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INTRODUCTION
When I drive a car sometimes I like to look at the scenery as we?re driving down the road. Now that?s okay if you are the kind of driver who can look left and drive straight. I?m not. So my wife has “carefully” and “peacefully” reminded me and “trained me” to keep my eyes on the road! Sometimes I forget. One day I nearly had a head on collision that fearfully reminded me to not look around when I?m driving!
So aimlessly looking around and not paying attention to the road is something that I?ve learned should not be done. Yet any good driver knows that sometimes a driver has to look in the mirrors or look left and right and forward at an intersection ? but that?s not looking around ? that?s looking carefully with purpose! There?s a difference between observing a car coming towards you in the opposite lane and trying to make out what the passenger of that car is reading by looking at the cover of the book!
I?ve used this example to illustrate the point this morning that like driving cars, aimlessly “looking around” in our lives is dangerous spiritually. But as with cars there is a difference between looking around and paying attention or looking carefully with purpose. Tonight there are a few warnings I?d like to share with you from God?s word about the dangers of looking around while traveling on the road called life?
When I look around and compare my strength to your weakness pride can side track me.
Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
In verse 10, we see that the Pharisee is comparing himself to others. In verse 14, Jesus tells us that his sin is pride.
We can always find somebody to compare ourselves to make ourselves look good!
a. I may be fat but I am not as fat as ?
b. I may not come to church as I should but I come more than?
c. I may be lazy but I am not as lazy as?
d. I may not have a good singing voice but I can sing better than?
we need to pay attention and remember that no matter what our strengths are ? we?re still weak before God!
1 Corinthians 1:25 (NIV)
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
I believe true humility is understanding that without God you can do nothing and you are nobody. Pay attention!
When I look around and compare my weakness to your strength envy can side track me.
1 Corinthians 12:15-16 (NIV)
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
A. Paul used the example of the human body to show how we sometimes envy one another.
B. The foot is not as glamorous as the hand. And so, it is easy to envy the hand.
C. Envy is seeing something that someone else has and liking it, wanting it for yourself and eventually carries you to the place where you don?t want them to have it. “It” can be anything ? a possession, a characteristic, a talent, an ability. As I often say, envy is saying, “I like what you have, I don?t like the fact you have it, and I want it!”.
Someone who is not talented musically can easily envy someone who is.
?pay attention because every person has a part to serve in the body of Christ and God wants you to do what he called you to do!
Don?t focus on what you can?t do but rejoice in what you can do and do it to the glory of God!
1 Corinthians 12:18-26 (NIV)
18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Friends, instead of looking at other?s strengths and envying them we should observe others strengths and rejoice in them. We must pay attention to the truth that God hasn?t created us to be clones of one another nor does he want us all to strive for sameness. Instead, his desire is that we strive for unity as we work together in our diverse abilities, talents, and personalities in building His kingdom! In His kingdom, there are no superstars for we all have an important and critical role in the function of His body. But if your aimlessly looking around at what others are doing you won?t be doing what you were created to do?
3. When I look around and measure what I am doing compared to what you are doing my competitiveness will side track me.
Philippians 1:15 (NIV)
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
There are some people that make everything a competition. What is terrible is when you work with someone like that. They keep track of everything they do and they keep track of everything you do.
To be honest, pastors and churches fall into this trap. We start comparing ourselves to the church down the street.
? pay attention because the Christian life is a journey that we travel together and not a competition in which we are competing against one another!
Listen to what Paul wrote as we continue to read from the passage in Philippians:
Philippians 1:15-18 (NIV)
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,
* Now please don?t misunderstand me. I?m not saying all competition is bad ? but unbridled competition can lead to all sorts of foolish behavior and needless worry. When competition leaves the sports realm and enters our daily life it brings restlessness, anxiety and boastfulness. The thing is, this competitive spirit is so insidious in our lives that a lot of times we don?t even see it. How many families have gone bankrupt because they have to keep up with the Jones?s standard of living (and in the process spending way beyond their means)? How many people have committed suicide because they just can?t “win” at life? How many churches have fallen apart because instead of working together to reach the lost with a common vision and purpose ? the different ministries in the church compete for finances, workers, and recognition?
When I look around at my life and cannot see past the failures, guilt will side track my faith.
There are some people who are spiritually paralyzed today because of their past.
They think that because of their past God cannot use them or because of their past they are not good enough to inherit eternal life.
Certainly if there?s anyone who could have felt this way it would be Paul? yet,
?pay attention to your present and hope for the future because God can use you!
Paul puts it best:
Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
A quick look through scriptures reveals that God is willing to use those with questionable history and mess-ups in their lives who are willing to let go of their past and give their future to God.
He took a liar, schemer, and coward named Jacob, gave him the new name of Israel and made Him the father of the twelve tribes of God?s chosen people.
He took a man who experienced abuse at the hands of his brothers, who was sold into slavery, falsely accused, slandered, and thrown into prison ? and made him into a great ruler in Egypt ? second only in power to the Pharaoh. You know his name? Joseph. He took Moses, a murderer and exile and made him into the one who would lead nearly one million people miraculously through a desert to a land full of promise.
If I had the time I could go through a whole list of people. People like Rahab the prostitute, Jonah ? the man who ran away from God, Samson ? a womanizer, countless people Jesus hanged out with who were considered the scum of society, or Saul ? a man who stood by at the death?s of many early Christians, and went out of his way to eradicate them from the earth.
If God can use people like this ? then He can use you! Don?t continue to stare at your past and failures in your life. Pay attention to what you can learn from them, confess your wrongs, your sins ? but then gaze on your present and give your future to Him who cleanses you and gives you purpose and meaning in what you do from now on!
When I look around at my life and think I am better than I am, my deception will side track my Christianity.
Galatians 6:3 (NIV)
3 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
There are some people in life who think they can do no wrong. Everyone else in the world does wrong.
There are people who have deceived themselves into thinking that they are really good people.
?pay attention because without God?s grace and Christ?s work on the cross you are a sinner doomed to eternal death.
Romans 3:23 (NIV)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 (NIV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(remind the people of the tax collector?s behavior in prayer)
CONCLUSION
In order to stay safely on the road that God has for us to travel we must pay attention and fix our eyes on Christ!!
Romans 12:3 (NIV)
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
The safest place to be in life is to have my eyes fixed on Jesus. When I do, I get a good picture of who I am and where I?m going?
The worse place for me to be is looking at others or looking at myself without the benefit of God?s grace!
There is a whole bunch of ways to look at others and yourself. The only way to keep going forward is to pay attention and fix your eyes on Christ.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.