Leaky Lifeboats - Message given on 9/2/07
Let us pray: God of Wisdom, God of Love we celebrate your faithful presence in our lives. You are near us by day and night; you never fail to greet us each new morning. Though we often turn away from you, you are ever concerned with our well-being. Teach us, Lord, to live our lives in the wholeness of your eternal values. We need your guidance and grace to be able to live in harmony with one another, show hospitality to the strangers among us, and to minister to the needy. I pray that each heart here be open to your word this morning and that my words become truly yours in spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight oh Lord our rock and our redeemer. AMEN (First part from DPS)
I’m not a handyman. You’ve seen that plumbing company’s trucks that have the sign on them, “We fix what your husband tried to repair.” I’m that guy. I’ll tell you how bad it is. You know when you go into the sporting goods section at Walmart or some other store? If you buy a firearm, you have to have a three day waiting period. Well, if I go to Home Depot to buy a power tool, they make me wait three days-in my hands it’s a dangerous weapon!
Some time ago I decided I would install a ceiling fan in my house. I felt it wouldn’t be any problem at all. I bought the fan. Got out my tools and started to work. Everything was going fine. I actually remembered to turn of the electrical power to the room. Then I took down the light fixture, and hooked up the wires. Did you ever notice that there’s never quite enough room in the house to cram in all the wire and those wire nut thingies? After I got it all connected, I screwed the fan to the electrical box.
Everything looked fine. Well maybe the fan tilted just a little. But it looked reasonably OK-until I turned the power on and tried it. The fan seemed to be loose and the whole fixture was wobbling back and forth. So I reversed the process uninstalled everything and made sure that I had tightened the screws to the electrical box really tightly. I then noticed a couple of new cracks emanating from the hole in the ceiling where the fixture was. They were small so I continued the reinstallation. When I turned the fan on again. It was still wobbling. And the cracks radiating out from the fixture had grown too.
I decided that I had better call my Dad. Please understand that my incompetence with all matters involving tools does not come naturally. My father is a wizard as a do-it-yourself man. He can build or fix ANYTHING. So I called him. He asked if the electrical box was connected to anything more substantial than the ceiling drywall. I allowed that it wasn’t, and he told me to get a special bracket that would brace itself against the ceiling joists or whatever they’re called and hold the whole assembly in a rigid way. He also told me how to install a rosette around the hole to hide the cracks. Everything finally turned out fine; but I surely wish I had gone to him first! I’d have saved about three hours of valuable Saturday time.
Isn’t that just like most of us? We want to do things our way, and it might not be the right way either. This tendency is not limited to household repair matters. We try to go it alone, do our own thing much of the time. Many times while we’re messing up our lives, we’re ignoring the B-I-B-L-E, that is, the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. We ignore God’s word and cannot understand how our lives get so messed up. But we’re not the first folks to have this problem. In our Scripture lesson this morning the prophet Jeremiah is talking to Hebrews in Judah who have a very similar problem. Let’s hear the word of the Lord.
Jeremiah 2:4-13 NLT
4 Listen to the word of the LORD, people of Jacob, all you families of Israel! 5 This is what the LORD says: "What sin did your ancestors find in me that led them to stray so far? They worshiped foolish idols, only to become foolish themselves. 6 They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD who brought us safely out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, a land of deserts and pits, of drought and death, where no one lives or even travels?' 7 "And when I brought you into a fruitful land to enjoy its bounty and goodness, you defiled my land and corrupted the inheritance I had promised you. 8 The priests did not ask, 'Where is the LORD?' The judges ignored me, the rulers turned against me, and the prophets spoke in the name of Baal, wasting their time on nonsense. 9 Therefore, I will bring my case against you and will keep on accusing you, even against your children's children in the years to come. I, the LORD, have spoken! 10 "Go west to the land of Cyprus; go east to the land of Kedar. Think about what you see there. See if anyone has ever heard of anything as strange as this. 11 Has any nation ever exchanged its gods for another god, even though its gods are nothing? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! 12 The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay, says the LORD. 13 For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!.
The Word of God, written for the people of God - Thanks be to God
Jeremiah is really giving the Hebrews the old what for. For hundreds of years since God had conceded to their wishes and granted them a king. The kings and their priests had led Israel and Judah astray. The very kings who were originally appointed by God through His prophets had strayed from the same God who had given them their power in the first place. But it wasn’t as if the Hebrews followed them kicking and screaming. They were all too eager to hedge their own spiritual bets.
Why would they do such a thing? God had brought them out of bondage in Egypt. He protected them in their forty-year wanderings in the desert. He had given them a good land with fertile fields for wheat, barley, vineyards and orchards. All he had asked was that they love Him and love their neighbors as themselves. But instead of loving the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and strength the way the Lord told them to do, the Hebrews decided to go their own way. They embraced the gods of the Canaanites who had lived in the land before them. They erected temples to Baal the fertility god and poles to the goddess Asherah. They had mistreated the poor and the powerless. They had defiled and corrupted the idyllic situation in which God had placed them. They had not only forgotten the God to whom they owed everything, they adopted worthless idols and false gods to worship. They had counted on their own devices and forsaken the Lord. They had forsaken the fountain of living water and were digging their own cisterns, but their walls were cracked.
