Finding Meno

Finding Meno

John 15:1-11

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, I realized next week is my ninth anniversary at First Methodist. When I arrived at FUMC in 2013, my life was in the midst of a huge transition. I not only started a new job at a new church, in a new city, in a new state, but I also started a doctor of ministry academic program. And I should tell you, I HATE change. I resist it at all costs. BUT, it appears God loves change! Or He at least uses times of transition to change me. Apparently, that is when I'm ripe for the molding. Maybe it’s because I'm at my most vulnerable state. Or maybe it’s because when I’m anxious and nervous, I find myself totally relying on God to see me through the transitions.

 

So here I was in Shreveport, Louisiana, studying cross-cultural partnerships, and creating a global missions ministry with our team. Now, what I am about to say may shock you…but I LOVE missions! I love missions. I started going on international mission trips when I was 16 years old. I ended up living in Mexico for a bit, and then in Haiti off and on for a couple of years.

 

And the more I studied missions and how we, as Unite States Americans, have historically gone about missions, the more I learned that we, or at least I, had been doing it wrong:

 

• I was loving people by trying to fix them.

• I was loving people by trying to do things for them, because I thought I knew better.

• With no humility, nor curiosity, I was loving people by assuming I knew them and knew what was best for them. 

 

And then I began to study my relationship with God...

• Do I treat God the same way?

• Do I call upon Him only when I think I need Him?

• Am I spending time with Him only to consume, or am I taking the time to learn who He is and obey His commands and walk on His path for my life?

• Was I really loving God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind?

 

When I was a kid, I created a personal mission statement for myself: “Love God, Love People.” But was I really living into it? So the year 2013 became a huge reexamining of who I am...who God is…and our relationship with each other!

 

Fast-forward to 2015 when I was flying back from Uganda, and I opened up my Bible, and it naturally fell to John 15. The passage struck me so much at that time and place that I studied the first 17 verses for the next two years. The vine and the branches proved to be a model for cross-cultural partnerships - God being the vine, and we being the branches growing from the same vine. 

 

You know this story that Maddie read earlier. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem after a long journey, probably from Capernaum. It was a journey He had made every year since He was a boy. And I imagine He was exhausted. Travel wears me out! When He arrived in Jerusalem, He was greeted like a King, but then the religious leaders turned on Him, and questioned Him, and tried to trap Him in His responses. It was exhausting. And He knew what was coming. On that Thursday, He just wanted to spend time with His friends around the table and BE with them. When they arrived in the Upper Room, He washed their feet. It was a beautiful act of humility. And then they shared the Passover meal. And the best conversations always happen around the table. Jesus used this time to emphasize all the big teachings of the last three years He had spent with them. Following dinner, they went on a walk to find a place to pray. On the way, they passed a vineyard, and Jesus loved using a visual, an object right in front of them, to make His point. So, these were His words…

 

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Abide in me, and I will abide in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you abide in me.

 

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” 

 

As you may know, we’re in the midst of a sermon series entitled, Babel, where each week we explore a Hebrew or Greek word. Each of these words is like an over-stuffed suitcase, bulging with extra meanings to fully describe its reality. And this week’s word is Meno. M-E-N-O. You may know it as Abide. 

 

When Jesus walked the earth, the main phrase He used when He spoke of the disciples’ relationship to Himself was: "Follow me." But, when it became closer to the time to leave for Heaven, He replaced the word "follow" with a new word. It was a more intimate word. It was this word - meno - abide. His new chosen phrase indicated not just obedience, but a spiritual union, an intimacy of fellowship, oneness of life. He invited His disciples to "Abide in me."

 

Meno is one of the Apostle John’s favorite words. He used it 34 times in the Gospel of John and 19 times in his letters. Meno refers to both a place and an attitude: to stay at home and to be at home – which serves John’s narrative very well. He uses meno to say God abides in Christ. He dwells in Him, and therefore, has a constant influence upon Him. The divine presence is continually operating in Him. Jesus said, I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. John then tells us the story of how we disciples abide with Jesus, going wherever He goes, but also how His Word abides in us – taking up residence in our lives. To abide in Christ means not only to stay with Him no matter what, but also to find shelter in His words.

