"Just Make the Best of It" By Chris Ulrich November 13th,
2016
Thank you, this morning. You may be seated. Good to see everybody out this morning, and,
enjoyed that ice-breaker prayer at the beginning, for sure. I enjoyed the music, a lot, too, I have to
say. It’s been a great month; this is a
month that we revisit, it’s about giving thanks to God. The theme for this month is about giving
thanks, and, if you haven’t already read, our theme verse for the month is: Mark 8:6 And he commanded the people to sit down on
the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave
to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. There’s going to be three points,
this morning: • We
Can’t Fake It • How
Much Have I Been Forgiven? • Just
Make the Best of It I’d like to ask Laygoze, if he
could come up and lead us in a prayer about the service. Laygoze: Father God, we come
before you this morning to thank You for all that You’ve done. Father God, we thank You. Father God, we look toward our nation, this
morning, Lord, it seems to be mixed up, Lord, but I know You can straighten
it. Father God, we thank You, we just
thank You, oh, God. Father God, we thank
You for our children; if they’re good, or if they’re bad, they’re our children,
Lord, and we know that You can ring them in, oh, God. Father God, we thank You for all that You’ve
done, Father God; You’ve been a good God to us, especially me, Lord. You’ve been so great to me. Father God, if You would just be our light in
dark places, if You would just be our bridge over troubled waters, Lord, we can
thank You, we will praise You we will honor Your name. In Your Son, Jesus Christ’s name we pray,
amen. Thank you. 1st Point – We
Can’t Fake It There’s a term that maybe many of
you have heard before, maybe not. The
term is, ‘euphemism.’ I thought about
that this morning. That wasn’t
originally part of the sermon today, but, it was something that, you’re going
to understand where I’m going with this when I read some of the verses that I’m
going to read. And, a euphemism is a
mild or indirect word or expression that’s substituted for one that’s
considered too harsh or too blunt. In
other words, like, when there’s a big lay-off at a company, what do they call
it? Downsizing. Whenever you hear about something that’s a
death, a lot of times it’s called somebody that’s deceased, or somebody that’s
departed. You hear about a tragedy, and,
sometimes, it might be given a euphemism of, “Well, it’s a misfortune,” or,
“It’s an unfortunate event.” So, I’m going to start by reading
Matthew chapter fifteen, verses seven through nine. This actually originated, a little bit, as
far as its usage in this message, we had a fellowship gathering, about a week
and a half ago, and there were a few of us sitting there—myself, Bill Adams,
Pete Sipla—and we were talking about some of the things about, like, what about
being thankful, what about not being thankful?
So, these are the words of Christ: Matthew 15:7-9 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This
people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from me. But in
vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. So, does this sound like a
euphemism? It isn’t. I mean, this is pretty blunt; Christ isn’t
mincing words, and He’s not holding back.
But, He’s not talking to every single person, He’s talking to the
Pharisees. He’s talking to some people
who had become—the religious people of that day—that had become so engrossed,
and so entrenched in their own beliefs, in their own ideology of what religion
was supposed to be, that they missed the point, altogether. And, I get that this isn’t a pleasant verse
to start a sermon, especially during the month of giving thanks, but it’s more
about knowing that we what we display on the surface can sometimes differ from
what’s down within our heart. I almost
called this point, “We shouldn’t fake it,” because it really still is an option. I’m going to read another verse,
and this is a prophecy to the priests, the ones that were in charge of the
Temple. And, it’s the word of God that
comes to Malachi, and it says: Malachi 1:6-8 A son honoureth his
father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?
and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O
priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy
name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine
altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of
the LORD is contemptible. And if ye
offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with
thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts. This is another passage that we
can all pretty plainly see, it’s not from the happy play list. It’s a strong warning from God that being
half-hearted and having no fear of God is not going to cut it. It’s not going to endear us to the Holy One
of Israel. But, this is as relevant
today as it was thousands of years ago.
