Untitled Sermon

There once was a boy who happened to be born into a large family. He was one of the younger ones in a group of 12 brothers. In Genesis 37 we see that Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons and lavished that love on him in the form of a brightly covered coat. Joseph received special privileges because of the favor his father showed him. And the only reason Jacob loved him more is because Joseph was born to Jacob’s favorite wife. We often think that favor will always result in an easy life. A straight path with few bumps along the way.

We have established that we are a part of God’s family and we each have a place in that family. Being a part of that family automatically gives us great privilege. In order to understand the power of that privilege we should first look at what privilege is.

The definition of privilege is:

“A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group” “Something regarded as a special honor”

In our culture Privilege has a negative connotation . We think White Privilege. Privilege typically refers to someone who has opportunity to have a better chance for advancement without pain or sacrifice. It’s something to be viewed upon that if you have been given a life of privilege you don’t understand pain and therefore you’re looked down upon. Often times we are made to feel ashamed for the privileges we have been given. That it’s something negative. Or we judge those who have been given privileges outside our own.

I would like to start today off by redefining Privilege in the context of today’s sermon.

Privileges or the act of privilege is mentioned in scripture 6,710 times. Many times when we see privilege in scripture it’s spoken in the form of “Favor” or “Blessing” and many times it’s tied to a particular person.

For example:

Daniel 1:9 “And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs”

Esther 5:2 “And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.”

Gensis 39:4 “So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.”

A couple truths we can gain from scripture about privilege or favor:

1. Favor or Privilege does not mean void of trials, pain, or suffering.

Queen Esther’s favor allowed her to live in a beautiful palace as a queen but was forced to hide her identity and her heritage, and put her life on the line.

Daniel was taken from his family as a slave. The Babylonians tried to brainwash him with their culture and beliefs. He was even thrown into the lion’s den

Joseph’s favor got him thrown into a well and then sold as a slave. Then he found himself being the low man on the totem pole in his masters house where he then earned favor and privilege yet again, only to be thrown into prison for a false accusation. But once again, through all of these blows, he found himself finding favor in the prison and after 13 years he was given the opportunity to speak to Pharoah. Because of this exchange he ultimately earned the favor of the King of Egypt and became second in command! Talk about privilege! allowed him to be #2 in charge of all the land, but that came after 13 years of being in-prisoned.

So what is privilege and why is it an important part of our faith.

Privilege is a gift…It’s something that is bestowed upon us through some other force. Remember it's something that is regarded as a special honor. Can I challenge our thought process. Instead of feeling ashamed for the privileges we have been given, or take them for granted, we can instead choose to have a heart of gratitude for our privileges and blessings.

Another important part of privilege is to identify the privileges we have been given. Privilege doesn’t always come in a clean-cut package. For example, the greatest privilege we will ever be given is the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Christ. Let me say that again….

2. It’s a PRIVILEGE to have a personal relationship with Christ.

That is a gift given to us by the creator of the universe. Many people during Jesus’s lifetime struggled to identify that privilege because the gift Jesus was offering wasn’t wrapped in the package they felt it should have been. Riding on a gallant horse to take vengeance and to abolish the Roman rule. In fact, Isaiah 53:2 says “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from who people hide their faces he was desired and he held him in the low esteem.”

Because we have this idea in our head that privilege means void of suffering, we can often times miss out on identifying the privileges we have been given. Or we create this idea ourselves of what we think favor should look like.

3. How we perceive the situations in our life will be life giving or life taking!

Our perspective on what we have and what we don’t have, and what we have experienced and what he haven’t experienced will make all the difference. Perspective is crucial when taking into account the privileges we’ve been given. They truly go hand in hand.

Let's talk about perspective for a moment. Hang in there with me I promise It will all tie in..

There are very few things in the world we are actually given human rights over.

We’ve been given, or the perceived lack of privilege. Knowing that we get to choose how we see the circumstances in our lives is ours to decide. We often times can’t choose the circumstances in life, but we can choose how we respond.

