Try It! You'll Like It!

“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

1 Peter 2:2-3

My parents had all sorts of things they taught me about eating. “Don’t talk with food in your mouth.”  “Don’t chew with your mouth open.”  “Don’t play with your food.”   “Eat this.  It’s good for you.”  That was a sure signal I didn’t want to eat whatever it was.  Then there were the times when mom would make something new.  I’d often turn up my nose.  I was very suspicious of new foods.  Inevitably they would urge me, “Come on Wayne.  Try It!  You’ll like it!”   Peter says much the same thing in the second chapter of his first letter.  “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”  As we get close to fall when Sunday School and Bible classes begin anew, He is urging us to add a healthy helping of God’s spiritual milk – His word – to our diet. “Try it!  You’ll like it.”

Changing diet is never easy!  A few years ago the doctor diagnosed me as a Type 2 diabetic.  What did that mean? I asked him. He said, “It means you have to change your diet.  You have to cut back on sugar.  You have to watch how many carbs you eat.  You have to eat less of a lot of the things in your diet.  You need to lose weight.  And you can’t just do this for a couple of months.  You need to change your diet permanently.  I have not done a good job.  Changing diet is not easy. 

The same is true spiritually.  There are things going on our lives that are not good for our relationship with God… not good for our spiritual health.  Peter lists some of those things. “Put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”  Malice – that has to do with harboring evil intentions in your heart – holding a grudge, harboring resentment, wishing or even working to cause harm to someone.  Deceit involves treachery.  A good example is when Judas, pretending to be a friend, betrayed Jesus with a kiss.  Hypocrisy is pretending to be one thing when you are really another - loudly condemning gossip, then repeating some gossip. Envy is jealousy – the young lady who resented the fact that all her friends were getting engaged but she wasn’t.    Slander is what gossip is all about.  It is all about spreading information about someone, true or false, in order to destroy that person’s reputation.  Can you see how a study diet of such things could do great harm to your soul, to your friendships, to your church, to your faith in God? 

God in His word provides a much healthier diet.  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation… A diet rich in God’s word has much to recommend itself to us.  For one thing the milk of the Gospel is pure.  Literally the word “pure” means “not deceitful.”  In Peter’s day merchants would water down the milk in order to make it more profitable.  That was “deceitful milk.”  In the word of God, you get pure milk.  You get the whole truth. In His Word God holds up a mirror so that you and I can see the truth about ourselves, about our sinful condition, about our need for a savior.  But He doesn’t stop there.  In the Gospel He holds up Jesus. He shows you how much He loves you.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus He gives us the full picture of His unconditional, no strings attached love.  He waters nothing down. 

Second Peter tells us that the milk of the Gospel is “spiritual milk.”    People are fond of telling you that they are “spiritual” not religious.  I am not sure what people mean by that.  The Bible though is clear.  To be “spiritual” is to have a faith relationship with God in Jesus Christ.  To be spiritual is to know in your heart that God loves you, forgives you, and has claimed you as His own because of Jesus.  That’s the relationship God invites you to in Word.  Here He invites us to commune with Him, to hear the voice of His spirit, to offer Him our prayers.  This is “spiritual milk.” 

Finally, the milk of God’s word is nourishing.    “By it” He writes, “you may grow up into salvation…”  Peter is comparing God’s word to the “mother’s milk” that nourishes a young baby.  God has designed a mother’s milk as the perfect food for newborn babies. It will immunize her baby from many illnesses.  It nourishes her baby for growth.   In the same way He has designed this word to provide all that we need to grow up in our faith.  Although there comes a time when babies are weaned, not so for us and the word. We need to drink freely of the milk of God’s word our entire lives.  There is not graduation from God’s word.  Paul told young Timothy,  But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 

So as the Fall approaches… as Sunday School and Bible classes begin anew – take this advice from my parents, “Try It!  You’ll like it.”  “Try God’s Word.  You’ll like it.”  More to the point, “Try the Word.  You will crave it.”  That’s the literal translation of this text.  Like newborn infants, crave… intensely desire the pure spiritual milk.  Peter says that we should be as motivated as a newborn babe is when he is hungry.  It doesn’t matter if it’s 3 a.m. If they’re hungry, they let you know about it and don’t stop letting you know about it until they get what they’re after!  A Pacifier won’t fool them.  They want to be fed.  That’s how strongly God wants us to desire the pure spiritual milk of His word.  Amen!

