What shall we do with our faith? Shall we turn it into a means of personal gratification whereby people will know how wonderful we are? Shall we mount a position high above others so that we can look down on them, ever reminding them of how far we have come and how holy we really are? Shall we live so as to revel in our humility, camouflaging our pride by going out of the way to look the part?

Silly questions? Maybe! Yet, these are the very kinds of things the Pharisees were doing at the time of Jesus; and, He didn’t embrace it in any way, shape, or form. In fact, Jesus took the silliness of those who would portend to be spokespersons for God, and spoke to those who truly loved God about what a relationship with God really looked like. What a difference it was, too.

Jesus calls us to a living of our lives whereby our Yes is simply Yes, and our No is simply No. Pride has no place. Showtime faith is disavowed. Seeking the place of honor is laughable. Hungering to be called “Great,” or “Wonderful” or “Remarkable,” is totally out of character.

Instead, in the way of Jesus “the greatest shall be…servant” (Matt. 23:11). We have one leader, and He is Jesus. The rest of us are blessed by grace to be a part of what He is doing in the world. Who of us gets the credit is not essential or even important. That all praise and glory and honor go to God is non-negotiable.

Let’s be so occupied with our relationship with Jesus that the only approval we ultimately seek is His. The world may or may not say to us, “Well done.” It matters not as long as on that day, which will mean more than any other day in history, we hear Jesus say, “Well done.” I really do want Him to say this to me. Don’t you?

Along time ago I made a decision based upon a growing conviction that I was a sinner standing in need of the grace and forgiveness of God. Looking back on that moment I have concluded time and time again through the years that my confessing I was a sinner and coming to Jesus in my condition was the best decision I ever made. A part of that decision has been a life time of seeking after God in my life, and a hungering to be what God would have me be. It has been one fantastic ride, and it is still underway.

Even at this late date in my journey I am still discovering that the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers is blessed beyond a capacity to fully grasp it (See Psalm 1). The Psalm writer was correct through and through when he said of that blessed person, “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

God is at work in this world and we followers of Christ are blessed to be involved in what God is doing. We are discovering every day that by a grace that never ceases to amaze us we are “like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields it fruit in it season and its leaf does not wither; and in what whatever he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:3).

Life isn’t perfect for us because we still live in a broken world, but in that world God is doing in His people “far more abundantly beyond all that we could ever ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). Regardless as to what comes our way we know that God’s will is “good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). His will can’t be improved on and, as we say where I come from, we are right smack dab in the middle of it.

Amen and keep the party going.

Jesus told some folks who were seeking His destruction that it was okay to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar’s. He took it a step further, however, and spoke to them of how they also were to render to God the things that are God’s. Seems fair and balanced on the surface, but it isn’t.

The fact of the matter is that God is the Creator of heaven and earth and of all that is in them. Caesar would have no place to strut his stuff if it were not for the Creative engineering of Almighty God. When Jesus took Caesar’s coin he was taking something that was developed from s substance that was created by God and then turned into something useful for Caesar.

We live in societies governed by some sort of “Caesar.” Jesus tells us to render to that Caesar what is his. However, the rendering is not a surrendering. We are not to surrender to Caesar for Caesar is not God. A few verses later, in Matthew 22:37, Jesus set the record straight. He said, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all Your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” We are not commanded to love Caesar with that kind of entirety, but simply to render to him what is his. God is the one to have first place in all things throughout our lives.

As the Church of Jesus we are to be good citizens but always remembering that our true “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). As citizens of the kingdom of heaven we stand as ambassadors of Christ in Caesar’s little kingdoms, and we lift up the cross there.

In light of I Samuel 17:47 and the words, "For the battle is the Lord's," I offering the following affirmations:

WHEN FACING A GOLIATH
I Samuel 17: 3-4, 8-10, 23, 26

I will conduct myself in light of the presence of God in me.

Matthew 17:20: "If you have faith [a]the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

Mark 9:23: "All things are possible to him who believes.”

I will keep committing to God every battle I face.

Psalm 37:5-6: "Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday."

Matthew 7:7-8: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

I will trust in the Sovereign leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 40:28-31: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

I will put my confidence in the God with whom nothing is impossible.

Luke 1:37: For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Matthew 19:26: "…with God all things are possible.”

I will fix my hope on God because He is my light, my salvation and…the stronghold of my life.

Psalm 27:1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?

I will be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him because He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm 40:1-2: I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

46:10: Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

I will refrain from anger and fretting because they are not spiritually, emotionally or physically helpful to me in the battle.

Psalm 37:8: Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

I will focus on the positive things of God.

Philippians 4:8: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

I will delight myself in the Lord knowing that, according to His Word, in His time He will give me the desires of my heart.

Psalm 37: 4-5: Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

I will face the realities of life in the conviction that the Lord has established His throne in heaven, that His sovereignty rules over all, and that the whole earth is full of His glory.

Psalm 103:19: The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

Isaiah 6:3: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

When face to face

With some taunting Goliath

I will stand my ground

With the Resources of my God in hand

And, with tenacity

I will come against that Goliath

Until it is defeated in the Name of God,

For my battles are the Lords.

Jesus tells a sad story in Matthew 21:33-43. A landowner planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower so that watchman could oversee the vineyard for protection. Then he rented it out to those who knew how to care for such a vineyard, and went on a journey. At some point, and for reasons not given, the renters took on an unhealthy ownership of the vineyard, and started acting like it was really their vineyard. When the real owner came back the renters decided to fight for the vineyard and killed everyone the owner sent to receive what was his, even his son.

Those who heard Jesus' story said that the renters were worthy of judgment because of their actions, going so far as to called them, "wretches." Jesus agreed and then explained to them that they were the very renters they had just judged. Israel was the vineyard, and the spiritual leaders were given the responsibility to care over the vineyard, but they rejected their stewardship and, in the end, killed the very son sent by the Father. They killed the "chief cornerstone," and because of it the kingdom would be taken away from them and given to those who would be faithful overseers, "producing the fruit of it."

There are some people in the world who actually embrace God and what God is doing in the world. For them, the rejected cornerstone, Jesus, is God's response to the human situation and what God does in Jesus, they consider to be "marvelous in our eyes."

Those of us who dare call Jesus, "Lord," need to pay careful attention to Jesus' story. We dare say that He has turned His vineyard over to the Church. If He really has, then it demands an honest, humble, faithful, and courageous stewardship of what has been given us. It's not our vineyard, our Church; it belongs to God. Let us clock in, on time, and fulfill our stewardship of the Church that doesn't belong to us, but God.