God’s Good Gravy
8.26.05
I. Introduction
Barney wore coke-bottle glasses and a perfect bowl haircut. He knew the answers to everything and was the teacher’s pet. This really ticked everybody off.
One day, after an uncharacteristic absence from school, Barney showed up in class with a big grin on his face, wearing a goofy-looking Mickey Mouse hat. The teacher asked Barney where he got the hat.
“I went to Disneyland yesterday!” he said excitedly.
“Oh really,” said the teacher. “Why don’t you tell us about your trip to Disneyland.”
“Okay! Well, I got to Disneyland and the first thing I saw was the parking lot,” Barney said. “That parking lot must hold about a million cars! I got on a tram that carried me around the parking lot until I got to the place where you buy the tickets. So I got off and stood in line. I bought a ticket and I also bought this cool hat!”
“And then what did you do?” asked the teacher.
“Well, I got back on the tram and rode around the parking lot some more,” said Barney. “That was really fun! I rode that tram all day!”
“All day?” asked the teacher. “Did you go through the turnstiles and under the bridge to Main Street USA, Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and the rest of the park?”
Barney thought for a moment and said, “No. Was I supposed to?”
When a lot of people get saved, they don’t understand all that’s included in the ticket. A lot of people know that when you get saved, you get to go to heaven when you die. What a lot of people don’t know about is the gravy.
Tonight I’m going to talk to you about “God’s Good Gravy.”
The word “gravy” used in a slang manner refers to something extra, an extra bonus and there are many extras included in this experience called salvation.
II. It’s All Gravy
Psalm 103:1-2 1 Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
In other words, verse 2 could say, “Praise God and don’t forget about His good gravy.” The Bible tells us about all the extras that come along with following God. Many people accept Christ as their Savior because they’d rather not face the alternative to heaven. This is commonly referred to as “fire insurance.” Someone will get saved just because they don’t want to go to hell, but they’ll continue living their life without knowing about the added benefits. Sure they’ll go to heaven when they die, but their life may be a living hell. God wants you to experience heaven when you die, but He also wants you to have an abundant life here on earth. And that’s one of the reasons you get the gravy.
Psalm 103:2-6 2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- 3who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
Here’s the gravy. In addition to getting to go to heaven when you die, God does a number of extra things for you:
A. Forgives all your sins. How many of you have ever committed a sin? OK, if you’ve sinned, go ahead and tell your neighbor the worst thing you’ve ever done. Just kidding.
Let me ask you this: How do you feel when you sin? Guilty, right? You feel horrible when you know that you’ve messed up and you’ve done somebody so wrong.
Well, how do you feel when you’ve been forgiven? You feel all better. You feel super.
This passage not only says that He will forgive your sins, but later on in that passage it says He blots out your transgressions as far as the east is from the west, meaning that He chooses not to remember your sins.
Isaiah 43:25 25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.
You see, if you did me wrong, I’d most likely be able to forgive you, but it would probably be very hard for me to forget it ever happened. And every time you’d see me it could have the potential to make you think about that thing you did and you’d have all those feelings of guilt all over again. But God forgives AND forgets. And the enemy may try to remind you of your sin, but you can rest assured that once you confess, God has forgiven and He has forgotten.
B. Heals all your diseases.
Have you ever been sick? That’s not fun, is it? Being sick ain’t cool. I hate being sick and in pain. Well, God hates it when you’re sick and in pain, too. He hates it so much that He’ll take it away. He’d rather you be healthy and whole than suffering through some sickness. One of the extras included in salvation is healing. God wants you to feel good. He wants your body in good shape.
Isaiah 53:4-5 “Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains); Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
Have you ever laid out of school because you were “too sick to go?” Yep, I have, too. Has anybody ever faked being sick? Yeah, put the thermometer under the lamp when mom walks out of the room. She comes back in and your temperature is 105. You’re ALMOST dead! Then mom finds out you’re faking and you’re really dead!
Well, if you’ve been sick before and stayed out of school because of it, you didn’t know about this gravy. Because if you knew that God heals all your diseases, you would pray for yourself and then get up and go to school. God is the God who heals all your diseases – don’t forget it.
C. Redeems your life from the pit.
What pit? I didn’t know I was in a pit? When did I fall? How deep is it? Can I get out?
The pit here is symbolic of destruction or corruption, anything that’s going to bring you down.
Well, when you get saved, you don’t have to worry about the pit. You’re redeemed from it, meaning that if you find yourself in a pit, you’ll quickly be able to get right out.
“Why do I feel so stuck sometimes?” Well, maybe you didn’t know about this benefit or you forgot about it. Because if you knew that He redeems you from the pit, you’d find the way out of it.
