The writer of Colossians puts it this way in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do”—I mean, if you take care of toddlers, build homes, program computers, whatever you do—“work at it with all of your heart”—Be tenacious about it. Be passionate about it. Be focused about it—“as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Well, as we continue, we need to come up with a working definition of worship. What is worship? We all worship. Every single person on the planet worships something. Worship is to be intensely passionate about someone or something. Henry used to worship that car. I have seen a lot of people in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area worship cars. You have seen them too. They don’t like bow down to the car. They worship it. They are intensely passionate about this thing. I have seen people worship someone they date or worship a wardrobe, or worship their portfolio, or worship a house. What does God say? God says throughout the pages of scripture, “Don’t waste your worship. Don’t waste your worship.”
Worship, friends, is not a noun. It is a verb. There is activity involved. So, if you know Jesus Christ personally, if you have bowed the knee to him, if you have a personal connection with the Lord, you do not come to Fellowship Church for worship. I will rewind on that one because some of you missed it. If you are a Christian, you do not come to Fellowship Church for worship. Instead, if you have downloaded this properly, this worship and work intersection, instead, you come to Fellowship Church worshipping. Worship transcends every area of your life; thus, when you come, you are already worshipping. It’s just highlighting and underscoring what your lifestyle is all about. You are being obedient to Hebrews 10:25 which tells us to “Gather together regularly with other believers.” It tells us not to forget that. Don’t treat it flippantly or casually. Be here for corporate worship. But Christians should come worshipping, not for worship.
Dr. Ed Young – There is no way I can persevere, this marriage situation, I’m at a quitting point; this business transaction, I want to just get away from it; this problem I am having with my wayward daughter.
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They are jealous of other doctors. Homemakers aren’t jealous of actresses. They are jealous of other homemakers. Pastors aren’t jealous of salesmen. They are jealous of other pastors. Jealousy will lead you to a lousy life. It will breed discontent. It will silence your applause. And every time we refrain from applauding, we are just slapping God in the face. We are saying, “God, you are not a generous God. You are not a gift-giving God, not a blessing God because I want it just for me.” See the contrast between joy and jealousy? There was joy going on in the house but the older brother stayed outside the house in jealousy.
Let’s look at the next contrast. It is the contrast between forgiveness and bitterness. Forgiveness and bitterness. The older brother was jealous and angry and that led into a feeling of bitterness. Yet the father was forgiving. Let’s pick up the text. Luke 15:28. “The older brother became angry and refused to go in….” He couldn’t even face his father or his brother. You know what the father did? The same dad who had earlier run to meet his younger son and then thrown him a party, went outside the house and pleads with the older brother, “Son, come in. Son, don’t miss the celebration. Please come in.” I can almost hear him saying to his older son, “It’s sad. It’s a sad, sad situation and it is getting more and more absurd. Why can’t we talk it over? It seems to me that sorry is the hardest word for you to say.” If only this older brother had apologized to his father, to his younger brother, look at the freedom, the adventure, the excitement that he could have experienced. But he stayed near the house, just hearing stuff and calling people, maybe on his cell phone.
Dr. Ed Young said we are walking with Him, and we think from the human perspective, oh the wall is too big, I can’t take the wall.
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As unbelievable as that scenario sounds, many of us do the same thing.
You may have accepted Christ’s gift of salvation, but you still feel as though you are bound in a prison cell of poor self-esteem. You have been set free, but you are not experiencing that freedom. You are still chained up.
It is time to get free.
It’s time to experience freedom by living out the abundant life Christ came to give. Allow him to break the chains of your imperfect past, your unrealistic expectations, and your self-imposed standards. Even as Christ-followers, Satan wants to keep us bound to our sins. But Christ has already set you free. So it’s time to leave the jailhouse and live like the free person you are.
#2: I Am Loved
I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
Jeremiah 31:3
Notice that there are no conditions tied to that verse. There are no prerequisites for God’s love.
Many of us grew up thinking that we had to meet certain conditions in order to earn the love of others. We had the impressions that we had to make straight A’s, score the most touchdowns, or do this or that to earn love. God, though, does not place any conditions on his love for us. So when you wake up in the morning, you don’t have to wonder, “Does God love me today? Have I earned his love with a good performance?” The Bible tells us that he has simply drawn us out of loving-kindness.
It’s not about what you can do. It’s not about how good you can be, or how great you can perform in front of everybody. It’s about who you are in the eyes of God. It’s about who you can be through him who loves you perfectly.
And that is the picture of walking with God, of listening to God. – Dr. Ed Young
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If you know it is going to be difficult for you to pay your credit cards off each month, then you need to select option number two. Take out a pair of scissors and cut them up! And then, don’t apply for any more. We get about 50 unsolicited credit card offers every year in the mail.[i] When those offers come, just tear them up.
A good friend of mine is a financial consultant. He had an interesting spin on credit cards that has stuck with me for years. He said, “Ed, you know about the surgeon general’s warning on every pack of cigarettes, right? As far as I’m concerned a similar warning should be required on every credit card issued: “Warning! Overuse can be dangerous to your wealth.”