 

But my favorite definition of meno is four simple words:

 

Inward, enduring, personal communion

 

Say it with me… INWARD, ENDURING, PERSONAL, COMMUNION.
Let’s break these four words down:

 

 

INWARD

 

What does inward mean? - Spiritual, Mental, Emotional Connection; God with us.

 

Abiding in Jesus means to have a life-giving connection to Him. The Spirit lives within us, and this connects us, as branches, to the vine. A branch is connected to the vine, and a vine is connected to the branch. Theologians frequently describe this as “union with Christ.” Notice that this connection, this union, is mutual. We abide in Him, and He abides in us. If there is no connection, there is no life, no fruit.

 

But abiding also implies dependence. This aspect of abiding, unlike connection, is not reciprocal. The branch is dependent on the vine, but the vine is not dependent on the branch. The branch derives its life and power from the vine. Without the vine, the branch is useless, lifeless, powerless. Sap flows from the vine to the branch, supplying it with water, minerals, and nutrients that make it grow. And we believers receive the “sap” of Christ’s grace through our life-giving connection to Him. We are completely dependent upon Jesus for everything that counts as spiritual fruit. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

 

To abide in continual, enduring dependence upon Christ is to keep ourselves in the position of child-like trust and dependence upon Him. Jesus said He could do nothing on His own; therefore, we can do nothing on our own. Everything about abiding means we must remain united with Him, just as the Son remains united with the Father. Which leads us to the second word…

ENDURING

 

What does enduring mean? - Ongoing, Continuous, Forever; He never leaves nor forsakes us.

 

In some of your Bibles, the translators may substitute the word “abide” for “remain,” because abiding involves continuance.

 

We find meno again in John 1:38-39, where two of the disciples who first encountered Jesus asked Him, “Where are you staying?” They wanted to know where Jesus made His residence. The word “staying” is the same word translated “abide” in John 15. To abide is to reside. Where we reside is HOME. So, I think of abiding as being at home in Jesus and remaining in Jesus. This simply means that we go on trusting, that we keep on depending, that we never stop believing.

 

I don't know about you, but I learn lessons best by repetition. One of the lessons I have learned is that being a disciple of Christ is not just a one-time commitment. It means every morning waking up and committing again to Jesus. It is the ongoing invitation and acceptance to abide in Him. When we continuously fix our minds on the lessons of faith, that is when we, believers, will gradually come into the spirit of abiding in Christ.

 

PERSONAL

 

What does personal mean? - Intimacy, Closeness; Nurtured, Individual; God knows me, I know God.

 

I love when Stefania, our missionary from Romania, comes to visit. We are the best of friends. But you know what I love most? We can sit in my living room, or ride in the car, and not say a word to each other for hours, yet come away having the BEST TIME EVER. It's when you cultivate this personal closeness, this intimacy, which comes from spending significant amounts of time with one another, that you can let your guard down and BE with each other.

 

One of Jesus’ earlier personal invitations is found in Matthew 11:28-30:

 

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

 

 

Do you hear the earnestness, the faithfulness in Jesus’ invitation? It is kind, loving, and tender. His invitation to “Come” is full of compassion. Yet, in John 15, Jesus grants us a personal invitation to abide. And this invitation is full of grace:

 

• He opened His arms, to envelop you and hold you close. 

• He opened His heart, to welcome you there.

• He opened up His divine fullness of life and love, and offered to take you up into its fellowship, to make you wholly one with Himself.

 

It's when we abide that Jesus gives us rest in Him.

 

When I was studying this invitation, I noticed the promise of rest is repeated twice. Perhaps it is because the abiding rest could only be found in abiding nearness? First Jesus says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” The very moment you come, and believe, He will give you rest - the rest found in forgiveness, the rest found in acceptance, the rest felt in His love.

 

Then He says, "Come to me. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me." He wants us to become His scholars, yield ourselves to His training, submit in all things to His will. He wants our whole lives be one with Him. In other words... ABIDE in Him. And then He adds, not only, "I will give," but "you shall find rest to your souls."

