June 14, 2020 2 Corinthians 5:6-17 “Are You Happy with What You Have?”

12 Jun June 14, 2020 2 Corinthians 5:6-17 “Are You Happy with What You Have?”

June 14, 2020    2 Corinthians 5:6-17   “Are You Happy with What You Have?”

I remember when I used to be like everyone else and was sitting in the pew every Sunday morning.  There would be times when I would wonder at the outset how the pastor was going to tie in the Scripture to what was happening in the church.  Sometimes he did and sometimes he wouldn’t even try.  Today I am going to try to bring this Scripture reading into the focus of some of the things that we do in a church.  Most churches get excited about the baptism of a child, their confirmation, graduation from high school of one of our young adults and Holy Communion.  These are high points in the life of a church but there are some lows also.  Today we are going to take a look at some of the peaks and valleys that we will have in life.  I will also try to show you a way in which we can even out some of these things.

This has always been one of my favorite stories and I ran across it again when Steve Shepherd told it.  There was once a man named George who had just finished some brick work on the second floor of an apartment complex.  He had bricks leftover and was trying to decide how to get them to the ground without breaking them.  So, he hooked a pulley on the second-floor eave and tied a rope to a 55-gallon barrel.  He tied the rope off on a tree after raising the barrel to the second floor.  Then he went up and loaded the barrel with bricks and then he went back down and grabbed the rope tightly and untied it from the tree.  I think you know what is coming next.  I am just wondering if I am the only one here who has done something really dumb like this.  Also please remember that this isn’t a sequence in a cartoon.  Anyway, here we go.  Remember all this happens in a flash.
The barrel of bricks weighed 4 times that of George so when he untied it, it shot to the ground pulling George into the air.  He collided with the barrel with his shoulder as he went up and also slammed his hip and knee into it.  As the barrel hit the ground, George hit his head into the pulley on the eaves and cracked his head.  As he was dangling from the second story, the bottom of the barrel broke out due to the crash.  You guessed it.  George was now heavier than the barrel so he shot to the ground and collided with the barrel on the way up.

This time the barrel hurt his other knee, scraped his hip and broke his nose as he was dumped on the pile of bricks.  As he hit the bricks, he sprained both ankles and scraped both shins.  He let out a howl of pain and let go of the rope.  Now the barrel was heavier than the rope and it came crashing down upon George and the pile of bricks.  George found himself in a hospital bed all bruised and banged up.  His predicament now was whether to file one insurance claim or five.

As funny or ridiculous as this story may seem, I have done things just as dumb and in the middle of them I get to thinking, just what was I thinking in doing this?  The point I wanted to make here was that in life we will have many ups and downs.  Many times, we will find ourselves in a life situation and saying to ourselves, “What am I doing here?”  This is what Paul is reminding us of today.

He tells the Corinthians and us to live by faith.  What are we doing here?  We are living by faith.  He tells us that when we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  This means that we live in a world controlled by Satan.  We live in a world where we cannot physically see God.  We live in a world where we have to live by faith.  When we read these Scriptures and we read the stories, we get faith.  When we look about us at all the wonderments of the world, we get faith.  When we see miracles happen when the experts tell us that they won’t happen, we get faith.

Now I don’t want us to confuse this with a wish list.  Many times, we head into our prayer time with a list of wishes that we would like God to do.  Unfortunately, some of us may feel bad when none of them turn out the way that we would like.  God is not a wish book or a Christmas catalogue for those of you who remember when we called these catalogues ‘wish books.’  All the big stores used to send out a toy catalogue in October so that kids could pick out what they wanted.  It was a wish book.  I remember when I was young, I would be lucky to get one of the things that I wanted.  Of course, I probably wanted everything.  Anyway, this is not how God works.

Let’s just think about God for a minute.  God is taking care of all of us here listening and watching at the same time.  Plus, He is taking care of all the people in the churches of the area this weekend.  Plus, He is taking care of all the people of this country and the world at the same time.  We have a God who can do everything at the same time.  So, if all of these people throughout the world are interconnected through God, then it stands to reason that God will do things His way, in His time.  Hence, we can say, “God will answer all of your prayers.  He just may not always answer them in the way that you want them answered.”

What I’m trying to say is that you have to have faith in God that God knows what He is doing and has the best plan on how to do it.  We like to think that our way is the best way.  I have trouble with this all the time.  My way is the best.  However, this leads me to think, “Did I pray about this?  Did I talk to God about this?”  Generally speaking, God has a way of putting my petty ideas into perspective.  I always relearn this lesson.  God’s way is always the best way.

God’s way is the best way to run the world.  Just think of all the wars and hate and starvation we could eliminate if we could just listen for the word of God.  We wouldn’t need Black Lives Matter or any similar group if we just learned to go to God first.  We live in this world but we need to be listening to God all the time.  World governments don’t listen to God.

Our government doesn’t listen to God.  I seriously doubt that we could name one day in the last hundred years where all our leaders listened to God for a whole day.  Some of our churches are in the same boat.  I have heard this said many times and in many churches.  We need to change the ways that we do church.  We need to change God so He fits into our modern society.  We need to rewrite the Bible so that it fits into our life styles.  This is what I call stinkin thinkin!  If we read in our Bibles, we find that God does not change.  He is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow, and we should praise the Lord for that.  Who in the world do we think we are that we can change God?  Our world, which incidentally is run by Satan, wants us to think like this.  Well, this kind of stinkin thinkin has never worked and it never will.  We need to be just the opposite.  We have to try to change the world so that it fits into the Bible.

