Opportunity of a Lifetime
Opportunity of a Lifetime
When Dr. Larry Stephenson arrived in Somalia to work among lepers there, he was instantly welcomed. He wouldn’t have been, except for his weakness. Several years earlier in a farming accident, Larry lost all but the first knuckle of the four fingers of his left hand. It sometimes was a handicap for his work in the U.S. but it was his greatest asset in Somalia. The lepers spotted his crippled hand and concluded, "He’s one of us." He was able to achieve things among them that someone with a stronger left hand could not have." That’s what Jesus did when he took on our flesh he said, “see I’m one of you we are one in the same and I came to suffer through this so that you wouldn’t suffer eternally in a worse place”. That’s Love. Jesus knew suffering from the perspective of Heaven he came down from the throne with all of it’s majesty, power and brilliance, to be with us that he might save some!
You’re here today because you belong. If the people responsible for bringing you here didn’t believe that you had a shot to make this team, you wouldn’t be here. Much like Dr. Stephenson, with his mangled left hand, you belong here in spite of some of the things you have done that could have disqualified you.
No matter what our circumstances are at arriving in this place, we all now have the opportunity of a lifetime, to be in the prepared place (Jn. 14:2).
Today, we’ll be reading from Hebrews 5:8-14. Before we read the text, I’d like you to keep this thought in mind:
It’s Time to Eat Solid Food.
Read and Pray
The author of Hebrews who was probably Apollos or Barnabas, wrote this letter to Hebrew Christians, warning them not to fall away from their faith. He was gently reminding them of the basic principles of their Christian faith and challenged them to continue to grow, or risk rejecting it all together.
I believe that the author brings up some principles for our life that we can use reminding us that we have before us an opportunity of a lifetime and we are to seize it in a way that brings glory to God.
The first thing the text brings to our attention is that Jesus learned obedience from the things he suffered. You might ask, “How could God learn anything, he’s all-knowing?” He did it by putting on flesh which subjected him to the frailty of humanity that we are accustomed to. He put on our sickness, hunger, disease, he subjected himself to thirst, weariness, pain, sadness. Jesus was born an infant and grew into manhood for the purpose of qualifying himself as our Savior. He learned obedience by suffering through the temptations that the flesh desires, without sin. We learn more in our suffering through obedience than we ever would by sowing disobedience. Adrian Crook a friend of mine told me once, he said, “Harry, you’ll know when your in a position of power on the field because it’ll hurt, positions of power are always uncomfortable.” Here’s what that means for us, Are we willing to put ourselves in a position to receive God’s power, knowing that it will be uncomfortable, at first? You know what happens after you do something that is painful at first. The pain doesn’t go away you just get used to not allowing it to dictate your willingness to return. We grow through the suffering. A simple principle of faith is that you deny the flesh and submit in obedience to Christ. Suffering is a part of learning obedience.
Don’t Waste your Cancer
In a letter to church members and supporters, pastor and author John Piper has announced that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in late December. In that letter to the members of his church in Minneapolis, Minn. here’s some of what he had to say;
I write this on the eve of prostate surgery. I believe in God’s power to heal—by miracle and by medicine. I believe it is right and good to pray for both kinds of healing. Cancer is not wasted when it is healed by God. He gets the glory and that is why cancer exists. I am praying for myself and for you that we will not waste this pain.
That’s from a man who understands that it sometimes takes suffering to honor the God that we serve. My prayer for us is that we will not waste our pain, our experiences, our suffering. My prayer is that we will not waste the cross by relying on ourselves, or any other addictive device just to take away the suffering.
Our fleshly nature wants to sin, but we waste that suffering when we give in to the flesh, we learn nothing. Like John Piper, we may not have cancer, but we are dying daily. Our bodies are slowly but surely doing what they were designed to do. From dust we came and to dust we shall return. When we suffer in obedience we are reminded that Jesus is the source of our opportunity of a lifetime, eternal salvation. Here’s my challenge to you: will you suffer in obedience and die to sin?
