January 31, 2016 - Razor Planet



“I HOPE YOU DARE”What God Hopes For YouJanuary 31, 2016Cornerstone Community ChurchDeeply ingrained in my being is a rule taught to me by my parents and grandparents – you should never gamble. Gambling, they taught me, is a tool of the devil. A few years ago our family went with some close friends to Las Vegas. You might have heard of Las Vegas. Apparently some people go there to gamble. We stayed at the MGM Grand Hotel, which, like all the hotels in Las Vegas, is simply a casino with beds. It was fascinating to walk around the MGM Grand and some of the other hotels and watch people playing the slots and playing black jack and engaging in a variety of other means of gambling. Given my upbringing I really had no interest in gambling, but my friends finally convinced me to at least try the nickel slot machines. I got five dollars worth of nickels and sat down at a one-armed bandit. I put in a nickel and pulled the handle. I was sure my Mom was going to walk around the corner at any moment and tell me how disappointed she was in me, although common sense told me there was no way she could be there. My next fear was that Jesus would come back to rapture away the church and that he wouldn’t take me because I was gambling when he returned. I finished feeding my small bucket of nickels into the machine, having won nothing, and pronounced my gambling career over.But as we walked around the casino one thing did catch my eye. I noticed an area where people were gambling on sports. As you know, I love sports. In this area there was TV after TV. As I understand it, people can sit there during, say, football season, watch all of the NFL games at the same time, and then place bets on who they think will win. This, I thought, might be fun. At least I know something about football. This was more than just mere chance. Plus, even if you lost, at least you got to sit there and watch seven or eight football games going on at the same time. Fortunately it wasn’t football season, and I have never happened to visit Las Vegas during football season. I’ve played a couple penny poker games in my life, and I’ve bet my kids a few times when I was pretty sure I was right about something, but all in all I am not a gambler. The voice inside my head that lectures me on the evils of gambling is just too strong.So imagine my surprise when I pick up the Bible and read that my Heavenly Father is a gambler on the grandest scale. Not only is our God a gambler, but He dares us to gamble too. That’s right – God dares us. When was the last time someone dared you to do anything? Maybe you were at Great America and a friend dared you to go on a ride you were afraid to ride. Maybe someone at school dared you to call a boy you really liked. Maybe a relative dared you to buy a stock you had been thinking about buying but just weren’t sure about. I don’t respond well to dares. My natural inclination when someone dares me is to think, “I’m not going to let you manipulate me into doing something I don’t want to do.” Yet God says to you and me, “I hope you dare. I hope you dare to take a risk. I hope you dare to gamble.” Let me show you what I mean. Let me take you to what Bible students believe is the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job. Job is a relatively long book; it’s 42 chapters long, 50 pages long in my Bible. Most of the book is poetry. There is little action in the book. Most of the book is a collection of speeches. It takes some discipline to read this book, which you will find just before the more familiar book of Psalms in the Old Testament. But while Job is long and a little hard to read, many people find themselves going back to Job over and over and over. John Calvin, one of the greatest theologians and preachers in all of history, preached a total of 700 sermons in his life; 159 of them were on the book of Job. I have preached a few sermons from Job myself. And the reason Job is such a compelling book to read is that the book of Job is about the problem that most troubles us in life – the problem of pain.The problem of pain, some assert, is a modern obsession, the “theological kryptonite” of our time. We wonder how a good and powerful God could allow so much pain in the world, so much suffering, so much heartache. We wonder whether the existence of so much chaos and pain in the world doesn’t, in fact, demonstrate that God doesn’t exist. And while you may have never asked the theological question in a class of some kind, at some point in your life you have endured your own pain and heartache and you have wondered, as we all have, why God didn’t do something about it. Job, the man, asked just that question. He asked it loudly, and he asked it over and over again. And, as we will see, he had good reason to ask the question. He had good reason to wonder what God was doing, and whether God was even there. If you have never read this book, I cannot encourage you strongly enough to do so. Take the time to read it and to feel it and to ask Job’s questions. In the words of a former President, feel his pain. Get into his skin. Sooner or later, Job’s questions will be your questions; I guarantee it. And when you read Job, here is what you will discover. You will discover that God is a gambler, and that God dares you to