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.
*SONG* Thanks to Calvary
Today I went back to the place where I used to go. Today I saw the same old crowd I knew before, when they asked me what had happened I tried to tell them, thanks to Calvary I don’t come here anymore.
Then we went to the house where we used to live, my little girl ran and hid behind the door, I said honey, don’t be afraid, you have a new daddy now, thanks to Calvary we don’t live here anymore.
Thanks to Calvary I’m not the man I used to be, thanks to Calvary things are different than before, when they asked me what had happened I tried to tell them, thanks to Calvary we don’t live her anymore.
There was a young boy in his school class and his teacher was telling them how foolish the Bible is and the stories written in the bible.
In particular, she pointed out the story where Jesus turned the water into wine.
She the boy to stand up and said, surely you do not believe this nonsense of Jesus turning water into wine.
He told her, “I’m not sure if Jesus turned water into wine because I was not there, but I do know that at our house He turned beer into bread.” My daddy got saved and quit drinking and now we have food on our table.
My Papaw Granberry was a bootlegger and a drunk.
They said it would blow over as soon as he sobered up and he would go back to drinking.
If you would go to Bethel Cemetery just outside on Fairfield, Texas you will find a headstone over his grave that has a picture of The Holy Communion on it, not a still.
Why, He refused to be who he used to be
The first step in stopping to make errors is to refuse to be who you used to be, then you must …
2. Seek to become who God wants you to be.
Cleveland Stroud had coached the Blue Collar Bulldogs for 18 years before his basketball team made it to the state championship. Stroud recalls that "it was the perfect night" when they won. "A night you dream of."
He was carried around the gym on the shoulders of his triumphant players and their proud parents. The local paper put his picture on the front page. But the excitement was short-lived.
Two months after the championship, during a routine grade check, Stroud discovered that one player was academically ineligible.
The player had only played 45 seconds during the regional qualifying tournament. Stroud says, "I thought it was all ruined. I went through a phase where I was really depressed."
He struggled with what to do next. Yet, his commitment to integrity led him to the right decision. "Winning is the most important thing for any coach," he says. "But your principles have to be higher than your goals."
He reported the error to the league and the Bulldogs forfeited their trophy.
When the team lamented their loss in the locker room, he told them, "You’ve got to do what is honest, and what is right, no matter what the consequences are. People forget the scores of basketball games, but they don’t ever forget what you are made of."
Romans 7:19-21 KJV
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
The Message
What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.
Martha – Mary sought Christ.
Martha missed it because she was doing what she thought she should be doing.
There is a sculptor in Kerrville, Texas whose art I love.
His name is Max Greiner Jr. and he has several sculpting that I love. A. The Great Commission B. Fishers of Men C. The Coming King.
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper and tin melted together.
The bronze does not decide what it is going to be, the sculptor does, just as the clay does not decide what it is to be, but the potter.
3. Allow God to Transform you to become who he wants you to be.
Romans 12:2 NIV
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
ILLUSTRATION (Lobster’s)
From time to time, lobsters have to leave their shells in order to grow. They need the shell to protect them from being torn apart, yet when they grow, the old shell must be abandoned.
If they did not abandon it, the old shell would soon become their prison--and finally their casket.
The tricky part for the lobster is the brief period of time between when the old shell is discarded and the new one is formed.
During that terribly vulnerable period, the transition must be scary to the lobster.
Currents gleefully cartwheel them from coral to kelp. Hungry schools of fish are ready to make them a part of their food chain. For a while at least, that old shell must look pretty good.
We are not so different from lobsters. To change and grow, we must sometimes shed our shells--a structure, a framework--we’ve depended on.
Discipleship means being so committed to Christ that when he bids us to follow, we will change, risk, grow, and leave our "shells" behind.
The only player who makes no errors is the one who sits on the bench and never gets in the game, and really, he makes the greatest error of them all.
