Wondering Where the Lions Are...

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Wondering Where the Lions Are...(Download mp3 Audio)

Sun’s Up, Uh huh, looks okay
The world survives another day
And I’m thinking about eternity,
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But I’m thinking about eternity,
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

We talked last week about faith as expectation. We talked about setting an empty chair in our midst in expectation of Jesus coming. Without taking action, faith is dead. If we don’t set a place for Jesus to show up, He is probably not going to show up.

This week I want to talk about what happens once we have we set that chair in place.
Once we have waited patiently like the Hebrew people. When year after year the appointed times come and the festivals go. And still there’s no Messiah, sitting in the chair.

This is where the test of our faith begins. Because, if the chair stays empty, past this time when we come, Does that mean He is not coming?
Does that mean God does not reign?
We see that after waiting 2000 years for that chair to be filled. When Jesus himself, God Incarnate God in flesh, comes and sits down in the chair. Instead of being excited, instead of rising to their feet and declaring how great their God is. They want to push him off a cliff and stone him.

But we might think, but that was them, You know, they were dull of hearing, Isaiah says of them, “they have eyes but don’t see they have ears but don’t hear.” But how does that apply to us?
It applies to us, because we are just like them. We come week after week, we haven’t been coming for thousands of years, Josh is not that old, but Howard has be coming for at least several decades.
Does God show up every Sunday?
How does you faith hold up in the face of a natural disaster like Katrina when it comes close to your house? How does Psalm 91 hold up if someone you know gets sick or is in the hospital?
How we can miss him when he shows up? 
We saw that happen after the Israelites waited for a thousands of years. Why? Because He doesn't always take out a full page ad in the paper to tell you he has arrived, incognito!

Did you know He comes like a thief in the night? Even before the end, the second coming, all the stuff with the virgins being ready. Here is an example of coming incognito. Jesus has just finished at outdoor meeting and is doing altar ministry and dispersing the crowds. Let’s catch up with his disciples in Matthew 14:22-23.

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves,… Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.

See, you can be close to God and still miss him, when he comes in the middle of the night.
Here is the guy that they have lived with, worked with, they have seen the miracles, but they don’t recognize him, when he comes in the middle of the night.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid."And Peter answered Him and Said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God." Matthew 14:27-33

Do you identify more with the eleven in the boat or are you out there surfing in bare feet with Peter on the water? I am not asking which group you want to be in, but which group do you find yourself in this morning? Do you see yourself, standing peaceful with Daniel in the lion’s den?
Could you have slept there all night long? Or do you see yourself cowering in the corner.
If you were there praying, what would you be hoping for?
You are in a lion’s den, what are you hoping for?
Are you hoping for a set of bars to come between you and the lions?
Are you hoping they won’t notice you?

See, what you are hoping for will determine how big your God is.
How big is the chair you have set for Jesus to come in your midst?

How about a furnace that has just been stoked with fuel until it reaches 2000 degrees? 
The security guys that threw you in fell dead, their lungs seared from the super heated gases, coming off the fire you just landed in. What do you think they hoped for? The story is found in Daniel Chapter 3.

While you are looking it up we will remind people that might not know the story. They haven’t seen the Veggie Tales version of this story, which is milk toast compared to the real thing. The King had a dream and Daniel interpreted the dream, and if you remember it, it was about what empires were going to come to rule over the world. The reason I am going this far back is because of the end of that dream the last part of that dream a rock tumbles all the previous world empires.

The answer is is Jesus Christ is going to reign, God is going to reign. All the kingdoms of this earth are going to be tumbled by the rock cut out without hands, that comes down the mountain and strikes the image at its feet. Jesus is the rock that is cut out of the mountain without hands. That comes down and strikes the image at its feet and then becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth.

The King had to decide, “has God really said?” He decided, “No! God had not really said.”

I am going to make a gold image 66 cubits high and 6 cubits wide. And I am going to cause all the provinces all my empire, to come to this place and I am going to have worship music going on. And all of you, all the princes, all the governors, all the ambassadors, all the government clerks, and all the people that represent this great empire I have built. You are to bow down and to worship the gold image saying in fact, that this reign of Nebuchadnezzar is forever, and that the reign of Jesus was never going to come and destroy it. The three Hebrew children would not bow down to anything but their God but what did they expect?

Daniel 3:14-18 So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?" That is a question you should write down.Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

As I was quickly changing directions this morning, taking some notes, I was reminded of a song I have not heard or even thought of for many years. It is written by a man named Bruce Cockburn.



He was writing about another natural disaster. Another super heated furnace, I didn’t know this story until just a couple of minutes ago. The song was written partially about Fire fighters in the woods of Canada. And the name of the song is “Wondering Where the Lions Are?” I am going to read you some passages out of here. This guy is writing about in the face of real heat in the face of real natural disaster. This is what he wrote.


Wondering where the lions are? Bruce Cockburn

Sun’s Up, Uh huh, looks okay
The world survives another day
And I’m thinking about eternity,
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But I’m thinking about eternity,
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
Walls windows trees waves coming through
You in me and me in you
Together in eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
And I’m wondering where the lions are…I’m wondering where the lions are…
Huge Orange flying boat rises off a lake
Thousand-year-old Petroglyphs doing a double take
Pointing a finger at eternity
I’m sitting in the middle of this ecstasy
Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun,
Polished as precise like the brain behind the gun(should be)
they got me thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me
And I’m wondering where the lions are…I’m wondering where the lions are…
Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bay
One of these days we’re going to sail away,
Going to sail into eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold of me
And I’m wondering where the lions are…I’m wondering where the lions are…

Now that may seem weird for you to hear that in Church,
but this guy is talking about fire fighting, and all the equipment and all the efforts of men to put out a fire but his mind is not on what man can do.

This is like those fox hole experiences, where you have everything you can do and you are standing in the middle of something that is bigger than what you are and bigger than your equipment. You can have freighters pumping water and shooting it up across the burning forest. You can have these machines that can go up and have that water pumped into them and fly across these fir forests. There is a raging fire, it going to take acres and acres of land.

And there could be a fire coming into your life, it could be financial, it could spiritual , it could be emotional, and you need to have the same focus that he has.

That in the face of a fire fight we say,

“You know there may be lions at the door, but they are not as big as they were before”
because my mind is on eternity, and I am being kept in the peace of God. There is a ecstasy that has a hold on me.

And I am wondering where the lions are? Where are your teeth? Oh death where is your sting, Oh grave where is your victory, would be the biblical way to say that.