Convenience vs Conviction

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

Sunday, February 26, 2006

(Video) “Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We're traveling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flat lands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls; but, upper most in our minds, is the final destination. On a certain day, on a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true. And the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, scorning the minutes for loitering, waiting, waiting. Waiting for the station. “When we reach the station, that will be it,” we cry. “When I get over the next hump, I'll get right with God.” “When I get a promotion, then I'll give more to the church.” “When the last kid is through college, then I will go to the mission field. Then I shall live happily ever after. Then life will be good.” Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It certainly outdistances us. It isn't the burdens of today that drive men mad. It's the regrets of yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves that rob us of today. That poem touched me. I don't want to have regret by ignoring God's call. I don't want to put it off anymore. Someone once told me our purpose here on earth is simple. It's God's purpose for the lost to know Him. His purpose will be met. The question is will you be a part of His purpose? I want to follow His purpose. I want to. I really want to. Please, Lord.”

How much of your life has been lost waiting for the right moment? When everything lines up, when everything is just how it should be, at that moment, that's when you're going to live the way you know you should live. That's the moment when everything God has to say for your life, you're going to pay attention to it. And, when the circumstances in your life change just slightly, you make it around the next bend, over the next hill, then you'll live for God. And all the things God has to say to you, you're going to stay true to those. But you've got to wait. The timing has to be right.

You have to be just a little bit more established in your career, a little bit more stability in your life and then some of those questionable practices you do, then you can leave those behind and really act the way God wants you to act. Once the kids get off to school, they're so young right now, but once they get off to school, then I can be recommitted to church, I can be reactivated in doing the mission God has in mind for us. There's a time out there. When we get around the next bend, over the next hump, yeah, that's it.

My friends, if you're waiting for some idyllic time in which you can live as God has designed you to live, it will never be realized. It simply doesn't exist. The time to live for God is now. The time to live out our faith and to put our faith into action is now. The time to live by our convictions, what we know to be true, what God has revealed to us to be true is now, not some distant time when it seems more convenient where it works better into our plans for how our life has laid out, but the time is now.

For five weeks, we've been leading up to this moment. We've been leading up to this moment when finally the “rubber hits the road,” if you will, and we put our faith into action. We began six weeks ago on a Sunday saying, if there's something missing in our life, if there's something the world can't give us, that no one else can give us, that's what God gives us. It's called unconditional love. It's His grace that touches us and fills that empty spot in our hearts. We've discovered the only way we can get over past hurts is through forgiveness, understanding, and experiencing God's forgiveness, and then forgiving others and, finally, forgiving ourselves. We discovered how to make it past the fear of living out our faith, the fear of what others might think, the fears of how it might impact our life. And, last week, we navigated around the stumbling blocks, the roadblocks that want to send it off in another direction instead of the direction God is calling us to. And that takes us now, as we conclude, as our faith has been rekindled, as we have a new passion for God in our hearts, it's time to put the faith God has given to you into action. It's time to live by the convictions we have, the convictions we know are true, the convictions God has revealed to us and not worry about whether it's convenient or not.

Living by our convictions means we're going to follow God's commands, this language we're not really used to all that much. We don't talk about the commands of God and yet scripture is full of it. God isn't asking us to do something. God is telling us to do something. Most of scripture is very clear of what God said is right and what God says is wrong. If we're going to live by our convictions, we're going to listen to God and we're going to abide by the commandments God has.

Take a look at Moses. God did not give Moses really a choice. Now Moses could have said no and certainly he tried to say no to God, but God didn't ask him whether he wanted to go to Egypt . He didn't say, “Moses, I'd really like you to do this.” He called Moses into action and He says, “I am sending you to Egypt .” There's not a lot of wiggle room with that statement. “I am sending you to Egypt .” Or maybe the words from the gospel lesson today hit even harder, because we're not used to Jesus talking this way. But did you hear what Jesus said to His disciples? John 4:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I have commanded.” Or Verse 23, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teachings.” Jesus is saying, once we come to faith, once the realization is of the salvation we have in Christ, we respond to God's love and He says we respond with a life of obedience, not language we're used to but certainly that scripture's used to. God is calling us to live a life worthy, worthy of the faith He's given to us, to live the life He's designed for us.

