Possess the God Who Is Good

“I’ve got this” is a phrase we might use when we are 100% confident of our ability to do something.  “I’ve got this” is probably moving beyond confident toward cockiness.  “I’ve got this” is a frame of mind focused on our own talents, our own strength, and our own abilities.  “I’ve got this” is the attitude of many professional athletes as they enter into competition.  “I’ve got this” is the attitude of musicians as they go on stage to perform.  “I’ve got this” might be an attitude we take with us into many aspects of our own lives . . . a test at school, a job interview, a recital, asking a girl out on a date, a sports competition, a conflict with a friend, etc.  Most dangerously, “I’ve got this” might be an attitude we take with us in an effort to live out our Christian life.

READ:  Luke 18:18-30

The rich young ruler’s attitude toward inheriting eternal life was, “I’ve got this”.  He was confident that the goodness of His life made him deserving of entrance into eternal life.  He was sadly mistaken since according to Jesus, “no one is good except God alone!”  In the Old Testament God’s moral goodness is described using the word “holy” (Isaiah 1:4, 5:16, 40:25; Revelation 4:8).  God says about Himself in Leviticus 19:2 that, “I the Lord your God am holy”.  God’s holiness is his moral PURITY and PERFECTION.  God alone has inherent goodness or holiness.  Goodness or holiness is not something that we, or the rich young ruler, possess.  Therefore, entering the Kingdom requires possessing GOD who is GOOD!  Why do we need to possess the God who is good?

We need to possess the God who is good because NONE of US are PERFECTLY GOOD (Mt. 18:18-23) – Perfection is impossible.  No matter how hard we try, we will ultimately end up coming up short in any pursuit of perfection. The rich young ruler mistakenly thought that he had achieved moral perfection.  He was confident that this Good Teacher would find NO impurity or imperfection in his moral character, “adultery” (nope), “murder” (nuh-uh), “stealing” (no way), “lying” (off course not), “honor your father and mother” (absolutely).  And yet, Jesus knew one area where his goodness was lacking . . . his wealth.  James 2:10 says, “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”  Although perfection is the goal, we will never achieve it.  As hard as we might try, if we fail at even one small point, we are considered guilty of breaking the whole law.  The “I’ve got this” attitude of the rich young ruler contradicts with the truth of Romans 3:12 which says, “no one does good, not even one.”  Even if the rich young ruler lived an impeccable life Ephesians 2:8 says, “by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Plain and simple, no amount of good works will earn us entrance into the Kingdom of God.  What prevents us from possessing the God who is good?

We cannot possess the God who is good if we are unwilling to leave behind EVERYTHING to follow Jesus (Lk. 18:22-30) – Instead of pursuing perfect goodness, we are to pursue the God who is perfectly good.  Jesus said, “what is impossible (perfection) with man is possible with God.”  Although we are not able to be perfectly good, God is able to make us perfectly good!   It’s as easy as stop, drop, and roll.  STOP trying to earn our way into the Kingdom, DROP anything and everything in life that is preventing us from possessing Jesus, and ROLL through life with Christ as our Savior and following Him in obedience.  Elisabeth Elliott said it well, “he is no fool who lets go of what he cannot keep to possess what he cannot lose.”  Jesus said it perfectly with a question in Mark 8:36, “what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?”  No matter how important, we must be willing to leave behind anything and everything in order to possess Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION
In Philippians 1:6 we are told about the One who can say “I’ve got this”, Paul says, “I am SURE of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion (perfection) at the day of Jesus Christ.”  When we leave everything to possess Jesus Christ He begins a process of perfecting us which only He can do.  Have you allowed God to begin the good work of perfecting you?

Be Childlike

“Kids Say the Darndest Things” was a television show hosted by Bill Cosby from 1998-2000.  The premise of the show was that Bill would ask a question to a child about anything from dead goldfish to love letters in anticipation on an unpredictable or “cute” response.  For example, during one interview Bill Cosby asked a little boy, “who was George Washington’s wife?” and the boy replied, “Miss America”.  Cosby asked another boy, "how would you make marriage work?" and he boy replied "Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck."  Children definitely have an honesty and innocence about them that is sweet, charming, and irresistible.  It is these, and many other characteristics, that God loves!

READ:  Matthew 18:1-4

Entering the Kingdom requires become like a CHILD! Mark 10:15 says, “unless you become like a child you will never enter the kingdom of God.”  A Kingdom full of children sounds terrible; crying, temper tantrums, complaining, permanent marker on the streets of gold, etc . . . I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind.  The characteristics that make children worthy of the Kingdom is their TRUST and DEPENDENCY.  Children believe, accept, and go along with just about anything others say.  Children rely 100% on others for all of their most basic needs for living.  Children are delightfully vulnerable, helpless, weak, and powerless which requires them to be trustworthy and dependent.  How do we regain such childlikeness?  What does it mean to become like a child? 

Becoming like a child means abandoning our desire to become GREAT (Mt. 18:1) – Jesus introduces a child into an awkward conversation where His disciples are selfishly wanting to know who was “greatest” in the Kingdom.  Although children are selfish and want what they want when they want it, they are not “sophisticated” enough to strive for personal honor, recognition, or greatness.  Children do things and relate with others simply for the personal satisfaction and fulfilment that they experience, not what they can get out of it.  John Piper has a popular quote that says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”.  Simply put, Kingdom people are satisfied.  Our need to feel important or significant has been filled.  No more striving.  No more ambition.  No more competition.  When our attitudes are like children before God, our satisfaction comes completely from Christ and we will be able to relate with Him in complete trust and dependence.

Becoming like a child means HUMBLING ourselves (Mt. 18:4) – Childlike trust and dependency on another are not attributes that most people are striving for.  We have “moved on” and “matured” to self-sufficiency and independence.  Childlikeness would be a step backward or back down the ladder in life.  That’s why being childlike requires humility in order to obtain it.  Jesus is not upholding humility itself as a characteristic of being a child.  Instead, He is saying that Kingdom people are humbly willing to revert back to the trust and dependence on God that a child exhibits by nature.  Rather than elevate ourselves, we must be willing to lower ourselves to a place of trust and dependence.   Childlikeness is a humble choice to no longer live a life of self-sufficiency and independence.

CONCLUSION

The book of 1 John refers to believers in Christ as “children” or “little children” 14 different times in 5 chapters.  By using this word John is reminding believers that Kingdom people are those who trust and depend on God.  Whether avoiding sin (1 John 2:1), abiding in Him (1 John 2:28), avoiding being deceived (1 John 3:7), loving others in deed and truth (1 John 3:17), or keeping ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21), we need to maintain a constant attitude of trust and dependence on our Father.  Children of the Kingdom do the darndest things and our first steps back to childhood are satisfaction in God and humility.

Born Again

How many of us remember the day we were born!?!  We may not remember anything about that day, but we know it’s a special day because of the annual event that takes place every year to celebrate our life . . . our BIRTHDAY!  Based on the excitement that dad’s and mom’s and grandpa’s and grandma’s all over the world exhibit, on a “birth”-day (more specifically a conception) something miraculously special happened.  The DNA from our mother and the DNA from our father came together to create something brand new that never existed before . . . US!  Before our “birth”-day we did not exist, but after our “birth”-day we were something uniquely new and special.  Did you know that in order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven we must go through that same process all over . . . AGAIN?

READ:  John 3:1-21

Entering in the Kingdom requires being REBORN as a CHILD of GOD! When we are born something brand new that had never existed before is created.  We are not a reduplication of anything else, we are something entirely brand new.  In the same way, being “born again” involves something brand new being created within us that never existed before.  John 1:12-13 says, “to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.”  A first birth involves the will of a father and mother, but a second birth involves God’s will.  According to Ephesians 1:4-5, “In love, (God) predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.”  Being born again is a process that any human being can go through in order to become one of His children.  How do we become one of God’s children?

Being “born again” as a child of God requires something BRAND NEW being created within us SPIRITUALLY (Jn. 3:5-6) – When we are physically born we have some pretty standard equipment, arms, legs, eyes, ears, nose, brain, heart, etc.  When we are physically born we arrive in the world with our heart beating, our lungs breathing, and our brain thinking.  We are very simply . . . physically alive.  Although we are physically alive, we are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1).  When we are physically born we are given physical life, lower case “l”, but when we born spiritually we obtain spiritual LIFE, capital “L”!  Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that they may have LIFE”.  It is God’s Spirit “born” within us that creates a brand new eternal life for us (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Being “born again” as a child of God is an INVISIBLE ADOPTION (John 3:7-8) – My wife Marianne and I adopted Darlene Nicol Juan Salvador from Guatemala in July of 2007 and she legally became our daughter.  Sarah did not become aware of her helpless condition and pursue us, we became aware of her helpless condition and pursued her.  Similarly, God, on His own free will, as of an act of love and grace pursued all of us by sending His Son Jesus to redeem us and make us His sons and daughters!  When we put our belief in Jesus Christ the invisible wind of adoption blows into our lives.  At this moment of spiritual rebirth, we are no longer merely human beings of flesh, we are spiritual children of God.  Romans 8:14-15 says, “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons (and daughters) of God . . . you received the Spirit of adoption as sons (and daughters), by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  It is those who possess the Spirit of God who are adopted children of God.

