I Will Not Settle!: Confronting the Spirit of Cynicism, Part 2

I have some good friends that work in the addiction arena and they tell me, “You really can’t help people until they come to the end of themselves.” I mean, they will con you, they will lie to you, they will promise anything. But if you get with anyone in a Celebrate Recovery or a Twelve Step or some sort of a counseling program where lives really change, everyone knows until you get to the point where you stop denying, stop lying, stop manipulating and just realize: I am helpless and I am hopeless to change.

If that’s you or if that’s someone you know, there is a God in heaven and there is a Jesus who is a Savior that longs to forgive and to restore and to break the chains and to help you. All you have to do is ask and then find a community of His people and get real and get honest and what you’ll find is He will use the power of His Word and His Spirit to little, by little, by little transform your life.

He has done it thousands, millions of times. And my call is for us where He has done that in our life to say so! To be bold! Everyone has their agenda. It’s America, right? I’m glad you can believe this, you can be of this part or that party, you can be alternative this, you can say this. Great.

Believe whatever you want. Christians! How about we be bold and courageous, winsome, loving, and kind and say, “Yes, those are a lot of ideologies, there’s a lot of issues, there’s a lot of ways to do life. This is our way. This is our way. And we’re not down on anybody. Jesus said, ‘Live this way.’ Jesus has done this for us. Jesus has transformed our life. This is who we are and what we are doing. We welcome you. We don’t judge you. That’s God’s job. We welcome you. We want to share with you what He has done in us.” You would be shocked how open people really are. Behind the façade, behind the anger, behind the dysfunction, behind the arguments, behind the polarization, behind all the politics.

I got news! These are regular people with real issues that are lonely, that are hurting, that are struggling, that have anxiety, that have depression issues, that have marital issues, that have family issues, that have financial issues. They don’t need someone going, “Ergh!” What they need is someone who says, “I have and have had those. I think it’s called being human. And everyone is looking for a solution.”

Some solutions don’t work very well. Some promise they will. And we can say Jesus, the Son of God, He came and He broke the power of sin. He destroyed the works of the enemy, He has prepared a place for us, and He has demonstrated, not by words, that He loves everyone.

And you can take it at your own pace, but I just want you know, as a neighbor or as a coworker or as a friend or maybe someone on a plane that I’ve never met – I just want you to know that He really cares about you. And if I can be a part of His process in helping you, I want you to know I will. I can’t tell you how many times I have found myself, and I travel a lot, it’s just part of my job, but I travel here and I traveled a lot of different countries and so I sit next to a lot of different people. And I don’t have a sign that says, “Hey, ask me a question! I’ll preach at you.” Mostly just I start asking questions and I say, Lord, if You want me to share, I want to be empowered, I want to be sensitive.

If this guy is like, “Hey, man,” he’s got a ton of work to do, he doesn’t want to be bothered, I want to respect that. I can’t even tell you the scores and scores of times where a little casual conversation, I mean, people from Muslim backgrounds, Buddhist backgrounds, Indian backgrounds, Hindu backgrounds, rich people, poor people, all kind of different colored people. You get to sit, you know, next to them. And what I find is they’ve got all the same issues I do and after a while I’ll ask a number of questions and they will eventually, not always, but almost always, “Well, how about you? I mean, you know, you married?” “Yeah.” “Got any kids?” “Yeah.” “Had any problems?”

“Sure.” “Well, how do you address them?” “Do you want to hear?” “Well, sure.” “There’s a little story to it, do you mind? Could I have five minutes to tell my story?” “Sure. You’ve listened to me for an hour.” “Well, I thought,” and you know, I’d begin to tell the story of success and, you know, being a basketball star and having a pretty girl and getting good grades and being all that would somehow fulfill me. And it came up empty and Jesus revealed Himself and, you know, it has been a journey and He changed my life and this is what He has done and I’m just a very regular guy who has been forgiven and saved and restored. And I don’t think it’s an accident, He probably put us together today because He loves you.

God wants to rescue people from their prisons. God wants to help people that are lost and looking for meaning and purpose. And He wants to use you and He wants to use me.

Scene number three. God longs even to rescue what the Scripture would call rebellious fools. “Some became fools through their rebellious ways and they suffered affliction because of their iniquities. They loathed all food and they drew near to the gates of death. They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from all their distress.” Now, when the Bible uses the word fool, you need to understand it’s a technical word, if you will. I think it’s Psalm 14, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Now, what he’s saying here is fools are people, he’s not talking about foolishness. These are people that are saying, “I don’t believe in God. I’m an atheist or I’m agnostic.

I have a lot of people that I don’t like, but Christians are at the top of the list. They are narrow, this stuff about one way, I am against them. This is who they are talking about. He says they are rebellious in their ways. And then they suffer affliction, in other words, their behaviors and their sin are producing consequences that are devastating. So devastating they get to the end and they are either clinically depressed or they have broken relationships or they can’t eat or they can’t sleep, or maybe they have caught some sort of disease.

And in their trouble, are you ready? They hit rock bottom. They turn upward and they cry to God and what does He do? “He sends forth His Word and He healed them; He rescued them from the grave.” Their response, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of His works with songs of joy.”

