Pastor Elwin Ahu
September 18, 2011 - W1138

Today, we are going to talk about the 7^th trait of being an irresistible church:  about always learning. While men were made in the image of God and God is unchangeble, men are changing every day! Why do we change constantly while God is unchangeable? In fact, all of His creations are changing because God created us to be a work-in-progress, and learning is a part of this progress, too. In order for this progress to proceed, we have to be willing to change, to keep learning, un-learning, and re-learning. It’s like fruit; when fruit is young and in the process of getting ripe, it is green. But once it attains maturity and is ripe, it will only rot.

We are in the stage of being green right now before we finish our race here on earth. So we have to keep learning before we reach the stage of being ripe. Isaiah said in the Bible, "Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new; now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?" (Isa. 43:18-19) What Isaiah is saying her is that we cannot ponder and get stuck on the past when we know something new is going to happen. He’s  telling us to behold, to pay attention, as this new thing is really important to us and we can’t miss out on it by not moving forward. And I believe that this something new means the Kingdom of God. God set things in motion from the beginning of time so that we all are led to the establishment of His Kindgom. That’s why we need to keep praying, as His Kingdom comes, His will be done as it is in heaven! But He doesn’t unfold everything all at one time. He will unfold one step at a time and we need to be patient and keep learning. As He unfolds, He gives us opportunity to learn new things step by step, so that we will eventually become what we need to be for the Kingdom of God. During this lifetime of learning, we will be enrolled in three different kinds of schools. The first one is:

1. School of WISDOM.

·     Paid by OTHERS.

"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night." (Ps. 1:1-2) From this, we learn that we need to meditate day and night with God’s wisdom and His law, and all we need to do is to pick up the Bible and feed ourselves! That is why we need to do our daily devotion and be in a small group as well, so we can learn from each other’s experience. Occasionally I come across people who have attended New Hope and subsequently then left. They told me they left because they didn’t feel fed with the weekend services, so they found another church instead. My response to them was that as long as they still had a church community to go to, that was good. But then I was wondering why they would say that they weren’t fed when they could feed themselves by opening the Bible or attending a small group? It is like complaining about being starved while there is a lot of food laying out freely right in front of you! I call it foolishness!

The tuition of the school of wisdom has already been paid for you, but you need to feed yourself and attend the school yourself. If we don’t enroll ourselves into this school of wisdom, we will be enrolled in the second school instead, which is:

2. School of REGRET.

·     Paid by PERSONAL PAIN.

Unlike at the School of Wisdom, at the School of Regret, you will be the one paying the tuition, not others. At this school, you only study your past mistakes and regrets.  This is a school that you definitely don’t want to be in for long, because the longer you stay, the longer you are left with regret. So if you are in the School of Regret, you have to learn fast, re-adjust and re-define your attitude as soon as possible, then move on and get out of the school.

There is a guy named Roger. He has no hands, no palms, and only has one foot with three toes. But his parents refused to give in so they taught him to be the one Roger wanted to be. And Roger was able to live happily and optimistically despite all the challenges he had to cope with. One day, Roger met an older man with the exact same physical situation. He was excited as he thought he would be able to learn more from this older man as this older man must have more experience than he does. However, it turned out that this old man was very bitter and pessimistic, and was even angry at Roger for the fact that Roger lived so happily and doesn’t share the despair he had. Roger kept in touch with this older man. Later on, Roger realized that it’s the attitude that matters, not the physiological challenge. Roger realized that this old man’s unhappiness wouldn’t change even if he suddenly received a miracle and had a perfect body he wished for because of his attitudes. It was written, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." (1 Pet. 4: 12) This ordeal will come to test your faith and your reliance on God. And we can’t stay in the school of regret for too long as it will only hurt our spirit. So we have to fast track ourselves and are graduated from it as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will fail back instead of failing forward; we will blame others instead of taking responsibility; we will repeat mistakes instead of learning from our mistakes, and be limited by the past instead of taking risks. At the end, we will just quit instead of persevering. So we need to choose to get out of school of regret as soon as possible so that we don’t get impaired.

("Failing Forward," John Maxwell. 2000)

There is a third school that we will be enrolled in involuntarily at times, and you don’t even want to be in it mostly because it’s the toughest school of all. But we need it sometimes. This is:

3. School of DESERT.

·     Paid by DISOBEDIENCE.

This is the school we will be in to learn how to draw close to God and trust in Him alone. You will feel dry as if you are in a desert when being in this school. You are alone though you have others in your reality environment. And the tuition of this school is paid by someone’s disobedience. You got enrolled in this school because of your or someone’s disobedience. For example, you are just working too hard and trying too hard to do well, but you neglect to take Sabbath rest and results in physical exhaustion. And this exhaustion caused an intense dryness inside you. You might be dealing with debt, or being the only one to take care of everything in the family; or it is because of someone else disobeying God causing you the dryness instead. Sometimes it can be a result of physiological issues. We don’t really know what is happening and definitely don’t want to be alone in a desert. However, it’s the opportunity God uses to finally get your attention, so that He can be one on one with you. This time of being in a desert is going to be good for you though it is not easy. If you feel lost, you just need to ask God for help and direction, and keep calling out to Him. He is preparing us for what is coming ahead through this learning in the school of desert. The Israelites were in the desert wandering for 40 years because of disobedience. God put them in the desert so that they can learn to obey and trust in Him wholeheartedly because God knew they would face the wall of Jericho and the Jordan River. They wouldn’t be able to overcome those challenges without trusting God wholeheartedly with obedience. So they were wandering in the desert so that they could learn to fix their eyes in God and only trust in Him. When you are in the school of desert, don’t try to look for a quick way out. You need to call on God instead and God will meet you in the desert. If you ever feel that God is not answering you after you call upon Him, you just don’t give up and keep on calling out to Him for direction. Please do not attempt to figure a way out with your own strength. It’s a time for you to meet God face to face and only God can lead you out, and that’s the only way you will learn to draw close to God and trust in Him alone. God wants you to learn how to be drawn close to Him through this school of desert, so you have to let go of your own way no matter how difficult it is during the dryness. It was written, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (Ps. 42:1-2 NIV) God will drive you to a position where you can only trust Him alone with all your heart. He will separate you from everyone else so that there will be only you and Him left in the desert, and you will learn to be hungry for His presence, as He will be the only one who can quench you and nourish you. You just don’t give up on seeking Him and the hunger for His presence. It was also written, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28) No matter how difficult it is in the school of desert, God is going something great in you so that you will be drawn close to God, and be able to face what is ahead of you because you will be able to trust in God alone with an obedient heart at that point.

We can have all the bubbles around us and have hope on other things. But when all these bubbles are gone, what are we going to depend on? We can only trust in God as He is the only unchangeable hope. Let’s hold on to the opportunities He is giving us to learn. We have to learn now from the school of wisdom as much as we can by gleaning from other people’s experience. And when you are in the school of regret, re-adjust your attitudes and learn quickly so you can get out of it soon. And when you are in the school of desert, meet God in the desert and draw close to Him. Let’s continue to grow, change and learn for God’s glory, and be a church that is irresistible to Him that His Kingdom will be established among us on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Discussion Questions:

1. How do we get enrolled in the school of wisdom?

2. Which school is the one we don’t want to be in for long and why??

3. What would happen if we stay in school of regret for too long?

4. What do we learn in the school of desert?

5. Why do we need to continue learning?