“Forgotten Past and Fresh Future”
Dr. Thomas Boone
Central Presbyterian Church
Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2007
Isaiah 43:18-19; Acts 2:42-47
There’s a story that’s told of a man who had to evacuate from his house during a torrential storm. As flood waters rose, and people left in droves, he stayed saying, “I’m going to pray that God delivers me.” After a while, the man waded in waist deep water in his house and along came a HumVee. “Sir, get in the truck, we’re here to get you out of your house.” The man with great confidence replied, “No, I’m waiting on the Lord to rescue me,” so the truck went on. He continued to pray, “Lord, by your mercy, deliver me.” After another while, the man stood on his second floor balcony, waters still rising rapidly and along came a boat. “Sir, get in the boat, we’re here to get you out of your house.” The man surveyed his new condition yet with confidence replied, “No, I’m waiting on the Lord to rescue me.” Just another hour later the man was on his roof, waters still rising, and he prayed, “Lord, please, save me by making all this go away.” Immediately he heard the sound of a Coast Guard helicopter approaching and finding the man it hovered over him. “Sir,” came a voice booming from the loudspeaker, “cling onto the life line, we’re here to rescue you.” The man looked around him, waters inching onto his feet as the roof disappeared from view, and gulped. “No, I’m waiting on the Lord to rescue me.” At that moment a wave came, knocked him down, sweeping him into the current and his next waking moment was in heaven. Meeting the Lord for the first time, he said, “Lord, I prayed three times for your deliverance for my life and my house. I prayed it in Jesus’ name, yet you never responded. Why?” “Oh, really?” the Lord returned. “What do you think the HumVee, the boat, and the helicopter were?”
Hear the word of the Lord today and live it in your tomorrow. “I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” The question I want you to think about today is when God’s doing a good thing in your midst, are you a perceiver or a prisoner?
Prisoners experience a life limited by human decisions, perceivers define life from the perspective of God’s eternal timeline. Prisoners are defined by their past, perceivers build on it. Prisoners grow accustomed to a life behind iron bars, perceivers shatter the gates. Prisoners are dulled by circumstances, perceivers say “It is well with my soul no matter what the circumstance is.” At Pentecost a group of disciples sat as prisoners in an upper room behind locked doors controlled by fear. At the end of Pentecost perceivers emerged and brought 3,000 people to the Lord. We’re all prisoners at one time or another, but perceivers know that God doesn’t want us to stay there.
Perceivers see life when all hope seems lost. Perceivers see possibility rather than demise. Show a prisoner empty seats and he’ll bemoan the past. Show a perceiver those same empty seats and she’ll say there’s room for everyone. Perceivers exchange a prison of imperfection for life restored by hope. God wants you to be perceivers not prisoners. He yearns for us to be part of His transforming and renewing grace that goes on day by day. Christ’s birth was a break from the past. Pentecost was God’s declaration that now is the season of harvest, so what began as a collection of prisoners ended as a movement of radical proportions because prisoners had become perceivers.
Perceivers shift their focus from pain to hope. Last week I talked about how God wants us to choose the path of life rather than stay on the path of death. That’s what a perceiver does. Sure, someone has mistreated you, but don’t lose your hope. Sure, someone has let you down, but don’t lose your hope. If there is a prison for a perceiver it’s a prison of hope. And being a prisoner of hope means that you know God’s in charge no matter how things appear to be on the surface; it’s a stubborn sort of faith. When you’re a prisoner of hope your past ceases to define your present; it’s defined by knowing that a bloom is about ready to burst open in your life and in the church.
You see, God’s mission is to restore things. If you’ve been feeling low, He wants to
restore your joy. If you’ve been
struggling with anger, God wants to restore your peace. If you’ve been facing a significant health
issue, God wants you to be whole even if that means not having a physical
recovery. If you’re facing a crisis in
your family, God wants to build those bridges again. And more than all this, God doesn’t just want
to restore us, He wants to make us better off than we were before. God didn’t just restore Job, but Job 42:12
says “The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.” In Zechariah 14 when God promised that good
things would come to
“But wait a minute,” you might be saying. “Tom, that’s all well and good, but this is me you’re talking about. If you only could see my life you’d be singing a different tune.” Maybe you’re someone who no matter how hard you pray life just doesn’t seem to turn around. Maybe you’re someone who no matter how well you try to live your life, the same people just keep trying to drag you down into the pit. Maybe you’re someone who no matter how often you recommit yourself to a new way of living, you just can’t get beyond your addiction. Maybe you’re someone who no matter how many times you’ve forgiven yourself, you can’t seem to really let go of that black spot of your past that you’ve regretted ever since. If that’s you, then hear the good news of Pentecost: “I’m about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” God’s already making something new from the ashes of your past, the question is, can you perceive it?
