U-Turn

When God turns us around.

Turning points are the crossroads of life—intersections where people make decisions or make changes that will take them in a different direction.

These junctions often come along unexpectedly and without warning. We're traveling along, minding our own business, when suddenly, there it is! Right in front of us there's a road sign, a turn-off, an exit on life's freeway.

This series of messages called "Turning Points" will look at some of the ways God turns us to lead us in new directions.

We need God's help to change because so often we get stuck in the regular, ordinary stuff of life—the endless series of routine activities. Trivial, common, run-of-the-mill stuff—pay the bills, cook the dinner, mow the lawn, go to work, go to bed, get up and do it all over again.

So when something surprises us in the midst of our everyday routine, it can be God's way of breaking into our routine so he can break us out of the ordinary.

I'm going to tell you about a guy named Matt. Matt seemed to have it all together. He had everything anyone could want. He certainly had money—lots of money. And because he was so wealthy, he was able to live the good life: He lived in a luxurious house, probably in some kind of a gated community. He wore top-end suits—the best clothes money could buy. He ate fancy meals prepared by his personal chef. Matt spared no expense to enjoy life to the full.

Besides all this, Matt enjoyed a lot of influence and political power. He was a real mover and a shaker. A lot of people felt threatened by him. In fact, regular businessmen had to go through his office in order to do business. They couldn't sell their merchandise without Matt's permission, and they despised him because he'd use his position to squeeze them for some extra cash under the table.

Despite his money and his power, though, Matt wasn't really all that happy. Secretly, he longed for a more fulfilling life. Sometimes he wished he could escape from the crazy existence he was trapped in—always scratching and clawing for more stuff. He'd begun to think it wasn't really worth it. He paid a pretty stiff price to get all he had. All that stress and pressure was a high price.

On top of that, he was also paying the price socially. Matt had friends, of course. But they were all pretty much the same kind of conniving, cheating, wheelers and dealers like he was. Regular people didn't like him. In fact, they despised him.

No one would ever ask him to testify in open court, because no one trusted him. He was considered unscrupulous and his word was unreliable.

Matt saw people whispering among themselves when he'd walk by. He saw how they'd turn their backs and try to avoid him. He heard their comments—how he was a traitor, how he'd sold out his own people, how he collaborated with foreigners. He heard it all, and it bothered him. He had money and power, but he still wasn't happy.

One day Matt got up to go to work—just like all the other days. He put on his designer clothes, like usual, and set out for the city gate where he always sat, collecting the fees from people so they could buy and sell in the market.

You could call what he did collecting customs or fees or tolls whatever, but the reality was that Matt was a despised tax collector. He collected taxes for Roman officials and skimmed off as much profit as he could get out of his fellow Jewish citizens. It's no wonder they hated him. It's no wonder they classified him—and all the other tax collectors—as the scum of society. Sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors were all in the same category.

But on this very ordinary day, something was about to change for Matt. We don't know exactly how it happened, but I'm guessing that coming or going to work or perhaps as he sat at his table, he heard a man talking to a crowd of people about how their lives could be different.

Now Matt knew all about the Roman Empire, but this man—Jesus—was talking about another kingdom. He said, "The time has come! The kingdom of God is at hand. So repent—change the way you've been living—and believe this Good News" (Mark 1:15).

So now, get the picture: Matt, who before his name was changed to Matthew had been known as Levi, is sitting at his job, doing his usual thing. I can see Matt—Levi—shuffling papers, filling out forms, collecting coins, and making change. Then, all of a sudden, Jesus steps up to his booth. In the midst of an ordinary day, Matt is interrupted by Jesus.

Luke 5:27-28 (NASB) ²⁷After that He [Jesus] went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow Me." ²⁸And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

This was a turning point for Levi. His life was completely changed after this moment. He went a whole new direction. He made a U-turn. Notice...

First, he left everything behind. I can imagine him getting up from his tax booth and simply walking away. He left the paper, the receipts, the money. He left everything behind. Maybe he had an associate or a worker who got it all, I don't know. But I do know that Levi didn't hang on to his past. He left everything behind—money, power, influence.

He left his old life behind too—he gave up his wealth, his power, his influence. But he also gave up the stress and the pressure. He gave up the guilt and the shame. He was done with all of that. He left everything behind. This was his turning point.

Before Levi was consumed with giving himself the very best. Now his name was changed to Matthew, which in the Aramaic (Mattathyah) meant "gift of Yahweh." His focus had turned away from himself to God—he would be God's gift, not his own gift.

Second, he began to follow Jesus. It's one thing to leave the past behind, but to do that effectively, you must know where you are going.

Before Levi had worked as a tax collector for the Roman government. Now he committed himself to a different kingdom. The kingdom of God was at hand, so Levi pledged his allegiance to Jesus, who came with the Good News of God's kingdom.

When Jesus stopped at Levi's tax booth that day, it was a turning point for him. He stopped doing his own thing, following his own way, chasing after money and power. He repented. He made a U-turn in a new direction. He left his past to follow Jesus. He surrendered his old life to find a new life in Jesus.

Some of you might be thinking, "Well, if Jesus walked up to my desk at work, like he did with Matthew, well, I'd follow him too. If Jesus showed up like that, I'd get up from my desk and leave it all behind."

Fair enough. But let me just leave you with a couple of observations about the way Jesus shows up in our lives. It's important to understand...

1. God lives in your everyday world.

Even a simple, seemingly insignificant thing—an ordinary event, a mishap, a mistake, a chance encounter—can in the hands of God become a turning point in our lives.

