May 21, 2015 Getting Ahead 5 - God's Special Love for the Lowly and Disadvantaged

Lord, thank You for the opportunity to worship You this morning. Help us to remove all distractions today – that our hearts may be wholly and fully Yours.

We’ve been going through the life of Jacob – looking at this family. Last week – we looked at how Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, but Laban pulled the switcheroo – and gives him Leah – and this is weird for us because we don’t live this way – and these relationships are a mess. This should give us hope

Genesis 29:30

Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah

This favoritism that has run from Abraham onward – and sibling rivalry – cause so many problems. This results in many bad choices.

Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah,

31 Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

There is a theme that runs through the Bible that give us some characteristics of God – and the indication is that God blesses and favors the side of the weak and disadvantaged – the weak and lowly. He has a special concern for those who are left out for one reason or another.

If you have children, you know what it is like – you want your children to have friends – to make connections and good relationships – we hate to see a kid who is left out – or the last one picked. Or the one who plays in the game when it doesn’t really matter. I knew some coaches like that! None of us wants that. I remember when one of ours first went to school – after being homeschooled for a couple years. Just a couple days after school started – we lived near the school and I remember driving by the school – and seeing that child of mine standing off on his own looking on at everyone playing – and I remember how that felt in my heart – and let me say – that kid became extremely popular – but those early days – as a Dad, it made me anxious.

What must it be like if God looks down to His church and sees those who are left out? What must that be like for the Father? The problem is – He knows who is leaving them out! For some reason – over and over again in the Bible – God has a special concern for those who are left out. It may be economically or socially – but God has a special place.

Mary – in the Magnificat –

Mary was left out. She was a pregnant single woman in a society where they got rid of people like that:

Luke 1:46 And Mary said, "My soul exalts the Lord, 47 and my spirit has begun to rejoice in God my Savior, 48 because he has looked upon the humble state of his servant. For from now on all generations will call me blessed, 52 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and has sent the rich away empty.

The Bible says over and over again that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. He is not impressed with your competencies, skills, athletic abilities, your looks…

As we look at Jacob’s life we see that God is in opposition to the way the world thinks and does things. And sometimes He is in opposition to the way His church works! God is not impressed by our coolness or athletic abilities – but people are. Cindy is a school teacher - Studies have shown that teachers – because they are human – will favor the more attractive kids and give them better grades. They don’t do it on purpose. They try their best to be fair. And even more revealing: children learn better from attractive teachers! The good news is that for the left out and the lonely – God acts on your behalf! Most great movements of God have started with the disadvantaged in society. I honestly think you can look at elections in America and see the power of that – whether it is honest or dishonest – I can’t say – but there is power there. God blesses in and through our weaknesses.

God’s special love for the lowly and disadvantaged does not always mean worldly advancement. God blesses us all in and through our weaknesses. God’s special favor to the lowly? That doesn’t seem right? He should treat us all the same! But to be honest – we are all the lowly! No matter how good looking you are – you are tremendously disadvantaged, and should feel tremendously humble in that circumstance. It takes great security in Christ to live out of our weaknesses. We want to live out of our strengths – and in the business world, that may be fine – but God wants us to live out of our weaknesses and incompetencies. Paul said he boasted about his weaknesses. The most competent people are those who learn to live out of their insufficiencies. In light of that – we need to know our flaws and weaknesses – to understand them. This family – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob - they missed it. They did not understand where their family problems were.

I do this all the time – I ask myself:

“Why do I act and respond the way I do in that situation?”

I ask myself this question a LOT! After it is over – I evaluate it – and I need to know the answer! There is a reason! When there is a way you act that you are not pleased with – you act that way in certain circumstances for a reason. There is always something much deeper inside of you. There is a reason this family is such a mess – and it goes back generations. We need to figure it out for ourselves.

Why do I self-medicate with _____________food/sex/alcohol/binge-watching tv shows? when something happens.

Relationships – why do you self-destruct?

We all do those things. We have things that we go to. It is different for each of us. We need to discover why that is.

Why do I get angry when ______? You are not angry when a child spills milk because the child spilled milk.

Here are some strategies. This is the study of my life.

I gave these awful names:

First – the Shock and Awe strategy – overwhelm yourself with truth in that area.

Practical example: Early in my Christian life – and even today – there are issues I deal with because of guilt and shame.

I struggled so much – and it weighed me down – so I overwhelmed myself with hundreds of verses from the Bible on grace and love and forgiveness. Another issue – because of things later on in my Christian life – there was a focus on legalistic and literalistic approaches to Christianity – and I saw that it warped me – and I remember reading Yancey’s What’s so Amazing About Grace, and it grabbed me – and I began to read all kinds of authors on GRACE – and it has been transformative.

The second I call – Small Practice Training – training by doing little things. Patience – when I get in a car – I say – I am not in a hurry! Or when waiting for Cindy to get ready – I am not in a hurry!

You need to have training tools – we train kids.

An unknown Navy Seal has said – Under pressure – you never rise to the occasion – you sink to the level of his training. Lebron is not rising to the occasion – he has trained more than just about anyone, I guess.

Gen. 29:32 Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, "Because the LORD has seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me." 33 Then she conceived again and bore a son and said,

"Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also." So she named him Simeon. 34 She conceived again and bore a son and said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore he was named Levi. 35 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the LORD." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

There are deep meanings about names. We see deep into Leah’s soul by how she named these children. Leah is looking for a God who would even the score. Her view of God is seen in her naming of her children: God is the Great Score Evener - that God should be adjusting the scales of justice. She is saying – I deserve good things from God because bad things have happened to me. And that is a fundamentally flawed view of God in every way. It sounds like it is fundamentally sound, but it is flawed. And eventually she gets to the point of – I’m just going to praise God.

God is good and kind and merciful not because we do good, but because He loves us. This is a totally opposite view of God than Leah’s. God doesn’t keep score and even the score – otherwise, we would all lose! Ultimately, there will be justice, of course – and when God sets up His reign – His love will triumph over His justice. We won’t say – yeah, they got what they deserved! But we will be overwhelmed with the love and mercy of God.

Genesis 30:1 Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die."

In their culture – to be barren – well, in any culture, this is difficult – but in their culture, it was all they had.

2 Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?" 3 She said, "Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may have children."

Rachel is the loved one – the one of blessing – and all of a sudden, things are going Leah’s way. She has a competitive spirit and bad choices are made.

We are talking about control issues – and a competitive spirit is about control issues. We live in a competitive world – and I would say, God is opposed to that. That is not to say that all competition is bad. And many of us are rooting for a team to get to the next level – and as long as it is done in good sportsmanship – it is harmless and good fun. The problem is – rarely does it ever stay at that. But when we wish bad on the opponent – that is not good.

You know I am a Buckeye fan through and through. I got to a point where I HATED Michigan. So I got to a point where I stopped watching when I wanted a team to lose. It is too negative. It’s not worth it. It is just a competitive spirit that rots the bones away.

In the day to day world, another person does not have to lose for you to win! That is not how the world works, I know that! But that is how God sees it. The world works that way in business, politics, and education – and even religion. But in reality before God – what God says – the way we win is by making others win.

Philippians 1:17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

It even happens in the church

And Paul’s answer – the solution:

Philippians 2:4 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Learning to put others forward – to see others’ needs and interests as more valuable than yours. When I do marriage counseling – I put that at number 1. Communication is great – but it is not number 1. Number one is Philippians 2 – putting the other first – he or she is more important than me.