Nine Most Used Words Of The Twentieth Century
Genesis 3:5-6, John 1:1 - 4, Colossians 1:15-19,
July 29, 2004
I. I am going to try to deal with something in the next few weeks that is one of the main concerns of most people if not the main concern.
A. I do these series things because I think most of the issues of Christianity are too big to cover in one sermon.
1. If we are really going to get grip on what God wants, we have to look at it from more than one angle.
B. So what is the subject that covers a main area of people’s lives?
1. Loose ends!
2. Loose ends that disrupt, agitate, frustrate, stress out, and consume.
C. We desperately try to get caught up.
1. And, I’m speaking from experience here.
2. Your experience may not be just exactly like mine but I have a feeling you can relate.
3. Many mornings I get up determined to get caught up!
4. TODAY IS THE DAY!
5. So I set an impossible agenda and at the end of the day I am more stressed than I was, so the next day I am more determined to get caught up because there are so many loose ends...and you see the cycle, and you’re probably familiar with it.
D. I can honestly say that I am not as much that way as I used to be.
1. I have made a lot of progress in that area, and I hope that the conclusion that I came to will help you.
2. But, first let’s identify the problem some more.
E. Life in the Twentieth Century moves at warp four.
1. The junk mail piles up, while we feel junked out because there are important things that we forgot or haven’t had the time to do.
2. The phone rings off the wall and each ring creates a thing that has to be remembered and done, and we wonder how people used to have the time to sit on the porch and talk.
3. Even while I was writing this I remembered something that I had to stop and do before I forgot.
4. The list of unreturned calls grows, our schedules get loaded, we feel victimized by all the demands, guilty about the lack of time for family and friends, and stressed out because we need a little time for us to maintain our sanity.
5. And we all live with the illusion that we will get it all worked out, caught up, and all the loose ends tied down.
6. We want to tie up the loose ends, but the blasted things just won’t go away or stay tied up.
F. And a big part of the reason that happens is because the loose ends involve people.
1. Someone feels misunderstood, neglected, unimportant, or un-cared for.
2. RELATIONSHIPS TAKE TIME, AND THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH OF IT!
3. Never enough time to deal with all the needs of family, or work, and we get the gut wrenching feeling of being pulled in too many directions.
4. We feel all our loose ends flopping around inside us and after we have done our best to stretch ourselves in a all the directions, then SMACK another loose end that forgot about rakes our insides.
5. And if that is not enough more than things to do or people to see, or duties to fulfill, or details to take care of, the really big loose end is behind the equal sign.
6. The equal sign if you are wondering is the thing that is right in front of what we want our lives to equal up to when everything else is added up.
7. The things that we would like to do, that we feel we will never be able to do, or the things that we would like to accomplish in life that we see slipping away as we are pulled in all those other directions.
8. Now, let me ask you a question. Did I just describe your life?
9. If I did there is a one step solution to the problem.
G. You know the fact that we say our lives are at loose ends is a confession that we feel our lives are out of control.
1. The sails on our ship are untied and flapping in the breeze, and not grabbing at the power of the wind that we need to move us toward our self appointed destination.
II. That brings us to the nine words of desperation most frequently used in the Twentieth Century.
A. "IF I COULD JUST GET MY LIFE UNDER CONTROL!"
B. As hard as we try we just can’t seem to control circumstances, people or ourselves, and we end up feeling that pressures and problems and people are controlling our lives, and we don’t know what to do about it. LOOSE ENDS!
C. And the feeling of being controlled begins to give us a very controlling attitude.
1. We tighten our grip on life, and people, and responsibilities to try to make sure nothing goes wrong.
2. Which brings tension, stress, and anxiety which assures that, more will go wrong.
D. I know this because I have lived it.
1. I have a tremendous sense of responsibility because I handle the things of God, and you do too.
2. I feel a great sense of responsibility to this church and what God wants to do here. AND I AM SUPPOSE TO BE LEADING!
3. And at the same time I feel a tremendous responsibility to my family!
4. And part of that responsibility is providing for them, and I have to work jobs other than being a pastor, which takes me away from my family, and from things I want to be doing at this church.
5. And there is never enough time to do it all, and then there is the fact that I know if I don’t have some time for me I’ll be no good to any of the people I love and feel responsible to.
6. At one time it almost did me in, but in the midst of it all God said "hey dummy I need to tell you something."
E. I couldn’t put it into these words then, but this is the thought out version.
1. Struggling so hard to get control of our lives is a sure sign that we are in control of our lives, and we are fighting for more control.
2. And your thinking for something that was thought out, that makes no sense at all.
3. Well, bare with me a second. Why would a person who is in control feel so out of control?
4. If the person that is in control doesn’t have the ability to be in control then they have to constantly fight for more control.
F. You see those nine very used words if I could just get my life under control, are nine very dangerous words.
1. "If I could just get my life under control" is a dangerous statement, because God didn’t create us with the ability to be in control of life, because He never intended us to be in control.
2. Whoa, there is an eye opener!
3. The assignment of being in control was given to Jesus.
4. HE IS LORD, and if He is Lord, then He is the Lord of the loose ends of our lives.
5. And our biggest problem in life is not to get our lives under control, but to give control of our lives to the one who is able to handle the job.
6. Even though we say that Jesus is Lord we hang on to our self-destructive attempts to be in control of people, situations, problems, finances, plans, goals in life, and our desires.
7. There is only one person that can rightfully control our lives and it’s not us. And, the sooner we understand that the sooner we will find peace in our lives.
