Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
November 2, 2014 - W1444

If I voted for an Old Testament figure that persevered, overcame obstacles, and yet stayed true, I would vote for the one that we're reading about in our devotions right now, I'd vote for Job. Job is one who had a tenacious faith.  He did everything right.  I mean, I tell you, he even repented for his kids. As we look at the scripture here in Job it says:

 “Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, ‘Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ This was Job's regular custom.”(Job 1:5)

 He did everything right, but yet he's about to suffer some obstacles and challenges to his faith like nobody else.  

How can that be?  Well, you never want to underestimate the adversary of our souls.  He had his cross hairs fixed on Job.  He had him in his sights.  

We find in the book of Peter this verse:

 “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) 

 Now, we're going to take a look at the story of two men whose challenges were the same, but whose endings were so different.  The first is Job, and the second will be Elijah.

 When Satan attacks Job, there will be a pattern repeated again and again. It’s a line that shows the devil doesn't even let Job come up for air before he pommels him again. 

This is Job’s story:

 “One day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, ‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’ While he was still speaking another messenger came and said, ‘The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’ While he was stillspeaking, another messengercame and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’ And while he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’” (Job 1:14-19)

 I was looking at that, and I thought, man, Job, you’ve re-defined what it means to have a bad day.  I'd be ready to jump off a cliff.  Everything is gone.  Everything is taken from him, absolutely everything.  

What is his response?

  “At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head, then he fell to the ground in worship and he said, ‘Naked came I from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gives, and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.’  And through all of this, Job did not sin nor did he blame God.” (Job 1:20-22)

Isn't that amazing?  I'd be ready to blame everybody, my wife, my kids, and my dog.  I'd punch the wall.  I'd do anything right then because I'd be in panic.  I would be discouraged, and my whole insides would be in disarray.  

But Job falls to the ground in worship, and I think he is just absolutely amazing.  He has my vote.  He has to be my example, my mentor when I face those challenges.  

But in actuality or in reality, I relate more to the next person.  His name is Elijah.  Elijah in 1 Kings Chapter 18 basically is a super hero.  He takes on 850 prophets, 400 prophets from Baal, 450 prophets of Asherah. Those leaders, were leading people into immorality.  It was a whole culture of immorality.  Elijah faces them off and has a huge success.  But after he succeeded, Queen Jezebel, who is known as an immoral woman, (that’s from where the phrase “oh you Jezebel” comes) becomes very mad because she wants to become very rich, and she says to Elijah, I don't like your kind, and I'm coming after you.  

Well, this great superhero, instead of standing up against this woman, behaves very differently from Job. 

“Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. He went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.” (1 Kings 19:3-4)

 God comes to him and speaks to him trying to change his mind.  

“Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here?’ He replied, ‘I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’” (1 Kings 19:13-14)

 And the Lord tries to change his mind for several days but finally gives up.  

“The Lord said to him, ‘Go back … and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat to succeed you as prophet.’” (1 Kings 19:15-16)

 It should be noted that when Elijah gave up, Elisha succeeded him and the Lord allowed Elisha to do twice as much.

 You know, if you page through the Bible, you would see over and over that there are a lot of people who struggle with their humanity. I do. You do.  And some of these whom God used in mighty ways actually got so depressed they got suicidal.  Just like Elijah, they wanted to be dead rather than to continue. Both Jeremiah and Jonah wanted to die.

 You might not have heard of this man named William Wilberforce.  He changed the world by coming against the slave trade that Britain had with Africa when they would go in and kidnap people, put them on slave trade ships.  William Wilberforce heard God say that his life assignment was to stop that horrendous, horrible conditions against humanity. But it took such a toll on his life that if you'll read the history of William Wilberforce, you will find that towards the end of his life, he couldn't even get out of bed without the help of opiates and barbiturates.  

So when I look at Job and Elijah, I think, I love Job and I'd vote for him, but I relate more to Elijah because I see in him my frailty.  Let me tell you how I was like Elijah, and God spoke to me and taught me something that I hope that you might be able to learn from as well.

 Sometimes people think pastors are like Superman too. But underneath, we all recognize that we're really only Clark Kents.  But sometimes people's expectations don't allow you to take off that blue and red suit. Even Superman had a phone booth to change. But I thought we can't take off our Superman suit.  You cannot be Clark Kent sometimes. The expectations on us is so high that we aren’t allowed to do anything wrong.

Well, then about, oh, six years ago, our church had grown quite a bit, so we grew to about 12,000 at Farrington.  And just then, however, my dad died, which really had an impact on me on the inside. Then my daughter Abby, who had just started college, got kicked out because of some improper lifestyle and broke my heart, and then she went off into a lifestyle that wasn't good, so it was really hard.  But she's doing great now, she loves Jesus, is a great mom and married a wonderful Christian guy.  But at that time we thought, oh, no, what's going to happen?  

At the same time I'm diagnosed with a heart problem that my father just died of, and I have five blockages in my heart. They do the surgery, and I go to our little family farm in Oregon where my wife is from.  

And so I'm trying to heal up, and I'm just in limbo when my alma mater contacts me. The president comes and says, “Wayne, you know, this is your alma mater here, we're about to declare bankruptcy and this might be our last graduating class. Then we have to sell and close it down.  But if you can do something with it and New Hope can help, then great, but otherwise, it's done.”  

