4-19-09 Pray Until You Praise!

Big Idea: During troubling times we become anxious, depressed, lack hope, and generally have a bad outlook on life. Praising God during troubling times takes our focus off ourselves and all the troubles of our lives and puts our focus where it should have been all along, on God.

Our nation, and particularly our state is seeing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Somebody recently asked me, “What happens in a church during a recession?” I said, “well it’s pretty predictable, you have more people and less money”, because in uncertain times, troubling times God has a tendency to get our undivided attention. Isn’t that true?

In fact, your story and my story, most of us would say that it was during a difficult time in our life – a job loss or an illness of a family member or I got really sick, or finances, and it was then that you prayed and maybe prayed for the first time.

There is something about uncertainty that causes us to look up, instead of simply looking around. Let’s just do a little survey. Was there ever a time in your life when you gave God your attention – maybe for the first time, maybe not – because you were struggling a some difficult time in your life? Maybe you were struggling with a health concern, a financial concern, or a marriage or friendship concern, or maybe you were at your wits end with a child or a boss or a parent. Was there ever a time in your life where you gave God your attention because you were struggling in life? Yeah, me too!

Like you, I was very fascinated with all that went on with the whole U.S Airways jet that crash landed in the Hudson river. I listened to an interview with the pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendant, and an interviewer asked the question “What was going on in the plane while all this was going on.” The flight attendant said, “It was very, very quiet, and I could tell that most people were praying.” I thought, “I bet they were!”

 That’s funny now; it wasn’t funny then, obviously. And she said that she was praying, and what’s amazing is they didn’t have to have anyone lead them in that time of prayer. They didn’t need the pilot or co-pilot to come over the intercom and tell them that this was a good time to pray – No, they all prayed without even thinking. People who hadn’t prayed in a long time, maybe ever, were praying.

I’m thinking that at that moment, those people were not thinking about how bad the stock market was doing, or financial problems, or all the problems at work or in their family. They weren’t thinking about doing anything else, but praying to God; because they knew that their lives were not in their hands. They knew that they couldn’t do a single thing to help them live another day.

Because of this tendency for you and I to turn to God during times of trial, God gets way more done – our characters are shaped way more in the tough times, then when it’s smooth sailing. We don’t learn anything when things are going smooth. We don’t. The only thing that we are deceived into thinking when things are going well is that we are in control, but we aren’t.

Something I want to nail down: God does not cause bad things to happen, but . . . he can use those bad things for his good and for ours.

Most of us, if we were honest with ourselves, would say that the time when we drifted away from God was when things were going well. That’s why this book (Bible) is more relevant today than, maybe, at any other time in our lives. We have to blow the dust off the outside – oh looky here, there’s a map in here. I didn’t know there was a map in here.

If you haven’t been in your Bible for a long time or maybe you don’t even own one – there’s some free ones out on the table if you want one – if you haven’t been in your Bible in a long time, I want to remind you that every one of these stories were written in times of trial. This is a record of God’s faithfulness in uncertain times.

If you have a favorite Bible story, it was written during times of uncertain times – times of trial – times of conflict. It’s like “Oh no! What is God going to do?” It’s a story of “Oh no, is God going to come through? It’s a story of “Oh no, God didn’t answer my prayer.” All the stories in the Bible are stories of conflict and trial and what God did in the midst of those difficult times.

This is an account of people who saw God and God’s power and God’s glory, or heard God in the midst of uncertain times, and if ever there is a time when this book is relevant, it’s now! Because sometimes, when I look at the world, when we look at all the uncertainties, and all the loss, and all the conflict, we wonder, “Is God involved in the world that we live in? Did God just wind up the world and then take a nap? Does God care? But from a Biblical perspective, all the chaos that we as a nation are experiencing is normal. Most of the Bible was written in great times of conflict and turmoil and uncertainty.

What’s really cool about that is that we can trust in God and his provision during difficult times, because what we read in the Bible is that God is an expert at taking care of his people in troubling times. He does it over and over and over again, and what he calls us to do is to put our faith in him, and trust him – love him with all that we are. This is the verse that we’ll use to launch us into God’s will.

