Measuring Your Life: True Righteousness and Humility

With everything that was going on last week, I wanted to make sure that everyone was out in enough time to have dinner and go to graduation if they wanted to. We went to graduation and WOW was it packed. Standing room only for graduation.

I am going to share with you a few funny things that mom’s have said, that I was going to share last week, but for the sake of time, I thought it could wait.

Here are a few funny things that moms have said.

If you fall out of that tree and break your leg, don’t run to me crying.

Close the door, we don’t live in a barn.

Keep crying and I will give you something to cry about.

This room looks like a tornado went through it.

Followed by, “I didn’t ask who put it there, I said ‘pick it up.’”

Eat your vegetables, there is millions of Chinese children starving to death.

Here’s your choices for supper. Take it or leave it.

You better put on clean underwear in case you’re in an accident.

Do you want a piece of advice? Oh yeah like it matters if we want it or not.

Davis saw one on Fake book the other day that was like mothers used to say, “Don’t sit too close to the TV it is bad for your eyes.” And today mothers are buy virtual reality headsets where the screen is literally 2 inches from your eyes.

I asked my mom if I was adopted. She said, “Not yet, but we placed an ad.”

Growing up, how many of you would stand with your back against the door or wall and your mom/dad would put marks on the wall to see how much you have grown? How many of you have done this with your children? We look forward to this as a child, how tall we are getting. I remember when Granny was my goal, and then mom and then dad and I guess I ran out of goals, because I never got tall.

I was disappointed, in a way, at graduation. Did you know they did away with valedictorian and salutatorian? In school we have stopped rewarding those that have done exceptional and made it more about the group as a whole. Everyone gets a trophy. There is no prize for being the best. These “everyone gets a trophy” students are about to get a dose of reality in life.

In life we measure how well we are doing by the things we have, or the job title, or the money we make. Worldly treasures from our phones to cars to homes and like the guy in our scripture in our walk with the Lord. Let’s read our scripture from Luke 18

Sometimes we set the bar pretty low and think that we have nothing to worry about. If our goal is self-righteousness, some of us exceed that by leaps and bounds. Which brings us to point number one.

1. Don’t measure yourself to your standards.

Luke 18:9

Romans 10:3

I find it interesting the way the Message translation puts it.

Romans 10:3 Message

After I became the pastor, I felt like God wanted me to go back to school and work toward a degree. Things are different for me now than when I was in High School. High school work to me was pretty easy. I took a lot of harder classes like physics, advance chemistry, advanced trig and math analysis, English composition and my mindset was I was taking hard classes but I wasn’t going to work hard. I mean a C in math analysis is better than an A in Algebra and a C in Advanced chemistry was way better than an A in physical science. So, even though my class rank was like around 46 out of 87, I was smarter than those that took easy classes and got great grades. My measuring bar was set low. I was not a good student. I was not smarter than those that took easy classes, but I fooled myself into thinking it was doing well. I found college to be frustrating. I did a lot better than I did in High school and even though my expectations of my abilities were not very high, so far, I did a lot better than I thought I could. I have not told many people this, because, to me, in my life, it is not worthy of recognition. I did get an Associate’s Degree. I did well(ish), 3.85 gpa and I took classes in counselling, because some of us are messssssed up! I mean several of you are Chief fans. And that is what happens when you don’t set your bar very high.

Some of the people that Jesus was talking to needed a kick in the pants. Something to show them just what they were lacking. Some people get so caught up in justifying the things they do against what God wants us to do that we need a kick in the pants sometimes.

This is parable that Jesus told is such a good story. If we were honest with ourselves, most of us would probably fit in the shoes of this Pharisee very well. But we can’t measure ourselves to our standards and we need to make sure that we… point 2

2. Don’t measure yourself to others.

Luke 18:11

Galatians 6:4 Amplified Bible

Well, at least I ain’t as bad as. Or “if I practice harder, study more, I can be more better than…” I remember when Davis was playing basketball in high school. He loved basketball, but State Youth convention got in the way… well not really. There seemed to be a tournament or something at the same time as convention. Davis always lost his starting spot because he chose convention. I would tell him, that he needed to be the best Davis he could be in basketball and the coach would see how valuable he would be as a starter.

Not measuring yourself to others can be difficult. Almost our whole lives we are conditioned to compare ourselves to someone else. Everything is ranked. High school sports teams, runners, jumpers, even band has 1st chair, second chair,… class rank, top ten, and the list goes on and on. It is drilled into who we are almost all our lives. No wonder we do it in our walk with the Lord. It is time to break that cycle.

You can’t measure yourself to the average person, nor can you measure yourself to those that are leaders in the church or in the Christian faith. People will fail you! People will eventually almost always let you down. Their walk with the Lord is not and can not be your walk with the Lord. And if there were ever the perfect person, besides Jesus, then we will disappoint ourselves and get discouraged when we fail. Think about this… How many people were told to build an ark? How many people spend 3 days in the belly of a great fish? How many people killed a giant with a sling and a stone? How many people talked to a burning bush? How many people got out of the boat and walked on water? How many Mother Theresa’s were there? How many Brother Hendrix’s were there?

This Pharisee was comparing himself to a tax collector. “I am so much better than other people. Better than adulterers, better than thieves and liars, better than this loser, a tax collector.” I do it all, including fasting and tithing” “We shouldn’t even let this dude in here.”

We can’t measure ourselves in our own standards, nor compare ourselves to others. Because the only right way to do it is point 3.

3. Measure yourself to God’s standards.

Luke 18:13

I John 1:5-7

Several years ago, I was talking to a guy (we will call him Dean) that I worked with about God and church. Dean said that he had a problem with church because his aunt had an affair with the pastor of the church. And one of the guys that we worked with was a “Christian” and he was hateful and bitter and there wasn’t really any difference between Dean and this Christian and he just had a bad opinion of church and Christians and God. I told him that I understood. Knowing he was a football fan, I asked him, “If a couple of fans of your team were to kill someone after a game, would you stop being a fan of that team? Or if a fan of your team had an affair with your spouse, would you stop being a fan?” The evil actions of the people that call themselves Christians do not diminish who God is. Those actions do not measure up to who God is.

There several people that I hold in high regard in their walk with God. They have amazing love for others, and have the fruit of the Spirit displayed in their life more than most people. In my opinion, it would be really easy for them to set the bar too low, by comparing themselves to others. But, the thing that makes them so high on my grade scale, is that they know that God is their example and they are striving to be more like God and they take ownership in their shortcomings.

God has a path for their lives and they will be held accountable, not for the level that I think they are on, but for the level that God is calling them to be on. My measuring stick is different than anyone else. God does not use the measuring stick that I think is the right one or someone else’s measuring stick that God has for them. God uses the measuring stick that He has for me. For you, He uses your personal measuring stick.

Our goal of heaven may be the same but our lives are different, our personalities are different. I have heard it said that we are all on the same boat, but the one I like better is, “We are all in the same storm in our own boat.” What matters is who is in control of your boat. So as the praise team comes back up, let me ask you, “Who is in control of your boat?” What standards are you using to measure to?

Measuring Up