Discipleship: Getting Your Bearings
June 2, 2002
Our map for this “Great Adventure” is found in 15 short Psalms from the book of Psalms, (chap. 120 – 134). These Psalms are called the “Songs of Ascent”, because they were sung in sequence by Israelites as they traveled to Jerusalem for their great festivals and religious holidays.
3x’s a year, a faithful Hebrew would make the trip. This picture of the Hebrews singing these 15 psalms as they left their routines and made their way to Jerusalem is a picture of the Christian journey.
I don’t know if you’re family ever did this… but when our kids were small, (and before there were portable VCR players)… we used to sing little chorus’ (mostly to keep the kids occupied), but also to instill values in our their hearts, as we went down the road.
Well, these “songs for the road” did the same thing for the ancient Hebrews. Even today, many of the essentials of Christian discipleship are incorporated into these songs… they give us a way to remember who we are, and where we’re going.
Now, if you were to go to Jerusalem (which I wouldn’t recommend right now) you would find that topographically, Jerusalem is the highest city in Palestine (show slide of Jerusalem) , and so everyone who traveled there spent a lot of their time ascending, walking up…
What I want you to see is that the ascent wasn’t only literal, but it’s a picture of a life lived pursuing God. A life filled with progress & set-backs, troubles and victories… but always moving up, from one level of maturity to another.
The early Christians used to call the life of following Jesus, “The Way”. And so as we learn “Lessons Along the Way”, we’re going to have our share of good times & hard times.
An ancient Chinese Proverb says that “a trip of a thousand miles starts with the 1st step”… and so I want to start out by talking about the 1st step in following God this morning…
It’s found in the 1st Song of Ascent… and it’s the step of REPENTENCE. Let’s read Ps. 120 together, and I want to read it to you from the Message Version (Ps. 120, READ)
Let me tell you a true fish story… It seems that a few years ago some scientists decided to develop a fish that could live outside of water.
So by selecting a healthy herring, they bred and crossbred, hormoned and chromosomed until they finally produced a fish that could exist & live… out of water! (True story!)
Only one problem… the project director wasn’t satisfied. He suspected that even though the fish had learned to live on dry land
… it still had a secret desire for water.
“Re-educate it”, he said. “Change it’s very desires!” So again, they went to work, this time retraining even the strongest reflexes. Finally they achieved their goal. A fish that would rather DIE than get wet! Even humidity filled this fish with dread!
The director, proud of his triumph, took the fish on tour. And then one day, the unthinkable happened. Accidentally (according to official reports)… the fish fell into a lake!
It sank to the bottom, eyes and gills clamped shut, afraid to move, afraid of becoming even wetter. And of course, it dared not breathe! Every instinct said “NO!”… but breathe it must…
So the fish drew a tentative gill-full. Its eyes bulged. It breathed again and flicked a fin. It breathed a 3rd time and wriggled with delight. Then it darted away. The fish had discovered water!
Now, that’s really a parable of how you and I, educated and re-educated by the worlds system… react to the thought of God before our salvation. In fact, we’ve been conditioned by the world to reject God!
Even the thought of God “fills our gills” with fear and dread. So we run, (or waddle) away from Him. Yet in spite of all the worlds’ efforts to change our desires… we still have a secret longing to know Him.
And then one day, almost as an accident (at least from our pt. of view)… something happens to get our attention.
Slowly, painfully… eyes that were clamped shut to spiritual things, begin to slowly open. And against everything we’ve ever been taught… we take in a tentative breath… and to our surprise we discover God!
And to our delight, we find out that we were really created to know and love Him all along! Acts 17:28, puts it this way… “For in Him, we live and move and have our being!”
Someone once said that, “It’s as hard for a sinner to recognize the worlds system as it is for a fish to discover impurities in the water.” There’s a sense, a feeling that things aren’t right… but you just can’t put your finger on it.
That’s where REPENTANCE comes in. Repentance starts with the
realization that just like the director lied to the fish… the world has lied to us.
See, before you ever decide to turn away from what the world offers, to choose what God offers… there needs to be a dissatisfaction with the status quo.
A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are if there ever going to be motivated to set out on the Christian way.
See, as long as I think that the next election is going to eliminate all crime, or that another pay raise is going to make me happy, or that maybe if I try harder I can overcome my weaknesses … I probably won’t try Jesus!
The truth is, before you’re ever going to acquire an appetite for the ways of God, you’re gonna have to get fed up with the “ways of the world”
Ps. 120 is the song of a person, sick of the lies, sick of the world, sick of his lot in life!
These15 Songs of Ascent describe elements common to every person who decides to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And this 1st one is the “kick in the shorts” that gets us going!
