Games People Play
One of the basic rules of public speaking is to start off with a really captivating illustration, words of humor or drama that will capture the hearts of the listener. This morning, I thought we’d turn to some words from the scriptures that are especially meaningful:
Ecclesiastes 1:1ff
The words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the teacher.
“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!”
What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the sun remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
Round and round it goes ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing, or the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again,
There is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:11:
…When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind, nothing was gained under the sun.
Real words of encouragement, huh?
Those are words spoken not by some rebellious, heathen, ungodly person. These are words that were given to us by Solomon, the great king of Israel. The one who as a newly crowned king was approached by God, and offered anything he desired. “Go ahead,” said God, “ask for anything and it will be granted to you.” Solomon, his head still adjusting to the weight of the crown he was now wearing, was overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy. He felt he could never fill his father’s shoes. He felt he could never lead God’s people without a special blessing from the Lord, so he asked for wisdom - wisdom to lead the people, the nation.
God granted his request, and, if it is possible to impress God, God was so pleased by his choice of wisdom instead of riches and power, that he gave him wealth and influence greater than any has ever known. Solomon had it all! His wisdom, power and wealth are legendary.
But at some point in his life, Solomon had what Chuck Swindoll speculates might have been a “mid-life crisis.” Like many with a superior intellect, Solomon’s quest for learning and answers to life’s questions had led him to cynicism. The simple answers to those questions just didn’t satisfy him, and no one seemed to have the final say. Not only that, but at some point, Solomon realized that all the work he had done, all the riches he had amassed, all the power of his throne was going to simply pass from his hands to the next generation, and he had no way of insuring that it would endure, or that the generations to follow would be wise, faithful people.
It was all, he finally decided, meaningless. All his life, he determined, was nothing more than Trivial Pursuits.
And that’s the direction I was prepared to go in this morning. For several months, as I pondered this series, and this message, I intended to talk about how much of the lives we live are little more than Trivial Pursuits. If you are trying to find meaning in your life through the gathering of life’s toys, the enjoyment of life’s pleasures, or the attainment of power, I can assure you that one day you, too, will find yourself where Solomon was when he penned the words we just read. It is all meaningless – it’s all gon’na burn one day, your life is just a vapor – here one moment and gone the next. The money, power and pleasures we spend ourselves on today will be enjoyed by someone else when we are gone.
That’s the message I had intended to give this morning. But God had a different, slightly more personal message for me. On an airplane last Thursday evening in Kentucky, God changed my plans. But before I tell you what happened that evening, let me give you an account of some things that have been going on recently.
Most of you have heard by now the story of Scott & Heidi Carr, who came to Gateway about 6 months ago and during our prayer and praise time shared that they had been trying for a year to have another child, but had been unsuccessful, despite the best efforts of their doctors. Scott broke down and cried, saying that they felt that “God was punishing them.” I stopped, and we all prayed right then for God to intervene. To either ease the pain, or grant them the child they so desperately desired to have. Just a few weeks later, we were told on a Sunday morning that they were expecting – twins!
In February, I went with several of the men to the winter retreat at Lake Ellen Camp. While there, I picked up a little book called The Prayer of Jabez. It is an amazing little book, and I have ordered a copy for each family in the church. The story of Jabez is found in I Chronicles 4:9&10. It reads:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, because I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me indeed! And enlarge my territory! That your hand would be with me, that you would keep me from evil, and that I might not cause pain.” And God granted him what he requested.
The book recounts how that simple prayer of faith - asking God to bless me, asking Him to increase the boundaries of my influence, asking Him to keep His hand on me, to keep me from evil, and to prevent me from causing pain – that simple prayer is a marvelous way for us to come to the Father.
Now, I have never been one to look for secret passwords with God. Nor am I one to buy into the “name it and claim it” heresy that so many espouse – but I was intrigued and impressed enough by this little prayer that I began to pray, without anyone else knowing, over a particular piece of property that I thought would be ideal for our church one day. The owner had told Russ Schroeder he had no interest in selling to us. But I prayed anyway. Two weeks ago, Russ prepared a report to share with the Leadership team. He had six pieces of property to report on. Mine was number 4. I waited. And then Russ shared with the team that the owner had completely turned around. He now wants to sell it to us – but on his terms – and those terms are nothing short of miraculous! (We will be letting you know real soon about whether it’s going to work out or not – keep praying!)
Two amazing answers to prayer! But God was not through with me.