 

The first rest He gives at "coming.” But the deeper abiding rest comes from longer acquaintance and closer fellowship, from entire surrender and deeper sympathy. "Take my yoke and learn from me." Abide in me. That is the path to abiding rest.

 

COMMUNION

 

We find meno again in John 6:56 where Jesus says:

 

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

 

Jesus' goal is to have a life of abiding, unbroken fellowship with us. He has destined us for something better than a short-lived blessedness. God did not create humans to just spend time with them when they could make time in their busy schedule. He created humans for fellowship. He created humans for friendship. Yes, we have lives, families, and responsibilities, but He has prepared for us an abiding dwelling with Him. He wants to be part of our everyday lives, where all the while we might enjoy unbroken communion with Him.

 

The experience of living in union with Him, the experience of His daily and hourly presence and keeping... That is unbroken communion.

 

Yesterday, I stepped off another plane, this time after spending two weeks with our mission partners from around the globe. The veil between heaven and earth was as close as I have ever felt it… and not because we were holed up in a beautiful Tuscan villa, but because we sat in the midst of seven physical vineyards coming together on one hilltop with seven global missionaries and their families, marveling at how God had intertwined our lives through First United Methodist Church. 

 

And though some were meeting in person for the very first time, it truly felt as though we were in the midst of a family reunion. For nearly ten years, we’ve worked toward creating abiding relationships with our mission partners both locally and globally – 

·      an inward connection because of the love of Christ; 

·      an enduring relationship, not just short-term trips and projects; 

·      personal partnerships, based on the individuals we have come to know and love; 

·      all the while communing with God and each other through the ministry of presence.

 

As we walked together thru the rolling hills of vineyards, the object lesson Jesus spoke had never been clearer. Yes, He is the vine - strong, purposeful, and true - and we, each of us, are different branches growing from the same vine - all with different gifts and callings, but united in our love for God, our love for each other, and our love for those He has entrusted to us. God has intertwined His people with a beautiful abiding love.

 

Friends, Jesus invites us to abide in His love. That means to dwell with all that I am in Him. It’s an invitation to a total belonging, to full intimacy, to an unlimited being-with. As my favorite theologian, Henri Nouwen, said, “Through abiding, we can keep ourselves from being pulled from one urgent issue to another and from becoming strangers to our own heart and God's heart. Abiding keeps us home, rooted and safe, even when we are on the road moving from place to place, and often surrounded by sounds of violence and chaos. Abiding deepens us in the knowledge that we are already free, that we already found a place to dwell, that we alreadybelong to God, even though everyone and everything around us is suggesting the opposite.”

 

Friends, we abide in Christ, and He in us, when we enter into a personal relationship by putting our trust in Him as our Savior. I ask you…. Where are you finding meno? How are you living in an inward, enduring personal communion with Christ?

 

Let us pray:

 

Abide in me, I pray,

for apart from You

there is nothing I can do -  

nothing of eternal value,

that truly matters,

that I will care about, in the end.

 

So, help me, Lord, to abide in You,

when so many things try to pull me away.

Help me to turn to You, 

and return to You,

throughout this and every day.

Help me to dig my roots deeply

and stay planted by the stream.

 

But not for me, I pray -

for the fruit You would bear in me,

throughout this day,

throughout this world,

as I share the love and peace

that You first gave to me.

 

This I want, above all else,

to bear this fruit for You.

But apart from You,

I wither like a branch 

cut off from its vine.

So, abide in me, 

my vine-growing Lord,

bear Your fruit in me this day.

Amen.

 

 

Pentecost: God Changed His Address

Pentecost: God Changed His Address

Acts 2:1-41

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.

But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”

Peter Preaches to the Crowd

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. 

Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day — about 3,000 in all.

Every year, instead of making a list of new year’s resolutions, I choose a word to guide my thoughts and actions. Two of my favorite words are lavish and abide. And a word closely linked to abide is dwell. In Greek, it’s katoikia – which means, to be fully present in a place, to abide as a permanent resident, to make a home. Doesn’t that sound just like Pentecost? The Holy Spirit came to dwell in the hearts of believers. Come with me on this Pentecost journey; let’s see how many times I can say dwell in one sermon! Better pull out that sermon quiz!

