Series: Wandering Pilgrims... "I have a Plan"

Aug. 23, 2015    
Jer. 29:8-14, Jn. 15:9-17

Story… 2 old-school farmers were talking when one says, “I think I’m going to buy one of those new tractors.” The other responds, “Not me… I’m going to stay with my tried and true horses.” They stare at the tractor when the 2^nd farmer says, “Don’t shoot your horse till you know how to drive the tractor.”

“If you want to make God laugh… tell Him your plans.” Or as it states in Prov. 16:9 “We make our own plans, but the Lord decides where we will go.”

Prayer:

We’ve come to the point in the transition process where folks start murmuring and complaining…. Are you murmuring?   I’ve heard some! This happens in the wilderness… We’re imperfect people and we often easily lose faith & trust in the one who brings us out of bondage. We know we must take some risks, get out of our boats and trust God. We also know we can’t do this alone… we need each other. My friends… we all know what needs to happen… this isn’t rocket science and we all know what needs to take place. Each of us is called to participate in what God is calling us to be about.

So… Today, we conclude our series by reflecting on God’s plan for us…. “I Have A Plan”

If you know anything about Bart Simpson you know he is one who always has a plan… a plan for getting into trouble and a plan for getting out of trouble.

If we’re honest… many of us resemble Bart in more ways than we care to admit. We are always making plans for something whether good or ill and when they don’t work out then we’re planning an exit strategy. This is nothing new for us humans… our Israelite friend’s do the same more times than I’m sure they’d like to admit.

You may recall our 1^st week’s reflection when the Israelites escaped Egypt enthusiastically, then 15 days in there complaining, they build idols, they fight with each other etc… Ex 14:15… God says to Moses, “Why do you keep complaining, tell the Israelites to move forward.” They do… but they shortly forget that God is walking with them and they still find reason to complain once again. The end result… 40 years in the wilderness. For the Israelites… it becomes a patterned of faith and trust and disobedience that gets repeated over and over.

This leads us to Jeremiah and another failing on the part of the Israelites. Jeremiah is called by God to preach to the Israelites and to tell them to turn back to God. God calls him even before he’s born. God calls him as a young man… he’s 14-16 yrs old.

God calls a boy to proclaim the good news.

A boy who has no experience.

A boy who has difficulties speaking

A boy who is going to tell a nation they’ve turned away from God and a boy who is going to tell them to turn back to God.

Be honest… How many of you would listen to a 14 yr old boy like this?

He’s called to tell them bad news… their very existence is in jeopardy. Jerusalem and the Temple are going to be destroyed.

They are going to be carted off to Babylon for 70 years. Most of them will never return. The people beat him, put him in a hole, and carry him off to a foreign land…. How would you like that job?

Yet… God says in Vs 11… “I have a plan”…. “I will bless you with a future.” Like Moses, who only saw the Promised Land from a distance… Jeremiah has to trust God with the future as well. The Israelites thought they had the plan… they thought they knew best. They thought they had right answers & didn’t need guidance from God. They didn’t want to hear about God’s plan for their lives.

So… what is God’s plan for us? Let’s look at what God tells us… 

“I have Plans to Care for You”

Vs 11… God says, “I have plans to care for you”….”Look at the times I have provided for you…. If you turn to me… trust me.”

They knew the stories of God’s provision. They knew the stories when God protected them. They knew God wouldn’t abandon them…God hasn’t forgotten them. In the book titled, “The Land Between” a story that reflects the wilderness journeys of the Israelites and compares those journeys with the stories of people the author knows.

Author Jeff Manion makes this analogy, “The Israelites do not seem to have changed over the course of two years in the wilderness… I have the sensation of listening to an old-fashion record player with the needle stuck in a groove, repeating the same fragment of song over and over”… Manion continues, “the intention of God is to dislodge the Israelites from the rut of their lethal, faith-destroying groove… all the while…God is at work rescuing them.” 

Look around you my friends… what do you see? What rut needs dislodging?

Has not God cared for you in the wildernesses of life?

During life struggles do you turn away? Do you hole up? How do you deal with the wilderness?

When finances have been tough… and out of nowhere money shows up at the right moment. When the encouragement of a friend soothed an ache. Recently a friend w/ medical issues was wondering how they were going to meet a $5000 deductable… and somebody or bodies covered it. When I trusted God… God provided.  My friends…God cares deeply for us my friends despite our propensity to turn away.