How Much Do You Weigh?

“Let us also lay aide every weight and sin which clings so closely and

let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

Hebrews 12:1b-2a

It’s the first thing they do when you walk into the doctor’s office.  Before they put you in a room, they put on a scale and weigh you.  Usually the number stares you right in the face.  I always tell them, “I guess I get the bad news first.”  To be honest it is bad news for me.  I weigh too much.  It affects how my body feels.   My body aches.  I have Type 2 diabetes and… Well I’ll stop there. 

The truth is I have no one to blame but myself.  I know what the things I need to do.  I know that I need to change my diet… I need to exercise more… to do the things I need to be healthy.  I have all sorts of people around me who have and continue to encourage me to eat and live healthy. Being told what I should do is not the same as listening.  Knowing is not the same as doing.    The other day at lunch with our staff, our DCE had salmon and asparagus. I really admire him for his discipline and choices.  He has lost a lot of weight.  I thought I should order that.  I knew it. But I didn’t do it. I ordered wings and fries.  Oh, I did refuse desert, but that was a belated good choice. The truth is I weigh too much.  That’s not going to get better unless I change.

Now I am not sharing this to put myself down or whine.  I share this as an illustration.  I think this applies to us spiritually.  What do you weigh spiritually?  What are the burdens you are carrying that are too heavy – the worries?  The fears?  The guilt?  The ongoing struggles?  Whatever it is, it is a drag on you spiritually, just the way my weight is physically.   Here is how King David described what it was like when he was hiding his guilt over adultery and murder.  “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”  At that moment, David was heavily weighed down by a burden of guilt.

Yet the truth is, he had no one to blame but himself.  He committed the sins. He lied.  He tried to hide what he had done.  In so doing He insisted on carrying all that weight himself and it was too much for him.  The same is true for us.  We have no one to blame but ourselves for the heavy burdens we cry.  We commit the sin.  We cling to our worries like a security blanket. 

What makes that worse is that we don’t have to. David didn’t have to. Just as I have all I need to change my health habits, so you and I have all we need in Christ to be free of our spiritual weights.  We have a God who gave His own Son to save us… a Savior who carried all our burdens to the cross for us… one who overcame those burdens with Him resurrection. He invites us, “Come unto me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  St. Peter wrote, “Cast all your anxiety upon Him for He cares for you.”    Listen to how everything changed for David when He gave His burdens to God, when he confessed his sin and guilt.  “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD and you forgave the iniquity of my…”  A verse later you can almost feel that the weight is gone.  “You are my hiding place; your preserve me from trouble; you surround me with songs of deliverance.”

The race of life that God has called us to is a marathon not a 100-yard dash.  How much easier to run without trying to carry all that weight.  All you need do is go to God.  Pray. If it would help come see me or Pastor Bauer or another.  Ask for a Stephen Minister.  Join a small group.  Find a place like AA or Celebrate Recovery.  As we read in Hebrews 12 – “lay aide every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

You know the resources God has provided.  You know what he can do… Now it’s time for the doing… for you to avail yourself of His doing in your life… It’s time to lose some weight.   

Robert - My Reminder of the Famous One

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Psalm 8:1

Since I started this blog I have, over the past couple of years, done a blog based on the names of each of our grandchildren.  Linda has been reminding me that I have not yet done one based on the name of our youngest grandson – Robert.  Well today is the day.   Since he is named after my dad, I thought that I might simply do a blog in which I told little Robert about the man he is named after.  But then I googled the meaning of the name Robert.  What I learned is that his name means “famed, bright, shining.”  The first thing that came to mind was the song “The Famous One” by Chris Tomlin, which is based on these words from Psalm 8 - “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  Of course “the famous One” in that song is not my grandson (hard as that might be to believe.”  “The famous One”, the one whose name is majestic in all the earth, is our Lord and God. 

