People go to the gym and lift weights, do the treadmill, do push upsand sit ups, they ride bikes, they row boats, and they run, to get fit and keep off those extra pounds. They monitor their weight constantly as they hop on the scales to see the results of all the burn, baby, burn!!!
And then, there are some folks who are allergic to exercise….
Someone said, “We all know that mirrors don’t lie, but we should be grateful that they don’t laugh”!!
On the moon, I would weigh 32 lbs… on Mars I would weigh 74 lbs…on Neptune I would weigh 223 lbs… on Jupiter I would weigh 500 lbs and on the Sun I would weigh 5,360 lbs. (stay away from that sun!)
God is a weight watcher. I always knew God was watching me and knows my every thought and hears my every word, but watching my weight? The Bible says that God watches our weight and He sees that many people weigh too much! (I’m going to explain that one)
There is a scale in Washington DC that is so accurate that it can weigh smoke. It can tell the difference when a fly lands on it. You actually have to stand 10 feet away from it when someone is using it because the heat from your body can affect it. If this scale says someone weighs a certain amount, we can be sure it is accurate.But God’s scales are more accurate than that because His scales weigh motives and intentions.
Someone in the Old Testament had an unpleasant encounter with scales.
There was a king mentioned in the bible who ruled over a huge mega kingdom of his day. His name is Nebuchadnezzar.
Let me read you a description…
Two million men were employed for the construction of the wall and principal works of the capital. The walls of the city were sixty miles in circumference. They were surrounded by a trench, which had been dug to provide the materials for the construction of the city. There were twenty-five gates of solid brass on each side of the square city. Between every two gates a great watchtower sprang up into the heavens. From each of the twenty-five gates, on either side, a street ran straight through, to the gate on the other side, so that there were fifty streets, each fifteen miles long, which gave to the city an appearance of wonderful symmetry. The houses were joined by bridges which ran from roof top to roof top and between them were lush gardens and shrubbery.
A branch of the Euphrates river went through the city, over which a bridge of marvelous structure was constructed and under the river a tunnel allowed free access to the other side for those of high rank. To keep the river from overflowing the city in the flood season, a great lake was arranged to catch the surplus, in which the water was kept in a reservoir until times of drought, when it was sent streaming down to irrigate the land.
A palace stood at each end of the Euphrates bridge; one palace was 1 3/4 miles in circumference, and the other palace was 7 1/2 miles in circumference.
The wife of Nebuchadnezzar, grew up among the mountains of Media, and could not stand it in this flat country of Babylon, and so to please her, Nebuchadnezzar had a mountain four hundred feet high built in the midst of the city. This mountain was surrounded by terraces, lifted up by great arches. All the glory of the flowery tropics was spread out at that tremendous height, until it must have seemed as though the clouds were all in blossom and the very sky leaned on the shoulder of the cedars.
At the top of this, an engine was constructed which drew the water from the Euphrates, and made it spout up to irrigate this garden of the skies. All this to please his wife.
In the midst of this city stood the temple of Belus. One of its towers was one eighth of a mile high, and on the top of it an observatory, which gave the astronomers and priests great advantage, since, being at so great height, one could easily talk with the stars and the Gods. This temple was full of cups and statues and censers, all of gold. One temple image alone weighed one thousand Babylonian talents, which would be equal to fifty-two million dollars.
With all it’s wealth and power. With all the splendor that spared nothing to impress and overwhelm the senses. This city and it’sruling system, would fall in one day as Darius and his army broke through the river tunnel during a drunken banquet.
Suddenly darkness fell upon the palace banquet room. The shine of gold is gone, and the powers that be are staring in horror as a hand appears and begins writing upon the wall.
Daniel 5:25 “And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UFARSIN. v 26 This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it. v27 tekel, you have been weighed on the scales (God’s scales) and found wanting.”
