Sermon for Sunday May 4th, 2008

Let God Wash Your Eyes With Tears so You Might See by Paul Fritz

Psalms 126:5-126:6

He Washes Your Eyes With Tears That You Might See (Psalm 126, 5,6)

"He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed. Shall indeed come again bringing his sheaves with him." (Psa 126,5,6)

Song: He washed my eyes with tears that I might see,

The broken heart I had was good for me;

He tore it all apart and looked inside,

He found it full of fear and foolish pride.

He swept away the things that made me blind

And then I saw the clouds were silver lined;

And now I understand ’twas best for me

He washed my eyes with tears that I might see.


He washed my eyes with tears that I might see

The glory of Himself revealed to me;

God washes our eyes with tears to help us see more of the glory of God in the face of Christ who suffered for the benefit of the whole world. (2 Cor 3:18) Do not underestimate the way that God can use the times of sorrow, disappointment and heartache for your good. The following are some ways that He wants to wash your eyes with tears to bring you to more transformative likeness to His Son:

1. FEELINGS OF DISCOURAGEMENT: When we experience disappointment, frustrations and setbacks it is great to know that God allows these for His refining purposes in our life. Those in Christian ministries often become discouraged when they experience failure, trials or a sense of psychological depression. Be of good cheer as Jesus has made us more than conquerors we simply have to recognize, realize and respond with His overcoming power. (John 16:33)

Satan wants to turn our psychological depression into a spiritual depression, to decrease our faith and separate us from God. The Lord wants to use discouragement to draw us into a greater intimate dependence upon Him.

2. FEELINGS THAT OUR WORK IS NOT APPRECIATED:
Few people can go on without being affirmed or appreciated. We all have to know that our contributions matter and are making an impact. We have an internal need to feel that we are worthwhile and valued. As a missionary I would often go for months without any appreciation or affirmation. Most of the time I swam against the stream of criticism, opposition and judgmentalism. This often led to feelings of resentment, but I found my appreciation, affirmation and joy through the praise of God for what He had done for me. He would often speak to my spirit about how I was making a significant contribution to the cause of Christ through the fruit evidenced in our ministries. I learned not to rely or expect any encouragement from the missionary or the nationals but found my joy in the Lord’s favor, blessings and rich confirmation in my devotional times. This went on for nearly twenty years and I praise God for His sustaining grace just as Paul did. "My grace is sufficient for you." (2 Cor 12:9,10)

3. CONFLICT WITH AUTHORITIES:

As a missionary I often found that the senior missionaries and the older nationals were steeped in traditions, procedures and habits. There seem to be pressure to conform to the old ways and to the patterns of previous generations. I was a innovator so I often found myself experiencing friction with the keepers of the past. They seemed to be more interested in control than the advancement of the church. Most of the 650 churches that I was involved in helping to start were done in conflict with leaders who wanted to hang on to the status quo.

I learned that these conflicts were similar to what Paul experienced in his day with the old vanguard. This often leads to a lack of trust as one doubts the good intentions of the leaders. Satan often used this to create tension and the questioning of my motives. When people question our motives they are in effect judging that person and that is sin. The Lord wants to use these experiences to teach us humility and reliance on Him to work out His will according to the scriptures. I used Acts 2:41-47 as my model and plowed ahead to the glory of God and the ultimate triumph of a successful church planting ministry that has more than 2000 churches birthed and growing up till today. He truly does allow us to sow in tears but bring home a bountiful harvest with joy.

4. OPPOSITION FROM NATIONALS:

It became clear through my years in church planting that there were many nationals who presented false accusations of "kingdom buildings" miss-statements about me through the years. Some would suggest that I would simply use the local church planters for self-aggrandizement while not leaving a self-reproducing ministry.

Now that I have been off the field for seven years, my accusers have all been discredited and the promise of Jesus to build His church is growing continuously from strength to strength in greater quantitative and qualitative measures. God’s purposes always prevail even though there may be some human casualties along the battle front. I was willing to take up my cross and die trying to serve the Lord in church planting and would do it again in a heart beat if my health allowed it. (Matt 16:18-20)

5. CULTURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND DIFFERENCES:

Tears can also come when we have gender, age or cultural differences with people. As an American in an African country that had an overlay of British and Muslim and traditional tribal cultures it was extremely confusing to know what was the normal expected manner of life. This often led to lots of friction when we had our meetings. I would like the one hour version of staff meetings, but had to endure the seven hour experiences that had many cultural undertones that I often miss-interpreted. Occasionally I would take along National Geographic magazines to pass the time during these long deliberations. Apparently this was noticed by some and yet was never mentioned to me.

Instead of using the Biblical methods from I Timothy of approaching me personally, an around about way of rebuke to my superiors produced a sense of betrayal and distrust. I learned that the Lord’s Biblical mandates are often swept under the carpet for the sake of cultural needs to save face and preserve dignity and an image of being above the fray. Only the Lord gave the grace, wisdom and tact to become all things to all men in these trying times.

6. PERSONALITY CLASHES:

We know that the source of conflicts is our own desires that wage war in ourselves (James 4) but personality differences can be quite vexing as well. As a objective drive I like to see goals accomplished, but others are much more deliberate. Instead of blaming personalities I learned to give greater room, freedom and individual expressions the liberty to express themselves without judgment.

The Lord is good in orchestrating all of these personalities if we will just learn their strengths and weakness . Yet, the key is through a mutual time of worship, prayer and goal sharing our differences melt in to insignificance in the pursuit of the greater good of Christ’s church, His love and the lost.

7. CIRCUMSTANTIAL DIFFICULTIES:

The greater source of tears comes from the world, the flesh and the devil through adverse circumstances. These may or may not thwart our progress, but our reactions to them will. The real problem is our sinful attitudes of self-importance, pride and self-serving paranoia. I determined that the Lord would use a wide variety of sicknesses, accidents and attacks to work all things together for God’s good and my benefit based on Romans 8:28-38. That became my lifeline and still is today. If God is for us who can be against us." He used difficult circumstances for Paul and He also did for me and He will do the same for you, if you will let Him.

Let Him wash your eyes with tears today so that you might see more of Him and what He has for your progress, pathway and promotion.