“FOR” LIFE CHANGING WORDS
Phil. 3:13-14
Story
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to Me.; I cannot be bothered by it." The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers." The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose. "So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. (SermonCentral.com)
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. One of the best things to hold onto in this world is a brother or sister in the Lord..
Paul wrote, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” [1Cor.12:26]
THE “FOR” LIFE CHANGING WORDS
I. FORGIVE (Col. 3:13) “If you want peace of heart”
“Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Did you catch the challenge? God in those words is challenging us to give up your grudges. That is what he means when he says forgive each other whatever grievances you may have against one another.
Grudges destroy marriages
Grudges break up families
Grudges ruin friendship
Grudges split churches
Illustration:
Studies showed that forgiveness is not only good theology, but good medicines as well. According to the latest medical and psychological research, forgiving is good for our souls and our bodies. People who forgive: benefit from immune functioning and lower blood pressures, have better mental health than people who do not forgive. Feel better physically; have lower amounts of anger and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, maintain more satisfying and long-lasting relationship.
Now, the negative things is, if you have unforgiving spirit, you will have these: high blood, unstable mental health, physically weak, always angry, depressed, unsatisfied life and lots of enemies.
I am absolutely certain that there are people here who need to giveup their grudges...
maybe somebody hurt you long time ago, your boss, your love ones, your neighbors...
But God says to you today, give up your grudges to forgive them.
If you want to change your life this year, commit yourself to give up your grudges.
II. FORGET (Phil. 3:13-14) “If you want peace of mind”
"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
This beginning of 2006, if you want changes in your life, commit yourself to forget your failures.
Illustration:
DL Moody told a story of two men who are under the influence of liquor, found their way to the duck where their boat was tied. They wanted to return home. Though they rowed hard all night, they did not reach the other side of the bay. When the gray dawn of the morning broke, they were exactly the same spot they started. They did neglected to loosen the rope and raise the anchor.
Cut the cord that connects you from the past in order to move!
J. Arthur Rank, an English executive, decided to do all his worrying on oneday each week. He chose Wednesday. When anything happen that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put in a box and forget about it until next Wednesday. It is interesting that when he opened the box on the following Wednesday, he found that most of the thing that had disturbed him the past six days were already settled. It would have been useless to have worried about them.
FORGET!
That is why Paul said, "I forget about what lies behind." Paul had a lot that was behind him. Paul had a very bad past.
He persecuted the church. He used his authority to kill Christians. By his own admission he said, "I am chief of sinners." He could have walked around all his life with this tremendous burden of guilt crippling him & he would never have become the great apostle we know & love today.
But Paul said, "…forgetting what is behind…"
So “If you want peace of mind” Forget!!!
III. FORGO (1 Peter 3:8-9) “If you want peace of the body”
“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
Forgo – “Give up fighting, do not repay evil for evil or insult with insult but with blessing.”
“Sometimes the effective way to solve the problem is to remain silent.”
“When you have nothing to say, say nothing” – Charles Colton
IV. FOR GOD (2 Cor. 1:8-11, 1 Pet. 5:7) “If you want peace for life”
Give your problem to God. When it looks like it’s out of your control, you give it to God.”
ILLUSTRATION:
A little boy about 10 years old was long time asking for his parent a shoes but he always fails. One time, he was invited to attend the Sunday school and the teacher teaches them to pray and God will give whatever he asks. So he went into the shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window and pray. A lady approached the boy and said, “My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?” “I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boys reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get 2 pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little guy to the back part of the store and removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?” As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, with tears in her eyes, answered the question with these words: “Are you God’s wife?” (SermonCentral.com)
If you want to solve you life’s problem, give it to God. Trust God and he will help you...
“We were crushed and overwhelmed, and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves. But that was good, for then, we put everything into the hands of God for He can even raise the dead. And He did help us. And we expect Him to do it again and again."
When Moses and the Israelites was trap by the Egyptians he said: “Watch and see the salvation of the Lord!”
Let us trust the Lord! A Song say, “God will make a way when there seems to be no way”
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” Prov. 3:5-6 is my favorite verse.
CONCLUSION
THE “FOR” LIFE-CHANGING WORDS FOR 2006: FORGIVE, FORGET, FORGO, FOR GOD
FORGIVE “If you want peace of heart”
FORGET “If you want peace of mind”
FORGO “If you want peace of the body”
FOR GOD “If you want peace and success for life”
If you will trive to apply these things into your life this year 2006, you will see changes in your life. You will have satisfaction in serving God, you will have friends everywhere, and you will have success in Life.
Rev. Joel B. Santos
Founder/Senior Pastor
Evangelical Christian Church of Manila
Manila, Philippines
Website: http://www.eccmanila.net
Tel. No. 632-3146493
