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Oops: No one wants to be just another “one”.

We want to matter.

pink floyd, Threads thing.

I was in the car the other day listening to Charlie FM as is my habit and the song, Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd came on the radio.

Appropriate September song.

“We don’t need no education...”

The refrain comes back several times to the line: “All in all you’re just another brick in the wall”

I think I get what Mr. Floyd is trying to say in this song…but I happened to drive by the community building next door a little later and the thought occurred to me…how important is one brick in that wall?

If a brick was missing…would it be noticed?

I think so.

If one brick in our fellowship hall disappeared, we would be calling the deacons to find a solution.

Maybe “just another” is more important than it seems.

The sermon series is called threads…and that’s us.

Just another…thread

Last week we highlighted the importance of knowing and trusting the providence of the one who weaves the threads together.

But what is the importance of one thread?

Ugh: We sometimes feel like an inconsequential piece and we don’t like it.

A question each of us desperately needs to know the answer to: Do I matter?

To God?

To others?

Am I doing something that matters?

We don’t want to be just another brick, just another thread.

I have many threads in this shirt, I don’t notice any of them.

But I would notice if one wasn’t where it should be.

The problem with Pink Floyd’s prog rock classic is a matter of perspective.

Just another brick can seem meaningless, while being absolutely essential to the purpose of the wall…not to mention the bricks that depend on that one for support.

One thread in a garment may seem unimportant…and yet each one is essential for that shirt to fulfill the purpose is was created for.

Maybe the real question isn’t am I “just another”, but am I a part of a whole that matters?

That’s why we started with the providence of the weaver.

If we don’t trust the one weaving the threads…if we don’t see the heart of the one building the wall, how can we embrace our place in that big picture.

But if we do?

Aha: We may be just another thread in God’s hand…but how vital is one thread?

Then we will see that One Thread Matters.

It matters to the weaver.

It matters to the purposes of the weaver.

It matters to the threads around it.

“Just another” absolutely isn’t.

x2

This morning, let’s see the importance of one thread, and be thinking about this: If my thread matters…really matters this way, what would change in my life?

Pray

Show us the importance of our fragile thread.

Whee: That thread is special to God

Each Thread

Hand Crafted

One of the reasons I love my backyard, even unfinished, is that I can see my hand in every part completed.

That little bit of imagination, gallons of sweat, the minor injury…My hands, along with some helping ones got it this far.

As a part of a project I’ll be inviting you to join me in over the next couple weeks (that’s called a teaser in the trade), I made this visual for the sermon series.

Transparency, when it was done I felt as proud as a preschooler with a finger painting.

A common expression in advertising to proclaim the value of something, whether it’s a hat, or a beer, or new cabinets for your home is that it was, “Hand Crafted”

And of course the skill and reputation of the crafter makes all the difference in the value.

Do you know the Bible has much to say about God’s investment in crafting you?

Let’s let the word speak for itself.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”

Of all the things in the Bible that are clearly spelled out, this may be one of the hardest simple things for me to wrap my head around.

Your little thread, this fragile body, the heart that feels, and the mind that things all was formed by God in HIS IMAGE.

To be HIS REPRESENTATION on this planet he created.

I heard Tim Mackie from the Bible project explain once that the reason God doesn’t allow his people to create idols, an image that represents God…is that he already did.

But OH, slide forward to Genesis 2 and get another glimpse of the process:

Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.”

Up to this point in creation it is all the spoken word of God that has done the work, but in this second view of mankind’s creation we get the image of the hands of God in the clay and dust shaping and molding, and then breathing his life into this being he created.

No wonder Psalm 139:14 declares: “I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made.

Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well.”

Actual threads can be spun by a machine,

Bricks can be formed by a factory

But a living human being is hand crafted by THE orginial and greatest artist, God himself.

This is true of you.

I’ll remind you of my question: If my thread really matters, what would change?

One more verse before we move on to the next point… In Isaiah 43 and 44 a variation of the phrase “the one who formed you” occurs 6 times.

6. God’s making a point.

Here is a couple of those that get the point across

Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory.

I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.””

Isaiah 44:2 “This is the word of the Lord your Maker, the one who formed you from the womb: He will help you.

Do not fear, Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.”

I can’t help myself…one more

Isaiah 44:21 “Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; Israel, you will never be forgotten by me.”

Hand crafted…and these verses take us to our next point

Loved Beyond belief

Let me throw that last one back up

Isaiah 44:21 “Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you, you are my servant; Israel, you will never be forgotten by me.”

Isaiah was written for a people about to go into exile because of their rejection of the God who redeemed them.

This was a crisis…of their own making.

and yet God says to them, I MADE YOU AND YOU will never be forgotten by ME.

A few verses later he says I am your redeemer and the one who formed you.

He never quits on you.

Even when you quit on him.

WHY?

Why does the parent of a prodigal child wait with their face to the glass of the window in prayer for their son or daughter…just looking to see if they are the road home?

Why does a man hunt for days or work through the night to make just the right gift to put a smile on a woman’s face?

Love.

And God loves you beyond belief.

I pray this verse never feels rote or worn:

John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

God loved the world, the people he crafted so much he gave his son, he gave himself, so we might have the opportunity to choose life.

I hope you read Romans 9 and the first part of 10 I suggested, A great case study in last week’s topic of God’s providence.

But Romans 9 comes after Romans 8. God’s providence is built on something important.

Forgive the length of this passage…every word is worth the listen.

Paul establishes in Romans 8 that: