He Will Exault You in Due Time

The passage that Ray read in his second lesson about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and then going into the wilderness, and it's significant to notice that while they were crossing the Red Sea, as far as we know, no Israelites were lost. Everybody did fine. But it was when they started the wilderness journey that their problems began.

And that's exactly how it is with us. And if you think the life of following Jesus is all crossing the Red Sea and no wilderness, then somebody's misled you. Let's begin by reading from 1 Peter chapter 5. Close yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. We often use the term honeymoon to describe the Red Sea crossing. When it comes to the honeymoon that comes to us every time we, when we first come to know Jesus, or when we first taste the fullness of the Holy Spirit, or perhaps receive some new insight from God, and everything just opens up and it's wonderful.

But the thing about the honeymoon is not just that we feel so good, and that life is so rosy and pleasant for a while. The really significant thing about the honeymoon is that we get things done. We pray, things happen.

We go out seeking the lost, we find them. It seems like everything we touch turns to light. There's a freshness and an enthusiasm that helps us to bear fruit, and to stay alert and alive and strong.

Then the honeymoon passes, and we find ourselves walking through dry places. And to our chagrin, prayer starts getting hard to do. And the work in the vineyard isn't quite as effortless.

It becomes more difficult, and more tiring, and less fruitful. In fact, the contrast between the honeymoon and the wilderness journey, which follows it always, is so extreme that we begin to ask, what caused this difference? After all, God is still there. He hasn't changed.

We still love him. We want to serve him. So why is it that this enthusiasm seems to go away? And this joy that we had, and this energy that never seemed to wear out.

The difference between the honeymoon and the wilderness is that in the honeymoon, there is a strong awareness of the approval, of the recognition of God with us all the time. We just know that God is watching us and sees us. And that recognition from God really keeps us going.

When we move out then into the wilderness, for some strange reason, that sense of God's recognition diminishes, and our morale drops. See, in our spiritual infancy, God gives us all kinds of direct encouragement. But when the time comes for us to start to grow up, he puts us out into the wilderness and teaches us out there to begin walking by faith.

And God is still there, and he still cares, but that consciousness of God's recognition of what we're doing and who we are is not as strong anymore. Now, it's not as if God is calling us to go without recognition from him. The recognition will be there, it will come again, eventually, but there is a change.

When we were on the honeymoon or in our infancy, it was almost as if God was all the time clapping his hands and smiling, throwing bouquets and giving us blessings, like the mother watching her little child do tricks in the backyard. You know, it was all the time, you know, giving it lemonade and clapping and smiling and giving it encouragement. And that's right.

But then, time to grow up. If your mother has to do that for you when you're 25, something's wrong. And so God brings us out into that wilderness, and we have to now learn that the approval will come later.

God is still caring for us and watching over us, but that recognition is not quite as swift in coming. Not that he's calling us to live or work in his kingdom apart from any kind of recognition. We need that.

We were made to need it. You know, the most devastating thing that could happen to us would be to be banished into the outer darkness where there's no recognition ever. Just as a child needs to have recognition from its parents if it is to develop as a whole person.

So we need recognition from our Heavenly Father if we're to develop into sons and daughters of God. We need that. We need to know that God sees us, knows us, and we need to hear him telling us once in a while, you're going to make it.

But, once we've moved out of infancy, out of the honeymoon, and we're now beginning to be taught how to live as men and women of God, the recognition will come from God only on that road of faith. See, now, I'm walking the road of faith, and I don't have that strong consciousness of God's approval all the time that I once did. But now, I deliberately humble myself before him, trusting that he will exalt me, lift me up, give me recognition in due time.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you. To live by faith is to let God do the exalting.

And to trust that he will. And that really requires faith from us, because there is such a desperate need for recognition in every one of us. We're all the time inclined to go and exalt ourselves in some way, to kind of reassure ourselves of our worth.

And we'll reach out and grab any kind of recognition we can get, and we'll feed on that and draw our life from it, even if it comes from Satan. All too often, faith is the deliberate, joyful, daring, freedom-giving, emptying ourselves of glory before God, humbling ourselves before him, and trusting that when the time is right, he'll lift us up and welcome us up into his glory. Now that's exactly what Jesus did.

He came down into this world and lived by faith, and he never even had a honeymoon. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. And this is exactly what Jesus is now calling us to do. Calling us to live by faith, to have the courage, you know, to empty ourselves of our glory, whatever that is, all the ego things in our lives, and trust that when the time is right, he'll lift us back up.

