INTRO.- ILL.- I like the story about the preacher who had a microphone in his hand as he preached, and as he moved around the platform he would jerk the cord as he went.
Then he moved to one side, getting wound up in the cord and nearly tripping before jerking it again. After several circles and jerks, a little girl in the third pew leaned toward her mother and whispered, "If he gets loose, will he hurt us?"
I suspect that some little kids probably think that way. However, the preaching of God’s Word is for the purpose of helping people, blessing them, bettering them, building them in the faith of Christ.
I Cor. 14:26 “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.”
We all are here to help make life better for one another. At least, we should be! We are in the construction business, not the destruction business! And everything we do in the church should be for the purpose of building up one another.
Are you interested in better living? Who isn’t?
ILL.- One very cold December I picked up a hitchhiker in Iberia, MO, probably 30 years ago. I took him to the church next door so he could have a warm place to stay that night and then I visited with him. I have never in my life met a person like him. He didn’t want to have anything to do with other people including his own family who basically disowned him.
He was a true hermit, of sorts. He didn’t want to be around other people and didn’t want to go to church, but he did thank me for my help. He apparently didn’t want a better life, which meant a change of life.
That man is not the only person who didn’t want a better life. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of husbands and wives and whole families that didn’t want a better life. HOW SO? It was obvious that they never made any significant spiritual changes in their lives. They weren’t interested in going to church or getting to know God and how can life get better without God???
Surprisingly, there isn’t much in scripture about better living but there are many scriptures, that if observed, will give us a better life on earth. There isn’t a specific text or chapter in the Bible like the love chapter that deals with better living. But here’s a good text to consider.
Eccl. 2:24-25 “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?"
What an interesting scripture! Without God, who can find enjoyment in life? And without God, how can we acquire a better life? I want to help people experience a better life, here and now, and it will only happen in Christ.
PROP.- Scriptural principles to make life better.
1- Stay cool, don’t blow your cool
2- Try faith, don’t let faithlessness rule
3- Be possessed, don’t give in to obsession
I. STAY COOL, DON’T BLOW YOUR COOL
ILL.- In New York City last week a taxi clipped a red Beetle while veering across four lanes of traffic to pick-up a fare. The two drivers got out to examine the damage the cabbie a short man of Middle Eastern origin, the Beetle driver a hulking giant.
As the cabbie approached, the Beetle driver grabbed him by the shirt and hoisted him off the ground. There, at eye level with the cabbie’s feet dangling in the air, the Beetle owner began screaming, every third sentence being, "This is your lucky day!"
Eventually, the cabbie was lowered back to the ground, but, then, the Beetle guy asked, "Don’t you want to know why this is your lucky day?"
He then proceeded to answer his own question: "Because I’m on my way to anger management class and I don’t dare show-up with blood on my shirt!"
Stay cool, don’t blow your cool, but people do blow their cool often when driving. It’s called “road rage,” and I have read, however, that it’s far worse in England than in the US. But it doesn’t make any difference whether its road rage, work rage, shopping rage or whatever it is, this kind of anger is not good!
James 1:19-20 “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
Be slow to become angry. Why? Because anger doesn’t please God. Most of the time our anger is not right or righteous. Our anger is often self-centered. We get angry because things didn’t go our way, not because we are holy and everyone else is unholy.
We know that Jesus experienced righteous anger when he drove the money-changers out of the temple, but honestly, how often do we experience righteous anger? Perhaps when we see or read of child abuse. That should bring up some righteous anger!
Romans 12:9 “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” The time for anger is when evil prevails. At other times, our anger is not good.
Ephesians 4:26-27 “In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”
In your anger do not sin. The scripture predicts that you will get angry. Everyone gets angry eventually. Of course, we don’t like to admit it. But the point is: WHEN you get angry, don’t let it get out of hand. Don’t let the sun down go on your anger. Don’t stay angry when evening comes. Why? Because that anger will only get worse or intensify.
Do not give the devil a foothold. Is this in connection to our anger? Could be. It sounds like it. Anger opens the door to let the devil into our lives.
Ben Franklin said, “Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
William Penn said, “It is he who is in the wrong who first gets angry.” That could very well be.
Will Rogers said, “People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.”
Someone said, “An angry man is again angry with himself when he returns to reason.”
Isn’t that the truth? It is to me. After I’ve become angry and then thought about it, I didn’t think much of it! That is, my anger. Anger is a loss of self-control and we are supposed to self-controlled people. The fruit of God’s Spirit is self-control. So if we lose control and become angry then God’s Spirit is certainly not in control.
ILL.- A lady once came to preacher Billy Sunday and tried to rationalize her angry outbursts. "There’s nothing wrong with losing my temper," she said. "I blow up, and then it’s all over."
"So does a shotgun," Sunday replied, "and look at the damage it leaves behind!"
ILL.- Many years ago during a Knicks-Bullets playoff game, one of the Bullets players came up from behind the great Walt Frazier and punched him in the face. Strangely, the referee called a foul on Frazier. Frazier didn’t complain. His expression never changed. He simply called for the ball and put in seven straight shots to win the game, an amazing display of productive anger.
Would to God we all had that kind of self-controlled anger. Anger that is controlled and put into good action is a good thing, but otherwise, it is not. Staying as cool as possible will lead to a better life.
II. TRY FAITH, DON’T LET FAITHLESSNESS RULE
ILL.- When my son Shane was only 8 days old we had him in the hospital for abdominal exploratory surgery. He did that projectile vomiting after every feeding. They did an X-ray on his stomach and it showed that his small intestines only went to a point and then stopped. The doctor said they needed to do this exploratory surgery.
