"G" Whiz
What is the first question the Lord asked Adam?
In Genesis 3:9 we see that question: “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” We would simply say, "Where are you?"
It is not as if God did not know where Adam was. An omniscient God knows where we are. The real question is "Do WE know where we are?" When God asks a question such as "Where are you?" the answer is not, "I’m in here in Church." The question we must consider is "Where are we relative to where God wants us to be?"
"Where are you, Adam?" Where are you, Joe, Bill, Suzy, Tom, Mary, and John?"
You’ve all heard the cute story about the kid who comes home and his dad is checking up on him. He asks: "Where have you been?" Out. "Who did you see?" Nobody. "What did you do?" Nothing. The extension of this little tale is pretty obvious: One day, each of us is going home. The Lord’s may ask: "Where have you been?" "Who did you see?" "What did you do?" He is not going to want to hear. "Out, Nobody, and Nothing."
Jesus told us His opinion on such an answer in the Parable of the Buried Talent.
So many church members are Out, they are seeing Nobody and they are doing Nothing. Of course, that doesn’t apply to us. We are here, we may be sharing our testimony with people, and we may be engaged in the work of the Kingdom. Nevertheless, we need to give serious consideration to the question, "Where are we?"
I’d like to be able ask this question for us as a church. "Where are we?"
That may be an impossible undertaking. So the starting place is for each of us - as individuals - to come to grips with this question. That’s not easy, either. "Where are we?" We could make the argument that "It may not matter, where we are, the really important consideration is "Where are we going?" Better question: "Where should we be going?" and "How can we get there?" I think all of us can agree that none of us has arrived. These questions are in line with the apostle Paul’s advice in Philipians Chapter 3:13-14
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
We’ve asked the questions: Where are we? and Where are we going? Paul has alluded to another question that we might ought to ask: "Where are we coming from?" Paul’s advice was to forget about the past so we can move on with the future.
How well do we do that? How well do we let go of the past? We will have difficulty making the transition from where we are now to move on to where God wants us to be if we are cannot let go of (forget) the past. Sometimes we have difficulty forgetting "what is behind" because of Grief, Grudges, and Glory.
Grief is almost always a result of a loss of something. A relationship that failed. A loved one who died. Health problems. Business failure. There are many things over which we can grieve. Grief is a natural reaction to loss and it is not emotionally healthy to deny our grief. However, in the process of time, we should be able to trade the "spirit of heaviness for a garment of praise." We should come to a point where we are thankful for the time we had with a loved one who has gone on. When that happens, then Grief is transformed into Gratitude.
What about missed opportunities? I can look back on promotions I did NOT get and be thankful that I missed the problems that went with that particular job. Eventually, we have to leave the grief behind in order to press on to what God has for us in the tomorrows of life. Over the course of time, we have to let go of the grief. If we are grieving over things that were lost 5, 10, 20 years ago, it is past time to change we way we look at the loss.
What about Grudges? Deep-seated resentment has its basis in unforgiveness. One of the most sobering parables that Jesus told was about the unforgiving servant. You know the story from Matt 18: A servant owed his master $10M - an amount that was impossible to pay. He begged to have just a chance to try to repay the debt. The master had pity on him and wiped the slate clean. He then went out and demanded payment of $100 from a fellow servant and had him throw in prison because he could not pay it. As the story unfolded, the master heard about the sorry behavior of the forgiven servant and reversed his decision. The first servant was throw in jail (literally given to the tormentors) and he would remain there (in jail) until every penny was paid – that is an eternity.
From Matthew 6:15 we see “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
If life were a Monopoly game, then "carrying a grudge" would guarantee that you would get a permanent "Go Directly to Jail" card and that as long as you held on to the grudge you could never get out of the tormenting jail of resentment. That pretty much takes care of any hope of "forgetting what is behind and pressing on toward the prize of the high calling we have in Christ." Life goes on and you can roll the monopoly dice every time it is your turn but you are not going anywhere because your grudge or grudges have you lock up in the jail of resentment. The irony of it all is that you are the only one who can open the door to the jail cell and stop the torment. And, yet we will not let go of the grudge because we think we are inflicting pain on the object of our resentment and ( in some kind of twisted logic) we think that an eternity of torment is worth that! NOT SO! Get over it. We need to learn to speak the words "I forgive you."
