IGNORANT SERIES: JUST SAY NO TO “HAKUNA MATATA”
1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-13
INTRODUCTION
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word “ignorant” means unaware or uniformed. I would like us, for the next few weeks, to look at some spiritual facts that you may be unaware of or have forgotten. Most of the time we forget important spiritual truths when it comes to God and our relationship with Him. I am not sure why we forget such important matters, but I know it to be true. That is why God had Israel erect monuments and write down accounts and tell stories about all the events that took place in their relationship with Him. They forgot easily! We forget easily! This word “ignorant” occurs 13 times in the Bible and is connected with some important spiritual facts we should all know. That is why today we cover the spiritual Truth that the past many times teaches us how to live today.
The Lion King, Disney’s 32nd feature film, came to the screen on June 15, 1994. I remember all the hoopla surrounding this movie because it was supposed to show great animation and the story was to be good and Disney promoted it well. The story focuses on a young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mustafa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow Scar and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the "Circle of Life" (http://come.to/disneyarchive). I am sure this movie is on many people’s top movie lists. One of the songs in the movie, entitled “Hakuna Matata” has these words:
“Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata!
Ain’t no passing craze
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
It’s our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!”
The characters were trying to convince the young lion that the past is the past and nothing good can come from it. You can’t change it and most of the time it just hurts you anyway. It is best to ignore the past and move on. I submit to you this morning that some of us have this very same attitude. We feel like the past is nothing but hurt, mistakes, and is good for forgetting. Yet, the Bible teaches us that the history of our life, the past, and what happened can teach us.
READ 1 CORINTHIANS 10:1-13
I. THE PAST TEACHES US ABOUT THE HAPPENINGS OF HISTORY (VERSES 1-5)
A. We learn from the very first verse that the people Paul is speaking about had some very miraculous
events happen right before their eyes. Paul specifically mentions two wonders that these people of faith
saw.
1) They saw the pillar of cloud lead them in the desert (Exodus 13). God was taking care of His
people by showing them the way through the treacherous desert. They certainly did not know
the way. They needed guidance and the Egyptians certainly weren’t going to help. The people
of faith, the Israelites, were on their way to the Promised Land, that place promised to Abraham.
2) They saw the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). God continued His watch care over His
people. They were in physical danger by the armies of Pharaoh and their back was against the
Sea. There was no place to go and certainly the huge masses could not get away fast enough.
They needed divine help. The people of faith, the Israelites, walked on dry ground to safety and
lost not the slowest or the weakest.
B. As we continue to read, we learn that the people soon became unfaithful. The same people who had
seen the cloud lead them through the desert, the parting of the Red Sea, and the provision of manna,
turned away from God.
1) The Community of the Faithful soon became the Union of the Unfaithful.
2) Verse 5 tells us plainly that God was not pleased with most of the Israelites. His reaction,
according to Numbers 26:65, was to leave them in the desert for 40 years until they passed away.
A new generation entered the Promised Land. Why? They were unfaithful.
C. Hebrews 3:12-19 highlights the unbelief of Israel.
II. THE PAST TEACHES US ABOUT MISTAKES MADE (VERSES 6-10)
A. Verse 6 explains to us what our attitude should be about the past, reading about the past, and perhaps
even our attitude as Christians towards the Old Testament.
1) These events in the past should be looked on as examples.
2) Reading about the past means you wish not to make the same mistakes.
3) The OT is essential in seeing sinful mistakes and not repeating them. Many Christians feel
the OT is irrelevant, yet clearly it is not!
B. Idolatry (verse 7): The picture we have of the people of faith, is that they turned away from God and
had other priorities. Eating and drinking and revelry became the priorities of their lives. The indulged
themselves in the world and ignored God. (verse 7)
C. Physical Sins (verse 8): The people of faith turned away from God because of sexual and physical
sins. As it is the case with all these types of sins, their physical bodies were affected and they died.
Sin’s penalty is eventually always death. These physical sins took them away and they compromised the temple on the inside.
D. Attitude Problems (verse 9-10): The faithful were drawn away from God because of their attitudes as well… Poor attitudes. They tested God and grumbled and complained. Many times, we see in churches, our attitudes get in the way of church work and they get in the way of our relationship with God as well.
III. THE PAST TEACHES US ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL LIFE (VERSES 11-13)
A. The past teaches us about our current spiritual life. This idea is presented over and over in this
passage. Many times we have the idea of “live and learn.” Yet, Scripture teaches us to “learn and then
live.” There is a huge difference in these two statements. God wants us to look at the spiritual lives or
the lack thereof in the past and learn from it. (verse 11)
B. The past teaches us to beware of self-confidence. This is not the only passage in the Bible to do so.
All of the passages speak of watching ourselves closely and our walk with God closely. Do you attend
to your relationship with God carefully? (verse 12)
1) Proverbs 28:26 = “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.”
2) Hosea 10:13 = “But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors.”
C. The past always teaches us to beware of temptation. If we have learned anything from looking at the
past, we should see that Satan is alive and well and scheming and plotting and tempting the people of
God. He wants to derail your relationship with God by any means necessary.
CONCLUSION… Adapted from RC Sproul Doubt and Assurance (Baker Books, 1993) and Charles Kummel, The Galileo Connection (IVP, 1986)[optional]
Pascal’s Night of Fire
Blaise Pascal was an influential scientist who lived in the 1600’s. He was something of a genius. For example, at the age of twelve, even before he had received any formal training in geomoetry, Pascal independently discovered and demonstrated Euclid’s thirty-two propositions. Pascal was also a Christian.
When he died in 1662 his servant found a small piece of parchment sewn into his coat. At the top of the paper Pascal had drawn a cross. Underneath the cross were these words.
In the year of the Lord 1654
Monday, November 23
From about half-past ten in the evening until half-past twelve.
Fire
God of Abraham, God if Isaac, God of Jacob
Not of philosophers nor of the scholars.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy, Peace.
God of Jesus Christ,
My God and thy God.
"Thy God shall be my God."
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except God.
He is to be found only by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Greatness of the soul of man.
"Righteous Father, the world hath not know thee,
but I have know thee."
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
Jesus Christ.
I have fallen away: I have fled from Him,
denied Him, crucified him.
May I not fall away forever.
We keep hold of him only by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Total submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on earth.
I will not forget Thy word. Amen.
That was Pascal’s record of an intense two-hour religious experience that he kept secret until his death. It was an experience of God that gripped his soul and changed the course of his life. He stored his record of it in the lining of his coat, close to his heart. For eight years he took care to sew and unsew it every time he changed his coat. It was a treasured experience, something he could return to again and again.
Similarly, we can take those experiences of God that we have - transforming moments - and hang onto them as gifts from God to energize and motivate our faith.
