The Ride of Your Life
I am reading directly from the web-site news release.
” SANDUSKY, Ohio, Jan. 9, 2003 – Cedar Point will race full speed ahead toward the future of thrill-riding when the famed amusement park/resort debuts the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world for its 2003 season. Named Top Thrill Dragster, the $25 million steel scream machine will be Cedar Point’s 16th roller coaster – more than anywhere else on Earth – and will be one of the largest single investments in the 132-year history of the park.
Top Thrill Dragster will be a coaster of epic proportions: with an extraordinary 420-foot-tall first hill at a 90-degree incline, speeds of 120 mph over 2,800 feet of track and a twisting first drop of 400 feet at an imposing 90-degree angle, this colossal thriller will wow riders with its dramatic world-record-breaking dimensions. Termed a “strata-coaster” for its monumental height, Top Thrill Dragster will be the first and only roller coaster in the world to break the towering 400-foot-tall milestone.”
That may thrill you and excite you but frankly it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me. I reached my roller coaster tolerance level one afternoon at King’s Island over twenty years ago. I walked away and have not been on a roller coast ride since. I just decided it wasn’t fun and just because the crowd was standing in line to do something insane didn’t mean I had to.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had the ability to make those kinds of choices in life?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could see what life was about to deal us around the corner?
Life happens. The good the bad and the ugly. Life happens to all humans. If you are a human you are going to experience life. It is a dangerous world. It is dangerous to be a human.
The question to ask is not why things happen. They happen because that’s life. The question that we need to be asking ourselves is how am I going to deal with this situation. Christ followers of all people have the advantage of not only having a God who cares and will aid through the storms of life but we also have a book that contains many words and examples of how to deal with life’s issues.
Exodus 15:20-26 (The Message)
“Moses led Israel from the Red Sea on to the Wilderness of Shur. They traveled for three days through the wilderness without finding any water. They got to Marah, but they couldn’t drink the water at Marah; it was bitter. That’s why they called the place Marah (Bitter). And the people complained to Moses, “So what are we supposed to drink?”
So Moses cried out in prayer to God. God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and water turned sweet. That’s the place where God set up the rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them.
God said, ‘If you listen, listen obediently to how God tells you to live in his presence, obeying his commandments and keeping all his laws, then I won’t strike you with all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians; I am God your healer.’ They came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. They set up camp there by the water.”
There are at least four lessons to be learned from this Old Testament story. Alternations of changes happen in all of our lives. One day the sun is shining and things seem to be all going in our favor and yet the very next day something happens that rocks our world. The question is, how do we handle these experiences when they come? Sometime they are brief and sometimes they last for extended periods.
The bottom line is that they will come. We are all affected by the changes that happen in our lives. Recognition of and yielding to God’s will is the one thing that enables us to recognize God’s hand in every circumstance of life.
1. The Proving we must Anticipate. Are you Bitter or Better?
You and I must accept the fact that the Marah experiences of life will come to us all.
Proverbs 14:10 states that, “Each heart knows its own bitterness.”
The question can be asked. Why has God brought me here? What is His object in this? Did this just happen?
In the case of this story the children of Israel were being led and guided by God. He was proving and testing them. “That the place where God set up the rules and procedures; that’s where he started testing them.”
It may make you a little uncomfortable but I have to give you the whole Bible and the big picture.
Deuteronomy 8:2 “Remember how the Lord you God led you all the way in the desert 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.”
We must come to expect that there will be things that happen in our lives which will test us beyond our own strength. In fact, we may learn the ultimate lesson of life and that is that God made this world and He controls it. The fact is, that He has given humanity a lot of freedom and that we have not done real well in following Him. God gives us commands on how we are to live and yet so many people have made the decision that they know what is best for there life and so they will do there own thing.
For some of us we are trying to follow God just like the Israelites in this story and yet we too must expect and not be surprised when we experience bitter places.
The question I want you to ask yourself this morning is this: Are you bitter or better?
If we agree that there will be times of proving and challenge then we must learn from this story how to walk through those times.
That brings us to our second point of the message.
2. The Peril we must Avoid. Are you Winning or Whining?
The people in this story acted in a very unfortunate manner. They were upset and began to complain against God’s servant Moses, and of course against God Himself.
It is a fatal tendency on the part of humans to grumble and murmur and complain. Some of us do it better than others but we all have a tendency to do it.
