Wonderfully Made
Luke • Sermon • Submitted
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· 1 viewJesus calls us to serve him without fear, using all of the good gifts he has given us to reflect his light.
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Transcript
Prayer of confession
Prayer of confession
You are the Shepherd of Israel, and you have promised to shepherd us until the end. Even when we wander off, you gather us back to your fold. Even when we are tired and discouraged, you are never impatient, or hurried, or irritable. You remember our frame. You remember that we are dust.
Teach us to remember that we are dust. We are hurried, impatient and irritable. But you gave us the Sabbaths so that we might know that you invite us to just stop. To just stop and rest in your presence.
Father we have turned our eternal Sabbath into another frantic work to do – we have added a whole collection of things to do and things not to do. Forgive us and teach us rest.
Teach us that it is OK to do nothing. Teach us that we do not have to be harried and frantic. Give to us rest and peace, remembering that the Prince of Peace has come.
Forgive us of our restlessness. Forgive us of our distrust, forgive us our fears that drive us to be impatient with others, frustrated with the world, and angry and fearful. And show us your beauty.
In Jesus’ name
Amen
Assurance of Pardon
Assurance of Pardon
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Prayer
Prayer
Eternal Father, you are strong to save.
You have shone upon our darkness, the dayspring has burst forth upon us, and for that we praise your name.
Direct our eyes to where you are, where all is light and peace and joy. May that age burst into our age, in those moments when we learn to be still.
And when we rest in you, cause our eyes and our ears to be open – to see the beauty of this world, the wonder of lights reflecting off the mist; the beauty of the fog that forces us to slow down; the delights of winter citrus, the drops of water dripping off the tree-branches.
Give us wonder again. Take away our cynicism and open our lips to sing your praises.
For those who continue to struggle with health and continual pain, we pray for patience and for healing. We pray for good days, where pain is minimal. Give health to Roger and provide for his needs.
Give peace and rest to Jessica, we pray, and deliver her.
For those who are struggling with finances, we pray that you would provide all things necessary, and that you would give abundantly, for we know that you abound and overflow with goodness.
Give us safety on the roads. Give us peace in our homes. Give us joy even in pain.
Bless our community. Deliver those who are entrapped in the prison of abuse and give justice. Deliver those who are trapped in the prison of alcohol and drugs; pornography and pride. Give an open door to the gospel of peace, and give us opportunity, wisdom and the right words to say.
Give peace and comfort to the families and friends who are suffering loss this week and mourning for their children.
Father, we are in trouble. Our young people are filled with despair and have been failed by everyone. Shine the light in our darkness, and direct our steps in the way of peace.
Bless our governor and our president with wisdom and humility and insight.
Fill your churches today. Bring your sheep home. Gather them together as you have promised.
Provide for all of our needs. Provide for our congregation here. Open our eyes to see if there is any unclean way in us and cleanse us. And bless our work here.
Thank you for the rain, that you hear our prayers. Bless the works of our hands
We do not know what you have in store for us. We do not yet see all things put under Jesus’ feet.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
And 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you.
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
Guide my lips today and give us quiet hearts to hear,
And together
14 Let the words of my mouth,
And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Text
Text
11 Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately. 12 Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’
15 “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ 17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.’ 19 Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’
20 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. 21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. 23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
24 “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’ 25 (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’) 26 ‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’ ”
Sermon
Sermon
Luke again tells us the occasion for this parable. Jesus, as I have said, it nearing Jerusalem.
He knows that those who are following him are expecting something magnificent to happen.
Whatever their concept of the kingdom of God is, they are expecting it when he arrives in Jerusalem.
Whether it is the gathering of the armies together, like David of old, and driving out the Romans.
Or whether it is taking over the temple and the worship and driving out the corruption from the temple.
Or whatever the conception was of the kingdom.
The conquering king
The conquering king
But what no one expected was what actually happened. The enemy of the kingdom of God was Satan, the accuser. He is the ruler of this world because of the sin that entered, and made everything ugly and hateful.
Because of guilt, shame and death are now in the world, and Satan rules by fear, shame and death.