We’ve all heard the expression, “They’re two-faced,” or, “They talk out
of both sides of their face,” or, “They say one thing and they do another.” We’ve all heard these expressions. These are things that, basically, going back
to the term that Christ called the Pharisees, hypocritical. And that’s one of the worst things to
be. We’re not going to get too deep into
that portion of it. But, why did I use these verses,
today, to make the first point? Because God
doesn’t want lip-service. We can sound
off all we want in public, and, “Praise the Lord!” and “Hallelujah!” and “Great
is our God, all the time!” and all these kinds of things, and, I’ve got to say
that those are expressions that are fine.
Those are expressions that are important. Those are things—but, if we’re going to just
say them, and not act upon them, and we’re not going to live them, it doesn’t
mean anything to God. Not one bit at
all. And, I don’t make that statement to
make it sound as though I’ve never been guilty, either. I’ve had to make necessary changes at
times. I’ve got a quick story that I’m
going to share, here: This was probably
about twenty years ago, and, I’m not going to get into the names of the people,
but I know Rick Matczak—is Rick here this morning? He’s working?
Okay. Well, he was our cook, in
the kitchen, at the church, also part of the school, that many of you were part
of. So, at the building that we had,
there was the kitchen, and then there was the back loading dock area, so,
anyway, there were times that, whether something happened, that I got upset, or
whatever the case may be, I know that that back door, it withstood a lot of my
punishment, I just have to say. And, I’m
not proud to admit that, but I’m just going to say, I don’t know how many times
Jim Bailey had to fix that thing. And I
know that Rick Matczak probably, “What’s with this guy, again?” But, you know what? I had to make the correction. Because, if I’m starting to get this
reputation as a hothead, that’s not really boding well for my Christianity or
my testimony. Now, why would I share
that? Because I have to be honest about
it. If I sit there and say, “Oh, no,
that wasn’t me; that was somebody else.
That was Pete Shepherd.” People
are going to be like, “No, I don’t think so.”
But, we all get angry on occasion, and I get it, but the Bible tells us
not to the let the sun go down on our wrath.
And I’m going to just share one other thing that’s not really part of my
notes, but, there’s going to be times that there are things, or whatever the
case might be, where we’re going to be so enraged, or we’re going to be so
frustrated, or we’re going to be so displeased, that we’re going to feel it
that night. We’re going to feel it, and,
what I mean by that is, we have to give it to God, because we can’t take it
away, a lot of times, because, a lot of times, the circumstances are going to
be the same the next day. I can’t tell
you how many times that I’ve gone to sleep and just I’ve felt like, “I can’t
get over this on my own.” And, whatever
the case might be, whatever that wrath was directed at, and I woke up the next
day, and it was gone. I’m not talking
about there still weren’t problems in the world; I’m not talking about there
still weren’t problems in America, but that was gone, and I knew that God had
taken it. And I knew that God had given
me that power to overcome that. And
that’s not an every night thing. I think
we all know each other well enough to know that, it’s something that—you know,
the Bible talks about the wrath of God.
The Bible talks about, you look at, like, how Moses got angry when he
came off the mountain; he slammed down the commandments. I mean, it’s not something that we make
excuses for, or it’s not something that we let ourselves off the hook, but,
it’s a real characteristic; it’s a real trait.
We need to give it to God and let it go.
