A Second Look
II Corinthians 5: 14-17
January 22, 2023
Intro:
I was really touched and moved as I watched the World Trade Center movie yesterday and this pushed me and inspired me to work this message It is not what someone thinks that this movie is a political or giving us the “hint” of what is the truth behind the event of 911. It is a drama. The agony and triumph of some of the heroes of that event. It is seeing the best opportunity on their lives in the midst of uncertainty and pushing their limits to get that “second chance”
Illus: One spring, sometime the civil war, a boy in search of work came to
Worthy Taylor’s prosperous Ohio farm. The farmer knew nothing much about
the boy except that his name was Jim, but he gave him a job. Jim spent the summer cutting woods, bringing in the cows and making himself generally useful.
He ate in the kitchen and slept in the haymow. Before the summer is over, Jim had fallen in love with Taylor’s daughter. When the farmer refused to let him marry her, telling him that he had no money, no name, and very poor prospects; Jim put his belongings in his old carpet bag and disappeared. Thirty five years passed,
Taylor one day pulled down his barn to make way for a new one. ON one of the rafters above the haymow, he discovered that Jim had carved his full name-
James A. Garfield. He was then President of the United States.
All of us have made mistaken judgments about another person. We think this person will never make contribution or he will never productive. But the years pass, the person matures, he is trained and applying his skills and becomes success. He found the second better chance.
Focus: Example-Truths that everybody deserves a Second-Better Chance.
I. Peter –From His denial of Christ to the bold proclaimer of the Word
Every great man or woman of God can point to a time of breaking in his or her life where a time of conflict, a time of pressure, or a time of decision transformed them from an ordinary piece of coal into a precious diamond, and Peter is one of those individuals who were broken.
Peter was a man who was full of zeal for the Lord. When Jesus was on the mountain and was transfigured with Moses and Elijah it was Peter who wanted to stay and build shelters for all three of them. When Jesus told Peter he was going to be killed it was Peter who said he would die with him. It was Peter who assured Jesus that even if everyone else denied him he wouldn’t. It was Peter who drew his sword and cut off Malchus’ ear as the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. It was Peter who ran to see the empty tomb. It was Peter who left the boat and came to the resurrected Lord.
On the most important night of his life, on the most important night in history, Peter, "the rock," sat alone in a dark corner weeping. This wasn’t common place for him. He was a strong self-reliant fisherman. He was bold! He was courageous! And now, he was completely undone. The rock had been shattered.
People can fault Peter for some of his overzealous actions, but overall, Peter had a heart for Jesus and is an example to us all of the excitement we should have in following Jesus. At the day of Pentecost, he was standing up and preaching to a crowd of people boldly and the Spirit touched people’s hearts and 3,000 people came to know Christ.
APPLICATION
You have got to get to Jesus with your failure today. Failure is your greatest friend when it causes you to love Jesus more. The most important thing that you can do is to love Jesus Christ more than your failure.
Perhaps, some of you have experienced some great failure in your life and you would like to be restored to fellowship with God today. Wherever He finds a believer who is willing to yield to His will, listen to His Word, and follow His way, He begins to transform that believer and accomplish remarkable things in that life. Failure is not final. Failure leads us to reassess our actions and to redirect our steps. It’s an opportunity to begin again; only this time, more intelligently. Our church maybe is filled with people who have failed or are failing. Be a ministry to them.
II. Paul – From persecuting Christians to his devotion to the ministry.
The beginning of Paul’s story is not a flattering one. Paul summarized it like this: “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” (I Timothy 1:13). The first time the Bible mentions Paul he’s described as standing guard over the clothes of those who were stoning Stephen. Paul quickly went from supporting the persecution of Christians to leading it as he went from house to house to drag Christians off to prison. On my side as I watched the movie World Trade Center - Paul wasn’t any different from the terrorists of September 11; he too thought that he was fighting a holy war and doing God’s will.
Because of his past it doesn’t surprise me that Paul would humbly call himself the worst of sinners. After all he had caused God’s people great pain and suffering.
But after his conversion, 13 books in our New Testament Bible were written by Paul, and the spreading of the Gospel of Christ is astonishing.
Brothers and sisters – Grace Family -see yourself in Paul’s story and acknowledge that you too are chief of sinners. Yes, the terrorists of September 11th paid for their acts of destruction but so will us if we continue to live comfortably in our sin. If we yield truthfully on His will… God will change us and transformed us. And now we can say that we can do all things for Christ, because He is our strength.
III. John- From a nicknamed a “Son of Thunder” to a writer majoring in love.
Jesus referred to John and his brother James as the “Sons of Thunder.” John tended to be self-centered, temperamental, and got angry easily. In spite of his weaknesses he was dependable, prompt, courageous, faithful and devoted. He was one of three closest to Jesus. John was the only disciple that followed Jesus all the way to the cross.
Many of us in our Christian life have struggled with some of the same spiritual immaturities that John struggled with.
A. Spiritual Pride Mark 9:38-41
John observed a follower of Jesus who was not part of the 12 driving out demons in the name of Jesus. John told him to stop. John bragged to Jesus what he had done.
Jesus confronted John and rebuked him and told him not to tell him to stop. Jesus said, “Those who are not against us are for us.” God’s power over sin and Satan is not limited to just a few. His love and power are available to all.
Application:
It is spiritual pride that causes you to look down on those who do not believe as you do. “I am a follower of Jesus. I am a better person compared. People need to believe as I do, or their not as good a Christian as I am.” “You are not part of our elite group. Stop what you’re doing in the name of the Lord.”
Spiritual pride quickly moves a person to becoming judgmental. If you don’t dress like I do. If you don’t like the music I like. If you don’t worship as I worship. If you don’t you are not as good a Christian as I am.
B. Self Centered Matthew 20:20-28,
The mother of James and John knelt before Jesus and requested that Jesus allow her two sons to sit with him when he established his Kingdom. They were thinking, “We are the greatest. We deserve to be at your side in as You reign over the Kingdom of God.” Self-Centeredness is one of the spiritual immaturities of John and like us Christians, some fall on this fallen situation. We feel great, honor and pride if we are “pogi” always on the church. Laging napapansin. And sometimes that truth becomes the pushing element of some Christian, he or she is after the praise of men not God.
By the Grace and Love of God we don’t have to stay on the level of spiritual pride or self-centeredness. We can move on to the more excellent way of Love.
The Apostle John looked at his own life of immaturity and witnessed the life of Jesus and realized he needed to move on toward Christian maturity. And that maturity is what we call Love. From the sons of thunder to majoring Love… that was John. From spiritual immaturities of self-centeredness and pride to Christian maturity that’s our goal.
We need to see ourselves sometimes like John. And realize that the greatest and to be the greatest is not being serve but to serve. It is not putting ourselves highly compared to others but seeing our neighbor, seeing our brothers and sisters more highly than ourselves. And it is possible if we let God reigns in our hearts. He is the servant of all.
Conclusion:
We have all our second chances to mature, to grow spiritually. And it is so much a declarative truths for us that if we see people with their own negative actions - we will not made that mistakes again, - of judging them that their lives is a mess. Like us, they have their second chances whatever level of life they may be.
Bless you always,
#GraceLife
