Richard Lee had been the lone police officer in the small town of Croydon, New Hampshire for 20 years. So, two months ago (February 2020), when the local board decided to outsource their law enforcement needs to the state police, Lee walked out, disgusted.
He also walked out in his underwear. The board had told him to turn in the key to his cruiser, his guns and his uniform — immediately. So Lee went into an office he shared with town officials and took off his clothes before the board chairman, who told him he didn’t have to do that.
Lee said, “I gave them my uniform shirt. I gave them my ballistic vest... I sat down in the chair, took off my boots, took off my pants, put those in the chair, and put my boots back on, and walked out the door.”
He walked for almost a mile in a snowstorm before his wife came with the car to pick him up. (Associated Press, “Police chief stripped of duties disrobes, walks into storm in underwear,” KomoNews.com, 2-19-20; www.PreachingToday.com)
People do stupid stuff when adversity strikes, and they really don’t help themselves. Instead, they make a bad situation worse. Please, in our current crisis, don’t do something dumb, which will only make thigs worse. Instead, do something wise, which can make things better.
The question is “what?” What can you do to make things better? What can you do to improve your situation? What can you do to grow in difficult times? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Judges 2, Judges 2, where the nation of Israel shows us what NOT to do.
Judges 2:6-10 When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. (ESV)
In the 1st chapter, the book of Judges describes Israel’s initial failure to depend on the Lord and their subsequent defeat. Here, in the 2nd chapter, the book of Judges describes the reason why Israel lived in defeat and where it all led in their downward spiral towards ultimate chaos and ruin.
And it all begins with a generation, “who did not know the Lord or the work He had done for Israel.” Unlike their parents, they did not experience the miracle of manna in the wilderness. They did not experience the miracle of crossing the Jordon River on dry ground, and they did not experience the miracle of Jericho’s wall falling flat. They had no personal experience of God at work in their own lives. They only had the stories of what God did for their parents, and that was not enough to sustain their faith. This new generation of Israelites did not know the Lord personally, and it led to disbelief, disobedience, and their ultimate defeat.
My dear friends, don’t want the same thing to happen to you. Develop a personal relationship with the Lord. Don’t depend on your parents’ relationship with God. Instead, get to...
KNOW GOD FOR YOURSELF.
Experience His presence and His power in your own life. Encounter the Living God in your own time and place.
When Harry Truman became president, he worried about losing touch with common, everyday Americans, so he would often go out and be among them. Those were simpler days when the president could take a walk like everyone else.
One evening, Truman decided to take a walk down to the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River. When he grew curious about the mechanism that raised and lowered the bridge, he made his way across the catwalks and came upon the bridge manager, who was eating his evening supper out of a tin bucket.
The man showed absolutely no surprise when he looked up and saw the best-known and most powerful man in the world. He just swallowed his food, wiped his mouth, smiled, and said, “You know, Mr. President, I was just thinking of you.” According to Truman's biographer, David McCullough, Truman loved and never forgot that greeting. (Robert Morgan, Moments of Reflection: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation, Thomas Nelson, 2017, page 33; www.PreachingToday.com)
In the same way, the God of the Universe loves it when you think about Him. He wants so bad to be a relationship with you, that He entered your world in human form, died on a cross for your sins and rose again just so you could know Him personally.
Please, don’t be content just to coast on your parents’ faith. Put your own faith in the Lord, who loved you enough to die for you, and experience a mind-blowing, life-changing relationship with Him!
Several years ago British researchers went door-to-door asking people about their belief in God. One question they asked was: “Do you believe in a God who intervenes in human history, who changes the course of affairs, who performs miracles, etc.?” One man responded, “No, I don't believe in that God; I believe in the ordinary God.” That response, which was typical of many, became the title of their study: “An Ordinary God” (Grace Davie The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 41, No. 3, Sep., 1990, pp. 395-421; Al Mohler, Words from the Fire, Moody Publishers, 2009, p. 38; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, don’t believe in just an “ordinary God.” Through faith in Christ, get to know the extraordinary God, who intervenes in history, changes the course of affairs, performs miracles, and answers your prayers. Cultivate your own relationship with Him. In these days, when you’re stuck at home, spend time in His Word and in prayer. Listen to what He has to say and talk to Him about what’s on your heart. If you want to grow in these difficult times, get to know God for yourself.
Then, in the context of that relationship, do what He tells you to do.
OBEY GOD.
Submit to His loving authority in your own life. Follow HIS guidance, not your own ideas of what you think is right and wrong.
That’s what Israel failed to do. Since they did not know God, they did not obey God. In fact, they turned against God to serve other gods.
