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