Frustrated? 5-4-08

I’m not sure how your week went, but I want to make a prediction. My prediction is that you experienced a moment of frustration this week. Frustration with traffic, frustration with your spouse or mom or dad or a friend, or a child, frustration with your job or the people at your job – maybe your boss. We’ve all experience frustration this week, because it’s pretty common.

You get frustrated, and I get frustrated all the time, but have you ever thought about what frustrates God? God is the all-powerful creator of the universe and yet he gets frustrated too. There are many places in the Old Testament where God reveals his frustration. There are numerous places in the New Testament where Jesus shares his frustration. If you’ve gotten frustrated this week, then you got company because God gets frustrated too.

So here’s the questions for this morning. What frustrates God?

How many of you love potholes in the road? Have any of you had to have front-end alignments on your cars this spring because of the potholes? Potholes make one of your tires turn right or left and when that happens, your car doesn’t want to go straight anymore, it wants to go right or left. You and I often times need a frustration alignment so that we begin to track in the same direction as God and when we do that, we begin to find out who we were created to be. We find some things about what God’s will is, and we find a lot about what it means to have a life that makes a difference in the world. Does anybody want that?

In order to do that, let’s head into Mark Chapter 9 verse 14. Jesus has just taken 3 of his disciples to the top of the mountain and has shown them some really cool stuff and they are coming down from the mountain and are rejoining the other disciples. As you and I enter into the story, there is this huge scene breaking out.

Mark 9:14-29 (NRSV)  

When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.”

When it comes to Jesus, there seems to be this myth about Jesus. Many people have this preconceived idea that Jesus is this really timid, gentle, soft spoken guy, but the only problem that I see with that is the Jesus that I see in the scriptures is not like that at all. Jesus was very direct, incredible blunt, very aggressive in what he was called to do, and this next verse lets everybody know that Jesus is incredible frustrated.

He answered them, “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” Mark 9:19 (NIV)   

Jesus is very frustrated.

And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, “How long has he been like this?” And he said, “From childhood.

The father then goes on to tell Jesus the boy’s medical history. But then the boys father is going to say something that will make Jesus even more frustrated. The boys father continues:

It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.”

Now, did you catch what made Jesus really upset? What do you think it might be? Jesus continues:

“‘If you can’? Everything is possible for him who believes.” Mark 9:23 (NIV)  

If you can!!!! You cannot be serious. I created everything. I created you and the ground you’re walking on. I created the entire universe. If you can? This man’s statement obviously frustrates Jesus. Everything is possible for those who believe. Let me ask you a question. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that EVERYTHING is possible for those who believe?

Let me rephrase this question into a statement. What would we do if we really believed that with God all things are possible? What would we do? How would we live? How would we pray? What would we pray for? Let me rephrase it a bit more. If God knew that we really believed that, what would God have us do? What Jesus says is not a small statement. What Jesus says is a God sized statement and it leads us towards the answer of what frustrates God.

Jesus said, O unbelieving generation . . . and . . . If you can? What frustrates God is a lack of faith. That’s the large, macro, overarching answer to that question, so let me give you some specifics. God is frustrated when people don’t believe in him, but this is the reason why lack of faith frustrates God: God is frustrated when the instrument that he has placed on this earth to share the good news with the world – the church – has become increasingly ineffective in that mission. It frustrates God when people go hungry. God is frustrated that so many people live in poverty, without their basic needs being met. God is frustrated by children being abused by their parents or other people in their lives. God is frustrated with injustice, with poverty, with dysfunction and despair, with people having low understandings of themselves, with messed up relationships.

And he is so frustrated with all that, that he is on a passionate pursuit of people that are frustrated with that as well. God is passionately pursuing people who want to bring up their down here. God is on a passionate pursuit of people that are frustrated with so much of down there . . . being up here – with so much hell . . . being on earth that they’re willing to do something about it. And God is passionately pursuing people who are willing to believe so much in up there, so much in heaven, so much in the one who created heaven and taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come . . . and God’s will to be done, that they’re willing to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty and join God in his mission.

God is looking for people, despite the overwhelming despair of this world, who believe that they still have a role in this world. People who are willing to say, God, with you all things are possible. And when he find those people, heaven and the power of God is unleashed in their lives and in the world.

I’ve always been a leader in whatever I do, it just seems to be who I am, but after leading in the church for some 20 years, something began to happen to me. I wasn’t content with just going to church and going through the motions of church. I wasn’t content just going to meetings and worship. I wasn’t content with allowing people to sort of flounder on their own. I began to get what I later called a Holy Unrest.

