So I heard a message this morning about the fact that we can not earn God’s blessings. Although we try to do all the right things to get God to love us more, it just wont work. He is crazy about us aside from what we DO. Instead, in thanks and gratitude, we are supposed to put our lives on the alter as living sacrifices. We are supposed to put him above ourselves. We are supposed to make his priorities, our priorities. And although most people say they are too busy to study or pray, we could find if it was truly a priority. The pastor said that if something important came up, we could find the time to do it. Therefore, no matter what we say, the truly important things will always be given time and resources in our lives. And if we don’t put time and effort into God then he is not really a priority in our life.
This is all so true. If God is important to us, we will find time to spend with him. If God is important to me, I will make time in my schedule to pray. I will carve out space for studying his word. I will give up a television show so that I can go out and share the gospel with someone, or bring a homeless guy a meal. I will hit the snooze 1 less time a few times a week so I can memorize my weekly verses. All of these are such basic, entry level things when it comes to being a follower of Christ. But so many people struggle with them. Why? Because serving the poor is not a priority in my life. No matter that of everything Jesus talked about over 50% of his messages were about helping the poor (I’m not sure of the exact number). No matter that James shows that true religion is seen when we help those in need. That’s ok, I gave my offering in church and now it’s their job; now can pacify my guilty conscience. Yet, if ‘the church’ were truly doing its job, there would not be rampant homelessness. If the people of God were truly doing their job, more single moms would not have to be working 3 jobs to put food on the table. There would not be droves of elderly ladies sitting at home for weeks on end with no one to talk to.
So I rant and rave, but what can I do? What if I took one evening a week to go out and spread the love of God? It would be easy to get a ridiculously long list of people that need help from my church. There are homeless people to feed. There are single parents who could use their lawn mowed, windows washed, or dishes done. There are youth who are desperate for someone to pour into their lives. There are young parents on my street whose marriages are struggling because of the new baby and could use a date night (and yes, there is more than enough room in my budget to not only provide the babysitting but the dinner as well… if I can find the money to out to eat, I can find the money to send someone else out to eat). There are elderly ladies who are sitting at home alone and haven’t talked to anyone in weeks. I could find a house in my neighborhood that needs their lawn mowed and go tell them that I just wanted to share God’s love in a tangible way and mow their lawn with no strings attached. I could go tutor a kid afterschool. I could invite everyone on my street over to my house for burgers and provide all the food – meat, sides, and yummy deserts. I bet there are some people that could really use a reminder that God loves on them and cares about them…
These are simple things. They take very little time and very little money. These are things I can do… these are things you can do…
Will we lay our lives down on the alter? Or will we continue to spit in God’s face and tell him that our plans and desires are more important than his?
9 comments:
This is a good message, but there is one problem with it: the last sentence. You wonder why people say that you are judgmental, but your last remark proves their point.
"Or will we continue to spit in God’s face and tell him that our plans and desires are more important than his?"
Why did you add that? The message was fine before, but you had to beat the dead horse. Before, the message was full of love and hope. With the last sentence, you change it to (as I saw a billboard say the other day) "Repent or Parish." You changed a message from "This is how we should act" to "This is how we should act or you are going to hell." You may not see it as that, but that is how others see it. And it being the last sentence of your message, people will not walk away thinking "I should act more like Jesus," they walk away thinking "He just condemned me."
Keep to filling your messages with hope and love, and keep away from condemning people for not following what you say.
Matthew
I agree with Matt. There's a fine line (and I usually cross it myself) between saying "you need to change what you're doing" and "you're an evil person."
I DIS-agree with Matt that you should "keep away from condemning people." What was it that Jesus Himself called the Pharisees? A brood of vipers? Whitewashed tombs? Sons of their father, Satan? What did He do and say at the Temple? He said that they made it a "den of thieves?" He made a WHIP and threw tables? That sounds pretty bent out of shape, to me.
