"Blessed Are the Yielded "

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know, it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's Word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now, let's get to the Word of God. I hope you'll pay very close attention to me this morning because I promise you everyone here today is going to need this strategy at least once next year. So hold on, stick with me and let's talk about it. Now, the strategy is found right here in Luke 7.

So let's look together. Luke 7 beginning in verse 18, we're talking about a fellow named John the Baptist. Luke chapter 7 verse 18. Now, John's disciples told him about all the things Jesus was doing and so calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, are you the one who was to come or should we expect somebody else? And when the men came to Jesus, they said, John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, are you the Messiah who was really to come or should we expect someone else? Now, friends, our passage centers around this guy John the Baptist and John is in jail.

He's been thrown into jail by King Herod because he had the courage to confront Herod on Herod's adulterous relationship with his brother Philip's wife. And so he's in jail and in jail, he hears about what Jesus is doing on the outside, all the miracles and the healings, raising people from the dead, teaching the Word of God. And so he sends his disciples from the jail cell to ask Jesus a question.

And here's his question. Jesus, are you really the Messiah or should we be looking for somebody else? Now, is this an amazing question for John the Baptist to be asking? I mean, the whole mission of John the Baptist was to announce the coming of the Messiah. I mean, he was the one who walked around and pointed to Jesus, John Chapter 1 and said, Behold, here he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So how could the guy who introduced Jesus to the world as the Messiah now be asking the question, Are you really the right one? Well, I'll tell you the answer.

It's very simple. The answer is that when Jesus first appeared and John proclaimed him as the Messiah, John had some expectations about what was going to happen next. And if you want to see him, turn back with me to Luke Chapter three, couple pages. Keep a finger in Chapter seven.

We're coming back. But turn back to Chapter three and look at verse 16 and 17 of Chapter three. It says here, verse 16, John said, I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, his winnowing fork. Here come his expectations.

His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the good wheat into the barn. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. See, John expected Jesus was going to clean house. John expected that Jesus was going to clear his threshing floor, gather his good wheat into the barn and burn up everything that wasn't good. People like King Herod would be done for. The Romans would be driven out of Israel. The kingdom of God would be now established in Israel.

And John's expectations, I have to tell you, friends, were based on some very good Old Testament teaching. Isaiah 35, for example, says, Your God will come. He will come with a vengeance with divine retribution.

He will come to save you. And so John steps out and he announces that Jesus is the Messiah fully expecting that Jesus is now going to clean house. But look what happens next. What happens next is John rebukes Herod's wrongdoing and ends up rotting in a Roman jail. And what happens next is the Jewish people begin systematically rejecting their Messiah.

And what happens next is that the Romans remain in as firm control of Israel as ever. And what happens next is that there's no day of vengeance, no kingdom of God anywhere on the horizon. In short, nothing, nothing is going the way John expected.

Nothing. And so John's faith gets shaken. And he begins to wonder if maybe he's gotten something wrong. If maybe Jesus really isn't the Messiah. Maybe there is something or someone else coming. And here's the critical point that I want you to get this morning.

What had shaken John's faith is the simple fact that things were just not going the way John expected. Does everybody see that? Everybody with me? Because that's the central, that's the basis of this whole passage.

All right. Now what does Jesus say to John? Let's go back to chapter seven and we'll show you. Jesus answers his question by telling him two things. The first thing he tells him is John, not to worry, I really am the Messiah.

Look what he says. John, Luke chapter seven, look with me at verse 21. Look verse 21, at that very time with John's messenger standing right there, Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits. And he gave sight to many who were blind.

So he replied to the messengers, you go back and report to John what you've seen and heard. That the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor. See, the Old Testament had also given signs that the Messiah could use and would use to prove that he really was the son of God. Signs, ways of identifying the Messiah. And in fact, in Isaiah 35, the very same passage John was thinking of, they appear.

Isaiah 35 goes on to say that the ears of the blind will be open, sorry, the eyes of the blind will be open, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute will shout for joy. And so by doing all of these miracles in the sight of John's disciples, Jesus sends them back and says, you tell John all of these signs the Old Testament said the Messiah was going to do, you just saw me do them, tell John not to worry, there's nobody else coming, I'm the Messiah. Now folks, let me take a break here for just a moment and say it's interesting, you know, when you look in the New Testament, that Jesus constantly pointed to his miracles as the proof of his Messiahship. John chapter 10, for example, verse 25, he says, the miracles that I do in my Father's name, they speak for me, that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Jesus realized that any thinking rational person should understand this.

In fact, when Nicodemus, the great Jewish rabbi, the great Jewish political leader, who at the time was not a follower of Jesus Christ, when he came to meet Jesus in John chapter three, he starts the conversation by saying this, Rabbi, we know that you are from God, for nobody can perform the miracles that you do, unless God is with you. If you're here today, and you've never embraced Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and maybe the reason for that is that you frankly have some doubts about whether Jesus really is the Messiah, whether he really is God wrapped in human flesh, may I say to you, you can drop those doubts, because he did things nobody else has ever done. Do you know, for example, there's only 30 days of Jesus's life recorded in the Bible, when you look at all the miracles that are in there, don't spread them out over three years of ministry, don't spread them out over 33 years of living, they're only spread over 30 days, friends.

