Bigger Better Rattlesnakes
TCF Sermon
August 9, 2009
If I asked for a show of hands this morning, and I won’t, but if I did, and I asked how many of you had a loved one, a son or daughter, a father or mother, a brother or sister, or some other family member, or even a close friend, who has either strayed from a relationship with the Lord, or doesn’t follow Christ at all, my guess is that nearly every hand would go up.
Based on my conversations with many of you, this is something that’s on the hearts and minds of most of us, and something that we think about often.
It’s a top concern for many of us. This morning, I’d like to extend some hope to all of us in this boat. I’d like to help us remember that our loved ones, are loved not just by us. They’re loved by the Maker of the Universe. And though it’s hard to imagine, God loves them more than we do. And while we may feel some sense of responsibility to facilitate them coming to Christ, either for the first time, or to return to Him, God in His love, is pursuing them.
Sometimes it’s important to remember that God has tools at His disposal to move in the hearts of people, that we don’t have.
There was a farmer who had three sons, Jim, John and Sam. No one in the family ever attended church or had time for God. The pastor and the others in the church tried for years to interest the family in the things of God to no avail. Then one day Sam was bitten by a rattlesnake. The doctor was called and he did all he could to help Sam, but the outlook for Sam’s recovery was very dim indeed. So the pastor was called and informed of the situation. The pastor arrived, and began to pray as follows:
"Oh, wise and righteous Father, we thank You that in Your wisdom you sent this rattlesnake to bite Sam. He has never been inside the church and it is doubtful that he has, in all his time, ever prayed or even acknowledged your existence. Now, we trust this experience will be a valuable lesson to him and will lead to his genuine repentance.
And now, Oh Father, will you send another rattlesnake to bite Jim, and another to bite John, and another really big one to bite the old man. For years, we have done everything we know to get them to turn to You, but all in vain. It seems, therefore, that what our combined efforts could not do, this rattlesnake has done. We thus conclude that the only thing that will really do this family any real good is rattlesnakes, so Lord, send us bigger and better rattlesnakes. Amen."
It’s clear that only God has bigger and better rattlesnakes. Now, this may seem like an odd prayer. But I have to admit, I have in the past found myself praying a similar prayer, though I never prayed for God to send rattlesnakes.
Those we pray for may be people we’ve prayed for many times over many years. Sometimes when we pray for those people, we might find ourselves praying something like this: "God, use everything at your disposal, use all your tools, all your weapons of love to bring these people to you, to draw them into your Kingdom."
Many of us have prayed prayers such as "do whatever it takes, God." As I’ve thought about this recently, the idea that God has bigger and better rattlesnakes captured my attention. God can do things that I can’t do. Yes, I can cooperate with Him through prayer. I have spiritual weapons at my disposal, too, but they’re His weapons. And I believe the warfare analogy is appropriate. 2 Corinthians 10 talks of the weapons of our spiritual warfare.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NIV) For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
It says pretty clearly that they’re not our weapons, they’re God’s. Verse 4 says these weapons are not the weapons of the world. They have divine, or Godly, power In the context of this passage of scripture, we’re just using these weapons. I also realize this passage is talking about our use of these weapons, and not God’s use of them, but again, they’re His weapons, and I think it’s safe to say that God can use His own weapons more effectively than we can use them. He has bigger, better rattlesnakes.
I think it’s also true that God has weapons or tools that we cannot use - only God can send rattlesnakes. In our dependence on God, these weapons described in 2 Corinthians, though seemingly frail by worldly standards, are able to demolish the arguments and every pretension of those who oppose the gospel.
The object of the warfare described in this passage, was to take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. In the context of what we’re looking at this morning, these weapons are used as God is fighting for us using His weapons in the battle for our souls.
If we’re already followers of Christ, then this is the battle to sanctify us into the image and likeness of Christ. This passage says these weapons are able to pull down strongholds. Strongholds, for the purpose of our discussion this morning, are those things in which sinners entrench themselves against all truth, all that opposes itself to Christ. In this passage, it probably refers to the learning, the eloquence, the philosophies, the worldview, on which the Corinthians prided themselves, and which we see so clearly at work in the world today.
The Greek word for stronghold means to fortify, and it can mean a castle. You’ve heard the phrase "fortress mentality?" That’s probably a good paraphrase of the Greek here. Don’t we all know people who create a sort-of fortress in their minds and in their lives, against the things of God.
This passage also notes that these weapons are effective against everything that sets itself up against, or exalts itself against, the knowledge of God. So, God has weapons, and they are His weapons. They may or may not be similar weapons to those He may enable us to use by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But, in the context of the things God can use to draw unbelievers to Himself, and use to shape believers into His image, they are weapons used in His love, for redemptive purposes.
Since I believe that His purpose, at least during this phase of history, is redemption, and since scripture notes that those weapons are able to pull down strongholds, and take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ, I think it’s fair to call those things God uses "weapons of love," they’re all in God’s love arsenal.
In thinking about this idea, I came up with five weapons - five key things God seems to use - both in the lives of unbelievers to draw them to Himself, and though perhaps used in different ways, in the lives of believers to sanctify us, to mold us and shape us into the image and likeness of Christ. I don’t claim this list is anywhere close to all-inclusive, though I believe that, as you think about different weapons we don’t examine this morning, you’ll find they might fit into a sub-category of one we’re looking at.
Another thing that’s important to remember is that God will almost always use one or more of these things simultaneously, or one after another. For example, I believe God’s blessings are one of the things He uses to draw unbelievers to Him. But then I think, how can blessings be effective in the life of an unbeliever, when that person is unlikely to acknowledge the source of the blessing as God?
Yet I also believe God would use other weapons in conjunction with blessings, as part of His total plan for drawing people to Himself. Just as armies use a variety of weapons, from bayonets to rifles, to machine guns to grenades, to mortar, to bombs, to missiles and on and on, God has a variety of weapons He uses.
So, here are five key weapons I believe God uses on a regular basis:
1. Circumstances - the things in life that get our attention.
2. conviction
3. history, memory (remember)
4. blessing - the good things God does for us and allows us to enjoy
5. time (this usually translates into His patience with us)
Let’s take a look at these one at a time. Also, I need to note that these are not in any particular order of importance.
1. Circumstances
God uses the circumstances of our life. That might include rattlesnakes. Circumstances include both the good and the bad, but perhaps especially the bad, including tragedy, suffering, or disappointments. In the believer’s life these circumstantial things can be seen as discipline. It can be pain, physical or emotional.
But the bottom line is that God uses these things to get our attention. Just as the rattlesnake got this farmer family’s attention in the story we looked at in the beginning of this message, God uses things such as these to break us, to twist us, to shape us, to mold us.
In the case of unbelievers, God often has to break through layers of strongholds. This might require some very difficult circumstances. To overcome a stronghold - a fortress - it might take a lot of weapons, lots of pain, sometimes death and suffering. It might take a lot of ammunition, or even heavy artillery.
If you’re a close follower of Christ, your heart is like a soft piece of fruit. All God has to do to convict you of sin is a little pinprick, and you are able to respond to him in repentance. But each sinful choice puts layers of spiritual hardness onto our hearts, much like a callous on our skin. And as that hardness accumulates, the pinprick is no longer enough to get our attention.
Andy Obrochta experienced this, and sadly for him, his life of sin wasn’t just a sin, it was a crime. Andy and I talked often after his arrest about this. Why, when there are clearly so many men doing the kinds of things he did, did Andy get caught? Not just caught, but sentenced to prison - his life altered forever.
Andy will tell you it’s because God loved him enough to get his attention. It took a situation as hard as a jackhammer to his heart to get his attention, because God had to break through years of hardness of heart that had built up. But God did it.
Scripture is clear that God will use these kinds of things to bring people unto Himself. His desire is that none would perish, but that all would come into everlasting life. With that in mind, He’ll use everything at His disposal to draw people, including the hardest things in our lives.
