An Opportunity to Shine | Sunday, January 17, 2021

Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10)

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. (Isaiah 60:1-2)

In the stop-and-go traffic of chaotic times, God hands His people two words: opportunity and shine.

Stuck in Traffic

This last week a picture came to my mind that helped me frame what I've been feeling for the last eleven months or so. As we've walked through this strange corporate experience, I've had a low-level anxiety—a result of general frustration—and this image helped me understand it.

Imagine it's the afternoon and you need to get across town. You're caught in traffic, and every stoplight you reach is on the tail end of yellow, just switching to red. You can feel the physical indicators in your body—the blood pressure increases, the stress builds. You may not typically be an anxious person; I wouldn't consider myself one. But in that situation you feel it build. You're trying to get somewhere, and everything seems to be keeping you from getting there.

Then, just as your frustration is about to boil over into anger, someone who isn't in nearly as much of a hurry pulls into your lane. You could have made that green light, but now it's yellow. The frustration becomes complete anger and leaks out—"Ah!"—and then becomes physical as you smash the steering wheel. If you've ever tried to get anywhere, you've had this experience. I've probably had it multiple times in the last thirty days.

A Pastor's Frustration

That image came to my mind last Sunday afternoon. Like many of you, I got up last Sunday morning, and instead of doing what I feel like I, as the lead preaching pastor, am supposed to do, I went downstairs in my sweats and sat on the couch with my kids and my wife while my mom came over, and we watched the service online. I can't express how much of a frustration that is for me. Whether I'm watching Pastor Garrett preach online or watching myself preach, I have that feeling: this is not where I'm supposed to be right now. And there's red light after red light keeping me from getting there.

Everything of the last ten or eleven months feels as though we're stuck in traffic trying to get somewhere. Polling suggests I'm not the only one feeling this way—many people in our society have acknowledged a heightened level of stress and anxiety. With each new compounding event, it's as if there's another slow driver and another red light. Two weeks to slow the spread flows into more weeks of shutdown—another red light. No toilet paper—another red light. Mask mandates, George Floyd, protests, riots, BLM, wildfires, political campaigns, election day, election uncertainty, stay-at-home orders through Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Georgia election—red light, red light, red light. January 6th in Washington, D.C.—that's not just a red light; that's road closure and detour.

A Year of Chaos

A year ago I began teaching through the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. Admittedly, I have not gotten nearly as far as I expected, but in my defense the last year has been anything but typical. I was thinking about Deuteronomy this week—the children of Israel and Moses, whose wilderness wanderings were basically thirty-eight years of stop-and-go traffic. Moses had some steering-wheel outbursts along the way, because Moses wasn't perfect, and neither are we.

At the end of 2019 I shared publicly that I thought 2020 would be a year of chaos, and it certainly was. So people have been asking me, "What's your word for 2021?" Let me begin by saying I am not a prophet—not in the sense that I can tell the future. But sometimes it's relatively easy to see how things are converging and what the likely outcomes will be.

There are dash-cam videos from Teslas where the car alerts the driver a fraction of a second before an accident, and people are amazed at the apparent supernatural prescience. But the car is simply predicting, by physics, what is about to happen using sonar, radar, and cameras. That's what I was doing with 2019. I could see the convergence—it was going to be a presidential campaign season. Look back: 2016, 2012, 2008—all chaotic. You don't have to be a prophet to figure that out. But I will tell you this: we live in a broken and chaotic world, and current conditions suggest the chaos isn't fully letting up.

God Is Getting Ready to Move

Being that this is our reality, I've been trying to figure out how best to respond—as an individual, a follower of God, a husband, father, pastor, leader, friend, and neighbor. People have been hoping for a more positive word than chaos, and understandably so. The Christian must recognize that we have an optimistic vision of the future—Christ seated on the throne, ruling and reigning forever, and us reigning with Him in righteousness where there is no sorrow or pain or sickness.

This is my first message of the new year, so I'll share the impression I've had. I'm not saying "thus saith the Lord," but as I've been praying, reading the Scriptures, and interacting with people, an impression keeps coming. If the word for 2020 was chaos, I have two words for 2021.

On December 4, 2019, I was at a missions gathering at Saddleback Church, and Pastor Rick Warren made this statement: wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move. I wrote it down in the notebook I carry. I was already thinking 2020 would be chaotic, and it was—and at the moment that hasn't changed. So what then? Wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move.

That might be worth writing down and taping to your mirror. When there is conflict in our lives personally or chaos around us, we can fall into a cycle of pessimism, just looking for the next bad thing. But when there is conflict and chaos, we should be asking, "Lord, what are You doing? What do You want me to be aware of, and what would You have me to do?" We've seen conflict and chaos at nearly every level—news media, politics, market volatility, law enforcement, race relations, the tech sector, medicine, families, relationships. But God is getting ready to move.

What God Doesn't Want—and What He Does

Let me tell you what I know God does not want me doing in the traffic jam of conflict and chaos: He doesn't want me losing my cool, spinning up with stress and anxiety. If the fruit of the Spirit involves gentleness, patience, and self-control, then these are the things that should mark my life.

I've been frustrated through this whole thing, and you can probably relate. We began the year with plans, ideas, and visions about where we'd be by the start of 2021—and I feel like I've hit every red light and major detour in the process. Sometimes I've felt, Lord, we are further from our destination at the beginning of 2021 than we were at the beginning of 2020.

