Sermon manuscript:
Not believing in God, not believing that God will act, is
behind much of the rationale that we tell ourselves in order to justify our
sins. Our internal dialogue inside our heads convinces us that other factors
are much more important for our happiness rather than God. God is nowhere to be
seen, so we have to do things on our own.
Take the fourth commandment, “You shall honor your father
and your mother,” for example. God attaches a promise to this commandment.
He says that those who honor their fathers and mothers will have life go well
with them. They will enjoy long life on the earth. But what have we told
ourselves when we have been disobedient to our fathers and mothers? Haven’t we
sounded just like the serpent in the Garden? “We surely won’t enjoy any
happiness from obeying our father and mother. There’s no way that’s going to
happen, regardless of what God might say about it. After all, what they are
requiring me to do is the very thing that I do not want to do! I’m not enjoying
that at all.”
So there is no trust that God is able to make it so that
even though things might not be going how we want them to go at that moment,
that God will turn it all for the good in the end. It’s as though God didn’t
exist and hasn’t made his will known.
Or take the sixth commandment as an example, “You shall
not commit adultery.” Why do people commit adultery? Why do people leave
their spouse for somebody else? Isn’t it because they believe that they have to
take their happiness into their own hands? If they don’t look out for
themselves, then who will? In the midst of trouble they do not call upon God or
consult his commandments and promises. They have another plan in place that
they believe will make them much more blessed or happy.
And why do people steal? Isn’t it because they believe that
if they do not cheat their neighbor they will be in the poor house? They have
to screw over other people otherwise they will be screwed over. If they don’t
get such-and-such an amount, then woe to them. If they do get such-and-such an
amount, then they have won at this game called life. God does not enter into it
at all.
Understanding how it is as though God were completely absent
or irrelevant goes a long way in explaining why people do what they do. It also
sheds light on something people often don’t agree with in the Bible. The Bible
teaches that not only do people sin, but they are dreadfully sinful. Often
people don’t understand why there is such a drastic condemnation of ordinary
folks. When we think of people being bad we think of somewhat exotic, somewhat
rare activities. We do not think of the countless ways that we ignore God or
disbelieve what he says. Most people, including Christians, just don’t realize
that that’s a problem.
Most people are simply doing what they have been doing ever
since they were born. They are looking out for their own interests. They want
what’s best for them. They’ve always cut corners to bring about their desired
outcomes. They’ve always believed that happiness comes apart from God. A great
many people, including Christians, never hear what God has to say about how to
live. If they do happen to hear what God has to say, they probably don’t
believe it because his advice seems terribly impractical.
I could give all kinds of examples of Jesus’s advice seeming
impractical just from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, from which our reading this
morning comes. Jesus says, “Do not be angry.” “Do not lust.” “Love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” “Give to the one who
asks, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” “Do
not worry.” “Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth.” “You
cannot serve both God and Mammon.” I hope that you are not so blind that
you haven’t felt at least a couple zingers in there, where you have to admit
that you have not believed Jesus.
Jesus says these things, and many more like them, not
because he is evil. He does not want us to be unhappy and cursed. He wants us
to be blessed. That’s why he says what he says. But what do you make of Jesus’s
words? Perhaps you just let them go in one ear and out the other. Perhaps you
do think about them, but you immediately start to come up with arguments about why
you can’t possibly do what Jesus says you should do. To live the way Jesus says
would be bad. It doesn’t look like it will turn out well for us. We have
alternate plans that will actually work. Our plans are better. All we need to
make sure that we do is that we carry them out to the letter. Our scrupulous,
clever plans will work.
This brings us to another saying of Jesus’s from our reading
this morning. He says, “Do not worry about your life.” “Consider the
birds of the air. They do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet
your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Which
of you can add a single moment to his lifespan by worrying?”
Note that Jesus does not say, “Do not work.” That’s how it
can sometimes get translated in our heads. He is saying, “Work, but do not
worry about the outcome.” God is the one who either crowns our work with
success, or humbles us through failure. Whatever is needful for us is precisely
the thing that our heavenly Father will give us. “What God ordains is always
good… I take content what he has sent; his hand that sends me sadness will turn
my tears to gladness.”
But a lot of people don’t like the idea of living this way—of
doing our duty and leaving the outcome to God. It is too passive. It isn’t
serious enough. It doesn’t plan for possible problems and cover all the bases.
What if there is something that a person has missed? If we don’t worry enough
we might end up in a disaster!
