weights, etc. Though a Christian at the time, he went to talk to Christian teammate, Donnie Shell. He said, “I don’t know if I’m going to make this team. By the time I get back, my conditioning will be down and there are new guys. This is not going according to plan.” Whereupon Donnie Shell told him, “Tony, I think you’re at a crossroads. You know what life is all about. You profess to be a Christian, and you tell everybody that God has first place in your life. Now, when your career looks like it’s teetering, we’re getting a chance to see what really is in first place for you.” Dungy admitted he was probably right. Went on to Superbowl season with Steelers, but when cut a couple of years later said he was much more prepared for it. Idolatry; Idols; Relationships; Relationship as idol; Relationships as idol; Marriage as idol; First place; God-centered; God first; Missionaries Dick Hillis and Margaret Humphrey were married on April 18, 1938, in a little house in Hankow, China. The only wedding music was the percussion of Japanese bombs in the distance. They moved into a drab, mud-brick house and settled into a flurry of missionary activity. Seven months later, Margaret showed symptoms of fever. It rapidly worsened, and Dick anguished as it rose to 103 degrees, then to 105. With no doctor in the village and no adequate transportation to the distant hospital, he felt helpless. He prayed, but sensed no response from God. Why? Why doesn’t God answer? He couldn’t take her from me. He knows I need her, not just for myself, but for the work also. As he knelt by Margaret’s bed gripping her torrid hand, a sentence came to mind from a letter his father had written before his marriage: “Remember, Dick, if you are really in love, you will face the danger of loving the gift more than the Giver.” “Oh, God,” Dick cried, “You have given me so much to love in Margaret. Is it possible I have loved her too much?” The closing words of 1 John flashed to mind: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” 13 Knowing the Lord was working deeply in his heart, Dick knelt a long time, praying. “Lord, I give Margaret back to You. If You require it, I will walk to her grave, still trusting You. But if You will raise her up, I will always seek to put You first.” Peace came over him, allowing him to rest. The next morning when Margaret’s temperature still hovered at 105 degrees, Dick decided to visit the local Chinese herb shop. The aged proprietor there found a small glass vial that a traveling medicine man had sold him two years previously. It was supposed to reduce fever. Dick purchased the solution for sixty-six cents, then hurried home and gave Margaret the injection. Her temperature began going down, and two weeks later she was good as new. Morgan, R. J. (2000). From this verse: 365 scriptures that changed the world (electronic ed.). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers. Idols; Reward; Tests; Testing; Idolatry; Fear of the Lord; First Place; Genesis 22:12; What Abraham was able to see was that this test was about loving God supremely. In the end the Lord said to him, "Now I know you fear God." In the Bible, this does not refer so much to being "afraid" of God as to being wholeheartedly committed to him. In Psalm 130:4, for example, we see that "the fear of God" is increased by an experience of God's grace and forgiveness. What it describes is a loving, joyful awe and wonder before the greatness of God. The Lord is saying, "Now I know that you love me more than anything in the world." That's what "the fear of God" means. This doesn't mean that God was trying to find out if Abraham loved him. The All-seeing God knows the state of every heart. Rather, God was putting Abraham through the furnace, so his love for God could finally "come forth as pure gold." It is not hard to see why God was using Isaac as the means for this. If God had not intervened, Abraham would have certainly come to love his son more than anything in the world, if he did not already do so. That would have been idolatry, and all idolatry is destructive. From this perspective we see that God's extremely rough treatment of Abraham was actually merciful. Isaac was a wonderful gift to Abraham, but he was not safe to have and hold until Abraham was willing to put God first. As long as Abraham never had to choose between his son and obedience to God, he could not see that his love was becoming idolatrous. In a similar way, we may not realize how idolatrous our career has become to us, until we are faced with a situation in which telling the truth or acting with integrity would mean 14 a serious blow to our professional advancement. If we are not willing to hurt our career in order to do God's will, our job will become a counterfeit god. Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, page 13. God's care; Omnipotence; A. W. Tozer said, “The man of pseudo-faith will fight for his verbal creed, while refusing flatly to allow himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend upon that creed being true. He always provides himself with secondary ways to escape so that he will have a way out of it if the roof caves in. What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who believe God as completely now as they know they must do on the last day." Spurgeon said, "Can you trust him for your soul’s redemption and not rely upon him for a few lesser mercies? Is not God enough for your need, or is his all sufficiency too narrow for your wants? Is his heart faint? Is his arm weary? If so, seek another God. But if you be infinite, omnipotent, faithful, true, and all wise, why gadest thou abroad so much to seek another confidence? Why dost thou rake the Earth to find another foundation when this is strong enough to bear all the weight that thou canst ever build thereon?" God's glory; Discipleship; God's sovereignty; Suffering; Privilege of suffering; Eternal perspective; Courage; God's goodness; Suffering; Risk; Gospel; Gospel, sharing; Evangelism; Counting the cost; Cost; Ease; Comfort; Sharing the gospel; Ministry; Service; Commitment; Trust; God's care; God's protection; God's ways; Some members of our faith family recently went to southern Africa to provide a medical clinic in various impoverished communities. Upon their arrival in the country, one of their vehicles was hijacked. The driver was pistol-whipped and thrown into the trunk of another car as the assailants drove off with most of our team's luggage. By God's grace, no one else was hurt, and the driver recovered. The team knew the trip involved risk, though they certainly had not planned on getting hijacked. Instead, the risk they had considered involved the medical clinics they would be providing. The team knew they would be working with countless patients infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. They had discussed all the precautions they would need to take, but they knew there was no guarantee they could avoid accidentally being stuck with a needle. After getting settled in, they began providing the clinics. These were packed every day as men and women with health needs traveled for miles to 15 receive medical attention. As expected, many of the patients were infected with HIV, and just a few days into the trip, it happened. One of the members of our faith family was serving a woman infected with HIV, and the team member was accidentally stuck with the needle she had been using. As if this were not enough, the same thing happened to a second team member hours later. Both knew the gravity of what had occurred. It was possible that either one or both of them could have HIV at that point. It was possible that they had just seen their lives change in a very serious way. And that makes their response all the more astounding. "Were glad it happened to us and no one else," they both said. "And if these clinics were used by God to lead someone to Christ, then it was all worth it." Our partner on the ground in Africa e-mailed us after the group returned home. He reported, "After you guys left, the community was abuzz about the clinic and how much it meant for them that the Lord saw their needs and sent you guys. After you left, the community began thanking the Lord, and many people came to Christ. Isn't God good?" Yes, he is. He is good even when he calls you and me to places that are dirty and disease ridden. He is good even when we end up possibly sharing in the diseases of the people we go to serve. He is good because he has met us our deepest need and now uses us to show his glory and to advance his gospel among the places of greatest need in the world. David Platt, Radical, p. 163. Trust; Anxiety; Faith; Peace; Rest; Worry; Victor Hugo said, “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake!” Acceptance; Control; Ace; Anxiety; Giving up; Worry; Ace; An astronomer at the Harvard once was giving a lecture entitled, "The Expanding Universe." In it, he pointed out that there are galaxies greater than our Milky Way speeding outward, moving away from us faster than the speed of light. This means that we are actually losing them. They are falling off the edge of 16 the universe, so to speak. It is a mind boggling thing to think about. In the question and answer period that followed the lecture, a woman who appeared to be terribly upset by this revelation, asked anxiously, "Prof., what are we going to do about all of those galaxies we’re losing?" To which the learned professor quietly replied, "Let them go, Mdm. Let them go!" Michael Hodgin, 1001 Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, p. 12. V. Disavows God’s Parenthood Worry; Anxiety; Forgetfulness; Letting go; Ace; Worry: Robert Anthony tells a story about a man who went to see a psychiatrist because he was obsessed with worry. The psychiatrist used hypnosis in therapy and was able to wipe out the memory of what was worrying the man. The psychiatrist was shocked to see the patient back in his office a few days later. "It’s worse than ever, Doc," said the man. "What’s the problem now?" said the psychiatrist. The patient replied, "I have forgotten what I am supposed to be worrying about." So many people are beset by all kinds of anxieties and worries. Are you so used to worrying that you sometimes forget what you’re supposed to be worrying about? VI. Deflates God’s Pleasure VII. Depreciates God’s Person Sinfulness; Depravity; Sin nature; Love for God; First place; Idols; Idolatry; One night I was preaching in Chicago for another pastor. At