Six Strong Men to carry you (series: What are friends for?)
(Mark 2:4) And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
Do you have six strong friends? Happily, one of the things that friends are for is to carry a hurting friend to the doctor, or better yet, to Jesus! In Mark 2:4, a man stricken with palsy had some strong friends break through the roof of a house where Jesus was teaching so they could lower the stricken friend down into the house so Jesus could heal him. Do I have some friends that would risk that kind of embarrassment to get me help. I want to say that I do, but in this present world where servant-hood is fast fading away, I would ponder too long. My hesitation would be perceived and, of course, any answer that followed would be questioned or at least raise an eyebrow or two.
Sadly, however, one of the things that friends are for is to carry a deceased friend from the church to the cemetery. How many people would show up and willingly volunteer to be pallbearers for me? I don’t know. Would there even be six strong men to carry me? Again, I don’t know but it makes me stop and wonder, perhaps aloud, do I have that many true friends in the world? Can we even say that this is indeed a measurement for success? Let’s carry on.
Many people can spend an entire lifetime seeking to make a name of themselves. They endeavor to run a race for which there is no finish line, or even a halfway point. They endeavor to run a race that holds no promise of reward or bounty. If asked, they may be able to recall a vague beginning. They may be able to suggest some point long ago in their past where they began to climb the never-ending stairs of success, or rather how they interpreted success.
All of us have been asked one probing question when we were young. We’ve all been asked at one point in our lives to respond to the question of ‘what are you going to be when you grow up?’ An innocent enough question on the outside, but one that sets us up for failure. You see, the question was put to us in an environment that deals only with success. The question was given in an upbringing that sees astronauts as heroes, athletes as great stars with big paychecks, lawyers making millions in less than 20 years, and CEO’s being paid more than 25 percent of the companies earnings! That’s the background that flashes through that youngsters mind as they prepare to answer that nosy question. With the background, with the environment, with the big paychecks, with the world that only rewards BIG successes, the youngster feels compelled to hold him or herself to that one mistake they made of actually telling us what they wanted to be.
From middle school, or even earlier, we jump onto a road that we believe leads us to improvement. We jump onto a path that we feel will lead us to those BIG successes, when in all actuality it is instead a treadmill that just runs in a circle.
With visions of ‘life-line tethered’ astronauts floating in our heads, or thoughts of sailing through the air in the last second of the game to ‘dunk’ the winning goal clouding our minds, we all have tried or are trying to follow up our lives with the answer to the question that we gave.
Something BIG, something successful. We have put into our minds a goal that only a small percentage [less than one percent!] of the world’s population could every hope to attain. But, it happened. There it was. It slipped out. We were too young to really know any better, but sadly many will still try to attain that unattainable aspiration. We spend our entire lives trying to live up to this curse that was jokingly asked, but seriously answered when we were too young to know any better.
What can help us overcome this bane to our memory, this annoyance of not being successful in the world’s eyes? I mean we speak of raising the mark but what is the mark and what is it based on? We speak of doing things better than non-Christians, but where are we getting the measurement from that says “this is better and that is not”. Aren’t we rating it all against world standards? Aren’t we judging and evaluating it according to what the world deems successful?
What can help us overcome this blight on our memory? What will ensure that there will always be six strong men to carry you? Being successful in God’s eyes!
To be successful in God’s eyes requires very little. Of course, it requires the beginning step of putting your faith in Him, but after that it is very simple. We only have to:
Be real to Him
Be real to Ourselves
Be real to Others
Be real to Him
As I take a look at the purveyors of news, the newspapers, the TV news, or the Internet news, there is one thing that stands out: too many people trying to be what they are not. They are pretenders, shams, or, what one generation would call “posers.” The sad part is, a lot of people seem to not show any remorse for what they’ve attempted to do, or become.
You see, pretending to be something that we are not boosts the gaming and movie industries, just to name two. Pretending to be something that we are not brings in lots of money, that is, until you’re caught. What do I mean by being caught? Someone finds out that you are not really a blond, someone finds out that you did not really graduate from college, much less high school. Or, someone finds out that you really don’t own the Brooklyn Bridge. There are shams, lies, and posing going on every second of the day and all for one thing. It’s not only the money, it’s greed. Greed for more money than you could ever spend, and the power that goes along with it.
I’m reminded of a television series that appeared on NBC a few years ago. It was called The Pretender. Supposedly there were people who were geniuses with the ability to become anyone they wanted to be. Because of this gift, one of these people were, you guessed it, being hounded by some government research institute so they could bring them in for study. Yes I know it sounds hokey, but our young children are watching these kinds of things as well as those athletes and their big paychecks, and that CEO that just walked away from the company with a 60 million dollar severance package! By the way, there is another name for pretender, in Christian circles we use the word hypocrite!
