GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
Col. 3:5-9, 12-14
INTRO.- We’ve all heard some of those “good news, bad news” jokes and I want to share a few this morning, because that’s what life is full of: both good news and bad news.
Good news: Did you all know that Gary Saveley made the Olympic javelin team which is going to the Sydney Olympics this summer? It’s true.
Bad news: His job is to catch the javelin.
Good news: Your son just broke the world record for high diving.
Bad news: There was no water in the pool!
Good news: In this test tube I have all the male chromosomes and in this jar I have all the female
chromosomes. And when I pour the test tube into the jar, it will create life.
Bad news: We can’t do it tonight because the jar has a headache.
Good news: We baptized seven people today in the river.
Bad news: We lost two of them in the swift current.
Good news: Mrs. Jones is wild about my sermons.
Bad news: Mrs. Jones is also wild about “Beavis and Butthead.”
Good news: The women’s softball team finally won a game.
Bad news: They beat the men’s team.
Good news: The trustees voted to add more church parking.
Bad news: They are going to blacktop the front lawn of the parsonage. (I think that’s happened in
some churches.)
Good news: Church attendance rose dramatically last Sunday.
Bad news: The preacher was on vacation.
Good news: The deacons want to send the preacher to the Holy Land.
Bad news: They are waiting until the next war.
Brethren, we must admit that life is full of “good news and bad news.” Of course, we all prefer the
“good news.”
We all have both good and bad things going on in our lives. And we prefer the good stuff! But life
doesn’t always work that way, does it?
The apostle Paul said these words in Rom. 7:15, 18-19 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do....I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I
keep on doing.”
Wow! It sounds like Paul was having quite a struggle in his life. And he was. He was struggling with
the evil against the good. And we all experience this struggle. As long as we are in the flesh we will
have this struggle, this battle going on inside of us!
Believe me, I’m not happy about it but I am very aware of it.
Perhaps we could look at it as if there were some fires going on in our lives: both good fires and bad
fires.
PROP.- In this message, I want us to think about lighting some good fires and putting out some bad fires.
1- Bad fires which need to be put out
2- Good fires which need to be lit
I. BAD FIRES WHICH NEED TO BE PUT OUT
ILL.- We’ve all heard the bad news about the bad fires taking place in Idaho and Montanna. We read or hear more about them every day.
I read that by Wednesday of last week, 4.3 million acres of land had been burned. And that by Thursday, they were closing 6 to 8 million acres to the public.
Some 30,000 civilian and military firefighters from 46 states are helping to try to put out the fire. It’s
the worst fire since the 1950’s when 17 million acres burned in 1950 and 14 million acres in 1952.
ILL.- Donna Nemeth, a fire information officer in Montanna, said, “Everyone is doing what they can to
prevent the fire’s spread.”
Brethren, there are some bad fires and perhaps some terribly wild fires that wreak havoc in our lives
that need to be put out! And everyone needs to be doing what they can to either prevent these fires or
put them out!
ILL.- A church member and his pastor/preacher were out playing golf one day. The member asked, “Pastor, how do you let off steam when you miss a shot and your ball goes into a sand trap?”
The pastor replied, “I just repeat the names of some of my church members....WITH FEELING!”
ILL.- Delivering a speech at a banquet on the night of his arrival in a large city, a visiting preacher told
several stories which he expected to repeat at meetings the next day. And because he wanted to use
the stories and jokes again, he told the reporters to omit them from the stories they turned into the
newspaper.
One reporter, commenting on the preacher’s speech, wrote these ending words in the newspaper: “AND
THE MINISTER TOLD A NUMBER OF STORIES WHICH CANNOT BE PUBLISHED.”
THERE IS THE BAD FIRE OF EVIL SPEECH! And this generally comes from a bad disposition.
Basically, we all struggle with two enemies: the sins of the disposition and the sins of the flesh. And the
disposition generally gives us more trouble than anything else.
Brethren, we need to be honest and admit that there have been times when we have said some bad words in various forms. All of us have! Even preachers are guilty.
