Good morning and happy Saturday. I hope that you can join us at church tomorrow as we celebrate our 5th anniversary as Community Impact Church. We will have a special service at 10:15 followed by a fellowship luncheon. Pastors Fitsum, Edwin and I will all be sharing a little about what God has done and what we believe He is leading us to do. It is going to be a great morning. Come join us if you can.
Last weekend, Michelle and I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Arkansas for a wonderful little wedding that we were blessed to be a part of. On Saturday morning we had some free time, so we set out to see the sights. I always like exploring old towns and the less commercialized areas. One thing we did was go to a park that was a few miles away. We had read about the waterfall that was there, so we went to check it out. The park had several walking trails that led to the area. When you got near the waterfall, there was a series of elevated boardwalks so that you could see the falls from various angles. It was really pretty cool. When we took the lower route to near the base of the falls, it was a serious of concrete steps that led down the hillside until you reached another boardwalk that jetted out to the water’s edge. It was nice to look up and see the height of the falls and to hear the water cascading down to the water pool at the base. One thing we noticed as we approached that area were the signs that asked you to stay on the boardwalk. Others said to not walk through the fragile ecosystem. As you would expect, there was an obvious path near one of those signs where people wandered through the grass and trees so that they could go to the water pool. Like most things in life, people did what they wanted to do. Some people likely didn’t care what the signs said. After all, the prevailing attitude in our society is that, “nobody tells me what to do.” It is possible that some people got to that sign but then reasoned, “The earth is my mother and I want to hug my mother, so I am going in.” Others were like, “I don’t see what the harm is, it is just grass and trees. It will grow back.” Probably a few were even like, “That’s an example of government overreach. If we give in here, the next thing you know they will be taking our guns and shutting down the churches. Come on, let’s go into the water!” For whatever reason, enough people had chosen to willfully ignore the signs that it had worn a path down to the water. Will that cause the end of the world? Probably not. But it is a picture of the world in which we live.
Last week, while working with some youth, I was reminded of this as well. Even in trying to give basic instructions and maintaining some semblance of order in the classroom, the attitude comes through loud and clear, “No one tells me what to do.” Having worked with children, youth and adults for a long time, I have been observing how this mindset has gone from one or two openly rebellious people each year to where it is now the norm. Sadly, you see it throughout all areas of society. Don’t be fooled into thinking this has to do with social status, money, political party or race. It is a problem effecting mankind itself. We live in a time similar to what is described in the book of Judges where, “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And no, this is not something a political party can fix. This is an issue of the heart. It has often been an underlying issue but has now become quite overt. However, this should not be a surprise. All you have to do is journey back to Genesis 3 and review where it all began. God gave mankind what seemed like very simple and clear-cut instructions. He told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I guess He could have posted a sign in front of the tree that said, “Don’t eat from this tree.” Nevertheless, the attitude in the moment leading up to the first sin was this: no one, including God Himself, tells me what to do.” And then we fast forward to today and we have to examine our own lives. Likely, none of us utter those words before we do whatever we want to. But, if we look at the actions of our lives, is there evidence that maybe, we have that same attitude in certain areas of our lives? When we selectively apply God’s Word to our lives, when we ignore portions of it, aren’t we really saying that we know better than God how to run our lives? That really is the battle we face. Do we allow God to be God, or do we fight Him for that position in our hearts and lives? Sometimes our rebellion is subtle, other times it is rather overt. Nevertheless, it is still rebellion.
Sign, sign,
Everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery
Breakin’ my mind
Do this, don’t do that
Can’t you read the sign?
From our neighborhoods to the nations,
Pastor Larry
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