God tells us I have “Plans to give you a Future”

I believe this is the most difficult truth for us to deal with. We look around and we may not see too bright a future. All we seem to see is what is wrong… what we don’t have. And that is the problem… when all we see is scarcity we will never see a future no matter the plan. The Israelites only saw what they we lacking… God told them they had a future… God said, Vs 10… “in 70 years I will bring you back to Jerusalem.” I’m not sure they saw it because they didn’t have faith & trust.

I know I haven’t always looked at that way. Being an transition pastor wasn’t the way I saw my future….I thought I would be in a church that was open to change, doing some cool stuff… growing…. I’d stay there for 10 years or better. I would be wonderful.

But that’s not what happened. All of the places I’ve been have been short term calls. They’ve all been congregations in the midst of transitions, and I’ve played a role in having them move forward. And it seems I’m pretty good at doing this. But it wasn’t my plan… However it’s been God’s plan.

You see… Jesus tells his friends, “I have chosen you to be sent out to produce fruit.

Jesus says in John 14… “If you have faith in me you will do the same things I am doing… in fact, you will do even greater things than I.”

Do you believe this?

Do you trust God with your future?

God says, Jer. vs 14… “If you come looking for me, you will find me.” Some translations say, “If you turn back to me”… “If you seek me with all your heart.” Are we trusting God with our future? Or are we trusting in temporary fixes? The Israelites were seeking temporary fixes… much of the time that’s our solution too.

God tells us I have “Plans to Bring You Back”

I believe the most significant and most challenging Vs in the story, especially as it reads in “The Message Bible”  is Vs 13…

“If you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed… I’ll turn things around and I’’ bring you back.”

Most of us most certainly bounce back from the difficulties we face. Hope is centered in the opportunity that the times and circumstances will change. Hopefully… we learn something from the wilderness. Hopefully through the wilderness we have learned to trust God more fully. The good news… God is always inviting us back though we stumble.

The challenge is…are we serious about God leading us? Are we serious about God’s Plan For Us?

Close:

Story… Max Lucado tells the story of a man who had been a closet slob most of his life. He just couldn't comprehend the logic of neatness. Why make up a bed if you're going to sleep in it again tonight? Why put the lid on the toothpaste tube if you're going to take it off again in the morning? The man admitted to being compulsive about being messy.

Then he got married. His wife was patient. She said she didn't mind his habits ... if he didn't mind sleeping on the couch. Since he did mind, he began to change. He said he enrolled in a 12-step program for slobs. A physical therapist helped him rediscover the muscles used for hanging up shirts and placing toilet paper on the holder. His nose was reintroduced to the smell of Pine Sol. By the time his in-laws arrived for a visit, he was a new man.

But then came the moment of truth. His wife went out of town for a week. At first he reverted to the old man. He figured he could be a slob for six days and clean on the seventh. But something strange happened. He could no longer relax with dirty dishes in the sink or towels flung around the bathroom or clothes on the floor or sheets piled up like a mountain on the bed.

What happened? Simple. He had been exposed to a higher standard of living. That's what Jesus does.
-- Max Lucado, “In the Grip of Grace” (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1996), 116-117. 

This is what God’s plan can do for us.

"Get Out of the Boat"

August 9, 2015                                                                      

Acts 4:5-12, Matt. 14:22-33

Story: A man was hired to paint lines on a newly resurfaced portion of interstate highway. The first day he painted 109 miles, and his supervisor, impressed by such an effort, told him he would recommend a promotion and pay raise if he kept up that pace. But the next day he was able to paint only five miles. On the following day he did only one mile and when he reported in at quitting time he was fired. It isn't my fault, he muttered as he walked away shaking his head. I kept getting farther away from the can.

J. Walter Cross of Bradenton, Florida

Prayer

We continue in our series Wandering Pilgrims. Last week we reflected about the wandering and waiting, and wilderness times we often feel in life. Jesus tells us there will be times like this throughout life and within our church lives as well. This is a normal experience in life and often these times are important times of learning and I hope we learn some things along this journey.

Today we will reflect on a reason we often find ourselves in wandering wilderness times. Furthermore, today’s focus could be an opportunity to end the wandering times… if we are willing to…  “Get Out of the Boat”

I want to tell you an amazing thing I can do… I can walk on water… YES… I can walk on water and you can too.

