Finishing the Race
HC Wilson · Tidal Church Moncton · January 1, 2023 · What's the Point? series
HC Wilson turns to Elijah's despair under the broom tree to answer the question 'What's the point?' Through encouragements to trust God in silence and not to quit, he reminds us that God calls us not just to start the race, but to finish it.
More from HC Wilson · The What's the Point? series
Topics: Hope, Faith, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Good morning. Ladies and gentlemen, Happy New Year. Was that the best you can do? I hope your New Year's going to be happier than that rather feeble deal. Let's try that again. Good morning. Happy New Year. Haha, there you go. And the One sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new." New, you know, it's a word that signals all kinds of things to us. Does it not? Anticipation, change, potential, freshness, optimism, of forward focus. The Bible, you know, I'm an old dude. Like, the only reason I got to be this old, I didn't croak, and so here I am.
[0:46] And Bible translations now have words like "modern translation" and "contemporary translation" and "Living Translation." And there are at least 15 translations that have the word new in their name. Because we're all fascinated with the new. The word actually appears in the Bible about 560 times, give or take one or two. Talks about new life, new wine, the New Testament in my blood, new commandment, new doctrine, new creation, new and living way. So welcome to the day of new beginnings. That's what it was called in the beginning. It wasn't called Happy New Year's. It was called the day of new beginnings. Little history. I can't help it. I love history. So now you got to be bored with it for about a minute. So don't leave.
[1:36] This might possibly get better, but I can't guarantee it. Introduced by the Babylonians about 2200 BC to be observed in the spring of every year in a celebration that was scheduled to last 11 days, but they called it the day of new beginnings. So look at someone somewhere near you and just say to them, "Happy new beginnings." Hey, the rest of you, who nobody said that to, your future is going to be kind of grim. Sorry about that. Julius Caesar landed in history about 1900 years after this business with the Babylonians, and he arranged the Julian calendar, which we still use to this day. And the first month in the Julian calendar was named after the Roman god Janus, J-A-N-U-S.
[2:28] And January was in, and so the Caesar declared the January 1, the first day of the new year with the new calendar, would be the day of a New Year's celebration. And so New Beginnings was surrendered to New Year's. And here we are. That happened 46 BC. So now you've had a chance to practice up. Look at somebody around you and say, like you meant it, "Happy New Year!" That's a little better. I think Janus, the Roman god, I'm going to get around to the sermon in a minute, so just be patient. I'm leaving after the service is over. What are you going to do? Right? What are you going to do to me? Janus, that Roman god, had two faces.
[3:16] He was a two-faced god. And every one of us, I don't mean to insult you, but every one of us on New Year's were two-faced. Everybody in this room is two-faced this morning, of all days, this morning. What person in this room was not looking back over one of your shoulders to 2022 with wishes, perhaps, with thankfulness, with regret, unfulfilled dreams or dreams fulfilled beyond our expectation? But we all are looking back. Have you not done that? But we can't stay there. The past is a lovely place to visit, but you cannot get a zip code back there. You can't reside there. So we're looking forward at the same time. We're two-faced. That's what the god Janus did, about whom January was named, had a face looking back at the past and a face looking forward to the future, and that's what we're doing.
[4:12] I hope and you're looking to the New Year. Are you not, with some expectation, some hopes for a better tomorrow, maybe even the twinge of dread of the unknown that is likely to come? And a new sermon series is coming to the church starting today. So I'm the beginning. Somebody else going to be the ending, but for the next several Sundays, you're going to consider together under the broad title, What's the Point? How many times in your life have you been through a series of circumstances, and when it was over, something inside you said, "What's the point of all of this?" I want to read the passage, is going to be on the screen there for you. I think about a man who had such a kind of an experience. In the Bible says this about him. His name was Elijah. He was a prophet in the Old Testament. Ahab and his wife Jezebel. You ever hear tell of her? No, you're not married to her. Ahab and Jezebel were the king and the queen at the time.
[5:16] And they were at odds very much. So, and there was a setup where Elijah had one huge victory over the forces of evil, and Jezebel, she was in fine fighting trim. So it says, "Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba town in Judah and he left his servant there. Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree. We know it as a juniper. He sat down in a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. 'I've had enough, Lord,' he said. 'Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors have already died. I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with You, torn down Your altars, killed every one of Your prophets. I'm the only one left.
