Calvary United Methodist Church August 27, 2017 TIMELY DECISIONS Rev. R. Jeffrey Fisher Children s Sermon: Psalm 62:5-6 Children s Message did not record. Message: 1 Corinthians 10:9-13 Time. We ve all heard it since we were very young. It goes faster when you are older. I was speaking to my mother some weeks ago about these older people having class reunions. Then I realized I m 42 years out of school. It seems like how could that be? It seems like my classmates, it was just a short time a short time ago I was in school. There are a lot of things about time I ve learned now that I wish I d have learned a long time ago. It would have been really sweet to have studied more for some of my classes. Did you ever have that one? It would have been nice to make sure that the gas tank was full. First time I ran out of gas I had an older woman going to a nursing home and I ran out of gas. She turned to me and she said at about 92 years old, It s the first time in my life a man ever ran out of gas with me in the car. It would be nice if we were ready for the things that we need to do in life even though a lot of times we don t prepare. And when we don t prepare, life is filled with all kinds of things that can let us very disappointed. There were more than a few quizzes I took in college and high school that I wasn t prepared for and the grades were disappointing, as one might expect. The same way with the gas tank, the same way with not giving the whatever it is you need for whatever you re planning. Time is an important thing. The scriptures today are reminding us that we really don t have forever to make our decisions of what we are doing. And of all the things you do at the time, the greatest decision we make is our walk with God, not once in a while, not just in those moments when we are in tragedy or in trial or in tribulation, in tough times, but to walk daily with God that we can experience the peace that passes all understanding.
I remember seeing long lines, I think at first when I saw this I thought it was men on Christmas Eve, but it s not. Did you ever stand in line and wish you were not in that line? There s a lot of things, like not even having enough money in your bank account. But whether we are prepared or we think, and not a lot of people I ve talked to that say this line. Have you ever heard this, folks, saying, My life has fallen right into place. It s just perfect the way it is.? I ve met a few, but the one thing I ve learned in my job, that in the blink, a blink of an eye, there s a car accident, there s a heart attack, there s a stroke, and these things aren t favored for any age group or any cultural group or any race or any specified group of people. All of us in the blink of an eye, life can change. And this isn t a word of gloom or doom, it s a word of promise to me that Paul was telling the early church in Corinthians live daily with God, live as if this were your last day and you would meet God, that you would know that you have peace, that your family would know you have peace of mind and heart and no one sitting around and worrying about what s tomorrow going to bring when my life drastically changes today, because it can happen at any moment. We must never try to Christ to serve us instead of us serving him. They tried it and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
These are all warning markers danger--in our history books, written down so we don t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel they at the beginning, we at the end we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don t be so naïve and self-confident. You re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need is to remember that God will never let you down; he will never let you be pushed past your limit; he ll always be there to help you come through it. That s the message of Paul to the people of Corinth long time ago. Why did he tell them? They became so lax; they became so busy in their lives that they forgot God. They forgot to worship God. They forgot to be thankful for God. Are you thankful? When you get up and have that roof over your head and you have health care and you
have plenty of food on the table and more than what we need in every avenue of life, if we are being kind of responsible, then we should admit that it is God and God alone that provides it. And we should also know that as we look over our life and see the bumpy roads and the hills and valleys that whether I was on the hill or in the valley, God has never left my side. That s my line and I m sticking to it. I don t always see it at the moment, but when I look over my life, I m thinking the only way I made it through that trial, the very difficult painful hurting to the core of my being experience was that God and the family of God surrounded me, prayed for me, encouraged me and brought me salvation in a new way. Hosea was another speaker that Paul addressed. There s a problem that we have in our lives when we forget God. Hosea says this: When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. I like it better in the Message, but I like them both: I took care of you, took care of all your needs, and gave you everything you needed. You were here s the word spoiled. You didn t think you need me. You forgot me. I don t think that there would be a better description of America than that description. We are spoiled, Folks, spoiled. My mother said to me last night did you see how many, 38,000 people are out of electric and we need to pray for our sisters and brothers in Texas and others affected. But by and large we are blessed with infrastructure that soon those people will have saving grace, people will come in and they will bless and rebuild and do things. Do you know how blessed you are to live in a land of infrastructure to where you can get help? You know how blessed we are that we complain about not having enough free time when most of the world would never even know what a vacation is, let alone a vacation to a tropical island and putting your feet up and resting. Do you know that s a blessing beyond imagination to well over three-quarters of the world that lives from day to day?
