When You Go to a Place You Did Not Want to Go
Steve Scoggins / John 21:15-22 / Jan 08, 2012
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The main thrust of my sermon comes from 21:18: “‘Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’”
It is a fundamental fact of life that, at times, you will be taken to places you did not want to go!
Some of the prosperity preachers on TV do not give this impression. These people are enticing too many to give to their ministries, with this promise: “If you give this seed faith offering, God will give you everything you have ever wanted. You will realize all your dreams!”
But this is not what the Bible teaches! Many times, and in many situations, we don’t get what we desire. In fact, even more often, the very thing we dread most happens.
These words – ‘“When you are old someone else will dress you and take you to where you do not want to go’” — especially apply to senior adults. No one ever wants to become so frail he or she has to go to a nursing home or assisted living facility. But, if they live long enough, it happens to most people.
2012 could be the year where you are taken to a place you did not want to go.
No one’s New Year’s goal is to
- Suffer a broken heart.
- Find out your child is on drugs, pregnant, or in trouble with the law.
- Get cancer.
- Lose a spouse (James and his family had to say goodbye to Donna this week. Donna was my age! I can’t imagine what I’d do if I had lost Karen!).
- Get a divorce.
- Realize you may be single for the rest of your life. I received an email some time ago from a godly Christian man who had come to the conclusion that he would never marry and have children. He was going through grief over the loss of these things he had hoped for in his life.
- Become unemployed. This has been the most devastating economic period I have seen in my lifetime. In the US, only 55% of adults under 30 have a job! Most college students will graduate, go home, and have nothing waiting for them.
I sat with the family of the AU student who later died as a result of the recent car accident. They were strong Christians, as was the young victim. No parent ever wants to lose a child. Yet these parents knew that would be the word they received. Many families in this church have lost young children in car accidents. That is not a place they wanted to go.
How do you survive if you have to go to a place you do not want to go?
I. When you are taken to a place you did not want to go, you must become God- centered rather than self-centered: “This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God” (21:19).
Jesus was saying, “Peter, one day you will glorify God by a death you would not choose for yourself.” We know from church history that during Nero’s persecution Peter was sentenced to die on a cross, just like his Savior. That was his opportunity to glorify God. Instead of denying Christ as he did when Jesus was on trial, Peter humbly asked to be crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to die the same way his Lord died.
One of the main weaknesses of American Christianity, especially as it is portrayed by most TV preachers, is that it is very man-centered rather than God-centered. TV preachers act as if we are the center of the universe and God exists to meet all of our needs. However, the “old timers” taught the exact opposite: we are on earth to glorify God.
The Shorter Catechism’s first question and answer go like this:
What is the chief end of man?
The Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
I meet many Christians who throw selfish tantrums: “If God doesn’t give me what I want, I am out of here!” Mature Christians say to God, “The most important thing in all of eternity is the privilege I have of glorifying You. Do with me whatever will bring You the most glory.”
Paul’s passion was to put the glory of Christ over his own desires. In Philippians 1, as he was waiting to go on trial for his life before Nero, he asked the Christians to pray for his deliverance but added these words: “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20). Paul basically says, “If the verdict is life and freedom, I will exalt Christ. If the verdict is the death penalty, I will exalt Christ. Exalting Christ is more important than my freedom.”
We can only be God centered people when we grasp two great truths:
- God is worthy of being the center of our lives! God is good and should be honored. God has loved us so greatly in sending Jesus that nothing we give up compares to His sacrifice. We ought to be growing so in love with God that we will be content the rest of our lives to be no more than God’s cheerleader!
- Eternity is what matters — this life is only a test. If we were to suffer for the glory of God, it would only be for a very short time compared to eternity. If we miss out on some desire here, we will taste the most glorious joys for all eternity in Heaven!
II. When you are taken to a place you do not want to go, don’t compare your lot in life with others’: “‘What about him?’” (21:21-22).
Trace gave me a great analogy for our lives with this story. We have all pulled a child aside for correction or to assign a chore. What is the child’s first reaction? “What about him, my brother? Are you going to make him do something, too?” A parent will then simply say, “Don’t worry about him. I’m talking to you!”
A great deal of our unhappiness occurs when we focus on others who have something we want. We may have untold blessings, but we tend to focus on the one blessing we haven’t got.
At times, Karen has struggled with discontentment because she envied what some of her friends have. We have such blessed lives it is humbling to imagine, and we both have ministries that give our lives great meaning. But our grandkids are hours away. When Karen looks at ladies whose grandkids are nearby and who can be with them constantly, she sometimes becomes discontented with her lot. I have to remind her that we are right in the middle of God’s will and that it’s the best place to be in all the universe. She can go as often as she wants to see them, she can talk to them on her cell phone, she can skype, she can see their pictures on the computer. Sometimes, though, God takes a person farther from her children and grandchildren than she wants to go.
I know of single people who almost get bitter when they are around their married friends. Instead of rejoicing over friends’ engagements or even their children, they make the other people’s every blessing a dagger in their own hearts.
I also know of pastors to whom God has given loving, good churches to serve. But they cannot be happy for one moment because they envy the churches other pastors have.