So we have Grief that can keep us from being where we ought to be and we have Grudges that can do the same thing. We need to forgo long past grief and forgive long past grudges and forget long past glories. I’m not talking about God’s glory but glory or merit of our past achievements. I have known people who work a conversation around to the point of letting people know they were president of the bank, they were the state champion in the high jump when they were in high school, they have a PhD or that they used to play professional football or maybe they won a beauty contest when they were in college or the graduated at the top of their class in kindergarten. They live in the past and are feeding off the glory of the merit of the past and they can’t get over it. Such focus on past accomplishments and living in the glory of the past can prevent us from pressing toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus.
It is not only the "bad" things that can hinder us, sometimes the "good" things can keep us away from God’s best. Paul had a remedy for that. Paul was a very accomplished person in worldly terms. In the third chapter of Philippians Paul listed all his glorious achievement in life and concluded "I count it all as loss." Compared to what God is calling us to, it is not worth anything.
What are we doing with our glories and our grudges and our griefs? Where are we coming from? Where are we? Where are we going? If where we are coming from is hindering us from being where we ought to be and going to where we ought to go, then there are some adjustments and attitude changes that need to be implemented.
Let’s look at where we are. We’ve been looking at the past which (according to Paul) we need to be forgetting. What about the present? How should we deal with the present so that we are pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? The picture Paul is painting is that of a race. The mark is the finish line and the prize is the calling of God on our lives. That prize has been described in various ways.
We talk about going to heaven. We talk about being with Jesus and spending eternity with Him. All those are good, but the destination of the course on which God has set each one of us is that we will be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). The track is the Way - Jesus is the Way. The mark is the finish line or the end of all thing pertaining to righteousness - Jesus is the End. As Paul wrote in Roman 10:4 "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Jesus is the prize - being conformed to His image is the greatest.
There is a hymn that has the refrain - "He’s everything to me." Jesus has to be our focus. If we know the track on which we should be running, if we know and can recognize the finish line and if we know what the prize is, then what is to hinder us from pressing on? Let’s assume that we have learned to deal with the baggage of the past. What do we do in the present? The simple answer is this: Find out what God has called us to do and then DO IT! (Faith plus Faithfulness equals obedience)
Each has a job to do. Sometimes it is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other one in the race we are called to run. In doing "what God has called us to do" we don’t have to use our own strength. He has promised to provide the power to get the job done. So, why aren’t we seeing the world being won to Christ? Why aren’t we seeing the crime rate go down? Why aren’t we seeing Christian families and churches flourishing? Just as there are hindrances from the past that can stop our progress, there are some present things that prevent us from pressing toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. To put it bluntly, there may be some things we need to stop doing.
We can do things that hinder our progress on the road of righteousness. I remember a story related by Watchman Nee, a Chinese pastor: He meet one on his member along the road and causally asked: How’s it going with you. The answer was "Not too bad, under the circumstances." The pastor asked him, "What are you doing down there?" "Down where?" he asked. "Down under the circumstances." Sometimes we let our circumstances affect our progress in moving toward the mark. If we are not careful we become completely surrounded by our circumstances. When we are not happy with our circumstances in life, this dissatisfaction is manifested in Grumbling, Griping, Grouchiness, and Grumpiness It is indeed sad when Oscar (the) Grouch moves his membership from Sesame Street Church and joins our church.
