July 10, 2005

I love being able to share weird stories from the week’s news, things that make you shake your head and go “Sheesh.”

In this case, I call your attention to Grants Pass, Ore., where a man set himself on fire to prove his devotion to his true love. I swear I’m not making this up—Todd Grannis got up on a platform and lit the cape he was wearing on fire. (He consulted with a professional stunt man first.)

 Then he dove into a swimming pool to put out the blaze, got out of the water and down on one knee and told his beloved, “Honey, you make me hot. I’m on fire for you.”

How did his girl friend respond? “Of course I said yes. I was so thrilled.” I give the marriage six months.

But you’ve got to give that guy, nutty as he may well be, some points for perseverance. If being a human torch was what it required to win his girlfriend’s heart, well, that was no barrier.

 Sometimes it seems like perseverance is in short supply in our culture any more. Everything needs to be packaged and sold instantly, or it gets labeled a failure.

Look at movies and TV today. A movie is judged by how well it does in its opening weekend; no room to build word of mouth. A TV show has to be a hit in its first couple weeks, or it gets yanked out of the lineup.

That’s one reason why the Christian way of life is such a hard sell in this culture—in fact, it’s counter cultural. The Christian way of life is built on the reality that everybody is going to stumble and fall along the path to heaven, yet by the standards of the modern world one failure means you’re no good, you’re no use, you have no value in the eyes of God. But nothing could be more wildly divergent from the truth. Here’s what I want you to take away from today’s sermon, gang—God believes in you. God believes in you probably much more than you believe in yourself, and he won’t stop believing in you, no matter how many times you mess up.

If I were to ask you to name the greatest presidents this country has ever had, I’m sure that Abraham Lincoln would be right up there at the top. He was instrumental at abolishing slavery, but even more important, he held this country together when only his iron will kept the people from giving up and ending the union.

Many people have heard the following illustration about Lincoln, and I may even have used it here before. But it more than bears repeating:

Lincoln had an extremely difficult childhood, growing up in poverty, and only had one year of anything that could be called schooling.

In 1831 he launched his first business. It failed.

In 1832 he ran for the state legislature. He was defeated.

In 1833 he started another business. It also failed.

In 1834 he ran again for state legislature and won, but in 1838 he was defeated in a bid to become speaker of the house. Meanwhile in 1835 his fiancé got sick and died.

In 1840 he was defeated in a race for elector.

In 1842 he married Mary Todd, and that marriage became a never-ending source of misery for the rest of Lincoln’s life. He fathered four sons, only one of whom reached the age of 18.

In 1843 he was defeated in a race for Congress.

In 1846 he tried again and won, but from 1848 to 1858 he ran four more times for public office, and each time he lost.

So let me just ask you: If this were your life story, when 1860 rolled around and the nation was clearly on the verge of civil war, and whoever won would have an impossible job of governing the country, would you be inclined to run for president?

Lincoln not only wanted the job, he pulled a few shady deals, like any good politician, to win the nomination. That perseverance changed the course not just of American history, but the history of the world. And perseverance, persistence in the face of long odds, is what we’re talking about today.

Let me quote you the words of Proverbs 24: “For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”

This verse says that the difference between a wise man and a fool is not determined by whether he fails. We all fail. I’m the poster boy for failure. You know people who graduate from college cum laude? I graduated Thank the Lawd. But the difference between a wise person and a fool is whether he or she gets back up again. Here’s the idea at work here: A failure who stays down in the mud is a dime a dozen. A failure who gets up again is one in a million.

So I want to share three persistence principles this morning, the first being Try again, because God believes in you.

Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Philippi, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”

People start projects all the time and never finish them, but God never starts something that he doesn’t complete. God perseveres. If he has started something in your life you know he’s going to finish it. If he has started the work of salvation in your life, and your presence here says that he has, you better believe that he’s not going to rest until you’re safely home in heaven.

But there’s more, I think. God believes in the perfectibility of every one of us. In other words, we all can conform to the image of Jesus Christ. God sees a world of potential within us, because he put it there. Make sense? We often don’t see it within ourselves, because we’re looking through the wrong end of the telescope, so to speak. We’re looking backwards through the telescope at ourselves, and sometimes all we can see are these tiny, insignificant ant-like creatures. A million more or less would make no difference to anybody. That’s how we see humanity, usually.

But God? Let me tell you how God sees this world. How many people here have ever eaten at a McDonald’s?

There’s only one reason you just answered yes, and that’s because of the vision of Ray Kroc. Ray Kroc was just another salesman from Illinois who sold milkshake machines until he stumbled across a hamburger stand run by the McDonald brothers in California. He wanted to see why these brothers had placed an order for so many milkshake machines. Kroc saw that the brothers’ restaurant formula was a gold mine, but they were content to stay small-time, so he bought them out, kept the name and the rest is history.

Whether or not you like McDonald’s, the fact is that Ray Kroc’s vision changed a hamburger stand into the world’s largest food vendor. In the same way, God sees an upside in you that you never dreamed of.

That’s why we say, in the words of Paul from Second Corinthians, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.”

The second principle I want to share this morning is to try again, because God expects you to.

The Gospel of Luke tells us the story of a night when a group of tough experienced fishermen worked all night trying to catch fish, with no success at all. These weren’t Saturday morning panfish anglers, these were men who needed to catch fish or starve. Jesus saw their lack of success and told one of the men, named Simon, to go out in the deep water and cast his net again.

