Hanging Around for the Miracle
Life Management 101, part 4
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
July 9, 2006
Our current series is Life Management 101. We’re coming out a hectic time of year – the close of the school year – into another equally hectic time – summer, with its vacations and open houses and road trips and opportunities to mow lawns and pull weeds and plant gardens and tire ourselves out in at least as many ways as we do during the school year. How are we to manage our lives? An even better question is what does it mean for us to manage our lives as Christ-followers? I mean, everybody figures out some way to manage life, whether it really works for them or not, right? But for those of us who claim to be Christ-followers (and I know that’s not all of us here), what does it mean for us to manage our lives? What should the differences be between the way Christ-followers manage life and the way non-Christ-followers manage life?
I think the way Christians manage our lives is often not very different from the way non-Christians manage their lives, because we don’t really understand that the source of the Christian life is God. Some of us dedicate our lives to serving God, but then get upset when God isn’t working on our timetable and doing things our way. We’re still living out of our own center, so to speak. But the source of the Christian life is God.
Psalm chapter 19, verses 7 and 8.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The source of the Christian life is God.
Even after we become Christians, we still often do not live by this truth. We have heard the source of the Christian life is God, and we know that we are supposed to encounter God in prayer and in God’s Word, but it’s extremely easy for us to neglect them. Why? Maybe it comes from living in a country where you can call yourself whatever you want and don’t really have to show any evidence that what you claim is true – where faith labels are used like ethnic labels – not to say anything substantive about individuals, but to tell groups apart from one another. On the news the other day I heard a reporter talking about how Saddam Hussein’s government was not an Islamic regime, it was secular. How, in fact, Saddam’s foreign minister Terrik Azziz was not Islamic at all, but rather a Christian. And I remember thinking, “Are you kidding me? Can the word Christian really be applied to both Mother Theresa and Terrik Azziz without the word itself completely losing meaning?”
That is the world we live in and the culture in which “Christians” find themselves. So to be a “Christian” all you have to do is say you’re a Christian. I’m pretty sure that’s all Terrik Azziz did as he spent his life as the lying mouthpiece of a murderous dictator. Now at this point two things are equally clear. The first is that none of us here is a Terrik Azziz. The second is that none of us here is a Mother Theresa! I have intentionally brought out two extremes to ask you this question: which of those two extremes, which of those two people who claim to be Christian would you be inclined to believe actually lived out the truth that God is the source of the Christian life?
Most people who become Christians hear in church that God is the source of life and they get abstract about it. They think the preacher is speaking metaphorically. They go, “Isn’t that cute – the preacher is saying that to be a Christian one has to live AS IF God is the source of life.” So they do. They live their lives AS IF. They figure out what Christians do who are living as if God is the source of life. Going to church, avoiding certain places and substances, maybe joining a small group, maybe even speaking about all the change God has brought into their lives. And so it is that with a perfectly clean conscience, so many American Christians can call themselves Christian and yet have practically no prayer life, practically no part in reading God’s Word and applying it to their lives. We figure what the heck? I’m no Terrik Azziz – I understand things that guy definitely didn’t understand. Maybe so. But what did Mother Theresa understand that so many of us don’t? That God – not just church, not just small group, not just preaching, but God as revealed to us personally in His Word and through prayer – God is the source of life. It simply doesn’t dawn on most of us that to really believe that God is the source of life requires a lifestyle shaped by prayer and the Word of God. It just does.
We have abstractified the Christian life out of existence. We’re stuck with living “as if” God is the source of life because it is hard for us to actually believe it and base our lives on it. What would that mean? How would our lives be different? The answer is that if we believed it, we’d be always looking for miracles.
In order to not just live “as if” God is the source of life, we must be convinced that it is true. Frankly we look into our own lives and see so much chaos and disrepair it’s hard for us to see evidence of God there. We read all these lofty things about how God is at work in us and we think, “Well, that may be true, but I’m not seeing it.” After a while we don’t even expect to see it and that’s when it becomes so easy for us to not pray, not read our Bibles, not take any specific steps forward in the way we relate to God, but still call ourselves Christians. The truth is we have learned that if we expect little of God, we won’t be disappointed when it turns out God doesn’t really do much.
