Dependence on God

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, January 8, 2012

You have no doubt heard the story of the man who was so enamored by God’s creation. He was standing on this tall cliff and he was looking out at the beauty and the grandeur of all that God had done. He was so engrossed with it that he wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing. So he was sort of walking aimlessly. Unknown to him, he got closer and closer to the edge until finally, the ground gave way and he started plummeting down the side of the cliff. Hands flailing, reaching for anything, finally about 10 feet down, he grabs onto a small branch that’s sticking out the side of the cliff and he’s hanging on for dear life.

He cries out, “Help, help! Is there anybody up there? Anybody up there at all?” And what seemed like an eternity of him crying out, “Is there anybody up there,” finally, a loud voice says, “Yeah, my son, I am here.” “Oh, thank God,” he says, “you’re up there.” He says, “Throw a rope. Get a helicopter. Get the rangers, something. Get me off the side of the cliff.”

“I can help you, my son, but do you trust me?” “If you’re who I think you are, yeah, I trust you. Sure, sure, I trust you. Just get me off of here.” “Are you sure that you trust me, son?” “Yes, I trust you. I trust you.” “Alright, just let go and all will be well.” “Is there anybody else up there? Anybody? Anybody at all?”

Haven’t you wondered the same thing? Is there somebody else up there? It’s so easy to trust God when we are firmly planted on solid ground. When life is going just as we planned, just as we expected, it’s easy to trust and depend upon God. But when the unexpected comes, when life throws us a curve ball, all of a sudden, it becomes very, very hard to just let go.

As we enter into a new year, both as individuals and as a congregation, I believe it is imperative that we live and we walk by faith, that we trust God implicitly, that we put our total dependence upon Him and Him alone. Sometimes, things happen unexpectedly. Sometimes, things throw a curve at life and sometimes even for us as a congregation.

I think it’s important that we start out recognizing something that happened at the end of last year. We had a big decision as a congregation. Were we going to expand our ministry? Were we going to go forward with the site on Hickman? Were we going to renovate it or were we going to do some work here? Is that how God was leading us? For weeks, you heard me say that God would speak through you, the people of Gloria Dei. And the only way that I know He would speak through you would be through a vote. That’s how God would give us His direction.

Leadership said 67% if we were going to go forward. A little over 61% said yes. The answer was no.

I think it’s important that you hear from me, that I still maintain God spoke through you, the people of Gloria Dei. I think it’s important that you know I believe God indeed gave the answer, but I also think it’s important to be honest with you, to say that it doesn’t take away from my surprise or my disappointment because that’s what I expected. That’s where I thought God was leading us.

Thus, today I think it’s imperative that we trust God and we depend upon God for our future exclusively, both as a congregation and as individuals. As we move forward in faith, we want to depend upon God and only God. In the current circumstances, I believe that boils down to three things that are important for us as we depend upon God.

Number 1 is we won’t always understand. Depending upon God is not dependent upon us understanding. Sometimes, the circumstances of life that are around us do not make sense. It makes us scratch our head and say, “I don’t get it.” Case in point would be the gospel lesson we read a few moments ago. Now we just heard the tail end of that story. The beginning of the story, you may recognize as the rich young ruler.

It starts out this way, “Once a religious leader asked Jesus this question, ‘Good teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?’” Well, some bantering goes back and forth between the two of them. Finally, Jesus says, “You need to obey all the commandments,” and they list a few of those, to which the young man says, “I have obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”

Now for almost decades, preachers have railed against this young, rich ruler saying how arrogant he was, how self righteous he was, how incredulous that he would say he kept all of the commandments. I think that’s unfair. I think what we have here is a faithful individual and he answered Jesus truthfully, as far as he understand the truth. He evidently had dedicated his life to following God very closely, very meticulously, wanting to be faithful to God, so much so that he sees Jesus as a religious leader, as an authority and he comes to Jesus and he says, “Okay, what am I missing? So what else is it that I need to do? What is it that I’m missing so I can remain faithful to God?”

So Jesus invites him to have total dependence on God. He invites him to trust God implicitly and he goes right to the heart of the matter. He goes to the one thing that this young man evidently was still hanging onto. So it goes on this way, “When Jesus heard his answer, ‘There is still one thing you haven’t done,’ He said. ‘Sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.’ ‘Sell everything?’ ‘And then follow me,’ Jesus says.”