 

From the beginning, God always wanted to dwell with His creation. In Genesis, God walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Heaven and earth were one as God lived amongst His creation. But then, sin sadly separated God from His creation, and He was forced to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden. 

 

But God didn’t give up on His desire to dwell with His people. In Exodus, God chose a group of people to be His own, and commissioned their leader, Moses, to build a tabernacle. And in that tabernacle, God could be found abiding again amongst His creation, dwelling in the Holy of Holies, on top of the ark of the covenant.

 

That tabernacle remained God’s dwelling place until the Israelites settled in the Promised Land. King David purchased the land to build God a house and brought the tabernacle to Jerusalem. His son, Solomon, built the first Temple to give God a permanent place to live with His chosen people. After standing for several hundred years, this house was destroyed by the Babylonians. Fast forward four hundred years, and Herod the Great built a new, larger, more magnificent temple over the site where Solomon’s temple had once stood. This was the temple still under construction during the time of Jesus.

 

The whole world knew God dwelt in His temple in Jerusalem. If you wanted to meet with God, you had to go to Jerusalem to His house. And three times a year, all of God’s faithful people were summoned before Him at the place He chose to dwell - during the Festival of Pesach (Passover), the Festival of Shavuot (Pentecost), and the Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles).

 

Now, the Festival of Pentecost had several designations in the Bible. In Hebrew, it was called Shavuot, S-H-A-V-U-O-T, meaning "weeks", or the "Feast of Weeks", because the Jews were to celebrate "seven full weeks" after Passover. Greek-speaking Jews referred to the Feast as Pentecoste, meaning “50 days”, based on God's command to bring a special offering of new grain on the fiftieth day after the Passover Sabbath.

 

Imagine, if you will, the joyful crowds flooding into the city, speaking the languages of the countries from which they had traveled. Throngs of people singing, celebrating, and making arrangements for their religious obligations. The city was alive with the passion and joy only a religious festival could provide.

 

It was no accident that God selected these feast days for the great redemptive acts of Jesus, the Messiah. God sent His Son to complete His plan to fully dwell again with His people. And while Jesus called the Temple, “My Father’s House,” God’s presence was with Jesus everywhere He went, for He was Immanuel, God with us, God in the flesh. At least twice, though, Jesus pointed His followers toward the coming Spirit: 

 

One of Jesus’s last promises to His disciples before He was crucified is found in John chapter 14: “I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

 

And then, forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father. And His parting instructions to the disciples are found in Acts chapter 1:

 

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 

Jesus instructed His disciples to return to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit and the power it would bring. And that’s exactly what they did, for the belief in the Spirit of God was not new to the disciples. The Old Testament spoke of the "Holy Wind", which empowered God's people. So, the disciples remained faithful, meeting continually in the Temple courts. They must have had great expectations for the upcoming Shavuot. After all, Jesus had already made this an unusual feast season - He had died on Passover, had been buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and had been raised on the Feast of Firstfruits. 

 

Ten days after the Ascension, all the believers were gathered together in one place. And there at the Temple, on the first day of the Feast of Pentecost, around 9:00 a.m., God revealed His presence in a brand-new way. Suddenly, there was a noise from the sky which sounded like a strong wind blowing, and it filled the whole place where they were sitting. They saw what looked like tongues of fire, which spread out and touched each person there. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak…

 

Did you hear that? God’s spirit appeared as tongues of fire. And that fire came out of the old house, the Temple, and into a new house, the hearts of the believers! 

 

The symbolism seems clear. God's presence was in the temple. It had been accessible to the people only through the high priest once a year. But when Jesus died, God ripped from top to bottom the Temple curtain that blocked the people's access to Him, showing that through Jesus’ sacrifice, God can be approached at any time, by any one, from any where.

 

On Pentecost, God changed His address. He moved out of "His house” and moved into a new temple - the community of the followers of Jesus. They became God's new dwelling.

