Practical Advice from God

People Matter!

James 2:1 and Romans 2:11

PSBC 11/26/00

In a nutshell: God advises us to refrain from showing favoritism, because everyone you make eye contact with, matters to God. Jesus illustrates this in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.

I. Introduction

A. Commencement address

Author, Kurt Vonnegut gave the 1998 commencement address to MIT. I think it is some of the most practical advice I ever heard at a secular event. These are some excerpts from that address:

Ladies and gentlemen:

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

B. God's Practical Advice

God's word is also full of practical advice–practical advice on how to please God, how to live a life of abundance, and how to earn worthwhile and eternal lasting rewards. And I want to look at a single piece of that advice this morning. The advice comes from two different verses, written by two Biblical authors, yet both authors and both verses agree on this piece of God's advice to us. The first author is Jesus' half-brother, James...

James 2:1
1 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.

The second author is the apostle, Paul. He writes...

Rom 2:11
11 For God does not show favoritism.

C. We aren't following the advice

Do you want to know a secret about most of the people in this room? Almost all of us are living our lives with an unpublished list in our minds. On that list are the people we tend to like and the people we tend not to like. If we're honest, almost all of us would have to admit that we have a desirable list and an undesirable list.

If the truth were to be made known...,
...some of use would prefer to be around rich people instead of poor people.
...Others of us would prefer to be around educated people rather than uneducated people.
...Still others of us would prefer to be with white collar people instead of blue collar people.
...And some others of us would rather be around blue collar people, because we distrust and dislike the white collar types.
...Some of us would rather be around thin people rather than larger people.
...And a lot of us would rather be around heterosexual people than around homosexual people.

Then if we get into skin color...,
...some of us prefer whites over anyone else.
...Some others prefer brown or black or orange people over white people.

But instead of acknowledging our preferences as being human and acceptable, James says, "Listen you folks, this stuff must be exposed. It has be repented of. And it has to be transformed from the inside out by the love of God."

Both Paul and James would say that this subject of people, and not showing favoritism or prejudice toward people, is something that is very close to the heart of God. In fact, they are telling us that people of all shapes, sizes, color, intelligence, vocation and choice... are at the very core of what matters to God.

And if favoritism is in you heart, it is something that has to be rooted out–rooted out of your heart and mine–and today would be a good day to start that rooting process!

II. Roots of favoritism

A. The sources

1. Parents

When you look at the research done on the origins of prejudice, do you know where the fault lies most of the time? With parents. If children grow up in a home where mom or dad belittle people of a different hue or because of their social position or their job, or their belief system, there is a exceedingly strong probability that the children in that home are going to catch that same discriminatory spirit.

2. Peers

A second source of prejudice is peer groups. This is learned primarily in junior high or early high school. Peer pressure is usually strong enough at that age to motivate a kid to say or do things they would never say or do on their own. And research indicates that once the poison of partiality gets into your system there is almost no human means to get it out. In fact, one research paper I read said that it tends to get worse with age.

But throughout Jesus' ministry on earth, he seized every opportunity to expose and transform the hearts of people who had prejudice problems. He went after them like a heat-seeking missile goes after the tail of a jet fighter.

B. Physical deformities

In Mark, chapter 3, the religious leaders were growing jealous of Jesus' popularity with the common people. They decided that they needed to come up with a plan to discredit Jesus in a public setting. And a place they thought he was vulnerable was in regards to the Sabbath day observance.

One of the 10 commandments states that you shouldn't work on the Sabbath day. And over the 400 years in between the events of the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Pharisees had made up a whole host of rules and regulations of extra-biblical laws about working on the Sabbath. So, the Pharisees thought that they might be able to publicly catch Jesus breaking one of these rules.

So, they put together a plan. Some Pharisees invited Jesus to give a talk in a certain synagogue on a particular Sabbath day. Another group of Pharisees scoured the streets in search of a handicapped person that they could bring to the synagogue and put right in the front row for Jesus to see. They found such a handicapped man–he had a withered arm. So, they brought him to the synagogue, to see what Jesus would do. If Jesus healed the man, that meant that he had exerted some energy–which, by definition meant that He had done some work. And the Pharisees would then be able to repudiate Him, because He had worked on the Sabbath. Basically it was a religious "sting" operation.

In Mark 3, we are told that Jesus sized things up and got very angry. It says in...

Mark 3:5a
5a He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts...

That phrase, "deeply distressed" in Greek, means that their actions grieved Him to His core. Because He saw that these "pillars of the religious community" didn't give a rip about the man with the withered arm–they didn't care about his life or his future. They were just using him to get at Jesus.

And, seeing the hardness of their hearts, Jesus knew that if He healed the man, that action was going to cost Him. But he discounted the repercussions and asked the man to stand up, and right before everyone's eyes, Jesus healed the man, right on the spot. And the Pharisees all jumped up and said, "Sabbath violation! Sabbath violation!"

Why did Jesus heal this man, even when He knew it would cost Him? Basically because the man had a far greater worth to Jesus than public opinion did.

C. Women

On another time, Jesus and His disciples were traveling through Samaria. It was a hot, dusty trip. They were all thirsty and hungry. The disciples all went into town to Carl's Junior to get burgers and fries. Jesus stayed at a well to get a drink. While He was there, a woman came while the disciples were gone, and Jesus struck up a serious conversation with her. Eventually, through this dialog, Jesus ushers her into a brand new life, filled with the love and hope of God.

When the disciples return, Jesus explained to them the incredible conversation He had with her. And His point in the explanation, as you read it in John 4, is that this woman mattered to Him and to God.

What was truly incredible about this encounter, and Jesus' explanation to the disciples, was that this whole thing concerned a woman–at a time in history when women, their lives and what they thought or had to say... just didn't matter to most of society. But Jesus showed that women matter to God.

