I was 18 when I attempted to get my drivers license for the first time. It was a day that will live in my memory forever. The day before had been a rainy day. The police officer climbed into my car as I began my driving test. Going down a two-lane highway behind the station, I was instructed to make a three-point road turn. I turned the steering wheel to the left, put the car in reverse, turned the wheel to the right, backed up, and felt the car slide backwards off the road. As I attempted to move forward, the back tire spun causing it to dig a rut in which my car was stuck.
The police officer, looking disgruntled, informed me that he would attempt to push my car back on the road. At his instruction, I was to push gently on the accelerator as he pushed. At his command, I gently pushed on the accelerator. I heard the sound of spinning tires and screams of “Stop!”
The officer approached my window covered in mud with a small drop of water hanging off his nose. “I said gently son, gently.” With my car deeper in a rut, we were forced to wait on another motorist to come by to assist us out. Needless to say, I failed.
Ruts are something we get stuck in. We find ourselves in a lot of ruts in life. Sometimes we back into them. Other times we plunge forward into them. I wish that police officer had warned me about going back to far. Perhaps I would have been more cautious.
People can get in ruts in their spiritual walk with God. I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit has a fresh, new word for all believers every Sunday. But people get it ruts and find it easier and easier to miss Sundays for all kinds of reasons. The easier it gets the more Sundays they miss and the deeper the rut.
I believe will all my heart that God loves a cheerful giver. I believe it his desire for all believers to show their joy in him by giving monetarily to him on regular bases. But people get in ruts and find it easier and easier to spend their money on other things and the rut gets deeper.
I believe with all my heart that God loves a people hungry for manna, the Word of God. I believe it is his desire for all believers to spend time with him each day; in his word, in prayer, in meditation. But people get in ruts and find it difficult to switch off the TV for 15 minutes and spend time with him. People get in ruts and find it easier and easier to spend all 1440 minutes of the day on their own agendas. And the rut gets deeper.
So let’s look at the warning of the rut
God does speak to us and He warns us about the ruts in life. He doesn’t yell or scream at us. Here is how God communicates.
1 Kings 19:12 “And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.”
He warns us of ruts in a gentle manner. Like a loving father, he chastises us in a gentle whisper. I found with my own children that a gentle voice and a beaming smile would carry a larger impact of threats for discipline. They never knew what I was about to do. What I began the sermon with this morning was a gentle whisper from God. It is his desire to keep us out of ruts because there is no happiness to be found when living in a rut.
So what are the causes of the rut?
The US standard railroad gauge – that’s the distance between rails – is 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches. Why such an odd number? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and British expatriates – that is, people who used to live in Britain, built American railroads.
Well, why did the English use that particular gauge? Because the people who built the pre-railroad tramways used that gauge.
They in turn were locked into that gauge because the people who built tramways used the same standards and tools they had used for building wagons, which were on a gauge of 4 ft, 8-1/2 inches.
Why were wagons to that scale? Because with any other size, the wheels did not match the old wheel ruts on the roads.
So who built these old rutted roads?
The first long distance highways in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions. The roads have been used ever since. Roman war chariots first made the ruts. Four feet, 8-1/2 inches was the width a chariot needed to be to accommodate the two rear ends of warhorses.
(Clark Cothern, “Leadership”, Winter 1998)
Let’s read 1 Timothy 1:19. “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”
Habits become ruts. Last week we talked about bad habits forming us. Lives that are lived in ruts are usually caused by habits. People continue doing destructive behaviors without any consideration for the Holy Spirit who lives in them. They deliberately make sinful choices for their own pleasure, totally ignoring that pleading voice of the Holy Spirit that they call their conscience. They live shipwrecked lives being battered against the rocks of circumstances and problems. And they scream out to God, “Why have you abandoned me?”
Their faith is shipwrecked. They no longer trust God or believe his word. And it is evident by the rut in which they live their lives. It was over 2000 years ago when ruts were formed by the rear end of two horses. Those same ruts dictate the width of a railroad track. 2000 years of the same rut. People will live their entire lives in the same ruts unless they change. It’s easy to get in a rut. But life is hard when you live in that rut.
Most know the story of King David. He was God’s chosen. In fact, God referred to him as “a man after my own heart.” But David allowed his life to slip into a rut with dire consequences. We read of this tragic story in 2 Samuel 11.
“In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.” This was the beginning of the rut. David was not doing what he should have been doing. As king, he should have been leading his men.
“Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, ‘She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her.” The rut deepened when he allowed his eyes to wander where they should not have. Then he allowed unhealthy thoughts into his mind. Next, he put into action his thoughts.
Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, ‘I’m pregnant.’ Then David sent word to Joab: ‘Send me Uriah the Hittite.’
Then he told Uriah, ‘Go on home and relax.’ David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.