God does a lot of things that we just overlook. We miss what he does! "Oh, that was just an accident. Just a coincidence. It's not significant. It doesn't really mean anything." We want spectacular, sensation evidence...

But ordinary things can become extraordinary when God is involved. What seems to be a coincidence or some weird event can actually be God, using the circumstances of our lives to insert himself into our everyday existence.

• Sometimes God comes with a gentle nudge—just a soft tap on the shoulder.
• Other times he comes in more dramatic fashion—surprising or startling us with something shocking.

(Of course, we know God is always with us. He's everywhere—omnipresent. But I'm talking about those times when God breaks through the ordinary in order to get our attention. When God shows up like that, it's because he wants to do something fresh in us.)

God wants to do something new in your life. He wants to work in you. God wants to stir your soul. And he comes into your everyday life to do it—that is, he comes if your heart is open to see him there.

In mysterious, even supernatural, ways—in ways we could not have anticipated—God enters the ordinary lives of ordinary people on very ordinary days to do something extraordinary. You've heard some call these experiences a "God thing" or a "God moment." If we allow them, they can become turning points.

2. God loves you too much to leave you as you are.

God wants to grow you and lead you further into his plan and purpose. So he uses ordinary things in your life—people or events or experiences—to push you further in your walk with him, to help you grow deeper and stronger in your faith.

He wants to teach us something more. He wants to give us a new perspective. He wants to lead us in a new direction. He wants to refine us and shape us so we can meet new challenges and seize new opportunities. He has great plans for us!

When God is involved in this way, whatever the experience we go through—whether it is good or bad—it will change us. We cannot stay the same after we've encountered God. Once he steps into our lives, we must respond.

• How we are changed, of course, depends on our response. How the experience affects us depends on what we choose to do.
• If the event is something difficult or challenging, for instance, something that hurts—you might react with anger or frustration.
• On the other hand, you could respond with humility and faith. Some people become jaded or skeptical; others discover new measures of God's grace and strength.

But when God comes to us, we cannot remain as we were before. One way or another we will be different: We will see the world with different eyes. Our views will be altered. Our hearts will be affected. We will feel different about life, about the world, about others, about everything.

Some call these experiences the "defining moments" of life—moments that affect us so dramatically that they shape us in new ways.

We're going to call them turning points—experiences that take us in a new direction. Turning points come when God uses certain people, events, and experiences to influence us in profound ways.

3. Good can come out of bad.

We don't always see turning points for what they are—an opportunity for God to redirect us. In fact, some turning points are rather unpleasant. When they are particularly uncomfortable or painful, we try to avoid them. And if we can't avoid them, then we try to escape them.

We don't exactly do what James tells us to do:

James 1:2-4 ²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

We don't always immediately see that God is doing something good in us.

Back in the early 1900s farmers in southern Alabama were accustomed to planting only one crop every year—cotton. They'd plow as much ground as they could and plant cotton. Year after year they lived by cotton.
Then one year the dreaded boll weevil devastated the whole area. So the next year the farmers did what they always did. They planted cotton. They mortgaged their homes and hoped for a good harvest. But as the cotton began to grow, the boll weevil came back and destroyed the crop again, wiping out most of the farms.
The few who survived those two years of boll weevil decided to experiment the third year, so they planted something they'd never planted before—peanuts. And peanuts proved so hardy and the market proved so eager to buy peanuts that the farmers who survived the first two years reaped profits that third year that enabled them to pay off their debts for all three years.
It marked a major turning point for them. They stopped being cotton farmers and instead became peanut farmers. The boll weevil—and all the devastation and hardship it brought—literally changed their lives in ways they could never have expected. The insect pest changed their lives for the better.
So do you know what those farmers did? They erected a monument in the town square—in appreciation (!) to the boll weevil. They figured if it hadn't been for the boll weevil, they never would have discovered peanuts. The monument commemorated a turning point, a defining moment in the lives of those farmers. [Craig Brian Larson, Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker Books: 1993), p 7.]

If good can come out of bad in a natural sense, think of how much more this can happen in a supernatural sense, when God is involved!

On occasion, we create our own painful moments: we disappoint ourselves; we don't measure up to our goals or ambitions; we blow a great opportunity. We're human, so we can have regrets about a choice we made or the way we handled a situation.

Maybe we're like Matthew, unhappy, dissatisfied with the way something turned out. We wish we could do it over again. We say, "If only I had done this instead of that..." or "Why didn't I say that instead of this..."

Even times of regret can be God at work—showing us how good can come out of bad. Showing us how he can make something good even out of our mistakes and sins.

The good news that led to Matthew's turning point can also lead us to ours:

• Our failures can be redeemed.
• Ordinary can be transformed into extraordinary.
• Average can be salvaged—made exceptional.
• God Almighty touches the mundane to impart something eternal!

We need to recognize the times God wants to mold and shape us. We need to see better how he is working and what he is doing. Then we can join with him in his work. Then we can be partners with God, participants in his plan.

If you want to grow for the better, let your mistakes help you. Don't allow a mistake to be the thing that defines your future. Learn from your mistake and leave it with Jesus.

The truth is God never wastes any experience in our lives—even when we feel mediocre, even when we feel that we've failed. God uses all our experiences—good or bad, win or lose, success or failure, mistake or triumph—he uses everyday, ordinary, routine events to shape and mold us.

2 Cor 4:17 (CEV) "These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing."

2 Thess 1:5 (Message) "All this trouble is a clear sign that God has decided to make you fit for the kingdom."

Rom 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

2 Cor 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

When God makes "all grace abound to you," this can be a turning point—redeeming your failure, transforming your ordinary, forgiving your past, redirecting you to follow God's call and fulfill his purpose.