Each of you was given a piece a paper and a pencil as you entered the sanctuary this morning. Don’t worry; I am not giving a test. But I am going to ask each of you to make a masterpiece this morning. I have asked ______ to volunteer for us today, to be our living model. Your task is to create a masterpiece- quality pencil drawing of our model. As you can see, our original is a wonderful example of God’s creation. With a fine model like this, you should be able to draw your masterpiece in no time at all. Is everyone ready? Ok, Go!
(Note to Self) Tell them to stop after a minute and collect the drawings. Look through them and make some comments.
Now some of you may feel that I rushed things and didn’t give you enough time to complete you masterpiece. Maybe for some of you, it takes more than n a quick minute or so to complete a masterpiece drawing and you are thinking to yourself, “Pastor, why didn’t you just give me more time? Why weren’t you more patient with me? I wasn’t finished yet!”
In Paul’s letter to Philippi, he tells them to have faith in knowing that God is not finished with them, not until they are with Jesus.
Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
How many of you have seen the bumper sticker that says, "Be patient with me. God isn’t finished with me yet"? I believe the statement should be, "Be patient with God, He isn’t finished with me yet."
The reality is that we’re all in process when it comes to our spiritual lives. And we need to be patient as this process continues.
Illustration: I have not worked out much since I left the Army. I have really enjoyed the break. Army P.T. was hard work and we did it all the time, even during our deployment Iraq. The Army was so focused on staying fit and reaching new goals physically. So when I left the Army I saw my chance to lay back and relax.
But it wasn’t until last year or so until I realized how very far I let myself go. I found myself looking at some Army pictures of myself and I was shocked to see how I let myself go physically.
I had no idea I was hurting myself, I didn’t notice the slow separation from being fit to being non-fit. I now can understand why the Army was so determined in making us work out every day.
Just as our physical development is effected by what we do and don’t do, our spiritual progress is affected the same way. It’s harder to identify habits and attitudes that are changing, more difficult to track our progress. Some of us don’t even realize how far we have let ourselves go.
I have heard some Christians blame their spiritual downfall on all sorts of things:
- “It’s the preacher’s fault that I have become complacent in my Christian walk, he doesn’t preach on the things I know I need to hear.”
- “It’s that churches fault, they are all hypocrites and I can’t grow there.”
- “I am too busy with work and life to grow stronger spiritually.”
What it really is. Is that we have just become lazy and we play the blame game very well.
We seem to stall in the spiritual life, and when that happens we feel stuck. We’re no longer feeling closer to God, no longer seeing God transform our habits and attitudes, no longer hopeful and optimistic that things will change. When that happens, we’re tempted to think that God has given up on us.
But the truth of it is that we have given up on God. We have placed limits on God and on all that He can do in our lives. We have a difficult time realizing how we have become the problem rather than how everything else has become the problem.
God’s promise to us is that He will never give up on us nor will he forsake us.
We read in Hebrews 13:5that God tells us “…Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Isn’t that comforting to know? God will never leave us,
I.GOD NEVER GIVES UP!
A.How many of us have unfinished projects that we began with well-meaning intentions of completing them?
Illustration: Rick Warren writes: We humans are great starters but often bad finishers. We leave unfinished symphonies, unfinished buildings, unfinished books, unfinished projects. We may not always finish what we start but God always finishes what He starts.
God doesn’t create a bird and give him half a wing. He doesn’t create an unfinished flower or an unfinished star. He puts the finishing touches on everything He does and then He says, “It is good.”
1.When you accepted Jesus, He began working in your life, and He will complete what He started, in spite of the hang-ups, faults, bad decisions, sins, and circumstances that we face. Thank God He isn’t like us. He does and will complete what He started.
2.This is why we need to be patient with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all a work in progress. Not one of us have arrived spiritually speaking, we all have our faults, and things that rub others the wrong way.
3.We must understand that we are all going through a process of growth and development. Paul could say, “I’m not the man I used to be, thank God. But also, thank God, I’m not the man I’m going to be. I’m growing and changing.”
4.We need to learn how to see others the way God sees us. We are too hard on others aren’t we? It is so very easy for us to be judgmental of others and to not even realize our own faults.
Luke 6: 41-42 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
5.The point is simple: We are no better than anyone else. We all have our problems. And there’s no such thing as a perfect person. If you demand perfection of the people in your life in order to enjoy them, you’re going to be miserable for the rest of your life. Nobody’s perfect.
