“God’s People Live His Life”
September 8, 2013
The 16th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church
Deut. 30:15-20/Psalm 1/Philemon 1 - 20 / Luke 14: 25 - 33
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
We mark today as the sixteenth Sunday into Kingdomtide – a time wherein we are challenged, as the Church and as God's people, to live out all that Christ has provided for us. What good is the provision if we do not use it? What good is the provision if it does not work? If the provision does not fulfill the promises made, where is its value? Where is its help?
Do we know what our legacy is? Do we know what our potentials are? Have we taken time to really let the Spirit quicken into our being what He has given to us? If we look at creation, in Genesis 1 and 2, at the direction of God and the provision God, we see the plan of God. He had a plan; He did not just do something. He had set a course and a direction. That course and direction is earmarked for eternity. It is not short-lived; it is for all times.
God created light, darkness, earth, water, sun, moon, and we go through the whole of creation; and when He had finished with those things that were meant for support, He then created man. When He created man, He had the highest imagery for man. It was not just an occasional thought or something with instant reaction. In consensus with the Godhead, He said, “Let Us create man in Our image and in Our likeness.”
Can you imagine the blessings that are upon our lives? The provision that is ours – having been created in the image and likeness of God? No other creation was given such an honor. No other creation was given such authority, such power and such ability but man. God had created that when He was in the planning stages, He blessed man to be fruitful, to be able to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue and to rule over all things on earth.
Can you imagine the high character, the value, the importance of God's creation of man? Have often do we sense or have a feeling of failure, defeat? We sense ourselves as impossible that we can’t do anything? As a nation, we feel like we are under a curse; we are pulled down and we cannot rise up. Why? Do we know our legacies? Do we know our potentials? Do we understand that creative ability, the choice that God made when He created man and the potential He gave?
God took a moment of time to evaluate all that He did. His evaluation was good. He stopped and then He repeated it and put it into a new higher level of evaluation, “It was very good.” In the terminologies of God, I would probably interpret that ‘very good’ to be perfect. We don’t see it; we have failed in it; and yet that doesn’t mean that God failed in what He did. It means we failed in not understanding what we have been given and not using it to its potential as God intended it to be.
When God completed the world, Proverbs 8:31 says that He rejoiced. Can you imagine the joy when He saw the beauty of creation? When He saw the rivers, the trees in the gardens? When He saw the animals and all that He created and saw the beauty of these? He rejoiced! He rejoiced in the sons of men. He was rejoicing over us; over that which He has done for us – His provision in our lives.
Do we, today, have the same imagery of His creation in our hearts? Do we see the things around us, those things which mount up against us to destroy us, to give us difficulty or impossibilities? According to Scriptures, all things are possible with God. On our own, we may not be able to accomplish much, but with God, all things are possible.
At the time of Moses’ writing in Deuteronomy 30, God was bringing Israel to a new provision of life. They had been in captivity for over 400 hundred years. He had brought them out of captivity. They had gone across the wilderness for approximately forty years because of the rebellion, because they needed a change of heart; but God was still proud of them. He was still committed to them. Yes, He was disappointed. But as a parent, you can't get away from your fatherhood. You can’t get away from your responsibility for your children even though they may have made a mistake.
God said to the children, “He will prosper you abundantly in the work of your hands, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good.”Again, in the creation, Proverbs 8 says, “He rejoices over man.” Now, God was providing for Israel the Promised Land which is a land of milk and honey. He was promising this so that they could prosper. They have been in slavery. He was bringing them out of slavery. He was giving them a new hope.
This was His heart. He did not intend to keep them in slavery forever. His love would bring them out forth and His love would bless them and His love would cause them to be prosperous. Verse 11 says, “This is the commandment that I bring to you today and it is not too difficult for you. It is not out of touch.” Why do we feel that the things of God are too difficult? Why do we feel that they are beyond our capability or our possibility? We still see them so hard. Is it because of our sin? Is it because of rebellion? Is it because of our lack of discipline in our own lives that we find that when we are placed within boundaries, we find these too hard to handle?
We want to be able to do what we want, but God says, “This is not hard. This is not difficult." He says, “This, which I have given to you, it is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it. See I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” God is giving man the choice. Yet, He says that He sets this in front of you. He gives this to us as a provision, if only we will walk with Him, walk in the commandments that He has given to us.
“To love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, then you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that He is preparing to give to you.” Here is God’s promise. Here is God’s provision. Here is the legacy given to man, the potential of life that He has given to us. God says it is not difficult. It is not hard. Why do you think it is so difficult? Because of the rebellion in your heart? Because of the lack of discipline in life?
Matthew 11 says, "My yoke is easy, my burden is light." Perhaps, when He talks about His yoke, He is talking about His kingdom. It is a kingdom that is filled with prosperity, with blessings, and a kingdom that is filled with joy and peace. A kingdom that is filled with righteousness. We might say, “That is so boring. I want some excitement.” You can’t find any more excitement than in the things of God.
