Be Wise About Self-Control Series

A. I was recently reminded about an old story about Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle that I think is a good launching point for today’s sermon.

1. The story goes like this: One day Mickey Mantle took his friend and teammate, Billy Martin, with him to hunt on another friend’s ranch.

2. When they arrived at the ranch, Billy stayed in the car while Mickey went to let his friend know they were there.

3. The friend asked for a favor - he had an old mule that was going blind and had become crippled, but he didn’t have the heart to put the mule out of its misery.

a. So, he asked if Mickey wouldn’t mind shooting the mule for him as a favor.

4. Mantle said “sure” and on his way back to the car decided to play a trick on Billy Martin.

5. Mickey climbed into the car and acted angry.

a. Mickey said, “My friend said we can’t hunt today” as he pounded his fist on the dashboard.

b. “Why that guy has made me so made I’m going to the barn to shoot one of his mules.”

6. With that, Mickey jumped out of the car and headed for the barn.

7. In quick order he took care of the mule and started back to the car to tell Martin it was just a joke.

8. At that moment Mickey heard two shots fired and found Billy Martin standing over two dead cows.

9. Mickey asked Billy, “What are you doing?”

10. Billy Martin answered, “I saw how mad you were and so I wanted to let your friend know that he couldn’t fool around with me either.”

B. Both Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin loved to tell that story, though sometimes it involved putting down a cow and Billy shooting three of the farmer’s horses or bulls.

1. In reality, the story was based on an old joke told on stage and radio.

2. Mickey and Billy fine-tuned the story and made it their own and it worked like a charm thanks to Martin’s well-known temper issues.

3. The pair told the story so well in bars across the nation, and on television, that thousands of people believed it.

4. It looks like they got the best laugh of all.

5. In any case, no cows or mules were injured in the telling of this joke.

C. But sadly, that’s not the case in many real life stories of anger and lack of self-control – often many people get injured in the process.

1. O. J. Simpson died last month and with his passing came the renewed attention on that tragic double murder and the sensational, captivating trial of O. J. Simpson.

2. He was found “not guilty” in that criminal trial in 1995, but a year later he was sued by the victims’ families for wrongful death and was found guilty in that civil trial and had to pay 33.5 million in damages.

3. Rules are different in criminal and civil trials and it’s harder to prove guilt in criminal trials than in civil trial.

D. So, was O. J. Simpson guilty or not? We don’t need to speculate, because God knows the truth and God will bring whatever judgment and justice that is needed.

1. But here’s the thing I want us to think about for a moment…the prosecution had to find a way to convince twelve citizen-jurors that one of the great American icons was actually capable of committing a horrific deed—a bloody double murder.

2. Here are a few of the things that Mr. Darden said to the jury: “It is not the actor who is on trial here today, ladies and gentlemen. It is not that public face. It is his other face.”

3. What a chilling phrase — “His other face” - the face we never see running through airports and driving rental cars - the face that never appears in the movies or on the talk shows.

4. Mr. Darden said, “It is the face he wore behind the walls at Rockingham, his Brentwood home. It is, he said, the face of a batterer, a wife beater, an abuser, a controller.”

E. I don’t know for sure if that was O. J. Simpson’s “other face,” but I do know that all of us struggle with our “other face.”

1. I know that within the human heart there is an enormous capacity for evil.

2. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

3. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

4. Is it possible that a man who seems to be friendly, positive, up-beat, genuinely good-hearted could commit a cold-blooded murder? I don’t know.