A Life Changing Spiritual Boost in Less Than 20 Minutes – Part II

October 19, 2008

Prayer -

Heavenly Father, we gather here this morning and we thank and praise You that we can speak to You in prayer. We are also thankful that You speak to us through the words of the Bible.  And, Lord, when we ask questions like, “God, what’s going on in the world? Why are You doing this?” you give us the answers again today in these Bible readings. As we now hear Your Word, as we hear You speaking to us, we ask that the Holy Spirit would open our minds, our ears and our hearts and give us understanding. And we pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen

Scripture Readings-

We ask the question many times, “Why is this happening in my life, Lord? Why can’t you prevent this?” We see again from God’s Word in Judges why things happen. Why did God have the people in the land of Canaan torment the Israelites?   He did it to test them, so that the people would continue to place their trust in Him.

Old Testament – Judges 3:1-4   These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath. They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.

  In our second reading we see a progression.  We know we are chosen by God because He has given us His Holy Spirit. You couldn’t believe any of this, you wouldn’t want to be sitting here this morning if the Holy Spirit had not touched your life. Having been chosen by God, our job is to lead other people to Christ, to serve as an example for them.

  Epistle – 1 Thessalonians 1:4-7  For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

Our Gospel Lesson is the same lesson we used last Sunday as we continue our sermon series. This lesson is a parable, an earthy story to illustrate something about the Kingdom of Heaven. The “banquet” is all the good things that God wants you to have; the chief course being forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. There are 7,000 promises in the Bible for you; seven thousand things at that Banquet Table that God wants you to grab hold of, take home, put on your plate and enjoy. The trouble is, as we see in the Gospel Lesson, we get so used to the things of God that the novelty wears off. God invites us, but we have better things to do.

Gospel – Matthew 22:1-14  Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off – one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend’, he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few care chosen.

Sermon –

This termite walks into this tavern and says, “Is the bar tender here?” (groans from the congregation). I talked to people last week who still didn’t get that joke! Now if you weren’t here last Sunday and you’re wondering what in the world we’re talking about and how this congregation knows the punch line, they know it because of repetition, the Sesame Street Principle: Repetition is the Mother of Knowledge. We repeated that joke at the beginning of the sermon last Sunday at least five times. And that’s why God tells us the same things in the Bible over and over and over again. He wants it to be fresh in our minds all the time so that when difficulty comes, when we need hope, when we need to help someone up, we will have it fresh in our minds.

That’s the upside. The downside is that the more you hear something, the more familiar you are with something, the novelty can wear off and it can become a source of irritation. There’s a principle we experienced last Sunday and this Sunday as I told the joke over and over that says familiarity breeds contempt. You became so familiar with my joke that the novelty wore off and eventually you even had contempt for that joke. We would certainly never have contempt for the things of God, right? Wrong! Last Sunday our Old Testament reading told us how God had worked a miracle in the Israelites’ lives every day feeding them with manna and that they eventually had contempt for it. God is offering us 7000 things at his banquet, the chief one being the new clothes, that robe of righteousness, the wedding clothes that God gives to us through faith in Jesus Christ, and all we have to do is show up and grab a hold of them, yet what is our reaction to the banquet? The novelty has worn off, we have something better to do, one goes to his fields and plays golf, another goes to his business because he wants to make money on Sunday; we have contempt for the things of God.

So, how do we change this? In our sermon series “A Spiritual Boost in Less Than 20 Minutes” we want to learn how to take those things we’ve heard again and again and again about God and apply them to what is going on around us. If you want contact with God, if you want the power of God in your life, if you want a boost, if you want some spiritual power, how does God reach you? Through His Word. So, if you want a spiritual boost, if the old familiar things are going to get you excited again, you need the power of God’s Word.

We talked about two verses last week, Romans 8:32 and Philippians 4:19. Spend five minutes with Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not also along with him graciously give us all things” What a promise there is in that verse! It’s incredible! When the economic and political news is just wearing us down spend five minutes with Romans 8:32. It’s familiar, we know Christ died on the cross, but spend five minutes thinking about this verse. “God, who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not also along with him graciously give us all things.” What hope, what promise there is in that! And here’s an example -  there is a lady at Langdon Place by the name of Sandy who is in a wheelchair. She always wanted to go to Hawaii, and about two weeks ago she went. She was given a trip to Hawaii through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but there was only one problem - she needed special transportation to Logan Airport in Boston and didn’t have the money to hire a transportation service. So she prayed. She said, “If God gave me this trip to Hawaii, He certainly is going to give me transportation to the airport.” About a week later the Chamber of Commerce was holding their once-a-month “Business after Hours” meeting. Local merchants supply gifts and business people put their cards in a fishbowl for a drawing. One of Sandy’s friends who works at Langdon Place was at the meeting and one of gifts just happened to be transportation to and from the airport from Thompson Transportation. Sandy’s friend prayed, “God, Sandy really needs this gift certificate. Please let me win.” They did the drawing and Sandy’s friend won! Sandy now has transportation to and from Logan Airport so that she can go to Hawaii. Think about that. God who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all will he not also along with him get Sandy to and from the airport? That’s the promise. Spend five minutes meditating on this verse and you will have your spiritual boost.

