JR. Forasteros - November 4, 2012
When Good Enough isn't Good Enough
From Series: "The Lion Roars"
Amos pictures God as a lion, roaring God's judgment from Mt. Zion. We don't like to think of God as a judge. But the biblical picture of God as judge is founded in God's love as our Father in Heaven. We can hear God's judgment as words as a firm love calling us to be whole.
More Messages From JR. Forasteros...
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When I was 17, I stole my own car.
I drove this hilariously awesome 81 Chevy Carpis Classic. Two tone brown. Bench seats in the front and back. It was a beast. Only had about 300 miles on it when I got it because my Mom bought it from a little old lady who had bought it new and only drove it to the grocery store.
I was a junior in high school, and I had gotten grounded for some reason. I don’t remember why now, but I’m 100% sure it was legitimate. The grounding was that I was not allowed to drive my car. Which meant I had to ride the bus to school.
17-year-old me did not find this acceptable. So I waited for my mom to leave for work, and I took my car out anyway. My mom didn’t find out until she got home from work that night and my car was gone.
She was understandably mad.
I say understandably because it’s pretty obvious that I was in the wrong here. My Mom bought me the car. I still lived in her house. And I broke her rules (to do whatever I had done to get grounded).
But you probably won’t be surprised to learn that I didn’t see it that way.
I was enraged. All that grew from a sense of entitlement – it didn’t matter where the car had come from; it was MINE. I deserved it. Why? Irrelevant. I DESERVED it, and I raged when my mom took it away from me as a punishment.
We’re going to talk about entitlement and privilege. We’re going to talk about how often we take God’s good gifts for granted and why that’s the path toward spiritual death.