00:00:00.000 - 00:00:40.320

The following message for the moment is delivered by the Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. Today's sermon is entitled, "Three Cheers for the Attempt." The scripture reading of the morning is 2 Chronicles 6. Then Solomon said, "The Lord has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.

00:00:40.320 - 00:01:01.840

I have built thee an exalted house, a place for thee to dwell in forever." Then the king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. And he said, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled

00:01:01.840 - 00:01:26.320

what he promised with his mouth to David my father, saying, 'Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city in all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there; and I chose no man as prince over my people Israel.

00:01:26.320 - 00:01:45.000

But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name may be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.' Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

00:01:45.000 - 00:02:07.680

But the Lord said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.'

00:02:07.680 - 00:02:30.160

Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise which he made, 'For I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised. And I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. And there I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with

00:02:30.160 - 00:03:02.440

the people of Israel.'" May God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his words. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

00:03:02.440 - 00:03:29.400

Some say that it was a medieval monk who said it the first time. But I've come across it in many places, and I imagine you have as well. It is the comment that when you get to heaven you will have three great surprises. First, you will find many there whom you did not expect to be there.

00:03:29.400 - 00:03:58.080

Second, you will find many not there whom you did expect to be there. And third, you will be surprised to find yourself there. It's in the light of that interesting set of three surprises that I want this morning to share with you a beautiful Old Testament story.

00:03:58.080 - 00:04:22.040

David was up in years, and he decided that he would like to build a house for the worship of God. Now, there are some people who, when they get toward the end of their lives, particularly when their lives have been successful, they turn inwards and wallow in their own self-satisfaction.

00:04:22.040 - 00:04:45.120

And there are others who have been successful who turn their eyes outwards, having succeeded so far they wish to expand and succeed even farther. But David turned his eyes upwards. This is what the Scriptures record in 1 Chronicles 28.

00:04:45.120 - 00:05:14.520

"And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, 'See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth in a tent.'" David, you see, did not want God to be number two, and so he would build a temple for the

00:05:14.520 - 00:05:41.640

praise of God. It's a beautiful dream, a beautiful hope in the heart of an old man. But God's answer to David's words comes immediately, and it is blunt and surprising. He says to David, "Thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed

00:05:41.640 - 00:06:02.600

much blood upon the earth in my sight." In other words, permission is denied. The sins of your past make it impossible for you to do what you wish today. Your yesterdays are crippling your tomorrows.

00:06:02.600 - 00:06:26.800

Now here we confront face to face what is called the indirect judgment of God. We see it written out in the life of this one man, David. We have as a rule taken too lightly words of scripture like these, "As you sow, so shall you reap.

00:06:26.800 - 00:06:52.040

Sow the wind, and you shall reap the whirlwind. Be sure your sin will find you out." Past deeds do have a way of ruining our present dreams, and what we have done often stops us from what we would like to do.

00:06:52.040 - 00:07:15.840

I think this morning of one whom I shall call Mike. He was a custodian in a church that I served. Mike had lived a very dissolute life, and by the time he was 22 years of age he had succumbed to the sickness of alcoholism and had descended to the lowest level of life

00:07:15.840 - 00:07:45.400

on Skid Row. And there in a mission one night he was found by Jesus Christ, and his life was turned around. And he began to serve Christ by being the custodian in the church. But sad to say, in the course of this long, hard battle he had with alcohol, he developed

00:07:45.400 - 00:08:14.640

cirrhosis of the liver. And so it was not long after he became a Christian that he was ready to die. And I shall never forget what he said to me the last time I visited him in the hospital. He said, "Every one of your yesterdays counts in your tomorrow."

00:08:14.640 - 00:08:32.680

That was David's difficulty. He had shed much blood, and so he could not build the temple. The past intrudes upon the present. And I don't think that as a rule we think about this with sufficient seriousness.

