Under the Circumstances, Part 2 | “Navigating Despair with God’s Promises”

Today, we're in part two of our series. Under the Circumstances holding on to God when it appears that God is no longer holding on to you. And you may be in those circumstances right now. You're trying to hold on to God. You're trying to maintain your faith or you're trying to get your faith back when it appears that God is not responding and God doesn't even seem to know what's going on in your life. And the question that we're exploring is what do we do? What do we do when our circumstances seem to point us to a God that's not there? Or how do we interpret circumstances when it seems like God's not there, God doesn't care, the presence of God is in question. The existence of God may be in question. And we're all tempted.

I mean, me included. We are all tempted to jump to conclusions about God based on our circumstances or really our ability or inability to interpret circumstances and to kind of try to line up our circumstances with the existence or the presence or the faithfulness of God. Positive circumstances and negative. Our circumstances and other people's circumstances. I mean, your faith may have taken its biggest hit not because of something that happened to you but because of something that happened to someone you love, someone you were raising, someone you were married to, someone you grew up around or maybe a group of people that went through extraordinary heartache and you began to doubt God based on what they were going through. And when things are up and to the right, we all assume, isn't God good? Things are going great at work. Things are going great at home. Things are going great in our marriage. Things are going great in the nation. You know, God is good. Look at God, go, go, God, go, right?

And then when things are down to the right it's where is God? What did I do wrong? And then there's this question. Okay, this is what really drives us crazy is this one. It's, hey, and why is God blessing everybody else? I mean, I don't wanna be critical but she's not near as nice a person as I am and her life is like perfect.

And I'm like the best person I know. Okay, I'm one of the best people I know and my life is not going so great, you know? Why in the David the Psalmist he asked the question this way, he was more blunt, he said, God, why do the wicked prosper? And you think about somebody at work or somebody in your neighborhood and you wouldn't call them wicked but in your prayer life, you can use that language. And so David used it. Why do the wicked? Why do the bad people get all the breaks? Part of the reason, part of the reason that this is so confusing for Christians and people really of all faith traditions but for Christians in particular is well, it's what you hear from people in my position from pastors.

But pastors, preachers have a tendency to sign God's name to promises that God never made. And part of the reason they do this and the reason that they slip into this is the way that they use and the way that they approach and the way that they understand the Bible. They, pastors, preachers, priests because of their understanding of the Bible they believe. They blend, and I'll explain what I mean by this language in just a minute. They blend the covenants. They blend the covenants. Here's what I mean. Your Bible, your English Bible, the Christian Bible, as you know is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the...

New Testament. Yeah, that should have been an easy question. Old Testament and the New Testament, okay?

Old and New Testament. And unfortunately, the word testament should have never been used, but nobody asked me. Okay, it should say the Old Covenant and the New Covenant because that's what the word testament means. It's referring to a covenant, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. So, those are the two parts of the Bible. The Old Covenant, not the entire Old Testament literature but the Old Covenant that is contained in what we would call the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible is a covenant relationship between God and ancient Israel. And God's, this is so important, a little technical but we're gonna get practical in a minute. God's arrangement or God's covenant with ancient Israel was in fact 100%, and if I do, God must arrangement. It is absolutely in there, or more precisely, if we do, God will arrangement. The Old Covenant, the covenant between God and ancient Israel was not an arrangement or a contract or a covenant between God and individuals.

This is so important. It was a covenant or contract between God and an entire nation, the nation of Israel. And when Israel's leaders who set the direction, when Israel's leaders got it right, when they were faithful to God, when they kept his commands, God blessed the entire nation. But, and you can read this, I mean, this is all laid out for you in what we would call the Old Testament. But when the leaders disobeyed God and worshiped other gods and were faithful to God, when they broke the terms of the contract, when they broke the terms of the covenant, then God judged and punished everybody. Not just the wicked and not just the ones that broke the rules. Everybody suffered when the leaders disobeyed God and led the nation astray.

And he judged them militarily, economically, geographically, all kinds of ways. And this is so important. Because of this this contractor, this covenant between God and a nation, ancient Israel, ancient Israel knew they were on good terms with God by looking at their circumstances. That's how they knew. Things are going great. Our leaders must be keeping God's contract. Things are not going so great. What are our leaders up to?

But us new covenant people and I'll explain what I mean in a minute. Those of us who aren't part of that that national contract between God and ancient Israel. Those of us who actually accepted God's invitation to participate in the covenant that Jesus established, we don't look to circumstances to determine where we stand with God. Let me say that again. We don't look to circumstances to determine where we stand with God. We don't look to circumstances to determine whether or not God loves us, whether or not God is with us, whether or not God cares for us. Do you know where we look?

