October 13 & 14, 2001 Sermon

October 13 & 14, 2001

"unLearning Life"

Mike Slaughter

Job 27:2,3 & 10
2: "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,
3: as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,..."
10: Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

I missed you last Saturday evening. I was with Pastor Wayne Cordeiro at New Hope Church in Honolulu. Some of you remember when he spoke here a year ago last summer. We saw 200+ folks find new life in Jesus last weekend. Last Sunday afternoon we baptized 273 people in the ocean. I was there Sunday morning when I got in touch with Carolyn and she told me the bombing in Afghanistan had begun. Since September 11, we have been on a journey of unlearning life. Todd Beamer who was on Flight 93 - the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania - represents so many of the people who have died in this tragedy. A dad with two young kids and a pregnant wife. Warren Bird, with whom I write books with ministry, is here this weekend. Todd was a member of Warren's church in New Jersey and was a Sunday school teacher. You say, "I know a lot of slugs. If evil has to take out somebody, why good people?" We all are dealing with the after effects. I saw someone from our church at the airport, a single dad with two kids, who works for an airline. He said, "I'm probably going to get laid off this week." Why? Then from the Troy community, two of my friends, Bob and Shirley Davies, died this weekend in a private plane crash. I worked with Shirley on the Board of United Seminary. How do you make sense of all this tragedy? It's really about the oldest question in the Bible. Why do bad things happen to good people?

Job 1:1
1: In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.

Job 27:2
2: "As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made me taste bitterness of soul,..."

The oldest book in the Bible is the book of Job and the whole book is about that question. Here is the very first line from the book of Job, "This man was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil." Yet he went through a whole series of catastrophic events and lost everything. He lost his wealth, he lost his health, and he lost his family. We're here asking the same question - I feel this pain all across America - why does God allow bad things to happen to people? We are going to be unlearning that life is supposed to be fair.
Will you open your Bibles to Chapter 27 in the book of Job in the Old Testament? Somehow I feel that faith plus integrity should insure the absence of injustice or tragedy. Faith is not a magic formula against the consequences of life. In verse two, Job was speaking to his friends. He said, "As surely God lives . . ." Now that is a statement of faith. God lives and he calls God the Almighty, which means the All Powerful. "God lives. God is good but he has denied me justice. The Almighty who has all the power in the universe has made me taste bitterness of soul." Life isn't fair. Faith is not a magic formula against the consequences of life. The Bible is filled with accounts of people like Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph kept his integrity and remained faithful to God. He became a manager of one of the premier estates in Egypt. His boss's wife came on to him, but he kept his integrity. She lied and he went to prison. What is that about? Life isn't fair.
People like Daniel. Daniel continued to pray in public when a law was passed against public prayer. He went to the lion's den. Life isn't fair. Jesus, the person of impeccable integrity was unlike anyone else. Even his enemy Pilate said, "I find no basis for charges against this man." Yet Pilate caved in to the tide of public opinion and had Jesus put to death. Life isn't fair. Bad things happen to good people. Faith and integrity do not exempt me from life circumstances.

John 9:1-3
1: As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
2: His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

We have heard all kinds of comments about the tragedy that happened on September 11. "God did this." "The gays made this happen." Or, "the A.C.L.U." Or, "It was Roe vs. Wade." Or, "It was the Democrats who did this." Tragedy is not a judgment against sin. All through this book, Job's friends said things to him, "Job, God wouldn't let all this dung happen to somebody who was a good person. Get real honest, let's do some introspection here, Job. You must have done something wrong or this bad stuff wouldn't happen to you." We always want to point to something or blame somebody. Jesus and his disciples walked past the blind man and the disciples said, "Well, Jesus, who sinned? This man or his parents that this man was born blind?" What was Jesus' response? "Neither." Tragedy is not a judgment against sin. Another account in the Bible has Jesus and his disciples sitting around in a restaurant, going over the daily newspaper. One of them pointed out that a lot of Galileans were murdered under the terrorist regime of Pilate. And Jesus said, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you no," said Jesus. There was another account of 18 who died when a tower collapsed on them and he said, "Do you think they were worse people than you?" Then he said, "No."

Job 5:7
7: Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

Job 27:3
3: as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,
4: my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will utter no deceit.
5: I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.

