No More Cutting In
2/11/07 1 Kings 13:1-10 Galatians 5:7-18
Have you ever been standing in line for a long time, and then someone comes to the line and a person up ahead of you says, ”you can get in front of me”? How do you feel about it?
Have you ever been driving on I-90 and the traffic is backed up on dead man’s curve, and somebody comes zooming past you on the right, and then when you get to the place where dead man curve turns off of Route 2, and you now see the car that zipped past you trying to cut in? What do you do about it? Have you ever been waiting for a parking space, and when the car pulled out, before you could pull in, someone else got to it first? What goes through your mind.
One day I was standing across the street from Finast on St. Clair. I saw a person trying to find a parking space. He saw a car pulling out of a space and waited patiently for it. Another car came into the lot, and did not see the car that had been waiting. He simply pulled into the lot. When he got out of his car to go into the store. The man in the waiting car got out, and walked up to him and punched him in the side of this face as hard as he could. There is something about somebody cutting in front of us, that makes us feel as though we were robbed of something. Somebody else took what we were entitled to receive.
Have any of you ever been to a track meet. If you have you will notice, that there are white lines painted all the way up and down and around the track. The purpose of the lines is to let runners know this is where you are to run. You are to stay in your lane so there is no cutting in. Those lanes are there to guide you and to protect you from others.
I want you to meet a guy who has a dream of going to the Olympics. He has worked hard. He has planned, he has trained, he has disciplined himself. He is fast. He wants to represent his country. In the 100 meters, they usually put the fastest guys in the inside middle lanes. Let’s see what happens as he runs the race that will launch him in his quest to go to the Olympics. (Show Video Clip)
What happened when the runner stumbled in his lane, and fell into the lane of two others. He not only lost his dream, he knocked out the dreams of others. You see, when you run in the lane God has set for your life, not only do your dreams become reality, but you keep from ruining the dreams of others.
When you stumble, you do not know how many other lives you ruin in the process. On any given day, you can look in the paper and see where someone has stumbled in a host of bad choices. What you don’t see, is the people around them who have fallen and had their lives messed up.
We are all like runners on a track. We are racing against who we are, who we were, and who we can be in God. We only win if at the end of the day, who we can be in God wins the race. Because you see who we were is going to try to cut in on us with all kinds of temptations and desires. It says let’s stop running for a while and take a step off the track and do something else. We’re going to have a good time.
Now the other fellow who we are says, it does not take all this running to win. Let’s stop right here and just rest for a while. We are fine just like we are. Who needs to grow and change any further? So we have got both of these characters trying to cut in on us. Both of them are trying to rob us of what we could have. What we need to say, is no more cutting in. God has a better plan for my life.
In our New Testament reading, we came across a verse that said, in Galatians 5:7 You were running a good race. “Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? “ Can you see how you were running well, but allowed someone to cut in on you? Your grades were not always bad, and you’re certainly not dumber today than you were last year. You were running well but somebody or something cut in on you. You know you use to feel about your parents and how you obeyed them, but somebody or something has cut in on you.
You know how you use to love your husband or your wife, and you looked forward to what was going to happen on Valentine’s Day and Night, but now it’s just another day because you allowed someone or something to cut in on you. You were running well. You use to serve the Lord with gladness in your heart. You could be depended upon to help out in ministry at the church. You were running so well, but you allowed someone or something to cut in on you.
Your giving to the Lord was finally reaching the point where it should be, and then you allowed something else to cut in on you. Now the sacrifice that someone was making who makes far less than you do, has been ruined as far as helping out, simply because you chose to cut your giving rather than your cable or direct tv bill.
One of the things about Jesus, is that he knew when somebody was trying to cut in on him, offering him a shortcut to wealth and to fame, offering him a shortcut to avoid the things he did not like, offering him a lifestyle of ease which God had not chosen for Him. But in each situation, Jesus had a way of rephrasing the statement no more cutting in.
In our Old Testament reading, we met a prophet of God whom God gave a message to give directly to the king. I preached about King Jeroboam and this prophet in my message “I Almost Finished Well” . The king had been living in sin and disobeying God. This prophet told it like it was and embarrassed the king in front of his army. The king gave the word to seize the prophet because he intended to arrest him, throw in prison, and possibly kill him.
But when the king stretched out his arm, it would not go back into place. He humbly changed his tune and asked the prophet to pray for him. The prophet prayed for him and the king’s arm was restored. The king offered to give the prophet a full buffet meal and a large sum of money as a reward.