We look to a single event that took place on a hill outside the walls of Jerusalem. That's where we look. Where God sent his son to pay for all of your sin and all of my sin. And that was his way of saying, I have removed every obstacle between you and your heavenly father so that you can have fellowship with God and God can love you unconditionally and God can hear your prayers regardless of your sin and God can intervene if he chooses not to and God can comfort if that's what he chooses to do. But you are in a right relationship with God and you never, ever, ever, ever, ever have to wonder if God loves you if God cares about you or if God is with you. But when preachers mix and match the covenants the Old Testament covenants made between Israel and God and the New Testament covenant between God and the entire human race. When preachers mix these up Christians have a tendency to begin doing what Israel was supposed to do.

We begin looking at our circumstances. But what's interesting and if you read the New Testament this is so clear, this isn't buried somewhere, okay? Jesus and the Apostle Paul in particular, Jesus and the Apostle Paul in particular are very clear about the relationship between God's covenant with Israel and God's covenant with the human race through Jesus. Jesus made this so clear during his final Passover.

He's gathered with his apostles. This is his last Passover meal. He's gonna be arrested in a few hours. He's gonna be crucified the next day. He says this, in the same way, after the Passover supper. Jesus took the cup saying, here it is, this cup in my hand, in other words, this is an event that's being established right now in front of you guys. This cup is the new covenant, the new contract the new arrangement. In my blood, all that other contract that other covenant that God established with the nation of Israel it was inaugurated and remembered with the blood of animals. He's like, this is brand new...

And it is being established right now and tomorrow when I'm arrested and tomorrow when I'm crucified and a couple of days later when I'm raised from the dead it is being established right now the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you or poured out for all of you. In other words, the old covenant between God and ancient Israel had an expiration date. It was perfect for what it was designed for. It was a means to an end. And the apostle Paul constantly like throughout all of his letters, constantly reminded Gentiles, us non-Jewish people that we weren't included in God's covenant with Israel. It's not our covenant. Or to be specific, those old covenant promises are not your promises.

You weren't included. Your promises are better promises. That's what we're gonna talk about in a minute. But on the surface our promises don't seem as promising in terms of this life but they are better promises because Jesus promised something that Torah didn't promise. In fact, Torah didn't even explore. Jesus promised eternal life and eternal fellowship with God, your Father. Here's what the author of Hebrews says. Now, Hebrews is an interesting part of the New Testament. Hebrews is like a sermon. We call it a book of the Bible and it is one of the parts of the New Testament but it's like a sermon, and we don't know who wrote it. But here's what the author of Hebrews writes.

We're gonna come back to this in a minute. He says, for this reason, Christ is the, here it is again, I mean, this is buried in plain sight. Here, for this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. That your promises and my promises are better promises because they are eternal promises. And here's the shocker. God's covenant with Israel did not promise eternal life. In fact, you may be shocked to know that most ancient Jews did not believe in an afterlife at all because their scriptures never mentioned it in any significant way and didn't teach that there was such a thing. There were all kinds of theories. And by the time Jesus came along in the first century there were multiple theories about what happens to the righteous when they die. But even the experts, even the experts in the synagogues and at the temple, they did not agree because they didn't have anything to refer back to in the old covenant teaching that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai.

And then Jesus comes along and what does he talk about almost all the time? Eternal life with the Father in heaven who's paved the way and who would pave the way through sending his son to remove every obstacle to you having eternal fellowship and fellowship now with God, your Father. Our promises are anchored to Jesus' new covenant, which means If you can't find it there, if you can't find it in the New Testament in terms of our promise, be careful looking elsewhere otherwise you run the risk of being disappointed by God's unwillingness to keep a promise he never made to you.

You will be tempted to do what ancient Israel was supposed to do. You'll be tempted to judge God's presence by your circumstances, which is what they were supposed to do but you are not supposed to do, because of the cross. You'll be tempted to judge God's faithfulness by your circumstances. Which you aren't supposed to do, which is what Israel had to do because it's all they had to go on. Because again, we don't look to circumstances to determine where we stand with God we look to a single event that took place outside the walls of Jerusalem when God allowed his son to die to pay for your sin to assure you you are and can be and right standing with God.

Now, switching gears a little bit. But, there is one Old Testament promise, a promise that shows up in our Old Testament, but not in the New Covenant. It's two different things. I know it's kind of confusing, but you get the point. The whole Old Testament, then within that is this covenant or contract God made with Israel. There is a promise in our Old Testament that does apply to you. It's not a promise that was made to you, but it applies to you. And it preceded God's covenant with Israel by hundreds and hundreds of years and I'm talking about God's promise to Abraham. Well a quick little timeline might help, I like timelines right? 2000 BC God calls Abraham and says I want you to go somewhere you've never been before I'm going to do something I've never done before.