And, this point isn’t solely about anger, but I know that I can’t really
be all that thankful when I know that I’m filled with anger, I just know that’s
a fact. I know that when I’m so enraged,
or, whatever the case might be, I know, at that moment in time, I’m not
thinking, “Oh, thank You, God! Thank
You, God, this is so great! I’m just
enjoying this so much!” because that’s not the case. But, God wants to be the potter, and He wants
us to be the clay. We have to make
adjustments. I feel like that was
something in my life that I had to make an adjustment. Have I gotten angry since that point? Sure, I
have. But, I share that with you to know
that there are things that are going to happen that we can’t just fake it, we
can’t just always think that, “Well, I’m just going to act one way, and live
another. I’m just going to say one thing
and do another. But, one last point in this
section, as far as being thankful, there’s no strings attached. In other words, we can’t think within
ourselves that we can be thankful, only if certain things happen to us. I’d like to say that again: We can’t say, “I’ll only be thankful if
certain things happen to us,” or, “if certain things happen around us.” I’m not going to get into politics, but, I’ll
tell you one thing: I feel like God laid
on my heart, “Put this together before the election, because, if you don’t, the
effects that you’re going to have”—I didn’t know who was going to win, and it
really didn’t matter, because I looked at it this way, “I’m going to put this
together. I’m going to listen to what
God’s telling me about this particular, specific detail.” But, we can’t just be thankful if we get the
raise, or if we get the house, or if we get a relationship, or if our team wins
the World Series. Nah, I’m just kidding
on that last one. But it’s still the
same. There’s plenty of times when we’re
not going to get what we want, but God’s always going to give us what we need. 2nd Point – How
Much Have I Been Forgiven? But, I like the point that you
used last week, Parrish, about levels of thankfulness, and it immediately made
me think about, “Well, where do I stand?
How deep does my thankfulness to God really go? And the next statement he made was “Not
everyone is thankful the same amount,” and I thought that was a very profound
statement; I thought it was thought provoking, and it caused some
soul-searching. But, I’ll tell you this
much: It caused me to be more thankful,
because, when you hear that, when you have it put out in such a way that it’s
challenging, because were not up here to just tickle anybody’s ear, or to give
euphemisms. This isn’t about trying to
slam anybody, either, but, it’s not about, like, trying to let ourselves off
the hook. Luke 7:40-47 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I
have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two
debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly
forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he,
to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto
Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no
water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with
the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no
kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my
feet. My head with oil thou didst not
anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which
are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little. I appreciate the inspiration you
gave, Parrish, from last week because, I was glad you didn’t use this,
first. I thought, “Well, there goes one
verse that I planned on using.” So,
thank you for that. You know, this might
sound a little bit strange, but, we’re really the ones who decide how much we
think we’ve been forgiven. So, I want to
say that again: this might sound a
little bit strange, but, we’re the ones who decide how much we think we’ve been
forgiven. And I’m not talking about
making things up and pretending like we’re mass-murderers, or we’ve committed
the crimes of the century; I’m just being honest here. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, act
like we’ve never done anything wrong at all.
And, I ask that you not miss-hear me on this. This isn’t about thinking about what we’ve
been forgiven of just before we got baptized.
This is about from day one of our entire lives until now. And, there are things I’ve done since I’ve
been a Christian, and since I got baptized that I’m ashamed of, and regretful
of, and that I never thought I’d do. And
I’m going to share one more thing: I
remember the date. It was a Christmas
dinner, 1993, we were having a Christmas dinner, and, I remember, there was a
bunch of us that were the waiters, and the bussing of the tables, and that kind
of thing, and, I remember, over by the baptism tank, as a matter of fact, that
there as piles and piles of dishes. I
used to work at a Howard Johnson’s—Does anybody know what Howard Johnson’s
is? Oh, good. Well, it’s a restaurant that had an orange
roof, and they were really popular, I think, from, maybe, Ohio, on East, but,
anyway, I worked at one of those, and we used to get slammed, every single
day. I mean, it was like—it kind of
helped me to some of the work in the church like that, and, this particular
night, we were putting all the dishes, and the silverware, and, bussing all the
tables, basically, but, I remember dropping a whole bus-pan full of
dishes. It was like—I said the name of
the Lord in vain. And, you know
what? Nobody else heard it. God heard it.