believe in him. You will discover that God dares to believe in you, and that He dares you to believe in Him. Let me show you what I mean.God Dares To Believe In YouThe first thing we learn when we read Job is that God is a gambler. No, God doesn’t play craps or black jack, nor does he bet on football games or horse races. But he does bet on people. God dares to believe in you and in me, just as he dared to believe in Job.Job, the Bible tells us, lived in the land of Uz (not Oz), which we believe was somewhere north and east of present-day Jerusalem. Here’s how the Bible describes him: “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:2) The Bible also tells us that Job, who lived about 4,000 years ago, was a very wealthy man, as wealth was measured in those days. He had 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 hundred donkeys and numerous servants. He was, the Bible says, “the greatest man among all the people of the East.” (Job 1:3)What we read next is absolutely remarkable. It is the account of a conversation between almighty God and Satan, the evil one. According to the book of Job, God speaks first: “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8) This is really a remarkable moment, and a fascinating revelation of the character of God. Do you realize what God is doing? God is bragging! He’s bragging about Job. If you’re a parent, you can relate to that, can’t you? I love to brag about my kids. I can be talking to someone about their finances or their marriage or some other important topic, but finally I just can’t help myself. I’ll just blurt it out: “Have I told you about my kids? Did I tell you what my daughter did the other day? Did I show you this picture of my son graduating from law school?” You don’t have to be a Jewish mother to brag about your kids; we all like to do it.And so does God. God was bragging about Job. God was proud of Job, proud of how Job lived his life, proud of his character and his integrity. You can picture God grinning from ear to ear as he proudly tells Satan, “Hey, have you seen Job? I am so proud of him. He couldn’t be better.”That makes me wonder: Is God proud of me? Does God ever brag about me? Do you know what? I think he does. I think God is proud of me. And I think God is proud of you. I have a hunch God carries your picture in his “brag book,” the kind grandparents carry around with pictures of all their grandchildren. I have pictures of my three kids right next to my computer at work, and I look at those pictures with great pride many times every day. God does the same with you, and he’s just waiting for the opportunity to brag about you. God was proud of Job, and knowing how much you mean to God, I believe with all my heart that God is proud of you too.After God brags to Satan about Job, Satan makes this retort: “Hah! The only reason Job is so good is because you’ve given him everything he needs. He’s healthy, wealthy and wise. He’s got a wife, a family, a home, servants – why wouldn’t Job be good?” And then Satan dares God. Satan dared God to make a bet. The bet isn’t on a football game or a game of cards. The bet is on a person. Satan says, “I bet you that if Job lost his health and his wealth and his family that he would turn on you faster than a speeding bullet.” And guess what? God takes the bet. God says, “OK, go ahead. You can’t take his life, but you can take away everything Job has. Take his children, take his livestock, take his home, take his health. You can take it all and I am betting that Job will still believe in me.”So there it is. God is a gambler. God took a dare. God gambled on Job. God believed in Job so much that he was willing to take Satan’s dare and risk his reputation on Job. It was as if God said, “Satan, I know you think the only reason Job believes in me and loves me and obeys me is because of the good things I have given him. But I know that’s not true. I know Job’s heart. I know that Job’s faith in me isn’t dependent on what I give him. I have complete faith in him. I am going to take your wager. I am going to take the dare to believe in Job.”And then all hell broke loose. Job’s children were all killed – all ten of them. His livestock were all killed. His homes were destroyed, his wealth taken away. He developed painful boils that covered his body and made misery his company. And in what I consider to be a moment of biblical humor, notice the one person in Job’s life who isn’t taken away – his wife. It’s as if the fact that she is still alive to nag Job is another piece of his suffering. Here’s what Mrs. Job says to him: “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) Quite the sweetheart, isn’t she? Did you see Kathy Bates in the movie “Misery”? That’s who would play Job’s wife. And here is Job’s response to his shrewish wife: “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” And then the Bible adds then line: “In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.” (Job 2:10-11) Dog trainers will tell you that the best measure of a dog’s love for its master is not how much it wags its tail when the master brings it food, but what the dog does when the master lets it off the leash. When I would take my dogs Barney and Abby out for a walk, I kept a choke chain on them. They were big dogs, and while they were fairly