Intro
What is your idea of success? How do you evaluate whether your life is successful?
It's important to put that question in front of us...and recognize how it leaves a question over our entire lives... as to whether they have meaning or not. I believe God wants to speak into that question today.
We are continuing our series entitled "Myths: Exposing the False Beliefs that Bind Us."
We are looking at common ideas that effect how we navigate life. And today we are going to engage the:
MYTH: I Should Do Big Things For God.
As with other "myths" we are engaging, the spirit of this statement can reflect something very right...but some of the underlying assumptions can be very wrong.
There is no higher honor than to serve God...to serve the one who created us... the one who gives every good gift...the one who would come die for us. So doing things for God is not only an honor and privilege, but it's also a natural response to having had a changed life. Our Father...the source of all of life...is calling us into His redemptive and restorative plan and purpose.
So naturally we should want to do big things for God..
The issue that I believe God wants us to engage today... isn't about how much we want to serve God...but about our idea of "big."
It's become a bit of a byline these days that "bigger is better."
Beyond the sexual connotation... America is known by our way of thinking that everything should be bigger. When those from other countries express what stands out about America...even Europeans who are part of our larger western culture...they will often say: Americans do everything BIG. (They'd swear everyone must is from Texas and California...states that really can believe they are the big life.)
We have the biggest military.... create the biggest cars and trucks.
We created the supermarket...and then the superstores like Wal-Mart and Target and Home Depot....and of course we have the super malls.
We have meals that are 'super sized'...invented the Big Mac and the Big Gulp...then the Super Big Gulp and now the Double Gulp which holds 64 fluid ounces. (Some villages survive on that !)
We have superstars... that are bigger than life.
The new ATT commercials [1] where the young man in a suit is sitting down with a group of young children and asking them basic questions... concludes - "Bigger is better...it's not complicated.'
ATT - says bigger is better...it's not complicated. So naturally we should do BIG things for God.
Seems to fit our leaders...doesn't it?
Noah... Moses...David... they accomplished something big... EPIC big.
Jesus: A calling of truly cosmic proportions.... Paul: World changer....
So naturally we are drawn to being ...superheroes. We grow up with ideas about heroes that we dream of being....usually those with special powers.
As we go on in life we can still believe we should be not just heroic...but superheroes.
I know I'm not alone in this.
If this is what God is calling us to...then most of us probably feel a little inferior...and probably find a lot of our life irrelevant.
Many of us may have a good sense of the grand drama...but we don't seem to be in it...maybe an extra in the crowds.
But is that really how God sees things? Is that really how He is looking at your life?
You won't find some of our assumptions about "BIG"in the Bible.
Yes there is an epic storyline that includes some epic sized moments....but God sees the small things that he builds upon.
If we look at the lives who we see as having done great things for God... we can see that what is valued isn't simply what was "big."
• Noah - just one guy who still cared what God said.
• Moses - just one guy God would strip from 40 years in a royal palace and send to 40 years of being alone in a desert with sheep
• David - he was youngest kid did a lot of time caring for sheep...
• Jesus: lived life within such small parameters... it could have been missed.
• Paul: saw a great mission...but also said "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life." (1 Thessalonians 4:11 (NIV))
So how are we to look at what we are doing with our lives? Are we just missing the action? Should we be waiting for our moment to do something that is really meaningful?
How should we define our accomplishments in life?
I think a lot of us are carrying ideas that have come from our worldly culture... even influenced our modern Christian culture. We need to see how God looks at our lives.
1. The One we serve is what makes everything big
God is the only really big thing
"We don't bring God glory simply by doing big things as much as remembering that He is the big thing."
It's not what you do as much as who you do it for.
Psalm 84:10 (NIV)
Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
I had rather be a doorkeeper; literally, "stand or lie on the threshold." This is the situation of the devotee and the beggar. "Excuse me, sir, I pray you; I had better lie at the threshold than do that," is a frequent mode of expression among Orientals. The psalmist prefers the situation and attitude of a beggar, at the threshold of the house of the Lord, to the most splendid dwellings of the wicked.
So Jesus calls us to be his disciples...it is the biggest thing of all.
What we apply our life to is what matters most.
I've always valued the story of a man who was strolling down a country lane when he came across a stone quarry in which a number of men were working. He asked several of them what they were doing.
The first replied irritably, "Can't you see? I'm hewing a stone."
