Message; My Pettiness Eased, By Following Him!
Have you ever heard the phrase that it’s the little stuff that will defeat you? That, we can gird ourselves up with the help of God to face anything, but it’s the build up of all of those little, items of nuisance, and petty things that always seems to roll me over.
I guess because with the big things we just have no choice in addressing them as they arise. But those petty-ante, non-descript, items of the dustbin, that seem to collect and build themselves into major pains in the neck, that many times eat my lunch. They started out so little, insignificant, and petty, that I paid them no mind, and let them devour my whole attitude for a time.
For those of you that know exactly what I’m talking about, because you have been there, done that…and are wondering why we are even giving a subject like this the time of day on a Sunday morning… Well, rest assured, since there is more to the topic of trivia or triviality than meets the eye.
Because in life there is pettiness, and then there is pettiness, and the ability to know the difference. The understanding to know when to fight or walk away, our holding of discernment of what is in need of your attention, and the things we best leave in God’s foresight, is a skill worth developing indeed. Today, I am excited to try and address this challenge with you, as we together work on our faithwalk as a family in God.
So, today I would like to address just what the pettiness that I am struggling with in life is, by knowing and identifying;
- What truly is the pettiness that seems to drag on us
- The things that I think are important, that really won’t be in time
- How the world confuses the two;
- The world’s endless examples to replace God for its own agenda of anarchy, mayhem, and selfishness by lying, rebelling, and hiding from God and itself.
Beginning with the last thought first.
- How the world confuses what is important and petty;
It’s key for people of God’s family to always remember that God is alive in this world, and that you can run to the ends of the earth, but when you finally get there, you are still stuck with yourself and the God you were running away from. Reminding me of today’s Call to Worship reading from Psalm 139:1-10;
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Where indeed can we go to avoid our problems which are real with our Lord? First, I need to break with the junk of the world. It’s wants, and what it deems important.
Perhaps the only thing that is not petty in my humdrum life is the state of my relationship with the Lord. At the end of the day, it does not matter if Armageddon has begun or not, if the millennium, post millennium, or any timeframe of any end time has begun, in progress, or finished… If I don’t have a real relationship in the Lord, it just doesn’t matter.
And by the way, that declaration leads me to my second statement which was;
- Knowing what’s really important;
Sometimes this is hard to do indeed. I think one reason it’s sometimes hard to know what is important in life, is because we lack discernment, because we lack knowledge of what is written in scripture.
Case in point; when I am concerned, or outright scarred because I have decided to follow the Lord, and all around me I am getting the signals from my surroundings that my decision is unacceptable to a world that is convinced that it knows best, I need to dive into God’s word. The Sermon on the Mount is always a great place to start my search for the easing of my heart. Here is just a quick dive into what is important in my life from our Lord’s own words. Reading from Matthew 5:10-12;
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
That means blessed is me, which means I am not going to walk around in sackcloth and ashes looking the martyr when God is actually telling me what is really important. I have chosen to follow Him who’s yoke is light, and life everlasting. Suddenly, it really doesn’t matter what a world consumed with chasing itself into the nether regions of absurdity, cares or not, …about following a God who can reclaim, sustain, and grow me into something far better than I am right now.
Oh, and please let me add that in the scheme of things, up until now in our country, a Christian really has not suffered like our ancestors did in days of old. In Antiquity, Middle Ages, or the Reaffirmation, our ancestors really knew persecution, insult, and evil done against them. There has never been such a time in history where Christians could live their faith unafraid, so why are we concerned with the pettiness of the moment when we are not popular.
Our Lord instructs us to stand firm and to remember that we are not alone. This has been the case with the Prophets of the Old Testament, and in our Lord’s Day. Reading again from today’s Message Reading from John 15:18-21;
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
Long before the times of the Gospel, our Lord was fighting against idolatry which is adultery against your God. Those seeking to go their selfish way overlooked what was important (a relationship in and with God), and chased after the pettiness of a world caught up in shinny stuff that never delivers.
