The Abundant Life of Jesus:
Part V: The Power of Where!
John 10:10 & James 1:2
Abundant Life Questions:
Who does What, When, Why, Where, How, and How Lord!
Today, Where? Where do we need to apply the principles of
positive, God-Directed action? James 1:2, right where it hurts;
exactly where the trials, pains, struggles, tragedies and troubles of
life are.
Today, also we want to deal with probably the second biggest
sabotaging pattern of thinking (Procrastination is the first), and that
is the belief that "I can’t!" We believe our most fundamental
problem and obstacle to living the Abundant Life of Jesus is
WEAKNESS, but, as someone once said, "Miracles come in
CANS!" And God says, I CAN do all things through Christ,
Who Strengthens me!"
Some years ago I heard about a man who was called to be a
minister among American Indians out westa hundred years ago, or
so.
This man was a good, sincere, dedicated man who loved the
Indians. He learned a lot from them and was always fascinated at
their ability to put their ears to the ground and tell who, and how
many horses, or wagons were coming. The minister would try,
putting his ear to the ground and always come up wrong, but, it
seemed, every time the Indians saw him, he was practicing.
One day they came and found him with his ear to the ground. He
said in stilted tones, "Two wagons, one with 4 horses, one with 2;
one horse brown, two white, the rest black; two men in first wagon,
woman and dog in second."
"Wow," the Indians said, "we’ve never been able to do THAT, how
can you tell all that?"
"Not tell," minister said, "wagons-run-over-me-20-minutes-ago!"
***************
When it comes to the Abundant Life of Jesus, we need to realize the
most amazing truth: We can, CAN, REALLY WE CAN, live this
life, exactly where we need it most: In the hard times, trials,
tragedies, sorrows, griefs, etc. of life.
Paul makes this clear in Phil. 4:4, the famous, "Rejoice in the Lord
Always, Again, I say Rejoice."
He doesn’t say, "when you feel like it, rejoice," nor, "when
everything’s going well, rejoice," nor, "grit your teeth and smile,"
which is not rejoicing but running away from the pain.
He says, in effect, "Look your pain, sorrow, tragedy, failure, etc.
right in the eye, and, with tears and a sigh, perhaps, rejoice in the
Lord!"
The word, "Rejoice," can be translated, "Do the things that resemble
Joy!" "Repeat, the joyful pattern!"
Of course, if you’re human and honest, you looks at this and say,
"Sounds good, but nobody can to that." "I would LOVE to, but I
can’t."
Why can’t we; inevitably we say, "I’m just too weak!"
But, according to the Bible, we’re not weak, we’re rebels. It’s not
that we "can’t" it is that we won’t. We take our strength and yield it
to sin, self, and situations outside of the will of God and we CAN
yield our strength to God, but we don’t.
NO MATTER HOW GOOD THINGS ARE WE OFTEN
FIND A REASON TO COMPLAIN!" Reverse this. No matter
how bad things are, find a reason to rejoice!
We’re not weak, we’re rebels! It’s often our very strength,
stubborness, pride, arrogance, that gets us in the biggest trouble.
Illus. 1978, I was called to a situation in which a married couple
was threatening each other with violence. I came into a situation of
yelling and broken pieces of plates and things on the floor. I sat
there and tried to reason, calm, comfort, and generally diffuse the
situation, to no avail. It seemed out of control and I thought the
police would have to be called.
Then, the telephone rang. A TELEPHONE. They’re in the midst of
SEEMINGLY UNCONTROLABLE rage and shouting, when the
telephone rang, THEY BOTH STOPPED! Aburptly. The silence
was deafening. The lady answered the phone, while her husband
waited, politely, said something like "I can’t talk right now." Hung
up and went right back to yelling.
"Wait," I said, "do you see what just happened?" They both looked
surprised when I pointed out that they both calmed down enough
for the phone, how about for some real communication.
They are still together, by the way.
But I learned something, they (and we) were not weak, nor out of
control, they had control, and they had strength; it’s just how they
were CHOOSING TO USE IT, that made it such a bad scene.
Now, if you’ve ever said "No!" to something bad, food when
you’re dieting, a bad TV program, etc. you exercised your
STRENGTH in that situation, then you CAN do that more often!
You already know how, you just need to do what you already know
more consistently!