Ok so what?  Well I got to thinking that, at least for Linda and I, Robert is a great reminder of or picture of the things Psalm 8 teaches us about our Lord and God.  That’s even what this Psalm says, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength…  God intends these tiny little ones to be a reminder to us of how mysterious and beyond understanding our God is.  He is literally “out of this world.”  I think of Robert’s birth a year ago… the first time we held him.  Then I look at how he has grown… learning to crawl, starting to eat real food, pulling himself up, wanting to grab everything, his reaction to hearing and seeing Nana on Facetime, his giggles when he watches his big brother or plays “peek-a-boo.”  Wow.  The majesty of God’s power… His strength and wisdom on display for us in a tiny baby.  Our God is out of this world. He is “the Famous One.” 

The Psalmist goes on - When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,      what is man that you are mindful of him,  and the son of man that you care for him?  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.   That is definitely the “fame” I see “shining” through Robert.  You know this is why Stephen Hawkins, the famous physicist wouldn’t believe in God. He couldn’t understand why, with the vastness of the universe, an Almighty God would be interested in what happens to us on this one tiny little planet.  After all within the context of the universe our little planet is less than one little grain of sand.  You and I and Robert are even less significant than that.  Yet He is mindful of us.  “For God so loved the world (for God so loved Robert, you and me) that He gave His one and only Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”    I can’t help but think of little Robert’s baptism day about a year ago.  That day, the God of the heavens and earth took note of tiny little Robert.  The real Famous One reached down through water and the word to adopt Robert as His own child.  The Majestic God knew Roberts name, called him by name to be God’s own.  God’s love in this little guy’s life is a great reminder that God is mindful of each and every one of us.  No matter how insignificant you and I are in the Universe, because of Jesus, “the Famous One” you are significant to the one who made the heavens and the earth.

So do you have a “Robert” or “Roberts” in your life – people big or small that remind you of how out of this world… how famous and majestic and loving our God is?  Think about that today. Take note of your “Roberts.”  Little Robert is one of mine – a reminder to me of “the Famous One,” Jesus who loves even me.  Amen. 

A Quiet Place

“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.”

Mark 6:31

We are in the midst of Vacation Bible School here at Fishers of Men in Sugarland.  In fact we finished day four this morning.  That means there is one day left to go.  The mornings here this week have been busy and noisy, loud and fun – 130 children laughing, crying, singing, in constant motion along with all the many volunteers.  What a joy to have fun telling children about Jesus and God’s love.    It has been crazy fun and crazy tiring.  I can literally see the “tired” in people’s eyes. 

That’s why I look forward to the afternoons around church this week.  The crazy constant motion and noise gives way to almost complete silence around the church building.  It’s a stunning and welcome contrast.  Yes I enjoy both.  I love all the activity of ministry – whether its Vacation Bible School, a Youth Ministry mission trip, a Bible class, or a full Sunday morning.  What a joy to be busy with God’s work among God’s people.  However I also enjoy the quiet moments… the times of silence that help us to spend time with God… in prayer, letting Him re-energize us. 

Sometimes we forget that you need both the noisy activity of life and the quiet place with God.  Too often, we feel guilty about taking those quiet moments away… those moments to just sit and let God speak, let Him give rest to your soul.  It’s as if we think that it’s wrong to take those moments for ourselves…. That if we aren’t constantly “doing” something, we are wasting time. 

That’s why I love this invitation of Jesus in Mark 6.  The disciples and Jesus have been very busy doing God’s work.  The disciples are just returning from a very busy mission trip.  They have been preaching, healing the sick, casting out demons every place they went.  I am sure they were both excited and exhausted…   I can’t help but think of our high school students and Richard our youth minister.  Last week they were on a very busy mission trip.  They came back and jumped right into helping with Vacation Bible School.  That’s what happened to the disciples of Jesus.  They came back from their trip but there was no let up.  Even after they come back to Jesus there are so many people coming to them… they are so busy that Mark tells us that they “had no leisure, even to eat.”  That kind of pace can’t be maintained. 