I agree that CONDEMNATION is something that we should be careful to avoid, but only because that's not something that we have the authority to do. God condemns people, we can't.
HOWEVER, there's nothing wrong with getting bent out of shape and saying "THIS IS WRONG!!!!" very loudly and very passionately.
Homosexuals are sinning, abortion is murder, speeding is selfish, and Paris Hilton is a moronic liar.
Is it judgmental to say that Adolf Hitler was an evil man? Is it judgmental to say that Chairman Mao was the new Hitler? Is it judgmental to say that someone who rapes a child is the lowest form of life imaginable?
There's a difference between JUDGMENT (that's what God does when He assigns punishment) and DISCERNMENT (that's what we do when we remember that "a good tree cannot bear bad fruit").
Now, having said all that I could disagree with some details of what Stephen said, but I would be picking nits, as it were.
Ultimately, you're quite right. There's nothing preventing us from doing these good things. The only reasons that the Democrats are gaining support for such communist and anti-American policies as Universal Health Care, is because the Church is not doing its job.
One problem that I've had to deal with is "well, isn't he just going to use the money to buy beer?" Or "well, he might get food today, but he'll never get a job." What I had to remember is that God never said "be fair." He didn't say "help people get on their feet." He said "be generous." And He did say "count the cost" but He DIDN'T say "spend efficiently." What He wanted us to do is know what we're going to loose. That's all.
I have no excuse to avoid giving money (or a meal) to a homeless person, or to put off moving my next-door neighbor's yard.
That's the other point that Chesterton made: charity is only a virtue when the person DOESN'T deserve it. If they deserve it, then it's merely justice, and it's not charity. That's why I like how you talked about mowing someone's lawn. Just look for one that needs to be mowed, it doesn't have to be someone who can't mow it themselves or someone who can't afford it.
Love does good things, even for people who aren't pitiful and even for people who don't deserve it.
HAHAHAHAAA!!!! I meant MOWING my next door neighbor's yard. MOVING it would probably be wrong ;-) (unless that's what they want, I suppose)
ok, 2 things. First, I am not condemning anyone. I said nothing about you going to hell. I said that we (myself included) spit in God's face when we choose our priorities over God's. That is totally different from you are going to hell for not going out and ministering to the homeless. Instead, God just hurts when we choose ourselves because he loves us so much and because we have offended God’s righteousness. We don't stop being his kids, we just aren't living the way he has called us to.
Now, as to the talking against someone, I would mirror what Matt said. Christ called people out all the time. The prophets in the OT called people out all the time. Amos called the rich women in his church 'fat cows'. That’s not exactly nice and fuzzy. But my job as a preacher and as a leader is not to give them fuzzy feelings, its to lead them to be more in love with Christ and to be better people as a result of that. Now, sometimes warm fuzzies have a place in that plan, but my point is not that feeling. Sometimes it is useful to do something that stings a little so that long term their life will be better.
I really like what someone said one time about the fact that many people in our culture think its taboo to tell someone they are wrong. They said that many times when you dont tell someone they are wrong it is for selfish reasons. You don’t want to make that person mad at you. You don’t want to look like you are ‘judgmental’. The fact is that if my friend is doing something that will hurt themselves (long or short term) if I really care about the person and if I am really selfless, I’m ok with hurting their feelings (short term) so that they can be better people and be closer to Christ long term. Like proverbs says, ‘wounds from a friend can be trusted’
I am not trying to judge people (tell them they are going to hell). I am saying that the way we live our lives doesn’t line up with scripture and I say it to share it so that people will see it and change and look more like Christ. I come to these conclusions because I see these things in my own life. I know that I don’t look like Christ. My life doesn’t look like scripture and I know that I need to change. I say these things to share.
Sorry, I was in a bad mood when I wrote that.
The point is not that you were (or weren't) condemning people, it was that it sounded like you were. Like I said, I agree with what you said, but didn't agree with how you said it.
