Posts Tagged ‘Luke 14’

Are you learning and growing from Luke 14:15-33?  I have to tell you I haven’t been able to leave this text for quite some time, as I’m praying for my family and our church family, that God would make us a “God is supremely better” people.  What has entered your life this week that is rivaling God being better?  Is sickness trying to steal this from you?  Is work related  issues, family experiences, unmet expectations competing to steer you away from God being so much better than all else in life?

Just this week I have had a phone call from a friend who is dealing with a possible miscarraige…Just this week I am praying for family members who desperately need the Lord to come through in a job situation…Just this week I’m lifting up people walking through some dark times already in 2011, and they are faced with a question – Is God really worth dropping all else in life to follow Him?  Is he worth it?  Can I value him enough to put #1 priority in his life?

Also, there are some of us out there who have it all together and who are experiencing fruitfulness in life like never before, and things couldn’t be better.  I firmly believe it’s in these “good times” that it’s hardest to consider God as better than all else - because all else is treating us so nicely.

Anyway, let’s look at Invitee #2 to God’s Party in Luke 14:15-33…Who is this guy?  He is a guy who turns God down becasue he has just bought 5 yoke of oxen.  He has 5 pair of oxen that he is needing to visit and make sure they are doing their job in order to provide for him.  In other words, this invitee #2 is valuing work and the bottom line financially over God and God’s Party.  He is more concerned with working and how work is going than dropping work for an evening and celebrating who God is.

I have to admit – this punches me in the soul!  I’m a bit of a workaholic to be honest.  Are you?  Are you like me and tend to place a more significant value on work rather than on God?  Are you defined by what you DO, rather than what Christ DID on the cross?  I struggle here.

If you do struggle here, remember our friend Martha in Luke 10:38-41 – respond to these questions:

• How would you describe Martha?  Use some adjectives to define what she was like.
• How would you describe Mary?  Use some adjectives to define what she was like.
• What was Martha frustrated with?  What was Mary doing?
• What did Jesus consider to be the most important act in this story?
• How can you apply this to your life?

Man, i’m praying God makes some significant transformations in all of our hearts – namely, that he would make us a people who are “God is supremely better” than WORK people!

Dig Deeper,

PC

Happy Tuesday everybody!

I continue to marinate on Luke 14:15-33 and pray for RiverStone Church and all of our friends, members, attenders and guests will dive headfirst into what Jesus is saying through his teaching here.  This chapter really gives forth my prayer for 2011 for RS, especially 14:15-33.  What is that prayer?  It is simply that we would be a “God is supremely better people.”

What we saw on Sunday is that 3 people in particular in this text viewed God as of secondary importance.  They didn’t see him as worthy of the #1 position in their lives.  They didn’t ascribe to him the praise he is due – and because they didn’t do so, God was angry in a holy way.  He was rightly angry – think about this for a minute…Should God get angry in a holy kind of way if we don’t give him #1 priority?  Does God have the right to get angry if we forsake worshiping him to worship other things?  You betcha (in the words of Sarah Palin).  He is our creator…he controls the cosmos…he tells creation what to do…he sustains life in our lungs…he is worthy ultimately of the first place in our lives – that is seen most beautifully in the person of Christ – God in flesh.  God deserves our worship because he is God.

That brings us today to a huge truth:  We need to have a high view of God!  What is your view of God?  Read Scripture from Genesis to Revelation.  What has God revealed about himself?  Creator, Sustainer, Savior, Redeemer, All Powerful, Undefeatable, Immutable…He is God.

Answer these for yourselves and Dig Deeper this week into having a high view of God in order to be transformed by God’s grace into a God is supremely better people:

• Who is God (according to Scripture)?  What comes into our minds when we think of God?
• What has God done (according to Scripture)?
• How should God relate to us in light of who he is?  How does he relate to us in spite of who we are?