Pastor Brian's Article for 02/17/2008

“Gloom, despair, and agony on me.  Deep dark depression, excessive misery.  If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.  Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”  Some of you will remember the group of pathetic guys that used to sing this little ditty on the old country and western variety show, Hee Haw. They exemplified the old saying, “Misery loves company.”   Every week they held one big pity party, and nothing mattered to them but their own misery.  

When we are in pain, in trouble, or afflicted, we tend to focus on our own difficulties.  When we are in despair over unpleasant circumstances or events in our lives, we tend to sit and dwell on them.  The more we dwell on our difficulties, the worse our despair becomes.  It has been said that our focus on our despair is all too prone to exaggeration.   When we focus on ourselves and our problems, that is all we see.  We invite people to join our misery, but we have to be careful.  Someone might come and point out how inconsequential our desperation is.  It is human nature to want to suffer for a time so we can get the sympathy and attention of others.

We don’t like to look up from our self-pity because we might find someone worse off than we are.  We all remember the old adage, “I cried because I had no shoes, 'til I met a man who had no feet.”  Viktor Frankl, the famed Jewish Austrian psychiatrist, said that he and his wife used to fight over the silliest things.  After only one day at the death camp Auschwitz, he realized that he did not have any problems.  The only person to ever survive a suicide attempt from the Golden Gate bridge said that after he let go of the rail, it became poignantly clear that he did not have any problems that he could not handle. 

In Psalm 22:2-5 David is complaining to God and is acting as if he has gotten a bad deal.  The king thinks that God is blessing his enemies.  He in essence calls out and asks God to play fair.  David was so blinded by his own pain and sorrow that he could not see that God was playing fair.  The worst thing we can do is try to assess our circumstances when we in are pain.  We can’t get a clear perspective.  God had set for David a table in the presence of his enemies (Psalm 23); he just could not see it.  God was right there at the table the whole time. 

When we come and sit in the presence of Christ, He reveals to us the reality of the situation.  When we sit in the presence of Christ, we are taken into a new dimension.  Jesus is our bridge to a new reality.  Earth was His, but heaven is His.  We may live in this world that is full of despair, but we are citizens of an exiting kingdom where the things of real importance cannot be taken from us.  On this earth we are confined to individual moments of time.  Our lives are brief, but in Christ we live forever. 

Paul tells us to set our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.  The things that we see are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.  Helen Keller once remarked that the things that cannot be seen or felt are the real things.  What David realized was that the God who had been so faithful to him in the past would be faithful to him in the times to come.  In our gloom, despair and agony, God has not abandoned us.  He is there waiting for us to look up from our self-pity and see that His faithfulness precedes us, looming ahead of us like the coming sunrise.

That Jesus May Be Revealed,

Brian

Taken from A Hunger for The Holy, Calvin Miller, chapter 4.

Order of Service:

Opening chorus “Come, Now Is the Time to Worship”

Opening chorus “How Great Is Our God”

Drama - Northern Hills Players

Welcome and Greeting  - Jay Davis

Hymn - “Standing on the Promises” # 335

Scripture and Prayer - Deacon

Sharing Time - Brian Holt

Chorus - “The Potter’s Hand” solo - Becky Holt

Hymn - “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story” # 537

Hymn - “I Stand Amazed in the Presence” # 547

Offering -  Luke 6:35-38

Special -  Duane Hines

Message -Matthew 17:24-27

Our Response "Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus" # 320

Announcements and Sunday School Report

Benediction

Hymn of Fellowship - “All Day Long” # 463

Scripture References:

Luke 6:35-38 – But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure--pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.

Matthew 4:1-11 – When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, "Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax?" He said, "Yes." And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” When Peter said, "From strangers," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are exempt. However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me."