Scripture tells us that God measures the soul of man and He measures by the things of the spirit…
A certain Christian was packing his suitcase before he left on a journey, he remarked to a friend: "There is still a little space left in the corner and I still need to pack a guidebook, a lamp, a mirror, a telescope, a book of poems, a scale, a bundle of old letters, a hymnbook, a sharp sword, and a small library, containing thirty volumes, in a space of about 8 inches wide and two inches deep." "I don’t see how you will ever do that” His friend said. “How are you going to manage this?" Oh, that space is where I’ll put my bible! It’s my lamp, my mirror, my telescope, my book of poems, my letters to the church, my hymn book, my sword, a 32 volume libraryand a scale. If you’ll apply it, it will weigh you….
Luke 12:16 And Jesus spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. v17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room to safely store all my harvest? v18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my goods. v19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years, take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. v20 But God said unto him, you fool, this night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall those things be, which you have stored up? v21 So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God”.
Our God is weighing the principles, priorities and values in our lives, He’s weighing individuals, He’s weighing churches, He’s weighing kingdoms and nations.
He weighs us by what we’ve done with the opportunities He gives us, by faithfulness to the task, by who we brought to Him and who we did not. He weighs what we did with what we have been given, and if we had compassion, went the second mile, if we forgave those who He asked us to, and gave Him His portion.
How foolish to cut off the branch that’s holding you up….If we neglect winning souls to Christ, we will be weighed in the balances
and found wanting. Our nation will be weighed in the balances and found wanting. When we kicked God out of the education system, made abortion legal, and violated God’s laws concerning marriageand the family (a person can legally marry their dog or their cat now, and children can divorce their parents) We’re cutting off the very thing that is holding everything together…
Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, v2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. v3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds”.
The Jewish Bible says “lay aside every weighty impediment”
New living Bible says “let us strip off every weight that slows us down”,
New International Bible says “let us throw off everything that hinders”
Message Bible says “Strip down, start running - and never quit!”
God’s Word Translation says “get rid of everything that entangles us”
The Common English Bible “throw off any extra baggage”.
We all must ask ourselves,”what is it in my life, that fits that description”
Disobedience can weigh you down, unforgiveness, pride, envy, strife covetousness, greed, selfishness and fleshly lusts can weigh you down.
A psychologist took a glass containing water, and walked around a room while teaching. As she raised the glass, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she asked them all "How heavy is this glass of water?" The answers ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz. She replied, "Actually, it’s not the weight that matters. But it’s about how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each *…..case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." Having settled that….
She continued and said, "There are things in our lives that are like this glass of water. Carry them for a while and nothing happens. Carry them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you carry them all day long, day after day, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of being your best self." It’s important to remember to let go and stop carrying things that diminish and disempower you. Remember to put the glass down!
One of the spiritual extra baggage items is self--sufficiency. And a lot of pretty good people, and fairly successful people will be found wanting because they are counting on being good enough and religious enough to balance their own scales!
The greatest fear of the approval addict is rejection; the greatest fear of the power addict is humiliation; The greatest fear of the comfort addict, is suffering; and the greatest fear of the control addict, is uncertainty.
Religion is what we do, redemption is what He does. Believing and receiving is our part, impartation is His part. We are willing to put the glass down, He is able to lift it’s affects from our soul and spirit….
Jesus had to give the Pharisees and Sadducees new scales to weigh themselves. They were using the scales of comparison to weigh their righteousness. They looked pretty good compared to many folks around them, but Jesus put them on the scales of God’s impartial and universal truth and they didn’t like it!!!
2 Corinthians 10:12 “Comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise.”…. Mark 10:25 “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven”. That means rich in ability; rich in resources; rich in self righteousness. (or Self-sufficiency) Throughout the gospel it is not only sin that keeps people from Jesus, but self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. It’s not our weakness that keeps us from being used by God, so many times, it is our attitude that we can do it in our own strength.
Here’s some wisdom from God’s measuring scales…(check it out) ----You will never change what you are willing to tolerate, because you have now mentally accepted that limitation as your standard.
