Mark 12:28-34 (ESV)
28 And one of the scribes came up and
heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well,
asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
29 Jesus answered, “The
most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 And you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.’ 31 The
second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no
other commandment greater than these.”
32 And the scribe said to him, “You are
right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no
other besides him. 33 And to love
him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the
strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than
all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered
wisely, he said to him, “You
are not far from the kingdom of God.”
And after that no one dared to ask him
any more questions.
Why
is it that some people seem to have it –
All
the while - others just do not?
I am talking about having Confidence or Self-Esteem
within you.
I think we have all been there. Haven’t we?
Even
when you Just Walk into a room,
·
Sometimes you can just
smell it,
·
Even taste the
movement,
·
The Leadership,
·
The Power.
·
And Decisions, Great
Decisions are made.
And then there are those other times when you walk
in,
·
And there seems to
be nothing about the people there.
·
Everyone is lazy,
·
Slow to move,
·
No decisions being
made about anything!
·
(Where do you want to eat? I don’t know, where do
you want to go. I don’t know, any place is fine with me. Well, you want to go
to ABC? Oh no, we had that last week. So where do you want to go? I don’t know.)
·
Just nothing gets
done.
·
Everyone is seemingly
waiting for the other person to start first.
o
But even in that, they
don’t know if that way is the best or not, - so they still wait.)
Why,
Just why is there such a Difference?
Some say it is from how they grew up. What type of
family they came from.
But if that was true, then in a job interview, you
should bring your parents and brothers and sisters in with you along with a few
of the neighbors who could also be interviewed with you on what type of family
you have come from.
That seems a little drastic but really. If that
argument was true, to get a full understanding of who anyone is, wouldn’t we
have to do that?
But maybe, just maybe there is a more correct
answer.
Yes, it is true.
·
Somewhere within the
picture,
·
Someone has to have
FAITH IN YOU for you to understand the difference.
That is understanding the difference between having
or not having Self-Esteem.
But what does the Lord say about putting that much
trust into any man.
Thus, says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes
flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. Jeremiah 17:5 (ESV)
Now, before you begin to quote me,
·
I am not saying that we don’t have
a part in raising ‘GOOD’ children
·
And that you have to have children
to impact the world.
·
OH NO, I am NOT Saying that at
all.
Of Course, we do. We all Do.
We are called to be “God’s
Light” here on earth.
But as students, as children, we shouldn’t base our lives upon who
we follow, who raised us, who is around us.
That excuse of “Well, I didn’t have … as I grew up.”
Now, I have had Great Parents.
Of course, they have their faults, but who doesn’t?
But they raised me and my brothers and sisters
·
With the understanding,
·
With the teaching that you are
loved,
·
You are wanted,
·
You are special,
·
And you can do whatever you set
your mind to.
And it literally, breaks my heart when I see someone coming from
an abusive family.
·
Now abuse comes in so many forms
o From Violence to just Demeaning.
o But any type of abuse, it doesn’t matter.
o They all have one thing in common.
o And that’s Power.
So, if we are not to rely upon others, who should we count upon?
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. Psalm 11:8 (ESV)
So, what is there? Is it a toss of a coin, you get
Self-Esteem or you do not?
No- Not at all.
You put your trust in the One - who has been there
for you before you were even you.
·
While we were
still in our darkness.
·
Still lost to our hate,
·
And in our selfness,
·
God
had a planned from the very
beginning of time
·
And God put it into action,
·
He saved us from our forever darkness
·
He offered Himself as an example of His Love for us.
·
He loved us even though, we hated Him so much.
1 John 4:9 “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and
only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.”
Our
need for Self-Esteem is one
of the deepest and most universal of all human needs.
·
Most certainly, Educators, psychologists, criminologists,
and sociologists, all agree that
when
o
Someone's Dignity,
o
Their Sense of Worth,
o
Their Self-Image,
o
And Their Self-Esteem is taken away,
§ Their
ability to function as a productive human-being is severely crippled.
“The enemy’s
purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.
John 10:10a
Now I am MOST Certainly not to say that we can’t
have a drastic change in our lives and that is especially true when we ask for
the help of God.
v But, would you agree that for most of us, the blueprint of Our Self-Esteem
is built within us while we are still children.
v And would it surprise you to hear that out of 1 in 7 girls and 1 in 25 boys
will be sexually abused before the time that they turn 18.
v And the risk of you
becoming a sexual predator is greatly increased if you yourself have
been abused during your youth.
v And children who grow up within a criminal family type of lifestyle are so much more greatly at risk to
continue themselves with some sort of criminal activity into their adult lives.