That’s why Jesus issued this wonderful invitation to His disciples.  “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.”  Feeling guilty over taking time to rest and be away, is silly.  In fact, what we should really feel guilty about is not taking time away.  Rest is part of the pattern of life.  God created the world in six days and rested on Sabbath. He set a pattern for us.  Indeed, He makes taking that time away a commandment – the third commandment.   I like to think of the third commandment as a gift of God.  He is saying.  “You need rest.  I want you to have rest. This is a gift I am giving to you… a gift you need.  In fact, I am not giving you any choice – Rest.”

I know that all of your lives are busy just like mine – a sort of daily “Vacation Bible School.” You serve God by working, by caring for your families, by being a good neighbor, by your service at church and more.  All of that is God’s work and is very important.  But so is the rest God invites us to.  That rest includes physical rest – take a swim, lay down and take a nap…. Go for a walk.  He also desires to give you spiritual rest – a time to pray, to ready His word, to worship and be fed, to just listen for His still small voice.  That too is God’s work – His work in and for you and me.  It is absolutely essential.  You and I can never do God’s work unless we take the time daily and weekly to let Him do His work in us.  Only having been served by Him will we ever be able to serve Him.  So He invites you and me  daily, as He did His disciples,  “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest awhile.”

I was reminded of this today.  After lunch, in the quiet of the church building one of our members asked me, “Pastor, what are you doing?  Why aren’t you home resting?”  In that voice I heard my savior’s invitation, “Wayne, come away by yourself… rest awhile. This is a gift I want to give you.”  This is a gift He wants to give to all of us.  It’s a gift we can’t live without.  So find yourself a quiet place and take some time to be alone with God. 

Zero Tolerance

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

^“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Zero Tolerance – that’s a phrase that’s often in the news today.  Mostly it has to do with a policy of strictly enforcing America’s immigration laws – enforcing them with no exceptions.  This morning, I got to thinking about all of that and wondered, “What if our God practiced zero tolerance when it comes to our sin?”  The Bible seems pretty clear about what that would mean.  “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?”  (Ps. 130:3)  In other words, if God practiced zero tolerance – we would all be lost.  After all, we “have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  (Rom 3:23).  “None is righteous, no, not one.”  (Romans 3:10b)

Now having said that, my next statement is going to sound strange at first.  In fact, God does practice zero tolerance when it comes to man’s sin… to your sin and mind.    Indeed, thank God He practices zero tolerance.  The Bible is clear.  “The wages of sin is death…” (Rom 6:23a)   “Death spread to all men, because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12b) Yes God does not let even one sinful thought go unpunished, unaccounted for.”  He practices zero tolerance.

However, His zero tolerance is of a completely unexpected kind.  I only quoted half of Romans 6:23. Here’s the whole verse.  “For the wages of sin is death, BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   Go back to Psalm 130.  I only quoted verse 3.  Here is verse 3 and 4.  “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?  BUT with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”  The word “but” in both verses really changes everything.  These verses both say that God practices zero tolerance of sin and at the same time forgives us our sins.  How can that be?  Isn’t that a contradiction.  The explanation, of course, is Jesus.  God has indeed punished all sin of all time!  But He did so by punishing His perfect Son Jesu sin our place.  “For our sake, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (2 Cor. 5:21)  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by Himself being cursed for us.”  (Galatians 3:13).  Jesus “was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.”  (Rom 4:25)  That’s how God can be both just” (punishing all sin) and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”  (Rom. 3:26)  That is zero tolerance of a unique kind.

What do you suppose would happen if you and I started to practice God’s type of zero tolerance for sin?

First of all, we would act very differently towards our own sinfulness.  Far too often our reaction to our own sin is to deny it, to lie about it, to hide it from others, to blame others, to make excuses.  Far too often our reaction to our own sin is to bury it.  To do that friends, is to tolerate sin in ourselves.  That is no different than knowing you have a cancer and doing nothing about it.  Much better is to confess our sins… to own up to our guilt… to seek help with our struggles… to go to God and ask forgiveness. After all “he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins…”  (1 John 1:9)  If we have wronged or hurt someone, go to them, admit it, seek their forgiveness.  They may or may not forgive you, but sin will have been put to death in you… sin will have been defeated.  You will be able to say with St. Paul in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  That’s what it looks like when you have zero tolerance for your own sin.  

