Sermon Series

Part 2 CAN YOU BELIEVE IT ?

You may recall the foregoing statement from our opening message a week ago. There is a second aspect of faith
that catapults us into the future. Its vital we know what we believe, and its also vital that we know what we are
believing God for. This question still lingers: What are you believing God for in your personal life, your family,
neighborhood and ministry? To help answer these questions, weve begun to look at the stories of four women
in the Bible whose lives changed history. As I mentioned before, they are all irreplaceable links in the chain of
Gods redemptive history. That will make more sense when we get to the 4th and final message. [Bibles Ruth]
Last week, we specifically looked at what sometimes is the absurdity of Gods promise, and the corresponding
absurdity of believing it. Put simply, our series is titled; Can You Believe It? Recall that we considered Sarah,
and the fact that she would bear a son at the age of ninety, and Abraham her husband a century old at the time.
But the second woman I want to look at with you is Naomi. Sarah laughed at her promise; but Naomi plodded.
She experienced the paradox that her home, Bethlehemmeaning House of Breadbecame the home
without bread. So with her husband and two sons, she went to Moab as a refugee. (Right now our world is filled
with refugees like Naomi, and we need to be concerned for them & bring them both physical & spiritual food.)
Naomis sons married Moabite women. Her husband died despite the fact his name, Elimelech, meant My God
is King. Ten long years later her two sons died also. She decided to go back home since there was bread again in
the House of BreadBethlehem. One of her daughters-in-law, Ruth, went with her; but when Naomi returned to
Bethlehem she said to her townsfolk, Dont call me pleasant and lovely anymore (incidentally; that was the
meaning of her name). Call me Mara instead (meaning bitter). She said, The LORD has afflicted me; the
Almighty has brought misfortune upon me (Ruth 1:20-21).
I want to ask you something before going further. How often do you and I misread our circumstances? You may
be in a situation right now where you feel exactly like Naomithat the Lord has abandoned you. Difficult
things have happened to you difficult things that you dont deserve. Maybe it seems that it is one difficult
thing stacked upon another? You may feel that God is not for you, that somehow he has it out for you.
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One thing I like about Naomi is her honesty. Yet I disagree with her, and heres why. Her actions show that she
is not Mara, a bitter person. If she had been a truly bitter person, Ruth would not have wanted to be around her.
We all know that a bitter person tends to repel others. And Naomi doesnt act like a bitter person, despite the
terrible losses in her life. How do we know that? Because she plotted a romance for Ruth (read it yourselves)!
And, when the marriage occurred and a child was born, this is what the women of Bethlehem said to Naomi:
Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you with-out a guardian-redeemer. May he become
famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-inlaw, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth (Ruth 4:1415).
And the story ends with this:
Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. (Ruth 4:16).
That little baby just happened to be Obed, the grandfather of David, who eventually became king of Israel!
All those years of plodding were not in vain they were not for nothing! Could this be said of our plodding?
I cannot help but think of godly parents who plod along all their lives, whether they be your parents, you
yourself as parents, or others. Neither their names nor yours will likely ever appear in the headlines, but the
works they establish(ed) perhaps flower today and tomorrow with great fruitfulness. Being that this is another
Missions Sunday, perhaps some stories of missionaries that relate to our 2016 theme believe are in order.
A household name in the family of George Wood, (our AG General Superintendent), was one of his parents
friends and contemporaries, William W. Simpson. It was Dr. Wood who recalled, in one of his recent messages,
that: If ever there was a plodder, it was he. He was born in a log cabin in the Cumberland Mountains of
Tennessee. At the age of twenty, while pastoring a small church, he preached on the text from Mark 16:15, Go
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (NKJV). He did not feel right telling others to go if
he did not go. He knelt in agonizing prayer and finally offered himself, Lord, I am only a poor boy with no
special Bible training, but I promise You with all my heart Ill go and obey You.
Mark 16:15 became his call. He served fifty-seven years in northwest China and Tibet, from 1892 to 1949. A
man of strong opinions, he never believed he needed a special call because Gods call in Mark 16:15 was
clear and unmistakable enough. He regarded Tibet as a literal fulfillment of the ends of the earth. GO
consequently became his lifelong watchword.
One of his sons, William E., was appointed an Assemblies of God missionary in absentia at the age eighteen.
Having been raised in that area of the world, Willie (as he was called) spoke the Tibetan language fluently. At
thirty-two, he and a Russian friend were moving the elder Simpsons belongings to a Tibetan monastery in the
village of Labrang. Some troops, who had mutinied, surrounded their truck and fired a bomb into it, killing both
Willie and the Russian. The soldiers then dragged their bodies from the truck and stole their belongings. Nearby
villagers simply buried their bodies by the side of the road.
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Word finally reached William Simpson senior, and five days later, he came accompanied on horseback to the
place where his son had been killed and buried. Heres an excerpt of the story in his own words:
When some distance away we saw the forlorn truck. We galloped our horses to the dreaded lonely spot.
Dismounting, we started toward the rude grave. How I longed for one last word with my darling boy. Seeing
a paper lying there on the bloody ground, I picked it up. It was a Sunday School paper folded on which I
read, In Remembrance of Me. Opening it, I saw smeared over the paper the blood and brain of my beloved
son! And I then remembered how I had laid my son on the altar years before, knowing it probably meant his
death. And I remembered too that Paul wrote, Be followers of God as dear children. And I ultimately
thought, as God gave his Son to make salvation possible, I have given my son to make salvation known too. So
the Lord had arranged for this paper to convey my sons last word to me. His blood is my blood and was shed
