You have survived 100% of your worst days ever...

 Read Ruth 4

Naomi means pleasant or pleasantness.  She wanted to be called Mara because Mara it meant bitter and surely the Lord was unhappy with her.

She was having a poor, poor, pitiful me moment or series of moments. She was ready to throw in the towel.

But she didn’t.

She returned to her country, to the land of God’s Chosen People.

She brought a daughter-in-law with her who said she would follow her and her God—the one true God.

She gave Ruth very explicit instructions on how to present herself to Boaz—a man eligible to redeem them and a godly man.

She is now taken care of in the way set forth by God and still honored by his people.

And here is the kicker. At the end of this short book, Naomi was holding a baby in her arms and rejoicing with the other women. She was holding Obed who would father Jessee who would father David, who would be king.

OBTW—that line keeps on going and brings us the Christ.

So, just for the moment, consider Naomi’s experience and realize that you have survived 100% of your worst days ever.

Naomi had to leave her home country just to survive. She lost her husband. She lost 2 sons. She was a widowed woman in a man’s world in a foreign country when we first met her.

She surely had a shirt or whole wardrobe that said: WORST DAY EVER, and got to wear it frequently.

But we find her with a baby in her arms rejoicing with the other women as we conclude this book. She made it. She survived this very unhappy journey. She made it.

Do you remember Hagar after Abraham kicked her to the curb—sent her into the wilderness? She had thrown in the towel, but an angel told her that God would provide for her and her son. He would even become great and have many children.

She survived, and then some.

Naomi survived. We don’t see repentance over her bad attitude. We don’t see a testimony as to how God used everything for the good.

She survived and became full of joy.

What did the psalmist tell us? Sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.

Your pain and your sorrow may seem overwhelming right now, but morning is coming.

Your struggles and efforts to keep the faith seem insurmountable at the moment, but morning is coming.

The physical struggles, mental anguish, and emotional baggage that comes with so much coming at us for so long, make us consider just giving up.

We become stoic.

We harden our hearts.

We hedge our bets on this prayer stuff and start bargaining with God.

Or, and this is a big or:

We take one more step forward trusting in God. We might not be happy about our situation but we trust in the Lord and keep on going.

You may or may not be able to imagine some of the conversations that I have in any given week. More than half—probably pushing three-fourths are with people who do not or seldom attend here.  These words come up frequently.

Terminal cancer.

Nursing home.

Water shut off.

Power shut off.

Can’t afford to fix my heat or air.

No job.

The marriage is over.

House burned down.

Somebody close to me died.

I got fired.

Somebody is in jail.

Car is broken.

Car was repossessed.

And many of these things come in combinations—an unhappy meal if you will. I will have the broken car, water shutoff, and marriage on the rocks. Upside the fries, I need to clog my arteries to really make this the worst day ever.

Where do many people go when they don’t trust the Author of their story?

Seek refuge in drugs or alcohol.

Hold an ongoing pity party.

Become bitter.

Become apathetic.

Quit their jobs.

Quit trying to parent.

Join the Complainers Union.

Throw in the towel on hope.

And yet, everyone with whom I talked has survived their worst days ever. 

I have seen this in meme form in a few places with a few variants all of which say don’t give up. Remind yourself that you have survived 100% of your worst days ever.

This is Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day is to remember those who gave the last full measure of devotion.

The timid mourn the death of those who gave their lives for them. Those warriors who remain celebrate that these men and women once lived.

Today, as we navigate and negotiate our lives, I remind you that we are among the living. Nobody has draped a flag over your coffin yet.

You have been given today. You made it.

At my 50^th high school reunion, we noted that 11 out of 44 in our graduating class had already passed. Some said we have lost a fourth. That’s a true statement, but so is we still have 75% here today.

Let’s remember those who have gone before us but celebrate that we are here now.

God still has something for you to do as part of being known as his follower by your love. You still have something to do to bring glory to his name.

I missed seeing a close friend from long ago who said he would be there at the alumni. He would not respond to calls or texts. After getting in touch with his brother, I found out that he was hospitalized with cirrhosis of the liver.

That was bad news but worse was that he had a picture. This man who was the same age as me looked 30 years older and like he had already been embalmed.

I have had some stuff happen to me, but this photo said WORST DAY EVER.

Our class held a time for prayer for him. He is home now, but far from recovered. Prayers continue, but he made it. He survived that worst day ever.

When I saw the picture, my thoughts went to traveling to Arkansas for his funeral. But he is still here. He survived what I thought was a worst day ever and he had to live it.

Sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.

For some, that joy is to be with the Lord.

For some, it’s miraculous healing and a testimony to give.

