“Now What Do I Do?”
February 25, 2007
Have you ever been in a situation where you asked yourself, “What do I do now?” I think that was just the situation that Sandy found herself in last week when she found herself hanging upside down in a turned over car. She couldn’t get the seatbelt unlatched. Frank was lying on the bottom of the car with Zeus, all 160 pounds, lying on top of him. They were both probably asking themselves, “What do I do now?” Zeus, poor dog, probably was also thinking, “What’s WRONG with you people!”
That question, “Now What Do I Do?” is a pretty common question. We all ask ourselves it pretty often. If we don’t – we should! Sometimes it’s pretty traumatic – like when we lose our job or can’t pay our bills or a relationship falls apart. Who wouldn’t ask, “Now what do I do?” Mostly we ask ourselves that question when we come to an end of something or when we don’t know what to do next. Julie probably gets tired of hearing that question in her art classes. “I did this – NOW what do I do?”
Sometimes if you don’t ask the question it indicates that you just don’t care or that you are lazy or irresponsible. If nothing else, asking “What do I do now?” shows that you are motivated and you are thinking.
This morning I want to share some situations where people in the Bible probably asked that question and then how it was answered. Maybe as we think about it we may find some direction for our own lives.
The first situation is found in Mark 1:29-31. The Bible says,
“As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.”
Can you visualize the situation here? Jesus and the disciples were at church. Following the service, Peter, being impetuous and so spontaneous, probably invited the whole gang home, not even considering his sick mother-in-law. I don’t know where Peter’s wife was, but either she wasn’t help enough or she went visiting when she saw the gang coming. Maybe Jesus got there and Peter didn’t know that mom was sick in bed with a fever. Whatever the reason, Jesus was told about it. Being a man of action and one who met needs, Jesus went to the poor sick woman, took her hand, and helped her up.
I think it is interesting that nothing happened up to this point. But when the woman responded in obedience to Jesus and even though she was sick she struggled to get up as Jesus suggested to her – and it was then and only then that the fever left her.
There is a little lesson here, isn’t there? Sometimes Jesus asks us to do things we really don’t feel like doing. Sometimes we really aren’t capable of doing as He asks. But if we will obey in faith, He will take care of the rest. That’s how it was when He called me to preach. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the ability to speak publicly. I wasn’t educated. No one would listen to me. I didn’t realize that Jesus doesn’t call the equipped – He equips the called. When I responded in obedience – He prepared me and equipped me and educated me. And now – John may not be listening – but most of you are!
The point is that if Jesus is asking you to do something – or to stop doing something – you will never do it; you will never find healing and help until you respond in faith and obedience.
But that’s not the lesson I wanted to originally get from this incident in the life of Jesus. What I wanted you to get was Peter’s mother-in-law’s question when she was healed. Picture the situation again. Mom’s sick in bed, Jesus heals her. She stands up – fever gone- feeling fantastic! You know she was! Jesus heals completely. And as she stands, she asks herself, or maybe even asks Jesus, “Now what do I do?”
The answer is simple. You are healed to help. You are saved to serve. She got up and began to wait on those men. Begrudgingly? Angrily? With a bitter attitude? No, I don’t think so. I think it was with joy. I think she had an energy she never experienced before. I think she felt privileged to serve.
What’s the lesson for you and me? Maybe one lesson is that we are healed to help. Someone said that most Churches are like football games. There are 100,000 overweight, lazy, fans watching 22 exhausted men doing all the work. I think it would be wonderful if we had 22 overworked people, don’t you? The fact of the matter is that each one of us is given gifts and abilities to use for the Lord. Every day you and I ought to be using our talents for building the Kingdom. Jesus taught that truth in Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents. He revealed that it will not go well for the one who doesn’t use what he has been given – but the one who uses whatever ability he has will be wonderfully blessed. We will be given even more responsibility. We will experience the joy of the Lord like we can’t even imagine. Let me say it again as clearly as I can. You are healed to help. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus. It’s not about your will – it’s about the Lord’s will. It’s not about life pleasing you – it’s about you living your life to please the Lord. And if you will respond in faith, I promise you, you will experience more joy; more reward; more living; than you ever dreamed of.
The second situation where someone asks, “What do I do now?” is from the Apostle Paul. The situation of the early church was difficult. People were killed for their faith. They lost jobs and families and many, if not most, Christians experienced great pain and turmoil because of their faith. You may remember that Paul, had a hand in putting many Christians in jail and consented, if not actually had a hand, in some of their deaths.
How do you think that made him feel? How do you think he lived with that guilt? Once he testified that he was beaten, and whipped, and stoned, and shipwrecked and left for dead on more than one occasion. I wonder if he welcomed those things as kind of a just due of his early lifestyle? But he was the one who wrote so often of God’s forgiveness and God’s grace and God’s love. How could he write such things if he had not experienced them himself? I think he marveled at God’s amazing grace. I think God’s love blew him away. He could write such wonderful things to comfort us because he had experience that same comfort himself. Paul writes:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.” 2 Cor. 1:3-6
Did you get the point? “You are comforted so that you, in turn, will comfort others. How are you doing at that? Has God done anything for you lately? Anybody encourage you or comfort you? Are you passing it on?