1400 BC hundreds of years later God establishes his covenant with Israel through Moses but God made Abraham a promise, a promise he did not fulfill here, a promise that he fulfilled 2,000 years later when a king was born, when Messiah was born, when Jesus was born. And, the author of Hebrews, this is so amazing. This is why we're gonna look at this passage real quick. The author of Hebrews, we're going back to Hebrews. The author of Hebrews speaks directly to the issue of how New Covenant people know that God is with us. He speaks directly to this issue because he knew he had many people in his Jewish audience. In fact, the reason it's called the Book of Hebrews is because it was written to Jewish Christians. And he knew he was talking to a group of people that were accustomed to looking at circumstances to determine if God was with them and their circumstances were bad. And consequently, they're like, I don't know if we've done the right thing. I don't... You know, we kind of want to go back to Egypt. We want to go back to the old ways. We're wondering, is God with us?

And the author of Hebrews is saying, absolutely, God is with you. But you don't look to circumstances to determine that. You look to Jesus. and this is important for all of us because life happens and life is life. Here's what the author says. He says I don't... I wish I did but I do not have time to tell you about everybody in this long litany of stories and people. I don't have time to tell you about Gideon.

That's a whole story about Barak about Samson about David and Samuel and the prophets, all of them who through faith... Each of these are multi-layered stories, but all of these through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised to them in that era, who shut the mouths of lions, we know who he's talking about, quenched the fury of the flames, we know who he's talking about. And escaped the edge of the sword whose weakness was turned to strength and who became powerful in battle and Routed foreign armies and see when I read that I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I want to be. That's what I... I want to do something and God do something I want to do something big and God does something bigger and it's like hey, I was part of what God did I... You know, this is all up and to the right, you know, that's what we love. We love the up and to the right days, right? And then he turns a corner. He's like, yeah, but it wasn't like that for everybody.

In fact, throughout this story, it wasn't like that for the people who were part of this long story arc between Abraham and Jesus. He says this, there were others who didn't win, who weren't victorious. There were others and there was no bow on their story. There was no happy ending. There was no smooth landing. For others, they were tortured and they refused to be released. They refused to lie. They refused to recant so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging and chains and imprisonment. Some, he says, were put to death by stoning. Some of them were sawed in two. They were killed by the sword. They were destitute. They were so destitute they had nothing to show for anything. They had nothing. They went about in sheepskins. That's all they had for clothing. And goatskins. Destitute. Persecuted. And mistreated. And then my favorite part. This is... There should be like music behind this, this is so powerful. It's like he... I'm just reading part of it.

He's gone through all these people all these stories leading up from Abraham all the way to the coming of Jesus and he... It's like he puts his quill down or his pen down and he just stops and takes a deep breath and there are tears in his eyes and he picks it back up and he writes these words. The world was not worthy of them. They endured in spite of, to be a part of what God was up to, and they never doubted that God was up to something in spite of what they experienced. These were all, he goes on to say, these were all commended for their faith, their confidence in God. Their in spite of circumstance confidence in God, yet none of them, this is amazing. Yet none of them received what had been promised to Abraham. Yet none of them received what had been promised since God had planned something and here it is.. If you haven't been paying attention come on back this is important. All of this was building building building building building some were victorious some suffered some were victorious for a while But everybody died everybody's body decayed it all ended the same for everybody regardless of their circumstance.

He said in all of this built and built and built since God had planned something better for us. Better for you. Better for me. Better for those of us who have embraced and accepted Jesus' invitation to participate in the new covenant between God and the human race. He says now in light of all that, because of all that, having said all that, therefore, since. Now he asks us to use our imagination. He says, Now, therefore, since we are all surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, he says, Imagine somewhere in heaven are all these people I just listed who were faithful, faithful, faithful, some of them submitted, all of them sinned, all of them were unfaithful at times, but they maintained their faith in God. Even when they departed from God, they came back to God, maintained their faith in God. We're part of the story. Since we're surrounded by these extraordinary, extraordinary people, men and women who kept trusting and following and believing who did not interpret hardship, who did not interpret hardship as God's absence. Since that is the backdrop of our faith, how should I respond to hardship? How should you respond to hardship? How should I...