The Bible tells us that the world has not changed at all in the last 5,000 years. As a matter of fact, there is just a story in Acts, chapter 5! You see, man gets caught up in the success of another. Man gets caught in the accolades of another. So much so, they reach a point of envying and even despising the person that is receiving the honor. People will sit in a banquet honoring a man or woman with a big smile and lot’s of kind words. But, if you could read some of the thoughts of that on looking crowd, I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised if one of them was saying to themselves, “that should be me up there. I should be getting that award!”
It all happened in the early church, right after Jesus had ascended into heaven. There was a Christian couple, Ananias and his wife, and they were just like that. They had seen others bringing in money and possessions and laying it at the feet of the church leaders. They had heard the commentary. They had heard the kind words telling everyone how great those people were. They had heard it, and they wanted only the reputation and the honor without the sacrifice. Read it for yourself. They were not real to God!
Acts 5,
3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. 5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
What, then, does God expect out of me? He expects me to be real. To be something I’m not is a lie. And, if I’m lying to God, then I’ve severed my relationship with God. You see, my relationship with God depends on my being real to Him. It depends on my being righteous before Him. Being humble before God means to be honest and upright before Him. BEING REAL TO HIM.
God really doesn’t require a lot. Look at this verse:
(Micah 6:8) He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. Great! All I have to do is do those three things and I will be meeting God’s requirements. God doesn’t require a burnt sacrifice. God just wants us to be real to Him and to ourselves.
Be real to Ourselves
We read the verse
(Micah 6:8) He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Do you see the three in there? Do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God… Those apply directly to what we’re talking about. Walking humbly with God means to be yourself with Him. Be real to Him. To do justly means to be yourself with yourself. Be real to yourself. How can you act justly, if you are acting like a hypocrite, a pretender?
Lying to yourself is very hard to do. I mean, think about that, how can you lie to yourself? I can tell myself that I will try to do better, and right alongside there is that thought that I’m kidding myself. Not lying.
Lying to oneself comes much later in that backsliding scenario. Lying to oneself comes much later in that trek AWAY from God. Lying to oneself only comes, as the Bible says after God has turned someone over to a depraved mind. That’s in Romans 1:28:
(Romans 1:28) Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
Continuing to not be real before God will result in Him giving you over to a depraved [corrupt, evil, wicked] mind. Once you’ve been given over to a depraved mind, then you have the capability to lie to yourself! If you somehow find out that you’ve been lying to yourself, then you need to seek His help in getting right with Him.
God loves those that seek after Him. God loves those that are real to Him and real to themselves. But, He doesn’t stop there. He reaches out to others through you, and asks you to BE REAL TO OTHERS.
Be real to Others
I’m reminding of the saying, Blowing Smoke. This is said of the person that says to your face, Great Job! without really any meaning. They are simply trying to get you to think more highly of them through their kinds words for you. They can’t see very well, spiritually, because they are running with a mask on. They, like Ananias and his wife Saphira, want people to think more highly of them without paying the full price of a relationship. Pretty soon, they are going to run into something.
Being real to others is difficult because of the sin nature that is trying to burst out of each one of us [read Romans chapters 5-7]. Many times we want to do what is right, or say what is honest, but at the same time we want to be highly respected, so we stick our foot in our mouths and are a lie before others.
There has always been stories that circulate about families that live in neighborhoods that are continually trying to outdo each other. One family gets a nice car, so the next door family has to get a bigger and better car. One family plants several nice bushes, so the next door family has to plant bigger and better trees. We so much want to be at the top of the heap, that we don’t mind telling a couple of lies to get there.
I’m reminded of a young man, that once lived in an apartment across the hall from me. He had told me that his father was the owner of a chain of department stores. Every time someone said something, his family, or brother, or mother, or sister, or father, had either already done it, or had done it slightly better.
One day, that young man’s father came to visit him. The young man wasn’t there, so the father knocked on my door. He told me who he was and wanted to leave a message with his son that he was in the area and had decided to stop by. I thought that was wonderful so commented on that, saying that it was very nice of a father that was so busy to take time to see his son. The father was confused. I asked him about the chain of department stores. And, he simply told me that he and his wife owned a small fruit store in a city barely fifty miles away.
Well I mentioned that to the young man. He never batted an eye but continued on with the lie, saying that sometimes his father tried to be humble before ‘normal people.’
When you hear a story like that, you can only shake your head because you know that the person has been given over to that depraved mind. He has lied to God and others for so long that he even now believes the story himself. Being real to others doesn’t require a lot of effort, if you are real to God and yourself.
Summary
Be real to God and He will be real to YOU!
Be real to yourself, and you will never let you down!
Be real to others, and you will eventually find in that crowd a true friend that is worth having and going through life with. Be real to others, and you will be surprised at the abundant blessings that will flow forth for your honesty, your forthrightness, and your uprightness. Being real to others will, if nothing else, ensure that you are able to name Six Strong Men to carry you the next time Jesus is in town.
(Mark 2:4) And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.
Do you have six strong friends? Be real to God and you will! Do you have six strong friends? Be real to yourself and you will! Do you have six strong friends? Be real to others and you will have more
Be real to God, to yourself, and to others, and you will have more than enough to carry you into eternity.