Simon replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

This time, they caught so many fish that their nets began to break and when they hauled them in their boat started to sink.

We need to understand something here, gang—Simon didn’t agree to fish again because he suddenly believed more strongly in his fishing abilities. He fished again because he had faith in Jesus. Casting his net again was an act of faith and obedience.

When you fail and get up and try again, you’re telling God something. You’re saying, “I believe in you, even when I don’t have faith in myself. And I will obey you, even when it seems pointless to try.”

And the third principle is, Try again, because the world needs to see you try. This poor suffering world needs all the hope it can get, especially after events such as Thursday’s in London.

One of the few places to look for hope is in the example of people who have been knocked down, or have fallen down, yet haven’t let their failures stop them. They keep getting up and trying again, and they encourage people who are watching to keep on with their own struggles, too.

I have said this so often: We don’t know who is watching us, we don’t know where the ripples from the pebbles we throw will wind up, but we know that the God of mercy and compassion can make even the most rotted tree bear good fruit.

I know that as I struggle with my failures and setbacks and defeats in my life, those who are watching me need to see me try again. I know that all of you are watching to see how well I handle adversity. My family, friends, mere acquaintances, total strangers, they all need to see me get back up. They need to know that my God is faithful, and he rewards persistence. They need to see that good and gracious God working in me and through me.

But look at me, church. The people in your world need to see it in you, too. They need to have hope, and your persistence can give it to them. When you try again, the example of your faith and obedience will inspire them to follow in your footsteps. I believe that if God has placed the potential for good works inside you, he’s also going to put you in position this week to be a blessing to another one of his children.

How many of you are struggling with a problem that makes you want to focus more on your problems this morning than your blessings? Please show me your hands. Let me encourage you to spend some time before you leave this building to thank God for what he has done in your life, and to remember that “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

It’s your choice, you can get up or give up, but giving up is the most selfish choice you can make.

Getting up means you will turn your back on your own frustration and despair and try again for the sake of the people in your life who desperately need to see you keep trying.

So whatever struggle you’re in, or whatever trial you’re enduring, remember, God is still working on you and in you. He won’t give up, so don’t you give up, either. All he asks is that you take every chance you get to bless other people. That’s what we’re doing here—we are to bless other people. Be very sure that this week, every person in this church is going to have an opportunity to bless someone or curse someone. And let me just confess to you all that I have missed many, many chances to bless someone. Each one was a failure, my failure. But failure doesn’t mean we quit trying. God’s blessing is for all people. We are all children of God, who have come to know Jesus Christ. That’s what the Christian gospel is all about. And that’s the final principle for today: Keep trying, and be the blessing that you would receive.

To finish up today I want to share a great story I came across this week about what this means, to have the opportunity to bless someone or curse someone. It’s actually two stories in one, but both have a 12 year old boy at the heart. They were both altar boys in the Catholic Church, one named Josef and the other Peter John. Josef Brose was proud of being an altar boy, and especially proud to be serving Mass when the church in his Yugoslavian village was packed, as it was this Sunday. One of the things an altar boy does is carry a little glass bottle of water for the priest to wash his hands.

Josef was climbing the steps to the altar when he tripped and dropped the glass bottle, which smashed into a thousand pieces. Obviously a terrible thing to happen in front of hundreds of people who know you and your family. But Josef thought he knew what to do. He knelt down before the priest and said, “Father, forgive me, for I have sinned.” The priest could have taught all those worshippers a lesson in compassion. Instead, he looked at the boy and said, “Get out. Get out of this church and never come back again.” And Josef never did go back into a church for the rest of his life. Instead, when Josef became an adult he changed his name to Josef Brose Tito, and as the Communist, atheist dictator Marshall Tito he ruled Yugoslavia with an iron fist, as hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people were slaughtered.

Now let’s look at the other 12 year old boy, this one in Peoria, Ill. Peter John’s story was also exactly the same as Josef’s. He was an altar boy in a packed church, the day the local bishop came to celebrate Mass. He was excited and proud and just as clumsy, and he dropped the glass bottle, which smashed into a million pieces. One of those moments that make you want to crawl into a hole and pull the dirt on top of yourself.

But the bishop did not tell Peter John to leave and not come back. Without missing a beat, the bishop walked to the pulpit microphone and said, “Worshippers, our altar boy, Peter John, has given us a wonderful example of God’s redemption and grace. Is there anyone among us who has not had an embarrassing experience, a disillusioning experience or a shattering experience? Peter John, thank you for giving us this illustration of redemption and the gospel. For when our lives are broken in a million pieces, there is a God who can bring resurrection out of crucifixion.

‘Peter John, the truth of the matter is that God is going to put your broken pieces back together and make you a stronger altar boy and a stronger Christian. And let me confess my own sins. When I was an altar boy, I dropped a glass bottle during Mass, too.”

Then he looked directly at the boy, and said something that the 12 year old never forgot, although he lived another 70 years: “Peter John, I dropped a glass bottle, and you dropped a glass bottle. Maybe you’ll be a bishop like me some day.” And he gave him a big wink, and then Mass continued.

Peter John did become a priest and then a bishop. In fact, he became one of the most famous bishops in the world. Some of you are old enough to remember the name Peter John Fulton Sheen, the first person to realize the power of television to preach the gospel. Bishop Sheen’s Tuesday night TV show was watched by millions of people back in the 1950s.

One boy was blessed and one was cursed. You’ll get the chance this week. We all will. How persistent will we be to put the Good News into action? God believes in you. He believes you’re going to get it done.