I said, “Ah shucks” the other day. Admittedly and ashamedly, I’ve said worse than that before. And
you probably have too!
Col. 3:8-9 “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other...”
These are or can be various forms of evil speech. Bad language or bad words coming from anger and rage. Slander or gossip. Foul language. Lying, deceit.
Phil. 2:14 “Do everything without complaining or arguing.”
Bad language can also take the form of griping, complaining, criticism, and arguing.
ILL.- One preacher sarcastically said, “The Holy Spirit has more trouble in our church conferring the gift of silence than He does the gift of tongues.” Ouch!
ILL.- Another preacher said, “We are plagued with the hoof and mouth disease in our church. We have
people hoofing it all over the community and running off at the mouth.”
Most of us are not dumb when it comes to recognizing evil speech in our lives. We know when we are
talking bad, speaking evil things, spreading gossip, being negative, nasty and critical.
BUT WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? The fires of evil speech need to be quenched! We need to somehow “cut the line” on evil speech! Amen?!
ILL.- Kenneth Taylor made “The Living Bible” one of the best-selling books of all time. Psalms 141:3
says, “Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord.”
Kenneth Taylor paraphrases that verse this way: “Help me Lord to keep my mouth shut.”
And perhaps that’s what we need to pray whenever we recognize that we have been speaking evil words. Or perhaps an even more important prayer would be: “Help me Lord to get a better disposition. Change my disposition. Make me a more positive person. Make me sweeter and less bitter about life and people.”
ARE THERE OTHER BAD FIRES? Yes.
ILL.- A certain lawyer sent an overdue bill to a client with a note attached, reading, “This bill is one year old.”
A few days later the lawyer received his bill with this note attached: “Happy Birthday.”
The man didn’t pay his bill, just celebrated it! THAT’S BAD BEHAVIOR. Not paying your bills.
ILL.- A boss said to his secretary one day, “Miss Johnson, when the little bell on your typewriter rings, it doesn’t mean it’s time for a coffee break.”
Some people, some workers are always looking for an excuse to take a break. Or they try to do as little
work as possible. And that’s bad behavior.
Brethren, there are all kinds of examples of bad behavior that take place in life and as Christians we are not to participate in them! However, we are all human beings, in the flesh and we will fail at times.
Col. 3:5 “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.”
Brethren, we need to put out the fires of bad behavior! We who are in Christ are supposed to be
different people! Better people!
But there are times when we fail and that’s when we need to pick up the pieces, move forward and keep putting out the fires!
How do we do that? Paul said, “Put to death” bad behavior. Meaning, we must take decisive action
and say, “This is wrong and wrong is wrong and I’m not going to do this anymore. With the Lord’s help and grace, I will do right.”
This is how we must deal with bad behavior. Recognize it, renounce it, and reach out to the Lord for mercy, help and grace! That’s the only way!
Brethren, there are all kinds of bad fires that take place in our lives and we must do whatever we can to
put out those fires! And please realize that putting out bad fires starts in the mind! All evil starts in the mind!
Prov. 23:7 KJV “As a man thinks, so is he.”
We are what we think! Our thinking has brought us to where we are today and our thinking will take us where we are going tomorrow. THE THINKING HAS TO BE RIGHT BEFORE THE DOING CAN BE RIGHT!
If our thinking is bad then our speech and our actions will be bad. It’s as simple as that. And this
means, we must start thinking right in order to put out bad fires!
How do we learn to think right?
Col. 3:2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things....”
II Cor. 10:5 Paul said, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Brethren, if we want to speak right and do right, we must think right and that means setting our minds
on God, Christ and the Word. It means reading God’s Word and Christian materials, books, etc.
You need a good dose of Max Lucado’s writings to help put out the bad fires in your life. Of course, we
all need an even bigger dose of God’s Word to do this! And if we don’t feed our minds on the right
stuff, we’re goners!
There are all kinds of bad fires that pop up in our lives and we need to do our best to put out those
fires and not feed them!