A Holy Unrest is an anger, not just any anger, it’s a holy anger. It’s not the kind of anger that is destructive or sinful, but the kind of anger that is actually productive – the kind that gets me to move. It’s the kind of anger that gets you in the game. It’s the kind of anger that gets you to do stuff in the world to make the world a better place to live.

I remember when Faith, our daughter, was playing elementary girl’s basketball. I remember watching the games and they were just painful to watch. It wasn’t the kid’s fault that the games were so difficult to watch, it was because of the referee’s. The referee’s were all volunteer and either they called the games like they were high school games, so that every time the kids made a small mistake they blew the whistle, so the game was stopped all the time – the kids never really got to play because the whistle was always blowing or the reverse was true, they didn’t blow the whistle for anything and so you’d have kids doing what we called hugging and kissing where the kids couldn’t even dribble.

Shannon and I watched and watched until we couldn’t stand it any more and finally we said to ourselves, “Either we have to stop complaining or we have to put our money where are mouth is and do something about it. We agreed to referee. We had an anger that finally moved us to do something about the way things were.

A holy unrest is the kind of anger that made Popeye pull out a can of spinach and say I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands no more. It’s the kind of anger that made Martin Luther turn the Catholic Church upside down. It’s the kind of anger that made Martin Luther King Jr. stand up for the rights of blacks. It’s the kind of anger that led Mahatma Gandhi to act against the violence in his country and to bring about independence, freedom, and civil rights. It’s the kind of anger and frustration that led Mother Teresa to help the impoverished, the broken, and the forgotten. Each of these people got frustrated and they vowed to do something about it .

Each one of these leaders started with a Holy Unrest, a frustration, a holy anger and each one of them made a bit of up there come down here. Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, they all were just human beings, but they became frustrated with what frustrated God and God’s power flowed through them to do that which anyone would have said was impossible.

When I was in the church, I had a Holy Unrest. I got a picture in my heart of who God created us to be and a picture of who the church was supposed to be and I began to get frustrated because what I saw and what I read in my Bible didn’t line up. I want you to know that I don’t mean any disrespect to any church in these comments, because without all of their investment in me, I wouldn’t be who I am today, but everything wasn’t copasetic.

I saw judgment going on regularly. I saw a shallow superficial community where people talked about the weather, but never talked about life. They were a community that  brought people to church instead of bringing the church to the world. I saw money being throw at problems instead of people having a heart to work through the problem. I saw a church that was stuck in traditions that they didn’t even know why they were doing them. I saw people that were teaching that was geared toward a moral religiosity rather than toward the kingdom of God.

So, I began to get frustrated, and it was then that I made a vow to do all that I could to correct the injustice that was taking place and to do all that I could to bring about a good understanding of who God is and who he calls the church to be and to help people become all that he created them to be.

It was a holy unrest. I got frustrated with the things that frustrate God. And here’s what happens when God’s frustration becomes our frustration. Even though I had no credentials and no experience, and no ability to change anything, and no money, somehow – miraculously – God provided everything to change me, everything to do the job, all the money that we needed and he continues to provide everything for us to work with him in bringing more of up there down here – more of heaven to earth, and that holy unrest is not just changed me, but us, and now it’s beginning to change our communities – it’s beginning to change other churches. What I see is simply amazing. It’s way bigger than me!

What are you frustrated about? Are your frustrations small, maybe petty? Are you frustrated with cell phone reception, traffic problems, pot holes, crazy drivers, not having anything to wear in a closet full of cloths? I’d like to challenge each of us today to have a frustration alignment – to drop all the petty, minor things that frustrate us and begin to think big – to think about the things that change the world one life at a time and align our frustration with the frustration of God

I want to take a minute to encourage you. We don’t have to be a great figure to have a frustration alignment with God. We just have to be human with a heart that feels some of what God feels. I’d like to suggest four steps toward aligning your frustration with Gods.

The first step is to know God. We can’t know what frustrates God until we know God. Maybe the first step for you is to pour through the scriptures and find out who God is and what frustrates him. You might also talk with other people who know God and begin to get a feel for who they think God is and what they think frustrates God. Jesus said to each of his followers, “Come, follow me”. Why? So they could be like him – so they could understand him, so they could know him, so they could be frustrated with the things that he was frustrated with and to go on mission with him – to work with him – to change the world or your world with him.

Second, we need a vision. We need a vision of what the world would look like if up there came down here – if heaven came to earth. That’s the blueprint – that’s the original design – that’s the way things were created to be. God is frustrated because that is not how things are in our world. God created all things good, but because he gave humanity a choice about how to live, we regularly choose to go against God’s will and we have hurt each other and messed the world up all around us.

