January Message - Nothing

When I was getting this month’s talk put together, I struggled with figuring out the main point of what I was trying to get across. I even tossed around a few different ideas of what to talk about. I thought of thankfulness, being humble, trusting in God, humility. All great topics that would all be completely relevant to our lives on a daily basis but they weren’t what I was trying to get across. I knew what I wanted to say, but I just wasn’t sure what the main point of what I was saying was. So, when I was re-reading my notes and going over it in my head, it came to me….nothing. Nothing is the main point of this. Let me explain that a little further…When it comes to what I have in life; I have nothing, I am nothing and I have earned nothing….that is without God’s grace. And on top of all of this….this is what I deserve, nothing. Who can tell me what mercy is? (AUDIENCE INPUT) The definition of mercy, as Webster’s puts it is: compassion that refrains from punishment even when the actions demand it. What about grace? (AUDIENCE INPUT) Grace is: unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. That was all a little too much for me to digest, so let me put it in plain English for us, mercy is NOT getting what you do deserve. An example is; you don’t get punished for sneaking the cookies out of the cookie jar. Or you don’t get reprimanded at work for messing up the big project. EVEN THOUGH YOU DESERVE TO, you are given mercy. Grace on the other hand, is getting something that you DO NOT deserve. You get an F on a test and the teacher gives you an A for no apparent reason. You screw up the big project at work and you get the corner office and the fat bonus at the end of the year. That’s grace. This is the same as what God’s grace has afforded us. God gave us his Son in the ultimate, loving sacrifice. It is God’s grace that has allowed us the ability and the availability to God the Father, to develop a relationship with Him. He wants us to develop that relationship. He wants to hear from us, to love us, to grow closer to us. God wants to be our number one. And it’s through trust and faith in Christ Jesus that we can develop that relationship. It’s through humbling ourselves before God, not just when it’s convenient but all the time, even when things don’t seem like they are going the way we think should be in line with His will. Proverbs 3:34 & 35 say, “Surely He scoffs at the scoffers; but He gives grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory; but shame shall be the promotion of fools”. What this is saying, is that meekness and humbleness, the lowly, will win in the end but the prideful ways will fall by the wayside. There are other keys that will help us to develop our relationship with Christ along the way that will cause you to become bolder in your faith and we’ll get into those in a minute. Becoming bolder in your faith will make you more vocal about the grace that God has granted us. I did a search on four words in the Bible. Thank or thankful, humble, humility and trust. Thank and thankful appeared 118 times. Humble appeared 41 times. Humility, a mere 14 times. But trust, trust appeared in the Bible 135 times! So just based on those numbers, and this is what I said I was going to get back to, I would venture to say that there are two key components to my attitude towards Jesus …. thankfulness, and trust or what is also referred to as faith. Now without thankfulness or trust, I would be hard pressed to further my walk with Christ. You see the attitude of thankfulness is based on being humble and showing humility. All this adds up to something greater. In Matthew 11:28 - 29, (you all will remember this verse when you hear it), Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom of God and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The word gentle is used here in this translation is gentle; the word humble is also attached to it. Other translations say “free of pride” & meek. So, do you see that the attitude of the “lowly” or of meekness, is an attitude of gratitude and service? I could go on about this, but we’re going to move on. Let’s take a look at a few more passages where it talks about thanks….Psalms 136:1 says “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever”. Just like we heard in our song earlier. In Mathew 26:26, we see Jesus at the last supper “…Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it”. Later in verse 27 he takes the cup and gives thanks to God. If Jesus Christ, God incarnate is giving thanks to the Father, how much more thankful should we be to the Father for what we have been given? I mean, he is giving thanks for bread and you think, well the guy was just hungry and really appreciated the bread. No! If you look at the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is teaching about prayer he says we should be asking for our daily bread. That was the most basic of substances back then. Bread was just to keep you alive. There was nothing fancy to it. And we are commanded in the bible to be praying for our daily bread. For just enough to keep us going. We are to be asking God for just enough in our lives and giving thanks everyday for that “just enough!” In Romans 1:18-22, Paul is talking to us about the backlash, the outcome of thankLESS-ness. It says in verse 21, “For although they knew God”, they refers to mankind, “they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” They were not thankful for what they had been given. You see, here’s the scary part that Paul shares with us in Romans…If you don’t know God, if you don’t have or haven’t had a relationship with Jesus Christ, you are held to a different standard when it comes to the Law, meaning the guidelines that Jesus has given us under the new covenant. But IF YOU DO have, or HAVE HAD a relationship with Jesus