If you are living in a certain way and are unhappy you must make a decision that you don’t have to live that way any longer.
You will only attract, what you respect the most.
By respecting something, you put value on it. Things you don’t respect will not stay in your life because they have no value.
A mistake repeated more than twice is a decision….
If you don’t respect a person, you can never learn from that person.
What you make happen for others, will happen for you.
When you do something for someone else without expecting anything in return – you have operated a key of increase in the kingdom.
The habits that are your daily routine are constantly determining your future. They are setting you up for success or failure every day.
The problems you are willing to solve for others are the solutions which will come back to you. If you are creating problems, that is what will come back to you….(Learn from the past, plan for the future, and live in the present)
Your time, Your love, and your friendship are seeds that will cause a harvest to come back to you….
You cannot free someone who refuses to leave their prison.
When Daniel was summoned to the palace, to interpret the hand writing on the wall, Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t looking for solutions, he was looking for someone to blame for interrupting his banquet and raining on his Ego-parade.
He was surrounded by folks who only told him what he wanted to hear, and instead, Daniel told him what he needed to hear!
The last thing that Winnie wanted to hear, just hours after recoveryfor her hip replacement, was get up and let’s go for a walk. The physical therapist didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear (leave me alone and just let me lie here and sleep) But they told her what she needed to hear, (get up and get moving, so healing can begin)!!We now have a therapist in town who is checking to see if Winnie is “weighed in the balances and found wanting”…. So far she’s doing pretty good! When the writing on the wall is put in context of our modern lives, it would be a mandate about where our treasure is. What is it that brings you joy? Where is your pleasure center located?
Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”. And Brother Luke goes on to say this…
Luke 12:28 “If God so clothes the grass, which is to day in the field, and tomorrow is cut down and cast into the oven, how much more [will he clothe] you, O you of little faith? v30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knows that we have need of these things. v31 So seek first the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.v32 Fear not, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”.
We are being asked about what the true value of our life is….and what is it that we treasure? The stuff that we treasure may be owning us instead of us owning that stuff. (where your treasure is there your heart is also)
It’s not just about our stuff, but it’s about what it is that fills up our hearts.
Matthew 6:19 “ Do not just lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: v20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”
We all need to lose a little weight….and we’re not talking about jelly rolls, or those late night snacks, and fewer desserts….This is not about calories…. We are being weighed each day, and the scales are calibrated by the word of God that we all must stand before and give an accounting.
From the moment our feet touch the floor, till we lay down our head at night…our attitude, our gratitude, our obedient response to His will, and faith in his word and character are being weighed.
This is not to condemn us but to assure that by putting greater value there, we receive the greater reward and blessing the father has for us! He wants us whole, healthy and living life well!
Have you ever been in a situation where you were at the checkout counter and didn’t have enough money? Or you forgot your checkbook? Or the magnetic stripe on your credit or debit card didn’t work? How about when you had less available on your debit card than you thought? You just didn’t check your balance before you started spending. But then, someone steps up and says “It’s OK, I’ll take care of it, put it on my tab”… I’ve had that happen, at a restaurant, where I went to pay, and the person at the register said, “someone already paid your bill”…..
I am told that our weight should be in proportion to our height. I heard someone say that they didn’t have a weight problem, they have a height problem. They just need to grow to 9 feet tall to be the right weight…
What I’m getting at is that prayer is important in our lives, because when we’re on our knees we are so tall that we can touch heaven. So spending time on your knees can really help with your weight problem!
Dr. Rand Byrd was a staff cardiologist at the San Francisco General Hospital and a professor at the University of California. He conducted a ten-month study of 393 patients admitted to the coronary intensive care unit of the hospital. There were 192 patients, in the “prayed for” group, while the remaining 201 patients were not prayed for.