And that’s not something I look back and—I’ll tell you this: it’s something that, I felt like—I had been
baptized several years at that point in my life—and I thought, “I can’t believe
it.” And I’m sharing that with you
because, the point of this is: We’ve all
sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And that was something that I did after I got
baptized, and had been pretty well along in my walk with God in my life. And, you know, you look in the Old Testament,
and it says if you use the name of the Lord in vain, you’re going to be stoned
to death. So, I mean, we’re not talking
about something where it was like, “Oh, I, you know, I dropped a pen,” or, “Oh,
I left a dollar out of the offering by accident.” We’re not talking about something that would
be quite minor. But, again, nobody else
heard me. And, it would be easy to say,
“Nobody heard me; what difference does it make?” Well, God hears all; God sees all. So, it was very impactful to me. And, again, it wasn’t a matter of, like,
getting over-inundated, or feeling overwhelmed so much to the point… I’m going to read a verse from: Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man
falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into
mischief.” And let’s not leave out: Acts 2:38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. That remission of sins isn’t just
up to that point. If we commit sins
after we’ve been baptized, after we become a Christian—we have to repent—that
baptism, and that remission of sins is applicable. It’s not something where we have to get
baptized again, nineteen-thousand times, but we have to do it right that
time. We have to do it right that
time. These are important verses to
remember whenever we fall into that condemnation that Satan always brings
against us. We all need to repent and
get back on track, and we need to be able to fight back, regardless of what
we’ve done. But, here’s the big question: Do you feel like you love God with all your
heart, soul, mind, and strength? Do you
feel like God has brought you a long way and given you a greater life than you
had before? Do you feel like He’s given
you stability, comfort, joy and many other blessings? Because if we have that right perspective,
we’ll all realize that we’ve all been forgiven of a lot. And, again, that’s not a matter of looking at
it like, “Oh, this person did this, and that person did that, and I only did
this,” or feeling the condemnation because we’ve done something that’s so far
and above—worse than everybody else.
There’s only one sins that can’t be forgiven, that’s blasphemy of the
Holy Ghost, and that’s a serious thing, but, if we have that seriousness about
the Gospel, we’ll never get to that point.
If we have that repentant attitude, we’ll never get to that point. If we have that conviction from God, it’s
never going to happen. We’re going to look at our last
point, today. I’m going to spend some
time, here: 3rd Point – Just
Make the Best of It And that also happens to be the
title for the message today. But, I know
I remember hearing this expression a lot, growing up, whether it was in school,
or working a job at Howard Johnson’s, when I was in the military, or whenever I
became active in the ministry, and all the way up to the present day. I’ve used it myself a lot, too, and can
honestly say that it’s something I have in my spiritual toolbox. And, I’m going to read some from
the Book of Job, the first chapter. I
know it’s lengthy; I’m not going to read the entire chapter, but I want to read
some from it, and, the reason being is because we have to understand that, in a
lot of ways, Job is the gold standard, other than Christ Himself, for
suffering. I mean, we’ve all heard that
expression—whether it’s people outside the faith. I mean, even my dad, who’s certainly not
religious—I mean, he’s a good guy, and I love him, but, I’ve even heard him
mention Job, and, I’m thinking, “How do you know about Job?” He said, “You know, I was an altar boy.” He was an altar boy at one point in his life,
but, God’s working with him. God’s
working with all of us. But, again, I’m
going to read this, and, again, I’m going to skip through it, skip down as I go
through it, and I’m going to read a little bit faster, because it is a very
lengthy chapter. Job 1:1-7 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose
name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God,
and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and
five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great
household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And
his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and
called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so,
when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified
them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according
to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned,
and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. Now there was a day
when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came
also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan
answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from
walking up and down in it. So, I want to just pause for a moment,
and talk about: We know that, in this
day and age, it’s become more and more to where, like, you hear people talk
about, “Oh, I can’t believe you pray to a God that you can’t even see,” or that
you even have a faith in God, or, “Why bother even going to church?” Well, it’s a matter of believing this, and
having faith in God, that does make a difference, because, it’s not as though
we have to have been there for every single solitary event throughout the
course of history, but, guess who—other than God—has been there? Satan.
He’s been there; he saw the flood.