In college I had a classmate named Joseph… he was from Kenya, and he over-heard our professor commending me for going to college as an older person…. The prof likened it to walking on water…Joseph… the said, “by the end of your time here you will have the opportunity to walk on water…” Come January… Joseph walked on water.

Often during wilderness times we feel little hope. Quite often, we have a woe is me attitude. We typically feel worthless and helpless, and unable to do anything. We often only see our limitations and not the opportunities. The same is true for churches.

Many times our church loses focus on the main thing being the main thing, thus becoming self-serving and self-centered. In a sense… “Getting Out of the Boat” is a kick in the behind that opens our eyes to a needed perspective change. So… if you want to walk on water, then you need “Get Out of the Boat.”

Our bible story today is a familiar one. Peter takes a risk and we often see it as a failure… a failure of faith. Jesus says, “You of little faith.” However, this story isn’t only about Peter, but also about the other 11 who make no attempts to do anything.

So… in reality this is  a story about Fear and Trust.

Let’s look at these two attributes

 “FEAR”

John Ortberg in his book “If you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat” says,

 “There are 366 “FEAR NOT’S” in the bible, one for everyday of the year including 1 for Leap Year.”

Why do we fear so much? Why are we so afraid to do things? When we were younger we didn’t think too much about doing things… we just did them. Many times they worked out, and sometimes they didn’t, but generally we would continue to try things.

Many of us live in a constant tension between fear & trust.

Maybe you experienced this as a parent or child… your child is on a platform and you call out to her to jump… I will catch you… trust me… I’m your father or mother… I will catch you… I love you and I won’t let you drop. How many times did we jump? How many times did our kids jump?

Yet… fear still grips us and Fear paralyzes us… fear stops us from experiencing the joy of accomplishment.

We do this in the church as well. When churches stop trying out of fear or of failing, or the fear of not having enough money, enough people, enough leaders, etc. we lose. Sometimes we fear succeeding… new people will come… things will change… things will be different... it won’t be Lutheran. When we fear too much… fear will always win the day.

Fear however, can be a good thing… when a small child touches a hot stove… the fear of being burned is good. However, most of the time we fear for no reason at all. Jesus tells Peter, “Don’t be afraid… Don’t worry I’m here.”

I wonder how much ministry DOES NOT happen because of fear.

I wonder how much ministry DOES NOT happen because of the Fear Limitations we place on ministry... Not Enough Money… Never did it that way… is it Lutheran… I’m too old… etc.

 “TRUST”

Jesus says to the 12, “Surely you don’t have much faith.” Some translations say, “You of little faith” or “you don’t believe because you have no faith.”

Futurist Leonard Sweet in his book “I Am A Follower” the Way, Truth, and Life of Following Jesus, says; “Church culture has fashioned such an addiction to safety and security. If we cannot plot a future path with visible surety then we cannot imagine God would call us or lead us down it. But the way of the cross is one of trust, and it is trust that leads us to obedience in following the Master wherever he leads. The path may be uncertain, but for the trusting pilgrim, the One we follow will never steer us wrong.” (pg. 125)

You See… if we must first quantify what we do we will never do anything. And if we don’t trust in God to lead us, then there’s no sense in being Church. Because… when we lack in trust, and are fearful… it will kill the church. It will kill your faith… and in all likelihood… kill you too.

You See… Trust says “JUMP”….. Fear says “NO”

Why does Peter walk on water initially?

Why does a church stop growing?...

When Jesus calls Peter to come out of the boat…. He believes Peter can walk on water… and at that point Peter believes and trusts Jesus he really can walk on water too. Peter believes and trusts he can do what his rabbi is doing. Then Peter begins to fear and sink… Jesus still believes he can do it. Contrary to how we read the story, Peter hasn’t lost faith in Jesus. Peter loses faith that he could do what his rabbi is doing. Peter and the others have lost faith in themselves…. The others didn’t even try.

Rob Bell in his book “Velvet Elvis” says, “If the Rabbi calls you to be his disciple, then he believes you can actually be like him… what frustrates Jesus most is when his disciples lose faith in themselves.”

Closing:

Are you willing to have faith and trust in Jesus?

Are you willing to take a risk to get out of the boat and walk on water?

Are you willing to jump in trust?

The church needs you!

Jesus Needs you!

Our faith needs you!

Jesus believes you can do this!!!!

Jesus believes we can do this!!!!

DO YOU????