No Short Cuts to Glory

October 31, 1999 (am)

Falmouth Church of the Nazarene, Falmouth, Massachusetts

(September 25, 1999 and February 21, 1999)

Matthew 4

He had finally got his chance to make the Really Big Sale. He was going into the final interview on the biggest contract he had ever written. He was ushered into the office of the executive buyer. An assistant brought coffee and left. The atmosphere was cordial.

Then the assistant tapped on the door and re entered the office and spoke briefly with the executive. She stood and said, "I apologize, but I have to tend to a matter. I'll just be a minute or two." She followed her assistant out of the room.

The sales representative looked around the beautifully appointed office. He saw her family pictures on her desk. Then he noticed she had evidently been studying what looked like a contract, a bid from a competitor. Leaning forward, he saw a column of figures, but it was obscured by a diet soda can.

What harm possibly could there be in reading her private information? After all, she had left it out in plain sight. But when he lifted the can it wasn't diet soda; it was 1,000 Bbs that gushed out the bottomless can, and ran all over the desk and cascaded onto the carpet. His attempt to short cut the competition was exposed.

Not every temptation is so obvious. Not every failure is so embarrassing. But every temptation is a challenge. Not even Jesus was spared the choosing.

I. Temptation Is an Enticement to Use a Short Cut to Reach a Desirable Goal.

You want a good grade. Good grades are desirable. They open doors. They bring scholarships. The easiest way to good grades is to let someone else do your work for you. But there is no real short cut to real education.

You want intimacy and the good feelings of love and security. No one has to tell you those are good things. The easiest way to those feelings is the pathway of least resistance. But there are no short cuts to real friendship. There is never an excuse to USE people like things, no matter what the goal may be.

You want success and influence. Within the boundaries of genuine caring those could be very worthy goals. But in our world all too often personal goals are reached at whatever the cost. But there is no short cut to real integrity.

Whatever the reason, remember: there are no short cuts in finding and doing God's will. It is a wonderful thing to come to believe that in God's will we don't need short cuts!

II. Adam and Eve and Short Cuts

Adam and Eve, even in their innocence thought they might be able to take a short cut to God likeness. They were tempted to believe that maybe God was holding out on them. Whatever good was coming, they wanted it NOW! A short cut. The Tempter said, "Did God really say that?" Then he pursued that seed of doubt with philosophical denial. "You won't really die! God has it wrong! You can't really trust Him. He wants a monopoly on Truth!"

But they did die! Their innocence was gone. They were dead in trespasses and sin. And they were expelled from a garden into a wilderness. Their short cut was a tragedy.

In the classic Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and his new companion Hopeful fell in with a smooth talking man named By end, from the town of Fair speech. To hear By end talk the Christian journey required no effort at all. As his name suggests, he took the position that the end always justifies any short cut necessary, just so long as the rugged way of obedience could be avoided.

Just then Christian and Hopeful came alongside a beautiful meadow. There was a fence marking the pathway, but there was a stile over the fence, and they could see a path running parallel to the Way on the other side of the fence. After some discussion they crossed over to take advantage of easier going on the other side of the fence.

But soon it became less simple. Darkness fell, and it became hard to see. They tried to make their way back to the crossing, but soon they had to stay the night under a tree in the open. Then they were captured by a wicked Giant Despair, and taken to a dungeon in the Doubting castle. A pleasant short cut turned out to be a near disaster.

We can never leave the clear known will of God for our lives without bringing on big trouble. The most innocent disobedience brings broken fellowship with God. And there is no such thing as a short cut to where God wants you to be. You can trust His timing.

III. Jesus in His Innocence, Was Exposed to Temptation.

Fresh from his public baptism, and with the blessing of the Father's endorsement ringing in his ears, and in the joy of the Spirit's anointing, Jesus was led into the wilderness to face the challenge to take a short cut. Haggard and drawn from fasting, he was confronted with evil, demonic, powerful, hostile suggestion. The evil enemy attacked every angle. Henri Nouwen summed up the three temptations: be relevant, be popular, be powerful.

Be relevant: you have to survive! 'Make these stones into bread. You're famished. This is the real world. A dead Messiah isn't going to do anyone any good.'

But Jesus' response in fact said, "No, I don't have to survive! I have to be true!"

It wasn't that Jesus wasn't hungry. It wasn't that he couldn't work a miracle later. He fed 5,000 people with a little boy's lunch. But Jesus was taking orders from no one but the Father, and especially was not about to take advice from the Evil One.

"Man does not live by bread alone," he said, "but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

Be popular: you need to communicate! 'Spiff up your act! What is this "repent stuff!?? Put on a show! Do miracles! Walk a high wire!'

But Jesus was never a performer. He never did things for the effect. It wasn't that he couldn't master the forces of nature. He walked on the sea. He calmed the storms. He raised the dead. And he died and rose again the third day.

"Don't try to put God on the spot!" was his reply.

Be powerful: you need to take charge! 'No one will see you out here in the desert as you compromise and kneel down to me. But then I'll lay off, and you can be the dictator of the world! No competition! A cross is a terrible way to go. You have to take charge of your life! Assert yourself!'

This was not a friendly debate. It was not a gentleman's duel of honor. Weak, exhausted, physically drained, Jesus was facing pure evil at its demonic worst.

Jesus, at his weakest, used the defense that is available to us all if we will just use it. (It is the 'key' that finally unlocked the dungeon of Doubting Castle, and let Christian and Hopeful out.) He did not reason with the Enemy. He reached into the Father's promises. He fled to the first Commandment. He claimed the protection that comes from utterly belonging.

He was God's Son! He affirmed his determination to worship Him only, and to live by the father's Word and way. Satan had to leave. And the angels came, there in the wilderness, and Jesus was refreshed. Then he resumed the step by step following of the Father's will that would take him to Calvary, to Olivet, and to Glory and Salvation for you and me.

There would be no short cut.

Conclusion

Temptation Is an Enticement to Use a Short Cut to Reach a Desirable Goal

Temptation is NOT sin. But yielding to temptation IS sin. And sin never, never, never makes good on its promises. There are no short cuts to truly desirable goals.

A workman went to his big boss one day and said, "I'm tired. I think I'll take my retirement benefits and hang it up. It's been great working for you."

The big boss looked disappointed, and said, "I really hate to see you go. I was hoping you could do at least one more big job for me. Will you, just one more?"

Reluctantly the builder agreed to build a house for some important client of the big boss. It was a big house, a lot of work on a golf course, with a lot of detail. But the man's heart really wasn't in it. He threw the house together in record time, and cut corners on material and labor wherever he could. He saved the boss a lot of money, but it wasn't really his best work and he knew it.

Imagine how he felt when he turned the keys over to the big boss, and the boss gave them right back, and fished around in his briefcase and gave him the title and deed to the property on the golf course.

"This is my gift for you!" he said. "Thanks for all your good work across the years!"

Then the builder wished he hadn't been in such a hurry. He wished he hadn't cut corners and taken short cuts just to get the job done.

Life is like that. Exactly like that. We become the product of our own integrity in following after God. Or lack of integrity. We become exiles from innocence when we try to take short cuts to being like God. Or, following our Savior, we use the promises and the commandments of God to resist the tempter's power, and we begin to share in Christ's righteousness.

This is just another Sunday evening service. There isn't anyone here but us. But God is here. And right now is a good time to ask God for His help in deliberately drawing closer to Him. I don't know about you, but I don't want to try to get away with building a shoddy house. I know I'm going to have to live in what I build.

Prayer

#512 Take Time to be Holy