Does it sound familiar? This great country of ours was founded on Christian principles. We were the world’s noble experiment in self-determination where justice would be afforded to all, rich or poor. We gave homage to the God who allowed us to gain our freedom. You can read the writings of the founding fathers and can see the depth of the role faith played in the establishment of this nation. You can read praises to God on all the monuments were erected. You can see God in almost all of the preambles to the national and state constitutions.
What happened? In just fifty years or so we seem to have forgotten God. His commandments which were the cornerstone of our justice system are now outlawed in public buildings. Prayer to him is not allowed in our schools, even though public schools were initially established with the express purpose of training our young people to live good and godly lives. We can no longer have Christmas programs in the days before what they call winter holidays. Cities that allow nativity scenes to be set up on public property risk lawsuits.
Even we Christians are not living lives that would show obedience to the God in which we profess faith. Each Sunday we leave our houses of worship and then go to worship the great god of Walmart, Little League, or wherever our real priorities carry us. Sunday used to be a day of worship and rest; now it’s the second busiest retail business day of the week. It’s like our society were sinking like a ship.
But we have faith. We have a lifeboat. Unfortunately, it’s a leaky lifeboat. And a leaky lifeboat is no better than a cracked cistern. The Hebrews counted on the fact that they were God’s chosen people. They were doing all the wrongs things and were sure they were going to be protected. They were wrong. We’re wrong too. We insist on paddling our own leaky lifeboats. We think that calling ourselves Christians will save us. We can do our own thing. After all we’re Christians. Do you really think it works that way?
What we really need to do is accept the grace of Jesus Christ in our hearts. It’s not about doing or not doing things. The biggest struggle Jesus had in his message was getting the Pharisees to see that it wasn’t about doing. Instead it was about the heart. Jesus has given us a better way to live. He has told us about it; he has demonstrated it for us. Instead of relying on ourselves, we can rely on God. Instead of seeking our own way, we can seek out God’s way for us.
Have you been fighting too many uphill battles lately? Have you been doggedly trying to make your own way through a maelstrom of problems, setbacks and woes? Jesus offers a better way. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. All we need to do is accept His grace, and then follow his leading. As we prepare to come to His table, we can let him take our burdens. In coming to His table and allowing ourselves to become part of Him, we will find a peace that will sustain us when our own efforts end in failure. In the name of the father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
MAY WE PRAY? Most gracious, powerful and living God. We run our lives the way we want with little thought of you. Then we wonder why things fall apart. Help us to rely on you, to trust you, to follow you where you, not we, would have us go. In Jesus’ name AMEN.
I’m not a handyman. You’ve seen that plumbing company’s trucks that have the sign on them, “We fix what your husband tried to repair.” I’m that guy. I’ll tell you how bad it is. You know when you go into the sporting goods section at Walmart or some other store? If you buy a firearm, you have to have a three day waiting period. Well, if I go to Home Depot to buy a power tool, they make me wait three days-in my hands it’s a dangerous weapon!
Some time ago I decided I would install a ceiling fan in my house. I felt it wouldn’t be any problem at all. I bought the fan. Got out my tools and started to work. Everything was going fine. I actually remembered to turn of the electrical power to the room. Then I took down the light fixture, and hooked up the wires. Did you ever notice that there’s never quite enough room in the house to cram in all the wire and those wire nut thingies? After I got it all connected, I screwed the fan to the electrical box.
Everything looked fine. Well maybe the fan tilted just a little. But it looked reasonably OK-until I turned the power on and tried it. The fan seemed to be loose and the whole fixture was wobbling back and forth. So I reversed the process uninstalled everything and made sure that I had tightened the screws to the electrical box really tightly. I then noticed a couple of new cracks emanating from the hole in the ceiling where the fixture was. They were small so I continued the reinstallation. When I turned the fan on again. It was still wobbling. And the cracks radiating out from the fixture had grown too.
I decided that I had better call my Dad. Please understand that my incompetence with all matters involving tools does not come naturally. My father is a wizard as a do-it-yourself man. He can build or fix ANYTHING. So I called him. He asked if the electrical box was connected to anything more substantial than the ceiling drywall. I allowed that it wasn’t, and he told me to get a special bracket that would brace itself against the ceiling joists or whatever they’re called and hold the whole assembly in a rigid way. He also told me how to install a rosette around the hole to hide the cracks. Everything finally turned out fine; but I surely wish I had gone to him first! I’d have saved about three hours of valuable Saturday time.
Isn’t that just like most of us? We want to do things our way, and it might not be the right way either. This tendency is not limited to household repair matters. We try to go it alone, do our own thing much of the time. Many times while we’re messing up our lives, we’re ignoring the B-I-B-L-E, that is, the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. We ignore God’s word and cannot understand how our lives get so messed up. But we’re not the first folks to have this problem. In our Scripture lesson this morning the prophet Jeremiah is talking to Hebrews in Judah who have a very similar problem. Let’s hear the word of the Lord.