Folks, if you think for one moment that I’m speaking from some sort of ideological platform where all things have gone well then you’ve got a lot to learn about me. Let me tell you a few things I’ve learned. Whereas I may think it’s impossible for me to forgive myself, God has shown me that all things are possible with the Lord, even that. Whereas I may have struggled to get over anger, God has shown me that His life-giving power not only helps me get through the anger, but to minister to others because of it. Whereas I’ve never struggled with the grip of addiction, I’ve been humbled by more people than I can count who with God’s help have and would stand before you today to challenge you to rethink your life in Jesus Christ if you thought your addiction was too much for God to handle.
We let go of the past only by the grace of God. There’s plenty in life that’ll take us uncomfortably close to a prison of bitterness. There’s plenty of people around us who are happiest when we’re focused on the rear-view mirror. Thank God that the Holy Spirit intercepts us. I’ve been a prisoner, and I’ve been a perceiver. And I’m here to tell you that life is in the direction of the windshield, it’s in the freedom that comes from being focused on the hope that you matter to God and that he wants to lift you up as a victor.
When people came to the Pentecost festival recorded in Acts 2 they had no idea that God was going to turn their routine harvest festival into a day of restoration. To the very city that had killed Jesus just fifty days before, God pours out His Holy Spirit and gives them another opportunity to get on board the hope train. People came to Pentecost thanking God for the harvest, clueless that the real harvest was about to take place in their lives. Their hope for a few good crops wasn’t good enough, God wanted their hope to consist of a new life where pasts get shattered and despair gets tossed into the fire.
What do you have in your bag of stuff that you’ve been carrying around for years? [pulls out bag with statements]
My husband died too young. My daughter died before I did. Death’s a big piece of the baggage that can infect our spiritual lives. If death has visited you too early, then it’s natural to feel angry about it and maybe deep down you’re harboring some anger against God for allowing that to happen. What does it mean to perceive a new thing that God is doing in such circumstances as these?
Someone stole my promotion. I’ve got too much stress at work. Work problems constantly weigh us down, and we bring all that junk straight into God’s house. Maybe someone dug in her heels against us at work, we show up to a committee angry about it, and we lose sight that we’re supposed to be hope bringers in our church work. When this happens our lives get tossed around. How do we perceive a new vision for our lives when we’re preoccupied with work strains?
I’m defeated by my lousy personal choices. I’m struggling with my addictions. I have a prayer to share with you that has rescued millions from the slough of bad choices and sick addictions. If you know it say it with me: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, and courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.” The longer version of the Serenity Prayer adds this: “Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathways to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it: Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.”
Do you believe that God has the power to transform you from being a prisoner of the past into a prisoner of hope? Do you believe that God has the power to help you perceive the Spirit’s work, no matter what struggle you’re facing? The promise of Pentecost is beautiful because from that day forward each of us has the Living God in us. And God is hope, God is life, God is resurrection, God is joy, and God is more powerful than your strongest addiction.
So, we ask, how do we get ahold of this promise and really sink our teeth into it to make it real? We might as well ask how could God turn a stone-flinging, runt named David into a conqueror of Goliaths? How do we defeat a past that binds us and throws away the key of hope? We might as well ask how God could turn a persecuting, Christian-killing man named Saul into a conqueror of souls for Jesus? How do we turn the tide in this church and recapture a sense of vision for a new shadow in the twenty-first century? We might as well ask how God could take a group of lackluster disciples who had failed Jesus time and again and use them to build a church that has lasted and grown over two thousand years.
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” You want to know how? Make this verse your theology for renewal and stick to it. Stop doubting what seems impossible. Put aside the language of embitterment. Cease striving to answer the problems of the past with answers from your past.
The next four Sundays we’ll be unpacking this theme of restoration from Isaiah 43 for our lives and for this church. God wants to remind us first about His absolute power in our lives and that He’s a God Who will do anything He sets out to do, if we but yield ourselves to it. Second, we’ll be talking about developing healthy perspectives on our history and breaking from a past that binds us. Third, we’re going to discover how we can recognize the good things God’s doing in our lives right now. And finally, we’re going to take a look at the fingerprints of God in our lives. No matter what’s dragging us down, the God of resurrection, the Spirit of Pentecost, is calling us to lives of harvest. Hope lives. God is doing a new thing in you and in this church. Can you perceive it? Hallelujah. Amen.