The Cure for Disillusionment

There is always potential for disillusionment when following Jesus Christ.  When God places in the heart of a man the desire to serve others, it might become others that motivate him.  This is a prolific breeding ground for disillusionment.  One of my favorite sermons to listen to, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" by Paris Reidhead, contains a personal example of how his mission field experience did not measure up to his expectations.

To summarize from the sermon, the preacher Paris Reidhead took a mission trip to Africa.  He had seen gruesome pictures of lepers and starving children, and heard how great the need for the Gospel was.  His heart was moved on an emotional level to go over to Africa to ease the suffering of the people.  When he arrived, however, he felt betrayed by the fact that the people knew the Gospel but loved their sin and wanted to stay in it!  Paris spoke of a time of private prayer when he practically accused God of misleading him to even go to Africa at all!  But the words of God spoke to His heart:  "I did not send you here for them.  I sent you here for Me!  Do I not deserve the reward of My suffering?"  He learned a valuable lesson the message struck home to my heart years ago:  we exist to serve and glorify God first and only.  When we begin to live a life to please men, the end will always be disillusionment.

There is a story in The Gospel of Mark where Jesus healed all the sick and delivered all the demon possessed in the town that were brought to Him.  The next morning before the sun rose, He spent time in private prayer.  The disciples found Him and Peter said, "All the people are looking for you."  The response of Jesus is amazing.  Mark 1:38 says, "But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth."  Peter wanted to accommodate people, but Jesus wanted to seek and save souls that didn't even know to look for Him!  Many would have been content to be the celebrity of the town, but not Jesus.  He would not have His role reduced to that of a street performer who lived to astonish people or profit from them:  He came to save them.

If your service to Christ has made you disillusioned, hear a gentle word of exhortation:  you have likely started to focus on serving people rather than serving God!  You are trying to give out more than you have received.  A man can serve God by serving others, for man was created unto good works so people will glorify our God in heaven.  But if our focus becomes people, then we will be annoyed when they do not show adequate appreciation.  We will feel taken advantage of.  We will feel like they are not worthy of our time.  But if we serve God first and keep our eyes upon Him, we will joyfully serve others because we are doing it unto the LORD.  Isn't He worthy?  No one deserves the smallest benefit from the hand of God, not even the crumbs that fall from His table.  Thank the LORD that He is our Sustainer and the lifter of our head!

I love the fact that I am going to Australia for Jesus Christ.  I am not going because any person other than Him has asked me to go.  I am not going because I believe I possess something that believers there do not.  I am going simply because Jesus told me to.  Jesus is worthy to be praised in a time of plenty and a time of lack.  He is unchangeable and infinitely good.  Whether my health is poor or strong, regardless of the weather, financial security, or acceptance by man, God deserves the glory.  Jesus will always deserve the reward of His suffering:  redeemed souls of men made in the image of God.  Even if I lower my net for a catch and toil years without a soul, God is worthy.  If the catch is so great I must call others for assistance, God is worthy!  No one can be disillusioned by Jesus, for He is no illusion:  He is the divine Illumination, the Light of the World.  It's only through Him that I can see.

My testimony concerning AUS...

For those who are interested to hear the background on the call upon my life in Australia, I invite you to visit this link to Calvary Chapel El Cajon's website.  On Friday I shared with those in attendance how God made my call to preach in Australia clear.

What is so wonderful about our God is nothing will shift His call from our lives.  Situations can be fluid, changes seem abrupt, difficulties arise:  but the call of God remains.  When Jonah ran from the calling upon his life to preach in Nineveh he ended up in a storm, was thrown overboard, swallowed by a great fish in whose belly he remained for three days, and then was vomited out.  Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah to preach in Nineveh.  No change in calling.  Praise God that He is immutable, cannot be taught, and reigns over all!

What makes you celebrate?

I celebrated my second Labor Day in a single year with family time and a wonderful BBQ with dear friends.  In Queensland AUS, Labor Day is celebrated on May 1st.  The White family and I had a lovely outing to the Gold Coast and Mount Tambourine during my first visit to Australia.  While driving home this evening, a license plate cover caught my eye.  It simply read, "Celebrate Eggplant."  The first thing that came to mind was "ridiculous," but then I caught myself.  I started thinking about all the things we celebrate.  People celebrate national holidays, birth of children, Little League opening day and closing ceremonies (which I will do anything to avoid and to this point have been very successful), graduations, career promotions, sports championships like the Super Bowl and World Series, a strike while bowling, a ringer while playing horseshoes, or some killer guacamole and salsa.  Now eggplant has been thrown into the mix.  I celebrate food and celebrate with food as much as anyone.  I'm not going to say eggplant can't be celebrated, but it certainly doesn't make my list.