II. GOOD FIRES WHICH NEED TO BE LIT OR LIGHTED
Good things need to happen in our lives. Good fires need to be lit in our lives! Such as the fire of doing
good, loving others, evangelism, etc. These are good things and we need to be “on fire” about them!
ILL.- A college professor once had his sociology class go to the Baltimore slums to get case histories of
200 young boys. They were asked to write an evaluation of each boy’s future.
In every case, the students wrote, “He hasn’t got a chance.” Twenty-five years later another sociology
professor came across the earlier study. He had his students follow up on the project to see what had
happened to those 200 boys.
With the exception of 20 boys who had moved away or died, the students learned that 176 of the remaining 180 had achieved more than ordinary success as lawyers, doctors and businessmen.
The professor was astounded and decided to pursue the matter further. Fortunately, all the men were
in the area and he was able to contact them and ask, “How do you account for your success in life?”
In each case, the reply came back with great feelings, “There was a special teacher.”
That teacher was still alive, so the professor went to find her and ask her what magic formula she had used to pull all those boys out of the slums and turn them into successful people.
The old teacher’s eyes sparkled and her lips broke into a smile when asked what she had done. “It’s
very simple,” she said, “I LOVED THOSE BOYS.”
Brethren, surely that ought to tell us something about life?! We can’t get any better than loving people! That is exactly why God put us here! To love people in any and all forms!
Loving people anyway we can is a fire that needs to be lighted within us! AND IT COMES FROM THE LORD! When we get His heart, we will also get His love for people!
We need to pray: “Lord, light my fire! Fill me with your love for people!”
ILL.- And here’s another example of a good fire that needs to be lit in us.
Brandon Abston, age 12, and his best friend, Robert, were playing soccer outside their apartment building in Lawton, OK, when suddenly a ground floor widow was filled with flames. Pounding on the apartment door, Brandon heard a child’s faint cry. He turned to Robert and said, “A kid’s in there. I’m going in!”
Coughing in the thick smoke, Brandon found four children huddled in the bedroom: a boy about 5, a
baby and two toddler girls. Brandon snatched the baby, raced out and gave him to Robert. By then, a
crowd of onlookers had appeared. “There are three other kids!” he gasped, hoping an adult would help.
But no one moved to help. Brandon plunged back into the black smoke, scooping up the smaller girl. They made it outside, and before Brandon could change his mind, he ran back in, grabbed the other girl and hauled her out.
He was coughing hard, his eyes were streaming with tears, but now a woman pushed through the crowd. The frightened mother screamed, “I’ve got to get my son out of there!”
Before anyone could stop him, Brandon headed back inside. The bedroom was filled with black smoke
and flames were everywhere now. But he grabbed the boy, found the door and tumbled outside.
By the time the firetrucks arrived, Brandon was upstairs, alerting other residents about the fire.
Several weeks later, having been designated “Fireman for a Day,” Brandon said, “I like the idea of
helping people. That’s how I want to spend my life.”
GOD BLESS BRANDON ABSTON. He wants to spend his life helping people. And that’s a fire that needs to lit within us!
It is exactly what Jesus did! Peter said of Jesus in Acts 10:38 He “went around doing good....”
Gal. 6:9-10 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
“Lord, light my fire! Light my fire for doing good to others!”
There are all kinds of good fires that need to be lit within us: loving people, doing good things for
people, teaching children in VBS and SS, calling on the shut-ins and those in the nursing homes, giving
money to needy causes and needy people... Making contacts for Christ and His church, praying for
others, helping others any way we can, etc.
These are all good fires that need to be lit within us! WE NEED TO STOKE THOSE FIRES!
ILL.- Everett Edward Hale once said, “I am only one, but I am one. I can’t do everything, but I can do
something. And what I can do, that I ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the grace of God I shall do.” Amen!
“Lord, please light my fire for doing good!”
CONCLUSION------------------------------------------
It’s decision time. Have you made the decision to put out the bad fires in your life and stoke the good
fires?
Make that decision today. Decide to follow Jesus in doing good.
