Good Morning All,
1
Peter 2:10; “Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you
had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Do you remember the movie “The Bad News
Bears”? It was a movie from the mid
1970’s about a grizzled old man who turns a group of misfits little league
baseball players into a real team. It
was made up of castoffs from other teams and a girl (unheard of in the
70’s). Coach Buttermaker (Walter
Matthau) takes a bunch of misfits and brings them to within one run of winning
the championship. Much of the movie is
spent on the turning of these misfits into a baseball team and the tactics that
he uses. He makes them a team when at
first they were not a team.
In some ways we can see ourselves in this
movie. We are the misfits. We are the ones who have been cast off as
miserable losers. We are not a team; we
could never be a team. We could not hold
the bat correctly or throw the ball properly or even know which way to
run. No one would want us on their team.
This is how the devil uses our situations
to drive us to despair. He wants us to
be losers. He wants us to be lost and
depressed. He wants us to think that we
have no team, no hope and no future. He
wants us to see ourselves as completely alone and cut off from everyone,
especially cut off from God.
“But God had seen my wretched state.” God
knew that we would never succeed on our own.
God knows we can never achieve this by our own skill, knowledge or
wealth. So God made us part of his
team. Through Jesus, he made us his
people. We receive mercy and God makes
us his people. By being his people we
are thus protected from danger and we are given the tools to survive in this
world. We are no longer alone but we are
part of God’s team. It is here where we
find the comfort and consolation of being one of God’s redeemed children.
This is how God works; he takes all those
nobodies; those pathetic losers that no one wants on their team and makes them
winners. We are never left out
again. We are never alone again. God is with us all the time. He uses his creation to feed us, clothe us
and to provide for us. He uses his
creation connected with his Word to provide for our spiritual needs. Through his grace he provides for us, his
people. He does this out of love for
you. He wants you on his team. He puts you on his team and through this you
are made a winner. You are given eternal
life with him. You are his people.
Father
of all wonders, your mercies roll over us like a river. They are new to us each day. You make us your people and in doing so you
renew us and make us new creations. Be
with those who feel left off of the team.
Be with those who feel that no team would want them. By your grace bring them home to live in
peace and harmony with you. In Jesus’
precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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