Part 2: Jesus Can Straighten Me Out. Series

Jesus Can 2007

Part 2: Jesus Can Straighten Me Out.

2 Corinthians 10:1-5

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - Jan 28, 2007

*“WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?” Have you ever wondered that about someone? Has anybody ever wondered that about you? (Recently?)

*An important part of my job is trying to help people going through serious personal problems. And when you get down to the heart of the matter, every time, somebody is seriously mixed up on their thinking. All of us tend to get mixed up on our thinking at times, and often we don’t even see the problem.

*But Jesus Christ can straighten out our thinking a whole lot better than Dr. Phil or anybody else in this world. The Lord can straighten out our thinking, if we will do 3 things.

1. First of all, keep turning your mind to the goodness of God.

*In vs. 1, Paul was pleading, begging the Corinthian Christians to change their minds, and they needed some big changes. One reason why was because false teachers had come to them, corrupting their minds with a false legalistic gospel. On top of that, they had neglected their duty to give. And Paul was afraid that when he visited them again, he would find all kinds of corruption.

*Listen to what Paul told them later on in this letter. This is 2 Corin 12:20-21 from the New Living Translation, where Paul said, “I am afraid that when I come to visit you I won’t like what I find, and then you won’t like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, backstabbing, gossip, conceit, and disorderly behavior. Yes, I am afraid that when I come, God will humble me again because of you. And I will have to grieve because many of you who sinned earlier have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure.”

*Those believers needed big changes in their behavior, because they needed some big changes in their thinking. And the first thing Paul did in these verses to help them change was this: He reminded them of the goodness of God.

-In vs. 1, Paul said, “I am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ . . .”

1-Turn your mind to the meekness of Jesus Christ, but remember that meekness is not weakness. Wade Hughes defined the Lord’s meekness this way:

-“Great power and strength under control, enduring injury with patience and without resentment, not violent, not haughty not arrogant, not inclined to put yourself forward or in front” (1)

*William Barclay tells us that meekness is the quality of the man whose anger is so controlled that he is always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. It describes the man who is never angry at any personal wrong he may receive, but who is capable of righteous anger when he sees others wronged. (2)

*David Parks says that this word meekness was used to define a powerful horse that was under control of its master. It is emotion under control. It is not weakness.

-Weakness turns its back on sinners. Meekness restores them.

-Weakness brings disunity. Meekness brings unity.

-Weakness returns the abuse. Meekness takes the abuse.

-Weakness argues. Meekness instructs.

-"Meekness is the strength to back down from a fight you know you could win." (3)

*Melvin Newland said:

-I’ve read a lot of nursery rhymes. One of the most familiar is "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again."

*Melvin found out from Chuck Swindoll that this nursery rhyme was originally written about people, broken people, people who fell and found their lives smashed. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put them back together again. But Jesus can! Because of His meekness. (4)

2-Turn your mind to the meekness of Jesus Christ, and to His gentleness.

*Barclay said that the Greeks defined this word as "that which is just and even better than just." (2)

*Christ’s gentleness is suitable and mild. It gives mercy, kindness, compassion and courtesy.

-We see it in John 4, when the Lord spoke with a woman who had been married five times and was living with a man outside of marriage.

-We see it in John 8, with a woman who was caught in the act of adultery.

-We see it in Luke 19, when Jesus went to visit in the home of Zacchaeus, a man who had been crooked all his life.

*In all of these cases, hearts and minds and lives were changed. Souls were saved. People were drawn to a new way of thinking and living by the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ. But the greatest display of His character was still to come, when Jesus went to the cross to suffer and die for our sins.