And Philippians 4:19 is so important with the economy the way it is. The verse says, “God will supply all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.” We love this promise, it’s great! But how do we get there? Malachi 3:10-12 – take 10% of your income and give it to the Lord and he will open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so many blessings that you won’t have room for them. When Pastors talk about this verse, people walk out of church because they are offended. We’ve heard it again and again. It has become familiar to the point that people have contempt for it; they say, “All the church ever does is talk about money!” But this is a great promise and you folks at Trinity cruise through all this economic bad news with a smile on your face, with peace in your heart because you have been faithful in your giving and tithing. And you know what God is going to do during this economic turndown? He will provide all your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus; He’s going to open up the floodgates of heaven and pour out so many blessings (it may not be money), but so many blessings you won’t have room for them. So be encouraged. God is not going to say, “Oh yes, I know you’re giving your tithe and I know my promises to provide for your needs, but in case you haven’t heard, the economy is down, so, sorry, I just can’t do it now.” God will never say that because He owns everything in the world and it’s a piece of cake for Him to provide for our needs. So be at peace and when the bad economic news hits again this week. Be at peace and remember God’s promise to provide for all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus.

Now to do Romans 8:32, Philippians 4:19 and Malachi 3:10-12, we need to trust in God. Our fourth Bible passage is, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart: (Proverbs 3:5). Spend five minutes with this verse for a spiritual boost. We get the power to trust through God’s Word, but many times we get in such a spiritual downer we can’t even open up our Bibles. I’ve offended numerous people during my years in ministry by telling them during their difficult times to trust in God; people get mad and walk out saying, “All he did was tell me to trust in God, what good is that going to do? Nothing is happening.” We get contempt for the things of God. What God is going to do is enable you to trust in Him.

Let me give you an example - this explains everything that is happening in this country. If we are going to trust in God, He needs to eliminate the other options. So, we have Choice A, Choice B and Choice C.  If God wants you to choose C the easiest way to get you to do that is to take away Choice A and Choice B. Isn’t that what God does in our lives? If we are going to have sin forgiven, if we’re going to get into heaven, if we’re going to be reconciled to God, we need to trust in Christ and Him alone – by faith in Christ we are saved. So what does God do? He takes away Choice A and Choice B. People who try to choose A) say, “Maybe there isn’t a hell or maybe hell isn’t really bad and I’ll be ok. People who try to choose   B) say “Well, I’m a good person so I’ll be ok with God.” But God eliminates the options. He says, A) “There is a hell and it is so bad that you wouldn’t want your worst enemy to go there!” And He says, “I’m not talking about being good, I’m talking about being perfect!” So A) and B) are eliminated. What are we left with? Option C – Christ – Trust in the Lord!

Watch what God is doing when the news comes out this week; He’s eliminating the options. One of the reasons people are so blown apart by this economic disaster is that their trust is placed in their money or in hope that the economic news will get better.. So what is God doing in our world? He’s says, “OK you people who are trusting in money…I’ll fix you, now your money is worth nothing.” He eliminated that option. Thank you, God, for doing that. Or to the people who trust that things will get better- what’s the outlook? We have a long time until things get better and they may get a lot worse before they get better. So, He’s taken away that option. What’s left? Option C – Christ – Trust in the Lord! God is not being mean to us, he’s being kind to us.

And another example: Some people say, “Someone in politics will have the answer; we’re going to elect a new President and surely he will have the answer.” That’s an option. Or they say, “Hey, we’re New Englanders, we’re tough, we can stand on our own two feet. Bring it on - we’re tough! We can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps!!” What is God doing in our country today?   The politicians don’t have the answer; the only thing they’re really good at is attacking each other. And, 2 Corinthians Chapter 1, what does God do? He gives us so much stuff, so many things go wrong that we can’t handle it and finally when we’re on our hands and knees with our head down to the ground saying, “I have more than I can handle, I can’t do this.”, God has eliminated that option. So, what’s left? Option C – Christ - Trust in the Lord! God is not being mean to us, His love is all around us. He’s directing people to Christ and through this; He’s directing your life and my life.

This is what God has done for me in the past month to direct my life. I’m 53 years old and when I think about my father who retired at 62 I realize that’s only 9 years away. If I want to retire at 62, I will need buy a house because I live in a parsonage. I’m a model railroader and looking at retirement I think, “Wouldn’t that be nice? I could spend all my days in the basement in my new house playing with my trains. That would be great! Or I could continue to work and preach the gospel. So God, I’m trusting in You; what do You want me to do?” Well, I think He’s spoken. I don’t have the money any more to retire. That option is gone. I don’t have the money to buy a house, that option is gone. So I know now what God wants me to do because he has eliminated all the options – He wants me to preach the Gospel. Life is so simple isn’t it? And it’s just when we think God is being the worst, the meanest, that He’s forgotten about us, it’s at that point that He’s actually saying, “No, I’m being the kindest to you. I’m directing you to Christ. I’m giving you a plan for life. I’m helping you.” Trust in the Lord; and we trust in the Lord by watching him eliminate our options.

Lastly, spend five minutes with Matthew 28:19-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you...” God is making that so easy for us to do in this economic disaster because when people say, “Where’s God? He’s forgotten about us, I don’t have any money left, it’s so bad”, we can say, “Do you really want help? Here’s what Jesus Christ has done, here’s why I have peace.” When we, in this economic downturn, have peace, when we have hope, when we’re not worried because we know that God will supply all our needs though His riches in Christ Jesus, people will say, “I want that. I don’t have that. How do I get that? Then it’s easy. Go; make disciples of all nations, giving them Christ. God makes life so simple.

So as we go off into another week of bad news, it can wear you down. Hearing the same bad news over again can wear you down, familiarity breeds contempt and can wear you down, bad news from Wall Street can wear you down. You need a boost and now you know how to get it. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all will he not also graciously give us all things we need. He will supply all your needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, just trust in Him, and He makes it easy by eliminating options. Then go, spread the good news. When things start to wear you down this week, spend five minutes on each of these verses and you will have a spiritual boost in less than 20 minutes!

Prayer –

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word, for Your old familiar concepts that we can revisit again. Lord, thank You for speaking to our needs, providing for our needs. And we pray this in the Name of Jesus. Amen.