Some things cannot be modernized. Love is one of these things. Love changes people. God is here and focusing and caring. Follow Me, Jesus said. Is it wrong to be great? Those who will be great are those who have the most important things in life, Many shall be great. Never give up on yourself. Believe that you are loved. (Matthew 20:26-28)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon # 11659
6:30 PM on 4/7/2019

 

James Bryson

The truthfulness of God. His essence and totality of who he is, is truth. We can rely on that and depend on that. Amen?

In Nu. 23:19, God isn’t a man. Man’s natural disposition is to lie. His nature is to lie. God in his sovereignty and holiness and truthfulness doesn’t lie. Many spectrums of God’s truth. He’s factually true. He claimed to Moses, I am truth.

Jesus made the same claim in Jn. 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female, – there are only two genders – it doesn’t matter if you are a lawyer, doctor or Hindu. You have to go to the cross. Christ challenges each of those individuals. We have to go through the cross. He is reliable and dependable.

Let God be true and every man a liar, Rom 4:2. Lastly, God is true in the sense that he is our friend. He is a true friend.

Jn 15 speaks of how we are God’s friend. The greatest benefit is salvation but also he reveals to us his secrets, his truths. We’re giving to a work that is true. We’re giving to a God that is true. In his truthfulness, he is faithful to supply all of our needs.
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P. Schaller

I want to believe those prayers, how about it? I do. I have so many different messages going on in my mind. Pray for me that we get the right one. Short and sweet, powerful, good punch, that kind. Wasn’t the singing amazing? Isn’t it good? Praise God. Thank you, Lord.

A couple thoughts. Have you ever thought that the most important things in life cannot be modernized? There are important things in life and unimportant things. Give me an example of an unimportant thing in life. Cell phone. Okay. Let’s say a cell phone is not important. Behind the phone is communication. Communication is important but the right kind of communication can’t be modernized. What’s the right kind of communication? Love? Can you modernize love? Can you modernize words said between two lovers? Can you modernize the family? Can you modernize what a family is? What is important? We went from the unimportant. What is unimportant? Cosmetic things. I had an idea of putting a picture of Mother Teresa’s feet up on the screen. I didn’t get to A.V. fast enough. They might be able to do it. Have you ever seen her feet? Wrinkled skin, twisted toes, and worn feet. Wearing sandals all her life in India. The Bible says our feet are beautiful when we carry the gospel. But her feet are ugly but actually they are beautiful because they belong to her. You can’t modernize those footsteps. You can make an escalator but can’t modernize the most important things in life like love, peace, joy. But cosmetic things like mode of transportation. We went from a horse to a car, from shouting out the window to a cell phone. Maybe our food is changed but it’s still food. You can’t modernize food. There’s really good food in the beginning and good food now. It’s nutritious food. I sound like a philosopher but I don’t intend to. I want to say something. What has been on my mind recently is this subject of love.

S.S. 2, I shared it in the 11:00 this morning. My wife and I were on a walk and walked into three deer on the road passing. They leapt over the street and stopped in the yard and turned and looked at us. It was fun to look at them because they are such interesting creatures.

They are used to describe a characteristic of love in S. S. 2:7. Somehow he makes parallels with creatures and created things. Created things are amazing but what is more amazing is God could create a universe but could not make a person love him. God can create a universe but not make the human race worship him. Man is so unique because we are made in God’s image and he has given us the freedom not to love him. He can’t violate that.

Like these deer my wife and I ran into or they ran into us and we watched them and she said they are beautiful. When you see them up close, they look at you and don’t move a muscle. They stop together and not an ear twitches. Their eyes don’t blink. They are staring at you and you think you are in an encounter. They move fast and they’re gone and then they are back and they look and somehow you feel they are free, thinking, looking at you, fascinated by you, studying you. They are timid. They are light and they move. Somehow there is something refreshing. You don’t know where they go, that way or that way or that way.

This love story of Song of Solomon is about love that cannot be controlled but love is a mystery. Love is light. Love is here and gone. Love looks at you, focuses on you and sends a message. I am here but you cannot control me. I am God. I love you but you are not going to control me and I am not going to control you. Awake my love until he please. It sounds like there is freedom. You are free. You are absolutely free but there is love here. Love cares. Love is powerful. Love changes people. Many of us have come into the ministry decades ago, and the thing that caught us was that understanding that God is here and he’s focusing and concentrating and caring and in a way says follow me. You will not have control over me because I am God. If you follow me, you’ll find me. If you find me, then you’ve found the greatest thing because it is uncreated. It’s not created. You can modernize created things but you can’t modernize the most important things, like a mind, a heart, desires for the spiritual, desires for the invisible, desires for freedom, for the true values. The true values are beautiful. You look at Mother Teresa’s feet and look at a Hollywood actress’s feet and her makeup and beautiful and Mother Teresa’s wrinkled skin, sun burn, leather like. Which is beautiful. Why? Love is something that you can’t package it. Love is something of the heart. Love is what has made our lives different.