00:08:32.680 - 00:09:09.440

I read about a group of women who got together in a seminar to discuss deceptive packaging. And a survey was taken among these women, and it was discovered that 15% of them tinted their hair, 28% of them were wearing wigs, 80% were wearing rouge, 98% lipstick, 25% eye shadow, 22% false eyelashes, and 93% nail polish.

00:09:09.440 - 00:09:39.340

But they were 100% against deceptive packaging. My friends, it is very foolish to accuse others of that which is present in our own lives. And when it comes to spiritual matters, it is very dangerous to do so. For God is not mocked, and as we sow, so we shall reap.

00:09:39.340 - 00:09:59.120

We seek to establish justice on the earth. And the reason we seek to do that is because the seeds of justice have been planted in our hearts by the God who made us and who commissioned us to seek to bring justice to all the world.

00:09:59.120 - 00:10:23.480

We cannot expect, therefore, having been made by God and assigned by God to justice, that he himself would not be just. In fact, he is just, and here we see his indirect judgment. Now notice, there is nothing violent, there is nothing angry about it.

00:10:23.480 - 00:10:48.400

He has simply built into life certain moral principles. They stand there like a mighty rock. And when David threw himself against that rock, he did not hurt the rock, he hurt himself. And when Mike, my friend the custodian, hurled himself against the rock, he did not hurt

00:10:48.400 - 00:11:12.720

the rock, he hurt himself. And it is so with us. Whenever we deliberately move into that place where we seek to violate God's law, in great matters or in small, we do not break God's law, but break ourselves upon it.

00:11:12.720 - 00:11:38.960

This kind of indirect judgment is in no way God's fault, it is our own. We reap what we have sown. The nature of God, the nature of sin, and the nature of sinners requires this. The "was" is always present in the "is."

00:11:38.960 - 00:12:04.320

God is just, which means our yesterdays impact on our tomorrows. But I ask you this morning also to think with me about the direct judgment of God. When I shared with you a few moments ago how God answered David, I shared only half of what he said.

00:12:04.320 - 00:12:20.320

Let me share it all with you now. God said, "Thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight." Now that's the indirect judgment of God.

00:12:20.320 - 00:12:44.680

Now we hear the direct judgment, "But it was in your heart to build a house for my name, and you did well that it was in your heart." David, no, you may not build a house, but you did well in that it was in your heart to do it.

00:12:44.680 - 00:13:14.360

David, you see, is being directly judged by the splendor of his intentions. Our final judgment does not so much rest upon our deeds as it does upon our dreams and our desires. And that being so, it is sad that so many persecute and flagellate themselves, thinking

00:13:14.360 - 00:13:40.080

that they are far from God, when in fact they are longing with everything in them, in spite of their successes or failures, to be his servants. If you think about it seriously, you can understand immediately why God cannot base his judgment of us only on the goals that we achieve.

00:13:40.080 - 00:14:01.160

Our deeds are insufficient for judgment because our motives may be high or low. A man may put a million dollars in the offering plate, which virtually costs him nothing, and preen and be proud about it, and another can drop in a very few cents, but it's the last few cents that they have.

00:14:01.160 - 00:14:21.520

Now, the one deed looks much greater than the other, but in fact the motive makes the difference. You can give everything you have to the poor, but if you have no love, it profits you nothing. The deed, you see, must be measured by the motive, and the motive is within, and God

00:14:21.520 - 00:14:46.360

judges what is within. Our deeds are insufficient for judgment because our bodies and our minds are instruments of our deeds, and some bodies and some minds are stronger than others. I think of a young man who suffered from Down syndrome, and he told me when he was in high

00:14:46.360 - 00:15:06.080

school that he wanted to be a minister. He of course could not be a minister. There was no way in which he could master the academic disciplines which were necessary. Or I think of another young man who was terribly crippled with polio.