Can you imagine what he really did? John even says in the end of John's Gospel, if we were to write down everything he really did, you couldn't get it in every book in the world. And Jesus did all those things, not because he wanted to show off, not because he wanted to boast about how powerful he was, he did all those mighty works to prove to you and to me to validate that he really was what he said he was, the Messiah, God wrapped in human flesh. People who followed him around, the Israelites, when you read the Bible, they're always saying, we've never seen anything like this, we've never seen anything like this, we've never seen anything like this. Well, of course not, it's not every day you see God wrapped in human flesh.

Of course you haven't seen anything like this. If you're here and you've never trusted Christ, hey, I want to tell you something, you need validation that Jesus is who he said, look at the validation he gave you, all of these miracles. And oh, by the way, even his greatest critics never doubted that he did the miracles he did.

They never doubted that because they couldn't. But there was a second answer that Jesus sent back to John the Baptist. He said, John, first thing I want to tell you is I'm the Messiah, there's nobody else coming. But he said, I need to tell you one other thing, John, and that's in verse 23. He says, John, blessed is the man who does not fall away, does not stumble on account of me. You say, Lon, I don't get it.

Well, what does this mean? What's Jesus trying to say by saying this? Well, friends, Jesus is saying, John, what's shaking you up, friend?

What's causing you to stumble, friend? What's causing you to fall away from me, friend, is that I'm not running the show exactly the way you expected me to. Now, here's what I'm telling you, John, is that I'm running the show the way I want to.

I'm running the show the way I know is best, and my message to you, John, is this, blessed is the person who lets me run my business my way. Now, I love to call this the forgotten beatitude. You know the beatitudes are all in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart. But here is a blessed that got broken off from the group, the forgotten beatitude, but it's just as powerful, and it's just as life-changing. Blessed is the person who lets God run his business his way.

And this is the beatitude that Jesus sends back to John. John, you need to let me run my business my way, son. Don't tell me how to run my business. And if I want to come and not drive the Romans out, that's my business. And if I want to come and let you be in jail, that's my business. And if I want to come and leave King Herod in power, that's my business.

And if I want to come and there be no day of vengeance right now and no kingdom of God right now on earth, that's my business. John, stay out of my business. I'm running in my way. You, John, just trust me. Friends, I want to tell you something. John's going to need this beatitude big time because let me show you what happens.

You don't need to turn there. We'll put it on the screen, but let me show you what happens next to old John. On Herod's birthday, the Bible says, the daughter of Herodias, this is the woman that he was having the affair with, danced for them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, give me on a platter the head of John the Baptist. And the king was distressed. But because of his oath and because of all of his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted. And he had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl who then gave it to her mother.

So can you imagine now when they come to get John in prison and they take his hands and they chain his hands behind him and then they walk him outside where that chopping block is and they bend his knee and they make him get down and then they make him put his head down on that chopping block and as that act starts to go up, what do you think old John's saying to himself? I'll bet you he was saying something like blessed is the man who lets me run my business my way. Blessed is the man who lets me run my business my way. Blessed is the man who lets me run my business my way.

He was going to need this beatitude. And you and I needed too, friends. Now that's the end of the passage but it leads us to ask a really important question. Now this is the first time this millennium that you get to do it.

Now the first service already got the first time of the millennium but you still get the first time the third service gets to do this in the millennium. So you ready? Now let's make this a worthy effort, shall we? Alright, ready?

One, two, three. So what? Ah, what a great way to start a century. Alright. Say, Lon, so what? What difference does this make to my life? Blessed is the man who lets me run my business my way. What does that have to do with me? Well, let me tell you. Folks, as we look forward to a new year as followers of Jesus Christ, all of us have expectations about how God should run our lives in the year 2000.

Yes, we do. In 2000, God should keep me and my family healthy. In 2000, God should make my career prosperous and provide me with all the financial wherewithal I need to do everything I want to do. In the year 2000, God should make my car run all year without ever needing a repair. In the year 2000, God should rescue me from every stupid thing I say and do. In the year 2000, God should never let anything bad happen to any of my children or my grandchildren. In the year 2000, God should let none of my appliances break.

In the year 2000, God should so fill me with His Spirit that I shoot scratch golf. We have our expectations for next year. Now, did you notice something interesting about that list? Did you notice that none of these expectations of ours, none of them had anything bad happening to us next year? Did you notice that?

