It's hard…To find good help?
Matthew 9:36-38 NKJ
36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Illus.
In Bill Gates’ new book Business @ The Speed of Thought, he lays out 11 rules that students do not learn in high school or college, but should.
He argues that our feel-good, politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality who are set up for failure in the real world.
RULE 1 - Life is not fair; get used to it.
RULE 2 - The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
RULE 3 - You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both a high school and college degree.
RULE 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.
RULE 5- Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.
RULE 6 - If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
RULE 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills; cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try "delousing"
the clothes in your own room.
RULE 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they will let you try as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
RULE 9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
RULE 10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to their jobs.
RULE 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
Everywhere you go today… People and employers say the same thing
It's hard to find help...it's even harder to get good help and keep it.
No one wants to do anything anymore… They just want to rely
on someone else to do it for them…and still receive the benefits as though they had done it all on their own...
That is...except when it comes to spiritual matters… Then they want
to try to do it all and not rely on God to do anything...
Let me clarify that...they only want Him to do what they want
Him to do...and the rest of it, they think they can manage on their own!
The story I'm going to share with you today is about a King
who was having a bad day...for you see he was up against
the Israelite army and couldn't figure out why he wasnt winning the battle…
So he asked those around him...you know his trusted advisors
but they didn't have a clue as to why, when, where or what was even going on...
kind a like, a lot of people are still today
1 Kings 20:23-25 MSG
23-25 Meanwhile the advisors to the king of Aram said, “Their god is a god of the mountains— we don’t stand a chance against them there. So let’s engage them on the plain where we’ll have the advantage. Here’s the strategy: Remove each sheik from his place of leadership and replace him with a seasoned officer. Then recruit a fighting force equivalent in size to the army that deserted earlier— horse for horse, chariot for chariot. And we’ll fight them on the plain— we’re sure to prove stronger than they are.”
It sounded good to the king; he did what they advised.
In this passage, we find the Syrians were being defeated by the Israelites.
And then, some of the Syrian king’s advisers give the king what they thought was the reason for their defeat.
Human nature is always trying to figure out why things
don’t happen the way they think that they should...
or in the context they think and the timetable
they would like for those things to happen..
Why is this happening to me and to my family?
Here's another question… How many hundreds of thousands,
of millions of hours, days weeks and months and years, have been wasted...
wondering and trying to figure out why things don't happen,
the way someone thinks and in the timetable they should???
They said that they had fought on the hills and lost because Israel’s God is the God of the hills...and if they were to fight the Israelites on the plains or in the valleys, they would win.
I think the king was probably thinking to himself…
Boy oh boy... is it hard to get good help these days
I think we could all say together, that was pretty stupid advice...
the only thing dumber than that, was that the King believed them!
Sometimes trying to get your way and your will done at all costs...
will have you to believe in an unreliable word...even one that
defies common sense sometimes...
Amen??
He took them at their word, what he didn’t know was...
Israel had received a word also, only Israel’s word had come from God.
28. Just then a holy man approached the king of Israel saying, “This is God’s word: Because Aram said, ‘God is a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys,’ I’ll hand over this huge mob of an army to you. Then you’ll know that I am God.”
29-30. The two armies were poised in a standoff for seven days. On the seventh day fighting broke out. The Israelites killed 100,000 of the Aramean infantry in one day. The rest of the army ran for their lives back to the city, Aphek, only to have the city wall fall on 27,000 of the survivors.
They thought that the God of Israel only helped His people up in the hills and mountains, and not down in the valleys.
What they found out is, God is God, all over the place helping His people, in the mountains, valleys and the plains
Its sad, but that line of thinking still exists today, some people still think the same way,
They feel like, the mountains refer to our good times, and the valleys, our bad times.
Some people have this idea that God is on the job...
Watching over us and taking care of us when things are going good
and when things aren't going good...they question where He went
In the good times He is in super abundance and you can feel Him
everywhere and all around...Their quick to say how good God is
and to give Him credit!