He saw the Children of Israel cross the Red Sea. He saw the birth, life, death, and
resurrection of Christ. He saw all of
it, so he believes it. The Bible even
talks about, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils
also believe, and tremble.” (James 2:19)
And, yet, we seem to have a world, more and more, where people are not
trembling or even thinking twice about it, but that’s not going to shake our
faith. Job 1:8-12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou
considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect
and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan
answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made
an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased
in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he
will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he
hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went
forth from the presence of the LORD. So, God allowed that. And we could think, now, “Well, that was
unfair.” It was God. I mean, if we think that every single,
solitary event over the history of mankind, or eternity is unfair, there’s one
verse that I’d like to share with you, that’s something that stands out
whenever I hear people, “Oh, God’s unfair!
Why does He allow this? Why does
he allow that?” You know, as if every
wrong that ever happens is God’s fault, but, everything that goes well is just
nobody’s—you don’t give credit to anybody?
We give credit to God. But, the
verses in Titus, chapter two: Titus 2:12-13 For the grace of
God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly,
in this present world; That grace of God that brings
salvation—everybody gets to hear the Word of God. Everybody gets a chance to know the plan of
salvation. Everybody gets a chance to,
at the end of their life, hear, “Well done, thy good and faithful
servant.” It’s not about excluding
anybody. But, it really comes down to
what’s that person’s decision once they hear that truth of God. Are they going to accept it, or, like the
Word of God teaches, most people reject it.
Or, I think a lot of us see that, most people just say, “Well,
eventually, I’ll get around to it.” How
many has heard that argument? I mean,
it’s common. “Well, eventually I’ll to that,
after I sort out all this, after I fix this, after I get that taken care
of.” And, then, if it doesn’t happen,
time goes by. I want to share one other thing,
that I appreciate the youth coming up this morning, and what you shared, and it
was very heart-felt, and it’s something that—I think a lot of times about when
I was twenty-one—I’m forty-eight now, and I don’t feel like life’s gone by that
fast, like, “Boy, it feels like last week,” that’s not the case. That’s not the case. It feels like twenty-seven years ago. So, anyway, I remember we were riding from
work, and I remember God just dealt with me, and He just said, the verse he
laid on my heart, “Remember now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth,”
(Ecclesiastes 12:1). And, it was something
where I can honestly say, as I look back, thank God to have done that. Thank God to have done that, and not to have
thought, “Well, there’s got to be something else better. Something else better has got to come along. But, I want to go back to Job and
just close out the last couple of verses, here, because a lot of you know about
the suffering that Job then withstood. Job 1:2-22 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and
shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked
came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD
gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all
this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. And that, to me, is one of the
highlights of that chapter. Not the
entire book, because it goes quite deep into the things that he
experienced. But, you know, what’s
interesting about this is it doesn’t really get into, you know, the time
frame. It doesn’t say it lasted a week,
it lasted a month, it lasted a year, two years, five years, ten years, and I
think that’s important to know, because sometimes, we don’t know how long the
battle will last. I was sharing with
somebody recently, I had a particular battle that I feel like it lasted twelve
years. And it took way, way, way, WAY, longer than I ever thought
that I could even handle. Way longer
than I ever thought that I can—“Oh, yeah, I can handle this long…” But, you know, when it finally ended—and I’m
not saying I wasn’t thanking God along the way, and I’m not saying there wasn’t
fighting—and that’s another point I appreciate you mentioning, last week,
Parrish, about, “Get Your Fight Back.” I
mean, don’t feel like you can just get run over by the world, or they can just
say anything they want, that they won, and I’m not talking about looking for
fights, but, sometimes, they’re going to come along. Sometimes they’re going to come long. You know, we can’t revise
history—some people try to—but we can change our perspective about what had
happened, even many years later. And I
know that rules for discipline, in society, have changed, as far as, schools,
and workplaces, and homes, and, I suppose, in just about every other place,
and, maybe some for the better, some for the worse. But, I’ll tell you this: Ultimately, we’ve gotten away from Biblical
principles, as far as that goes. I can
see that. And, I know, a lot of times,
people have a chip on their shoulder, and, a lot of times, it’s against their
own parents. And I know we can’t go back
and undo what’s already been done, because those are things that are written in
God’s Book of Works, but I’m real thankful for the discipline that my parents
gave me, now, but I wasn’t when I was in the midst of it. When I was sitting there and I was sixteen or
seventeen or eighteen or nineteen, before I got in the military, before I moved
out, and thinking, “Oh, they’re just bossing me around, trying to tell me what
to do, trying to tell me how to live…”
What’s interesting is, my mom had called me Tuesday night, when I was working
on this, and she’s like, oh, we’re talking about this and that, and she’s like,
“So, what do you got going on for the week-end?” I said, “Well, I’m actually putting together
the sermon,” and I was able to read back to her some of this. I talked to her about some of the points that
I planned on mentioning, and she was very appreciative, very—you know, because,
even then, I know that we didn’t get along that great. I mean, it wasn’t trained to the point of,
just like, absolute departure, until I went in the military. Well, I’ll say this much, there were many
times, where, after I had moved out, and was on my way in life, that they made
the offer about coming back there, and—they don’t any more, I’ll just tell you
that. They don’t tell me, “Sure, would
you like to move back?” at this point.
