Menlo Park Presbyterian Church

950 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-323-8600 Series: Stuff Happens Romans 8:28

October 4, 2015

“Stuff Happens” John Ortberg

I want to say hi to everybody at every campus, every venue, everybody joining us online. I'm so glad you're here for the launch of this new series. There is something inside of us that wants to make sure that we can trust whoever, whatever is in charge of what is going on in our lives. I was on a flight one time, and the pilot came on and said, "I'm retiring. This is my last flight." Everybody on the flight cheered. It struck me. I've never heard a pilot come on and say, "This is my very first flight. I've never flown a plane before," and had everybody cheer. I've never heard a pilot say something like that because we want to know we can trust the guy who is running the show. Supposedly, Robin Williams, earlier in his career (used to be a Bay Area guy), got a captain's uniform. He was on a flight, and he started greeting passengers at the back of the plain. The captain left the copilot in the cockpit and started greeting people from the front of the plane until he and Robin Williams met each other in the middle of the plane, and they looked at each other and both said, "I thought you were flying the plane," and went running to the cockpit. We want to know, "Is there somebody flying this thing, and is he competent?" There are all kinds of stories about this. One more. It's an old story about Lufthansa Airline. There was a flight one time, and it was over the Atlantic Ocean. The pilot came on and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to crash land into the ocean. It's okay. We're Lufthansa. We're prepared for this. We want all of you who can swim to get on the left-hand side of the plane, and non-swimmers get on the right-hand side." They did. Then there is this big crash and a big splash. They're in the water. Then the pilot comes back on, and he says, "We have now crash landed into the ocean. All of you swimmers on the left-hand side, the emergency exits will open. Immediately swim away from the plane as fast as you can. For those of you on the right-hand side, thank you for flying Lufthansa Airline." We all want to know, "Is there somebody flying this thing, and is he competent?" It's not just true on an airplane. When it comes to my doctor or my kid's teachers or appliances, I want to know. Is there a person in charge? If there is, then I can have freedom and confidence. If there's not, I'm going to be all tied up. Ultimately, where this heads is God. I want to know, "Is there somebody who is flying this planet? Does he know what he's doing, or am I at risk? Am I at the mercy of my circumstances?" Here's the truth about us. I will live either at the mercy of God or at the mercy of my circumstances. We're launching into a new series this weekend, and it's called Stuff Happens. That's the way it goes in our lives. Stuff happens. I'm going to tell you a part of why this series is so important for us. We're going after one of the primary illusions of our culture, of our day, and the illusion is, "I'm in control. I'm in charge. I'm at the wheel. I'm self-sufficient. I can run things." © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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We're tempted a lot of times to live maybe on the basis of personal strength or education or networks or something as though that were true. "I'm capable. I have it wired." Then something happens. A blood vessel bursts, or a cell reproduces in a body, or somebody is driving a car, and somebody else misses a stop sign. In an instant, it becomes terribly clear, "What a fool I was!" We are not in control. Stuff happens. In fact, this isn't just true about big crises. In our lives, all kinds of things happen to us. Birth happens. Growth happens. Puberty happens to us. Nobody votes for that. Who would ever vote for that? Trouble happens. Suffering happens. Growth, healing, death happens. What we are going to learn to do in this series is look at how God is involved in all the stuff in my life. Stuff happens, but God is involved in it all, and if I can learn to live in that reality, if I can learn to see where God is involved in the stuff happening in my life, I can live with a freedom and an ease and a confidence and a growth that will be absolutely liberating. That's what we're going to go after. I don't have to live at the mercy of my circumstances because I serve a God who is above my circumstances. This truth has maybe never been expressed more powerfully than it was a long time ago by a man named Paul, the apostle Paul. This is what Paul said. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…" For the next series of weeks, we're going to live with this statement, and I want actually all of us to be able to memorize it. I'm going to ask those words to come back up again, and let's say them out loud together. Here we go. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…" All I want to do in today's talk as we begin to look at how stuff happens is to go through this one sentence of Paul's so it gets embedded in our minds, in our lives. I'm going to actually start with the second line. We're going to go through it one line at a time, and we're going to go all the way through to the bottom and then do the first line last. We start with this little phrase "…in all things…" What is really important here is that all of the circumstances of our lives actually happen to all of us. Sometimes it can be tempting for people to think, "If I become a Christian, certain things won't happen to me." When Paul says this, "…in all things…" in the Greek, it's actually just a single word, that word all. It could be translated as "all stuff," "all circumstances." The idea here is that all things happen to people who believe in God the same that they happen to people who do not believe in God. If you want to think about it like this, there are a couple kinds of stuff that can happen in our lives. There is good stuff, and there is bad stuff. Just to make sure that we're clear on the category, I'll run through a few possibilities, and you tell me. Promotion? Good stuff. Illness? Bad stuff. Blind date? Could go either way. Going on a game show and winning a vacation? That's good stuff. Going on a game show and winning a vacation in a mime festival cruise? That would be bad stuff. All of us have good stuff and bad stuff that