No Errors

No Errors

Good Morning. I am happy to see you in the Lord’s house today.

If you are our guest today, thank you for choosing to worship with us today here at Central, where we are striving to make Christ the center of our lives.

If you are searching for a church home, we invite you to make Central your choice for a community of believers to worship with.

It is our desire that you have already been made to feel welcome and enjoyed the warmth of being in the Lord’s house today. We pray that you sense the presence of the Lord and are challenged with the word from God today for your life.

Let’s make our profession; this is my bible….

Humorous Opening:

Miss Jones, an elderly spinster, lived in a small Midwestern community. She had the notoriety of being the oldest resident of the town. One day she died and the editor of the local newspaper wanted to print a little caption commemorating Miss Jones' death. However, the more he thought about it, the more he became aware that while Miss Jones had never done anything terribly wrong, she had never actually done anything of note.

The editor went down to have his morning coffee and met the owner of the headstone establishment in the little community.

The headstone proprietor said that he was having the same problem. He wanted to put something on Miss Jones's headstone besides: Miss Nancy Jones, born such and such a date and died such and such a date, but he couldn't think of anything of notoriety.

The editor decided to go back to his office and assign the first reporter he came across the task of writing up a small article suitable for both the paper and the headstone.

When he returned to the office, the only reporter there was the young and brand new sports editor, so he gave him the assignment.

They say that if you pass through that little community you will find the following statement on her headstone:

Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones, for her life held no terrors.

She lived a maid, died a maid. No hits, no runs, no errors.

In sports, especially baseball, there is not, nor has there ever been a team that played a season without committing any errors.

The team with the most errors in a single season was the 1883 Philadelphia (Quakers) Phillies who played 99 games and ended the season in last place with 17 wins, 81 loses, and one tie.

They averaged 6.3 errors per game with 639 errors.

They played for 67 years before their 1st playoff appearance in 1950. That year they had only 151 errors. That’s 1.04 errors per game.

In 1980, after 97 years of Major League baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies finally won their 1st World Series Championship with a 91-71 record. That year they had only 136 errors and an average of 0.84 errors per game.

The Christian life is not a life without errors, but to truly win in this walk with God, we must come to the place where we make fewer and fewer errors.

Psalm 19:12-14 NIV

12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

The Message paraphrases verses 12-13 like this, “Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.”

The errors I am referring to today are called sin, and how do we come to the place in our walk with God were se begin to stop all of the foolish errors, or sins?

1. Refuse to be who you used to be.

• The lame man that lay by the Pool of Bethesda whom Jesus healed, when He went to Jesus in the temple Jesus tells him, “thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

• O the woman caught in the act of adultery whom Jesus forgave Jesus told her, “Neither do I condemn thee, go, and sin no more.”

• I’m sure that the man whom she was with, as well as others she had been with tried to see her again, but she refused to be who she used to be.

• Rehab the harlot refused to be who she used to be and became the grandmother of King David, and is found in the lineage of Christ.