[6:07] And now they're trying to kill me, too.'" And what are you done? You understand, things have gone badly. You ever go badly for you? Things have gone badly, and he jumped to conclusions that were based on inaccurate and incomplete information and took an extreme deal. Hey, God, why don't You just at me? Beam me up, Scotty. I'm done here. Let's get on with something else, actually asking God to kill him. Kind of an interesting thing, you know. I read a story, probably not true. You don't think, right? Preachers have to figure out whether what they're going to say is true. I don't, this can't be true, but a guy went in the drugstore, so I'm told, and said to the druggist, "Do you have anything for the hiccups?" The druggist never said a word, just leaned across the counter and slapped the guy right across the face.
[6:57] The guy kind of shook himself and, assuming that the druggist had misunderstood him, said, "I said, do you have anything for the hiccups?" and the druggist did the same thing again. What? So the old boy smartened up, finally, he backed out of arm's reach and said to the druggist, "I said to you, sir, do you have anything for the hiccups?" The druggist said, "You don't have them now, do you?" He said, "I never did. It's for the wife in the car." Watch out, you don't jump to conclusions. The druggist reacted with incomplete and inaccurate information and smacked that old boy twice. And I don't know, the account doesn't say that the wife ever got help for her hiccups.
[7:45] So yeah, he was likely in trouble with her when he got back in the car. To show what, how deep a scholar I am, I went back this week and read about the story of the sky is falling. You remember Henny Penny? Any of you remember Henny Penny? Not a politically correct story now, I don't think, but Henny Penny was picking corn in her backyard and an acorn fell on her head. And she concluded the sky was falling. I've met people like that. Some little reverse happens in their life and they jump to this conclusion that this is hell in the handbasket, and I'm done. So Henny Penny, she was all messed up in a bad way. She wanted to go tell the king the sky was falling.
[8:34] You remember that story, some of you. She gathered up five of her friends. They have names. I'm not going to repeat in public, but she gathered up five of her friends and went and got them. Things are going to go tell the king. The sky is falling. But of the last guy they visited with was a lab named Foxy Loxy. So he got them in his train. They went near here, you know the story. He cut this a bad kid story. Don't know how, whatever, past murder. He cut the heads off of all five of them except Henny Penny. She escaped, went back home, started picking up more corn in her backyard, forgot all about the inaccurate deal. And of course, the sky was not falling. But she'd cost the lives of her friends because she was pursuing something that never was going to take place. What's the point of that little rambling on?
[9:25] Don't give up, ladies and gentlemen. Don't give up. Or make up or design life-changing decisions based on distorted reality. Make sure the decisions you make when you're asking the question about what's the point. Make sure you've got the facts. Make sure you know what's going on. Everybody asks that question at some point in their life, with different inflection in their voice, different syntax, and they're speaking. How it comes out? Sometimes anger, who knows what. Sometimes in an emotional state we find ourselves asking the what's next question, like Elijah did. You're estranged from a child you have or a partner.
[10:15] Efforts to reconcile have been rejected, and there you are. And you might ask the question, what's the point? Sometimes it's physical. Treatments are very painful and cause high levels of discomfort, but there's no discernible improvement. We ask the question, maybe quietly. But we ask it. Why are we doing this? What's the point of this? Or maybe it's a personal thing. There's that hidden thing from which we seek deliverance, but the deep peace we crave and pray for does not come.
[11:01] The turmoil continues, and we wonder, what's the point? Maybe it's financial. If just one good break could come my way, things would be so much better if that deal would just close. Merle Haggard, in one of his songs, said, "I remember Daddy praying for a better way of life, but I don't recall a change of any size." And we ask the question, what's the point? Maybe a spiritual. We pray fervently for a deeply felt need, perhaps the healing of a loved one, perhaps the salvation of a family member and the reclamation of a prodigal son or daughter, and nothing happens.
[12:01] And we can't keep from asking the question, what's the point? Winston Churchill once said, "Success is not final, and failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts." Ten little thoughts. Don't be nervous. I know an average sermon is supposed to last three points and three points and a poem and 30 minutes and get out. This is short, but I want to leave you with some thoughts about what's the point. God does not settle His accounts in October. And what's that mean? Based on a true event of a godly farmer in grain-growing country who would not work his crops on Sunday.
[12:53] This is not about Sunday observances, about a broader deal, but he would not grow or work his crops on Sunday. His neighbor, who was not Christ-oriented, worked his crops longer and harder and all day Sundays, and in October the man who lived far from God had more grain in his silos than the man who did not work on Sundays. And so the guy who had done the work had the big harvest. He went to the Christian brother and said, "Well, I guess I showed dear God what's going on." He said, "My God does not settle His accounts in October." Be true at all times. The second thing I want to say is God's listening even when He's silent.
