WHAT WE NEED ISN’T MISSING; IT’S JUST HIDDEN
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – February 15, 2015
Kajia Bretzuis lives in Pennsylvania and bought her dream home back in 2011. It was an older home, and about a year after moving in, she wanted to add some insulation to some of the walls in the house. Except when she opened up the wall to put the insulation in, she discovered that there was something already in them. It just wasn’t insulation. It was dead animals wrapped in old newspapers from the 1930s and 1940s. She had the home inspected before she bought it, but the home inspector didn’t find the animals, and because the animals were there before she moved in, her insurance company isn’t covering any of the work required to clean it up. So far, she’s spent over $20,000 to take care of the problem, and the house still smells like dead animals. She didn’t know the animals were there. And yet, they were. They were just hidden. And now she’s one of many people in the world who’s learned that we don’t always see things as they are.
Take Valentine’s Day for example. If you consider the number of Valentine’s cards that were given this weekend, calculate all the money that was spent on candy, gifts, and dinner; and talk to the roughly 6 million guys who yesterday asked a woman to marry them, you might get the impression that everyone’s sitting in happy homes and happy marriages. But when you look behind the wall of the other 364 days of the year and listen in on the number of arguments about money, communication, respect, or sex; when you think about all the couples you know who are divorced, broken, or bored with the person who is sleeping right next to them, you often find something different. And what you find often isn’t very pleasant.
Like Kajia, we have our own idea of what we’d like to see, and not just in homes, dating and marriage. Just think about what you would like to see in in any number of different categories. Think about how much you’d like to be able to trust all your neighbors and how safe you’d like to feel in your own yard. Think about how children are supposed to speak to their parents, how hard young men are supposed to work, how provocatively young women aren’t supposed to dress, how nice your co-workers are supposed to treat you, what’s supposed to influence the decisions of our politicians, and then ask yourself: And after how many times of suddenly finding something bad do you begin to wonder if it’s even possible to find anything anymore that’s truly good?
Every once in a while, our youngest daughter Sydney comes walking downstairs long after we’ve tucked her in. She has a tear in her eye and a sad look on her face. We ask her what’s wrong, and she says, “It’s too dark.” And of course we look at her and say, “Honey, get used to it.” No, we don’t do that. We take her by the hand, lead her back to her room, turn on the light in the closet or the one in the hallway, tuck her in again, give her a kiss, and she usually falls asleep in less than a minute. The light was always there. It wasn’t gone. It wasn’t missing. It just wasn’t on. In a sense, it was hidden from her eyes.
This morning, the Apostle Paul reminds us that the same is true in our lives. As we look around this world and evaluate our experience in it, it’s not difficult to feel as if we’re living in a darkness we’ll never escape from. But it’s not because something good is missing. Often, it’s just hidden, but not hidden so well that we can’t find it again.
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
A little over a week ago, 26 inmates escaped from a prison in Brazil. And do you know how they escaped? They walked out the front door. Earlier in the day, two women walked into the main lobby of the prison dressed in skimpy, skin-tight “police officer” uniforms. The women talked the guards into letting them inside by promising them they would show them a good time. The next morning, the two guards were found unconscious, naked, and handcuffed, while 26 of their prisoners were missing.
You might consider these men fools for not seeing what these women were really up to. But every day Satan dupes men, women, and children into falling for the same type of lies that promise them a good time. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,” Paul wrote, “so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
You might know that the movie 50 Shades of Gray started showing on Friday. It will most likely bring in millions of dollars this Valentine’s Day weekend. It’s based on the very popular book about a lonely young woman who ends up meeting a wealthy guy who treats pleasure as his idol, women as his possession, and power as his god, and promises that he will take care of her financially if she will do whatever he wants sexually. At the end of the book, they don’t stay together. The guy keeps treating pleasure as his idol, women as his possessions, and power as his God. But the girl believes she’s a better woman for having done all sorts of things that will never happen in heaven. And millions of people, when asked what they think about it, will say something like, “I kind of liked it.”
Earlier this week, the annual Sports Illustrated (we-may-or-may-not-be-wearing-any) Swimsuit Edition came out. And millions of guys will gawk over it the same week they promise their undivided attentive love to their woman … and see nothing wrong with it. It’s not just coincidence these things both came out during a week in which we’re trying to define what love really is. The definition of love Satan wants us to see is not the same one that God does. And the reason for that is because Satan wants you to end up disappointed, and he knows that God’s definition of love is the only one that will never do that.