We have been deceived by the brilliance, by the tingling of the lights of the world to think that it brings joy to us. But that joy, even though it might be there, it is only temporal. It passes away. The joy that comes from God is eternal. It is so complete in its peace that it brings wholeness of heart, wholeness of spirit, wholeness of body whereas the temporary joy does not heal. They do not strengthen, but in many cases, they weaken us and make us even less than what we are to be.
In the love of God, He says, “Walk in My ways. I have set the ways. I know how this world that I created in this Kingdom functions. I want you to walk in this.” For what result? “That you might live, that you might multiply, that you may prosper in what I am giving to you." See the will and the provision of God.
I know that we have many other stories that we focus on. Sometimes it is about the wrath of God and the destruction of God. Those are things which are not part of God. Those are things which come because of rebellion. They come because we resist and we fight against, but the heart of God is love. His provision for His kingdom and His people is a people of prosperity. Not prosperity measured at the same standards as the world does. The world cannot give us prosperity that is eternal. It cannot give us prosperity that is profitable. Its prosperity passes away and brings anxiety and stress. It brings heart attacks because it is temporal and it can pass away anytime.
The prosperity of God begins with peace because of forgiveness. That peace gives us the ability to have wisdom and understanding. It gives us strength, health and long life. This is what God is interested in us to have. We have been attracted to the things of the world, and we think that these are so valuable that we give up everything else to get them. It isn’t what God intended us to have. He brings to us those words and puts them in our mouth. John 17 says that He puts those words in our mouth. They are there. This is how close prosperity is. This is how close His kingdom is. This is how close life is – the choice that we make.
Not only did He put it in our mouth, but in our heart. Galatians tells us that God has set forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. It is there; we reject it. We don’t pay attention to it. We don’t give it attention in our lives at all because we consume ourselves with the things around us.
We are so afraid of silence. We are so afraid of a time of just idleness, thinking that we are wasting time. It is in that silence, in that idle time that God speaks to us. It is here where He reveals Himself to us, but we are so intimidated by that. We put plugs in our ears; we put a screen in front of us; we turn something on to keep things noisy and moving so that we don’t have time to think, no time to meditate. No time to let God speak to us because remember, it is the still small voice. It will not scream over the loud interceptions that are being received. It will not scream louder than the noise. It takes a quiet heart to hear Him. It takes a time of relaxing, setting ourselves aside, letting Him speak to us.
His plan –prosperity. His plan – well-being. His plan – being fruitful and multiplying. This is the blessing of God. This is the provision of God. I identify this as my interpretation: poverty is a curse on God because God is not One of poverty but is One of blessing. He is One who brings His provision in abundance into our lives that brings glory to Him, that brings honor to Him. This is why when Scriptures talks about those who have been blessed, it is helping those who have not yet seen the blessings – giving to the poor; helping them come out of their situations because this is not where God wants them to be. He desires prosperity for us.
As we have been blessed by God, we look now to the potentials of our lives. We look not to the ability of life as He has given it to us. Do we see it for purpose? Do we see it for reason? Do we see it as using to bring honor and praise and glory to Him?
In Philemon, we have a story that is so touching. How that Paul, in his ministry, has brought new life to Philemon. He was a convert of Paul. Paul set him in order so that he could begin a church and begin to minister to people because of the freedom and the new life that Paul had brought to him.
Philemon had a problem. He had a servant by the name of Onesimus. Onesimus, during a period of time, stole a large amount of money of Philemon. He run away and was living off of what he had stolen from Philemon. For some reason, somehow, Onesimus came in contact with Paul in prison. Paul ministered to him and Onesimus repented of his sin. He was redeemed and he gave his life to be useful to Paul. Onesimus meants "useful."
Paul, understanding the law, understanding the provision, understood that Onesimus would be condemned to death for his stealing. That was the law, but he also knew that Philemon owned Onesimus. Paul was not about to get involved in the middle of this other than the fact that he really wanted Onesimus to stay because he was very helpful to him in prison. Paul’s obligation was to Philemon so he sends Onesimus back to Philemon and sends him with a note. He tells him what has happened.
Paul challenges Philemon, as a new man, to reach out to Onesimus and to forgive him; to accept him not as a slave, but now, because of his conversion, to accept him as a brother at the same level. Talk about confrontation of righteous or justification. Paul was saying to him, “Yes, I know he stole from you. Yes, I know you run away. Yes, I know the hurt this is to you, but I am asking you, not only to forgive him, but I am asking you to elevate him to a brother. Take him out of servant-hood and make him a brother. Paul went a little further. Paul hinted to Philemon, “I would be very happy if you would release Onesimus so that he could come back and minister to me.” Paul had restored Onesimus.
Here is the story of our lives. Here is the responsibility that perhaps we have of making certain that we reach out to those possibly in trouble. We work with them and we restore them and we bring them into a new higher level of commitment. Philemon was bishop of Colossae at one time. After his death, there are records or stories wherein Onesimus eventually became bishop of Ephesus.
