Gtcotr/ss021322
Today is Superbowl Sunday! An important day for so many in America. I wish I could tell you who is playing but I’m not up to date on that. Now if it were bowling, croquet, or the Arizona outdoor winter beach table tennis finals, I might know a little more about it.
What
I can tell you about Superbowl Sunday is that Americans on average will weigh
more tonight than they do right now. It is estimated that no matter who wins
the game:
·
Over
100 million pounds of chicken wings will be consumed today.
o That’s 1.25 billion
wings …
o More than 600 million
chickens will give their lives for today’s game watchers.
o And btw – according to
a google article I read, prices for chicken wings have risen by 34% over the
last year.
o Grillable proteins are
up 18%; 2-liter soft drinks up 12%; 12 pack of cans up 6%; making the overall
cost of a Superbowl party noticeably higher this year over last.
·
1
in 12 Americans will order take-out pizza …
·
14
million hamburgers will be grilled and served today …
·
More
than 8 million pounds of guacamole will be dipped with the more than 11 million
pounds of chips.
·
By
this time tomorrow antacid sales will increase by and expected 20% over
yesterday.
·
1.2
million Americans will call in sick and stay home from work on Monday.
Kind of makes the mixed couples bi-state crocheting semi-finals look a little more appealing this year. Whatever you prefer to watch today, just remember the admonition attributed to King David in the Psalms.
Psalms 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Don’t let who wins or who loses mess up your life, money, or relationships.
Life is a chance … Every day is an opportunity.
Last week we read a passage in the Gospel of Mark which gave some details surrounding a Young Rich Ruler whom Jesus met when He was on His way to the cross. This morning we are going to pick up there and discuss one of the biggest challenges Jesus faced with His disciples. It wasn’t that they didn’t love Him; it wasn’t that they didn’t respect Him; it wasn’t that they didn’t believe He was the promised Messiah … it was that they expected what they had read and been taught from the Bible was going to happen quickly and without much effort on their part.
Today, we will take our main text from the Gospel of Luke and the account surrounding a notorious sinner, who was also a tax collector named Zacchaeus from the town of Jericho. If you are not familiar with Zacchaeus, please read the whole story this week so you can get the full picture and have a greater personal grasp on what Jesus still wants us to learn from this story today.
(Briefly - The account of Zacchaeus)
Luke 19 NLT
9 Jesus responded, “Salvation
has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of
Abraham.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
Jesus came to look for and to save those who need help … (love it!) Salvation can be a process – one in which we need to participate.
11 ¶ The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said. And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away.
KJV – “appear immediately” – Then Jesus begins a parable …
12 He
said, “A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and
then return.
13
Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among
them ten pounds of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am
gone.’
14 But
his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want him
to be our king.’
15
“After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to
whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their profits were.
16 The
first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times
the original amount!’
17
“ ‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You
have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor
of ten cities as your reward.’
18
“The next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made
five times the original amount.’
19
“ ‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five
cities.’
20
“But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money
and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe.'
21 I
was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours
and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’
22
“ ‘You wicked servant!’ the king roared. ‘Your own words condemn
you. If you knew that I’m a hard man who takes what isn’t mine and harvests
crops I didn’t plant,
23 why
didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some
interest on it.’
24
“Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘Take
the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’
25 “ ‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’
26 “ ‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.”
Jesus is talking about the process of life.
Life is a process.
The disciples were wrongly imagining that since Jesus is the Son of Almighty God, and since they are connected to Him, that the kingdom of God would just appear immediately and without them having to be responsible for doing anything about it. Jesus had a different perspective however and He was doing His best to help them see it.
I love the way Jesus teaches in the Gospels. He tells a truth, then He tells a story or a parable to highlight the truth, then finally, if needed, He will be blatantly direct and say something like: “Get behind me satan … you’re only thinking of your own carnal desires and not about what God wants!”
I think I had rather open my ears, pay attention, be swift to hear and be slow to speak when Jesus is talking. You see:
Life is a chance - Life is your chance - Every day is an opportunity.
Today is an opportunity for each one of us to make a simple decision and adjust our lives just a little or perhaps a whole lot, and makes things better for ourselves and others.
We cannot expect things to get better all on their own. The disciples imagined the kingdom of God would just appear in their lives and provide a quick fix in their lives without them having to work on things … boy were they wrong.
The parable Jesus told His disciples concludes with the realization that If we don’t do something with what we have then what we might end up with is nothing.
Take relationships for example:
Relationships are a long game. In fact, relationships were originally designed by God to last forever.
However, just because we are born into family relationships, raised making relationships within a community, or enter into both contractual and covenant relationships during our lives does not mean we will have successful, fruitful, or fulfilling relationships.
Relationships
take investment. “Invest this for Me while I’m gone,” Jesus said.
·
If
we are unwilling to Cultivate, nurture, and repair
relationships God gives us, they will never be the relationships He
intends.
·
When
God gives a talent, a gift, or an opportunity, He expects us to take care of it
and make it into something more and better than it was when we received it.
·
Life
is a process.
·
Success is more than a one step process.
· When we don’t value what we have it won’t grow and to those who do nothing with the little they have, it will dwindle to nothing.
A Second Opportunity Involves Money
The day Jesus met Zacchaeus Jesus was looking for someone with money He could use to meet some needs. Evidently Jesus didn’t just need a little money that day, Evidently Jesus needed a lot of money that day.
Many people read the account of Zacchaeus and imagine the story to be all about him. However, Jesus had been on a search for someone with means to meet some needs long before He reached Jericho that day. I have no problem believing the Young Rich Ruler (Luke 18:18ff) was called by God to meet some needs of which we aren’t made privy in the story.
I don’t know who it was that was praying that day around the city of Jericho and what need they had or faith they supplied that moved the hand of God to draw the young rich ruler to Jesus. But I do know that when the young rich ruler said no to Jesus’s request, Jesus simply went right on down the road looking for the next person of means He could use to meet the need and who it was that was going to be listed in the Bible as a man who had great faith and became a hero for God that day. And I firmly believe Zacchaeus did not outgive God that day … He lives on as one of the heroes of the Bible and here we are remembering him once again.
Jesus promised true riches … Zacchaeus just needed to make an investment first. Life is a process … and that day was Zacchaeus’ opportunity to join the God and Son investment group.
A
word about stewardship:
·
Money
doesn’t just happen because we are Born-Again. We are admonished by God to pay
attention to and take care of the resources God gives us.
·
The reason why you can’t buy what you want is because you bought
what you wanted.
·
A
dollar, or shekel, or shilling, or euro, it only spends once.
·
Saying
yes to one thing will mean saying no to something else.
·
The
quickest way to get a raise is to cut a bill.
·
One
of our elders, Luke Bougeois, says: “Money problems are seldom a problem with
numbers … “Money problems are most often behavioral
problems.” Luke Bougeois
· If at all possible, get out of and stay out of petty debt.
Three - Future
Jesus wants us to realize that the future is going to be pretty much what we make of the opportunities we are given each day.
Right now God is giving every one of you the chance to be Born-Again into His family. You can become a child of God by exercising the simple faith He has already given you. Or you can let this opportunity pass you by.
Nothing changes until something changes. Your life, marriage, family, finances, and future can begin a change for the better right now if you will put your trust in Jesus.
The changes you need may not all happen immediately or without you making some investment in the process. Right decisions must be made, and time given for things to change.
Anyone who has given God a chance will tell you it works. God will not disappoint you, but He will work with you to cultivate, nurture, and repair all the things that are broken in your life.
Life
is a process … begin the process your new life affords right now!