He who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself, she who humbles herself, will be exalted. There's no lesson that Jesus ever taught more relentlessly than that, because basically that's what faith is. Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you.

To live by faith, first of all, is to humble ourselves in repentance, knowing that the Father is waiting for us to come home, and that when we get there, he's going to welcome us and he'll exalt us at his table. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want.

So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into the fields to feed the swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough to spare, but I perish here with hunger? I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.

I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father.

But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best roll and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it.

Let us eat and make merry, for my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. The man reached a point where he was willing to give up his pride, stop trying to make it on his own, and humble himself by going back home.

That was a humbling thing. And he goes back, no longer blaming the old man for everything. No wonder I got problems.

You spoiled me when I was a kid. You know, I got these hang-ups, and I can't cope with life because you sent me to the wrong school. Sure, I blew the money, but you never taught me the facts of life, and I had to learn the hard way.

None of that. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.

Humbles himself. In response, the father lifts him up. Bring the best robe and put it on him.

Put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found. And this is exactly what God does for us every single time we repent. When we give up this idea of walking around trying to justify ourselves and blame all our problems on somebody else, and we come down before the father and admit what a mess we are, cry out to him.

Every single time we do this, he gets hold of us and exalts us into his own bosom, lifts us up in his arms, restores us to himself. And if there's anybody, perhaps in one sense it's true for all of us, anybody here who's come in here today knowing there's something that needs to be repented of. We've been walking around with this thing maybe for months.

We know we've got to do something about this. And the one thing which holds us back is our stinking pride. We don't want to come off our pedestal.

May God help us to humble ourselves before the father, trusting that he will lift us up and restore us if we just repent of this thing today. To walk by faith is to humble ourselves before the lamb and get on with the work that he gave us to do, trusting that in time he'll come back from that far country and recognize what we've done. Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

And he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here, I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

All during the time the master was gone, these men were working and nobody was recognizing what they were doing. Nobody was throwing them bouquets and their name didn't get in the papers and people were patting them on the back. The thing that kept them going was the faith that the master would come back.

They didn't have to go out and find some audience to cheer them on. Their audience was the master and the day came when he said, Well done. They got their recognition.

So with us, in the wilderness, our labor is often really thankless and weary. Nobody seems to notice. So what? Thank God that you have been given the privilege to labor in his vineyard by faith.

There's not a thing that you have ever done or ever suffered that will go unnoticed. So go on humbling yourself daily in this labor before the master and he will exalt you in due time. One day he will say, I was hungry, you gave me food.

Thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Come, oh blessed of my father, enter into the joy of your master.

But the thing that probably fills us with the most fear of all is that black hole up ahead that sucks us to itself like a whirlpool and swallows people into it so that they're never seen again. Death. One day, and we know this in our bones, and we don't like to think about it or talk about it, but we know it.

One day, our spirit is going to go through that hole into that nothingness beyond, as far as we can see here, and our body, if there's anything left of our body, will be lowered into the ground. And then who will recognize me? Faith is humbling ourselves before God even as we move toward our death, knowing that one day he will indeed raise us up. Even Christians are making fun these days of the idea of pie in the sky, by and by, as if it's a terrible thing.

We want our blessings now. I want my pie a la mode right now. You can have it, you know, turn on the right channel, it'll tell you about it.

But if we're following Jesus, the pie a la mode that we get now is nothing compared with what's waiting for us beyond. The goal of our life has to be on the other side. It sure isn't here.

If in this life only we have hope, says Paul, we are of all men most miserable. Truly, truly, I say to you, the day of the hour is coming, now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth.

Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. The most certain thing we face, barring the return of Jesus, is our death. The most important day of our life is that day.

And now we move toward that day, trusting that one time he will recognize us on the other side and that one day we will hear his voice. Anybody can be on fire for God during the honeymoon. That's simple, anybody can do that.

All kinds of support, all kinds of encouragement, that's what God does for us. But to stay on fire for God when the honeymoon ends and we have to travel through the wilderness requires that we learn to live by faith. To learn the lesson Jesus taught us with his life, with his death, and with his resurrection, and which he imparts to us now in the power of his Holy Spirit, even as we wait upon him, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, believing that he will indeed exalt us in due time, casting all our anxieties upon him, trusting that he does indeed, even in this monotonous wilderness, care for us.

Let's wait upon him in prayer.