“Believe Me When I Tell You”

     Read: John 3:14-21

     In January of 1986, I attended Pastor’s Convocation at the Assembly Center in Blackstone.  Although I have attended Pastor’s Convocation 27 times in the past 30 years, the 1986 Convocation was particularly memorable for me for three reasons.  Firstly, it was the first Convocation that I attended after I completed my seminary education.  Secondly, Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, my ethics professor, was the guest lecturer.  Thirdly, I was approached by one of the elders of the Conference with an invitation to participate in a special life insurance plan.

     It is important for you to understand that I was in a season of beginnings in my life.  I was beginning my career, I was beginning the process of becoming an elder in the United Methodist Church, and I was beginning a family.  My son, Joshua, was 17 months old.  When this man whom I respected said, ”Believe me when I tell you…this is the very best thing that you can do for your family,” I was listening.   
     At one point, when I was hesitating to sign the papers, I remember thinking, “You need to stop being so cynical…you need to learn to trust somebody sometime…”  Five years later, when I and many other people realized that the principal in this business deal had embezzled the money, my own words came back to haunt me.  I had not listened to my own disquieted spirit, and as a result, my two thousand dollars and much of my ability to trust were gone.

     I am sure that you have your own story of misplaced trust.

     In Number 21:4-9, we find that the Israelites’ belief inGod’s plan was beginning to waver.  They were murmuring against God and Moses because they were tired eating manna and wondering “are we there yet?”  As a result of their querulous unbelief, God struck them with a plague of poisonous snakes.  When they came to their senses and called on God through Moses, God solved the problem with an almost bizarre solution.  Moses was commanded to make a brass snake (a graven image).  Anyone who gazed upon the snake would be cured.  They did and they were.  They were commanded, they obeyed, and they were saved because they believed it when God said it.  

     In this complicated and untrustworthy world, the purity and simplicity of God’s plan of salvation is too frequently difficult for our damaged, poisoned minds and spirits to accept.  But, believe me when I tell you… No, believe God when God tells you that anyone who believes in Jesus…who believes God’s desire is true, will have everlasting life.  God said it…you can believe it.

Pastor David