The Gross, the
Good, and God
Pastor Joe Fuiten; July 15,
2001
Scripture Reading: Romans 12
Page 803.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. 3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. 9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
The Bible is so contemporary because
neither people nor God have changed in the last two thousand years. Same kinds of problems, same kinds of
answers.
Sometimes is seems like there are
two teams of wild horses on either side pulling for all they are worth and I
live between them. Sometimes, back to
back, opposite issues will walk through the door. One couple will come wanting to get married. They have stars in their eyes and love in
their brains and it is a wonder to behold.
Half an hour later another couple will come with pains in their neck and
bitterness in their hearts and they want a divorce. One wants to come while the next one wants to go. One wants a baby and they next one is laying
to rest a parent. One is trying to figure
out what to do with all their money and the next how to get enough to pay the
rent.
We could say that, on average, everybody is
happy. The truth is, everybody has an
issue they need to deal with.
As I have been thinking about these
opposites, I have made a surprising discovery.
The way we should handle our triumphs and our tragedies are surprisingly
similar.
I have decided to hang my thoughts
in this Good, Gross, and God sermon on “G” words.
The
first word is gratitude. I think the word applies to
both the good and the gross even though the good is more obvious. Let’s start with the easy one, the good.
When good things happen, we need
gratitude. Tomorrow is a good day for
me. I’m going to take some vacation
days. When I come back, I want to be
spiritual refreshed. I believe the extent of my gratitude will determine what
happens. I am hoping to get in two or three
rounds of golf with the boys. One of
the things I have tried to do is appreciate what I have. One year, my boys and I played on three PGA
courses. We played Kapalua, Pebble
Peach, and the Broadmoor in the same year.
When we are blessed with a vacation, we should let God know we are
grateful. Not everyone gets to take a
vacation. Some never get one. One way of being grateful might be to give
an almsgift to the poor as you head off on your vacation.
Most people understand gratitude
when something good happens, but don’t necessarily see it when something gross
happens. The Psalmist understood it in
the 23rd Psalm when he said, “though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, they rod and
staff, they comfort me.” What was he
doing? In the midst of death or the
concern about impending death, he expressed gratitude for God’s presence.
The opposite of gratitude is
typically anger. When bad things
happen, most people have a season of anger that is a usual part of the process
of coming to terms with loss. Even
though it is normal, I see it as something to get past rather than to justify.
What often happens as the aftermath
of some bad thing is we get mad. Maybe
it will be appropriate anger but often it is not. Instead of accepting what has happened, we look for someone to
blame. If we can’t find someone to
blame we look for someone to accuse of some failing. Others don’t care that I am sick. No one is responding to me and they go on as if nothing has
happened. My doctor is a dork, my
lawyer is a louse, my accountant has no sense, my health insurance company
wants me dead, my life insurance company wants me to live, my children don’t
care either way, my sister is too busy, my friends are off enjoying their lives
without ever thinking about me, etc.
David could have gone down that path because there
are endless possibilities. Instead he
chose the path of gratitude. He was
grateful for God’s presence. He said,
“Man, am I ever glad that God is with me.”
Then he enumerated the elements and benefits of God’s presence. From the prison cell one looked out and saw
the stars the other saw the bars.
Gratitude thanks God for his compassion for us in
our sufferings. We thank him for the
grace and comfort of his presence. We
release the anger that is a misplaced denial of reality, and we turn to God in
gratitude for who he is.
The second major “G” is Grace. It seems to me that it takes as much grace
to succeed as it does to experience failure.
The rich have burdens the poor will never know. There are personal issues, relational
issues, and pressures. They will have
to battle pride, distraction, and dilution, among others. Jesus recognized this
when he said in Matthew 19:23 “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of heaven.” By
God’s grace it can happen, but there are struggles along the way. (My son Zach is happy to have new rims for
his car, but now he is worried that someone will steal them.)
Those who are in a crisis know they need grace, but
they don’t always appreciate the full dimension of their need. In Job’s case, he needed grace to survive
bad religious advice. That crowd has a
name, “Job’s comforters.” These are
people who are no comfort at all. When
you are in trouble, they are trying to help you decide whether this problem you
have is a result of your personal sin or is just an unwarranted attack of the
devil who has defeated the God who has abandoned you. You have the pain of the problem, anxiety over the future, and
Job’s comforters around your hospital bed.
You need grace, big time.
The third “G” is Good. How can I do good with this blessing? When you have something great in your life you ask God for his
direction in using it for his glory.
You say to the Lord, “You have given me this great ability, how can I
use it for you?” God’s work needs your
skill, your talent, your brain. God is perfectly willing to give you more than
you need if you are willing to use it to meet a need. “You that are strong should bear the burdens of those who are
weak.”
One of the things that excites me about Cedar Park
these days is how diverse its ministry has become and we are continuing to
widen the work. We have a lot of
different types of things going on which puts a lot of different skills to
work. There is a place for every
ability in this church and in this community.
Your thought should be, God has given this to me to
use for somebody’s good. It might be a
dish of food for a sick person or a gift of stock to buy property. Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians
12:4-7 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are
different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of
working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the
manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”
When you are in trouble, or something bad has
happened, you ask somewhat the same question.
God, how can you help me make good come out of this evil. God’s desire is that all things will work
together for good to them that love God, but there is some praying that needs
to happen between the evil and the good.
Some people have prayed for a baby, but no baby
came. That’s bad, but prayer can turn
that around when we say to God, please help me bring good out of this
problem. The answer might be a ministry
around adoption, or in the Sunday School.
It might be, as one childless couple said to me recently, “We don’t have
any kids so we can help the church financially a lot more.” And they did.
I love what Joseph said to those who had harmed
him. “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to accomplish what is
now being done, the saving of many lives.”[1] He took evil of his life and looked for
a way to turn it around. Every tragedy,
sickness, or harm you suffer has the potential to be a blessing to
someone. Sometimes I think the world
has a better idea about this than the church.
They form support groups.
Somebody has a problem, and suddenly they become valuable members of a
support group. We have that somewhat in
the church, but it could be so much more.
For those who suffer chronic pain, there is
hopekeepers. For those who are
infertile, we have a support group. We
have groups for sexual issues and aged parents. (That would be two different groups, not one)
If you stay focused on pain and loss, there is no
benefit. But if you will look up and
say God, if there is any good that I can make out of this, I want to, God will
help you.