It’s Not My Fault…. Or is it?
12/13/03
Introduction…
It’s not my fault!…. That is such a liberating and freeing statement don’t you think?
I was so excited recently to see a new commercial on T.V.
Dr. Greg cynaumon appeared before me on my 25” Sanyo and he said that his friend Dr. Talbolt had done and extensive case study on overweight people. And after doing this research, they have determined that….. if you are overweight… IT’s Not Your Fault!
They claim to have found a stress hormone that causes weight gain, so it’s all because of stress….
I almost came out of my chair!
Everyone knows that pastors are under a lot of stress…..
Everyone knows that fathers are under a lot of stress…
There are numerous things in my life that cause stress so…
ITS NOT MY FAULT that I am overweight…
I was ecstatic to learn this…
And then I looked at some of the things that are of concern for us today in our society and in our culture and I realized that I can apply the same principles to those issues today..
>>>> For instance… did you know that there is a specific time on a specific day of the week that the absolute most amount of money is spent on products…. Not groceries but products such as appliances.. refrigerators, televisions, and so on.
And the one day of the week that more money is spent has always been Saturday….. up until recently that is.
But now, the most amount of money that is spent on major products during the week is spent on SUNDAYS between the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M.
BUT ITS NOT MY FAULT… because I don’t buy major products on Sundays….
>>>>> Did you know that that there is a growing concern here in Arkansas, as well as other states, over the recent dramatic increase of Embezzlements… OH, that’s embezzlement in the Church by the way….
But ITS NOT MY FAULT…. You see, I am not involved in the Church funds….
>>>> Did you know that Lifeway has predicted the death of Sunday School?
Now, they don’t base their prediction solely on their literature sales.. but the Annual Profile of the Churches show the same thing…
But ITS NOT MY FAULT….. you see, I am in Church every Sunday…..
>>>>>>
ITS NOT MY FAULT that gambling is a problem… I don’t gamble.
>>>>>>>
ITS NOT MY FAULT that we are on the verge of losing the battle to keep marriage between one man and one woman… the way that God intended marriage to be….
You see, I signed a petition…..
>>>>>>>>>>>>
ITS NOT MY FAULT that the supreme court ruled in 1992 that prayer in school was unconstitutional….
You see, I just became a Christian at the end of November in 1992
>>>>>>>>>
ITS NOT MY FAULT that the 10 commandments were removed from public display from a federal building in Alabama and chief justice Roy Moore was removed from office because of his stand….
You see, I support Roy Moore 100 percent….
>>>>>>>>
ITS not my fault that this very month, a few schools across the nation removed the word Christmas from any songs that the kids were to sing in school activities, yet at the same time they allowed the use of Islamic words or songs…..
You see, I live in a place that would not do such a thing….
>>>>>>>>>>
Did you know that this very week our supreme court made another momentous decision… to paraphrase justice Anthony schelia …. This supreme court that recently made the statement that they believe in the first amendment rights of free speech enough that they ruled in favor of virtual child pornography…. Because of free speech…
Yet they ruled this week that individuals and organizations will not have the right to openly endorse, support or discuss a specific political candidate within a certain time period before an election….
Our supreme court has stated that they are starting to make decisions based on what the world would have us do… and that they must even look and see how our constitution fits in with the rest of the world….
But that is not my fault, I am sick of the decisions our supreme court has been making lately…
All of these things that I have mentioned, I can look at all of them now and see that there is some one or something else to blame….
Its not my fault.. its not my fault, its not my fault……………..
…… Or is it?
Take your Bibles please and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Read 2 Corinthians 5:1-21.
Paul has given us a great deal of information here in these verses..
As Christians, to be in these earthly vessels means that we are not yet at home… we have something wonderful to look forward to, something that we can not even imagine…. We will live for all eternity at the feet of our heavenly father.. we will have the riches of glory before us… we have hope… not just for the future, but for all eternity…
We are not there yet… we are not yet at home..
But in the mean time, while we are waiting, God has given us the holy spirit as a guarantee to the life that we have in store for us…
Paul says therefore…… because we have been given the glories of heaven, because we have hope for eternity, because we have the spirit residing within us…
Therefore… it is our GOAL to please the Lord!
And Paul says in verse 10…
Read Verse 10
Understand that verse my friends… the implications in that verse play a pivotal role in the rest of the message for us this morning…
And of course there is so much in these verses that I could discuss this morning… but I want us to look at verse 11 …
Read verse 11a
And now I want us to focus on vs. 20
Read verse 20.
Now, notice that Paul did not say to us that we may be Christ’s ambassadors….
He did not say that we could be Christ’s ambassadors…
Paul did not even say that we Should be Christ’s ambassadors…..
But because we are Christians,…. Because we are new creations….because we are bought with a price… because we are not our own….
We ARE ambassadors for our Lord and savior Jesus Christ….
Now, being Christ’s ambassador means that we are sent forth as His representative…. As we walk out into the world day in and day out… we are representing the son of God Himself…
Now, we can be bad representatives or we can be good representatives or we can be somewhere in between, but either way, we represent Jesus…
But that still has nothing to do with any of the things that I mentioned a few moments ago does it?…
I mean, I know of someone to blame in each instance… I gave the reason IT’S NOT MY FAULT in each situation…..
So, I have not failed in my responsibilities as a representative of Jesus Christ ……….have I?