But the prophet said, 1 Kings 13:8-10 But the man of God answered the king, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. [9] For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ’You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’ " [10] So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
Now here is a guy that is running well. He went where God told him to go. Said what God told him to say. He stood his ground in the face of opposition, and he didn’t sell out in order to eat some food and get some money. He went with the motto of no more cutting in.
The word about this guy spread like wildfire. Here was a guy that not only stood up for God against the king, he healed the king’s arm, and then walked away when the king offered him a whole bunch of money. Two fellows went home and told their father what had happened.
Their father was an old prophet, and he asked his boys which way did the prophet go. This old prophet went after him. Now there was no chance this old prophet would catch him, if the first prophet had of left with the sense of urgency he first received from God.
But instead of running home back to Judah, we find the first prophet sitting under an oak tree. The second prophet asked “are you the prophet from Judah” to which he replied, “I am.” Now why is this guy hanging around in the land he does not belong. Have you ever done that. You were just hanging around a land you don’t belong. Any of you guys ever been like me, flipping the channels on tv and since your wife was not in the room, you hung around on a channel about 30 seconds longer than you should have?
Any of you got any phone numbers in your phone of guys or girls that you know are bad news, but you have them just hanging around where they don’t really belong? Have any of you gone on line to myspace.com or blackplanet and you have a profile of yourself that nobody could even imagine you were a church goer much less a Christian by what you have written about yourself. You just have that stuff hanging around.
You need to know that what you put on the internet can be read by college admissions people, and potential job placements. You think it’s cute funny but it could cost you a great opportunity in the future. These things will cut in on you. Are you willing to say for Jesus, No more cutting in and go home and do some deleting.
The old prophet told the guy, come home with me and eat. The guy who was hanging around under the tree. Told him forget it, I have been told by the word of the Lord, “You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.” Let me ask you this, so why then is the prophet still there.
The best way for him to fulfill what God wants for his life is to keep on moving. Stop hanging around places where temptation is lurking. Do you know why we do it. It’s because we hope sooner or later we will hear what we want to hear, so that we can go ahead and do what we want to do.
The old prophet told him, “look an angel spoke to be by the word of the Lord and told me to bring you back with me to my house so that you can eat and drink. But the scriptures says the guy was lying to him. But friends when we are just hanging around waiting a lie can seem real sweet to the ears.
This first prophet had been running the race and running it well. But now he’s about to let somebody cut in on him. One thing about a Christian is that we can never rely on yesterday’s victory, to get us through today’s temptation. Every temptation is unique and each time God has us in a different place.
By just hanging around, this prophet had gotten hungry and thirsty, and he throws away what he knows to be true in order to satisfy his physical desires. While he was sitting down eating and drinking, just having a good ole time, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet and he cried out, “you have defied the word of the Lord and did not keep his commandments. You knew you were not to eat or drink in this place. Therefore your body will not be buried with your fathers.”
But the prophet thought it was just a joke. He kept right on eating and drinking as though nothing had changed. He got on his donkey and headed home. He never made it. A lion came out and killed him. The lion did not touch the man’s donkey.
The lion and donkey were both standing next to the man. Somehow it just didn’t seem fair. The prophet had done 90% of what God told him to do, and then that’s when he allowed someone else to cut in line. If only he had said no more cutting in.
Let’s go back to the text of this message in the New Testament. Galatians 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? The saints in the church in Galatia were running well for the Lord.
As we started our message with the clip of the athletes on the track, the apostle Paul often uses the image of describing the Christian life in life in terms of a race. What does that mean. If means for us to win the race we have to enter the race, run well, go by the rules, and keep moving without stopping or turning back no matter what the obstacles.
The Galatians were running well. They had accepted the gospel of salvation. Not only had they believed, but they were living out their faith, allowing it to shape their lives; they were obeying the truth. They weren’t sitting around under a tree; they were running. They were standing on the word of God and allowing it shape and change their lives and their attitudes.
But despite their good start of having come out of the blocks and heading down the track, someone had cut in on them. In that clip, all the months of training and hard work was being wiped out by a racer illegally coming into the lane of the other, thus causing that other racer to stumble, lose his pace, go out of bounds, or even fall.
Being a believer in Jesus Christ is a serious race, not merely a fun little jog. There is serious competition from Satan and his deceivers who would like to cause us to stumble on the track.