That is a good warning for all of us. Credit cards, if not used properly, are a danger to you wealth and your family’s future. Don’t let the Plastic People Eaters rob you of your financial freedom. Begin today to take the necessary steps to escape the clutches of the credit card monster. If you don’t, it will eat you alive!
The Media Monster
Another manifestation of the Creature from the Cash Lagoon is the Media Monster. If you’ve ever been to Times Square in New York or have seen it on television, then you can probably picture the mass advertising that is present there. Everywhere you turn in Times Square you see neon lights, ticker tape LCDs, and big screen billboards that broadcast advertisements for every product ranging from shoes to soft drinks, and from clothing to cars. Times Square is the epicenter of commercialism.
What’s the drive behind all of these commercials and advertisements? Why do advertisers expend so much time, energy and money coming up with these creative angles and ideas? They do it for one reason, and one reason only—to get us to spend money. Advertising is all about selling you more stuff you don’t need. And the Media Monster uses our desire for more, more, more to pull us out of the zone and in the Land of Ing.
[i] startribune.com, “The Higher the Credit Limit, the More Americans Spend,” by John Reinan
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This bridge will specifically help break the back of envy in our lives. Envy energizes a lack of contentment; whereas, conversely, contentment drains the power of envy.
I Peter 2:1-2 (NKJV) the apostle wrote, “Laying aside all … envy … as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”
By being able to admire without the need to acquire, you can save yourself thousands and thousands of dollars and save yourself a lot of pain and anguish. You can say to yourself, “Man, I don’t have to dust it or clean it. I don’t have to insure it. I don’t have to paint it, shine it or polish it. I don’t have to maintain it. But it sure is beautiful to look at!”
At certain times we feel more envy, like around Christmas time. Or maybe we feel it when we drive through certain neighborhoods or walk through certain malls. There is something that goes on in our minds that says, “You deserve that just as much as the person who has that.”
Envy rears its ugly head against anything that might be considered a blessing if that blessing is being received by someone else. And envy has no upside. It’s all downhill. All the other sins you can think about start out with some degree of pleasure. Gluttony gives us some pleasure before we gain fifty pounds and have to deal with the ensuing health problems. Anger gives us a pleasing release of pent up emotional energy before we have to deal with the relational fallout and inevitable carnage.
Dr. Ed Young – “Run through it, it will be fine. You can do it. You are doing well. You are doing well.”
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You saw the true condition of Judas’ heart in this exchange with Mary and Jesus. From his selfish perspective he saw a year’s wages being wasted instead of passing through his money box where he could pilfer a good chunk of it.
No matter how you try to cover the odor, the stinky fish always swims back to the self. And you know when someone is swimming with the self fish because they continually try to get the focus off of their own selfishness and onto the so-called “extravagance” of others.
Selfishness hides within critical comments. It drives by nice homes and criticizes other people’s blessings. Selfishness always protects the self by wagging fingers of criticism and shame at someone else. It takes the spotlight off of our own materialism and shines it on someone else simply as a diversion.
GOD’S BRIDGES
So Satan builds highways to get us out of the zone—the guilt trip and the ride of pride. But Satan is not the only one in the construction business. While Satan is constructing highways leading out of the zone, God is building bridges to bring us back to the zone, back to the blessed place. And these bridges traverse high above the evil one’s freeways.
Contentment
The first bridge is contentment. It is developing the ability to admire without the need to acquire. We should be able to look at something and complement it without having to own it. Basically, that means we need to learn the secret of contentment. Yes, contentment is something we learn.
Paul tells us in Philippians 4:11-13, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content:I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Dr. Ed Young - And at the 21st mile I did hit the wall, but I had two guys around me and they encouraged me, they said, “Run through it, it will be fine”. “But I’m about to die.” “Run through it, it will be fine.” Gasp, gasp. “I can’t make it.”
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But before you judge Judas too quickly, think of your own life. This is a tactic that many of us use. It’s a smoke screen: one of the oldest cover up for selfishness known to man.
When you drive by someone’s house, see someone cruise around in an expensive car, or see someone’s designer watch do you ever say, “Wow, that’s a little extravagant! They should sell that and give the money to the poor”?
Or we may say things like, “How can anyone in good conscience drive a car that expensive?” “She could have helped a lot of people out for what she spent on those earrings,” Or, “I could sure do a lot of good with the money they spent on that.”
We may not say things like that out loud, but we think them just the same. And yet, while we criticize how others spend their money, we are living in a nice house, driving a nice car and wearing jewelry that may seem extravagant to someone who makes less than we do. Often, when we make those comments, we have no intention of selling our home, our car, or our stuff to give it to the poor. We just expect others to do it.
The bottom line is, when we make such statements, it isn’t because we care about the poor. We just resent the fact that someone has a nicer house, car or jewelry. It’s materialism at it’s worst.
These kinds of remarks and thoughts only advertise that we have a mindset and heart condition of materialism. They are nothing more than envy and greed dressed up in pseudo-spiritual packaging. When we say things like that, we are revealing the true condition of our hearts.
Do you see that materialism is not a tangible commodity; instead, it’s an intangible condition of the heart?