It caused me to think on the fact that there all kinds of things people celebrate which are completely insignificant in the light of eternity or compared to the glory of God. How tragic it would be for the worship of God to fall short of pure celebration.  The most important people in our lives we tend to take for granted, and God is by far the Being most taken for granted.  Even professing followers of Jesus Christ celebrate the creature rather than the Creator, the gift over the Giver.  Believer, have you celebrated your Savior Jesus Christ today?  Have you acknowledged His labor of love passionately, knowing that He shed His blood that you might be redeemed?  As I continue to think about it, I honestly have to say that I gave the terrific steak I ate today more thought than that fact that Jesus labored that I might have rest in Him.  I do not say this with any joy, but with the intention of avoiding this pitfall in the future.

As we drove on, the worship CD began to play Brenton Brown's "Everlasting God."  My focus moved from eggplant to the LORD of all creation, the Maker and Sustainer of all things.  "Our God, you reign forever, our Hope, our strong Deliverer. You are the Everlasting God, you do not faint you won't grow weary, you're the defender of the weak, you comfort those in need, you lift us up on wings like eagles."  My heart was moved to celebrate the King of Kings and magnify Him.  We can glory in our weakness for it is in our God we are strong.  We can glory in our need because our God is abundantly able to provide beyond what we can ask or even think.  If we fall short of celebrating our Savior, perhaps we don't know or appreciate Him as we ought.

Isaiah 40:28-31 says, "Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.  His understanding is unsearchable. [29] He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. [30] Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, [31] but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  If there was ever a cause for celebration, we should celebrate God!  His ways are past finding out, and His mercy endures to all generations.  Let us not "celebrate eggplant" and leave the celebration of our Savior undone.  We would be as the Pharisees who strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel.  Let us wait upon the LORD and celebrate Him!

Isn't God great?

Tonight I had the privilege of holding forth my testimony at Calvary Chapel El Cajon.  It was wonderful to see all the smiling, expectant faces and receive the brotherly love that marks true believers.  Young and old came alike and took in the wonder of our God, a great God who is mighty to save all through Jesus Christ who come to Him in humility and faith.  My prayer is that God was glorified tonight, and that the Body of Christ was edified.  There are few things more exciting then people who are excited about what God is doing and take in active role in serving Him.

So much of our lives are spent on the sidelines.  We think about doing but procrastinate.  We leave loving words unsaid, and withhold good from whom it is due, especially concerning God.  With the NFL kicking off the season next week, millions of Americans will spend hours watching people play a game.  Bets will be taken, fantasy football will be in full swing, sports bars will be full, and kids will play pick-up games imagining they are L.T. or Phillip Rivers.  But the only games that matter in the record books are played by professionals.  No kid will go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for throwing touchdowns on a Wednesday night.  That is reserved for the chosen few who compete on national television on Sundays and have years of continued success at the National Football League level.

There is no such thing as a professional Christian.  There is no "semi-pro" league or NCAA.  Every Christian has made the big time because we serve an infinite God.  A child can have the impact of a seasoned veteran.  Everyone's words, thoughts, actions, and attitudes add up for the glory of God or otherwise.  We have a choice if we will sit on the sidelines and watch other people sweat and sacrifice to follow Jesus and cheer them on.  Or we can choose to enter the arena, put on the armor of God through the Holy Spirit, take up our cross daily, and follow Jesus.  The battle is not reserved for the strong, for when we are weak He is strong.  Living vicariously through another Christian is a dangerous thing.  That's not life:  that is a cheap substitute that will not supply robes of righteousness by God's grace.  Because the football team you cheer for wins does not mean you have won.  No one ever entered into eternal life because they admire faith.  You must have faith in Christ received from the merciful hand of our Creator.

If you could be everywhere, know all things, and do everything without effort, why not do it all yourself?  Then it would be done exactly how you want it, right?  God does not operate like a man.  He is so great and awesome and wonderful that He commits the treasures of the Kingdom of God to wretched, lost sinners!  He calls and commissions men to serve Him on earth that His power might be revealed through these weak instruments, these earthen vessels in which He has placed His glory.  God could have committed the Gospel to righteous angelic beings, but instead He chose man.  The ways of God are past finding out, and His thoughts are so high.

May we think as highly of God as His thoughts are above us!  Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  Only a good God could think good of a stubborn, stiff-necked people.  Lift up praise to the King of Kings, the Redeemer and Restorer of your soul!  Psalm 100 brings us to a fitting conclusion:  "Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! [2] Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. [3] Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. [4] Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.  Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. [5] For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations."