FINDING NEVERLAND
June 19, 2005
Jerry Goff
Magnolia Springs A/G
Hurley, Mississippi
There is a movie that was released recently entitled “Finding Neverland. The movie was nominated for several academy awards and explains how the author of Peter Pan, James Barrie, was inspired to write the very successful story which later Walt Disney made famous.
Surprisingly, the story Peter Pan was patterned after the lives of a widow and her four boys with whom the author became associated. One of the younger boys was particularly devastated by the loss of his Dad. James Barrie focused primarily on that child, trying to bring him out of his dark world.
As you probably know the story is intended to inspire the imagination of children. It is a fantasy enjoyed by millions for generations. Neverland is an imaginary place limited in exotic detail only by one’s imagination.
The concept of Neverland also became the inspiration for “Neverland Ranch” in California. It was built to be a place where children who are cancer patients could go to live out their fantasies as a kind of therapy for what might otherwise be a hopeless situation. Ironically the accusations of child molestation there in fantasy land relate in a sad way with the message I want to share with you today.
While fantasy may be appropriate for children and even older people to enjoy as entertainment or a mechanism to train young minds to be creative, many people view the Kingdom of God as if it were Neverland. By it’s very descriptive nature the term Neverland indicates something one will never find in real life. Neverland Ranch, for example, has turned out to have a dark side to it.
There are concepts people have concerning the Kingdom of God that are much like Neverland. While they may sound wonderful in concept, the reality is that they are but a Peter Pan fantasy. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
NEVERLAND: God is love and therefore He will see to it that everyone goes to Heaven or according to a philosophy referred to as Universalism more recently Inclusion, everybody’s saved, they just may not realize it yet.
REALITY:
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they (Israel) also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
Romans 11:22-23 (NKJV)
Paul was referring to Israel in this context, but it obviously relates to any of us who fall from grace. FALLING is not the bottom line, UNBELIEF is. Falling is merely the end result of unbelief. Don’t worry about falling, but guard yourself against unbelief. In II Peter Chapter 1 Peter tells us what we must add to our faith. He says if faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, and love abound in us we won’t be unfruitful. If we DO them or put them in practice we will NEVER FALL.
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
2 Cor 4:3-4 (NKJV)
I understand that a well respected Charismatic Pastor has undergone some harsh criticism as a result of an interview he did on Larry King where he tended to skirt critical issues concerning Christ as the ONLY way to Heaven. When asked if Muslims could go to Heaven, he responded by saying it was not his place to judge. Of course, considering what he would have faced had he boldly told the truth, such as threats against his life, you might see his reluctance to step out on that subject.
In our desire to be seeker sensitive we must always be aware of the danger of compromise.
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10 (KJV)
Jesus called us to SEEK the lost, not pander to their sensitivities out of concern for offending them. Who would you say really loves someone? Would it be the one who dares not warn them of impending disaster for fear of offending them, or someone who tells them the truth in love in order to save them?
NEVERLAND: The good ole U.S. of A. is a democracy, therefore the Church is the same way. We all have personal preferences about virtually everything. We have our opinions about how the Church ought to be run, the type songs that should be sung, how the preacher ought to preach, etc. If we attend Church and pay our tithes we ought to have things the way we like them.
REALITY:
While it is natural for us to have our opinions, the separation occurs in what we do with our OPINIONS. Unless we are strategically placed in a position such as a special committee or board where our input is expected by virtue of elected responsibility, we should not be working directly or under cover to implement our preferences.
Without realizing it, we can be a hindrance to progress of the Church, or to put it another way, we can unwittingly be STANDING ON THE LIFE LINE TO THE PEOPLE GOD WANTS US TO REACH.
This reminds me of a story. It’s about the Pastor who went to the hospital to see the man who was dying. The family had been called in and the room was full of people. The man appeared to be very near death and had tubes coming out of his nose and mouth. The Pastor stood by the bed took the man’s hand and began to pray when the man abruptly sprung up in the bed, grabbed a pad and pencil and frantically began to write something when suddenly he fell back in the bed and died.
The Pastor unconsciously took the note and put it in his coat pocket as he prayed over the deceased. Later at the funeral the Pastor happened to put his hand in his coat pocket during his funeral message and found the note. Remembering how it got there, he spontaneously told the congregation about it and decided to read what were the man’s last words before he died. The note read, “You’re standing on my oxygen hose”.
