SHOWING UP: A Response Worthy of the Cross
VideoTranscript
This is the video’s transcript, lightly formatted. Tap a time to jump to that moment.
Beth and I went out last night to a spot that we love to frequent. I've been really busy with work here lately because I got the new job and I'm training and we just wanted to get out, spend some time together, you know, like we like to do. Well, there was a couple at the table next to us. And when they got up to go leave, I could not help but notice that the woman had her hair done, was wearing makeup, a nice dress, like really classy, really put some effort into this, but the guy was wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. Now, call me oldfashioned, but when the woman you're with is making that kind of effort, shouldn't you put forth a little bit, too? I think so. I don't know.
What do you think? Let me know. But that bugged me because she had gone all out. She was really making an effort for him and he didn't seem like he appreciated that at all. Well, I went to church this morning. Hope [clears throat] City, as y'all know, was now my church from my previous video. And the sermon was on gratitude and it was really good.
Looking for things that we can be grateful for. And that reminded me of that guy. And I thought, you know what? I've been guilty of that in the past, too, in a different kind of way. Let's read a scripture. It's in Philippians chapter 2 6-8.
This is what it says talking about Jesus. It says, "Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross." You ever stop and think about everything that Jesus did for you?
How he was in this exalted position yet came down to earth, took a servant's form, human form. And it's not like he had an easy life. He was born poor in the household of Mary and Joseph. Learned hard work. Nothing wrong with that.
Wasn't born in the house of a king. He was born in a stable. And I always find that interesting because God could have done anything. Like he could have put him anywhere, but he had him born in this poor family in a stable.
And when he came into his ministry, almost from the very start, the religious leaders wanted to kill him because he called them out all the time. I was having this conversation with Beth yesterday that the only people Jesus really goes after in the gospel are the religious leaders. Why? Because one, they're hypocrites and two, they use their power to abuse the people who are powerless and take advantage of them. So he would lambast those guys and they hated him for it. So they were always looking for ways to kill him. He was having to be careful where he went, trying to avoid them, that kind of thing.
It was not an easy life. And then, of course, his awful death on the cross. Extremely painful, agonizing, hanging there for hours, right? He did all of that. Why? He did that for you. He did that for me.
So Jesus went allin for us. He showed up, hair done, makeup on, in the dress, proverbally speaking, right? And in response to that, do you show up in jeans and a t-shirt?
Or do you recognize everything that he did for you and put effort back in return out of gratitude? We all we all fall short, right? all of us.
So, it's not like I'm telling you you got to be perfect, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You don't have to be perfect. But as often as you catch yourself not putting in the kind of effort that shows that you really do appreciate what he did for you, catch yourself. Stop it. Change it. Right? Let's read another scripture.
Romans 12:1. This is a good one about how we should behave in our daily lives because of what he did for us. Romans 12:1, I appealed to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship by the mercies of God. Some translations say because of God's mercy. So because God was so merciful to you and to me, we do our best to present ourselves holy, right? To put forth the effort, not just show up in jeans, in a t-shirt.
It's important that we do that. In fact, let's look at another scripture, Matthew 22:37, where Jesus tells us how we're supposed to worship God. You'll know this one, very familiar. Matthew 22:37 Jesus says, "And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Because of everything he did, because of what he went through, because of his sacrifice, we have a relationship with God. We have a hope. If he hadn't done those things or hadn't made sure that those things were recorded or if the people who were there didn't take the time to do that when moved by the spirit to do it, we wouldn't be able to read it, we wouldn't know what happened and we would live a lost life.
But because he did it and because it was recorded and because we can read it, billions of people every day that are believers are inspired by and strengthened by what they know to be true and the relationship with God that they have because of it. So, as often as we can, as often as we catch ourselves not putting forth the effort, stop and consider, am I just giving jeans and a t-shirt effort right now, or am I really showing that I appreciate what was done for me? That's always the goal. We're not going to do it perfectly, but that's always the goal. Every morning when I wake up, when my feet hit the ground off the side of the bed, I put my hand on my heart and I say, "My feet are on the ground. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are dwelling within my heart.
