Pastor
Steve Geiger The
Third Sunday of Lent
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1
Corinthians 10:1-13
1
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our
forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate
the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank
from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were
scattered over the desert.
6
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on
evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is
written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan
revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in
one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as
some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of
them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
11
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for
us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are
standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has seized you
except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be
tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Learn
from Their Mistakes 1
Corinthians 10:1-13
1.
Understand the source of weakness
2.
Rejoice in your source of strength
Birds chirp.
The sun shines. The winds
calm. For just a brief moment this past
week it seemed that spring was almost here.
Looking out my window, grass brown but soon green. The sound of a lawnmower, sure to
arrive. Looking out my window to a
strawberry bed still quiet, but in just weeks the runners will run, flowers
form, berries green, then red. I, their
protector. Strawberry netting. Keeping away all hungry creatures.
Spring and lawnmowers and strawberry netting. There comes to mind a memory of a moment I
had not hoped to see. Don’t make the
same mistake I did. Mowing, the summer
sun about to set. Grass being cut close
to the strawberry bed. Suddenly
netting, sucked and wound, the lawnmower to a stop. Plastic, melted almost onto a no longer spinning blade. With a flashlight, trying to untangle a most
ugly mess. There still may be pieces
around the lawnmower blade shaft. How
foolish. To drive so close to
strawberry netting. Don’t make the same
mistake I did.
A
collection of stories we each could tell.
Of mistakes made. Of lessons
learned, often the hard way.
The
hard way. A lesson had been learned the
hard way. A lesson not of blades and
netting. A lesson of divine judgment,
even eternal pain.
A
lesson with a setting at first most pleasant.
A bright spring day?
Better. A cloud, the presence of
God himself. Waters, divided with dry
ground in between. The presence of God
himself miraculously providing a way out for a nation of Israelites jammed up
against a shore with the Egyptian hoards breathing hot curses barely moments
away. Moses, his staff stretched. Escape.
The Red Sea. The enemy
sunk. The people of God, singing.
A
lesson with a setting at first most pleasant.
The Savior was with them. Though
doubts and fears preceded the crossing, their bodies were not drowned. Forgiveness. They drank from the gracious well of God’s forgiveness promised
them in the coming Messiah, the Christ.
Spiritual food. Spiritual
drink. Bringing relief to sin-sick
souls.
A
lesson with a setting at first most pleasant.
A cloud. Red Sea waters
dividing. The water of forgiving life,
God providing.
One
would think that because all was well, all would stay well. But so easily the human mind can decide by
itself the way it feels God should act in a given situation. And if God does not act the way we think he
should act, so quickly can the human mind forget all the blessings God has
given and turn its back on the giver of all good. In little more than one month after the great things God had
done, the minds of Israel had grumbled because of no water, had complained
because of no food, and when they reached the mountain where God was to speak,
they concluded that Moses had been gone for so long, missing on the mountain’s
top, that clearly they had the right, maybe the obligation, to find a different
leader—in fact, a different god . . . making the true God look like a golden
calf—because the timing of the God they had did not exactly match their own.
Challenges. Three days without water. Stomachs hungry for food. Events taking longer than expected. Suddenly, God became the bad guy. Difficulty tempts us to see God as the bad
guy. Difficulty can take people who
have seen the great things God has done and turn them into rebels.
How
could they do that? Have you ever
wondered? Have you ever thought, “If I
would have walked through the waters of the Red Sea on dry ground, I would
never doubt God ever again?” Have you
ever thought, “If he would just do something spectacular for me, never again
would I love things more than him, let sinful desires get control. Never would I question. Never would I complain.”
Do
you understand? Do you understand what
such thoughts reveal? They show that we
underestimate the enemy. We imagine
that the enemy is easily defeated. We
think that if we had seen waters split, then we’d never doubt or complain
again.
But
don’t you see? So many did see the
waters split, but within days there was complaint, doubt, idolatry.
But
not me. I wouldn’t do that. Not only don’t we underestimate the
enemy. We overestimate our own
strength.
Where
is the danger in this? To think we are
strong and to think the enemy is weak is to not take our faith seriously. We become lazy. So sure we are that because we are a Christian now, we will be a
Christian always . . . so self-confident we become that we become sloppy. We grow content with a little rebellion. We think it’s not that big a deal if we bow
down to an idol, if we treat something in our lives as more important than God.
Did
you hear recently that because of a contract dispute, a satellite television
provider was no longer carrying CBS?
Which for basketball fans means the NCAA tournament, not able to be
seen. What do you think would generate
more complaints in your home? The
removal of all Bibles or the removal of your television? Not being able to go church or missing out
on a fun trip on a day off? Not having
time to read a devotion or not having time to eat?
Surely
you know that certain things are not in themselves wrong. But can such things become more important to
us than our God? Idolatry.
Are
you falling? Are you falling to things
that excite you but are sin? For
Israelites it was women, the Moabite variety.
Does lust draw you? The
temptation to feel comfortable with living together before marriage? Images on the computer? Immorality.
Are
you slipping into doubts? A
time-table. You want something to
happen, and yesterday. Like Israel,
wanting to be in the land of milk and honey, to escape wandering in the
wilderness. They grew impatient. Do you?
Has the sand slipped too slowly through your hourglass? You are angry that God has not acted more
quickly?
Are
you falling? Complaints. Do you wake up some days and, like I, have a
running list pounding in your head of all the things that are not right? By itself not wrong. But I, but you are not content. We are not rejoicing in our sufferings. We are not satisfied with the
blessings. Happiness, we dare imagine,
is appropriate only when God gives me what I want.