00:15:06.080 - 00:15:30.760

He had had it in his heart to be a missionary, but he had to go to sleep every night in a great big machine which never could be transported about on the mission field. Now, both of these people wanted with all their hearts to serve God, but their minds or their bodies were not up to it, just so.

00:15:30.760 - 00:15:53.960

God does not measure us in terms of our deeds because many times we cannot do the things we want to do. So he looks within for our intentions. Our deeds are insufficient for judgment also because we face not equal, but unequal opportunities.

00:15:53.960 - 00:16:14.320

I remember two women from the first church that I served. One woman was a very lovely woman who had been reared in a Christian home. From her very first breath she had been surrounded with Christian love and brought up in the nurture and the admonition of our Lord.

00:16:14.320 - 00:16:40.760

The other woman had been born the daughter of a prostitute and grew up in a brothel. Now she later became a Christian and both of these women were part of this church it was my privilege to serve. And what I observed was this, that these two women in battling temptation were not equally

00:16:40.760 - 00:16:56.820

matched. This woman who had grown up in a beautiful Christian environment had strengths and assets at her disposal that this woman who had been brought up in such ugliness could only dream about.

00:16:56.820 - 00:17:25.160

There were times when I saw the woman who had grown up in great things defeat temptation and I would think to myself, "This is good." But there were also times when I saw that this woman who had been raised in a brothel failed and yielded to temptation, yet she fought harder to try to do good than the one

00:17:25.160 - 00:17:47.520

for whom doing good was most natural. So you see, you can lose and still be fighting much harder than those who have won. That's the reason God does not judge us on the basis of our successes or our failures. He looks within.

00:17:47.520 - 00:18:10.480

How hard have we been fighting? And our deeds are also insufficient for judgment because our inner selves find very little expression in our outward acts. Let us suppose you are confronted with some tempting circumstance and you wrestle with

00:18:10.480 - 00:18:34.240

this issue and you argue for and you argue against and you feel yourself being attacked by all kinds of wrong thoughts. And yet at the same time, there is in you some doubt as to what exactly the right course is and finally the balance is tipped and you do this thing and it is wrong.

00:18:34.240 - 00:19:12.560

And your friends see you do it and they grieve and your enemies exult over your failures. But only God knows how hard that contest was within and how only one thing caused that balance to tip towards sadness. That's the reason God judges us, not by our outward acts, but by what is in the heart.

00:19:12.560 - 00:19:39.760

And our deeds are also insufficient for judgment because no deed that we can do can express all of the best that is in us. What mother or what father, hearing my voice now, would argue that the love they had shown to their children expressed adequately the love for their children which they feel in

00:19:39.760 - 00:20:01.880

their hearts? What sweethearts who are here today, who are deeply committed to each other and do all kinds of loving things for each other, but which one of them would be willing to say, "These things that I do for my loved one adequately express all of the love for him

00:20:01.880 - 00:20:19.080

or her that I feel in my heart." The fact is, we're not machines whose output can be measured. We are human beings. We are too profound.

00:20:19.080 - 00:20:40.840

That which is in us is too inexpressible. We are too intimately involved. We are too filled with potential to ever expect our deeds to adequately mirror the dreams that are in our hearts.

00:20:40.840 - 00:21:02.200

So God looks upon the heart to judge and not upon the deed. Indeed, only God can so look upon the heart. So David could not build his temple. It never saw stone or martyr.

00:21:02.200 - 00:21:30.880

It remained only a cathedral in the heart. But God accepted this and he said, "You did well, for it was in your heart to do it." The structures that God accepts from us are most often like Jacob's ladder. They come forth out of our dreams.

00:21:30.880 - 00:22:03.600

Our deeds are oft times mud and they fall apart and are so quick to disappear. But what we produce in our hearts, the workmanship of our spirits, that is of a dimension of eternity that is even beyond our grasping. That's the reason God measures the heart.

00:22:03.600 - 00:22:24.760

God does not decide as the world decides. He decides on the basis of how earnestly we have sought to serve Jesus Christ. No matter how little we have done in that service, it is not necessary that we always triumph.