For some, it seems like we just keep putting one foot in front of the other not sure when this trial will end. But we do press on.

You are here. You made it this far. You didn’t come this far to throw in the towel.

God has good plans for you.

God will never stop loving you.

You are his for all eternity.

Celebrate the fact that you have this day of life.

Do not become bitter over your trials. God will use them for good.

Do not give up on your walk of faith. With every step you take towards God, he is faithful to come towards you. I’m sure he takes bigger steps.

Do not become weary. Harvest is coming. Joy is coming. The fullness of life is still here for us.

Some of you know the Casting Crowns song, Thrive. Consider this part of the lyrics.

We know we were made for so much more

Than ordinary lives

It's time for us to more than just survive

We were made to thrive

You survived to see another day. Now live it to the full. Lean into life. Press on. Thrive.

Don’t quit.

Don’t get bitter.

Don’t get cynical.

Don’t give up.

You made it this far. God has more for you. In hindsight, you will think of most of these trials as small stuff. Maybe not now, but one day, your trials will be nothing to the glory that you know in the presence of the Lord.

You made it this far. You survived 100% of your worst days ever.  Press on.

Amen.

Redeemed and Reconciled

 Read Colossians 1

I am going to tell you a whole bunch of things that you already know.  Don’t check out mentally or just go home.  Instead, remember that God takes all things and works them for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Yes, that’s from Paul’s letter to the Romans, but keep it bouncing around in your mind while we begin this new study of the Colossians.

Paul again was writing from Rome in some sort of imprisonment.  He likely wrote this letter before he wrote to the churches in Ephesus and Philippi.  His letter to the Galatians was penned more than a decade earlier.

Why are Paul’s letters in this order?  They are organized by length in most of your Bibles.  You can get Bibles that put the books Chronologically if you want them that way, but for the purposes of our study of these four books, the letter to the Colossians was probably written a little before the one to Philippi and about the same time as the one to Ephesus.

Do you remember on which missionary journey it was that Paul went to establish the church in Colossae?  Yes, it’s a trick question.  Paul did not establish this church.  It was a missionary effort of the church in Ephesus.

Epaphras was likely the main church planter.  Understand that this was a church that Paul did not start, that he had not visited, and that was something of a second-generation body of believers.  Those who believed the gospel that Paul had shared with them shared with others in another town and they came to believe.

The church was growing beyond the impact of these first apostles, in this case Paul. The church in Rome was also such a church but we look to Paul’s counsel to these believers in Asia Minor—hard core pagan country—at this time.

Paul acknowledged early in this letter that the gospel was moving well beyond the places that Paul had touched.

Paul addresses these Colossian believers as holy and faithful brothers in Christ.  He greeted them with grace and peace. This is a warm letter to beloved followers of Christ Jesus, most of whom Paul has never met.

Paul tells these believers that he continues to pray for them.  Those in ministry continued to pray for them.  They prayed that this body of believers receive knowledge, wisdom, and understanding so that they may live a life worth of the calling that they have received. OK, that’s the way Paul put it to the Ephesians.

Here Paul says so that they (also we) might live a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work.

Paul doesn’t stop there.  He adds that they (we) might grow in the knowledge of God, be strengthened in his power, so that you will have great endurance and patience and joyfully give thanks to the Father in heaven who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.

Consider that qualified means that God did it all.  Jesus paid it all.  All to him I owe.  We are saved by grace through faith so that none of us can boast that we did anything to earn our salvation.  God himself qualified us for salvation.

We are not only saved from sin and death; we are part of the Kingdom of God.  That’s our home. By now, you should see some strong connections among the letters to Ephesus, Philippi, and now Colossae.

We know Christ is the one and only Son of the one true God.  He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  He is the first born of all creation.  He is the head of the church.

At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and this will be to the glory of God.

But Jesus is also the image of the invisible God. He makes visible to us that which is not visible to us—holy God.

Jesus told his disciples that because they had seen him, they had seen the Father. 

Where is all of this leading?  It’s bringing us to an understanding that Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to save humankind.  His sacrifice was to reconcile all things to himself—to the image of the invisible God.

He reconciled all things to himself—the head of the church, the one who is at the right hand of the Father, and the only one who ever fulfilled the law and was qualified to take away our sin and make us right with God once and for all.

But not just us.  Not just on earth.  Not just Hebrews who had professed Jesus as Lord. The blood of Jesus reconciled every vile and rebellious thing to himself. 

Think to our human nature—our sinful human nature if you will.  When we are at odds with someone, our first nature is to be right.  Being right is more desirable than being reconciled.  That’s why we don’t see much reconciliation in this world. It is not our nature.