 

The implications of this change are staggering! You don’t have to go to the Temple anymore to find God. You bring the presence of God with you, wherever you go. If you want to know what God is like, just look at His house (us) where His spirit lives. The temple had once demonstrated God's presence to the world, but now it’s the responsibility of the Christian community. We are charged with extending His love, His truth, and His redemption to our culture, our communities, and our families. If the people around us are to see and know God, they will see Him through us. We have received the power of the indwelling Spirit to be His witnesses. 

 

One final puzzle piece for you… The Jewish Festival of Shavuot provided an opportunity for the people to give thanks to God and to bring gifts, expressing gratitude. But true thankfulness involves not only thanking God the provider, but also sharing with others. In God's original instructions for this feast, He commanded the farmers to leave some of their crops in the field, so the poor could harvest with dignity and experience God's provision. 

 

And so, to understand the New Testament Pentecost is to understand concern for those in need. Acts chapter 2 concludes by saying this:

A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity — all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

 

You see, the early believers, as God’s new dwelling place, could not help but be concerned for others. Through their acts of generosity, the community learned of God and His love. 

 

Followers of Christ today are called to that same Pentecost mission. Jesus' disciples are His temple, His presence in our world. The Spirit teaches us, and others through us, that God is alive and real. We share His love and His ways with others so they can know Him, too. The community around us then becomes the litmus test of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we claim to have experienced Pentecost, but have no concern for others, I dare say, we’re doing this Christian life…wrong. The Spirit leads His people to bring the presence and power of God to all who need His healing, caring touch. 

 

Friends, at Pentecost, God changed His address, and we are His new house. His purpose from the beginning of time was to intimately dwell with His people. And the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost accomplished that purpose, once and for all. We are the beneficiaries of His spirit, not just for our own personal edification, but to show to a broken world what God is like and to bring broken people back into a relationship with Him. 

 

And how do we show others what God is like? As Jesus said, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Those who abide in me, and I in them, bear much fruit.” And what is that fruit? I tend to think it’s the Fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.   

 

Surely, you know someone like this. Someone who so powerfully represented Jesus that it changed your life, or the life of others. I do.

I’ll never forget the first time I met Calvin Brumbaugh. He was a volunteer at Quaker Lake Camp. For 20 years, he gave each of his retired summers to come to North Carolina from Ohio to serve – making campfire stew, building fires, mowing grass, changing linens, cutting down trees, teaching scripture. He never asked for payment. He never complained. He never lost his temper, even with groups of college counselors, who thought they knew everything. He was humble. He breathed compassion. He exuded peace. And he was the first person I met to ever use the phrase “ministry of presence”; he taught me how to see others as Christ sees them.  

 

If ever there were a man who represented Jesus with the indwelling Holy Spirit, it was Calvin. From the first moment I met him, the first bear hug I received, I wanted to be just like Calvin. Every word, every deed, was an opportunity to show Jesus. 

 

Who is your Calvin? When have you stood in the presence of someone who so powerfully represented God that it changed your life? Whose life so perfectly illustrates the indwelling Holy Spirit? 

 

Because, friends, that is the question, that we, as disciples of Christ, must face on this Pentecost Sunday: 

 

·      Would an outsider or observer of my life recognize that I am God’s dwellingplace? 

·      Do I represent God's presence? His love? His healing touch? 

·      What do I need to do to reorient my life and invite the Spirit of God to dwell within me?

 

Friends, God changed His address on Pentecost, and we are His chosen temple. Who will look back on your life and say, “You…you changed my life. You showed me who God is.”

 

Let us pray:

 

Almighty and ever living God,

giver of all things that are good,

You promised us the gift of Your Spirit 
and fulfilled it on Pentecost Day.

We, Your children, humbly beg You

to infuse into us the divine person of the Holy Spirit.

Send Your Advocate into us that we might be renewed.

May our bodies become the temple of Your Holy Spirit

dwelling within us to lead us and guide us.

May we experience it now as on the day of Pentecost,

so that our faith might be strengthened,

and we will be inspired to bear witness 

for Christ in the Church, 

through the testimony of our word and life,

and the practice of virtue.

