P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

TRANSIENT FACTS AND TRANSIENT FAITH

Here in the year 2001, I don't think the world of sports has even yet gotten over the departure of one Mr. Michael Jeffrey Jordan from the game of basketball. Fans are still weeping. The greatest player ever, by virtually every list-compiler there is. And of course, the newspapers were filled with numerous reports about how many dollars His Air Highness has put into his pockets in recent years. Something like $400,000 per game played. But that pales next to the $16 million EVERY YEAR from Nike, the $5 million from Sara Lee, and right on down the line. More than $40 million a year just to loan his name to these various companies. And it's estimated that just as a human franchise, a commodity - not only measuring what he earns, but the monies he generates for business and the world of sports - are well into the billions.
But all of this brings us to a question as we stay here in the much more humble world of first-century Philippi and Paul's letter to the people living there. Because some have wondered, knowing Michael Jordan's penchant for an occasional bet in golf, and for his trips to Atlantic City to visit the gaming tables there, how big a bet he would possibly have to play before it had any MEANING to him. If he walked up to a baccarat table at one of those Trump hotel/casinos and put down a thousand dollars and lost it . . . what would it be like? It would be like you or me playing for a penny. How could there possibly be a jolt for him, that little flicker when you win and see the chips sliding toward you, or that pop in the stomach when the dice come up snake-eyes and he loses what for him is basically like a penny?
Well, this is maybe an odd beginning to a Bible radio sermon, but let me invite you over to verse four of our study passage, which is CHAPTER four. And here's what Paul has to say to people like you and me, who are a lot poorer than our retired friend from the Windy City.

"Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS," he writes. And then: "I will say it again: Rejoice!"

And that's it. "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS." And even the happiest NBA Christian in the world knows that it's pretty hard to rejoice ALWAYS. You rejoice when the Bulls win, but you cry on the rare occasions when they lose. Losing's not as rare for them now as it used to be, but you understand my point. Nobody rejoices ALL the time. But here this is what Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us is the Christian way: to rejoice ALWAYS. To ALWAYS be celebrating.

Interestingly, I find in the finances of Michael Jordan the perfect illustration for this command. Because I'm sure there have been days - if we can get out of Atlantic City here - when even Jordan would find that his wallet was kind of empty. At the end of a long road trip, perhaps. And he would get down to a last $10 bill. Would he worry? Or feel all tight in the stomach about his cash-strapped position? Of course not! Because he had $40 million in reserves back home. He still had his Nike deal and his paycheck from the United Center and owner Jerry Reinsdorf. And so here is a man who, because of what there is in reserve, what he has BACK THERE, can certainly "rejoice always."
What does this mean for the Christian, though? Because bad times certainly do come to the people of God. I know that, and you know that, and the wonderful people who write to this ministry certainly know that. We live in a hard old world scarred by sin, and there are many shadows all around us.
I'd like to share with you a few excerpts of one of the finest magazine articles I've ever had the pleasure to read. It's by Pastor Jack Hayford, of Church on the Way, not too many miles down the freeway in Van Nuys. He's a senior editorial advisor for the magazine, Ministries Today, and this is where his article, "The Heart of Thanksgiving," appears. He writes about a woman named Marti, whose husband had been an alcoholic for more than ten years. What's more, she was facing terminal cancer - which meant several surgeries, financial difficulties, and certainly the specter of upcoming pain.
But here's the incredible thing. This woman had a heart of thanksgiving! She wasn't just rejoicing, she was "rejoicing always." She was a happy woman, through and through. On the fourth Thursday in November, and for the other 364 days of the year, she was able to look up to heaven and thank God for all of the blessings in her life. Hayford quotes her as saying:

"[I thank God for His presence and strength] which enables me to love, care for and serve my dear Chuck" - remember, that's her alcoholic husband - "even though there's nothing we can really do together - other than wait."