When Jesus says, “I’ll show you how to recover your life,” we must believe that he is capable of doing so, and have confidence in him that he will do exactly what is required in order for that to happen. Otherwise we kind of think, “Isn’t that nice – aren’t you sweet – thanks for the offer,” but we don’t understand that he meant something real when he said it. So here’s what I want you to remember in this message today. You must realize and remember that miracles not only happen but are to be expected when God is around. When Jesus says he’ll help you recover your life, you must realize that if two years later you’re not sensing that you are recovering your life, you have not allowed Jesus to do what he said he would do – because his words mean something specific and he will keep his promises.
Let’s look at that by checking out our text for today.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
You need to understand that King David, who wrote this Psalm, is being repetitive. He refers to the law of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, and the commands of the Lord. They’re all the same thing! They all refer to the path God has carved us for us in this life. They all refer to a life based not on our own whims or ideas of right and wrong, but a life rooted in God’s perspective, God’s prescriptions (if you will) for living. In other words, a life actually lived with God as its source.
So for the purpose of today’s message, let’s just replace those four things with one generic term – God’s Word. We refer to the Bible as God’s Word because we believe it contains God’s perspective, God’s prescriptions for living. The Bible contains God’s law, God’s precepts, God’s statutes, God’s commands. So let’s just use that one term – God’s Word.
Now let’s go back and see what we’re left with.
7 [God’s Word] is perfect,
reviving the soul.
[God’s Word is] trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 [God’s Word is] right,
giving joy to the heart.
[God’s Word is] radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
So what we really have here is four statements of what God’s Word is, with each of those statements followed by a statement of what God’s Word DOES – the practical difference it makes in the lives of those who are willing to hear that Word, and build their lives on it through obedience.
What you actually have here is four statements about miracles that happen when God is around. Right here in this passage we see that God’s Word can revive (or restore to life) dead souls. It can bring wisdom to foolish people. It can bring joy to hopeless hearts. It can bring light and clarity and focus to eyes that are dark and confused and foggy. Those are miracles, and they are miracles that are accomplished directly through the reading of, and obedience to, the Word of God. Because miracles not only happen, they are to be expected when God is around. God is in the business of these kinds of turnarounds. Remember what Jesus said in his very first public sermon:
Luke 4:18 (NIV)
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
So when Jesus comes around, there is good news for those who don’t get good news. There is freedom for those who are prisoners. There is recovery of sight for the blind. There is release for those who are oppressed. God is in the business of life turnarounds.
Folks, are you beginning to see yet what I’m trying to show you? We read the miracles of Jesus and we call them “miracles.” As soon as we call them miracles, they go into the category of things that can’t ever happen to us or anyone we know! We wish we had lived back when Jesus lived so we could have been on the receiving end of some of those miracles. Our text in Psalms this morning says that you can be on the receiving end of those miracles when you read God’s Word, and submit and surrender to it. Your dead soul can be revived. Your foolish heart can be made wise. Your mourning can be turned to dancing. Your darkness can be made into light. Those are miracles! They may not happen overnight, but they will happen. But we are so saturated by our secular, scientific society that we have somehow come to believe either that miracles aren’t possible, or that they must always be instant in order to be miracles. It’s no wonder we don’t believe God will do miracles in our own lives, because so much of what’s happening in our lives happens slowly and we don’t give it the name “miracle,” especially since we have already decided that miracles are things that only happen to other people! So when we do spot something amazing that has happened to us, it must not be a miracle, because miracles don’t happen to us – it must be something else! But our text tells us miracles will happen when we read, submit, and surrender to God’s Word. Our dead souls will be revived. Our foolish hearts will gain wisdom. Our sad hearts will find joy. Our spiritually blind eyes will be opened. But the truth is that deep down we don’t believe it. If we did, we wouldn’t be able to keep ourselves from picking up our Bibles, because we would be so eagerly waiting on those miracles to happen!
I want to help you believe God’s Word today. I want to help you believe that God will do miracles in your life and the lives of those who you can influence toward God. I want to help you develop a hunger and thirst for reading God’s Word, and for prayer. I want to do this by dispelling the myth that miracles are always instant or dramatic, so you can learn to see how God is working in your own life. When you think about it, the length of time involved in a miracle isn’t relevant because when something that was dead springs to life, it’s a miracle whether it takes a split second or half a lifetime. Death is death and life is life and never the twain shall meet – except when God is around, because when God is around, dead things somehow are able to live again.