May we give You honor 

in how we think, where we go, what we do.

We will not take this lightly, Lord,

For we love You and praise You, Almighty God.  
Amen. And Amen. 

Sermon: Living with Disappointment

 

Bumps Are What You Climb On:

“Living With Disappointment”

Jeremiah 10:17-21

Coming Destruction

¹⁷ Gather up your belongings to leave the land,
    you who live under siege.
¹⁸ For this is what the Lord says:
    “At this time I will hurl out
    those who live in this land;
I will bring distress on them
    so that they may be captured.”

¹⁹ Woe to me because of my injury!
    My wound is incurable!
Yet I said to myself,
    “This is my sickness, and I must endure it.”
²⁰ My tent is destroyed;
    all its ropes are snapped.
My children are gone from me and are no more;
    no one is left now to pitch my tent
    or to set up my shelter.
²¹ The shepherds are senseless
    and do not inquire of the Lord;
so they do not prosper
    and all their flock is scattered.

 

There once was a fella named Jeremiah. He was no bullfrog, but he was a good friend of mine! 

 

The Israelites had gone through a series of kings, some really good – like Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah – and some really bad – like Rehoboam, Manasseh, and Amon. In 721 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah pulled itself together for a while, but eventually it fell to the Babylonian empire in 586 BC. The walls of Jerusalem were breached. The Temple was destroyed. And the city walls crumbled. 

 

Before Judah’s ultimate fall, God raised a prophet named Jeremiah. If ever there were a man who experienced disappointments and tragedy, it was Jeremiah. He was called to serve God at this most difficult time in history. And he was given a difficult message to proclaim, for God told him to warn the nation that judgment was coming, and they had better repent. 

 

Most of what we know about Jeremiah comes from the book of the Bible that bears his name. He was born to a priestly family about three miles from Jerusalem. He was called as a prophet in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Josiah in the southern kingdom of Judah. Though Jeremiah’s birth date isn’t exactly clear, it’s evident he received God’s call at a young age, probably as a teenager. 

 

Jeremiah served the Lord faithfully for forty years. He never compromised in his message or his loyalty. His family abandoned him, even plotted to kill him, and ultimately the entire nation turned against him. Over the years, he was whipped and put in the stocks, attacked by a mob, threatened by the king, and ridiculed. Some of Zedekiah’s princes had Jeremiah arrested, beaten, accused of treason, thrown in jail, and even tossed into a deep, empty well. (Sound anything like last week’s sermon?!) 

 

Perhaps worst of all, Jeremiah was forced to live life alone. He was not allowed to marry, and he was alone with the knowledge of the horrors coming for Judah.

 

His early messages focused on condemning false worship and social injustice, with calls to repentance. He proclaimed a coming foe, and he urged the Israelites to focus on their inward, personal relationships with God rather than external religious and idolatrous practice.

 

His later messages included dramatic object lessons. For example, when delegations from surrounding nations came to Judah asking the nation to join a rebellion against Babylon, Jeremiah put a yoke, a wooden harness around his neck, and went about urging the nations to submit to the yoke of Babylon.

 

Jeremiah lived to see his beloved nation overrun by the enemy, and his beloved city and temple completely destroyed. If ever a man had a broken heart, it was Jeremiah. No wonder he was known as the Weeping Prophet. While the book with his name holds his prophecies and bears witness to his burden, his book of Lamentations holds his tear stains. He was disappointed in the people of Israel, and at times he was disappointed in God. But he always remained faithful, knowing God had a perfect plan. 

 

***

 

Well, good morning, friends. Nothing like a depressing story to start off the sermon this morning. But I promise it’s going to get better! Welcome back to our sermon series, “The Bumps are What We Climb On.” Steven explained to us two weeks ago that these bumps are the hard places in life that eventually become the places where we stand. As we go through difficult seasons, we climb up on these bumps, which become the foundations for us moving forward. We learn how to weather the seasons; we learn to lean into Jesus for the strength to withstand. 