CONCLUSION
According to Galatians 4:4-5 God, “sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (and daughters).”  The spiritual man (Jesus Christ) became a child of flesh in order that we might experience spiritual life!  What an amazing reversal of roles.  The One who was by nature a child of God became like us who are not naturally children of God for the whole purpose of adopting us as His children.  This is being “born again”, believing in Jesus Christ and being given the DNA of the Spirit of God, according to the purpose and plan of God, and becoming one of His adopted children!  Have you been born again and become an adopted child of God?

Repent and Believe

Can you imagine what it would be like to receive news that you had a life-threatening disease?  Maybe you, a close family member, or a friend has been in an accident or has gotten news that they had a terminal illness.  Hearing that bad news would make our hearts sink with hopelessness.  What if at some point after this news you got news that there was treatment or there was the possibility of a cure?  Hearing that good news would make our hearts leap with joy!  What if you or someone you loved were in an accident or had a life-threatening disease and there was treatment or a cure, but no one told you about it?  That would be unimaginably cruel.  If someone had treatment or a cure in a life-threatening situation, they would do anything to make sure the one who needed it heard the news.  And that is exactly why Jesus came . . .

READ:  Luke 4:42-44

Jesus came to preach the GOOD NEWS of the Kingdom!  The reason Jesus Christ was sent to the earth was to proclaim the “good news of the Kingdom of God”.  Good news about Himself, good news about who He was, and good news about what He came to do!  Good news for anyone and everyone who would respond to His message.  How are we to respond to the good news of the Kingdom?

The Kingdom is good news we respond to with REPENTANCE (Mk. 1:15; Mt. 4:17) – Have you ever changed your mind about something?  Changing our mind is hard.  Changing our mind requires admitting that we were wrong.  REPENTANCE is a complete change of MIND or ATTITUDE about something.  I thought A before, but now I think B.  What I think and feel now is different from what I thought and felt before.  In Luke 5:32 Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” In order to be a part of the Kingdom we must make a radical change of mind about our sin.  We must agree that sin is a spiritually life-threatening disease (Rom. 6:23).  We must agree with the God’s standard of what is sin.  We must agree to turn away from sin in the future (Rom. 6:11).  Repentance is more than feeling sorry, it is a decision to turn from our sinful rebellion and turn toward God’s complete rule and reign in our lives.  When we do Jesus said in Luke 15:7, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

The Kingdom is good news we respond to with BELIEF (Mk. 1:15) – There are a lot of truths that I am 100% convinced of.  I believe that the sky is blue.  I believe that the sun is hot.  I believe that gravity keeps me from floating off into space.  BELIEF is CONFIDENT TRUST (being convinced) that something is TRUE.  In order to be a part of the Kingdom we must confidently trust in who Jesus Christ is and what He has done.  One of the oldest statements of Christian belief is the “Old Roman Creed”, in use in the 2nd century, which says, “I believe in Christ Jesus (God’s) only Son, our Lord, who was born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried, on the third day rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, whence he will come to judge the living and the dead.”  Jesus said in John 3:36 that, “whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.”  It’s that simple, we must be genuinely convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and that His death on the cross was payment for our sins.  We will never experience the Kingdom unless we are confident that this is true.

CONCLUSION
If you had a life-threatening disease and someone shared the cure with you, would you reject it?  I don’t think so.  In order to become a member of the Kingdom of God we must respond by receiving it with REPENTANCE and BELIEF!  We need to change our minds about our sin and confidently trust that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.  This message is the good news!  This message is the purpose for which Jesus came.  Our response to this message results in forgiveness and salvation.  Repentance and belief are not one time decisions, but attitudes and beliefs people of the Kingdom are to live by each and every day.  Have you repented of your sin and are you completely trusting in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for you?

Forgiving King

Creditors want to settle accounts.  I recently had some work done on our house that cost $600.  It had only been about 2 weeks since the work was done, but on Monday I got a call from the company and they politely reminded me of the debt I owed.  I payed the bill, but if I had waited 30 days, or 60 days, or if it had been an amount that I was unable to pay, they would have eventually turned me in to a collection agency and required me to pay them what I owed.  Those who do work or lend money, expect to be repaid and settle accounts with their customers.  How does God handle His account with us?

