Part II

You know, from a child we learn the scriptures, Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not on your own understanding; acknowledge him in all your ways and he shall direct your path.” Psalms 37:23 says, “The steps of a good man or a woman are ordered by the Lord, and he or the man or the woman delight in his will.” Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps.” In Philippians 2:13 we read, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure.” I didn’t plan on going blind. Like one guy said, “You know, if I knew I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” Right?

I never wore glasses until I was over 50, and then suddenly one day I began a process and I lost sight in my right eye. Six years later coming back from Holland, that thing moved into my left eye, and I lost 60% of my sight in my left eye and I became legally blind in both eyes. Usually, often, if I don’t know the church—the platform or the floor plan—I’ll have a cane with me. I know this platform pretty well. But I was down in Mexico, and I was preaching in a tent, and I had to get my cane because the ground had been all plowed up, with straw on it, and there were holes and so forth. I was taking my cane, walking up to preach, and I had to climb up some stairs. The platform was about four (4) feet high. I got to preachin’ and I laid that cane down—the anointing of the Lord began to come on me—and I’d move over to the left toward the edge and I’d hear this ooossshhhhhh go through the congregation. And I thought, Lord, you’re really here tonight—hallelujah—and I’d move over toward the right and I’d get close to the edge and hear ooossshhhhhh again.

It reminded me of the young man who was going to preach his first sermon. He memorized it and he memorized his text, and his text was, “Behold, I come quickly.” Well, he stood up there on a high platform and said, “Behold, I come quickly,” and his mind went blank. He thought, “Oh, my goodness.” He backed up and thought, I’ll try it again; maybe it’ll come to me. He spoke louder, “Behold, I come quickly,” and nothing came. He thought, I’ll try it one more time. He backed up and then moved forward quickly saying his text, “Behold, I come quickly,” and his foot slipped, and down he went into the front row, and landed in a woman’s lap. She looked up and said, “Well, I can’t say he didn’t warn me.”

I hope I don’t fall off this platform this morning. Our greatest example of a person in scripture going through change and transition is Jesus, our Lord himself. He did not want to go to the cross—his natural man cried out—and in the garden he sweat as it were great drops of blood and cried aloud, “Lord, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me.” And so many times we come to those places in our lives that are painful, and we are hurt, and we are injured through life’s brokenness, and it touches us and we don’t want to go on. But I’m here to tell you this morning whether you lose a child, or whether you lose a husband or a spouse, or whether you lose your sight, or whether you lose the use of your legs or your arms, whatever it may be, or if you come to the end of the way, when it comes to that day and we cross Jordan…let me tell you, when Paul laid his neck on Nero’s chopping block, it wasn’t the end, it was the beginning! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We don’t have anything to fear! We can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil, for He is with me. Amen? Hallelujah!
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Now Bridges isn’t a Christian, he’s a social engineer psychologist. When you read his works you see nothing of a faith in God. But, you know, I believe that truth is truth wherever you find it. You find it in a ditch and it’s God’s truth, it’s truth if it’s from the Lord. But here’s what he says: “In transition when we go from ending to new beginning, we must first pass through the neutral zone.”

The neutral zone…how many of you have ever been in the neutral zone? It is not a nice place, let me tell you! I remember going through the neutral zone one time, and I didn’t want to do what God wanted me to do, and I fought him and I fought him. And you know, Paul said it’s hard to kick against the goads, the sticks. God’s got a lot of rope…If you want to ignore him and go on and try to do your will, he’ll give you just about as much rope as you can stand pain. There came a point where I was in the neutral zone, and I didn’t want to be there. I said God, I prayed, if you’ll just leave me a note on the desk, in the morning I’ll get up and read it, I’ll do whatever you want me to do. But God doesn’t work that way. He says without faith it’s impossible to please God.

What does Bridges say about the neutral zone? He says that here we know something is coming, but we really don’t know what it is. We may think we know, but we don’t really know for sure. Some of us have dreams, some of us have visions, some of us just want to stop and drop out of the rat race. You know, the only problem with winning the rat race is that you’re still a rat! That’s the problem!

The neutral zone is a time for discovery—it’s a time to extend or expand our own sense of reality, and it’s a time which God will deal with us as we bring our limitations to him and he’ll allow us to experience a deepening sense of purpose. Yes, things will be different, our friends will miss us…we’ll be sad too…but we can celebrate what God has done in our lives and trust the tomorrows for all of us to His kind care and keeping because he will make the way plain, he will provide. He is with us and we don’t have to cross Jordan alone.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear or be afraid, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” In Hebrews 13:5 Jesus is quoted as saying, “I will never leave you; nor forsake you.” Matthew 28:20b, at the end of the Great Commission, he says, “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Aren’t you glad this morning that we don’t have to worry about tomorrow? The gospel of songwriter Iris Stanfield put it this way, “I don’t know about tomorrow, but I know who holds my hand.”
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Now listen…it says here, and I think it’s so very true, in these notes, I’m so glad we don’t have to be like the world when we experience change and transition. Now listen to what Bridges says in his book—this is the world talking now, when you go through the neutral zone—he says, “You’ll be lonely and empty. Go find a quiet place and be alone. Log a journal of your experiences. Write an autobiography. Discover what you really want. Take a few days off and go on your own variety or version of a passage journey.”

Now beloved, all of these things are good and fine, but listen…the problem is that they tell you to go find a quiet place, but not what to do when you get there. The Bible says, “Get down on your knees and cry out to God and seek his face, and repent of your own sins, and turn from your wicked ways if you’ve not been following him, and call upon his name; and he said in the day that we seek him with all of our heart, we will be found by him.” Amen?

And he will meet us, and he will guide us, and he will open up the tomorrows. He will allow germination to take place in our soul and in our spirit, and he will give us direction. To me it’s awful pitiful, it’s awful bankrupt; you know, write an autobiography. Here you are at your wits end and all the world’s psychology has to say is write an autobiography. It’s kind of self-indulgence. We need to get in touch with God. At a time like that, at a place in our lives like that, we need to hear from the Lord.

Look around you, there’s plenty of need around you. There are particular gifts that you have that are suited and especially needful in the lives of others. It’s good to take a vacation, it’s good to take a few months off, but you need to remember that God has a plan for your life, and it is a better plan. It’s good to think about retirement, but I hate to tell you, the word retirement’s not in this Bible. It’s not in there, okay? I thank God I’ve got a born again financial guy. He tells me, “Frank, retirement’s not in the Bible.” It’s worth talking about putting money away so that someday when you “retire from your job” you’ll then able to go into self-funded ministry. Christians need to look forward. They have to have a time where they can leave that job, maybe they’re going to have enough money that they can go into ministry full time and it can be self-funded. They don’t have to find a way to fund it. But retirement’s not in the Bible. God has a new beginning for you…a new season of living, a new season of learning, a new season of ministry…because it’s only at the end that we come to new beginnings.
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Part III