Myth Buster: God Only Cares about Eternity

Pastor Burcham's Sermon

  Sunday, July 10, 2005

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Would you say God is more like a 911 call or more like OnStar? Is God just there for the emergencies or is He there for much more than that? You know a 911 call, you only do that in a dire emergency. It's a life or death situation, so you call 911. If you're familiar with OnStar, at least from the commercials that are all over the place, OnStar is much more than that. Certainly, you can use OnStar for an emergency but you can also use it to get directions or you can use it to find a restaurant or a hotel. It has a whole lot of application to it.

So which is God? Is God there just for the emergencies? Is God there just for eternal matters? Or is God more like OnStar? Is He a little bit more relevant? A little bit more applicable to every day life? There are two very different perceptions of God, and these perceptions are prevalent in the world today. Either God is a 911 God, which means He's important at the end of life. He's important when tragedies strike but, for the most part, He's kind of irrelevant. He doesn't have a lot of practical application to Him.

The other perception is God is more of an OnStar kind of guy, and that is God walks with us every step along the way. Every moment of every day, God is there with us. The one says He's irrelevant. The second one says He's irreplaceable.

So is God just concerned with eternity? Or is that a myth, a myth that needs to be busted? Let's take a little bit closer look at that perception. If God is just a 911 God, that means we only turn to God when things have really fallen apart and God becomes sort of the last resort kind of place we turn to. We've tried everything else. We've tried picking ourselves up by our bootstraps. We've tried every means, every resource at our disposal to try to solve the problem and nothing else happens. Then we call upon God and we ask Him. He's kind of a 911 God. When things really get in dire straits, when it's a life or death situation, that's when God sort of really kicks in. But otherwise, we don't.

Think of it this way. Let's say you had a flat tire out in the parking lot. Now if you had a flat tire in the parking lot at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale , Iowa , more than likely, you're not going to call 911. If you did call 911, I wouldn't want to be on the other end to hear what they had to say to you if you explained you had a flat tire. That's just not why you call 911. But let's say it's 2:00 in the morning and you're in the worst neighborhood possible of Chicago and you've got a flat tire and all of a sudden some undesirables are starting to congregate around your car. You see a gun in one person's hand. You see a knife in the other person's hand. I think you're going to call 911. It sounds like a good idea to me.

You see, when things are in dire straits, an emergency, when it's an extreme situation, that's when we dial 911. Is that what God is like? Is God only relevant, only applicable to our lives when either we're facing death or we're facing tragedy? It's a perception that many people have because the perception is that God and faith matters simply are irrelevant. They have no practical application to our life.

In the Barna Research Group, there are a lot of holes in that. In a recent study they did, they found out that, of those people who don't have a church home, so those who are completely under churched, 73% of them saw God as being irrelevant. So 73% of the people who don't go to church on a regular basis perceive God as an irrelevant God. They see God as something only there with eternal matters and pretty impractical. He's a 911 God. Alright. It's easy for us to dismiss that. Those are the heathens out there who don't go to church. What about those of us who are in church on a regular basis? How do we perceive God? How do church-going people perceive God? Is He a 911 God or an OnStar God? Well, that same study that Barna did revealed this. 54% of the people who attend church on a regular basis saw God as irrelevant. Over half perceive God as being irrelevant for their lives, so they have regulated God to eternal matters but as far as affecting their life Monday through Saturday, basing their decisions upon what He has to say, no practical application then for God.

I suppose the real question is which God is yours? Is He a 911 God for you or is He the OnStar kind of God? You have to ask yourself some tough questions about that. Is God relevant to your lives? Is there any practical application to your faith, your convictions, your beliefs? Does God affect your decision making, how you act, what you say, what you do Monday through Saturday? Could it be that you have regulated God to an hour to an hour and a half on Sunday morning? That's His place. But once you cross through the threshold and enter into the real world, is there a different person other people see? Is there one face you put on here when you're dealing with fellow Christians and another one you put on when you're dealing with the rest of the world? Do you act and behave a certain way in church but a totally different way by the time you make it to the office on Monday morning?

Is God relevant in your life? Does He make a difference in your choices, your decisions, and how you act? How about your prayer life? When is it that you call upon God? Is the only time you call upon God when there's an emergency, you make the 911 call? When things are falling apart, when it seems to be out of control, you don't know which way to turn, so now you turn to God with all of your requests and all of your needs and all of your hurts, but do you ever pray to Him at other times? It's a tough question for us to answer, but I think we need to be honest with ourselves. Is God a 911 God for you?