If you are a student of the Old Testament, you would know that the Israelites did this over and over and over again.  Look how many times they thought that they could leave God behind and worship other gods of their neighbors.  They thought that they could do whatever their neighbors did.  This idea never worked and the Israelites suffered greatly because of this.

If we are not careful, the same thing will happen again.  God does not change and we should be ever so grateful for this.  He is the rock on which our world is built.  He is to be our foundation, whether we are here on earth or when we join Him in heaven.  This is the first thing that Paul is trying to tell us.  This is what we need to be teaching our graduates.  This is how we are to be raising our young children.  This is how we are all to live.

The next thing I would like to point out here is that we are to spread this faith.  Paul is telling his people to go out and tell others what is in their hearts.  They are to tell them that what they see is not important.  It is what we don’t see that is important.  And furthermore, people may think that they are crazy for having such ideas.  But that is ok as long as they keep focused on the ultimate prize, Jesus Christ.

I have a quick question for you.  Just answer this to yourselves.  How many times have you been called crazy for having faith in Jesus Christ?  It is quite a feeling but it is one that we can handle.  It has happened to me more than a few times and I feel good about it.  I feel good because in order for them to call me crazy, then they had to be listening in the first place.  And if they were listening, then the seed was planted.

This is one of the reasons that many people don’t share their faith.  They are afraid that they don’t have all the right answers or they don’t know what to say or they are afraid of looking bad.  Don’t worry about this stuff.  This is small stuff and never sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff.  The Holy Spirit will help you in any way that is necessary.  Every Christian is gifted in at least one area, every Christian.  Know what you do well and then do it.  Also realize that your gifts may change.  The Holy Spirit will give you whatever gift that He deems necessary for whatever situation you come across.  Either you are already gifted or you will receive the gift necessary.  We have a God who loves you so much that He will give you all that is necessary plus far more.  All you have to do is the job for which you were sent.  And that job is to help others to know Jesus like we know Him.  And that is what Paul is telling us.

So, if your gift is hospitality, then take over a pan of brownies to an unchurched neighbor.  If your gift is faith, then show us some faith.  Don’t hide it.  If your gift is teaching, then teach someone about the grace of Jesus.  You are all gifted whether you like it or not.  This is what God gives everyone when they come to faith in Jesus.  So, let’s see if you can make it a point to go out this week and help someone to know Jesus just a little bit better.  You don’t have to convert anyone; all you have to do is plant the seed or water the plant.  The Holy Spirit will take care of all the rest.  This is important in this season of graduation to go out in the faith that you have learned and not be afraid of what the pagan world thinks of you.  This is important as we raise our babies to adulthood.  What we do in our churches for our children is so important that I cannot even come close to stressing it enough.  Our children and young people are the future of our faith.

Then we come to the last point I want to show you.  Paul is telling us to be happy with what we have.  I really don’t think that Paul was talking about all our luxuries because the people he was addressing didn’t have anything like we have today.  But we should be thankful for all of these great things anyway because it is through the work of God that we have them.  Look around you at all the greatness that surrounds you every day.  Look at all the green that we have outside.  Look at our houses, our churches and our businesses.  Look at all the different food we get to eat.  Look at our families and friends.  These are all things that we should be thankful.

But I think that Paul is telling us something a little deeper.  He is telling us that we should be thankful that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to us to live and to die so that He would be raised up again.  He loves you so much that He has reserved a place for you in heaven for eternity.  Revelation tells you that your house in heaven will be about 75 acres.  This is your individual house.  You will never know sorrow or pain again.  You will never have to worry about someone making fun of your faith again.

When you leave this world and join in the world of Jesus Christ, the benefits available to you are unlimited, just like your lives will be unlimited.  There will be no more ups and downs, only ups. Jesus loves you so much that He wants you to have it all.  And it all begins by you saying yes to Jesus.  Ask Jesus to live in your heart.  Ask Him to rule in your life.  It will be the best decision that you will ever make.  That is a guarantee.  This world that we live in will always let you down.  But Jesus will be with you at all times.  Jesus is the only person that you can always count on.  This is the beauty of loving Him.

And because of all of these things, being faithful without seeing God, taking this faith and spreading it to our neighbors and being thankful to God for sending us Jesus, because of these things, then we can celebrate our graduates.  We can celebrate our new born babies.  We can celebrate our confirmation classes.  And we can celebrate our mission trips.  We can celebrate all things.  God, through Jesus Christ makes all these things possible.

And furthermore, Jesus made it possible for us to celebrate Holy Communion.  I would like you folks to find and attend a church where you can have Communion.  When you do, think about all the wondrous things that God has done for you as you take the bread and juice.  Then I would like you to think about how you can spread this seed to someone else.  This is what Jesus wants you to do; to have a better life in Him.  Join Him now in the greatest life possible.  I thank you Jesus for all your love and kindness.  And thank you for first loving us.  Let’s pray.