What the world continues to overlook in importance is that a servant is indeed never greater than his master (God), and when we replace Him with anything, we have indeed sowed the seeds of not only destruction, but stupidity in the extreme.
The problem for many Christians, is that we are afraid of being mocked for our beliefs in loving God with all we have, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. In fact we are so caught up in worrying about what our neighbor is thinking, that we hold off on caring for, sharing with, and praying of our neighbors. Replacing them with the fantoms of fear instead of creations of God.
Paul, understood our fears of the world and so in his instruction to the infant church of young Christians in the Roman Church, he teaches us the second part of today’s Message Reading from Romans 8:31-32;
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Those of you who are right now going through extreme turmoil in your lives, my Good News to you this morning is that you are not alone. The Body of Christ is a mobile Hospital that is on the move in our lives. This Family in God stands ready to pray for, hope for, and care for the people that our God sends our way. Because in life you don’t get to pick your neighbor, God does, and does it perfectly. Even when He sends you someone you really have to struggle to like, that is God honing, and growing your spiritual self.
So, let me repeat Paul’s words; if God is for us, who can be against us? No one and nothing that can overcome us unless we give into our own fears, selfishness, greed, and rebellion against the Lord. Instead of humbly walking in and with our Lord, our fallen natures are what seem to battle against us.
I think at this point we have identified that last statement of the day which is;
- Being able to Identify what is really petty;
If it’s a thought that was authored in the recesses of my anger, vanity, and fear, there is a good chance that I have just brewed up a new batch of petty-anti swash; that will drown the room with nonsense and mayhem. And its so easy to confuse what’s important and what should be left curbside when we are going it alone.
Now I am beginning to understand what is really important in life, and that’s as the Prophet teaches in Micah 6:8 to; …act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God, which will lead a person to do as Jesus teaches us in Matthew 22:37, 39; … “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ … 39 And …: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
And let me quote Billy Graham “I didn’t say that, God Says that” Now those hallmarks of our faith are simple. Easy… no. Easier said than done, but with God simple.
And yet, let me throw a complete twist to the conversation by reading again our savior’s words. This time from the Gospel of Luke. After being told to love God, and love our neighbor, our Lord is going to mystify us with a deeper thought. So hang on as I read Luke 14:25-33;
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
*Let me interrupt to say; Our Lord is teaching us to not love our lives more than our future with God. When I put so much devotion into my relationships that I begin to forget my need for relationship in and with my God, I am forgetting what is important. Now my life become consumed with the petty fights over hurt feelings and egos, that always seem to take the place when there is a vacuum of God’s presence.
Only a relationship in and with the Lord will help me to be a better husband/wife, brother/sister, son/daughter, father/mother, friend or person. Because our Lord will teach me to put others before myself, and to learn how to love others in healthy ways.
So, of course, I am supposed to love those in my life, and be grateful to Him who provides, but I am not supposed to love my life more than the eternity that awaits us with our Lord.
Next, our Lord teaches us to step back and reflect on our decision to follow the Lord, and to invite Him into our lives. Continuing at verse 28;
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
In other words, learning what is Important, from the pettiness of the world, and then responding in kind. It’s not enough to say, I’m a Christian in one sentence, and then to explain how you hate someone else, or how the world is against you in a conspiracy, or how unfair the actions of others are towards you and yours in the next sentence. They simply are not a compatible way of life.
Which is why today we have looked at;
- How the world confuses what is important and petty;
- Knowing what’s really important;
- Being able to Identify what is really petty;
Granted, being able to address these three areas of our being is probably going to take a lifetime to become good at. But it’s worth the effort to start at it today. I truly believe that we are not alone when we seek to try to comprehend the important stuff from all of the noise out there that tries to drown out our goals in this life, but when all is said and done, I hope I will be able to report to you in heaven that: My Pettiness Eased, By Following Him!
Amen!