The Missing Element

January 16, 2009
Text: Genesis 3:1-11, 21
Title: The Missing Element

Thoughts:

When I walked away from Sunday’s message, I felt this nagging sense that I left something undone. It was as if the very crux of the message was missing. All afternoon I grappled with what I had left unsaid.

It wasn’t until Sunday evening, when Wisdom and I sat down to eat a piece of the illustrated cake, that I realized what was missing. I forgot the most important part.

For those who weren’t with us in service, I illustrated the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a delicious chocolate cake amidst a table filled with fruit. Though they could have eaten any fruit, they chose the forbidden cake. However, once the slice of cake is eaten, the cake will never be the same. It can never be replaced without leaving a gap somewhere. When we fail to steward our choices well, it creates shortcomings that can never be made up.

Adam and Eve could never replace the fruit they ate. They were always left trying to cover up their mismanagement, e.g. using leaves to cover their nakedness. Since that moment, humanity has sought to make up the difference. We have used our works, animal sacrifices, time, and good thoughts trying to make up for our shortcomings. But just like the piece of cake, it can never be replaced without leaving a gap somewhere.

This is precisely the element that Jesus Christ comes to fulfill. Outside of God’s gift our debts can never be paid nor our sins covered! In Genesis 3:21 we find God Himself providing the clothing to cover their nakedness. In the New Testament He provides Jesus Christ as our only source from the freedom of our sins. Only His gift can fill what is missing!

Back to the forgotten element of Sunday’s message…The idea was to replace the fragmented and incomplete cake with a brand new one; symbolizing what Christ does for us. He takes our broken, shattered, and partial lives and gives us new and whole lives again. Jesus makes it right!

Whether you are battling with the debt of your sins or the debt of your finances, only God’s gift can help you. He gifts us with spiritual life, strength, jobs, favor, abilities, and the like to become free from our debts. Let’s begin to live debt free today.

Application:

Have you ever purchased something with money that was budgeted for another area? How did you make up for it without affecting other monies which were budgeted?

Have you ever tried to make up for your disobedience by working harder, going to church more, etc.? Did it really make up for your disobedience?

As it was with Adam and Eve, every decision we make is both physical and spiritual. The two are intricately intertwined. Only Christ can free us from our decisions. Have you asked Him for help today? Or are you hiding from Him?

Prayer:

Father,

Like Adam and Even, I have made some horrible choices in my life. Both financially and spiritually, I have moved outside of Your will and plan for my life. It has left me in the bondage of debt. Though I have feverishly tried to cover it up and hide it from You and others, You still see. Today, I see the freedom from coming out from my hiding. You alone are able to free me from my debt. I accept Christ’s work and embrace His forgiveness today. Help me to live free from debt!

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Discipline: Taming the Beast

January 15, 2009
Text: Genesis 3:1-7
Title: Discipline: Taming the Beast

Thoughts:

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” (Luke 14:28)

Had Adam and Eve only had considered the cost of their mismanaged stewardship, surely they would have chosen to avoid the toxins of the enticing fruit. Unfortunately, their lack of discipline led them to forfeit a life filled with God’s provisions and presence.

Stewardship and discipline go hand in hand. When it comes to stewardship, discipline is a must. Concerning financial stewardship, Dave Ramsey writes,

“Money…is like a beautiful thoroughbred horse–very powerful and always in action, but unless the horse is trained when very young, it will be an out-of-control and dangerous animal when it grows to maturity.

The point is this: You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.” (Financial Peace Revisited, p.19-20)

Discipline in our stewardship requires:
1) Counting the Cost: Before we make the purchase, sign the contract, or eat the fruit, we must chart the maturity of our decision. The 12-inch python seems manageable in the pet store. It’s the other 11-FEET that are generally not accounted for.
2) Constant Care: Discipline is not a position on the map. It’s not visited once and forever achieved. Discipline with our finances, physique, or spiritual life requires daily accountability and attention.
3) Contentment: Before there were tv ads, radio spots, or glossy magazine coupons, Satan had developed a plan to make humanity feel cheated. They simply “needed more.” Paul encourages us to find contentment in what God has provided for us, be it great or little (Phil. 4:11ff). Without finding contentment in Christ’s provisions we will always be in debt, spiritually and financially.

In order to manage the stallion of tomorrow, we must discipline the colt of today. Let’s make wise stewardship decisions today that will mature in the Kingdom of Heaven tomorrow.

Application:

Have you ever fallen for the cute and tame pet that became too large to manage? (credit card purchase you couldn’t pay off, vehicle you couldn’t afford the maintenance on, etc.)

What disciplines do you have in place today that are proving your faithfulness as a godly steward of God’s resources?

What raging stallions do you have in your life right now? Have you asked God for help?

