"WHEN IT DOESN’T STICK"
(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Introduction:
GOD BLESS THE TEACHERS!
In Fact, God Bless Anyone Who Has The Almost Impossible Task Of Teaching Children
I don’t know that there is another job that has as
many challenges, with as few rewards. Kids are either starved for attention and cling to their teachers, or they hate the whole concept of schooland their teacher is as popular to them as their dentist.
Very few people love their dentist. There was a certain little girl who is playing with her barbies in her room. She’s got one barbie doll standing in front of five barbie dolls who are sitting down. Her Mom walks into the room and asks, "What are you doing?" She says, "I’m playing school! This is the teacher and these are all her Prisoners!"
Yes, Teachers are often greatly under appreciated.
But What’s Got To Be Even More Frustrating Is The
Challenge Of Educating. It’s been said that teaching is like hitting someone in the face with a pie. You keep hitting them in the face with knowledge, hoping that eventually, they will lick some of it off and acquire a taste for it. You hope that some of it will stick! And you wonder, sometimes, how it is possible
for a child to spend an entire year with a teacher, In a classroom, and not learn a single thing, but it happens everyday! Doesn’t it teachers!?
Here’s A List Of Answers Turned In By Students To Their Teachers In A High School History Class
1. The Romans were called Romans because they never stayed in one place very long
2. The Greeks invented the Olympic gameswhere they hurled biscuits and threw the Java.
3. The middle ages was when King Alfred conquered the Dames.
4. The Renaissance was a time when Martin Luther was nailed to the church door. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a papal bull
3. Queen Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen. When she exposed herself to the troops, They all shouted, "Hurray!" Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo
6. Christopher Columbus discovered America
while cursing the Atlantic.
Of course children are the same no matter what they are being taught. Sunday School Teachers Often Face The Same problems. Here’s A List of Actual Answers High School Kids Gave To Sunday School Teachers
1. Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark
2. The fifth commandment is humor thy Mother And father
3. Abraham beget Isaac, Isaac beget Jacob and Jacob beget twelve partridges
4. The first commandment was that Eve told Adam to eat the apple
5. A Republican is a sinner mentioned in the bible
6. Christians can have only one wife, This is called monotony
Yes, sometimes it just doesn’t stick. You try and you try but they just don’t get it.
Body:
THE MODERN CHURCH HAS BEEN ACCUSED OF BEING OUT OF TOUCH
Society Has Accused The Church, And Sometimes Rightfully So, Of Having Our Heads In The Clouds.
Of not being able to understand what the people
Of this modern age are going through. While this may be true to a degree, The church does understand trying to make It stick. We understand what it’s like trying to share some Of your knowledge with someone
Knowing that you can share with them a way to a better life. Only to watch them ignore your efforts
And fall into ruin. Because the church deals with this every day. And we would love, as well as all teachers, I am certain, To discover some sure fire way to guarantee that your efforts would not be wasted. We would love to have some formula that would
never fail, So we would know that we could make it stick, This faith stuff! This education stuff!
This desire to better the lives of others, Often in spite of themselves.
If You Haven’t Noticed, There Is A Guarantee In The Text That Was Read Today. This text that has been quoted over and over. This text from Corinthians that has probably seen more time on refrigerators than any other text. This text that has been read aloud at countless weddings. This text says, Quite boldly, LOVE NEVER FAILS! I mean did you see that! It’s right here in the 8th verse, Love NEVER fails! Do you buy that? Doesn’t it sound just a little fishy? I mean verses 4 - 7 I can agree with; (Read verses 4-7)
Anyone who truly understands love, Who has experienced loving and being loved, We know all this to be true. But love never failing? How Can That Be When We Have All Experienced Failed Love!? If love never fails why do people divorce? If love never fails why do friendships end? If love never fails, why are there so many Teachers who love their students,Who feel like failures, because the
Students don’t respond to their love? If love never fails, how come the church can Love with so much passion and conviction, only To have some people ignore,abuse, and even reject the love? If love never fails, then why, when God so loved the world that he sent his only son, did the world crucify his only son.........?
Believe it or not, good friends, this text is right!
Love never fails! Of course I didn’t always understand that. I didn’t really understand it until June of 1988. That the was the first year I went to
youth camp.
WHEN I GO TO CAMP I’M NOT REV. WOODY, OR BROTHER STEVE, BUT I’M JUST WOODY.
And There Are Several Reasons For This
One, I want to be able to communicate to the kids on their level. Sometimes titles can distance people,
especially the title of Reverend. But most important I have discovered that it helps in my remembering.
