OT reading: Psalm 86:1-7, 15
Epistle Reading: Romans 11:32-12:12
How many times has someone cheated you
out of something you owned?
It might have been your wallet, your clothes,
your girl friend, your pride? Has it ever happened to you?
What did you do?
I asked you , “Has someone ever cheated
you” because we just read this passage in Psalms. What did the psalm writer say
in Psalm 86? Loosely, it says, “Lord, I’m hurting down here, I am poor and
needy but devoted to you. I trust you, please be gracious to me.”
What the psalm writer is
hinting at, maybe what he wants he wants to say but has not, is, “Yes I know, none of us really “owns” anything, it all is on loan
from You. So who am I to complain when you take it back? But even so, I know
you never stop loving me, you are so gracious that you are really slow to get
angry with me.”
Paul might have had this Psalm and these
words in mind when he said in Romans 11:32, “God has
imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”
Did you hear that? “God has
imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.”
Is that what you thought when
someone cheated you? Or let me put it another way, “Is that what you thought
when you cheated someone?”
“Is that what you thought
when you cheated someone?”
“Who me?”
If
you don’t answer that question, ”Yes, me - when I cheated someone,” then you
are deceiving yourself. As the song goes, “you are on the highway to hell.”
But the psalm writer knows God is
merciful in ways that defy logic. God is merciful even when we cheat him.
That is pretty crazy.
That is why Paul fell into the song of
the psalm writer, actually into the psalm writer’s prayer:
33 O the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how
inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has
known the mind of the Lord?
Or
who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has
given a gift to him,
to
receive a gift in return?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To
him be the glory forever. Amen.
Do any of you believe that? Do you
believe that God is gracious even when we cheat him? You better believe it.
That is what Paul says, you better believe it, because you live in a cheating
world, a world that will suck you up, chew you up and spit you out into the
gutter with the trash and filth that the rain washed into it.
Paul does not ask the question, “Do you
want to live by the rules of this cheating world? He really asks, “Do you want just to think about you, what you are doing, do it to your neighbor before he
can do it to you?”
How
many times a day do you stop and ask yourself, is what I am about to do going
to glorify God? Do you stop even one time and ask that question?
What about this question before you head
out the door: “Ok, what am I going to do that glorifies God today?” Or, “Okay,
how am I going to do my part to change the world today?
What am I going to do to make it a
brighter place, a safer place, going to help the human race?” The things Ben
Harper sang about in With my own two
hands.
That is what Paul means when he says in Romans 12:1-2, “I
appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship. Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and
acceptable and perfect.
It is hard to think you can make the
world a better place, isn’t it?
Paul knows you are thinking that. That is
why he said next verses, “For by the grace given to
me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you
ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure
of faith that God has assigned.”
Paul wants you to remember
two things here, first, don’t puff yourself up when you start feeling high and
mighty, second, don’t let someone put you down when they treat you like they
are high and mighty. They aren’t any better at being high and mighty than you
are.
But Paul doesn’t want pride
or feeling sorry for yourself to go to your head, because then he says, we all
have gifts. We all have essential gifts to work together to change the world.
That is why I ask you to tell
me what others see as your gifts to the world. And it is why I then turn the
tables and ask you, “what do you
think are your gifts to the world?”
I want you to identify and
use your gifts to glorify God, to change
the world, to achieve your dream vocation.
You start changing the world
by changing number 2- who is number 2? Yes, you. Who is number 1? Right, God.
Who helps number 2 change
number 2?
That is why Paul can say with such
positive assurance, “Rom. 12:-9-12: “ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold
fast to what is good. Love one
another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve
the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.
In other words, “Get fired
up.”
Let me put it into plain
words that connect you to why you are so important.
Most of the world looks at a
homeless person, a person who is unemployed and thinks, or says there is a
bunch of useless cases, or worse. They underestimate you in their own pride.
They think you are helpless. Some of them, even well meaning people want you to think that way. Many want to
keep you down because some how it makes them think all the stuff they have,
maybe even stuff the cheated you out of, makes them better than you.
Some of them will say, why
should we give more money to this Urban Outreach ministry Henry is operating?
It does not do any good.
When they do that they are
judging you and me and that condemns them. But where does that leave us?
It leaves us with a mission
for our vocation, to show them they are wrong. We are a part of God’s plan so
that their hearts are changed.
That is why you need to
really take to heart Paul’s final words, “Let your love be genuine. That is,
let your love come from your heart so you can say even to the one who cheats
you, “Brother I know what you are doing because I’ve done it myself. God
forgave me and I have grace in my heart. Try it, you’ll like it.”
That is why Paul says, “Outdo
each other in showing honor to others.”
What does that mean, showing
honor? (give me some answers.)
That is why Paul can say, “Get fired up,
show the world your spirit. Remember, you may be
suffering hardship but the light is at the end of the tunnel. Be patient and
pray every day when you open those eyes, “Give me strength Lord to know how am
going to Glorify God today. “
I know one way you can
glorify God. You can achieve your dream. When you do that, you prove all the
naysayers wrong, you proclaim God’s glory because you are saying to the world,
“I am going to live so God can use me, any time, any place.”
You show the world that hope
is real.
You can change the world
around you, the world cannot deny what it sees and hears as you love the Lord
with all your heart, and soul and might; and do the same even to those who
cheat you.
That is what being genuine in
a cheating world is all about.
When you glorify God, you
change the world.
When you glorify God you feel
good because you have righteousness written on your heart.
Amen
