Life Is Like Going To School

INTRO.- You are slow to learn. Some of us are slow learners, but learn we must. Life is a learning process. School is a matter of learning.

ILL.- Pete walked up to his teacher’s desk, holding a report card with a big red F. He said, "If I were you I would change this while you still can."

"Why is that?" asked the teacher.

"Because my daddy told me that if I brought home one more failing report card, someone was going to get a beating."

Did you have a daddy like that? Or perhaps more pertinently, were you a student like that boy? Did you ever fail a class? Sometimes we do fail in life, but that doesn’t make us failures.

ILL.- One ballplayer set the major league record for strikeouts with 1316. The same player set a record for five consecutive strikeouts in a World Series game. The holder of both records was the great slugger Babe Ruth. Everybody fails, even seemingly great people.

Rom. 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Another way to say is this: We all make mistakes. We all fail. We all fail in something, but we can’t let our failures get us down. If we do, we’ll stay down and God doesn’t want us to stay in the pits of gloom and doom, discouragement and depression.

ILL.- Baseball great, Reggie Jackson said, “I feel that the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it.”

There is a remedy for pit living and for failing in life.

Ps. 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.”

The Lord is the only cure for the failures of life. He can lift us up, make us whole and give us a new direction in life. But we must constantly and consistently cry out to Him, look to Him, lean on Him, learn from Him, love Him.

Life is full of failing. Life is full of pits and pitfalls, but we have to keep going forward and we can overcome with the Lord’s help and grace.

ILL.- A wise school teacher sent this note home to all parents on the first day of school: "If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I’ll promise not to believe everything he says happens at home.”

Some strange and wild things do happen at school and sometimes at home.

ILL.- The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. " Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, ’There’s Jennifer; she’s a lawyer,’ or ’That’s Michael, he’s a doctor.’" A small voice at the back of the room rang out, " And there’s the teacher; ...she’s dead."

School kids are liable to say anything.

PROP.- Since this is “back to school” Sunday, I want to compare life to school. Life is like going to school.

I. WE GO TO SCHOOL TO LEARN

Oh, really!? Not in Mrs. Straw’s Art Class. I didn’t go to her class to learn about art. I went to her class to learn about her, Mrs. Straw. She was one pretty lady and nice too. I can still see her in my mind’s eye: that smile, that pleasant look, and I can still hear her soft words. “Steven Shepherd, you can do better work than that.” Wow, do I have a good memory for some things!

Basically, we go to school or are sent to school to learn. To learn what? In the old days it was reading, ritin and rithmetic! And we did learn those basics. The basics are vitally important. Without them no one will get far in life.

Heb. 5:12 “…By this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again.”

These elementary truths may well be the basics, which we all need to know. What are some elementary truths of God’s Word?

- God created man for fellowship. But man sinned and broke that fellowship with God.

- God gave man a law to live by but man broke the law.

- God loves all people intensely and has provided a way for them to be saved. God sent His Son Jesus to save us. We accept Him by faith.