Running to Win- Be Thankful, Take time to Give Thanks

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 24, 2024

A father and his son were seated at the dining room table, while the mother was finishing the final preparations on the family’s dinner. While the father and son were seated, the father asked the son if he would say the prayer for the meal. The youngster nodded his head, and said that he would pray. The mother placed the last of the meal on the table, and sat down. The boy looked around the table at the food for a moment, and began to pray. He said, “God, I’m not sure what it is. But thanks anyway. And I’ll still eat it.”

C.S. Lewis said:

“We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.” 

Tim Keller writes:

Charles Taylor (a great Catholic philosopher) wrote a book called A Secular Age. It’s a major, major work of scholarship in which he tries to understand and analyze what it means that we’re a secular age, how that happened, what it means to say that.

One of the things that’s most interesting to me about the book is he says to be a secular age doesn’t mean we don’t believe in God at all. To be secular is not just that. He points out that in America, 80 to 90 percent of the people say they believe in God. In Europe, there’s even a majority. Even in France, more than half the people say they believe in God. He says to be secular means, though we may believe in God, we don’t believe in God the way we used to.

Here’s what he suggests. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, what arose was a philosophy called deism. You may have heard of it. Deism was very popular amongst European intellectuals, the cultural elite. What it said is, “Of course, there’s a God who created the world, but (here’s the famous illustration) he created the world the way a clockmaker creates a clock.”

See, if you create a good clock, you build a good clock, then the clockmaker doesn’t have to sit there and turn the hands. If it’s a good clock, it runs on its own. Deists believe, “Oh, we believe in a God,” but they were trying to create more room for human agencies. They say, “Look. We don’t believe in miracles and God being right there in the sense of always revealing himself and us having to obey him. No, no. God creates the world, and then it’s really up to us to use our reason and our moral intuitions to understand it and to make it a good place to live.”

What Charles Taylor says is that means you had a transcendent God who wasn’t imminent. You had a God who created the world, but he is not there. He is not somebody you have to deal with every moment. He created the world for our benefit, and now it’s up to us to do something with it. What’s the difference? Enormous difference!

What’s happened is, though many people believe in God (maybe most people believe in God), in a secular age, they have a thinner view of God. That is there’s a God who is more remote, not someone you have to obey and depend on every moment. As Taylor put it, the traditional view of God is we exist for him. We exist for him to serve him every minute. The modern view of God is God actually exists for our benefit. He created the world for our benefit, and now we have to just use it and do what we can with it.^[1]

Further:

From Keller:

I found it very interesting what Charles Taylor says about the fact that most people are practical deists today. That is they don’t believe they exist for God’s benefit. They actually believe God made the world for our benefit. They don’t believe they have to rely on and obey God every minute. They believe God kind of gave us a life, and he is there. “If I live a pretty good life, my life should go pretty well.”

Christian Smith, a sociologist who has really studied in detail the religious beliefs of younger American adults, says, in particular, younger adults are practical deists, though they would never use the word because most of them haven’t heard the word. Listen. He says this is what the average younger adult believes.

Most do believe there’s a God, that he made this world, and now they do not believe they have to obey him every minute and rely on him every second for every detail of their life. No. But they do believe if they live a generally good life, it’s up to God to give them a good life. Christian Smith calls the normal worldview of younger American adults “moralistic therapeutic deism.”

“There is a God, and he exists basically for my benefit. If I live a pretty decent life (I don’t live a villainous life), I deserve a good life.” Both Charles Taylor and Christian Smith said here’s what’s happened with the thinner view of God. People can’t handle suffering. See, if you believe you exist for God, God is benefiting.^[2]

That also means we won’t be thankful…

We are concluding our sermon series on Running to Win.

My theme is: Being thankful is an important part of running to win.

Let’s read:

Ephesians 1:16 (ESV)

¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers…

Ephesians 5:4–5 (ESV)

