Who's your savior?

I Never Knew You
"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Matthew 7:21-23

who is your savior?

I've been listening to these sermons by Timothy Keller (i rarely put the name of the preacher i listen to - but this one is recommended). One thing that he's been pounding in my ears is the question "who is your saviour?"

In almost all of his sermons (that i've heard so far) he compares 2 saviours in the particular passages that he used. Today's sermon is about Leah - if you've never heard about her - well Leah is the wife of Jacob.

Leah is the older sister of the good looking Rachel - whom Jacob really wanted to marry. As the sentence indicates, Leah is not so good looking. In fact, her dad worries that he's going to be stuck with her - so much - that he would actually lie to Jacob on his wedding night, and give Leah as his wife instead of Rachel.

It's in the book of Genesis if you want to read the rest of the story (it's quite an interesting one - so do read it if you have the time).

Now, in the story Rachel too was given to Jacob as his wife, but only after Jacob has done his duty with Leah.

So you can see here that Leah is actually has been living in quite a harsh world. Unwanted by her father and also her husband. So she begged God to give her something that she would "feel good" about. She begged God to give her the thing that most families longed for in the ancient era - she begged God for a child.

God listened to her and gave her what she wanted. Not only a child but a son. And not only one son but four of them. The names of these sons have a particular significance. To show you the significance I'll quote the verses for you:

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, [Reuben means See] for she said, “Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”

33 She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon. [Simeon sounds like the Hebrew for heard]

34 Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi. [Levi sounds like the Hebrew for attached]

35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. [Judah sounds like the Hebrew for praise] Then she ceased bearing.

Genesis 29:31-35

As you can see - the verse begins with the phrase "When the Lord saw that Leah was hated..." God saw her pain and He choose to listen to her plea. Three times she hoped that by the birth of her three sons - that her husband Jacob would look at her, and you can see it by the meaning of the names. The last one, she saw the meaninglessness of her efforts to make these sons her saviour, she finally saw that it is God who has been with her - her real saviour all along. That is why in the last praise Leah mentioned nothing of her affliction nor Jacob - but she Praised God.

In life - we too are like Leah aren't we?

Maybe we're not hated like Leah was, but we often ask God to give us comfort other than Him. We ask God for things to save us from this fallen conditions that we are in.

This verse is so rich and wonderful, not only did i see Leah's changes but also God's mercifulness. You can see here - that God saw Leah's pain - He saw that Leah was hated, and He loved her too much to leave her in pain. He gave her a blessing - even though He knew that this blessing will not bring her to love Him more - but He still gave it to her. Not only that - He gave her this "counterfeit gods/saviour" three times. How mindblowing!

So who is our saviour?

Is it our success? creativity? intelligence? our works?

What things are we clinging to, to save us from this fallen condition that we are in? are we clinging to Jesus Christ as our Saviour or are we clinging to what we have/do to save us?

Friends, let us learn from Leah - three times she was blinded by her longing to be loved by Jacob (thinking that his love would make her life better) - but the fourth - she saw that God is her salvation. It was God who gave her all those things, even to be Jacob's wife.

Personally, that is a rebuke for me. It revealed to me that my saviour all these times is not Jesus.

When I looked at my prayers, my hopes and wants, it all points to me. I've been praying to God to give me things - talents, skills and growth so that I can do many things "to serve God". I was just reading my prayer points for my ministry updates (that i wrote yesterday) and i wrote : "I am also praying that I could be used to teach and train others as well." Isn't that a sign that I wasn't aiming to point people to Jesus? That I wasn't depending on what Jesus had done?

Just analyse that statement - I was praying to God that would make me to be like Him - so that I could go on without Him. I wanted to be useful - so useful that I won't need God's help anymore. I was using God to achieve what I wanted - to be "useful for people". I don't think what I really wanted was to glorify God's name, what I wanted was so that I would be approved by other people. I was longing for "Jacob's love".

Now let me go back to the verse that I put at the beginning of my verse:

Jesus said : ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’.

Did He say this to people who rejected Him? lazy? unrepentant?

NO - these people said : "‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’" They are "high-achievers" in the church, they are people who seemed enthusiastic, useful and successful in their ministry - but Jesus said to them "depart from me - I never knew you!" Why is that?

I think it's because Jesus was not their saviour. Their saviour was their works - the things that they achieved - the miracles that they performed. At the end it was their works that they depended on to save them - it wasn't Jesus. Moreover, they're too caught up with trying to save themselves - that they forgot to build a relationship with God. They don't know the God whom they've worshipped - they don't chase after "God's own heart".

Friends, isn't it sad - when at the end of the day - the "hard-work " and efforts that you've put in for God became a god in itself? Isn't it sad - that's its so easy to trade God with something that is much much much lesser than God Himself?

Prayer Points:

- pray that our eyes are always fixed on the Cross - the sign of God's grace and mercy for us

- pray that we would always rely on Jesus as our Saviour - the Only One who can save us from our much deserved punishment