Human
behavior is something we all strive to understand, we offer degrees in
psychology and sociology, those who work well with others or are likable seem
to go further in life, we spend time trying to be with and to better understand
our mates. We spend a great deal of our time trying to figure out why and how
somebody did something. We spend so much time trying to figure these things out
because the stuff that we want to do, we sometimes don’t, and the things that
we don’t want to do, we sometimes find ourselves doing. We become this walking
talking mass of contradictions. I know I should work out a whole lot more than
I do, but I’m still working on it, I know I need to drink less sugary drinks,
but I am working on it.
Michel de
Montaigne (Renaissance Author) said:
‘I write to keep
from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some
of those contradictions out for myself.”
Thomas Merton(Catholic
Monk) said:
“The very
contradictions in my life are in some ways signs of God's mercy to me.”
During
the time of this writing you had Pious Jews in the area that believed in strict
observance of the law, the lived every day scared that they were going to break
it. You also had pious early Christians out there struggling to observe the
rules as well. This life becomes a struggle of the flesh and the spirit.
Paul
doesn’t minimize his struggle and neither should we; yes we are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and the apple of God’s eye but we still have
our struggles. The Apostle Paul exercises some self-examination if you will, he
takes a “selfie” without the camera. As I was researching for this sermon, one
of the commentaries I read said that some scholars don’t want to believe that
the Apostle Paul was speaking on his own struggles, that he didn’t have any.
They go so far as to say even though he is writing IN FIRST PERSON, using terms
like ‘I’ and ‘me’ he did that just to relate to the readers of the epistle, but
didn’t really have any struggles to talk about.
That
is why a lot of the secular world doesn’t want anything to do with Christians
because some of us walk around like we are perfect, and the higher “rank” you
think you have in the Body of Christ, the worse off it seems to be. Don’t be on
the Trustee board, or a Baptist Deacon, elder, or mother of the church. Then
you are really big stuff, but the men and women of the cloth seem to be just as
bad. I am in a few Facebook groups and there are people in there who will get
mad if you don’t address them by their titles when responding to their posts in
the groups. You want me to call you Chief Apostle, Archbishop Primate,
Presiding Prelate or whatever and have the nerve to say something about it
every time someone doesn’t do so. Why? I am not one to despise small beginnings
but if I had 10 names in my title, and only 2 members in your congregation,
maybe I would be a little short on honorifics, pomp, and circumstance and
little longer on some ministry. We all struggle, there is no use trying to
pretend that we don’t, the bible says
Romans 3:23New
Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
23 since
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
We cannot think
of ourselves as perfect, if we did, I think it would be hard for us to see the
God in others.
So what do we do
about it?
1. It won’t be
effortless
Verse 17 – Paul
can speak on the flesh and “nothing good, that dwells within me” because God
gave him an understanding of Donald Lawrence’s song before he wrote it, we are
not natural beings having a spiritual experience, but we are spiritual beings
living a natural experience. And in this natural experience we will always have
a way out.
1 Corinthians
10:13New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
13 No
testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and
he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he
will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
2. Expect to
encounter enemies
Verse 21 – When
I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.
A man with no
enemies is a man with no character.
Quoted
in Paul Newman: A Life in Pictures, ed. Yann-Brice Dherbier and
Pierre-Henri Verlhac (2006), p. 120
Variant: If you
don't have enemies, you don't have character.
As quoted
in Words of Wisdom : From the Greatest Minds of All Time (2004)
by Mick Farren
Simply put, all the greats
are hated on.
If you are in a
position where everybody likes you all the time, you might want to take a look
at some of your values. Does that mean you need to get into a fight everyday,
no, but you cannot please all the people all the time without lying to
somebody.
Furthermore it
will not be easy, success takes a lot of hard work, they say you need 10,000
hours of practice at any given skill before you become proficient at it. I was
watching the movie Rocky II at home on Friday and Rocky’s trainer a character
named Mickey was talking Rocky and he said to be able to last in the ring 45
minutes you need to train for 45,000 minutes, now that is a 1,000 of practice
for every minute he needed to last in the ring.