It’s not a beautiful song, there’s nothing pretty or lyrically happy about it. It’s harsh, bare boned truth…but it gets us going in the right direction.
The opening phrase of the song is… “I’m in trouble”… the last word in the song is “war”.
The theme that begins and ends this song is the painful realization that we’ve been lied to. The world isn’t what they said it would be.
When we graduated from highschool… they told us that the world was at our feet. That we were the masters of our fate. That if we just worked hard and had a dream… everything would be peachy!
But those of us who have been out of highschool for awhile know that it’s a little more complicated than that!
The world’s NOT impressed by our G.P.A. like our teachers and fellow students were. It’s not as easy as it looks!
I don’t know about you… but I was a little naïve when I started out in life. (Maybe because of my overly optimistic attitude, I was a little more naïve than most… I don’t know.) But I kind of thought that if I was nice to others… then other’s would be nice to me!
I never dreamed that people could (and would) actually try and take advantage of me for their own gain! I didn’t know that certain people would try and control me for their own selfish ends.
I thought those nice people who wanted me to invest my money with their firm… only wanted to help me get ahead!
Now, how we can keep on believing all those lies after so many centuries of proving them un-true, I don’t know. But we do! Nothing and no-one seem to disenchant us from the spell we’re in…
It’s like marriage counseling. I can talk and talk and warn and warn… but I know the couple sitting in front of me aren’t really listening! They’re still convinced that “love conquers all”!
Until… we run into 3 wake up calls, that rouse us from our blissful dream world…
1. Unexplained Accidents
To loosely quote a popular saying… “POOP Happens!” (pause)
Things happen in life that we didn’t expect to happen. True?
Marriages go sour. Loved ones die. Disease and illness attack out of nowhere. Tragedy strikes with no apparent rhyme or reason, and every time it happens… our wide-eyed enthusiasm takes a hit.
And then a 2nd wake-up call comes in the form of …
2. Unexpected Hardships
On my graduation day… nobody told me that I was going to face some hardships in life that if I knew about them ahead of time… I’d be scared to death!
You might as well know the truth. Hardships will occur in your life (many of them self-inflicted)… that (no matter how proud and powerful you think you are)…will bring you to your knees!
The 3rd event that pries us away from our giddy fascination with the world will come in the form of…
3. Unresolved Issues
I’ve got to admit to you, there was a time when I thought my relational skills were 2nd to none… It seemed like there was no relational knot I couldn’t undo…
Until something happened to me that I would never have dreamed could happen to me in a million years… I was pastoring a church that ended up in a split!
All the sudden, I found myself in a situation where I was helpless to resolve the issues involved. (since then, I’ve discovered that other pastors involved in similar situations felt the same way!)
Listen… Life is going to put you in situations involving other people, that will be VERY painful. I know people who never dreamed that they’d be involved in a divorce. The love between them was soooo strong… it seemed unbreakable.
Never dreamed their loved one would leave them…
Never dreamed they’d end up addicted…
Never dreamed their children would reject them and their friends would betray them…
Never dreamed their work situation could be so filled with distrust and betrayal…
Unresolved issues have a way of waking us up to the raw side of life.
Now I know I’m running the risk of sounding a little pessimistic this morning (& believe me, I don’t mean to), but I think before we can really appreciate what God wants to give us… we have to be realistic about life without Him!
In fact, that’s what the entire book of Ecclesiastes (in the O.T.) is all about. To borrow Solomon’s words, before you can get an “above the sun” perspective on life… you have to gain an “under the sun” perspective on life!
After enough pain, enough hurt, and enough spoiled plans and dreams, hopefully we begin to wake up… the Psalmist cry’s out in prayer…”Deliver me from the liars God! They smile so sweetly, but lie through their teeth!”
“Deliver me from the lies of beer commercials that promise me fun and beautiful women in a can… but deliver only heartache and grief….”
“Rescue me from the lies of politicians who promise me the moon and deliver me more taxes…”
“From the pop-psychologists who offer to shape my life and bring happiness… but only deliver deeper confusion”.
“Deliver me from educators who talk about the world, without telling me about the God who made it.”
Interestingly, the single word “God” occurs only twice in this psalm, …but it’s the key to change. When God appears, He exposes all the lies.
The truth is … that God made me and loves me.
The truth is… that God made the people around me… and they’re my neighbors.
The truth is that both I and the people around me have sinned in refusing to let God be for us, in us, and over us.
The truth is… that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross for our sins, raised from the tomb for our salvation… and we can have a new life… if and when we believe in him, accept his mercy, respond to his love and obey his commands!
