Everyone gets stuck from time to time. Maybe you can relate to one of these folks:
• Here's a little boy who got stuck in a "Make-It-A-Lolly" machine. I'm sure he thought he was in paradise for at least a few moments. http://www.buzzfeed.com/simoncrerar/people-stuck-in-really-stupid-places#.ysPyrVEVA
• Here's a guy who got his hand stuck in a toilet trying to retrieve his cell phone! http://www.oddee.com/item_97665.aspx
• Here's a 69 year old grandmother who got stuck in the bathroom for three weeks, after the lock broke! She tried to alert her neighbors for weeks by banging all night long on the pipes. Her neighbors got so annoyed they passed a petition around the apartment complex to end late-night construction activities. Finally, someone noticed a stack of gathering mail and put it all together! http://www.cracked.com/article_21073_5-horrifying-places-real-people-got-trapped-forgotten.html
You can go either way, whether take your phone to the bathroom! It's really your call!
• Here's a 21 year old man who got the ride of a lifetime. He was crossing an intersection when the light changed. As the semi driver accelerated to 50 mph, he had no idea what was happening. Fortunately for the wheelchair driver, he was wearing his seatbelt! Buckle up kids, it's the law! http://www.oddee.com/item_97665.aspx
Our lives are filled with thousands of ordinary moments, and then we suddenly we find ourselves all alone, completely stuck. Maybe you feel you're stuck in a glass prison, behind a locked door, or in the grill of a mac-truck barreling down the highway? Maybe you're stuck in the past, in a vicious cycle of shame and self-condemnation? Maybe you're angry. Sad. Jealous. Filled with resentment. Bitter. And you can't shake yourself loose! Maybe you're stuck in a circle of unhealthy relationships? Your marriage. Your family. Your non-career path. Maybe you're trapped by an addiction... by some hurt, a hang-up, a bad habit, somebodies unhealthy expectations? Maybe you're life has been defined by some label, or some condition, and you doubt things can ever change?
The ultimate way we can become stuck is in some matter of life and death. Remember these nine guys? Trapped below ground in a flooded mine? What a miracle to see these men pulled from the ground? Remember this guy? Out hiking when he slips and gets his hand lodged between two big rocks? There is a kind of desperation that can come upon us when were stuck, a sheer panic. Desperate situations can cause us to take desperate measures. To whom do we turn when we're stuck? Who cares?
When Lara & I first got married, one our big disputes was whether to buy a cell phone, with a whopping 15 minutes of talk-time, for emergencies. I thought it was a total rip off, and besides, cash was tight. She wanted peace of mind, so we got the phone. One time her car blew up on the interstate! She was probably trying to be like Dale Junior, it's just a V6 honey! To this day, I still don't know the truth (kidding)! But I was able to be there for her because of that cell phone!
One of the amazing truths of life is that God is a Loving Creator.
We are fiercely loved by God. Despite how we feel (stuck or unstuck), we are not alone in this world. Listen to the testimony of Psalm 139:1-6:
"You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."
If God were a stalker, Facebook, or the NSA, we'd have reason to be terrified! But no, he's our Creator. He knows us intimately, completely, the good-bad-ugly. And we cannot escape his watchful eye.
Psalm 139:7-12: "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."
Is it okay to read Scripture in church? What's my per-sermon verse limit? Psalm 139:13-16, "You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
I can't say it any better than the Bible folks! It's all right there! Just what are the implications of this portrait of God? Psalm 91:14-16, "Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."
God's not going to leave us in the Make-It-A-Lolly Machine! Your parents might, but your heavenly Father will come to your rescue! Jesus told us to observe how God cares for and feeds the birds of the air. God also clothes the lilies of the fields. Jesus asks to consider, "are you not much more valuable than all of these?"
You might think your life is a waste. Other people might think your life is a waste. But to God, you precious and of infinite value--so much so he opted to die for you, to make a way for you, than stomach possibility of eternity without you. That's our God!
A startling truth about God however, is that God Releases Us.
God loves us, and he desires that we love him. But God doesn't force his love upon us. Whatever we believe about God's sovereignty, he grants us real freedom. We can make real choices--choices that not only impact us, but that can impact others. And those choices can bring real pain.
You want proof that you are really free? Pain is the proof that your freedom is real. Pain is not God's will. Suffering is not God's will. Death is not God's will. God is life. God says, "I know the plans I have for you... plans to prosper you, and not to harm, to give you a hope and a future." God's plan isn't what's in question here! But when we sin against God, and rebel against his plan, it's not so much that God allows pain as he is honoring our free will. God is honoring our choices.