Not trying to be a killjoy, just offering my $.02.
Matthew
I guess I'm the moronic person here, but I'm going to ignore most of this conversation and just focus on one thing that bugs me (most of you know my feelings on being "judgemental" anyways).
I feel like I have a slightly different perspective on the subject of homeless people, since I live in a city the highest panhandling rate per city corner in the country. OK, I just made that up, but it sure feels like it.
Whenever I drive through the city, I see a panhandler on almost every major corner. Their signs usually say something like: Homeless Vet, God Bless, Every little bit helps, etc. I even saw one guy's sign that read "I'm traveling with my young son and ran out of gas." Except there was no little boy anywhere in sight. I can guarantee you he didn't get any money from the parents driving by...
Why are these folks standing on the corner looking pathetic? Because they're really a hungry vet? It's because they make money, of course!
We've done the calculations: if they make $1 for every light cycle (green light to red light), they're making about $60/hour. Do you think they're paying taxes on that money? For $60/hour I sure wouldn't be homeless or hungry for very long: unless, of course, I'm squandering it all on booze and cigarettes and drugs and other stupid purchasing choices.
We call this country the land of opportunity, and we follow the American Dream to make our lives better for ourselves. Our great country allows a poor nobody to work hard and succeed financially. If someone is truly homeless there are many social services available to them to get them back on their feet and a productive member of society again. They often choose to ignore those resources because of the drugs, criminal background, and/or lack of desire to become a productive member of society (ie, making $60/hour tax free standing on a street corner).
So my point is this:
When Jesus said to help the homeless, I believe he was talking about those that couldn't help themselves. Those homeless in his society were often crippled and outcasts of society who couldn't work their way into a better life no matter how hard they tried because of the social system at the time.
I don't believe that most of America's "homeless" are really helpless. I think they've made bad choices and refuse the help offered to them to get back on their feet. By giving to someone like that, I'm enabling his drug habit. I'm paying him a salary to stand on the street corner and do absolutely nothing. He has just created a job in the market, we're paying him to do it out of pity, and I think he's laughing all the way to the bank.
I have decided, that no matter how pathetic the guy (or his dog, for that matter) looks, I'm not going enable a pointless job in society. When I decide to give to the homeless, it's going to be at a shelter where (hopefully) the people there are trying to move forward. It's going to be at a battered women's shelter, where these women and children have been made homeless by their abusive husbands. It's going to be at a teen pregnancy house, where girls have nowhere to go after Mom and Dad kick them out. While these people may not fit your immediate idea of homeless, I certainly think they qualify just as much.
/end of rant
Swing... I've thought alot about what you are talking about. For instance, there were guys on the trains in Italy that would just beg or sell useless trinkets...
so 2 things.. I think that we are called to help those who are helpless. Many who are on the street corner are there by their choice. So I agree, it is much better to help in a shelter, or to give food; I dont think I want to give money. I think we need to help in a way that doesn't hurt someone else (aka, i give money to the guy who is lazy and now i cant give to the single mom who needs it).
But what about those who had a drug problem in the past and it fried their brain and now they cant be a productive part of society? Do we just let them rot because of our past mistakes? Does Christ let us rot because of our past mistakes?
I don't know how to respond. I know that we are supposed to be merciful because Christ was merciful to us. But Proverbs also says that if you dont work you dont eat. I just dont know..
The reason that this homelessness issue is difficult is because you're forgetting to discriminate between the two very different virtues here. One of the virtues is being kind and helpful. Helping a person who has been hit hard by unfortunate situations and now needs a little bit (or a lot) of help to get back on their feet. This is the virtue of noticing that someone doesn't have what they need and giving it to them. This is good and Godly.
The other virtue is that of charity. Charity consists in giving something to someone regardless of what they deserve. Are they going to spend it on booze? Maybe so. Are they going to betray you and crucify you? Maybe so. Love thy neighbor.
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