The second answered without looking up, "I'm earning $100 per week."
But when the same question was put to the third man, he stopped, put his pick down, stood up, stuck out his chest and said, "If you want to know what I am doing, I'm building a cathedral." "
The first man could not see beyond his pick, and the second beyond his Friday paycheck. But the
third man saw the purpose...the glory of God. He was cooperating with the architect. However small his particular contribution, he was helping to construct a building for the worship of God.
> Your life is now a temple of God...at whatever age or stage of life.
We don't need oversized acts we need an over-riding purpose.
Purpose is what leads us into prayer...what unites us with others...what helps us arrange life...what allows us to make sacrifices.
It doesn't matter how well you climb the ladder of success if it's leaning against the wrong wall.
So we do well to stop and ask ourselves:
Is what I'm most focused on accomplishing connected to the glory of God?
2. God is looking at what we are doing with what we have now.
Luke 16:10 (NIV)
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
Everything "big" is rooted in faithfulness to the small.
Although dreaming big can be good, sometimes I think it carries the power to steal the very gifts God so values in us. Those who dreamed of being sports stars stop playing altogether... those who dreamed of having a hit song on the radio don’t even sing in the shower.
We need to take back the gifts we have been given.
The problem with our Hollywood storylines and superstars is that they are 'bigger than life'...and we can become detached from real life.
Life is now and it all matters.
You don’t have to leave home to serve God in a big way. Even the drama of Jesus' life includes this.
Here's something to help us think clearly. When did Jesus begin to obey the Father? When did he begin to do what the Father had called him to do? All his life...including the first 30 years he worked alongside his dad, using his hands to shape, shave and tack together pieces of wood. He quietly studied the scriptures, and grew in stature with God and men. He didn’t have a public ministry. He was doing exactly what God had called him to do. [2]
God sees the choices you make today as what shapes who you are becoming.
C.S. Lewis said,
"Every time you make a choice you are turning the control part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, you are slowly turning this control thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish one." [3]
The little things we say...that can break or build others
The little things we do...that can deflate or inflate others
The little part we give that allow the community to thrive.
So take a moment and ask yourself:
What are the opportunities I have in my life today to serve God by serving others?
3. God sees the significance of the unseen.
God's big thing is less about what is seen...and more about the unseen choices.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)
The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
A woman got on an elevator in a tall office building...and suddenly had one of those moments of recognition shock. Could it be? The man looked exactly like Robert Redford, the movie star. Her gaze was almost involuntarily riveted on him. Finally, she blurted out, "Are you the REAL Robert
Redford?" He smiled and said, "Only when I'm alone!"
> That's a rather insightful response. We all know that there is a "show" version of ourselves and a real life within. the real is what we choose to do when no one is looking.
We have to break the false connection between what is seen and what is significant.
We have allowed our cultural tendency to focus on the public over the personal
... and the up front over the out of sight.
I think American Christian culture can breed it's own hero worship...that leads to a narrow understanding of following Jesus.
We have created the message that full-time vocational ministry was at the top of the 'Truly Committed Christian Food Chain' – where missionary wins every time...followed by pastors and other public roles.
We define success by what others see in terms of numbers or income or job title.
Something is askew in celebrating the preacher and ignoring the foster parents, the hospice workers, the carpenter, the faithful giver-in-secret, the teacher, the prophet-disguised-as-a-mother.
God is the God of everything...seen and unseen.
There is something deep in us that wants to be recognized...so naturally we dream of doing something great....and being recognized. If that was what God needed ...it would get a little tricky....because if everyone stood out in such ways...no one would.
"We can do no great things; only small things with great love." -Mother Teresa
As I get older... those who inspire me most... those who my heart sees as 'saints'....are 'good' people... whose accomplishments may not be as associated with what think of as 'great.'
It often, indeed, takes more and nobler character to do a small deed well than to do a large one.
There is more encouragement for the public figure to make good choices...than there is for the unseen moments of faithfulness to a marriage...or a caregiver for the one they serve...or the way we spend our money.
Wendell Berry argues that it is harder, not easier, to pursue faithfulness in ordinary life, noting that “it may, in some ways, be easier to be Samson than to be a good husband or wife day after day for 50 years.”
Some get excited about Denzel Washington professing his Christian faith because he is such a popular figure. Despite all of the hero worship and (I assume, AMPLE) opportunity, he has been married to the same woman for nearly 3 decades and he has four children with her. [4]
> That may be what God sees most.