And we know that in all things- that’s job loss, financial loss, am I going to find a job, and am I going to sell my house, are my parents going to need to move in with us, is she or he going to call me back, is she or he going to come back, where’s my son, where’s my daughter, where’s my wife, where’s my husband, what’s my future look like, and we know that in all things - God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (NIV)

The Bible says and many of us have discovered that God is always at work, but he gets more done in uncertain times, because people turn and give up control of their lives and finally say, “God, what do you want me to do?” and God responds, “I thought you’d never ask.”

So here’s the question that I want to propose today. We know that God is always working for the good, but what are we supposed to do in the mean time? What do we do while we wait for God to answer our prayers. What are we supposed to do when the uncertainty becomes more uncertain? What are we supposed to do while the bank account gets lower and lower and lower? What are we supposed to do when it seems like everything is going the opposite direction of what we think it should be, and when it seems like God isn’t doing anything to answer our prayer? What are we supposed to do in the meantime?

If you have your Bibles, I’d like you to turn to Philippians 4. Philippians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church, much like us, in the city of Philippi. I need to share with you about the author of this letter, because it’s Paul’s life that gives these verses credibility.

Paul went out from Jerusalem and began to start new churches throughout Europe. And Paul went from place to place in Europe and he’s a converted Jewish man going into a Greek, Hellenistic, Roman culture, saying “I want you to abandoned all that you have previously believed about God, because I’m starting a new belief system centered around this Jesus cat, and I want to tell you all about this God, and I want you to believe it too, even though you don’t know me from Adam. I’m from Jerusalem, and I’m sort of from a Jewish cult – that’s what Christianity was considered in it’s early days because it was an offshoot or a fulfillment of Judaism – I want you to believe all this stuff, and follow me. How in the world, did Christianity ever make it out of Palestine, it’s certainly a God thing – it’s unbelievable!

Now Paul was able to get people to believe in Jesus and they put their faith in him and as more and more of them converted, they started small churches throughout Europe. One of the first churches that develops is this church in the city of Philippi. After starting many of these churches, Paul goes back to Jerusalem – the center of Judaism – the center of the Jewish faith. Many people warn him not to go back, because they knew that the Jews would be hostile towards him, but Paul feels that God is calling him to go there, so he returns to Jerusalem.

The Jewish leaders were hostile to him because they thought he was corrupting Judaism. Paul was preaching Judaism, but without all the rules and all the legalism. Jesus taught and Paul taught that God was not about rules for rules sake, but the rules where there to guide us toward love. The Jews believed that Paul and others were trashing their faith and misleading people away from their beliefs, and indeed he was. 

So Paul goes back to Jerusalem. Now, you have to understand that Jerusalem and all of Israel is occupied by the Romans. This is much like Iraq is occupied by the U.S right now, but it wasn’t a friendly occupation. So Paul goes back to Jerusalem and begins teaching in the temple and some of the Jewish leaders see him and stir up the crowd against him and a mob attacks Paul, and they begin beating him – trying to beat him to death they’re so angry, but someone called 911 and the Roman police come and save Paul’s life, and the police arrest Paul basically to keep him safe.

The Jewish leaders trump up all these charges, and they tell the police that Paul has broken the law, and offended God and on and on and on. But Paul, somewhere in all this controversy, tells the Roman police that he is not only Jewish, but he’s a Roman citizen – he’s one of them and this changes everything. There’s a different set of rules and a different set of laws for Romans verses Jews. They now have to send Paul to Rome for trial.

They put him on a ship, and while he’s on a ship, a storm blows them out into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and for two weeks they’re ravaged by the storm and end up lost. Throughout the storm, Paul is chained in the bottom of the ship – not knowing if he will live or die. The storm took them off course they end up shipwrecked for three months, and all this time Paul is chained to Roman guards.

Finally, after more than 6 months, they get to Rome. Paul is put into prison for two years while he’s waiting for his trial date. While he’s in prison, he begins writing letters to all these churches that he’s planted throughout Europe.