God wants to find lost people, God wants to bring healing and restore people and have them get freedom and then finally, God wants to take people that are far, far from Him and make [them] His sons and daughters. He wants to forgive them and He wants to cleanse them. And it is happening all the time. Jesus looked out and a bunch of, it was a Samaritan village. His disciples, you know, all Jews, they’re thinking, These people can’t be open. These people are anti-God. These people got the wrong doctrine, and some of them are really immoral.

And little did they know that the lady that Jesus had talked to the better part of the morning around noon, is someone that has had five husbands and is living with a guy. Well, “she’s unclean!” Jesus said: You guys don’t get it. I came for her. And He shares the truth of living water and forgiveness. And she is far, far from God. She not only feels unworthy, but she’s in conflict theologically with the Jews. And God touches her heart and she goes and tells her friends. You know something? This man that I never met told me all these things about myself.

And a crowd is coming out of a city and here’s a bunch of Jewish boys following Jesus that think those people, they would never, they would never respond to the message of Yahweh - and now His Son. And there’s a revival that happens. And a whole revival happens through an immoral woman, through a group of people that would never, ever listen. I’ve got news, when trouble hits you, when things are hard and they are getting hard everywhere, when there is violence, when there’s a flood, when there’s a hurricane, tell you what, people are looking at life very differently.

The harvest is white. That’s what Jesus said to those disciples. Hey, people are ten times, one hundred times, infinitely more open. They are not the bad people, they are the needy people. And what they need to hear is some of the redeemed to - are you ready? - say so. Yeah. I was a prisoner, I got free. I was lost, I found a home. I was far from God and I am forgiven.

Scene number four: I love it. God longs to rescue us from the storms of life. One I just described. “Others were on the sea in ships;” these are sailors, “and they were merchants on the mighty waters. And they saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep. For He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. They mounted up to the heavens, went down to the depths; in their peril their courage melted away. They reeled and they staggered like drunk men; and they were at their wits’ end.”

Literally, all their wisdom left them, the Hebrew text says, “And then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it came calm, and He guided them to a desired haven.”

Response: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the council of the elders.” Are you seeing a pattern here? Each of these four situations finds people in different circumstance.

The pattern is God either decrees or allows certain situations and some situations are made of our own folly, our own sin, our own rebellion.

But each and every time if we get to a point of: I have to look up, the trouble, I can’t handle. I am going to cry out to God, regardless of where I have been, what I have done, or what I believe. And He says: I will rescue you. I’ll rescue you. I’ll calm the waters.

And when you think about these four scenes, what you see is a picture of Jesus. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to set the prisoners free. Jesus came to the demoniac, the people far from God to heal and restore. And Jesus, when people were in crisis, even in a storm, He would speak His word and – what? Immediately it was calmed.

There’s this picture of desperation, turning to God, responding in faith, God’s intervention, and healing and then a call to: Don’t be silent. You know? It’s sort of the Old Testament version of: Be bold and courageous. Tell others what God has done for you. And then just in case they missed it, it’s very, very interesting how he is going to end this psalm.

He says, “He turns rivers into a desert and flowing springs into thirsty ground; and fruitful land into salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who live there. He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; there He brought the hungry to live, and He founded a city where they could settle. They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest. He blessed them and their numbers increased greatly, and He did not let their herds diminish. Then their numbers decreased and they were humbled by oppression, calamity, and sorrow. He who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in trackless waste, but He lifted up the needy of their afflicted and increased their families like flocks. The upright will see and rejoice; but all the wicked will shut their mouths.”

Listen carefully to what he is saying here. He has given us these four scenes and the pattern is very clear.

Things can be very, very, very positive and I can turn them to be very, very negative. Right? Fruitful to a desert. And then he says things can be very, very, very negative and I can intervene and I can make them very, very positive. And he says: And then there can be injustice and I can take princes and rulers and presidents and prime ministers and kings and I can humble them in a minute.

God is powerful. God is in control. He is not done yet. His purposes will not be thwarted. And He is still looking for men and women who refuse to settle. Men and women who will say, “I will not be overcome with this spirit of cynicism.” Oh, that’s just, idealism. That’ll never happen in our day. It’ll happen in our day when regular men and regular women and students take a step and are bold and courageous like those who have in the past, those that are doing it now, and God will work. It’s what He promised.

Notice the final verse is a warning. “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,” what things? This pattern. God is control, not China, not the United States. God is powerful, not Hezbollah, or not Israel or not some ideology here or there. It’s not some undercurrent. There are all kind of things happening, but there’s an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing God who has a purpose and He’s going to fulfill it.

“Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,” this pattern, “and consider the great love of the Lord.” Behind it all is His passion to do – what? To find the lost, to free the prisoner, to just liberate the ridiculous fool and atheists, to know that they are loved and even in calamities to say: Let Me bring calm, let Me bring forgiveness, let Me bring wholeness.

We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were compelling us as His instruments to everyone in the world. Be reconciled to God. Those are Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5. If you’re a follower of Jesus, you are His ambassador, you’re His representative. And the white of harvest is all around us. Here is my plea, here is God’s Word to you and to me: He is powerful, He’s in control, and He has given you and me the job to be bold and courageous in one of the most strategic times in world history. Let’s not blow it.