• The big things may make the news but they will not make you.
• The big things that others see may make a name for someone....but they will not make their name real.
• When someone passes on...at the memorial gathering...while I appreciate the professional and public accomplishments...I find myself more interested in the personal moments people share that reflect their character...I get a sense of knowing who they really were.
If we can see our lives as God does, we should ask ourselves:
Am I valuing my unseen choices and actions as that which matters most in loving God and others?
4. God's focus is on those considered the 'least.'
Ask any parent about how they feel if their child is left aside... left out. That is how God feels.
The clearest point Jesus made with his life was that God cared about those who this world deems least and lost and left out.
Matthew 25:40 (NIV)
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
> Jesus says that our love for him is revealed in how we care for the "least of these."
He focused most on those who the world deemed cursed and lost causes.... roadside clutter.
When children were clearly seen as having little to offer yet...he put a woe upon such thinking and said we must become like them.
He gave similar value to lepers...to women...to the poor.
This is what led Mother Teresa to begin to care for those dying on the streets in Calcutta India.
She understood that God sees the value of every life as sacred. God sees individuals.
“Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” ― Mother Teresa
After Jesus challenged his followers to never look down on the littlest of lives...he went on to say...
Matthew 18:12-14 (NIV)
"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. 14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.
He revealed God is the God who values one.... individuals.
One soul is as valuable. If anything matters, everything matters and the work today, the love we give and receive and lavish on the seemingly small tasks and choices of our every day all tip the scales of justice and mercy in our world.
So as we assess our accomplishment in life... we should ask ourselves:
Am I discovering God's value for the 'lost' and 'least' ?
5. God's big thing is faithfulness.
God knows we would rather have one big moment and quit... but that is not His nature and it's not who we are to become. there is no great accomplishment with a flash in the pan ... it's about finishing whatever we have been given.
Those who stay the course... complete what they have been given.
At the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth, Jesus said this in John 17:4, He said,
John 17:4 (NIV)
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
Serving like Jesus means being faithful. It means you don’t give up. You keep on going. You don’t quit in the middle of your assignment. He wants you to be able to say that when your earthly life is over.
You completed the work that God gave you to do. Jesus was faithful in fulfilling His service. He didn’t give up. He didn’t give in. He was persistent. And if you’re going to be like Jesus it means you’re going to serve as long as you’re alive. Now you may retire from your job someday, but you’re never retiring from ministry.
The Bible says,
1 Corinthians 4:2 (TEV)
"The one thing required of such servants is that they be faithful .."
Faithfulness is about giving ourselves to what is at hand..
Noah said okay...I'll start building this massive boat.
Moses was given a shepherds rod....and picked it up
Jesus committed himself to specific lives... and to the cross.
Any time you’re serving in Jesus’ name, no matter how small, it matters. The Bible says this in
1 Corinthians 15:58 (MSG)
Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
Notice “nothing”: that means every little thing counts!
Conclusion:
God is calling us to go out and do something small today.... and more importantly to embrace the significance of the small. As one wrote [5]...
"If there is one soul in your care, one face in your loving gaze, one hand you are holding, you are holding the world. If anything matters, everything matters and the work today, the love we give and receive and lavish on the seemingly small tasks and choices of our every day all tip the scales of justice and mercy in our world."
I want to close with this final story [6]...
Pediatrician David Cerqueira shares a story of how a dying girl showed his church the honor of serving God:
One Sunday my wife had prepared a lesson on being useful. She taught the children that everyone can be useful-that usefulness is serving God, and that doing so is worthy of honor. The kids quietly soaked up my wife's words, and as the lesson ended, there was a short moment of silence. [A little girl named] Sarah spoke up. "Teacher, what can I do? I don't know how do to many useful things."
Not anticipating that kind of response, my wife quickly looked around and spotted an empty flower vase on the windowsill. "Sarah, you can bring in a flower and put it in the vase. That would be a useful thing."
Sarah frowned. "But that's not important."
"It is," replied my wife, "if you are helping someone."
Sure enough, the next Sunday Sarah brought in a dandelion and placed it in the vase. In fact, she continued to do so each week. Without reminders or help, she made sure the vase was filled with a bright yellow flower, Sunday after Sunday. When my wife told our pastor about Sarah's faithfulness, he placed the vase upstairs in the main sanctuary next to the pulpit. That Sunday he gave a sermon on the honor of serving others, using Sarah's vase as an example. The congregation was touched by the message, and the week started on a good note. ...