 

This week’s focus, or this week’s bump, is “Living with Disappointments.” Disappointment is a universally horrible feeling we experience when reality doesn’t match expectations. Have any of you ever been disappointed?

 

Perhaps one time or another, you’ve thought one of these things: 

 

• God, I always expected that I would be able to have kids. Isn't that something you want for me? Isn't that a good desire you placed in my heart? Why is this so hard? And to rub it in, we get these people asking ridiculously hurtful questions like, "Why haven’t you had kids yet? You aren’t getting any younger!” This isn't what I expected.
  
  
• God, I want to have a great marriage and yet my wife is so passive. It's like she doesn't even care. She never engages me. She's off in her own world, always on her cell phone. I expected to have a better marriage than this. Don't you want me to have a good marriage? This isn't what I expected.
  
  
• God, I always expected that by the time I was 30, I'd have the perfect job and the perfect mate. Well, I'm in a job I hate, and I have no prospects for marriage. I'm struggling with disappointment with how my life is turning out. This isn't what I expected.
  
  
• God, I always expected to live a healthy life. I assumed I'd have normal health struggles, but I never expected it would be this dominating and this debilitating. My body has let me down. Don't you want me to be healthy? This is not what I expected.
  
  
• God, when I was younger, I wanted to do great things for you. I had visions of being a missionary and traveling the world, and now I'm just a dad stuck in a suburban neighborhood endlessly changing diapers, cooking, and driving my kids around. This is not what I expected.

 

You know what I'm talking about. Woe is me! Why is my life this way? Why won't God answer my prayer? Why won't God intercede in this situation? Why won't God change this other person's heart? 

 

So, what is the cure for disappointment? 

 

Well, let’s venture back to that bullfrog…errr, weeping prophet, Jeremiah. What truths did he teach us? 

The first truth he taught us is this: expect disappointments. 

 

Henri Nouwen wrote:

 

Our emotional lives move up and down constantly. Sometimes we experience great mood swings: from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos. A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings. Mostly, we have little control over these changes. It seems that they happen to us, rather than being created by us.

 

Thus, it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us. As we feel our emotions shift, we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are. We are and remain God’s beloved children.

And that’s what Henri Nouwen and Jeremiah teach us. Despite the disappointments, Jeremiah never forgot WHOSE he was. He rose above the broken dreams to live in victory. 

Imagine serving God so faithfully for a lifetime, and in the end, seeing everything fall apart. Jeremiah could have died a bitter and broken man, but he didn’t. In the strength of the Lord, he was able to face his disappointments and accept them, knowing he was faithful to his calling and knowing God loved him. 

Some people have the idea that faithful Christians can escape disappointments, but that’s is simply not true. God does not guarantee that we will never have a broken heart. God does not promise to take away our tears this side of heaven. What He does promise us is that He will be present with us on the peaks and in the valleys! Just as with Jeremiah, God will not leave us alone, for we are His beloved children. 

 

Which leads us to a second truth the prophet Jeremiah taught us: our disappointments are in the hands of God.

 

There were many times when Jeremiah thought he had been forsaken by God. Why wasn't God answering his prayers? Why wasn't the Word he was preaching bearing fruit and changing the nation? Was it really worth it all, staying there and ministering to such hard-hearted people? (I ask myself this all the time!) 

 

The first lie the enemy whispers to us when disappointment comes is… God has failed. 

 

What we need to hear is… God is in control. We need to hear that life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. We need to hear it’s not over until He says so. 

 

Corrie ten Boom used to say, “When the train goes through a tunnel, and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not! You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through.” 

 

It takes faith to believe that and rest upon it. But know in the deepest corners of your heart that this is true - God is still on the throne, and He is going to accomplish His wonderful purposes in our lives, if we will let Him. If we fight circumstances and become bitter, then God cannot accomplish in us and through us all that He has in mind. If we yield and trust Him to do what is best, then all things will work together for good.

 

Jeremiah reminds us that God said, “I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth. Nothing is impossible for me.” 

 

The way to walk through your times of discouragement? Go back and read the story of God. Remember He promised to never leave us, nor forsake us. Remember nothing is impossible for Him. Read it again and again. Be reminded that you aren’t the first person to weep. Remember the weeping prophet. 

