Faith

I Don’t Understand

I’m a pretty simple guy w/ a pretty simple mind. You see that in how I do what I do. I have to keep it simple B/C there is so much I don’t understand.

I don’t understand how my computer works. Or, my iPad or my iPhone.

The all sync up.

Word. Excel. Powerpoint. Email. texting. The Cloud.

I had a friend who’s an IT guy who said years ago that the cloud will be a great if you don’t care about your privacy.

It’s all out there.

I don’t know how it works, but I’ve always had a guy. Here, it’s Dan Wittig.

I push the button, they work. Well, most of the time.

If it doesn’t work right, push the magic button again, twice. Power off/on.

And, when they still don’t I have to call somebody. Unless it’s my phone. Then i’ve got to go somewhere.

There’s more going on than I can see.

Cars. I never understood how cars work.

Turn the key, push the button, Reverse, Drive, brake, accelerate, stop and turn it off.

Then I had a friend, my guy, explain it simply.

You need fuel, air, and a spark.

If it doesn’t go then one of those things isn’t happening.

Can’t see it, don’t understand it.

Now w/ all the computer systems you need an IT guy to work on your car.

There’s a meme on FB that says something about us that car owner’s manuals 40 years ago instructed us how to adjust the valves in the engine.

Now it has to instruct us not to drink the contents of the battery.

Something else I don’t understand. Why.

I don’t understand how planes fly. Pedal fast enough and get enough air under the wings it lifts. What?

Pilot and co-pilot sit in the cockpit. Have you seen all those buttons and levers?

Where are the pedals that make it go fast?

I’ve got good friends who are pilots. I’m glad they understand it b/c all I want to do is take a nap or read a book while they take me where I want to go. I’ll keep my seat belt fastened and tray table in the upright and locked position.

I’ve never seen a seat cushion float.

I have faith that it will. If I’m alive and in the water and can think to grab it after we’ve crashed.

I grew up in Wichita, KS, the air capital of the world.

Almost every major airplane manufacturer started in Wichita.

Boeing, Beech, Cessna, Lear.

The wind blows like crazy. So taking off into the Wichita wind is easier than taking off on a calm day.

And, they land w/ the wind.

You can see them lined up at Sky Harbor when you drive by.

I don’t understand women. But, fortunately, there is only 1 I need to come close to understanding. I’m trying.

There is so much more going on in there that I don’t get.

Guys are simple.

Electricity. You flip the switch and the lights come on. How do they get it here?

Water. Kitchen sink, shower, toilet. Open the valve and the water flows.

Think about all the inventions that started out simple but have become complex that we take for granted.

My computer will come on and do everything I want it to do.

My car will start and take me where I want to go.

We’ll fly again w/out concern and get where we want to go.

We flip the switch and lights come on we open the faucet and get a drink of water.

All of these things require faith. There is basis in fact. But, even though I can’t see it I believe it will happen the way I want it to.

I get frustrated, angry when they don’t. Still I try.

Last week I talked about hope. Hope is not wishful thinking or trying harder to make something happen.

In the bible, hope is a certainty. We just don’t know when.

So, hope is not what we wish for. Hope is what we wait for.

Faith is defined in the bible.

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Faith is about today and tomorrow.

The assurance that even though you don’t see everything or understand everything, it is going to work as promised. Today.

And, confident that what’s been promised about the future will certainly happen. You just don’t know when.

Living as if you believe today and tomorrow will end up as promised and everything will be good.

Why? B/C it’s God who promised.

Did anyone have any question this morning whether or not your car was going to get you to church?

Batteries die in the cold and cars can run out of gas.

But, if you know the battery is new and the tank is full, any doubts?

Probably a little bit. But, you tried anyway.

That’s the Christian life. It’s not the complete absence of doubt.

We can be confident and assured that everything is going end up okay but still have a few nagging doubts.

That’s where faith works.

In spite of a few doubts, living as if you believe today and tomorrow will end up as promised and everything will be good.

Why? B/C it’s God who promised.

There is a great lesson in faith from Jesus’s birth when Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

This is about their journey. It was hard journey anyway. But, she was 9-months pregnant and they still went.

Confident that their baby would be born healthy and assured that God was at work in ways they couldn’t see.

30-some, maybe 40 weeks along. What could possibly make them load up on a donkey and walk that far over difficult terrain w/out a reservation?

What do you know?

What do We Know?

Luke 2:1–3 NIV

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

What do we know?

Julius Caesar was the emperor of the Roman empire until his death in March of 44 BC. The Ides of March. He was assassinated.

After much political wrangling, the empire was divided 3 ways and each third was given to a different ruler.

Octavian was a nephew of Julius Caesar.

Marc Antony was a general.

Lepidus was also a general.

In 36 BC, Octavian defeated Lepidus and took over his army and then ruled 2/3 of the empire.