Notice the progression of Onesimus’ life. Servant; a robber; a thief; one who has runaway; one who is redeemed; one who is restored; one who is elevated; and now, becomes the leader of the church forty years later. Can we see the hand of God in our lives? Can we see the restoration that could be ours? Rather than standing back and condemning or standing back and destroying, we move in restoring, bringing back credibility, joy, life and peace. Here was the story given to us.
In the gospel Jesus confronts us and says, “Before you make the step, count the cost. Do you know what it is going to cost you to be side by side with Me? Do you understand what I am asking of you?” True, some of the things that are written in the portion of the gospel confuse us because it says, “You must hate your mother, your father, your brother, your sister…” but it is not talking about hatred as we understand hatred.
Probably in the interpretation from the Hebrew to the Greek and to the English, that word ‘hatred’ became much more abrasive than it was really intended to be. What it literally is saying is that these people cannot take the priority of your life. Christ is number one! It doesn’t mean that you hate others, but it is placing responsibility Christ first place in your lives, your whole being. All that you are and all that you could ever be, you give to Him.
This is what Christ has given to us. Count the cost because He has given to us so much. He has given to us everything! He says, “You cannot be My disciple unless you give up all of your possessions.” Does that mean that we have to have a garage sale? Does that mean that we have to give everything away? Possessions are those things which hold our hearts. We are captivated to them and obligated to them. They control us. Material things were never meant to control us, but they were meant to be used by us. They were meant to be a blessing to us. They are not our masters, but they are our slaves, our servants.
In today’s lives, material things especially have become the master. We give of our lives to earn, to make a position, to reach a certain status in society, to have a bigger home, a bigger car, to have money in the bank. We drive ourselves as slaves of these things. We forget our families sometimes. We forget our own responsibilities and obligations. We forget God; we forget our ministries so that we can advance in the material side of life.
Are you willing to give it all up? Are you willing to put God first in your lives? This is what you must count if you are going to be victorious in this life that God has given. It is in Him; our life is in Him. Colossians 1 says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." It is not the world in you; not the possessions of the world in you, but Christ in you, the hope of glory. That glory which brings forth the life of Christ – the joy, the peace, the wisdom, the understanding and all those things that He has provided for us, His grace, His mercy.
The most important thing in our lives, the most valuable thing that we can spend is knowing Him, knowing what our inheritance is and knowing who we are. Romans 8:10 says, "If Christ is in you, the spirit is alive." It is within us. It is that which drives us, that which energizes, and that which motivates and sets desires in our hearts, if only we recognize and we yield to Him.
Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of Him dwells in you, He will give life to your mortal body through His Spirit who indwells you.” His life in us will bring life to this flesh. It will quicken this flesh to life. It will not come to the point of decaying or falling apart because His life in us brings life to the flesh. It brings strength, wisdom, understanding and potential.
One of the most beautiful Scriptures in the Bible, not the only but one of, is in Ephesians 2:10, “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works." God created us; not only the flesh but our spiritual life; and He gave to us everything that we are. When we focus upon Him, when we let Him be the Master of our lives, and we put Him first in our lives, the beauty of that life flows out. The beauty of His joy comes forth. The life that He has given to us reaches out and touches others and brings help and hope to them.
We see it in Paul’s life, with Onesimus. How that Paul’s life changed that robber, that thief to a bishop. This is how powerful that life is in you; this is how powerful that life is in me. Yes, we make our mistakes. Yes, we fail, but greater is He who is in us than those things. When we are dependent upon Him, we come to Him and He restores us. Onesimus, a fugitive, running from justice, running from his life, coming in contact with Paul. Paul brings new life to him. When Onesimus is restored, his relationship with the one he stole from, Philemon, is restored and is elevated to a brother. Eventually, he becomes a bishop.
Can we begin to see the hope that we have in our lives? Can we begin to see the potential that God gives to us when we step away from the obligations and the slavery to the world’s system around us? When we put Christ first in our lives, when we seek His way, His provision, can we begin to see that we can change the world around us? We can set new standards. We can set new life.
Yes, all around us is the darkness, heaviness, oppression; but the life that God gives to us breaks those boundaries and sets forth new life. It bursts the captivity and sets us free and brings to us the life that comes from God – restored in Him; blessed by him. His heart, His goal, His desire for us is prosperity! It is a prosperity that blossoms into a light and that light shines in the midst of darkness for others. A hope that is ours; a provision that is ours.
Sometimes, we don’t see what God is doing. We are so consumed with other things that we don’t understand and see God at work around us. God is rising and His government is increasing and His kingdom is with us, even now, if only we will give of ourselves to walk with Him. Our joy can be complete; our hope can be complete.
Live out His life. This is what we are here for – living not our life but living out His life. Bringing His life to a reality that it touches others like Paul did, like Christ did. Setting our goals. We will not lack in it; we will not lose in the midst of it. As we give, God gives us back and He blesses us.
May we live out that life that Christ has given to us!
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THROUGH
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