“Adjustments”
By Brother Kenneth Ray
September 11th,
2011
Click here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
Do you ever
get
tired of yourself? Do
you ever find
yourself complaining about what others don’t so, and then realize that
you aren’t
doing ‘that’ either (whatever ‘that’ is)? Have
you heard that song, “Mess of Me”
by
Switchfoot? They
talk about, “I am my
own affliction / I am my own disease / There ain't no drug that they
could sell
/ Ah, there ain't no drug to make me well.” Apostle
Paul said it a little differently:
Romans
7:24 O,
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?
Are
you tired of
yourself? I’m tired
of me; I know I can
do better. After
9/11, America
had to
make some adjustments. For
some people,
it’s hard to make adjustments. Let
God
show us things in prayer. I’m
glad to
live in a country with such privileges, such as freedom of worship. This country was built on
the principle of
one nation under God. Maybe
it’s not
operating on that principle, now, but that’s what it was built on. We need to get back to what
we were built upon.
We need to
substitute for pride. We
need to substitute for football. We
need to substitute for shopping. We
need to substitute for gossip. We
need to substitute for chocolate. We
need to substitute for fishing. There
is no substitute for Splenda, or Equal,
or pure cane sugar. We
need to get back
to the foundation where God would have us to be.
As Americans, we have some serious resolve.
We need to
do
some self-evaluation. It
has to be
self-evaluation, because when somebody else does it, it’s just
criticism. Even
when it’s constructive criticism, it’s
still criticism, and not an evaluation.
We need to
be
humble. That’s a
hard thing.
Resolve
Acts 26:28-29
… Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Paul
was in
chains when he said this. When
you are
seeking God, you need to make adjustments to get closer to Him. Push things aside to get
closer to God. Even
if you’ve been walking with Him for
several years, you still need to make adjustments to stay close or to
get even
closer. You can’t
see an undertow, but
you can still get sucked under; adjustments are part of daily life.
When you
first
got excited for God, you were willing to do anything for Him. Somebody asked you to clean
the bathrooms, and
you were right there, on it. Twenty
years later, someone asks you to clean the bathrooms, and you say,
“Don’t you
know who I am?” and you start listing off your titles. Twenty minutes or twenty
years later, you need
to have he same resolve as you had after twenty seconds. Don’t ‘crawfish’ (back
away from your
responsibilities).
It takes
the
same effort of resolve to say yes as to say no. If
I ask you to go shopping with me, and you
say, “I’m at home.” “Go
shopping with
me.” “My foot
hurts.” “Go
shopping with me.” Do
you realize how much effort people use to
say ‘no?’
As
Americans, we
had to adjust after 9/11, but we went back to the way we were living. Why is that? because we
refuse to live in
fear. Don’t allow
fear to keep you from
making adjustments. “I’m
afraid that
people will figure out that I’m not perfect.” I’ve
got news for you, they already know.
Don’t let that shortchange you today. I’ll be honest with you,
if they were giving
away gold, my pride would keep me from getting a mountain full.
Evaluation
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith…
Remember
what I
said earlier about criticism? You
notice
it didn’t say to go to some elder in the faith and ask them to tell you
what’s
wrong. You’d
probably get your feelings
hurt if they answered you honestly, anyway. Just
knowing what’s wrong is not enough; you
still have to do something about it. Some
things you are capable of doing yourself, making adjustments or changes
to
align yourself to God’s Spirit. This
is
the part we like, because we have some control. Most
of the time, that works out
fine. We need to
learn to be comfortable
with being helpless. There
are some
things we just can’t do; we have to cry out to God and then let Him
change us. Don’t do
that crawfish thing because you know
it’s going to hurt. There
are some
things that only God can adjust. You
wouldn’t go to the chiropractor because you need an adjustment and then
not let
the chiropractor touch you, would you? (“Just
stand over there, and I’ll stand over here, and you work on me from
afar.”)
A good way
to
evaluate yourself is to ask, “How much am I leaning on God?” You know He said to cast
your cares upon Him, right?
(1 Peter 5:7) You
have to have
resolve. It takes
more than religion; it
takes more than a church. It
takes a
close relationship with God.
Where is
your
ministry? Is it
just on Sunday morning? When
you get together for what you call
fellowship, are there any new faces? Are
you just living your life? Are
you
trapped in your routine? It’s
what you
learn here that you take out use to evangelize, educate and equip that
is your ministry.
Draw closer to
God; remember that He
said, “I am with you, alway.” (Matthew 28:20)
Joshua 24:15
… choose
you this day whom ye will serve…
Are
you quoting
what Joshua said, or are you living what is being quoted? Adjustments are part of this
life. Have we
gotten so far away from the
foundation that it seems strange to fellowship? Or
are you always socializing with the same
people? And, if so,
who are you adding
to the kingdom? Go
ye, therefore
(Matthew 28:19). You
can only indict
yourself, or exonerate yourself; you cannot justify yourself—only God
can
justify. Have the
resolve to honestly
evaluate your own life and be humble enough…
Humble
1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves therefore under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Jesus
humbled
Himself.
Philippians 2:7-8
… And being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself…
If
Jesus can do
it, and He’s my example (1 Peter 2:21), then why can’t I? Jesus took upon Himself the
form of a servant,
so I can be a servant, and not the boss. Remember
that Jesus said, “Not my will, but
thine.” (Luke 22:42) He
went from
teacher, healer, prophet, savior to being beaten, thorns, put on a
cross, and
buried. Despise the
shame and
humiliation. You
know what E-G-O stands
for? Edging God
Out. We don’t want
to be humiliated. Satan
is subtle, and he erodes your
foundation, and you may not even realize it. Choose.
Jesus chose, and Joshua chose; they committed their
souls to God of
their own free will. You
should choose
of your own free will also; I’m not going to try to strong-arm you into
Jesus. He will not
only receive us, but that which we
commit to His hand.
You will
find
that you will need fewer adjustments made when you allow the Holy Ghost
to have
His way. The Holy
Ghost has a unique way
of making the proper adjustments at the right time and place in such a
way that
you don’t even know that He’s doing it until you reap the benefits of
it.
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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