If we start focusing on circumstances around us, then we have lost sight of the objective. Jesus is the Way, He is the finish line and He is the prize. The need to focus on the objective and not get distracted by the circumstances has universal applications. It applies to school, to the work place, to the home, to church. The reason it has universal application is because it applies to each of us as individuals. I can recall people grumbling about the fact that the picture on the wall on their office was not very attractive. Do you think, for example, that Thomas Edison was concerned about the picture on the wall when he was developing the light bulb? Do you think that the team of scientists who development the atomic bomb in the basement of a building at the University of Chicago cared that they did not have windows in the lab? If you are looking for evidence in your life as to whether you are focused on what is important, then start listening to yourself. Do you grumble or is your conversation full of praise? In Psalms 34:1, David said “I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
If we want to give the devil a foothold in our lives, then just be a grump. That will do it. Just as the person with a grudge held the keys to get out of the jail of torment, the grumpy, griping, grouchy grumbler has a choice. Because we have been redeemed, we have a choice. So get your Oscar out of the trash can and get back on the track pressing toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. If we don’t correct that attitude then the grumbling, griping, grouching and grumpiness turns into Gossiping, Gouging, and Gloating. When that happens, others get hurt. Does this apply to us? Does it apply to you? Does our griping, gossiping, gouging, and grumpiness really affect other people?
There was a poet and clergyman (John Donne) who lived in England at the end of the 16th Century who had some thoughts on that:
“...no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne (1572-1631)
We started out saying that it would be good to answer the question of "Where are we" as a church, but that was too hard a question. It is pretty clear that "where we are" as individuals impacts where we are as a church. In a race, or even on the highway where we drive our cars, if one person stumbles and falls or goes in the wrong direction, then it affects all the other around him. Some of us are stumbling and falling and the rest need to learn a lesson from the Special Olympics (handicap kids). In the regular Olympics, if a runner falls down, then the other speed on by. In the Special Olympics if someone falls down, the others stopped and picked him up and helped him along. We need to be doing that in the church.
It would appear there is a whole array of bad G’s that can keep us from forgetting the past, might cause us to stumble in the present and keep us from pressing on to the finish line. But we have a G that is more than sufficient for all these thing. That G is God’s Grace. The fact that we are even in the race is by His grace. The fact that we even realize there is a race is by His grace. And by His Grace we can replace all the bad G’s with Graciousness, Gratitude, Goodness and Greatness.
Graciousness is simply your showing the Grace of God to others. We attempt to define grace as God’s unmerited favor. How well are WE doing in showing unmerited favor to others? Do we stop and help someone who has a condition of bad G’s or do we think that they are just getting what they deserve when they stumble and fall. We are called to be channels of His grace. Unmerited favor finds expression in unconditional love (if we want to know what that is, then read the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians or even better look at the Cross of Christ). Unconditional love is a practical way to press toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Gratitude is simply appreciating what God has done for you in Christ. That begins with accepting and receiving what God has given. To receive what you did not earn or merit is evidence of humility. (Some cannot receive God’s salvation because of pride.) This characteristic finds practical expression in receiving things from others and then expressing appreciation to them. What happens when you stumble because you have some bad G’s? How do you react when a fellow Christian comes along side to help? Do we reject it or accept it?
Goodness and Greatness is becoming like Jesus. That’s the prize. How does that find expression in our everyday lives? Jesus told us how to be great in Matthew 20:26-27.
“ . . . but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant”
Winning is not defined as getting to the finish line first. Winning is getting as many other to the finish line as you can. We started back in the Garden of Eden with the first question that God asked man. The fact that God created the world, created mankind was by His grace. It is by His grace that He cares enough to ask, Where Are You? You may have to answer that question with the word "OUT." If by "out" you mean that you are outside the family of God, that you are not even in the race, then by His grace, He invites you to come on in, to get on the right track that lead to the finish line of salvation for now and for eternity.
If you have not ever accepted what God did for you in Christ Jesus, then now is the day of salvation. Do it now. None of us has a guarantee of even our next breath. How close is eternity - a heart beat away. Some of us have been on the track - walking in the Way - running the race – for a long time. But are we making any progress? Are we pressing toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Is the past of grief, grudges and past glories holding us back? Are we presently caught up in a gathering of bad G’s (grumbling, griping, grouching, gossiping, gouging)? Maybe we need a G’s transplant - graciousness, gratitude and true greatness. Some of you may be looking for a church home and you believe that God has brought you to this place for a reason. He has work for you to do in this fellowship of believers. Do what you believe God is leading you to do. Forgetting what is behind, press on. Focusing on Jesus, press on.