Marc Antony, who surprisingly looked a lot like Richard Burton, struggled to hang on to his third. He and Octavian were always in conflict w/ ea other.

They temporarily resolved the conflict when Marc Antony married Octavian’s sister, Octavia. That worked for a while.

The problems reared their ugly head again, and might have had something to do w/ the fact that Marc Antony, while married to Octavian’s sister, carried on an affair w/ Cleopatra (Liz Taylor).

In fact, Cleopatra had 3 of his children.

Things came to a head in 33 BC and Octavian defeated Marc Antony and tool over as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.

Octavian is renamed Caesar Augustus.

Caesar Augustus was a ruthless tyrant. He maintained peace in the region thru a heavy-handed style of leadership.

You did not cross him. He thought nothing of offing your head and the heads of your family to make his point.

Once the civil war was over, he maintained the peace.

The Romans are known for several things, including military organization, strength, and infrastructure.

Greeks are known for education.

Romans built their military into a juggxrnaught. And, they built roads and shipping lanes to facilitate business and commerce.

These things had t/b paid for. Taxation.

They assessed their taxes based on citizenship and family of origin.

Roman citizens did not pay as much in taxes as non-citizens. You could live there and benefit from the society, but you had to pay for the privilege.

Then, family of origin. Where are you from?

There were federal taxes and provincial taxes. Like we pay federal and state.

You paid according to where you were from.

Joseph and Mary, both descendants of David and his family, had to return to David’s hometown of Bethlehem to be counted.

The 3rd variable in taxation was how many people in each category.

It cost so much to build road and their military. Divide that amount into the number of ppl who had to pay.

That is what you owed.

Mary is very pregnant. You don’t cross a pregnant woman. Justifiable homicide.

Or at least foolish.

But, you also didn’t cross Caesar Augustus.

And, if he said go, you went. It didn’t matter your condition. You had a deadline to arrive and you had to meet it.

So, load up and go.

Irony. Coincidence. Or, something else.

Micah wrote at the same time Isaiah did, 700 years earlier.

Micah 5:2 NIV

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

The Messiah, the Savior, would be born in the same town David was born, Bethlehem.

Another one of those predictions that came true. But, it took an executive order to get the family from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

And, the Roman military and infrastructure played a major role in the growth and advancement of the church.

Paul was chained to soldiers while in prison, shared Jesus w/ them, they came to faith, got transferred (like all soldiers still do) to various parts of the empire and took their faith w/ them.

Paul and the other missionaries used the roads and shipping lanes for easier travel into the region.

Churches were planted. Thousands came to faith in Jesus b/c the Romans levied taxes and built their military and systems for travel.

Faith includes being confident of what you cannot see b/c God is at work behind the scenes in ways we cannot understand.

Executive orders, new taxes levied, changes in laws, arrests and punishments. These are things we can see and know.

We can let these things discourage us, cause us to fold up our tents and quit or fight battles we’re not intended to fight.

Or, we can have faith that God is at work in spite of what we see and think might be happening.

Joseph and Mary had enough faith to launch out on their journey. it was a dangerous and difficult journey but they went anyway.

The Journey

Luke 2:4–5 NIV

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

How far would you go for a fiance’?

They weren’t married yet. What that means is, they had not been intimate yet. There could be no confusion about who the father of this baby is. Not Joseph.

There were 2 possible routes they could have taken.

One, more direct, a little shorter, but over dangerously rocky and rough terrain.

The other, a little longer, smoother terrain along the river valley, but the last leg when they turn back to the west would be a climb of 3500’ up to Jerusalem.

I make that climb all the time but it’s in my GMC w/ a 6.2 liter V-8 engine w/ an 8-speed transmission. I don’t even feel it down-shift.

They’re on a donkey.

The shorter route is about 80 mi. The longer route is about 95 mi.

Think about walking, w/ one person riding on a walking donkey, from Anthem up to MP.

Healthy, non-pregnant adults can walk about 20 mi per day on flat terrain. Less for them in their condition.

So, figure, an 8-10 day journey.

Even though Caesar Augustus kept the peace w/ an iron fist, the trip would have fraught w/ danger.

Raiders, robbers, Joe and Mary were easy targets.

The shorter route would have also taken them thru Samaria. There was no love lost between the Jews and Samaritans.

Racism ran deep.

And, speaking of danger, what if Mary would have gone into labor during the journey. And, what if she would have had complications in the delivery.

Her life and the baby’s life were in real danger during this trip.

Could she have gone into labor?

A ride down Schnebly Hill Rd. in my RZR w/ its shocks and suspension could shake a baby out of pregnant woman.

Imagine riding a donkey down a rocky road.

Dangerous, time-consuming, and expensive. Joseph had to take the time away from his carpentry business and spend money on the trip and then face new taxes once they were counted.

Given their financial situation, that would explain their accommodations once they arrived in Bethlehem, sort of.

