IS GODS LOVE THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD?
As I sat back and reflected this week and thought about what the Lord would have me to share,
What kept coming back to my mind continually, was how incredibly faithful God has been and always is.
I thought about things God has allowed me to acquire along the way over the last 30 years. I thought about how they had been acquired and realized how God had been involved every step of the way and had actually given each and every blessing out of the abundance of His Love He has.
Some would say yes but you work hard. A lot of people work hard, but are too quick to try to take the credit, instead of realizing it is always God who opens the right doors, and God shuts and locks the wrong ones, and who provides every opportunity in the first place.
James 1:16-18 MSG
16-18 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.
How many of you remember when you were young and the teacher used to have show and tell in school? How you always brought something that meant so much to you, that you loved and that was very important to you.
That’s how God is with his children! Always wanting to bestow upon you good gifts. Always wanting the best for you, always giving and loving you Without requiring a conditional expected response in return, the way the world does!
Sometimes the drama of life, has a tendency to cloud, and or blur our vision as to everything God truly does for all of us. And if we were to truly know everything that God does for us on a daily basis, it would be way to much to even comprehend.
That’s why God made time as we know it, in small measured increments. Knowing if we were to know all the Great things that were in store for us, and He had planned for us, it would be to hard to handle.
God gave us one day at a time and the assurance if we would trust Him, we would never have to worry about more than we could handle!
Phillipians 4:3-7 NKJ
3 And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
(Why was he telling them to rejoice? Here’s why, Because they were Christians, because they had every right to receive the benefits from their salvation to Christ! He was telling him to realize the enormity of what their future held for them! And God would have me tell you this morning the same thing!)
5 Let your [b]gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
When you have the peace of God on and in your life, you realize the truth in the scriptures, is for you! Every promise, every letter, every punctuation mark is for you!
Psalms 91:7-11 NKJ
7. A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8. Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10. No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11. For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
God is extravagant in everything He does and that includes your protection!
God has spared nothing when it comes to your defense, “ He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.”
Romans 11:33-36 MSG.
Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It’s way over our heads. We’ll never figure it out. Is there anyone around who can explain God? Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do? Anyone who has done him such a huge favor that God has to ask his advice? Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes.
Its amazing isn’t it? Just how much He Loves you, the extent of how much He cares!
This is Paul’s time to show and tell! He wants you to know the most important thing you have in your life, is God. And the fact that Jesus came into your heart and His Holy Spirit dwells within you!
Paul wants you to realize and grasp the enormity of what you have, just as David did!
“A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you!”
What is it? It is EVERYTHING, that is not A good and perfect gift from your ABBA Father! The enormity of protection and promise baffles even the most intellectual mind, if they don’t know Christ.
But for those of us who do know Him we’ve come to understand it as, His Love, unmerited Favor and Grace that He extends towards us, “ITS AMAZING!”
Gods Love is not the eighth wonder of the world, God’s Love, Gods Unmerited Grace, Favor and Forgiveness encompasses and surpasses all the wonders, of all the worlds!
Even though we’ve done nothing to deserve God’s generosity, He makes His Generous Ways, continually available to us! Even before we ever loved Him, He loved us and has been gently guiding us, Towards the extravagant life, He has already prepared for us! And God has had and continues to offer this amazing opportunity of abundant life for every single solitary person, who ever was conceived!
TBS even in our mother’s womb, God knows our DNA! That’s because we have His DNA flowing in us and making our life possible!
God spares no expense taking care of His Children, Gods promises to His Children, are always bigger than their needs. Can someone give an Amen in the house of God today??
I don’t know how anyone could make the journey, or would want to go through this life without Gods presence in their life!
But yet people do everyday, wondering aimlessly around looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places, everywhere except where they should be looking.
The bible tells us of many examples of self effort, we could use this morning. Self effort is easy to find, self effort has lived on every street corner in every neighborhood for all of time.
But today’s story of self effort we find in the book of Luke chapter 19...and it’s a story of a man who had worked hard to achieve his place and position in life.
Luke chapter 19:1-10 NKJ
1. Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.
2. Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.
3. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.
4. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.
5. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
6. So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.
7. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”
8. Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
9. And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham;
10. for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Ill. There’s a story about a local fitness center, which was offering $1,000 to anyone who could demonstrate that they were stronger than the owner of the place.
Here’s how it worked, this muscle man would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and then hand the lemon to the next challenger.
Anyone who could squeeze just one more drop of juice out would win the money. Many people tried over time other weightlifters, construction workers,
even professional wrestlers, but nobody could do it.
One day a short and skinny guy came in and signed up for the contest. After the laughter died down, the owner grabbed a lemon and squeezed away, then he handed the wrinkled remains to the little man.
The crowd’s laughter turned to silence as the man clenched his fist around the lemon and six drops fell into the glass.
As the crowd cheered, the manager paid out the winning prize and asked the short guy what he did for a living. “Are you a lumberjack, a weightlifter, or what?”
The man replied, “I work for the IRS.”
Zach was exactly that, a tax collector. He may have been small in stature, but he was big on ambition, He wasn’t any old tax collector either, TBS. he was the chief tax collector, and he was rich. He had done whatever it took, hook and crook, to get to the top of the ladder.
His name in Hebrew means, “pure and righteous,” but his name didn’t have anything to do with the way he carried on in life, he worked for Roman government and was considered a traitor by the Jewish people.
He was the one who kept the books and sent the collected taxes to Rome, so it was easy for him to skim of the top and became rich by doing so.
In verse 3 we notice that while Zack is very wealthy and probably has enough money to buy anything he would ever want, still he knew something was missing in his life.