The truth is… God is the only one who tells the truth! Psalm 120 is the decision to take one way over another!
So the first step toward God is to step away from the lies of the world. To renounce all the lies we’ve been told by the world.
When David writes, “I’m doomed to live in Meshech, cursed with a home in Kedar”, he’s talking about places and tribes of people who are thousands of miles off their course. The represent the strange and hostile.
In otherwords, he’s saying…”This world is not my home and I want out!” Ever feel that?
The biblical word for saying “no” to the world’s ways and lies, and “yes” to God’s truth is the word, “repentance”. It’s the first word in the Christian life… In the Greek it means “to turn around and change directions”.
John the Baptist used it in Mt.3:2 (READ)
Jesus’ first sermons said the same thing… READ Mt.4:17
Peter concluded his first sermon with the words… READ Acts 2:38
Repentance isn’t an emotion. It’s not feeling sorry for your sins. It’s a decision. It’s admitting that you’ve been wrong in thinking you could manage your own life, and be your own god.
It’s deciding that you were wrong in thinking you had, (or could get) the strength, education, or training to make it on your own. It’s coming to the realization that you’ve been told a pack of lies, and that only Jesus Christ is telling you the truth.
The minute we make that decision… God takes over in a big way and the life of Discipleship begins (which is the 2nd word we want to discuss this morning, and the theme of Ps.121)
Now as difficult as it is to get a person interested in the gospel… it’s even more difficult getting them to sustain their interest.
Every year, millions make a decision to follow Christ, but I gotta admit to you, there’s a terrible attrition rate. Not because of anything Jesus does… but because of what we do.
A lot of people claim to be ‘born again’, but finding any evidence of a real life change is almost impossible!
Interestingly enough, Jesus never told us to make converts! In Mt.28:____ he commanded us to make ‘disciples’ of all nations, not “church attenders” of all nations.
And there’s a BIG difference! Church attenders may be content to just sit on the sidelines and observe… but disciples model Christ, and then they make a difference for Him!
The best definition I’ve ever heard of discipleship came from Eugene Peterson (translator of the Message Bible)… “a long obedience in the same direction”. Discipleship is obeying Jesus Christ over the long haul.
A disciple is a learner. Any Star Wars fan will tell you that before being entrusted with the protection of the Republic, every Jedi Knight 1st of all has to be a “Padawon Learner”.
He’s mentored by another Jedi while in the line of fire. In the same way, becoming a disciple of Jesus doesn’t mean sitting in a class on some college campus, or sitting in a pew in some church… it means “on the job training”!
The next Ps., Psalm 121 talks about that… READ
Now the moment you say “no” to the world and “yes” to God, all your problems are solved, all your questions are answered, all your troubles are over. We know that…
No accidents, no more arguments … our children obey our every wish. Life is perfect from here on out…Right? If that’s what you believe… well, think again!
For a lot of people the greatest surprise of their new Christian life is found in the kind of trouble they run into. They’re thinking, “If everything is supposed to be all “dandelions and daisies” … then I’m doing something wrong!”
For the ancient traveler harm could come in 3 different ways and David mentions all 3 dangers in this Psalm..
1. Vs. 3 “ He won’t let you STUMBLE”
A person traveling on foot could at any moment step on a loose stone and sprain their ankle. Or…
2. In Vs. 6 the NIV says: “The sun will not harm you by day”
Message: “Shielding you from SUNSTROKE”
After a long time under the hot sun, they were at risk of becoming dizzy & faint from sunstroke,
3rdly…Vs.6b in NIV says, ”… nor the moon by night”
Message: “sheltering you from MOONSTROKE”
After a long time on the road, overcome with the pressures of fatigue and anxiety, they might become emotionally ill , with what they called “moonstroke”.
Faced with overwhelming obstacles we start looking around for help! David says, “I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from the mountains?”
In this area if we look towards the hills, we see some magnificent scenery. A few of us guys, had too much energy and decided to go mountain biking up into the Black Diamond Mines on Memorial Day… after we about killed ourselves getting up the trail, we were rewarded with an absolutely stunning view of the Delta.
But when a Hebrew in ancient days would look up to the hills, he would see something entirely different. During the time this psalm was written and sung, Palestine was overrun with pagan worship.
Many of their religious rituals were practiced on the hilltops. Shrines were set up, groves of trees were planted and sacred prostitutes were provided.
People were lured to the shrines to engage in ‘acts of worship’ that would supposedly enhance the fertility of the land, make you feel good and protect you from evil.
So David’s asking the question… “When confronted with problems, should I lift my eyes to the mountains and cry out, “Help!”…. to these false gods?”
And then he answers his own question…”NO! My strength comes from the God who made the heavens and the mountains!”
