Big Idea: Suffering will always come, but when God is with us in the midst of our suffering, this produces great hope that we will come out of our suffering as better people. Jesus is our model in perfect suffering.

Life is not always good, is it? Life throws us curve balls and those curve balls will sometimes hit us unexpectedly and knock us off our feet, and when that happens, life is hard; it’s painful; it’s difficult, and it can be very dark.

This is what Paul wrote, We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:2

There are three views that, we as human beings can adopt as we look at the future, because the future is a big deal to all of us. One is this posture that Paul is talking about and that is “I have hopes.” The hope is the belief that my future holds good prospects.

When I have Hope, then there’s something that I look forward to, and I genuinely want it, and I really think that it’s on the way…then I live with a sense of anticipation. Then when I wake up in the morning, I embrace the day because it’s getting me one day closer to that to which I look forward. You can tell if you’re around somebody who is a hoper, you can just tell. Hope is contagious.

Now there’s a second view. If I desperately want something, but I believe it’s not going to happen…if my soul hungers and thirsts for it, but I believe it’s not going to take place, then my posture towards the future is despair, and it just hurts. I long, I ache…but it’s not going to happen. We cannot live well or long in despair, because it’s so toxic. We’ll find some other way out.

There’s a third view that people will often times move towards.  People will usually manage despair with resignation. In resignation, what I do is try to dampen down my hope by ratcheting down my desire. I say things like it’s not that big of a deal. Not that great a job. Not that good of a place to live. She’s not that pretty. There are plenty of other fish in the sea. Resignation is kind of a half-way house between despair on the one hand and hope on the other hand.

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Video clip: The Lord of the Rings DVD Chapter: 5     Start Time: 00:20:47     End Time: 00:24:11

When I was 12 years old, I left the middle school that I attended with an armload of books, dreading the homework that was ahead of me. I walked toward the buses that would take me home, when someone stepped in front of me and blocked my path. I knew from the devilish grin on his face that he was from hell itself. He was big – twice the size of my scrawny frame. I had never seen him in my life. He began to call me insulting names. I already had a history of rejection and each name that he threw at me felt like a knife dissecting my guts. The pain was intense. I tried to get around him, but every time I went to step around him, his hulking presence cut me off. I felt like a mouse between a cats paws. He was toying with me and he was enjoying it. I did not. He pushed me around and I felt helpless. I kept hoping that a teacher or a principal would stop this cruel game, but nobody came.

Finally, as the buses were starting, the bully knew that his time was running out, he grabbed the hood of my sweatshirt and began to spin me around and around like an out of control, demon possessed merry-go-round. My sweatshirt gathered up around my neck, strangling the breath out of me.  My books flung out of my hands and fell to the ground like dead birds shot by a knowing hunter.  He finally let go as he ran for his bus, and I slammed to the hard, wet ground, where I joined my books in a heap. I had never been so humiliated in all my life. As I got up, and began hurriedly picking up my crumpled, filthy books, all the frustration, anger, and hurt flooded my being, and the dam of my emotions broke. Tears cascaded down my cheeks and mixed with the icy dampness of my books.  

Last week we talked about the Thief as we looked at Jesus teaching in John 10:10

The thief has come to steal, kill, and destroy . . . John 10:10

Evil is present in the world and it regularly rears it’s ugly head. None of us have been left unscathed by it.

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Big Idea: There’s a war going on between God and Satan; earth is the battleground. Have you chosen a side? Are you fighting?

Have you ever had anything stolen from you? Several months ago, my daughter took our camera to a high school dance, because she wanted to take pictures of she and her friends having fun. She didn’t have any pockets, so after taking some pictures, she laid the camera next to her coat, but later, when the dance ended, she found that the camera was gone. A thief had taken it.

I don’t know about you, but I get angry when people take my things. I worked hard for the money that purchased those things, and even more than that, it feel like that person has violated me and those that I love. There’s something else that I want you to consider. Maybe you’ve heard it said, “Some of the most important things in life are not things.”

I would like to suggest that there is a thief that is stealing from us some of the things that we value the most and we don’t even know it. The Thief deceives us into believing that we are in control of everything that we value, while he quietly takes them from us. 

Jesus said this about the Thief:

I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. John 10:1-2 (NIV)

But then in Verse 10 Jesus makes it real clear what the thief does.

The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come so that you might have life, life abundant. John 10:10 Read the rest of this entry »

Big Idea: Everything that is left to itself has a tendency to deteriorate.  God calls everyone to action in life.  Is God calling you to action in your life?

If you have ever bought a new car and driven it off the lot, you’ve witnessed entropy. You lose several thousand dollars as soon as it goes off the lot, because things have a way of deteriorating on their own. That new vehicle is great when you get it, but over time it starts to squeak, rust, loose power – it just starts to fall apart – that’s entropy. If you’ve ever witnessed a group of kids on summer vacation, you’ve noticed that by late August, when they’re sitting around somebody’s house and one of them says, “What do you want to do?” everybody else says, “I don’t know; what do you want to do?” That’s entropy.

Everything when left on its own-when not given attention and energy-has a tendency to deteriorate. That’s the way it works in human life. When you become apathetic or complacent or settle for the path of least resistance in some area of life, entropy sets in and dreams die and hopes fade. Then a terrible thing happens: you learn you can live with mediocrity. It’s not a great life, but you can tolerate it. 

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Lawton isn’t a real big town, pretty small really. I’d like you to take a bit of a geography test this morning. What’s on the corner of 3rd street and M-40? Fifth Third bank – yep. What’s across the street to the South? A gas station – yep! What’s across the street from the gas station to the West? Wagoners – a grocery story – yep. What does the bank offer the community? Money. And the gas station offers gas to motorist, and the grocery story offers food. These are all important things that each of these places offers our community, but what about us; what do we offer this community? Jesus, God’s love, good news, the Gospel.

Jesus said to His followers, you and me – the people of New Community:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Jesus did not entrust His good news to a bank or gas station, or a grocery store, although these are really good places. Instead, He gave it to His church. He gave it to us.

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