HANG ON FOR THE RIDE November 14, 2010 First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu The Rev. Dr. Drew Hulse

HANG ON FOR THE RIDE November 14, 2010 First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu The Rev. Dr. Drew Hulse Our verse today is found in Jeremiah 29:11. God is speaking prophecy over Judah through His prophet Jeremiah. For surely I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. I have a confession to make, though I guess it s not much of a confession. Don t worry, it s not some big, dark secret. It s not something that is earth shaking, but it does effect my life at times. Okay, here goes. Wait, this is harder than I thought. Okay, here goes. I don t like roller-coasters or carnival rides. Hey, don t judge me. I know, all the rest of the world hops on and loves the ride, the thrill of being hurtled through space, screaming with joy and delight, hands raised defying gravity. I on the other hand, when I ve allowed myself to be talked onto the ride in a moment of devastating weakness, am holding on for dear life, seeing my life pass before my eyes, hoping my stomach doesn t leave me right in the middle of the ride, just praying that it will end soon, still not sure why they don t put a stop button in the seat with you. If only my experience could look something like this little guys. (Video - You-tube roller coaster video of a young boy on a roller coaster, first excited, then scared to death, then wanting to go again.) If only our experience could be as transformational as his. Now, I know what you re thinking about me, this guy, as in me, is a whimp, a wuss, and those things might be true, but I have my reasons and they re good ones. In addition to not liking the feeling of my stomach leaving my body, I have no faith in man s mechanical genius. I personally don t think we were meant to spin through the air at 30 to 60 miles per hour attached to a steel rail by clamps and wheels. In addition to that there was a traumatic childhood experience where I lost all of my marbles on a ride. No, I mean literally. I was six years old. I started the ride The Octopus with a pocket of newly won marbles and when the ride was over, I was not only sick to my stomach, but my pocket had been emptied of all of my marbles. There they lay under the evil machine, mocking me, out of my reach. Never again would I participate in it s evil plan. 1

Funny isn t it, that just four days ago I got on a piece of metal weighing over 200 tons flying 37,000 feet high through the air at 529 mph and didn t give it a second thought. What makes the difference in those two experience. Well, the fact that a carny wasn t flying the plane, and I don t want to be one who talks bad about carnies, but when I get on the plane, I have complete trust and faith in the pilot, even though I ve never met him or her. The key is, I know a number of pilots. And all of them, down to the last person, are people I would feel confident placing my life within their hands. And, as evidenced by me standing here, they have never failed me. Thanks, I feel a little better now having shared this deep, dark secret. But I know you re wondering what this has to do with Jeremiah. Trust me, it does connect. Jeremiah prophesied over Judah for over 40 years. His prophecies began during the reign of Josiah, who became king as a teenager and who sought to lead Judah back to faithfulness and obedience to the torah, the law, which they had long left behind. And though Jeremiah supported Josiah, Jeremiah was concerned that the people s obedience was merely external and their hearts were not give to God. Scripture - But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. Jer 5:23 Following Josiah s reign Judah began a roller coaster of faithlessness, exile, idolatry, and hopelessness that Jeremiah spoke against throughout his life. Many of Jeremiah s prophecies were harsh, clearly proclaiming the suffering Judah and their rulers would face due to their disobedience. Scripture - Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim... With the burial of an ass he shall be buried, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. Jer 22:18f Jeremiah was not exactly one to sugar coat things or hold back. But underlying all of the prophecies and harsh words was a faith and hope in who God was and his love and faithfulness in caring for His children. Jeremiah knew that above all, God desired the hearts of the people. From Jeremiah s call early in His life, his desire was to give God his heart fully and for the people of Judah to do the same. We can see that very clearly in today s passage. 2

In the historical context of today s passage, Judah is once again in the midst of exile in Babylon and there is a false prophet in the land by the name of Hananiah who is telling the people the exile is going to be short, maybe only two years. Jeremiah knows that isn t true, but his message of a seventy year exile is not real popular. After all, what message would you rather hear, that the exile is going to last two years or seventy years? Jeremiah wants people to know, even though the seventy years can sound harsh, God has them in His hands. Scripture Jeremiah 29:4-14 (New American Standard Bible) 4"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5'Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 6'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. 7'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' 8"For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. 9'For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,' declares the LORD. 10"For thus says the LORD, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.' 3

And for the false prophets, it s not good. The passage goes on to tell of sword, famine, plagues and pestilence. God knows what He is doing. The faithful are not just going to survive exile, they are going to thrive. God has their welfare in His hands. He has a future with hope for them. Hope is a powerful word. Hope becomes the very air we need to survive in the midst of trials and obstacles. I love the website called Givesmehope. It simply tells, in almost twitter length stories, what gives people hope. Here s an example. A young girl writes: Today, I slipped a letter in my bestfriend's locker telling her how I'm going to kill myself and I would miss her. When I came home from school, I found all my friends in my sitting room with DVDs, cookies, and balloons with a letter hanging on them listing 437 reasons why I should not die. I cannot stop crying. Understanding friends GMH. What a great picture of hope put into action. It is important for us to know the difference between false hope and hope that is grounded in faithfulness. False hope that is based purely on the randomness of the planet s aligning, some great wishful thinking is not the hope we can stand upon. We hear stories of the people who bought the lottery ticket every week hoping their number would come up, hoping that if it did all of their troubles and worries would be over. The fact is, history is filled with stories of people s lives that have been ruined by the results of their misplaced hope. Callie Rogers won $3 million in a UK lottery. The ecstatic 16-year-old spent her winnings on vacations, homes, shopping, friends, and even a couple of breast improvements. Six years later, Rogers is a 22-year-old single mother of two. She now works as a maid to sustain herself and her family. She is paying off debt induced by her spending. Today, she has this to say about her winnings: My life is a shambles and hopefully now it has all gone I can find some happiness. It s brought me nothing but unhappiness. It s ruined my life. Willie Hurt of Lansing, Mich., won $3.1 million in 1989. Two years later he was broke and charged with murder. His lawyer says Hurt spent his fortune on a divorce and crack cocaine. William "Bud" Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery in 1988. 4

