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Life in the fast lane: Weary from what? 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, October 12, 2008
So far in our series, Life in the fast lane, we’ve been talking a lot about relationships. Relationships between men and women; between husbands and wives; parents and children; brothers and sisters. Last week we talked about our ‘relationship’ with Jesus, and how because of it we have been called out of this world, to be different than the other people in this world. We looked at 1st Peter 2 last week, and read how we are ‘aliens and strangers’ in this world. There’s one more thing we really need to get to, because without it, we’re missing a key component to this whole series. All along I’ve been referring to the “fast lane” – the world we live in and find ourselves being swept along in. It is true: there is a ‘fast lane’; however, and this is the key to this whole series, the fast lane is only as ‘fast’ as we let it be in our lives. You heard me right: the ‘fast lane’ is real, it exists: there are many things clamoring for our attention, our time and our money, but the truth is it only affects us as much as we let it. It only gets into our hearts and minds as much as we open ourselves up to it. God spoke to the Israelites about this in Isaiah 43:22-24. I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn there with me. We’ve looked at these verses before, in The Spirit’s healing for emotional wounds series. Isaiah is the 23rd book in the Old Testament. The easiest and quickest way to find Isaiah is to open your Bibles right to the middle. This usually puts you in or right around the book of Psalms. Once you find Psalms, Isaiah is just four books later. So, the order goes: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy – the Torah, or Pentatuch, written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by Moses while the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years. These books cover everything from the creation of the world in Genesis, through Noah, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, to Moses leading the people out of Egypt and being in the desert, to the end of Deuteronomy when Moses died and the Israelites were getting ready to take their first steps into the Promised Land. Then come the books of history that tell about what happened after the nation of Israel walked into the Promised Land up to and including the establishment of the nation of Israel with its own kings, to the time they were conquered and forced into exile, and some of what happened while they were in exile: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings, 1st & 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. After that comes “Wisdom literature” – Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and then come the prophetic books, beginning with Isaiah. Again, we’re going to Isaiah chapter 43, verses 22-24. To put this in context, the nation of Israel was living life in the fast lane – they were enjoying their wealth, their freedom, their status in the world. They were going along with the rest of the culture and world around them, and had almost completely forgotten about God. Oh sure, their parents or grandparents believed in God, but that’s not how it was any more. Their parents and grandparents had been too closed off, too serious about this God-thing anyway. What ‘worked’ for them, didn’t ‘work’ for the modern-day Israelite. They were too busy living their lives and enjoying themselves. Then God sent Isaiah the prophet to deliver a message to them. This message was a warning – stop doing what you’re doing, stop living life apart from God in the fast lane, or you will suffer the consequences. In the verses just before the ones we’re looking at today, God has been telling the people how He has made a way for them, how He’s taken care of them and provided for them. But even after all He’s done, the people of Israel just don’t acknowledge Him or turn to Him, and this is what He says starting in verse 22: “Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses.” The Israelites were living high on the hog, and had forgotten about God. Their sins and lives were nothing but a burden and a weariness to God. If anything, God and His Word, His ways, were an afterthought. After everything else was done, after all the work and all the play was done, then maybe the people would remember God. Maybe they would acknowledge and toss up a quick prayer asking for something for themselves. Maybe at night they would say, “Dear God, give me…” and then fall asleep. Do these sound like things we might do? Life in the fast lane was taking from the people exactly what it always takes from everyone who gives themselves over to it: their hearts. It was separating them from God. You see at the end of the day, we’ve either spent the time doing Kingdom of Heaven things, or kingdom of the world things. Our hearts will belong to one of these two kingdoms. The question is, which one? Here’s the thing: the Israelites were doing the kingdom of the world things, that is, living in the fast lane, by choice. So do we. Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that if we are not spending all day long in prayer, or standing out on the corner handing out tracts or asking that really awkward question, “If you died today, do you know where you’d be tomorrow?” then we are not doing what we should be doing. That’s not what I’m saying at all. That’s not what God’s saying either. What He is saying, what He is asking, is why we go to the fast lane for our lives, rather than finding our lives squarely rooted in Him and His Word? No one is forcing us to give ourselves whole-heartedly over to the fast lane; to let it dominate our lives, our families, our faith. In fact, God made it easy for the Israelites to come to Him, and He’s made it unbelievably easy for you and me: He came to us. But what do so many of us do? Take a look at what I have up here. This is a container of rice. This rice represents all the things of the fast lane. Watch as I pour it into this glass – the glass is our hearts. When we make our home in the fast lane, we’re pouring things from the fast lane into our hearts: sports, music, TV, internet, our jobs, our schools, the things we own, the places we go, the things we invest ourselves in... You can see the jar fills up pretty quickly. Then, like the Israelites, as an afterthought we add the things God would have for us, represented by the golf balls: Him, reading His Word, coming to church, prayer, our families…oh, look, there’s not enough room in the jar – in our hearts. The fast lane has filled it so full, that the things of God are pushed out. But watch what happens when we do this differently. Watch what happens when we put the things of God in the jar first; when we make them a priority: spending time in His word, spending time with Him in prayer, coming to His Holy House; being the Christian man or woman in our families and pouring ourselves into them. Now when we add the rice – when we add life in the fast lane to the jar, the rice fills in around the golf balls. The things of God are not pushed out, and look at that, the jar is still filled with the rice, too. Our lives are not overrun by the fast lane to the exclusion of God, our lives, now centered in God, are filled with Him, and the fast lane doesn’t dominate any more. If we put the things of this life, of the fast lane, in first, there is no room for God and the things of Him. But, put God and the things of His Kingdom first, and all the other things of life just flow around them. This is not an illustration to say we can have our cake and eat it, too, what I am saying is that when God is a priority and that priority comes through in things like reading our Bibles, spending time in prayer, being that Christian person He has made us to be, the things of the fast lane are slowed down, they don’t dominate our lives anymore. While they are still there, they are no longer calling the shots. In your Bibles next to these verses in Isaiah you can write Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Are you tired of living life away from God? Come to Him. Are you tired of collecting all the ‘stuff’ and finding you’re still not satisfied? Come to Him. Are you tired of trying to keep up with everyone else: their lives, their desires and their expectations for you? Come to Him. Are you tired of lying down in bed at night, looking up at the ceiling and not being able to really name anything that you’ve accomplished or left your mark upon? Come to Him. Or will so many continue down the path they are on? The path that says, “I am fine the way I am and don’t need any of this Jesus-stuff in my life. I don’t need to change. I don’t need to come to Him”, and in the pride and stubbornness of our own heart, continue trying to make our way day after day, losing the respect of those around us, losing the relationships with our families, our friends, until at last we reach the end of our days, all alone and just as prideful and stubborn as ever? God says something to that, too. In Proverbs 16:5, He says He “detests all the proud of heart” and will punish them. In James 4:4 He says the same thing; He says He “opposes the proud.” He detests and opposes the proud of heart. Understand this well: if we reject the things of God, want nothing to do with them and go our own way thinking we can make it on our own, we can look to ourselves for the answers, we don’t need the Word of God in our lives because we know inside of us what’s right and wrong and can navigate this life just fine, thank you, God says in His word, “I detest and will oppose you.” It’s what He did to the Israelites in our reading today. Detested what they were doing, how they were living, and opposing them, He finally crushed them. They had run out of time, run out of chances to make God their priority in the fast lane. Will we learn this lesson now, or wait until after we’ve lost everything? I don’t want to end on this note today. I don’t want this to be the last thing we hear. It is true, it is accurate, it is from God’s Word and it is what God says to each and every one of us if we choose to ignore His call, to ignore the things of God; to choose to make the fast lane a priority instead of Him. There is one more thing though. If you still have your Bibles open to Isaiah 43, take a look at verse 25: I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Underline that. Circle it, highlight it, put it to memory. Those repented of sins are gone. That proud and stubborn heart that is turned over to Jesus in brokenness and contrition isn’t remembered any more. Instead it is healed and made right. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Next to verse 25 write the scripture reference 2nd Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. The old has died, and the new has been born!” New life; a new beginning, a fresh start. Sound good? Sound like something we need? Sound like something we could really use after spending so long in the fast lane? Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Rest from the fast lane. Restoration of the relationship with Jesus. Amen to that!
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