What do you want? (keep the main thing the main thing)
Sometimes we call it the “blahs” or the “blues”
Sometimes we simply wonder isn’t there more?
Sometimes we reach our goals, we have the family we want, we have the job we have been striving for, our man or woman gets in office, we have more than enough on the table, in the fridge, in the driveway….you are blessed in every way
There is no reason to feel “blah” or “blue”
But we do….
Or maybe you are just the opposite
Maybe you are stuck in a job you hate or is simply not enough of a challenge, maybe your family is struggling or estranged from you. Maybe your political outlook is a nightmare.
Maybe you are struggling with bills, keeping your car running and house safe
You feel hopeless in every way and feel you have the right to feel “blah” or have the “blues”
I understand both of these feelings and so did the Apostle Paul
Philippians 4:11-13
Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. 13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Are you tired of everything…every battle?
I believe what people want is great contentment, to be at peace to know what you are doing means something and counts for something….that life will have meaning rather than hoping that it has meaning
Things we achieve can always leave us feeling, “that was nice but isn’t there more?”
Daily struggling to “eek” out a living and barely getting by, or even having it all, can also leave us thinking, “There has got to be more!”
We were all created for more but the mindset in both of these cases needs redirected…God created us for a clear purpose….as a reminder two of my favorite verses
Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
Daniel 11:32b “but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits”
We are meant for more…
Keep the main thing the main thing
My hope would be that no one here is battling this but I know better, I hear the conversations, see the posts…but I also know that a great majority of the people in the world, friends, family, co-workers feel this way….so how do we solve this problem?
Keep the main thing the main thing
But what is the main thing
It isn’t having the perfect family….
It isn’t having more than enough money
It isn’t having the perfect job
Does God want to bless you with these things? Yes, but He can’t unless we keep the main thing the main thing…
Jesus told us this story… Matthew 7:24-27
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
So much hope and thoughts for our future are built on sand, they are built on self-help, self-talk, philosophies that are not the rock
Are you ready to hear what will bring you the success…the hope that overcomes the “blah’ and the “blues”
Focus on what God wants…
The enemy wants to always take our focus off of God and get us focused on other things because he knows how important we are to changing this world, how important you really are to your family and friends and if you settle you will never see the changes or feel the real love success joy and so much more he has for you
We have several challenges before us the pledge most of us grew up saying says, “we are one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all!”
Jesus reiterated an Old Testament set of commandments…
Mark 12:28-31
One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. 30 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
A scribe asks who is my neighbor and Jesus responds with the good Samaritan story…a priest and levite pass on the other side and the Samaritan, helps who is the neighbor the one who showed mercy….go and do likewise (Luke 10)
Loving our neighbors is about the truth and showing mercy
Loving like its real
Love is a very real thing to God but it must be real love….to say it must be real love means there must be fake love and there is…
If we believe God at his word then condoning or even supporting something that God says is wrong is not love but hate
We will get to that in a moment
God’s word says
1 John 4:7,8
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:16
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Romans 12:9,10
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love
John (the disciple who Jesus loved) wrote about love…loving one another, love shows we are God’s children and that we know Him, and then Paul tells us that we can’t be hypocritical in our love, we have to be true to what we believe, we have to be true to Christ.
There are lots of things going on in our society where people are confused as to how we respond
John 14:23,24
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
We must know His word in order to keep it…..I’m not here to give you all the do’s and don’t today, suffice it to say neither are about work but instead about love….loving and being Jesus…
Jesus’ response was always to lift people up, to set them free, to heal their deepest wounds not necessarily the ones we see but the ones we don’t see.
People have struggles with gender, sexuality, race, addictions…we have many hurting and broken people in our culture as Jesus did
Jesus loved them all, He hated no one, He went to the cross for every trans, every lesbian, homosexual, every bigot, racist, addict, the liar, the thief, the gossip, those who live in fear, always worry, and are always anxious….there are things people do that he hates…
Proverbs 6:16-19
These six things the LORD hates; Indeed, seven are repulsive to Him:
17 A proud look [the attitude that makes one overestimate oneself and discount others], a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that creates wicked plans, Feet that run swiftly to evil, 19 A false witness who breathes out lies [even half-truths], And one who spreads discord (rumors) among brothers.
Jesus love means that he came to set them free… you will know the truth and the truth sets men free….
We can’t be politically correct and allow people to go to hell because we are afraid of offending them…I am just going to scratch the surface of three issues we are dealing with..
We must find ways to always speak to those who consider themselves sexually broken in a way as Jesus would to help them heal to get set free. We must remember because their identity is in their broken gender rather than who Christ says they are, they will be offended because their identity is in their choice, their feelings…. not science, biology, or the Bible but their feelings. They are hurting but we do not help by allowing them to gloss over their pain we have to ask the Lord to show us how to love them enough to speak the truth in a way they can understand so they can heal and turn from their pride and choose to follow the Lord it is the only way they will find freedom and wholeness
When a community is hurting we can’t ignore the real issues, and the feelings of injustice, we too must recognize how they feel and find ways to resolve the problem as Jesus would…there is no eye for and eye, tooth for tooth…they does not bring justice… forgiveness, truth, and real love bring justice…(Tuskegee experiment) BLM specifically states they are against the nuclear family they are strongly pro the sexually broken community….our culture is failing overall because we need to build stronger families that support all in our communities. Our communities should be places where it is the “content of a person’s character” that counts, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated… whites, can not ignore the struggles or our black brothers and sisters and our black brothers and sisters can look at every white and think they are racists, but instead we need to see who we are and value the content of each others character and if their character is bad, help them change if they won’t change walk away. We must act like Christ toward each other…specifically allowing each other to be different, no coarse Jesting, our cultures, the way we were raised may be different but especially in the church we must example being true brothers and sisters in Christ.
Those broken through addiction need to understand while their addiction may have turned into a disease, their addiction is not their problem, their brokenness is their problem. They need to be willing to choose to deal with the core issues of their problem. Until they are willing to deal with what got them to this place no substitute will cure them. They too need to recognize it deep rooted brokenness that needs healed.
Much of this is found in the things God hates because it destroys people’s lives
Fake love allows people to remain broken, and enables people to live in brokenness rather than freedom God intends….every person is created by God for a purpose and that purpose brings freedom to them and us
When our identity is based on anything other than being an adopted and ransomed child of God, we stand awaiting an inevitable fall. We need to understand what it means to have been intentionally designed and saved by God, or we may let our striving to find our self-worth elsewhere push us away from our creator.
If we believe that to be our identity then we must model that kind of love everywhere, regardless of what the culture says and stand for each other’s and help bring others to freedom.
Let’s keep the main thing the main thing…lets love real and let’s put God and His purpose and His word first in all things….Jesus put it this way (our call)
Luke 4:18,19
The Spirit of the LORD is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.”
What we really want is to walk in freedom, joy, success, love…as we bring good news, set the captive free, help the blind or those who have been blinded to see, as we allow the broken, oppressed to be set free…God’s favor comes on us and our nation and brings all that we are looking for!