We opened
the time with a video of the song “A Puzzlement” from movie version of The King and I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u5iHzag120
Who
recognizes that movie? It’s The King And I. It is a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical from1951.
It was based on a novel written in 1944 which in turn was based on the memoirs
of Anna Leonowens. Mrs. Anna as she is
called in the movie was a teacher to the king’s household in the kingdom of
Siam, modern day Thailand, from 1862 until 1867. So the musical is based (somewhat loosely) on
a true story. The song we saw performed is
titled “A Puzzlement”. The king played
by Yul Brynner is the singer.
Have you
ever felt like the king? Have “there been
times you almost thought you were not sure of what you absolutely know?” Or have you “found confusion in conclusion, you
concluded long ago?” Are there many
facts in your head “of which you wish you were more certain, you were sure?”
Just on
Friday, I had a meeting with some colleagues who are the most knowledgeable
people in our entire company on the materials we use in the particular products
I work with. In that meeting, we had
data presented which was supposed to show us how a certain phenomenon
worked. The testing had been performed
by an outside institute, but the test plan had been devised by our team of
experts. Two test groups had been
identified which should have given us a big contrast in the outcome. Instead, the outcome was the two groups
behaved about the same. This outcome
caused big questions for our group, and we don’t know the answers. Suddenly, we “found confusion in conclusion
we concluded long ago.” The immediate
discussion was quite interesting. Some
people wanted to pretend that the result was not so important. Others thought, “Wow! This is a big deal. We have to do more work to understand why
this happened.” There’s no end yet to
this story. But this isn’t the first time
that something which happened in my workplace brought this song to mind.
There are a
couple of verses in the original Broadway version of the song which do not appear
in the movie version. I didn’t know
about these verses until I was preparing for this message. In one of them, the king asks himself what he
should teach his son. Should he tell his
son that all people are the same and no one is better than another? And then he reasons, “If I tell him this I
think he won't believe it and I nearly think that I don't believe it either.” He also remembers his father’s ways, “When my
father was a king, he was a king who knew exactly what he knew, and his brain
was not a thing forever swinging to and fro and fro and to. Shall I, then be like my father and be
willfully unmovable and strong? Or is it better to be right? Or am I right when
I believe I may be wrong?”
I read a
little bit about the real king of Siam who the character in the musical is
based on. He was most frequently called
King Mongkut although he had many other names throughout his life. Interestingly, he had lived as a Buddhist
monk for 27 years prior to becoming king at age 47. As a monk, he developed relationships with
missionaries even inviting them to preach in his temple in Bangkok. He had a high respect for Christians and
Christian morals, but did not understand the truth about Jesus. He told his closest missionary friend, “What
you teach people to do is admirable, but what you teach them to believe is
foolish.”
That thought
aligns well with how the king concludes the song. “No matter what I think, I must go on living
life as leader of my kingdom. I must go
forth be father to my children and husband to my wife. Et cetera, et cetera and so forth. But is a puzzlement.” The king was conflicted over what to believe.
Let me
contrast that feeling with another story.
Here’s a picture of Mike McMurphy.
Maybe you remember Mike. Mike is
one of the pastors at Riverbend Community Church, our sister church near
Columbia, SC. He had a cancer in the
skin of his face which had reached a facial nerve. We prayed for Mike, for God’s healing. There was surgery then. Tests were performed to say the cancer had
been contained. A little more than a
month ago, he had some tingling in his cheek and jaw on the side where the
cancer had been. Quickly, Mike was back
at the cancer doctor and had an MRI which showed the cancer was back, this time
in the nerves of his jaw and had already gotten to within 1 mm of his brain
stem.
At this
point, there is nothing that cancer medicine in the U.S. can do to help
Mike. They can’t operate due to the
proximity of the cancer to his brain stem.
They can’t use radiation or chemotherapy because the brain is
involved. Mike and his wife traveled to
an alternative cancer treatment center south of the border to pursue some
immune system boosting treatment. Before
they left, Mike spoke at their church down near Columbia. It was about a 30 minute message. I’ll have a link to it in the transcript if
you would like to listen to it later. I
would recommend it.
http://www.riverbendchurch.org/media.php?pageID=6
(Click on My Story by Mike McMurphy, 5/22/16.)