I am a partaker of the divine nature. It is another beautiful day. Aba be praised every day." I think it's good to start off your day from that attitude of gratitude right from the beginning.
I heard a preacher once made an excellent point. He said, you know, we wake up in the morning, we take a shower, we eat breakfast, like we spend a lot of time getting our body ready to go to work or do whatever it is we're going to do that day. We're preparing ourselves to start the day. He said, "But do you put that same amount of time into the spiritual start of your day?" Spiritually, do you feed yourself in the morning? Spiritually, do you clean yourself in the morning to get ready for the day? If not, why not?
If you do, when you do, you show the effort that shows that you're grateful for everything that you've been given. And it really makes the day better because when you start off from that attitude of gratitude to God for everything that he's done, now when the inevitable negatives come at you during the day because the enemy is going to throw that stuff at you every day, every chance he gets, you're not going to fall for it. It's not going to trip you up because you're going to think, you know what, this thing that's happening, not great, not happy about it, but I've got so much to be grateful for. And really at any moment of any day, stop and think right now while you're listening or watching this, what do you have to be grateful for? Now, that negative thing that's coming, man, my car broke down.
I got to get it repaired. That's a bad thing. You're not happy about that, but think about all the positives in your life right now. I'm breathing. I'm alive. I'm relatively healthy. I have a job that allows me to be able to afford to pay for this repair.
I have a church. I have the Bible. Jesus died for me. I have a relationship with God, etc., etc., et for you to be grateful for than for you to be upset by. And if you live from the perspective of focusing on the things that are going right in your life, then the things that go wrong, it's going to be water off the duck's back, right? Uh there's a famous saying that nobody ever notices when things go right. And unfortunately, that's true.
There is a an old illustration that used to be used back when I was younger where a guy would hold up a piece of paper and he'd draw with a black dot on it and he'd ask, "What do you see?" Your immediate response is to see a black dot and he's like, "No, you see a piece of paper. It just happens to have a black dot on it." But everybody notices the dot, right? They notice that one thing that appears out of place in the hole. That's what went wrong today. But you've got all these other things, all this space, this beautiful space on the sheet of paper of your life.
The positive things that are all around the black dot. You don't notice that, but you should and you can. It's a practice. Learning to be grateful, focusing on the positive is a practice and it's something that we need to do because when we do that, we're showing appreciation for what God has done for us.
And we should be moved by the opportunities that we have throughout the day, right? [snorts] All day, every day, look for things. Jesus would be walking. He would be traveling. He would be teaching. And something would happen that nobody expected. And he would stop, show compassion, heal someone, help someone.
Every day these things happen. It may not have been part of the plan, but he looked for opportunities and he took them. And we can do the same. Now, let's read another scripture. This one's in Revelation 3:15-16.
Sometimes when we're not putting forth the effort that we should be, that does not reflect well on us. And Jesus has something to say about this in the book of Revelation. Those who weren't putting forth all the effort. Revelation 3 15 and 16. Notice what he said here. He's talking to the church of Leodysia. He says, "I know your works.
You were neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
That church was shown up with jeans and t-shirt effort. They weren't putting forth the kind of effort that demonstrated that they really appreciated what had been done for them by Jesus. And because of that, he said, "I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. I'd rather have you be hot or cold. be completely uncaring, completely ungrateful, or completely full of gratitude. One or the other. But don't be this in between thing because now you're just pretending.
You're just pretending. You're going through the motions, showing up in the jeans and the t-shirt when he dressed to the nines for you. So don't do that. Make the effort. Look for ways. Start the day off with gratitude and look for opportunities where you can show that to other people and reflect that to other people. And who knows the difference you might make because of it.
Now, I'm not telling you to look down on yourself. Don't look down on yourself. I mean, Jesus said after all that to love your neighbor as yourself, if you don't love yourself, how you going to love your neighbor? And you can't love God if you don't love yourself either, right? So don't look down on yourself, but just recognize when you are falling short and make adjustments. That's all I'm asking you to do. That's all Jesus is asking you to do.
That's all the Bible's asking you to do. Let's look up another scripture. 2 Corinthians 8:9.
There it says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich." Now I want you to imagine that you have a friend who wins the lottery, buys the right ticket, wins the lottery, instantly wealthy, but he doesn't keep the money. He gives it to you and he stays poor.
How grateful would you be to that guy? How thankful would you be that someone had won everything? They could have made their life easy for the rest of their days, but they loved you so much that rather than keeping that for themselves, they gave it to you. Or maybe even better, what if someone worked hard their entire life and became wealthy through their own effort and then gave it all to you and chose to become poor so that you might be rich. And you didn't even have to do anything to earn it.
That's what the scripture says Jesus did for you. He was rich in heaven, had everything. He didn't need anything else. He was wealthy in every conceivable way you could think of someone having wealth. But he took a servant's form, became poor, and died so that you could be rich. Did you have to do anything to earn that? No, you didn't.
You put faith in that sacrifice, and so you become wealthy in that relationship with God. When you think about it from that perspective, from what the scripture says, it changes everything and you should reflect on that often every day. Because when you do that, the little things that happen in life and even the big things that are difficult that happen in life, I'm not saying they're going to be easy, but they won't derail you. Your spirituality won't die because bad things happen because you know that that's a blip. That's a dot on the page and you have so many other things to be grateful for and to show appreciation for. I hope that makes sense to you. I hope you hear what I'm saying.
Let's look up one last scripture. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18. Let's close with this one.
It says, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. for you. Notice he didn't say give thanks whenever things are going well. No, he didn't say give thanks whenever your job's great, your family's great, your health is great, and everything's fantastic. No, give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Because the truth is in every circumstance, no matter what is happening, what do you have?
You have a relationship with God. And in the grand scheme of eternity, does anything else really matter? No matter how bad it is. If you die, he remembers you. If someone you dearly love dies, he remembers them. When bad things happen, he's got your back. When trials happen, what did James say?
Consider it all joy because that works out refinement in you. No matter what happens, there's way more paper than there is black dot. There's way more good in your life than there is bad. It's easy to lose sight of that, but we really need to work really hard not to. And the way that we do that is by not showing up in jeans and a t-shirt when he made so much effort for us. every day remind yourself of all the good things that you have because of him and what he did for you. If you do that, and I know you want to do that, you're going to find that every day is so much lighter and easier for you to get through.
So, let this be our prayer. Aba, Father, we come before you humbled by the extravagant love you showed us in Jesus. You held nothing back. You gave us everything. Forgive us for the times we've shown up half-heartedly, offering you the leftovers of our time, energy, and devotion. Help us to love you with all our heart, soul, and mind. Not out of duty, but out of deep gratitude for everything you've done.
When we're tempted toward lukewarm faith, remind us of the cross. Remind us that you dress in your finest for us, and we owe you nothing less than our whole lives in return. Give us hearts that overflow with thanksgiving, wills that choose obedience even when it costs us, and minds that are captivated by your truth. May our lives be a living thank you for the gift of your son. We love you, Lord. Help us love you more. In Jesus' name, amen.
I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my book, The Broken Mirror: Rediscovering Our True Nature in Christ. Readers call it a fantastic book where you will feel yourself discovering your identity in Christ. One reviewer praised it as five-star material for the spiritual mystic or group Bible study. It's time to escape legalism and shame. Discover you're already God's beloved child with divine nature flowing through you with what reviewers describe as excellent writing style and elegant pros like a campfire discussion with a knowledgeable and gifted recon tour. Journey from Genesis to Revelation, uncovering your true identity. This book shows how to access God's peace, wisdom, and strength from within.
Your struggles become opportunities for divine light to shine through. Available in hard coverver, paperback, Kindle, and audio book. The link to the book is in the video description. May God bless your journey along his path for you.