The Gospel of the glory of Christ, as Paul calls it, is the truth about how God already found great pleasure in using all his power and all his possessions to give you not only all the perfect joy you will only be able to find in heaven, but also someone in your life right now who will love and adore you forever, even if you haven’t slavishly done whatever he wanted. The Gospel is the promise that you’re not alone in this world. You’re not unloved. And you never will be; because someone is determined to be there for you no matter what it will cost; whether it’s difficult or easy. In your search for love and lasting fulfillment, if you seek a love by any other definition, no matter who the relationship is with, you’ve been duped, and you’ll end up disappointed. Now, you might say that this type of love is very rare on this planet. And you might be right. But that’s different than saying it’s missing. It’s not missing. It’s just hidden. And Satan’s use of media, movies, and temptation is not the only reason.
You might know that Christianity is the most-practiced religion in the world right now. But do you know which religion is most quickly catching up? Islam. Islam is the religion practiced by Muslims. Between Islam and Christianity, which of them believes that the bible is the Word of God, that faith is necessary to get into heaven, that good works are necessary in the life of the believer, that Jesus was a real person, that God will raise all the dead on Judgment Day, and that heaven and hell are the only two possible eternal destinations? They both teach all those things.
Then what does Islam teach that Christianity doesn’t? There are many things; many important things. But one of the reasons Islam is so quickly catching up to Christianity is because the average Muslim knows the answer to that question and the average Christian doesn’t. Muslims have two main strategies for growing their religion. Firstly, they have many children. They intentionally have large families so that someday, in the easiest possible way, there will simply be more Muslims in the world than Christians. Secondly, they teach their children not only the teachings of Islam but also the differences between the two religions most Christians aren’t aware of so that it’s easy to stump a Christian in a conversation with them so they begin to doubt their religion.
Did you notice what Paul called the Gospel in verse 3? He called it “our” Gospel. It’s our possession. Our light. But a light doesn’t shine if you never turn it on. The way God designed this world to see his light is by having Christians turn it on. That means we need to know our bibles better than Muslim children. Our children need to spend more time reading it than Muslim parents. We need to be aware of what other religions are teaching, so that we can identify where they’re taking something God said and saying something different. And we need to not be ashamed when someone asks us what those differences are or why we didn’t go see Fifty Shades of Grey on Valentine’s Day. We don’t need to be arrogant about it, or judgmental, or condescending. We just need to turn on a light; not for the sake of proving we’re right. But because, if the Gospel of the glory of Christ really is the world’s only reliable light, then how many souls either do, or one day will, feel kind of like Sydney did, coming down the stairs, maybe having a vague recollection of a light that used to shine, but now seeing so much darkness in every corner of your existence that you wonder if it’s ever coming back again? And how often do you feel that way?
College basketball has lost some big names over the last couple of years. Dean Smith, the legendary coach of North Carolina died last week. Back in 2010, it was John Wooden. John Wooden died at the age of 99. He spent most of his coaching career at UCLA where he won 10 national championships in a 12-year period, including a streak of 7 in a row, during which his teams went 88 games without losing a single one. He was a pretty remarkable coach. But there was another remarkable thing about him not everyone knows.
John Wooden kissed only one woman over the course of his entire life. His first kiss was at the age of 14, when he kissed Nellie, who went on to become his wife. He never kissed another woman. John and Nellie were married for 53 years. Nellie died on March 21st, 1985. Exactly one month after Nellie died, on April 21st, 1985, John wrote a love letter to his deceased wife. And then a month later, on the 21st of May, he did the same thing. And then on the 21st of every month after that, all the way up until the day he died in 2010, he wrote another love letter to Nellie. He never showed them to anyone. Not even their kids were allowed to read them. When he was asked why, for 25 years, he continued to write love letters to someone who could now never love him back, he simply said, “I love her, and I’m keeping my promise.”
Do you think that kind of love is rare or common? If you think it’s rare, you might be right. But that’s different than saying it’s missing. Keeping a promise to love and be faithful to his wife, even though she’s dead, sounds incredibly similar to Jesus’ attitude when he hung on a cross and continued to love a world that far too often acts like it’s dead in its desire to follow him. Jesus knows what it’s like to be surrounded by darkness too. And he responded to it not by spilling some ink on a paper once a month, but by just one time spilling his blood on a cross to forgive us for all the times we’ve been too selfish, scared, or shy to let the light of his faithful love shine. Not even his own death, not even our worst sin, was going to stop him from keeping a promise to love you and hold you forever right next to him.
That was a difficult love to put into practice, but it isn’t missing from this world. Far too often, it’s just hidden. But it doesn’t need to be. Every day every soul on this planet gets bombarded by a thousand sermons from Satan. They need to hear one from God. And yours is just the life to give it to them. Open his Word. Turn the light on. Let God give you the path to follow every morning. Then look at the people you love, take them by the hand, and lead them to the one thing they need to see to live, die, or sleep in perfect peace – a light that’s never been missing.
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