Before I begin, I have to admit that the wording Keep Pushin on, comes from a song going back to 1977? From the Rock group REO Speedwagon, and their album; You can tune a piano, but you can’t tune a fish. True words to live by. Primarily because in the past that tune helped me when I have been in the midst of challenge and its cadence helped my way. Today, let me suggest God’s Word as a much more effective tool.
We are continuing our journey through our challenges, hardships, and afflictions this week by looking at how persistence is a key to our overcoming the things that seem to inflict havoc in our lives. I know that I am not alone in the day-to-day frustrations that we all seem to be witness to in the society that we live in.
I guess that’s why for the last several weeks I have been led to talk about faith and its importance in our lives. But how do we keep on plugging away when it seems like I’m not making any headway in overcoming the challenges I am trying to rise beyond with God? If you too are struggling with staying focused on the goal at hand and need encouragement, then;
Today’s message is for you!
If you are doing great, no issues in your life, and life is better than you could have ever have dreamed possible. Your relationships, health, family and friends’ health are spot on. Job going great, transportation, living accommodations, and financial stuff, going well, and you are taking care of yourself with a multi-vitamin, preferably with a Flintstone’s chewable… Get up hear. We are going to book you for a Sunday, because, we need to hear how you are doing so good.
Of course, I am exaggerating because, I believe, that we actually need some of the pain and hardship of our lives to help us grow even stronger in the one who gives to all of us liberally, our very being. And all that other stuff; the adversity, challenges, and opportunities, is what makes us, or at least largely contributes into making us who we are in this beautiful life we are engaged in.
In fact, it is good to reflect and then praise our God for all of the things that the Lord is doing in our individual lives on a daily basis, to grow and edify our very being. Todays Call to Worship reading from Psalm 121, is about reflecting and reminding ourselves of the majesty that is God, and the blessedness that is us when we are in and with our Lord. Reading this Psalm of ascent, is a psalm the children of Israel would sing when they pilgrimage and went up to the mountain of the Lord, and worship Him in His Temple. Reading Psalm 121;
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
One can only wonder at the beauty and grace that must have reflected from the worshippers of the Lord as they with the greatest of reverence ascended His Mountain to be closer to their creator. How in that moment all other considerations, all of the hardships, challenges, and turmoil of daily life were left in order to focus totally on the Lord, and worship Him by; praising, magnifying, and glorifying His Holy precious name!
The trials of life, adversities of relationships, and the chaos of living in society would always be there after worship time in God’s house, the Temple, but the idea was and is to leave all of that when we come into His Sanctuary to Worship (praise, glorify, and magnify His Holy and precious Name). That is why we call this a Sanctuary, freedom from the worldly stuff outside.
Just like today in our modern lives, people will always return after their Worship Service to the realities of daily life, both in good and hard times. Hopefully, our time of worship, also serves all of us as a time of release, a time of Sanctuary in Him, whom all things come.
And we know that heartache and pain, the difference between mockers of God with the wise who advocate for good, are conditions that all of humanity has struggled with from the very beginning. The teacher of old Koheleth/ Qoheleth, also known as Solomon, also known as the teacher, mentions this ongoing dilemma of the happy heart vs. heartache in Proverbs 15:12-14 writing;
12 Mockers resent correction,
so they avoid the wise.
13 A happy heart makes the face cheerful,
but heartache crushes the spirit.
14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.
A discerning heart, a wise heart, will seek God’s guidance for knowledge when faced with “Affliction in Faith” in the family of God’s goal to “Keep Pushin On”, in our walk to be closer to our Lord.
The wise one will deal with adversity by placing their trust, faith, and hope in the one who has created all, redeemed all the willing, and sustains all through divine compassion and grace. But aint that hard some times to do!
In fact, the last thing I want to hear when the world is crashing down all around me, or life just isn’t falling into place (in fact it’s bedlam), or the illness that we have been praying to God faithfully, fervently, and sincerely, but it is still laying waste to harm to all within its unequalled reach, …is some do-gooder like me telling to just put your faith into God’s hands.
Of course, that is spot on advice, but there is a time for everything under the sun (another teaching of Solomon in Ecclesiastes), and it’s not a good time to say; “keep pushing on”, when the person you are trying to cheer up is devastated, and full of heartache and angst. That’s another reason to pray to our Lord for discernment and empathy of others, when we seek to serve others in need.
