Making it to the end

Tonight we are starting our final series of messages for this semester and for this school year. A series is derived from a quote that Eugene Peterson borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche to describe the journey of discipleship: “a long obedience in the same direction.”

We live in an age of instant satisfaction. It’s important that in the midst of that we grasp that discipleship is a journey that lasts a lifetime. I want to encourage you for the long haul as we hear. Jesus‘s invitation to pursue lifelong obedience.

Good things take time. The Christian life is a journey much more than it is a destination. This is true about so many great things in our lives.

You can get dressed up and throw a party. You can eat good food, cut some cake, and dance to Ying Yang Twins, but a great wedding won’t guarantee you a happy marriage.

Parents know that raising a child is much more than just a baby shower, showers, or birth. No one shows up to high school on their first day of freshman year and expects to be handed a diploma.

The Christian life is much less about mountain top moments and much more about seasons of resilience. And in Exodus chapter 15, we read a story of people who didn’t have much resilience for their journey. 

Here we encounter God’s people who have just been led out of slavery. God has protected them. God has provided for them. God has defended them. But quickly they start to complain. They start to opine about their days in slavery instead of walking in confidence of their newfound freedom. 

It’s easier as it would be to judge them here. This happens to us. I was listening to a podcast today that presented some research on why people leave the church. The vast majority of people who step away from their faith is because they simply lose faith.

It’s not dramatic. It’s not exciting or crazy. It’s a slow, quiet quitting. Church every week becomes church once a month. People who used to be engaged, engaged in discipleship groups, now barely show up. Those who served served whenever, become those who serve served only if they’re asked. 

So how do we finish the journey of faith faithfully? How do we keep doing this and growing in this for the rest of our lives or until Jesus comes back? 

I love what Francis Chan said, “I don’t want to die before my convictions.” I embrace this sentiment. I want to get to the end still serving Jesus. I want to get to the end of life and look back and recognize the slow, powerful process of discipleship.

We do this first by trusting God’s power. Exodus 16, two through three, we see how quickly God’s people had forgotten what he had done. 

It’s important that we know that trusting God is a choice. We have to actively choose to live a life of faith.

And I keep considering when I look at Christianity in the West, wondering if we really believe this. But do we believe that a guy fulfilled all those prophecies? That he walked on water and healed the sick? Do we believe that he rose from the dead?

That’s a crazy thing to believe. That’s not rational. Following Jesus requires faith. Do we trust that God is at work? Do we really believe that God can work in our lives?

God’s people here had forgotten his power. It’s so curious to me that no one stood up to remind the people of what God had already done to show himself powerful in their lives. This is why it’s so important that we are quick to share our testimonies.  To remind ourselves and others of what God has done in our lives and encourage us of what he is powerful enough to do.

If we want to make it to the end. It’s going to require faith in the middle.

In addition to trusting God’s power, we need to be ready to trust God’s plan. As God gave Moses the instructions for how people would receive the bread from heaven that he was sending, he was very specific. God’s people had to surrender to doing things his way.

I wonder for us if we are ready to make that commitment? Will we choose to trust God, even when things don’t make sense? Isaiah chapter 55 reminds us that the thoughts of God, the ways of God, are not our ways.

This is encouraging! It means that we don’t have to have it all figured out. We do have to choose to trust God in the middle of it. We rely on his plan.

God’s people made the mistake of rationalizing something that God was supernaturally solving. I believe we do this ourselves so often. 

I want to have a faith that lasts. I want to make it to the end and look back and see that God has used my life, and I want to still be walking with him. 

Challenged by the idea of fireworks versus a slow burn. Fireworks might catch people’s attention, be attractive, and exciting. They make a lot of noise, but ultimately they don’t make all that much difference.

They’re light and brilliant, last only as long as the videos that people still inexplicably post of them on social media. They’re here and then they’re gone. 

I’d much rather my life look like a slow burn. Though it may not be as flashy or sexy, my story would be one of continual faithfulness over many years. 

That my impact on those around me, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, could not be measured in a short span, but measured in years and decades.