Mike did not
come to the Pastors Conference, but several of the other pastors from Riverbend
were there. One of them described it
this way, “There’s a clarity that comes when you face issues that are as
serious as what Mike is facing.”
I listened
to the message that Mike had given at Riverbend which was back on the 22nd
of May. Mike himself described the
impact of his diagnosis as bringing total clarity to his life between what is
important and what is not important. He
called his diagnosis the beginning of a new chapter in his life, and he noted
that this chapter will end with either healing or heaven.
Mike also said
that he is not angry. He is not
afraid. He is not anxious. But he is sad. Sad for the things he won’t get to do with
his loved ones. It is an emotional time
for all his family. But he said he is
less sad as the days pass.
He explained
that brain cancer works quickly but not suddenly. He said that is a blessing because the time
of suffering is reduced. While the time
cancer does allow him is also blessing because it gives you time to put your
house in order and say goodbyes, a very good thing. Mike is thankful for the time to take care of
these things.
If the
chapter ends with heaven, Mike joked that it’s actually too bad for us because
we stay behind while he gets to go ahead and be with God. He said it is ironic that we often pity the
believer who dies because it is the ones who remain who must deal with grief
and loss. The believer who dies goes on
to a better place.
Mike talked
about how he has been around other people when they had died. Some knew the Lord and some didn’t. Those that knew the Lord were able to face
death with amazing peace. The one who
didn’t have confidence in their salvation were terribly anxious, even fearful
in their last days.
The Lord has
been Mike’s comforter. The night after
he got the diagnosis, he had gone to bed and felt his eyes burning with tears and
sadness welling up. And then, he heard a
voice in his mind saying, “Why are you crying?
You are in the presence of the Lord.”
At the same time, there was a melting away of sorrow and an infilling of
joy. Mike described his thoughts
changing, “Wow, I’m in God’s presence.
There is no reason for crying.” He
called this a peek into heaven which he thanked God for. All the sadness and sorrow and negative
thought we experience in this life will pass away when we reach heaven.
Mike wanted
to make sure that everyone who heard the message would have the chance to know
the peace of God in life and in death.
So he took time that day to share the good news about Jesus. He was especially reaching out to ones who
would not be prepared if they had to face death and God’s judgment. He shared Romans 10:8-13 which says,
“The word is near you; it is in your mouth
and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is
Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be
saved. For it is with your heart that
you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your
faith and are saved. As Scripture says,
“Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and
Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for,
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”—Romans 10:8-13
He talked
about his own experience as a young man who was a church goer but had not
trusted Jesus. As a young man, he felt
like he had been a pretty good guy. Why
should he need saving? But he realized
from the testimony of others that God was real in their lives. His own internal examination revealed to him
that he did not have a testimony of what God was doing in his life. He got some time away alone with God. He confessed to God that he had been
pretending to be a Christian. He confessed
his pride and sin and asked Jesus to be Lord of his life. From that point forward, his life was
different. Scripture came alive for
him. It became relevant and applicable
to his life. His perspectives about life
changed. His view of other people changed. Rather than people being instruments or
pieces in the puzzle to his own success, they were people to minister to.
Mike pointed
out that God wants to do that kind of work in everyone’s life. If you haven’t put your trust in Jesus … if
you haven’t declared Jesus your Lord … you can do that now. There aren’t any special words. God sees everything about us. There is no need to hold back. Accept the gift of Jesus dying for your sins.
Jesus will
come into you. He will change your
life. His Holy Spirit will fill
you. He will speak to you and guide you
in ways you never knew before. If you
will meet with him each morning, he will give you what you need for that
day. Treasure God’s word. He will speak to you from it regardless of
what approach you use to reading it, so long as you do read it. God will work to purify your life from all
unrighteousness. You should less and
less seek the things of the world and more and more seek the things of God,
things that are good and right and pure.
Mike shared
that we all have cancer. I haven’t
looked at the research, but I would expect that Mike has a pretty good overview
into what cancer is. Apparently our
bodies regularly deal with messed up cells through our normal immune
response. But I thought that was a
startling way to think about something which is true for all of us. None of us will live forever in these
bodies. If Jesus does not come back
first, we will each of us face death. As
Mike said, we will all face what he is facing now.
