Listen To Your Trainer Series

BETTER BODY BUILDING (part 2) All my sermons use illustrations from SermonCentral.com I also use the NIV Bible unless stated.

LISTEN TO YOUR TRAINER

Back in November I spoke of a series of sermons I was writing entitled “ Better Body Building.” With the start of the New Year many people will be looking to get into shape and make changes that will make them better people. This series of sermons, is written in hope of allowing us, (with the blessing of God’s Word) to make those same kinds of changes to our body, our church, the bride of Christ. The first sermon written for this series, which I preached back in November, spoke of how the Scripture tells us that the church is ONE body, made of many parts. You folks sitting here this morning are a part of that body; if you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of your life and have been baptized into that new life, which He alone can provide, than you are a part of the body of Christ.

This morning I want to speak with you about one of the most important parts of getting a Better Body, and that is “Listening to Your Trainer.” Our trainer is the author and perfecter of our faith - Jesus, and Jesus once told us, John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. Folks, I truly believe that one of the most difficult things for people to do is LISTEN, I mean to do what we are told, especially when it does not make sense to us.

One of my favorite movies of all times was the original “Karate Kid” In the movie, after the kid decides he really wants to learn Karate, he goes to the master and begs to be trained. In his first lesson, as you might recall, he is told, “Wax on, Wax Off!” (Making the motions) and he thinks that it is STUPID. I wonder what the original 12 disciples thought as Jesus taught them that the greatest would be the least and if they wanted to be FILLED, they must first be emptied.

There is no greater example of how our culture finds it difficult to accept the truth, then the example that comes from our youth today. In Bill Gates’ new book Business @ The Speed of Thought, he lays out 11 rules that students do not learn in high school or college, but should. He argues that our feel-good, politically correct teachings have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality who are set up for failure in the real world.

RULE 1 - Life is not fair; get used to it.

RULE 2 - The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3 - You will NOT make $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a VP with a car phone, until you earn both a high school and college degree.

RULE 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

RULE 5- Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it opportunity.

RULE 6 - If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills; cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents’ generation, try "delousing" the clothes in your own room.

RULE 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they will let you try as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time. RULE 10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop to go to their jobs.

RULE 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

I think we should be very honest with ourselves as we start this new year, LISTENING is not one of our strong suits! BUT if we are to build a Better Body, a church that is on the move, a united group with one common goal, WE MUST LEARN TO LISTEN TO OUR TRAINER!