The word the Prophet Hosea shared is the word that we really need to open up and hear when we start complaining and nagging too much about how terrible our life is. You see, when we become complacent, when we forget God, we will forget the blessings of God and then we lose the peace in our life. Were you ever called a spoiled kid? You could have guessed it? I bet some of you have been that spoiled before, right? Your parents tried to give you whatever they could afford to give you and I ve seen those who have had more and those who have had less, but we are spoiled. And when you think that you have worked for it and you have earned it and you have taken it for granted, we forget that the whole world works. Most of the world works very hard. There is this description: Cheers to the glory of an excessive lifestyle and its looming side-effects. I think of another passage of scripture and it said to the rich man: Oh, look at all of my wealth, my silos are full, I have everything. Tonight I m just going to eat and drink and be merry. And what did the scripture say? And that very night his life was taken. This isn t gloom or doom; this is a face of reality. Don t ever get so comfortable that you think you ve earned it all and you can just sit back and do nothing. God calls us to be life of obedience and discipline that we can improve and bring the kingdom of God for everyone. And when we forget that all that we have is from Almighty God, we get like that rich ruler. God does warn us; that s what the word of God is for, the scriptures try to keep us in line, that no matter what time it comes, I m okay. If God calls me today, are you okay? Are you at peace? Sure we would miss family, friends, we might miss graduations and parties and celebrations and we might wish we might live a long, long, long life, but are you at least at peace. And not only for you; are you enough at peace with your relationships with people around you that if those who love you would miss you, they would say, At least I know they ve lived it well and they had the peace of God in their life. One of the worst things I have ever witnessed as a pastor, when people worry about their loved ones who are no longer with us because they knew they never had the peace of God in their heart. When we get too busy, when we get too affluent, this honestly is typically more a problem of affluent people, we tend to think we do not need God. That s
the scripture, right? You think you ve got it: I don t need God, I can handle life myself, and God is reminding us we need God. Hey, there all you who are thirsty come to the water. Are you penniless? Come anyway buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy your wine and milk. Buy without money everything s free. Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me and listen well: Eat on the best, fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention. Come close now; listen carefully to my lifegiving, life-nourishing worlds. I m making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love. This is the word of God saying Come home to me. All those other things aren t going to fill you. I m the one who will quench the thirst. The woman at the well, come to the well that will never run dry. Come to the one who will pour abundant love, abundant blessings upon you all the days of your life. Be reminded that God is with us. He continues this: Seek God while he s here to be found, pray to him while he s close at hand. Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God who is lavish with forgiveness. You see, we need to be honest to ourselves. If we are drifting so far that our lifestyle is drawing us from God, we need to change our lifestyle. We need to be honest in admitting that what we have and who we are and all the blessings have not just come from our hard work and many of you have worked very hard, but it s not you alone. It s because where you are planted and what God expects from those who have been blessed as what? That we would use our blessings to bring His kingdom. And when we are honest with ourselves, there comes a point, and I need to do this daily, repent does not mean just feeling sorry, you say to God, Oh, I m really sorry, God. It s turning around and heading a in a different direction; heading in a different direction. I need to do that a lot, because I too like you get pulled in the wrong direction. There is a story and a parable in the Bible about a fig tree that didn t produce for a couple of years. Do you remember that story? And the disciples said what should you do with it? He told them: try again to do all you could. If it s not going to produce, cut it down and destroy it. There was a warning there to the people that we need to produce, we need to be valuable for the kingdom. Forget about relying on ourselves, forget about self-confidence; it s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. I like the NIV in this better: So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don t fall. In other words, when we get too proud of ourselves, we think that we can handle it all. The warning about the fig tree was about life. We are given life as a gift and we are asked by God to use that gift for God s kingdom. And I have found that when we are willing to do that, we can find more blessings than a few along the way.
When we choose God, we are really choosing joy. I have to say, I ve been blessed by parents and grandparents who tried to put my feet on a good path. I have not always stayed on that path, but when I stay in that path, it s a lot of fun. I ve met folks like you who have blessed me more than I could have ever imagined. I have met wonderful brothers and sisters at every congregation I have served. And the joy that I find in serving God and being a peace with one another is a joy that I don t think could ever be found in the stuff of this world. God invites us to come to Him. When we were baptized, we talked about being washed up. And when we realize that we have been cleaned, it s not just a one time dealing. I bet most of you do laundry every week. Right, right? We clean again and again. We wash our hands again and again because it s not satisfactory. Coming to God and confessing to God is a reminder that, Lord, my life isn t right. There are some days thoughts go through my mind and I ll go: where did that come from? Did you ever have that? You see someone that made you angry, did something to you and you get one of those thoughts. Maybe you ve never had them that: boy, if I could hurt them I really would. And you say: O, God, I know that s not right. Right? Please tell me I m not the only one who feels that from time to time. I hope not! But thank God when I do that and shake my head, He says: Oh, Jeff, don t go down that road. Don t think those thoughts. Don t think those thoughts. Don t act on those deeds. Don t say those words. Don t act out in the ways that so many people pull over in front of me in traffic, I want to say and do so many things. People that are rude to other people in markets; it s not even my business and I want to say stuff. Let us thank God once in a while, God, by praying says: I m going to help you restrain from being that sinner who you really are. We are sinners, you know that? It s only by grace that we can constrain not being that part of us that we really don t like and I really don t like those parts of me and I m full of it of that stuff. God doesn t want us to be like that. You know, sometimes we think we re too special, and I want you to know in one way I shared with the children we are told that God knows us, he s numbered us as much as the hairs on their head and the sands of the sea. You are a special child of God.