Those days are quite a bit, long over.
But, you know, I remember them telling us—and I’ve shared this with a
couple of people—that, sometimes, if we get just a part of the story without
telling the whole story, it could sound like we’re trying to just get sympathy,
or tying to, like, dig our heels in against our parents, or, whoever else in
authority. But, I just want to share
something: If I were to just sit here
and tell you, “Yeah, my parents used to tell me that I was going to end up in
Walpole.” Now, Walpole is the
Massachusetts state prison, the maximum security prison. And, if I just told you that, you’d be like,
“Wow, those are bad parents! You know,
what was wrong with them?” You just, you
know, play the sob-story for a while, but, you know, if I don’t preface that
with, “If you keep acting like you’re acting, you’re going to end up in
Walpole. If you keep hanging around with
some of the friends you’re hanging around with, you’re going to end up in Walpole,”
then I don’t look like the eighteen year old victim. Then it’s more like, “Oh, well, we get what
they were saying, and it makes sense.”
Because, some of the things that they taught me, about getting good
grades, making sure you’re respectful to people, making sure you don’t burn
bridges, because you never know when you’re going to need people. You know, we might be in the midst of a
situation right now, and maybe we’re not happy about it; it could be a
relationship, it could be a job that we’re in, it could be a financial
hardship, it could have to do with politics.
But, then, there’s times when others might even wonder why we would be
thankful for what we’re going through, because, to them, it doesn’t even make
any logical sense, whatsoever. To them,
it seems like, “You shouldn’t be thankful!
You should be outraged! You
should be distraught!” And, sometimes
it’s going to be like, “I’m just going to keep on keeping on. I know that I have a faith in God. I know that I have a trust in God.” You know, we don’t have to be happy with
every circumstance we encounter, and, most likely, that’s going to be the case,
a lot in life. I’m not saying that there
aren’t going to be times where things go our way, because there will be. But then, there’s times when things aren’t,
so, what do we do then? we just make the best of it. So, here’s my movie reference for
this morning: there was a movie that
came out several years ago, it was called, “Little Big Man.” It’s not that old, it was actually in color. But, there’s a scene that’s close to the end
of the film, so, at this pot, we’re really aware of all the hardships of this one
particular character. The character’s
name is “Old Lodge-skins.” The time
frame of the movie is the 1850’s – 1870’s, and it takes place in the foothills
of North Dakota, the Black Hills, Eastern Wyoming, Montana, that
territory. And, a lot of you that are
more history buffs, there was a battle called “Little Big Horn” that happened
at that time-frame, 1876, if you want to look it up. But, anyway, this man has been through many
battles, and he’s older, he’s probably in his sixties or seventies at this
point, but, he had lost his eyesight in the midst of one of the battles. But, as is one of the tribe’s customs, he
climbs a nearby mountain, near the end; he knows his life is near the end. In this one particular scene, he just cries
out, “Thank you for the victories, and thank you for the defeats, and thank you
for my vision, and the blindness in which I saw further.” And he’s thanking God. And he’s thanking God for things that you’d
think, “Why is he thanking God for something like that? Why would you thank God for losing your
eyesight? Why would you thank God for
the defeats? Why would you thank God for the temptations and the trials and
anything else that you go through? Why
would you want to thank God for having to put up with what seems to be
insurmountable heartache or frustration?”