And Wouldn’t you agree with me that the
·
Most important missing ingredient within the lifestyles of those few abuses that we
just mentioned
·
Would be a strong belief
·
And a close following of our Lord Savior.
And without having GOD in our lives,
·
We can conclude that “Self-Esteem” would be
lacking in all involved.
o
Not only the predator
§ but also, within the development of the victim.
When I read and think of anything about the 2
Greatest Commandments,
·
It has always made
me stumble over the fact that not all people Love themselves
·
So if they are to
treat others as they feel about themselves, sometimes, that doesn’t leave much
Love to spread around.
But that is not what God had Planned for us.
That Low Self-Esteem is from the evil, not from the
ONE OF GLORY.
In 2016, there were 44,965 recorded suicides, up from 42,773 in
2014. On average, the annual U.S. suicide rate has increased 24% between 1999
and 2014, to the highest rate recorded.
Just think of someone who is successful in life?
o
Do they not have a Healthy Self-Image?
Now, think of someone who is:
·
often depressed and
unhappy.
·
Who seems that they
can’t make a decision to save their life.
·
Who constantly goes
back and back to an abusive relationship.
Could
it be because they think so little of themselves?
When we live without our Self-Esteem, doesn’t it
cause us to be
o
In an attitude where
it is so difficult to GIVE?
o
It makes it hard for
us to be in Love and to be able to offer true LOVE?
o
To be CARED for as well as for us to CARE for others,
o
And Isn’t it even Hard
to TRUST anyone. And that Even falls
upon Trusting Ourselves.
Jesus
is most certainly not blind
to this one-very-basic human need.
·
Throughout
his ministry, Jesus is often reaching out to those
who had Low-Self-Esteem, offering them a Healing Touch of Himself.
·
Even in Our Word for Today, When the scribe in
today's Gospel asks Jesus,
o
"Which commandment is the first of all?"
·
Is he really not
asking the question:
o
“What is the most important thing in life”?
He could have just as easily asked it this way,
"What must I do more than anything else to be
happy and satisfied?
What must I do to feel like somebody, to have some
self-esteem?"
Jesus repeated His answer with a message which was recorded
in the Book of Luke 10:27:
"Love
the Lord your God with all your heart,
·
With all your soul,
·
With all your mind,
·
And with all your strength."
When Jesus talks about this kind of complete Love of
God,
·
He is describing
what it is like
o
To Trust in God
§ No
matter what.
Do
we have that?
Do
we have that Type of Trust in Our God?
Do
we have that Type of Faith in God Regardless of our circumstances?
Can we picture a child who has complete
·
And total belief in
his/her parents
·
That they will take
care of him/her no matter what.
Can we picture a wife who is trusting completely in
her
·
Husband that he will
be faithful to her no matter what.
o
When a wife trusts her husband,
o
When a child counts on his/her parents,
o
It gives them a
sense of
§ Confidence,
§ Assurance,
§ Self-Esteem.
Believing-in, the ‘Ultimate Author of all Creation’
·
Values
and Treasures even in the littlest
of things,
·
The things which if
I was the creator,
o
Maybe wouldn’t have been
so important to me,
o
And just as an
example of this
§ It could be the
color of dirt.
§ Why did God feel that He needed to have more than
one color? ‘Brown’
§ Yes, multicolor dirt looks very pretty, Yes - but is
it necessary?
With Him though,
·
Creating such a wide variety of such things as “just the color of the dirt”
o
It Can't help us but
gain the image of
o
The Type and Amount of Love which
§ He has implanted
within such things as
§ Everyone’s
Good and Personal
Self-Image.
Without having Self Worth, Self-Esteem, it is
difficult,
·
If not even
impossible to understand
·
That the Love that
we should have for God is inseparable,
o
It is firmly attached
to the Love that we should have for our neighbors.
I
believe until we can love ourselves,
we can never know the fullness of God’s Love for us.
One
who truly Loves God will have a sense
of Self-Esteem.
·
And he who has Self-Esteem,
o
Should not only Love
himself,
o
But should also be
able to equally Love his neighbor.
When
we earnestly believe:
Ø That we are not garbage BECAUSE
Ø "God doesn't make any garbage,"
Having the Love of God within you
·
It will not only
change and improve how we feel about ourselves
o
But, if we are
following Our Lord,
o
We also won't treat
other people
§ As if they were garbage
either.
But let’s face it.
Believing in God with all our:
Ø Heart,
Soul, Mind, and Strength
is no easy task.
We know this, IT IS DISPLAYED right in-front of your
own eyes,
·
Just by the way in
which we treat others.
One
of the characteristics
of having low Self-Esteem is,
·
Found in the way that
we strike out at everyone else!
Just as a Rattle
Snake strikes out to kill, so do we.
·
We strike out to
destroy others,
·
And many of these
times,
·
It is just so that
we ourselves can feel better about ourselves.
ü When we do not think highly of ourselves,
ü When we have had a bad day,
ü When we are down in the dumps,
ü That is when it is so easy for us to strike out in
anger at everyone.
ü Even those who are the closest to us.
Do you find that information strange?
Or do you find yourself in there somewhere?
It is in the times when we feel down,
ü when we are in our
lowest-of-lowests.
·
Then it is easy for us to cut someone else
down to size with our slander and our
gossip.
It is When we are insecure about ourselves,
·
That is when we feel
we need to grab
o
All the power and
success that we can.
·
When we are unsure
about ourselves,
o
That is when we
recklessly pursue
o
One pleasure right after
another,
o
With No Regard of those
consequences.
·
We think that this
is the only way
o
For us to feel good
about ourselves.
·
We often try to hide
this secret
o
Of having Low Self-Esteem
from others
But their secret is given away,
·
It is often within the
ones who boasts about themselves,
o
Telling everyone
just how great they really are,
o
It is found in
these,
§ Who are actually acting out,
§ Who are trying to overcome their own sense of self-doubt, Low-Self-Esteem.
·
As if - Just Maybe,
if he boasts enough,
o
Not only will others
o
But perhaps even he
o
Will begin to
believe
o
That he is someone
worthwhile.
I
am sorry to bring the news that
·
This haunting voice of “self-doubt”
·
And
the “insecurity”
·
Have been alive and
well
·
And with us for over
6000 years.
And the ‘church’ calls this destroyer, "SIN."
SIN begins with our inability to love God,
·
It comes from our shame
·
And self-doubt
and Low-Self-Esteem
o
And it leaves us hiding
in the bushes.
o
With knowing all too
well of our Nakedness,
o
And Most certainly
of our Unworthiness,
o
Just like those
first sinners, Adam and Eve.
SIN; Now we know How Ugly it is,
But how would we describe “WHAT” SIN is?
·
“It is living without fear!
o
And without the love for!
§ And
of God!”
Now, CORRECT me if I am wrong, but doesn’t that
describe the consequences of hell:
·
To live without any sense of Self-Esteem.
·
To be trapped in the depths
o
Of our own despair
o
And within our own self-hatred?
o
Feeling all too well
and comfortable
§ Within our own self-righteousness.
Yes, that is the definition of what SIN is and what
it does.
·
But Today, I stand
before you and tell you
o
That such a
Lifestyle of hell
§ Is not only a life for our Eternity.
·
But rather, it can
be for us now
o
"Hell for us right
here on earth" Right Now.
When we go to God,
Being ready to
And we confess our
sins to Him,
·
We are not just going to Him in acknowledgment that we have done something "naughty."
·
We are not just confessing about having eaten some forbidden fruit.
o
Or Doing something
that we know is wrong.
Within
our walk in this Sinful World, SIN can affect us in mainly 3 different ways.
A. There
is the first. When we are openly living a Christian Lifestyle and we fall to the temptation of and then choosing of that
Sin. But after repenting, and moving back to the “God
Side” and asking for forgiveness, we are once again, walking with the Lord.
That’s One Way
But then there is the other.
B.
This comes when we refuse to acknowledge that there is a God over us. So there for, this God
and His Plan and His After this life, has nothing to do with me. If I do not
acknowledge Him, then how I choose to live my life is up to me and no other
punishment other than what this world can do, will come upon me.
The Truth is, Yes, we do have Free-Will to believe
in whatever we want. However the other Truth is that it doesn’t matter what we
believe in, God will be our judge at the end no matter what.
But there is still a 3rd way.
C.
This is when we feel that since of our circumstances or because of our changing world, God has to adjust
His Judging Bar to fit us as individuals. This is when we feel that we have
lived a life which is “Right Enough” and that is that. God will have to adjust
to fit us.
However, the Truth is that we will all be judged by
the same set of rules and they are all found within our Scripture for today.
See – “Living
in Sin” (The B & C examples) means that we can never seem to shed
the suspicion that we are not good enough.
·
Living in SIN means
that ‘We accept and always find THAT
THE LIE of the serpent makes Total Sense
o
"God
doesn't care about you,
o
So,
you had better take things into your own hands!"
·
Living in SIN means
that we are eternally in search of Our Self-Esteem and never-ever able to obtain
it.
·
Living in SIN means
that we can never bring ourselves
o
To trust God,
o
Nor are we able to
o
Love God with all
our heart,
o
With all of your soul,
o
With all of your mind,
o
And with all of your
strength.
o
And thereby,
§ We are unable to Love our neighbors as ourselves
§ And if we are Really Honest,
·
We really don’t even
Love ourselves.
Yes - The scribe within Our Word for today, seems to
know all the right answers.
·
He knows the
importance of the Love of God
·
As well as our loving
our neighbors.
·
After Jesus searched
the scribe’s heart
o
Jesus even compliments
him on this.
·
“You are not far
from the kingdom”.
That
sounds like Great News for the Scribe
But
it also says that he is still not yet there!!!
Something is still missing.
·
And
That ‘something’ is his ability to follow through.
Here is the thing.
·
There is No ONE Person - here on earth who can follow through
o
And keep this
command to Love God and neighbor.
I SEE SOME SHIFTING OF DOUBT.
BUT LET ME EXPLAIN -
·
It is True, There is no person here on earth who can do it
o
Because
there is no one on this earth who is not tainted by the Curse of Eden.
·
This is because
there is no person this side of
o
Genesis 3 whose “Self-Esteem” has not been cracked.
The Scriptures and Our Christian practice
·
Boldly Announces to
the world that
o
This kind of Self-Esteem,
o
This conviction that
we are indeed somebody,
o
That is Even within
the Eyes of God,
§ This must be Given to us!
o
It must be Bestowed
upon us!
o
We cannot take it!
o
We can only receive
it!
The mission of the church, it is OUR Task to
proclaim this unto the world:
·
What we can never-ever
seem to attain for ourselves
·
Has been given to us
by God.
o
It is a Gift.
o
It is Grace.
o
That is, IF WE
ACCEPT IT.
We
have Good News today!
WE
Have Great News for ALL OF US Today!
My purpose
is to give you a rich and satisfying life.”
John 10:10b
God
didn’t mean this in a “Prosperous way”, of course not.
·
But rather in a Rich-Filled
·
And Loved-Full
·
And Taken Care-Always Kind-Of-Way.
Within
this:
v You
can Love God with all your Heart,
Soul, Mind, and Strength.
·
You can Trust God.
·
You can Cling to God
because He Clings to you!
·
God Loves you, even
though,
o
In spite of,
o
The doubts,
o
The fears,
o
The worries,
o
The sweaty hands,
o
The frightening
dreams in the middle of the night,
o
The cracks that seem
to be more like giant gaps within your own Self-Esteem,
o
Yes, it is true,
these feelings are always lurking just around the next corner.
However, even though the evil one seems to
constantly
·
Wave them in front
of us,
·
Constantly,
·
And it seems that we
will never lose them,
That’s OK - Because
·
God still Loves you.
·
God Forgives you in
spite of all the evil you have done against Him.
·
You are His sons and
daughters.
So
Sit Up,
NO
STAND UP!!!
·
There is no need to slump.
·
This is no time to slouch!
·
This is Not the time to hide in the back row!
·
It is Not the time to try to slip away unnoticed.
·
You are the Crown of God's creation.
·
You are His beloved sons and daughters.
Given the flaws of which we are all too aware of,
·
Given
the blemishes of which we are everlastingly
embarrassed of,
·
Given
the sins of which we are
continually ashamed of,
·
Doesn’t this seem to
be
o
An incredible and
outrageous claim for the church to make.
Oh Yes - It would be if it were not for
the One
·
Who is making this
incredible claim on our behalf.
·
He comes with the highest
authorization.
·
He
is Jesus Christ
·
He is God's very
own Son.
·
He is the One who
comes among us,
o
He is the One who
makes public the secret,
o
To reveal what has been
all too hidden
§ Found within pain
§ And within the doubt of this fallen world.
God
Loves You and Me.
God
Forgives You and Me.
We
are His beloved sons and daughters.
We
can have our Self-Esteem.
There
is probably no other action
within the Church's Life
·
And the Worship of
the Word
o
Which offers more revealing
of the Truth
o
That Our-Self-Esteem
is a Pure Gift from God.
·
We find this proof,
·
This Truth within
ourselves,
·
We find it within
the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
When we
accept the knowledge of
·
Jesus Christ,
o The Son of
God,
§
That He Was given for us.
·
That it is ONLY through Him
o Which we
can come to Everlasting Life.
·
For we have all sinned
o We have
all fallen short of the Glory of God.
·
And we know that it is through
o Our Surrendering
o Our Repenting
o And Forgiving
all others
o And through
Asking to be forgiven,
o That it is
through the Grace of God,
o In which we
are, just that - Forgiven.
It is
through this
·
Surrender of Ourselves over unto the Lord,
·
Having the Water of Life poured over us
·
When we do this in His Name
·
The Name of God and we speak His Name
For it is not important of what the pastor is doing.
It
is ONLY of what the Almighty God
- Himself is doing.
It is God Himself who is
·
Declaring before us,
·
Declaring before the
world,
·
And most of all,
·
To the person being
Baptized
·
That it is for them
that Jesus, the Son of Man, was Betrayed, Disrespected, Beaten and Tortured,
Humiliated, That He was Separated from God His Father as He took upon Himself -
our sins.
·
And then He died.
·
And through His
Death and His Resurrection,
·
Christ sealed the
fate of the Lost – doomed for all eternity
·
As well as Opened
the Path to the Everlasting Life with Him.
·
Yes, it is God the
Father Himself who is declaring this Truth to the one being Baptized.
It is because of this washing of the waters of Baptism,
·
They have a new Identity.
·
They have a new Destiny.
Just like Jesus who went before them,
·
The baptized have
the promise of the Creator of Heaven and earth.
·
The Promise of the Creator
who will never Abandon them.
·
The Promise of the
Creator who will always Love them.
·
The Promise of the
Creator who will always Welcome them.
·
The Promise of the
Creator who will always be their "Heavenly Father.”
Just as Jesus trusted His Father all the way to the
cross and beyond, Jesus was not disappointed.
·
Nothing and no one
can ever separate the Baptized from the Love of their new Heavenly Father through
Jesus Christ.
This powerful promise,
·
This eternal
assurance can always comfort the Baptized.
·
Every time our value
of a person is called into question,
·
Every time we begin
to doubt our own self-worth,
·
We can be reassured
by what has happened through our Baptism!
·
God honors you.
·
God Loves You.
·
So, you can honor and
Love yourself.
It is because of this "washing with the Word"
we will always be "somebody."
·
The world will
always challenge this claim.
·
It will always attack,
·
And it will always call
into question what has “Really been given to us by Our Heavenly Father”.
But because of our new identity which has been given
to us in our baptism, we can always be sure of
·
Who we are.
·
We can be confident.
·
We truly can have our
Self-Esteem.
Building on this new identity,
·
We
can dare to be different
from those around us.
·
We
don’t need to lust for the applause
of our peers
o
Nor the respect
of our neighbors.
·
We don’t need to be burdened
by our failures.
·
We don’t need to hide
in the back row.
·
We don’t need to
hide within,
o
To be namelessness
within the crowd.
No - Instead we can and should STAND TALL!!!
·
We are found to be Righteous within our Humility for our
Lord.
·
We
are someone who we can
respect and find humble pride within, within being - in the
family of God’s.
·
We are now someone
who can dare to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Why?
How can this be?
It is because Jesus has died for us.
As we are called to help nurture the young saints
who are around us,
·
Just like ourselves,
·
They too have been
given the same promises passed onto them through their baptism, as we have.
We are called to remind
·
And to reassure
one another
·
Of what God has
offered to us in our baptism.
When that baptismal water was poured over us,
·
We were connected
to the LIFE,
o
To the death,
§ And resurrection of Jesus.
Therefore, we are somebody!
·
We know who we are!
·
We can have
self-esteem!
If God can be this proud of us and with that type of
Love,
·
Then we surely can
be proud of ourselves.
·
We can have Self-Esteem within
o The
Name of the Father,
o The
Son
o And
The Holy Spirit. Amen