READ:  Matthew 18:21-35

The currency that we relate to God with is our love and obedience.  When we are obedient (righteous), our relational account balance with God is positive.  When we are disobedient (sinful), our relational account balance with God is negative.  According to Romans 3:10-12, we are all constantly making withdrawls from our account with God, “none is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no on seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” From the day we are born, we are accumulating an immense debt of sin toward God.  And yet, God the King has limitless FORGIVENESS toward sinners who ask for MERCY!  To what extent does God mercifully forgive us of our sin?

God mercifully forgives us of a DEBT we could NEVER repay (Mt. 18:24-27) – A single talent in this time was valued at 6,000 drachmas, the equivalent of about 20 years wages.  In modern terms, if a laborer earns $15 per hour, at 2,000 hours per year he would earn $30,000 per year, a single talent would equal $600,000.   Therefore, “ten thousand talents” represents an incalculable debt of approximately $6 billion dollars!  The debt of sin we owe to God is astronomical and not anything we should ever imagine being able to pay back.   

God mercifully forgives us of MORE than we even know to ask for (Mt. 18:26) – In spite of the servant’s unpayable debt, he does not ask for forgiveness, he asks for “patience”.  He mistakenly thought what he needed was more time to “pay everything” he owed to the king.  The king knew that being repaid was impossible, so instead of giving him patience, he “released” and “forgave” him of the debt.  If we could really understand the amount of debt our sin creates between us and God we would be shocked.  It is foolishness to think that we could ever repay our debt of sin to God.  To think that we could ever do enough to make up for our sin against God is absurd.  We are at the mercy of a great King, and the good news is that He mercifully forgives!

Our willingness to extend MERCY and FORGIVENESS to OTHERS reveals whether or not we have truly received God’s merciful forgiveness in our own lives (Mt. 18:21-22, 32-35) – A hundred denarii in this time was equivalent to 100 days wages.  In modern terms about $12,000.  This is still a large amount, but miniscule compared to the debt the servant owed the king.  In the sermon on the mount in Mt. 6:14-15 Jesus says, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Being released and forgiven of such a large debt by God should create within us the ability to release and forgive others of the tiny offenses done to us by others.  If we find it impossible or difficult to release or forgive others of sin against us, we may need to ask ourselves whether or not we have truly experienced the merciful forgiveness that God offers to all those who ask for it.

CONCLUSION

Forgiveness of sin is the greatest part of being in God’s Kingdom. Colossians 2:13-14 says, “(we) who were dead in (our) trespasses and the uncircumcision of (our) flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside by nailing it to the cross.”  God has done more than just release and forgive us of what we owe, Jesus Christ paid our debt with His own life!  Have you experienced the cancellation of the record of your debt of sin by believing in Jesus’ death on the cross for you?

Generous King

What am I going to get paid?  I’m sure that’s a question that I asked a lot as a kid.  Whether it’s mowing the lawn, cleaning our room, or getting a babysitting job, we want to know the wage we are going to get paid for our labor.   Before we put in time or energy into work, we negotiate what we feel is fair to receive in return.  We may get to a point where we are mature enough not to ask the question out loud, but that does not hide the fact that the question is still going through our mind.  We selfishly want to receive what we deserve for the work that we do!

READ:  Matthew 20:1-16

A denarius in this time was the common amount of one day’s wage.  The typical work day was 6:00am (zero hour) to 6:00pm (twelfth hour).  In this parable, the master hired laborers for his vineyard in 3 hour intervals.  Those hired at 6:00am worked for 12 hours and those hired at 5:00pm worked for 1 hour.  The controversial element in the parable is that each worker received the same wage for the day.  And not unlike any of us, those who worked the longest and the hardest “grumbled” at unfairness of their wage.

What is controversial to those who are comparing themselves to others is good news to those who are simply glad to do the work.  Whether we realize it or not, it is good news that God does not give us what we deserve.  If God gave us what we deserve, none of us would want to receive the wage we have earned!  The wage we receive for laboring in God’s Kingdom is a pure gift of His goodness and grace.  In fact, when we labor for the Kingdom, God gives us much MORE than we could ever earn or deserve.  Those who WORK in the Kingdom without expectation of what they will receive in return will be GENEROUSLY rewarded by God the King!  How does God determine the wages for our labor in His Kingdom?

God generously gives to each and every one of us what is RIGHT (Mt. 20:4) – Being a part of God’s Kingdom involves work.  When we put faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, God “hires” us to labor on behalf of His Kingdom.  We are laboring as fishers’ of men to make disciples.  Our labor for the Kingdom is not just a “side job”, it is to be our life’s work.  We can be confident that the reward we will receive for our work will be sufficient.  We will not be lacking.  We can fully trust God that He will give us what is “right” for any amount time and effort we invest in His Kingdom.  By selfishly demanding what we think we deserve for our time and effort we miss out on the tremendous wage God wants to give.