But also understand that God loves others. I don t know much about math, but I remember these two symbols. Remember? Less than. And more than. It s taken a long time to learn that I m not really less than anybody else. And if you feel that some people make you feel bad, understand this: in God s eyes you are not less than, but you are not greater than anyone else, for God loves all of us, all people, no matter what race, regard of whatever it is in our life, cultural, whatever, even if they don t follow God at this point, the God that we serve, all on this planet are God s children. We believe through Jesus Christ God will call everyone home. If you have a question whether God can love everyone, I want you to picture this. I don t have children of my own, but those of you who have children know that some children are a little better than others behavior wise and yet as a parent you love them both or all three or five or twenty if you had twenty. You realize that they are different. Now, if you and I on this earth can love our children even when they aren t the best, how much more so God our Creator can love us. So, when you look in that mirror, I want you to understand this: God s looking back and saying, I love you. I love you. And you re acceptable in my sight and you re my special child and I want you to always come home. My parents have always told me this: you always have a home. Right? Your parents tell you those things? You always are
loved here. And so it is God tells you today if you ve not heard it, God says, You always have a home. I m your God, I ve loved you. I ve created you in your mother s womb. I will always love you. There is nothing that would ever make me turn from you. I may not like some of the things my children do, but I, your God, will always love you. In the blinking of an eye, our life can change and because of that God says, Why don t you build this relationship, because no matter where it is you know in your heart of hearts that you are home. The real life experiences to me are the ones that help me stand firm. Going through losses in our lives, going through high points in our life, they are all points of contact with our God. When God says, You stand firm to know that when the winds of time shake, I am with you. When I go to Sierra Leone, the very first time I went there the told a story and sang a song about cottonwood trees. It s one of the highest in the world and the biggest trees in the world. You often see it in the middle of a jungle area and everything else is like a big difference between the height of the forest and the height of the cottonwood trees. And they teach it to the little children as much as we teach Jesus Loves the Little Children that when Satan comes and the storms of life shake basically nothing is going to shake that tree. It s going to stand tall and firm and strong. It will not be shaken. When we live and breathe Jesus Christ every day, the storms of life, I promise, will come, but we will not be shaken. We will stand tall. We will stand firm to know God is with us and it becomes a matter of our lives submitting to God saying, Lord, I am yours all the time. Make me an instrument of your peace. Allow me to be used for your kingdom. My soul finds rest in God alone for my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will never be shaken.
Life changes quickly and in the midst of those changes, we need to know this: God in our submission wants to know that He s our hearts desire. Not the things of the world, not the new house, not the new addition, not the new vehicles, not the stuff of the world. God is the desire of our heart. And when we comes to the point of asking forgiveness, one thing I discovered about Christianity is I don t come to God just to ask for forgiveness, I come and confess to God because I have already been forgiven. When Jesus died on that cross, he said, I died for you. We weren t born yet. He forgave you and me before we have even sinned. He gave his life for you and for me even before we came. The timeliest decision that we could make every morning as we begin every day is to say, Lord God, I want to live for you. Make me yours today, fully yours. Fully yours. Make me the first love, the very first love of our life. And I think if we learn to do that, we will have a peace that passes understanding and we will spread that to those around us. We will see a moment across this land that will bless us. This America needs this more than ever before. This nation begins with us as individuals and turns into our family where we become a holy godly people. Let us pray: Almighty and Everlasting God, we are your children. Remind us daily and help us make that commitment to you as we submit our lives wholly to you, you ll be number one in our lives and that we will submit to bringing your kingdom in its fullness. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. The ushers will wait upon us to receive our gifts and our tithes.
Benediction: I see Jesus in you every moment of the service, things you do, the way you treat one another, the way we love one another. I see it in God s children. God told us through Jesus that when He left His Spirit would be with us and so we are equipped to do all things in His name. Let us go forth in the power of Jesus Christ, taking his love into this world. Amen.