Preacher: Mike McFadden
And I hope is.
That so that one goes back.
Actually really grateful for that really grateful for that slip Pop I was actually pretty nervous about today and that that kind of lightened the mood for me but it’s also.
Probably more appropriate the words that we saying at least for me it was a small.
That we stand on the solid rock foundation of of crisis price Morning
Glory love you we thank you for bringing us here together this morning thank you for your word and experiences in our lives that draws near to that word just pray for the words you laid on my heart this morning and I say what you want me to say that of my own desires and just be with this rest of today your son’s name Amen
I like to first pose a couple questions ask ask two questions of you and the answer to these questions can be kind of depressing to think about so I’ll first preface it with this world will pretend that I’m asking these questions of just America in general not that way we can pretend we’re not talking about anyone specific in this room or maybe our own selves so the first question that is somewhat depressing to try and answer do you think we have and really think about this do you think we have a bigger entitle Mint problem or a lack of responsibility problem.
A bigger entitle a problem or a lack of responsibility problem and if you work with or you know and you want to deal with customers ages twenty to ninety four how do you need to be
ninety four OK so then you know if you’ve ever dealt with people in that age group that question whether or not we have a bigger entitle me a problem or a lack of responsibility a problem is not subject to just teenagers
right Stood Still much more than that second question is this.
Do you do you think we suffer more from a condition of pride or a vanity.
And tough question and kind of depressing to think about I am humbled I’m nervous exciting I’m sweating a little bit the fact that I’m here in front of you preaching I’ve never been ill I’ve never been asked to or been honored to have two weeks in a row where Josh is gone I get to do that so we’re going to do a two week mini series and we’re going to be discussing you’re focusing on how we have this tendency to pass out blame yet hold on to glory
our kneejerk reaction to pass out blame but yet hold on to glory. Speaking of entitlement responsibility as we’re going to focusing on this week whether our our tendency to pass out blame I found a few quotes for you and they’re not meant to be funny per se but when speaking out against entitlement or quotes against the title meant you really can’t approach it any other way than sarcasm so we’re not meant to necessarily be funny maybe you know some of these people first quote you have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was. That’s Abraham Lincoln an American author he wrote this quote I found I spend my life constantly calling in imaginary debts that aren’t owed to me in order that I can avoid a real debts that I owe to others and thus everyone ends up bankrupt.
Margaret Thatcher who was the only female. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom this is entitlements not necessarily entitlement but she wrote The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money.
And if you cause about responsibility the reason people blame place blame on previous generations. Because there’s really only one other option.
And this one here about responsibility I’ll let you guess to know if if you know who wrote this quote we must reject the idea that every time a laws broken society is guilty rather than the law breaker it’s time we restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions but you know who that was.
Thrown of Reagan from Ray I like that guy when I was old enough to remember his presidency. Sorry everyone else ever
want to tell you a story of something that happened to me and a friend of mine at work some of you know not all of you do I started a new a new career just south of a year ago and I work at Tom’s camper land
yeah what you do I work at Toms camper lane and.
We said we sell R.V.’s travel trailers and truck accessories and it’s great. It’s great I love my new career and I think one of the things I like the most about it is that for the most part everyone is always in a good mood I mean no one needs an R.V. right so my job is quite literally to walk around talking about trailers and camping and possibly hunting and just keeping the dream alive for these folks it’s a really good time and people are people are always in a good mood and that’s why this particular happening stood out to me this happened a couple weeks ago so the setting is the R.V. dealership and I’m walking back from the shop where they work on the trucks back up to the show room and I hear two things that are very unusual the first is that somebody is upset and they’re raising their voice or actually yelling and they’re yelling at my friend Allen which is the second thing that’s actually pretty surprising because you don’t know Alan but I do and he’s kind of like Captain America I mean there is there’s really no reason no one has ever upset at Alan and and he’s he’s kind of a big deal and when I walk around the corner I hear Well now what am I going to do
it’s like Oh man what’s what’s going on why is he why are you so upset and see this man and encountered a very serious problem
problem that’s so rare I thought maybe not even to bring it to you because you might not be able to relate to this man had a screw in his tire.
You know screw his tire I kept walking and he says I walk around my truck every time I stop in a parking lot and I know that that tire did not have a screw in it when you took it back to your shop
every time so I stopped to see if I could lend any assistance and besides if you saw this man you would want to you would want to leave the scene either and Alan offered to the man he said sir I don’t I don’t know if the screws even gone all the way in to the pass a try to the tire but if it hasn’t no big deal we’ve got a tire machine we can fix it no no problem trying to deescalate the situation
now Captain America hasn’t changed a lot of tires in his life right so before I can say anything he reaches down with his key any pops the screw out of the tire and you all know what happened so I would be telling the story if everything was fine.