the close of the service, the minister came to me and said, “I have a young man in my congregation who wishes to be a minister. I would like to have you talk with him.” I replied, “Bring him to me after the after-meeting,” and he brought the young man to me. He had one of the cleanest, finest, most open faces I ever saw in my life. I looked into the face of this young man and said, “Your pastor says you 17 wish to enter the ministry.” “Yes, I do.” “Well,” I said, “let me ask you a question. Are you a Christian?” “Of course, I am a Christian,” he answered, “I was brought up a Christian, and I am not going back on the training of my parents.” I said, “Have you been born again?” He said, “What?” I said, “Have you ever been born again? God says, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Have you ever been born again?” He said, “I don’t know p 26 what you are talking about. I have never heard of that before in all my life.” I said, “My friend, see here; do you know that you have committed the greatest sin that a man can commit?” “No,” he said, “I never did in my life. You don’t understand me. I have been very carefully reared. My life has been a most exemplary life. I never committed the greatest sin that a man can commit—never!” I asked, “What do you think is the greatest sin a man can commit?” “Why,” he replied, “murder, of course.” “You are greatly mistaken. Will you please read what Jesus says about it?” and I opened my Bible to Matt. 22:37, 38, and asked him to read. He read, “Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’ ” “Which commandment is that?” I asked. He replied, “The first and great commandment.” “If this is the first and great commandment what is the first and great sin?” “Not to keep this commandment.” “Have you kept it? Have you loved God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind? Have you put God first in everything—God first in business, God first in politics, God first in pleasure, God first in study, God first in everything?” “No, sir,” he said, “I have not.” “What have you done then?” “I have broken this commandment.” “Which commandment is it?” “The first and the great commandment.” “What have you done then?” He replied, “I have broken the first and greatest of God’s p 27 commandments. I have committed the greatest sin a man can commit, but I never saw it before in all my life.” And so have you, though, perhaps, you never saw it before in all your life. Torrey, R. A. (1907). Anecdotes and illustrations (25–27). New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. Conc Holy Spirit; Ace; Comfort; Fear; anxiety; Worry; Sunday after church, a Mom asked her very young daughter what the lesson was about. The daughter answered, "Don't be scared, you'll get your quilt." Needless to say, the Mom 18 was perplexed. Later in the day, the pastor stopped by for tea and the Mom asked him what that morning's Sunday school lesson was about. He said "Be not afraid, thy comforter is coming." Submission; Submission to God; Ownership; Worry; Anxiety; Contentment; Piece; Peace; There was a man who gave his business to God. He had hassled over it for years. He had wrestled with it and fought it for two decades. One day he decided, "I've had it; that's enough!" He had heard from his pastor that Sunday morning about the value of turning his entire business over to God. It was when he drove away from church that he decided he had worried enough. By the time he got home, he had totally and unequivocally committed his business to God. That very night his place of business caught on fire. He got an emergency call. He rather calmly drove down to the commercial residence and was standing on the street, watching the place go up in flames. He was sort of smiling to himself. One of his colleagues raced to his side and questioned his relaxed attitude about what was happening. "Man! Don't you know what's happening to you? It's – it's burning up!" He replied, "I know it Erie it I know it. No problem, Fred. This morning I gave this company to God, and if he wants to burn it up, that's His business. Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations and Quotes, p. 240. The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. - George Mueller Anxiety; Worry; Stress; Concern; Waste; Focus of Anxiety An average person’s anxiety is focused on : • 40% -- things that will never happen • 30% -- things about the past that can’t be changed • 12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue • 10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress • 8% -- about real problems that will be faced 19 22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world. Doctor says the treatment is simple. The great clown Terrifini is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up. Man bursts into tears: "But doctor . . . I am Terrifini. How can you distinguish the staff from the patients in the asylum? The staff has the door key. Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet. The psychology professor was giving an oral test. Speaking about manic depression, she asked, "How would you diagnose a patient who screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?" A sports-minded young man answered, "He's probably a basketball coach?" 20 21