G. I know some of you are thinking, this is too simplistic an answer.
1. I thought you were going to give me a ten step self help program. SOMETHING THAT I CAN DO.
2. Your already trying to DO more than you were designed to do, that’s the main problem.
3. This is not A thing that we can do to get life where it should be, it is the ONLY thing that we can do to get life where it should be.
4. I think the main reason we struggle with it, is that when we became a Christian instead of giving up our life to Jesus, we tried to add him on as an accessory to self controlled lives, while we held on to the control that we were not intended to have in the first place.
5. If we look at what the bible says isn’t that need that we humans have for wanting to be in control what messed everything up to begin with? (Gen 3:5-6 NIV) "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
6. Sure we pray when trouble comes, but if we are honest what we usually pray for is for God to step in, and accomplish our plans while we are still in charge.
7. And then we try to hold God responsible for the problems in our lives without giving Him the authority to do anything about them.
H. How would you feel if you were given the job of building a fifty story building.
1. You were responsible for getting the job done in a certain time frame, and getting the job done right, but you were also told that every individual who was working on the project had the right and authority to do whatever they wanted, however they wanted, whenever they wanted.
2. Isn’t that the position that we try to put God in a lot of the time?
3. One reason for that is that our idea of the power of God available to us through Jesus is too small.
4. So many times we talk and think about Jesus as if He lives only in Israel years ago, when what we really need is to realize is we have a dynamic savior and a powerful Lord who can show us that our lives are only in control when they are in His control.
5. He can set us free from the gut wrenching feeling of being at loose ends, because when we truly give Him control, the loose ends aren’t ours any more they’re His.
6. And He has the power to change them! And He knows what will happen in the future and He knows when the time is right.
III. What we have to concentrate on is realizing that Jesus is the only one worthy to take control and in His hands is the only place that control can be for life to be what it was meant to be.
A. Jesus existed before time and creation, and He is co equal with God the Father.
(John 1:1 - 4 NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
B. As the Word Jesus was and is the generator, or the power source of the universe.
1. He was and is the one through whom all things were created.
2. He was and is the source of life, and who better to be in control of life than the one who is life.
C. In Gen 1:26 God said "let us make man in our image" and the Word, the Word that would be made flesh and dwell among us created humankind, because John 1:3 says Through him ALL things were made; without him NOTHING was made that has been made.
1. Life himself, brought life into being, so who else has the ability to be in control of life?
2. If we are going to have the true power to have a life that is in control, then we have to have the one that created life in control of life.
3. Jesus made us and only He has the power and authority to take charge of what He created.
4. Only Jesus can cause us to realize the full potential of life that is in us, and that will only happen when we are under His control.
D. Paul makes it plain in (Col 1:15 - 19 NIV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; ALL things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him ALL things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in EVERYTHING he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
1. If our desire is to have our lives in control then we have to acknowledge Jesus as life, the maker of life, and the only way life can be what it was meant to be.
2. Because the only way for our lives to be under control is for our lives to be under Jesus’ authority, because only He has the power to control life, and God has said with no room for doubt that HE IS LORD!
E. When Jesus was on Earth He showed us that life must be lived under His control, to be life.
1. He left no doubt about who He was.
2. He said he was before Abraham was.
3. He said He was the Bread of life, the light of the world, the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to God.
4. While Jesus was on Earth He stood on the rawest nerve in humanity...The CONTROL THING!
5. Peoples lives were out of control because they tried to live under their own control.
6. The cause of it all was sin and Jesus met it head on.
7. The result of sin was separation from God because they wouldn’t trust God to be in charge. Which is exactly what Adam and Eve did.
8. You’ve heard me say this before and you will hear me say it again. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit they basically said God I don’t trust you to be in control.
9. We see where it got them, so why don’t we learn from it?
10. And by trying to be in control ourselves , what we do is give control to Satan. There are only to forces in this world that can be in control and we are not one of them.
11. Good and evil, God and satan are the only ones who can really have control and if we take control from God then we are giving control to satan.
12. Control was the main contention between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, and because they couldn’t control Him they had Him put to death.
13. But they lost again because even death can’t control the creator of life.
IV. Jesus is just as present and powerful now as He was in the days that He walked the Earth.
A. He fills us with His Spirit, and offers to give us strength, transform our lives and guide us every step of the way.
B. But, the rub comes when we refuse to give Him control of life.
C. For Jesus to give us all there is to life, we have to give Him control of our lives.
D. Why do we hear people say," If I could just get my life under control?"
1. Because THEY are trying to get control of their lives and THEY are not the ones that are suppose to have it.
2. When we try to be in control of life we’re fighting a battle that we are not armed to fight.
3. Only life and the giver of life is equipped to control life!
4. Thinking our lives are at loose ends means that we think our lives are out of control. OUR CONTROL!
5. But the reality of it is our lives being out of our control really means that they are in control if we give that control to the one who has the ability to handle it.
6. Our confidence has got to be in that He is able, not that we are able.
E. The inevitable question is are you trying to be in control of your life or have you truly let God be in control of your life?
1. That decision will determine the level of peace that you have in your life, and there is no better time to decide to let Jesus be Lord than right now.
2. So why don’t you do that today. Why don’t you come and talk to the one who has the ability to control life and tell Him that you want to give Him control of you life.
3. What better day than the day that we celebrate our freedom as country could there be for you finding your freedom as a child of God?
4. But, just coming and saying the words won’t get the job done. Because we have to daily relinquish that control to Jesus, but everyday that we do will be worth all the effort that it takes.