What if others hurt you?  Sin against you?  Practice zero tolerance.  How?  By seeking God’s help to forgive them.  When you get angry… when you hold a grudge… when you refuse to forgive… when you won’t go and talk to them – you are tolerating sin.  You are giving sin the victory.  What does Jesus say? 

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.”  (Matthew 18:15)  In other words, love others the way God has loved you.  Yes forgiving those who hurt you is hard. Yes, it means in a sense, that you pay the price of that hurt but giving up any idea of making them suffer for the way they hurt you.  Yes, forgiving means says “Yes, what you did to me hurts, but you mean more to me than any hurt I may have suffered.  I love you and I forgive you.”  After all, that, on a much grander scale is what God did for you. 

Corrie Ten Boom, who survived a Nazi death camp, told the story of meeting a guard from that camp years after the war.  The guard came up to her and asked her forgiveness.  She didn’t want to.  Only after asking for God’s help to forgive him… and by God’s power was able to reach out her hand to him and say those words, “I forgive you.”   That day sin lost that battle.  Sin lost its grip on her heart and on his.  That’s God’s kind of “zero tolerance.”

Fake News

Revelation 12:10b–11 (ESV)

…for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

These two words have been almost overused lately – “Fake News.”  It seems like any time someone doesn’t like something a politician says or something in news, this becomes the accusation.  “That’s fake news!”   Well today I want to use that phrase.  However, I am not going to warn you about something fake a politician has said, or something fake I heard on the news.  I want to warn you about the worst purveyor of “fake news” – Satan!

Even his names tell you that He is someone not to be believed.  The word “Satan” means “adversary.”  That’s what He is – our enemy!  He is not on our side.  He doesn’t want anything good for us.  He wants only evil for us.  The other common name is “The Devil.”  This name means “accuser.”  That’s what he does.  We see him doing this in the first chapters of Job… accusing Job of having faith only because God protects him.  “Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”   Satan is constantly whispering accusations in your ear and mine.  “How can you call yourself a Christian?  There’s no way God could love someone like you.”

There is something you and I need to know about those accusations – they are the original “Fake News!”

Listen to what John writes about the devil in Revelation 12.  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world…  He is the deceiver of the whole world.  Or listen to Jesus in John 8. “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  The “heart language” of Satan is to lie.  That’s what comes most naturally to him. 

His temptations are all lies.  They very often are the most effective kind of lies – half truths.  He promised Adam and Eve, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Well its true that they would be taking to themselves the knowledge or discernment of good and evil.  But they wouldn’t become God. Though they and all of us, try to take His place in our lives, we can’t handle the job.  We make a mess.  That was a lie.  Temptation is always like that – telling you how great it will be for you if you do some sinful thing.  And there is often a kind of pleasure for a moment.  But it’s superficial.  It’s a lie.  It soon leads to a great emptiness… to guilt… One of the biggest pieces of fake news out there is this – the thought that runs through your mind or mine that there is no way God could love you or me because we do not deserve such love.  While it’s true that we don’t deserve God’s love, the idea that there is no way God could love us is a lie.  That’s fake news.

What do we do in the face of such a brazen enemy?  How do you counter such fake news?  With the truth.  I love the words from Revelation 12:10-11.  There is so much powerful good news in these verses.  “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.  And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”    What a great explanation of the meaning of our Lord’s life, death, resurrection and ascension!  Salvation and the Kingdom of God have come.  The enemy has been defeated, thrown down.  His days are numbered.  I know that times – as you look at the world and all the evil – it seems as if the Gospel is “fake news.”  It’s not.  The Gospel is good news you can count on.  After all, Jesus who died, is alive.  He has risen.  His tomb is empty.  The Gospel is true.

That Gospel truth is the great weapon that defeats Satan’s “fake news” every time.  Listen to John describe how armed with the Gospel, we are able to overcome the lies of the enemy.  And they (that’s us)  have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… Yes its true that you and I are sinners but our sin has all been paid for by the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross.  We are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb of God.  There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Because of Jesus, we can tell the devil to shut His mouth.  If we don’t Jesus will! 