⁴ Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

1. Be thankful.
   1. We see exhortations of thankfulness all throughout the Bible.
   2. Many of them are regarding giving thanks for others. We will come back to that in a moment.
   3. We also see giving thanks for food and provision.
   4. We see giving thanks for God’s love.
   5. I encourage you to read and think about Psalm 136. It is all about giving thanks to the Lord.
   6. Can we be thankful?
   7. Can we recognize that every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17)?
   8. I think we will be much happier if so.
2. Is the church worth being thankful for?
   1. In Eph. 1:16, Paul is thankful for their faith.
   2. This is one long sentence in the Greek. Verses 3-14 are a sentence and verses 15-23 are one sentence. If we look at verse 15 it says: For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…
   3. So, Paul is not just giving thanks for them in general, he is giving thanks for their faith and their love for all the people. He is giving thanks for their Christian faith.
   4. I’ll tell you, it is encouraging to serve a church that cares about people.
   5. I have to be thankful in the same way here at Bethel.
   6. I am thankful for your commitment to serve the local community.
   7. There are people that I can call at the drop of a hat, and they are ready to help people in need.
   8. I see this in your commitment to the Great-Give-a-Way, the Beatitude House, the Rescue Mission, The Pregnancy Help Center, and to each other.
   9. You have been on the receiving end and the giving end.
   10. I give thanks for the church family.
   11. Do you give thanks for the church family?
   12. In some countries, the church family is the only family someone has.
   13. When this happens, the church fills the void, being the family.
   14. It was Paul’s practice to give thanks for the church:
   15. Rom.1:8: First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
   16. 1 Cor. 1:4: I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
   17. Phil. 1:3: I thank my God every time I remember you.
   18. Col. 1:3: We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…
   19. 1 Thess. 1:2: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.
   20. 2 Thess. 1:3: We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters,^[a]and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.
   21. Are we thankful for the church?
   22. Are we thankful in general?
   23. I might have shared this before, but I think it is worth sharing again: Fable of the Porcupine
   24. It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and
       protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions. After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their
       companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive. The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person’s good qualities. The moral of the story is: Just learn to live with the pricks in your life!
   25. I know the church has problems. We have a fallen nature, so we have problems. We get stung. I realize that, but in the end, I believe the church is better off with you than without you. I think you are better off with the church than without the church.

Close:

A large family sat around the breakfast table one morning. As the custom, the father returned thanks, blessing God for the food. Immediately after, however, as was his bad habit, he began to grumble about hard times, the poor quality of the food he was forced to eat, the way it was cooked, and much more.
His little daughter interrupted him, “Dad, do you suppose God heard what you said a little while ago when you were giving thanks?”
“Certainly,” the father replied with the confident air of an instructor.
“And did he hear what you said about the bacon and the coffee?”
“Of course,” replied the father with a note of caution in his voice.”
Then his daughter asked, “Dad, which did God believe?”

WHEN ONE IS THREATENED

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 Mouse-Trap. 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 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 am 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 was furious and bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a severe fever.

Everyone knows that you treat a fever with a 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 relatives came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The Farmer’s Wife did not get well and she died. So many people came to the 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. And, Said, “I warned them about the mouse trap but they did not take my warning into account…”

I believe thankfulness changes our perspective. When we are thankful for the church, we realize how important the church is. I ask that you are thankful.

In your bulletin we have a Bethel Friends thank you card. I encourage you this week to write in that card and send it to someone this week. It doesn’t have to be someone from this church, it could be a friend or family member, but send it to someone. Thank someone. You don’t have to thank them for doing something for you; thank them for being a friend. Wouldn’t it be neat if we all received cards this week?

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

God created us to be with him (Gen. 1-2).

Our sin separated us from God (Gen. 3).

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen. 4-Mal. 4).

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again (Matt. – Luke).

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life (John – Jude).

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever (Rev. 22:5).

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[1] http://www.todayintheword.org/titw_devotion.aspx

Running to Win- Be Accountable (Ecc. 4:9-12; Prov. 27:17)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 17, 2024

It is Sunday. This means that we are supposed to be at church, right? We are here to worship, we are here to grow, we are here to see our friends and maybe learn something and then we are done. True?

I don’t think so. We need each other through the week.

Have you ever been lonely?

I remember being in elementary school, and at that time, I had school friends and then friends at home. I did not want to cross-connect those groups. If I knew you from school and saw you outside of school, I think it was a reminder of school. As I got older, I got over that. But during that time, I was also very lonely at school. I was an extreme introvert, and that plagued me up until high school. In addition to that, when I was in kindergarten, they started taking me out of class and making me take special tests. Eventually, the specialist teacher, not my kindergarten teacher, walked me back down the hall to my kindergarten class. She sat me on the bench and said, “You may wonder why we are doing these things.” I said, “Yes.” She then explained that some people need special education or something like that in kindergarten terms.

From first grade through halfway through third grade, I would leave my normal class at specific points to join this learning disability class. That is what they called it, though to this day, I don’t really know what my actual disability was. I remember being told, “You will always have a learning disability; it will always be more difficult for you to learn things.” Well, I hated it. At least through first grade and part of second grade, I felt different. I was already a shy and introverted kid and had difficulty making friends, but it didn’t help that I was in and out of my homeroom class.

The learning disability teacher would give me a picture of a clock and say, “At this time, get up and walk out of the room and come to my class.” For a second grader, it felt like everyone looked at me when I left and came back in. I remember entering my normal class, and they had books out and were in the middle of something, and I was wondering what they were doing. I always felt behind the rest of the class, even though I was being helped. I remember that we had three recess sessions in second grade: morning, after lunch, and then afternoon. At the beginning of the school year, I went out to recess with my class. Then, my learning disability teacher came out and yelled at me as we walked into the school, telling me that I was not supposed to go to recess because I was supposed to join her class during that time. She said I was told that. Therefore, I did not have morning recess for the rest of that year. I know they meant well, and I know I was helped, but it was hard emotionally.

