November 15, 2012

“Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey."  Matthew 25:14-15

 

Let's review this part of the story:

 

The master, before he left on a long trip called his servants to leave them in charge of his fortune. He divided it up in an uneven way giving one servant five bags, another servant two bags and a third servant one.

 

Frankly, that sounds sort of unfair. Now, granted when you have eight bags and three servants the math gets a little tricky. But fairness would dictate that he divide them three, three and two.

 

But he didn't. In this parable the master represents God, so does this mean God is unfair?

 

Fairness has become an important value in our culture. It was a big issue in the recent Presidential campaigns. The Democrats promise to make outcomes more fair while the Republicans promised to make opportunities more fair.

 

Think of how much money and man hours and energy and legislation is invested in the attempts to make our society a fairer place.

 

There are a number of great truths in this well-known parable and among them is that God isn't nearly as concerned about fairness as we are.

 

Brad, are you saying God is unfair? No, I am not. I am saying to God fairness isn't as important as it is to us. God is beyond fairness - He is just and He is righteous which means that when all is said and done He will make everything perfectly fair.

 

Lest you unfairly accuse God of being unfair, consider several facts in this story:

 

1) The master owned all the gold so it his right to do whatever he wants with it. It would be unfair of you to tell him what to do with his gold!

 

2) He owned the servants, too! It was their duty to serve him by doing what he told them to do. A master had all the rights and his servants had all the responsibility.

 

3) The master wanted to increase his wealth not just preserve it. Who doesn't want to increase his wealth? You do! I do!

 

Considering that and factoring how the story ended, this master could have had a greater increase had he given all the gold to the five-talent servant. Think about it. The one with five got five more and the one with two got two more and plus the one equalled 14 bags of gold. But if he had given all eight to the one servant and he doubled it that would have added up to 16!

 

So, in fact, his attempt to be fair with his servants may have cost him some profit.

 

Like the master in the parable God is not unfair but He is more concerned with fruitfulness than He is with fairness. You should be too!

 

I think it is fair to say that we would all be better off if we worried more about fruitfulness and less about fairness. Thus saith the parable!

 

 

November 14, 2012

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was not dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:19-34

Someone has written this perspective on the wealth/poverty/materialism issue:

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.   If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world.   If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.   If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.   If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.   If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare, especially in the United States.   If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.   If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer God's healing touch.   If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read anything at all.   You are so blessed in ways you may never even know.

I think this is the point Jesus was making about your attitude toward money and materialism. Begin from the position of thankfulness and recognition of God, the Source of your blessings. Unless you are grateful to your  Father for what you have you will not be satisfied with what else you get.

 

 

 

 

 

November 13, 2012

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."  Matthew 6:24

 

Perhaps you will find these factoids interesting:

 

* Jesus talked about money more than He did Heaven and Hell combined.

* Jesus talked about money more than anything else except the Kingdom of God.

* 11 of 39 parables talk about money.

* 1 of every 7 verses in the Gospel of Luke talk agout money.

The Word Money is actually used in connection with Jesus (whether He uses the word or it is used in connection with Him) approx 25 times throughout the 4 Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

 

Did Jesus talk about money because it is important or is money important because Jesus talked so much about it?

 

The answer is, "Yes!"

 

When you look at your money it says, "In God we trust" would it be more accurate to say "in money I trust"?

 

Jesus implies in this Scripture that trusting money is your default setting and unless you make a conscious decision and take some deliberate actions, money will be your master. Essentially, unless you reject money and materialism as your god, they will rule your life.

 

What makes money so powerful?

 

The short answer is that it can meet some powerful felt needs in a tangible way. Those needs, two such needs are the need for significance and the need for security. Having money and holding it and knowing you have more stashed away feels good. And the more you have the greater your sense of significance and security.

 

But God is the one who built those needs into you and they are shaped like Him. Money can give you some significance but what amount of money is more significant than God? And there is security in a good savings account and good insurance and a healthy 401K, but any or all of those can be lost overnight. The best you can hope for is a lifetime of significance and security but then what? What happens after that? God can make you secure forever!

 

Money is good, but God is better!

 

It might be a good time to do some honest soul-searching to examine where your trust resides. Is God your Master or is it money?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 12, 2012

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Luke 9:20

Do you find it curious that Jesus is asking them if they know Who He is after they have walked with Him and worked with Him for almost three years now?

 

Further, consider when He asked this probing question. They had recently went out on a mission in His name healing people and driving out demons! The day before they had miraculously fed thousands of people with one simple lunch!

 

Is it possible to do all those amazing feats and still not know Who Jesus is?

 

Apparently.

 

Consider what Jesus said on another occasion:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23

 

Chilling isn't it? Jesus makes it plain that you can do amazing things in His name but not necessarily know Him.

 

Could it be that discipleship is not so much about what you do are as what you are? Could it be that discipleship is about intimately understanding Who Jesus is? It makes sense that there is a difference between knowing Jesus and knowing about Him.

 

That is a HUGE difference! That is THE difference - relationship vs. religion. Religion is based on the belief that you can "do" and "not do" yourself into believing. But Jesus pokes a whole through that notion! He wants to live in relationship with you and desires to live His life out through you. Your doing for Christ results from being in Christ.

 

If your focus is on what you do or don't do for Christ, you are not a disciple. Even if you are doing miracles and deliverences. It is about "being" not "doing". True discipleship is knowing Jesus and living in intimate relationship with Him.

 

Are you in Christ today? Do you know Him? Don't settle for doing.