happens to us. Here's a problem. Very often, people think, "If I become a Christian, what that means is more good stuff than bad stuff is supposed to happen in my life because it's God's job to send me good stuff because I believe in him," or they will think, "If I'm a Christian and you're not, more good stuff should come my way than should come your way, and if more good stuff is coming your way, then…" People get all bent out of shape over that one. © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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Folks will think, "If I want this particular good stuff to come into my life, then I'll be really faithful and pray and be really good to God, and I ought to have a better shot at having that good stuff come into my life." No. This is so important. All things happen to all people. Traffic jams and problems at work and troublesome, cranky neighbors and catching colds and having the dog get sick and the appliances go out… That happens to people who love God and people who do not believe in God. I'll take it a step deeper. I was talking to somebody this week, a wonderful person who has just gotten a real, real serious diagnosis and is really struggling. Terrible things happen. Families lose a mom or a dad. I know of a woman I went to college with. When she was in her 30's, she had two small boys. She faced an illness that she knew was going to end her life early, and it did. She said, "I don't feel cheated because I feel like God gave me the gift of this life and my boys." I don't know how an attitude like that comes. I don't know, but I know this. All things happen to all people. If a church gets glib about this, if somebody comes into a church and hears some kind of happy talk about how if you love God, you're just going to have good stuff happen to you all the time," it kills people. It kills people's hearts. Our job is not to give glib explanations for things we do not understand. When folks suffer deeply, our job is to love and to mourn and to come alongside and to be family. If that's going on in your life, I hope we can do that with you. I hope we can care for you. I hope we can seek God together. The reality is all of us experience all kinds of circumstances, and that will tell us something about ourselves. This is a quote from Henri Nouwen. "At issue is the question, 'To whom do I belong, to God or to the world?' Many of my daily preoccupations suggest I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry. A little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often, I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of the waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival, not a holy struggle but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me." All things happen to all people, and I don't have to live at the mercy of my circumstances. It's so interesting. I was thinking about several families that I know of where they have a Down syndrome child in their family. In one case, the person became a Christian, and their question was, "God, why would you do this to me?" Then another person I know, her prayer to God was, "God, thank you so much that you brought me to faith so I don't go through this journey all by myself." Then I know of another dad, and his comment about being the parent of a Down syndrome child was, "Our family has learned more about love from this child. We have been more ennobled together and brought closer together through serving because we have this guy who is a part of our family. Not just that. He is the most relentlessly cheerful guy in our family. I actually think it should be called Up syndrome, not Down syndrome." That's what he said. See, the statement that Paul makes is not that more good stuff than bad stuff is going to happen. It's all circumstances. Then he says, "…in all things God works…" He doesn't say that all things will work out. As a matter of fact, in the same passage, Paul makes a statement about the nature of things. He says that everything is in bondage to decay. People will sometimes say things like, "Everything is going to work out. Everything is okay." No, everything is not okay. © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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Paul actually said, "It's the world we live in. Because of the fall, because of sin, everything is in bondage to decay." Things fall apart. That's why there are mechanics and plumbers and plastic surgeons. Why does a car depreciate in its value the minute you drive it off the lot? Things fall apart. Why do you get a warranty for an appliance, and it's time limited, and the appliance always goes on the fritz the day after the warranty gives out? Things fall apart. Why do people go online for online dating services and post a picture of themselves from12 years ago? I know you do that. I've seen some of your pictures. Things fall apart. See, the promise is not, "Things work out." The promise is not, "Things work together for good." Things don't. Things are in bondage to decay. Here's the promise. "…in all things God works…" In your circumstances, in the good stuff and the bad stuff, God works. "What God?" This God. "I believe in God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth." That's why what folks in Israel do and what we're going to be challenged to do in this series is to constantly keep in mind before us how big this God is. He's infinitely bigger than our circumstances. He is the maker of heaven and earth. I want to go through some of what the Bible has to say about this with this big God. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?" I want to think about this for a moment. A couple of weeks ago, my son Johnny and I drove down the coast to Big Sur, and at night, went went up Nacimiento Road way up into the hillside, and we camped out under the stars. We were way far away from any kind of city lights. Looking up at the sky was unbelievable. It was like somebody had plugged all the stars in. They were just electric, and you could see the Milky Way, as if it was just a cloud of gas. I was talking to an astronomer this week. It was a gathering of folks who follow Jesus. A group of them are scientists. She was talking about the sky. This is quite extraordinary to me. She said, "In the observable universe, when we look at galaxies, a single galaxy can contain 100 trillion stars, and in our observable universe, there are thought to be around 200 billion galaxies, and a single one of them can have as many as 100 trillion stars." God made all of that, and it fits in the breadth of his hand. See, so many people, when they picture God, picture this giant universe with a much smaller God. No, no, no. It's a giant God with a universe that fits inside here. Look at this verse. "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." Sometimes I misplace my car keys, and I can't find them. Does anybody here ever do that? I was just thinking about this picture of stars, 100 trillion of them in one galaxy, 200 billion galaxies. God never says, "Hey, where is Alpha Centauri?" or something like that. God knows them all because of his great power. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand…" I took my son down to the waters that next day, and at the end of the day, it was twilight, and he was surfing. I was exhausted by this time because we had been surfing and hiking all day. I was standing up on the coast, and everything was bathed in this red sunset. I watched these giant waves that would have scared me to death. My son surfs one and then flips up over the top of it. I thought, "What an amazing thing that God has made, the oceans and waves and invented surfing and created sunsets and my son, and I get to be a part of that." © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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Then I looked at Pillar Point Lighthouse and saw the sun going down behind it. Then there was a blowhole. There was a whale in the ocean that came up at that moment. I just thought, "God, this is too much." Then the whale swam over to where Johnny was surfing and said, "Hey, Johnny. Way to go." No, that part didn't actually happen. All of this world God makes. The people of Israel would say over and over, "It's the God who made the heaven and the earth that watches over you and all things." This leads to a real important question. Somebody asked me this quite recently. Do you believe God is working when you are not working? Often I live as though what Paul wrote was, "You make sure you're at work in all circumstances to do good because if you don't do it, it won't get done." A real good question is when you go to bed at night, and you're not working, do you believe God is working? If you do, it will take a tremendous load off of you. I am not in control of the weather or of traffic or of the circumstances of my life, and it's a real good thing. In all things, it's this great God who works. Then Paul says, "…in all things God works for the good…" This is really important. God is at work for the good. I have to tell you this is one of those verses that is very often taken out of context and misunderstood. People will think what this means is, "I want some good circumstance, so in any circumstance I'm in, God is at work for the good, so if I don't get a good circumstance I want, it must mean God will give me a better circumstance. If I don't get this great-paying job, this verse must mean God is going to give me a better-paying job. If I don't get this terrific promotion, then it must mean God is going to give me a better promotion. If I don't get to marry this beautiful girl, it must mean God is going to give me an even more beautiful girl to get married to." I didn't do a whole lot of dating, but I actually dated a girl who ended up being Miss Iowa, but it didn't lead anywhere. Does that mean God meant I was going to marry someone more beautiful than Miss Iowa? Well, in my case, yeah, but that's not generally the promise. Here's a real important distinction when we think about God working in all things for the good. Stuff happens. Good stuff can happen to me, or good stuff can happen in me. Now, we generally want this. Kids want this from parents. "Mom and Dad, I want you to have a big allowance and fun toys and fun trips." When we love somebody, we're generally more concerned about good things happening in them because we love them and want them to be great people than good things happening to them. We want good stuff to happen to them, but a child will say to a parent, "I want good stuff to happen to me," but if a parent really loves a child, a parent might actually be willing to make bad stuff happen to a child (we call this punishment, time out) in order to make good stuff happen in a child. Good stuff to me. Those are my circumstances, promotions, a job, have a hot date, have a great house, lots of money. Good stuff in me. That's the character of Jesus. That's love and joy and peace and patience. The promise Paul is making here is not that good stuff is going to happen to you. It is something much more noble. It is something way more glorious than that. It is that good stuff is going to happen in you. Here's how this verse goes on. I'll read through the whole thing. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." What's his purpose? "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…" God's plan for you is not just that you have really good circumstances in your life. It's that you have the character of Jesus Christ through eternity. That's so much better. We're often likely to think of all the good circumstances we want God to give us. God has something so much better that he's up to. We don't always want it, but it's so much better. God's promise is not to give you good stuff. God promises to use all the © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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stuff that happens to you to produce good stuff in you so that the character Jesus has now, you will have through eternity. "…in all things God works for the good…" For whom? "…in all things, God works for the good of those who love him…" This is one of my favorite phrases in this. God wants people who love him. Paul who wrote these words would have said every day as every devout Israelite did what is called the Shema, this verse from the book of Deuteronomy. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Why did Israel love that verse so much? When Paul woke up, he would say those words. "Love the Lord your God." When he went to bed at night, he would say those words. "Love the Lord your God." Why would he say those? Why did they love it so much? It means that the God of Israel is a God who wants to be loved. That was a striking piece of news in the ancient world. Nobody said, "I love Baal." Nobody said, "I love Molech." We get this weird picture of God in our minds. When our kids were little… I don't know where they picked this up. When they wanted to tease me or impersonate me, they would just puff themselves up and go, "Feed me. Feed me. I'm Daddy. I'm home. Feed me." I never actually said anything like that, but a lot of people, when they think of God, they think of this giant character who says, "Obey me. Obey me. Serve me. Serve me. Do what I say. Do what I say." Part of what Israel gave to the world, one of the most amazing truths, thoughts about God that changed everything is God wants to be loved. Part of what that means is God is loveable. This is part of what needs to be fixed in my mind and yours, to live in a world where all stuff happens to us. This is from The Divine Conspiracy. "The acid test for any theology is this. Is the God presented one that can be loved, heart, soul, mind, and strength? If the thoughtful, honest answer is, 'Not really,' then we need to look elsewhere or deeper. It does not really matter how sophisticated intellectually or doctrinally our approach is. If it fails to set a loveable God, a radiant, happy, friendly, accessible, and totally competent being before ordinary people, we have gone wrong. We should not keep going in the same direction but turn around and take another road." "In all things, God is at work for good for those who love him," every moment, whatever is going on in your life. This will raise the question, "What is God doing for people who don't love him?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Jesus talked about that. "…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." God is at work for the good of those who love him, and he's at work for the good of those who don't love him. He's such a loveable God. It's just that those who don't love him kind of make his work a little bit harder. They're kind of the remedial group, but that's our God. You need to think about God this way. He's constantly at work for the good of you and every being he has made. In eternity one day, we will see this. In all things. One more phrase. I want to come back to the beginning of this. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…" This is a very important phrase that Paul uses and that we want to grow into. Not, "We think, we guess, we hypothesize, we suspect…" No, this is knowledge. This is knowable. See, I want you to come to know this. How do we do that? How do we become people who know it, don't just suspect it or hope it but know it? © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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Jesus made this statement. "Anyone who wants to do the will of the Father will know whether my teaching is from God or merely my own." See, knowing that God is at work in all things for good is not mostly a matter of IQ. It's not mostly a matter of information. Jesus said there is a connection between doing and knowing. The way to come to know is to do. See, obedience validates knowing. When I obey, when I trust, then I come to see it's really true. If I refuse to obey, I will never know. I'm in an office now in a building, in a new space in our church. This parking lot and the new driveway right next to where my office is where I park my car has these two arrows on it. I hadn't noticed them. I had been here all these years and never noticed them. I was driving out the driveway where the arrows say, "Go in." Somebody was trying to go in, and it was somebody on our staff. They actually just pulled me aside and said, "You know, I know it seems like kind of a small thing, but you're the senior pastor, so you kind of set the pace, and if an arrow gives directions, you ought to follow the arrow. You ought to obey it." I thought, "Man, I'm glad to be at a place where somebody on staff has the courage to confront me on something like that." Unfortunately, they're no longer with us, but I thought that took a lot of courage. That was kind of a cool thing. Here's the deal. When I obey God, I find out that the law of God, the will of God is given for my own good and it leads to the best life. When I'm generous, then I can know it really is more blessed to give than to receive. That's not just a line in a book. The way we come to know in the deepest sense, in the way Paul is talking about here is not just, "I affirm that statement in there." I come to know it with my whole self, with my hands and my eyes and my heart. I trust God with my sexuality, and then I come to know, to have a woman with whom I'm faithful, to be chaste and honoring with God. It doesn't mess up other people. It really is the best way to live, and I love you, God. Thank you for that. I start speaking the truth even though it's going to be difficult, even though I'm going to get in trouble. Then I realize when I go to bed that night that my conscience is clean, and there is integrity in my person. "Oh, God, I'm so glad. In this situation where I could have evaded, used a lie to try to get out of work, I found out you were at work there helping me to become more honest." There is this old song. Hardly any of you probably will ever have heard of it, but I kind of grew up on it when I was a kid. "When we walk with the Lord in the light of his Word, what a glory he sheds on our way. When we do his good will, he abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey." We all want to be happy. We all want good stuff to happen to us. True joy, true happiness comes when good stuff is happening in us, and we can know that in all things, God works for the good of those who trust him, who love him, if we trust and obey. Guys, we're just going to walk through in this series this promise from God, and we're going to learn together to recognize that he's with us when trouble happens. He's with us when healing happens. He's with us when growth happens. He's with us when grace happens. This week, I invite you to take a look at all the stuff that happens to you. When you wake up in the morning. It doesn't have to be big stuff. When you go to work. When there is a traffic jam. When there is a frustration. When you get criticized. When you're tempted to lie. When you feel discouraged. Ask, "How is God at work in this thing?" He will be because stuff happens, but God happens. God is bigger than stuff. © Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, All Rights Reserved For personal or small group use only. For other uses, please contact [email protected].

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