By third grade, I excelled; halfway through the year, I could exit the learning disability class for good. I had to go to a tutor, but I was relieved. Sometimes that catches up with me. I am still a very slow reader, though I think I learn things better now than ever, maybe because of that class.

They always reminded me how grateful I should be that I had a school with a special class like that. I remember being in an inductive Bible study class in seminary, and something hit me. It was as if the devil told me, “What are you doing? Who do you think you are looking at these Greek words? Remember those days in the learning disability class? You can’t learn this stuff.”

I don’t write all that to make you feel sympathy for me. My point is that I was lonely. I hated school. I couldn’t make friends, and that experience made my introverted self have a more difficult time making friends. I needed friends. I needed a friend my age or more friends my age at school. I needed support. Now, they came eventually, and I got through. I am here. But it was rather difficult. I remember thinking about what it would be like to be a normal kid as if there was such a thing. We need each other. We all need each other. We are not meant to be alone.

I heard someone say:

“A friend is someone who walks in when everyone is walking out.”

We are in this sermon series titled, Running to Win.

This is about breaking generational traps, finishing well, and running forward through struggles. We move forward through things that we deal with. I have said that we must be humble, approachable, and teachable. This means we need community. We need accountability.

Today, let’s talk about the church:

My theme: Running to win-accountability.

The Application: Stay connected and support each other emotionally, spiritually, and with real-felt needs.

Let’s read Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 (ESV)

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ¹¹ Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? ¹² And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

1. We must let people into our lives.
   1. I do not doubt that many of you are connected with others. But I wonder, are you REALLY connected?
   2. Do you let other people into your life? Do I let others into my life?
   3. A problem with social media is that we only allow people to see what we want them to see. Many times, I can only show the face that I want to.
   4. There are significant problems with depression because of Facebook and social media. Truly, we get online, and we see how happy these other families look; we see the vacation spots they are going to, but we don’t see their struggles.
   5. Of course, we don’t let others into our lives because of this. We are ashamed.
   6. Don’t compare everything you know about yourself with everything you don’t know about someone else.
   7. We are stronger together.
   8. We must be willing to be humble and let others in our lives.
   9. We must get rid of pride and let others in.
   10. We must get rid of envy and let others in.
   11. We must understand that they are often dealing with things we are as well.
   12. Sharing what you are going through with others will feel so good.
   13. We must let people in three ways: emotionally, spiritually, and with real felt needs.
   14. Emotionally, this isn’t always easy. It isn’t easy for me. It is hard to share emotions; they are so personal. But we aren’t meant to live alone. We need support.
   15. Spiritually: this is difficult because we have privatized religion. But we cannot be helped if we do not share with others. Listen, we can’t live the Christian life alone. We cannot discern God’s will on our own.
   16. Proverbs 27:17 (ESV) Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
   17. We must check ourselves and see why we will not share our spiritual state with others.
   18. We must check for pride. Maybe we will feel less than someone else.
   19. Often the spiritual and the emotional go together.
   20. Meet with another believer and pray about your struggles and also your desires.
   21. Are you waiting on a spouse? Pray about that with a close friend.
   22. Are you struggling with your job? Pray about that with a close friend.
   23. Are you struggling with weight and diet? Pray about that with a close friend.
   24. Are you lonely? Pray about that with a close friend.
   25. Do you have a son, daughter, or grandchild dealing with drug abuse or maybe an abusive relationship? Pray about that with a close friend.
   26. In praying with another believer, you support yourself emotionally and spiritually. You are also helping the situation.
   27. We become like rope, weaved together and strengthened.
2. Physical felt needs: This is the easiest to get help with. It is not humbling, or nearly as humbling, asking for help with a move as it is asking for emotional help.

Swindoll writes:

A certain fascinating social phenomenon occurred in American history. Understand, I wasn’t living back then, but from what I read, this actually happened. It occurred when “Go west, young man!” was the challenge of America . . . when squatter’s rights seemed the most advantageous way to pry families loose and dare them to brave the elements via the covered wagon.

Out they came, exchanging the crowded, soot-choked industrial cities back East for the open plains, clear skies, and fertile, albeit rugged, farmland of the West.

Predictably, those early settlers built their cabins or sod huts smack dab in the middle of their homestead, acres (often miles) from the nearest family. Strong, sturdy fences marked property lines as pride of ownership became the badge of courage. Words like independence and private property were common table talk as the young were taught how to fight for survival.

But as time passed all that began to change. As it was put to the test, isolationism proved to be a far cry from ideal. When photographers returned from those lonely houses, they showed pictures of wild-eyed women, stooped, gaunt, prematurely old men, and haunted-looking children. Life was hard making it on their own, especially through bitter winters and fighting off disease and starvation.