In all of this I keep returning to a verse I gravitate toward when I'm frustrated. Galatians 6:9: "Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." Let us not grow tired, weary, frustrated, or irritable when we're doing the good and right things the Lord has called us to—leading the church, preaching the gospel, doing outreach. At the right time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Opportunity in Evil Days

For some reason, as we so often do, I've too frequently pulled that verse out of its context. It doesn't sit by itself. Verse 10 says: "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith." And in Ephesians 5, the same author writes: "Be very careful then how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil."

We live in a broken and chaotic world. In the midst of evil days we need to be careful and circumspect—eyes wide open, ears attentive, your head on a swivel. As my dad says, if you're paying anything, pay attention. We need to be wise in the way we live, redeeming the time and making the most of every opportunity, doing good to everyone, especially the household of faith.

Chaotic times are opportune times. I've allowed my frustrations to get the best of me too many times, and I've had to remind myself: this is a time of opportunity. Opportunity for what? To wisely and circumspectly redeem the times, to do good and not grow weary, because we're planting seeds that will bring forth fruit if we don't give up. The temptation is to throw in the towel, and we have to fight that. So the first word for 2021 is opportunity—because God is seeking to do work in me, through my life, through your life, through our church, to our community, to the world.

Arise and Shine

The second word takes us to the Old Testament, to one of my favorite books, Isaiah. In Isaiah 60:1, the prophet says, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising... and you shall become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy."

In the midst of deep darkness, God calls upon His people to arise and shine. How? Jesus taught it in the Sermon on the Mount: "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Our good works shine brightly, bringing glory to our Father.

The prophecy of Isaiah 60 was a word to a people who would be in severe difficulty—a dreadful trial of darkness—because of their failures and sin. They would end up exiled in Babylon. And if I'm going to give any predictive word about where we're going, it's this: we are going to increasingly feel like outsiders in the culture, just as the children of Israel felt when they were exiled in Babylon. In 586 B.C., Jerusalem was sacked and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and Israel was led away captive for over seventy years, outsiders in an antagonistic, paganistic culture. We are going to feel like exiles in Babylon. And in the midst of that, God says: arise and shine.

A Letter to the Exiles

Isaiah wrote those words around 700 B.C. About a hundred years later, Jerusalem was besieged, and the prophet Jeremiah gave a word to the people as they entered captivity—a word I think applies to us. Jeremiah 29 begins, "Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem... to those who were carried away captive... whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away."

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive... Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters... that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you... for they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD. For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you... For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:8-11)

Something in this is jarring: God says, "I have caused you to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon," and He says it again, "Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive." Four times in eleven verses God makes clear that their plight was according to His plan. Their plight was according to His plan. Why would God allow His people to be in such a fix? There are many good answers, but here's one important consideration: the brightness of God's glory shines greatest from the darkness of our captivity.

There were many false, soothsaying prophets 2,500 years ago, just as there are false prophets today who prophesied that our political situation would be different than it currently is. "Do not let your prophets and your diviners deceive you... I have not sent them, says the LORD." That's not a popular word, but it's the situation we're in.

An Opportunity to Shine

We are in the midst of Babylon—an increasingly godless, paganistic, antagonistic culture—just as exiled Israel was. And God calls His people to live there: to build houses, plant gardens, have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and to maintain their place as the people of God. This is part of why our focus on small groups, community, and connect groups has always been so important—so that the people of God can be connected even while living in the midst of darkness, shining as bright lights in a dark world.

This is an opportunity. It may not feel like a good opportunity, but it is God's opportunity—for you and me, the people of God, to shine the light of the glory of our Father by our good works. So in the stop-and-go traffic of strange and chaotic times, let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

These are my two words for 2021: opportunity and shine. God has given us an opportunity in the midst of conflict and chaos, because any time there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to do work. He wants us to make the most of it, and He wants us to shine. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Be the On-Mission People

Before I close, let me reiterate what I said in the announcements two weeks ago: you are the on-mission for that week. Reach out to your neighbors—get them a gift card to a local business, make them cookies, give them a card, invite them to join us online. This is what we need to be doing. We need to be the community of God's people, still knit together as the gathering of God's people, even when we can't gather corporately in a large space of our own.

The children of Israel, exiled in Babylon, couldn't gather in their own place either—they were separated from Jerusalem and the temple, in a culture against them. And yet they thrived. God's people have continued to thrive in harder circumstances than we're going through right now. I don't like these circumstances, but this is relatively good compared to what some Christians are experiencing in the rest of the world. This is an opportunity for you and me to shine. I hope and pray you would make the most of it, shining brightly in a dark world, so that people would see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

Closing Prayer

Father, that is my prayer for us, Your people. Would You pour out Your Spirit and quicken us, enable us to shine brightly during these challenging times, to make the most of this opportunity and redeem the times even though the days are evil. When things seem against us, we can be pessimistic, frustrated, stressed, and upset, like we're sitting in traffic—or we can realize that You have us in this situation, that You have allowed it and purposed it because You have a plan in the midst of the plight, for Your glory. So God, shine in and through Your church. May we be like the moon, which has no light of its own but reflects the light of the sun to a dark world. Help us reflect Your light, and not be eclipsed by the things of this world that can so discourage us, but to get into the position where we shine Your light the greatest. Do that work in us, Your church, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.