We hide behind fig leaves, cower in the bushes or, like Zacchaeus, hide in the trees.
We pretend to be someone we are not. We put on airs. We learn the right phrases. We act like the acceptable ones - because we are afraid of their rejection.
Oscar Wilde observed this. He said, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. "
But a redeemed man is a man set free from this bondage, as we will see.
And the heart of our bondage is that we were created for fellowship, and now we are alienated. And there is nothing that we can do about it. Where there was once fellowship and peace and joy, there is now alienation, guilt, shame and death.
THIS is the enemy that Jesus came to destroy. And this enemy cannot be destroyed with swords and armies and horses and chariots.
The sword of God’s wrath must fall for shame and guilt to be taken away. Jesus came to take that sword upon himself, in order to reconcile the world to God.
Zechariah saw this when his son John was born. He praised God and said of the kingdom, that the Christ would save us from our enemies, that we might serve God without fear all the days of our lives.
How astounding would it be to be free to serve God without fear?
Without the fear of the opinions of others, without fear of failure, without fear of condemnation, for doing or saying something wrong, without the fear of rejection, without the fear of shame or guilt.
To simply be who we are, redeemed in Christ, beloved of God, acceptable to God, pleasing to the Lord - serving him without fear.
That would be amazing, wouldn’t it?
Without fear
Without fear
This parable has bothered me for years. I puzzled over it from the time I was a child.
I know that God has given me talents - but what does it mean to use them appropriately? And what does it mean to fail? If I don’t practice piano enough? If I don’t spend enough time writing? If I don’t accomplish enough - will I be cast aside as a wicked and unprofitable servant?
I have plagued myself with fear. To this day, if I take a day of rest and simply stop, and will beat myself up with guilt, as if I have not accomplished enough, done enough, to deserve a break. It is exhausting. I absorbed in my childhood the lie that my worth was dependent upon how much I accomplish.
And add to that all of the other fears that we all have
The fear of failure
The fear of rejection
The fear of saying the wrong thing
The fear of wearing the wrong clothes, talking to the wrong sort of people
The fear of reproach, of being mocked, of being beaten and shamed, of not hating the people we’re supposed to hate...
And pretty soon, you are so afraid of the world, that you simply hunker down, learn the right phrases, wear the right sort of clothes, read the right sort of books and watch the right sort of TV shows and live half of a life, never making waves, never affecting anyone. Never being yourself, but simply being other people - who are also cowering in fear.
Too fearful to live, too ashamed to make a splash, too afraid to be who you are - so you try to fit in, try to fade into the background, try to not make a fuss. You adopt the acceptable opinions, have the acceptable passions, and go with the crowds, hoping that God just might accept you if you can figure out how to fit in.
Because God is a harsh taskmaster. He made you wrong. He is just waiting for you to step out of line. He is just waiting for you to stumble and fall, so he can cast you out and put you to shame....
So you bury everything about who you are, wrap it in a napkin, and hide it in the ground.
And the enemy has won a victory. He is a liar and a murderer. He wants you dead and buried, and any way that he can accomplish that he will do.
But this isn’t who you are. You are redeemed, body and soul, to belong to Jesus Christ.
He not only made you, he redeemed you, he set you free from the bondage of shame and guilt by taking away sin, and now you - glorious, magnificent, beautiful YOU can shine.
THIS is the mina. This is the talent. This is the tremendous gift that he has given you. He has given you YOU, your body, your soul, your mind, your experiences, your YOUness. - not to serve sin, but to serve Jesus.
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
In order for a sacrifice to be acceptable to God, it must be without spot and without blemish. And the enemy works overtime to convince us that we have too many spots and too many blemishes to be of any use to God.
But that isn’t what the scripture says.
Paul in the first 11 chapters of Romans, showed us how God has redeemed us in Christ, has justified us by faith, presented us holy and without blemish, and covered us with the righteousness of God, received by faith in Christ.
So now we are accepted, loved, cherished in him, he is the head and we are the members of his body. All of us different, all of us with our respective gifts, and all of us redeemed, beautiful, and holy before him.
