Give Us This Day - 5

 Give Us This Day - 5

Subject – Kiss the Wave – Part 2

By Rick Welborne

Matthew 6:9-15 (NKJV)
⁹  In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰  Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹  Give us this day our daily bread.
¹²  And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
¹³  And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
¹⁴  "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
¹⁵  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 

--Last week we spoke about Joseph Merrick, he was the infamous Elephant Man. Very few people in the world have ever suffered from more physical deformities than him. The sight of him scared people.

--We also talked about how Doctor Frederick Treves took an interest in him, had compassion, and provided a place of healing spiritually and emotionally. The Elephant Man was able to find peace.

--We also spoke about kissing the wave which was a famous quote by Charles Spurgeon:

Spurgeon – I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages. 

--If Merrick (The Elephant Man) could allow the pain of life and the obstacles he faced to push him into a deeper relationship with God, what is our excuse? We must kiss the wave. Paul said:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NKJV) ⁹  And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
¹⁰  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

--Hear your pastor, all of us are fighting some kind of battle or obstacle. Usually, it is a battle that no one else is aware of but we must allow it to throw us against the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ.

--Most of us cannot relate to the Elephant Man but all of us have our deep wounds and broken hearts that will either push us away from God or into a deeper relationship with Him. 

--Like every parent I know, we all have regrets about not doing the best job at raising our kids, many have deep wells of sadness, like every person I know. We have all walked thru the valley of the shadow of death. It hurts.

--Good news, we have seen God turn some of our toughest tests into our most treasured testimonies. We would not want to go thru that stuff again, but we wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. 

--Every testimony starts with a test. Pass the test and you get a testimony, and your testimony is how you overcome the next obstacle. Verse please:

Revelation 12:11 (NKJV)
¹¹  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

--Winning the day or praying “Lord, give me this day” is never about a quick fix. It is about kissing the wave that throws you against the Rock of Ages. Be thankful for the pain that made you run to Jesus.

1. Kiss the wave, and know, it is okay to grieve.

--We all know of and have heard much about Charles Spurgeon and rightfully so. He’s the one we quoted about kissing the wave that throws us against the Rock of Ages. He accomplished so much for the Kingdom.

--Along with pastoring the largest church in the world, he wrote 150 books, started a college, and led sixty charities. Makes you wonder what he did in his spare time. Maybe something about him you did not know:

--On October 19, 1856, he was preaching to 10,000 people in London’s Surrey Gardens Music Hall when someone yelled “Fire!” It was chaos. Those trying to get out were blocked by those trying to get in.

--A balcony collapsed beneath the stampede and when the commotion had stopped, seven people had died and twenty-eight were seriously injured. Spurgeon’s text that night was:

Proverbs 3:33 (NKJV) ³³  The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked…

--He would never preach that passage again and the man who was known as The Prince of Preachers came close to never preaching again. For a long time, just the sight of his Bible would make him weep. 

--When he finally stepped back into the pulpit, painful emotions flooded his soul. Even 25years later while preaching to the Baptist Union, something triggered a flashback that left him speechless for many minutes.

--Spurgeon was only 22 years-old at the time of the tragedy, he was the newly installed pastor of Metropolitan Tabernacle (largest church), plus he was ten months into his marriage with twins only days old. 

--I said that to say this…His stress was through the roof even without the tragedy. In my Master’s Program on Ministerial Leadership they taught us that in the top ten most stressful jobs is pastoring a large church.

--Imagine throwing in a new wife, twins, the pressure of speaking multiple times, writing books, and then, to face the tragedy of people dying and being injured at your meeting…He was being pushed against the Rock.

--Is it no wonder that Spurgeon admitted reluctantly that his thorn in the flesh was depression. In his depression:

Spurgeon – My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.  

Grief is depression in proportion to circumstance. Grief is a good thing, a God thing. God is the One Who created our tear ducts. But grief can be out of proportion to our own personal situation.

--This is where we have to allow our circumstances to push us closer to the Rock. Kiss the wave and run to the Rock. There is a danger to ourselves…Depression is grief out of proportion to circumstance.

--Go ahead a grieve, it is one way that we kiss the wave. Much like physical wounds, if emotional wounds don’t fully heal, they can become infected. Don’t try to short-cut grief, it will short-cut your soul. We have good news

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (NIV)
¹³  Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
¹⁴  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
¹⁵  According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
¹⁶  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

 ¹⁷  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
¹⁸  Therefore encourage each other with these words. 

2. The best of times, the worst of times.

--A few of you may recognize this second point from Charles Dickens…he wrote “A Tale of Two Cities”:

Dickens – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was epoch of belief, it was the epoch of skepticism, it was a season of Light, it was a season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

--More than just an epic opening, it is a truthful take of life. We want the best of times without the worst. We want wisdom without foolishness, light without darkness, hope without despair. This is not reality.

--Maybe you are of the belief that all you have to do is name it, claim it, and you can have it, but having a 32½ year history here at Life Church I have watched people in that camp have both good and bad. It’s life.

--Christianity is not the avoidance of evil in the world and bad things happening to you, it is, however, having a Savior Who will walk with you thru every test and trial. He’ll never leave you or forsake you. 

--Remember Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), how does someone who is misunderstood and mistreated for so many years consider himself blessed, not cursed? How could he get better instead of bitter? Merrick repeated

Merrick – Tis true, my form is something odd, but blaming me is blaming God. Could I create myself anew, I would not fail in pleasing you. 

--We all have opportunity to blame God for this or that. All of us have probably been guilty at some point. We have questions on this side of eternity we may never get the answers. This is where we trust Him.

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV) ²⁹  The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

3. From it or through it.

--Sometimes God delivers us from suffering. More often than not, He delivers us through it. Why? So we can help others going through similar mess. 

Isaiah 43:1-3 (NKJV)
¹  But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.
²  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.
³  For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; 

--To be able to kiss the wave and to be able to pray, Lord, give us this day, it may be good to pray the serenity prayer:

Reinhold Niebuhr – God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.