Maybe the overriding question is what is the proper perception of God? I mean if 73% of those people who don't have a church home have that perception and 54% of those who do go to church have that perception, is that a correct perception about God, basically that God is only concerned about eternal matters? He's kind of a 911 God. Let's test that. We test that by going to God's Word. What does God tell us about who He is and what He's concerned with? Is God concerned about eternal matters? Certainly, God's concerned about eternal matters. My goodness, is He concerned about eternal matters. He's so concerned He was willing to send His Son down to the earth. John 3:16, we all know that, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Is God concerned about eternity? God the Father is so concerned about your eternity, He was willing to send His Son out of heaven and into this world. He was willing to take His Son so He could be born of a woman, born under the law, born here for us. God's concerned about eternity. Jesus Himself said about why He came here, in Mark 10, “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus left heaven above knowing He'd have to lay down His life for us. Jesus knew the only way you and I could spend eternity with Him, the only way we could find forgiveness was through the shedding of His blood. Only through His death on the cross could we then be accepted into heaven. Is God concerned about eternity? You bet He's concerned about eternity, because He's concerned about what happens after we die. He wants to make sure that, after this life, we have the next life with Him. That's why St. Paul , writing to the Church at Corinth , said this, “For the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” God has given us victory over death so we can have life, eternal life with Him. God is concerned about our eternity. God was so concerned about our eternity, He was willing to sacrifice His Son. Jesus was so concerned about our eternity, He was willing to lay down His life for us. God is so concerned about our eternity that the victory, which was His Son, He gives to us. He's not concerned just about this life, but He's concerned about the next life.

But is that all? Is that all God is concerned about? Is He just concerned about the after life, just concerned about eternity, and just sort of leaves us on our own in this life until finally we die and, because of our faith, we're welcomed into heaven? What does scripture say about that? Scripture says He's concerned with much more than just our eternity. Let's go all the way back to the beginning of time. Genesis 1, we read it a few moments ago. God created a paradise for man to live in, a paradise so he could live out his day-to-day life and He provided for him. So He said to the man, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth, every tree that has fruit on it with seed in it, I give it all to you. I give it to you for food.” Because God was taking care of Adam and Eve. He was taking care of mankind, taking care of their daily needs. We could say, “Well, that was before the fall. That was before sin entered in.” After sin entered in, man fell and all of creation fell with it. Did God just sort of turn us loose and say, “I'll just let you go and figure it out on your own.” Let's take a look at Genesis 3. This is right after God has now given the curse to the snake and He's given the curse to Adam and Eve, “By the sweat of your brow, now you're going to have to work the ground to get any kind of vegetation out of it.” They're going to get kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Now they have just rebelled against God. They have just ruined all of creation. And what does God do? It says, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife so they could have clothes.” God was so concerned about Adam and Eve and, to me, it's such a demonstration of His love He has for us. After everything is ruined, the perfection is lost, God takes time to make clothes for Adam and Eve because He was concerned about their daily life, what happened every moment of every day.

Traced throughout the rest of the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, how did God provide for them? He blessed them abundantly. Think about David and Solomon and how God was active in their every day life. Think about Jesus and His ministry. Now Jesus came here so we could spend eternity with Him and yet, in Jesus' ministry, what do we find Him doing? We find Him taking care of people's everyday needs. All of a sudden, the blind can see. All of a sudden, the lame are dancing down the streets. All of a sudden, a little child has died and the mother is grief struck. So Jesus comes up and brings the child back to life. Is Jesus concerned about everyday life? Certainly. That's why he fed 5,000 on one occasion and fed 4,000 on another occasion. Jesus is concerned with this life as much as He is the life after this. That's why in John 10:10, when He's describing about how He is the Good Shepherd, He's the gate that lets them into heaven and yet He says this, “But I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” That we could have a full life in this world and that we could have a full life in the next world. God is concerned with more than just eternity. God is concerned with every moment of every one of your days. The myth is busted. God is concerned with more than just eternity. God is more than just a 911 God that we call upon in emergencies and when we're in dire straits. God is more like an OnStar God. He's there for the emergencies and so much more.

Now I don't have OnStar because I don't have a GM product but, if you believe the commercials, and, of course, they're always truthful, OnStar is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Because OnStar, if you're in an emergency, you just hit the button and say, “I'm out of gas.” You say, “Thugs are surrounding my car.” You hit the button and say, “Someone stole my car.” They're there for all the emergencies but more than that. You're traveling down the highway, you hit the highway, “I need the number of my friend in Philadelphia .” Bang, you have the number for your friend in Philadelphia . “I'm hungry, I'd like a restaurant.” “There are two restaurants ahead, sir.” “I'm tired, I need some place to sleep.” “Well, there are three choices of hotels for you.” There's so much more that's going on with OnStar than just a 911 call. What they have going for them is helpful, practical, relevant information for the driver.

