1/14/24 “Lifted Up”
“Lifted Up”
James 4:7-10
First of all, it’s so good to be back with all of you this morning…
Lisa & I missed you all very much….this church has not only become our home church in a physical sense, but it has also become our home church in our hearts as well.
A big thank you to Pastor Blake Overlein for filling the pulpit last week in my absence…He is such a gifted speaker and someone in the faith who I’ve looked up to for many years.
Lisa & I enjoyed watching the worship service on Facebook last week from 2,500 miles away in our t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.…and then you welcome us back to Wisconsin with 2 feet of snow!?!?!?....what’s with that? 😊
Speaking of being far away, Lisa and I were blessed to be able to see some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever experienced while touring a few of the islands in the Eastern Caribbean.
On one of the islands, St. Kitts, we were able to see the area where a very famous slave-trader-turned-Christian wrote a very famous hymn…any idea who that may have been….and the name of the hymn that he wrote?
(John Newton – Amazing Grace)
It was all very exciting – but, by far, the most exciting part of the trip was our plane ride back home…yeah, it was exciting, but NOT in a good way!
First of all….we had a 2 hour delay leaving the airport in Fort Lauderdale - But that was nothing compared to the excitement we would have while on the plane itself!
Marlene – you may want to cover your ears for the next few minutes!! 😊
So…we took off from Fort Lauderdale heading for Chicago. It was about a 3-hour flight and, well, everything went fine for the first 2.5 hours.
We were making our final descent into the Chicago area and everything seemed pretty normal until we suddenly felt the engines throttle up and we began to gain altitude again.
We saw the lights from a few other airplanes out the window and thought to ourselves “Maybe O’Hare is just super busy and we have to fly a holding pattern until we can land”….ok, no big deal.
So as we begin to fly away from Chicago over lake Michigan, I looked over to my left where – one row ahead of us – a man in a Pilot’s uniform had been sitting in seat 11C….he was now gone.
I thought to myself…ok, that’s a little strange. My mind immediately went to some of those movies where the flight attendants ask if there’s anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane….that’s never a good situation!
Why would they need another pilot in the cockpit if we are just circling around waiting for a runway…..? Something wasn’t adding up.
Well…. A few minutes after the pilot disappeared, we found out what was going on.
One of the flight attendants picked up the intercom and delivered this message to all of us on the plane: “Ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that when we circle back to O’Hare, rather than making a standard landing… we will be needing to make somewhat of an emergency landing! - It seems as though we have lost all wing flap functionality. Wing flaps are what slows the plane down as it nears the runway….. will be attempting what’s called a ‘No-Flap’ landing.”
What came next didn’t really help either…the attendant said: “don’t worry, there will be numerous Fire trucks, Ems trucks, and Ambulances waiting for us at the end of our runway should we be in need of their services”
“The captain is going to do his best to bring our plane to a stop before we run out of pavement!”
After this announcement, people were understandably shaken up…Like Lisa & I, some people began praying…others were shouting questions at the flight attendants who were doing their best to calm everyone down…I remember one man asking if they could bring him a strong drink (Apparently, he wanted to be ‘flying high’ no matter what the plane was doing)
As we circled back around toward Chicago and began our final approach into O’Hare, the flight attendants were explaining to us how to properly assume a crash position – put your head between your knees – put your hands over your head….and brace for impact.
As we approached the runway, we definitely noticed that we were going much faster than a typical landing.
Most commercial jets hit the runway doing about 175 MPH…the wheels of our plane would be hitting the runway at around 250 MPH….
As the kids say, we were ‘Com’in in Hot’!
A few seconds went by and…BANG!....the rear wheels of the plane hit the ground, then a few seconds later BANG! – the front tandem wheels hit the pavement…
All wheels were now on the ground but we were still traveling at top NASCAR speeds on a dead-end road.
Fortunately, the captain was able to reverse the engines and engage the emergency brakes without sliding us off the runway….
We were now stopped. We were safe.
The entire plane broke out into a thunderous applause…
….I’m not sure what role the pilot from seat 11C had in our safe landing, but I’m sure thankful that God put him there!...For all we know, he could have been the one skillfully landing our plane.
In any case, people were suddenly just happy to be alive…
In those few moments when all of us had our heads between our knees waiting for the plane to touch down….it was eerily quiet.
No more chit-chat…no more laughing…no more movement…even the baby a few rows back stopped making noise…
Everyone was now thinking about bigger things in life than the book they had been reading – or the movie they’d been watching – or the music they’d been listening to…
People of faith were now praying…and perhaps, even those who were not people of faith were also praying…
In those moments before touching down, my thoughts & prayers initially revolved around our daughters…if this situation were to turn ugly and if it were to take our lives, I was asking God to watch over them and their husbands…to comfort and protect them…
Then I began praying the same thing for my parents….then I began praying for all of you, our church family….that God would continue to work in and through this congregation for reaching the lost in this area.
Amongst these short prayers, there was another thought that entered my mind.
This thought was an uncomfortable one…This was a thought that I wrestled with – not only in that intense moment of uncertainty on the plane, but on the 3-hour drive home afterward as well…
The thought was actually more of a question…and it went like this:
“When looking back upon my life, have I made the best possible use of the time God has given me?”….