During that same week I got a call from Sarah's mother. She worried that Sarah seemed to have less energy than usual and that she didn't have an appetite. Offering her some reassurances, I made room in my schedule to see Sarah the following day. After Sarah had a battery of tests and days of examinations, I sat numbly in my office, Sarah's paperwork on my lap. The results were tragic. [She had leukemia.]
On the way home, I stopped to see Sarah's parents so that I could personally give them the sad news. Sarah's genetics and the leukemia that was attacking her small body were a horrible mix. Sitting at their kitchen table, I did my best to explain to Sarah's parents that nothing could be done to save her life. I don't think I have ever had a more difficult conversation than the one that night. ...
Time pressed on. Sarah became confined to bed and to the visits that many people gave her. She lost her smile. She lost most of her weight. And then it came: another telephone call. Sarah's mother asked me to come see her. I dropped everything and ran to the house. There she was, a small bundle that barely moved. After a short examination, I knew that Sarah would soon be leaving this world. I urged her parents to spend as much time as possible with her.
That was a Friday afternoon. On Sunday morning church started as usual. The singing, the sermon-it all seemed meaningless when I thought of Sarah. I felt enveloped in sadness. At the end of the sermon, the pastor suddenly stopped speaking. His eyes wide, he stared at the back of the church with utter amazement. Everyone turned to see what he was looking at. It was Sarah! Her parents had brought her for one last visit. She was bundled in a blanket, a dandelion in one little hand.
She didn't sit in the back row. Instead she slowly walked to the front of the church where her vase still perched by the pulpit. She put her flower in the vase and a piece of paper beside it. Then she returned to her parents. Seeing little Sarah place her flower in the vase for the last time moved everyone. At the end of the service, people gathered around Sarah and her parents, trying to offer as much love and support as possible. I could hardly bear to watch.
Four days later, Sarah died. ...
I wasn't expecting it, but our pastor asked to see me after the funeral. We stood at the cemetery near our cars as people walked past us. In a low voice he said, "Dave, I've got something you ought to see." He pulled out of his pocket the piece of paper that Sarah had left by the vase. Holding it out to me, he said, "You'd better keep this; it may help you in your line of work."
I opened the folded paper to read, in pink crayon, what Sarah had written:
"Dear God,
This vase has been the biggest honor of my life.
Sarah"
Closing Prayer
Resources:
Catherine on Pinterest http://sarahbessey.com/in-which-i-have-evangelical-hero/
Liz at blogpost - http://fringefaith.blogspot.com/2010/03/doing-big-things-for-god-or-maybe-not.html Saturday, March 13, 2010, Doing Big Things for God (or maybe not)
Notes:
1. ATT commercial can be seen / shown at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIMm9w8PwJA&WT.srch=1&wtPaidSearchTerm=at%26t+high+five+commercial
2. Stephen Altrogge - "Jesus Spent 30 Years Being Boring"
For the first 30 years of his life, Jesus was boring.
He was an unknown carpenter who wasn’t doing “big” things for God.
He worked alongside his dad, using his hands to shape, shave and tack together pieces of wood. He quietly studied the scriptures, and grew in stature with God and men.
He didn’t have a public ministry.
He didn’t write any books, go on a conference tour, ... He loved the Lord with all his heart, honored his mother and father, and quietly went about his work.
Was Jesus wasting his life? Absolutely not.
He was doing exactly what God had called him to do. Jesus, the lowly carpenter, the furniture maker, was as radical as they come.
And for 30 years he was quiet.
Jesus spent his first 30 years simply working and obeying. This tells me that it’s possible to be radical while changing diapers, or creating spreadsheets, or doing whatever mundane task you are called to.
For the Christian, there is no such thing as insignificant work.
3. C.S. Lewis - "Mere Christianity," p.86
4. http://thinkchristian.net/who-cares-if-denzel-washington-is-a-christian
5. Catherine on Pinterest http://sarahbessey.com/in-which-i-have-evangelical-hero/
6. Condensed from an article in Today's Christian (c) 2008 Christianity Today International. For more articles like this, visit Today's Christian
David Cerqueira, "Sarah's Vase," Today's Christian (March/April 2008); adapted from Evangel magazine, December 2005