Mike shared
how he didn’t feel sick. In fact the day
before he spoke, he beat his three sons age 21-31 at a pull up contest. At the same time, he is terminally ill with
cancer. Isn’t that weird?
It is good
to take stock. To stop and think about
where you are and where you are going.
Maybe you feel like the King of Siam, unsure of nearly everything you
are doing and where your life is going, that life is a puzzlement. Perhaps you feel more like Mike McMurphy,
very sure of God’s active presence in your life. Or maybe you feel like you are somewhere in
between.
Let us go to
God’s Word and consider today’s passage:
Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you
think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so
that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s
sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again,
“The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more
boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or
Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are
yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. -- I Corinthians 3:18-23
Carl closed
last week’s message with the imagery and reality that God has created the body
of Christ as His temple. We, all
together, are that temple, not a bunch of individual temples. We are one building built by God’s
Spirit. This unity in one body is sacred
and should be protected and preserved.
God Himself takes it seriously.
In verse 17 just preceding the passage we read, it says if anyone
destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him!
This is a big deal.
What are the
implied risks to the temple according to the passage? Worldly foolishness followed by willful sin. The great risk to the integrity of God’s
temple … the body of Christ … us … is -- worldly foolishness followed by
willful sin.
This idea is
found elsewhere in Scripture. Proverbs
14:1 says this, “The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the
foolish one tears hers down.” Wisdom builds.
Foolishness leads to destruction.
At the end
of I Kings chapter 16, the wicked King Ahab is introduced. In verse 31, it says, “It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk
in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that [Ahab] married Jezebel … and
began to serve Baal and worship him.”
King Ahab
was foolish and flippant. He thought it
trivial to walk in sin. It’s no big
deal. How many of you today hear that
out of today’s culture? Pornography,
it’s no big deal. Promiscuity, it’s no
big deal. How I spend my time, it’s no
big deal. I need to unwind. What I watch or what I consume, it’s no big
deal. What I do with my finances and
what kind of debt I take on, it’s no big deal.
We deserve to be entertained.
It probably
“made sense” for Ahab to marry Jezebel.
After all, her dad was the king of Sidon. Sidon was a wealthy city-state trading
throughout the Mediterranean. It was
probably “good business” to have connections with Sidon. Isn’t that typical worldly wisdom? Whatever appears financially advantageous
must be the right way to go. But
Jezebel’s idol worshipping ways continued to pull down an already compromised
Ahab. Ultimately, Ahab “did more evil in
the sight of the Lord than any of those before him.”
If we think
we are wise in the worldly standards of any age of human history, do not be
deceived. We should give up worldly standards
and become foolish in the eyes of the world.
What is this foolishness that Paul is writing about?
I
Corinthians 1:18 says the foolishness is the message of the cross. What is the message of the cross? It is forgiveness of sins in Jesus. Our hope, our life, is not in what the world
would tell us is important. Our hope and
eternal life is found in Jesus. We must
choose Him and follow Him.
God is
certainly not deceived. He sees
all. The two quotes in verses 19 and 20
come from the Old Testament.
The first
one, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” comes from Job 5 (v. 13). If you look at the passage, you’ll find that
it also says that their wily schemes will be swept away. God will catch those in worldly wisdom, and
He will deal with the situation.
The second
quote, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile,” comes from
Psalm 94. That entire psalm is written
to God as the avenger who judges the earth.
In it, is a warning to wrongdoers saying to them that God is not blind,
deaf or powerless.
The
immediately preceding verses also strongly support the Biblical view that God
is the creator of all things including men and women.
Take heed, you senseless ones among the
people; you fools, when will you become wise?
Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not
see? Does he who disciplines nations not
punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? The LORD knows all human plans [the thoughts
of the wise]; he knows that they are futile.
Psalm 94:8-11
“So then, no more boasting about human leaders!” (I Corinthians 3:21) Stop the pride … stop the
boasting … stop the division … Why?
Because ALL THINGS ARE YOURS! What
do you think? Is it true?
There are many reasons we get confounded about the reality that all
things are ours in Christ. Past failures
lead us to believe that we do not have access to all things in Christ. I failed once; therefore, I could fail again. Past hurts lead us to believe that we do not
have access to all things in Christ. God
allowed something terrible to happen, it can happen again.