I had been praying for some time that God would raise up from within the church a leader for the Loft (our youth center). We have a few volunteers, but I was really looking for God to bring along someone who would take the thing and run with it. About 4 or 5 weeks ago, I got a call from someone from another church – they wanted to come and do a program for the teens of Mayville that they had done in their church. They were going to bring volunteers, trained leaders, and even song leaders and drama teams. I have to admit, my first thought was, “Who are these people, and why do they think we need their help?” It was about two weeks into this thing that God finally got through my thick scull and I realized that He had simply answered my prayer in a very unexpected, unusual way!
Then three weeks ago, Robin Brooks came up to me after the first service. She was pretty anxious. She and Mike had signed a purchase for a home in Horicon, but had no contingency of selling their home in Beaver Dam. They had not had anyone look at their home. She also had not sold any homes as a real estate agent, and was really needing to see some movement, (not to mention the income from a sale), and she hadn’t gotten a new listing in a while. She was nervous. She said, “Pastor Bob, I need you to pray for me. I know I should pray, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t see how it will help.” I sat down with Robin, and told her about the father of a demon possessed boy who asked Jesus to deliver him, Jesus said, “If you believe, he will be healed.” The father said, “Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief!” [I know last week I mentioned this in our prayer time and I got the story mixed up, but that’s why you should always check up on me – this story is found in Mark 9:14.) So Robin and I prayed, we said, “Lord, you know that we believe, but there is part of us that doubts. Take that little bit of belief we have, and help us with the part of us that doubts. Build our faith by answering our prayer.”
The next Sunday, Robin came and told me that she had 1) sold her home in Beaver Dam for the asking price; 2) sold another home in Horicon for the asking price, and 3) taken on a new listing – all in 6 days! It not only helped her in her unbelief, it bolstered my faith as well!
What these experiences have done for me is amazing. It has changed the way I pray. I now pray expectantly! Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we prayed for Ginny Sampson’s mom – she was antagonistic toward the gospel, and very ill. Then the next week, Ginny told us that her mom had accepted a large print Bible from someone, because her eyesight has deteriorated. We stopped and prayed for her salvation right there and then . You know what? I fully expect Ginny to come in here one Sunday and tell us that God has answered that prayer! It’s not me – it’s not Gateway Community Church – the effectiveness of our prayers has nothing to do with the one who utters them, it has everything to do with the One who hears them!
Which brings me to Thursday night. As I rushed out of my office that afternoon to catch my plane, I noticed a book that I had recently purchased but had not read yet. I grabbed it, stuffed it in my Lap Top bag, and drove to the airport. I pulled it out as I sat at the gate in Milwaukee and began to read it, and God used that divine appointment to get my attention.
The book is Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, by Jim Cymbala. It is the story of a working guy, with no formal education, who finds himself pasturing a church in the middle of Brooklyn, New York. The church is near death. No more than 50 people show up on a Sunday morning. There is no money. The church is in a terrible neighborhood, filled with prostitutes, drug addicts and gang activity. At one point, the church was about to default on their mortgage payment. Jim had prayed and cried out to God for the money to appear – nothing. He waited for the mail to arrive, nothing. He suddenly remembered they had a PO Box, so he ran to the post office, thinking that surely this was God’s answer – but all he found was very old junk mail. As he walked back across the street, he was sure it was over. The payment was due that afternoon. When he walked in the door, there was an envelope on the floor, and inside was the money for the payment. No name, now return address – just the cash to make the payment.
That episode bolstered Cymbala’s faith, and encouraged him to begin to expect God to do things. And they began by realizing that the answer for their church’s success or failure was not their problem – it was not even their responsibility. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell can not withstand the church’s advance.” He builds His church, not a pastor, not a Leadership Team, not a congregation. Building a church does not take place through some great marketing program, or flashy advertising, or even powerful speaking. God builds His church.
So Cymbala did something that he says is the single reason that the Brooklyn Tabernacle has grown from 50 to 5,000 – they began to pray. Each Tuesday night they held a prayer meeting. And it was just that – a prayer meeting. No big sermons, no agenda even. They just pray. And those times of seeking God, and reaching out for His guidance, and His provision, and His ministry to people has had an amazing impact.
It was while I was reading the book, and thinking about this week’s message, that I sensed God impressing on me that it is not the people who don’t know Christ who are engaged in Trivial Pursuits – it’s the church that’s engaged in Trivial Pursuits. It’s THIS church! We have been all caught up in this effort, or that effort. We do our community events, our Sunday Schools, our Small Groups, two services, youth meetings, and on and on – and none of those are bad things – in fact they are all GOOD things – but they are nothing more than examples of “Trivial Pursuits” if we do not first pursue God.
