Before we begin, I want to thank you “so much” for the birthday greetings and birthday cards that I received on my sixty-first birthday.  You know that you are only as old as you feel.  There are these two old guys at a retirement home.   The seventy year old turns to his eighty-two year old friend named Bert, and asks him, “How do you honestly feel?”  Bert replied, “I feel like a new born baby – I have no teeth, no hair, and I just wet myself!”  You are only as old as you feel!

Due to the times that we are living in, I want to talk to you about the challenges that we face, and how we can learn from these challenges.  Everyone will face mountains of challenge, whether it is financially, health-wise, or in our marriages; however, we have to learn lessons from them.  If we don’t, we will become jaded in life, get upset, or become cantankerous, and contrarian and opinionated people.  Therefore, we must see good in our crisis.

During our premarital counseling class at New Hope, I try to relay important information to the attendees.  Some take lightly the things I say, and have the attitude that everything will be hunky-dory, and with love, things will work out.  But five years pass, and now there is a crisis in this past student’s marriage.  Now his attitude changes to, “I am ready to learn!”  Crisis motivates you to learn faster.  Sometimes God allows crisis to come into our lives because he wants us to learn, and learn quickly.

In 1996, a private plane took off with a man and his pilot friend.  As soon as the plane reached a cruising altitude, his pilot friend had a massive heart attack and died at the controls.  The man immediately grabbed the microphone and yelled to the air traffic controller to help him.  Fortunately, the controller was also a flight instructor, and quickly gave him a crash course in airline procedures and maneuvers.  Right away, he learned from his instructor.  He was listening intently because he had to apply everything that he was just taught to save his life and land the plane.

Someone once said that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.  When you are facing a mountain of challenges, you learn faster than at other times in your life because you have to.

One of the things God says that you must learn in the midst of crisis is to

1. COME TOGETHER AND NOT FLY APART.

While I was at the State Capitol participating in the Senate testimonies on the topic of same-sex marriage, the Lord spoke to me and said, “See all of these people from churches that you do not know?  I am going to restore the unity of spirit.”  There were 10,000 people who had gathered at the Capitol, and we were thankful that we had alliances with each other.  Catholics and Mormons were there.   While I was standing with Mike Lwin, a Mormon came up to me and said, “I just want to let you know that the people at New Hope have been the sweetest, kindest, and most hospitable people that we have ever met.”  This was an example of how everyone had set aside their differences in beliefs to develop a unity of spirit.

In the midst of this crisis, the second thing that God taught me was:

2. RESTORE THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE.

In the last 15 years, we have not held the sanctity of marriage in high esteem.  We fumbled the ball on this unity.  The sanctity of marriage was inaugurated by God.  Now people who believe otherwise, have made headway to legalize their beliefs on marriage.  So now what do we do?  We can either grumble and complain, or we can become very strategic by playing the best defense we can and get the ball back.  We must restore the sanctity of marriage.

While I was at the Capitol, a lady came up to me and asked me to pray for her.  So I said sure, what can I pray for? She explained that while she and her husband were on a mission trip, her husband and his ex-girlfriend rekindled a flame from their past.  Therefore, her husband divorced her, and sent her and their two children back to Hawaii.  Today he is pastoring a new church with this woman who he has since married.  She wanted me to pray for her 12 year old son who has a drug problem because of the divorce and his dad’s remarrying.

The sanctity of marriage is the core of our churches and nation.  The family is the smallest church, and the dad is the pastor of his church (his family).  If the enemy can destroy the smallest church, then he has hurt all of our churches.  Together, we make the church.

We have fumbled the ball. We are going to pay a very high price for this.  In the midst of this crisis, we must ask ourselves, “What is God saying?”  We cannot blame others for this crisis, or else we will miss this lesson.

This crisis has also taught me to

3. RESTORE OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD.

Some people believe that God’s love is very permissive, but this is not true.  This belief is an excuse for disobeying His commands and His holy word.  This mountain has reminded me of the importance of obeying God’s word; otherwise, we will misconstrue love. The Bible says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.”  (1 Jn 5:3)

We cannot do what we want.  If you love God, then His commands are not burdensome.  If you struggle with God’s laws, then it is not His laws that are the problem. Instead, your lack of love for God is in question.  The greater your love for Him, the greater is your sacrifice for Him.  We must “restore” obedience to God’s word.  We should heed that old saying, “GOD SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT, THAT SETTLES IT!”

