On Solid Ground // On Solid Ground, Part 10

What you and I want, is life on our terms. We do…and yet, we can't for the most part have that. And it's the same with God.  Before we can take a hold of all His blessings, we have to let go of a whole bunch of other stuff … Over these last two weeks we've spent some time, each day, exploring different aspects of a story that kind of talks about having solid ground under our feet; the story of a simple woman with a simple heart who, in the midst of the greatest storm of her life, honoured God. Her name is Hannah. And a story of a man, a priest over all of Israel, who should have honoured God. He was a priest after all and yet allowed his sons to get away with wickedness that ultimately, God wouldn't tolerate and both Hannah and Eli reaped what they'd sown. The priest should have been on solid ground but he was cut off, he and all his descendants. The woman, she was a nobody, she had no right to expect solid ground beneath her feet in her storm and yet she honoured God and He honoured her. That's the crux of it, because as we read this story and you can read it in the first few chapters of the book of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament, the pivot on which it turns is this statement from God in chapter 2 of 1 Samuel. God says: I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt. So what does that mean for you and me, here and now? What does it mean? You and I, deep down, come on lets face it, we're basically selfish creatures. Now perhaps you're a whole bunch further down the track than me in dealing with that but come on, deep down we want our way, we want our needs to be met, we want our comfort, we were born that way. And every now and then you meet someone who seems like a saint and you think, "boy, that could never apply to them" but deep down, deep down it does. And God comes along and says, "I'm God, I am who I am, that's it!" and God is to be honoured, to be respected to be feared, to be revered. It's so counter to our popular culture, it's so completely opposite. You can't dress this up; you can't somehow make it instantly palatable to the popular psyche because it's totally the opposite of what we're told by the advertising industry. It's totally opposite to the mantra of this age, that it's all about me and I'm worth it. Worship's a funny word, it means "to bow down and to honour" and so we have a clash between popular thought, "its all about me" and honouring God. I can never make those two the same because they're totally different and most of my life, I lived by the former, "it's all about me". Honour! Honour! Get out of here. Bow down! Worship! See this is not something people do on Sunday morning at Church. It's something that God calls us to do with our lives in all the circumstances of life, on the good days and the bad days and the sunny days and the rainy days and the calm days and the storm days. It's something that we've seen over and over and over again, this woman Hannah did and honouring God is completely the opposite of pride, it's the complete opposite and you and I, no matter what we happen to believe or not believe, are infected by the mantra of this age. And so honouring God is foreign to our natural inclination, completely in every department because we live and breathe the "me" mantra. Let me give you a couple of pictures of how different it is. The first one comes from a story that happened quite a few years after Hannah and Eli. You can read about it in 2 Samuel chapter 24, it's about King David. He's done something stupid and he's been trusting in his power instead of Gods power and he comes to make an offering to God and he goes to a place, a threshing floor. He wants to make an offering and the owner of this threshing floor says, "here, take whatever you want. The wood, the place, the animals, I'll give it all to you so you can make this offering". I mean why wouldn't he, this was the King David after all, the king had power of life and death over him. And yet in 2 Samuel chapter 24, verse 24 David says this, he says: I will not make a burnt offering to my Lord which costs me nothing. See, honouring God always costs us something. Sometimes God calls me to give money here or there for His work and it's almost always at an inconvenient time. It's almost always something I really can't afford. I had plans for that money you know and yet I give anyway because He's my God. I give anyway because honouring God always involves sacrifice, it always costs us something. See we want God on our terms, we want Him so He'll bless us and keep us and make us comfortable but that it doesn't cost us anything along the way, you know. I mean after all grace is Gods free favour, always, and it is. I'm His child, not because of what I've given to Him or because of what I've done but because I believe in what His Son, Jesus Christ did for me on that cross. But now that I am His child, honouring Him with everything I am, with everything I think, with everything I do and I have, with my time, my finances, my life, completely being sold out to Him, you know something; it costs me and every now and then the flesh winces. But I will not make a sacrifice to my God that costs me nothing. You know Hannah, the one thing she longed for was her son and when God finally gave her a son, she gave him back to God to serve God for the rest of his life. She honoured God in a huge way, Hannah was on solid ground. No matter what came at her she was on solid ground because her trust was in the Lord and she honoured Him and she knew that God would honour her. The second picture is a picture that Jesus gave us, it's His own story. It's a picture of a grain of wheat; perhaps you're familiar with it. I tell you the truth (He said) unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies, it produces many seeds. If you love your life you'll lose it, if you hate your life in the world you'll keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am my servant also will be and my Father will honour the one who serves me. I want you to notice the sequence, "fall to the ground and die and you end up baring much fruit" then "my Father will honour the one who serves me". See people hold back, you know why? We're afraid of dying, we're afraid of losing our life in this world, we're afraid of being sold out. We think that somehow we have to hang on to what we have and Jesus said, "no, let it all go. Transfer your faith from the things that you can see and grasp, to the great unseen reality, to me and my Father will honour you". We have to let go before we can receive, if we hang on we won't get anything. What are you hanging on to? What are you holding back from your God? What's He calling you to let go of today? To tell you the truth, until you answer that call decisively, you will never have solid ground beneath your feet. It's different for each one of us, for some it's money. You know, we feel God saying to us, "give money here" and you think, "oh no, I really want to go on a holiday. I've got that couple of thousand set aside to go on a holiday here and there". I have to tell you; sometimes God will lay it on your heart to sacrifice something. Look at Hannah, she had to give up the one thing she wanted the most; her son. If we want solid ground beneath our feet, I've got to tell you, it's about not having God on our terms, it's about accepting Him on His terms and His terms are very simple. He is the sovereign King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords, He is the God who created all the universe. He's not a performing poodle to do tricks for you and me. He is God! And God wants us to be sold out, He wants us to fall to the ground and die so that we can produce many seeds and then, as Jesus said: My Father in heaven will honour the one who serves me. God said: I honour those who honour me but those who despise me I will treat with contempt.