More and more settlers learned that they had a better chance of making it if they would build their houses near each other, in the corner of their property rather than in the center. Four families could survive much easier if they loosened their grip on independence, built a gate in their fence, and relinquished their overstated emphasis on privacy. Enduring winter’s blast or a lengthy illness wasn’t nearly so frightful if you had three other families within walking distance. It proved to be much more fun coming together instead of living lonely, separate, touch-me-not lives of isolation.

From all this emerged a proverb:

“Shared joy is a double joy, shared sorrow is half a sorrow.”

Seasons of the year became more colorful, more hopeful. Farming, harvesting, canning, and slaughtering became group projects. Weddings and worship, gains and losses, births and deaths became shared experiences as mere existence was exchanged for real living . . . entering into each other’s joys as well as sorrows, neighbors becoming friends (then relatives!) . . . sharers in the many-faceted jewel called “living.”

Those old settlers learned what we seem to have forgotten today: pulling closer together is better than existing so far apart. Sharing is still to be preferred to staying aloof. The risks and periodic hassles notwithstanding, four in a corner are better than one in the middle.

A lot of us Western folk come from pioneering stock. The myth of “rugged individualism” dies a hard and bitter death. Our credo says:

“I can handle it.”
“I’ll tough it out somehow.”
“I don’t need to lean on anyone.”
“I’ll just hole up and lick my wounds; no one really cares anyway.”

That may be good Western mythology, but it’s rotten biblical theology. Chase the phrase “one another” through the last half of your New Testament and you’ll see what I mean. We really do need each other. More profoundly, more desperately than we even begin to realize. As a matter of fact, we were given to one another by the Lord of the Body—because each one of us has a unique something to contribute—a piece of the divine puzzle no one else on earth can supply (see Ephesians 4).

Where is your sod hut? Out in the middle of some lonely, windswept acres? How long has it been since you’ve had some significant, openhearted, fences-down interaction with folks in a local Body? Too long? Maybe it’s time you moved your hut to the corner of your field. Maybe it’s time you installed a gate in that high, forbidding fence. It could make a big difference in your life.

For some of you, it may even mean survival.[1]

• We must be willing to be involved in the lives of others.
  • I must be willing to sacrifice for others.
  • This goes both ways. We must be willing to listen to others and to pray with others.
  • We must be willing to be close friends.
  • Also, if someone shares their heart with you. Share something back. Share a struggle you have.
  • We grow as Christians together, and we grow stronger together. When we add tension to the rope, we weave that rope together as a Christian family.
  • I was once told that a rope machine takes more than one person to make the rope.
  • It also takes a church sharing together through the week to really be the church and really help us grow. 

Close:

The high school youth group and NJROTC changed me.

You know, I had trouble making friends through Jr. High. I was heavily bullied in Jr. High, and I fought back, which made it worse. The kids were cruel. We were the class of 2000, so many people made a big deal of that. My aunt taught our class and said she never had a class like we were. She meant we were the worst. Maybe it was all the entitlement. But high school came, and in ninth grade, I was invited to a youth group. I also made good friends at the youth group and saw them at school. Now, I had friends at school with similar interests to me. Now, at school I could talk about the Bible and Christian things with friends I knew through youth group. It was great. These new friends introduced me to other friends. I joined Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp (NJROTC). That is a high school military training group. I made more friends that way, and I came out of my shell. I also had a few part-time jobs, which helped me get out of my introverted shell. Things changed. School was not as bad. I still have friends I met in high school youth group with whom I still keep in touch. One of them is my wife, and she became my permanent roommate.

We need each other.

We need each other emotionally, spiritually, and with physical felt needs.

I encourage you to go deeper with our church family. Join a Sunday School class. Meet with one of our brothers or sisters for prayer. Meet often. Don’t just meet every other month.

We are the church through the week. God speaks through His Church. You won’t discern His will alone.

Do you know Christ?

Luke 9:23

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

[1] https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/hope-for-survival2

Running to Win- Be Teachable (Heb. 5:11-14; Prov. 12:1; 2 Tim. 2:23-26)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 10, 2024

Webster defines it: “The introduction of something new . . . a new idea, method, or device.” When we innovate, we change, we flex. We approach the standard operating procedure, not like a soft-footed Native American scout sneaking up on a deer by the brook, but rather like Wild Bill Hickok in a saloon with both guns blazing.

It takes guts to innovate, because it requires creative thinking. Thinking is hard enough, but creative thinking—ah, that’s work! To get the juices squirting, you have to be dissatisfied with the status quo.

Take photography, for example. For years, the same old procedure . . . which required long periods of delay. Nobody even thought about hurrying up the process. Not until a guy named Edwin Land formed a company with a funny name—Polaroid.

Sometimes innovation is forced on us. Take December 7, 1941. We got caught with our military pants down. Before American planes could get airborne, or even out of the hangar, most of them were destroyed. We were forced to ask the obvious: “How can we get the planes out of the hangars fast?”