We have become
this culture with a microwave mentality to the point that we expect success to
come without much time and without much effort. I have seen it in the way we
treat our athletes. Now I am not the biggest Lebron James fan, I will be the
first to admit it, but the man has a tremendous amount of pressure on him,
everybody is expecting him to be the next Michael Jordan to the point that if
he does not lead his team, and I say lead as in start, and contribute the most
not like some of the others who just happen to be in the right place at the
right time on winning teams; but I digress, if he does not lead his team, whatever
team it is, to 6 or more championships, he will be viewed as a failure. There
is video out, someone edited it together Michael Jordan’s “Maybe” video with
Lebron James’ “Rise.”
The video shows
Lebron and Jordan talking in voice over’s and Jordan says, “maybe its my fault,
maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn’t, maybe I made you think
my highlights started at the free-throw line and not in the gym.” Repetition is
the mother of skill, we need to find time to fill our time with the things of
God.
3. Expect to
call upon your extraction
Full Definition
of EXTRACTION
Verses 24-25 –
the way we deal with it is practice, by ourselves we are wretched, but with the
help of the lord we are the righteousness of God. Our daughter Elle Bea has a
toy she likes to play with, a doll by the name of Caillou, nice looking
toy, but the head comes off, often. The first time the doll’s head came off;
Elle Bea could not be consoled, even after I put the head back on, she was
still crying for a little bit, now the head comes off and she calmly walks over
to me, hands be the doll and just says ‘Daddy’ she has had practice turning her
problems over to her father because she knows that he can fix it.
The bible
says
Matthew
18:3-5New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
3 and said,
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever becomes humble like this child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever welcomes one such
child in my name welcomes me.
We ought to
spend more time handing over our broken things to our Heavenly Father, he has
the know-how to put things back together. That is why I appreciate some of the
traditional Gospel songs, they
tell us we can’t make it on our own.
Jesus, keep me
near the cross,
There a precious fountain—
Free to all, a healing stream—
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.
There a precious fountain—
Free to all, a healing stream—
Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain.
Refrain:
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
We need Jesus to
keep us near the cross
I serve a risen
Savior
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
Verse 1
I've had many tears and sorrows,
I've had questions for tomorrow,
there's been times I didn't know right from wrong.
But in every situation,
God gave me blessed consolation,
that my trials come to only make me strong.
Chorus
Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to trust in Jesus,
I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to depend upon His Word.
I've had many tears and sorrows,
I've had questions for tomorrow,
there's been times I didn't know right from wrong.
But in every situation,
God gave me blessed consolation,
that my trials come to only make me strong.
Chorus
Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to trust in Jesus,
I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to depend upon His Word.
I’m a testimony
Look at me, I'm a testimony,
I didn't make it on my own,
I'm not standing here all alone.
It is Jesus who gave me this opportunity,
look at me, I'm a testimony.
Verse:
(It's Jesus) who made me a possibility,
(nobody but Jesus), who never gave up on me.
(Jesus), who put all His trust in me,
(Jesus), found me, fixed me, and decided to use me;
look at me, I'm a testimony.
Look at me, I'm a testimony,
I didn't make it on my own,
I'm not standing here all alone.
It is Jesus who gave me this opportunity,
look at me, I'm a testimony.
Verse:
(It's Jesus) who made me a possibility,
(nobody but Jesus), who never gave up on me.
(Jesus), who put all His trust in me,
(Jesus), found me, fixed me, and decided to use me;
look at me, I'm a testimony.
2 Corinthians
12:7-10New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
7 even
considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep[a] me
from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan
to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.[b] 8 Three
times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave
me, 9 but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power[c] is
made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore
I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities
for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Isaiah 40:28-31King
James Version (KJV)
28 Hast
thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is
no searching of his understanding.29 He giveth power to the faint; and to
them that have no might he increaseth strength.30 Even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:31 But they that
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint.
That is how we
deal with the contradictions, we call for help, we cannot make it on our own, in
out weakness God makes us strong. God keeps us putting one foot in front of the
other, keeps giving us grace and mercy which are new every morning. God gives
us the ability to carry on.