A man asked me, “What if people try to force you to do things that go against God?”  I replied, “Then you can’t do it.”  The rulers said to Peter, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name…But Peter an apostle answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.”  (Acts 5:28-29)  David said, “My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed.” (Ps. 57:7)

Have you ever seen a child whose mind is set on something?  Nothing you do can dissuade his mind. A mother’s four-year old child is standing up on a church pew, and his mother admonishes him to sit down. In response, her child locks his knees and keeps standing.  His mother then says to “sit down!”  In response, her child grabs the pew and holds on to it.  The mother then grabs her child’s ear and pulls him down.  Finally the child sits down but says, “I might be sitting down on the outside, but I am standing up on the inside.”

We must harness that kind of commitment for our families, our marriages, and in our faith.  “Set your mind on things above and not on things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:2)

When you are facing a mountain of challenge, you must set your mind to persevere and overcome it; otherwise, it will ruin you.  Remember that your mind is the battlefield.  If the enemy is able to cajole you into dwelling on certain things, then he will capture your imagination.  This will destroy you from within.  When things go askew, and you are thinking about the wrong things, then change your mind (repent).

May I give you some homework?  Over the next week, some of us need to go on a mental diet by taking a conscious control over our thoughts.  Do not feast on wrong thoughts.  Set your minds on things above so that we can obey God, and restore obedience to Him.

This crisis ushers in a SEASON OF WISDOM.

Without wisdom, you do not have the power to convert knowledge into something that you can use.  You can have knowledge, and use it for self- aggrandizement; however, this will kill you because you will lack wisdom in how to use that knowledge.  So how can we obtain wisdom?

1. ASK 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach.” (James 1:5)

During this time of challenge, I am going to ask God to give this church great wisdom.  New Hope men and women will have great wisdom when people talk to us and ask us questions.   However, if we ask God for wisdom, then we must make sure that we use it.

2. PLAN TO USE IT!

The Bible says, “But let him ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”  (James: 1:6)  God is saying that we must ask Him for wisdom if we want it; however, He admonishes us to make sure that we use it so that we will make a difference in our life as well as the lives of others.

Let me pray for you. This bill will change Hawaii and change our schools.  Therefore, may the Lord provide us with the wisdom we need to educate our children, and to balance our lives.  May we understand that we exist as one with the people of our community, and not necessarily as one of the people.  This is because we are citizens of another world.  So may God give great wisdom to the men and women of this congregation.  In Jesus name, Amen.

A final lesson that I am learning is that we are in:

3.  A SEASON FOR OUR FAITH TO BE REVEALED.

It is time for us, the redeemed of our Lord, to come out of the closet.  We should not be ashamed of evangelism and speaking to others about the gospel; otherwise people will not be able to experience their salvation.  This is why Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.” (Romans 1:16) 

The church is the hope of the world, because we are the ambassadors of Christ.

Don’t be afraid of taking your Bible to Starbucks and doing your devotions there.

A bunch of us do our Bible devotions in the mornings there.  There is also a Russian Bible study group who gather to do their Bible study in Russian.  My group approached the Russian Bible group and conversed with them.  It was just a short time ago, that America was fighting Russia.  However, Jesus became our common bond, when the members of each group embraced each other’s compassion for the Bible.  What our governments were not able to do, the Word of God is doing.

Water Baptism is about dying to your old identity and receiving the power of God and salvation.  Heaven rejoices when we are not ashamed to speak about the gospel.  This is a season for our faith to be revealed, which allows mountains to be moved.  The Bible says, “If you have a faith of a mustard see, you can say to this mountain, be thou removed, be taken up and cast into the sea, and it shall be done.”  (Mathew 17:20)

The first man to scale Mount Everest was a man name Sir Edmund Hillary.  While he was being knighted by the Queen to a standing ovation, he turned to look at the mural of Mount Everest and said, “You have defeated me before, and may defeat me again, but I am going to win because I am going to try again and again. I will win because you can't get any bigger, but I can.”

Sometimes things do not always work out the way you would like.  A man named Derek Redmond was favored to win a medal in the 400 meter sprint; however 150 meters into the race Derek fell to the ground in agony from a torn hamstring.  Not willing to give up, he continued to run with a limp.  His Dad then broke through security and joined his son, supporting him to the finish line.   The lesson learned here is when you don’t give up, you cannot fail.

You will face mountains. You can win if you learn what God is asking of you.  Our Father said that you will have crises; however, He will accompany you all the way to the finish.  He will give you His wisdom, so that you can convert it to knowledge to do the work of the gospel.  This is the kind of God we have.  How many of you are glad to be His children?  Amen

Questions:

· How can we overcome our mountains?

· Why must we come together, put aside our petty differences, and be united?

· During this season, how will our faith be revealed?

· How do you plan to use God’s wisdom in your life?