00:22:24.760 - 00:22:57.500

But it is essential that we always try. We go into battle for Him and we return with broken swords. We come to Him and we say, "Father, our hands are empty." And He looks at us and smiles and says, "No, you bring me the gift of scars."

00:22:57.500 - 00:23:26.600

So it is true that the failures of yesterday cripple our todays. And this is part of the indirect judgment of God. We bring this kind of pain upon ourselves. But God sees down deep and He says to us when He measures and plums the heart, "You did

00:23:26.600 - 00:23:51.000

well for it was in your heart to do it." David didn't build his temple. And had he built it, it would have been built of rocks and stones and today would be no more than some archeological ruin over which people stumbled and took tourist photographs.

00:23:51.000 - 00:24:12.920

But in his heart, David built a most beautiful temple for God. And because of the grace of God's Spirit, we have been allowed to see that temple. You've seen it. The Lord is my shepherd.

00:24:12.920 - 00:24:37.560

I shall not want. Remember, Jesus did not say, "Happy are those who are filled." Jesus said, "Happy are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, who hunger and thirst after filling."

00:24:37.560 - 00:25:11.120

This is where real happiness is. And my friends, if God deals so gently with us, why are we so hard on one another and so hard on ourselves? In days of a while ago, every little village on the North Sea coast of Scotland had a rescue

00:25:11.120 - 00:25:36.520

boat and the strongest men in the town would learn how to row that boat with maximum strength and skill. And whenever some vessel out at sea would get in trouble, the village nearest to where the trouble was occurring would send out its boat and its team to try to rescue the perishing.

00:25:36.520 - 00:25:59.800

And on one occasion a fishing boat was in serious shape, and so this little village sent out its boat with a crew aboard and they went, smashing their way through the waves to the side of the fishing boat. The people on the shore stood there anxiously watching to see.

00:25:59.800 - 00:26:21.440

But the mist was too great, the waves were too high, they could only catch an occasional glimpse of what was occurring, but finally their boat turned and began to come back to the village. It could not come up onto the shore because the waves were still too high to risk something

00:26:21.440 - 00:26:37.600

like that. But the laird of the village, that's the equivalent of the mayor, the mayor of the village realized that everyone was very anxious to know what had happened, and so he called out across the waves, "Any survivors!

00:26:37.600 - 00:27:05.600

Any survivors!" And back came the sad and melancholy cry, "No, not one. No, not one." And then the laird said, "Well then, let us give them three cheers for the attempt."

00:27:05.600 - 00:27:40.600

And out across the frothy sea, the men who had done their best and failed, still heard three cheers because they tried. You do not hear many sermons about judgment today, but you have just heard one. I have been speaking to you of the judgment of God, and I believe what I have said with

00:27:40.600 - 00:27:55.520

all my heart. The sins of our past will hurt us and harm us. What else can you expect from our way of living? But that's the indirect judgment of God.

00:27:55.520 - 00:28:32.560

God directly judges us with mercy, not what we had done, but what we had dared to try. You did well, for it was in your heart to do it. So we can fail and fall, and we can see our hopes and our dreams smashed into nothingness. And we can stumble and fumble in our discipleship.

00:28:32.560 - 00:29:17.720

But listen, listen. And from the very battlements of heaven, you hear the cry, "Three cheers, three cheers, three cheers, for the attempt, for the attempt, for the attempt." And when we hear that, our hearts rejoice, and we may be glad again.

00:29:17.720 - 00:30:23.240

Let us pray. We know that this is true because the supreme illustration of it is shown to us in thy Son, Jesus Christ, who didn't judge people by what they were, but by what they were trying to

00:30:23.240 - 00:30:33.300

be. It's in His name that we pray our prayer. Amen. 9

00:30:33.300 - 00:30:35.640

(wind blowing softly)