A fellow by the name of Mitchell solved the problem in a most innovative way. He simply turned the question upside down and asked the unobvious: “How can we get the hangar away from the planes—fast?” The result (after the inevitable laughter and rejection) was a two-piece hangar. Each section was mounted on wheels with sufficient power to separate the two at thirty-five miles an hour . . . which enabled the fighter planes to take off in several different directions. Fast.

Now, you’re thinking: Land and Mitchell are geniuses. And you are ready to toss in Newton and Bell and Edison and Ford and the Wright brothers. And you’re also telling yourself that there aren’t many of those gifted people spread around. Granted, those men might very well qualify as geniuses . . . but if you ask them, they’ll tell you another story. J. C. Penney once observed, “Geniuses themselves don’t talk about the gift of genius; they just talk about hard work and long hours.” It’s the old one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration answer.

Let’s have four “greats” take the stand and testify. These are their actual words:

Michelangelo: “If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery; it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all.”

Thomas Carlyle: “Genius is the capacity for taking infinite pains.”

Ignancy Jan Paderewski: “A genius? Perhaps, but before I was a genius I was a drudge.”

Alexander Hamilton: “All the genius I may have is merely the fruit of labor and thought.”

Are innovative people really that rare? Not if you listen to Sheldon David, TRW’s former vice president:

The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

You know what that says to me? It says there are a whole lot more innovative people (who currently see themselves only as “drudges”) than any of us can imagine. In fact, you may very well be one of them![1]

 That may make you think that I am going to talk about learning, studying, and reading, but that is not my main point. Today, mainly, I want to talk about having an attitude of being teachable. All learners must be teachable. All of those who are teachable may not be readers, but to truly gain understanding one must be teachable. However, being teachable applies to so much more than reading.

I am in a sermon series on the idea of running to win. This is the idea of recognizing, running through, and, if possible, defeating the things we deal with. This could be depression, anxiety, anger, or something else. They can be actual sins, or they could be organic issues that may or may not lead to sin. I have emphasized that they may be thorns in the side for life, but that does not mean you won’t make steps forward. A big part of growth is being teachable.

Today, my theme is:

Being teachable will help us run to win.

1. Don’t settle for baby food.

Hebrews 5:11–14 (ESV)

¹¹ About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, ¹³ for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

1. Let’s put this passage in context:
2. Starting in Heb. 4:14, the writer transitioned to write about the High Priest. Prior to 4:14 the writer was warning the Hebrew people not to fall away. The writer gave the example of the Hebrew people in Numbers 14. This was the situation when Moses sent spies to see the land of Canaan. All but two spies, Joshua and Caleb, were scared of the people in the land. Because of their lack of faith, God punished Israel by making them wander in the wilderness for 40 years. The writer was writing about Jesus as the great High Priest from 4:14 until now.
3. In Hebrews 5:6, the writer says that Jesus is the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. The writer spends the next few verses (until 5:10) talking about Melchizedek.
4. Melchizedek is found in Genesis 14. He was a priest-king. He was the king of Salem. Abram gave Melchizedek a tithe, being 10 percent of his spoils from the battle he had with the kings of the east who had taken his nephew Lot. Melchizedek was a priest who was not of the priestly line, which would be the line of descent from Aaron or the Levites. Jesus is the great High Priest even though He is not from the line of Aaron or the Levites.
5. Abram submitted to Melchizedek, and since Abram was before Moses and Aaron, it should follow that Melchizedek is someone important.
6. But in this passage the writer says that he would like to give them more, but he can’t because they are stuck as babies.
7. We want, we desire, and we expect that children grow up and get stronger.
8. Sometimes we stay as babies.
9. What do babies have to do? They have to learn.
10. Now, in this passage, the writer talks about learning spiritual matters as well as growing spiritually.
11. What I am talking about is having an attitude that is willing to learn.
12. When Mercedes was born, we had to feed her all the time. Seriously, we had to feed her. But now, we do not need to do that. We had to do many things for her, but now she can do things for us. She is thirteen years old and she is now teaching me how to work my phone.
13. Last summer, I was picking up a device that had to connect to our television. I got home and was connecting it and Mercedes jumped in. A minute later she was doing it. There was an extra connection, she said, “I’ll take care of it.”
14. She had to learn to eat, walk, talk, read, write, and so much more and that all took a teachable attitude.
15. In like manner, we as Christians must grow. We must learn to feed ourselves. We must learn how to eat solid food. Sometimes, this is difficult. Sometimes we choke on the solid food. Sometimes we don’t like it, but we must take it in. We may not like vegetables, but that does not mean we do not need them. You need them. I need them. We may only like the sugary items, but you cannot only have sugars. You need meats. We need protein. In the Christian life, sugar is the feel-good message that may not take a lot of thinking or struggle. But the meat contains the deep messages and content we may struggle with. The deep things of the Christian life may not be just content. The deep things of the Christian life may be, “Where is God when life hurts?” You don’t get into the depth if you don’t learn to feed yourself.
16. That take a teachable attitude.
17. Sometimes, we get stuck on certain things because we are not teachable.
18. That is what we have been talking about, right? We have been talking about growing and getting help so that we do not repeat the same things of our past or the past of our family members. We have been talking about ways to get help with depression, anxiety, over-eating, being too passive, being critical, and many other things.
19. A key way to move forward is being teachable.
20. True story: a church got a new piano, but people would not allow them to get rid of the old piano. It was donated by someone or something like that. So, it was no good, but the church could not move it out of the sanctuary without upsetting people. They didn’t use it, but it had to stay in the sanctuary. Well, they moved that piano a few inches back every week. They had a large side aisle, and they just gradually moved that piano back until it was gone, and no one noticed. No one noticed because it gradually moved back.
21. They were stuck and so the leadership had to get creative.
22. We must be teachable.
23. This takes being humble.
24. In the passage, we just looked at an application would mean we also read, study, and participate in other means to grow. That is very important, but today, I am exhorting you to be teachable.
25. Have an attitude of humility so that we can receive truth.