The prodigal son went to his father, demanding his inheritance. He'd set his affections on a distance country, where he hoped to live the kind of wild life he'd heard so much about! So what the father to do? He releases his son in the hope that one day his son would return. Do you think the father was delighted? Or deeply grieved?
In Romans 1, we read about the wrath of God. God has made the reality of his existence as plain to people as the nose on our faces. "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
But what did people do? "They neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to God, their thinking became futile... their foolish hearts were darkened... they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like human beings, birds, animals and reptiles... and so GOD GAVE THEM OVER to their sinful desires."
God created us for himself. But if its sin we most desire, God releases us. In the end, we're always getting what we most want. If you don't want the pain, turn to God. If you don't want the suffering, or even death, turn to God. But if its pain you want... you are released to all the pain sin has to offer.
In Romans 1, we're released to idolatry, released to serve created things (idols). Were released to our shameful lusts, to unnatural sexual relationships, to a depraved mind, to every form of wickedness-evil-greed-form of depravity. Released to envy, murder, strife, deceive, malice. We're put at the mercy of gossips, slanderers, God-haters, the insolent, arrogant, the boasters, the inventers of evil, the disobedient...
The Bible says God IS life... God IS joy... God IS peace... God is mercy, grace... The wrath of God is NOT God willing evil upon you so much as God releasing you to what you most want. If you HATE pain, HATE being stuck, HATE the fruits of sin and death... you can always turn back to God who IS HIMSELF life, joy, peace, mercy, and hope.
A humbling truth, is that stuck or not, God relentlessly pursues us.
Here this clearly: God may release us, but he never gives up on us. He certainly never stops pursuing us. You can try and run from God, but he's always right there.
One way God pursues us is by surrounding us with his beauty and power. Last night I saw a couple sitting on a little hill by Southern View park, watching the sunset. Every facet of creation is awe-inspiring and should remind us of God.
Another way God pursues us is by giving us his law. I saw this past week where a school board in Ohio voted unanimously to not have the Ten Commandments put back up in their hallway. Even if Atheists destroyed every copy of the Ten Commandments in the world it wouldn't matter. The Bible says God has written his law on our hearts. In addition, God has also sent his Holy Spirit into the world to convict us in regard to sin, righteousness, and coming judgment. You can rebel against God's commandments--but one thing is certain--you can't stop thinking about God's commandments. Your conscience continually bears witness to what pleases or displeases God.
God also pursues us through his Elect servants. Throughout the Bible God elects his servants to rise up, stand in our path, and warn us about the harsh consequences of choosing life with God. But the elect servants also hold out the promise and hope of life with God. God elects men and women, prophets, priests, kings, cities like Jerusalem, nations like Israel, holy remnants like Judah, Apostles like Paul, preachers like Aquilla and Priscilla, even the Church is God's Elect. Elected for what? Elected for declaring the glories of God to the nations, that's what! And to what end? Romans 10:13 says, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
You might ignore a law, you might ignore your conscience, you might try to quench the Spirit of God,... but one of God's elect, standing in your path, calling you to repentance might be enough to get your attention! God puts people in our path all the time to get our attention. Are you listening?
Sadly, in the Bible, when warned, people killed off most of God's servants. So ultimately, God sent his One and Only Son Jesus Christ into the world, to pursue us. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he sent His One and Only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Luke 19:10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the Lost." 1 John 4:9, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him."
Ultimately God sends you and me, the Church, to pursue those he loves. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus commissions his church, "Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations..." 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."
Listen, I want to issue a challenge to you this morning. Do you know anyone who is just plain stuck? Maybe it's somebody who doesn't think their life matters. When you talk with them, you can see the pain in their eyes.
Maybe it's somebody who has been running from God. Someone whose made one choice after another--only to find themselves farther from God / deeper in pain.
As a church we cannot pretend that we are the only ones who matter to God. Everyone matters to God, and God is asking you to be his ambassador. He wants to make an appeal through you, to someone you know, and that he knows and loves dearly. His appeal through you to one other person is, "Be reconciled to God!" and "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
Look once more at the promise in Psalm 91 God holds out to those who love him! Do you know of anyone who could benefit from this promise?
Psalm 91:14-16, "Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation."
There is no time like the next two Sundays to invite someone to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. Will you take an "Unstuck" invite card and invite a stuck person to come to Lakeside and get unstuck these next two weekends? If you're humbled God pursued you... show your gratitude to God by being his ambassador this coming week!