It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

“It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, July 29, 2012

Text: Exodus 4:29-6:13 // Series: “Exodus”

Well good morning, friends.  I’m so glad you’re here.  If you’ve been with us these past two weeks for the start of our Family Inclusive format, you know that we’ve begun an adventure in what is arguably the most dramatic book in the Bible.  This book contains big stories of miracles, big conflicts, big personalities, huge swings is loyalty and about every other plot line that could transpire at the London 2012 Olympic games that you can imagine!  But the big picture plot line is that God is busy orchestrating an exit, or Exodus, for His people from injustice and slavery in ancient Egypt.

Now when you go to cheer your team on at the Olympics, what do you do?  You wear the t-shirt!  So our summer series is no exception – we have a t-shirt printed with a unique logo for each week to help us remember what we learned.  So let’s review shall we?  Week 1, was the story Moses being born as a baby being hidden among the bulrushes in the Nile River.  And we saw specifically how his mother and his sister took incredible risks to keep him safe and how God rewarded them for their courage.  So our little phrase to help us remember this was July 15: “God’s radical provision flows to those who risk big for His mission”

Then last week, Ruth Ellen led us through the story of Moses encountering God at the Burning Bush.  And I loved the picture of Moses as a janitor – if you missed it, check out our Twitter feed @jerichoridge – but in the process of having lots of fun, we learned that July 22: “God often takes what is ordinary and uses it in extraordinary ways”

And today, we’re going to come straight up against a myth and a lie that seems to get lots of traction in the Christian world and that is that when you are following God’s will, it will be a place of peace and safety and life will come up roses all the time.  Because today we are going to learn that “Today: “Just because God something is part of God’s plan, doesn’t mean it will be easy.”  Just like the book of Exodus, sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.  Let’s pray as we look into God’s Word. 

Well, when we left Moses last weekend, he had received an assignment from God to go and tell Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.  So he packs up and heads toward Egypt.  When he arrives, he meets with the elders of Israel, he shows them the miracles that God showed him and things go amazing.  BUT then, it gets worse before it gets better. 

Which reminds me of a cluster of three stories from my own life that happened 7 years ago.  Some of you will be familiar with these stories but in one calendar year, we decided to plant a church, have our second child and build a house (I know, what were we thinking?!). It was an intense season of life.  So I need you help as I tell this story.  When I say “BUT…” in an animated way like that, can you all say “it gets worse before it gets better”.  Let’s try it, shall we?  “BUT… It gets worse before it gets better”. 

So the first part of this story involves us planting Jericho 7 years ago.  We knew that God had clearly invited us on the adventure of shaping a faith community here in Willoughby that was a loving and listening place, that existed not for people to come and be comfortable but to be a place that extended God’s love to our community in all of life, all the time.  We knew that this was the vision that God had put on the hearts of those who are covenant members at Jericho.  But that first year was hard work!  We experienced spiritual opposition like we never had before.  Our marriage was tested and our faith was pushed to the limit as we learned to lean on God in ways we never knew till that point.  BUT… it gets worse before it gets better. 

The second part of the story of 2005 for us was the wonderful celebration of the birth of our second child.  God was amazingly faithful but we had some close calls.  I can remember one night when she was fairly newly home from the hospital and I was bathing her in the basinet on the kitchen counter.  And I lifted her up and moved away and CRASH – the whole double cupboard came down off the wall and glasses and plates and bowls smashed all over the floor and the cupboard itself smashed right where our little girl had been a few moments earlier.  BUT… it gets worse before it gets better.

A month later, on the day we were to move into our new house, I got a frantic call from Meg that she and our daughter were up at the Hospital.  Our little one had a serious respiratory illness called RSV and she was placed in isolation in a little respirator and we felt so hopeless and lost as parents.  BUT… it gets worse before it gets better.

You heard me mentioning moving into our house.  In the middle of all of this, we were building a home and I was the general contractor.  Which is challenging in and of itself, considering that when it comes to construction, I’m no Mike Olynyk!  So as we are building, we discover that one of the trades is suing us for a large sum of money for what ends up being negligence on their part.  BUT… it gets worse before it gets better. 

Our site coordinator whose partner embezzled money from him on another job, ended up having a stroke the week of completion and so the house was not finished and ready for us to move into.  And at this point, I can remember sitting down and having it out with God.  (You thought that our last series in Psalms was ‘raw’)… I was angry. And I asked God “why is all of this stuff happening to us?  We know that is your will for be here planting this church, in their neighbourhood, with our family – why all the hardship?  And God’s clear but gentle reply was “I never said it was going to be easy”

You see, I had bought into the myth that ‘the safest place to be was in the centre of God’s will’.  Is it the best place to be? Absolutely.  Is it the easiest place to be? Absolutely not!  Doing what God asks you to do – whether it is moving to China or coming for prayer – isn’t always easy, but it’s always the right call.  Remember: Just because something is part of God’s plan, doesn’t mean it will be easy.  