But it is God’s nature.  We were at odds with God, enemies if you will.  God was right and there was no argument.  We deserved wrath.  We deserved condemnation.  God chose to redeem us and he desired that the entire creation be reconciled to him.

We deserved wrath.  We received redemption and reconciliation.  OBTW—we didn’t earn any of it.

We may not see this reconciliation yet, but the work is done.

It’s hard to understand everything reconciled to him when we have tornadoes and earthquakes and drought. That doesn’t seem like reconciliation.

It’s hard to visualize all things reconciled to him when people do not value life from inception to old age. You would think that all would value life.

It’s hard to conceptualize that all things are reconciled to him while this sinful human nature wants to regain a place of prominence in our lives. Will the good work that he began in us not be complete?

But we must realize and embrace that the work on the cross was a work for redemption and reconciliation.  It is finished!

One day, all will see it.  Today, we must embrace it and live according to the law of love.

We must know that at one time we too were enemies of God.  Until we professed Jesus as Lord, we were God’s enemies.

We were sinners and we were saved by grace but we are redeemed and reconciled to God in the blood of Jesus.

We were:

·       Sinners

·       Saved by grace

We are:

·       Redeemed

·       Reconciled to God

·       A new creature

Do you remember Paul’s paradox—already done but not yet?  We are made perfect by God but we are still living as a work in progress.  God’s work to make us right is done.  We are still working on living up to that right standing.

It is the same thing with his reconciliation.  We—the whole creation—is reconciled through the work on the cross.  We are living out our lives in anticipation of its full manifestation but make no mistake, the work is done.

You might be thinking, Tom just preached a whole bunch of stuff that I already knew. You will get no argument from me on that point. In fact, I told you in advance that I was going to do that and I’m glad this was not the first time that you heard most of this.

For the moment, while all of these things are being refreshed in your mind, consider that God was pleased to have his fulness dwell in his Son.  The fulness of God the Father was manifested in Jesus the Son. 

In Christ we have all that we need. He and the Spirit act in total accord with the Father but we seek to live a Christ centered life. The term Christology is frequently used with this letter.

A basic definition would be the study of Christ, but it’s more of the centrality of Christ in everything.  The fullness of God was within him.

John’s gospel tells us that it was this way at the creation.  Now understand it was and is this way for redemption and reconciliation.

We understand that we are saved from sin and from death but do we understand that we are no longer enemies of God, not by what we have done but that through Christ we are reconciled to God.

It’s not like, you are saved but you are still scum.  We are redeemed.  We are reconciled.  Through Christ and in Christ we are made to live in right relationship with God.

The will of God has been accomplished on the cross.  The creation has been redeemed and reconciled.  Our response is to live as redeemed men and women in a new creation.

We have not yet seen the new heaven and new earth  but we are a new creation qualified to live in God’s Kingdom.

Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what the Lord God has in store for us, but it is in store for us as God planned all along. The work is done.  Our inheritance is set. We are a new creature and a new heaven and new earth await us.

The world looks like a complete mess but God has reconciled everything to him.  Live out your salvation knowing that there is harmony and accord in store for you.

We have a glimpse, a taste, a deposit of what is in store for us.  Let that be enough for us to live a life of love in response to the grace and peace that has been bestowed upon us by almighty God through the person of Christ Jesus.

Consider all of the turmoil and hurt and pain and hatred and contempt and rebellion and apathy that you have known in this world, not to mention the bad hair days. Consider the wars and carnage and devastation that you have seen wrought upon this world.

Consider the proliferation of lying and deceit and falsehood seeking to overcome the truth.

The world deserves the wrath of God but God desires redemption and reconciliation. The work required for these things has all been done by God himself.  He has made you a new creature.  Will you trust him that he has made a new creation for you to dwell in?

Trust him in the turmoil.

Trust him with rebellion all around you.

Trust him even when the world hates you for it.

Trust him.  Through Christ Jesus all things have been reconciled to God. Show God that you trust him.

Live as the new creature he made you to be.

Live a life of love in response to salvation and redemption that you know in the blood of Jesus.

Live with joy in your heart.

Live with peace that only God can give.

Live knowing that God has reconciled all things to himself.  The day will come when we will see this for ourselves.

Today, we see as through a glass darkly, but one day we shall see fully. Yes, I took that phrase from Paul writing about love to a church in the middle of turmoil in desperate need of reconciliation. It fits here as well.

Today, we are called to live as a new creature in a new creation  trusting God through Christ that we will see everything reconciled to him one day.

We will see what Christ has already accomplished.

Amen.