Are You Worthy?
I.
Are You Worthy?
A. Don’t confuse righteous
with worthy of the precious things of God
1.
If
you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord by faith then you are righteous right now
a. Innocent-Free from guilt; not having done wrong
or violated any law; not tainted with sin; pure; upright
b. Faultless-Without
fault; free from blemish; free from incorrectness; Free from imperfection;
perfect
c. Guiltless-Guilt renders a person a debtor to the
law, as it binds him to pay a penalty in money or suffering. Guilt implies
liableness to punishment.
d. To be declared
righteous-A just person has been declared righteous; Justification is the act
of God removing from the sinner, his guilt and the penalty incurred by that
guilt, and bestowing a positive righteousness, not only innocent and uncondemned, but actually righteous in the point of law for
eternity
e. Approved of or accepted
of God; the condition acceptable to God; You are everything that you need to be
to approach God
f.
In
God’s eyes because of the blood and what’s it’s done you’ve done no wrong, you
owe nothing for “your” sin because you have none, God has declared you
righteous, he made you righteous, you are approved of God, accepted of God, you
are clean, you are holy and you are everything you need to be to approach God
boldly and your nature is good, you are a joint heir with Jesus and God has
given you all things that pertain to life and godliness and every believer can
experience the rich things of God and fully fulfill the plan of God for their life
and all of that happens the moment you’re born again
g. People through religious
thinking thought they are just substandard people who are not good enough and
don’t measure up and are not good enough for his blessing; None of us were good
enough and could never be so Jesus had to make us right with his righteousness
h. Because God paid such a
great price for you it shows how much worth you carry in his eyes and he deemed
you worthy of the price that He paid for you
B. Just because you are all
those things doesn’t mean that you are automatically worthy handling and
experiencing and having the precious things of God; There is a proving that has
to take place when it comes to the precious things of God and you have to deem
yourself worthy to have and handle God’s precious things
1.
Can
believers be unworthy to have certain things, to handle certain things?
2.
1Tim3:10-To be saved all you have to do is believe, but to be
chosen and used you have to be proven (Proved-Deemed Worthy)
a. Every believer is
accepted of God, but not every believing is deemed worthy of this
3.
Luke
16:11-God is not going to entrust you with a thing that you have not proven
yourself trustworthy to handle
4.
What makes you worthy to
be chosen to handle, to have, to experience the precious things of God?
C. God’s not going to let
His love for you blind Him of the truth that you are not worthy to handle these
precious things and just give them to you anyway because He loves you; such
things are too valuable to give to someone who doesn’t value them and so you’ve
judged yourself unworthy to have them and yet God still loves you
1.
God’s
not going to ignore how you treat him and his things and give you precious and
holy things anyway just because he loves you
a. There are some things
that are too precious and too valuable to give to someone who doesn’t value
them
b. They are not worthy to
handle them because the worth of the thing they are handling is very little in
their eyes
2.
The
care and the honor with which you treat God and His things is going to
determine the level of depth and richness that you experience in his things
D. We are not talking about
who’s righteous, who’s clean, who’s forgiven before God. That’s by the blood
and faith in the blood. We are
talking about who’s worthy to be honored by God, who’s worthy to have and handle
and experience the precious things of God.
II.
Acts 13:46-What you don’t
value and appreciate and honor you judge yourself unworthy to have
A. 26-The Word of salvation
is for everybody, but it’s not sent to everybody, it’s sent to those who fear
God
1.
16-This
is a precious thing that he is giving out and he makes it clear in the
beginning that he’s only talking to people who honor God
a. Is this word of salvation
precious, holy, sacred? Yes; Then as a result of that it’s only for those who
honor/fear God-Matthew 7:6
2.
If
you despise God/His things and don’t respect Him then this word is not sent to
you
a. Proverbs 23:9-Speak not in the ears of a fool; for he will
despise the wisdom of your words
3.
16-39-He
preaches Jesus to them and the resurrection and their justification
B. 41-Beware and take heed
and pay attention and see to it that this dishonor spoken of in the prophets
doesn’t come on you (judgment came on
God’s people in the Habakkuk because they despised, what they should have
honored)
1.