And now he says, “Go live like it. Present your bodies as they are - living, holy, acceptable to God because they are beautiful and wonderfully made, and fit for service.
No longer allow the voice of the enemy to convince you that God is a harsh taskmaster waiting for you to fail. No longer allow the enemy to convince you that you are worthless, and dangling spider held over the pit of hell. You are a child of God, an heir of the promise, redeemed, clothed in exquisite finery and jewels - the perfect beauty of Christ.
So be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Instead of hiding behind bluster and power and money and the baubles of this world, be who you are - redeemed and loved.
Instead of being enslaved to sin, like everyone else, be free to love and to shine.
Take the risks to speak what is on your mind to speak. To wear what is on your mind to wear. To live as you please, to love even your weird neighbors, to create and sing and dance before the Lord, free from the fear of men.
For the king has conquered. And if you think that this means to live in sin, then you don’t understand it yet.
Jesus Christ governs each of us by his word and spirit, not by fear and shame.
Do you not have the Holy Spirit in you? When I say, Live as you please without the fear of men…what do you want to do?
If you want to live like the enemies of the king, and refuse to have him rule over you, you will reap your reward. He is coming in judgment for the rebellious oppressors, the thieves and the murderers and the liars
But this isn’t YOU. YOU are free. You are redeemed. You are members of Christ and partakers of his anointing.
No longer let anyone put you in the bondage of fear.
The endless voices telling you that you aren’t doing it right.
You don’t dress right.
You don’t act right
You don’t wear your hair right
You don’t raise your kids right
You don’t vote right, you don’t read the right books, you don’t listen to the right music...
You don’t - fill in the blanks.
And you took the glorious treasure of beautiful YOU that God has given you and wrapped it in a handkerchief and buried it in the ground, too afraid of the opinions of men, and not seeing the goodness of the God who made you, redeemed you and called you his own.
We hide who we are behind drugs, alcohol, pride, narcissism, hatred, anger, bluster, boasting, work, happy families - all of it a form of death.
The world is calling you to conform to death - hate the ones you are supposed to hate. Fear the ones you are supposed to fear. Follow the ones you are supposed to follow. Smile when you are supposed to smile. For God is a harsh taskmaster, waiting for you to stumble and fall, so he can mock you like everyone else.
But Christ calls you to LIVE - present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, pleasing to God, for this is who you are.
Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
Jesus came to conquer the enemy, so that we might serve him without fear.
Going away
Going away
Jesus alludes to an event that everyone was very familiar with. When Herod the Great died, his son Archelaus assumed the kingdom. But no king was official without the approval of the Roman emperor. So Herod Archelaus made the long journey to Rome to be crowned by Caesar Augustus.
But his cruelty was hated and feared. So a delegation of many of the rulers of Judea also went to Rome to try to convince Caesar to NOT crown him king.
Caesar did allow him to rule, but with the title “Ethnarch” rather than king. And he only reigned over a third of Herod’s kingdom. But that is another story.
When he returned to Judea, he, of course, brought vengeance against all of his enemies.
When Joseph, Mary and Jesus returned from Egypt, they heard that Archelaus was in Judea, so they went to Galilee.
Eventually, Archelaus was too much, and he was removed, and Pontius Pilate was made the governor.
So that is the history being alluded to.
Jesus is heading to Jerusalem. From there, he will be crucified, he will rise from the dead, and he will ascend into heaven. All will be to gain a kingdom.
The ruler of this world is the Enemy, Satan himself. He governs with fear and shame and guilt. And his reign is harsh. Pharaohs, emperors, Nebuchadnezzars and Belshazzars ruled with absolute terror.
The state was god and everything served the state. No one dared step out of line. When the music played, you bowed. When the king said go to war, you went to war.
He killed whom he wished. And saved alive whom he wished, because his subjects were too terrified to say no. The rebels were crucified on the sides of the highways.
Satan rules with tyranny. You aren’t good enough. You aren’t strong enough. You aren’t beautiful enough. You aren’t enough. God hates you. Everyone hates you. Your ugly and fat and stupid and ridiculous.
