Just Come!
Notes
Transcript
Did you ever have one of those days when nothing seemed to go right? When life seemed out of control? When events seem to be speeding by so fast that all you can do is hold on tight? Larry Walters must have felt that way.
Larry Walters was a 33 year-old truck driver from North Hollywood, California. Personally, I find his story a bit hard to believe, but I have read about it. At the time of the event in 1982, the UPI and Associated Press carried accounts of the story. The LA Times referred to the event when it carried the announcement of Larry’s death on November 24, 1993. Believe it or not, this is the story.
Larry said he lived a fairly normal life for a truck driver from North Hollywood, California. He went to work every day, came home and watched TV, went to bed, got up and went back to work. On weekends he would occasionally go to a ball game. But on most Saturdays he did the same thing week after week. After mowing the yard, he would get a six-pack of beer, a stack of peanut butter sandwiches and sit in his lawn chair staring at the fence in his backyard or watching the jets fly over from LAX airport. One day he decided to do something different. Believe it or not!
Larry’s boyhood dream had been to be a pilot. When he graduated from high school, he even joined the Air Force in order to become a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him.
On this particular day, tired of watching life go by from his backyard lawn chair, Larry decided he was going to fly one way or another. He had a plan.
According to the reports, Larry first went to an army surplus store and bought 45 six-foot weather balloons. On a Thursday night, he went to his girlfriend’s place in San Pedro. I suppose he decided her house had a bit more space for the project. His plan was to inflate the balloons with helium, tie them to his lawn chair, and allow them to float him into the air. He thought maybe a hundred feet or so would be nice. He would take a BB gun with him so that he could if necessary shoot out balloons to maintain his proper height.
Friday morning he had several friends meet him in the San Pedro yard for the big day. The 45 balloons were inflated and tethered to the lawn chair. They tied the chair to Larry’s jeep so that it didn’t lift off to quickly. Larry donned a parachute, just in case, sat down in the chair while his girl friend tied him in. He didn’t want to fall out when the chair lifted off. He might get hurt. Larry was no dummy. In his lap, he had a CB walkie-talkie, his BB gun, a six-pack of Miller Lite, and a stack of peanut butter sandwiches.
Slowly the friends let loose of the chair and let out the thirty foot anchor tether they had tied to the chair and released the other end from the jeep. As planned, Larry, chair, and all lifted off the ground. When the tether was fully extended and Larry felt comfortable in the chair, BB gun posed and ready, they cut the tether. The rest is the stuff of which urban legends are made.
When they cut the tether, Larry didn’t stay at 30 feet. Nor did he level off at one hundred feet as planned. Instead, Larry shot straight up to 11,000 feet. Some estimates had him as high as 16,000 feet. The ascent was so fast that he didn’t even think about using the gun. He simply held on for the ride of his life. I have no idea what happened to the beer and the peanut butter sandwiches.
According to FAA regional safety inspector Neal Savoy, quoted in the Associated Press, Larry was spotted by TWA and Delta pilots while they were in flight patterns for LAX. Savoy said, “ We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act. If he had a pilot’s license, we’d suspend that. But he doesn’t”
You can only imagine the control tower’s reaction when two pilots reported spotting a flying lawn chair at 16,000 feet. According to one report, an immediate psychiatric evaluation was ordered by one of the airlines for their pilot. Larry did get enough control of himself to use his CB to call for help. According to Doug Dixon of the Orange County citizen’s band radio club, “This guy broke into our channel with a mayday. He said he had shot up like an elevator into the clouds and was getting numb from the cold. He sounded worried but he wasn’t panicked.”
Never fear, Larry survived. The details in my account about the rescue are unclear. Apparently a helicopter managed to get a rescue line to him after he had punctured a few of the balloons and descended a bit. Once back on the ground, he was immediately arrested by LA police on a number of charges, including entering LAX air space without authorization. Reporters surrounded the scene. One reporter got close enough to ask some questions. “Were you scared?” “Yes.” “Are you going to do it again?” “No!” “What in the world made you do it in the first place?” Larry’s reply was simply: “You can’t just sit around all the time!”