Imagine you’ve been a witness to a terrible car accident that has left one man lying dead in the street. The EMT’s have shown up and done everything they can, but there’s nothing – no breathing, no pulse, he’s even brain dead. Just gone. Suddenly you hear someone behind you, “Excuse me, please pardon me, I think I can help.” Many people are saying, “This guy’s dead, he’s beyond help.” But he insists, “Please let me in, I think I can help.” He gets down close to the dead man and lays hands on him. For about twenty minutes nothing happens and people are beginning to laugh. Most just walk off out of sheer boredom. But the man stays there, crouched over the dead man with his hands on him. You’re not sure if he’s praying, meditating, or in some kind of pain. But you’re curious, so you stay. Thirty minutes later, still not much has happened, except now the police are beginning to threaten to drag the man away. They approach him to haul him off when suddenly he says, “I think I’ve got a pulse.” No one believes him, but maybe at last we can get this fruitcake out of here if we show him he’s not helping. So a EMT takes his pulse and guess what – there’s a pulse. Suddenly everyone is interested. Everyone crowds around. It’s another 25 minutes before the previously dead man’s chest is heaving up and down enough to be seen by the public. It’s a full two hours later before he opens his eyes, and another three hours before he speaks. Food and water are brought to the site, while the healer stays there with his hands on the man’s chest. It’s another two days before the man can finally get up from the sidewalk and go back home to his family.
Now let me ask you a question. Was a miracle done for that man, or not? Before you answer, remember that it took the healer two days, six hours, and fifteen minutes to bring the man fully back to life. There was no “Lazurus, come forth,” here – no loud commands like “Be healed,” or anything. Just the man crouched down, laying on hands. Was this a miracle?
Of course it was. Some got bored and left. Some laughed and made fun. But a miracle happened and they missed it because they weren’t willing to hang around for it. Something that was dead is now alive, and that’s impossible, whether it takes 2 seconds or two days or two lifetimes. Life does not come from death. Not ever. Except when God is around. Then – not to worry – it happens all the time.
Believe God’s Word is true. Believe that if you read and apply God’s Word, your dead soul will be revived, your foolish heart will gain wisdom, your sad heart will find joy, your blind eyes will be opened. Don’t be discouraged that change happens in your life so slowly sometimes – it’s a miracle anyway. Don’t think God’s Word isn’t doing anything – it will work miracles in your life if you allow God to continue laying His hands on you through your reading. Don’t minimize the miracles because they sometimes take so long. Maybe you’re deader than you realized. Maybe you’re going to need to spend days or weeks or years in the presence of the healer. But a miracle will come, because that is God’s work. And for those who are already Christ-followers, always remember the miracle that has already happened!
Romans 6:13(NIV)
13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
The fact that you ever responded to God in the first place was a miracle, a sign of God’s stirring in you. Your sense even now that you’re not as far along as you wish you were – that’s a miracle – a sign of a holy discontent that wasn’t in you before you found Christ. God is working in your life every day, every moment, and if you will pray and read God’s Word, you will begin to recognize it when you see it. Not only that, but God will use His Word to plant more seeds in You that will continually sprout into new kinds of life. And the difference between the way you manage your life and the way your non-Christian friends/family manage their lives will be that you will live in eager expectation of the miracles God will be doing in your life.
Seekers who might be here today, I want to just tell you that if you’re looking for God, and you really want to find Him, the first thing you’ll need to do is begin looking within yourself and your own journey for signs of his activity in your life. We tend to look at the lives of others, but you can never really know what’s happening inside someone else so without disregarding those things, I want to urge you to get in touch with what you think it is that is drawing you toward God or at least to ask the questions. Would you pray with me?
Heavenly Father, for those who are Christ-followers here today, please change our lives as we read your Word and pray – help us live with you at our center. For those who are not Christ-followers, I pray that you would show them your activity in their lives through the very search they are on. For those ready to have you be the forgiver of their sins and the leader of their lives, would you hear their prayer today for forgiveness of their sin? Will you honor their desire to know you and learn to live their lives for you? Jesus, thank you for what you have done by dying for my sin and the sin of everyone in this room. Amen.
