What God Values
Matthew 23:23,25
Are you familiar with the term: Values Clarification?
It is a process in which individuals, groups and corporations engage, in order to discover what are the basic, fundamental, bedrock beliefs and values on which they are built.
It is a process that helps you to discover the basics in order that you can return to them and refocus your efforts and remake yourself.
That is what our church is doing. You have received a Core Values Audit. We NEED… desperately NEED you to return those audits TODAY… either in the offering plate or in the box in the foyer. Please don’t leave today without turning one in.
You may wonder why that audit, or core values are so important.
Let me use an example:
Slide 2
You are familiar, I assume, with the rudder of a ship. I would venture a guess that the rudder is probably 1/50th the size of the boat and yet that little device can control the whole boat.
Values… core values… internalized values work the same way in our lives.
“Like the rudder of the boat, our values are often hidden from immediate view of others. But they do indeed steer our course.”
I heard someone say that the most important piece of safety equipment on a car is the nut who holds the steering wheel.”
They did not mean the nut that holds the steering wheel in place. They meant the driver… the NUT that holds the wheel.
Our values could either be likened to the nut that holds the wheel or the rudder… either way they determine the direction of the life.
When it comes to deciding the direction of your life… there are several things that come into play in deciding your direction.
Slide 3
First there are values… the bedrock things you believe, and hold as important… core values.
Slide 4
Next, are the Things you know you should do
Slide 5
Then, there is pleasure… what the flesh would have you do.
Slide 6
Then, Friends… they tempt and pull you this way or that.
Slide 7
And never forget… there is SATAN.
But listen… knowledge, friends, the flesh and Satan… those things do not decide your actions… your direction.
Slide 8
To use the boat analogy, they are more like
Wind and the waves
To be sure, they do have an affect.
Strong wind and waves will push a ship and try to determine the direction but they DO NOT DETERMINE the direction.
What does?
Slide 9
That little piece under the water… the rudder.
Choosing poor friends or giving into the flesh will have great influence in the decisions you make, in the direction you go… BUT THEY DO NOT DETERMINE the direction.
What does? VALUES!!! Core values are the rudder that will determine direction.
So, you can see why values, the rudder, are so important to God. You are his ship. You direction matters.
What are the values that God wants to teach you?
Slide 10
1. Substance, not image.
The camera commercial says, “Image is everything.”
Our culture agrees. Everyone wants to project the image of strength, power, control and confidence.
But image is smoke… not substance.
Fake… not real
Some people are all image, all pretend, all façade… with no real structure and depth.
God is the God of truth and He shines His light… The Spirit and the Word… into our life and cuts through the appearance, down to the reality.
The emphasis on substance over image winds throughout God’s Word.
The Pharisees were all image, just smoke and mirrors with no substance. Jesus had strong words for them.
Slide 11
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices- mint, dill and cumin, BUT you have neglected the more weighty/important matters of the law… justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Slide 12
YOU should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former… You hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Slide 13
God said to His people through Isaiah, “These people come close to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, BUT THEIR HEARTS ARE FAR FROM ME.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS!!!!!
I want to say something very plain… three little words you can remember…
Slide 14 GOD HATES HYPOCRICY
Another value God wants to see in us is…
Slide 15
2. FAITH; not security.
One of the greatest longings of the human heart is for SECURITY…
The feeling that we are in control, that we can face whatever comes because we have the resources, that we have the answers.
Slide 16……will switch to slide 17 automatically
When something comes along that causes us to see our vulnerability, that points out our weakness… we are undone.
Security is tangible evidence that we are prepared, that nothing can hurt us, that we have all we need, that we are more than equal to the need.
Security is a big bank account… a nest egg, insurance to pay for anything that comes up.
Faith is much the same but different.
Faith is knowing you have the resource to handle whatever can happen, knowing your pile of resources is bigger than whatever need can come along,
But not being able to see them.
Slide 18
Faith is in things, in a person, you can not see
It does not come with a monthly statement
There is no contract you can keep on file
Faith is “the evidence of things NOT SEEN, the certainty about things you can not touch.
Security can come from anything you can touch.
Faith is only from what/Who we can not see.
Slide 19
We humans actually HATE faith.
We spend all of our time making sure we don’t need to have faith.
Slide 20
We work and work to build up our pile of stuff and savings and insurances, and resources so that we can feel SECURE.
For us… resources and policies and warranties and contracts are REAL... they are SECURITY… Faith is smoke and mirrors.
God hates that because He knows that contracts and savings accounts and policies and STUFF is really smoke and mirrors because you can’t take them with you.
The secure man’s 23rd Psalm says…
I am my provider, I shall not be in want
I have stored up hay if the grass is not green in the valley
I have a big canteen just incase the waters are dried up
I have a map so I can find the right path
Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I have no fear… I have a living will, my funeral paid for and a healthy life insurance policy to care for my family.
I will fear no evil because I have theft alarms on my car and home and the police will be there in minutes.
My accountant and my broker, they comfort me.
I have prepared an investment portfolio that will put food on the table for years to come, even if my competitors should go belly up.
I have been anointed with ability and good planning.
Surely, income and dividends will follow me every month, without fail.
And I will dwell in my own home, not a nursing home, all the days of my life.
The SECURE man is secure in his stuff
The man of faith is just as secure… in His Shepherd.
He is not too lazy to make plans or lay up treasures. But He knows that his security is not in them… but in the Lord.
God hates security…. He loves Faith.
So….
Slide 21
When we look at the heart of God… what do we see?
We see that God loves us and He wants us to have…
Slide 22
SUBSTANCE… not image
Jesus told the story of the man who built his house/life on substance… the Rock.
And another man built his house/life on image… sand
Into both lives came the storms…
And the storms WILL come to your life too.
Maybe the storms of
Sickness
Divorce
Lay-off
Cancer
Financial collapse
Temptation
Failure
Betrayal
And image won’t be worth spit.
That is when you will need SUBSTANCE…reality
That is when you will find that the things you thought were real are just vapor
And the stuff you thought was vapor is the stuff that will be real
And God wants you to have…
Slide 22B
FAITH… not security.
A rich young man came to Jesus wanting to be a disciple. He asked, “What must I do?”
Jesus told him some commandments to keep.
He said, “I have done those things.” Now I am ready to follow you.
Jesus realized that the young man had great faith… in himself. He was secure in his own goodness.
Jesus knew he needed faith in Jesus; not security in self.
He knew the young man found security in stuff and that would keep him from having faith in Jesus. So Jesus told him to go and give away all he had… all of his stuff… all of his security.
He could not. He would not. So he went away to the security of his stuff.
Jesus could have said the same to him as he did to the rich fool in Luke 12:20, “Thou fool, this very night shall thy life be demanded of you. Then who will get the things you have prepared for yourself and the things you thought would keep you secure?”
He could have told him what you have heard a thousand times….
Slide 23 “You will never see a hearse pulling a u-haul trailer.”
Slide 24
Do you have substance or image?
Do you have faith or security?
I have a PowerPoint presentation for the sermon. You can get a copy by contacting me at randdp@peoplepc.com
My source for the sermon was Discipleship Journal, Issue 126, pages 62-66