Larry Walters certainly received more than he had bargained for the day he decided to fly his lawn chair over Southern California. Circumstances went just a little bit out of control.
Have you ever felt out of place somewhere or things were spiraling out of control? Maybe you were in a new location with a lot of new people, so you were not sure how to act, and you felt like you were the odd one out. Or maybe you badly misread the dress code, so you showed up overdressed or underdressed. Or maybe you were in a new position of authority or leadership and felt woefully unqualified. Or maybe, like Larry, you did something that yielded completely unexpected results.
When you’re in a situation like that, you can’t help but wonder if anyone can tell how uncomfortable or scared you feel. You can’t help but think everyone is staring at you and wondering what you of all people are doing there. Everyone else belongs, but you are an imposter. However, there is a better a better way to fin dour identity and to whom we belong. In Psalm 95 we find an incredible description of God—and, somehow, we of all people are invited into this incredible God’s presence.
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.
3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
GRACE IN THE TEXT
There is grace for us in this text this morning. The God of the universe invites us to come into God’s rest. Even in the midst of chaos and trouble, this invitation to enter God’s rest is there, we just need to take him up on it. So what keeps us from entering, enjoying, and abiding this rest?
This is the God of the universe:
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
This is a God of great majesty and glory and worth! This is the great King that we serve! If you want to talk about being out of place in a situation, talk about humanity in the presence of our Creator. We have no business being in God’s presence, none of us is worthy, but yet he invites us, even longs for us to not only be in his presence but to commune with him. This is not just an arms length kind-of relationship, but it is intimate, the God of the universe, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, wants to know and commune with us intimately.
God is a God of whirlwinds. In Job 38, God answers Job’s suffering and questions from a whirlwind, marking a dramatic shift from God as distant to present, yet untamable. Through a series of unanswerable questions, God highlights Job's ignorance of creation's design, power, and wisdom, contrasting human limits with divine, omnipotent sovereignty to restore Job's perspective, awe, and trust. God appears in a storm or whirlwind, which often signifies God’s presence, power, and glory in the Old Testament. The whirlwind serves as a, "Sit down you silly boy, you have no idea what's going on in the universe around you," moment, shifting Job's focus from his immediate pain to the vastness of God's power and wisdom.
Sometimes we need the reminder that we, on the other hand, were made from dust, and someday to dust we shall return. Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season is a day to remember this reality. We are mortal human beings, and it is on days like this we are humbled by that reality. We can’t be more underdressed or unqualified than a human (all of us) is before the Creator.
Yet, there is good news this morning in verse 7.
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,
We are also “the people of God’s pasture, the flock under God’s care.” We matter to the the Creator of the Universe. God cares for us in an intimate and personal way. God’s rest is one of the ways that God provides for this, we just need to take God up on that invitation.
As we look closer at Psalm 95, we see three separate invitations to come and worship:
There are three different verb forms used to extend the invitation:
(1) Verse 1: Lĕkŭ from hălak, which means “go” or “walk”
(2) Verse 2: Qādam, which means “meet” or “go before”
(3) Verse 6: Bô, which means “go in” or “enter in”
In Psalm 95, we see this common theme, God calling us to come. come. come. Come and worship. Come and enjoy my presence. Come and find the rest that your soul needs. Come find the refreshing only I can provide. Come.
Come into my presence, woefully underdressed and ill prepared though you may be. God stills invites. God’s invitation never stops, never leaves us hanging.
TROUBLE IN THE TEXT
However, we also see trouble in the text. The Israelites were hard of heart. This invitation in Psalm 95 was given to the Israelites, and they should’ve known the value of the invitation. God rescued them out of slavery in Egypt and defeated the mighty Egyptian army. They experienced the miraculous gift of manna and quail as they wandered in the desert wilderness.
Yet in Exodus 17, they went to Moses, demanding water, and began to quarrel with him.