1. Don’t be willfully ignorant, but be a learner.
   1. So, the negative is not to be willfully ignorant. Don’t willingly be shallow. The positive is to have the posture of a learner.
   2. Proverbs 12:1 (ESV)
   3. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
   4. but he who hates reproof is stupid.
   5. We must love discipline and knowledge.
   6. We learn through discipline.
   7. We need to be able to accept reproof. That means correction.
   8. This may first have to do with moral correction.
   9. How do we respond when we are corrected?
   10. Do we get prideful and defensive?
   11. Do we put our guard up?
   12. Or, do we accept it?
   13. Do we at least think about it?
   14. Sometimes we are stuck, and we cannot accept the truth.
   15. When we hear opposing views, we must be humble. An opposing view is saying, “They are right and you are wrong.”
   16. We must be teachable.
   17. To be teachable we must be humble.

• Don’t be contentious, but be receptive.
  1. The negative is not to be argumentative or contentious. The positive is to receive the viewpoints of others well.
  2. 2 Timothy 2:23–26 (ESV)
  3. ²³ Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. ²⁴ And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵ correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶ and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
  4. There is a lot there.
  5. We are not to be caught up in all the conspiracy theories and controversies.
  6. Be kind.
  7. Be able to teach (that means we must learn).
  8. Correct with… what? Gentleness.
  9. There is more there, but I will stop at that.
  10. Some can be so stuck on issues that they are not receptive.
  11. We must be teachable.
  12. This does not mean we surrender our views, no, but it means we listen well.
  13. James 1:19: be swift to hear, slow to speak…

1. How?
   1. We must be humble.
   2. I have repeatedly said this.
   3. We must transform our schedule so that we have more quiet time.
   4. Some of us are so busy that we do not have time to think.
   5. We are so busy.
   6. We need time to reflect.
   7. We need time to listen to the Lord.
   8. We need to be active in the daily offices that I spoke about a few weeks ago. We need to spend time journaling.
   9. We must spend time in prayer.
   10. We must have people holding us accountable whom we can ask, “Am I teachable?”
   11. We must be teachable to receive that instruction.

We may always deal with certain physiological things or other negative things from our past, but we can grow. We need to grow.

I encourage you to find people that you can talk with about these deep details of the Christian life and run to win.

Prayer.

[1] Excerpt taken from Come before Winter and Share My Hope by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1985, 1988, 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/innovation-part-one1

Running to Win- Difficult Times (James 1:2-4)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, November 3, 2024

I have a quote: guess the date:

We spend our strength in arguing, bickering, contending, quarrelling, and opposing one another rather than magnifying, blessing, and praising the name of God. We are a divided people… Peace and unity have flown from us, and a spirit of contention and division has come upon us. The church is divided. The state is divided. The city is divided. The country is divided. Families are divided. Godly people are divided. Ministers almost everywhere are divided. Yes, and what heart is there at this time that is not divided within itself?

(Jeremiah Burroughs, Puritan Preacher 1646)

During the time of Jeremiah Burroughs there were Christian issues at stake.

I want to remind you of two things:

• God is sovereign:
  1. Piper writes:
  2. On the one hand, hearing the voice of God is like a frightened child who hears the voice downstairs, and realizes that daddy’s home. Whatever those other sounds were, it’s okay. Daddy’s home.
  3. On the other hand, it feels like the seasoned troops, dug in at the front line of battle, and about to be overrun by the enemy. But then they get word that a thousand impenetrable tanks are rushing to their aid. They are only one mile away. You will be saved, and the enemy will not stand.
  4. Vague generalizations about the power of God do not have the same effect as the very voice of God telling us specifically how strong he is, how pervasive his power, how universal his authority is, how unlimited his sovereignty is. And that our times are in his hands.[1]
  5. John 19:11 (ESV)
  6. ¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
  7. Isaiah 46:9–10 (ESV) ⁹ remember the former things of old;

                        for I am God, and there is no other;  I am God, and there is none like me,

            ¹⁰          declaring the end from the beginning

and from ancient times things not yet done,

                        saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

and I will accomplish all my purpose’

1. Proverbs 21:1 (ESV)

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord;

he turns it wherever he will.

