Finding Hope in Dependence on God

When Mrs. Wheeler was just out of high school, she had gotten a new Camaro that was a convertible with all the options. She went out for a drive one day and cut off a truck driver. He motioned for her to pull over and not sure why, but she did. He took out a piece of chalk, drew a circle on the shoulder and told her to stay in the circle and not move.

The driver then went to Karen’s new car and started cutting up the seats. He turned around and saw that she had a grin on her face. He said, “Oh you think that is funny, huh? Watch this.” He gets out a baseball bat and breaks the headlights and tail lights on the car.

Karen has a huge smile on her face, which infuriates the driver even more. He takes out his knife and slices all of her tires. By this point Karen is laughing uncontrollably. The driver said, “For the love of Pete, what is so funny?”

She replied, “While you weren’t looking, I stepped out of the circle 4 times, ya mowron.”

It is good to be able to find the bright spot in bad situations. Sometimes, for some of us, it can be the simple things, right Karen?

There is a lot more action-packed reading from this week’s chapters in Mark. I won’t go through them all but would like to share just a couple and maybe point out some things that we should always consider.

Let’s read…Mark 8:1-8

Throughout the bible we can find many great stories. We can find amazing displays of faith and amazing displays of lack of faith. We will find how people let other people down when the going got tough. We talked about it a few weeks ago, how all the disciples scattered when the soldiers arrested Jesus. How Peter denied even knowing Jesus in any way shape or form.

I like to hear the stories of winning. I told you how I like movies where the good guys win and the bad guys are destroyed and how I don’t want my team to have a close game. How they need to win by a lot! I would love to watch a game where my team, America’s team, they Cowboys, take the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, and then when they kick off the other team fumbles and the Cowboys pick up the ball and run it in for a touchdown and never look back But you know what, my team is going to let me down and lately that has been way too much.

Your team will let you down. Life is going to let you down and one thing that I understand from the bible in a lot of cases is this. Point one….When you are struggling…

1. Your friends may not help.

Job 4:7-8

John 9:1-2

Has anyone ever had that friend that was supposed to show up to help do a project and never showed up or called, or if they called, they had some lame excuse as to why they could not come help?

Anyone, honest enough to say that you have been that friend at least once in your life? I know that I have done that a time or two, but it seems like it has happened to me more than I have done it. And of course, that is how I would perceive it, right? I am good at remembering when other people mess up or let me down because I know how to hold a grudge. On the other hand, my intentions to help were there it was motivation that was lacking.

It is not uncommon for people to be really selfish. Most of us don’t even realize how selfish we become. Adults are worse than children sometimes because we know more ways of getting more of what we want from others than kids do. We say we like a fair shake, but in all actuality, we want the scales tipped in our favor.

The other day, Bob and I went out for dinner at Longhorn Steak house. After looking over the menu, we noticed that they had a special steak deal for two. It came with 2 ribeye steaks and 4 sides. When the food arrived, they put the plate with the steaks on it in front of me. One steak was considerably bigger than the other. I kept the big piece of steak on my plate and put the small one on Bob’s. He started in on me about thinking of others and the last will be first….blah, blah, blah. I asked him if he would have been served they steak, what would he have done. He said, “I would have taken the smaller steak and given you the bigger piece.” I said, “Looks like you got your wish, what’s the problem?”

Our friends will let us down. It will happen. Do you know that sometimes when you are struggling that….

2. Your church may not help.

Mark 8:1-4

Mark 9:17-18

I want you to know that I am so honored to be the pastor of this church. As I have been a part of our church for most of my life, I have seen so many great things that our church has done for other people. The way that we have stepped up to help those in need and the way that we treat anyone that decides to come to church for one Sunday or multiple Sundays.

I remember many years ago, a neighbor of Karen’s had cancer and most of their money was going for treatments. Their house needed a new roof, which they could not afford. Our church could not afford it either, but several of our church people got together and tore off the old roof and put on a new one for this family. They didn’t go to our church, but we stepped up and helped them out.

There have been many times that our church has helped those in need, by bringing food over, by visiting, by, taking up a love offering and even by listening to them when they just needed an ear to chew on for a while. We find ways of helping others a lot. We are very loving and my focus for our church is that each one of us, as an individual, and all of us, as the church will have the heart of Jesus.

That we will see things through His eyes, that we will have compassion on people in need and we will love like we are called to love.

There will be times though that we get it wrong. There will be times that we get it right, but we are unable to help financially, or physically, or even spiritually. Maybe we don’t understand completely. Maybe we put our thoughts above Gods. Who knows, but from time to time we will fail.

I think of the disciples with the feeding of the 4000 and of the 5000, they couldn’t help because they lacked faith. When you think about the dad and his son that was demon possessed, the disciples couldn’t help then either. They lacked what was needed to help. One time faith, one time understanding. But even the disciples failed to help from time to time. And sometimes the church will not be able to help us from time to time. Which brings me to the most important thing that we need to understand this morning.

3. God should not be the last resort!

Mark 8:5-8

Mark 9:19-27

I am reminded of a song called, “Seek Ye First”, maybe you know it. I would like to read a little of the song to you.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Hallelu, Hallelujah! Matthew 6:33

Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Hallelu, Hallelujah! Matthew 7:7

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God. Hallelu, Hallelujah! Matthew 4:4

I can’t tell you how many times that I have thought to myself, I can handle this. I got this or even this is no big deal. I also can’t tell you how many times I have been told, “I don’t want to bother God with my trivial problems.” I get it. I am not here to judge you. I am here just trying to tell us all, including me, that there really isn’t anything that is too small for God.

Jesus tells a story of a man that is about to lose his job and in the process of losing his job, he makes some really wise decisions. And that the moral of the story is whomever is faithful in the little things will be also be faithful in the big things. If we allow God to help us in our small things, He will not only help us, but we will be in the mindset of going to God with all of our problems before they get to be too big for us to handle. If we don’t “bother” God with what we feel are small problems, then we will try everything else first to fix it ourselves. And by the time we turn to God the situation is so big, that it causes damage in our lives.

We need to start with God. We need to understand that God is not a last resort, but rather our only hope. Our only hope of salvation. Our only hope of heaven. Our only hope of peace and joy. He is our only hope.

When No One Else... God!