Last week I gave you a handout entitled “Just for Today”. I got it from one of Dale Carnegie’s books. The fifth point encouraged us, just for today, to do someone a good turn and not get found out. That’s a good thing we ought to do everyday. Why? Because we receive blessings, every day, from God. Thanks to thousands of nameless people, we enjoy all kinds of comforts that we aren’t even aware of. The least we can do is to pass the blessings on. You have been comforted so that you in turn can comfort others. It’s not about you. The blessings are not meant to come to you and stop. You are to pass them on.
The third incident is also from Paul. I think Paul came from a well-to-do, upper class family. He was a leader at a young age and received training from the very best teacher of his day. But he lost it all, that day on the road to Damascus, when he gave his life to Christ. Many Jews, when converting to Christianity, were considered dead in the eyes of their families. Paul probably lost his wife, his parents, and everything he had, when he came to Jesus. He said he knew what it was to be poor. He knew what it was to have nothing. And he ministered to a people who had so little. Most of them just scrapped a living for their families through hard work and endless toil. But Paul taught:
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” 2 Cor. 9:6
He said: “God loves a cheerful giver.”
He also said,
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 1You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” 2 Cor 9:10-11
Do you realize that God wants to bless you? Do you realize God promises to make us rich? And really, we are rich in the world’s economy. Every single one of us have so much compared to most people in the world. We have so many comforts; so many blessings; we live in such luxury. And, I’m sorry to report, that most of us are just consumers. It’s all about us. We consume our blessings on ourselves. But God says we will be made rich in every way (not just financially) so that we can be generous all the time.
Are you known as a generous person? Do people say you are tight or stingy or selfish? We should be known as being generous. And not just with our money. We need to be generous in our praise and in our love. We need to be generous in our encouragement. We need to have a generous spirit all the time. We need to work on that a little, don’t we? “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.” Pass it on. It’s not about you. You get - so that you can give.
One last thought. The year was 1968. As a young MP I was sent to Korea that November. Most people have forgotten what happened earlier that year in Korea. The North Koreans captured one of our ships. It was called the “Pueblo Incident. After the U.S.S. Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans, the eighty-two surviving crew members were thrown into a brutal captivity. In one particular instance thirteen of the men were required to sit in a rigid manner around a table for hours at a time. After several hours the door was violently flung open and a North Korean guard brutally beat the man in the first chair with the butt of his rifle. The next day, as each man sat at his assigned place, again the door was thrown open and the man in the first chair was brutally beaten again. On the third day the same thing happened again to the same man. Knowing the man could not survive another beating, a young sailor took his place. When the door was flung open the guard automatically beat the new man senseless. For weeks, each day a new man stepped forward to sit in that horrible chair, knowing full well what would happen. At last the guards gave up in exasperation. They were unable to beat that kind for sacrificial love.
Why were you saved? Wasn’t it so, that through you, God could save others? Phineas Bresee, founder of the Church of the Nazarene said,
“We are debtors to give the Gospel to every creature in the same measure that we have received it.” In other words, we are saved in order to save others.
“I heard a wonderful fable that tells of a young girl who was walking through a meadow when she saw a butterfly impaled on a thorn. Very carefully she released it and the butterfly started to fly away. Then it came back and changed into a beautiful good fairy. ‘For your kindness,’ she told the little girl, ‘I will grant you your fondest wish.’ The little girl thought for a moment and replied, ‘I want to be happy.’ The fairy then leaned toward her and whispered in her ear and then suddenly vanished.
As the girl grew, no one in the land was happier than she. Whenever anyone asked her for the secret of her happiness, she would only smile and say, “I listened to a good fairy.” As she grew old, the neighbors were afraid that the fabulous secret might die with her. “Tell us, please,” they begged, “Tell us what the fairy said.” Then the lovely old lady simply smiled and said, ‘She told me that everyone, no matter how secure they seemed, had need of me.’ We all need each other.”
Everyone, no matter how secure they seem, needs you. God knew that. God sent Jesus to teach us that we were created by love, to love. This week, would you be Jesus’ hands and feet? Would you allow the Holy Spirit to speak through you? You have been healed to help. You have been comforted so you can comfort others. God has been generous with you so you can be generous with others. You have been saved to save. It’s not about you. Let’s take the focus off of ourselves this week and allow Jesus to love through us.
Jesus,
Forgive me for not loving as I ought. Forgive me for being selfish and self-centered. Help me to be more thoughtful; more kind; more loving. Use me this week.
In Jesus name,