So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, ‘Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.’” An illicit affair became complicated when Bathsheba became pregnant. David tried to whitewash his sin by complicity and the rut got deeper. So he resorted to murder to conceal his sin. And he bottomed out in his rut.
“When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son.”
On the surface, it would seem that David’s plan worked. He had a new wife and a new son with no one the wiser. But it is Psalm 51 that we hear David’s anguish when he is alone.
Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.
Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.
For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
Day and night the guilt of his actions weigh on him. He’s haunted by the thoughts of what he has done. He recognizes his evilness and worries about the stain of his sin to the point where he cries out in Psalm 51:12. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.”
People who live in ruts worry about their salvation. They question if they are really saved. They worry about choices in life haunting them at night. They struggle to find peace because there is none in a rut.
Sadly, many people pick staying in the rut.
There is a part of the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina called the Bald Mountains. It is a very popular part of the hiking trail. A great number of people enter the trail in this region. Some are day hikers. Some are planning to walk the entire trail. People begin by ascending a long row of steps and once reaching the trail they find it difficult at times to walk. The reason is that portion of the trail has become one long rut. So many hikers have walked the tail that it has actually worn down. In some places, the rut is as much as a foot deep causing people to stumble when their feet hit the sides.
Here is how Jesus viewed those who choose to stay in the rut. Luke 9:62 “But Jesus told him, ‘Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.’”
A farmer will tell you that you do not look back to see if your rows are straight. You look ahead. And if your plow falls into a rut, you do not keep plowing but you get your plow out of the rut.
When a person is walking in a rut, they will never be able to climb out until they look ahead. As long as they are looking back at the rut they are in, they will never see a way to break fee. Plus it takes effort on their part. So they choose to maintain life, missing the joy and peace that only Jesus can offer.
So this leads to our next point. Getting out of the rut.
Years ago, 95% of all watches were SWISS MADE. The watches were mechanical, gears moving to keep time. For several decades, all watches were made this way.
One day a man was dreaming and came up with a BETTER IDEA!
He invented the QUARTZ WATCH; the movement was not gears, the whole system operated much different.
The man flew to Switzerland and tried to sell his quartz, SILICON timepiece to the Swiss watch companies.
They refused to consider this silicon idea, it was crazy, and watches have always had gears and were reasonably accurate.
The leaders all agreed and rejected the idea.
The man flew to Japan; there was no established norm of producing watches.
Japan bought the idea, today 95% of our watches come from Japan.
Watch makers were convinced that only watches with gears would work. They were in a rut. But a man had a greater vision. He had a vision that lifted watch making out of the rut.
James 4:10 states “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.” This begins with confessing. The word humble means to bring low. People must lower themselves before Jesus in humility and confess that they are incapable of pulling themselves out of the rut. They begin to have a greater vision for their lives. They begin to be more obedient to his instruction. They begin to hunger more for his word. They cry out for more of the Holy Spirit as they are instructed to do knowing that God will provide more of the power of his Spirit to pull them up. But once out of the rut it is their responsibility to make changes.
Staying out of the rut
1 Timothy 4:15 “Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress.”
There was a man going to work one morning, when he was pulled over by a state trooper. The trooper walked up to the man’s car and said, “Sir did you not see the stop sign?”
The man replied, “I have been traveling this highway for 20 years, and have never stopped at that sign.”
The trooper said, “Well you will now, and handed him his ticket.”
The next morning the same trooper was called to investigate a wreck at the same stop sign. Much to his amazement, when he got to the first car, it was the very man he had given a ticket to the morning before, for not stopping at the stop sign.
The trooper asks what had happened. He said, “Don’t ask me. Ask the man that hit me from behind.”
The trooper walked back to the second car, and inquired of the second man what had happened. The man exclaimed, “It’s not my fault I hit him. I have been following him for 20 years, and he has never stopped here before.”
People who have been following them notice a change in their routine. They study God’s word and let it define what their life should look like. They make notes when they hear the word of God being preached and apply them to their daily lives. They design a plan to live a life pleasing to God. They throw themselves into it. They are obvious with the changes in their language and their actions. They are in church more. They are willing to give of their finances. They give God their complete attention and they find themselves free from the ruts.
Lastly, let’s look at preventing the ruts.
I have observed that ruts in life usually begin with relationships. It is our natural tendency to fend off perceived attacks by others. But those same defensive mechanisms can tarnish our trust in God. When something hurtful takes place, we may blame God and desire to distance ourselves from him. If we do that, we begin again creating ruts.
Hebrews 12: 15 states “Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.”
Preventing ruts is the responsibility of each of us. When we allow anger, disappointment, bias, judgment, and a myriad of other things lead to bitterness; we have created a rut in life.
To overcome we must look after each other. A bond in the family of God should be a strong bond under the leadership of Jesus. And as God has poured his grace out on us, we are to insure that everyone we meet receives a portion of that grace.
The wheels of bitterness need to stop spinning. As I discovered at 18, you dig ruts when spinning wheels.