Prayer groups around the country were given only the first names, diagnoses and prognoses of the designated 192 patients. The groups were asked to pray for each patient by name once a day. No other instructions were given. None of the patients, nurses, or physicians knew which group each patient was in.
The results were startling. The prayed-for patients were 5 times less likely to require antibiotics and 3 times less likely to develop fluid on the lungs. None of these prayed-for patients required breathing tubes compared to 12 in the other group, and fewer of the prayed-for patients died. The findings were published by the American Heart Association.
Dr. Byrd’s study showed conclusively that praying for others really does make a difference even when the patients don’t know they are being prayed for. Think what could happen if we started praying for others and ourselves about everything. Our prayers could change the world!
We Are All On God’s Scales…..When we honestly and sincerely ask Him what His values are and what He treasures in our lives, what happens is that He begins to balance the scales.
Along with all the stuff that we may have accumulated, there are clearly things that God is looking for as we step on the scales…
He’s looking for Faith. “For without faith, it is impossible
to please God.”
He’s looking for Belief. “He that comes to God must believe that He is…”
Salvation: “Except a man is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom…” Do we weep over the lost?
He’s looking for His name….Where have we placed The Name of Jesus: “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name given unto man which can save…”
What place do we give The Spirit of God: But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”.
What about Holiness: “without which no man shall see the Lord.”
And He’s looking for Truth: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
When you go to a doctor for your check-up, they will often begin to poke, prod, and press various places, all the while asking, "Does this hurt? How about this?" If you cry out in pain, then likely, there's something wrong, and the doctor will say, "We'd better do some more tests. It's not supposed to hurt there!"
It’s the same way, when pastors preach and the Word reveals as the Holy Spirit is moving, it causes some discomfort, in some area. It may indicate that there's something wrong that needs to be dealt with in prayer and obedience before the Lord.
When I get on the big scale at Winn Dixie, I hold on to the rail until it indicates what I want to weigh… You too determine what you weigh…
Set the thing down that you’ve been carrying too long, set the thing down that has been weighing you down….
David Livingstone the missionary Doctor, wrote…. “I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in its relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, then it shall be used to promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes for time and eternity”.
You see, for the born again child of God, when weighing time comes, Jesus steps on the scales with you, and His righteousness, His holiness, His purity and sinlessness balances the scales! You’re on one side and His grace, His atonement, His compassion are on the other side providing the standard which brings us into God’s pleasure and favor….
And the verdict is “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”….
Closing prayer
“As we come to this place in our journey,we thank You Lord that even when we did not feel Your nearness, we knew deep inside that you were always there. So constant in the minutes, hours and days, you were watching over us and keeping us in your love and grace. You said that we were always on Your mind and in Your heart. That truth brings comfort and amazing peace in every situation.
Lord You have enabled us to persevere and hold on as we are strengthened and carried by Your Spirit. You are never far from any one of us, so Your ear is close when we pray and when we just want to talk.
While we don’t know what the days ahead will hold, we thank you that every moment is in your hands, and part of the plan You have for us. So, we move forward in confidence, knowing You walk where we walk, and feel what we feel.
Forgive us Lord, for allowing our hearts and spirits to be weighed down with the cares of life at times. Help us to lay aside all those weights that we might enter Your peace and run the race You have for us. We gladly yield our lives unreservedly to You, our Savior, and our Lord. Help us to be, and to go, and to do, as You would wish. It is our great privilege to serve You and to walk in obedience. We desire nothing greater than to bring You Glory and help others to know You better and for some, to know You for the first time.
Open hearts that are still closed against you, and open understanding that in knowing, lives would changed and spirits made open.
Holy Spirit, bring conviction unto righteousness, and draw those who are away from you to faith and to repentance.
Lord Jesus, as we lay aside all the weights that might hinder and distract us, may we join your multitude of harvesters in this end time harvest, as we wait for Your appearing. Continue to move upon our hearts to mold and shape us more and more for Your honor and glory we ask.
For it is all in Jesus’ name, Amen”.