to help a party of missionaries locate on the Kansu-Tibetan border to preach the gospel to the un-evangelized.
As the elder Simpson stood that day on the barren mountain-side, he remembered riding over the rugged
mountains with his son, crossing the swollen streams, and often sleeping under the stars. Far in the distance
could be heard the lone cry of an animal. He then raised his voice and began to sing his sons favorite hymn:
The seed I have scattered in springtime with weeping, and watered with tears and with dews from on high;
Another may shout when the harvesters reaping - shall gather my grain in the sweet by and by.
Over and over, yes, deeper and deeper my heart is pierced thro with lifes sorrowing cry,
But the tears of the sower and songs of the reaper shall mingle together in joy by and by.
Another may reap what in springtime Ive planted; another may rejoice in the fruit of my pain.
Not knowing my tears when in summer I fainted while toiling sad-hearted in sunshine and rain.
Over and over, yes, deeper and deeper my heart is pierced thro with lifes sorrowing cry,
But the tears of the sower and the songs of the reaper shall mingle together in joy by and by.
As he sang, the old missionary testified that his heart filled with peace. He exhumed the bodies of both his son
and the Russian, and later reburied them at a Tibetan village.
Several years ago Dr. Wood recalls also that he was visited by one of William Simpsons grandsons. He
was an ethnic musicologist teaching in a Tennessee university. He wanted to see if any of his grandfathers songs were still being sung up in Gansu province where he had founded churches. During his
lifetime, Simpson had taught the new Tibetan Christians hymns that were set to the tunes of the Tennessee
songs he loved as a country boy - Songs like Oh! Susanna, and Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad.
More than the songs, the grandson found thousands of believers who were the fruit of his grandfathers
ministry. And yes, they still sing his songs!
Like Naomi, Simpson senior plodded through years of difficulty, losing a wife, a small daughter, and a thirtytwo-year-old son on the mission field. But he never quit. Perhaps these things have not happened to you, but
you are plodding right now in your own life in some way. I faced that a few months ago during a time of
depression. I know what plodding is like. I was surprised to discover recently that our Superintendent, George
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Wood, also went through a season of deep depression during his life. Let me tell you a little about it.
While sitting at his desk one day, his thoughts went back to his childhood. He evidently wanted to be an artist,
but he had no ability to draw. So as a cheap alternative, he would buy dot-to-dot coloring books. Then he would
connect the dots and fill in the colors. He realized that in the midst of that depression, and during a time when
he was truly plodding, that the problem with his life at that moment was that he could only see the dot
between that morning and that evening. When he was a child, and as is typical with us, he could sometimes
discern the general outline of the picture by seeing the arrangement of all the dots. But, now as an adult
even as a pastorit was as if he could only see the dot between this morning and this evening. He wondered
who or what he was fighting against, or if this all was even worth the fight. But, he now admits; I felt the
Holy Spirit say to me, George, just trust Me. I know where all the dots are. Is He saying this to you?
Take a hymnal if you would, and turn to the hymn Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus. Somewhere on those
pages it should reveal to you the author of this well-known hymn. Writer and biographer, Harry Gariepy, is
one who tells us the story of its author - Louisa Stead. One day she and her husband and their four-yearold daughter, Lily, set out on a sunny day to enjoy the beach on Long Island Sound. While eating a picnic
lunch, they suddenly heard cries for help and Mr. Stead rushed into the sea to rescue a drowning boy. The
thrashing and terrified child eventually pulled Mr. Stead under the water, and both of them drowned as the
horrified wife and daughter watched helplessly. Louisa Stead plodded through the lingering torment, and
struggled with why her husband, who was committed to serving Jesus, would lose his life in such a
tragedy. It was during that dark hour of her life that she wrote words that have blessed us all:
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word; Just to rest upon His promise; just to know, Thus saith the Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how Ive proved Him over and over. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! Oh for grace to trust Him more.
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust His cleansing blood; Just in simple faith to plunge me neath the healing cleansing
flood.
Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus, just from sin and self to cease, Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.
Im so glad I learned to trust You, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend; And I know that You are with me, Will be with me to the end.

You see, tested and true believing happens when we are not a fair-weather friend of God. Great treasure can
come out of our plodding, because we know God is always working for the good in all things. Louisa Stead was
a young mother when this happened, but she spent the rest of her life as a missionary in Africa, and the little
four-year-old girl, Lily, would also follow in her mothers steps as a missionary to that same continent.
Speaking of Africa Tonya Busse, Gary Lawton, Bill Altland, and others on the Med-Reach team in Uganda at
this moment likely are not plodding, but there have been times in their life that they probably have. If not, they
probably eventually will. But as the hymn reminds us, joy and peace need not be lost. Scripture confirms it.
May I encourage you to believe in God even if, like Naomi, like William Simpson Sr., or like Louisa Stead and
her daughter, you are plodding at this moment in your life? Trust God and believe. He knows where all the dots
are for all your tomorrows. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus! He is faithful even when we are not! So whether it
be laughing at the absurdities, or plodding through the pain and disappointment, Gods eternal word is this:
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the
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power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13) Joy and peace are connected to believing. Can you believe it?