Escape from Gilligan’s Island: Who Is in Charge?

Who is in charge? That is the ques­tion Pastor Bart asked us Sunday as we con­tinue our jour­ney to escape Gilligan’s island, fol­low­ing the peo­ple of Israel in the book of Exodus. God has given us some com­mands in order to help us escape off our island. However, once the pres­sure is off, we often try to take over instead of fol­low­ing God’s commands.

The three main points of pastor’s ser­mon were con­cern­ing God’s Commands.

1. They per­tain to every area of our life. Sometimes the com­mands seem to be counter to the world’s stan­dards but in all cases they are designed to ben­e­fit us.
2. God’s com­mands come with bless­ings and curses. Blessings bring us abun­dant life, the curses bring us death. We need to exam­ine our lives and see where we are in dis­obe­di­ence and bring our­selves in line with God.
3. Finally, God’s com­mands must be con­firmed by a covenant, a blood oath. Without the shed­ding of blood there can not be sal­va­tion. It seems that most civ­i­liza­tions have under­stood this, each hav­ing some form of blood sac­ri­fice. Jesus has become the once and for all sac­ri­fice. When we accept Christ’s sal­va­tion for us, we enter into a covenant with God and His commands.

And so how do we respond? For me, this always brings up the bal­ance between obe­di­ence and legal­ism and the bal­ance between free­dom and law­less­ness. I really don’t have a prob­lem try­ing to be legal­is­tic as I hold dearly to “It is by faith we are saved and not by works lest any man boast.” I am rather a laissez-faire type when it comes to oth­ers as well. I do attempt to live accord­ing to the stan­dards God has set out for me, not because I believe it will some­how save me, but as a result of my faith.

There is a spot that God desires us to be in, a spot cen­tered in God’s love. When we stand in that place we obey His com­mands because we love Him and want to please Him. As we stay in His love, we receive His bless­ings. It is here where I desire to be.

The prob­lem we all have is of course our­selves. We even­tu­ally become com­pla­cent or over con­fi­dent in our­selves and find our­selves out­side of that place God wants us. We find our­selves think­ing that it won’t hurt to go on that 3 hour tour out­side of of God’s com­mands. This of course leads us to much pain and suf­fer­ing, a sud­den storm that gets us stuck on Gilligan’s Island.

We also can­not become pride­ful think­ing that we can some­how fol­low every com­mand of God through our own power and in essence save our own skin. We do that and before we know it, we are com­pletely out­side of God’s will and back on Gilligan’s island. If there is one thing that we can cer­tainly learn from the peo­ple of Israel is that is is very hard to stay on the straight and nar­row. God knew this and pro­vided us our sal­va­tion through His per­fect Son.

Now, we can’t blame all pain and suf­fer­ing on dis­obe­di­ence. The Book of Job teaches us as does the Book of Exodus that some­times God allows us to go through tri­als and test­ing that we may come out stronger in the end. Those times we may feel stranded but in fact, God is right there with us. We may still feel stranded, espe­cially if we have peo­ple around us like Job’s wife say­ing “Curse God and die.” I thank God my wife is just the oppo­site of Job’s wife. She loves, prays, and cares for me even when I am feelling horrid.

It is very hard to let God stay in charge. It is one of those fights I have with myself con­tin­u­ally. I iden­tify with Paul when he writes in Romans 7:14–8 [show]Romans 7:14–8:39 [14]For we know that the law is spir­i­tual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. [15]For I do not under­stand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. [16]Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. [17]So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. [18]For I know that noth­ing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the abil­ity to carry it out. [19]For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [20]Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. [21]So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. [22]For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, [23]but I see in my mem­bers another law wag­ing war against the law of my mind and mak­ing me cap­tive to the law of sin that dwells in my mem­bers. [24]Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [25]Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is there­fore now no con­dem­na­tion for those who are in Christ Jesus. [2]For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. [3]For God has done what the law, weak­ened by the flesh, could not do. By send­ing his own Son in the like­ness of sin­ful flesh and for sin, he con­demned sin in the flesh, [4]in order that the right­eous require­ment of the law might be ful­filled in us, who walk not accord­ing to the flesh but accord­ing to the Spirit. [5]For those who live accord­ing to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live accord­ing to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. [6]For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. [7]For the mind that is set on the flesh is hos­tile to God, for it does not sub­mit to God’s law; indeed, it can­not. [8]Those who are in the flesh can­not please God. [9]You, how­ever, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. [10]But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of right­eous­ness. [11]If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mor­tal bod­ies through his Spirit who dwells in you. [12]So then, broth­ers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live accord­ing to the flesh. [13]For if you live accord­ing to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. [14]For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [15]For you did not receive the spirit of slav­ery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adop­tion as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” [16]The Spirit him­self bears wit­ness with our spirit that we are chil­dren of God, [17]and if chil­dren, then heirs–heirs of God and fel­low heirs with Christ, pro­vided we suf­fer with him in order that we may also be glo­ri­fied with him. [18]For I con­sider that the suf­fer­ings of this present time are not worth com­par­ing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19]For the cre­ation waits with eager long­ing for the reveal­ing of the sons of God. [20]For the cre­ation was sub­jected to futil­ity, not will­ingly, but because of him who sub­jected it, in hope [21]that the cre­ation itself will be set free from its bondage to cor­rup­tion and obtain the free­dom of the glory of the chil­dren of God. [22]For we know that the whole cre­ation has been groan­ing together in the pains of child­birth until now. [23]And not only the cre­ation, but we our­selves, who have the first­fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adop­tion as sons, the redemp­tion of our bod­ies. [24]For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? [25]But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. [26]Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weak­ness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit him­self inter­cedes for us with groan­ings too deep for words. [27]And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit inter­cedes for the saints accord­ing to the will of God. [28]And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called accord­ing to his pur­pose. [29]For those whom he foreknew he also pre­des­tined to be con­formed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first­born among many broth­ers. [30]And those whom he pre­des­tined he also called, and those whom he called he also jus­ti­fied, and those whom he jus­ti­fied he also glo­ri­fied. [31]What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32]He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him gra­ciously give us all things? [33]Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who jus­ti­fies. [34]Who is to con­demn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is inter­ced­ing for us. [35]Who shall sep­a­rate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribu­la­tion, or dis­tress, or per­se­cu­tion, or famine, or naked­ness, or dan­ger, or sword? [36]As it is writ­ten, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaugh­tered.“ [37]No, in all these things we are more than con­querors through him who loved us. [38]For I am sure 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. (ESV)
:1, “… I want to do what is right but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it any­way… Oh what a mis­er­able per­son I am! Who will free me from this life that is dom­i­nated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.… So now there is no con­dem­na­tion for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (NLT).

And so, I pray that I will remain in God’s love, fol­low His com­mands, and live my life in faith­ful response. I thank God that He loves me even when I fail and con­tin­u­ally draws me back to Him. I am so thank­ful that although I feel stuck out in the wilder­ness like the peo­ple of Israel, I know God is with me and lead­ing me to the promised land.