I think one of the clearest places we see this is in the story of Moses in Exodus chapter 5.  When we left Moses last week, he was headed for Egypt to convince the most powerful man in the known world to let his entire labour force who works for him for free – to let them go.  Let’s read together beginning in Exodus 5:1-5 [2 slides] 

Kids, let’s use our imaginations for a moment to try and picture how Moses might feel.  Let’s pretend that you go to a school where the principal is very mean.  I know that’s simply not true at your school but remember, we’re pretending.  How would you feel if you had to go to that mean principal’s office and say to him “let all the kids in my grade go!  We need off school for a 3 day journey into the wilderness.”  I don’t think it would go very well, do you?  So pharaoh, like any mean principal would, decides the Moses and Aaron are trying to lead a rebellion and the kids in their class are listening to them because they have free time at recess and lunch.  So Pharaoh comes up with a solution: more work.  You see, the job that the Israelite slaves had been forced to do was to make bricks.  And up till this point, Pharaoh’s foremen had provided them with straw.  Now, in Africa and many part of the world, when you mix straw into your bricks, as this guy is doing, it adds plasticity and strength to the brick as it is fired and helps it to be able to expand and contract properly so it can stay in place.  But making bricks is incredibly hard work!  And now, not only do they have to mix everything by hand, but Pharaoh has decided if they have enough time to have silly meetings with Moses and Aaron at recess and lunch about leaving Egypt, that clearly they aren’t busy enough.  So he tells the Israelites: you have to make the same number of bricks as before, but now I am not giving you any straw. Go find and collect it yourselves!  So the text says that they had to spread out over the entire land of Egypt to try and find stubble and straw to put into their bricks.  And, no surprise, they couldn’t make the same number of bricks as before.  And they get beaten badly.  So they go to pharaoh and complain and he says in 5:9 “you want to know why I have loaded you down with more work?  You wanna know why I am making you sweat? Apparently you have the time to listen to Moses’ lies about needing to worship your God. If you have time for that, you have time to work harder”.  Sometimes, things get worse before they get better.  Listen to how the conversation goes in Exodus 5:19-23 [2].         

The people of Israel are in serious trouble.  They were in trouble before, but it has gotten worse, much worse now!  And it’s Moses’ fault.  So they go and complain to Moses.  And Moses goes and complains to God – with a very, very strong accusation.  Why did you give me this assignment if YOU haven’t done anything to save YOUR people?  Just because something is part of God’s plan, doesn’t mean it will be easy.  You see, sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. 

To help us with this concept, I want to invite all the kids who are hungry to come down to the front here at this table.  I want everyone to follow my instructions carefully. I am going to give you a graham cracker.  Everybody got theirs?  OK, now I want you to ruin the graham cracker. Make a fist and smash down on it, and try to keep your crumbs inside the baggie. Do not eat any of it. (Smash, smash, smash.)

Sometimes, we think that God has plans to give us something good. You may have thought when I invited you up here that I intended for us to eat these yummy graham crackers. Sometimes, we realize God has other plans. We’re not sure what He wants. We can’t understand why we have to wait.  [use can of black beans to further smash each child’s crackers]

When Moses first heard that God planned to use him to set people free, he didn’t exactly think it would be simple. But he didn’t think Pharaoh would increase the slaves’ work and get them all mad at Moses and Aaron!

One thing we’ll see today in Exodus is that sometimes God’s plans seem to involve things we don’t expect and sometimes following is not easy.

See this? It’s a can of black beans. How about if I mix the beans in with the graham cracker crumbs, and we make a nice, mushy, dark snack? [“ew!”]

Sometimes, when we’re trying to follow God’s plans, we get an idea that the whole thing could end up terrible! “Hey! What if it’s God’s idea that I should snack on mushed black beans?” 

Well, I guess we’ve kinda ruined our snack. Now we’ll have to throw it out.  [Go around with a zip-lock bag, and have everyone carefully empty their crumbs into the zip lock bag.]

God told Moses at the burning bush to tell Pharaoh to “let the people go free!” But Pharaoh is a hard, cruel man who is very scary and likes having slaves. Sometimes when God tells us to do something, it looks like everything’s gone wrong. We look silly, and maybe we imagined it.

But that only means that sometimes God’s rewards don’t come in the ways or at the times that we think they should. Sometimes God likes to do a little of the work Himself.  Hey, did you know that mushed graham cracker crumbs make the basis for pie crust for one of my favorite desserts: Key lime pie?  [bring out pie]

In doing God’s will, we have to trust him with the process, even if it looks like we’re messing things up, even if we can’t see where he’s leading us.  So instead of smashed up graham crackers, why don’t you take a piece of this pie and take it with you to your seats for a snack (if it’s OK with your parent or guardian).