God CHOOSES to give, not based on what we DESERVE, but on His GENEROSITY (Mt. 20:14-15) – God determines wages for His laborers very differently from anything we could ever understand.  God does not measure our contribution to the kingdom by comparing it with the accomplishments or sacrifices of anyone else.  The wages God gives to His laborers is based solely on His gracious “choice” to be “generous”!  We need to realize how amazing it is that God does not choose to pay us a wage based on what we deserve.  In fact, the good news for us is that God chooses to give us so much MORE than we could ever earn or deserve.  We should be careful not to compare our labor for God’s Kingdom to someone else.  Comparing ourselves to others will cause us to grumble about what we receive, and worse, to falsely believe that God has wronged us somehow.  This selfish labor will earn us last place in God’s Kingdom.  In contrast, we should selflessly labor for God knowing that He will graciously give us above and beyond anything we could ever earn or deserve.

CONCLUSION
Do you call yourself a Christian or are you laboring in God’s Kingdom with any motive of what you will receive in return?  Colossians 3:23-24 says, “whatever you do, work heartily for the Lord and not for men, know that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.”  Knowing the generous character of God we are free to serve Him with everything we’ve got and without comparison because we know God will  generously give us what is right, which is much more than we deserve!

Just King

I hate weeds.  Weeds wreak havoc and ruin a beautiful yard if not eliminated.  I made an effort to eliminate some weeds in my yard a few weeks ago by purchasing what I THOUGHT was a chemical which would only kill weeds.  Turns out, after zig zagging around my yard spraying weeds, that I also killed every inch of grass along with the weeds.  Now my yard has several large zig zag patterns of dead weeds . . . and grass.  From this experience I learned that when grass and weeds grow right beside one another, you have to be careful how you go about eliminating weeds in case you destroy the grass as well.

Our world is full of “weeds” (evil people).  Read the news on any given day and we are confronted with the harsh reality of all the evil that exists in the world.  Murder, violence, bullying, stealing, lying, abortion, divorce, . . . these are all examples of evil that happens in our world and in our own lives every day.  With all these weeds of evil growing everywhere, we might struggle at times wondering, “where is God?”, “why does He allow such evil?”, or “is He powerless to do anything about it?”  Be assured, God hates weeds more than we do, and He has plans to get rid of them, just not in the way or in the time frame that you might expect.

READ:  Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

God the King is the MAKER and OWNER of this world and He will make sure that everyone receives JUSTICE!  According to Matthew 13:24 and 38 the world in which good and evil exist is “HIS”.  That one little possessive pronoun communicates that God is the maker and therefore the owner of the world that you and I enjoy and live in every day.  At the same time, there is a real enemy that exists in God’s world (the devil), but make no mistake, He is fully in charge of His world and His Kingdom.  How do we make sense of our experience in the world?

God allows GOOD and EVIL to exist TOGETHER beside one another in His world (Mt. 13:25-26, 30, 38) – We should not be surprised at evil in our world.  We should not be shocked when we hear about bad things that happen.  We should not become discouraged when we feel like we are surrounded on all sides by wickedness.  Our King is allowing good and evil would exist side by side in this world.  Matthew 5:45 says God, “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”  The sun and rain God provides which allows good wheat to grow is the same environment which allows evil weeds to grow as well.  The frustrating part is that evil weeds are right next to us and they impact our personal lives.  It is our personal experience with evil that creates within us a desire for justice!  We want someone to eliminate the evil and make things right.  There is good news for all of us who want justice in this world!

In God’s Kingdom, everyone will receive their just PUNISHMENT or REWARD (Mt. 13:30, 39b-43) – There are consequences for everything in life.  When we do what is good, good things happen to us.  When we do what is evil, bad things happen.  The consequence of being a child of the evil one is being gathered outside the Kingdom and thrown into a “fiery furnace.  In a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  The consequence of being a child of the Kingdom is being gathered inside the Kingdom and welcomed into the “barn” of God’s eternal presence.  We may see and experience many injustices in this life that seem to go without consequences, but we can be sure of this, no one who will escape God’s justice.

CONCLUSION
An important question to ask is, “am I wheat or am I a weed?”  Am I a son of the kingdom or a son of the evil one?  Make no mistake, God will eternally punish or reward us depending on which one we are.  Why doesn’t God just eliminate weeds?  2 Peter 3:9 says that God is, “patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”   God isn’t eliminating weeds just yet, because He is patiently waiting to transform them into wheat!  Being transformed from a weed into wheat involves repenting of the evil we have done and putting faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.  Is it you God is patiently waiting for to repent?