D. Religious people

Religious favoritism is one of the scariest forms of prejudice that I know of.

Illustration: Growing up, I heard a lot of the old Dutchmen in our town talk derogatorily about Baptists, or Catholics, or Methodists or Lutherans. They joked that Dutch was going to be the "language of heaven". And that if you're not Dutch, you're not much. In fact it wasn't until some Swedes who worked for Moody Bible Institute started coming to our church, that I realized that someone other than Dutch people could actually be true followers of Jesus Christ, as well.

Well, Jesus addresses this issue of religious favoritism, one time, in the book of Luke, chapter 15.

On this occasion, Jesus is in a public place, and He's having a conversation and eating with people who are far from being members of the "religious right". In fact these were the kinds of people who swore, went to bars, rode motorcycles, and drank too much beer! The religious leaders came along, and they showed a "spiritual discrimination" toward this group that Jesus was socializing with. They looked down their noses at these people and begin demeaning them. Then they ridiculed Jesus for hanging out with them; and they started to mutter under their breath, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

And Jesus turns when He hears them, and in the only time during His entire earthly ministry, tells not one, not two, but three stories in order to teach them what really matters to God.

1. Lost people matter to God

In this chapter, Jesus tells stories about a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son. And while Jesus tells these three stories, the listeners realize that there is a common theme running through each one. There's a reason why He's telling the stories to them, and why the stories are laid out like they are...
...In each story, something of great value winds up missing.
...And each thing that winds up missing, is of great value to someone in the story.

-A lost sheep really matters to the shepherd.
-A lost coin really matters to a woman.
-And a dad who only has two boys, has his heart ripped out, when one of those boys decides to leave home and lead a destructive life.

As the members of the "religious right" listen to the story, all of a sudden they understand what Jesus is saying through these stories. It hits them that Jesus is saying, "These people, I'm talking with, are missing from the family of God, and this really matters to God the Father–just like the lost sheep matters to the shepherd and the lost coin matters to the woman and the wayward son matters to his dad."

2. Warrants an all out search

But there is a second theme that Jesus listeners must have grasped as they heard these three stories. They must have grasped that in all three stories, that which was missing mattered enough to warrant an all-out-search.
-the shepherd goes searching for the lost sheep;
-the woman goes searching for the coin;
-and the dad strains his eyes, every day, looking down the road, searching for the return of his son.

Do you see what Jesus is saying to these religious leaders? He's saying, "Look you guys, I'm here trying to spark a little interest in eternal issues, because even these people who are far from God, matter so much to HIM!"

III. Everyone matters

Now, another interesting thing to note, is that in each of the three stories, retrieval of what was lost brings rejoicing. When the shepherd finds the lost sheep, when the woman finds the lost coin... these people throw a party to celebrate!

And when the wayward son returns home, the father throws a "blowout" party, to celebrate the return of the son he though was once dead.

Luke 15:10 says...
10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The day you confessed that you were a sinner, believed on Jesus' work on the cross for your salvation, and asked God to save you, there was a party all across heaven because you had come home!

From the first day that I studied the material that makes up our 201 course, Becoming a Contagious Christian, Luke 15 has become one of the most important chapters in the entire Bible for me. Because it gives me a glimpse into the very heart of God, and it tells me what really and truly matters to Him.

Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago area put it in a way that I'll never forget. It's on the front of your bulletins this morning...

"You have never looked into the eyes of someone who does not matter to God. Every time you make eye contact with a cab driver, a waiter, a waitress, a bell hop, a doorman, a millionaire jet-setter, a Gen-Xer, a grandparent in a rest home, a minority person, a gay or a lesbian, an illegal immigrant, every politician who votes the opposite way you vote–every single person you lock eyes with, matters to God. They are one prayer away from receiving Jesus Christ's salvation as you have. They are people for whom Christ died. They deserve your respect. They deserve your honor. And they deserve your love."

IV. Conclusion

Friend, how are you doing on this one?

A. The scene on the crosses

In the final hours before Jesus' life was ended by death, he was hanging on a cross between two thieves. One of the thieves realized Jesus was ready to breathe His last breath. So this thief reviewed his own life. And in that review, he's sickened about what he's done and how his life has turned out. But it's too late. What can he do now? There isn't a chance that he could clean-up his act now. He couldn't decide to "fly straight". He couldn't join a church. In fact, the only thing he could do, was offer God a heart filled with remorse. But all of a sudden a thought occurred to him.

"What if the love of God is so high, so deep, so wide, and so all-encompassing that He could wrap His arms around a complete screw-up like me? What if someone like me, after all I've done, still matters?"

So he turns to Jesus, and with just a minuscule amount of faith, no bigger than a mustard seed, says, "Jesus, any chance you would remember someone like me when you come into your kingdom?"

And Jesus says, "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

If you don't mind, let me paraphrase what Jesus said in light of what we've been learning this morning, "In spite of all you've done, you still matter to me. You've mattered to me since the day you were born. You mattered to me when you were headed the wrong way. You mattered to me when you pulled your first heist, when you got arrested the first time, when you got locked up for the first time, and on the day you were condemned to die. There was never a moment when you stopped mattering to me. And on the basis of your humility and faith, I say to you, ‘Welcome home.'"

B. Does this melt you?

Friend, you have to be made out of stone for this picture not to melt you all the way to your core. That's the practical advice of "not showing favoritism" put into practice. And when that love takes root in your heart, it will change the way you look at every person you meet.

It will motivate us Christians to be the...
...first to celebrate differences in people,
...the first to reach out our hands to those whom we once diminished by our words or our actions, ...the first to say to anybody within our unique circles of influence, "You matter to God, so you rally matter to me!."

Amen.