Please notice that the devil is also conquered “by the word of their testimony…”  The only way Satan wins is if he can convince us that our witness… that our testimony to Jesus will do no good… only if he can convince us to be afraid to share the good news of the Gospel.  But every time you and I have the courage to share Jesus… to tell others about His love… to give our testimony to God’s love, Satan is conquered by that good news.

The gospel is the one and only answer needed to the fake news of the enemy!  After all the Gospel is the Good News that is the very power of God unto salvation…  Amen!

Team or Life is not all about You... or Me

2 Corinthians 5:15

“He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

This week, I was asked to lead a devotion at the opening practice of a Little League All Star team.  The team has selected a great verse from 1 Corinthians 12:12 as their team verse.  “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”  The coach wanted me to help the players understand what this verse means as believers and as baseball players.  Thus, when I arrived, I have all the players line up around home plate and lay out in front of them their different pieces of baseball equipment.  I asked them to pick up the bat first and asked, “What if this was the only piece of equipment you could use – on offense or defense?  They tried to figure out ways you could use the bat on defense – but it wouldn’t work.  Then I asked, “What if you could only use the glove to hit the ball?  What if all you could use was the baseball?  What if you had to use your bare hands to hit the ball?”  The point is obvious.  Each piece of equipment has its purpose and is needed for the game.  In the same way, each player has different abilities, strengths and weaknesses.  No one player makes the team.  This was true even for the great Michael Jordan.  The Bulls didn’t win till he learned to play as part of the team.  All the players on the team are important.  Team is not all about anyone of us – not all about me or you.

That’s true in Church and in life.  God has not designed us so that we don’t need other people.  He has not designed us to be able to make it on our own.  Church and life are not all about me… or you.  We forget that far too often, to everyone’s harm.  I know I do.  In fact, I forgot this the other night at a Church meeting.  I was advocating a certain program. I firmly believe I was leading in the right direction.  At one point, however, I made it all about whether people were agreeing with me.  I said, “Well if you don’t want to do this, that’s fine.  But you won’t have my support.”  I have thought about it since and realized that with that statement – I made it all about me… about me having this ridiculous need to have everyone agree with me…   For some reason, many times in order to feel good about ourselves, we have this need to have everyone see it our way.  That’s the very definition of co-dependence.  The reason for wanting as many to be together on the issue was not my need… or shouldn’t have been.  It was the fact that this program is the right thing and what God wants us to do.  It’s about Him, not me!

We all forget that. We all fall in to the trap of making it all about me.  I have seen it again and again in churches.  Someone doesn’t get their way.  The church goes in a different direction.  That person walks out in protest, or threatens, “Well then maybe I need to go to a different church.”  In other words, maybe I need to take my ball and go home.  I have couples come in for marriage counseling.  Almost inevitably the most use word will be “me.”  “He doesn’t listen to me.”  “She is always trying to control me.”   ME! ME! ME!  God did not design marriage to be all about me or you.  “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”  “Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”  He wants marriage to be all about Him so that we can love and serve the other person. Another example – in hard times people ask, “God why is this happening to me?  Why are you doing this to me?  What did I do to deserve this?”  God’s answer is, “Life is not all about you.”  That’s the point of the opening verses of John 9.  As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.   And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

This wanting to life to be all about me is at the heart of sin.  Our first parents took the fruit and ate it because they wanted to be like God.  They wanted their lives to be all about them, not Him.  That’s why Jesus came… to change all that.  Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He refused not to make life all about Him.  He came “not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”   He got up and washed the feet of the disciples.  He prayed in the Garden, “Never the less, not my will but thy will be done.”  He died on the cross for the sins of the world and rose again that all who believe in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” 

Why did Jesus do all this?  “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”  This is such an important life lesson.  When we make life all about ourselves – we make ourselves and everyone miserable.  We so dissension and conflict.  The truth is God created us to be servants and not masters… to submit to His way not demand ours… Remember that team, or church or life is not all about you or me.   It’s about Him!