In the Old Testament, Asaph said his feet almost slipped spiritually because he began to compare his life with the ungodly people all around him. They had it easy while his life had been hard:
“Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
“But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
“They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
“Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
“When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny” (Ps. 73:1-5, 13-14, 16-17).
Asaph did the one thing we must do when we allow envy of other people’s blessings to cause us to slip spiritually: he went into the presence of God. Go back into your prayer closet. Open your Bible again. Read it and put life back into its proper eternal perspective.
- III. When you are taken to a place you do not want to go, concentrate on day-by-day obedience: “‘You follow Me!’” (21:22).
What should you do if your doctor tells you you have cancer? What should you do if you find out you no longer have a job? What should you do if your spouse leaves you and your marriage is headed for divorce?
You should get up the next morning, open your Bible, and have a morning Quiet Time — just like you would do if you were perfectly healthy or still had a job. The very next Sunday, get up and go to church just like you did the Sunday before your world fell apart. Just keep on following Jesus.
“Follow me” were the first words Peter heard from Jesus in Mark 1:17. Here in John, “Follow me” are the last words Jesus says to Peter. The Christian life is not about a bunch of mountain-top experiences — it is about following Jesus day to day, plodding on and being faithful to the Lord no matter what!
- IV. What if you are in a place you do not want to go because of your own bad choices?
Sin takes a toll on our lives. Sins like drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and overeating will ruin your health. Some have lost their marriages because they chose to involve themselves in sexual sins. Some have financial troubles because they did not follow Biblical principles and wasted money on selfish desires or sin. (It costs a lot to party, drink, do drugs, gamble, etc. Sin is actually very expensive!)
But even if you are in a mess of your own making, God will not give up on you. That is the point of the story of the Prodigal Son. He insulted his father by demanding his inheritance before his father died. He wasted his money on a sinful lifestyle until in short order it was all gone. He ended up literally in a pigpen: the only job he could get was feeding pigs and eating what they ate (not a job for a Jewish boy under any circumstances!). Then this broken, smelly boy decided to come back home and see if he could become his father’s slave. The loving Father ran to greet him, threw his arms around him, and welcomed him back. If you come to God out of your pigpen, God will receive you the same way.
When you are in a place you did not want to go to, even of your own making, you still need God in order to survive. Don’t let the Devil tell you God is through with you. God’s grace is still greater than all of our sin! (Romans 5:21)
When Elizabeth Elliot gave her testimony on Moody Radio, she said she felt God’s call to become a missionary as a young teenager. She’d heard the story of John and Betty Stam, missionaries to China in the early 1930’s. When their first child, Helen, was three months old, a group of Communist fighters burst into the town they lived in. These Communists hated Christians and missionaries. To humiliate them, they took of most off their clothes and made them march 12 miles to another town. That night Helen kept crying, and the leader ordered one of the soldiers to kill the baby. Another prisoner pled for the little girl’s life. The soldier asked, “Are you willing to die in the baby’s place?” The prisoner said, “Yes,” so he was killed instead. The next day John and Betty were marched to another town, but Betty had left her baby behind, hidden in blankets. When they arrived at the next town, Betty was forced to watch as the Communists beheaded her husband before receiving the same fate. Two days later, a Chinese person found the little baby and within forty days baby Helen was back in the states. She lived to old age.
Elizabeth, spurred on by this example of courage, went to Ecuador as a single missionary. She was given the task of translating the Bible into the language of the Colorado Indians. She could find only one man who could speak both Colorado and Spanish; he was a Christian and agreed to help her. One day, after they had done a good deal of work, she was told to come out to the city square. This man had been senselessly shot to death. Elizabeth asked God, “Why?” God reminded her to trust Him. After that, Jim Elliot came back into her life. Five years before, he had told her he loved her but was not sure God wanted him to marry. He said God had now told him they could marry, but she would have to move to another part of Ecuador and learn the Qechua language. They married and had a little girl themselves. She soon got a call from the missionaries she had worked with earlier, and was told all of her work on the Colorado language had been stolen and was lost forever. She once again asked God, “Why?” He replied that she was to trust Him.
The day came when their friend Nate Saint, a missionary pilot, found the tribe, the Auca Indians, he had been praying for during since his college years,. Nate, Jim, and five other friends excitedly flew off to make contact. All seven of these men were speared to death. Once again this widow with a little girl asked God,”Why?” God said to trust Him. She later went herself to the Auca Indians along with her little girl, lived among them, and won them to Christ. The rest of the Christian world heard the story of her husband’s death and her courage, and thousands were spurred to enter the mission field, just as she had been spurred by the story of John and Betty Stam.
Conclusion:
Are you in a place you did not want to go? Change your focus: it is about God and not about us. Stop comparing your life to others’. Concentrate on just simply following Jesus one day at a time.
Before she ever went to the mission field, Betty Stam wrote in her journal these words: “Lord, I want your will done in my life — no matter what it costs.” That should be our attitude as well. It is not about our needs and our dreams. God is looking for people who will determine that their lives are about His glory!
