"Not Worth Comparing"

Sermon by Pastor David Layman

July 17, 2005

Numbers 13:17-33 Romans 8:12-18

When, over three years ago, we began the process of looking to the future, two leaders from Fountain City Wesleyan Church came to our session, and one said something quite memorable: "The Lord can't steer a parked car." Fountain City Wesleyan is definitely not a "parked car".

I went to their open house a few weeks back, and was impressed by what I saw. 30 years ago, Fountain City Wesleyan was a congregation smaller than us. But some in leadership had a vision of a new future, and over

a period of time, more and more people caught this vision. Their new 4.7 million dQllar addition to the building and the 1400 men, women and children present on that weekend were drawn to make a considerable effort over a long period of time. They as a congregation began to move away from the curb some 20 years ago; they're no longer a "parked

car"! The Lord is steering them to a bright new future. There is excitement and pride among their membership, and they feel they're following the call of God to a promised land!

It would be a mistake for us to try to become a carbon copy of another congregation. Because each individual and each particular congregation is unique, with a different Christian "DNA". God doesn't ask us to become a carbon copy of Fountain City Wesleyan. But if we want to go somewhere, we have to get off of the sidewalk, into the car, and away from the curb. The Lord can't steer a parked car! The book of Numbers reminds us that the Lord won't deliver people into the promised land that want to head back to Egypt! Numbers 11 records that once in the wilderness on the way to the promised land, some began to grumble "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt...the cucumbers, the melons, the onions but now ...there is nothing at all but this blasted manna to eat." (Numbers 11 :4-6). The imagery of the journey from slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land underlies the New Testament. Paul in his letter to the Romans writes about the contrast between living according to the flesh, and living according to the Spirit. When we live according to the flesh, we're like the Hebrews grumbling in the wilderness, wanting to go back to our past instead of forward to the future God beckons us to. In the Old Testament, God led the Hebrews by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. In the New Testament, it's the Spirit who does the leading.

Paul writes to the Romans "You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry "Abba! Father! it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."

The Lord can't steer a parked car. And we can't expect to one day get. into the promised land by sitting in a parked car or setting a lawn chair up in the shade. God doesn't ask us to sit along the roadside of life and watch a parade. He wants us to become participants in the parade, moving forward to the bright future he calls us into! Following God, as Paul points out in Romans 8, is not always a comfortable enterprise. Sometimes suffering and struggle is required.

I have good news and bad news to share. The good news is that our car has pulled away from the curb, and we're doing better than a good majority of Presbyterian churches. God is steering us, and we're doing some good things. The bad news is that while we're doing better than most Presbyterian churches, too many of these congregations are dying! Cambridge City is the latest to be preparing to close their doors. More bad news is that while we're pulling away from the curb, not everyone's on board. Some are so involved in their own lives, they may not even realize our church has a car! They may think of church as a place you come and sit, and not as a body of people that comes together to worship, and then goes out to serve. A church is meant to be a vehicle that helps people journey to the promised land, not a place you come to. plant yourself in dead wood and concrete! Even for those inside the car, some are saying "I want to go that way!" "I want to go THAT way!" and those words I remember from my childhood, "He's on my side of the line!" In childhood, my brother, sister and I all had to share the back seat. I was the youngest ofthree, my brother got a window, my sister got a window, and I had to sit on the "hump" in the middle! Our upholstery had lines in it, and at times, we got into one another's space. I can remember my parents saying at times in exasperation "Don't make me pull over the car and come back there!"

As a church, we've pulled away from the curb. But not everyone's in the car. And not everyone who's in the car is of one mind. Acts 4:32 is

the first time automobile travel is mentioned in the Bible: "And they were all in one Accord". We have some things to work on. But we're beginning to go somewhere.

At the beginning of Numbers 13, the Lord told Moses to send men from each tribe of Israel to spy out the promised land and bring back a

report. When the spies returned, they told of a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet the majority report was that the people who lived there were very strong, and the Israelites felt like grasshoppers in

comparison to them. (Numbers 13:33). Caleb and Joshua brought forward a minority report, saying "We are well able to occupy the land." We can learn from these passages that looking to the past with too much affection, and to the future with too much fear, is a big mistake! The Hebrews in the wilderness looked back on their past with too much affection. They thought about the food they missed, neglecting to also remember the slavery they experienced in Egypt! Sometimes our memories are selective, wouldn't you agree? And at the same time they failed to focus on the prosperity they could experience in a land flowing with milk and honey, and focused instead on how hard it might be to enter the promised land. There is very little chance we can re-create the 1950's in the life of our church. But we can work together to create a better future, if we listen to the Ca1ebs in our midst!

It's interesting to see what happened at that point. Instead of sending the rebellious ones back to Egypt and taking Caleb and Joshua immediately into the promised land, those not living by God's Spirit self destructed and faded away. More and more churches are struggling in the challenging environment of our post modem wilderness. We are showing signs of life, but we need to remember what will happen to us if we look at the past with too much affection, and at the future with too much fear! God didn't give up on his people eventually inheriting the promised land, but continued to work with them. Years later, Caleb and Joshua eventually got to enter into the promised land, and a new generation of believers accompanied them.

We may not be ready as a body of believers to go as far as our Calebs would desire at this moment. Paul wrote in Romans 8: 18 "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us." The life of faith is not presented as something easy in the Bible. There can be suffering and struggle. People being what they are, material things can become very important to us. Just like the Hebrews grumbled in the wilderness for the tasty food and the slave cabins they used to have in Egypt, believers today may become attached to a particular place of worship, or a new site that they set their hearts upon. But the most important thing in life is not a material possession, but the presence of the living God. We as believers need more than anything else to attune our hearts and minds to God. It's our identity as God's adopted children that matters far more than the house we've worshipped in in the past, or the particular place we may wind up in the future. There are times we need to learn to travel light, focussing most of all on the voice of our living Lord that goes before us. Ifwe are indeed God's adopted children, we are heirs--we have a great inheritance lying before us.

The sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that can be revealed!

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