Easter

Often to protect themselves from lawsuits companies will put a disclaimer on their product or service. Sometimes a disclaimer is a kind of warning, like what appears on some medicines

Along with its desired effects, this medication may cause some unwanted effects. While not all of these side effects are known, it may cause anemia. This may be dangerous in patients who have heart or breathing problems and may make heart or circulatory problems worse. Other side include chest pain, difficulty breathing, unusual tiredness or weakness, headache, trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, and nausea. Individuals should tell a doctor if they have any of these side effects.

Sometimes a product disclaimer tries to limit customer expectations. For example. On a hotel provided shower cap in a box: Fits one head. On a bottle of Boot’s Children’s Cough Syrup: Do not drive car or operate machinery. On packaging for a Rowenta iron: Do not iron clothes on body. On a child's Superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly. I enjoyed this one from website selling herbal medications: These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. And of course the late night psychics: After spending several minutes trying to convince you that psychic really can really help you with your problems this disclaimer appears on your screen: All services are intended for entertainment purposes. You need to consult the appropriate professional for medical, financial, legal, or other advice

This morning we consider the last verse in Psalm 23: Verse 6

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Now this is a wonderfully comforting verse. But we had better know something. This verse comes with a disclaimer. And this disclaimer is this. The first part of the verse is true only if the second part is true. Or negatively, if you don’t believe the second part, don’t bother believing the first part. Unless you are willing to confess that I will dwell in the house the Lord forever—that my life with God will never end—not even after I die, then you can’t believe the first part. That goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.

How do we know that? 1 Corinthians 15: 16- 19

¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Of course this verse goes a little farther. It says that I must believe that Jesus arose and I must believe that because his resurrection I too will arise from the dead. And if I don’t believe that, then everything else I believe about God and forgiveness and blessing is not true for me. Belief in the resurrection is not merely pie in the sky when you die—it is crucial to knowing God’s blessing right here in this world.

In order to understand this we have to look carefully at the first part of verse 6. “Goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” Now the word that is translated in our Bibles as goodness is the Hebrew word bwf. In this context it refers to God’s blessings toward his people. The word translated love in our Bible or mercy in some older translations is the Hebrew dsj, which refers to God’s faithful love and kindness. Now in this verse the Psalmist David says that God’s blessings and kindness will follow (the Hebrew here is pd;r;’, which literally will pursue me or chase after me, all the days of his life. No, he’s not saying that every moment he will be able to see God’s blessing and kindness, but that God’s blessing and kindness is constantly with him-- right on his tail-- and that eventually he will see it. A similar thought is found in Psalm 27,

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

No the Psalmist does not believe that he will never get sick or never have financial problems, but he believes that God will see him through these times and eventually cure and satisfy his need.

This last week Newsweek magazine featured a debate between Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in California and author of A Purpose Driven Life, and Sam Harris, the author of two best-selling book promoting atheism, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. In this debate Warren gives an illustration of how in answer to prayer God provided an immigration attorney for a woman who need one. But, after he said that the moderator asked,

There must have been time in your ministry when you’ve prayed for someone to be delivered from disease who is not, say a little girl with cancer. Warren agrees.

So, the moderator goes on, “Parse that. God gave you an immigration attorney and killed that little girl.” To which Warren replied, “I do believe in the goodness of God and I do believe he knows better than I do… The issue here really comes down to surrender [to his will.] “

Does Warren’s answer make any sense? (and I believe he gave a good one) Does his answer make any sense without believing that God will raise this little girl from the dead?

Think about that. There are very many problems we face that God does not take away in this life.

Consider the dilemma of the Psalmist in Psalm 73. If you have your Bibles open you might want to just turn over a few pages and look at that Psalm.

The Psalmist begins in verse by declaring God’s goodness. But then in verse 2, he speaks about a time in his life when he began to have second thoughts. He thinks about all the evil people who seem to prosper and godly people who are not prospering. Finally, in verse 13 he blurts out these words,

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

So what was his answer. Look at verse 17

I entered the sanctuary of God;

then I understood their final destiny.

¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground;

you cast them down to ruin.

¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed,

completely swept away by terrors!

But, then look at verse 23,

²³ Yet I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

²⁴ You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will take me into glory.

Beloved in the Lord, life is filled with such examples. God does not always give us the temporary blessings we seek in this world. In fact many times he doesn’t. No matter how many people pray for our recovery--- eventually all of us die. And when we do, every financial and material blessing we receive is taken away. As the wise Preacher in Ecclesiastes wrote,

Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb,

and as he comes, so he departs.

