“Partnering With God”
Scripture Reading: II Corinthians 5:17-20
Sermon Transcript for November 27, 2005
By Rev. Mike Beck
There is a subtle image on the front of the brochure that most of you received in the mail this past week. If you are like me at first glance you missed the image. On the cover of that brochure, it’s there on the screen, was a light bulb superimposed over the face of a clock with the rather startling declaration that “God made all of us inventors”. The clock represents the time that God has given to us on earth. God gave Helen Brady almost 91 years. She used those years so faithfully. And the light bulb represents the talents God has given us to invent our lives, “partnering with God” to share His Good News with others. I want to lift up two things this morning that are needed if we are to partner with God. They both begin with the letter “a” and they form the two points of my message today.
Attitude: The first thing that is of critical importance is our attitude. I just feel like as we go through life attitude is everything. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:5-8 said these words, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But he made himself nothing being in the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness, being bound in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself, became obedient to death—even death on a cross.” Our attitude should mirror that of Christ.
Recently I came across a list of “what is” questions. They each have one or two answers that demonstrate how we invent ourselves by our attitudes and the way we think. So take out your yellow bulletin insert, grab a pen or pencil. Now I realize there is more than one right answer to these questions, but the answers that I am going to give to you have a lot to do about attitude and the way God wants to use the person with the attitude of Christ partnered with the daily ministry.
The Most Destructive Habit? The Greatest Problem to Overcome
The Deadliest Weapon?
The Most Worthless Emotion?
The Greatest Contributor to Failure?
The Ugliest Personality Trait?
The Greatest Loss We Can Suffer?
The Worst Thing to Be Without?
The Most Dangerous Force in Life?
The Most Powerful Force in Life?
The Most Satisfying Work?
The Greatest “Shot in the Arm”?
Worry Fear
Tongue
Self-Pity
Excuses
Selfishness
Self-Respect
Hope
Gossip
Love
Helping Others
Encouragement (Boy, why don’t we do it more often?)
Now, on this next one I told him I would get back at him. Hugh Deale comes faithfully to our Men’s Prayer Group. And they were looking at this list yesterday morning. They get the bulletin early. And when it comes to “The Most Effective Sleeping Pill”, Hugh, who always has a joke said, “Reverend Mike’s sermon!” Well, I forgive you for that Hugh. You can continue to come.
The Most Effective Sleeping Pill? The Two Most Powerful Words?
The Most Beautiful Thing You Can Wear?
The Most Prized Possession?
The Most Contagious Spirit?
The Greatest Asset in Life?
The Most Powerful Communication Channel?
The Greatest Joy?
Peace of Mind I Can
Smile
IntegrityEnthusiasm
Faith
Prayer
Giving
This weekend is the first weekend of Advent—a time in which we prepare to remember and celebrate God’s greatest gift to human kind—the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. The “estimate of giving card” that was enclosed with your brochure expresses in a very tangible way our attitude in response to God’s gift of love. Does what’s on our card and your card express an “attitude of gratitude” or does it express that God gets what is leftover?
There is a story of a woman who was traveling in the mountains. On her journey, she looked around and found a precious stone in a stream that was worth tens of thousands of dollars. Well, obviously she picked it up and put it in her bag. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry. And the woman opened her bag to share with him some food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him! To his utter amazement, the woman reached out, grabbed the precious stone worth thousands of dollars, and gave it to the stranger. Well, the traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to provide him security maybe for the rest of his life. But ironically a few days later, he came back, found the woman; he wanted to return to her the precious stone. He said, “I’ve been thinking. I know how valuable this stone is. But I want to give it back to you in the hope that you can give me something even more precious than this stone.” And as he handed the stone back to her he finished the statement with these profound words, “Would you give me what it was within you that enabled you to give me the stone?”
Availability: Last week we were reminded that the power for all that we seek to do here at Grace Church belongs to God. It is not something that we do. But we were also reminded that God’s power gets unleashed when we trust in faith and we are obedient and follow where He leads. And that brings us to the final point of the message today. God needs our attitude; but he also needs our availability.
And here is where, on this first weekend of Advent, we can tie in this stewardship message to the season of Advent. Almost all of the pictures of Mary, and this is a beautiful new nativity scene that’s on the altar this year, they always have Mary looking too old. She was probably 15 or 16 years old. But can you imagine what is going through her mind when an angel came to her and said, “You are going to give birth to a son.” Well, first of all, how is that going to be possible? She never had sexual relations with a man! She’s probably only 15 or 16 and that son that is going to be born in her womb, the angel says, is the promised Messiah, the very Son of God who would come to deliver the sins of the world. How would Mary have understood that? But in faith she said to the angel, “I don’t understand it, but I am available. Let it be to me as you have said.”
And then I think a forgotten character in the Christmas story is old Joseph. What would you think if you found out the lady you were engaged to, who you had never consummated that relationship, she tells you she is pregnant? You do not do what Joseph did. He went down to the leader of the synagogue and said, “How do I get rid of this woman?” And the leader of the synagogue says, “You write up a decree that she has been unfaithful and you can get out of the engagement.” But that night Joseph had a dream and when that dream was concluded Joseph didn’t understand it either. How in the world would anyone understand a lady having a baby when she hasn’t had sexual relations with a man? But at the close of that dream says that Joseph took Mary as his wife even though he didn’t by any means have all the answers. But like the Jesus Painter commented to us a few weeks ago, God will use our talents, but more important than that, God wants our availability. Joseph and Mary made them in the midst of their doubts and fears made themselves a symbol to us available to God.
I close with this story. An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer that, although he would miss his pay check, he wanted a more leisurely life with his family. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker and his friend of so many years go. He asked the carpenter if he could do him a personal favor before retiring. Could he build one final house? The carpenter said “yes”, but his heart wasn’t in the job. He resorted to shoddy workmanship. He used inferior materials to get the job done with the minimal effort possible. The carpenter called his employer to let him know the house was finished. His employer said, “Wait just a moment before you leave. I want to come over.” Well, the carpenter thought maybe his friend would bring a gift certificate; maybe he’s bringing me a gold watch for my labors. But when the employer arrived, he handed the key to the house to the carpenter and he said, “This is your house. It is my gift to you for all your years of hard work!” If the carpenter had only known the importance of his task! So is it with us if we build our lives giving God the leftovers instead of giving God our best. Give God your availability. Give God the kind of attitude reflected in the answers on this sheet this morning and then stand back and be amazed at what God can do as you partner with Him.
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