New Beginnings weekly message for May 31, 2010

May 31, 2010

It's Not About You!

Anybody that knows me knows that I can find a bible lesson or life lesson in anything. Ask Joshlyn, she will tell you she can get a phone call at the most outrageous time because I saw something. The other day I happened across a show on MTV called True Life. This particular episode depicted a man and his fiancé. He was flying into town for their wedding, which was to take place the next day. He arrived late at night or I should say early in the morning since it was approximately 1:30am. He was standing on the curb at the airport waiting for his bride to be to pick him up.

When the couple arrived at the house he immediately went to the refrigerator because he said he was starving. He grabbed some cold pizza and whatever else he could find and just began to eat. His fiancé stood there looking at him in what appeared to be total disgust. She then made the comment, I don’t believe people should eat after 10pm and he said the words that I will never forget, “This ain’t about you!”

His words made me think about so many times when we utter our opinion about a situation or circumstance. Does what we think really matter? In the grand scheme of things what really matters, not what I think or what I want, but what really matters is what God thinks and what God wants.

It was obvious in this segment of the show that the bride to be believed that her opinion was of some value. What she thought was more important than what her fiancé was feeling. He was hungry.

I went to see the new Queen Latifah movie, “Just Wright” (I will talk more about that at another time) the other day and I watched as one woman schemed to get the type of man she wanted. She did not care whether he was the man for her it was about what he had to bring to the table. Getting with her would cost him his purpose and the plan God had for his life, but she did not care because all she wanted was to be the star basketball player’s wife and to sit in the VIP section at the games. How many times have we seen that happen, a person more concerned about themselves and what they want than God’s purpose in a situation?

How many other situations occur on a daily basis where we focus on what we believe is important to us, what is best for us, based on our limited view, without being concerned about how it will impact those around us or those that God intended for us to touch? How many times have our decisions been based strictly on serving our own best interest?

It made me start to ask some questions. How do my choices affect the situation and the people around me? Ultimately, it is not about me. It is about what God has purposed to be done in and through my life. I can choose a thing that is not for me and mess up everything. I would love to be married, chillin at home with my family, doing what we do, but that has not been God’s plan for me at this particular moment in my life. If I had chosen to do it my way and accept an alternate plan for my life there would be no ministry, there would be no writing, there would be no podcasts, because I would have made it about me instead of God’s plan for me. I hope you understand what I am saying, I have told you about plan B before. You have some of the same opportunities and options in your own life. We can make it about us in where we live and how we spend our time, but will that be what God wants for us?

I remember my pastor sharing with us that many times we are going through things and it does not make sense. The truth is that it is not about us, it is about what God is trying to do in and through us. It’s not about you, it’s not about me, it’s about God, it’s about the kingdom.

I read the scripture from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. It says, 12 -13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

14 -18I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

19 -24But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

25 -26The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

27 -31You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body":

apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.

But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts.

But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.

The truth is that we did use to call our own shots, because we thought it was about us, but it is not. It is about each one of us bringing our puzzle piece to the table and laying it down next to other puzzle pieces so we can make up the Kingdom Picture God intended. The illustration the bible uses is one of the human body and compares it to the church, maybe you can’t see that, can you see it in your own family? When one part is selfish and only looks out for itself the rest of the unit cannot function at the top of it’s game. Maybe the father who is supposed to be the breadwinner decides to take the rent money to the casino and the family is without a place to live or spends it on drugs and alcohol or decides to have an affair with another woman, because she looked good, was young and pretty.

Think about it in relation to the basketball team. I use to be quite fond of the Chicago Bulls in the Michael Jordan era, but the other members of the team, Scottie Pippen, Steve Kerr, Horace Grant, BJ Armstrong, Dennis Rodman and Coach Phil Jackson, to name a few, were necessary for the Bulls to become the champs they were destined to be. While Michael was a big factor, it was not all about Michael or the other players would not have been necessary. The eye would not have been necessary, the ear would not have been necessary, the feet would not have been necessary. It is my prayer that we are starting to get this.

As good as Michael was no championships were won with Michael as the only factor. He is not the only one in the hall of fame. It’s not about us either. We are a piece of a much bigger puzzle called the kingdom of God, the family, the marriage, the job, whatever it is that we are part of, we are just that a part. It is important that we play our part, but always remember that it is not about us, no matter what we are doing it is about God. Don’t get upset and keep your piece off the board, or choose to make your own decisions about how it will be used, doing that will dishonor you, God and will be a hindrance to the Kingdom picture God is drawing.

It’s not about you, it’s about the kingdom, it’s about God!

Scripture:
1 Corinthians 12:12-31:
12 -13You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.