If you’ve ever been to a GMOC Youth Service then you’ve probably heard the congregation quote 1Timothy 4:12 with great enthusiasm. Over the last few months we have talked about speech, life, and love. Well, today I’m going to talk to you for a few minutes about faith. Now many of us define faith by quoting the NKJ version of Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But if we’re honest about it, most of us have no idea what that means…but we sound really spiritual when we try to explain it. Today, I want us all to agree to something. Let’s agree to set aside being real deep and philosophical and instead, let’s get very practical and very simple. Can we agree to that? Great!
Let me first say that I’m a patient man and I can deal with a lot of things. I work well under pressure. I challenge life head on. But there is one thing that frustrates the heck out of me. I hate getting lost. When I was a kid, I often fell asleep on the pews at church and when I woke up I never knew where I was. My parents would often forget that they had five children, not four, and by the time they came back to pick me up, the deacons had locked up the building and put me out on the porch. When I started middle school it didn’t take me long to figure out I was horrible in Geography. In high school I used to have nightmares that I would not be able to find my 3rd period class before the bell rang. My first year in the military I was only 19 and I was part of a search and rescue team and I got lost in the woods after falling in a spider infested log. I discovered then that I had a small case of arachnophobia as this sent me running through the forest like a wild boar. I lost faith in my commander’s plan that day and decided to go my own way. Eventually, I regained my baring and we completed the mission.
And now I’m in my thirties and I’m still getting lost. I asked my GPS for a Japanese restaurant once and it took us to someone’s house. So I stopped trusting it. Google maps always takes me the long way so I don’t trust them anymore either. MapQuest is okay, I guess – except for its fascination with dirt roads and neighborhood short cuts down roads with no street signs. I hate being lost so much that I tweeted about it. Here’s what I said. “We deviate from the plan when we distrust the source”.
Derek Prince says,
Quite often in our experience we find an apparent conflict between the evidence of our senses and the revelation of God’s Word….Our senses tell us we are sick. The Bible tells us we are healed. This conflict between the testimony of our senses and the testimony of God’s Word confronts us, as believers, with the possibility of two alternative reactions”. Now, we will either go with our senses or believe the word of God.
In other words, we start out with a plan. We know where we want to go and in the planning stages, it appears straight forward and simple. Where are my football players at? You’re on defense and your coach told you to hit the outside shoulder of your man but you see a huge gap in the line. Now in your mind, the QB is an easy target and your coach isn’t out on the field so he doesn’t see what you see. You hit that hole with everything you got, focused on that QB but you didn’t factor in the full back who was sitting in the slot position. His assignment is to knock the snot out of anybody who comes through that hole. Now you’re in the dirt, but at least your sinuses are clear. “We deviate from the plan when we distrust the source”. His condition caused him to lose faith in the coach but altering the plan got him hurt.
Anybody cook for thanksgiving? You had it all planned out didn’t you? You knew that you were going to have turkey this year. You knew that you wanted some collards and dressing. You knew in January that you were going to need some sage, cinnamon and brown sugar. You knew how many mouths you were going to have to feed. You knew how many plastic plates and forks were needed. A week ago you sent your husband to the store on his way home from work to pick up some of those items. He gets to the store but is quickly discouraged when he finds the lines too long. Besides, he’s tired and he still has a few days before Thanksgiving. The long wait caused him to believe your plan was not the best idea.
You keep telling him to go back but he keeps putting it off. And now for some reason, an hour before it’s time to eat, somebody’s husband has to run to Wal-Mart, or Kroger, or Food Lion because somewhere, somehow, somebody didn’t stick to the plan. “We deviate from the plan when we distrust the source”. What seemed to be a better idea caused a delay in the feast. In this case, everybody was affected.
Plans are most likely to change when situations occur that cause us to doubt what we initially saw as foolproof. Our senses tend to be conditional and inconsistent. Obviously, we are not the first people to experience trouble sticking with plans. But around two thousand years ago, God left his people a solution to the problem.
Take a look at Hebrews 10:32-39
Allow me to illustrate. My son likes to work around the house to earn cash for toys, no doubt. A few days ago he told me he would clean the yard for a few bucks. I agreed to pay him once the job was complete. He came in the house and said, “Daddy, I have finished cleaning the yard. I’d like my money now. I checked the job and he had not finished. I showed him what was left to be done and told him to call for me once he finished. A fewminutes later he came back into the house and reported that all had been accomplished. I told him to make sure because if I came out again, I would take a dollar off for every demerit in the yard. He assured me that he was done. By the time i finished checking the yard, he had lost half of his promised reward. Take another look at Hebrews 10:36-39. I pray you just had a “aha” moment!
I want to challenge you to personalize this text. Think back to the time when you first received Christ. Remember how sure you were that you had finally made a right decision? Maybe your family or friends laughed at you. You didn’t care because you were sure that you were on the right track. Maybe others suggested that you weren’t really saved, but you had confidence in God’s word which says in Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you would be saved. You were sure and confident. You trusted the Lord and believed that His plan was the best plan and regardless of what you had to go through, it would be worth it because Jesus promised that one day we would reign and rule with him. The Bible calls us heirs and joint heirs with Christ – that is, those of us who overcome the world. But somehow your faith has been shaken. I know, it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out. But keep the faith. This is not how you expected things to look. Still keep the faith. Others who came in with you dropped out a long time ago. Keep the faith. You may have to walk alone but keep the faith. Sometimes you’ll be talked about, mistreated and ridiculed. You’ll be tempted to go your own way. The enemy will even tell you that you’re not in God’s will because if you were you wouldn’t be suffering. But the Bible tells us concerning Christ’s sufferings on the cross that it, “Pleased the Lord to bruise Him” Isaiah 53:10. Why? Because the reward is greater than the sorrow.
Derek Prince suggests three steps Christians should take whenever a need arises in our lives. He calls this “Faith in action”.
1. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you to the particular promise or promises that apply to your situation and meet your needs.
2. Obediently fulfill in your life the particular conditions attached to those promises.
3. Positively expect their outworking in your experience
That’s sound advice. Well, what are you waiting for? Let faith guide you so that you’ll never be lost again.
Corey D. Sturdivant 