Can
it come on you? Yes. Does it have to come on you? No. You be on guard against
and see to it that it doesn’t come on you; You don’t have to be a person of
dishonor, but you have to guard against it and not allow it to come on you
2.
You’re
going to despise, you’re going to wonder, and you’re going to perish; don’t let
that happen to you
a. 41-There’s a connection
between dishonoring and despising the things of God and perishing-Proverbs
13:13
3.
41-Beware of not honoring
and valuing what you should honor and value
a. Don’t think little or
nothing of this message you’re hearing; Don’t make light of it
b. MSG-Don’t take this lightly. You
don’t want the prophet’s sermon to describe you. “Watch out cynics; Look hard
– watch your world fall to pieces. I’m doing something right before your
eyes that you won’t believe though it’s staring you in the face.”
C. The Gentiles wanted what
Jews didn’t, they valued what the Jews threw out and rejected
1.
42-The
Gentiles valued theses words he preached and wanted these words preached to
them again (Amp-Earnestly Begged)
2.
44-How
did word get out about this meeting that was coming up next Sabbath? The
Gentiles must have went a told people how great this word was and the whole
city turned out to hear this word; They value this word that was preached
3.
45-This
is dishonoring and despising the Word of God; The spoke against the words Paul
spoke, not just Paul himself
a. Spoke against-Contradict, Deny, Gainsaying-Declaring it not to
be true, dispute
b. Blaspheming-Reproach-Scorn
or contempt; Railing-To utter
reproaches, to scoff; Revile-To treat
with contemptuous language; Slander-A
false report maliciously uttered and tending to injure the reputation of
another by lessening him in the esteem of others
4.
46-Put it from you-Thrust away, push away,
reject, refuse (They did this to the Word)
a. Why would you push it
away and reject it? Because it means nothing to you and is of no value to you
D. 46-Because you don’t
value it you judge yourself unworthy to have it
1.
They
passed judgment on themselves that they weren’t worthy to have it
a. Judge-Deem, Determine; They deemed this to be so and determined
this to be so
2.
What made them unworthy?
a. It wasn’t bad behavior,
it was that they were just intrinsically bad people, it wasn’t that they
weren’t perfect enough, it wasn’t their lack of good works – What made
them unworthy of it is that they didn’t honor it and value it
b. Do you think in this
crowd of gentiles there were any people who weren’t perfect, who had some bad
behavior, who lacked in good works? Absolutely – What made them worthy of
it is that the valued it, they honored it, and it meant something to them
c. What makes you worthy? It’s not your good works or that
you’re intrinsically better than someone else; what makes you worthy is that
you honor it and value it and it means something to you and it’s important to
you and that makes you worthy of it
3.
It wasn’t just God
judging them unworthy of it, He wanted them to have it – Through dishonor
they judged themselves unworthy of it
E. 46-Lo, we turn to the
Gentiles-He said we found somebody that wanted it – God goes where honor is
1.
They had judged
themselves worthy of it and it wasn’t through a bunch of good works it was
through their honor for it
2.
47-Why would God send
these guys to these people? Because he knew their heart and he knew they would
value it and honor it
a. Why did God send Elijah
to THAT widow? Why did God send Elisha to THAT leper? Why did God send Paul to
THESE people?
3.
48-Do you know why
they’re getting the Word and getting revelation of it? The answer is right
here, because they glorified (honored) it
F. Why did God choose to do
this for them? The Jews were invited, but the Gentiles were chosen
III.
Matthew 22:1-14-What you
make light of you judge yourself unworthy to partake of
A. 3-These people that
didn’t come are people of dishonor and it shows up right away
1.
He
had to send his servants to call them there were invited; You can tell already that
it doesn’t mean much to these people; They were already were invited, but
didn’t come so he had to send his servants to go call them to tell them it’s
ready so come on now; if it was important to you you’d be there before it was
ready
2.
4-AGAIN-He Gave them a third chance (1st
Chance was the invitation, 2nd chance was sending his servants the
first time)
3.
