What to Do When… part 3 “When things go right”
Story – my good day: woke up feeling good after a good nights sleep. I for the first time in my life had an outfit that was less that 1 year out of fashion and it was hanging up waiting for me. I got to school and found out that to that point in the semester I had straight A’s… then it was lunch time and I had two girls fighting over me. Not only that but the year book was taking pictures and they took one of me holding hands with the best looking girl in school… I sat down and thought, “man these are some good times” of course it was only my first day of kindergarten but…
In the first week of our series “what to do when” we looked at what to do when you are confused. From Jesus example we said that we should: Stop, Seek, Submit, Then last week we continued our series on “what to do when” by taking a look at what to do when things go wrong. We took a look at a guy named Job and said from his example we should:
Thank, God for our current situation
Think, about your life and see if God is trying to
get your attention about something
Take, your circumstances as a chance to grow, don’t
fight them
Trust, that God will protect you and deliver you.
Of course life is full of confusing times, and it is also filled with times when things go wrong, but it is also filled with times when things go right. There are times when things are just going good!!! We all can relate to this, sometimes there are times when you look out at the sea of life and it is nothing but smooth sailing ahead. For many of us we may be thinking that “hey life is good, nothing to worry about…” I hate to be the one to break this to you, but we should be aware of some dangerous things that can occur during good times. Now how can that be? How can there be dangerous things to look out for when things are going good? Well, one word… Titanic! I think we all know the story about how the maiden voyage of this magnificent boat was supposed to be a triumph of man’s ability to build a boat that could not sink. This boat was bigger and grander than any boat in the world and the party, for those special guest who got to go out the first time, was incredible!!! But right as the people were just getting the night going in full swing and everything was going good… boom, they hit an ice burg. The rest we say is history, but there is an interesting analogy that I would like to draw here. While the people on board were partying without a care in the world, the crew was still controlling the vessel and they found one of the most dangerous things in the ocean, an ice burg. The thing that is so dangerous about them is that only a small percent of the ice is actually above the surface of the water. You may see what you think is just a little piece of floating ice, and it turns out to be a deadly ice burg. Here is my point in all of this, when life is going good and things are going right, there can still be a very real danger for the Christian lying just beneath the surface. The danger is that just like in the other situations we have talked about we can become so focused in on ourselves that we forget God. If you will remember the goal of this series is to become less me focused in our situations and more God focused… so how are we going to do that when things are going right?
There is a guy named David that was the second king of the nation of Israel, and he has an interesting story that could be used for each one of the things we have looked at so far, but he had a time when things were just going good and I would like to take a look at his life. From David’s life and, as we have done in the past, some passages from the New Testament, I believe we can figure out what to do when things go right.
The three things we are going to talk about are:
Rejoice
Rest
Reach Out
Before we look at number one lets look at David’s story for just a moment… As I said before David was the second king of Israel. But this is only part of his story. To begin he was a shepherd boy who under the first king of Israel killed the giant Philistine warrior Goliath with just a sling shot and a stone. Later on he is anointed the be the next king, but the first king, Saul, is still in power and getting more and more jealous of David every day. In fact he tries to kill David, but he escapes and finally he is made the king of Israel. His first task was to bring back the Ark of the Lord to Israel, and this was a very big deal because this ark or box was the centerpiece for the tabernacle back in the desert during Moses time. This is where we pick up our story of things going right.
2 Samuel 6:12-15
This is an example of our first point of what to do when things go right…
1. Rejoice, in the fact that God has given you a blessing
James 5:13 “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.” NRSV (italics mine)
We have been talking a lot about praising God, or thanking God, and now rejoicing in our situations, but this is so important for us to do in the midst of our circumstances!!! It is so easy for us to get focused on me, me, me, that we forget totally that we are to depend on God, and keep our eyes on him even in the good times. Like I was talking about before when I was using the illustration of the Titanic, when things are going right it can be very easy to forget about the dangers that lie just beneath the surface. We just go about our business and never stop to realize why we are having good times. In James 1:17 it says that every good gift is from above, and good times are included in the good gifts list last time I checked… So how do we get this focus off ourselves and back onto God? We do what David did in verse 14 “David danced before the Lord with all his might…”
Now I am not suggesting that you pop in an episode of soul train, but what David did was simply praising God the best way he could! He was the king of all of Israel, a dignified statesman, and he said that I will become even more undignified than this in my praising of God. David realized that his good times were a blessing from God and therefore God deserved to be praised, and thanked, and celebrated with all his might. Just imagine how our lives might be different if every time we got a good grade on a test, or we made the sports team, or something good happened to our family, we praised and worshiped God with all of our might!!! I think we would begin to see some really radical changes if we would take the focus off of ourselves and give God the glory. Another danger that I have to mention before we move on is that during good times it is very easy to think we are self sufficient, Or in other words we don’t need God, things are “all good.” Be careful of this, this is another one of the devils tricks to try to get you to not keep your eyes on God. Remember the first thing we are to do when things go right is what our theme passage says in verse 6
Philippians 4:6 “…with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God.” NRSV (italics mine)
