Frankie Mazzapica - God Remembers You Were Made From Dust
Thank you for tuning in today, my name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is "God Remembers You Are Made From Dust," he remembers that. Let me just straight away lay a scriptural foundation. In Psalms 103, verse 13, it says this, "Just as a father has compassion on his children, so does the Lord have compassion on those who fear him," on those who are in awe of his greatness? The next verse says this, "And He remembers how we are formed, He remembers that we were made from dust".
When he sees us in moments of weakness, he looks at us with love, with grace, with mercy, because he remembers that you and I are made from dust. He knows that we are not capable of being as strong as what we wish we were. All of us have said things that we wish we didn't say, we've done things that we wish we didn't do. Oftentimes we beat ourselves up and we feel bad far longer than what we should. The Lord backs up and he says, I remember that you were made from dust, you are only capable of being so good. Without my grace, you can't be holy, you can't be righteous; but because of my grace, I'm going to make you strong; and you need me because I remember that you're made from dust.
You know, when we keep that in mind, we give ourself some grace, we back up and we whisper to ourself in those moments of weakness, "Look, I'm made from dust, I probably wasn't even capable of doing any better". I read about this guy, his name is Lou, L-O-U, and he wasn't a golfer, and he admitted, "I don't have the mindset to play golf". But, his friend who plays golf all the time, he said, "Why don't you come play some golf with me"? And so they went to go play golf. And on a particular hole, he was looking at the flag and he swung through, and he knocked the ball over the flag, he knocked it over the green. He took a deep breath, went on the other side, pulled out another club, came through, and knocked it over the green again.
Tried to relax, took a deep breath, grabbed another club, chipped it, it landed on the green, but rolled all the way to the other side. He took his club, and he flung it into the woods, and his friend looked at him and said, "Lou, you're not good enough to get that angry, give yourself some grace, you're not good enough to be that mad". It's almost like the Lord looks at us and he says, You're made from dust, give yourself some grace, you're only gonna be able to be so strong. I've got three major points for you today. The first point is how God is patient with our lack of faith. The second point is how God is patient in those moments of weakness, in those moments of sin. And then, the third point I'm gonna share is how God is patient during the moments when we feel broken.
And so let me just dive right into it, in those moments of lack of faith. The Bible says this, in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, he says that faith is being sure of what you hope for. I illustrate it like this: I'm sure God is gonna come through, and then you cross your fingers; I am certain of what I cannot see, I know that there is an angel on my right, there's an angel on my left, there's an angel above me, at least, I hope. And the more faith you have, the less you hope, and the more sure you are. But the Lord looks at you and he looks at me, and he says this: In those moments when your faith is low, I have patience, I remember that you're made from dust, I have patience.
In Mark chapter 8, the disciples were in a boat, and Jesus was also in the boat. They were going across the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus started hearing the 12 guys arguing amongst each other. So he started to eavesdrop just a little bit, and he heard one disciple say to the other, How do you expect us to eat when you forgot our lunch? You forgot the bread, you forgot the fish, now we're all gonna starve because of you. Back and forth they went. It's not my job, it was your job, you're the one who should have did it. Finally, Jesus stood up, he walked to the middle of the boat and he says, guys, weren't you there when I fed 5,000 people with a few fish and a few pieces of bread? And how many baskets did you have left over after I fed all those people?
And one of the disciples confessed, we had 12 baskets left over. And he goes, okay, that was when I fed 5,000. Don't you remember when I fed 4,000? and how many baskets of leftovers did we have? And they said, well, when, when we fed 5,000 there was 12, and when we fed 4,000 there was seven. Then he looked around and he goes, now how many people are in this boat? They went, uh, 1-2, they weren't the brightest people in all the world, 1-2-3-4, including you, Jesus, there is 13. He goes, well, don't you think I can?
So he's looking at them, he goes, I don't understand why your faith is so low, I'm not getting it. He wasn't angry, he wasn't mad, he remembers that they were made from dust. The robin said to the sparrow, "I must know why these anxious human beings are rushing about and worrying so". Said the raven back to the robin, he says, "These humans, they are wrestling amongst themselves, and I believe that it must be, they do not have a heavenly Father like you and me". The raven doesn't worry about what's gonna happen that day, it doesn't even have to store up food and mash it into the corner of a nest, he's fully confident that he'll have food tomorrow. The robin knows the same.