Several years back, do you remember the billboards that were all signed by God? They had a black background. They had the white lettering on the front of it. Maybe you saw those around town. There was one I remembered the other day that I kind of liked and it says, “What part of Thou Shalt Not didn't you understand?” and it was signed “God.” God is serious in His word. When He asks us and tells us and calls us to live a faithful life, living by our convictions then, by what we know to be true means we're going to live according to the commands of God. We're going to be obedient to God.

Now living our convictions isn't always convenient. It doesn't always fit into our time frame or our perspective on how life should be. Go back to Moses again. How convenient do you think it was for Moses, after being established for 40 years in his land, to all of a sudden, pack up, leave the family business behind, get the kids and the family all together, and go back to Egypt. Not real convenient for him. But God didn't ask whether it was convenient. God just says, “I am sending you back to Egypt . I have something for you to do.” How convenient do you think it was for the disciples when Jesus called them into action? As He passed by and they're in the middle of folding up their nets from a hard day's work, He says, “Come follow me,” and they leave their nets and everything behind. They leave their livelihood. They leave their career, their family, their friends. They leave everything. That can't be too convenient. But they left it all behind to follow Jesus.

When God calls you to follow Him, it isn't always convenient. You see, our convictions will tell us that, even if my career does not advance as fast as I want it to, I will not give in to the temptations that maybe some of my coworkers have given in to and some of the practices they have in getting business. Convenience would say, “Well, I can give in for just a little while. And once I reach a certain point, then I can live by the convictions.” See, our conviction says we may lose some of our friends if we don't adapt their kind of language and laugh at their kind of jokes but convenience says, “Well, if I'm in the locker room and it's just me and the guys, that's okay. But when I'm outside of the locker room, then that will be different.” Conviction says, first on my list, this is when our small group is meeting and this is when we're going to study God's word and now I'm going to work my schedule around that. Convenience says, “Well, here's my schedule. I don't know if I can fit it in this week. Probably next week, though, I think Tuesday at about 6:15.” If we're going to live by our convictions, it may not be convenient.

Living by our convictions means we're going to follow God and trust God. We're going to trust God knows better than we do, that God has a better handle on our life and that God knows us and our needs better than we know ourselves, which means we're going to turn control of our life over to God. We're going to say, “God, here's my life. You take it. You use it.” That's not an easy thing to do. Because we don't like to give up control. We don't even like to give up control to God. We want to control our own destinies. We want to control our own life. And so, in essence, we say to God, “We know better than you, God.” Now we wouldn't say it that bluntly to God, but our actions speak louder than that. When we say to God, “You know, God, I know what you have to say but I think I know better in this circumstance.” God's word is crystal clear when God says sex outside of marriage is wrong, that He has reserved that for a husband and a wife. But we say we know better than God. And we say, “No, God, you don't know about today in our society. And really with everything that's going on now, that's just part of the dating process. That's just part of the courtship process. You see, God, we know better than you.” God's word is crystal clear. God says if you owe taxes, pay those taxes. The government is due its money. But we say, “As long as the IRS isn't going to audit me for this one, as long as I can get away with it, they don't need any more of my money than what they already have.”

Conviction says we're going to trust God, and we're going to say God knows better than we do. He is my creator and He is the one that has designed this world and this universe and if anyone should know how I should live, it's God. We also know from God's word He only has our good in mind, that all things are going to work towards that good, so living by conviction says even if we think differently, even if we don't think that really fits in, living by conviction says we're going to live according to God's rules. We're going to live according to how God has designed this place to live. We're going to trust God, and we're going to turn our lives over to Him and to let Him lead us. Living by conviction then really opens us up to the blessings of God.