I understand it’s just a
movie. But I like that scene because of
the reference in—it’s about having a perspective about something (in this
instance, blindness; it’s obviously a tragedy).
How could anyone be thankful about something like that? We don’t always have to like something to be
thankful for it. And it’s not always
about showing our battle scars, or thinking that we’ve been through it worse
than anybody else, or think that we’ve had it better than everybody else. God’s dealing with everybody. That grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all of us (Titus 2:11). Some
have been down some pretty difficult roads, but I remember this, this girl, she
was actually a waitress at an Outback, I believe it was. This was a few years ago, and I was in White
Plains, New York. Your neck of the woods,
Ken. It’s kind of an upscale area, that
town is. I remember just sitting down,
and starting to talk with this girl, and she was probably twenty, twenty-one,
and, you know, she had mentioned—I forget how she had mentioned it, but she
alluded to, you know, coming from a fairly well-off background, but she was
almost apologetic about it. I said,
“Don’t apologize for that. If you had a
decent upbringing, what’s wrong with that?
Don’t let anybody who thinks they have it far worse than you make you
feel less than a person, or make you feel like, ‘Oh, you haven’t had it really
hard, because I’ve had it this hard, and, so, you really haven’t got a voice,
or a leg to stand on.’ What’s the point
of that?” And I felt like that was just
something—and I didn’t break out the Scriptures, “Here, let me show you the
verse,” I just told her, “Don’t apologize for that. Don’t feel like you’ve got to get down on
yourself.” This is the last part of that
book. I wanted to read through Job, the
first chapter, and I want to read through just part of the last chapter,
because there is a message here. Job 42:10-17 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job,
when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had
before. Then came there unto him all his
brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance
before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and
comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man
also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job
more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand
camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three
daughters. And he called the name of the
first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third,
Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were
no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them
inheritance among their brethren. After
this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons'
sons, even four generations. So Job
died, being old and full of days. I remember when I first heard
about Malcolm and Rebekah’s daughter being born, and I said, “What’s the
name?” And they said, “Kezia.” And I was like, “I know where that’s
from. From the Book of Job.” And, I’ve got to say, I don’t know anyone
else named Kezia, but, it’s a very pretty name.
And, I appreciate that, because I feel like that’s something that, you
just take a little tradition, I guess, from the Bible, and that’s what I got
from that. There’s another point, Parrish,
that you mentioned last week, that stood out a lot, and that is that sometimes
we see what seems like a sad story, but that’s not the end of the story, and
I’m closing soon. I wanted to read that
last passage, because that is the end of the book of Job, and it’s a victorious
celebration. It’s a glorious celebration. Just making the best of it is
about having a vision and not just seeing what’s right in front of us. It’s about having hope in the middle of a
corrupt world, and that we’re going to be saved and endure to the end. It might even be something we’re tired of
telling ourselves—I’ve been there. I’ve
thought to myself, “You know what? I’m
not going to make the best of it. I’m
tired of making the best of it. I’m
tired of all that time going by, and feeling like it just isn’t going forward,
or I’m not making progress.” God rebukes
me, God corrects me. God says, “No, just
make the best of it.” It’s not an easy
thing to do when things aren’t going well, because that’s going to happen. There’s a song we did many years ago—and I’m
not going to sing, either, I’m going to read this—but, the first part, it
doesn’t sound very encouraging at all, it says, “…though the trials never end…”
Anybody remember that song? And, then, the second part goes something
like this, “I learn to take them as my friend, for each day He covers me.” And we all have something to give thanks to God
for. Thank you all for your time, and
God bless.
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