If he wakes up early tomorrow morning, he'll find a worm, so much so he'll be able to feed all the little birds inside of his nest. You can't help but to wonder why you and I can look back over the course of our life and know that there was always stress, we've always had a propensity, a habit, let's just skip that word, a habit, a habit of worrying, but for the life of us, we can't even remember 99.9% of those battles, those worries, but we can't even remember. We know God got us through it because we can't even remember, and so why is it that our faith is low, believing that he can do it again? He says don't worry about it, I'm patient with you, I remember you were made from dust.
And so, now, I wanna talk about this moment of sin. In Mark chapter 16, Jesus had already died on the cross, and just before he died on the cross he locked eyes with Peter. Can you remember, can you imagine this? Peter is denying Christ, I don't know him, and then he started cursing Christ. Like, just think of any curse word you can come up with. Don't, don't think about, all the curse words, he's cursing to convince them that I don't even know Jesus. And then all of a sudden, while he's doing that, Jesus and Peter lock eyes. The level of sin in that moment, he started to to run off. And then Jesus dies on the cross, he goes to the grave, while he's in the grave Peter leaves the disciples, he departs from the faith, he goes back and starts fishing. Have you ever felt like that? I am so inconsistent, I am so overwhelmed, I have drifted so many times, I know I've disappointed God, and so I'm just gonna get as distant from the church, I'm gonna get as distant from God as I possibly can.
Now watch what happens. Because Jesus is faithful, he's patient, he remembers that Peter is made from dust, so he rises again on the third day. When he comes out of the tomb, the first people to see him are a few young ladies, and he says to them, "Go and tell the disciples especially Peter," that I have risen again. Now, he didn't say, especially Matthew, especially Mark, especially John, he said especially Peter, and why is that? Because at that moment, it was Peter that was hurting the most, it was Peter that was condemning himself, it was Peter that was drifting, it was Peter that was broken, it was Peter who thought that his sin was too great. And Jesus said I want you to go find Peter, I've got patience with sin, I remember he's made from dust, I remember he's gonna have an achilles' heel, I remember that my children are often weak.
I read this story about this young lady, she was about 17-18 years old, and she lived in a small town in Brazil, she could see the lights of Rio de Janeiro. And she would tell her mom, "I wanna move to Rio. This town is so small, I just want to go to Rio". And the mother would say to her, "Rio is a big city, there's a lot of people who go to Rio and they lose themselves. They get caught up in scenes, and they begin to spiral, and they end up losing everything. Rio is a big city. Honey, you may visit one day, but now is not the time". She said, "I don't wanna visit, I wanna move there". And one morning, the mother woke up, and all of a sudden she realized that her daughter had not come into the room the next morning. The mom, only like mothers do, had this instinct and said something's wrong.
People who love each other, a husband and a wife, a daughter and a mother, best friends, they know when something's wrong. Something was wrong, so she went to the bedroom and her daughter wasn't there. She hoped that in a few days she would return. And then, finally, she knew what had happened, she knew that her daughter had went to Rio. The mother raced to a photo booth and started taking pictures of herself, she took about 100 pictures of herself, she invested a large amount of money. And so she took the pictures and she wrote a little note on the back of the pictures, and she would walk into every bar, she would walk into every hostel, she would walk into every place where a young lady who is hungry, who is starving, and who is desperate and has no money.
She walked into every single one of those places, and she began to ask, "Have you ever seen this girl? Have you ever seen this girl"? Because she had a picture of her daughter. And time and time again, they said, "No," "No," "No," "No". And so she went to every bathroom, every lady's bathroom, and she put a picture of herself on the mirror. Down every banister, down every set of stairs in every single brothel, she put a picture of herself at the bottom of the stairs. When she ran out of photos, she went home with a broken heart. One day, months later, the daughter was walking down the steps of a brothel, she didn't have those beautiful brown eyes, all lit up, her face didn't cause other people to smile anymore. She was a shell of herself, she was broken, she was ashamed, she was embarrassed.
While she was walking down, with matted hair and a dirty face, all of a sudden she got to the bottom of the steps and there on the wall was a small picture. She walked up to it and she saw that it was a picture of her mom. She pulled the picture off the wall, she looked at the back, and it said, "Honey, I don't know where you've been, I don't know what you've done, but I don't care, I just want you to come home". The young lady at that very moment started going home. When she knocked at the door, the mother opened the door, embraced her and hugged her, and do you know that the mother never one time asked her where she's been, what she's done, what she did?
