He went on what he felt was a winning streak and he told the world about it because he was his own person.
The reality of it is that his role in the sitcom had wrong values as did his own personal life.
He was in reality exhibiting loser values.
Let's take a look at some values.
***
What are the true values that exist in the Kingdom of God?
We read in Matthew 16:24-26:
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Two basic sins, withdrawing and withholding, hinder our walk with God more than other sins.
The blessing of the Lord is shut off from us when we withdraw from Him.
In the midst of a famine , Elijah was sent by God to the brook Cherith.
The Lord told him, "Hide yourself by the brook Cherith, For I have commanded the ravens to feed you there" ( I Kings 17:3,4 ) .
Elijah could have chosen a place he liked better than the one the Lord had chosen, but the ravens were going to drop food in one spot only.
They had their directions from the Lord.
To withdraw from the place of battle, from responsibility, from the intensity of problems, from the discipline of the Lord, is one of the most dangerous things we can do.
Wherever He has commanded us to be, there also he has commanded the blessing.
The two sins, withdrawing and withholding, always tend to stagnate and wither the spiritual life.
We must let go of our sense of ownership.
A man who walks with God does not own himself any longer.
He is not his own man, but the Lord's.
God constantly deals with our sense of possession, our selfishness, and our sense of self preservation.
When we withhold from the Lord, we wither and die.
This happens because we cut off the flow, for the flow in is commensurate with the flow out.
When the Lord ask you to give, to sacrifice, and to serve, and you refuse, your withholding tends toward spiritual poverty in your life.
You wither and die if you do not give.
As people grow in the Lord, they become givers.
There is a definite relationship between the two.
The coming days of the Kingdom will be based upon divine ownership.
Therefore, we must learn stewardship now in preparation for the Kingdom.
The man who will be given great responsibility by God in the Kingdom is the man who is now a faithful steward and a love-slave of the Lord ( Matthew 25:21 ) .
He belongs to the Lord.
He has no right to himself and does not belong to himself.
Therefore, he serves in whatever capacity the Lord dictates.
This becomes the basic test God puts on a man's life.
The way that a man meets this test in the days to come will determine the way that he will enjoy the abundance of authority in the Kingdom.
You cannot evade this.
If God puts you in a place, you had better do your utmost to fill that place.
If he has spoken a word over you, do not follow that word as it pleases you; follow the word as it pleases Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ had only one desire, and that was to please the Father.
He said, "In the volume of the book it is written of Me.
Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God" ( Hebrews 10:7 ) .
We must sense this same responsibility in our faithfulness; then we will be prepared for authority later.
Your spiritual growth depends upon the way you apply the principles of the Kingdom.
You and yours are His.
All that He is and has is yours.
A steward or a love-slave is aware that he belongs to the Lord, and the Lord is aware that He possesses a steward.
The Lord assumes responsibility for His servants, and He will take care of them.
Your protection in the coming days of disaster, when every human source of supply is cut off, will be your position as a slave of the Lord.
Place on Him the responsibility for your life, for your submission makes Him totally responsible for you.
This is the key of blessing for the days to come.
Only two types of people will be in the Kingdom - winners and losers.
If you think that you are your own man and that you are going to save your life, you will lose it.
Deny yourself; take up your cross and follow Him ( Matthew 16:24 ) .
For if you wish to save your life, you will lose it.
But if you would lose your life, tell the Lord that it is all His ( Luke 17:33 ) .
Do whatever the Lord tells you to do.
Your life is His to command and yours to obey.
Make Him responsible for your whole life and all of your time.
If He wishes to waste your life, that is up to Him.
You determine that you will have no ambition, that you will not go anyplace or do anything except His will.
Then you have tapped into a principle of the Kingdom.
But if you become arrogant, thinking that you have all the rights to yourself, you lose everything.
The servant of the Lord is aware that he is the Lord's.
The Lord is aware that He possesses him; and because He possesses him, He is also responsible for him.
We are the Lord's love-slaves, and as love-slaves, we have all the rights and privileges to everything that our Master has.
The only right we do not have, as bond-servants of the Lord, is the right to ourselves.
That is His.
One of the most important passages on stewardship is found in one of Paul's epistles, I Corinthians 4:1,2.
There Paul wrote of the way a man is to regard us: ...as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy ( faithful ) .
Let us read the prelude to that in I Corinthians 3:21,22: So then let no one boast in men.
( He was writing about ministries. )
For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you.
It is important for us to understand what Paul meant when he wrote, "All things belong to you."
When you declare your submission to a spiritual authority, an apostle or a prophet, this does not mean that you belong to him as an individual.
You have declared your submission to his ministry, the ministry that God has given him to fulfill for you.
The Lord has given him to you.
He is more owned than owning, because he belongs to the Lord.
He must take care of you; yet he belongs to you.
The Lord has raised him up and given him a word for you.
In our stewardship, we will receive nothing as long as we hold on to ourselves, for we belong to Christ.
When the right to ourselves is given to Him, then we have the right to everything else.
Some people will not be convinced of the necessity of being so dedicated.
They prefer to save their lives and do what they want to do.
They refuse to be submissive, or to give of their money or their time.
There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. Proverbs 11:24.
If you cling to your possessions, you will lose everything.
If you give yourself to the Lord and lose your life for His sake, you will be His servant.
Be faithful, and He will put you in charge of things present and things to come; it will all be yours.
Starting with a few things, you will learn how to handle them and be faithful with them; then He will give everything into your hand.
You belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
When you surrender to Him, you have the right to everything but yourself.
We could wish everything were either all black or all white.
If it were all black; we could repent better.
If it were all white, we could sleep better.
The trouble is that most things are neither black nor white, but they are gray and streaky, a mingling of the good with the bad.
I am not so much concerned about the areas where we have surrendered to the Lord, but I am concerned about those little archives where we have hidden secret treasures of self.
I am concerned about where we are withholding, and I pray that God would reveal to us the areas where we hold out on God.
Lord, our will is set to be wholly surrendered, but if we do not know how, put Your finger on the sore spot.
Let us know where we have failed, for we desire to give our lives completely to You.
We do not walk with You as Your bond-servants, liberating the full flow of Your grace and blessing to us.
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