Some of us are stumbling and we know it, and yet we refuse to prohibit this person, this thing, this temptation from cutting in on us. You know everyone who comes to our church is not sent here from God. Satan has some people whose intent is to keep you from the running the race that God has for your life.
Sometimes they use threats or ridicule to get us to disregard the Bible’s truth. I’m always amazed at the zeal people will show in worshiping a singer or actor or performer, that they would never come close to showing for God. They are afraid someone will laugh at them or make fun of them or let them know that’s not with it.
Sometimes infiltrators have beliefs that actually dishonor the Christ who called us. They see Jesus as something we made up in our heads. They see no need for God in their lives or in our own lives.
Sometimes they show up in church just long enough to infiltrate us with a rebellious spirit and then they go on about their business leaving pieces of the church in shambles. That is why the bible tells us to test the spirits and see if they are from God.
The tragedy is that we allow these people to cut in on us and actually convince us they have a better race for us to run. You always need to see, where the road they are traveling is going to end. For the bible says there is a way that seems right to a person, but it ends in death.
Which of the three people on your track are you giving the most energy to at the moment. The person you use to be. That’s the person that says its your life. Do what you want to do and forget about God. The person you are right now. That’s the person saying, you’re fine just like you are. There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s those people with the issues and those people that need to make the change.
Is it the person who God is calling you to be. That’s the one that says, God, not only do I need you in my life, I need for you to change me, because there are things in my life that ought not to be there, there are attitudes in me that I can’t stand, and there are places I’m just hanging around that I need to turn over to Jesus.
What is your life going to look like if you allow the person God is calling you to be, to stay ahead in your race. Young people if you do it, ten years from now, you will have a degree. You will have escaped the life of poverty. You will have missed the right of passage of going to jail. Adults.
You will find a more rewarding life. You will discover what a joy it is to be a blessing to others. You will become less demanding and easier to live with. You will discover God’s blessings upon your life in ways you could never imagine. You will know what it is to be free to worship God in Spirit and in truth.
We are all running the race of life. We all have different lanes. But we all have to go through death to get to the finish line. You may say I can run based on my own way, and I don’t need God. One thing about the clip, we learn that life is not fair. The two runners who were favored to win, had no control of being tripped by the guy in between them. You think you don’t need God today, but just remember tomorrow is coming, and it’s a got a whole new set of problems you had not imagined.
The joy of knowing Jesus is not only is He at the finish line, he’s right behind you supplying you with what you need for life. He tells us, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Cocaine, Sex, Money, Fame and all the other things that try to cut in on us, try to make the same promise as Jesus.
Many of us fall for them, but none of us have been truly satisfied by them. Jesus was the way then. Jesus is the way now. Jesus will be the way tomorrow. Get in the race, and be bold as you run, saying no more cutting in, I’ve got a life to live for God.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
No More Cutting In 2/11/2007
I Kings 13:1-10 Galatians 5:7-18
A. Have You Ever Been In This Place
1. Standing, Driving, Waiting
2. Fight In The Lot
B. Let’s Go To The Track Meet
1. The Purpose Of The Lines & Lanes
2. Plan For The Best But Lookout
3. No Runner Stumbles Alone
4. Who Stumbles With You
5. Three Runners On Your Track
6. Are, Were, Can Be
Galatians 5:7 (NIV) 7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?
C. Who Cut In On You
1. What Happened To Running Well
2. Jesus Knew When Others Were Cutting
3. No More Cutting
D. The Man Of God From Judah-Prophet
1. Challenge To The King
2. Refusal Of An Award
1 Kings 13:8-10 (NIV) 8 But the man of God answered the king, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ’You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’" 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
3. Finish The Job And Go Home
4. Reputation Spreads
E. When We Just Hang Around
1. Ever Just Hung Around Afterwards
2. The TV, The Phone, The Internet
3. Cut In By A Good Guy
4. Come And Go With Me
5. What Sounds Good Might Not Be
6. No Two Temptations Are The Same
7. Choosing To Be In Harm’s Way
8. A Lion Ends A Dream
F. The Saints In Galatia Were Running
1. The Journey In Christ Is A Race
2. Doing The Right Thing
3. Satan Sends Stumblers
4. Threats, Ridicule, Unbelief
5. Choosing To Let Others Cut In
G. Three People On Your Track
1. Where Is Your Energy
2. What Could Life Become
3. Only Jesus Fully Delivers