And he pulls the screw out and just… instantly and so he’s fumbling he’s like when he’s rescreen the the screw back into the tire the back of the tire trying to trying to fix it and he’s like Sir you know what’s seriously it’s it’s no problem let me fix it let me make this right we’ve got a machine back there it’s no problem he says I can drive around with a patch in my front tire that’s illegal.
And his hands raise my.
Wife No no it’s not it’s not even close to illegal. And history says that he kind of steams off back to the back of the truck and now First off the fact that we even have a tire changing machine like a full blown tire changing machine that Logan sense and uses that Discount Tire and and all of the pneumatic tools to properly grind down and repair a radial tire should tell you that we’re not too confident in the odds that this crew did in fact come from our lot OK I’ve been back there sometimes it looks like P.F.C. sneezed in an Ace Hardware.
There’s screws everywhere but I happen to bend down and I looked at the Philips head screw and it was it was almost completely smooth it was worn it looked like you’d been there for a few weeks and for some reason I told Alan that said Alan as he’s backed like by his trailer so I don’t know if the screw even came from us that was a mistake.
And as the man finished his cool down lap he comes to the front of the truck and Alan says Sir I’m not sure if the screw even came from our lot or not but if it did will you know what fix it and he stops and he gets right down next to the tire he stares out of like three seconds
you know. I don’t have any screws like that around my house and I only drive on good roads.
Like so sir why do you then check your truck every time you get around come to a stop and I didn’t say that I would. Know but I thought that why do you check your truck every time then
I think it’s not ridiculous I mean that this man has a path laid out before him
with no sharp things.
And then he is it is made careful attention to categorize and organize all of the screws in his house and around his home that he knows of that income from him
and the nerve of this guy to bend down and analyze this this screw and.
And say.
Lord
I go to church three times a month.
I reply I pray before dinner and even when they don’t ask me to I tell them what you would say on Facebook
how could this happen to me
now what am I going to do
I’m screwed.
Terrible. Moni told me to take that out of her and.
She was right yes she was there.
Like to explore impulsive need to pass out blame and hold on to glory first in the passing out blame this is nothing new I’m going to have you turn to.
Genesis Chapter Two Adam I don’t know where the clicker went you have it OK sweet All right thank you Genesis chapter two first in eighteen we met for like five minutes about the quicker I’m sorry out of
person a team the Lord said it is not good for the man to be alone.
Make him a helper suitable for him
then skip ahead chapter three verse eight the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord and he was walking in the garden in the cool the of the day and they hid from the Lord among the trees of the garden but the Lord called the man Where are you he answered I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid and he said Who told you you were naked Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from and the man said the woman you put me here with she gave me some fruit of the tree and I hate it when the Lord says the woman What is this that you have done the woman said The serpent deceived me and I ate
that now this looks just like my house Charlotte is seven years old my boys are six years old and it’s like OK who did it.
Right there Point other directions Charlotte a little bit smarter than the boys she points at one of the boys the boys point at each other.
So I spank both the boys thanks the other for her help and that’s how.
That’s how I know that she’s a perfect angel.
And Adam’s response is so great she gave me some fruit but he doesn’t stop there he doubles down he says I think it’s a little bit your fault the woman you gave me
she gave for Come to think of it God. You know you were the one that gave me to her
so mankind has been blaming God for our situation and avoiding personal responsibility and feeling like they deserve something that they actually don’t or that they don’t deserve something that they actually do since the dawn of creation
and that doesn’t exactly bode well for me that this message is going to stick today
right.
But the thing is I feel like there’s such a fine line between blaming God and giving him credit and such a small perspective switch that takes us away from the blame of God and yet gives him credit for our situation and his control over it that I think that we could with just a little bit of focus do a lot better at those things.
There’s three things I think we need to be aware of first is God is completely sovereign
he’s completely.
In control of everything there is no one greater turn to first Timothy six fifteen
First him of the six fifteen live it up on the screen
God bless it in only ruler the King of Kings the Lord of Lords who alone is immortal and who lives who lives are in in approachable light who no one has seen or can see to him be on are and might forever in
another passage about God’s sovereignty Isaiah forty five twenty two twenty two and twenty three turn over to Isaiah forty five
twenty two
turn to me and be saved all you ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other by myself I have sworn my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked before me EVERY me will bow by me every tongue will swear they will say of me in the Lord alone our deliverances and strength
and so we read these words are released passages we see that God is the ruler of all rulers the king of all Kings The Lord of all lords he alone is immortal he is so great and brilliantly covered in light that we can’t even see him no man can see him or has ever seen him
it is in him only to be turned and to be saved that one day Every me will bow and he swears by himself some of us when we swear Well you guys don’t swear you shouldn’t swear but other people when they do swear what do they swear by I swear to right.