So this letter that we are about to read, was written by Paul while he was in prison. This is important, because what he is about to say, seems extremely impractical, but we don’t have anything to say about it, because many of us have never been through the horrific times that Paul has been through, while being fully devoted to God. This is what Paul says,

(I’ve) been in prison frequently, been flogged severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned - that is, stones were thrown at him – just a clarification – Dude! Anyway, They left Paul in a field believing that he was dead after the stoning – that’s how bad it was, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 (NIV)

This letter that Paul writes is during a time in which there was great uncertainty in Paul’s life. He’s not sure if he’s going to live. In fact we’re pretty sure that Paul didn’t make it out of that Roman prison alive, because we don’t hear anything from Paul again. He ceases to exist after he goes into the Roman prison. A lot of uncertainty when he writes this letter, but this is what he says:

 Rejoice in the Lord always. Philippians 4:4-9 (NIV)

To which we say, obviously you don’t know what’s going on in my life. If he had just said “rejoice always” then we could say that this is 2000 years old and the guys was out of touch, but Paul add 3 little words. Those 3 words are “In the Lord”. If we didn’t have those three words you and I totally get it. If I were to take out “In the Lord” you would totally get this. If I said, “rejoice in your new job” I get that!  “Rejoice that he called you back and he’s going to take you out again”. “Rejoice that the stock market went the other way”. Rejoice in the new baby or the new car or your new house” we get that, don’t we.

We know what it means to rejoice in something. It means that we focus on the good new so much that the emotion that’s associated with that good news begins to wash all over us. People will say what are you so happy about, “I made the team!” or “I got a sweet looking new car” or “you should see who I went out with on Saturday night” or “I got a new job”. We get this.

What Paul is saying is, “I want you to spend as much time as necessary to capture the emotion associated with God’s grace and mercy and love in your life. I want you to stop and allow the reality of what God has done for you and who God is for you to seep into the foundation of your being. I want you to focus on it so much that you begin to feel the emotion associated with such great news.

I want you to focus on the God of the universe, the one who created all the vast array of amazing and perplexing bigness and vastness of all the stars and planets and suns, the galaxies, and the solar systems that he has made. I want you to focus on the every intricacy of every flower and the laughter of every child and the sparkle in someone’s eye. I want you to look at yourself and celebrate the ability of every movement and ever thought, and everything that you see, hear, feel, and smell and realize that it is a glorious miracle that God has given you in this moment to be alive. And I want you to focus on how much God loves you. He loves you so much that he was willing to give up his life so that you might have freedom and goodness from him, even in the midst of difficult, uncertain and troubling times.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. This means to reflect on God’s goodness until our emotions catch up with reality. Reality is God. The reason this is so important for Americans, is because we don’t stop to rejoice in the Lord because we’ve had so much other stuff to rejoice about. I mean, we come to church and we go, oh yeah God – “Go God”. As Americans we have so many other things that capture our joy, but as things get harder and harder, and there are fewer and fewer things and circumstances to rejoice about, we remember to rejoice in our creator who made it possible for all the things. I oftentimes, get the cart ahead of the horse. I rejoice about the things and circumstances in my life, but I forget to rejoice in the one who made all of them possible.

Hard times remind us to refocus our attention and joy back to where it should have been all along. Paul is saying that he wants us to pause and be intentional about focusing on God and God’s goodness in your life. This is why we sing together on Sunday morning. We sing to focus our attention on God and his goodness. The great thing about music is its emotional, and it reminds us of the joy that we have in Christ. The reason why we encourage you, when you’re ready, to not sit or stand unemotionally, but to dance, and shout and raise your hands, and sing with all that you are, because it allows your emotions to get caught up in the reality of who God is and who we are called to be.

You don’t want all of your faith to be emotional – that’s why we teach on Sunday morning too – it’s a cross between education and rational understanding and emotions – they all go hand in hand. It’s not just the mind, but also the heart that needs to be engaged.

Paul says, even though I’m in prison, even thought I may die soon, even though things might not be going too well for you, I want you to rejoice in the Lord. You don’t have to rejoice over losing a job, or rejoice over difficulties with finances, or difficulties with your marriage or with being lonely. Paul is not saying that. He says, despite the difficulties and trials that you are going through, you have much to rejoice about and his name is God and he loves you deeply and has vowed to be with you through it all and take care of you even in the midst of your deepest trial.