 

Once we have learned to expect the disappointments, and believe nothing is impossible for God, we can know this third truth: yield to God's will and let Him heal our broken hearts and fulfill His desires.

 

I read somewhere there is a basic law in this universe that says, "Fight the will of God, and it will break you; accept the will of God and it will make you." I’ve been there. Many of you have heard this story before… 

 

Like Jeremiah, I had felt the call to ministry pretty early in life. It was clear. But somewhere along the way, I thought I knew better than God. My plans were better than His. In 2001, I graduated from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina with a Political Science degree. I had spent four years studying politics and loving state government. I worked for the Majority Leader of the North Carolina House of Representatives, writing press releases, strategizing with the party, and I loved it. I applied to law schools my senior year, and the lawyers in my family had all gone to Wake Forest…  And me? I got wait listed. 

 

Instead of wallowing, I decided to follow that call I once had, and spent the next year doing mission work in Honduras and Mexico. Now, one would think this would have been enough to re-route my plans and align my will with God’s will. Instead, I applied to graduate schools to study political science. For seven miserable days, I was a student at the University of Georgia, until finally one night, I fell to my knees in my brokenness.  

 

Unlike me, Jeremiah did not fight God. As Steven read earlier, there were times when he questioned God's will, when he thought God was crazy, when he cried out, WOE IS ME!!! But Jeremiah didn’t try to get his own way. Instead, he yielded to the will of God and let God work out His perfect plan.

 

What was the result? Well, the nation was taken captive and carried to Babylon. And Jeremiah was kidnapped and taken to Egypt by some fanatics. And there, according to tradition, he was stoned to death for preaching the truth. But but but! What looked like a failure to the world was not a failure to our God, who judges righteously on the basis of what is eternal.

 

What did God accomplish in this tragic history? 

 

For one thing, God made a man who was very much like the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus was here on earth, He asked His disciples what people were saying about Him; and one of the answers was, "You are the prophet, Jeremiah." 

 

Jeremiah suffered just as the Suffering Servant Jesus did. The very disappointments of life were the tools that carved Jeremiah and polished him and made him like Jesus Christ.

 

Isn't that what disappointments are all about? In Romans chapter 8, verse 29, we see God is working all things together for good, and part of that good is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son - made more like the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

Max Lucado would say it this way: “God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus.” 

 

So, if you and I are suffering, perhaps God is polishing us and making us like His own Son. Those are not easy words to hear. No one wants to suffer, but I’d love to be polished and sparkle for everyone, for as the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 5, verses 3 & 4, “We glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope.”

 

Just as God builds character in the disappointments of life, He also gives us a witness. In the midst of his disappointments, Jeremiah bore witness to the Lord and gave His message to the people. By his preaching and his living, Jeremiah pointed others to God. Disappointments are not only opportunities for maturity, they are also opportunities for ministry. Perhaps that is why we have the writings of Jeremiah for our own learning and living – to inspire us to be faithful to God. 

 

Before we began this sermon, if I had asked any of you today to say one thing about Jeremiah, other than singing the bull frog song, I would be willing to bet over half of you would have immediately quoted this verse:

 

“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.” Jeremiah 29:11

 

Friends, this is the legacy of Jeremiah. Through disappointment, he inspired generations to quote these words of God, to stand firm on the foundation of Jeremiah 29:11, to know without a doubt that God is God and He is faithful. In the midst of his disappointments, in the midst of seeing his beloved city destroyed, Jeremiah found hope in the promises of God. In the midst of our disappointments, may our words, too, be filled with hope and thanksgiving for the Lord our God. For He is with us in the present, He is with us in the future, and He is with us always. 

 

Let us pray: 

 

 

O Good and Gracious God,

All too often, we find ourselves struggling with disappointment.

We focus inward instead of focusing on who You are and whose we are. 
Turn our gaze toward You and enable to us to see You working in the midst of the disappointments. Show us Your plans and remind us Your words are faithful and true. Wipe away our tears of weeping and bring to our joy in the morning.

Amen, and amen.