Let me just warn you…shortly after you begin your Great Adventure with God, problems are going to come. And when they do, you’re going to be tempted to deal with them in the same way you used to deal with them. But don’t do it!
People today are still looking to false gods to relieve them of their troubles…I can think of at least 3…
1. The false god of “Escapism”:
This philosophy of life basically says that you deal with your problems by NOT dealing with your problems. Whether it’s through drugs, alcohol, or entertainment… do anything but face them.
The idea is to keep the good times rollin! But eventually the good times stop rollin’ and all you have left is an empty life.
Then there’s
2. The false god of “Materialism”:
Materialism is the art of replacing God with things. It’s a philosophy that says… Possesions satisy – so provide for yourself. But it’s a trap!
E. Stanley Jones in his book, “Growing Spiritually” tells the story of a fictional person who lived out a fantasy life. All he had to do was ‘think of it’ and “POOF!”... the object of his thought magically appeared.
He imagines a mansion and “POOF!” a 15 bedroom mansion (complete with servants) appears. He figures a place like this needs cars and so he closes his eyes and imagines a driveway full of the finest wheels money can buy. POOF! They’re his!
After he’s done traveling everyplace he ever wanted to go, he comes back home and wishes for a sumptuous meal… again… “POOF!” …& there in front of him is a meal fit for a king! But yet he eats alone.
After a while he begins to realize that there’s something more he needs to find happiness. He begins to grow bored and unchallenged, and so he whispers to one of his butlers…
“I want to get out of all of this. I want to create some things again. In fact, I’d rather be in hell than be here!”
To which his butler replied… “Where do you think you are?”
In the end, the god of materialism will leave you empty, lonely and no further on the road towards godliness.
And then the 3rd false god that we’re tempted to turn to when we’re under pressure is…
3. The god of Humanism:
Which is basically making yourself a god. Humanists take things into their own hands and put themselves at the center.
Nobody has described it better than William Ernest Henley in his famous poem called, “INVICTUS”
“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud;
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
What a sad way to live! But that could be the theme song of a lot of people I know! Frank Sinatra said it when he sang, “I Did It My Way” He sure did! And where did it get him?
Jer.3:23 tells us where these false gods get us…(READ) A look to the hills ends in nothing more than delusion & disappointment.
But we can do better than that!
The promise of this Ps. Isn’t that we’ll never stub our toe… but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will ever be able to separate us from Gods purpose for our lives.
I Cor.10:13
3 times in Psalm 121 God is referred to by His personal name, YAHWEH, which means, “the God who is sufficient for everything”.
8x’s He’s described as “the Guardian” or the “one who guards”. He’s not an impersonal executive barking out orders from on high, but He’s a present help every step of the way. He’s with us and will never leave us!
All the water in all the oceans can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside, …and in the same way, all the trouble in the world can’t harm us unless it gets inside us! The promise of this psalm is that God won’t allow it to get in us!
From the time of your repentance, when you get out of “Kedar and Meshech” to the time you get to heaven… you’re safe under his care and control!
Listen to what Rom.8:37,39 promises from the Message version (READ)
According to God, nothing that happens to you, none of the troubles you encounter… have any power to get between you and Him because of the bear hug He has you in!
I love the the picture I get from that vs! When I’m holding my kids as close as I can, nothing can get between us. It’s the picture of Jesus just hugging the stuffing out of us in love!
See, the biggest mistake we make when illness comes, when financial crises threatens to sink our ship, or when conflict messes with our relationships… is to think that God has somehow gotten tired of us… or maybe He’s letting us fend for ourselves for awhile.
We have a hard time believing that the God who created the universe would even be interested in the “soap opera” of our daily lives. But He is!
Ps. 121 tells us that the same faith that works in the big things works in the little things. The God of Genesis 1, who brought light out of darkness…who made the heavens & the earth… won’t let us stumble, or faint from sunstroke & moonstroke! He guards us from every evil.
The Christian walk isn’t this escape to a quiet garden, where we stroll uninterrupted with God. No, the Christian travels the same ground the everyone else walks on….
They breath the same air… shop in the same stores…pay the same prices for gas & taxes…have the same pressures and are buried in the same ground…as everybody else
The difference is that each step we take… & every breath we breathe… is accompanied by God. So, no matter what problems we face, what accidents we experience, or what hardships we endure…the Lord is guarding our lives!
Life with Jesus Christ is a solid, secure experience with God… who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who guards our life…
Guards us when we leave and when we return… who guards us now… guards us always!
Do you want to have that kind of bumper to bumper protection plan? Would you like to?
Let me tell you how you can have it!