How should we respond to circumstances that seem to say God is far and God is absent and God's not paying attention. He says, here's how. Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ready? Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. He says, anything that would mitigate against you understanding and trusting that God is faithful and with you through this, he says, you just disentangle yourself from those thoughts. You cast that away. Don't allow... He mentioned sin. Don't allow the difficult times to cause you to depart from God, because when you depart from God, it does not make your life better. It's just going to make your life more complicated and he says, let me give you a word picture. And I want you to run. He says and let us run. Run with perseverance. The race marked out for each of us.

So let's talk about this. See right now, you might be in the section of the race that's the downhill section. It's the easy section. It's the wrinkle-free section. Everybody's in school. Everybody's dating somebody you like, you know, you got a bonus. Things are good. You know, your lawn even looks great. Your grass survived, you know, all you know, I just... I mean it's just good. He says, you need to make sure you persevere through the good times because in the good times you will be tempted to abandon your heavenly father because you won't sense or see a need. For others of you, that's not the stretch of the race you're in. Right. You're in the... You're in the divorce stretch of your race. And you've been married 25, 26 years and suddenly he or she decides, hey, I'm done. I'm out. You've only been married three years and all of a sudden you discover something about her or about him and it's like, oh no.

And you just never saw this coming. Or maybe you're in the health crisis stretch of your race and you're too young to have to deal with what you're dealing with. And there's no good answer. There's no good treatment. And the doctors kind of scratch their head and they try to sound confident and you get in the car and you realize they don't know. Or they prescribe something that's like months. And at the end of those months, we hope it works out.

And that's the season you're in. Or maybe it's the job loss or the job loss again, or a finance... Financial pressure or bankruptcy season. But whatever it is, you didn't choose it. You're just running your race and you came around the bin and there it was. And you wonder, where's God? And Peter, the Apostle Paul, John who brought us the story we talked about last week would say to you okay before you panic, before you hit eject, before you hit I don't believe,  fix your eyes Make sure you're looking in the right direction He says let me just say it for you the race marked out for you regardless of what that race looks like, fixing, focusing your eyes. Not on your circumstances, not on the person who hurt you, not on the doctors who just don't seem to cooperate and don't seem to care as much as you think they ought to care, fixing your eyes on Jesus. And to address what I'm sure somebody out there is thinking or somebody in here is thinking, this is not just preacher talk, this is not just theory. I have seen it over and over and over. I've sat with, I've wept with people for whom there was no bow. There wasn't going to be a happy ending. There wasn't going to be a safe landing. Walking through the valley of the shadow of death, in fact some of you are there right now.

I would say about you what the author of Hebrews said about the men and women he wrote about the world. The world is not worthy of you. Because when I sit with you and I pray with you and my heart breaks with you. My faith gets bigger because I am reminded, as many of you have been reminded when you've been in situations like that with believers who are hanging on and believe in any way, I'm reminded there is, this is the promise, there is a grace, there is a strength, there is a power, there is an energy, there is a something that you won't experience until you need it, but it is there when you need it." Back to the author of Hebrews, he says, "And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the leader and the completer, the author and the perfecter of our faith." He's the reason we can have confidence.

The author's point is fix your eyes on Jesus and not on your circumstances, not preacher talk. This is how you lean in and experience the power and the presence of God in the midst of circumstances you didn't choose, they just showed up in the course of your race. Who, he says, for the joy set before him endured something you will not have to endure, although it may feel like it at the time, who endured the cross for you scorning it shame this is such a powerful word I wish I could spend more time on it. It is as if Jesus is hanging on the cross saying is that all you got? Is that all you got? When you see what's waiting for me on the other side of this this is nothing, and the author of Hebrews says and after he died and rose from the dead he went and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God and he says come on, consider him consider him consider him who endured such opposition from sinners. Why? So that, here it is, so that you will not grow weary. So that you will not lose faith. So that you will not lose confidence. So that you will not grow weary and lose heart. And then earlier he says this. Here's the invitation.

I want you to approach. He says, I know you're not perfect. I know you got stuff, but come on, come on. I want you to approach. Let us then approach. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence. And why can you approach God's throne of grace with confidence? Don't miss this, because what has he just told us? Because sitting next to your heavenly father is the son who endured such opposition and such pain He knows he feels that he felt it and he is there seated by the father Interceding for you because he cares. Your been there, felt that, faced that, Savior. And then here's the kicker. Here's the promise, because there's a promise. So that so that we may receive. And here it is. Do you know what you can bank on? Do you know what you can count on? Do you know what you can hold God accountable to? This is the part where you can say, Heavenly Father, you promised me, this is your promise. This is my promise. This is the new covenant promise. And certainly there's more, but this is the core that you may receive with confidence.

Mercy and find grace to help in your time of need. Because he sees he knows he cares his grace and his strength are available to those of us who lean in and ask for it.