There was a old drunk who was trying to find his way home one night so he decided to take a shortcut through a graveyard. It was raining heavily and very dark. The drunk was stumbling along and he didn’t see the open grave right in front of him, so he fell into it. He tried to climb out of it, but it was too deep and the rain had turned the dirt to mud and made it too slippery to climb. He gave up after a while and decided to just spend the night there.
A little while later, another drunk left the same bar and decided to take the same shortcut through the graveyard. He, too, fell into that open grave and tried to climb out but the mud was too slippery. The first drunk was just sitting there watching as the other drunk tried to get out.
The first drunk stood up, tapped the second drunk on the shoulder and told him, "You’ll never get out!"
But he got out. He moved faster than any drunk has ever moved.
And when you know that God has redeemed your life from the pit, you’ll be able to get out.
DRAMA HERE
Reread Psalm 103:2-6
D. Crowns you with love and compassion.
If you were to be crowned with something, someone would place that thing on you and you’d wear it. Well, God has crowned you with love and compassion. He’s placed those things on you and you wear them. He’s given you an attitude of love and an attitude of compassion.
Love is not just an emotion or a feeling; love is an expression of unselfishness, it’s an attitude of giving even to the point of sacrifice. Compassion is what happens when you see someone in need or distress and you’ve moved to the point where you do something to help.
God’s crowned you with those things so people will see Him in you. When you act out of love or compassion, realize that it’s God acting through you, enabling you to help someone else.
On top of that, having love and compassion will better your quality of life. When your heart is filled with love and compassion, you’re more likely to have a good day than a bad day.
E. Satisfies your desires with good things.
Does anybody have any desires? Do you want a job or a car? How about making an athletic team at school? The Word there says that God will satisfy your desires with good things. He’s not going to look at your desires and say, “Oh, Billy Bob wants a new car. I’ll show him. Baam- Here’s a scooter!” or “A car? A car?! What do you think I gave him a thumb for? It’s called hitchhiking- try it.” God’s not like that.
Matthew 7:9-11 9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
What happens when you go to your dad and ask him for some money for something you really need? Does he give you the old “money doesn’t grow on trees” speech and send you off to your room with the classified ads? No, any time I ever asked my parents for money for something I needed, they found a way even through tough times to make sure I had the things I needed. Well, if parents are like that, how much more is God going to satisfy your wants and needs?
F. Renews your youth like the eagle’s.
Have you ever been slap worn out? I mean, you’ve been so tired that all you want to do is just collapse somewhere, anywhere and catch about 40 winks? You’ve worked hard on school work all day, you’ve practiced with your sports team for 2 hours, you came home and did all your chores and you feel like you’ve got no energy left and you have about 2 hours worth of homework to do before you even think about going to bed. You need some strength. Well, God will hook you up.
Isaiah 40:31 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Not only is this talking about physical strength, but strength in other areas as well. You may be at a point in your life where you just don’t feel like trying anymore. Everything you’ve done hasn’t worked out so far, so you think, “What’s the use?” Well, you need some strength to press on until you overcome whatever obstacle is holding you back. And God will help you run this race of life without giving out, giving in or giving up. He’s given you the victory and the strength to make that victory come to pass.
G. Works justice for you if you’re oppressed.
Has anybody ever done you wrong?
I’ve been done wrong before. In fact, somebody got me just last week. We had some glue mousetraps in the kitchen here at the church b/c we noticed some mouse droppings and the Orkin man put the traps out for us. Well, the next day we were having a workday here and I noticed a little mouse had gotten caught in the trap and died. For whatever reason, I was a little grossed out and refused to throw it away. I went and got one of the other guys who was working here to handle it. Well, he brings it out and I’ve got the trash bag ready for him to throw it away. But instead of immediately throwing it away, he starts to throw it at me. And I take off running and screaming like a scared little girl. I was horrified. Well, another fella that was working here grabbed the mouse from the other guy and was going to walk it over to me and throw it away and he did the same thing and I ran and screamed again. As if that weren’t enough, the next day I was standing in the hall talking to Pastor Matt about our rodent problem b/c we had 2 more mice caught in the traps and one was squealing. As I was telling Pastor that we needed to call the Orkin man again, one of the guys came up beside me and put his arm around my shoulder. I looked at him and then looked at his hand and the mousetrap with the dead mice was inches away from my face. And you can guess what happened…I screamed and ran away.
He did me wrong. Well, God’s going to work some justice for me. I don’t have to try and devise some sort of evil plan to get him back. I just know that God’s going to deal with it. I’m not saying God’s going to strike somebody with lightning just because they talked about you wrong or stabbed you in the back. But I am saying that God will work on your behalf and make sure you get double for your trouble and everything will work out for your good.
III. Come Get the Gravy
Invitation to accept Christ as Savior.
Invitation to restore relationship with God.