Tragedy is an opportunity to unlearn life. I want to tell you what I am unlearning. I have a problem with control. I am learning that control is the last great idol that needs to fall to faith. In Chapter 5, verse 7, Job said, "But human beings are born into trouble just as surely as the sparks of a fire fly upward." To be human means that you are born into trouble. To live life means that you are going to taste pain and bitterness. The only alternative to the experience of tragedy and pain is death. Death is the absence of conflict. I don't see anybody running for that. To be alive, Jesus took the cup. The cup contained wine, but it symbolizes a cup of tragedy, a cup of pain. I've got one life to live. I want a full cup! Fill mine to the top. You can't choose your circumstances. That is what the book of Job is about. But you can choose your response. Look at Chapter 27, verse 3. "As long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness. I am not going to get bitter and negative, in spite of what I am going through. My tongue will utter no deceit. I'm going to keep my integrity. I will never admit you were in the right." He was talking to his friends. You have to be careful to whom you listen. Don't take your cues from bitter, negative people. "Until I die I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it. My conscience will not reproach me as long as I live." I can't choose my circumstances but I can choose my response. I refuse to be a victim. The key is knowing that all of us are going to experience tragedy. Everyone in this room is going to die. It is not the circumstance you will experience, it is how you frame what happens in your life.
I was fired from the last church I pastored as a youth minister. We invited the senior pastor to our house for dinner. We were about 20 minutes into the dinner when he told me, "You're going to have to leave." In my house! All of us have experienced negative situations like that in our life. The key is how you choose to frame that situation. Am I going to be bitter? Am I going to act like a victim or am I going to choose to look for the hand of God? This is the day the Lord has made. It is the only day you are insured so you have a choice. You can't control your circumstances but you have a choice of how you are going to respond in that day. And I choose, because I am alive, to rejoice and be glad in it. Bad things are going to happen to good people. I can't control the circumstances but I can choose my response. Look at the consequences. I had the opportunity to come to Ginghamsburg Church. I was in a church of 500 attendance and then I came to this little church that had just gotten rid of outhouses. Ninety people. What an opportunity. And it grew from 90 to 60. I can't choose my circumstances but I can choose how I frame what is happening in my life. I can choose my response.
Where do I see God's hand in this situation? Where is God in all of this? What can I unlearn? Tragedy is our opportunity to unlearn life. There are so many people in the scripture whose faith does not deliver them from the consequences of life. Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery but he chose how he framed that situation in his life. Years later he met his brothers again. They intended this for evil, but Joseph looked for God's hand. God intended it for good to accomplish what was done to save many lives.

Luke 22:42
42"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."

One of my favorite books in the Bible is Esther. Esther had the same attitude as those folks on flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. As long as I'm going to die I might as well do something about it. Her line was, "If I perish, I perish." But she risked her life and interceded on behalf of the Jews. The Apostle Paul said, "I've learned to be content with whatever I have, whatever circumstance I find myself in." Our Lord Jesus said, "If it is possible, Father, let this cup pass, yet not what I want but what you want." Romans 8:28, "All things work together for the good for those who love God and who have been called according to God's purpose." God doesn't cause bad things to happen. God does not cause all of the circumstances that happen in our life, but God can redeem every situation.
Because one of the idols in my life is control, I often have to pray a prayer that I keep in my bible. It's called the Serenity Prayer. I want you to pray this with me right now. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference." See why I need to pray that one? If I choose to be bitter, is it going to change the circumstance? If I choose to be negative, will it change the circumstance? If I act like a victim, will it change the circumstance? It won't change the circumstance, but bitterness can corrupt and corrode your character. Job said, "As long as I have breath in my body, I choose a lifestyle of integrity and faith. I choose to be a person of integrity and faith." Negative stuff happens. Tragedy happens for all of us. No one is exempt. Good and bad together are all under the same sun. God makes the sun rise on good and bad and God makes it rain on good and bad. But I have a choice to make in every circumstance. I can choose to be bitter. I can reach out for an addictive agent, like work, food, sex, alcohol, drugs, or dependent relationships to save the pain. Or I can choose to walk in the integrity of God's light in life.

I John 1:7
7:But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

The Bible says in I John, "If we walk in the light as Jesus Christ is in the light," we have integrity with God and we have trust with each other as brothers and sisters. Is there anything better than that? I know nothing better than to have integrity with God and trust with my friends and those folks around me.