Judges 2:11-13 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. (ESV)
They served the gods of war and fertility, which involved child-sacrifice and orgies with male and female temple prostitutes. One commentator said, “It involved the most debasing immorality imaginable” (F. Duane Lindsey, Bible Knowledge Commentary, p.383). Israel turned against the Lord, so the Lord turned against them.
Judges 2:14-15 So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. (ESV)
Their defiance brought great distress. Literally, they were severely cramped, pressed in from all sides. Some people think that rejecting God’s authority liberates them. On the contrary, it enslaves them; it severely constricts them in a bad place. Israel defiantly disobeyed the Lord, and it brought them “terrible distress.”
Please, don’t do what Israel did. Don’t think that throwing off God’s restraints will liberate you. On the contrary, it will kill you eventually.
The 19th century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard told the following parable: There once was a lily who lived a happy life beside a rippling brook. This beautiful little flower, in its simple surroundings, was content and carefree. Until one day. Until the day when the bird showed up.
Now this feathered visitor was a showoff. A braggart and teller of tales. It would swoop in and fill the lily's head full of stories of better places and far more beautiful flowers. Each story was crafted to convey the message that, in comparison to other flowers, and other places, this poor lily was a nobody. A failed lily. Captive to simplicity. Embarrassingly inadequate.
Following each visit from the bird, the lily fretted more. It couldn't sleep. It no longer woke up happy. It felt incapacitated by not-enough-ness. The beautiful little flower, once content, now realized, in comparison with others out there in the wide world, it was ugly, deficient, incarcerated in its familiar surroundings.
But the bird was there to help. The bird had the answer. So together they formulated a plan. Early one morning, the bird landed beside the lily and began pecking away at the soil around its roots. Now liberated, the lily was placed under the wings of the bird and away they flew to the better place. In that better place, where lilies were more beautiful, where life was fuller, the flower told itself it would truly be a lily worthy of the name. But, alas, they never made it. High in the heavens, rootless and finally free of its former constraints, the lily withered. And the lily died. (Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaar, Plough Publishing House, 2014, Pages 139-140; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, don’t listen to the lying braggarts in this world, who tell you that throwing off God’s restraints will set you free. On the contrary, disobedience always leads to terrible distress. Oh, it may not happen overnight, but it WILL happen over time.
Mark Hall put it this way in a song that Casting Crowns sings:
It's a slow fade when you give yourself away.
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray.
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away.
People never crumble in a day.
Daddies never crumble in a day.
Families never crumble in a day.
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see,
For the Father up above is looking down in love.
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see (Mark Hall)
Please, don’t start that “slow fade” into ruin.
D. A. Carson put it this way: “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.” (D. A. Carson, quoted in “Reflections,” Christianity Today, 7-31-00; www.PreachingToday.com)
Please, in these days, don’t drift towards disobedience and call it freedom. Instead, get to know God’s loving heart and obey Him if you want to grow in difficult times. Cultivate a personal relationship with the Lord, and submit to His loving authority if you want to make things better, not worse.
Even if you’ve already made that “slow fade” into ruin, even if you’ve already drifted into disobedience and distress, you don’t have to stay there. you too can turn a bad situation into good. All you have to do is...
CRY OUT TO GOD.
Plead with Him for deliverance. Beg God to get you out of the trap you set for yourself. That’s what Israel did in their distress.
Judges 2:16-18 Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. (ESV)
Before, God was moved to anger when Israel defied Him. Now, He is moved to sorrow when Israel groans under the weight of their own sin. As a result, He raises up a judge to save them. He sends them a ruler to deliver them from their oppressors.
Israel’s disobedience led to distress. But when they cried out to the Lord, He delivered them out of their distress. Even though they did not deserve it, God saves them time and time again. He demonstrates grace in their groaning. Disobedience, distress, deliverance. Disobedience, distress, deliverance. Disobedience, distress, deliverance. The book of Judges records this pattern no less than 13 times! Now, each time their disobedience and distress get worse. But each time God delivers Israel when they cry out to Him.
And God will deliver you when you cry out to Him, as well. He will demonstrate grace in your groaning, too. The Bible says, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). So no matter what you’ve done, no matter how many times you failed Him, when you cry out to God, He will rescue you from your sin.
One cold February day several years ago, (February 24, 2001), a one-year old Canadian girl named Erika wandered out of her mother's bed and house and spent the entire night in the Edmonton winter.
When her mother, Leyla Nordby, found her, Erika appeared to be totally frozen. Her legs were stiff, and all signs of life appeared to be gone.
Erika was treated at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Health Center, and God helped doctors and rescue workers bring her back to life. To the amazement of all, there appeared to be no sign of brain damage, and doctors gave Erika a clear prognosis—she would soon be able to hop and skip and play like other girls her age. (Bob McKeown, “A Tiny Survivor,” Dateline, MSNBC, 3-20-01; www.PreachingToday.com)
Some of you have wandered away from your Father’s house, and you are frozen nearly to death. Your heart is hard, and there appears to be no life in your soul. But your Heavenly Father knows you are lost and is searching for you. Please, cry out to Him, so He can pick you up and take you back home.