While Shane was in surgery, I wept. I wept very hard. For a while I couldn’t pray. Finally, after weeping for a period, I was able to pray. And I prayed, “Lord, it’s up to you whether he comes through this surgery or not. If he doesn’t, he belongs to you.”
WHAT IS THAT? At first, it was not faith. It was fear. I was not acting from faith. I felt utterly helpless and all I could do was cry. Finally, when I gathered my thoughts and senses and prayed, that’s when I started to live by faith. I simply left Shane in God’s hands and either way, God would take care of him.
Brothers and sisters, we don’t always let faith rule our lives, do we? If anything we are often faithless instead of being full of faith. Many times in life we just stumble through life on our own without exercising any faith in the God of heaven at all! And what’s a big indication that we don’t live by faith? ONE IS DEFINITELY A LACK OF PRAYER.
When we are living by faith in the Lord we take everything to Him in prayer. And another proof that we are living by faith is that we live by His Word.
If we know that something contradicts God’s Word then we drop it like a hot potato. That says that we believe God most of all and we are living by faith in His Word.
Psalm 118:8-9 “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.” (princes or preachers or presidents, etc.)
II Corinthians 5:6-7 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.”
We live by faith in this world, not by sight. We live by faith in the God of heaven. We look beyond this world and look forward to heaven! This sounds crazy to the average person on the street, however, if we truly believe in the promise of eternal life then doesn’t it make good sense to look forward to it?
ILL.- John G. Paton was making a translation of the Scriptures into the language spoken in the country where he was a missionary, and searched for a word for “Faith”. The natives had no word for “believe”.
One day, while working on his translation, a native entered his room and, tired out, flung himself down on one chair, resting his feet on another chair and remarked how good it was to “lean his whole weight” on the chairs. Suddenly Paton he realized he had the meaning for the word believe or faith: to “lean his whole weight” on God.
And that is really what true, Biblical faith is! It is a matter of leaning your whole weight on the Lord or trusting the Lord fully for an answer.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding...”
Be not faithless. Rather be faithful and walk by faith in the Lord and His Word. Trust Him to direct you in all things in life. Trust Him to work out everything in life. We often find ourselves between a rock and a hard place in life. Living by faith means that we will pray and trust God to lead us and work out everything for good.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
III. BE POSSESSED, DON’T GIVE IN TO OBSESSION
ILL.- OCD. Do you have it? Obsessive compulsive disorder. It’s when a person can’t leave something alone. Their thoughts are dominated by something to the point that they obsess about it continually.
For example, there are people with OCD who constantly wash their hands. Every time they pass the bathroom they MUST wash their hands. They obsess over disease and germs to the point where they are constantly washing their hands for fear they will get some kind of germ.
I once saw a woman on TV who had OCD and constantly cleaned her house night and day. Now I realize that’s pretty extreme behavior but that’s what she did. She was obsessed by the need for cleanliness.
I knew of a school principle one time who had a compulsive behavior about food. He wouldn’t admit to it, but it was said that he had a fear of starving to death. And whenever the local grocery store had a sale on some food item that he liked he would buy tons of that product and store them in one room of his house.
Some people said he had enough food in that one room to feed an army. And he didn’t stop buying with canned goods. He had freezers full of meat and other products. That is obsessive compulsive behavior!
Is there anything that you obsess over? Germs? Cleanliness? Mowing your lawn to perfection? Food? Completing any task to perfection? Perfectionists can have OCD.
Are we ever obsessive about anything? YES! There are some things that we think about or feel that we just have to do and they may not even be anything evil or bad.
ILL.- In 1968 I bought a new Pontiac Firebird. I washed it every day and waxed once every week. Wouldn’t you say that was obsessive compulsive behavior?
The point is this: We all obsess over certain things in life, perhaps not to the extreme degree of some, but we do it. And these things tend to control us and/or our behavior at times.
ILL.- I used to love to fish for bass so much that I had a friend with a bass boat who ran a service station just around the corner from where I lived. If he called me and said, “Let’s go,” I knew exactly what he meant. I would grab my fishing rods and tackle box and head out of the door.
If something wasn’t really pressing or really needed that next few hours and he called, THEN I WAS IMMEDIATELY GONE!
ILL.- One time my 35 year old daughter Holly said, “Dad, I remember when I was a kid that on Friday nights we couldn’t watch anything on TV because you had to watch boxing.” That’s being obsessive and it’s also being selfish.
Brothers and sisters, let me suggest to you that instead of us being obsessive about what we just have to do in life, that we become POSSESSED. What’s that? Instead of being obsessed with life or life’s material things that we become possessed by the Spirit of God!
Galatians 5:16 “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
We must not give in to obsession, that is, being obsessed with the things of this world. Rather we should be possessed by God or by the Spirit of God.
Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
Instead of being obsessed with wine or anything else, we should be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. And when we’re filled with God’s Spirit through worship, Bible study and prayer, we will experience a much better life here and now.
CONCLUSION-----------------------------
The world offers all kinds of advice for a better life. For example, I have in my office a little paperback book entitled, “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff...it’s all small stuff.” This is true to some extent and it sounds good, but we do sweat the small stuff in life! We sweat most everything in life!
There is only one sure cure for a better life and that’s in the Lord. Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom...”
I still believe that when we put the Lord first in life everything will go better in life. Let’s do it! Let’s work harder at seeking the Lord first in all things in life and then we will be amazed by God’s blessing on our lives.
Stay cool, don’t blow your cool. Live by faith. Don’t be faithless. And be possessed by God’s Spirit and life will be better.
