Jesus Didn't Promise Sunshine and Lollipops and Rainbows

In our current sermon series at ALIVE!Community Church, Cliché, we’re talking about some of the things that Christians often say without truly thinking about the implications of their words.  Gotta admit, it was tough to whittle down the finalists with so much of what’s out there today.  I wanted to take some time to go deep in this series though, so I had to focus on those things which I thought would give us the opportunity to do that. 

One of the ideas out there in Christian-land that drives me nuts that we won’t get to in this series is this idea that when we love Jesus, life is just sunshine and lollipops and rainbows all the time.  Smiley, shiny TV preachers who live in mansions and fly on private jets and write motivational books don’t really help much for those of us who know too well the struggles of keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.  

I get it, I really do.  They want to encourage people.  They want to lift people up.  They want to focus on the goodness and blessings of God.  Those are all good things.  I want to do those things too. 

But I also know many people who love Jesus that live paycheck to paycheck and probably always will.  I know many people who love Jesus wake up almost every day with debilitating depression. I know many people who love Jesus that are wracked by physical pain from illnesses and injury that will deal with pain for the rest of their lives.  Is it because they don’t believe the promises of God?  Is it because they lack faith?  Let’s check out what Jesus said in one of the readings from For The Love of God today.

This is what Jesus says in Matthew 7:24-29 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.  Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.  But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.  When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law.”

In these verses, Jesus is talking about what it means to build our lives on Him.  Something I’ve really been focused on in the past several months and trying to live out in my life. 

Jesus tells us in v.24 that wisdom comes from not just knowing and hearing his teaching, but from obeying it.  When we do that, Jesus said, it’s like building a house upon a solid rock.  I’m an idiot when it comes to building and carpentry, but one thing I do know is that it’s just sheer stupidity to build anything on a shaky foundation.  Especially a foundation as shaky as sand, which Jesus says is our foundation when we neglect our obedience to Him. 

Here’s the really eye opening thing for me in his words here.  Whether we build on Him or on something else, there will be rain and torrents and floodwaters and winds that beat against our lives.  Those that build on him aren’t immune to this stuff. 

Here’s how we’ve been duped, and I’m talking largely about Christians here.  We’ve been duped by “preachers” and authors and speakers that tell us that if we just believe God’s promises, we’ll see those promises come true.  If we just speak the blessings of God over our lives, we’ll see the blessings come to pass.  Life is all about seeing our hopes and dreams come true, and nothing at all about surrender to the Lordship of Jesus; transformation of our hearts and minds; and the refinement of our character and faith through the trials and hardships of life.  We’re led to believe that our trials and hardships are just a matter of not enough faith.  If Disneyworld was a church, the “preachers” that spew this nonsense would be the pastors. 

In 1 Corinthians 1:18 the Apostle Paul said, “I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God.”  Through the cross, we see that pain and suffering are sometimes a direct result of our obedience to God and are a part of God’s plan in our redemption and transformation.  Paul’s life and ministry are an example of this.  The greatest evangelist of all time wasn’t immune to pain and hardship.  In fact pain and hardship came to Paul, and the other apostles, directly as a result of their obedience to Jesus. 

Jesus’ words here are really a test of our willingness to be obedient and faithful to him throughout every circumstance of life.  It’s easy to say that we love God and that He’s good when everything is going right for us.  It’s easy to say that God has blessed us when we have plenty of material and financial blessings in our lives.  But it’s another thing altogether to say that we love God and that He’s good when we’re enduring a flood.  It’s another thing altogether to say that God has blessed us when we have little in the way of material and financial blessings in our lives. 

My life isn’t sunshine and lollipops and rainbows, and I bet yours isn’t either.  Let’s be honest – some of what we endure in life is a direct result of our own sin and disobedience, or a direct result of the sin and disobedience of somebody else in our lives.  But let’s also be honest in admitting what we all know to be true: sometimes life is hard.  No matter how much we love Jesus.  No matter how faithful and obedient we are.  Sometimes that hardship is even compounded, like it was for the early believers, because our love and faithfulness are taking us deeper.   

Be encouraged by the cross and the resurrection of Jesus today in the midst of your storm.  Don’t fall for the empty promises.  But believe the great promise of God’s Word for those who love Him in Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”