IT’S NOT MY FAULT! ……..Or is it?
Well, I know that the word of God implores us time and time again to WORK diligently for our Lord….
Paul tells us to fight the good fight, finish the course laid out before us.. set our sights on the or prize that lies ahead…..
In the verses we have read this morning, remember that in verse 9 that it is our goal to please HIM! Speaking of the LORD!
Well, how do we do that?
We recently started trying to get back to some of the basics in Gods word… back to some of the things that so many people have gotten away from today…
2 Timothy 2:15 says …….
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
A study in systematic theology is good, a study about Martin Luther is good, a study of the early church leaders is good, a study about biblical archeology is good….
But the study of God’s word is a command! The study of God’s word is absolutely imperative…..
Learning and believing the basics in God’s word is a necessity!
How many of you remember hearing about the Scopes trial of 1925?
The Scopes trial of 1925 concerned the teaching of evolution in the public school system.
While the Christian prosecutor William Jennings Bryan was on the witness stand, the ACLU lawyer, Clarence Darrow asked him specific questions about the Bible..
And Bryan, who stood for Christianity…… and was a representative of Christ Jesus…. Could not answer those questions…
Questions such as.. “Where did Cain get his wife?”
Bryan also admitted that he did not believe in the six literal days of creation but that he accepted the secular teaching that the earth is millions of years old….
At this time, Darrow knew he had won his case, because he had managed to get the Christian to admit, in front of a worldwide audience, that he could not defend the Bibles history… because he didn’t know where Cain got his wife…
And he didn’t take the Bible as written, because he didn’t believe in the six literal days of creation…
And instead, he actually accepted the secular teaching, that the world was millions of years old…
And by doing this, this Christian, this ambassador or representative of Jesus Christ, unwittingly undermined biblical authority and paved the way for secular teaching to enter our school systems, and thus, enter our culture as a whole…
And far to many Christians today do not have a clue as to what the Bible teaches…. And far to many are accepting the secular teachings as being truthful…
Do you know that there is a new revolution and a wave of people claiming now that the world is flat…. And of course they have proof…
I also heard a new study this past week, and 1 our of 5 Americans questioned believe that the sun revolves around the earth……
Well guess what…..
I know that the earth is round and I know that the earth revolves around the sun…. and I don’t know it because of what science has proven, I know it because the word of God has always made those truths available to us!
But, I wasn’t around in 1925 during the scopes trial…. So the teachings that are tearing our society apart today are NOT MY FAULT!
Or are they?
You know that commercial I was talking about when we started…..
Well, guess what….
IT IS MY FAULT that I am overweight…. I Don’t eat like I should….
IT IS MY FAULT that more money is spent on Sundays between the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. because I haven’t impacted our society enough to make a difference…
IT IS MY FAULT that embezzlement is up in Churches…
IT IS MY FAULT that Sunday School is dying
IT IS MY FAULT that gambling is a problem
IT IS MY FAULT that we are on the verge of losing the battle against same sex marriage
IT IS MY FAULT that prayer is illegal in schools…
IT IS MY FAULT that the ten commandments are being removed from public displays
IT IS MY Fault that Christmas is being banned while islam is being praised
IT IS MY FAULT that the supreme court is making the decisions they are making
And IT IS MY FAULT that evolution is taught as truth in our society today….
IT is my fault because I am Christ’s ambassador, I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I have the riches of heaven available to me, yet I have done nothing to either stop or change any of these things……
IT IS MY FAULT….
I heard a story recently about a young man in the navy that was going to have an interview with admiral Ricover, the head of the nuclear navy of his time… People dreaded having an interview with Ricover because he was so hard and strict…
This young man said that when he went for the interview, Rickover told him he cold start, and just talk about anything he was comfortable with, cars, music, anything…. And the young man said that he spent the next few hours talking about things that he was sure he was very educated about…. And he said he also spent those hours learning just how dumb he was in those areas, compared to admiral Rickover…
Then he said the Admiral asked him if he had finished well in his class in the Naval Academy, and the young man thought finally, Ill show him what I am made of…
And the young man answered, well yes admiral, I actually finished 49th in my class of over 800.
Then the admiral asked another question….
“Did you do your absolute best”
…… and the young man thought about it for a while… he knew that he had done good, he knew that he had worked hard… but this was admiral Rickover… he couldn’t lie to him… the young man knew that he could have done better in some areas, he could have studied enemy tactics more or a number of other things… so after some time the young man answered……. “NO”
Then the young man said that Admiral Rickover asked one last question to end the interview… a question that he was unable to answer that day… and is still unable to answer today….
He said Rickover spun his chair around backwoods and straddled it, looked him dead in the eyes and said….
WHY NOT! Why not?
By the way that young man was Jimmy Carter….
IF the Christians of our nation would stand together united for Christ, and if we would work for him in his service as we are supposed to, then our nation would not be in the shape it is in….
Remember the verse… 2 Cor. 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
It is my fault, because if I were to stand before Christ today, and he were to ask me if I had done my very best , if I had worked my absolute hardest in his service, I would have to say no….
And then I would never be able to answer that next question….why not…. Why not….
Are you willing to start afresh and anew today? Are you willing to say to Christ today, here I am Lord… I want to give my life totally to you, I want to live for you, I want to work for you… If we would all do this together… we would impact our world for Christ… would you give your all to him today.....