November 11, 2012

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2

 

D. L. Moody is a great example of what can happen when a man commits to partner with God. One plus one may equal two in the realm of mathematics. But when one man with His God it doesn’t double, it multiplies. And not only does it multiply but it compounds!

Moody was born in a very poor New England family in 1837. They were already poor when his father died at the age of 41 their creditors came and took all they had except the clothes on their backs. They even took the fire wood stacked behind the house. When their mother took them to church and S.S., they were so poor she didn’t want to wear out their shoes and socks so she would have them go barefoot and carry their shoes and socks until they got within sight of the church when they would put them on and go into church.

 

When he was old enough, Moody landed a job as a shoe salesman and became one of the top shoe salesman on the East Coast. He became friends with a fellow shoe salesman by the name of Edward Kimball. Kimball was a Christian who often witnessed to Moody. One day, Kimball led Moody to the Lord in a back room of the shoe store.

 

Soon after becoming converted, Moody came across a quote by Henry Varley that challenged him and profoundly changed his life. The quote was, “The world is yet to see what God will do with, for, through, in and by a man fully consecrated to Him.” Moody decided he wanted to be that man, so after being denied membership in his local church who considered him too unpolished, he recruited 18 rowdies off the street and began teaching a Bible class with them. Two years later that class had grown to 1,500!

 

During his lifetime this rough, raw and unpolished man shared the gospel with 100,000,000 people!

 

In the case of D.L. Moody ONE + one equaled 100 million when he partnered with God. But that was not the full extent of the partnership with God. What began with a shoe salesman who dared to partner with God and share his faith with a co-worker in the back of a shoe store didn't end there:

 

·         Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ;

·         J. Wilbur Chapman was converted at a D. L. Moody evangelistic meeting;re

·         Billy Sunday was converted at a Chapman meeting;

·         Mordecai Ham was converted at Billy Sunday meeting;

·         and Billy Graham was converted at a Ham meeting.

 

On December 22, 1899, the evangelist D. L. Moody lay dying. His first job had been as a shoe clerk in Boston, gathering eighteen ragged boys off the street to organize a Sunday school class. In two years the class had grown to fifteen hundred. In his lifetime Moody was to take two continents in his hands and shake them for God. As he died, he left this epitaph written on the flyleaf of his Bible, “If God be your partner, make your plans big."

 

What big thing could you partner with God  for if you were fully consecrated to Him?

 

 

 

November 10, 2012

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:7-9

 

Years ago, Joshua had been one of the dozen spies who Moses had sent into Canaan to survey the land. But there was only him and Caleb who brought back good reports. There were great risks to be faced in the form of giants the abundant rewards would be worth those risks.

 

But now he was older and was actually in charge now. No longer was it a matter of just proclaiming, “We can do this!” Now it was a matter of, “Let’s go do this! Follow me!” His life and his reputation were on the line now!

 

The first big obstacle would be the fortress of Jericho. Could he do this? Should he even try? What if he failed?

 

Those must have been some of the thoughts racing through his mind on the eve of the long awaited day. Why else did God keep urging him to have courage?

 

As we know, Joshua stepped up with great courage and led God’s people well!

 

This is a day for some “Joshuas”! We stand on the verge of some unknown territory!

 

One thing that was obvious from the recent election is that many of the things we value and hold dear are not valued or held dear by at least half of our nation. So what happens when we are the only ones left who believe what we believe and love what we love?

 

What will you do when you are one of the few who believes the Bible is God’s Word and the only authoritative source of truth?

 

Have courage to keep believing!

 

What will you do when you are one of the few who believes that trusting Jesus Christ as Savior is the exclusive way to salvation and to eternal life and you are ridiculed for that belief?

 

Have courage to keep believing!

 

What will you do when you are one of the few who believes that gay marriage is immoral and wrong?  What if you are despised and called intolerant for that view?

 

Have courage to keep believing!

 

What will you do when you are the only person where you work who refuses to cheat or lie when the boss demands it?

 

Have courage to keep refusing!

 

 

This is the culture in which we live. These are some of the pressures we are and will increasingly face. The election made that clear.

 

Will you change with your culture and compromise your beliefs? Or, will you be a Joshua and be confident in your beliefs while standing courageously for them? Will you continue teaching them to your children?

 

By the way, Joshua WAS courageous, God strengthened him, he stood and Jericho fell!   

 

November 9, 2012

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19
 

Notice this great promise does not say, "And my government will meet all your needs....." I suspect there were tens of millions of voters last Tuesday who were not aware of the truth promised in this text.

As the experts research the post-election data one of the things that seems to be apparent is a lot of people voted for the candidate they thought would give them the most stuff. We may have arrived at a point in our country where more people look to government for their needs than those who look to God.

It will be a sad day for our nation if government takes the place of God because the Epistle to the Philippians clearly proclaims God's promise to supply our needs.
 

Here's some ways God wants to supply all my needs:

Supplication

 

By supplication I mean I trust God to provide what I need and so, I pray and He provides a job. Then I trust Him for strength and health to do the job He provides.

Sacrifice

I have a need and I trust my Christian friends at my church to sacrifice and help meet my need. And when others have a need I sacrifice to help them.

Supernatural 

Sometimes when there is not a job to be had or when my health prevents me from working and my church family can't meet my need then God does a miracle to provide a way to meet my need.

 

You can trust government for your needs, I choose to trust God to meet mine. He can meet needs in a lot of different ways - supplication, sacrifice, or supernaturally!

 

Do you have a need you can trust Him for?