Have you ever experienced something with someone else and you both walk away with a totally different view of that experience. For example…

Going to the same movie with a group of friends. Some may walk out saying that it was the best movie they’ve ever seen, while others will say that they were so bored they fell asleep. Or maybe it was a date. You went into the date expecting to have a wonderful time and you walked away feeling like it was a waste of time. But then you get a message the next day from the person you went on the date with and they said they had the best time and want to see you again!

A great example is movies… Or a date.

We both walked away from the same experience with totally different perspectives.

Why does this matter, well because how we view our circumstance and our privileges will bring life to the world around us, or drain life from the world around us.

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22

In not only our lives but those connected to us.

Little Insert:

I would like to add that there are awful situations that leave us traumatized and we have to walk through horrific and painful seasons. I don’t want to make light of those situations and in those situations it’s okay to not be okay! If you are in that season right now, I’m so sorry for your pain, I’m so sorry you have to walk this journey, and it’s okay to not be okay. Please reach out to us and let us know how we can be praying and how we can support you. I want to encourage you that this too shall pass, and you will make it through this season.

So how does perspective tie into privilege. Earlier I talked about how many times we make the mistake in thinking that privilege is often a person’s ability to advance without suffering. Well in that thought process I believe many times we miss out on identifying what we have been blessed with. What “Favor” God has given us.

4. Satan will try and rob us of our favor.

He tries to take our favor away, but in reality, he has no authority to do that. Satan wants you to think he does, but Jesus made it clear that he has overcome the world, rendering satan powerless.

John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.”

However, what satan tries to do is manipulate us by reminding us what we don’t have and shifting our perspective from what we have been blessed with to what we don’t have. The very first sin started from the shifting of perspective from what we have been privileged with, opposed to what we don’t have.

So how do we keep our perspective in check?

Ask yourselves can I identify the privileges in my life? Ask yourself each day what was the blessings in my life for today that I can be thankful for?

How do I know if I’m living in privilege?

Ask yourself… Is every human given this opportunity??

Some examples are: An opportunity to work? an opportunity to drive? an opportunity to freely worship God without persecution? and opportunity to go to school? an opportunity to drink clean water?

Once we allow ourselves to fully examine the blessings (aka privileges) in our lives it’s then we can truly have a heart of thanksgiving. I’ve done that recently… Thanked God for cold water, thanked God for my home, thanked God for my earnings…

We have now discussed what privilege is, given ourselves freedom to enjoy those blessings without guilt or shame, now we have to choose to identify our perspective to better identify the privileges we have. This is all great stuff, but if we end it here, we will miss the responsibility of our privilege.

Let me say that again… “Our privilege comes with a responsibility” What does that mean exactly… Once we have been able to identify we are privileged we get to then offer that opportunity to others.

Why does it have to be this way?…. When we allow ourselves to take on the responsibility to help offer privileges to others, it’s relational. The very fibers that God wove within our makeup is the deep need for relationship. It’s this desire that allows us to connect with God in an intimate way. But it allows us to connect with the people in this world as well.

If a father were to play baseball with his son every Saturday morning for years until that son was old enough to join the baseball team. That boy then grows up playing baseball, and then becomes a coach because of the privilege he was given to be raised in a home with a father who taught him to play. He is only able to teach based on the privilege that was bestowed upon him, and now because of that he gets an opportunity and responsibly to bless others with what he’s been given. Here’s what I mean. My sons play baseball. Their coaches are not only teaching them the mechanics of baseball but also how to handle the relational side of playing the game. They are learning how to lose with dignity, how to get back up and try again when they strike out, They are learning what it means to be a part of a team and when one of your team members are hurting, you stop, take a knee and show them you support them. They are learning how to submit to the authority God puts in their lives. They are learning to run hard, and put everything they have on the line, and to give their best. They are learning how to win well and how to celebrate victories. So, the privileges we are able to pass on are always more than the mechanics of what we are passing on.

So this is my final point today…

5. Our privileges are tied to responsibility.

Think about the blessings you have in your own life. At some point someone else allowed you the opportunity to be blessed. You may say “No sir, everything I have, I fought for myself” but can I challenge that thought. Yes, you may have had to work 2 jobs to go to college, but in that process, you were educated by someone who had knowledge you had not yet been given.