First of all, you need to understand, God isn’t against possessions. God isn’t anti-rich or wealth. That’s not the point here. The point is not the wealth. The point is not the possessions. The point is that’s what this guy was still hanging onto. That’s where he found some security. That’s what he was depending upon. And who of us cannot relate?

Who of us, including me, do not find some security in the fact that we can put food on the table, that we have money in the bank, we can pay our bills, we can pay the mortgage. There is a certain dependence on that. There’s a certain security in that. One can understand where this young man is coming from and Jesus zeros in on that.

But he didn’t get it. He didn’t understand. Culturally, for him, possessions meant that God was blessing him, that he was living the right way, he was doing the right things, so God was blessing him materially. So now, Jesus says, to follow God, you have to give all of that up? It didn’t make sense to him. He couldn’t understand what was going on. Although it doesn’t say implicitly in the Scripture, one can ascertain that he just walked away because he couldn’t get it. He didn’t understand.

Contrast that to the disciples. The disciples also didn’t understand. Again, if we go into the context, right after this incident with the young man, it says, “Taking the twelve disciples aside,” so He takes the close twelve aside. He says, “Listen, we’re going to Jerusalem where all the predictions, the prophets had concerning the Son of Man, will come true.” He’ll be handed over to the Romans. He’ll be mocked, treated shamefully, spit upon, flogged, whipped, killed, but on the third day, He’ll rise again. And then Verse 34 says, “But they didn’t understand any of this. It didn’t make sense. ‘What do you mean you’re going to be arrested? What do you mean you’re going to be flogged? What do you mean you’re going to be killed?’”

There was another incident when Jesus said something similar and Peter pulled Him aside and rebuked Him and said, “What are you talking about?” He’s the Messiah. He’s the one they’ve been waiting for. He’s going to lead the people. He’s going to be their king. This is their triumphant time. No, it doesn’t make sense that Jesus says He’s going to be whipped, mocked, killed and raised on the third day. They don’t get it. The difference is they didn’t walk away. They walked with Jesus. They didn’t understand. They didn’t get it, but yet they continued to walk with Jesus.

There are those times in our lives when we don’t understand. We don’t get it. Things happen unexpectedly that just don’t make sense. It’s the routine doctor’s appointment that you walk out with bad news and say, “Where did that come from?” It’s the lay off that happens just before Christmas and you say, “Who would do such a thing?” It’s the relationship that ends out of the blue. It’s the teenager that goes rogue on you and yet, you never saw it coming. And you say, “I don’t get it. I don’t understand.”

Even for us as a congregation, at least 61% are saying, “So what does it mean?” Actually, I think all of us should be saying, “What does it mean? What is God saying to us?” Is He saying, “No, brick wall. That’s not how I want you to go?” Is He saying, “No, not yet?” These aren’t sour grapes. This is real life. This is what I’m talking about. It’s when you don’t understand, but dependence upon God is not depending upon us understanding. Dependence upon God says, “We don’t walk away. We keep walking with God.”

We don’t walk away and say, “I don’t get it, I don’t understand, so I’m going to have nothing to do with it.” We continue to walk with God trusting and believing that God has a plan, that God sees the bigger picture and there’s still something in store for us.

Jesus saw the bigger picture for the rich, young man. He knew that the one thing that was holding him back was his wealth. If he could let go of that, his faith and his trust in God would soar. Who’s to say that he wouldn’t double his wealth later on? That’s what He did in the Old Testament with Job. God took all of his wealth away and then he doubled it later, because it has nothing to do with the wealth. It has everything to do with the fact he needed to let go. The disciples would come to understand, “Yes, indeed, Jesus had to die,” because only through Jesus’ death, only through the spilling of His blood could the penalty for our sin be paid and only through His resurrection could new life be given to all those who believe in Him. Later on, they would understand. They would get it.

In the same way, I have absolutely no doubt that God has a plan for this congregation. The mission hasn’t changed, to bring Jesus Christ to people for the first time and a lifetime. That’s the marching orders that we have. God still has a plan for us. God has something in mind and I have no doubt that some time in the future, we’re going to look back and say, “Oh, I get it. Okay. I know what He was doing back then.”

I have not doubt that you can look back on your own life, when there were times when you didn’t get it, you didn’t understand, you were confused but here today you can look back and say, “I get it. I see what God was doing.” Because dependence upon God is not dependent on us understanding. It means we don’t walk away but we walk with God, trusting and believing in Him.