Jesus said if you would be great, Mt. 20:26. If I wrote that, I would say it will not be so among you but none of you will be great. He didn’t say that. He said whoever will be great. Is it wrong to be great? When I use Mother Teresa as an example, I’m not embracing her theology. I don’t know it that well. Those who will write me emails about it, go ahead. I don’t know what she was teaching. I’m going to use her anyway as an illustration. Who will be great among you? Those that have found the most important things in life and embrace them with their hearts. Those that have found love and follow love. Those that are fascinated by love. Like finding the deer in the woods and they move along and stop and freeze and you kind of wake up. What kind of creatures are these? We are not talking about deer in the forest. We are talking about Jesus Christ. He looks at you and there is something fascinating about him. We are drawn to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us week by week, day by day, year by year. It is not a vain thing to hear and embrace what he is saying. It produces a kind of greatness. Not the greatness the world is looking for. It’s based on your talent. A great basketball game the other night in the college game. These are great players. There are only so many that are great like in the world. But if you would be great among you, is that good? Yes, it glorifies God if you and I would be great. But what does it mean? How can we be great? The things that can be modernized: our transportation, our technology, our airplanes, our computers. All this technology is going fast. We are being inundated and it’s touching every area of our life except the thing that is most important. The things you cannot modernize. The things that hold your life together. Isn’t it interesting the more the technology and our population and then there is suicide and the foolishness of dabbling in dangerous arts and addictions. People are dying even though we are technologically advanced we are in our hearts hurting and empty. Does anyone love me? Can anyone speak to me? Is there some kind of greatness that is this way? This kind. That’s what we are understanding.

vs. 26. There will be many that will be great among you. There will be many great among you. Come on. There will be many that will be great among you. There will be qualities woven into the fabric of your soul. There will be things in your heart and something in your life that is spiritual that nobody can get their hands on and it makes up the content and essence of your life. Something beautiful about those feet, those words, that heart. Let him be your minister. Whoever is great, let him be capable to open his mouth and minister a word of love. Let him be silent but walk the footsteps others may not walk. He walks those simple footsteps as a servant and he is great. The thing you could never get your hands on and improve it. Those things that make up the nature of who we are. This is what Christ gave us by his grace. This is our family, what makes us different. We are stable, solid, convinced, persuaded. We met love on the road. We met Christ in the field, under the stairs, from behind the wall, from behind the lattice and heard his voice …come and believe in me and trust in me. Embrace me. I will show you and make you great.

vs. 27-28. Jesus, we want to minister to you. Jesus said I didn’t come to be ministered to but to minister. Sometimes people want to minister to you and he’s saying save it for somebody else. I have a connection with my Father that is so real I can minister to you all the time. The well never runs dry. My words will never fail. The Spirit of God is present with us. I am a servant of God and therefore you are great in that way. That’s beautiful.

vs. 28. It doesn’t have to go my way but I can minister Paul said. We see it in the prison. It doesn’t have to go my way Joseph could say in Egypt, but he could minister in Egypt. Daniel in Persia got it from God. He was great. We have found a greatness that is really God. That’s why.

Let’s close with a few thoughts here, same ones. They are so good. Two things in life, the things that are not important and the things that are important. The things that are important cannot be modernized. These are Tozer’s words. You can’t get your hands and improve them. They are immaterial. Those great things are the very things in life that changes your life not cosmetically but deeply. When the Spirit starts to move in your heart and you start to make decisions as a mother, dad or single person, the Spirit starts to move and we find this honor that comes from God. You say I want God more than anything. Yes, I can use my car and cell phone but they are not the way my life is defined essentially. My life is defined by a real greatness and every one of us around the world have the option of finding that greatness. He that will be great among you has found that greatness and ministry. He is able to minister, not to be so picky or sensitive or conditional or have my life determined by the other things but to find that resource that comes from God.

The woman at the well said I will give you water you can never thirst. How can you? You have nothing to draw it with. He could have said young lady, I hold every container together by the word of my power. Young lady, this well is in my universe held together by me. This well is nothing compared to what I am talking about. Young lady, do you know there are secrets in dark places, treasures in dark places? Do you know I can heal you in a second? You had a big problem with men. I often thought she must have been an attractive woman but maybe something was a little funny with her if she had five husbands…now she found the guy that really means something, the love that really changes a person. The truth that really speaks to the heart.

I remember I lived in a trailer up in Maine when I started Bible school and met the church. I remember lying in the bunk in the trailer not knowing where I was. I was picked up by police for hitch hiking. I was by myself. My heart was burning for Christ. I remember that. I was in Wiscasset, Maine by the bridge. The police picked me up for hitchhiking and brought me to the police station. Where are you coming from? The church. I called P. Stevens’ wife and she talked to the police and they let me go. I didn’t stay overnight in the jail. Thank you, God.

What are the important things? Those are the things. Love is like this. Never give up on yourself. God loves you. Never beat up on yourself. God loves you. Never say I have to find another way. There is something new going on. They were interested in new things, always on their IPhones looking for new things. They were on Mars Hill looking for new things. What will this babbler say, the Apostle Paul. He preaches the resurrection of the dead. Some mock and some said we’ll hear him again and some said we’ll cleave to him.

You can’t catch the deer but you can only see something that speaks to your heart. You cannot control the thing. It’s God saying to you, trust me. Follow me. I love you more than you can imagine. Then you will find the thing that really matters. You become great. You are able to serve, to believe, to love, to receive, to bounce around. You are able to appear and disappear. You are able to be in prayer and move the heart of God and laugh a lot and have many friends. Love is serving. I’m not looking for you to serve me. I’m looking for an opportunity to love you.

It’s not taught in our world. We are teaching people to complain and be a victim and subject to the circumstances and be frozen in their depression and fears. We are teaching them this is how it is. This is all you got. It’s a rip off.

Jesus came and his arms are stretched out. He loves us. He loves us and loves us and loves us. Amen.

 

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