“God’s Powerful…We’re Not!”
Making the Most of Transition
Mark 4:35-41, Philippians 2:12-16
(quotes taken from the NKJV unless noted)
Wakelee Church ~ April 10, 2005
Theme: God has a greater power than we do to make the most of our transitions.
Introduction – Transitions – as a church, as a community, as individuals
Transitions…
Have you noticed? It seems like the whole world is in some stage of transition. Careers are in transition. Families are in transition. Our communities are in transition. On our televisions, we’ve been watching as The Roman Catholic Church as they go through transition. An even here within our church we are in the midst of transition. Transition seems to be everywhere.
I thought it amazing when I typed “transition” into the google Internet search site and received 60.3 million hits. But when I typed it into the yahoo Internet search, just the word “transition” received about 112 million hits.
There is no doubt that transition is a way of life. To say that we all face transitions is not a revolutionary comment. It just is.
Which means that as Christians, we have to learn how to live in transition.
Now, if we are honest with ourselves, transitions often allow us to see our lives as they really are….at times, broken, unmanageable, and powerless as we try to go through it alone.
However, transitions are not always negative. Salvation, which is transition in God’s sight, achieved only by grace, allows us God to work in us even in the midst of our fear and trembling as Paul put it. (Philippians 2:12-13)
What does the Christian strive for in the midst of transition? Very simply…God’s will and God’s power to find God’s will.
The Philippian Church was in the midst of progression when Paul wrote them the letter. Mark wrote down the words given to him, because he wanted the Roman Gentile Christians to hear about Christ in the midst of their development.
And over the next two months, we’re going to look at transition and see how we can the make the most of it. First and foremost…it’s about power.
I – We’re powerless over our transitions….
We see this especially in the gospel lesson this morning. The disciples didn’t know the storm was coming, but they had been through storms before. As fisherman, they’ve seen big waves before and they knew what to do when the weather changed.
But this time was different. In Mark’s gospel, the retelling of this story happens before Jesus’ return to Nazareth to proclaim his rightful identity as the Messiah that Isaiah spoke about. Meaning…they still didn’t know Jesus that well yet. Their relationship with him was still in transition…a little bit fuzzy.
But they knew one thing…they knew what their outcome was going to be without Jesus’ intervention. They knew that they were powerless and that the guy sleeping in the boat was powerful. They didn’t make excuses, but in the midst of their transition, took the first step and called upon Christ.
Paul told the church at Rome (Romans 7:18), “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out…” (NIV) I fully believe that when we stop with the excuses, we’ve taken the first step. When we admit that we are powerless, our behaviors change.
In short…we have to admit that we are powerless over transitions. They happen whether we want them to or not.
II – Transition without God is unmanageable…
And once we’ve admitted that we’re powerless, then we also need to admit that we can’t go through it alone.
Paul told the Philippian church that even though we work out “our own salvation with fear and trembling” we are to turn to the God in us “who works in His will for His purpose” so that we are to “hold fast to the word of life and rejoice in the day” Christ returns.
Without God, we are left alone. We cannot rely on our will exclusively. We cannot expect that in the midst of transition, we will have all the answers or all be able to hand it on our own. Proverbs 28:26 says, “He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.” (NIV) We need God and his power to help us calm the storm…to give us direction in the midst of apparent indirection.
We have to admit that transition without God’s power is unmanageable.
III – God has a greater power than we do to make the most of our transitions…
And once we accept that transitions happen, that our power is insufficient, and that things become unmanageable without God in the midst, we then are able to move forward.
In one of the few recorded times when Christ spoke directly to Paul, he said “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV)
When we give up our struggle for control and put our lives into God’s hands, we find His strength sufficient for any transition in our lives.
We need God’s power in the midst of transition…God wants to make the most of our transitions.
Conclusion – All we need to do is ask…God is a God of transition!
Do you remember the story of the father who wanted his son healed from a mute spirit? It happens just a few chapters beyond our text this morning in chapter 9 of Mark.
In it, Jesus is coming back from being transfigured and with his disciples and the scribes present, a father comes to Jesus praying for some transition in the life of his son. He explains that his son keeps trying to hurt himself. He cries out to Jesus saying, “If you can help, I need your help.”
The NIV puts an interesting spin on this story, Instead of Jesus just saying, “Well, all things are possible…” we have Jesus challenging the father by saying almost sarcastically, “If you can?” The message translation takes it one step further having Jesus say, “If? If? There is no “if” among believers!” “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24, NIV) In the midst of transition, the father knew whom to turn to.
ILLUS - There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the Milwaukee Braves.
The teams were playing in the World Series, and as usual Yogi was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other.
As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, "Henry, you’re holding the bat wrong. You’re supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark." Aaron didn’t say anything, but when the next pitch came he hit it into the left-field bleachers. After rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and said, "I didn’t come up here to read."
Why are you here this morning?
Will you admit that in the midst of transition you need God’s power more than your own?
Then you’ve a breakthrough.
Will you admit that transitions are going to come and go, but that your faith in the man who
stilled the water it what will hold you together? Then you got a revelation.
Will you admit that you don’t have it all together?
Will you admit that you need some help?
Will you admit that you cannot do it alone? Will you admit that you need God in the midst
of your fear and trembling. If so, then you received salvation.
All throughout Scripture God offers his people, often in the midst of transition, to get it together. And there’s only way…one truth…one life…in which we can turn to make that happen….
God is in the transition business. Each time we move through transition with God’s help, we prove that God’s power is greater than ours, and with that, our faith becomes stronger. And as our faith becomes stronger, we begin to see that God does “work his will and acts according to His purpose.”
Does it take practice? Most assuredly! But without a relationship with God through Christ, each successive transition becomes harder than the last. If we don’t have a goal of Christ in mind, then there is a void, a vacuum that depletes the very energy out of our lives.
God has made some promises. They are promises that offer joy…that offer insight and direction…that offer mercy and grace. They are promises that, if we continue to look to Him, depend on Him, learn from him, and lean on him, can be ours!
God has a greater power than we do to make the most of our transitions. Let’s turn to him!
Other Scriptures to consider:
Psalm 6:6-7 ~ Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ~ I Corinthians 8:2 ~ John 15:1-8 ~ Luke 15:17 ~ Matthew 14:22-34 ~ Matthew 17:20 ~ Psalm 34:18-22 ~ Isaiah 40:28-31 ~ 2 Corinthians 1:9 ~ John 3:16-17 ~ 2 Corinthians 3:5 ~ Romans 8:38-39 ~ Isaiah 41:10
RESPONSE FROM CHURCH LEADERSHIP:
The church council is attempting to approach this transition time with a positive attitude of helpfulness and positively as we allow God’s power to lead us. In the same way, everyone at Wakelee Church is invited to allow God’s power to work within them through their transitions so that when the storms of life occur they too may learn to lean on Christ.
Closing Prayer
Closing Hymn - #374 – Standing on the Promises
Closing Benediction…
As we leave this place…
May the Lord grant us his power and discernment in the midst of uncertainty,
May the Lord help us to be honest with ourselves, admitting we need the mercy and grace
that He alone provides,
May the Lord help us to forgive and be forgiven,
And to have a practice of humility and a sense of his priority,
So that we may say as we accept this transition that is before us,
May God’s will be done,
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…Amen.