When you’re a parent, you know that the cure for your child’s sickness sometimes involves pain and suffering, perhaps a shot, which kids hate, perhaps surgery, perhaps some other treatment. But despite the pain it may cause, you do it, and do it out of love.
Most often, the child doesn’t understand. Usually the child doesn’t enjoy it, even if he or she understands at least a little. But that doesn’t keep us from doing it.
God knows that the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, is the only cure for the sickness of our sin. But to bring us to the point where we can reach out and receive that free gift, He often has to break through strongholds, and one of the things He uses is hard circumstances. God does or allows whatever it takes to break our pride, our self-centeredness, our layers of hardness toward Him. And breaking us is painful - to us and to Him.
C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain:
"We can rest contentedly in our sins and our stupidities, and everyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most expensive foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
The same is true of believers. When we already know Christ, God’s goal for us is to sanctify us, to change us into His image. He’ll often use circumstances, even hard ones, for that, too.
Hebrews 12:5-11 (NIV) And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
For us as believers, let’s note some things about God’s discipline which are seen in this passage from Hebrews.
First, discipline is done out of love in families. If suffering comes, some may think God is angry or rejecting them. That’s not true. Even hardship is part of God’s guidance for His children.
Secondly, discipline’s purpose is our good. We human parents may sometimes have imperfect motives in our discipline of our children. But God’s sole concern is our good. He is motivated only by love.
Third, God’s discipline has a clear goal in view. Through discipline, God helps us to share in His holiness (Heb 12:10).
Fourth, the end result of God’s discipline is sure and certain. Though an extended time may be involved, and our experience during this time may be painful, we can be absolutely confident that God’s discipline does indeed produce - a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
When we understand God’s attitude and purpose for discipline, as seen through the circumstances of our lives, His strength replaces our weakness.
Discouragement gives way to hope. Though it may not be easy, in fact, it seldom is, we can rest in knowing that God is using these things to shape us - to make us holy.
J.I. Packer calls these things God’s chisel for the sculpting of our souls.
Next in God’s love arsenal, we have conviction. Let’s take a quick look at a few things that might help us see this as a weapon of God’s love. Conviction is not a word that’s used often in scripture as such, but its meaning is conveyed clearly in other words used. It’s a sense of guilt and shame, leading to repentance.
The words convict and conviction don’t appear in the King James Version, and only appear nine times in three other versions of scripture I could find. The word "convince" comes closest to expressing the meaning of conviction. Other words that are used to make the same point include reprove or rebuke. John 16:8-11 is a classic passage on conviction:
John 16:8-11 (NIV) When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts, and the world is the object of conviction. A study of this passage shows us:
1. conviction for sin is the result of the Holy Spirit awakening individuals to a sense of guilt because of sin and unbelief
2. more than mental conviction is intended. The total person is involved, so this should lead to action, based on a sense of conviction.
3. the conviction, when it’s a work of the Holy Spirit, results in hope, not despair. Once people are made aware of their separated relationship with God, they are challenged and encouraged to mend that relationship.
The conviction not only implies the exposing of sin, which could all by itself lead to despair, but also a call to repentance, a call to true change, which brings hope.
I think it’s safe to say that conviction may be the one weapon that God always uses. Sometimes it’s in conjunction with these others, and sometimes by itself, but without conviction, there can be no gift of repentance.
Conviction is not the same as conversion, but it’s a necessary component of it. The working of the Holy Spirit is necessary to convince people of the absolute desperation of their situation, and their total need for God.
The next weapon of God’s love is history. Our culture has often taken a revisionist view of history, and in many ways robbed us of its meaning and importance, as well as the value of learning from it. History, all of history, but especially history recorded in scripture, is something God uses to remind us of His work in the past, humanity’s propensity for foolishness, and sin, and God’s redeeming power to overcome these things. We’re a forgetful people. And God knows that.
Jude 1:5 (NIV) Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
2 Peter 1:12-15 (NIV) So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
In verse 13, we see the phrase "I think it is right to refresh your memory" or to "stir you up by way of reminder."