Or to put it another way…”Have I given 100% of myself to the Lord – or have I offered something less than 100%…?”
…and, If I’m honest with myself, the answer to that question is ‘NO’.
Looking back on my life, I clearly have not offered 100% to my Savior…
There have been, and there continue to be, plenty of opportunities in my life where I have missed the mark – where my own plans or desires have eclipsed those of God’s for my life.
I can’t speak for Lisa and what she was thinking in those tense moments, but I believe one reason God allowed me to go through this stressful event on Thursday was to force me to take an honest inventory of my life so far.
Where do I need to make changes that will bring me into a closer relationship with my savior?
Where do I need to be less selfish and more selfless?
Where do I need to be more committed to living for Jesus, and less committed to living for myself?
Which bad habits need to be uprooted, and which good habits need to be cultivated?
And let me tell you, dear brothers & sisters in Christ, I came to the realization that there are areas in my life where I have been wasting precious time…
Originally, this was not the sermon I had planned on delivering today….
Sometimes we think we’ve got a good plan of action, when suddenly God steps in and says……Today we’re going to do something different…today we’re going to change things up a bit”
….Today is one of those moments.
This morning I’d like for all of you to close your eyes for a minute.
Pretend you’re on a plane that’s about to make an emergency landing and you are unsure of whether or not you will be alive in another 10 seconds.
And I’d like for all of you to ask yourself the same question that God placed on my heart in those harrowing moments on Thursday afternoon
“When looking back upon your life, have you made the best possible use of the time God has given you?”….
Now add another question: “Are you currently making the best possible use of the time God is giving you?”
Meditate on those questions for a moment.
If the answer is “No” to either question - and I suspect there may be a significant number of you coming to that realization this morning…
Allow the Holy Spirit to probe your life right now…
Give God permission to access those areas of your life that you’ve intentionally held back from Him….
Maybe you’ve invited God to be Lord of 90% of your life, but you’ve been telling him the last 10% is off limits….
Maybe you’ve held back some pet sin, you’ve been entertaining some sinful habit that has placed a wedge between you and your savior.
(You can all open your eyes now)
I realize that this is a sobering question – but it’s a question that we all need to continually ask ourselves…
My prayer is that none of us needs to go through a potential plane crash in order to seriously contemplate the question of how devoted our lives currently are to the Lord.
Scripture also has a lot to say on the topic of surrendering 100% - not 99%, but 100% - of our lives to God.
One important thing to remember: Surrendering all of ourselves to the Lord does not mean that we live perfect, sinless lives – even the strongest Christians fall into sin from time-to-time.
But….Surrendering all of ourselves to the Lord does mean that we consistently decide to prioritize the things of God in our lives – that we choose to live in such a way as to please our savior, not simply live to please ourselves.
…Doing this not only brings us closer to Jesus, but it also leads to personal blessings in our lives as well -- we will be covering those in our next sermon series dealing with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7.
In his epistle, James (The half brother of Jesus) says this about complete surrender:
James 4:7-10 reads: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
Is this passage saying that God doesn’t want us to experience happiness, or to have joy in our lives?...that we should spend our entire lives grieving and crying?...Absolutely Not!
Rather, God is telling us that the only path to experiencing true joy and contentment in this life is through complete submission to Him – and this complete submission involves taking a long, hard look at the way in which we are using the time that God has so graciously given us…
When we are honest with ourselves in this way, we are naturally saddened by our own sinfulness – and this should bring with it a certain amount of emotional discomfort….That’s what James is talking about when he tells us to grieve…and mourn….and wail.
To know that we occasionally grieve the Holy Spirit by aligning with the world rather than submitting to our Lord will cause the true child of God to view his or her life with a measure of sober judgement.
When we do this, we demonstrate to God a spirit of humility – and this is when we are told that God….. lifts us up!
This is when that deep, settled joy can take root in the soil of our hearts – but only after we have properly prepared the soil through honest contemplation of – and meditation on - our sinful condition.
Back when I was a kid working on my uncle’s farm, the process of preparing the soil was a bit different than we typically see on today’s farms.
With the advancement of farm machinery and no-till equipment, no longer are so many passes through the field needed in order to prepare the soil for planting…
But back in the day, in the Spring we would begin by plowing a field – then we would follow the plow with a disk used to break up the large pieces of sod…
After that, we would sometimes follow the disk with an implement called a cultimulcher – this would break up any remaining lumps of sod and soften the soil even further.
This process of smoothing out the ground made for an optimal soil bed for seeds to take root and grow…….So it is with our spiritual lives.
By understanding our own sinfulness and recognizing that we can do absolutely nothing apart from God and his grace – we begin to break up the clumps of pride in our lives.
…And this humble, continual preparation of the heart will always result in a bumper crop of joy in our lives.
God will Lift You Up!....as we are promised in James 4:10
Peter states something similar in his first epistle (1 Peter 5:6): “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.”
There is a direct correlation between humility and Joy!
Another passage of scripture that speaks to the need for 100% submission to God is Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.’”
This passage is all about giving up our personal desires in exchange for living in obedience to our savior, Jesus Christ.
To live in such a way means that we will prioritize worship over worldliness….sacrifice over selfishness….and penitence over pride.
As we begin this new year, make it a priority in your life to use the time wisely that God has graciously given you
…seize every opportunity!
Let’s Pray.