Lake Washington Fellowship
2/7/10
Title: ‘First Things First’
Theme: Compliments/affirmation
Series: The Positive Side of Family
Prop: Bucket of beach sand
‘First Things First’
We begin this morning a new series of messages that I’m calling ‘The Positive Side of Family.’ By family I don’t just mean blood related but also people we consider family, the meaningful relationships we hold. For example my family is composed of me, my wife, and two daughters. Our dog princess Jasmin went to doggie heaven a couple of years ago…we considered her part of the family. Then there’s the extended family, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and cousins, in laws…you get the idea. I also have good friends that are like family. Beyond that bunch there’s my church family (the brothers and sisters in Christ). The best thing about family is the good times, those high times with the people we love that make us feel like we’re on top of the world. I want us to concentrate on those times and think on how to make more of them happen.
This morning let’s look at the subject of affirmation, the times when we lift each other’s spirits. Before Ipods, Playstation, laptops and cell phone texting existed families used to talk…I was at a restaurant last night with the Acevedo tribe and a couple with a 5 year old was seated close to us. They had brought a portable DVD player so the child could quietly watch a movie while they ate. Families used to talk and sometimes around the dinner table or in the car on a long trip the mom or dad would say, ‘why don’t we go around and say something nice, something we like about the other person.’ The little boy would say, ‘but I don’t want to… I don’t like my sister…’ then he’d say, ‘ok, I got one, I like it when she’s grounded…’ and the moment was gone.
Words [statements, phrases] can have such amazing power…use them wisely.
INSERT…Stuart Briscoe tells a story of something that happened to Howard Hendricks when he was in elementary school. Howard had come from a broken family and was a problem kid. During his first day in fifth grade the teacher said, ‘Oh, Howard Hendricks. I’ve heard a lot about you. I understand you are the worst kid in school.’ That year Howard did whatever he could to prove her right. When the next year rolled around his sixth grade teacher said to him, ‘Oh, so you are Howard Hendricks. I’ve heard you are the worst boy in this school.’ Hendricks thought, ‘Here we go again.’ But then the teacher continued, ‘And you know what? I don’t believe a word of it.’ And Howard said that year that woman did everything she could to help him and encourage him and praise his work; she believed in him. Hendricks credits her with changing his life forever. (Spiritual Stamina, Stuart Briscoe, p 231-232).
Make the effort to compliment (encourage, praise) someone today.
Check out these two Proverbs and the power of affirmation,
“12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12… you know what people are longing for? Validation, for someone to put their stamp of approval on us; we long for affirmation and recognition from people we respect and care about, for being told that we are special and our lives count for something. When we hope and long for that and it doesn’t happen, it’s disappointing, makes our heart sick (the word sick there can mean to become sorry for one’s own life; to feel sorry for being alive even). But when affirmation happens, when someone compliments you and speaks well of you to your face, it’s gratifying and fulfilling and brings happiness like the tree of life once did in the garden.
Hear me, there are people you know and are close to that would love to hear you say something special about them…it may sound corny but it’s true. The wise man also added something to that in v. 19,
“A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul” Proverbs 13:19
That’s what families are for: to meet needs, to bless each other, to bring a smile on each other’s face, to be sweet to your soul and mine. First things first, though, I think that for you and I to be able to empower others you must feel yourself empowered; to give joy you need to have joy inside, to encourage you need to be encouraged yourself. The question is do you have it in you to give.
PIC OF THOMAS JEFFERSON (on screen)
INSERT… I read a story about our 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson, him and his companions were traveling the countryside when they came upon a river that had overran its banks because of heavy rain. The bridge had been washed out and they had to cross the river on horseback fighting against the rapid currents. It was a dangerous situation. There was a traveler who was not a member of the group watching it all take place. After several had plunged in and made it to the other side, the stranger asked president Jefferson if he could hitch hike a ride with him and so the two crossed safely to the other side. After he had gotten off, one of the president’s companions asked the man why he had asked the president of the United States for this favor. The man was shocked, he had no idea it was the president who had helped him. Then he said, “All I know is that on some of your faces was written the word ‘No’ and on some of them was the answer ‘yes.’ His was a ‘Yes’ face.” (The Grace Awakening, Charles Swindoll, p 5-6)
Do others see a ‘yes face’ in you? (or a frown)
A way to lift your spirit up and put a smile on your face is to first turn your life over to Jesus Christ and be born again. Then you need to accept God’s compliments and internalize how He thinks about you…remember the Lord made you, He knows you best, better than you know yourself. Before we look at a few verses about this please keep in mind that the entire Bible is inspired by God; when you and I read the Bible we are reading God’s thoughts about you and everything else. From Genesis to Revelation God’s Holy Spirit led writers; when we read stuff in here we’re reading what God wanted us to know that’s in His minds.