This is a really cool pastor love this phrase by myself I have sworn to God is so great there is nothing greater than him he says I swear to myself it’s pretty awesome to think about that every knee will bow and that at one point everyone will say the Lord alone in the Lord alone are deliverance and strength
so we recognize these things we read these things and you learn about this god that is so great and so sovereign and in control of all of our situations it’s like what are you going to say to a God like that
what you going to say to a God like that are you going to are you going to blame him for him messing something up in your life what kind of a kind of arrogance is it that we think at times that we have a better plan than God’s plan and his total and complete sovereign plan
so first God is sovereign second tests will come test will come it will be either through natural consequence of free will that God gives to others and that negatively impacts you tests will come just because sometimes that’s just the way it is the way that God ordained Nature think about the air the air is thin enough that we are able to breathe it in and breathe it out and through that we can get oxygen but the air is so thin that it doesn’t hold us up when we fall the about water that is so is dense enough that when we drink it our thirst is quenched
but that water is so dense that when you try and breathe it in you’ll choke or maybe drown the thing about a rock or some foundation that is hard enough that we can trust that it will hold us up but it’s also so hard that we will start toe on it sometimes bad things happen and tests come in our lives just because of the way it is but other times I think Scripture is clear about this is not too popular to talk about but tests come from God Himself and I will have to define what that word means test.
I think about one example in John chapter six in the feeding of the five thousand it look and it’s late in the afternoon and Jesus has all these disciples there in this crowd of a bunch of people five thousand men so it could be ten thousand if they’ve got if they’re all married or maybe fifteen thousand if they’ve got their kids with them and he turns it is his disciple and says I’m going to feed these guys
and that’s in John chapter six verses I think I have it up there John six six he says he asked this of his disciple he asked this only to test him for he already had in mind what he was going to do we’ll come back to that proverbs seventeen three The Crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold and the Lord tests hearts
I know some of you may think I’ve been caught thinking it myself some time God doesn’t test me God doesn’t test people that seems that seems smite full that seems out of God’s character.
And that’s because I think when we’re saying oh I was just testing you to another person it’s it’s to try and trick them it’s to try and find out if the other person is worthy of you know whatever it is you’re talking about is trying to maybe trying to one up them but I think it’s because we’ve confuse the word test with tempt or we’ve confused the word test with. Punishment or we’ve confused the word test with Trick
John six six it doesn’t say he asked this only to trick him for he knew in his mind what he was going to do
the Crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold and the Lord tests hearts what that means friends is that God is not trying to we are not the impurities that God is trying to rid the situation of we are not the impurities the test is that he is trying to remove impurities from our hearts
and so when he when it says The Crucible is for silver the furnace is for gold in the Lord tests hearts and there’s other scripture like it
it’s talking about the refinement that God will either put in front of you or allow you to be put through in order to rid the impurities of your heart.
C.M. gods case unlike standardized tests in America the test is not for the sake of the teacher the test is and for the sake of the student
sorry teachers that was probably too political.
So God is sovereign and test will come and third we are responsible I want you think about this word for a moment responsibility
response ability our ability to handle or control the way we respond in a current situation it’s the measurement of that ability to control or handle James in chapter one you can turn their if you like James Chapter one.
And it’s interesting in a river talking about our own personal responsibility right after James gets done talking about how we ought to be thankful for these tests and whether it be past tense or or current trials and tests that we’re going through he says this in verse thirteen when tempted James one thirteen when tempted no one should say God is tempting me for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and entice.
Another thing mankind has been doing for thousands of years sinning
and blaming their temptations on God trying to test them
but God does not tempt so versed James here thirteen to fifteen is very clear and I love how he words this passage he could have easily say said God does not tempt anyone temptation comes from Satan but he doesn’t he doesn’t even give us the outs to blame Satan he says God does not tempt anyone but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires.
We are responsible we have the ability to respond we had that ability through the power that God gave us through His Holy Spirit in our lives
because we are no longer a slave to the flesh we are responsible so God is sovereign tests will come and we are responsible and we have the ability to do so
so let us show our responsibility our ability to respond in a new way not blaming God but giving him the respect of the one who is in total control not questioning how we got this sharp thing in our lives but thanking him for the power of his refinement in our hearts and finally by not trying to skirt our role in this mess that we sometimes find ourselves in but stop ask for forgiveness and wisdom from our Creator and stop passing out blame
and start giving God credit for he is deserving of such
Let’s pray
Lord thank you for your word again and I’m just I’m grateful for the refinement that it gives us.
We’re grateful for our present circumstance whatever that may be we find joy in your power and peace in your presence and we just ask that you be with us and we find a morsel to apply to our lives as we go our separate ways throughout this week you can continue to pray for the safe travels of Pastor and for all our friends that they were not here this morning help them know that they are loved and missed and we pray all these things in your son’s most holy and precious name in.