So many of us have labels that bind us because somewhere in our past someone called us something or somebody characterized us in some way. Or maybe we did something that earned us a label that we’ve moved beyond, but still has a prominent place in our lives. It might have even been ourselves - maybe we've believed a lie about our self that isn't true and we are living under the labels of the past.
When I was a kid growing up I wasn’t the skinniest kid in school. I was overweight then - and now as well - but back then there was a group of kids that came up with a name for me: Chuck the Truck.
This wasn’t the cute mis-pronunciation that I get from kids when they call me, “Pastor Truck”. No, this was an insult. It was masked in fun, but it was an insult. And when people called me this they weren’t thinking of a little Ford Ranger. And we weren’t even talking about an 18 wheeler. No, we were talking about a big truck.
Let’s just say that it wasn’t too flattering, and it wasn’t meant to be flattering. It was meant to be an insult. It was meant to be a put-down. Granted, the name doesn’t really bother me anymore......but I’m still kind self-conscious about my weight - or my overweight, as the case may be.
A lot of you can relate to that because, at some point in your life, you were given a negative label that followed your name. It might be someone's called you the doormat; you know, you're always so nice, people just walk all over you and they always take advantage of you. Or you're the lazy one, or you're the irresponsible one, or you're the hot head, or you're the person who is not good with money, or you're the party girl or the wild guy who is never really going to settle down.
Or maybe you're just the average one; you're not great at anything, you're not horrible, but through your life you've kind of been labeled as average. For some of you the label is worse. You’ve been labeled a loser. You’ve been labeled the druggie or the pot-head or the drunk.
Then there are numerous sexual labels the people get, and because many of those would be inappropriate I’ll just let you imagine what those might be.
But what does God have to say about labels? First of all, let me make this perfectly clear:
God's power is always bigger than your past.
God's truth about you is bigger than any current truth in your life. If you own a label that you truthfully deserve, I want you to understand that what's true about you today doesn't have to be true about you tomorrow. Check out 2 Corinthians 5:17:
...anyone who belongs to Christ
This is for anyone who belongs to Christ. It’s not for a select few. It’s not just for the elite. It’s not just for the wealthy or the powerful or the popular. This applies to anyone who belongs to Christ. If you belong to Christ, he’s talking about you. If you’ve trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, then he’s talking about you. It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, where you've come from, how bad your past is, how true the label about you was or is, it doesn't matter who you are. Anyone. If you've repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, if you’ve turned your life over to Jesus, then this includes you. And then he goes on to say something that is so incredibly powerful:
...anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
Here’s what I love about that. He writes, NEW, not re-built. Not modified. Not refurbished. NEW! Paul writes that when you trust in Christ, you’re made new. Not on the outside, but on the inside, where it really matters. Oh, and one more thing:
...anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT)
If you are in Christ, all of the old is done away with, it's gone! The power of sin that has held you back can be broken by Jesus! When you trust in Jesus Christ, your past is washed away. Its gone and the newness of life in Christ is available to you.
Don't you dare let anyone put you in a box and put a label on it. You are not what anyone else says about you. By the power of Christ, you can get past your past and God will give you a new name. The only one
who has the right to label something is the creator. Since God created you, He’s the only One Who gets to label you!
...anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT)
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
This One Thing
You and I need to do something. What’s interesting is the fact that the “something” we need to do is different for all of us. Your one thing is different than my one thing and my one thing is different than yours because whatever the one thing is, it’s based on what’s going on in your life, your relationships, your marriage, your finances, whatever it might be. If you figure out this one thing and if you would do this one thing it would leave you in a much better place a year from now than where you are right now.
This one thing in your life is something you’ve thought about, it’s something that someone has suggested to you, this one thing may be something you even tried before but for whatever reason you lost focus, you lost track, you got distracted and you didn’t focus on the one thing.
Maybe your one thing is a habit that you need to break. Nobody needs to tell you what it is because you know what it is and know you need to break the habit.
Your one thing could be a relationship you need to restore or perhaps a relationship you need to end. Or it might be a debt you need to retire. It’s been hanging around forever and every time you hear someone talk about debt you feel guilty. Your one thing might be something completely different, but for every one of us there’s something that is a part of your life and if you don’t get anything else accomplished, there’s this one thing you need to do.
Let me tell you a story from the Old Testament. The story of Nehemiah takes place in about 444 B.C., around the time of the reign of Artaxerxes, the emperor of Persia. And Nehemiah worked for Artaxerxes as his cup bearer. We would consider him a wine taster, somebody to make sure that the wine hadn’t been poisoned, but Nehemiah was much more than that. Nehemiah had gotten close to the king and was a friend.
Nehemiah was Jewish, and to our knowledge, had never been to Israel, but he gets this burden for his city and he hears how terrible things are in Jerusalem and so he does a very risky thing. He prays this big prayer in Nehemiah chapter 1 before he goes to King Artaxerxes. And then he says to him, “Oh King, things are bad with my people and I’d like to go back and bring some organization, bring some leadership to my people. How would you feel about giving me some time off?”
Nehemiah worked for the king, but he wasn’t an employee, he was a slave and slaves don’t get time off. But he asked for it anyway. Lo and behold, the King says, “I’ll do better than that. I will make you the governor of Judea, basically the mayor of Jerusalem and I will give you whatever you need to help you get your people in shape but you have to come back. You can’t stay away forever.”
So Nehemiah spends a lot of time preparing for this trip, gets a whole bunch of money, gets a bunch of lumber and other building materials and he heads to the city of Jerusalem. The walls had been torn down for so long that the people living in the city of Jerusalem had never lived in the city when the walls weren’t torn down and the gates weren’t burned. There was no national pride, there was no sense that, “God is with us”. They had forgotten their history and the surrounding region was led by some very strong warlords who would come and go into and out of the city and steal all the time.
