What’s
my DP in 2017 😀😔😕😠😟😢😑😎?
(Note: This sermon is based on the gospel portion Luke 12:22-34 for the Watch Night Service as per the lectionary of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church)
We
are living in a world where by the time a child reaches the age of 10 he knows
all the intricacies of social media. In an experiment conducted by BBC titled
on 3500 students and elders “What your social
network profile picture really says” 87% said that their profile photo is
meant to give the impression that they possess a higher degree of gravitas or
sophistication than they actually do. We all change our display photos once in
a while and we also need to accept that most of us fall in the 87% category.
As
we come to the last day of the year based on the gospel portion I have titled
my sermon
DP 2017 – Happy? Sad?
Worried? Afraid? Anxious?.......
Each
and every one of us have two sides – physical/material and the spiritual. And
each and every moment we are either going to be concerned about something physical,
material or something spiritual and heavenly.
Worry can be attached to both.
The
world that we live in today is considered to be the most comfortable. We are living
in a culture which has the most but at the same time also seems to be the most
anxious, stressed out and panicked culture ever. We live with worry. We live
with stress. It’s our 24*7 companion.
The
goal in the society we live in is managed anxiety. Worry and stress has become
so common today that we try to “manage” living with it. But here Jesus comes
and says, “Dear child, I am not going to teach you how to manage your stress, I’ll
eliminate it.”
If
you will notice the emphasis of this passage comes in three particular
commands. Verse 22: "Do not be
anxious." Verse 29: "Do not
keep worrying." Verse 32: "Do
not be afraid." These are the promises
our master gives us.
As
we come to the close of a year and if we were to put a DP on our social media
account which face would it show – Happy? Sad? Worried? Not Interested? Tired?.....
It could surely be a Happy Year if we could affirmatively answer the following
questions.
1.
Have I Understood the Divine Priority?
V.22
This
dialogue with the disciples begins after an interruption. In verse 13 a man
interrupted Jesus by telling Him He ought to say to his brother, "Give me
my share of the inheritance," and Jesus gave the wonderful parable of the
rich man who built bigger barns to keep everything for himself and the Lord
said, "Tonight, your life will be required of you," and then Jesus
said, you know, "You should lay up treasure in heaven,” you should be rich
toward God and not selfish, and that's how that story ended in verse 21.
And
after answering that young man's plea with that parable, He resumes His
teaching but He connects the two together, as verse 22 says. "For this reason I say to
you...." What reason? The reason that I've just stated, verse 21,
you make a choice in life as to whether you lay up treasure for yourself or are
rich toward God, which is just another way to say lay up treasure in heaven,
and that's how He said it in Matthew 6:19 to 21. So you make a choice. Either you are selfish
and materialistic and keep everything, or you lay up treasure in heaven. That's the choice you have to make. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said you can't serve
two masters. You'll love one and hate the other. You'll hold to one and despise
the other. You can't serve God and money.
In
simple terms what Jesus is trying to ask is – “Is God first for you and me?”
2.
Have I Understood the Divine
Purpose? V. 23
Verse
23, says "For life is more than food and the body than clothing."
What
Jesus is trying to say is that you and your body doesn’t just exist, you exist
for a higher reason. Life is more than
food and you have a body for more reasons than just clothing. In other words, God didn't make you to be an
eating machine and a mannequin. I am sure
it's hard to convince our culture of that.
Food and fashion, restaurants and clothes is what our culture is filled
with today. But without God, you are an
eating machine and a mannequin. But God
didn't give His people life for that reason.
Simply
stating we are not here just to exist.
It's in God that we live and move and have our being.
Your
life is not about food. Your life is not
about clothing. It's not about making
sure you can survive. That's God's
commitment. That's the purpose that God has created us.
If
we understand that we live and exist for the purpose of God, and God will
sustain our life until that purpose is fulfilled, then we don't have to worry
about it.
3.
Did I Trust in the Divine
Provision? V.24
What
exactly did Jesus mean when he asked us to learn from the birds of the sky? This
has become the perfect verse for a lazy person to substantiate his/her
laziness. I don’t think Jesus was talking about the fact that we should not
work or that since God provides we should not work.
Jesus
was probably saying that birds are incapable of generating their own food
supply. They are totally dependent on
God. What is provided to them by the
Creator is all they have. They don't
have the ingenuity or the capability. They only have the capability and the
instinct to pick up what's been provided for them. But that doesn't mean they don't work. Have you ever seen a bird lying on its side
taking a nap? Birds are in constant
motion.
So,
this verse doesn’t mean that we simply need to sit and watch and we will be
provided. But on the contrary it means He's provided the resources for us, He's
provided the capability for us to work and to gain those things and if we're in
a situation where even at our best efforts we can't provide enough, God will
find a way to take care of us to sustain us.
In
simple terms the birds work and we work, but it's God who providentially
provides. Have I trusted in his divine provision?
4.
Am I Prepared for Divine
Prosperity? V. 32,33,34
verse
32. "Do not be afraid, little
flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom." He didn't say He'd give you something out of
the kingdom. He doesn't say He'd give
you resources from the kingdom. He says
He'll give you “The kingdom.”
But
I believe there is a clause attached to it. If we live a life as told in Verse 33
and 34 the heaven and divine prosperity belongs to us.
Jesus
wants us to envision making ourselves poorer so that others can flourish. He
stresses on the fact that life does not consist in the abundance of things. In
a world that uses people and loves things, Jesus wants us to use things to love
people.
What
I find fascinating about this is that the disciple were poor. They didn’t have
much. But the little they did have, Jesus says, “Use it! I have already told
you that your heavenly Father knows your needs and has already promised to
provide it. Seek his kingdom because he’s giving it to you.
Most
of us like some things about Christianity like God is love and Jesus died for
our sins. Many of us will even say that we want to follow you more intentionally.
Jesus says, “Ok then lets talk about your bank account.” How do we respond to
that question?
We
always spend our wealth on the things we love most. And so, Jesus is asking us to
buy into the fact that life is about Him and his Kingdom. Timothy Keller in his
book Counterfeit Gods tells “In actuality when we become a Christian, there is
a radical reorienting of your nature along the lines of the King’s radical
generosity toward you. And so instead of investing in your own little kingdom,
you begin investing and living for the kingdom of God.
If
we have failed in understanding the Divine Priority, Purpose, Providence and
Prosperity let us resolve to live a life of understanding and have a better
Display Profile well pleasing to the Lord.
Wishing
you all a blessed and fruitful 2018 wherein worry and anxiety is completely eliminated
for when our DP is with Christ we will have the power to accept everything with
trust, faith and hope in Him.
Happy
New Year.
Jijo
Achen.