well trained I needed to make sure I could control them if a dog or a cat suddenly appeared in front of us. But when I got to the open field at the end of our walk, I took a risk. I dared to let them loose. I slipped off their choke chains and let them run. It was something of a gamble. It’s quite possible a dog or a cat could come running through the field, and then we would see just how well trained they were. More than that, we would see how much they loved their master. I can tell you who loved me more. Barney did. Barney didn’t like to leave my side. He knew the leash was off, but he would just rather walk with me than to run free.God dared to take the leash off of Job. He gambled that Job would stay by his side even though God didn’t have a treat in his hand to entice him back. He believed in Job enough to trust Job to do what was right even under the worst and most trying of circumstances.And God believes in you enough to do the same. He dares to believe that you will love him and trust him and obey him even though you’ve lost a loved one and your body is in pain and your stock options are under water. Part of us, I know, would like to say to God, “Father, I would really appreciate it if you didn’t trust me so much. I would appreciate a little less faith in me, and a little less hardship in my life.” But God says, “My child, I believe in you. I know there is the risk that you will run away if I take off the leash. I know there is the risk that you will stop loving me and believing in me if I allow this hardship in your life. But it’s a risk worth taking. We can only have the kind of relationship we both want if your love for me is based on more than me giving you treats and making your life pleasant. You have to choose to love me, not just what I can give you. And I have confidence that you will make the right choice. I dare to believe in you. I’m willing to bet on you. Now make me proud.”God Dares You To Believe In HimSo how do we make God proud? We make God proud by daring to believe in him, by daring to believe in him even when, as in Job’s case, all hell breaks loose. From chapter 3 to chapter 37 Job engages in a series of debates with four friends about why he is in so much pain. Job’s friends have a theory. Their theory is that God is punishing Job for his sin. Job disagrees. As he examines his life he can’t think of anything he’s done wrong to deserve such misery. Now what’s interesting for us is that we know the truth. We know, because we read chapters one and two, that Job’s friends are wrong. We know that Job hasn’t done anything wrong, and we know that far from punishing Job for his sin, God has allowed this misery into Job’s life because God believes in Job’s goodness and integrity. But Job’s friends don’t know that, and although Job believes he is innocent, Job doesn’t know that for sure either. In fact, Job doesn’t know quite what to think. So Job lets God have it. He complains and he yells and he accuses and he demands. Specifically, he demands that God show himself and explain himself. Have you ever done anything like that? Have you ever demanded that God explain to you why your partner has left you and why your child is sick and why you have cancer and why you can’t pay your bills? I’ve had a few conversations with God like that, and I imagine you have, or that someday you will.Well guess what? In chapter 38, God shows up. Here’s how chapter 38 begins:Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.” (Job 38:1-4)For the next four chapters, God asks Job question after question, and Job has no answers. But here’s what God does not do. God never explains to Job why Job is suffering. He never tells Job about the bet with Satan. He assures Job that he as God understands all sorts of things that Job doesn’t. He says, in essence, “Job, I have given you all sorts of reasons to trust that I know what I am doing. I have made it very clear to you that I am powerful and that I am good and that I have the answers to all the questions. But Job, I am not going to explain to you why I have allowed this heartache into your life. Instead Job, let me dare you. Let me dare you to believe, even in your pain. I dare you to believe that I am good. I dare you to believe that I love you. I dare you to believe that in the end I will do the right thing.”And that’s what God hopes for you. God hopes you dare. God hopes you dare to believe in him and to trust him and to love him even though you still have questions God hasn’t answered. Some of us don’t want to do that. We refuse to believe, we refuse to put our lives into God’s hands, until we get each and every one of our questions answered. Can I tell you something? To quote one of my best friends, that’s just plain silly. Do you mean to tell me that you only put your trust in things that you completely understand? So explain this to me. You are sitting in front of your Smart TV, picking out a video for the evening. You want to see something where people are beaten up and things explode. She wants to watch a chick flick, a Hallmark movie. She knows that the point of this movie is to make people cry. You ask her to explain why she would want to spend time watching a movie she knows is going to make her cry. She tells you that she just feels like she needs a good cry. So tell me – what in the world is a good cry? Why would anyone want to have a good cry? Does that make sense? Not if you’re a guy it doesn’t. Guys, admit it – there’s a lot about your wife that you don’t understand now and that you never will understand. But you love her. You believe in her. Some years ago, when you understood far less about her than you do now, you took the dare to commit your life body and soul to her. You knew enough about her to take the dare to believe in her, even though you didn’t understand everything about her, even though you still had questions that were unanswered. You dared to believe.God came to Job and said this: “Look, Job, here’s what you know about me. You know I’m the one who put the stars in their place. You know I’m the one who gives life to the animals. You know I am the one who creates thunder and wind and rain. You know I am the one who gave you life. You know from all I have done in your life that I love you dearly. So dare to believe in me. Trust that I will do what’s right. Believe the best about me. Dare to believe that I’ve got it all under control.”And Job took God’s dare. Understand this – God never did explain to Job why Job was suffering. God never explained to Job why his ten children died. But Job decided that he knew enough about God to take the dare to believe. He dared to believe in God’s goodness, he dared to believe in God’s power, and he dared to believe in God’s love. In Job 42 Job says, “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted … Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know … My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:2-5) Alice Taylor was a missionary to China in the 1930s, along with her husband James and their four children. While Alice and James went about the work of beginning a church, their four children were at a boarding school in nearby Chefoo. But things quickly took a turn for the worse. It was 1937. The Japanese invaded China, and Alice was unable to get any word to or from her children. News began to leak back to her about the horrible atrocities the Japanese were perpetrating in the name of war. Her fears for her children deepened when confirmation came in that the Japanese had occupied Chefoo and that all the children in that community had been forced into a concentration camp. Weeks stretched into months and months into years, and still Alice heard nothing from her four children. When word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came in 1941, Alice’s fears increased that the Japanese would do something awful to her American-born children, if they hadn’t already.As you might imagine, Alice prayed long and hard for her children. And she got angry with God. Here they were, serving God as missionaries, and God lets this happen to the people she loves the most. What kind of God would allow this to happen? Why would God take away her precious children?Alice Taylor had a choice to make. She could dare to believe God, or she could choose to reject him. One night as she prayed she remembered something her pastor had told her once. He said, “Alice, if you take care of the things that are dear to God, he will take care of the things that are dear to you.” Alice made her choice. She dared to believe. She decided that no matter what happened, she would take care of the things that were dear to God and trust God to do what was right. She and her husband redoubled their efforts to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Chinese. She cared for their sick, she fed their hungry, she clothed the naked and she taught them the good news of the Bible. And she dared to believe God.Five and a half years after her children had been captured, Alice was sitting in a church meeting. Her mind was wandering; she was thinking about her children. She wondered where they were and what they were doing. As she thought about them and prayed for them and dreamt about them, she imagined what it would be like to hear their voices again. Her imagination became so vivid it was as if she could see them again, just like the day when they waved goodbye to each other when they went off to school. And then Alice’s imagination became her reality. Her four children, considerably thinner then they should have been, but very much alive, were running towards her waving and calling out to her. They had suffered and been mistreated and been too long without food, but they were alive, and Alice could not have been more elated. She had taken care of what was dear to God, and he had taken care of what was dear to her. God had dared to believe in Alice Taylor, and Alice Taylor had dared to believe in God.How about you? Some of you are going through some very hard times right now. God is daring to believe in you. And he says to you, “I hope you dare. I hope you dare to believe in me, to trust me, to love me.” And some of you have never taken the dare. Some of you have refused to believe, stubbornly insisting on answers to your every question. And God says to you, “I hope you dare. You know enough, even if you don’t know everything. Dare to believe. Give me your life. You won’t be sorry.” If you’ve never taken the dare, let me dare you to do it right now. It’s a gamble you will never regret. ................
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