9/17/06 Recalling What We Already Know
This has not been the easiest week for some of you.
I know that in part because of some conversations I’ve been involved in since we last met.
I know it, too,
because I know enough about life on this planet
to know that, as much as we try to avoid it,
pain is a frequent intruder into our lives.
And so this morning
we are going to take a short break from our study of John
so that I can remind myself and you
of some of the basics of our life with the King.
Remembering the basics is an essential key to survival in many areas of life.
It’s essential in our relationship with our Lord.
It’s essential in our relationships with one another.
And whenever we forget the basics
things can very quickly begin to go very wrong indeed.
I know this is true in the two most critical relationships in life -
the marriage relationship
and the parent child relationship.
I am certain that one of the major things
that has kept my own marriage so strong for nearly 30 years now
is that somehow Sandee and I have rarely lost sight of the basics.
After nearly three decades together we know each other
in some ways better than we know ourselves.
We certainly know each other
better than any other human being ever has or ever will.
Yet, with all of that knowledge,
I am continually discovering in my mate
things I didn’t know were there -
expressions of creativity,
remarkable reserves of strength,
and insights into life and the nature of human relationships,
many of which I frequently borrow,
label as my own,
and then take credit for.
But, with all the new discoveries
that have come into our relationship with one another over the past 30 years,
do you know the one truth
that my spirit hungers for more than all the rest,
the one truth that never ceases to thrill me,
the one truth that provides the solid footing upon which I walk with my partner each new day?
It is the first great truth I discovered in her
in the spring of 1976,
the truth that she loves me
and is well pleased to stand beside me for a lifetime.
A number of years ago now
I received a Valentine card from Sandee
that, when I received it, affected me so deeply
that I’ve carried a copy of it in my Bible ever since.
On the front there was a picture of a large, open book,
and on the inside it said,
“Looking through my favorite memories,
I find you on every page.
I love you, Larry! Now and always you are my hero!”
And every single day I live,
when I say good morning to Sandee in the kitchen,
it is that one truth first of all,
most of all that I look for again.
And when I see it,
everything else is just trivia.
But I am certainly not so naive as to think
that holding onto the basics is ever easy.
It is, in fact, the central battle of our lives,
both in marriage and in parenting.
I was involved in two conversations this past week,
one with a wife,
the other with a mother,
in which I saw once again
the tremendous pain that can enter those two crucial relationships
whenever the feelings of the moment
blind us to the basics.
Do you know what the basics are in marriage?
They’re not nearly as complicated as we may think.
When we marry
God entrusts into our care
one lifetime relationship,
one other human being
whose mind, and soul, and spirit
we are, from that time on, to protect,
and guard,
and nurture,
and elevate above all other relationships.
It is our highest lifetime commission from God Himself
and to the degree that we accept it and fulfill it,
to that degree we will know deep fulfillment in life.
And to the degree that we allow anything else in life to divert us from that calling-
any other person,
any other interest,
any career goal,
we will destroy the one thing
that can feed the human spirit as nothing else can do.
I shared with you a few months ago
that I have a filtering system
that has been in place in my marriage from the very beginning.
With every relationship that enters my life,
every project,
every new or old responsibility,
the first question I ask myself is, “How will this affect Sandee?”
And if I know it will affect her negatively,
and if I can choose to walk away, I do.
Now that isn’t some great, profound marriage insight.
Do you know where it comes from?
In every wedding ceremony I’ve every performed
I have required both the bride and the groom
to publicly proclaim to one another that from that day forth
they will forsake all others and cleave to their marriage partner alone
until death.
All I’ve done in my marriage
is to believe my own vows.
All I’ve done is to remember the basics.
Solomon looked at it from the other side
and then said it as vividly as anyone ever has.
PRO 11:29 He who troubles his own house will inherit wind...
And the same truths apply in our relationships with our children -
remembering the basis.
Do you remember the basics?
When you first held that tiny baby in your arms,
what were you there for?
To protect and guard and defend that child at all costs,
against all enemies, all attacks,
and to love them.
And the one thing that a child needs to know
above everything else
is that when they are with dad or mom
they are safe - physically safe, emotionally safe.
It’s so obvious in the beginning.
But I was in a conversation with a parent this past week
that reminded me once again
how easy it is for us to forget the basics
when our children get older,
and especially when they get into their teens.
If we forget the basics
there are times when we can begin relating to our children
as if they are the enemy,
someone to be conquered and defeated at all costs.
I’ve been involved in the lives of teenagers
really for most of my adult life.
And do you know the one longing I have seen within everyone of them,
the one thing they want most in their relationship with me?
They want to know I’m on their side,
and I’m really fighting for them.
