Family Values: Game Night

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Okay, now I realize this is going to be a stretch for some of you. You’re sitting in church at 8:00 in the morning and you’re going to play Pictionary. Something to write home to the grandkids about, I guess, but we’re going to do it this morning because, I promise, it does have a point to it.

Now Pictionary, if you haven’t played that game, some of the good points, at least from your standpoint, I can’t talk, so that’s a bonus. I have to be quiet. All I can do is draw pictures on the white board here and then what I need you to do is to participate and that is to try to guess what it is I’m trying to draw. If you guess correctly within 60 seconds, score a point and we move on. Like I said, we played it on Friday night at my home. It is a game which is both fun and frustrating all at the same time. Are you ready to go? Are you ready to do this with me? Got enough caffeine in you?

Okay, so we have the white board up here. Pastor Meyer there is going to be my clock keeper, so 60 seconds. He’s going to enjoy this to no end. He’s going to tell me to stop. Okay? So this is an object that we’re looking for here. They got it last night, by the way. [Drawing.] Look at that, record time. Alright. Ambulance, that was it. You ready for the second one now? Okay, here we go. Here’s the second one. Now this is again an object. Here we go. Are you ready? Okay. [Drawing.] There we go, fire truck, there it is. See? It’s easy, right. Okay, these were both words that we were given on Friday night. Here’s another word we were given on Friday night. This would be the challenge one of the evening. Okay, are you ready? This could be the longest 60 seconds of my morning. Ready? Okay, here we go. [Drawing.] Someone got it. We’ll go on from there. Be kind. Okay. If you know how to draw jello, tell me. It was my luck that my team got jello on Friday night. This is supposed to be hair gel, gel, lou, never mind. Okay. Aright.

Pictionary. Pictionary is both fun and frustrating all at the same time. It’s fun when you finally get it and you kind of have that “Aha” moment and you see it. But it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating both for the person who’s trying to draw it because they have in their mind what it is they’re trying to convey but they don’t seem to be able to translate that onto the paper so that you understand it. You’re frustrated because you’re like, “What’s that?” And you don’t quite get the picture. It’s not making sense. You may have gotten a general idea of it but you just couldn’t quite land on it so it’s both fun and frustrating.

And I wonder if that’s how it is with God as He tries to convey His plans for our life. I wonder if there isn’t some frustration that goes on. I think there is on our part. Because God’s trying to draw it all out for us. He’s trying to lay it out so we can see it but there are times when we just don’t get it. We just don’t understand. We read just a few moments ago from St. Paul. He says we see a poor reflection like in a mirror. Now understand, from Paul’s day, mirrors were made out of bronze. That’s not much of a mirror, right? The best you can get is a faint image of what it’s supposed to look like and that’s what he’s saying about God’s plan. He says, “It’s like a poor reflection in a mirror.” We get an idea, we get a hint of this is where God is leading us, this is what God is trying to accomplish but we don’t quite get it and there could be times when that is frustration.

I think today, in our current situation, I think a lot of us are struggling to find out what is God’s plan for our life and it’s a little fuzzy and it’s not real clear. And so the message that I want you to hear this morning, the message from God’s Word is that God is in control and God doe s have a plan. That’s really what the prophet, Jeremiah, said. We read it a few moments ago. This is God speaking, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” Now that’s God’s promise. That’s God’s Word. Plans to give you hope and plans to give you a future. Even if you can’t see it, even if you can’t make it out, God says, “I’m in control.” And God says, “I have a plan for your life.”

Sometimes, though, God’s plans are not very clear. It’s pretty hard for us to try to distinguish what God is trying to accomplish in our lives. Specifically thinking today about the families who are dealing with issues of uncertainty. And there are lots of things you could be dealing with right now as far as uncertainty. The first thing I think about is the whole job situation and I don’t know where all of you are. I know where some of you are at and some of you are at the point where you’ve lost your job. You were there 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years with the same company and, all of a sudden, they walk in and they are escorting you to the door and you’re saying, “Now what? Where do I go from here? How has God got something in mind with this? How am I going to take care of my family?” Others of you?  You weren’t part of the first round but you’re wondering about the second round. And each time the names come out, you say to yourself there’s relief because you’re not on it but then there’s anxiety and there’s guilt because someone you know is. But will you be next week, next month, next year. So you have uncertainty.

Some of you are dealing with your retirement years and you’ve watched things tank and you say, “But, you know, when we retire, things are going to look great. We’re going to be able to take care of everything but now I don’t know. We maybe better to cancel that trip. Maybe we better not do that home improvement.”  There’s a whole lot of uncertainty that’s going on still in our economy and in our personal budgets. And when uncertainty hits, it’s like, “Alright, God, what do you have in mind here? Where’s this all going?”

