3 Things I Don’t Want to Be; 1 Thing I Do Want to Be
Chuck Sligh
March 3, 2002
Thanks to Bob Cook at Church at Grace Park, White House, TN for this sermon over 30 years ago when I was his assistant pastor. The skeleton outline was his; the meat of the message, including illustrations, is original by me.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – I recall a conversation I once had with a precocious little boy we once had in the church I pastored for 10 years in Wiesbaden. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“Well,” he replied, “I don’t want to be a fireman.”
I’d never had a kid tell me what he was NOT going to do when he grew up so I asked him, “Why don’t you want to be a fireman?”
“Because,” he said, “they make too much noise.”
I chuckled as he continued, “And I don’t want to be a preacher either.”
“Oh, and why’s that?”
“Because they make too much noise too!”
All his friends chuckled when he said that. Finally, he got around to what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to be a trash collector!
I thought that was a curious goal in life, but my second oldest son also used to want to be a trash collector, so I wandered if it was for the same reason. Sure enough, it was.
I asked him, “Johnny, why in the world do you want to be a trash collector?”
He said, “Because I want to ride on the back of the truck like the trashmen!”
Children often speculate what they are going to be when they grow up. As children of God, there are also some things that we ought to NOT want to be and some things we SHOULD want to be.
As I was reminded of the little boy I just told you about, it made me think about those things in my Christian life I DON’T want to be, and what I DO want to be. Let me share some of them with you today:
I. FIRST LET ME SHARE WITH YOU THREE THINGS I DON’T WANT TO BE.
1. Number 1, I don’t want to be a backslider
Jeremiah 2:19 – “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.” (EXPAND)
Illus. – Between an airplane and every other form of locomotion and transportation, there is one great contrast: The horse and wagon, the automobile, the bicycle, the locomotive, the speedboat, the great battleship, even the helicopter—all can come to a standstill without danger, and they can all reverse their engines, or their power, and go back.
But there is no reverse on an airplane. It cannot back up. It dare not stand still. If it loses its momentum and forward drive—it crashes. The only safety for the airplane is in its forward and upward motion.
And the only safe direction for the Christian to take is forward and upward.
If he stops, or if he begins to slip and go backward, that moment he is in danger. (EXPAND AS LED)
What to do if you have backslidden –
Jeremiah 3:12 (Jeremiah is the fifth book after Psalms, which is about in the middle of your Bible) – “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.”
Jeremiah 3:22 – “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.”
If you have backslidden, you’ve got to return to the Lord. You’ve got to go back where you left off. You’ve got to confess your sin and forsake it and surrender to the will of God. (EXPAND AS LED)
2. The second thing I don’t want to be is a castaway
1 Corinthians 9:27 – “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (EXPAND ON MEANING OF “castaway” = “to be put on the shelf; to be unusable.”)
How do you become a castaway to God?—When you fall into a major sin that makes you unusable to God until you repent and make things right.
How not to be a castaway: Keep under your body—DISCIPLINE (EXPAND AS LED)
3. I don’t want to be a reprobate
A “reprobate” means “one with a blinded mind, no longer capable of moral discernment.”
Two types of reprobate:
--The reprobate who doesn’t know his condition – 2 Corinthians 13:5 – “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (EXPAND AS LED)
--The reprobate who is a pretender – Titus 1:16 – “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (EXPAND AS LED)
How not to be a reprobate: Be sure you know Christ as your Savior. (EXPAND AS LED)
You CAN know. DO you know?
If you do know Christ as your Savior, then turn back to God – James 4:8-10 – “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” (EXPAND AS LED)
II. ONE THING I DO WANT TO BE – I DO WANT TO BE A DISCIPLE
To be a disciple requires three things:
1. Devotion
John 8:31 – “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.”
(EXPAND AS LED)
2. Discipline
--Discipline to pray – Mark 1:35 – “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (EXPAND AS LED)
--To read God’s Word
--The disciplined person studies the Bible – 2 Timothy 2:15 – “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
The disciplined person does what the Bible says to do – James 1:22-25 – “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
3. Detachment
Discipleship is never mentioned in God’s Word except in connection with detachment from the things of this world.
Note:
2 Timothy 2:4 – “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
Luke 14:33 – “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”