They want to know if they’re emotionally safe,
protected when they’re with me.
And once they find out that’s true,
they will often give me tremendous authority in their lives,
simply hand it over to me.
Now I’ll be the first to admit the obvious,
that living with teenagers is, at times, terrifying beyond belief.
But I also know that if we ever loose sight of the basics,
if we ever forget that above all else we are on their side,
defending them, protecting them, guarding them,
and if, instead, we begin to relate to them as the enemy,
we will loose our access to their spirits, their souls in an instant.
I share this business about the basics with you this morning
because I have seen a remarkable parallel
in my own walk with God.
I’ve been a Christian since I was 19 years old.
I have been preaching publicly for nearly 40 years.
Nearly every week
for the past twenty-three years
I have invested a big chunk of my time
into learning something new, something more about our God
in preparation for Sunday mornings.
And yet,
with all the knowledge I’ve accumulated,
the truths that have the power to touch me most deeply
are the ones I knew in my spirit from the very beginning -
the truth that my God loves me,
and wants me close to Him,
and is well pleased to call me His son,
and to work with me,
and in me,
and for me forever.
And, given the fact that for some of you this has been a difficult week,
I think it may be a good time
to remember once again some of those basics of the Christian’s walk with God.
So, to help us remember,
I’m going to take us to six verses in I Peter chapter 5.
We bump up against this passage every once in a while
in our studies together,
and I never cease to come away thrilled with what I see our God saying to us here.
The passage is I Peter 5:6-11,
and it reads:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
I want us to walk through Peter’s comments here phrase-by-phrase
because each one of them contain attitudes
that provide us with powerful protection
against so many of the lies used by Satan to defeat us.
And I will tell you right now
that the greatest challenge we will face with this passage
is allowing ourselves to listen to Peter
long enough so that we understand the first 9 words of the passage.
Peter begins, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God...”
For some of you
that phrase right there
triggers some emotional responses within you
that make it very difficult for you to continue listening to what Peter is really saying.
They are responses that may spring up in you
because of some things that took place
between you and your human father
when you were under his control.
When you heard Peter saying, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God...”,
what you really heard was “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of Dad...”,
and what you pictured
was not a mighty hand holding your tiny one
as you walked across a rough pathway
to make sure you didn’t stumble;
it wasn’t a mighty hand
resting on your shoulder,
communicating love,
and support,
and encouragement;
it wasn’t a mighty hand stretched out to catch you
as you jumped into his arms.
It was a mighty hand
you never saw near you,
a mighty hand you never felt
unless it was raised against you to beat you into submission in the name of “discipline”.
If so, then we have some work to do
before we can go any farther.
And, if you find yourself recoiling at that phrase, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God...”
I need to have you listen carefully to what I’m going to say to you right now.
Your God is not your dad,
and He is, in fact, nothing like him whatsoever.
We know that from this passage
because of the second half of that first sentence:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time...”
You see, it is in that second phrase
that Peter reveals to us
the heart intent of our God for each of us.
He wants to honor you,
to exalt you,
to display His handiwork in you for all to see.
It is the same word used in Acts 5:31 to describe
what God the Father did with Christ following the resurrection.
ACT 5:31 "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior...
Peter’s obvious intent in this opening sentence
is to give us God’s perspective
on what is really going on in our lives
so that we do not loose heart.
He is saying,
“If you think your life doesn’t matter,
if you think your choices don’t matter,
if you think you are an unimportant nobody
living a life that’s going nowhere,
then you have no concept of who you are
or what’s really going on.
Paul uses a phrase in the second chapter of Ephesians
that perfectly parallels what Peter is saying to us here.
He describes us this way.
EPH 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
When God wants to illustrate His creative genius,
He doesn’t point us to the mountains,
or to the animal kingdom,
or to the oceans.
He points us to His recreative work
in the lives of His people.
Right now there is a recreative work being accomplished in you by your God,
a work that, at the proper time,
He will bring to light in such a way
that it will have a powerful impact on all who see.
And when Peter calls us to “Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us at the proper time...”
he is offering us a powerful perspective
on the true nature of God’s work in our lives.
Maybe this will help -
when Peter tells us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God,
the image he is creating
is not one of a mighty hand raised against us,
it is the image of the mighty hand of God
placed over us as a shelter,
a protection,
guarding us against those forces that would seek to destroy us
before His recreative work in us is ready for revelation.
It is picturing the same type of thing
that takes place in the best of human family structures.
We live in a world filled to overflowing with filth,
with evil,
with corruption that seems to have no limits.
It is virtually impossible now days
to turn on a computer
and check the e-mail
without some little piece of sewage
coming in with the notes.
And yet, every child that enters this world
enters it untouched by that evil,
knowing nothing whatsoever
of that corruption, that filth.
