Sylvania Wesleyan Church 1
Sunday Morning 3/1

      • Psalm 121:1–2NIV2011

  • Good Morning. I am so glad that we can be here together this morning. It is always good to gather and worship to the lord together.
    I was thinking about this the other day that the current generations coming into the working world won’t ever experience and that is receiving your paycheck.
    You might be saying, they don’t get paid? No, I am talking about the physical receiving of a paycheck that you have to sign and take to the bank to deposit or cash out. Today, we have and use direct deposit so Payday is never missed. Most jobs you don’t even have the option to receive a physical paycheck anymore.
    I remember when Direct deposit was increasing in use during the early 2000s. I was working at Dicks sporting goods at the time when they announced direct deposit. Many of my co-workers didn’t want to sign up for it for various reasons. That winter we had a bad storm and there was a delay in the paychecks arriving on payday. Fed-ex physically couldn’t deliver them to the store.
    Talk about an uproar and understandably so because people couldn’t get their check. It was then suddenly everyone signed up for direct deposit. Why because we do work to receive money from our employer.
    That’s why we do it. I mean we do work so we get paid. That is our responsibility as an employee.
    I mean could you imagine if we walked into the bosses office and said. “Thank you so much for this beautiful gift! I’m so humbled by your grace in paying me this week.”
    I will be honest when I was a manager if someone would have done that to me they would have received the strangest look. I would have been like what in the world are you doing. This isn’t something I am doing out of my grace but because I am obligated.
    We wouldn’t do that to our boss either because it would be weird. It would be strange because it is the obligation of the employer to pay you.
    Imagine another scenario though. You are living your life and things are hard. That pay check isn’t going as far as it used to. You are in the bank working to figure out how to pay the mortgage. A stranger walks up and says don’t worry I got it. Plops down a bag of money that covers the entirety of your mortgage.
    You would be sitting there jaw on the floor going what in the world just happened I didn’t earn this. What did I do that this person decided to do that?
    Two scenarios' and both play out what our relationship with God can look like. Many of us today treat God like an employer that we are just trying to earn a dollar from rather than seeing a Father who has already given us everything.
    Its that attitude that really draws us to this mornings text.
    Romans 4:1–5 NIV
    1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

    Boasting In our Work

    Let’s go back to this image of our employer and the paycheck we receive. Let’s think about that for a moment. When we get paid there is a sense of entitlement to the pay we have received. In fact, I know this is true because if you have ever been shorted on a pay check you will find out how quickly you will want to be recognized for your work.
    That happened to me once when working. I was missing 2 hours off of a paycheck. I have always been a person who was very meticulous in tracking my pay and what I worked, especially when I was an hourly worker.
    I stormed into my managers office and demanded to know why I was missing hours. Of course, my manager was calm and super helpful but I was not ready for that. I wanted answers. How dare they short change me. Found out it was a simple clerical error and it would be fixed on my next paycheck.
    I was entitled I earned that money and I wanted it. If we start thinking about our relationship with God like that this verse starts to make a whole lot more sense.
    Romans 4:2–3 NIV
    2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
    If we think about the idea of our Justification before God being built upon our works it opens us up to a sense of entitlement from God.
    God i did this so you owe me!
    I don’t think this is exactly a good idea to try with the creator of the universe.
    It is a reminder that in our humanity that we must be reminded that God’s Justice and what makes us justified before him is for him to decide and that the only thing we can do is to believe in who he is. We have to remember that Abraham Believed and it was credited to him.

    Caution

    Just like we must not assume that our works lead us to Justification before God we must be careful thinking that our Belief Justifies us before God.
    Now you might be saying wait a minute our belief is what made Abraham Justified, why not us?
    We need to take a second to talk about what is happening when we believe.
    Belief in God, our faith, is not an action that we do to make us justified. Meaning we need to be careful to equate it to a Work level requirement. We don’t replace the act of following the law with the act of belief in God.
    Belief in God is utterly dependent on who God is and what he does for us not on what we do.
    Belief in God is the trust that he is who he is and that his grace is sufficient for us.
    It is the dependence and need for God that separates belief from belief.
    Wait what belief from belief.
    There are many people in this world who believe in God. They hold the idea that God is real and he is powerful but that might be the extent of their belief.
    The belief in God we are talking about is the recognition that I can do nothing without who he is and I am dependent on him for all things. I want to live my life to honor him.
    Think of it this way.

    The Cool thing to do

    Have you ever met someone who was “Committed” to a cause because it was the popular thing to do.
    A few years ago self independence became the popular thing. Sourdough bread, gardening, and other activities were immensely popular because of some of the things going on in the world.
    Many people bought into the idea and if you asked them at the time they were commited to their new cause or idea.
    A couple years pass and many of those people are on to a new thing. The popular thing.
    There are many areas in life that we can apply this to and see where we aren’t as committed as we should or need to be.
    In our faith we can’t allow it just to be a surface level belief. It has to move to a deeper level because that is what God wants from us.
    Trust in Him.
    This shifts us from recognizing our dependance on ourselves to our dependance on Him.
    How though? How do we do this?

    Nicodemus

    I think of the story of Nicodemus from John’s Gospel.
    Nicodemus a pharisee comes to Jesus in the night and starts asking questions. He recognizes that Jesus is more than just another teacher.
    Jesus shares with him and Nicodemus can’t understand what Jesus is talking about.
    No you can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
    How, Jesus that’s impossible.
    This was a part of that conversation.
    Nicodemus is looking at that statement and is trying to see it from an earthly perspective. Not that different than us when we hear all i have to do is believe in God and I will be saved. In earthly terms its that simple but in heavenly terms its deeper than that.
    Jesus at the end of the conversation gives an earthly example and shifts it to a heavenly one in a moment.
    John 3:13–16 NIV
    13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
    Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness. This story from the OT of the bronze snake that Moses lifted up so that the people could be saved from the consequences of their actions. The Son of man must be lifted up.
    The Son of Man the one who has come fro Heaven must be lifted up so that we can be saved.
    It is deeper though. In the story of the Israelites and the Bronze snake the word used for look moves beyond just seeing to a deeper belief and understanding of what has happened. That in their rebellion against God they have sinned and they are truly repentant.
    This is why when we read things like John 3:15-16 we see that belief is because the what the Son does not because of what we do.
    It is because of what Jesus did on the cross that we recognize that we need to shift our belief.

    Communion

    Every month we participate in communion. We remember what Christ did for us on the cross. We look upon it and we reflect. It is similar with communion for us. We are drawn to the cross so that we remind ourselves of what Jesus did for us.
    I think about that time around the table for the disciples and what it was like. John’s Gospel helps us with some of the things that were shared. I go back to one of the more powerful passages for us in that time at the table.
    John 15:5 NIV
    5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
    The fruit of who we are is born because of the connection we share with Christ not because we are a branch.
    John 15:6 NIV
    6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
    Today when we talk about Belief we must be reminded that Abrahams belief was credited to him as his justification. Our belief can be credited to us as justification but it must be because of our dependance on him not on what we do.
    Let’s participate now in the table and be reminded of that.

      • Romans 4:1–5NIV2011

      • Romans 4:2–3NIV2011

      • John 3:13–16NIV2011

      • John 15:5NIV2011

      • John 15:6NIV2011

Sylvania Wesleyan Church 1
1 member • 1 follower