If math only involved working with numbers it would be hard enough. Plus and minus are simple enough concepts. Ah, but it doesn’t stop there. We get Greek letters and signs that that are senseless. Thankfully, SOME signs make sense.
Don’t worry – the lesson we’re jumping into is really a faith lesson not a math one! But before we begin, welcome to “Mornings with Bishop Robert” — you’re the reason I’m here. My goal is to introduce people to the Jesus they never knew, and help them get to know Him and His word personally – and better ! If our time together today speaks to your heart, then let me invite you to like, subscribe and share it with a friend!
If you know me then you’re aware that math is not my strongest skill. That could be the understatement of the year. I’ve often joked that the reason God gave me the title of COUNT TO ONE for my book on unity in the Body of Christ was because He knew I may have trouble counting higher than that with any degree of reliability.
You know you’re in trouble when the “simple explanation” of something makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There’s a book called “100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics” that states “the number of derangements of ‘n’ elements is well-known,” and follows that sentence with an equation that looks like it could have been written by an epileptic orangutan. I immediately felt like one of the obvious derangements. And these were supposedly “elementary” mathematics problems. Yeah, right.
Another symbol that makes no sense is the symbol for “square root,” which looks like a check mark drawn by a person with a domineering personality. Even explaining the concept of a square root or why someone should even care about it eludes me. Just give me the good old plus and minus signs, if you don’t mind. I have no trouble dealing with sentences that need commas to break them up. But if you’ve got three or four commas in a sentence that’s probably too many; and in my opinion the same goes for numbers.
But there is ONE other mathematical sign that I like, and it fits into today’s verse, which says THE ONE WHO IS IN YOU IS GREATER THAN THE ONE WHO IS IN THE WORLD
Ahhh, the simple and easy-to-understand “greater than” sign. Even explaining it is a breeze. The “big end” points to the bigger thing, so the bigger thing always come first.
Take two numbers – say the number 4 and then the number 753. If I write that equation properly it looks like this: 753 > 4 When you look at that equation, you can easily see that the big, wide-open side of the symbol points to the larger number. If I reverse the numbers and put the number 4 first, the equation is wrong. So what does THAT have to do with living in faith, you may ask?
Because in life as in a math equation with the greater than sign, you ALWAYS have to put the bigger thing first. GOD Himself lives within you if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. He has placed His Holy Spirit in you to empower you and make you an overcomer. The enemy will throw everything he has at you and attempt to convince you that the issues he tosses into your life are greater than God. But his equation is wrong. THE ONE WHO IS IN YOU IS GREATER THAN THE ONE WHO IS IN THE WORLD. He’ll tell you that God can’t handle your problem. He’ll tell you that your sin is too great for God to forgive, and that God will never be able to use a person like you with your background, your faults, your failures.
But what he won’t tell you is that he’s a liar and the father of lies. When you add GOD into the equation He always comes first! That’s the ONLY right and proper way. When the “greater than” question comes up, the answer is simple. GOD is ALWAYS greater than whatever the other term is.
GOD is always the first term in the greater than equation. And THE ONE WHO IS IN YOU IS GREATER THAN THE ONE WHO IS IN THE WORLD.
That’s a math problem even I can solve.