I’ve been going to camp for about 18 years now. Which means I’ve seen 18 generations of kids go through camp. Sometimes as many as 700 kids at one camp
Now that’s a lot to remember! So when a kid yells across a parking lot, "Hey Woody!", and then walks up and says, "you don’t remember me do you?" I say, "Of course I do, You were at camp" Because that is the only place that I am Just "Woody".
That First Year Of Camp I Was A Counselor In The
7th Grade Camp With A Cabin Full Of Boys. But the one I will never forget was Gustava. Gustava was a terror!
He got into at least 4 fights while at camp. He was moved into two different cabins. Until finally, they moved him into a room, by himself, with the Camp Director. Because he could not get along with other
Kids. If we were in an Assembly and we told the kids to stand up, Gustava would sit down, cross his arms
and look at you. If we said "sit down: he would stand defiantly practically daring you to do something.
One Day I Decided To Try To Impress Gustava, Who
Was Hispanic, With My Spanish, Which is awful.
I said to him, "Quen Su Padre", Which means who is your father? You see, in the Hispanic culture, even in The Protestant churches, They often call their pastor, "Father". The only Hispanic pastor in the district was a friend of mine and I assumed that Gustava was from his church. To my surprise, Gustava answered me by Saying, "Yo No Tengo" Which means, "I don’t have one" Later on I saw this Hispanic pastor friend of mine and I asked him about Gustava. And he told me that, Yes, Gustava was from his church. I shared with him our conversation and how Gustava had denied even having a pastor, and that’s when Gustava’s pastor told me that Gustava had thought that I was talking about his real father, and that part of Gustava’s problem WAS his father. Who was currently serving a life sentence in prison. For raping Gustava’s four year old sister, And for beating Gustava’s mother so badly that she was still in a coma. I Decided Right Then That Gustava Was Why I Was At Camp! I devoted my entire camp to loving Gustava. I wanted to show him that there was more to
life Then the 13 years of hell that he had endured.
I took him hiking and fishing, and boating. I gave him all of my personal attention, Sharing with him some of the hell I went through as a kid, And what I had learned about God’s love. On several occasions I prayed with him. I had decided that I would love Gustava into happiness, And into a well behaved camper
Because hey, love never fails, right?
Except This Time The Love Did Seem To Fail
Gustava did not change one bit. If fact, his behavior seemed to get worse. He became more defiant. He seemed to shrug off all of my love, like a duck would shrug water off of it’s back! By the end of camp I was certain that love had failed. All the kids had gone home, including Gustava. Who had not even said, "Good-bye" to me. The counselors were cleaning up and packing up. There was this lady who had been in charge of Crafts. The kids called her the "crafts lady" The crafts lady came up to me and said, "Do you know Gustava’s pastor?" I said that I did. She said, "Gustava left his craft, can you get it to him?"
I said that I could and I accepted the craft. The craft that year was a plastic visor cap that the kids decorated with puff paint. Truth Is I Didn’t Really Look At The Cap Until I Got Home. It was decorated with a kind of a Spanish flair. Right across the front was the name Gustava. Off to the left was the name of his sister Maria. to the right was the name of his mother, Rosa. And then right under his name, in small letters, was the name, "Woody"..........
I had become a member of Gustava’s family!!
At least in his heart! Love did not fail!
I have worked at camp every year since then and I will most likely work at camp until they tell me that I am too old.
Conclusion:
I WAS BY CHANCE, GIVEN A VERY RICH BLESSING
The Truth Is That Seldom Are We Blessed To See Our
Efforts of Love Make A Difference.
But you see that’s the problem. That is where we get confused and sometimes, believe that love fails. We love expecting change. We love expecting the love to bring a result. But that is never the purpose of love,not real love. Real, Sacrificial love, the love this text is describing has no purpose but to make the person to whom it is extended, feel loved. We love for the sake of love and for no other reason.
When we love like that our love willNever fail. Because it’s success does not rely on anything but our desire to give it away. Teachers, I Contend That It Is The Same With Teaching. Not only that love is perhaps the greatest tool of The teacher. But you see, teaching does not always require Tremendous results! If you teach with passion and conviction, simply because you love to share knowledge, Because you are called to teach, For no other reason but to impart knowledge, Your teaching will never fail! And whether or not you ever are blessed to see The results
It won’t matter. If you keep throwing that pie in their face Because you love them and because You love to teach, Some of it, I promise you, will stick.
Of Course There Is Something Else About This Text That
We All Know. And just in case you didn’t know, then allow me to Share some of my passion with you. Because not only does this text talk about love,
But supremely, it is talking, good freinds...
It is talking about Jesus
(Read the text one more time from the beginning
This time substitute the word JESUS for LOVE.