The Arrival

Luke 2:6–7 NIV

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

There are a couple of possibilities of what the “inn” was.

This word sometimes means, guest house.

That is, the first place you would go would be to a relative’s house and expect to be able to stay in their guest room.

But, everyone in the extended family was arriving in Bethlehem at that time so space would have been limited.

Or, an inn could have been, nothing like our Motel in the Pines, or a Marriott, or Days Inn, or Red Roof Inn.

It would have been either made from wood and stone, or cut into a rocky hillside.

A series of cubbies, or cubicles, or grottos; chipped into a rock wall. No privacy. Every visitor responsible for their own blanket or mat to sleep on, fire and food to eat, and care for their own animals.

Either way, no room for this young couple, their ride, and the eminent arrival of their little bundle of joy.

What responsible, caring husband would embark on a journey w/out having a reservation at the destination.

Or, at least checking to make sure they had a hospital, w/ birthing rooms furnished like comfortable bedrooms and calming music broadcast throughout. W/ doctors on call.

No, they ended up in a stable; w/ all of its sites, sounds, and smells.

Then, in the middle of the night, in the middle of all the mooing, breying, baaing, and clucking; there was a new sound.

Ya, the young mom crying in pain in delivery.

But then, the piercing cry of a healthy newborn baby boy.

The King of God’s kingdom was born in a nasty place.

The Prince of Peace was born during a time of relative peace in the region.

But, the peace in the region was due to a ruthless tyrant whom you didn’t dare cross.

Jesus’s peace comes from a personal relationship w/ a gracious God.

It all worked out just like they hoped it would.

They had faith.

Assured that God was at work in ways behind the scenes that they could not see.

And confident that God would keep His promise so everything they hoped for would come to pass.

Faith has some basis in fact. And, the most important facet of faith is not in its amount, but in its object.

Mary and Joseph did not need much faith. But it needed to be placed in God for the promise He made them.

The angel told Mary, among other things,

She’d conceive w/out being intimate w/ a man.

She would give birth to a son and name him Jesus.

He’d be called Immanuel, God w/ us.

He’d be great, the Son of God, reign on David’s throne forever as the Savior of Mankind.

Everything she hoped for came to pass b/c it was based on the promise and prophecy that God gave her.

That day, her today, she had a healthy baby boy. Her tomorrow was secure b/c her baby would grow up, live forever, and save her.

We are on a journey. And during our journey, at times, executive orders are enacted and taxes are levied that make us do things we don’t want to do. They hurt us financially and affect our planning.

Our lives are put in danger. Bad ppl want to do bad things. And bad viruses can do bad things to us.

Then, we end up in a place that stinks. We deserve better. We wonder how this could possibly work out good for us.

Wonder? Doubt? That’s where faith works.

The assurance that God is at work behind the scenes in ways we can’t see or understand.

Confident that everything we hope for will come to pass.

Hope is not what we wish for. Hope is what we wait for.

This is the season to celebrate our faith. And if we can have faith like 30-something expectant father w/ a pregnant teenage fiance, we’ll be fine.

B/C it’s not the amount of faith that’s important. It’s the object of our faith that matters.

Applications

Government Action

PPL get elected, enact laws and executive orders, and levy taxes that affect us.

Do you have more faith in whomever you voted for than you do in God?

Are you more expectant that an elected official will make your life better than Jesus?

Re-orient where you have placed your faith.

You may have no faith in our elected officials. You may have little faith in God.

But the amount doesn’t matter. The object of your faith is what’s important.

Who are you trusting in to do what?

Dangerous Climb

Our lives are in danger. This virus is real and it’s serious.

The economy is not out of the woods and our salaries and savings are still in jeopardy.

Some of us are dealing w/ dangerous things besides this virus its implications.

God did not promise us we would never get sick. Or that we could retire comfortably.

In fact, he promised trouble in this life and something is going to take us from this life.

But, He also promised that we’d find peace in the midst of the danger and he’d deliver us into the next life.

Don’t panic. Don’t over react.

Today will be good. Tomorrow will be great.

Smelly Location

Does the place you’re in right now stink?

Reek to high heaven?

You deserve better. Somebody dumped all over you.

Some animal dumped all over the place where Jesus was born and it was all they could do to keep him clean and from picking up a germ from the filth.

Jesus was born in this situ so He could forgive you.

Since He did what He did from where He started, you can start here and forgive whomever dumped all over you.

Let it go, let God handle it, and let your confident hope dominate your attitude from now on.

Wonder? Doubt? That’s where faith works.

The assurance that God is at work behind the scenes in ways we can’t see or understand.

Confident that everything we hope for will come to pass.

Hope is not what we wish for. Hope is what we wait for.

In spite of a few doubts, living as if you believe today and tomorrow will end up as promised and everything will be good.

Why? B/C it’s God who promised.