He takes nothing from his labor

that he can carry in his hand.

Praying Christians who trusted God have been financial strapped their entire life, have endured troubles in their families that weren’t resolved when died, have died of painful diseases, have died in prison, have endured slow executions. In the words of Hebrews 11 tells us that heroes of faith were tortured and refused to be released so that might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. ³⁷They were stoned^; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—³⁸the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

If your faith is failing or you are bitter with God for not hearing your prayer, you best consider the truth Paul proclaims

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

In this brutal world it is only those who believe with their heart that the Bible message of resurrection is true who can truly say “goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” For the greatest way God shows his goodness and love to us is by raising us from the dead through Jesus Christ and bringing us to his new heaven and new earth where we will live forever with him.

Now, perhaps some might think I have been preaching to the choir. But, how many of us really believe this? If we really believe this, then why do we give so little priority to the things of God? Why is so hard for us to come to church at least once a week to worship him? Remember how the Psalmist describes the life we will be resurrected to live: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” If we really believe that our greatest treasure is in heaven with God, then why are so many Christian killing themselves with work to make as money as possible? If we Christian really believe that the fulfillment of God’s kingdom and his promises will come only after there is a new heaven and earth, why do so many of us flock to hear messages of faith healers and health and wealth evangelists who falsely promise quick cures and instant success? Why do some of us feel that trusting God for a healing takes more faith than waiting on him to fulfill his promises? If we really believe that our home is in heaven, why are so many “great Christians” using the faith to pad their pocket books, promote their pet political projects, and to enhance their own power and popularity. Have we as Christian lost confidence in the message of resurrection so boldly and clearly proclaimed in scripture.

Christ has been raised! And because he conquered death so also will raised. That is the central message of our faith. That is the central message of the Bible.

Now some might object that such an understanding will only cause us to withdraw from life. In a recent interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Dr Jeremiah Wright, African- American pastor of Trinity United of Christ in Chicago, made the point: “Faith should be pulled into the public arena when it affects how we live. If it doesn’t — if it’s so heavenly focused — it does no earthly good. What does my faith say about 44 million people with no health care? What does my faith say about the fact that my girl can’t be a nuclear physicist because she’s black and from the inner city and because her schooling options are not what they are for George W. Bush’s girls or for Bill and Hillary’s daughter Chelsea? My faith says, no, that’s not what God intended. It pulls it back into the public arena the idea that there’s got to be something fair for all of us.”

Is that the faith that Paul is declaring, “a faith that does no earthly good?” No it isn’t. For the same God who give us our treasure in heaven is the God who put us here on earth. And he put us here for a purpose: a divine purpose that is described in so many ways: In Matthew 25 Jesus says that we were put here as stewards (a steward is a servant who takes care of his master’s property.) He gave this world to care for and use for his purposes. Each of us has a part of it. And that when he comes again we are going to have to give an account to him of what we did with the part of world he has given: What have we done with our families, what have we done on the job, what have we done to make our society better? And our faithfulness will have a lot to say about the responsibilities he gives us in heaven. Our master will You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to say in 2 Corinthians 5, that as those who belong to Christ’s kingdom we are “Christ’s ambassadors” to this world, ambassadors sent here to bring a message of peace to our world. Peter in 1 Peter 2: 9 was inspired to say,

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

We are here so that others, seeing the good deed our lives--- the ways in which we bless those around us—that we see that that they might give glory to God.

People of God, only those who believe in a resurrection can view their time here as a mission. Bastian Kruithof said it well in book The Christ of the Cosmic Road, when wrote. “Responsibility increases in the face of the eternal.”

Henry Lyte was born at Ednam Scotland in 1793. He was blessed with many gifts—including a great mind. He was a poet and musician. And in his short life, he used gifts to glorify God and bless others. But all his life struggle with tuberculosis—a terrible disease in which the body just wastes away. Yet, he firmly believed that he was place here by God for a purpose. He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin and became a pastor. In spite of his disease, he worked very hard in the church and well loved. But, finally it overtook him. And shortly before he died in Nov 1847, on the last Sunday he preached, he handed his wife a piece of paper on which he scrawled out the words that gave him grace to persevere his entire life

Abide with me Fast falls the even tide

The darkness deepens—Lord with me abide,

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless O Abide with me.

Hold Thou thy cross before my closing eyes

Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies

Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee.

In life, in death, O Lord abide with me.

David put it this way:

           And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

Only those who truly believe that truth can know comfort of abiding with him today. AMEN!