Never one time asked why she left, never one time mentioned, "Can you tell it wasn't worth? Wasn't mama right"? Never mention, because it didn't matter. You know when you and I have these moments of weakness, these moments of desperation, these moments where we make decisions before we pray? Isn't it interesting how all of us at some point in our life are guilty of not praying before we make a decision, we end up praying after we make the decision. Isn't it true that all too often God isn't our first option, he's our last resort. And Jesus looks down at you and he says, I don't want to talk about anything that you've done, I don't want to rehearse the past, the past means nothing to me; what you did last night, what you did last week, what you did last month, it means nothing to me.
The only thing I want you to know is that I am enjoying this moment right now. Your eyes are locked with my eyes, you're in my presence, and you are the greatest person I love. I've created the moon, I've created the sun, I threw stars in the air, I caused every animal to walk, I pulled mountains out of the ground, I decided where the sea would be and where the streams would run, but it's you who is the apple of my eye. Come on. You're the apple of my eye. And so he's patient when our faith is low, he's patient when we make a mistake, in our moments of weakness, in our moments of desperation. When we do things in our desperate moments, he backs up and he goes, look, I remember you're made from dust.
But I wanna talk about, now, the moment where Peter is before Jesus; he's already ran off, Jesus has already told go find Peter. And Peter writes what happened to him, in the moment of having a broken heart, how did Jesus deal with him? And he writes, in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 10, he says the Lord will restore you, the Lord himself will restore you. He will make you strong, he will make you firm, and he will make you steadfast.
Now, the part that I love about that scripture is that he's saying the Lord himself. He sent an angel to Isaiah with a coal off the altar and placed it on his lips to make his words clean and powerful, he needed to be made holy. He sent Timothy to encourage Paul. But what Jesus is saying, when you need to be restored, when you've become a person that you didn't wanna be, when you're broken, when you're discouraged, when you're looking at your life and you're saying, I really thought my career would be here, I really thought my relationships would be here, I really thought my family, when I was growing up, I imagined a family, and the family that I'm in right now is not the family that I imagined.
I didn't know that I was gonna struggle with depression, I didn't know I was gonna struggle with anxiety, and I need to be restored, I'm broken. And Peter says this: I've been there before, I've been there before, and he looked at me and he remembered I was made from dust, he looks at you, he looks at me, and he says, I remember that you were made from dust. And I'm not going to send somebody to restore you, I'm not gonna send somebody to encourage you, I may do that later on, but right now I'm going to restore you myself. I'm on my way, I'm on my way, just hold on, I'm gonna restore you. Dig your heels in the ground and say, "I'm not moving, I'm not wavering, I'm waiting, I'm waiting".
Come on, I'm waiting. He looks at you and he says, I'm patient when your faith is low, I'm patient when you sin, when you make a mistake, I'm patient with your weakness and I'm patient with your brokenness, I know that you're made from dust. Let me tell you what is one of the greatest miracles in the history of existence, in the history of mankind. Obviously, the number one miracle is that Jesus would die for our sins in spite of knowing that we wouldn't always even be thinking about him, he died for us knowing that we would have a propensity, a propensity, a propensity to drift.
Oh Lord Jesus, help me. He looked ahead into the future and he says, I'm gonna die for them even though they may not even live for me. He looks ahead, and then he does the next miracle, he picked out 12 dirty uneducated, they were at the bottom of the economic barrel, and he says, you're the one I'm gonna use. I have noticed that God uses more people, let me back up and say this; I have noticed that the people with the greatest testimony, with the darkest past, ends up being used in the most powerful way.
And why is that? Because they have a good memory, they know where they would have been had God not stepped in, and so when they look at somebody, they say, "Hey girlfriend, I know that you're at a low place, I was once there, let me tell you what God does. He's patient, he lifts up the humble, he brushes you off, he equips you, he gives you arrows in your quiver, so that you can speak words that pierce the darkness, that you can strengthen people; just with your countenance, people feel stronger when they look into your face".
Come on, do you receive that? I grew up, Crystal, the young lady that stands in this spot, we grew up in the same neighborhood, it's a tough area of town, and Crystal said something this morning that just resonated. She goes, "You know our kids will never know what that life looks like". Even if you're in the hardest place, you're introducing your kids to a life, if you have a peppered past, you're introducing your kids, you're introducing your friends, you are making an impact with the people you live life with, you are giving them what you wish someone would have given you. That's what you're doing.