Take the time to read 1 Cor. 10: 1-13 and you will find that the Hebrew writer is instructing us from in lessons to be learned from Israel’s history. Right in the middle of that passage there is a verse that says, “Do not grumble as some of them did—and they were killed by the destroying angel.”
I know we sometimes need to express our frustration and I think it is okay to tell God what we are feeling but we must do it with an understanding of who we are talking to.
The battle is not so much the problem but are we going to let it destroy us?
If it is just me and the problem I will loose. I can’t do it on my own. The way to win instead of whine is to place yourself squarely in God’s hands.
We cannot and must not allow ourselves to get to the place where all we do is complain about how miserable and horrible our life is.
If I have observed anything in my Christian life that has left a huge impression it is how the people of God suffer. You never get to see many of them. You never get to read about many of them because I’m talking about normal people just like you and me.
I will never escape the impressions of those people that I would go to see with my father when he would visit people in the nursing home. I have not been able to forget the lady who lost both legs a little at a time through many surgeries, who couldn’t get out of bed but lay on her back and yet she had found a way to glow with the presence of God.
The bottom line is we must find a way to keep ourselves from grumbling and complaining and place our trust back in the God who leads us.
3. The Procedure we must Adopt. Are you Praying or Perishing?
If the peril we must avoid is complaining and murmuring then we need to understand how to do that.
It is easy to talk about how we should not complain or murmur but we need to know how to handle things that overwhelm us.
Moses did not punish the people or tell them how lousy they were. He went immediately to prayer.
“And the people complained to Moses, “So what are we supposed to drink?”
So Moses cried out in prayer to God.”
He didn’t quit. He didn’t resign or give up or cancel his commitment to God.
He did what is a repeated pattern over and over in the Bible. It is right in front of us. In fact it is so practical that I think sometimes we forget or discount it.
He prayed.
When Hannah was without a child she prayed. 1 Sam. 1:10-17
When Elisha was in great need he prayed. 2 Kings 4:18-37
When Hezekiah was in trouble he immediately went to prayer. Isaiah 37:14
When Daniel was threatened he prayed. Daniel 6:10-11
When Peter was in prison the church prayed. Acts 12:5
When Paul and Silas were in jail the prayed and worshipped God. Acts 16:25
When Jesus was in the bitter Gethsemane He prayed. Math. 26: 36-46
This is the way of victory. This is the way to overcome. We trade our sorrows for the joy of the Lord.
4. The Prescription we must Apply. Are you Trusting or Toiling?
Moses was told what to do.
“God pointed him to a stick of wood. Moses threw it into the water and water turned sweet.”
He picked up a branch and threw it into the water. The Bible is full of symbolism.
Who is our righteous branch? Jer. 23:5 “ The days are coming declares the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch.”
The only remedy for our problems is Jesus. He is the One who will enable us to endure the long nights. He will give us the ability to keep our heads above the flood.
I mentioned that I have memories from my boyhood that I will never escape. Let me tell you one more.
He was a young man in his early twenties. It was a tragic car wreck that left him completely immobile. He has just recently come to God and that was big news because he really needed God in his life. I will never forget the impression this had on me as a young boy.
In his first waking moments after regaining consciousness he asked his dad what day it was and what time it was. His father told him it was Sunday morning and church time. He said, “Dad if I am still alive next Sunday don’t come here to the hospital. Get the whole family together and take them to church. The next Sunday they were all there including his wife who had not yet become a believer. The Sunday School Superintendent called on his Dad to pray. His dad was a preacher and he began to pray using nothing but the Psalms. For ten minutes he prayed and worshipped the God whose mercy is everlasting. He prayed using the language of the Psalms using words like: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is a rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord who is worthy of my praise. In my distress I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.”
When he finished praying the whole front of the church was filled with people on their knees who were seeking God. That was the whole service.
When my father went to see him at University Hospital in Columbus the lady at the front desk said I want to go with you. He is the most unusual patient we have ever had. He is always giving people encouragement and smiles. When my Dad walked into his room he called him by name and said, “This has been a wonderful experience.”
He was completely immobile. His body was racked in pain. Within three weeks he had passed on to be with Jesus.
At least three of his siblings are in full-time ministry today and have responded to the call he never got to answer.
When you came in today you were given a ticket. All of us have been given a ticket. We have been given a ticket to life and we all have to go through whatever life gives us.
How are you doing? Are you walking alone or is God walking with you?
I am going to invite you today to come and pray. Some of you will come because you never have invited God into your life. Some of us will pray because we need to connect again with God and renew our commitment with Him and to Him.