[13:43] There are some things come to your life that rally. You're right down to the wall of. And sometimes you can't find God. "Where are you?" You want to say, "If you've gone deaf?" God's listening, even when He's silent, when you want to say, "What's the point?" God never promised a smooth journey, but He did promise a safe arrival. It is inaccurate teaching, whether it's done by a preacher or not, to tell you if you serve Jesus everything will be rosy. That's a crock. And you can't find a verse in the Bible that says everything's going to be smooth all the way from here to the end. Not unless you're write your own Bible, and there's a lot of stable at that. There's not good.
[14:35] But He did promise a safe arrival. So when the circumstances are grinding you up in the meat grinder and you ask the question, "What's the point?" God promised He would never leave us or forsake us. I like this one. If we knew the answers to all the why questions when you're asking, "What's the point? Why did this happen? Why did this not happen?" Why won't she go out with me? I'm not that awful. Why is my mother-in-law related? No, I can't go there. He knows the answers. If we knew the answers to all of life's why questions, then we'd be God and He wouldn't.
[15:25] Because the ways of God are past finding out. They just are. The devil, number seven, I think it is, or wherever we are. Oh, no, right there. Thank you. It's better to be trusted than to be loved. Which means when you're asking what's the point, you should always do the right thing. I had a distant relative of mine who died a few years ago. My uncle, speaking at his funeral, said, "Bill Moore could always be depended upon to do the right thing." Trusted. I've been in ministry a long time and had jobs where people, you know, said stuff about me, some of which can't be repeated in public, and I liked it when people said, "We love you, Brother Wilson." Guys like me, brother.
[16:11] "We love you, Brother Wilson." I'd far sooner somebody said, "We trust you." That's a whole different thing. When you're asking what's the point? The devil's a liar. Don't forget that one. He's the father of lies, and he cannot be trusted. Hear me now: the temptation never provides what is promised. Just doesn't. So when the devil whispers in your ear and says, "Never mind that stuff, forget. There's no point to what you're doing. Forget it and go do this thing over here that you'll enjoy for the time being." That's a bunch of hellish nonsense. The temptation never provides what is promised. It just doesn't. Number eight is that where we are, the toils of the road. This is an old song.
[17:01] The toils of the road will seem nothing when we get to the end of the way. The family of God, number nine, when functioning as it should, is the source of great strength and support when you're in the crosshairs of life. When Murphy looks like an optimist and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and the weeds are growing upward and the flowers are growing downward, just remember that the toils of the road will seem nothing. The family of God, when functioning as it should, it's the source of great strength and support when you're in the crosshairs of life. I read that, didn't I?
[17:50] All guys are supposed to repeat themselves, but I remember that I did it. Hi, my name is Jim Clements. I'm glad you're here this morning. And it's always too soon to quit. If you're serving Christ and the Devil comes along and says, "Well, once you give that all up, once you just quit, for goodness' sakes, what's the matter with you? You stupid." Or other things he might say to you. Are you, you know, academically probationary, whatever? Don't quit. I'm going to talk, I'm gonna tell a little story here about the greatest last place finish ever.
[18:40] Then we're going to be done. 1968, Mexico City, the Olympics were on. The marathon race was being run and a man named John Akhwari was there to compete for his home nation of Tanzania, or Tanzania more correctly. He was running in the marathon. The winner of the race had crossed the finish line an hour and a half or so before what I'm going to tell you about. People had left the stadium in great droves. But if you knew, he was out there, not all the runners were in, and so they waited.
[19:28] A dark, lonely shadow at the back of the stadium, illuminated enough to see there was a runner coming very slowly in the back of the stadium. He had a leg that was bandaged and bleeding, and he ran as fast as he could to the front and finished the race to the applause of the few people who were still there. They clapped a little bit, and he had made it. A press, a member of the press went to him and asked him why he had not retired from the race. He seemed perplexed by the question. Why would they ask that? But they did.
[20:16] And he said to them something epic, whether he knew it was epic or not, and we're going to apply it to our faith this morning. He said, "My country did not send me here to start this race. My country sent me here to finish this race." And I want to say to you, ladies and gentlemen, this morning, if you belong to the family of God, God did not call you to start this race. No matter how often you might want to say, "What's the point?" God did not call you to start this race. He called you to finish this race.
[21:02] And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the point.