God has cast the deciding vote as to how the Church should be governed and He says it is to be a Theocracy, not a democracy. In other words God says if you want to be successful, let Me run your house. Did you ever notice that when Israel said to Moses or Nehamiah, tell us what God says and we will do it, they prospered. When they said I don’t care what God says, I’m gonna do what I want to do, they floundered.
Theocracy is not a Bible word. It was actually coined by Josephus and might best be defined this way. “The constitution of Israel was so arranged that all the organs of government were without any independent power, and had simply to announce and execute the will of God as declared by the priest and prophets”.
Throughout God’s dealings with Israel He wanted to rule over them but they had their own ideas about how things should be run. When the Prophet Samuel became old he made his sons judges over Israel but they didn’t walk with God as Samuel did so the people had other ideas. It works the same way in every Church. The pastor will always have to deal with the stress created by conflicting opinions, but as long as God is moving all that takes a back seat. When things are not going and growing, however, the stress has an eroding effect.
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.
1 Sam 8:4-7 (NKJV)
God intended to rule over Israel through His prophetic voice and He intends to rule over us through leadership He ordains not through the platform of public opinion. Do leaders always do the right thing? Certainly not. . Samuel followed God righteously but his kids did not. Note that God totally disregarded that fact in declaring that the people were rejecting Him and not His prophet by demanding their desire over the desire of God. David did right for the most part except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, but his kids did not. But just look at what man’s choice brought about. Saul looked good, sounded good, even acted good for awhile, but he was the worse thing that could have happened to Israel because he governed according the dictates of man rather than the voice of God.
You may say, what does that have to do with having opinions about worship, preaching, or Church government? It has everything to do with it. If our Church is to prosper we must trust that God is working through our Pastor as well as the support staff and pray for the Holy Spirit to lead them.
Maybe the best analogy of how personal preference works against itself is the air conditioner. Have you ever been to a Church where one person will turn it up cuz he’s hot and another will come right behind him cuz they are too cold. You can never meet the expectations of people so what do you do. You endeavor to seek God and let Him do the leading.
NEVERLAND: Since God is in control, His will is always done and when someone dies, for example, we assume that it was just their time.
REALITY: I’ve never understood where this theology comes from. It certainly doesn’t come from the Bible. I realize that people who have lost a loved one want desperately to achieve closure that gives them hope for the one who has passed, but remember we are talking about reality not fantasy.
First of all, the Bible says it’s the devil who comes but to steal to kill and to destroy. The Bible says our ADVERSARY is the devil. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted by the devil. The Bible says for this reason the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. The Bible speaks of the devil casting Christians into prison, oppressing people, possessing people, coming in great wrath because he knows he has but a short time during the tribulation.
There is a time for having completed our race as the Apostle Paul did when we are ready to give in to Heaven’s gravitational forces, but in warfare there are casualties and I don’t believe God puts cancer on somebody or guides them into a car crash because it’s time for them to go the Heaven. It rains on the just and the unjust and there is a course of nature that might impact us. I believe that the control God exercises is turning around that which the devil means for harm and working things together for our good.
The Bible says the tongue is a little but powerful member of our body that sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell. In a similar way, a tongue given to declaring God’s promises can also change the course of nature and spare someone who otherwise would die.
It is not Neverland to believe that nothing is impossible with God or that God hears the prayers of His people.
22 "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Matt 21:22 (NKJV)
24 "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
Mark 11:24 (NKJV)
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
James 5:16-18 (KJV)
Is the Holy Spirit convicting you to come out of Neverland and into Reality?
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
2 Cor 10:3-5 (KJV)
PRAY
If the Holy Spirit has convicted you this morning that you are living in Neverland and need to come out, would you come forward? If you have people in your circle of influence whom you have ceased to pray for or in some way warn of impending danger, if you’ve tried to use influence with no authority in the affairs of the Church, if you’ve become spiritually lazy and just accept the fact that people are dying and going to hell as if it was God’s will, if you have rationalized bad behavior as hereditary, if you are a young person engaging in intimacy you know to be condemned by God, or engaging in dishonest acts that you rationalize as acceptable when you know it’s only O.K. in Neverland………I beseech you, I beg you by the mercies of God to come and leave it here on these altars.
