Title: To Err is Human
Series: Truths we must believe
CHCC: August 5, 2012
Romans 7-8
INTRODUCTION:
You may remember that last summer we preached a 4 sermon series about TRUTH based on a book by Dr. Chris Thurman. We focused on the lies we tell ourselves. We talked about SELF lies, WOLRLDLY lies, MARITAL lies, and even lies we may pick up in CHURCH. This summer we’re going to take the focus off LIES we tend to believe and talk about TRUTHS we must believe.
The first thing we need to know is that truth matters! In John 8:32, Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Jesus came so we could know truth. In fact, Jesus IS truth in the flesh. For the next 4 Sundays we’ll talk about a few specific truths that lead to emotional health and spiritual well-being.
Many folks … including Christians … are unknowingly enslaved by lies. Sometimes we are unaware of the truth. Sometimes we know the truth but fail to apply truth in our daily lives. Without truth we have no power to move beyond our circumstances. Without truth we wander through life confused --- lost in a maze of choices.
In the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice came to a cross roads and asked the Cheshire Cat which road she should take. The cat asked her, “Where are you going?” To which she responded, “I don’t know.” The cat answered her, “Oh, well, in that case either road will take you there.”
That’s how it feels to live apart from TRUTH. If we don’t know where we’re going, any choice is as good as another. But if spiritual and emotional health is our goal, then TRUTH is the only road that will take us there. Jesus promised us abundant life. He is the TRUTH and He is the WAY that will take us there.
So why is it such a struggle to follow truth? Living in the truth is not easy. It’s human nature to avoid a difficult challenge and take the easy way out. Living in the truth requires courage and determination … and most people simply aren’t all that committed to truth.
Another problem is that we are surrounded by a culture that believes lies. When all the people around you believe the same lies, it’s natural to just go with the flow. Ernest Becker addressed this problem by stating about society in general, “If everyone lives roughly the same lies about the same things, then there is no one to call them lies; they jointly establish their own sanity and call themselves normal.”
It may seem easier to live in denial than face the rigors of truthful living. But settling for anything less than truth is like putting a bandage on a broken arm. Lies give no healing for what ails us in life. The good news is that truth is available to anyone who wants it.
None of the truths we’ll learn in this series are new. Solomon, one of the wisest men who ever lived, said there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The truths we will examine are “old” truths … many of them are what we call “common sense” or “horse sense.” But just because we’ve heard them before doesn’t mean we have understood them or applied them to our lives.
Today, we’ll start off with truth #1: To Err is Human
I know what you’re thinking, “Well duh! Everyone knows that!” We’ve all heard the truism, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” But do we really BELIEVE it? Do we really believe that making mistakes is normal? Most of us feel annoyed, embarrassed, and deeply disappointed about every mistake me make. Deep down in our stock of hidden beliefs, we hang on to the notion that we have to make A+ happy face in everything we do. (Do we have any perfectionists here?)
We HATE to mess up because mistakes are evidence of something we don’t want to face: the fact that we are FLAWED. It irritates us to face proof that we aren’t perfect. Instead of believing “to err is human” we actually believe “to err is stupid.” This becomes a huge problem if you believe you are worthless because you’re not perfect. You can tell if you have fallen for this trap by looking at your self talk.
1. Self-talk
When you make a mistake, do you launch into a self-abusive self-talk that sounds something like this: "What’s wrong with you? You always mess up. You’ll never change! You’re an idiot! You’re a looser and everyone knows it. You deserve the miserable life you’ve got."
That kind of thinking comes from believing “to err is stupid.” With it comes high blood pressure, anxiety, guilt, anger, and depression. The answer to the problem is found in the TRUTH of scripture. Romans 3:23 tells us “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In other words, “to err is human.”
Here’s some better self-talk, based on TRUTH: " I messed up. I don’t like it, but I did. Other people make this same kind of mistake … and now I understand how they must feel. I don’t want to do this again, so I’ll try to correct what led to this mistake. "
We waste a lot of time and energy beating ourselves up over the wrong things we’ve done. If we’re going to live in TRUTH, Step one is to change the way we talk to ourselves about our mistakes.
Step two is to respond with what the Bible calls “REPENTANCE.”
2. Repent
Look in Romans chapters 7 and 8 for the TRUTH about the way we should think about our mistakes. Paul knew what it felt like to make mistakes over and over again. He said, I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do --- this I keep on doing. Romans 7:18-19
He summed it up, What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? And then Paul made a sudden about-face and exclaimed, Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:24-25
That sudden turn around was the moment of repentance. To repent means to turn away from the sin and turn toward God. Paul turned away from analyzing his constant failures and turned toward praising God. That’s where self-talk should lead you --- and the sooner the better.
I John 1:9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. It doesn’t say, If you beat yourself up for at least 30 minutes a day over all your sins, then God might possibly think about forgiving you eventually. The truth is simple: confess, and God will not ONLY forgive, he will purify you from ALL unrighteousness. Do we REALLY believe that truth?
Living in TRUTH means that when you mess up, you admit your sin. Then you quickly REPENT --- You think about what you could do differently next time in order to avoid that sin. You do whatever is in your power to correct the damage you caused. Most important, you confess and accept God’s full and complete forgiveness.
Then you can move forward without being weighed down with the burden of guilt and shame. And you are ready for step 3: ABIDE.
3. Abide
In John 15:4 Jesus said, Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. (NKJV)
Jesus didn’t come just to teach us about truth – Jesus IS the truth. When you believe in HIM you are believing in the TRUTH. And when you abide in HIM you are abiding in the TRUTH.
A 19th century preacher named Frederick Robertson put it this way: "Christ did not merely speak the truth. Christ IS the truth. .. Truth is a thing not of words, but of life and being."
Every time we mess up, it is a signal that we have failed to ABIDE in Christ. In other words, at the time we sinned, we were not ABIDING in the TRUTH. Our only hope for doing better next time is to be sure that next time we are ABIDING in Christ. As Christians, we are able to live in constant connection to Jesus. The question is, have you been acting on your own (apart from Christ) OR are you living continuously in His Presence (allowing His power to function in you.)
You can bet that the times you sin are NOT times when you are ABIDING in Christ. So the solution is to learn to ABIDE in Christ more constantly. This is simple … but not easy! In the 17th century, a French monk called Brother Lawrence dedicated himself to this ONE goal – to live constantly in God’s presence.
He spent years disciplining his heart and mind to live in God's presence minute by minute. He said, "As often as I could, I placed myself as a worshiper before him, fixing my mind upon his holy presence, recalling it when I found it wandering from him. This proved to be an exercise frequently painful, yet I persisted through all difficulties."
Brother Lawrence lived and died in relative obscurity, but his character was so full of peace and beauty that people from all over came to him for spiritual guidance, and eventually his conversations and letters were recorded in books that people still read.
All that from a man whose one achievement was to live consistently in God’s presence. He said," I just make it my business to persevere in His holy presence ... My soul has had a habitual, silent, secret conversation with God."
Are you sick and tired of messing up over and over again? Do you want spiritual progress in being more like Jesus in your daily life? There is one solution: ABIDE in Christ. Instead of beating yourself up over how you always mess up, put all your efforts toward ABIDING in Christ. When you do that, you will find yourself sinning less and less often.
CONCLUSION:
Romans 3:22-23 tells us, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This is the verse for the TRUTH we talked about today: To err is human.
The companion verse we need to remember is verse 1 of Romans 8: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
If you struggle with discouragement over your own failings, these might be two good verses to tape to your mirror and memorize.
(extracted from The Truths we must Believe by Dr. Chris Thurman)
