Sunday, 14th March 2021
Ps Robert Morris
1. GIVE ME
Many of us get saved out of selfishness, we get saved because we don’t want to go to hell and we want God to fix the mess we have. We all start with the ‘give me’ stage, but God is not upset with this. In the marriage it’s the same, we want each other to meet our needs.
2. USE ME
The second stage is ‘use me’, so I can feel valued and important. We want to be seen and be significant, out of our selfish ambitions. When Bible talks about ambition, it talks about self-seeking and self-promoting. Every person is born with it.
“But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.” (James 3:14)
We want to do something to get happiness, but happiness does not come from ‘something’. No one can completely meet our needs except for Jesus. God did not create marriage to make us happy, He created marriage so we can die to our old self.
“And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”(Luke 15:13)
3. SEARCH ME
Now we are beginning to search within ourselves. We need to search within our hearts, we stop focusing on what’s wrong with others and start focusing on what’s wrong with us. If we want a blessed life and a blessed family, we need to start fix ourselves. Don’t try to fix someone else because God will do it.
“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Luke 15:17)
“Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” (Psalm 31:23-24)
We are not responsible in someone else’s actions but we are responsible to our own actions and our own reactions. When Jesus was on the cross, He said to Father to forgive the people. We always want to tell God how others wrong us, but a mature Christian would search within themselves. How diligently are we searching our own heart?
4. MAKE ME
We start with ‘give me’, then ‘use me’ but for the wrong reason. Then we go to ‘search me’, and then ‘make me’ to a vessel worthy for God to use. The story of the prodigal son actually talks about two sons. The older son had the same attitude, he just did not leave home. He was still in the ‘give me’ stage when his brother went home.
God is trying to tell us that it’s not what He can give us, but He can be with us. He doesn’t need to give us anything to make us happy because when He is with us and we are with Him, then everything He has is ours. The word ‘blessing’ means ‘happy’ in the original translation. Being blessed is simply just being happy. The Father wants to bless us even though we are not worthy.
Quit thinking ‘why would God wants to bless me’ and start thinking ‘why wouldn’t Him?”