Christ, and you DO KNOW the Law, the guidelines, the rules to the game; you will be held to a different standard on judgment day. The bible tells us that we will be EXPECTED to have done everything humanly possible to follow God’s Law. Now, as humans we all fall short of the Glory of God. That’s why God had to send Jesus to save us. God allowed the ultimate sacrifice to be made on Mount Moriah or Calvary as it’s better know, so that WE can have a relationship with Him. In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Paul tells us to, "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." It isn't difficult to give thanks for the things we want to come our way; it is the hardships that threaten our stance of praise. It’s when things get tough that we forget to give thanks in all circumstances. If you are content in your walk with Christ, if you think you are a model Christ follower, look at what Paul told the church in Macedonia in Philippians 3:3-11. Paul says this, “For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and  glory in  Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although  I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the  nation of Israel, of the  tribe of Benjamin, a  Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law,  a Pharisee; as to zeal,  a persecutor of the church; as to the  righteousness which is in the Law, found  blameless. But  whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing  Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having  a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ,  the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and  the fellowship of His sufferings, being  conformed to His death; in order that I may  attain to the resurrection from the dead. “ Wow! What Paul is saying here is that, no matter how good I am, no matter how much I have, no matter how good I look in the eyes of others….It’s all worth nothing, without Christ Jesus. The word used in this translation is rubbish, but the literal translation of this word from the Greek was dung. All that I have without Christ Jesus is dung. I know that all this sounds a little harsh, but let’s look at one more example of a man who was known to be God’s greatest servant. His most righteous on Earth and then we’ll close. In the Old Testament, in the book of Job. For those of you who haven’t read the book of Job recently and think you are doing pretty good in your walk, take a look at this book. It will definitely put it all into perspective for you. In Job chapters 40-42 we get a clear account of what God the Father is really like. Here Job is upset with God after loosing everything. He lost all of his servants in one day. His livelihood, in one day. His eleven children; in one day! And His body was covered in soars. Just before this, God and Job are dialoging and God is asking Job a series of questions that there is no way a human could answer. In the beginning of chapter 40, Job just finished giving God his two cents. He’s wondering why has God let this happen to his faithful servant-me. “ Then the Lord said to Job, in verse 1 “Will the faultfinder  contend with the Almighty? Let him who  reproves God answer it.” Then Job answered the Lord and said, “Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You? I  lay my hand on my mouth. “Once I have spoken, and I will not answer; Even twice, and I will add nothing more.” Job was getting a little too forward with the Father! And God laid into him for it. It goes on and God asks Job, did I not make all the animals and make you Lord over them? He reminds Job that He is THE creator. He can take anything he gives! It goes on and God continues to ask Job question upon question about the things that only He can do. In chapter 41, verse 11 God says, “Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under the heavens belongs to Me.” In the end, chapter 42, Job humbles himself and says this. 2 “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. 3 ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” 4 ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ 5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my  eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” Shortly after this in verse 10, God restores Job, broken and humbled, to his previous stature time two! You see, even when calamity does come in our life and God does take back everything that is rightfully His, if we keep our faith in Him and we keep our eyes focused on Him and try to see the bigger picture….God will win and He will make His will known in our lives. So I ask you and I ask myself, who is number one in our lives? What are we doing on a daily basis to show God, not to show our boss, or our neighbor down the street but to show Him that we deserve NOTHING but His grace? As we sit at home with our families and out here in this beautiful desert…all of which God has given to us are we thankful? Are we showing God gratitude? Do we have an attitude of gratitude? This nothing that I am talking about is worth everything. It’s the nothing I want to be bold enough to tell others about. The nothing that has turned my life around and keeps my eyes focused on God daily. It is the nothing that I encourage you to focus on. For in the end, we will have nothing but God’s amazing grace! Jess and I both consider you all our family. As family, lets encourage one another to follow God’s laws and be bold in who we serve. Let’s take some steps in developing our relationship with our Father in this new year. I would say make it a new year’s resolution but we all tend to break those, so instead let’s make it something we really can do. Like for me, spending more time in prayer.As I play the song “ “ I encourage you to think about what it is you can work on in your own life to draw closer to God and to make that commitment to him?