When Meg and I were in the middle of that dark night of the soul 7 years ago, I could not have imagined that God was building something – something internally in my character and something beautiful in the form of his church here in Willoughby.  All I was seeing was a bag of smashed dreams.  And some of you have been there.  Some of you have been in much more difficult and challenging places.  Some of you are there right now.  Some of you feel like God is taking FOREVER to listen to your prayers (if he is hearing them at all).  Some of you might feel like He is punishing you or giving your extra homework, that you’re making bricks without straw.  In the New Testament book of 2 Peter, the brash and impatient disciple who couldn’t wait for Jesus to do stuff, writes this word of encouragement and warning to us: The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT).  Sometimes faith in God includes faith in His timing and in His purposes. 

I love God’s response to Moses’s complaint: “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. 8 I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!’”

This little project that I gave you to do?  It’s still in my hands, even though it seems out of control.  As we prepare to move into a time of reflection & response this morning, I want to ask you what season of life do you find yourself in right now?  A before, during or after season?  If you are in a before season, this means God has, to date, graciously spared you from incredibly deep pain or hardship.  This is His gift to you, but my word of caution this morning is to be careful what you say to people who are not in the same season of life as you.  Being trite or serving up platitudes either in person or on Facebook can hurt very deeply.  If I’m the Israelite foremen and Moses says to me ‘buck up friends, I’m sure straw collection is all part of God’s plan!” it feels like a slap in the face.  So choose your words carefully if you are in a before season of life. 

Maybe this morning you are here and you are in a “during” season.  You feel that you are in the middle of a season of hurts and hang-ups.  You’re confused and beaten down and discouraged, just like the Israelites were after hundreds of years of slavery.  And sometimes it’s tricky to know what to do in this season.  But one of the interesting things I take away from this story is the brash nature of Moses conversations with God.  He is bold and forthright and doesn’t’ make any efforts to hide his disappointments or anger or frustrations.  You thought that the Psalms were raw, Moses is even more brash.  But one thing God has to teach Moses throughout his life is patience.  God’s response to Moses is gripping – God back.  Try again.  It’s going to get worse before it gets better.  And that’s just how it is.

Perhaps there are some of you here today who have walked through some deep waters.  You’ve grieved as you’ve lost a parent or friend who was close to you.  You’ve sat in the doctor’s office when she said “its cancer”.  You’ve lost faith and hope and yet you still clung on to God.  Perhaps you are in an after season this morning, which is an amazing gift that God has given you.  2 Corinthians 1:4 says that God helps us so that we can help others.  We were overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure but as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves buy relying on God.  If you’ve been through deep waters, your job is to vigilantly and prayerfully help others to navigate those confusing currents of life without drowning.  Making sure that you are doing so with a spirit of grace and compassion not smugness.  All of us, no matter what phase we are in, have to ask God for strength, and for grace and empathy with people in other stages of the experience.  Moses was further down the road then the foreman & leaders who were further down the road than the front line workers in terms of their faith in God to deliver His people.  But together, they waited and watched and we’ll see in coming weeks how God did amazing things. 

I think that the perfect picture of the notion that it gets worse before it gets better is actually the communion table.  Because it reminds us that God Himself knows what this experience feels like.  Think about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus: On Good Friday, it always feels to me like its getting worse before it gets better.  But Jesus demonstrates for us how God pictures and practices victory in unexpected ways.  Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar reminds us that on the cross, “Christ doesn’t banish tragedy, but he carries it into the heart of God.  The tragic parts of life are not banished by the resurrection but overcome by it…To walk with Jesus is to embrace both the pain and the joy of life in all of its fullness, even in the face of death – for resurrection has no meaning without the tragedy of death”[i]

It seems that you often go right through the dark night of the soul, the Garden of Gethsemane, the cross and the grave before you get to resurrection hope.  Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better.  I’m going to invite the team to come and lead us as well as those serving at the tables.  And as we do, I want to remind you of a few things:

• Communion table is open to all who have professed Jesus as Lord.  Parents, we leave it up to you to provide discernment and leadership in your children’s participation.
• If you don’t know God, but want to find out what it’s like to have Him walk with you through every circumstance of life, prayer team is available.  Don’t leave today without making the most important decision of your life.
• Prayer team is also available to celebrate with you, to support you if you are walking through a time of challenge, to pray with you for a friend or family member…  there’s time to do business with God and to attend the communion table- no rush.      

Let’s pray together as we worship and then our prayer team will be available.