If you want to improve your situation in difficult times, know God, obey God, and cry out to God if you must. But no matter what...
LEARN FROM GOD’S DISCIPLINE.
Grow through the trials God brings your way. Welcome the pain that brings maturity.
That’s what Israel failed to do. They didn’t learn from God’s discipline. Instead, they got worse and worse.
Judges 2:19 – 3:4 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not.” So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. They were for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses. (ESV)
Do you think God did not know what Israel would do? Of course, He did. Rather, He wanted ISRAEL to know what was in their heart. He left their enemies in the land to prove to them that they were not okay.
It was the same reason he let Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years in a previous generation. As they’re about to enter the Promised Land, Moses tells them, “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands” (Deuteronomy 8:2).
God designs the tests of life to show people what’s in their hearts, to prove to them that they need improvement.
It’s like bumping a person with a full cup. Whatever is in that cup spills out. If there is coffee in that cup, coffee spills out. If there is milk in that cup, milk spills out. If there is tea in that cup, tea spills out.
Tell me. What spills out of your life when you are bumped? Anger and frustration? Fear and faithlessness? Or grace and gratitude? Humility and service? If you don’t like what you see, then accept God’s discipline to not only prove what’s on the inside, but to improve it.
That’s what Israel failed to do. Instead of learning from their pain and growing through it, they just went back to their old ways and actually got worse.
Please, don’t do what Israel did. Rather, learn and grow from God’s discipline. Let God PROVE and IMPROVE you through the pain. James 1 says, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).
On August 27, 1498, when the pope commissioned Michelangelo to create a statue of Jesus and His mother Mary, Michelangelo searched the quarries for just the right type of stone. He spent months in [the city of] Carrara, where, with great care, he selected the marble, oversaw its extraction, and arranged its transportation.
Once the stout cube of marble arrived in his studio, the young Michelangelo went to work. He labored over it for almost two years, sweating over it in the sweltering heat of summer and shivering over it in the biting cold of winter… He was a man on a mission, which resulted in the Pieta, a work of unsurpassed beauty.
In the same way, God works on His masterpiece, you and me. The Bible says, “We are His workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10), and He works on us no less passionately than Michelangelo worked on the Pieta.
And just like Michelangelo, God uses different tools to achieve different results. He uses the hammer, his primary tool, along with a variety of pointed chisels to shape the block. Some chisels have serrated edges. Others are flat. Each has its own role in shaping the marble, its own special use, however slight. He also has an assortment of rasps and abrasives.
The tools of a torturer. Or so it seems.
From the perspective of the onlooker, when the artist begins his work, every blow from the hammer seems a random act of violence, every bite of the chisel, a senseless act of vandalism. From the perspective of the slab, the blows it receives are even more difficult to comprehend… God uses the circumstances of our lives to craft our character, but those circumstances are often jarring, sometimes difficult to understand and difficult to endure.
Even so, God is working to create the magnum opus, the “great work” of his eternal existence. We are the work of which He thinks and dreams every day. We are a masterpiece in the making. And not just any masterpiece, His masterpiece, more magnificent than the Pieta.
Author and New York Times columnist David Brooks noted that profound suffering can often lead to a sense of calling and purpose. Brooks said,
People (who) have suffered almost always have this sense of calling. When people lose a child, they don’t say, “Well, I had two years where I had low pleasure. I should compensate by going to a lot of parties so I can get high pleasure...” They do not say that. They want to turn the suffering into holiness, so they create a foundation. Or they transform their lives. People don’t heal from suffering. They come out changed (Ken Gire, Shaped by the Cross, InterVarsity Press, 2012, pp. 20-48; www.PreachingToday.com) – that is, those who choose to learn and grow through the pain.
Please, don’t resist God’s discipline. Instead, accept God’s hammer and chisel of pain, which is turning you into His masterpiece.
If you want to grow in difficult times, get to know God, obey God, and cry out to God if you must. But no matter what, learn and grow from God’s discipline.
In December 1999, Felix Baumgartner, at age 30, smuggled a parachute on a little train. It was the train that takes dozens of tourists up a 2,000-foot mountain to the 120-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. Once at the base of the statue, he scaled the gray-stone figure, climbed on to one of its fingers, and jumped. Baumgartner's parachute worked, and he walked away in one piece from the stunt. (Daily Telegraph, London, 12-4-99; www.PreachingToday.com)
Unfortunately, that’s not what happens to those who prefer to jump from the safety of the real Christ. Please, instead of jumping away from Christ in difficult times, turn to the only One, who can make you whole.
