Can We Trust God?
Have any of you children ridden a horse?
Monday, I had a near death experience that has changed me forever. I went horseback riding.
Everything was going fine until the horse starts bouncing out of control. I tried with all my might to hang on, but was thrown off.
Just when things could not possibly get worse, my foot gets caught in the stirrup. When this happened, I fell head first to the
ground. My head continued to bounce harder as the horse did not stop or even slow down.
Just as I was giving up hope and losing consciousness the Walmart manager came and unplugged it.
That is about how good I am at riding a horse. I feel uncomfortable on a horse and they know it.
Many years ago Roman Races were a popular rodeo event. In a Roman race the contestants would ride two horses at once. They would stand with their right foot on one horse and their left foot on another and they would hang on for dear life.
There are two ways we can focus our lives.
1. We can focus our lives on what is temporary. That which we can see, taste, touch, smell and experience that this world offers us.
2. We can focus our lives on what is eternal. That which God promises us both in this life and in the next life.
And some people try to focus on both like riding in a roman race. They think they can have one foot on the temporary and one on the eternal and race through life.
But any attempt to focus our lives on both the temporary and the eternal is like holding two horses that are galloping in opposite directions. It is impossible and we will have to let go of one and hang on to the other.
Now listen to Isaiah 55:8-9
God's ways and thoughts are eternal. Our ways and thoughts are naturally earthly and temporary.
And because God is unseen and what is eternally valuable is unseen to let go of focusing on the temporary and arranging and focusing our lives around God requires faith. And that is what we want to talk about this morning.
Now lets have some fun doing a faith exercise called the trust fall.
The Trust Fall.
Call up two volunteers. Blind fold them.
Call up four volunteers to catch the person.
Bring the blindfolded person onto the platform. Count with the congregation: 1,2,3 and the person falls into the arms of the volunteers.
Application:
Let's just pretend that up here on stage is the visible world in which we live. And this area down here represents our relationship with God and a life focused on His eternal value system.
Two more volunteers.
Stage: This person is experiencing a world which is temporary but promises him/her things that they can have here and now. [Give them a chocolate]
Floor: This person is experiencing the Kingdom of God which is eternal but many of God's promises will not be fulfilled until the return of Christ. And so they must persevere in hope [Give them the game]
Stage: This person's life is focused on immediate pleasure and lives for the recognition of people. [the trophy]
Floor: This person is experiencing a personal relationship with the God who made the universe and lives for God's approval. [a Bible to read]
Stage: This person has accept the world's offers of popularity and the opportunity to acquire wealth and status and power. [wallet, shades, tie, office chair, feet up on stool]
Floor: This person has accepted God's offers to join Him in what He is doing and is being empowered by God to live a life of integrity, character and humility. [put a towel over their arm and give them a bowl]
Stage: This person because he/she has followed the world and it's temporal value system lives a life that leads to emptiness, delusion, and foolishness.
Floor: This person because he/she has followed God and His eternal value system lives a life that leads to fulfillment, reality, and wisdom.
Listen again to Isaiah 55:8-9
Because this is true, we must not wait until we can understand everything about God's ways and thoughts because we never will.
Like those blindfolded standing at the top, here is our challenge. The world and what it offers is based on what we can see but God and what is eternally valuable we cannot see.
And it is never natural or easy to pursue the invisible above the visible it requires faith.
Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exits and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."
Listen to the writer of Hebrews describing those commended for their faith. Hebrews 11:13-15 "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them."
Conclusion:
Now lets pretend I have a splitting head ache. Ouch, OOOO my head hearts, I have a splitting headache. Ahhh good thing I brought a bottle of Tylenol along.
Take a bottle of Tylenol out of my pant pocket. Read the instructions on the bottle.
'I'm sure they're correct. I have all confidence in the source of the medicine. I know who wrote these directions. I believe everything about it. I know this will relieve my headache.
Now lets say I take this medicine bottle and put it back in my pocket. And as my head is pounding I say I believe in that medicine. I believe all about that medicine. But I don't take it. What would you tell me to do?
James 2:14+18
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do
One of the latest reality T.V. shows is called No Opportunity Wasted or NOW. In this show the participants are seizing the opportunity to conquer a personal fear, or change your community, or make a crazy idea a reality.
Overcoming fear of flying, heights, public speaking, sharks, failure, rejection.
The motto: "Ditch the excuses seize the opportunity to live life now."
Isaiah 55:6 "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near."
The greatest opportunity we have right NOW that we must not waste is to know Jesus Christ. To forsake everything and allow Him to control our lives. To give our bodies to Him for Him to fill and use.
To allow Jesus, our Creator, to determine our lifestyle and allow God to determine what is best for us and to dictate to us the terms under which we were made to live.
Encourage you with the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:18 "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Let's continue to pursue the invisible above the visible, the eternal above the temporary, Jesus Christ above ourselves.