The Divine Crash

This week we pick back up on the series “Myth Busters: Busting popular Christian myths.”  Today I quoted from Job 23 in The Message interpretation.  So enjoy this sermon for the first week in advent.  As always you can listen to the sermon at the bottom or on iTunes.

You know the situation, we get to the store at about 3am for those sweet Black Friday deals.  Because if we are one of the first 2 people in the door we can get a free apple slicer with any purchase over a thousand dollars or some other ridiculous promise that if you get it your kids will love you more.  So you pull in to the mall and fight with other customers for the best parking spot.  You know how it is, you pull in and see the parking spots and begin to pray for a good one.  Saying things like “God if you love me, give me a good parking spot.”

And then just off in the distance you see a parking spot…..but it is the second one from the end….your prayer has gone unanswered. You pull in and begin the 3 mile walk to the mall, you would have saved time and money had you walked to the mall from home because it is closer than you are parked.

During that walk you spent those minutes cursing at God for not giving you the close spot you asked for and giving God all the reasons why you should have had the close spot.  Not the handicapped spot because you can still walk and not the spot next to the handicapped spot because that is being greedy and God doesn’t like Greed but at least the spot two spots down from the handicapped spot.

And then you see a spot open that is 10 feet from the entrance and that makes you scream even more at God because God should have made that person leave sooner so you could have that spot.

Finally you get to the end of the line and by this time we have lost all faith, cursed your baptism and vowed to write a mean letter to the pastor about how you will never be back in church because, clearly, God doesn’t care about you because if He did you would have gotten a better spot.

In all of this you echo the prayer of Job in chapter 23:1-10

This is the message translation and as much as I don’t like the Message version this is a pretty good interpretation of what Job is saying and it echoes the words I have said in the parking lot at Giant Eagle in Robinson.

Job replied:

“I’m not letting up—I’m standing my ground. My complaint is legitimate.

God has no right to treat me like this—  it isn’t fair!

If I knew where on earth to find him,

I’d go straight to him.

I’d lay my case before him face-to-face, give him all my arguments firsthand.

I’d find out exactly what he’s thinking, Discover what’s going on in his head.Do you think he’d dismiss me or bully me?

No, he’d take me seriously.

He’d see a straight-living man standing before him; my Judge would acquit me for good of all charges.

“I travel East looking for him—I find no one; then West, but not a trace;

I go North, but he’s hidden his tracks; then South, but not even a glimpse.

Or maybe this was just me this past Friday at 3am

Behind Job’s and ours thoughts and actions is a belief that because you are Follow God, then God automatically has to give you exactly what you want when you want it.

Maybe for you it isn’t a parking spot but a good seat at the movie theater, or all the traffic lights to be green, or a healthy child, loving spouse, more money, a promotion, a nice vacation, or a healthy retirement, or any number of things that you think you deserve and want right away.

Unfortunately no where in the Bible does God promise to be your magic genie when you start following Jesus.

However, look at what Job states about himself.

“But he knows where I am and what I’ve done.

He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I’ll pass the test

with honors.

I’ve followed him closely, my feet in his footprints,

not once swerving from his way.

I’ve obeyed every word he’s spoken,

and not just obeyed his advice—I’ve treasured it.

Job is a follower of God so close that Job puts his feet in the footsteps of God.

By the time of Jesus when a disciple would study under a rabbi they would follow them so closely that they would put their feet exactly where the rabbi stepped.  It was a sign of respect and a willingness to be just like that rabbi.

Job did not just follow what the Bible says, Job loved it, treasured it, as if it were something sacred and meaningful to his life.

Is this you? Do your feet go into the footprints of God?

If it is great! but it still won’t make God bend to your will.

If it isn’t don’t be surprised because I have you to meet a person like this. and if it isn’t why are you surprised when god doesn’t give you what you want.

Do you treasure God’s word? Do you keep it where you keep your other treasure?

If you do then the end of Job 23 tells you what God has promised for you.

“But he is singular and sovereign. Who can argue with him?

He does what he wants, when he wants to.

He’ll complete in detail what he’s decided about me,

and whatever else he determines to do.

Is it any wonder that I dread meeting him?

Ultimately God is sovereign and God will do whatever God wants

But that God already knows how your life will work out and God is going to make sure it works out that way.

So then, in that parking lot maybe God knows your cholesterol is through the roof and you need to exercise more and God is going to make sure you get your exercise by giving you a parking spot 3 miles from the mall.

Jesus picks up on this idea in Luke 12:29-32

“And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.

For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things.

“But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

In other words God knows what is best for you and will make sure you have it and that isn’t a good parking spot.

What is it then that God desires for you to have  and will make sure you have it no matter what?

- Salvation.

Ultimately salvation is the only thing you really need.  God has already given it to you. Through the death of Jesus on the cross you are saved.  That past that haunts you and those habits you can’t stop even though you know you should, you have been saved from them.

You can live into the salvation that God has given you and recognize that all those the guilt, shame, and hatred you carry in you have been left behind because you are now following in the footprints of God.

Now then, when I realize that salvation is possible and that I don’t have to keep living with all that baggage it makes me like Job at the end of chapter 23.

Whenever I think about it, I get scared all over again.

God makes my heart sink!

God Almighty gives me the shudders!

I’m completely in the dark,

I can’t see my hand in front of my face.”

It freaks me out to think that I don’t know what is best for me and that God does and that God will make sure it happens, not me.

It makes me wonder about all those little coincidences that happen like when I was 18 and got a speeding ticket when 5minutes down the road was a car accident and the guy had died.

9/11 people were late. And there is an email floating around by why people were late, some lost keys, some had to take kids to school

so then, it is ok to pray for a close parking spot or anything else because First Peter says to pray for anything you care about but we also have to realize that sometimes god knows more than we do about what is going on.

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