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
Although Exodus 17 is the specific situation referenced in Psalm 95:8–9, it is far from the only time that the Israelites grumbled and made ungrateful demands of God. They repeatedly said it would’ve been better to die enslaved in Egypt than to journey in the wilderness with God. They often forgot and grew impatient with what God did and God said he would do. Ultimately, they did not trust God and were not obedient even after all God did for them.
TROUBLE IN THE WORLD
We are like the Israelites in that we often do not trust God for the journey. In the season of Lent, we have begun our own journey with God through the wilderness. These forty days that we observe Lent echo the forty years the Israelites spent in the wilderness and the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, when he was tempted by the devil.
The wilderness is not a fun, easy location. In some ways, the Israelites were absolutely right to be worried about the practical realities of food and drink and of safety from other nations. After all, they were wandering out in the desert, it wasn’t exactly the safest place. They could be seen from a long way and could easily be snuck on during the night.
They were a relatively small group journeying through a desert with seemingly no destination and no tangible protection. When we’re experiencing the wilderness in our own lives, it’s easy to romanticize the past, no matter how bad the past was. How many of us have referred to the “good ole’ days?” We all have, every generation has their good old days. Unfortunately, we often mean we want to go back to something we were comfortable with and accustomed to, good or bad. It’s what we knew and change is not something we like.
When the Israelites were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness, the Israelites didn’t remember the back-breaking, punishing hours of work the Egyptians forced upon them. They only remembered having enough to eat and drink when they were hungry and thirsty. It was easy for them to begin to think that maybe they were better off in Egypt rather than out there, alone, in the wilderness.
Except that they were not journeying alone. They were in the presence of the living God. Exodus 13:21-22 tells us that they had a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide them. God provided those.
God’s invitation to be in God’s presence and rest was still relevant in the wilderness for the Israelites and it still is for us today.
GRACE IN THE WORLD
God still calls. Amen? God still calls each us of to be his disciples, to make disciples, and also invites us into his presence to rest and refresh. Will we listen and come?
God’s invitation to rest in God’s presence is still relevant for us in our journey in the wilderness too. The wilderness is not easy. Lent is not an easy journey. After all, our destination is the cross. And during these forty days we will be asked to examine ourselves, even the things we would like to keep hidden. If we follow along with our study and take this seriously, we will be forced to slow down, to reckon with our sin and with the brokenness of the world around us. We will be faced with calls for repentance and we will end up at the cross, where we will be forced to realize that our own voices have cried out, “Crucify him!”
No, it is not an easy journey. But praise be to God that we do not go alone. The invitation to come into God’s presence still stands. And God’s presence still goes with us even in the wilderness.
i. If only we will enter into it.
ii. If only we will trust God for the journey and humble ourselves to listen.
iii. If only we would train ourselves to hear and recognize God’s voice.
In a moment the worship team is going to lead us in singing Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone. God frees us from the bondage of sin, he frees us to follow him, to rest in him. This morning, if you need to experience this freedom from bondage, I urge you to say yes to Jesus today. It’s ok if you do not know what to do next, we’d love to pray with you. We will commit to walking with you, showing you what it means to follow Jesus. You don’t have to be perfect, you just need to repent and let God take it from there.
Maybe this morning you need just rest in God’s presence. Would you give whatever is holding you back to God? God wants to bring freedom this morning. Would you come and pray as we sing?
SING: Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone
PRAY
COMMUNION RITUAL
The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.
The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.
All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.
In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:
PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:
Holy God,
We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.
On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.
By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
EXPLAIN ELEMENTS
The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT
And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
BENEDICTION:
Go now, confessing Christ as Lord, in word and deed.
Worship and serve the Lord your God and no other.
Stand firm in the time of trial;
tell the story of God’s goodness,
and trust in the Lord whose saving word is always with you.
And may God instruct angels to guard you wherever you go;
May Christ Jesus be your refuge and stronghold;
And may the Holy Spirit lead you
and put God’s Word on your lips and in your hearts.
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.
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