Dolly Parton sang a Carl Perkins song that had the lyrics, “Silver and gold may buy you a Home, but things of this world won’t last to long, time has a way of turning of old, time can’t be bought back with silver or gold”
Happiness is not found in riches, if you study lottery winners, you will find that they are some of the most miserable people in society. Almost every lottery winner, spends every dime of what they win trying to buy what they thought would make them happy.
How many movie stars and other famous people in our lifetimes have we heard that their lives ended way to soon. The list is long, their talent and accolades were great, their misery and loneliness was greater than their successes!
And we always think, its so sad how their life ended. They had all the riches and fame, you would have thought they had it all, only to find out how truly unhappy they were!
Most people today, if they are honest, will eventually admit there’s more to life than just trying to make money and obtain possessions.
Notice that it doesn’t say that Zack just wanted to see Jesus, He wanted to see who Jesus was. He wanted to figure out what it was, that made Jesus different from everyone else.
He had a sense, he needed what Jesus had to offer! He was drawn to the hope and compassion that Jesus had extended to so many others, he may not have fully understood what was going on in his heart, but Zack had a desperate need to get to Jesus.
He probably couldn’t even explain what drew him to see who Jesus was,
he just knew he had to go see Him and that was that. Zack had two obstacles to overcome, his height and his reputation!
No one else wanted to associate with him because of the way he treated people, I’m sure he wondered would Jesus? And how would Jesus ever notice his stature over everyone else that was clambering for His attention, at the same time.
TBS. Zach was a resourceful man and he ran ahead and climbed a tree, so he could see Jesus.
I can just imagine Zach trying to climb that tree, what a site it must have been,
It took determination on his part, for a short guy to climb a tree in the first place.
Most trees if you think about it, have the branches trimmed up so you don’t run into them, when walking under them. I’m sure Zach would have struggled to even reach a branch in the first place, and their was probably not one person in the crowd willing to give him a step up to help him.
Not one person, except for Jesus. You see, Jesus new well in advance the exact spot their encounter was going to take place that day.
God is always busy behind the scenes working on our behalf, God made sure that tree was planted just at the right time, God nurtured that tree, God made sure the tree had enough water to grow to the right size at the right time, God made sure that there was a limb and there was a way Zach to get up the tree and fulfill the plan He had been preparing Zach entire life?
And just like the precision of God’s clockwork and perfect timing, a few moments later, Jesus looked up in that tree and said Zach come down!
Jesus said, today is your day, I must go to your house today. The crowd may have wondered that day, how did He know his name? What they didn’t know was He not only knew his name, but everything else about him too, right down to the number of hairs on his head! Praise God!
A lot of times, society tries to determine who is worthy of Jesus forgiveness,
Thank goodness our worthiness to be forgiven is not determined by the eye dropper of society! Sometimes we’re all guilty and forget, whosoever means everyone including us, doesn’t it?
TBS. Gods grace is large enough for everyone! He would that none, should perish, even the tax man!
When you take a step of faith to meet Jesus, you will not be disappointed, He will be there when you do. Zach couldn’t believe his ears, he said yes to Jesus offer, he came down out of that tree immediately!
I’m sure it was much to the dismay of the crowd and the religious leaders as they looked on. What Jesus actions should have done for the crowd that day, was give them hope, that if He could change Zach’s heart, nothing was impossible, there was hope for all of them!
And a change of heart was exactly what Zach had. He said, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Zach didn’t change before he met Jesus, but he sure was a changed man afterwards! Jesus had changed his heart and now he wanted the whole world to know, by demonstrating the change through his actions.
His decision was voluntary and flowed out of a heart of gratitude for what Jesus had done for him. Isn’t that how everyone should be? Isn’t that how everyone should be? Whenever Jesus meets someone there is change, because Jesus always, changes and transforms lives when He has an encounter with them!
From that moment on Zach, had finally found what he had been looking for his whole life. It wasn’t riches or fame, or material things, it was Jesus!
All material things in and that of themselves are not bad, but without God in your life and a relationship with His Son Jesus, they’re only meaningless numbers and words on a piece of paper, in another chapter in the book of your life
Albert Schweitzer once said, “If you own something that you cannot give away, then you don’t own it, it owns you.” The only thing that matters in this world, is not our material possessions, because things will come and things will go.
Phillipians 4:10-14 MSG
I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.
Paul wasn’t saying that he didn’t appreciate those who had been Involved in being part of god’s plan to bless his life. He was saying he was happy that God had a plan and that God had a plan for him, and that was what he was thankful for.
What matters most, is not what we have, but what we do for Jesus while were here!
Isaiah 40:8 The Voice (VOICE) The grass withers, the flower fades;
nothing lasts except the word of our God. It will stand forever!
We should all strive to more like Paul and make Jesus the central focus in the story of our lives, instead of just another occasional paragraph scattered through the chapters of our lives.
Illus. Song by Gladys Night
If anyone should ever write my life story
For whatever reason there might be
Ooo, you'll be there between each line of pain and glory
'Cause you're the best thing that ever happened to me
Ah, you're the best thing that ever happened to me
Is Jesus the central focus of your life’s story, is He there on each page of the story? Because He’s been there behind the scenes all along the way, waiting patiently to make His grand entrance and say I must go to your house today!
If you’ve never made Jesus the Lord of your life, you can today!
Just ask Him to come into your heart and He will come and change your circumstances!
Where is your relationship with God at today? Is Jesus the center of your life? Are you at the level in your relationship with Jesus that you want to be?
Or is Jesus calling out to you, wanting to take you today to the next level?