And please don't tell me that your list is different. Please don't tell me that you've got heart attacks and car accidents and bankruptcy, that you have got cancer and deaths in the family all emotionally planned in for this next year because I won't believe you. No, I won't believe you. You know why? Because none of us are wired that way. You're not, I'm not, none of us are. We're all wired to expect the best. We're all wired to believe God's going to give us nothing but peace and happiness and ease and calm and comfort and as you're sitting here today and dreaming about the future, that's exactly what your dream looks like because you're just like me. That's what my dream looks like. Now friends, I want to tell you in the year 2000, it is certain, certain, God is not going to meet all of these wonderful expectations we have in our business plan.

And I'll tell you why. Because our business plan that we cook up for ourselves is always centered around living a life full of ease and comfort and human happiness. But you see, God's business plan for our life is very different. God's business plan for your life and my life as followers of Christ is to make us into men and women of God. And his business plan, that business plan of building you into a man or a woman of God rarely if ever leads through the canal of comfort. What that means is, is that God's business plan for us and our business plan for ourselves are almost always in conflict.

They're almost always in dynamic tension. And that's why God says Isaiah 55, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways, your business plan is not my business plan, says God, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Listen, as followers of Jesus Christ, the bottom line is that God loves us deeply. God cares intimately about the affairs of our life. We are God's business friends. We're God's business.

And the message that God is sending you and me as we begin a new year is the very same message that he sent John the Baptist. Blessed is the person who lets me run my business, your life, my way. Blessed is the person who will allow me to disappoint any expectation they have if that's how I decide things ought to go in their life.

Blessed is the person who leaves me as God totally free to take them wherever I feel they need to go in order to build them into men and women of God. Now you say, well Lon, wait a minute, I understand what you're saying, but you know what? No person lives like this, Lon. There's not a human being alive who lives like that.

Well, I beg to differ. In fact, I would like to enter into evidence three people, not just one. Their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel's three friends. And I'd like you to turn back with me to the book of Daniel, chapter three. It's page 627 if you're using our copy of the Bible, Daniel chapter three.

And I'd like to show you that there are some people who live this way. Remember, King Nebuchadnezzar set up this huge statue that everybody was supposed to bow down and worship, remember? And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said we're not doing it. And the king said, if you don't do it, let me tell you what is going to happen to you. See that big old furnace over there?

I'm going to superheat it and you're going in it. And I want you to see what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said. Pick up with me chapter three, verse 16. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king and said, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.

If we are thrown into that blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. Now, did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have some expectations about how this was going to turn out? You bet they did. Did they have some things that they were anticipating God was going to do?

You bet they did. They said, hey, you throw us in there? Guess what, O king? Our God is going to come right in there and save us. That's how we're going in there.

That's what we're fully expecting. But I love the next verse. It says, look verse 17, or verse 18 rather, but even if he doesn't.

I love that. But even if he doesn't, but even if he doesn't do what we're expecting, even if he doesn't do what we're anticipating, even if he doesn't do what we want him to, even if he doesn't do what we think is best, even if he doesn't, you know what? We've left God free to run his business his own way, king. And even if he doesn't, we are not going to serve your gods.

We are not going to worship your image. We're going to stick with God even if he doesn't do it the way we think he ought to. Don't tell me people don't live like this.

You just saw three of them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who lived just like this. And I think a great motto for our life is, but even if he doesn't, but even if God doesn't do it the way you want it done, even if God doesn't do it the way you expected him to, even if God doesn't run your life the way you think it ought to be run, even if he doesn't, blessed is the person who lets God run his business his way. And whether that's your career, or your health, or your family, or your schooling, I don't care what it is. If you belong to Jesus Christ, it's his business. Blessed if you let him run it his way. Friends, to conclude this morning, let me just say, God wants to get you and me to the place where we give him permission to take our lives any place he wants to take them. Where we give him permission to guide us any way he wants to guide us. Where we decide that our job is not to decide how God should run our lives, but that our job is to be loyal to God, is to be obedient to God, and regardless of whether we like his choices, regardless of whether we agree with how he's running our life, to be like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and go even if he doesn't, God we're sticking with you.

Friends, if you'll follow this strategy for the year 2000, I'm telling you there's not a curve ball the world can throw you that you can't handle. There's not a surprise that'll come your way that you can't handle. And it won't shake your faith, and it won't affect your walk with God, and it won't disappoint you, and it won't shatter your confidence in God. The reason our confidence in God gets shattered is because we go into the thing with expectations that are wrong, unrealistic. God's never going to meet them.

And they're alright if you want to have them, that's okay. But just remember, blessed is the person who lets God run his business, your life, his way. And God promises his personal blessing on you if you'll do this. God says, hey you know what, you will never regret anything I do. You may not like it at the time, but there's never a thing I'll do in your life that when all is said and done you'll ever regret. Let me run my business my way. In the year 2000, friend, that is my challenge to you.

Give God that freedom in your life. Realize there are going to be surprises. Realize there are going to be unmet expectations. Realize there are going to be curve balls. I promise you there are. And then when you get to him say okay God I made a commitment.