Git'n Thru

This week in Gone Country we talked about “Git’n Thru” the struggles we face in life. We learned that sometimes we make our struggles worse than they need to be. It is important to continue to seek God and to trust the Lord through all of life’s circumstances. If you missed the serrmon, follow this link to download the audio or read the text below.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mdemhmm1gig/Git'n Thru - 2.mp3

For those of you with the study guide, the answers are in bold!

“Git’n Thru”
Brimfield Faith UMC
Jonah 2; Galatians 6:7-10

April 18, 2010

INTRO
Rob said to me at practice Wednesday night, “I can’t believe you are having me sing this song in church.” Some of you might be thinking that right now… I hope not, but understand that from a glance, “If You’re Going through Hell,” seems like a pretty secular song. After all, the language of this song isn’t exactly very spiritual. That’s one of the reasons I like it so much because the song uses non-spiritual language to talk about spiritual issues.
Talking about spiritual issues with non-spiritual language helps us to see God in a chaotic world. This series, “Gone Country” is an exercise in using non-spiritual language to identify spiritual things. Last week, we began with the song, “I Saw God Today,” and we talked about some keys to seeing God act in the world. The first key was to know the Scriptures and the second key was to slow down. I hope you have been able to recognize God in unlikely places and circumstances over the last week.
If you didn’t, you might not have been looking hard enough. This week at our council meeting, I heard incredible reports of God’s actions in the world. People are continuing to be healed as a result of our prayers. I even saw God in our parking lot this week. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we are running out of space in our parking lot. That is something to rejoice about because it means we are reaching people with the message of Jesus Christ. It also provides us a challenge to create additional space to reach additional people. But nonetheless I was able to see God in the problem this week. God is working in powerful ways as people’s lives are being transformed.

GOING THROUGH HELL
This morning’s song, “If You’re Going through Hell,” guides us on a journey of faith and hardship. The song when heard through the lens of faith can provide some important insights into making it through hell and through the difficult periods of our lives.

#1. Verses 1 and 2 address the struggles of life.
The first verse sings about the struggles that we all find ourselves in from time to time. A harsh reality of life is that things are always easy. We will all encounter stresses, anxieties, challenges, and roadblocks throughout our lives. There will be days when wake up late, leave our lunch at home, hit every red light, and spill our coffee at the stop light. When those days or periods of our lives happen, we can relate to the first verse of the song. “I don’t mind if ya kick me, seems like everybody has. Things go from bad to worse, you’d think they can’t get worse than that and then they do.”
While the first verse recognizes the shared human struggle, the second verse gives us further insight into the source of those struggles. “You step off the straight and narrow and you don’t know where you are. Use the needle of your compass to sew up your broken heart. Ask directions from a genie in a bottle of Jim Beam and she lies to you.” While there will always be the random sickness, unexplained tragedy, or the catastrophic natural disaster, many of the struggles in life are self-inflicted. The song is speaking to the biblical proverb, “You reap what you sow.”
When times get tough, we have a way of making them tougher. Many times when we encounter hardship, we attempt to escape the stress instead of resolve the issue. As we try to escape our difficulties through bad habits, unhealthy behaviors and addictions. While these forms of escape may seem to help for a short period of time, eventually they will catch up with us. Each time we chose to engage in escapism, we sow into the temporary reliefs of the flesh. Galatians 6:7-8 also address the self-inflicted struggles of life, “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh.”
When we live life in ways contrary to God’s, our poor choices eventually will come back to haunt us. We know we cannot find the answers to our struggles in the bad habits and unhealthy behaviors. Nonetheless many people remain trapped hardship, because one rough spot quickly spirals out of control and becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. Thankfully the cycle can be broken and the struggles overcome.

#2. Verse 3 calls us to break the self-destructive cycle.
Verses three of the song transitions us from finding direction through the bottle to finding direction from better sources. It begins, “Well I been deep down in that darkness, I been down to my last match, felt a hundred different demons breathing fire down my back. And I knew that if I stumbled I’d fall right into the trap they were laying.” If we are going to make it through hell, we need to recognize there are forces in the world that seek to bring us down. The reality is that those destructive forces only have as much power as we give them. When we chose destructive behaviors as a form of escape, we fall directly into the hands of the evil one. This magnifies our current struggles and perpetuates a self-destructive cycle.
This cycle will continue until we become aware of our poor choices. If we truly want to escape our present struggles, then we must resist the temptations and traps that lie before us. The escapism that we embraced in our past will never lead us to a better place. Instead we need to turn from these choices and turn back to God.
Earlier, Olivia read us a prayer of Jonah. In this prayer, Jonah, from the belly of a fish, seeks to break his own self-destructive cycle. “As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” 10 Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land.” Breaking the cycle can be more difficult than we might think, but thankfully we aren’t left to do it alone.