6.Think of all the ruined relationships, churches that closed the doors, preachers that have thrown in the towel, and all the souls that have turned their lives away from God simply because people have control issues and want to play God.
Illustration: Pastor Rob was a good friend of mine when I lived on Oahu, Hawaii. He was a young new pastor on the island. Rob had just graduated seminary and was hired by the First Baptist Church of Wahiawa, HI. Now Rob was from Missouri and was extremely excited about serving the Lord in Hawaii.
Pastor Rob had so many fresh new ideas in reaching the lost. Full of energy and drive, Rob was on fire for Jesus. But this didn’t sit well with some of the older locals in the congregation. Believe it or not, Racism is very alive in Hawaii. Many Hawaiians do not care much for the mainlanders. Rob already had his skin color against him and then to top it off, he was a young kid messing with man’s church and man didn’t like it.
They picked and prodded Rob on the silliest issues, things that never should have been a factor until ROB FINALLY PACKED UP AND LEFT. They viewed Rob as a young kid and they viewed themselves as wiser than Rob on all issues. It was a constant power struggle.
No matter what Rob did or didn’t do, they were always against him. All they could see was a White Pastor that was just a kid that didn’t know any better making changes in THEIR CHURCH. They were blind and couldn’t see that lives were being touched; people were coming to the Lord. It wasn’t about the Spirit of God coming alive in A DEAD CHURCH. It was about who had spiritually arrived and who knew best.
7.This has been and is a problem across the board in many churches. People will spend most of their lives in one church and become territorial of that church. They lose perspective about what the church is about and stall in their own spiritual growth. They become too concerned about everyone else and about their comfort level in THEIR CHURCH.
8.And this ultimately drives not only people away from God but stunts their own Spiritual journey as well.
9.Rob’s story is just one of thousands. The good news about Rob is that he now is serving the Lord at a Baptist academy on the windward side of the island. Rob did go through a difficult time and almost left the ministry but praise God He dug down deep and God pulled him out of the valley that he was in.
10.God saw Rob in a totally different light. He saw His work and unlike the older congregation, He didn’t give up on Rob. God was and still is to this day working on Rob, making him into the masterpiece that God desires him to become.
11.God didn’t see Rob as a “Haole Kid” that had no business serving Him. God saw much more and this is what we too need to see because we are all His work and His work is more beautiful than any Picasso.
II.GOD SEES WHAT WE DON’T!
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
A.Let’s face it; dealing with difficult people is not easy! Sometimes people make us mad don’t they?
VIDEO: “The Complainer”
1.We complain, we argue, we annoy others don’t we? There have been times in my life that I have felt like head butting some people as well but Biblically that is not the answer is it.
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
2.Biblically we are told to be not only compassionate but to be patient as well. I believe God is telling us as believers, that we need to be patients with others.We need to see people as God sees them and we need to be compassionate and patient with them.
3.Have you noticed that it is often easier to be more patient with your friends than you own family?
Illustration: I have to confess that it is very difficult for me at times to be patients with my family. I believe that this goes back to what I spoke about last week. Satan! The family is where He wants to strike as he knows that if he can divide the family, he can move in very easily and run your life completely.
I know I need to pray more about being more compassionate and patients with my family.
4.You see, God is still working in their lives as well as mine, once again none of us are perfect and we all have our faults that more than likely drive others bonkers.
5.God makes it clear He doesn’t see people as we see them. We tend to form opinions about others by looking at the outward appearance,
6.For instance, if we see a man with long hair wearing all black and has a few tattoos, we may assume he is a lost soul that is addicted to some sort of drugs and is more than likely not a good person in general. We judge according to what we see in appearance, but God looks at the heart; it’s what’s on the inside of a person that counts with Him.
7. That same man with long hair may have had a difficult life and may have made some poor choices in the past but has given his life to Jesus and is doing God’s work in reaching others that society may have turned their backs to because of their appearance.
8.God is working on that individual. Molding him to be the person that he was meant to be by God.
9.Who are we to judge? Are we ourselves that perfect? Are we ourselves completed works of art? Just as that man is in a never ending process in becoming the person God wants him to be, we too are in that same process.
Conclusion:
Have you ever thought that perhaps God wants to use each of us as his paint brushes?
As God is continuing His work in us to become his masterpieces it is possible He wants to use us to inspire others to live better lives for Jesus.
Proverb 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Have you ever heard the old saying, “It takes a village to raise children”?
Well just maybe God is using each of us as his paint brushes to help, inspire, nurture, and encourage one another.
With each stroke, He is using us to create in us His Masterpiece.