When the call is answered and we start living by the convictions, living by the things God is calling us to, all of a sudden, the blessings start opening up in front of us. Let's take a look at Moses once again. Now Moses tried to say, “God, send somebody else, please,” but God said, “No, I'm sending you.” And finally Moses relented and he went. Look what God accomplished in and through Moses. Moses went back to Egypt . He led an entire nation out of slavery and over to the brink of the Promise Land . That nation would become the nation of Israel and, from those people, we would have a man named Joseph and a woman named Mary. The two would come together, and our Savior, Jesus Christ, was born. The blessings of God flow out because God knows better than we do. Think about the disciples. The disciples responded to God's call. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing, teaching them.” He said, just before He went up into heaven, He says, “You will be my witnesses. Jerusalem , Judea, Samaria , to the ends of the earth.” Because those disciples and those earlier followers heeded God's call, they followed God's command, you and I are sitting here this morning. Because they spread the news of Jesus and the gospel message took on the hearts of people and captured them and revealed to us the one true God, that salvation is found in no one else besides the name of Jesus. Because of that and through the generations, all of us seated here this morning, believing in that one true God, holding on to the eternal salvation He has won for us, the blessings of God just flow out.

How about the blessings of God when we heed His call, when we follow as He leads us? I think about just recently. It was just a couple of months ago that I stood before you at the beginning of service and I said it's been years in the making but finally it's time to make the plunge. We're going to do a Saturday night service, but I really need 100 missionaries for that to happen. We need 100 people that will come to Saturday night, establish that service, be there to greet people, as we reach out into our community, as we reach into our own congregation, could you come and help be a part of that? Well, I didn't get 100 because God is smarter than I am. No big surprise there. I got 38. But you know what God did with those 38? It was my goal a year from now we would average about 200 on Saturday. We've only had one Saturday in six weeks under 200 and that was 192. God has a bigger idea than I do, but God blesses us as we reach out in His name. And we've seen people from the community come in. I've received e-mails and had personal conversations with people who didn't have a church home and, all of a sudden, they think they've found a home. They're experiencing God's love, and they haven't experienced God's love in a long time. God is blessing us as we heed His call, as we listen to Him, as we follow Him, as we stand by our convictions, what we believe and we know to be true.

If we live by our convictions, though, we have to rely on God's Holy Spirit. We can't do it alone. There's no way we could accomplish it. There's no way we can remain faithful. There's no way we can be obedient to God unless God Himself were enabling us, empowering us, and doing it within us. That's what Jesus followed up with His disciples. After He said for them to be obedient, then He said, “But don't worry.” He says, “The counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.” Jesus says, “I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I'm not going to just toss you out to the wolves, but I'm going to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.” All of us have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Either it was at your baptism through the water and the word as God claimed you to be His son or daughter or it was through the power of His word as He reached out to you, but it's that Holy Spirit that calls you to faith, that Holy Spirit that says there's a God who loves you so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son for you. It's that Holy Spirit that convicted you in your heart and convinced you that Jesus, the Son of God, came, He lived, He died, and He rose again for you. And through the blood He shed on the cross, your sins are forgiven and eternal life is God's free gift to you. It's that Holy Spirit that has given you that faith that still lives in you. And it's that Holy Spirit which will remind you of God's love and remind you of the teachings of Jesus and empower you and fortify you to live by your convictions.

And maybe most importantly, it's that Holy Spirit, when we give into convenience instead of conviction, when we're disobedient to God, that Holy Spirit reminds us of God's love and forgiveness and endless forgiveness and then He sets us back up on our feet and He sets us down that path once again.

It's God's Holy Spirit that enables us to live by our convictions. I suggest this morning is the time we take that seriously. We have rekindled the fire of faith in our hearts. I pray there is a renewed passion in you for God and what He has done for you and now with that new passion and the warmth of God's love in your heart now you want to live by what God's standards are, you want to live according to the life God has laid out for you, you want to trust Him and turn things over to Him, in essence, you're going to live by conviction, not by convenience. Amen.