Presented to TSA AV Ministries, 17 November 2024, by Major Michael Ramsay
Romans 3:35-4:4:
God presented Christ as a
sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by
faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his [patience]
he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to
demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one
who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
27
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that
requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain
that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29 Or is
God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles
too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith
and the uncircumcised through that same faith. 31 Do we, then, nullify the law
by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
What
then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh,
discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he
had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say?
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
The
last two verses again: If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had
something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say?
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
I have been blessed. I am
thankful that I received the King Charles III Coronation Medal last night – so
thankful. As I said last night, I really do think this award is meant to
honour all of us and all of the work all of we do.
After
not sleeping well the last couple of nights my mind started to wander as I read
the scriptures in the very early hours of the morning. I realized that I have been
blessed, I have been honoured a few times in my life.
These
things do mean a lot to me – but - I know that I didn’t get The King Charles III medal or any other award because I work harder or better than anyone and
everyone else. I know this and any and every other trinket (which mean so much
to me) could easily have been given to others. I know it
is the Grace of God when any of us receive honours and a blessing of God when any
of us receive recognition. I do find it really humbling And I am glad that I
received it for teamwork – even the MP mentioned that.
I am greatly humbled that God chooses to use us here in The Salvation Army the way He does. And I am very aware before God that I should never look at my ‘trinkets’ and think, “I deserved that; I am so good.” Most people work hard their whole life – many harder and better than I do -and never receive that acknowledgement. Everything is the Grace of God. I am so thankful to the Lord for that.
Romans
4:2-3: If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast
about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and
it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Working hard is good but it is
not what gets us awards and rewards. It doesn’t even, contrary to what some may
think, get us better things in this life.
You don’t get rewarded
with money by working hard. You don’t get rich by working at all (hard or not!). You
know the secret to getting rich? Being rich! You get rich, if you are already
rich. If you work 15 hours a day at minimum wage; if you work 20 hours a day at
the average wage, you will never get rich. You may actually get poorer the way
our system is set up now.
You know the sure-fire way to
make money? – it is to have money. The richest families in the world today
(apparently) by and large are the same richest families there were 400 years
ago when the English first arrived in North America. If I have millions of
dollars in the bank, I will make more money today in interest than I will if I
work a whole day and a half without sleeping or doing anything else.
Hard work really does not give
us temporal wealth any more than it gives us rewards. It doesn’t. Neither does
working hard give us eternal rewards. It doesn’t.
Romans
4:2-3: If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast
about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and
it was credited to him as righteousness.”
God cares about our
relationship with Him. Something else struck me yesterday at the Gala. There
were a number of things that went wrong – as there always will be. When the AV
person came to me hat-in-hand about not having the tree on the screen at the correct
time, I honestly didn’t mind. When the MC apologized anxiously from her heart
about forgetting the MLA, I honestly didn’t mind. When other errors happened
and people came to me and told me how things went awry, even as their boss, I
didn’t mind. I encouraged them and I left feeling
good about them and the work they were doing. I was proud of them. They made a
mistake and because they came to me, I am confident they will strive to never
make those mistakes again. They did great!... and no one was the wiser, and really, soon
I will forget the little blips and just remember the great success as God
really did bless us with a great event last night.
Now we have really great employees here who almost never complain about anything but I contrast this to when
employees, in our day-to-day work, try to hide something from me, as their boss, or when I
remind them that they did not do something and instead of chatting with me
about it, they get defensive saying “that wasn’t me” or “its not my fault” or
“I am not the only one” then I get quite upset. I lose a little respect for
them. I learn that I can’t rely on them, I lose trust in them. And if this
continues over time, I no longer ask them to do things and then, if it continues even more, I am not in
relationship with them.
It is the same with God. If I
do something wrong and get defensive, blame others, try to hide it, get angry,
God will be hurt – just like I am as an employer. But if I make mistakes and
come to God and tell Him I made a mistake, how bad I feel about it, and ask for the
opportunity not to make that mistake again, God will forgive me. God loves me. God loves us.
The more I come to God even
having made many mistakes, confessing them to Him, and remembering not to do
the same thing again, the more I show God that I love Him and I trust Him.
Then, just like I forgive my employees when they do that; so much more will God
forgive and trust me and you and us when we come to Him in that way.
But when we let God down by
accident or on purpose and then deny it, deflect it, excuse it, or blame God or
someone else for it; we drive a wedge in our relationship with God. And then
just like some employees walk away from their jobs when things start going in
this direction; if we do this to God, I can’t imagine that it will be too long
before we walk away from Him and that would break His heart. Because it is our
relationship with God that He cares about. Our believing Him, our trusting Him,
our loving Him.
Because God Loves us and He
wants us to succeed and, as long as we come to Him, it doesn’t matter what we
have done or how long ago we have done it, He will continue to love us and trust us and He
will trust us even more with things of this world and the next. Let us believe
God in this.
Romans
4:2-3: If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast
about—but not before God. 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and
it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Our salvation for here and now
and forever has nothing to do with how hard we work. It has everything to do
with how much we love the Lord – and by the way, when I love my boss, I work
very diligently for them.
So my encouragement for us all
today is let us work hard for the Lord -nnot striving to win or accomplish anything or out of fear of not accomplishing things - but just out of pure love for our
saviour.
Let us pray.
Thank you Lord that we are
saved by your faithfulness and that when we believe you and trust you our
relationship with you will deepen and grow. Thank you that you love us for
now and forever.
Amen.
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