That could be said of God as well. Helpful, relevant, practical information for us in this life. Is God there for the emergencies? You know He is. God is always there for us to fall back on Him. When we're faced with tough times and we don't know where to turn, God is there. He lifts us up in His strong arms, comforts us. He protects us. He gives us that extra courage, that extra strength we need when we're facing difficulties. God is there to comfort our hearts when we lose someone we love. God's there when we're on our own deathbed, assuring us He's going to welcome us in eternity because of the faith we have in our heart.

God's there for the emergencies, but He's there for so much more. God wants to be a part of our daily life, not regulated to just church on Sunday morning or just to kick in on our deathbed. But God wants to be a part of your life, Monday through Saturday, when you get up in the morning and when you go to sleep at night. God didn't create us, put us in the world, and then leave us on our own, leave us to face the decisions, to make our choices with no help from Him. No, God's practical. He's relevant. So we make our choices and our decisions based upon the faith He gave us in our heart. God speaks to us in His Word. He tells us everything we need to know about Him. He tells us everything we need to know about ourselves. He even tells us everything we need to know about this life. Does it have all the answers in it? No, but it gives us everything we need to know. God listens to us when we pray to Him, and He has promised that He's going to answer those prayers. God works through our heart because the Holy Spirit lives there. And He guides and He leads and He directs us and He nudges us in one direction or another. God is there for every moment of every day because our God is a relevant God. He's a practical God. He is the creator of the universe. He is your creator. Who better will know what is right for you? Who better knows what's wrong for you? Who better to give you guidance and direction? God is there with relevant, practical, useful information.

We just have to make sure we're listening, make sure we're listening and we're paying attention. Otherwise, we could end up like the guy who was searching through the desert. He was walking along in the desert. He got distracted. He got separated from the rest of his crew he was with and all of a sudden he was lost. Now there he is in the middle of the desert. 100 and some odd degrees. He starts walking in one direction hoping maybe he'll find somebody. Pretty soon, he becomes dehydrated. All of his energy is gone from him. He thinks he's probably going to die out there in the middle of all of this sand. But he notices up in the distance, he's pretty sure he sees a guy up there with a cart next to him and, as he gets closer, he realizes there's a road up there. Now he has some hope and renewed strength, so he walks up and sure enough, here's a gentleman standing next to one of those push carts. He goes up to the man and, in a raspy voice, he says, “Do you have any water? I've been out here all day. Do you have any water?” The guy says, “I'm sorry, Sir, I don't have any water but I do have a good selection of ties. In fact, I have a special going on in ties. Can I show you a couple?” He says, “I don't want a tie. I'm going to die. I need some water.” “Well, I understand your situation, Sir, but you know this one I think would go rather well with the outfit you have right now. It's a nice looking tie. The colors match well.” “I don't need a tie.” “Listen, I understand if you don't have any money. I'll give you the tie for free. If you like it, come back and visit me some other time.” Now the man gets really angry. He says, “I don't want a tie. I need water.” So he starts walking down the road. Pretty soon, he gets fatigued again. He doesn't get maybe 10 minutes down the road and he sees what looks like a restaurant. He can't believe it. Is it a mirage? Is it real? So he picks up his pace a little bit, and he walks up. There's kind of a big guy standing in front of the door and he walks up to him and he says, “Is this real? Because I've been out here all day. I need some water. Do you have water?” “Oh, yes, Sir, we have all kinds of water here. We have several different kinds of bottled water inside. We have flavored water. We also have tap water that's ice cold.” “Oh, thank God,” he says. And he starts to go towards the door and the man holds up his arm and says, “I'm sorry, you can't go in unless you have a tie.”

What may seem impractical and irrelevant at one moment becomes crucial the next. Everything God has to say to us is relevant, even if it seems impractical at the moment, it will become crucial some time in the future. God is a God for everyday, not just emergencies, not just end of life issues. Our relationship with God should last longer than an hour on Sunday morning. It should be a part of every moment of every day of every year so, on Monday morning when we hit the office, God goes with us. Tuesday night when we go to the soccer field, God goes with us. Friday night when we go to the party, God goes with us. Saturday when we go golfing, God goes with us. Every moment of every day. Is God concerned about eternity? He was willing to die for it. He's concerned about it. But God's more than just a 911 God. He's more like an OnStar God, concerned about eternity and so much more. Amen.

. Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church