So Nehemiah shows up, he sees the city and it breaks his heart even further and he takes an entire day and night to travel around the city and to meet the people and to talk to the people and he comes to this conclusion. “If I don’t get anything else done while I’m here, I’ve got to get this wall rebuilt. There’s an economy that needs to be propped up, there are leaders that need to be put in place, there is all kinds of problems but the one thing I’ve got to do while I’m here, we’ve got to get the wall rebuilt around this city. It will give people protection, it will give people a sense of national pride and it will protect us from our enemies.”
So Nehemiah calls all the people together and he casts this unbelievably compelling vision. Nehemiah pulled the people together and, essentially, laid out 4 things. He said, 1) here’s the problem we need to solve, 2) here’s the solution, 3) here’s why we need to do something about it and 4) here’s why we need to do something about it now. The people rallied behind the vision and together and they began to rebuild the wall around the city.
Long story short, there were some people who didn’t like him rebuilding the wall, and they did everything they could to try to stop him, but it didn’t work. And the reason it didn’t work was because Nehemiah was committed to getting the work done. When he was asked to come down from the wall, here’s what he said:
“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” (Nehemiah 6:3b, NAS)
So........what’s the one thing that you need to get done? What’s that one thing that you need to step up to and work on and refuse to come down from?
The great news about the story of Nehemiah, there are no miracles but clearly the hand of God was at work and when you lean into the plans that God has for you, when you lean into the vision that God has birthed inside of you, you never know what God will do.
It’s time to get on the ladder and refuse to come down. Even though you don’t know how this is going to work out, and even though you don’t know where the money is going to come from and even though you know your parents-in-law are going to think you’ve lost your mind, you know this is something you’ve got to do. Make the decision:
I’m doing a great work and I cannot come down.
This one thing in your life is something you’ve thought about, it’s something that someone has suggested to you, this one thing may be something you even tried before but for whatever reason you lost focus, you lost track, you got distracted and you didn’t focus on the one thing.
Maybe your one thing is a habit that you need to break. Nobody needs to tell you what it is because you know what it is and know you need to break the habit.
Your one thing could be a relationship you need to restore or perhaps a relationship you need to end. Or it might be a debt you need to retire. It’s been hanging around forever and every time you hear someone talk about debt you feel guilty. Your one thing might be something completely different, but for every one of us there’s something that is a part of your life and if you don’t get anything else accomplished, there’s this one thing you need to do.
Let me tell you a story from the Old Testament. The story of Nehemiah takes place in about 444 B.C., around the time of the reign of Artaxerxes, the emperor of Persia. And Nehemiah worked for Artaxerxes as his cup bearer. We would consider him a wine taster, somebody to make sure that the wine hadn’t been poisoned, but Nehemiah was much more than that. Nehemiah had gotten close to the king and was a friend.
Nehemiah was Jewish, and to our knowledge, had never been to Israel, but he gets this burden for his city and he hears how terrible things are in Jerusalem and so he does a very risky thing. He prays this big prayer in Nehemiah chapter 1 before he goes to King Artaxerxes. And then he says to him, “Oh King, things are bad with my people and I’d like to go back and bring some organization, bring some leadership to my people. How would you feel about giving me some time off?”
Nehemiah worked for the king, but he wasn’t an employee, he was a slave and slaves don’t get time off. But he asked for it anyway. Lo and behold, the King says, “I’ll do better than that. I will make you the governor of Judea, basically the mayor of Jerusalem and I will give you whatever you need to help you get your people in shape but you have to come back. You can’t stay away forever.”
So Nehemiah spends a lot of time preparing for this trip, gets a whole bunch of money, gets a bunch of lumber and other building materials and he heads to the city of Jerusalem. The walls had been torn down for so long that the people living in the city of Jerusalem had never lived in the city when the walls weren’t torn down and the gates weren’t burned. There was no national pride, there was no sense that, “God is with us”. They had forgotten their history and the surrounding region was led by some very strong warlords who would come and go into and out of the city and steal all the time.
So Nehemiah shows up, he sees the city and it breaks his heart even further and he takes an entire day and night to travel around the city and to meet the people and to talk to the people and he comes to this conclusion. “If I don’t get anything else done while I’m here, I’ve got to get this wall rebuilt. There’s an economy that needs to be propped up, there are leaders that need to be put in place, there is all kinds of problems but the one thing I’ve got to do while I’m here, we’ve got to get the wall rebuilt around this city. It will give people protection, it will give people a sense of national pride and it will protect us from our enemies.”
So Nehemiah calls all the people together and he casts this unbelievably compelling vision. Nehemiah pulled the people together and, essentially, laid out 4 things. He said, 1) here’s the problem we need to solve, 2) here’s the solution, 3) here’s why we need to do something about it and 4) here’s why we need to do something about it now. The people rallied behind the vision and together and they began to rebuild the wall around the city.
Long story short, there were some people who didn’t like him rebuilding the wall, and they did everything they could to try to stop him, but it didn’t work. And the reason it didn’t work was because Nehemiah was committed to getting the work done. When he was asked to come down from the wall, here’s what he said:
“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” (Nehemiah 6:3b, NAS)
So........what’s the one thing that you need to get done? What’s that one thing that you need to step up to and work on and refuse to come down from?
The great news about the story of Nehemiah, there are no miracles but clearly the hand of God was at work and when you lean into the plans that God has for you, when you lean into the vision that God has birthed inside of you, you never know what God will do.
It’s time to get on the ladder and refuse to come down. Even though you don’t know how this is going to work out, and even though you don’t know where the money is going to come from and even though you know your parents-in-law are going to think you’ve lost your mind, you know this is something you’ve got to do. Make the decision:
I’m doing a great work and I cannot come down.
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