Dependence upon God means that sometimes it’ll be impossible. I chose my words carefully there. I didn’t say it will look impossible or it will seem impossible. Dependence upon God means it will be impossible.

Take, for instance, Jesus’ impossible statement. His impossible statement is this: “When He saw this,” that is, the young man’s disappointment, “He said, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’” Once again, throughout the years, scholars have taken this apart and said, “Well, did Jesus actually mean a physical needle? Was it a big needle, a small needle? Or was He talking about a small gate that was in the wall around Jerusalem that would have been next to near impossible for a camel to get down on its belly and scrunch under?” You’re missing the point. It’s hyperbole. It’s an impossible statement. It’s meant to be an impossible statement. It’s impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. It’s impossible for you and I, on our own, to put our complete trust and dependence in God.

When we’re hanging on the side of the cliff, when life has hit an unexpected turn, it’s impossible, on our own, for us to just let go. When we’re caught into the circumstance, we’re filled with doubt. We’re filled with fear. We’re filled sometimes even with anger.

Jesus’ impossible statement is actually a gospel statement. It’s a statement that is filled with grace, grace for the young man, grace for the disciples and grace for us. You can tell by the introduction, “When Jesus saw this,” what did He see? “When He saw the young man’s despair, when He saw his sadness.” When it sunk into this young man that it just wasn’t possible for him to do what Jesus was asking him to do, he was incapable of selling everything, of giving away his inheritance from his father, his grandfather, all of the security to go away, it’s as if Jesus says, “You’re right. I understand. It is impossible for you,” but Jesus says, “Not for me.”

When God called upon us to live by faith and total dependence on Him and we say, “It’s impossible. I just can’t let go,” Jesus says, “I know. It is impossible for you, but it’s not impossible for me.” God can work in our hearts and strengthen our faith and give us the courage to let go and just trust Him and depend upon Him. Dependence upon God, total dependence upon God, is God’s work, not our work.

Dependence upon God means that things won’t always happen according to your timetable. My experience is it rarely works according to my timetable. It’s always God’s timetable. In other words, we can make all the plans we want in life, we can set about and say this is the direction we want to go, we can set the objectives, the goals and start moving in that direction and God could say, “No.” And not only just no but He says, “No, I mean no. That’s not the direction I want you to go.” That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan. Living as responsible people, we should plan. We should have those goals, those aspirations, those ambitions in life but sometimes God says, “Nope, that’s not how I want you to go. I want you to go a different way.” Sometimes, we could set out our goals, our plans, our direction, our objectives, all the things we want to do, our aspirations and God says, “No, not yet.” No, not yet doesn’t mean no, it’s never going to happen; it means not right now. It’s not the right time.

I think of the disciples as they stand on the top of the hill and Jesus is about to ascend up into heaven and they say, “Lord, are you now going to establish your kingdom?” And Jesus simply says, “No.” Does He mean no, never? No, He says not yet. He says, “Only the Father in heaven knows the time when that’s going to happen.” Jesus will establish His kingdom. He will return and all those who died in faith to Him will be assembled and will spend an eternity with Him, but it wasn’t at that moment. It was, “No, not yet.”

Sometimes, when we don’t understand, sometimes when it looks impossible, God is saying the time isn’t right. He’s still preparing us. He’s still growing us. He still has something else that needs to happen. Or maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with us, but it has something to do with some other part of God’s plan but it’s just not yet. It’s not the right time. Dependence upon God is trusting that God’s time is the right time. Dependence upon God means that we don’t force our timetable. It doesn’t mean that we sit on our hands. It doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything. It means we follow where He leads. It means we do not force our will upon God, that we don’t go against His will, that we don’t do something sinful so we can get our way and push our agenda through. It means that we faithfully walk with Him, listening, eyes wide open, saying, “Where are you leading, God?” And praying for patience the whole time.

Dependence upon God. It isn’t always according to our timetable. It’s His timetable. In essence, it means we have to let go. We have to let go and trust and believe in God.

As a congregation, we need to let go and trust and believe in God. I am confident that He has a plan for us. I’m confident that He wants us to continue on with His ministry and I’m confident that He will reveal to us in His time exactly how He wants us to do that.

I am confident that God has a plan for you and, in His time and His way, He’ll reveal that to you. There will be times we don’t get it. We don’t understand. There’ll be times when it’s impossible and that’s when God steps in. And it won’t happen according to our time. It’ll happen according to God’s time. But we move forward in faith. We don’t walk away. We walk with. Amen.