Falling Out of Faith
There was a little boy who constantly fell out of bed. No matter what his parents did, the boy couldn’t go one night without rolling out of bed. An uncle came to visit and as usual in the middle of the night the usual thump and cry was heard, as the little boy fell out of bed. That next morning the uncle teased the little boy and asked him why he fell out of the bed so often. The little fellow thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t know, unless it’s because I stay too close, to the place where I got in.”
Here’s the 2nd principle that I believe this text is teaching us;
If you continue to stay where you are, the places that seem so comfortable now, that remind you of how far you’ve come, the places where dreams come true can become reminders of life’s biggest defeats, overnight. From a “claim to fame” to the “hall of shame” in an instant. Proverbs 16:18 tells us that, “Pride goes before a fall…” The Christian walk is not a stagnant walk, but when we get used to being in the same place with our faith we begin losing ground. Much like these Hebrew Christians, if we continue to be satisfied with where we are in our faith, we risk falling away from our faith altogether. Missing out on life’s opportunity of a lifetime.
The author of Hebrews understands that unless his readers sharpen their hearing of God’s word, they’ll continue to be satisfied with the basics of faith. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus on earth, the milk of the word. A chaplain once came up to me one day after practice and said, “Son, it’s time to grow.” I was willing but what I didn’t realize was that I was dull to the hearing of God’s word. One of the first symptoms of backsliding or spiritual regression is our unwillingness to listen from the truth of God’s word. Yet, we are quick to listen to man’s word. So when we don’t listen, we don’t receive and when we don’t receive we don’t act on the truth of God’s word. We should be bringing others to faith by virtue of our witness but we are not sharing so we fail to teach, dulled by the world, we are of no heavenly use. Growth in God’s word ensures we don’t miss the Blessings, of our opportunity of a lifetime.
Here’s my challenge to you. Are you staying too close to the place you came in? If you’re like that little boy you’re living on the edge not knowing that you’re the reason God’s word is putting you to sleep. Scripture says, “Awake O’ sleeper and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you!” (Eph. 5:13) And so we’re to, Learn to Suffer in obedience, Wake Up and Grow and finally, Get Up and Eat.
Malnourishment
The United States is facing a hidden epidemic. This hidden epidemic is better known as malnutrition.
Malnutrition is not always due to the lack of food, but the quality of food being consumed. 33 million people-including 13 million children live in households that experience hunger associated with malnutrition.
The effects of malnutrition can be seen in behavioral changes, which may include irritability, apathy, antisocial responsiveness, aggressive behavior, anxiety, attention deficit disorders and permanent physical and mental stunting.
Our flesh is constantly pulling at us to do the thing we are comfortable with, pushing us to return to the old way of doing things. This is what the Hebrew readers were being lured into. Being tempted into thinking that spiritual depravity would be acceptable nourishment.
And so today we have Christians who because they fail to feed themselves are going through a second childhood. They are unwilling to practice “rightly dividing the word of truth” risking their faith into the hands of false teachers whom they believe have their best interest at heart. So we think we’re getting “fed” but it has no value for our lives because we don’t know that they’re just “filling” us up with their word. We need our senses trained so that we can tell whether we’re ingesting something that may stunt our growth, or worse, poison us all together. v.14. God wants you to pursue him by digging into his word. He wants you to ask and pursue seek until filled knock till you receive. We want to be complete, moving towards God’s perfection, fulfilling the will of the father on earth as Jesus intercedes on our behalf in heaven. Maturity means you are lacking in nothing and in need of nothing that the father hasn’t already given you, here they are, (Bible) when you know the promises you seize the opportunities. So he exhorts us to grow up, get up, AND EAT!
Here’s my challenge to you;
Are you satisfied with mediocrity? Is that what got you here?
Why are we satisfied with drinking milk? Would you know if you were spiritually malnourished leaving your life vulnerable to the one who steals, kills and destroys?
God’s people are obedient even through our suffering because we won’t eat anything other than our daily portion of God’s truth that has provided an opportunity of a lifetime on earth as a foreshadow of what will come in eternity. Let me Pray for You.