Do We Recognize Him?

Deuteronomy 18:15-22, Mark 1:21-28

January 29, 2006

First Presbyterian Church Carson City

Pastor Bruce Kochsmeier

 Purpose: In our fragmented world do we recognize God at work offering himself to us and for us and for the world?  Do we recognize Jesus offering to fill the void that no one or no thing can?

      It’s been an interesting week of learning about recognizing what matters.  I flew down on Monday to a conference at Fuller Seminary.  It was great.  Thanks for the time to be away studying how to hear the ONE voice of God in a world that is listening to so many voices that attempt to drown out the ONE.

      As I got off the plane and walked to get my bag I looked over at a little restaurant table on the walkway and saw a man I’d never met but instantly recognized.  It was William Shatner – Captain Kirk or Denny Crain.  But I recognized him because I’ve watched him again and again on TV and in movies.  It was a matter of familiarity.  And yes, I did talk to him and he was gracious.  Sorry Shirley, no autograph!

     Then on Thursday I was walking across the street in Pasadena and met up with a young man who had been in my youth group years ago.  We recognized one another because we have spent time together doing things that matter; things that time can’t erase the memory of.  Later that day my friend John Moser and I were taken to the airport by his mother-in-law whose last name, an unusual one like mine, I recognized.  I said I had a friend from 30 years ago in the motorcycle business with the same name.  She said, “Oh yes, he’s part of our family.”  Then that night as I got back I got to the luggage carousel and there was faithful Ralph Hines waiting for me.  I looked over and saw a young woman I was sure I recognized but hadn’t seen for over ten years.  I called her name and she lit up and came over.  She said, “How did you recognize me after all this time?”  I said, “I know you…and I have your parent’s Xmas card on my refrigerator door with you latest picture.”

     Then Friday night I went with a number of you to see the premiere of the film you all need to see, “The End of the Spear” which powerfully tells the story of the five missionaries killed 50 years ago last week who were bringing the Gospel to the people in the jungles of Ecuador.  In the film a young girl, Dayumae, is fleeing death by the spear.  Her father has already been speared to death.  As she leads other children to safety she pulls back leaves from around a tree and says, “I recognize these.  They are my father’s carvings.  They will lead us to safety.”  Later, when the first Woandani indian comes to faith in God and is challenged by his tribesmen to continue the killing he says, “No.  I will not kill.  I will follow the carvings of God.”  He is referring to God’s word that he has been taught.  He is referring to the Word of God who is Jesus the Christ who alone can end our cycle of spiritual and literal death.

God has our picture.  Do we have the same of God?  Do we know our Father’s  “carvings”?

     My point is that to recognize someone or something means to be very familiar with him or her or whatever the issue may be.  It means to be keeping them in our minds and hearts.  It means not letting go of truth.  But there is much that tries to make us forget and much that tries to pass for truth that isn’t.  I can’t help but think we are as much or more in the jungle of spiritual confusion in our western world today as was true in Ecuador in 1956.  

     Today who or what are the false prophets that try to blind us to the truth?  Some are money, sex, power, relativism that says, “Everyone is right; there is no absolute truth” which is the ultimate example of self-centeredness.  How do we know they are false?  Because what they promise never happens.  They never deliver peace.  They never bring wholeness.  What they give is never enough.  They leave the recipient always longing for something more, but the something more is never anything that the false prophet can deliver.

     There is only one truth.  It is God’s incarnate Word, Jesus; the Gospel.  And it is the truth because he drives out the demon of need and torment that seeks only to kill.  Only Jesus can do this.  And only as we submit ourselves to knowing him; only as we recognize HIS power can we know the peace he delivers and be delivered from the demons of our longing in this world.

     There is a longing for timelessness and transcendence in every human being.  We all want it.  But there is only one thing that can meet that need no matter how many options the world may say we have at our disposal.  The reality is that the false prophets of this life are the things we think we give us what we need and we can tend to bow down to them.

     The truth is that God has placed this longing in our lives which could seem like a dirty trick except for one thing – the longing is for God and God in Jesus Christ has offered himself to us freely.  The reality is that while we are seeking so much less, God is seeking us.  God has sent the one true prophet who is the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior and He has come to the backcountry of our lives; to the Capernaum to seek us in our demon possessed lives.  And he has given us the opportunity to be delivered; to know the truth and to be set free by it; by him as we let him possess us completely.

     The question is, “Do we recognize him?”  Does our longing recognize Jesus as the ONE with authority?  That is, do we recognize him as the one who authored our lives; who authored the yearning within us for peace and as the ONLY one who can bring that peace?

     There is an unclean spirit, a false prophet that tries to live inside every one of us.  It is that voice of the things of this world that really want only to disappoint and even kill us.  They make promises they can’t keep; promises about satisfying us; promises that they will only be with us a while and then they will go.  But they never do.  They never satisfy and they never leave until…Until Jesus comes to our lives; until we let the real owner of take possession.  And then they make all kinds of noise because the false prophets and unclean spirits know that Jesus will drive them out.  He will leave no room for them to live.  Want to hear them?  Come to worship and see how distracted you get when you try to listen to the sermon or to sing or pray.  Try to pray or read scripture and really let it take hold of your life and you’ll hear all kinds of noise – things telling you there is something better to do or that you are too tired or that it doesn’t work or that it isn’t true or that your can get to it later or it isn’t really important.

     We live in a world where this noise is constant.  It is rattling around even now as we are focusing on God’s word.  It is anything that tells you that YOU are the only real authority in your life.  And there is really only one way to deal with this and it is to recognize God’s truth in Jesus; to let the author have his way with us.  To do less is to let ourselves be divided by falsehood and enslaved by an authority that only wants to ruin the world and us in it.  Oh, I know we live in a time that says life is much more sophisticated than all this; that we don’t need such “primitive carvings.”  And that is just how falsehood wants it because when we believe this we keep trying to save ourselves with solutions that aren’t.  We will wander lost in the jungle forever.

     What can we do to recognize the truth of God’s love that alone can free us?  I think we need to realize that recognizing Jesus as he offers himself to all our deep and daily lives comes down to three things:

     First we need to pray.  We need to be open to letting God’s Holy Spirit teach us the truth about our lives.  We need to pray that the truth we need to know will be what we are open to even if it is painfully hard to hear.  We need to pray that even if it means a HUGE change in how we live and understand life that we will be open to accepting that God’s love will make us whole. 

     Second we need to read the scriptures.  We need to let God’s Holy Spirit inform us through God’s written word as to how we are to lives our lives in relation to God’s character.  We need to get to know God’s character; to recognize how God works in our individual and corporate life as a church.  We need to read scripture and from it know that God works DIFFERENTLY than the world; way differently; that God’s authority trumps anything the world may offer.  And that because this is true we can have peace to wait even when it seems like NOTHING is going on.  When we read scripture we recognize God’s love that is so much more faithful and complete and healing than any option we have ever tried.  When we know God’s word we learn to recognize that God is working even when outwardly it may not be apparent.  Interestingly the false prophets and unclean spirits know God’s word very well.  That’s why they knew who Jesus was.  They know what we need to know and that is to know what can kill you!  God’s word is death to untruth, but to us IT IS LIFE!

     The third step is to then recognize the truth and SUBMIT to God’s authority in our lives.  For this to happen we have to trust God more than we trust the world and ourselves.  This takes growth.  It takes unlearning and learning new ways of being.  It takes a lifetime and it is worth it every day because it leads us to the peace and power we long for now and forever. 

     God knows us.  God calls us in Jesus Christ to know and recognize and submit to his authority and truth.  It is the only way we will ever really be whole.  Today is the day to learn to recognize this and let God have all that we are.  May this touch our very practical lives as we do this right now.  Amen.