Within a year, he was $1 million in debt. Post admitted he was both careless and foolish, trying to please his family. He eventually declared bankruptcy. Now he lives quietly on $450 a month and food stamps. But the king of all of them is Jack Whittaker, the poster child of all lottery winners. Andrew Jackson "Jack" Whittaker, Jr. was the president of of a successful contracting firm called Diversified Enterprises Construction. At 55 years old, Whittaker was living a successfully comfortable American life complete with a a net worth of over one million dollars, a well rounded family, great job and healthy grandkids. On December 25, 2002, Whittaker purchased a deli breakfast sandwich and a Powerball Ticket which ended up being worth $315 million. The jackpot won by Whittaker was the highest ever in the United States at the time and Whittaker chose the cash payment option receiving a check after taxes for about $113.4 million. Whittaker's first action was to pledge ten percent of his winnings to Christian charities in West Virginia including several churches. Whittaker next donated about fourteen million dollars to create the Jack Whittaker Foundation as a non profit entity to provide food and clothing to low income families in rural areas of West Virginia. Lastly, Whittaker returned to the supermarket he purchased the ticket and bought the woman who sold him the ticket a new house and a new car as a tip. The Bad: How to lose $114 million dollars in 4 years. Less than one month after winning $114million, Whittaker was arrested for drunk driving. Spent over one hundred thousand dollars at a strip club in Thieves stole $545,000 in cash from his car. In January of 2004, thieves again broke into his car and stole over $200,000 in cash. Whittaker was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly threatening the life of a bar manager. Then a sexual assault A wrongful death suit tied to his granddaughters drug use in his house settled for a large monetary amount. His granddaughter found dead, possibly murdered. $1.5 million in bounced checks to a casino for gambling loses. Finally, through a check cashing scheme thieves had stole the remainder of his fortune. Whittaker now claims to be struggling financially and barely able to make ends meet and that his experiences with the lottery destroyed his life. He states that if he could do it all over again, he would have just filled up his tank, bought a sandwich and gone on his merry way. Jeremiah is not talking about a hope that is based on chance and wishful thinking. A hope that disappoints. He is talking about a real hope that is based in 5

the faithfulness of God. Jeremiah tells us that God has a plan, and it is for our welfare. The children of Israel know a lot about the difference between faithfulness and the lack thereof. In fact, Jeremiah lays out exactly what God s faithfulness will look like in Jer 31. Scripture - Jeremiah 31:31-34 (New American Standard Bible) 31"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34"They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Jeremiah reminds them of God s faithfulness in the wilderness,n in bringing them out of Egypt, even though they were unfaithful. And Jeremiah tells them God will be faithful again. You know, when it comes to believing God s promises I think the issue for me ultimately comes down to control and learning to give is up. I want to control my future, I want to make the decisions. The problem is, my idea and God s idea often times don t agree. So then, the question comes. Am I going to trust the God of the universe who created me and gave His son for me, or am I going to think that I can do a better job with my future. It s not easy giving up control. Have you ever ridden a tandem bicycle? You know the type, two people riding together. Both are peddling, but the one in the front is the one stirring. I think it s a pretty good image of what God is inviting us to do. We accept Christ into our lives, but we have a tendency to tell Jesus to take the back seat and just peddle. But He is telling us He wants to sit up front and steer, in fact, He has an amazing adventure to take us on. A future with hope that we could never imagine on our own. 6

Unfortunately, we try to keep control. We tend to need to crash and burn multiple times before we admit we can t do it on our own and let God take control. Remember, what God wants is our hearts. He longs to hear us cry out to Him in our need, no matter where we ve been. No matter how far we ve fallen. He calls us to Himself. I appreciated Ryan s song this morning. He said, Take a chance. His Happy Ending is the future God is offering to us. Maybe you re that person who has hit bottom, you feel like you ve been exiled and you can t see any possible future. God is there and wants you to know that He has a future for you. The world desperately needs to hear the message of hope that each of has and the foundation of that hope, a faithful God. That s what Dan meant in his BVD devotional this week challenging us to be hope-builders. Taking the message of Jeremiah into the lives of friends, co-workers, classmates, relatives, family members, neighbors, who are hurting, who have given up, who are waiting for someone to bring them hope. Will you be the one who goes and shares? I know it can be a little scary and we won t have all of the answers ahead of time. But let me tell you, it s a ride worth going on. All you need to do is hang on and enjoy the ride. 7