Calling All Sinners & Misfits

My Pastor Buddy, Aaron Loy, of Mosaic Lincoln nails it with his latest.  He was kind enough to allow me to repost here.  Read on.  Be challenged.  Be blessed.  Your weakness + God's strength = just enough.

The older I get, the more I am coming to realize that everyone has a reason why they can’t or shouldn’t be used by God in an extraordinary way.

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been teaching through the life of Gideon at Mosaic. Gideon is perhaps best known for his continual testing of God’s will through what is at times, unconventional means. Gideon was a man often overwhelmed by fear. For much of his life, it seemed Gideon could hardly take a step forward without questioning God, doubting his promises, and asking for reassurance. (I can sure related with that, how about you?)

And yet, in spite of his weakness, God chose to take this cowardly farmer and make him into a “mighty warrior” in order to deliver a suffering people from unjust oppression. Gideon described himself as the weakest of the weak. And in many ways, he was. He was an unlikely hero. But as it turns out, God is rather fond of using flawed, failed, ordinary people:

• Gideon was afraid
• Abraham was old,
• Jacob was insecure,
• John the Baptist was a weirdo with a beardo,
• Job was bankrupt,
• Leah was unattractive,
• Noah drank too much,
• Joseph was abused,
• Moses had a stuttering problem,
• Samson was a womanizer,
• Rahab was a prostitute,
• David was a murderer, adulterer & had kinds of family problems,
• Elijah was suicidal,
• Jeremiah was depressed,
• Jonah ran from God,
• Naomi was a widow,
• Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered,
• Martha was a worrier,
• the Samaritan woman had (not one, but) several failed marriages,
• Zacchaeus was unpopular,
• Thomas was a skeptic and a doubter,
• Paul had health issues and was unimpressive in person,
• Timothy was too young and too timid.
• AND THE LIST GOES ON AND ON

Everyone has an excuse. Everyone has issues. Everyone is weak in their own way. But being weak doesn’t make you unique, it only makes you human. And this weakness is precisely where God loves to do his most powerful work. It is in the midst of our own weakness that God’s strength is so greatly contrasted and put on display for the world to see.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV)

Your weakness + God’s strength = just enough. 

Reasonable Rebellion

Have you ever talked yourself out of what you knew was God’s will?

Have you ever come up with enough reasoned your way out of obedience?

The Israelites did.  40 years in the desert was the result.  Instead of the Promised Land they got waste land.  Instead of settling they continued wandering.  Instead of milk & honey they got mucho manna.

Beware thinking you are smarter than God. 

They had their reasons.

Just like we have our reasons.

But not all their reasons were accurate.

Just like ours.

Let’s look into the back story of Numbers 13 & 14 to find out their five types of reasons.

• Real reasons.  The facts.  The truth.  Numbers 13:28 records what the spies found in the land - the land God had promised to give them, the land God said that He would  assist them to drive out all the peoples there.  There facts: the people were powerful; the cities were large & fortified; Anakites - the descendants of giants were among the people there.  These facts led to fear.  Fear led to a twisting & exaggerating the facts.  Admit it.  You & I do it too.  The facts seem overwhelming & fear beats a retreat.
• Apparent reasons.  Believed to be true.  Number 13:31 has scouts reporting “they are stronger than we are.”  I’d agree they may have appeared stronger.  But you know the cliche about appearances.  Think about the amazing, miraculous things these folks had witnessed - the plagues in Egypt, fire by day & a cloud by night, & manna from heaven to name only a few.  These folks should have had all the faith in the world.  Should have.  Just like those of us who have seen God’s mighty hand before & forget it at each new challenge.
• Exaggerated reasons.  Plain falsehood.  Untrue.  In Numbers 13:32 the faithless fibbers go on to say “All the people we saw there are of great size.”  Oh, really?  Didn’t you just tell us that there was only one group - the Anakites - that were?  You named five other normal size peoples (13:29), but now you are stretching the truth a bit to say they are of gigantic proportions too?  Human nature hasn’t changed in 3000+ years.  They did what we do.  Shade the meaning.  Exaggerate the truth.  Stretch it a little.  All to stay safe or save face or keep comfortable.
• Perceived reasons.  Accepted as truth.  But how would you really know with no confirmation.  The faithless spies reported in Number 13:33, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our eyes, and we looked the same to them.”  Are you joking?  As if you bunch of cowards even asked them, “Do we look like grasshoppers to you?”  You can not truly know another’s perception of reality.  But we still guess at it & label ourselves & allow such untruth to masquerade as reality even today, don’t we?
• Imagined reasons.  Might be true - without God.  Numbers 14:3 contains the realistic fear of the people that their women & children would be captured & enslaved.  Realistic without the amazing, miraculous power of Almighty God on their side.  The God who promised.  The God who provided.  The God who they had seen do so many mighty works.  Yet, even now, we tend to doubt God’s calling when His will seems too big, too far, too hard.

Armed with their reasons - some real, but most not - they were “unwilling to go up & rebelled” against God’s will (Deuteronomy 1:26).  And God, merciful as He had been, judged them.  They got nearly four more decades of laps around the wilderness mountain until the entire faithless generation had passed away.  Of that rebellious generation, only the faithful Joshua & Caleb entered into the Promised Land.