You don’t matter. Your words don’t matter. Your loves and your hates don’t matter. Your joys and sorrows don’t matter. You are loathsome. Your only task is to walk in lockstep and hope no one notices you.
But on the cross, the guilt of sin was taken away. On Easter, the sting of death was destroyed. And now, the king is plundering the kingdom by the preaching of the gospel.
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
And this is the word that his apostles proclaimed to the world. The king has conquered and has ascended. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
And the day will come when his kingdom will be revealed, the curtain pulled back, and the last enemy destroyed.
Until he returns, he calls his church to use what he has given us to us productively.
Wonderfully made
Wonderfully made
That is, be who you are. God created you, redeemed you, and called you out of darkness into his marvelous light -
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
And sin, like a cancer, has polluted this wonderful body. But sin is not the essence of who you are.
The day will come when sin will be completely removed and we will stand before God whole and complete. No sin. But we will still be human.
THIS is the humanity that Jesus came to redeem, to make us who we are.
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
If we sin, we have an advocate. We confess that sin and remember the work of Christ again.
But we don’t ever again allow sin and shame and fear to keep us from serving God without fear.
Your voice matters. Your personhood matters.
Your personality and beauty matter.
Your body matters, for God made it. Your hands to do good works. Your feet to run the race and to dance with joy. Your lips to sing praise and words of comfort to the afflicted.
Every member is different, every body part is different, and God placed you in the body and gave you your gifts on purpose.
And he set us free on the cross to serve him without fear.
The problem is that we let the voice of the evil one determine who we are.
The modern church proclaims conformity, rather than redemption.
We fear the others, that they will somehow keep God from blessing us. So we loath them and fear them.
Preachers stand in pulpits and refuse to proclaim the kingdom of Christ. Instead they proclaim conformity to this world.
Live in fear of the others, fear of the devil, fear of shame and guilt.
Work harder, do more, conform to the proper ones and hate the ones you are supposed to hate or we will cover you with shame and contempt and cast you out....
And millions of people build pyramids for Pharaoh thinking that they are doing God service.
Instead of fearing the voice of the condemners, Christ calls you to live.
But living is risky. It feels unsafe, just like investing money.
what if you lose? What if you are rejected? What if you fail?
What if you go bankrupt? What if …what if....what if...
So you listen to the voices of the world -
Here’s what kind of a wife to be
Here’s what kind of a mother to be
Here’s what kind of a father to be
Husband
Christian
Worker
And the world, including the worldly church, has all sorts of opinions as to how a proper person is supposed to behave.
Remember what Jesus is going to Jerusalem to do…he is going to conquer sin and guilt and shame forever.
So you can’t go bankrupt. You can’t fail. You cannot be separated from his love. He already accomplished everything. You now have peace with God. there is no more condemnation.
So now you are free to serve him, for he has won the victory.
So serve him without fear.
YOU walk the path that he has placed you on, not the others.
YOU have the experiences you have, and no one else.
YOU have your gifts and perspectives and contexts and stories, and God has given them to you. Don’t bury them. Don’t hide them.
Use them to serve the Lord without fear.
There are those who refuse to bend the knee, who refuse to be ruled by him. They use guilt and shame to build kingdoms for themselves, they insist that everyone be conformed to their image.
But when Jesus returns, he will set it right. Don’t fear them. And certainly don’t allow them to bury who you are in a handkerchief. Shine that light.
The darker the world gets, the more it needs YOUR light.
Jesus is now in heaven, but he is present with each one of us, dwelling in us by his spirit. That means that HIS light in shining in us.
His beauty and love and grace and peace.
Let that light shine.
Don’t hate because you think you are supposed to. Don’t be contemptuous because you think you are supposed to be. Don’t sneer because all the cool people sneer.
Let your light shine, for the king has come and God now accepts your works.
7 Go, eat your bread with joy,
And drink your wine with a merry heart;
For God has already accepted your works.
8 Let your garments always be white,
And let your head lack no oil.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.