Prayer:

Father,

Though You continually seek to show me, may I truly see the maturity of my decision before I make it. Help me to discipline myself to chart its progression from conception to fruition. I recognize that my every decision has children. It will produce life or death, blessings or curses. Today, I want to choose life with every choice. Will You deliver me from yesterdays choices and help me with today’s?

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Distrust: Fashioning God with Our Limitations

January 14, 2009
Text: Genesis 3:1-7
Title: Distrust: Fashioning God with Our Limitations

Thoughts:

A man who lived on Long Island was able one day to satisfy a lifelong ambition by purchasing for himself a very fine barometer. When the instrument arrived at his home, he was extremely disappointed to find that the indicating needle appeared to be stuck, pointing to the sector marked “HURRICANE.”  After shaking the barometer very vigorously several times, its new owner sat down and wrote a scorching letter to the store from which he had purchased the instrument. The following morning on the way to his office in New York, he mailed the letter.

That evening he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing, but his house also. The barometer’s needle had been right–there was a hurricane.

E. Schuyler English

Is it not ironic that we invest our lives in something that we do not trust? As I picture Adam and Eve walking in the Garden with God Himself, I imagine them investing themselves into this relationship. God had known them before their creation. He had recognized Adam’s loneliness and provided for Him. He had created everything they needed. How could they ever question God withholding something “good” from them?

While disobedience is a certain failure in the area of our stewardship, distrust in God seems less severe. We often consider our lack of complete trust in God as our safeguard, not wanting to burden Him with our needs, or our way of “helping” Him out. Yet, if we believe God to be our all-sufficient God, to distrust Him in any one area is to say that He is not really God. Therefore, we create a Mr. Potato Head God. We fashion Him according to our imaginations and with our limitations.

How unfortunate that we would call God our God and yet not trust Him at His Word. It is as foolish as purchasing a barometer and then not trusting its reading of a “Hurricane,” but trusting its reading for “Rain.” If we truly trust in God, we must trust Him in every area without picking and choosing His areas of reliability.

Application:

Are there some areas where you trust God more than others? What determines these areas?

Do you find it harder to trust God in areas that seem to be in your power to control? (finances, jobs, etc.)

What is the danger of trusting God in one area and not in all areas?

Prayer:

Father,

Please forgive me for not trusting You as I should. Foolishly, I have trusted in my own abilities over Your reliability. You know exactly what I need and what is best for me. You know how to provide it for me. Help me to develop total trust in You today. Not just for salvation, but for my total life.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Disobedience

January 13, 2009
Text: Genesis 3:1-7
Title: Disobedience: A Deal for a Contract

Thoughts:

The 80’s were characterized by the technological advancement of cds. True, they seem so archaic in an MP3 and iTunes generation, but they once were cutting edge. (These were also the days when you actually bought an entire album and not just the songs you liked.) At any rate, keeping up with the latest cds was quite the feat for an unemployed high schooler. Nevertheless, it was expected.

It is no wonder that when the advertisements boasted of 12 cds for $.01 a middle-schooler was going to bite on it. And, bite I did! Against the wisdom and direction of my parents, I checked the boxes of my favorite cds, signed the bottom line, and taped my penny to the image on the paper. The next 6 weeks were torture. Finally, they arrived. And, it was like an extra Christmas.

For the next few months I enjoyed my good deal; 12 cds for $.01! What I wasn’t expecting is what my parents had warned me about. Unknowingly, I had signed a contract to get 12 cds for $.01 as long as I purchased a certain number at regular price! Now, what middle-school student has $150 to buy cds? If there were one out there, it wasn’t me. It was the bargain I had been warned about, but didn’t believe could go wrong for me.

Adam and Eve bit on the Eden version of my cd bargain. They thought they were going to cheat the system. God had told them it would cost them life. Satan brushed over the fine print and highlighted the tempting points. Ultimately, their decision caused Adam and Eve to sign the bottom line on a contract of spiritual debt they, nor any human, could ever repay.

As God warned Adam and Eve and my parents warned me, we too receive warnings concerning our stewardship. Though the repercussions are delayed at times, a signed contract is legally binding, be it spiritual or financial. Every stewardship decision binds us in an agreement with either Christ or the world. Let’s heed God’s instructions and come into an agreement with Him in our stewardship today.

Application:

Have you ever brushed the fine print of a contract without understanding what you actually agreed to? What were the repercussions?

In what ways has Satan deceived you into signing something that became damaging to you?

Are there areas in your life where you are entering into agreement with the world’s stewardship methods and not God’s?

Prayer:

Father,

Like Adam and Eve, I have acted against Your wisdom and instructions. I have taken the approach that “it couldn’t happen to me.” It has led me to debt, addiction, and failure. Meanwhile, Your plan is a plan of provision that does not lead me into bondage. Please forgive me for my disobedience. Today, please help me to read the fine print of my decisions. I want to come into agreement with You.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.