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/plunge-your-mind-into-the-ocean-of-gods-sovereignty

When I was a child, my younger brother received a video of the Velveteen Rabbit. Regarding the book, Timothy Keller shares:

Tim Keller shares the following:

Remember The Velveteen Rabbit? “ ‘Real isn’t how you’re made,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘It’s a thing that happens to you.’ ” (These are the toys talking.) “ ‘When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’ ‘Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit. ‘Sometimes,’ said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. ‘When you’re Real, you don’t mind being hurt.’ ‘Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,’ he asked, ‘or bit by bit?’

‘It doesn’t happen all at once,’ said the Skin Horse. ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.’ ”^[1]

That is a good introduction to today’s subject.

We are in a sermon series on the idea of running to win. This is the idea of recognizing, running through, and, if possible, defeating the things we deal with. This could be depression, anxiety, anger, or something else. They can be actual sins, or they could be organic issues that may or may not lead to sin.

Today, we are going to talk about difficult times.

In a minute, I want you to turn to James 1. We will talk today about James 1:2-4. These verses are explicitly written about trials and persecutions.

Theme: James challenges his audience that perseverance in trials will build them up in maturity and holiness and give them a reward in Heaven.

Now let’s read James 1:2-4:

James 1:2–4 (ESV)

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

We will return to those verses in a moment.

1. First, let’s talk about realistic expectations:
   1. We will face difficult times because we live in a fallen world.
   2. Ever since sin entered the world, the world has been fallen (see Genesis 3). We must understand this.
   3. Numerous passages in the Bible talk about having troubles. See also John 16:33.
   4. Reason alone tells us we will have difficult times.
   5. Studies show that we do not grow and develop without difficult times.
   6. This passage in James tells us that.
   7. We must constantly remind ourselves that we will have trials and tribulations.
   8. We must remind ourselves that they make us stronger.
   9. We must remind ourselves that our heavenly Father is in control.
   10. He knows what to permit and what to withhold.

Swindoll:

You’ve heard them. Those all-too-familiar cries of exasperation. Maybe a couple have crossed your mind today sometime between the too-early clang of the alarm and the too-late racket of the neighbors next door.

Going from bad to worse.
Jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Between a rock and a hard place.
He said, “Cheer up, things could get worse.” So I cheered up—and sure enough, things got worse!
My mother told me there would be days like these, but she never said they would run in packs.

Tough days. We all have them. Some are worse than others. Like the one the hard-hat employee reported when he tried to be helpful. Maybe you heard about it too; the account actually appeared on a company accident form. Bruised and bandaged, the workman related this experience:

When I got to the building I found that the hurricane had knocked off some bricks around the top. So I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up a couple barrels full of bricks. When I had fixed the damaged area, there were a lot of bricks left over. Then I went to the bottom and began releasing the line. Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was much heavier than I was—and before I knew what was happening the barrel started coming down, jerking me up.

I decided to hang on since I was too far off the ground by then to jump, and halfway up I met the barrel of bricks coming down fast. I received a hard blow on my shoulder. I then continued to the top, banging my head against the beam and getting my fingers pinched and jammed in the pulley. When the barrel hit the ground hard, it burst its bottom, allowing the bricks to spill out.

I was now heavier than the barrel. So I started down again at high speed. Halfway down I met the barrel coming up fast and received severe injuries to my shins. When I hit the ground, I landed on the pile of spilled bricks, getting several painful cuts and deep bruises. At this point I must have lost my presence of mind, because I let go of my grip on the line. The barrel came down fast—giving me another blow on my head and putting me in the hospital.

I respectfully request sick leave.

Yeah! I would imagine! Some days you honestly wonder why you ever crawled out from under the covers that morning . . . and later, if you will ever make it back to bed that night. Most of us have little difficulty fielding a couple or three problems during the day, but when they start coming down like hail, with no relief, rhyme, or reason, we get jumpy. More often than not we also get grumpy. Invariably there are those who love us and really want to help. But try all they like, tough days are usually solo flights.[2]