How in the world can we hope to equip and prepare our children for healthy, effective living in such a world?
We do it by creating for them
a protective world within the family,
by sheltering and protecting them
from the things they are not yet able to process.
And that is what the mighty hand of God does
for each of us who choose to trust His leadership
and submit to His oversight in our lives.
But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy for us.
In fact, sometimes it’s very difficult indeed.
Sometimes we feel helpless,
sometimes we feel attacked without cause,
sometimes we feel utterly overwhelmed and alone.
Sometimes the very fact that we are God’s children
makes our lives so much more difficult
because we know our choices matter
and sometimes those choices come at a very high price indeed.
And, of course, Peter knows that too.
He knows the added stress that will always accompany
a life lived in submission to God.
And so Peter adds one more phrase
to complete that first sentence.
He says,
1PE 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
And before we move on,
let me just point out the obvious.
First of all, it’s an active process,
and one that requires us to approach our God as if He was really there.
And second, it requires us to remember once again
the first things -
that our God cares.
He cares about you.
He cares about your confusion,
your pain,
your frustration,
your life.
Let me tell you what it sounds like
when we take Peter at his word.
“Lord, unless you are real,
and unless you care,
and unless I really do matter to You,
I have no hope.
Unless You really do hear,
and unless You will walk with me,
and work in me,
and recreate me once again,
I have no other answers.
I need You, God.
Please, do Your healing work in me,
and give me eyes to see it.”
But that is not where Peter’s comments stop.
Not by a long shot.
From there Peter goes on to warn us
that, especially when we are hurting,
we are exceptionally vulnerable to certain types of attacks.
He says,
1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
And let me tell you what the voice of Satan sounds like.
“You know, don’t you,
that you’ll never make it through this.
If God really loved you
He would never have allowed you to go through what you’re going through right now.
You’re pretty much on your own in this.
Either God doesn’t care,
or else you’ve done something
that’s made Him turn His back on you.”
Or maybe like this:
“You are completely unqualified for the work God has given you to do.
You simply don’t have what it takes.
You don’t have the right personality.
You don’t have the right training.
You lack the gifts necessary.
You’ll never successfully raise those kids of yours.
You’re going to fail utterly as a husband,
as a wife,
as a father or mother.
What you’re doing, you’re doing poorly,
and you might just as well face the truth.”
Or possibly this:
“Take a look at your past!
Are you really the type of person God would care about?
Are you really the type of person He would choose to love and work through?
You know your track record.
You’ve failed in the past,
and you’ll fail in the future,
because, of course, that’s what you are -
you’re God’s failure,
and you always will be.”
Or perhaps this:
“Look at you. You’ve really got what it takes.
You’ve got the training,
you’ve got the credentials,
you’ve got the determination and the charisma. You can pull this off. You can do it!”
Each attack is carefully crafted
to fit with our own particular vulnerabilities.
But they all share one thing in common.
They are all rooted in lies,
lies designed to blind us to the truth.
Paul stated the truth so beautifully for us in his second letter to the Corinthians.
2CO 3:5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
God has made us adequate...
Well, Peter then concludes his statement of truth
with two strong words of encouragement.
First of all, he wants us to know
we are not the first to face these battles.
1PE 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
And with that,
he wants us to know that there are others, many others who have been exactly where we are,
and who have found their way through to true victory.
And then, finally,
he wants us to know
that ultimately the healing
and the victory will come not from our ability to heal ourselves,
but from God’s ability and willingness
to bring us into the freedom we long for.
1PE 5:10-11 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
And there is one phrase there, of course,
that we can’t just skip over.
It’s that phrase, “after you have suffered for a little while”.
First of all we want to know why it’s there at all,
and second we want to know how long that is.
Well, I can tell you why it’s there.
It’s there because there are things about the love of God
that can only be learned at those times when we hurt.
There simply is no other way.
Finding out we have a God who can deliver us from pain is fine,
but finding out we have a God who can deliver us through pain is an altogether different thing.
And that’s what it’s all about, of course, - discovering who our God is.
And how long is “a little while”?
Well, there have been times in my life when “a little while”
is a few minutes,
or a few hours,
or a few days.
And there have been times when “a little while”
has been measured best in months or years.
I know we don’t like that,
we don’t like it any more than we like the pain.
But I will tell you honestly
that discovering we have a God who goes with us
through anything we go through,
a God who feels our pain with us,
and a God who can fill us with the knowledge of His love
even in the midst of the worst the world can throw at us
is a discovery that will transform our lives forever.
Now, you knew most of that already, didn’t you?
In fact, you knew much of it in your spirit
the day you came to Christ.
But it never hurts to be reminded.