Month: February 2019

Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; Everlasting joy shall be theirs. – Isaiah 61:7

When I was 17 years old, I was talking with a girl friend (not a girlfriend) about our lack of significant other. This is pretty common conversation for kids of this age, and we were the stereotypical moody teenagers that felt rejection and isolation more keenly at this age than at any other age of our young lives. We were consoling each other about past rejections (imagined or real, I cannot say now), and we made a pact that if we both reached the age of 28 and were still single that we would get married. While we both acted dead serious about this agreement, I don’t believe either of us thought about it again.

Cute right?

She and her family moved away a couple of years later, and we lost contact soon thereafter. Fast forward 10 years and imagine my surprise when I exited my home to head to work one day, and there she was. She was in a full bridal gown with several of her friends in attendance. She had cans tied with string onto the bumper of my car and the epitome “Just Got Hitched” was soaped onto my back windshield. There was a Justice of the Peace standing on the back of a truck bed behind a small portable pulpit. Her parents were both in attendance as were a few mutual friends that she had hunted down.

I was stunned.

I was shocked.

I am completely making up that whole story.

Nothing after the “she and her family moved away” actually happened. If it had, we probably could have gotten on Springer or Maury! The idea of sticking to a hormonal induced pact made by my 17 year-old self is absurd. I actually never heard from this young lady again after my 18^th or 19^th birthday. I hope she’s living a wonderful life, but I certainly never again heard about that pact. First of all, we were not mature enough to realize how silly the idea of our oath really was. We were in our turbulent teenage years and having a theoretical solution in place (even ten years down the road) made us feel better. Most importantly of course, we never went to any authoritative body to legalize that agreement. The idea of being legally bound by a couple of teenage decisions is outrageous.

The book of Genesis in the Old Testament tells us about the story of Jacob and Esau. These two brothers were as opposite as they come. Esau was a rugged outdoor type and skilled hunter (which his father Isaac really admired, mostly because he loved to eat wild game), while Jacob was a mild man who was more of a home body. They were twins, with Esau being born first and Jacob right on his heels.

One day after a long hunt, Esau came home exhausted and famished. Jacob had just got through cooking a stew and some bread. Esau asked him for some food. Jacob, being a deceptive man and always looking for a way to advantage from others, countered Esau’s request with one of his own. Genesis 25:31-34 reads “But Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright as of this day.’ And Esau said, ‘Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?’ Then Jacob said, ‘Swear to me as of this day.’ So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

If you’ve spent any time in church listening to sermons and teachings, you have heard this story. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. Is it really accurate? Well, I guess it is as accurate as possible considering it was an oath from one fifteen year old to another. How much control over the firstborn’s birthright did either of them have at fifteen years old? Probably not as much as I’ve always been led to believe. Even if this promise was more ironclad in biblical times, the blessing of the firstborn from their father would have overridden the birthright. So even after manipulating Esau into promising over his birthright, Jacob still wouldn’t have received the lion share without another deception.

Has the enemy swindled you out of some things in your life? Do you hear the subtle (or not so subtle) whispers that you cannot retrieve everything you have traded away? Don’t believe it! The enemy would love for us to believe that once we’ve agreed to one of his trades, we are locked in for life. This is yet another lie from the father of lies. We can get it all back! No matter what our past looks like, the grace of God continues to make goodness available to us. If there was ever a calling on our life, it is still there and valid. In Romans 11:29-31 Paul writes, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.” In other words, God never removes the gifting and anointing that He placed upon His people. If we become disobedient, He is ready to welcome us back with mercy. What a promise!!

Esau had the opportunity to gain back everything he had bargained away, and so do we. Don’t believe the enemy’s lies concerning this. Philippians 1:6 reads, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”. God isn’t done with us. He will finish what He started!

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? – Luke 16:12

Proverbs 20:6 reads, “Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?”  This is a pretty sobering scripture because it implies that there is not much faithfulness in this world. Most of us like to think of ourselves as faithful, and are quick to tout it. However, as the scripture above reveals, not many of us are faithful. Much of this unfaithfulness is simply ignorance though. What is faithfulness?

Dictionary.com defines faithful as:

Strict or thorough in the performance of duty

True to one’s word, or promises

Reliable, trusted, or believed

Adhering or true to a fact, a standard, or an original; accurate

It’s this last definition that I want to stress today; faithfulness meaning adhering to a standard or an original. That is a major issue with our culture today. We don’t want to stay true to the original of anything. We like to adapt it. We like to modify it. We like to tweak it to suit our tastes or agendas. This is perfectly fine when dealing with what belongs to us, but when dealing with another’s, we need to stifle the urge to do it “our way.”

This is especially true in church service and ministry. We all have dreams and goals for our ministries. We all want to make an impact for God’s kingdom and bring our vision to life. However, we generally don’t start out as the master of our own destiny. This may frustrate some people, but it is this way by God’s design. God often places us under different spiritual leadership and under someone else’s ministry. How faithful we are in helping someone else complete their vision will often dictate the timetable of receiving our own ministry. Today’s key scripture highlights the importance Jesus put in this concept. In His sermon in Luke 16, Jesus is talking about stewardship and being able to be faithful to someone else’s vision when dealing with their things. He says very clearly that if we can’t be faithful with another man’s, we won’t get our own.

Just to be clear: we will be tested in this. I know that in several of the ministries in which I serve, I have ideas that seem better than what we’re currently doing. There is nothing wrong with making suggestions, but we need to be at peace with the possibility of those suggestions being shot down. I don’t care how much better my plan sounds than plan of the heads of the ministry, I am not in charge. I don’t have the liberty to change things without being directed to do so. This is faithfulness! Staying true to the original and being accurate to the vision of the person in charge. Our pride doesn’t like this. The enemy will have us fully convinced that no one respects our opinions and will try his best to get us out of the place in which God has placed us. Don’t listen! Don’t give him place! Let’s be faithful!

The rewards that come with this type of faithfulness are stressed by Jesus in another parable in Luke 19. This parable told of a nobleman who went into a far country and left his servants in charge of differing amounts of money to manage. Upon returning he called his servants to him and checked on their progress. Luke 19:16-17 reads, “Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’” Ten cities! That’s the kind of exponential growth we can expect when we show God that we can be faithful!

Let’s not waver on this. Let’s cultivate this and get it planted deep in our spirit. We are going to be trustworthy. We are going to steward wisely. We are going to be faithful!