• In verses 2-4, James writes about persistence through trials.
  1. James says that you should consider it pure joy when you encounter various trials and temptations. This doesn’t make sense.
  2. Have you ever considered it joy at the time when you were going through a trial or temptation? Really, have you?
  3. Okay, think of it another way: have you ever considered it a good thing after you have gone through a trial or temptation?
  4. I bet that we all have. I bet we have all been thankful for what we learned through a trial or temptation. I know I have.
  5. Now, what type of joy is he writing about? This is not meaning mere worldly, temporal happiness, but rather spiritual, enduring, “complete joy” in the Lord who is sovereign over all things, including trials.
  6. Notice this says, “pure joy.” This is not partial joy; this is a complete joy.
  7. Now, what type of trials is he writing about?
  8. Well the text says trials of many kinds. One of my sources says that he is talking about the trials of the rich oppressing the poor. That is possibly quite likely as the rest of James has several passages dealing with the rich oppressing the poor.
  9. However, I don’t want to limit this passage to the trials of rich oppressing poor. The rich certainly did oppress the poor in this area. However, this area certainly did face persecution.
  10. The text says “many kinds of trials.”
  11. So, we also must consider it joy when we face persecution.
  12. Why?
  13. Why would we consider physical persecution pure joy?
  14. Why would we consider verbal persecution or other types of persecution as joy?
  15. Why would we consider the persecution of the rich oppressing the poor as joy?
  16. Why would we consider life’s struggles as joy?
  17. The next two verses clue us in.
  18. When our faith is tested, it develops perseverance. This perseverance carries the idea of patience or steadfast hope, expectantly waiting on Christ. But this is not all. The text continues.
  19. Verse 4 says this perseverance finishes its’ work by making you mature and complete.
  20. This completeness has the idea of holiness.
  21. Through our trials; whether verbal persecution or physical persecution, whether oppression, or other trials of health or finances; God is building us up in holiness.
  22. Don’t let them get you down.
• What do you do?
  1. Remain humble. Be humble—last week, I was trying to write something and thinking out loud. Mercedes and Abigail were in the room. I said, “How do you spell, and I said the word.” Abigail said, “I can’t believe you can’t spell that.” Mercedes said, “Abigail, remember when dad was in school, he did not get good grades like we do.”
  2. Remain approachable.
  3. Remain teachable.
  4. Be committed to your church family.
  5. Be committed to spiritual activities—journaling, prayer, fasting, worship, Bible study.
  6. Observe regular times of quiet and meditation on God’s Word.
  7. Notice the simple things in life.
  8. Notice God moments.
  9. Talk with a Christian counselor. Or, I would love to talk with and pray with you.
  10. Talk with close Christian friends and go beyond the surface.

Look, we all will continue to face trials and troubles in life. Some have trials that relate to health. Some have trials that relate to finances. Some have trials that relate to children. Some have trials that relate to verbal, physical or other forms of persecution for their faith. God never promised that these will go away but that He will support and guide us and make us stronger for going through them. Someone once said: “Are you praying for lighter burdens or a stronger back?”

We are all in process. God is crafting us.

This is awfully exotic, but one of my favorite places in all of literature is a book that’s very hard to read. It’s Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. It’s not The Lord of the Rings. In The Silmarillion, he tells you about a man named Hurin. Hurin has a good friend, Turgon. If Turgon is going to escape with his people to the hidden city, Hurin has to stand in the gap against this incredible onslaught of the enemy, and he says to Turgon, “You go. I will hyperstand. I will stay put.”

So he stands there, and everybody else gets away, and of course he just keeps fighting against the enemy. They keep coming and coming. He keeps hewing with his axe, saying, “Day will come again.” Finally they just overwhelm him. Why was he hyperstanding? He was saying, “My love for the people I’m seeking to save will endure anything. It will take anything. They can come. They can destroy my body, but I will never let go of them.”

The reason Jesus Christ stood and took hell itself, the wrath of God, was that he loved us. God poured out all of his wrath on Jesus, and Jesus didn’t let go. He stood; he hyperstood. Steadfast love. Now Jesus comes to you and says, “Look what I endured for you. Now my perseverance is the jewel of your life. You look at how I loved you no matter what, and that’s the reason you know today there’s no condemnation for you.”

Do you know how you know that Jesus loves you and will always love you? Because you know that he hyperstood against all of hell. God dropped an atom bomb on Jesus, and now you know there’s nothing you can do to get rid of him. If Jesus’ love was so great that it endured that for you, do you think that your little sins are going to scare him away or wear him out?

Jesus says, “Through my suffering, I persevered. Through my suffering, I stayed with you. Now my perseverance is the joy of your life. Now I want you to suffer for me. You’re not married, and you want to be. You’re not promoted, and you want to be. You don’t have friends, and you want to have them. You’re sick. You’re facing death. Hyperstand. Stand your ground for me.”

Don’t just say, “I can persevere because it’ll make me a better person.” Say, “I can persevere because Jesus Christ persevered for me. Jesus stood there for me. He took it all for me.” And if you consider that, you will stay put, and you’ll become a very, very, very great heart. Teresa of Avila put it this way: “From heaven the most miserable earthly life will look like one bad night in an inconvenient hotel!”

Ivan Karamazov says it this way: “I believe … that suffering will be healed and made up for … that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened …”

What he’s saying is, “Hold on, and eventually we’ll see the enormity of what he did and the bliss that comes into our lives because we have held on for him just as he held on for us. It will make amends for all.”^[3]

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[2] Excerpt taken from Come before Winter and Share My Hope by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1985, 1988, 1994 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/tough-days-part-one1

^[3] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).