Have you ever changed your feelings? You felt bad, depressed, and
you went and visited someone who made you feel better, or you
went for a walk and felt better, or you just took charge, and said, "I
am NOT going to let this get me; I am NOT going to feel sorry for
myself today!" Then, you CAN TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR
EMOTIONS. You already know how, you just need to do it more
consistently
Now, where do we need to do this. Where it hurts. Anyone
remember Merthiolate? That pink liquid like Iodine that burned
worse than alcohol? Remember running around with pink patches
all over your knees, arms and elbows?
Now, they didn’t put it on your elbow if it was your knee; or on your
face if it was your knuckles, because it only works if you put it
WHERE IT HURTS, where it hurts.
James tells us to Put the Joy of the Lord all over the Trials, Pains,
and Hurts of life, and that joy might sting for a while, but it will
help! And the Love of God, and the His Peace!
At this point many may be thinking, "Pastor, you must live a pretty
sheltered life; you don’t know troubles like I know them."
I could tell you stories that would make you cry and shudder, and I
could find 10 reasons to be depressed anytime I want to, but I don’t,
I work hard at doing what God said, "Count it ALL joy." I might
do it with tears, and sometimes a sigh of disbelief, but I still say the
words, and I feel better.
God’s calling us to be different, not to submitt to every wind of
emotions, of the negative opinions of friends, and especially not to
culture, hollywood, or congress.
By the way, if the opposite of "Pro," is "Con," what’s the opposite
of "Progress?"
A digression here. There’s been long and serious debate over what
the Image of God is in Genesis. Remember God created man, us, in
His Own Image. Ever since then people have been trying to figure
it out. I heard, haven’t verified it yet, but heard that according to
Martin Luther in his discussions of Genesis, early commentators,
people like Athanasius, Crystostosom, Origen, believed that the
Image of God is the ability to stand upright. It was called the
"Posture of God."
Man, unlike every other creature, PREFERS, chooses to stand
upright. Now remember, it’s choice, here. Bears stand upright, but
they PREFER, to be down; monkeys, gorillas and apes stand
upright, but they too, prefer to be down. Only man CHOOSES,
this posture. You can teach a dog to walk on his hind legs, but he
REALLY doesn’t like it.
The posture of God. Stand up, put your shoulders back and get your
chin up. It’s amazing how much better you feel when you do that
simple thing.
1956, Mrs. Mitchell was my teacher; I was in the 5th grade and she
was a fanatic for posture. "Sit up straight, get your head up, God
didn’t make you to slouch, get your eyes off the floor," she’d say,
slap the ruler on the desk, even at lunch and recess. "Act like a
human being," she’d say. You know what, that was the only class I
had in which NO ONE FAILED. Imagine that, the "posture of
God" can even help your studies. To this day, this teacher is the one
I recognize as having made the most positive contribution to my
life. Years later I thanked her, personally, she said I was the only
the second person to ever do that, she cried.
(By the way, Anyone YOU need to thank?)
Of course, the early Allegorical commentators certainly took this
way beyond physical, but apparently projected the idea of "Standing
up Straight" to other things. Standing up to the evil forces, evil
feelings, circumstances, not letting any little thing push us around.
Jesus certainly had this posture before Pilate, when Pilate said of
him, "Behold the man!"
One of the most powerful thoughts you can get, is that We CAN,
have all the strength we need to really live this abundant life and we
can even do this where it hurts.
I like King Arthur and probably have read all the stories of the
Knights of the round table ever written. There’s one story that, I
think may illustrate the idea that we’re not weak, but rebels.
It seems King Arthur was confronted by a Black Knight. He
challenged the king, they fought. Eventually they dismounted and
began the sword fight. It was going badly for the King, he was
wounded and on the verge of defeat or death.
There was a lake near by, and the Black Knight, realizing his
advantage, took a step back to enjoy the victory, when he stumbled
and fell into the lake. In a suit of armor, he was helpless and would
drown soon. But, good King Arthur, wounded and weak, dragged
himself to the lake, reached down, and WITH THE STRENGTH
OF A KING, pulled the Black Knight out.
The Black Knight still had the advantage and came forward with
his sword drawn. King Arthur was thoroughly spent and could
offer no resistance. But the Black Knight turned his sword around
and knelt, with his head down, he yielded, saying, "King Arthur, as
hard as I fought as your enemy, I will fight as your friend, I yield all
my strength to you."
Not weak, but strong, let US yield our strength to JESUS!