2. Rest, and be restored by God.
Back in our story of David we leave the scene with him dancing and praising God for the good times, and then we see a time of peace that God gives the people, look what it says in chapter 7 verse 1
2 Samuel 7:1
Notice it says that “the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies…” Another thing we should do when things go right is rest and be restored by God. When you get sick what do the doctors tell you to get lots of? They tell you to get lots of rest because your body needs a chance to restore itself back to full health. The same can be said when we have times when things go right. We have seen all the things that can go wrong in life, and all the things that will confuse us and leave us tired and stressed out, So God gives us seasons of good times when all is well to find the rest we need, and to be restored by his mercy and grace.
1 Peter 5:10 “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.” NRSV (italics mine)
When Peter wrote this verse he was writing to 1st century Jews who had converted to Christianity, and as a result were being persecuted. He tells them that a time when things will go right is coming, and during these times God will, restore you, support you, strengthen you, and establish you. So how do we do this, how do we rest and become restored? When things are going right you can first of all praise God like we talked about in our first point, this is a way in which you can rest and be restored. There is something powerful about worship that leaves us refreshed and renewed like the smell after the rain has come and washed away all the pollution. Another way we can rest and become restored is to rediscover God. By this I mean you can open up your Bible and read and pray and have fellowship with God.
When I think back to the good times in my life, I have always looked for people to share that time with, there is just something about human nature that wants to share the joy of good times. God loves to spend time with us, just like a best friend, and a great way to find rest and restoration is to share your good times with him. Spending time with God is the key to finding rest and being restored. I love to restore old cars, and I know from many a sleepless night, many a bloodied knuckle, and many a trip to the parts store, that the car will not just restore itself. The same is true for you and me; we need to spend time with God if we are going to be restored. So the first thing we should do is, Rejoice in the fact that God has given us a blessing, then we should Rest, and let God restore us, and finally we should…
3. Reach Out, to others who are going through hard times
1 John 3:16-17 “ We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?”
We talked before that when things go right it is a blessing from God, but there is more to this blessing than just sitting and soaking up the good times… When God gives us some times of things going right we should use these as an opportunity to reach out to other people who may be going through some not so good times. In the verse we just read from 1 John we see several key points to take not of: The first is that Jesus loved us enough to die for us, and he is asking us to do the same for others. Now I am not saying that we should all go out and find a little old lady crossing the street and jump in the path of on coming traffic to lay down our lives for others, all I am saying is this, The act of laying down our lives for others is simply dying to some of our wants and desires, and putting others first. When you get to enjoy some good times in life, we should share these with others by reaching out our hand to help those who are not doing quite as good as you are.
Very practically, it could mean going and eating lunch with the dork who never has any friends, or it could be sending a favorite teacher a card saying how much you appreciate them. Simple acts of kindness that require us to lay down our lives for others and reach out and share some of our good fortune. This takes us to the second key from that verse we read which was that if we have times when things go right, and we have had a chance to rest and be restored by God, Then if we see someone who is in need and we can help, but do nothing, how can the love of God be in that person? Remember our story of David well he once again set an example of this,
2 Samuel 7:2
After David had rejoiced for the blessing of good times, and found rest in God, he looked around and saw that the ark we had talked about before had no permanent home for other people to come and worship God. So David set out to build a beautiful temple that would be a worthy home for God and his people to come together. David reached out in his time of things going right.
In closing I want to read a quote by a man named Karl Barth, “It must be said that we can have joy, and therefore will have it, only as we give it to others… there may be cases where a man can be really merry in isolation, but these are exceptional and dangerous.”
Remember to reach out when God blesses you with times when things go right.
Don’t let the seemingly little ice burgs rip a hole that sinks your boat during good times by Rejoicing, Resting, and Reaching Out.
Prayer Time ----------------