In my own life…. the privilege

When we realize that our place in the family of God automatically gives us privileges that others don’t have, then we realize we have purpose and we are important in the Kingdom.

My daughter Annabelle recently got a job at Safeway.

- She did not like the job, one her 3rd day she asked to leave early. it was challenge just to get her to go to work. Then one day she did end up coming home early. We had a long talk. I asked her if she didn’t do her job, what does that mean for the other employees. She really struggled when she realized that others would have to work harder to take on the job she was supposed to do. When then talked about how important carts are in a job. That she was helping feed families in Douglas. When she realized this was a privilege, and she was needed and her job was important her perspective completely changed. and her whole experience has shifted. I don’t have to talk her into going to work now.

So I want to be real with you for a moment this concept is something I’ve gotten into arguments with God about.

In 2018 I went to Haiti for the first time. While in Haiti we went to visit another orphanage about 20min from Shepherd's house. I had no idea what I was about to walk into…. This moment will forever be etched into my brain and I to this day still struggle with the images I seen. We went to this orphange unannounced. so the kids were prepped for us so we got to see how they look in their normal state….. Tell about John Claudes.

The bible verse Jeremiah 29:11 came to my mind as I walked around that orphanage that day

“For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” I would touch their heads and repeat that verse over them.

I remember I couldn’t sleep that night, I became so angry. I shouted to the Lord…. How is this true for these precious children? How can you say you have a plan and a purpose for these kids. They are caged up like animals, unseen to the world, they will die alone and unloved. I don’t see your promises here…. I’m angry!!!!

I love that I serve a God that can handle my journey of processing emotions without condemning me. He is so patient with me.

And It really messed me up. All I knew is that I needed to find a way to feed these kids. So I talked to the rest of our team and talked to Aaron and asked him what it would take to bring those kids a meal. We all put in our own spending money and went back to that orphange to feed the kids, and we play soccer with them, and held them. And loved on them for an afternoon. We brought children’s ibuprofen and gave it to some who were very visibly sick.

That night I wept as I was laying in bed. I missed my kids so much. I felt so far away from them, and I also broke for those poor orphans who have no mommy to miss them. I couldn’t understand why God would allow this to happen. Why do my boys get to go to bed that night in a warm bed, loved, fed, and taken care of… Why can’t these precious children have that same opportunity. “GOD I DON’T SEE HOW THIS IS GOOD!!!!”

Wanna know what God told me “I know Daviette, It breaks my heart more than you can imagine. This is a broken world and humans have been given a free will. Many are not choosing to walk in the path I designed for them, and because of that there is so much destruction. But I love those children..… and I see them, even if the rest of the world doesn’t…

Daviette, Why do you think I sent a single mother half away across the world. Because I knew if she saw them she would feed them. My trip to Haiti was never about me… It was about seeing God’s chidden who needed some of the blessings (aka: privilege) God has bestowed upon me.

God has poured out His blessings and favor into my life. I am privileged to be in His family, so now I can in turn pour out favor & blessing into the lives of others.

The greatest example of this is the life of Christ. He came from heaven, the one and only Son of God, talk about favored and blessed! His privileges included participating in the creation of the world, sitting in the throne room of God, dwelling with His Father and all of the angelic hosts. Instead of keeping that privilege for Himself, He humbly came to earth and submitted Himself to the restrictions of being fully human while also being fully God. He stayed on the cross so that we would have the privilege of being in His family with Him, being blessed and given the favor that He Himself enjoys.

Closing:

You all have been given a privilege and a blessing. And it may be different from mine. but take time to recognize it, be thankful for it, and then ask God what he wants you to do with that privilege, because there are others out there waiting to receive a blessing.

This may mean going on a mission’s trip

This may mean giving financially to those in our community who need help

This may mean using your gifts and talents to the people in our family or in our community who are in need. Mowing lawns, fixing cars, changing oil, watching kids.

This may mean stepping out of your comfort zone to help our church family when a need arises.

All hands on deck….

Isaiah 61:1-3