“He Is Worthy” By Brother Kenneth Ray September 2nd,
2012 Worthy—Having
worth, value, merit. (Webster’s
Dictionary) “Is
it worth it?” or “Was it worth it?”
That is the question that my mother would repeat
over and over again, when I did something, or made a choice, and the
outcome
was less than beneficial; mostly in my teen-age years.
Most of the time, I would reply, “No, it was
not worth it.” There
were a few times (just
a few) when I felt it was worth all the trouble. There
have been a few times in my life
today when, looking back on something I had done, I have to say that it
wasn’t
worth it. There
have been a few cases when
I might say that, yeah, it really was worth all that trouble. The value of whatever the
outcome was, it was
worth the trouble. Maybe
you went to
someone and you had to seriously speak to someone about something, and
you
really didn’t want to. This
person that
you care about, and you know really well, and you don’t like arguing
with
them. The worst
person, the hardest
person, to talk to (in correction) is your best bud, those that hang
out with
you. You just don’t
want to tell them “You
made a mistake. That
wasn’t cool.” Sometimes
we have to. You
know you’re going to hurt their
feelings. You know
that there’s going to
be some abrasiveness there. You
know
that you’re going to feel bad. We
didn’t come to cheer for Jesus this
morning; we came to live humbly in front of Him, and let Him cheer for
us. “Consider My
servant, (fill in your name here).”
Who is worthy to have Jesus ask the devil, “Have you
considered My
servant…” like He did for Job. Job’s
not
the only one who should have the ability to put his name in that spot. We all have the ability to
do that, just by
counting Him worthy, by making Him the value in our lives that’s more
important
than anything else. Choosing
to do right
when we know we could do wrong. We’re
old enough to know better and to do what we know.
King
David, before he was king, and
after, gave some really good examples of someone who knew to do good
and didn’t do, but also someone who
knew to
do good and did do.
He had his Bathsheba, but he was also a man
after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:34).
Which
is why the Bible says that a righteous man will fall seven times, and get back up (Proverbs 24:16). You’re going to make some
mistakes; you’re
going to make some bad choices somewhere along the way.
It is how we learn to do better.
We make a mistake; we learn the lesson; we
keep going. Aaron,
as much of a help as
he was to Moses, he was the one that made the golden calf when Israel
was in
the wilderness, but he was also the one that, Moses said, “Put fire in
your censer
and run out between the plague and the people.”
He didn’t say, “But I made a boo-boo.”
He learned his lesson, and he went out, and he did
it. Today, you may
find yourself in that spot,
and God wants to show you that you’re still worth it, because He’s
still worthy
of His praise. In
your hard times, it’s
not easy to say, “Hallelujah, thank You, Jesus.
It’s raining and my hair is all messed up. My clothes are soaking wet
and I’m shivering.” Even
in those times, you’re going to find
that God is worthy of your praise because He’s still bringing you
through it. He
didn’t forsake you there; the waters not
up to your nose and about to drown you.
He can still bring you through it.
The Bible talks about how we’re going to deal with
things. He is
worthy, church, and not only in the
good times. It
could be worse. Of
course, it could be better, but thank God that
it’s not any worse. It’s
odd how we look
at it; is the glass half empty or half full? I’m just glad I have
something in
the glass. I’m glad
He hasn’t left
me. I’m just glad
there’s something in
the tank. If
there’s something in the
tank, I can start; I can always get more.
I can allow Him to take out what doesn’t belong. As
we focus on this, we need to address
the three-letter question: Why? As a flesh-and-blood
creature, that three-letter
question dominates a lot of our lives.
Is
He worth it? Notice
that the title of
the sermon is not, “Is He Worthy?” but “He Is Worthy.”
If you don’t understand the why, then ask of
God, He will give you understanding, He gives to all men liberally,
that means
a lot (James 1:5). Is
it worth it? Remember
that question that my mom would
torment me with—I mean ask over and over again.
There will be events in this life, or more events,
that will cause you
and I to ask that question about our service to our Savior and our
Creator, and
giving praise to God. Why
does God allow
this to happen? Do
you remember Job? Everything
was taken away from him, even to
the point where he cursed the day he was born, but he not the God hat
created
him. What did he
get the end? a double
blessing. Don’t
stop at the first sign
of trouble. Why
do we give service to God? Why
do we give praise unto God? Consider
Job’s story, and others like
it. He started off
good, and he had a
rough spot, and then it got good again.
You have to consider the end of it, not just the
middle. Consider
the cause of it; maybe God wants a
change out of you. Because
He’s worthy, because
He’s worth it, because of lessons that come from Him, we can praise Him
even
when we’re questioning Him. Why
do we do
that? because He’s still God. There’s
a song that we sing: “When
I think of the goodness of Jesus/And
all He has done for me/My soul cries out, “Hallelujah,/Thank God for
saving me.”
Let
me tell you something that you
already know: Even
when it is decided in
our minds and in our hearts that it isn’t worth it, He is still worthy. Remember Abraham? God told
him that He was
going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah; Abraham asked if God would destroy
the righteous
with the unrighteous. Abraham
asked, “Peradventure
there are fifty righteous in the city?”
God said He would not destroy the city if there were
fifty. So Abraham
asked about forty. Eventually
he whittled it down to ten. God
said if there were ten then He would not
destroy the city. Why?
because He’s
worth it, church. God
is worthy of going
to talk to Him about it. There
are going
to be things in your life that you’re going to find that are worth it,
and you’re
going to have to talk to God about those things.
Is it the thorn in your flesh that you want
removed (2 Corinthians 12:7)? Is
that
the issue of blood that the woman had that she needed healed (Matthew
9:19-22)? Are you
at the pool that heals when the water
is disturbed by the angels, but you needed help getting into it (John
5:2-9)? All these
are things that Jesus is worthy to
go to because no one else can really help you the same way. And it is worthy. Ask a millionaire or a
billionaire if it was worth
it, they’ll say yes. Ask
that same millionaire
or a billionaire if it was fun, they’re going to think that you’re dumb. They found something that
produced income,
and they did over and over and over again.
It doesn’t mean it was fun; the desired outcome was
worth it. It’s not
always fun what we have to do as
Christians, but when we come to that day when we hear, “Well done, thou
good
and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.” (Matthew 25:21) It’s gonna be worth it on
that day. It won’t
be worth it to the flesh, because it
won’t be there, but the spirit’s going to sing, “Hallelujah, thank God
for
saving me.” We
won’t care about the
flesh like we do now.
The question that it comes down to
is, “Do you trust Him today?” Do
you
call on the Name with saving power of the soul?
I know that tomorrow, whatever comes, that is not
too much for God to
handle, for I am your servant, and the power of God is in His Word. He won’t lie.
The Father of Lies tells you, “Oh, just give up. Let go.”
Jesus tells you, “Let of your burdens.”
The devil says you just flat out let go; he’s not
worth it. The devil
is preparing you a home all
right. It’s not the
home that you want
to go to. It’s not
a good house, and his
rules apply. God
has a house made for
you; in Satan’s house, you’re not family. When
you look back on whatever it is,
you will be able to count your blessings. As
you go forward, we learn to pass on the
results.
Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
|
|
|