THE BIBLE
• Helps us understand God (His ways, character, purpose for mankind)
• Helps us understand ourselves (our weaknesses and strengths, our sinfulness, humanness, mortality) John writes,
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
What was God thinking when He inspired that? He was thinking about how much He loves me, so much that He was willing to give up the life of His only Son for me so I could miss hell and make heaven. Knowing the mind of God makes us say ‘thank you God!’ and makes us want to give our hearts to Him and to be saved. Let’s look at some
FEEL GOOD VERSES…think about who you are in light of how God feels about you and embrace that truth. God’s mind should have an effect on how we feel about ourselves, our self worth.
St. Augustine, one of the early church fathers (4th and 5th century) wrote,
“People travel and wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” (Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, Zig Ziglar, p. 158).
Boy is that deep or what? Let’s take a few minutes to wonder about ourselves and how God made us and how He fees about us…
1.You are a fancy being (intricate)
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made” Psalm 139:14
Remember, because it was God who inspired David to write that statement it was actually God who was thinking it, ‘David you are fearfully and wonderfully made.’ Are you with me? Humans are so complex that the brightest minds in the universe are still perplexed about how everything works inside the body and the mind. You are one mean, well put together machine baby. Let’s be real, when was the last time you thought of yourself as wonderful.
‘wonderfully’- (Hebrew word pala) distinct, distinguished (you? Me? Distinguished? hmm)
The world thinks people with money and power and status are distinguished, people in high society. But God doesn’t see it that way. In the Lord’s eyes every one of us is distinguished and fancy and incredibly detailed. You were not an accident or a mistake or someone that happened by chance, ‘snap’, there you were made in your mom’s belly. God had planned you out before you came to be (Psalm 139), if anything God went beyond the ‘snap’ and added the ‘crackel, and pop’ when making you. The Lord put you together with style. Second,
2. You are the best there is…some athletes have said in pride: “I’m the greatest! (Ali) Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee” and other athletes think they are God’s gift to mankind. Thinking you’re the best without being cocky is of God. You may be thinking, ‘aren’t you going a little overboard, bro? No! Look at the Bible, David wrote about man’s position,
5 “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet” Psalm 8:5-6
Say that with me, ‘I am crowned with glory and honor.’ You and I may be a speck in the universe but nothing else created is crowned with glory and honor. Now look at v. 4,
4 “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (4)…in other words the Lord has you constantly in His mind.
One more psalm on being the best in God’s eyes,
17 “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!” Psalm 139:17-18 NLT
DUMP BUCKET OF SAND on the floor…I need a volunteer to start counting each grain to see how many we have.
That’s how much you and I matter to God…(LOOK AT MY WATCH) God just thought of you…God thought of you again…and again…and again, because you’re the best there is. Ok, so, you are fancy and the best there is, third, and last,
3. You are useful
About the first man Adam, the Bible says: 15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15…so the Lord makes this amazing world and He puts it in the hands of the man and woman to work it and take care it; couldn’t God had done that on His own? Of course He could but He wanted to involve man in the process. God also told them to get busy and multiply so they could fill the earth with people. God could have popped people everywhere to populate the earth but He chose to involve man. In God’s eyes people like you and I are what He needs to get what He wants done. So the world was filled with people and God built Him a people for Himself, the Hebrews, but they had become enslaved in Egypt. So God finds Moses,
To Moses God said: 10 “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." Exodus 3:10
And with Gold’s help Moses led them out. Throughout history God operates on the premise of accomplishing His plan through people, common people like you and me. God wanted David to kill the big, ugly giant and be king. The Lord wanted Daniel to write and disclose a lot of prophecy of what was going to happen through a period of thousands of years and in the end of times. God was counting on Daniel and not the Mayans. God chose Peter to lead the church so that it’s still running today.
The Bible affirms who you are, what you are all about, and what you can do with your life. In two weeks we are going to get practical about how to compliment and affirm those you love. But listen,
The positive side of family, God’s family is that He gives purpose to your life.
But you have to believe that, own up to that.
INSERT- STORY OF James W. Marshall…James W. Marshall discovered gold in a place called Sutter’s Creek, California, in 1848. That discovery started the great gold rush of 1849. People from everywhere went to California looking to find their fortune. Late in the 1880’s the body of a man was found in an abandoned gold mining shaft near Sutter’s Creek. It was the body of James W. Marshall. He had died alone and broke because he had never taken the time to stake his own claim to gold…crazy isn’t it? as crazy as people of faith going around, living without staking their claim that they are children of God. Don’t forget that God made you a fancy being, that you are the best there is, and that you are useful. Get a fresh new outlook for your life through Jesus Christ and let the good family times roll!!
Lay claim to who you are and how God made you and how He sees you. Get a new concept, a fresh new outlook to your life.