Do
you really love God most? Run from
desires evil? Flee from doubt? Far from complaint? Or do we walk in footsteps ancient, stepping
the paths of people gone before, but worst, imagining that there is no
danger. This is just the way I am. This is what God must get used to. I am a Christian. So I’m not perfect. So
don’t make me feel badly about that.
I’m not going to fall. I’m not
going to lose my faith. I’m not going
to suck the strawberry netting into the blade.
Do
you hear your Lord so gently, concerned creases on his forehead, saying,
“Please learn from mistakes. Idolatry
brings punishment. Sex outside of
marriage, 23,000 dead. 23,000. 9/11 times six. Doubting the Lord.
Destroyed by snakes.
Grumbling. Killed by the
destroyer.”
I
don’t know what might happen or when.
We don’t know how much time the Lord may still give us to repent. All we know is that this isn’t a game. To imagine that we are strong enough to sin
without danger, that the enemy is so weak that he can bring no harm to us is to
remember that hundreds and thousands saw waters split wide, rejoicing in the
power of God at one moment, only to be destroyed by God in another. Because you can believe in the Lord but one
day lose your faith. The poison that
brings such destruction is disregard for God’s loving will for our lives. The hand that lifts the poison is
overconfidence in our ability to sin without consequence.
Which
is terrifying. How many of us have
drunk from that cup? Sin we can take so
lightly. The danger we can so
underestimate. What now? What if I have done the same things the
Israelites did? Am I just waiting for
the snake to bite? Am I just waiting
for the plague to strike? Is it too
late?
Learn
from their mistakes. Isn’t that
amazing? Do you see in that already
such love? The Lord says to you, “I am
not wanting you to be ignorant of the mistake that was made.” Why?
Because he loves you. God knows
what happened to those who fell for these tricks of the devil. God doesn’t want you to fall.
In
fact, he didn’t want the Israelites to fall either. He says in verse 11, literally, that these punishments came to
Israel as an example. God wanted the
hundreds of thousands who didn’t die to see.
To learn. To not do that
again. The events were then written
down because God wants the millions and billions more to understand as well . .
.
. .
. that sin can be the death of us. In
fact, it should be. There should be no
more chances for us, except for the promise of the Messiah. Who would be wounded for our transgressions
and crushed for our iniquities. The
punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. By the beatings and nails, by
the hours of abandonment, his heavenly Father leaving him to the torture of
eternal hellfire. For all the times we
have taken sin so lightly, he bore sins heavy load. But when he finished, where was sin? Paid for, gone, for good.
So that on resurrection day our Lord and Savior emerged not as dust or
clay, but living, victorious, with no load of sin. Gone. He, there. Sin, gone.
The
Messiah. This was the life-giver, water
for the wanderers. For those Israelites
who saw God’s just judgment and shook, parched, what peace to come from liquid
pleasant, forgiveness won for rebellious Israelites and offered freely,
often. Like streams of living water,
for you too to drink deeply. Let the scratchy
pain of guilt be soothed by a refreshing, lasting swallow of forgiveness from
Jesus.
God
wants all sinners to see sin’s danger and sin’s solution.
That
we might now rejoice in our friend and all clearly recognize the enemy, the
threat, and fight it.
To
know that if at the moment I seem to be standing strong in faith, let me always
be thinking that I just might fall. One
imagines a policeman at a train station in Spain. He knows of the backpacks, bombs of a day past. So today his eyes are peeled, watching,
checking, suspicious, alert. Though
time can pass, one’s guard let down.
But no. With the devil prowling
like a lion, with your flesh, deceptive beyond cure. The Lord says, “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into
temptation.” Find out what has become
the god in your home. Search and
destroy all paths traveled by the temptation to lust. When sensing doubts arising in your heart, stand up in dismay and
beg God for his help. When words of
complaint come close to your lips, spit and expel . . . better, pray the
Scripture. When tempted in difficult
times to doubt or complain, remember, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in
everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to
the Lord” (Philippians 4:6).
Know
your weakness. Watch and pray.
But
then, this, you next may say. God, all
this stuff I have to watch out for? I
am weak. I am scared. I think I will fall.
Then
let the troubled heart hear next this guarantee made not by a presidential
candidate nor by a salesmen trying to get you to buy knives, a guarantee made
not by a well-intentioned parent or a loving husband to his wife. Let the troubled heart hear next a guarantee
made by the maker of heaven and earth, whose words never fall to the ground,
whose promises—not a one—have ever been broken. Because he has not only the syllables to make them, but the power
to keep them.
“Testing
has not taken you on except the human sort.
And the trustworthy God, he will not permit that you are tested beyond
that which you are able, but he will make with the test also the way out in order
that you might be able to carry the challenge.”
That
is so often when we sin, isn’t it. When
times are tough and challenging. When
the desert is hot. When Moses has been
gone on the mountain longer than we expected.
Times may be tougher than we expect, but times will never be tougher
than our loving God permits. You do not
need to be afraid. God will protect in
challenging times. Though Satan may
say, “My sinful way is the only way out,” you can say to Satan, “God, when
necessary, will give me the way out, and not necessarily so the challenge goes
away, but a way out that give strength to carry the challenge.”
This
is a promise. This is a guarantee. This is confidence you can take with you as
now you have learned from the mistakes of others . . . not so much of netting
and mowers, but of how the most blessed, passing even through a Red Sea . . .
how the most blessed can fall.
Understand the source of weakness.
Then rejoice in the source of strength.
Amen.