This week in the mail I got a piece of marketing material (you might call it “junk mail”) from NavPress. Now, the Navigators are a wonderful group. But on the front of the letter is this paragraph: “Churches that rely on work groups survive. Churches that rely on lay leadership teams explode with growth and community impact.” Obviously, they are selling materials to help our church develop lay leadership teams. Which is probably a very good idea. But let me amend their statement a little:
Churches that rely on work groups may survive. Churches that rely on lay leadership teams may explode with growth and community impact. But churches that pray, and rely on God for the increase, led by the Holy Spirit, are churches that have kingdom impact.
All the best programs, the best speakers, the best small groups and VBS, and even churches that have three, four or five services are engaged in Trivial Pursuits unless more than all the rest we seek HIM!
Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of all time, said this,
The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine work among a people. If God be near a church it must pray. And if He be not there, one of the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer.
But more than what some nineteenth century preacher had to say, what did Jesus have to say?
The day Jesus went into the temple, and got so angry at the merchants who were selling animals for sacrifice and exchanging foreign currency for local currency, what did He yell at them?
Turn to Mark, chapter 11, verses 12 and following:
Did he say, “My house shall be called a house of preaching?”
Did he say, “My house shall be called a house of music?”
Did he say, “My house shall be called a house of fellowship?”
No! He said “My house shall be called a house of prayer!”[1]
While God has blessed us over the last five years, I can not escape the feeling that He has blessed us in spite of our prayerlessness, not because of our prayerfulness! Yes, we take time to pray during our services and share requests and answers to prayer, yes, we have a prayer calendar that we go through daily (I trust). But I believe God has so much more that He desires to pour out on us, but we don’t receive it because we don’t connect with Him, we don’t ask Him.
Think about the first line of the prayer of Jabez, “Oh that you would bless me indeed!” We need God’s blessing! We need His approval, His direction, His blessing on our lives and upon our church. And we will not receive it unless we are seeking it.
In that story of the demon possessed boy that I mentioned earlier, when the father asked Jesus to “help his unbelief,” the disciples had been unable to cast out the demon. They asked why, and Jesus said, “This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.” Without prayer and fasting, we are ill-equipped to face the world.
All through church history, God has moved when people prayed. The earliest church was meeting behind closed doors in prayer when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they preached to the masses that had gathered in Jerusalem, each person hearing the gospel in his own language. And 3000 people were saved!
When Peter got thrown into prison for preaching Jesus, what did the church do? They prayed! In fact, in Acts 2:42, we see a description of that earliest church – led by the disciples themselves, just months from the resurrection. Here’s how that church is described:
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer.
As the Leadership Team and I examined this verse earlier this week, we felt that we do pretty well in some of these categories – our teaching and learning has expanded and grown, our fellowship is warm and encouraging, the worship that is represented by the breaking of bread is genuine. But once again I was impressed by the Holy Spirit that prayer is the area we need to focus on most.
And so today I am issuing a call to each of us to stop the Trivial Pursuits. A call to spend less time on strategies, and more time in prayer. A call to our small groups, to spend less time talking to each other about prayer, and more time talking to God in prayer. A call to our Leadership, to spend more time seeking God’s direction through prayer. A call to our teachers, to spend as much time in prayer for our class as we do in preparation for our class. A call to each of us individually, to engage in a personal, meaningful time of prayer every day for one another, for our community and for our church. A call for a specific time of corporate prayer as a church.
Beginning this Wednesday, we will hold mid-week prayer meetings. That is exactly what they will be. PRAYER meetings. I know there are Bible studies that meet on Wednesday, keep meeting, I know the bowling team bowls on Wednesday, we’ll be praying for you! But we are going to meet, starting at 6:00, with whoever can come, and we will pray until 7 or 8, or later. If you can’t come at 6, come when you can. When you have to leave, go.
But let’s pray.
Let’s pray expectantly!
Let’s pray that God will be free to do in each of us personally what he desires to do.
Let’s pray that He will be free to do in us as a church what he desires to accomplish.
Let’s ask Him to “bless us indeed, and expand our territory, and keep His hand upon us, and keep us from evil, and keep us from causing pain,” as Jabez prayed.
Let’s stop the Trivial Pursuits.
Let’s seek God!