This is a live recording of our Church Band leadin "The Church" come join us for worship at Calvary Baptist Church
This song is originaly by Elevation Worship
You can get the Chords Here: http://elevationworship.com/resources/
Ask your own question at pastorhudson.com/question.
This week's questions:
My parents have invited this girl to live with us. They don't know we've been talkin. But some of my friends think its weird. I ask them why. And they say her memaw and my memaw they's the same person. But its okay because her parents got divorced. Now we ain't family. Can you tell my friends to shut up?
Where do I get plucking fries in uniontown!?
In part one we wrestled with the truth that everyone anchors their value to something. In Part two we saw how we wound each other by the things that we worship.
When I was about 11 I had a mountain bike. It was my prized possession. I road that bike everywhere. I loved to do "tricks" on my bike. Amazing stuff that would blow your mind like:
By far my favorite stunt was jumping. This was the holy grail of bike stunts; defying gravity as I soared through the air mere inches off the ground. But that didn't last long.
Soon I was plotting how I could get "Big Air". I found some cinderblocks and a scrap of plywood. I started with one cinderblock and when I hit the jump the board broke and I went flying off the bike.
A more intelligent young man would have realized only greater injuries were down this road, but I was not to be deterred by reason or sanity. I put another block to brace the middle of my ramp and "Got back on the bike". Note: Good advice without context is bad advice.
I hit the jump with all my might and it was AWESOME! I landed without a scratch. Now I had experienced a whole 8 inches of air! Gateway drug is the proper term. Because over the next week I added a block every day making the jump higher and higher. Two weeks later I had built a monstrosity of a ramp. I was sure this is what I was put on the planet to accomplish. My destiny awaited.
I petaled with furious intensity and hit that ramp like a BMX Rock Star! I swear I heard Bon Jovi and saw flames as I was flying through the air. I landed the jump and it was the most thrilling ride of my life! Then I tried to petal. My bike made an awful clicking sound ceased up and dumped me face first the ground. I was in much pain, but I was more concerned about my bike. As I gathered my self together and examined the bike
I realized the entire back gear mechanism had sheered off. It was completely trashed. That day I learned why BMX Rock stars do not purchase their bikes at Walmart. I had lost my prize possession for a few moments of pleasure. I would have given anything to go back and not take the jump.
So many of the things we chase after end with disappointment.
Even success isn't enough. I wanted a bigger and bigger jump until it broke me. In an interview with Kevin Durant the "Second best" player in the NBA admits being a top three player out of 7 billion people is pretty good. But it's not good enough. Talk to any top performer and they will all tell you they are "hungry". The truth is we all have an infinite desire inside us.
In the book of Jeremiah God says it like this:
"Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit."
He explains the result a couple verses later:
"for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
God is angry in this passage. He has freely offered Himself the infinite source of love, joy, peace, and everything good, but his people instead picked an inferior cheap knockoff.
True value is measured by what someone is willing to pay. God paid for you with his only son. He wants you that bad. When I broke my bike I was disappointed because I knew I didn't have the money to fix it. I knew my parents didn't have the money to fix it. In the same way we have broken ourselves, and we don't have the payment to fix it. Our brokeness is a result of sin. We have "changed our gods". We have all worshiped and pursued things that could never satisfy. And we are left holding the broken pieces. Paul wrote to the church at Rome:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The price to repair our broken lives is death.
You can see the problem. If I could fix my bike by amputating my leg that wouldn't do me much good. So God sent Jesus, and Jesus paid it all. He died for you and me to purchase our broken lives and make us brand new again. You can be made new by accepting this gift of God.
"Dear God, I admit I have sinned against you by chasing my own gods. I ask you to forgive me. Please come into my life and by my Lord, my Savior. In Jesus name Amen."
If you pray that to God and you mean it. Then you are made brand new. This is the first step to getting your value from God. If you already have accepted God's gift of salvation, but still can't get your self-worth from God. I'll explain how to do that in Part 4.
Every few weeks we will be doing a segment in youth group called Questions & Answers! I'll answer questions submitted to my website. Ask your own question at pastorhudson.com/question. These can be serious or silly.
This week's questions:
Me and my boyfriend are having problems .. Should I punch him it act like I don't care? Hmmmm
Why do I keep loosing my hair? -Baldy
In Part 1 we learned "Everyone anchors their value to something." I often anchor my value to performance. It's not enough to do good or even meet expectations. I want to exceed expectations. I don't want to just exceed others expectations, but I want to exceed my expectations. When I exceed my expectations I feel amazing. I feel like all is well with the world. When I don't exceed my expectations then I feel pretty worthless. I know it's stupid, but lets be honest you do it too.
Maybe it's performance like me. Maybe it's something else like
We all anchor our value to something. Most things we anchor to cause our value to rise and fall like a nausea inducing roller coaster.
I caught myself judging someone the other day. They were doing a devotional and using some object lesson and it was just bad. It was one of those presentations that make people hate public speaking. The poor persons nerves were shot. I could tell he was not enjoying his talk and neither were we. In that moment I realized I was judging his self worth based on how he was performing. Lets be honest. This guy was older than me, and chances are good he has more experience in his left pinky than I do in 17 years of doing ministry. He's seen more life. He's probably a better administrator, better counselor, better lots of stuff. But all I measured was his performance at this one talk.
Not only do we get our own value from what we worship, or anchor our self-worth to. We get OTHERS value from what we anchor OUR value to! This whole system is seriously messed up!
I remember when I was canvasing a neighborhood with some students inviting people to come to a community event. I was driving a midnight blue Ford Focus back then. It was the first new car I bought. It didn't have A/C but it was mine and it was reliable. I was parked on the side of the road and a lady came buy in a giant Cadillac Escalade. She rolled down her window and screamed at me to "Get my piece of expletive car out of the road." She glared at me like I was the lowest scum of the earth. I was thinking "Do you know who I am?" I'm with students doing this community a service and you're treating me like this? She was measuring my value through what she worshiped, and it hurt.
This is why God makes a big deal Exodus 20 about only worshiping Him.
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."
3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me."
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands[b] of those who love me and keep my commandments."
God is not jealous of you. God is jealous for you. This is why Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount equates Anger, contempt, and insults with murder. We wreck ourselves and others when we anchor our value to anything but God. This is deeply offensive to the God who created all of us.
Imagine you can go back in time 1628-29. And you get to go to a gallery viewing of young artists. You walk in and see this hanging on the wall.
As you are viewing this a young man walks up and introduces himself as Rembrandt. You barely acknowledge his presence. He asks how you like the painting. Your eyes never leave the painting as you reply with a snicker. "This? This is not a painting! My 3 year old could do better blindfolded. I wouldn't give $2 for this piece of crap!" You then turn to look at the artist and as the blood drains from your face you realize his face is the same as the one in the painting. . .
When we devalue others based on our own idols we worship. We are devaluing the artist who created the person in front of us. We are insulting God when we devalue others. It's offensive. It has to stop.
Helping others realize the dream of their Creator