#3. Verse 4 reveals God’s mercy in the struggles of life.
As Jonah turn to God in attempts to resolve his struggles, God pours out his mercy upon him by having the fish spew Jonah out upon the dry land. Verse four talks about the God’s mercy active in our lives. “But the good news is there’s angels everywhere out on the street. Holding out a hand to pull you back upon your feet. The one’s that you been dragging for so long, you’re on your knees, you might as well be free.” God’s presence continually surrounds us. As we learn to receive it, it helps to make us free. God’s mercy is all about God’s steadfast, continual love. It can be understood as not getting what we deserve. God’s mercy pulls us back to our feet. God’s mercy spit Jonah out of the fish. God’s mercy gives us a second chance at life.
It is God’s mercy that leads us back to God. In Romans 2:4 Paul asks, “Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” God’s mercy brings us back from the place of brokenness and puts us back together. We see God’s mercy extended through the helping hands of humans and angels. Ministries like our food cupboard extend God’s mercy to people in their struggles. We have all been one the receiving end of a compassionate act of a stranger in times of need. It is important to support mercy ministries because it is God’s love and mercy that woo people back to the Lord.

MEANS OF GRACE
To conclude this morning, I want to focus that which brings us through the difficult times in life and touch on how the practices which sustain us. This bring us to the chorus of the song.

#4. The chorus extends God’s grace to sustain us.
Where God’s mercy woos us back, it is God’s grace sustains us through the struggles of life. God’s grace is about receiving gifts from God that we do not deserve. The ultimate gift of God is the gift of His presence. Through the strength of the Holy Spirit, we are able to make it through hell and back to God.
In the chorus of the song, we get a clear picture about how God’s Spirit can help us make it through hell in one piece. “If you’re going through hell, keep on going. Don’t slow down, if you’re scared don’t show it. You might get out before out before the devil even knows you’re there. Yeah, if you’re going through hell, keep on moving. Face that fire, walk right through it. You might get out before the devil even knows you’re there.” Although the advice doesn’t seem that spiritual, it definitely is valuable. The advice touches on what we, as Methodists, call means of grace, the spiritual practices that help us receiving the sustaining strength of the Holy Spirit. These practices provide the strength to make it through hell and back to God.

The first spiritual practice is to always seek God.
The chorus sings, “Don’t slow down…” and “keep on moving.” Often when we encounter struggles, we put life on hold. We stop doing the things that bring us life. When we get super stressed out, we don’t make time to fellowship with friends. We don’t sleep enough. We don’t eat right. We stop praying and reading our Scriptures. We cut out Sunday morning worship. We begin to shut down the good in our lives and resort back to the self-destructive behavior.
When we encounter struggles we need to continue to seek God. Galatians 6 says: “If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” While we will need to eliminate certain behaviors, our focus needs to remain fixed on God. We need to sow good things so that we can reap good things. Each step we take towards God is a step we take out of hell. As I listen to the words “down slow down…” and “keep on moving…” I am reminded to sow into goodness by seeking God above all else.

The second practice is to maintain a trust in the Lord.
The chorus also sings, “If you’re scared don’t show it…” and “Face that fire, walk right through it…” Romans 8:37-38 teaches that we can conquer the struggles of life and make it through hell. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Since we can never be separated from the love of God, we are able to face the fire and overcome feelings of fear. The song never purports that we can somehow escape walking through hell at times. There will be times of struggle in life. If we can rely on the Lord, we can get through the fires. Trust is found through supportive friends. It is found by meditating on Scriptures like Romans 8. These practices give us the ability to trust the Lord and to the strength to push through the difficult times.

CONCLUSION
Getting through the struggles of life, walking through hell, and making it back to God can be challenging. At the end of the day, it is the one who created you, God Almighty, who enables us to make the journey. It is through his mercy and his grace that we are sustained and make whole. I want to conclude this morning by praying for those of you who need an extra bit of God’s mercy and grace this morning.
Let’s pray…