And how in the world could this woman take such a view? The essence of her life, and the essence of this magnificent article by a wonderful Christian pastor, is this: Friend, you and I can rejoice always because God is good always. It's as simple as that.
There's a bit of November flavor to how Hayford summarizes this point. Notice:

"The splendor of the Thanksgiving season shines never so splendidly," he writes, "as it does in places and in hearts where the shadows of pain or disappointment are unable to dim the radiance of praise to God. Notwithstanding trials they're traversing or difficulties being navigated, a multitude of souls are possessed of a wisdom this Thanksgiving Day that is ROOTED in the reality of God's UNCHANGING goodness."

Now, for all of us - this woman, Marti, and you and me as well - there are seasons in our lives when the shadows loom. Pastor Hayford uses the metaphor of fog, which comes in and blocks out our view of the sun. But then he adds:

"But there is a breed of believer that never relents praising - come fog or shadow."

This woman had spent a full decade with a husband who couldn't stay sober. There had to be many long, lonely nights, perhaps physical abuse. Certainly there were extended bleak times of financial deprivation. But even with an alcoholic husband, Marti knew that her God in heaven was - at the height, even, of her pain - a good God. God had not made her husband an alcoholic. No, her good God LOVED her husband, and He loved her.
She had cancer - a terminal, fatal disease. But God hadn't given her that cancer. God hadn't put that tumor in her body. Even when there was pain, even on the day when her physical body would finally be defeated by the specter of that disease, she knew that her God was still good, that God hates disease and pain and death even more than she did.
Sometimes, with our limited vision - admittedly, we can't see through the shadows and the fog - we wonder why this good God, this ALWAYS good God, PERMITS cancer and alcoholism. It was just over seven years ago - and some of our Voice of Prophecy staff members rode right through it - the Northridge earthquake. God didn't SEND that huge temblor, despite the language used by the insurance companies, but why didn't He stop it? Couldn't He have stopped it? Couldn't He keep us from losing or jobs and our paychecks? Couldn't He keep world dictators from slaughtering the innocent millions?
Friend, that's when you and I have to exercise this little thing called faith. We have to keep trusting that GOD is good even when THINGS are NOT good. Keep on believing that God is love even when the world around us appears to be unloving.
Pastor Hayford ends with this challenge:

"Let's take our cue from those people whose praise to God - however appropriately prompted by great blessings - is just as praise-ready when shadows come. They're this way because their praise has found its deepest root in the ABIDING goodness of God's NATURE, not merely in the temporal goodness of HIS providence. . . . Let's become so fixed in gratitude," he writes, "for the changeless fact that God is good that our praise persists even when transient FACTS tempt us to transient FAITH."

And you know, this isn't just poetic creativity from a human preacher in Van Nuys, California. Because the Bible itself, the unchanging Word of God, tells us that its author is also unchanging. Malachi 3:6

"I the Lord DO NOT CHANGE."

God isn't good on some days - sending rainbows - and mad on others, sending earthquakes and Hurricane Mitches. Hebrews 13:8:

"Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday and today AND FOREVER."

"Every good and perfect gift" - this is James 1:17 - "is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does NOT change like the shifting shadows."

Friend, I don't know what the facts are for you today. Maybe they're good. Maybe the sun in shining in your life. On the other hand, maybe discouragement has been your closest friend in recent weeks. You're existing barely above the poverty line, or maybe even well below it. Maybe you're listening from jail at this very moment. That inmate number you're wearing on your shirt is a FACT. That twenty-year sentence, two consecutive sentences, is a cold, hard FACT. Well, all true. But an even greater fact is the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the love of God.
If you're feeling poor today - if you ARE poor and it's FACT that you have no money - remember that a God who owns far more than the Michael Jordan financial empire is your Friend today.

"Things may change," Pastor Hayford writes, "but He never does; Tides turn back, but He never will; Turmoil churns, but He is my peace; Troubles come, but He's present still."