Jeremiah 2:4-13 NLT
4 Listen to the word of the LORD, people of Jacob, all you families of Israel! 5 This is what the LORD says: "What sin did your ancestors find in me that led them to stray so far? They worshiped foolish idols, only to become foolish themselves. 6 They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD who brought us safely out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, a land of deserts and pits, of drought and death, where no one lives or even travels?' 7 "And when I brought you into a fruitful land to enjoy its bounty and goodness, you defiled my land and corrupted the inheritance I had promised you. 8 The priests did not ask, 'Where is the LORD?' The judges ignored me, the rulers turned against me, and the prophets spoke in the name of Baal, wasting their time on nonsense. 9 Therefore, I will bring my case against you and will keep on accusing you, even against your children's children in the years to come. I, the LORD, have spoken! 10 "Go west to the land of Cyprus; go east to the land of Kedar. Think about what you see there. See if anyone has ever heard of anything as strange as this. 11 Has any nation ever exchanged its gods for another god, even though its gods are nothing? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols! 12 The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay, says the LORD. 13 For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!.
The Word of God, written for the people of God - Thanks be to God
Jeremiah is really giving the Hebrews the old what for. For hundreds of years since God had conceded to their wishes and granted them a king. The kings and their priests had led Israel and Judah astray. The very kings who were originally appointed by God through His prophets had strayed from the same God who had given them their power in the first place. But it wasn’t as if the Hebrews followed them kicking and screaming. They were all too eager to hedge their own spiritual bets.
Why would they do such a thing? God had brought them out of bondage in Egypt. He protected them in their forty-year wanderings in the desert. He had given them a good land with fertile fields for wheat, barley, vineyards and orchards. All he had asked was that they love Him and love their neighbors as themselves. But instead of loving the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and strength the way the Lord told them to do, the Hebrews decided to go their own way. They embraced the gods of the Canaanites who had lived in the land before them. They erected temples to Baal the fertility god and poles to the goddess Asherah. They had mistreated the poor and the powerless. They had defiled and corrupted the idyllic situation in which God had placed them. They had not only forgotten the God to whom they owed everything, they adopted worthless idols and false gods to worship. They had counted on their own devices and forsaken the Lord. They had forsaken the fountain of living water and were digging their own cisterns, but their walls were cracked.
Does it sound familiar? This great country of ours was founded on Christian principles. We were the world’s noble experiment in self-determination where justice would be afforded to all, rich or poor. We gave homage to the God who allowed us to gain our freedom. You can read the writings of the founding fathers and can see the depth of the role faith played in the establishment of this nation. You can read praises to God on all the monuments were erected. You can see God in almost all of the preambles to the national and state constitutions.
What happened? In just fifty years or so we seem to have forgotten God. His commandments which were the cornerstone of our justice system are now outlawed in public buildings. Prayer to him is not allowed in our schools, even though public schools were initially established with the express purpose of training our young people to live good and godly lives. We can no longer have Christmas programs in the days before what they call winter holidays. Cities that allow nativity scenes to be set up on public property risk lawsuits.
Even we Christians are not living lives that would show obedience to the God in which we profess faith. Each Sunday we leave our houses of worship and then go to worship the great god of Walmart, Little League, or wherever our real priorities carry us. Sunday used to be a day of worship and rest; now it’s the second busiest retail business day of the week. It’s like our society were sinking like a ship.
But we have faith. We have a lifeboat. Unfortunately, it’s a leaky lifeboat. And a leaky lifeboat is no better than a cracked cistern. The Hebrews counted on the fact that they were God’s chosen people. They were doing all the wrongs things and were sure they were going to be protected. They were wrong. We’re wrong too. We insist on paddling our own leaky lifeboats. We think that calling ourselves Christians will save us. We can do our own thing. After all we’re Christians. Do you really think it works that way?
What we really need to do is accept the grace of Jesus Christ in our hearts. It’s not about doing or not doing things. The biggest struggle Jesus had in his message was getting the Pharisees to see that it wasn’t about doing. Instead it was about the heart. Jesus has given us a better way to live. He has told us about it; he has demonstrated it for us. Instead of relying on ourselves, we can rely on God. Instead of seeking our own way, we can seek out God’s way for us.
Have you been fighting too many uphill battles lately? Have you been doggedly trying to make your own way through a maelstrom of problems, setbacks and woes? Jesus offers a better way. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. All we need to do is accept His grace, and then follow his leading. As we prepare to come to His table, we can let him take our burdens. In coming to His table and allowing ourselves to become part of Him, we will find a peace that will sustain us when our own efforts end in failure. In the name of the father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
MAY WE PRAY? Most gracious, powerful and living God. We run our lives the way we want with little thought of you. Then we wonder why things fall apart. Help us to rely on you, to trust you, to follow you where you, not we, would have us go. In Jesus’ name AMEN.