Job 27:8-11
8: For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
9: Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him?
10: Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
11: "I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.

Now here is an issue that I hear sometimes. "Mike, what is the use? I mean if we get the same reward as evil people, whether you are good or whether you are bad, what good is it to do what God wants you to do?" Have you ever heard that or felt that way? If I am going to get the same thing then why am I trying so hard? We are going to look at verses 8-11. "For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life. Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them?" The godless in the face of tragedy don't know that they can call upon God at all times. The bad don't realize that the ultimate reward of life and living is not the absence of tragedy or conflict but the end of all things is friendship with God. That's life - being connected to God. Look at verse 11. Then when tragedy happens in life they literally become a display of the power of God in the world and there is nothing better than being God's presence in the world. When tragedy hits you, you will be a demonstration of the grace of God. When Jesus' disciples asked him, what about the blind guy, ". . . who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Jesus said, "Neither, but this presents the opportunity for the power of God to be demonstrated through his life." The very privilege that we have, like our Savior, of experiencing injustice and tragedy will allow God to use us as a demonstration of his goodness in the world, of his presence in the world. It is in the torn places that God meets us and demonstrates his incredible love.

Lloyd and Debbie Showalter say it best:

Lloyd: We're the Showalters, I am Lloyd and this is Debbie. We have been married 23 years and we have been blessed with four children. We have Heather who is in college; Daniel and Ashley in high school; and Lindsey is in junior high. Approximately four months ago, I started feeling like there were some bricks or a block heavy on my chest. I had trouble breathing. When I would go up a flight of stairs I would get to the top of the stairs and I would have to catch my breath. I also had developed a little bit of a cough. So I called our family physician and told him I was just feeling terrible. And I hate to say that but I just don't feel good. I'm tired all the time. I have to get my breath going up the stairs and there is heaviness on my chest. I just don't feel good. Something's wrong. It was on a Friday night and Debbie and I were in the garage working and our daughter, Ashley, got a phone call from our doctor.
Debbie: And I thought this is not typical of a physician to call you at 8:30 on a Friday night unless he thinks something is up. So we went right to the emergency room again. They drew his blood and we ended up being there for quite a long time.
Lloyd: The doctor came back in - he was white as a sheet. He was pale.
Debbie: I could tell when he came in he was shaken. He was very upset with the news that he was obviously going to have to give us.
Lloyd: He said, "Your blood is like Jell-O, and it could stop flowing any second. You could have a heart attack and die instantly. We have to get you to Dayton to the hospital where they do this special treatment." In that room, before he left he said, "Lloyd, you have leukemia."
Debbie: My heart was pounding. I felt almost like I had the flu. I mean, the whole time I was sitting in the emergency room I felt sick to my stomach and my head ached.
Lloyd: My thoughts at that point turned toward Debbie. Is she okay? More than myself, that's what I remember. Then I started thinking about the kids. Are they okay? How are they going to take this? That type of thing.
Debbie: This is deja vu for me. I've lived this life before in another generation. I was a freshman in college, just like our daughter Heather, when my dad was diagnosed with lymphoma and he died my freshman year. So looking at Lloyd in the hospital bed, I just lost it. All of a sudden my world just started caving in and I thought - is he going to make it? What does this mean to me and to my children? It just didn't seem right! It didn't seem like we should have to endure this pain again.
Lloyd: I've always said, "Deb, you know we don't know what our future holds but we know who holds our future." And my thoughts honestly went in a direction like, "You know, Lord, I've prayed for a long time for you to use me." If the Lord heals me here, that'd be great. I'd love to be with Debbie and the kids. Or if he takes me home, that'd be great, too. Hopefully, he would receive the glory and praise either way.
Debbie: I think Lloyd counts it an honor to carry this for this time and prays each day that he will honor the Lord through it. Whether Lloyd is healed here or in heaven, our lives will never be the same, because once you face something of this magnitude, you change as a person. Your relationship with everyone changes. Everything has a special significance once you realize how precious it is and how quickly you can lose it.
Lloyd: No matter what has come along in years past, he's always been there to get me through it. So I have no question he'll get me through this even though this is of major magnitude. I've got that peace that I can't explain, but it's Christ and I know that.

Proverbs 3:5-6
5: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding.
6: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths."