My friends, if you want to live into the Promised Land of God’s great love and desires for you, you’ve got to move past your own plans that lead to an unwillingness to participate in God’s plans. You’ve got to place God FIRST in life. Then, you will return from the wilderness of sin. Then, you will enjoy God’s great desires for you.
So…yeah…wrath happens, even with otherwise ordinary people…most likely involving those with whom we’re closest to in life because they are the people over whom we have enough power to act out of wrath… So…yeah, wrath is bad. Wrath is dangerous. It harms the people toward whom we act with wrath, and it harms us…. So, my friends, leave wrath to the realm of God, and prevent the pain – to others and yourself – that results from wrath.
So, please, be careful. Remember that, while God loves you, God ALSO loves everyone else. While God loves you, God doesn’t want you, and you alone, to have it all. When you GET that, when you get past the selfish desires of greed, you will live into a way that benefits YOU even MORE than your greed, and you will live in a way that benefits everyone around you. In other words, you will replace the ways of death with the ways of life…for you and for everyone else.
My friends, today God calls to us to return from the wilderness of the sin of gluttony, of worthless living, of purposeless living and actions and speech. God calls us to return to living the way of purpose God places before us, the way that is best, given and directed by the One who made us and KNOWS what is best.
So, I encourage you, work diligently at all times to be content with what you have, with physical things as well as relational, spiritual, and positional things. Further, whenever you do start to feel a little envious, immediately do something to focus on God – as a way of taking your focus off the object of your envy/desire – so that you may live as God intends instead of suffering the pain and consequences of envy.
February 21, 2021 Sermon “Return from the Wilderness: Pride” 1st Scripture Reading – Esther 5:9-14 9 Haman went out that day happy and in good spirits. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and observed that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was infuriated with Mordecai; 10 nevertheless Haman restrained himself […]