Some of you are blessed in the fact that you’re secure. Things are okay. You’re going to be able to weather the storm. You have your job. But there are many in our congregation who are dealing with different stages in life with their family. So maybe it’s the kids are going out of preschool and they’re getting into grade school or maybe they’re going from grade school into Junior High. Oh, I always get a shiver down my spine remembering those years. Or maybe you’re dealing with Senior High or maybe you’re dealing with kids in college. Or maybe it’s your grown kids and you’re watching what’s happening in their lives and it’s those stages of life where there’s a lot of uncertainty as you face each one of those. I’m thinking of youth specifically, I don’t want to pick on them but let’s look at the Junior High age, okay? For Junior High, just getting into the teens, I’m guessing that one morning, the child got up and the parent got up and they looked at each other and they both had the same thought, “When did you get so dumb?” Last night you were an intelligent human being and now what happened? Parents are saying, “What happened to my sweet, loving child and now they’re copping an attitude? They had straight A’s and now they’re barely getting by.” Meanwhile, you have the teen who is saying, “What in the world is going on inside of me? And what’s happening? And why is it that my friends are more important than anything else and my parents want me to be independent but they won’t let me do anything?” And there’s just uncertainty that’s surrounding that.

Some of you have kids in high school and they’re looking out at the world and they’re saying, “What’s in it for me? Is college in my future? Can I go to college? Can I afford college?” There’s just a lot of uncertainty in our world, whether it’s with jobs, whether it’s with family, whether it’s with illness, whether it’s with retirement, relationships, whenever there’s uncertainty. And God’s plan just isn’t very clear. It’s easy for us to say, “Where is God in all of this? Am I just a victim of circumstance, a role of the dice, fate? Because I don’t see God in some great master plan.”

Well, if it’s any comfort to you, those questions have been asked of God since the beginning of time. You can travel throughout history and God’s people at various times and places have said, “God, where are you in all of this?” This morning, I want to take us back to 600 B.C., in and around 600 B.C. Why 600 B.C.? Because some interesting things happened to God’s people at that time in history. God’s nation of Israel has split and so we have Judah as one of the nations and what happens is this guy from Babylon comes rushing in and he takes over their country and he ransacks Jerusalem and then he takes half the population back to Babylon with him in exile. You got the picture? You have the population living in and around Jerusalem and it is in ruins from the war. You have the other half of the population that has been carted off hundreds of miles and now they’re living in exile in Babylon and both groups of people are saying, “Where is God in all of this? What kind of great master plan could there be in this?” Because they’re not seeing it. They’re not getting it at all.

And in the midst of that, God puts His spokesman, God puts His prophet, Jeremiah, and Jeremiah’s message to both of them is, “God’s still in control and God has a plan.” God’s in control. God has a plan. Even though you can’t see it, even though it’s frustrating, even though it’s cloudy, now is an opportunity to step up to the plate to stay firm in your faith and believe the promises of God and that’s why Jeremiah says, “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” God is in control. God has a plan.

Sometimes, though, God’s plan doesn’t coincide with our plans and that always spells trouble. You see, we have in mind how we’d like our life to turn out. Maybe we’re not so rigid that there’s just only one path that we’re going to follow. Maybe we have options. We say, “Well, if this doesn’t work out, then I go to Plan B and if that doesn’t work out, then I’ll go to Plan C.” But we have at least something laid out there, that we’re going to go down one of these three or four paths but what happens when it isn’t any of those paths, when God’s plan doesn’t coincide with any of our plans? It’s easy for us to think at that point, “There is no plan. This certainly can’t be God’s plan for our lives.”

That happened to the people of Judah. Specifically the people who are living in Babylon. Now here’s a point where God’s plan was not fuzzy at all. God wasn’t vague in the least of the plans that he had for His people who were living in Babylon. Now you tell me, as I read God’s plans for them, it was revealed through Jeremiah, do you think this would be the same plan of the people who are living hundreds of miles from their homeland? “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ‘Build houses. Settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they, too, may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there. Seek peace and prosperity in the city. Pray for the city that you’re in.’” Do you think that it matches up with the plan they would have as they’re living in Babylon? Build houses? Settle down? They don’t want to show any sense of permanency with where they are. That can’t be God’s plan. “God has to have a great plan where He’s going to muster up the army once again. God has to have a plan where He’s going to rush in and put these Babylonians in their place. God must have a plan where He’s going to rescue us and He’s going to take us back to live with our homeland and with our families and put our lives back together.” Stay 70 years? Build houses? Settle down? Plant gardens? That can’t be God’s plan. That can’t be the plan. It didn’t coincide with their plan.

What happens when God’s plan doesn’t coincide with your plan? I guess the question I’m asking is maybe God’s plan for your life is very clear. It just doesn’t coincide with your plans and, therefore, you just can’t see it. What do you do when, all of a sudden, things don’t fall into place like you thought and like you planned? When things don’t happen like you thought they should have happened, what happens when the relationship goes south, when you don’t get the job, when retirement isn’t quite what you thought it was going to be, when the grandkids don’t turn out like you thought they were going to turn out? What happens when your plans don’t seem to come to fruition, do you conclude that this can’t be God’s plan. Something has gone drastically wrong here? Maybe God’s plan is very clear; it just doesn’t coincide with your plan. Because, my friends, God is in control and God has a plan.