One minute, their singing "How great Thou art", but when
bad times come and things get hard, they feel like He’s not around
and the accuser has them singing the words to the sounds of silence…
Hello darkness my old friend I've come to talk to you again...
It's like they forget where their help comes from…
God would have me remind you this morning of his promise
Psalm 121 MSG
121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.
The accuser… Would have you think that God leaves us helpless
in the valleys...especially when an illness or a problem comes along
that we cant fix ourselves...
Which if we would admit the truth...Would be every problem or illness that comes along
We should always realize, that our God is the God of the mountains, but He is also the God of the valleys!
He’s the God of everywhere...and He’s been God right there with you, through everything you have ever been through...
God the Son laid aside His crown of glory, His royal majesty and came down for us,
stepping into a human body as a baby.
He came down to where we were for the sole purpose of dying on the cross
for our sins...so that He could bring us up to what God the Father
has for us at His right hand.
Jesus came down to crown us with glory and honor, to clothe us with robes of righteousness and make us His bride,
sharing everything that He has with us, that is the grace of God. He came down to our valley.
So whatever you are going through right now...
know that God is right there in your valley with you.
We all know the true meaning behind the poem..."footprints in the sand"
Its when you don’t think that He is aware of what your going through,
that’s when He is holding you in His arms and carrying you through the valley.
And you say to yourself... Well that was easy for the Israelites to do
because they had a word from God that he would give them the victory...
And you're right they did have a word from God that they
would be victorious… But they also believed that God would see them
through before they ever had the word...
Let me share with you the scripture right before they received their word…
1 Kings 20:27 NKJ
And the children of Israel were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them.
(which means they were getting ready to do battle...with the enemy)
Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside.
They were outnumbered to say the least… But they knew
where their help came from...They knew that no matter what
they could rest in and on God's ability instead of their own
And just like the Israelites were victorious no matter where they were,
you will be too, when you trust Him to be the God of wherever you are.
Don't look to the left or to the right for help…look to God!
Because when you look to the left or the right all you see
is circumstance and circumstance will always take your focus
off off Gods Ability to help you!
Realize this amazing truth…
No matter where you are…
No matter where you stand…
No matter your circumstance…
No matter the odds against you…
YOU ARE BLESSED!!
Even in the valleys… You are blessed!
Its in the valleys where your faith is stretched and grows stronger,
And the stronger our faith becomes...and the more we depend
completely on Him to see us through every situation,
The shorter and less frequent the valleys tend to come up at all.
Which is all a part of His plan to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future,
Illus.
A new body repairman was just breaking in at the car shop. He was working on his first official project, a banged up car. He made significant repairs, taking his time, feeling the edges, and touching up to the point of perfection. It was feathered out perfectly.
Soon the customer came by. To the bodyman’s surprise, he began complaining. The repairman could not understand. The owner showed him the side of the car. He said the paint didn’t match, there were all sorts of bumps and valleys—it was horrible. He raised his voice, demanding an explanation and threatend to refuse paying for the repairs. "Well," the repairman offered, "All I can say is that the repairs I made were on the other side of your car!"
We laugh… But in reality we do the same thing when it comes to spiritual matters
We ask God to take care of the big things that we think we cant handle
and hold on to the little things that we think we can...and then
Complain about how messed up and how bad things seem to be...
and wonder why He's not helping us out more??
God sent his amazing holy spirit…
To comfort us...
To live within us…
To guide us…
To direct us…
To empower us...
To help us as much as we would allow him to...
God wants us to rest in His amazing ability to help us
and see us through every facet of this amazing life that He...
has given us to live abundantly and richly...
because of His Generosity!!
It's not hard to find good help…
The hard part is accepting the greatest help
that has been freely given to us??
Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG
3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Under the old covenant… It was always about what you had to do to Merit gods help and goodness in your life
But under the new covenant of grace that Jesus introduced when He
died on the cross for you to receive…
Its no longer about what you can do...but about what He already did for you
Amen??
Do you receive it today?
Take it and apply to your life and what God wants to do for you!
Amen?
Let's Pray!