Vision – when I worked in the construction trades – Blueprint on a remodel – go on mission for God – working for God – remodeling earth to reflect heaven.

Third, you need to know you. Who are you? How did God wire you? What are your passions? Are there times when you feel anger . . . or compassion rising up inside of you when you see a something or someone. Do you ever slow down enough to imagine what it would be like to walk in someone else’s shoes?  You were created in God’s image and somewhere, maybe deep down is something that frustrates you in the same way that it frustrates God. What is it? Are you willing to go on a mission with God to make a difference in the world?

Fourth, you and I need to pray. Say, “God, I’m on your team, I’m your child, though I don’t always acted like it. God, I want up there to come down here. God, I want your kingdom to come. God, I want in on the action. God, show me what your kingdom looks like. Show me what your will is. Show me where you’ve called me to “Go”. God, where does my heart line up with yours? God, would you use me? Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come . .  .” He wasn’t kidding. God wants to know our heart. Do we love him and do we love others as much as we love ourselves. Are we willing to join his team. Are we willing to go to bat for God?

I once saw a cute little girl on track and field day run in flats (not tennis shoes). Not only were her shoes not tennis shoes, but her shoes were at least two sizes to small for her. She walked on the heals. I vowed to do what I could to help that little girl.

Hope had a dance class one year and there was a little girl in her class that didn’t have a dance outfit like the rest of the kids in the class. Shannon, my wife, knew the family and knew that they didn’t have a lot of money, and knowing how cruel kids can be, she went and anonymously gave an outfit to that little girl, so she could be a ballerina like everyone else. The joy on that little girls face when she opened that box could have lit the room. A bit of heaven came down that day.

Do you ever have compassion for a kid who you suspect is being abused? Do you think that frustrates God? How can you befriend them or encourage them or show them that they have value? How can you stop the abuse?

Do you think gas prices are high enough? Do you think that frustrates God? Then do something about it . . . Pleasssseeee!

Do you ever think about people who are homeless, or can’t pay their heating bill in the middle of the winter? Do you think frustrates God? Do you think God created people for that? Who’s going to get frustrated enough about the way things are and join God in doing something about them?

Do you ever get frustrated by the amount of trash on the side of the road? Do you think trash all over God’s good creation frustrates God? Do you think that’s what heaven looks like?

Nothings hit you yet? This one ought to hit everybody. Is there enough love in the world? Do you thing God cares? Do you think he’s frustrated about that? That’s what we’re really talking about here. Is there enough encouragement in the world? Is there enough of looking beyond the bad or the broken to see that which God created. Is there enough encouragement – is there enough love, that looks past all the junk and sees the good in people and names it and calls it out?

The greatest command that Jesus ever gave – we talk about the two – to love God and to love our neighbor, but the one, the one that sums up both of those is, “Go”. Don’t just come to church. Church isn’t an event. It’s not a building. It’s the way that we live every day of our lives.

What are you frustrated about? Are you frustrated about the squeak in your car, or the slow Internet speed, or your broken finger nail – sorry ladies – it’s something us men just don’t get, We get frustrated about these things. I get frustrated about these things.

But Jesus called his disciples by saying, “Come follow me” “Be like me” “Be frustrated with the things that I am frustrated about. Here’s the question: Are we frustrated with what frustrates God . . . or do we need a frustration alignment. How do you know what God’s will is in our lives? When we get frustrated over the things that he gets frustrated about and work together with him to make up there come down here. That’s God’s will for your life. Because in the midst of going on an adventure with God, you learn to know and love God and you learn to know and love his people in ways that unimaginable blessing. Hard, yes! But truly blessings.

Jesus gets frustrated with lack of belief, but

Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24

Jesus goes on to heal his child. Jesus brings up there down here – Jesus brings a bit of heaven to earth, because the child’s father realizes God’s frustration and aligns his frustration with God’s.

Life Link:

1. What is the one thing that you’ve most frustrated by, or what was your biggest frustration this week?
2. Recap the message
3. Jesus said, “With God all things are possible”. Do you believe this? If yes, why do you think the world is still full of so much evil? If no, why not?
4. What do you think God could do with you if you fully believed that “With God all things are possible”?
5. What kind of things is God frustrated by? Are you frustrated by the same kinds of things? Why or why not?
6. Why is it important for you to have a frustration alignment with God?
7. What can happen when we have a frustration alignment with God?
8. How does a frustration alignment change our families, our community, the world, the next generation, and us?