As in most all things in life, when I, or the person I am trying to comfort, are in the midst of seeking God’s help and guidance, Scripture is the best of all places to glean God’s direction from. Here is a passage that I hope will serve to remind us all where the source of God’s will in our lives may be found prayerfully. Reading from Paul’s second letter to Timothy, a young minister of the Gospel, trained to serve others by Paul himself. Reading now from 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5;
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
*Cutting in to say; Thatscripture is our source of wisdom, because it is God’s word, and your defense from allowing someone to come into this church and hijack your faith and worship life. Your defense because, your knowledge of scripture as a Body in Christ will strengthen you as a family and serve you as a fortress and a, yes, sanctuary from the charlatans that exists in the world.
Next is Paul’s famous statement repeated countless times for us to understand the importance of Scripture in our lives. Picking up at verse 16;
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
**Because you are working in accord with God’s word! And when you combine that word with His Holy Spirit applied in the Body of Christ, you are on your way to pushing on through the heartaches in life in and with your Lord. Continuing now at the next verse chapter4:1;
4 1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Simply put, it’s no wonder why so many have a hard time dealing with their “Affliction in Faith”. It’s hard to have staying power and the ability to keep pushin on, when you have been sidetracked listening to what your itching ears want to hear. I’m side-tracked every time I fall for the popularity and praise from a world that will soon be chasing the next thing that interest it in the moment.
That’s when we all must remember Paul’s words to the young church in Rome, who faced all kinds of distractions of worldly stuff we call things of the flesh. Reading from Romans 2:6-8;
6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
Owe, and ouch some more. When we or a group of us, or a church begin to make things about people or stuff like notoriety and fame, we run the risk on descending down that road of affliction and destruction. Again, how can a church any church hope to keep pushin on with the work of God at hand, when their faith is caught up in false Gods and wrong aspirations centered on man and not on God?
Persistence is key in successfully meeting our goals in life, and essential in all of us addressing our Afflictions in Faith, by keep pushin on with the business of serving our Lord. But we must address our faith issues with our walk in and with our Lord and Savior. Leading me back to today’s Message Reading from Luke 18:1-8;
1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
*Interrupting the narrative to say; Our Lord has a real sense for irony and even humor, because He knows the human condition, and all of us have had to deal with the concept of the squeaky wheel gets the oil. How many times have you watched the one who wined the hardest, loudest, and longest, receive whatever in order to shut them up.
Reminding me of the saying that for all of your adult life, you are really just living a different version of high school all over again. Whining, crying, fighting, storming, bullying, gossip, slander, biting and pulling hair included. And the further into your senior years you go, the harder it is to hide or cover up our High School behavior. No wonder we suffer from affliction of faith.
Well our Lord Jesus continues with His comparison of reality in God, with the ongoing challenges of the human condition. Continuing now at verse 6;
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.
**I’ll paraphrase; Anything to shut her up, keep her from hurting me, and give me piece of mind. Continuing now;
7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
In fact, those who cry out for God’s help addressing the injustice of the world, are not considered nags, but as the Sermon on the Mount states in Matthew 5:6;
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Because we are loved in spite of ourselves. But our Lord’s question still rings in my mind, when he says in verse 8 of today’s message reading;
8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Today’s message title is Affliction inFaith? Keep Pushin On! But what does that mean to you and me? How do I keep pushing on when I am down and out, aching in spirit and heart? Here are a couple of thoughts that I want to leave you with for your consideration when dealing with affliction in Faith;
- You are not alone.
- Your God, and His family are here.
- There are people praying for you and will walk with you, not for you.
- Justice will come when it comes. Instead of me focusing on the injustices of life;
- We must be about mercy and humbly walking with the Lord.
- When we keep pushin on, we are showing that;
- Persistence sometimes is a way of conditioning ourselves to hang in there for the long count.
- No matter how hard the going gets, our God will faithfully equip us for the duration.
- If you have affliction in faith;
- Go find someone worse off than you and help them.
- God will grow your reserves in service to others.
- You will become part of the solution in a world of darkness.
- Go find someone worse off than you and help them.
All of this takes practice, because we are all works in progress my beloved family. I hope that this week, all of you get an opportunity to step back, pray, and reflect on this wonderous thing called life. That you get a chance to marvel at the majesty of the moment, and then thank Him for giving you the intellect to be able to appreciate His greatness.
Amen!