The older brother in the prodigal son story refused to go in to his
younger brother’s welcome home banquet because he thought his father was being
too kind. After all, his younger brother
had wasted a fortune on lavish living and sexual promiscuity. Why should this prodigal be welcomed home?
The father says an interesting thing as he is urging the older
brother to come in and join the party.
He says, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is
yours.” (Luke 15:28-31)
The older brother is proud and puffed up. He is angry and self-righteous. But why?
He is with the father. Everything
the father has is his.
What about us? If your trust
is in Christ, God the Father is with you.
Everything God has is yours. Stop
and think about it. Those who trust in
Jesus are sons and daughter of God. We
have the same inheritance with Jesus.
You can say, where is it? Or
it sure doesn’t feel like it? But that’s
not what God has promised us. Our instruction
is to live by faith and not by sight. (II
Corinthians 5:7) God is telling us we
can’t have it all in our wallet or our purse right now. Besides, it wouldn’t fit anyway. Your inheritance in Christ doesn’t even fit
in the bank. It is so much greater than
we can ask or imagine.
Then how can you know that you have all things in Christ? Ephesians 1:14 says everyone who has trusted
Jesus is marked with the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.
What if you say, I’ve trusted Christ, but I don’t feel that
confidence, that guarantee? I would
encourage you to camp out in the Scriptures, especially the New Testament. Read and reread. Memorize.
Talk to God in prayer and tell him how you feel. Ask Him to help you. He hears our prayers. Get together with other believers and share
your struggles. Pray for one
another. And, share your faith with
others. Tell your friends and family who
do not know Jesus about Jesus. This will
help because you have to depend on God to share your faith. This will continue to strengthen your
relationship with God.
King
Mongkut, the king of Siam, was perplexed.
As he told his friend about the Gospel, “what you teach them to believe
is foolish.” The king discounted real
truth and instead fixed his sights on the standards of his age which at that
time was the political and scientific knowledge of the western world. He even made improvements in his nation as a
result, but he did not find peace.
Mike McMurphy has total clarity even though by most everyone’s
thinking (including mine), his life has been flipped upside down and inside
out. His eyes are fixed on Jesus. There is nowhere left to turn. The world and all its methods have done what
they can for Mike. There is nothing else
to do but to rest in Christ and share the love of Christ with others.
What about us? What is most
important? Can we live and think like
Mike day to day while facing our own trials and challenges?
Are their things which overwhelm us that we should let go of? I don’t necessarily mean giving up
responsibilities or activities although those are not out of
consideration. I do mean that we should
consider what cares we are carrying.
God’s Word also instructs us to “cast our burdens upon the Lord” whether
they are cares even anxieties. (Psalm 55:22, I Peter 5:7) How are your burdens? Are you heavy laden? Come to Jesus.
You know what is dynamite for my soul? I find singing old hymns at the top of my
lungs is about the best thing I can do when I get to feeling all pathetic. As I sing those words so often based on
Scripture, my heart and my eyes are lifted up.
I realize that my mind has been given over to the “the standards of this
age.” I realize that I have an amazing
inheritance in Christ. Come to Jesus.
Come in singing … come in prayer … come to Him by reading … come to
Him through confessing. However you are
just come to Him. He is not far off. (Jeremiah 23:23-24)
Let’s pray to Him now.
Lord Jesus, I want to pray for Mike and Debbie McMurphy right
now. I pray for healing for Mike. I pray for your comfort and sustaining power
for Mike and Debbie. I pray for their
whole family. I pray that they all would
have faith and confidence in you in the midst of uncertainty. I pray that you will use this difficult and
even frightening situation to lead other people to Jesus. There is really nothing this world can do for
us. We can be momentarily entertained
and momentarily healed, but ultimately our hope must rest with you Jesus.
I pray for those listening right now.
I pray that we would come to You and cast our cares on You. Help us this day to put our trust in You
freshly. I pray for the many cares that
are on the hearts and minds of Your people here today. I pray for breakthroughs. I pray for answers to prayer that have been
prayed for months and years. I pray for
hope where it has faded. I pray for
comfort where there is sorrow. You O
Lord bind up the brokenhearted. You O
Lord are the Great Physician. You are
our Father. You have made us Your
children by Your Son. We come to You,
Lord Jesus. Amen.
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