If
they will honor their king and come they are going to partake of some rich things
and this wedding, but because of dishonor/disrespect/despising this their window
of opportunity is closing; God affords us certain opportunities that won’t last
forever
B. 3-Why wouldn’t you come? You
could have come, but you chose not to so why? It’s not important enough to you
and something else was too important to you, more important to you
1.
3-They
WOULD not come; that didn’t say they COULD not come, it said they WOULD not
come; So they COULD have come
2.
5-What
was so important? One’s farm and another’s business was more important to them
than God and His things
C. 5-The made light of it
(Carless, Neglect)-NEVER make light of
something that is important to the Lord, for that is dishonor
1.
The
dinner was no big deal to them and so them not being at the dinner was a no big
deal to them, and they think that them not being there will be no big deal to
the King/the Lord, but it was a big deal to the King/the Lord
a. Luke14:16-Great Supper-Things esteemed highly for
their importance
b. Luke 14:18-20-They made excuse
and asked to be excused and they weren’t excused; It was not okay with the Lord
that they didn’t come and it was a big deal to him that they didn’t come, but
they thought was it’s no big deal
1)
Just cause you want it to
be okay doesn’t mean that it is okay ; “Oh it’s okay”
“Oh it’s not a big deal” “The Lord understands”
2)
There’s no excuse for God
not being first, there’s no excuse for dishonor
2.
You
dishonor the Lord and your things will be lightly esteemed
a. 5-7-In doing this to the
King’s servants they dishonored the King and because they dishonored him their
lives and their stuff was lightly esteemed by him and mean nothing to him
b. This guy’s farm and this
guy’s business now mean little to nothing to the Lord
D. 8-The ones who rejected
this wedding and didn’t esteem and value it were not worthy of it; they
actually judged themselves unworthy to partake of it because they didn’t esteem
it and it wasn’t important to them
1.
What they were going to partake
of at this wedding was too good for them to have; They weren’t worthy of it
2.
What made them unworthy
of it? It wasn’t their bad conduct or that they were bad people or that they
were substandard people who just didn’t measure up and weren’t good enough for
it; You couldn’t say that because He invited them, He picked them, He selected
them and asked them to come and even when they ignored him he asked them again-What
made them unworthy of it is that they didn’t value it and it didn’t mean
anything to them
a. 10-They might have been bad, but they valued it enough to
come and here there are people whose conduct wasn’t all that good and yet they
partook of it because it meant something to them
b. 10-With maybe not the best conduct they judged themselves
worthy to partake of it because it means something to them
3.
10-Do
you think these people in the highways were doing anything, going anywhere, had
plans that day? Do you think maybe some of them had their own business or had
their own farms and were tending to those things when the invitation came? Yet
this wedding and their king meant enough to them that whatever they were doing
it wasn’t as important as their king and this wedding he was having and because
that was their attitude they judged themselves worthy to partake of it
4.
If it’s not worth it to
you, then you are not worthy of it
a. What you don’t value and appreciate and honor you judge
yourself unworthy to have – Is that fair?
E. 11-His heart was reveled
in how he is was dressed and what he wore
1.
11-The
way he was dressed revealed his heart, that this wedding wasn’t that important
to him
2.
12-He
was speechless b/c he didn’t think that what he wore mattered to the king;
after all HE showed up when others didn’t
3.
13-He
lost the opportunity to be at this wedding because he did not value it and we
saw that in how he dressed
F. 14-Many are invited but
few are chosen; who does God choose? He chooses those that honor him and value
his things
1.
It’s not a mystery or
some type of random thing when it comes to who God chooses; it’s clear and He
makes it clear to us that he choses those that honor him
2.
You don’t have to wonder
if you’ll be chosen or be afraid that you won’t be chosen, you can ensure that
you will be chosen by honoring God and his things the best you know how
G. 2-The Kingdom of Heaven
is like this (God invites people to partake of precious things and many don’t
have time for it so they miss out on it, but there are a few who will value it
and esteem it as precious and they will partake of the rich things of God)