Scriptures: Psalm 107:1-9, Mark 6:1-13 and 1Thessalonians 2:9-13.
Psalm 107
(1) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
(2) Let the redeemed of the Lord say this- those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,
(3) those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
(4) Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
(5) They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
(6) Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
(7) He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.
(8) Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men,
(9) for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
Mark 6:1-13
A Prophet Without Honor
(1) Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. (2) When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. (3) “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
(4) Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” (5) He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. (6) And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
(7) Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.
(8) These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff–no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. (9) Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. (10) Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. (11) And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”
(12) They went out and preached that people should repent. (13) They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
(9) Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.
(10) You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.
(11) For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children,
(12) encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
(13) And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who Believe.
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
If you are like myself, you are sick of the misinformation that we hear on the news. They burden us with fear and guilt if we don’t except their mindset. We are threatened with persecution if we don’t succumb to the ever changing rules of how we are to live. We are like the people in Thessalonica, that Paul was writing to. They were looked on, by Rome as a threat to society and persecuted for their beliefs. They struggled with the fear and guilt in trying to figure out how they were going to deal with their situation.
Paul had left Thessalonica abruptly after a brief stay. Recent converts were left with little external support in the midst of persecution. Paul’s purpose in writing this letter was to encourage the new converts in their trials, to give instruction concerning godly living, to urge some not to neglect daily work and to give assurance concerning the future of believers who die before Christ returns.
In the book, How To Find Out Who You Are, Nelson Price reports that 15 prominent college professors took this challenge: “If all the books on the art of moving human beings into action were condensed into one brief statement, what would that statement be?” The result of their deliberations were four statements:
What the mind attends to, it considers;
What the mind does not attend it to, it dismisses.
What the mind attends to continually, it believes.
What the mind believes, it eventually does.
If you remember, Paul said something very similar in Philippians 4:8 “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Like many, in our world today, I have had to learn to adjust to the situation of our world today. In prayer and meditation on the Scriptures, I believe God, led me to writing and posting these messages. This was all new to me. I was never comfortable or had the knowledge of how to write a sermon and post it online. So, consequently I had to learn how to operate a computer and navigate the Internet.
In my learning process I kept running into acronyms, and I didn’t know what they meant. This week in my message preparation I ran into this one. “GIGO”
Not knowing what it meant, I looked it up, on the website I found called,” Computer Hope”. It has over 15,000 computer terms and definitions.
The acronym, “GIGO”, isn’t the latest diet or a new piece of hardware or even an app site. It means, Garbage In, Garbage Out. According to Computer Hope, It was originally a computer term that meant that if invalid data was entered into a system, the resulting output would also be invalid. That same argument holds true for all aspects of life from raising kids to dealing with worries to personal health. GIGO-Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Then I began to think, the opposite of that statement is true as well. All we have to do is replace the definition of the letter “G.” It could stand for Grace or Goodness or God. Grace In, Grace Out. Goodness In, Goodness Out. God In, God Out. And I think, at least in part any way, that’s what Paul meant when he wrote the passage for today. Paul talks about “God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.”(1 Thess. 2:13)
So I titled this message; “GIGO”. Meaning; God In, God Out.
So, how is this accomplished? Well, first we’ve got to put God In, in order to let God Out. The first part is sometimes the hardest. We can’t put God in if we are not in the right frame of mind. Spiritually, mentally and physically.
Too often, we’re like the woman arguing with a meat counter clerk who is trying to tell her that the store is out of chicken. After a heated exchange of words, the clerk calls the manager to come over and help. “Lady,” says the manager, “How do you spell the tom in tomato?”
“T-O-M,” she replies.
“Now, how do you spell the pot in potato?” he asks her.
“P-O-T,” she answers.
“Then how do you spell the stink in chicken?” he asks. “There is no stink in chicken,” the woman answers.
The manager exclaims, “That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. We have no stinkin chicken!”
So the first thing we have to do is to be in the right frame of mind. Open to change, willing to see things in a different light and understanding that things don’t always go our way.
The second thing we need to do is, input God’s word. Inputting God’s word does take some personal daily and weekly discipline.The daily discipline is study and prayer. Now I’m not talking about 6 hours in the class room. But, I am talking about more than just reading the Upper Room, as much as I love the Upper Room Daily Devotional. It takes the discipline of spending time in the Word, reading the Bible. It involves sitting quietly in prayer and quietly listening to God.
The third step to getting “God In” is that it takes the weekly discipline of corporate Worship, the fellowship and energy of worshiping with others.
I am reminded of the time when one of our members, headed out the door after service one Sunday passed by me and I jokingly said, “Glad you decided to come this morning.” The member stopped and told me, “pastor, I didn’t decide to come this morning, I decided to come years ago.”
Bible study, prayer and worship aren’t something we decide to do on a spur of the moment. Or something we do when there is nothing else more exciting to do. Bible study, prayer and worship are the meat and potatoes of getting God in. They are the “MDR”, Minimum Daily Requirements for a healthy relationship with God. Are you getting God in? If you are, you know that it becomes your second nature, to let God out. The Bible refers to it as, can I make up my own acronym, ”WBBF”. Witnessing By Bearing Fruit!
We “WBBF”. Witness By Bearing Fruit, by, “encouraging, comforting and urging you (others) to live lives worthy of God, who calls you (them) into his kingdom and glory”(1Thess.2:12) as Paul reminded the Thessalonians .That’s the meat and potatoes of letting God out. Letting God live In you and work through you. Isn’t that also what the Psalmist wrote about in Psalm 107:1-9.
Psalm 107:1 Begins with putting God in, having the right frame of mind;”Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Then in verse 2 he wrote;”Let the redeemed of the Lord say this”. In verses 3-7 he reminds us of how He provides. Then in verses 8 and 9 the Psalmist reminds us to let God out.”Let them give thanks to the Lord for his UNFAILING LOVE and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”
His “UNFAILING LOVE” is something we can’t keep to ourselves. We must be in the mind set of GIGO! Otherwise we get in the way of the healing we need, as His people, as a nation.
So, in conclusion let me give you another acronyms.”SHELL”
Shell, according to my source is a software interface that’s often a command line interface that enables the user to interact with the computer. So if we were to change the meaning of the S from software to servant or saint it would mean that the servant, one of His saints is the one God uses to interact with others.
Let me give you one last example. A man was driving to work when a truck drove through a stop sign, hit his car broadside, and knocked him out. A passersby pulled him out of the wreck and revived him. But he began a terrific struggle and had to be tranquilized by the medics. Later, when he was finally calm, they asked him why he struggled so much. He said, “I remember the impact, then nothing. I woke up on a concrete slab in front of a huge, flashing Shell sign. And somebody was standing in front of the S.”
There are a lot of people out there who can’t see the “S.” They have no idea that there is anything else. They can’t interact with God. We are to be like the disciples that Jesus sent out with authority as we have read in Mark 6:1-13.
It’s only by those who believe, His servants, His Saints, His Disciples, who Witness that others will know the peace they are longing for.
When you “WBBF” Witness By Bearing Fruit, for God, When you encourage or comfort someone you allow “GIGO” to happen.
Remember: What the mind attends to, it considers;
What the mind does not attend it to, it dismisses.
What the mind attends to continually, it believes.
What the mind believes, it eventually does.
Philippians 4:8 “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Grace In, Grace Out. Goodness In, Goodness Out. God In, God Out.
Put God in So God can come out. GIGO !!!
In His Service,
Pastor Joe