Sometimes God’s plans for our lives are not easy. Sometimes what God has planned for our life is really difficult. It’s tough. It’s challenging and there’s a point to that and we’ll get to that in a minute. But the fact of the matter is sometimes God can be very, very clear in the plans He has for your life and what’s happening right now and we just don’t see it because it doesn’t coincide with our plans. What really needs to happen is that’s the time we can take something that seems like a tragedy and turn it into a triumph. That’s the time when we courageously accept the situation that God has given to us and we put our faith, our hope and our trust in Him and we believe that God’s in control and that God has a plan. Because, you see, God’s plans always have a purpose.

There’s always a reason behind God’s plans. He’s always doing something. He always has a bigger picture in mind. He’s always working towards something. There’s always a point. There’s always a reason. There’s always a purpose behind God’s plan. Now the people who were living out in Babylon could not understand, could not see God’s plan at all and what He was trying to accomplish there. But God had a plan for them and God was doing something in their lives. You see, God had to teach them that He was the one and true God. God had to call the people back to Himself. If we look at scripture at this time, we find out that God’s people were wandering further and further and further away from Him. They were at risk of losing their faith in their relationship with the one true God, even though they were His people, they were His nation, He was losing them. He had to call them back. The people were running off after the false idols of their neighboring country. They were sacrificing on the altars of these pagan gods. In fact, scripture tell us there are reports, are you ready for this, there are reports that some families were sacrificing their children on the altars of the pagan gods in hopes for a more prosperous life. God had to do something dramatic. God rocked their world. It tore the nation apart. Took half of them off into Babylon, dropped them to the point where all they could do was throw themselves into the arms of their God. That was the only choice. They had to depend upon Him. But God had to call them back. God had to teach them that He’s the only true God. There’s a point, a purpose.

Have you asked the question what is the point, what is the purpose of God’s plan in your life? If things aren’t quite going the way you think they should go, if it’s not falling into place, have you asked the question, “Is God trying to teach me something? Is God trying to call me back?” We may not have the idol gods that surrounded Judah but have some of us sacrificed our families and our children on the altar of careers in hopes of a more prosperous future? Have we shifted our trust from God to ourselves and our own abilities and our own strengths? Is God calling you back? Is God rocking your world right now? I don’t know. Is He shaking things up so that all you can do is throw yourself into His arms and He’s the only way you’re going to get through this? God always has a point. He has a purpose. He has a reason. He has a larger plan in mind that what you can imagine. Always part of God’s purpose and God’s point is that He wants to make you a stronger person. Scripture attests to that all over the place, whenever things start happening in our lives that are not pleasant. When things are tough and things are challenging, God says He’s always going to make you a stronger person. You’re going to have a committed faith at the end of it. He’s working on you, He’s shaping you, He’s molding you. One instance of that is He reveals it to us through James. James says this, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of any kind because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance, perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything.” God is working on us. God could be shaping you, molding you, making you a stronger person. James says, “Consider it joy.” Now, if this is the case, it is not joy in the journey. The journey isn’t fun at all. Let’s be clear about that. There is no joy of trying to search for a new job. There is no joy of living through the cancer treatments or the operations or the procedures. There is no joy in struggling through school. There is no joy in trying to smooth over a rough part in a relationship. There’s no joy in the journey. The joy is that you know the journey will end. The joy is knowing there is a God who has a plan. The joy is knowing that there is a God who is in control. The joy is knowing that you have a God who’s going to carry you through those rough times so, in the end, you’re going to look back and you’re going to say, “How in the world did we ever make it through that?” And you see that God pulls you through. That’s the joy. It’s not of the journey. It’s seeing what God is doing in your life because God’s in control and God has a plan.

Sometimes we get to see that plan come to fruition. Sometimes we don’t. For the people who were living in Babylon, they may have seen a portion of God’s plan come to fruition but they didn’t see the complete picture of what God was doing in their lives. You and I, some 2,600 years later, we have the advantage. We get to see what exactly God had in mind there. As God saved for Himself a remnant of people, a small group of people from where? From Judah. Does that ring a bell for you at all? Think Christmas. Think the prophet Micah. “But you, Bethlehem, Ephraim, though are you least of the clans of Judah. Out of you shall come the Messiah.” Out of Judah would come the Son of God. The fruition of God’s plan that started back even before 600 B.C. is when Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son. The completion of that plan is when God’s Son hung upon a cross and He paid the debt of your sins and of mine. The completion of that plan, if you will, is right here this morning because all of us believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. You see, God was in control. And God has a plan.

He’s still in control. And He still has a plan, a plan for you. It may be fuzzy at times. You may not be able to see it. Other times, it will not coincide with the plans that you have. It may be difficult and it may be a struggle but you know that God has a purpose, that God has a point, that God will strengthen your faith and make you a better person but the promise we hold onto through the good times and the bad times, God’s in control. God has a plan. Amen.

Copyright 2009 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church