Throughout scripture, we are admonished, even commanded, to remember. To remember God"s lovingkindness. To remember His covenant commitment and His promises. To remember God’s judgment. Remember, remember, remember. It’s an important part of God’s love arsenal.
The next weapon we’ll look at is blessing. I think that this is probably the weapon God would like to use most often. He might even want to use this one exclusively, and never have to use these other things at all.
Ironically, though this is the most pleasant "weapon" for us to be on the receiving end of, it’s often the most ineffective, too. Not because of God, but because of us.
Think of it, parents. How would you prefer to have your child love and obey you? As a result of discipline or pain? Or as a response to your love for them and all the blessings that come from that? Think of how you responded as a child, to the things your parents gave you, provided for you. Think of how we respond now to blessings. It’s the difference between a really young child - maybe a year or two years old, on Christmas morning, and a child just a little older, perhaps three or four.
The really young child hasn’t learned that Christmas can be an orgy of gift-opening. But sometimes as children get older, they open one present, then almost before they finish tossing the wrapping aside, it’s as if the first one didn’t exist. If they were to have spoken what their behavior seemed to illustrate, they might have said, "that’s nice, now what’s next - I’m ready for more."
I believe this illustrates how we often respond to God’s blessing. God’s blessing is not designed to make us materialists. It’s designed to elicit a grateful response. That grateful response should, ideally, lead to holy living, and lead to faithful service. But instead, our human nature is not only to be ungrateful, but to show contempt for God’s blessings, His kindness to us.
Romans 2:4 (NIV) Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
The riches of His kindness. The phrase means "moral excellence," or "benevolence in action." Both uses of kindness in this passage can mean "what is suitable or fitting to a need."
God meets our needs. Often in abundance - and our corrupt human nature often treats this benevolence with contempt. But this benevolence, this kindness, it meant to be what draws us to Him. Or if we know Jesus, it’s designed to draw us closer to Him. It’s meant to help us realize we serve a great and mighty and loving God, who’s worthy of our worship, worthy of our obedience.
One aspect of God’s kindness in this passage leads us to the last of the weapons in God’s love arsenal that we’ll look at this morning, and that’s time. In the understanding of scripture, this translates to God’s patience with us. His patience with us means He gives us ample time to respond to any of the other weapons of His love He’s used to bring us to Him, or to shape us and mold us into a holy people.
Scripture is clear that time is under God’s control. There are many passages of scripture that say things happen right on time - not early, not late.
Galatians 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 4:4 (NIV) But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
Ephesians 1:10 (NIV) to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
The Bible also makes clear that God endures our sin and our rebellion against Him.
Acts 13:18 (NIV) he endured their conduct for about forty years in the desert
And perhaps the key verse that shows God’s redemptive purpose in time and in patience:
2 Peter 3:9 (NIV) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Though the context of this passage is the second coming of Christ, I think we can apply it here this morning. God’s patience, as shown through the passage of time, is one of His instruments of bringing sinners to Himself. Peter gives us a comparison between the divine and the human in the verse preceding this (v 8).
God’ so-called "lateness" or slowness as viewed by some people is only a delay, with respect to their time schedules, or our limited understanding of time, not His. In fact, God’s time schedule is revealed by His patience, and patience is a major attribute of our heavenly Father.
The Old Testament emphasized that God delayed judgment to allow opportunity for the wicked to repent. And it’s still true today, but all along we see His purpose is redemptive. Just as that is true with all the other weapons in God’s love arsenal.
2 Peter 3:15 (NIV) Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation
The Lord’s patience leads toward repentance, which is precisely the point that Paul made in Romans 2:4.
I don’t know about you, but I’m thankful that God uses everything He can � to bring the lost into His Kingdom - especially when I’m praying for people close to me. I, for one, am glad God has bigger, better rattlesnakes.
Sometimes, I’m admittedly a little less thankful that He uses some of these same weapons to make me holy. But ultimately, I’m thankful that His love and mercy are at work through these things to mold and shape me into His image. Pray
