Myth: I Should Do Big Things For God Series

Intro

What is your idea of success? How do you evaluate whether your life is successful?

It's important to put that question in front of us...and recognize how it leaves a question over our entire lives... as to whether they have meaning or not. I believe God wants to speak into that question today.

We are continuing our series entitled "Myths: Exposing the False Beliefs that Bind Us."

We are looking at common ideas that effect how we navigate life. And today we are going to engage the:

MYTH: I Should Do Big Things For God.

As with other "myths" we are engaging, the spirit of this statement can reflect something very right...but some of the underlying assumptions can be very wrong.

There is no higher honor than to serve God...to serve the one who created us... the one who gives every good gift...the one who would come die for us. So doing things for God is not only an honor and privilege, but it's also a natural response to having had a changed life. Our Father...the source of all of life...is calling us into His redemptive and restorative plan and purpose.

So naturally we should want to do big things for God..

The issue that I believe God wants us to engage today... isn't about how much we want to serve God...but about our idea of "big."

It's become a bit of a byline these days that "bigger is better."

Beyond the sexual connotation... America is known by our way of thinking that everything should be bigger. When those from other countries express what stands out about America...even Europeans who are part of our larger western culture...they will often say: Americans do everything BIG. (They'd swear everyone must is from Texas and California...states that really can believe they are the big life.)

We have the biggest military.... create the biggest cars and trucks.

We created the supermarket...and then the superstores like Wal-Mart and Target and Home Depot....and of course we have the super malls.

We have meals that are 'super sized'...invented the Big Mac and the Big Gulp...then the Super Big Gulp and now the Double Gulp which holds 64 fluid ounces. (Some villages survive on that !)

We have superstars... that are bigger than life.

The new ATT commercials [1] where the young man in a suit is sitting down with a group of young children and asking them basic questions... concludes - "Bigger is better...it's not complicated.'

ATT - says bigger is better...it's not complicated. So naturally we should do BIG things for God.

Seems to fit our leaders...doesn't it?

Noah... Moses...David... they accomplished something big... EPIC big.

Jesus: A calling of truly cosmic proportions.... Paul: World changer....

So naturally we are drawn to being ...superheroes. We grow up with ideas about heroes that we dream of being....usually those with special powers.

As we go on in life we can still believe we should be not just heroic...but superheroes.

I know I'm not alone in this.

If this is what God is calling us to...then most of us probably feel a little inferior...and probably find a lot of our life irrelevant.

Many of us may have a good sense of the grand drama...but we don't seem to be in it...maybe an extra in the crowds.

But is that really how God sees things? Is that really how He is looking at your life?

You won't find some of our assumptions about "BIG"in the Bible.

Yes there is an epic storyline that includes some epic sized moments....but God sees the small things that he builds upon.

If we look at the lives who we see as having done great things for God... we can see that what is valued isn't simply what was "big."

• Noah - just one guy who still cared what God said.

• Moses - just one guy God would strip from 40 years in a royal palace and send to 40 years of being alone in a desert with sheep

• David - he was youngest kid did a lot of time caring for sheep...

• Jesus: lived life within such small parameters... it could have been missed.

• Paul: saw a great mission...but also said "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life." (1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV))

So how are we to look at what we are doing with our lives? Are we just missing the action? Should we be waiting for our moment to do something that is really meaningful?

How should we define our accomplishments in life?

I think a lot of us are carrying ideas that have come from our worldly culture... even influenced our modern Christian culture. We need to see how God looks at our lives.

1. The One we serve is what makes everything big