Here we must recall what we began with this morning. God exists.
He does stuff. He’s God, not you. If you are doing the work that God has given
you to do, then he will see to it that you do not starve or go naked. If you
end up in some kind of trouble do you not believe that God will provide a way
out? Or are you an unbeliever? Do you think that God won’t help or can’t help?
Do you believe that your success is dependent upon your own cleverness and
superior work ethic? With such vain imaginations you have a god, but that god
isn’t the Lord God. It’s a god of your own making. You should not believe that you
can forestall disaster only by worrying yourself to pieces.
Someone might raise another objection here. They will say
that if you do not fill yourself with anxiety you won’t be motivated enough to
achieve greatness. This objection has a little more substance to it than the
one we just considered, because greatness can be understood in more than one
way. The way that greatness is generally understood is that it is a matter of
having the most money, having the biggest business, being the prettiest, being
the funniest, being the smartest, being the best at sports, and so on and so
forth. To be the greatest at these kinds of things maybe you do need to whip
yourself into shape with some good old anxiety. If you do not fear and love
whatever it is that you’ve decided to pursue with all your heart, soul,
strength, and mind, then you might not be able to achieve it. Fame and fortune
don’t come free.
But this is not the only kind of greatness. Did you know
that Jesus taught his disciples about greatness? One time he was asked, “Who
then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus called a little
child, had the child stand in the middle of them, and said, “Amen I tell
you: Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
How’s that for greatness? Not great enough? Not unusual
enough? Perhaps you prefer fame and fortune? Perhaps you want your name written
in the history books or the Who’s Who? Jesus says elsewhere that that which is
highly exalted among men is an abomination before God—it’s disgusting to God.
We fall all over ourselves admiring the striving, the self-discipline, the
cleverness of those who are regarded as great. Jesus, on the other hand, put
before the disciples a little child. The child couldn’t yet have been strong or
clever or wealthy. The one thing that Jesus points out about the child is that
the child was humble. Humble people usually don’t make it into the history
books—at least not those that are written by men. They do get written into the
history books that are penned by God.
Here we might mention a couple people from the Bible. It is
said of Moses that he was very humble, more humble than anyone else on the face
of the earth. But God highly exalted him. He did not ask for it. He did not
stretch every fiber of his being to attaining greatness. He simply obeyed God,
and God made him great.
Another person we might mention is King David. He also was
extraordinarily humble. Just read his Psalms. Nobody talks like David talks in
those Psalms. He was the apple of God’s eye.
So when people object to Jesus’s teaching that we should not
worry, realize that they might have a point from a certain perspective. If you
want to be regarded as being great in this world, then I don’t recommend that
you try to be a Christian at the same time. Jesus’s teachings will only hold
you back. The greatest ones of this world have had to pull a lot of people down
from the monkey pile on their way to the top. They’ve had to punish themselves
with self-loathing when they’ve done wrong. They’ve intoxicated themselves with
self-praise when they’ve achieved success. These are the ingredients for
worldly greatness. Humility, passivity, patience, turning the other cheek—all
of these things are regarded by them as being womanish and weak.
The life that Jesus would have us Christians live couldn’t
be more different. We are not to sing our own praises, but God’s praises. We
are to work, but God alone determines the outcome. We are to love one another,
particularly as we carry out the callings that God has put us in. You’ll never
get on the six o’clock news for simply doing your job. Often the very people
that you serve with your work will not recognize what you do or will even
reward you with ungratefulness or something worse. That is no matter to you,
though. You are pursuing something different than recognition and praise from
men.
Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Seek Jesus’s
righteousness. This is the righteousness that is given to those who believe in
him. This is higher and more important than any honor that a person could possibly
strive after.
But the fact that Jesus’s righteousness is the highest and
most important will remain completely hidden from the unbelieving world. Who
among our children wants to be like Moses, the humblest man on the face of the
earth? Who wants to see God’s glory like he did? Precious few.
The way that we become like Moses, or Mary, or the other
great saints, is not by trying to transform ourselves into little gods and
goddesses in the imaginations of our heart. It is by recognizing that we are
creatures who are taken care of by our Creator.
Do those things that come to hand and trust in the Lord to
give you what you need. Learn from the birds of the air and the lilies of the
field that God is good. He will see to your every need, but realize that he
might know better than you do what is needful at any given moment. Cast your
cares on the Lord, for he cares for you. Be at peace. You are in God’s hand.
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