Let's have a little look at a verse in Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 17. I want to speak on dealing with put downs, and I want to give you some practical advice. I want to have a chance to minister to people - dealing with put downs. Who's been put down ever? Oh, one or two. [Laughs] Its part of life, isn't it aye? But I want to share with you some things. I want to pick it up from this morning, and I encourage you to just let your heart just be open to let God firstly, help you see how you've responded to this, and secondly, what you can do to break out, because at the end of the day, you'll either be where God has positioned you, and you chose to agree with Him, and stand there, or you'll be where other people put you. Think about that.
You've got to take responsibility for our life. Notice here it tells us in Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 17, the last half of it, it says those who receive abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness, will reign in life, will reign in life. Now that means, you are wired to win, when you get connected to Jesus Christ. When you and I connect our lives to Jesus Christ by faith, He implants His spirit, His DNA in us, and you are wired to win in life. God has no plan for you to fail. He doesn't dream up plans whereby you can fail. He has one plan for you, and that is a plan that in every arena of life you succeed, and no matter what is dished up to you, that you use that as a stepping stone, and you come out on top at the end of it. See God wants you to win. Notice He said, those who receive - two things; number one, those who receive the gift of righteousness, or in other words, those who by faith have embraced Jesus Christ, and come into a place of right standing with Him. The key to being able to walk a life that wins, is our standing with God. Righteousness means I am in right standing with God, no sin issues in the way, I'm accepted, loved, valued. I'm positioned for winning in life.
Second thing, out of that position I then need to access and receive words and power to live my life. So first, I've got to be in connection and maintain that connection, secondly, I've got to learn how to draw from God what I need to cope with, and handle, and overcome things in life. This morning we're talking about put downs in life. Let me define again a put down for you. Put downs are words or actions intended to humiliate or embarrass you, or put you down. Put downs are words or actions that are intended. Their intention is that you will be humiliated, your esteem will be lowered, you'll feel ashamed, embarrassed, you'll be put down. That's what you do to an old dog aye, put him down? Well people do that to people. They put them down, and some cultures are very, very bad. We have in New Zealand, we were sharing this morning about a particular culture of the tall poppy syndrome. We defined it this morning, but a poppy is an interesting plant. It's got a long, narrow stem with a poppy, beautiful flower on the top, and a tall poppy is one that stands head and shoulders above everything else. The tall poppy syndrome is the tendency in our culture to cut down anyone who excels or rises up, or stands out in any kind of way.
Now listen. If you connect with Jesus Christ and begin to listen to His dreams for your life, He will want you to stand up and become a tall poppy. He wants you to be one. We say oh, I just want to blend in with the crowd. Where did you get that idea? You're called to represent heaven. You're not called to go with the crowd and blend in with the crowd. You're called to stand out and be different. You're called to stand up and bring something of God into the earth. We're not called to be short poppies, we're called to be tall poppies. We're called to stand up, and stand out in life, see? So this tall poppy syndrome, literally what it does is it takes away the desire of people to excel, and causes everyone to just become mediocre, fit in with the crowd, go with the flow where everyone else is going. Listen, you're not called to go with the flow. You're called to stand up, and make your life count for something, called to stand up, and be different. Stand up, and fulfil the course that God has for you.