I said yes and then found out the college was over $3 million in the hole.  The first meeting I had was with the banker to tell us that our credit is now cut off. And so it took me a while to turn that around.  I had to let go 70 percent of the faculty, rehire, change other things, revamp it, and raise $3 million.  After three years, I decided to come back only after realizing that 4,000 members had left the church by then.  And we had to build it backup. Then on a rainy Friday night the roof caves in at our auditorium.  Now we've got to relocate people.  Now this is Friday night. We had to prepare for Saturday night service the next day.  So thanks to John Tilton and our wonderful staff, we reroute everybody to the gymnasium, but it was so hot, so another thousand people left.  

While that's still going on, we get sued by an atheist for $3.6 million.  While that suit is still going on, he puts my name in the newspapers and says all these crazy false things about me and my family and the church.  And I thought, “Why?”  While that is still being printed, SB1 comes along, so we speak against the immorality that the Government is wanting to endorse, and then we get written up again.  While that's going on, we hire somebody to help, and we find out that he had been in an immoral relationship while on staff. 

While that's happening I break my leg. I come back to get it checked, and the doctor said not only did you break your leg, it is now infected. By that time I thought, I'm about done.  This is just too much.

I thought I need to find an Elisha, someone to take over and take it to the next point I lost the wind in my sails, and I thought it's time for Elisha.  

Finally one day I was on my knees, and I just cried out to God.  I said, God, I need to know.  I got to make a decision one way or another and God answered.  But what he said I really didn't want to hear. It didn't set well with me.  

And the Lord spoke, “Wayne, do you want to know why you feel depressed and filled with anxiety and fear?  I said, “Yes. That's why I'm crying out.”  This is what he said.  The reason you're where you are is because you're too selfish”.  I said, “What?”  “You're thinking about yourself, your comfort, how you're feeling, what's good for you, how come everything is happening to you.  You have made yourself into a victim.  I asked you to be a field general, and you have chosen to be a prisoner of war because there you can sit in your cell and you get your food fed to you.  I didn't ask you to be a prisoner of war.  I asked you to be a field general. You have lost your heart to fight, and because of that, you're getting depressed because you're selfish. You got bad theology. Your thinking is wrong”.  I mean, that rang so true to me because if you study any just successful people, did you realize that people have an amazing ability to overcome almost anything?  People can rise above circumstances.  They do it all the time.  I mean, think about it.  Physical disabilities cannot keep a person down.  They can rise above it. Hardships and failures are common among those who achieve great things in their lifetime.  

If you want a higher quality of life, you better develop a higher quality of thinking.  If you want to improve your future, you got to improve the quality of your thinking or the way you think about your future.  You see, to a large degree we are where we are in life because of the way we think.

Matthew 6 says this:  “The lamp of your body is your eye.  If your eye is clear, your whole body will be filled with light.  If your eye is dark, your whole body will be filled with darkness.  And if that light that is in you is darkness, how great shall that darkness be fear, anxiety and depression.”  (Matthew 6:22-23)

Listen carefully.  Satan is a headhunter.  Your mind is his battlefield, and your future will be his trophy.  He wants to steal your future. Job kept strong in his faith, and he looked forward.  And it wasn't about him.  It was about God's assignment.  And I had made it about me, and I turned into a victim.  And God says you've got to fight to get your mind back.

Now, why do I say all of this?  Here it is.  I'm going to give you one final thing on how I resolved it.  I'm going to apply it to us.  I was there on my knees, and the Lord said I need to draw a line.  And this is where I am, languishing in my victimhood.  I'm going to ask you, just as God told me to do, to actually draw a line and step over that line and never go back again, never.  And you must fight for it because your mind is going to try and pull you back.  Memories of these things are going to try and pull you back.  The hurts are going to try to pull you back.  You got to fight to stay free.  Let me say that again.  You have to fight to stay free.

You see, when the Bible says the truth will set you free, freedom is not defined as all the things we can do now.  No. Freedom is defined by all those things we don't need to do anymore.  I'm freed of that.  Well, how are we going to get there?  We've got to fight.  I tell you, it was like an epiphany. My whole outlook changed.  Man, I came back, and I thought, man, I am just stoked for what God is about to do. I mean, I started to see things clearly. 

I think sometimes God takes me through turmoil because he says, there's other people that are going through it too, and you need to just let them know it's okay.  Because, you see there are lots of people going through the same thing, and we need to help one another.  

So let me say three things in closing.  

1) For the last six years many of you have stayed around and said we're just going to stay with it. Thank you.

2) Our best run is just ahead of us.  

3) You need to step over the line, though there are things in the past that will have tethered you back. You can't allow that to hold you victim anymore. I want you to step over that line, and let God set you free.  Today is the day. We must be a people that say we're going to contend for every square inch of what God has promised to us.  We'll settle for nothing less.

That's the kind of people He wants us to be.  Can you say amen to that?

1. What kind of thoughts about your life do you have?

2. What can you do to bring your thoughts to a higher quality of thinking?

3. God called us to be warriors, what can you do to take up the challenge?