Do you ever feel as if you are wandering in the wilderness?

Do you know of any willful sin in your life?

God in His sovereignty either causes or allows every circumstance of our lives to to draw us to & conform us to the image of Christ.  Seek His will.  Make sure you are not living in rebellion.  Even a reasonable rebellion.

Now?

This Wednesday morning our rough & tumble four year old, John Mark, was ready for his first day of preschool.  Ever.  Big brother & big sister had already left for elementary school.  In fifth & second grades, they were old pros.  And, besides, they'd started school last week.  Now for three afternoons a week at three hours each he'd be in school too.  He was so excited.

He ate breakfast with purpose.

He got dressed without delay.

He was ready for the day.

Then he asked his Mama, "When do I get to go to preschool?"

"After lunch, John Mark."

"Can we eat lunch now?," he queried.

As adults we know that my wife meant four hours later.  As a kid he was ready to move the hands of time. Whatever it took to get to preschool sooner was whatever he was willing to do.  Two meals in a row not being too much.

What do we look forward to so much that we'd speed up time?

Eat a second meal when we are already full from the first?

Do we anticipate anything like that?

It is Sunday afternoon now.  We had an amazing worship service this morning.  I am so thankful for God's presence.  For the love of an amazing church family one for another.  I look forward to days like today.

Are we willing to move time to expereince God this way regularly?

Do we anticipate time alone with God so much that we'll do whatever it take?

Would we surrender our own desires to find God's?

Would that God would give us such divine anticipation.

Overcoming Overeating

Would I have to dodge rotten tomatoes hurled in protest?  Would the church family I love so much be hurt by my taking up a near unspoken topic?  Folks cautioned me.  And I have to admit that I was concerned to preach on the topic of overeating.  Just look at me.  Skinny-gened runner guy.  Overeating was identified in our congregational survey as the second most troublesome sin we struggle with.  I had to address it.  My goal was the same as any Sunday: To apply God's Word for practical life change.  Lovingly & honestly, admitting my own sinfulness, I set out to preach You Too? Sins We All Struggle With - Overeating.

It is not about size, but desire.

That is where the discussion of overeating must start for Christ followers.

Overeating is not about the size of your waist, but the spiritual condition of your heart.

Overeating is not about the food you eat, but the desires of your heart.

Overeating is not about the food at all, but about control - the food's, your's or God's?

Christ followers are called from evil to holiness, from our desires to self control, from judgment to grace.  1 Peter 1:13-17 - a passage that can be used as a template for dealing with any besetting sin - challenges us to seek God's supernatural assistance in overcoming our natural desires.

• Self control.  If you know you will be tempted by something, then you must be ready to exercise self control.  "Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled," states 1 Peter 1:13.  Self control, however, is not completely your control over yourself.  Self control is control over one's self by the power of the Holy Spirit.  You can not do it alone.  God is all powerful & He helps (Titus 2:11-12).  Be prepared for temptation by calling on Him ahead of time.
• Grace.  Can we all agree to live in the grace we have received?  It'd be a much nicer world.  Where, unlike the unmerciful servant of Matthew 18:21-35, we would actually seek to grace others as we have been graced & beyond.  1 Peter 1:13 further commands, "set your hope fully on the grace you have received." That is living in grace.  Not judgment.  All your hope is tuned to all that God has done for you.
• Desire.  It is natural to obey our own evil desires, but God calls us to follow Him supernaturally.  "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance," says 1 Peter 1:14.  Call on our great God.  Allow Him to work in & through you to master the desires that want to master you (Genesis 4:7).
• Holiness.  It's an impossibility for us - the natural servants of a self-gratifying sinfulness - to be holy.  But God, by Jesus sacrificial death, imparts new life and holiness upon us if we ask.  We were bough with a price.  Our bodies are His temples.  We should honor God with our bodies.  (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
• Judgment.  We really need to get over ourselves & leave the judgments to God.  More than that we need to leave our shallow, prideful jugmentalism in the dungheep where it belongs.  With overeating in particular, we always want to compare ourselves to the next person.  Our judgments are biased.  We "call on a Father who judges each man's works impartially," 1 Peter 1:17.  He looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) not the waste size.

Eating is not sinful.  God designed it.  Food is not sinful.  God created it.  Appetites are not sinful.  God gives them.  Enjoying the taste of food is not sinful.  God created us to enjoy such sensory pleasures.  Yet over-indulgence - overeating - is sinful.  As Lysa Terkeurst writes in Made to Crave, "It compromises our health, diminishes our energy to pursue our calling, and affects the way we feel about ourselves, just to name a few."

As we ask God for assistance based on His promises & rely on His power, may we overcome every sin we struggle with.  May we overcome overeating.

Ask to Act

How often do we try too hard?

Seek to do too much our own?

Fall guilty of not fully trusting God with the big stuff?

Control versus surrender.

Fear versus faith.

Expedience versus patience.

Leading versus following.

When the need is bigger than our ability.  Larger than our resources. Grander than our imagination.  Then we must call on God.

If we are disciples, Jesus is our Master.

Our place is to follow.  To rely on him.

Stop trying.  Start praying.

Our job is to ask.  His is to act.