Thursday, September 13, 2012
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So, what can you do when you realize there's an accident about to happen and you can do nothing to avoid being part of it? Well, you're best bet it to try to limit the damage.
My wife knows. She was driving down a snow-covered hill. Snow was still falling. She proceeded cautiously as she neared the bottom as there were cars ahead of her. She looked in the rearview mirror and she saw a car coming over the top of the hill that she had just driven over, but this one was coming at a fairly high rate of speed and he was not adapting to the weather at all. This was years ago, but man, we still remember it.
That car slammed down the brake and of course when he did that, he started to lose control. My wife knew that car was headed for her; it was out-of-control. She couldn't cross the line into the other lane. There were cars coming that way. There were cars ahead of her. What could she do? Speed up so she wouldn't be rear-ended? But then she'd lose control of her vehicle and run into the others. She made the right choice. She pulled over, gripped the wheel so she wouldn't be out-of-control and hit others. And sure enough, the car behind her hit her. But, she did not hit the others in front of her. She was smart enough to be the one who maintained control when others weren't.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Under Control In An Out-of-Control World."
Well, Our word for today from the Word of God; 2 Timothy 3, where the Apostle Paul says this in verse 1, "Mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control..." And it continues. Then he turns to us as believers and to Timothy at that time and says, "But as for you, you continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know from those whom you have learned it" (2 Timothy 3:14).
Hang onto the wheel when everybody else is out-of-control, he's saying. Yeah, don't let go of that wheel! Don't you lose control. The world's losing control! It's ignoring the boundaries. They're driving fast on slippery pavement. Don't you speed up just because they are.
You know, the world has always been, let's say, oh, ten miles distant from the church, because the world has always been farther from God than the church is. But let's say there's always a distance of say ten miles between them; the church is always more conservative. But as the world moves away from God, the church maintains that same distance. So very quickly, many Christians today are where the world was only a few years ago.
You know what? It's time to grab the wheel and to say, "I'm not moving any further." Maybe you'll take some blows like my wife did, but you've got to say, "I won't be responsible for causing any damage myself." Other believers may see divorce as an answer; it's not an option for us. Others may treat the truth lightly. I'm going to work harder than ever to hold the wheel and tell the truth.
Others maybe devalue sex and love in their bodies by playing with sex or flirting with technical virginity, but my eyes are on Jesus and the purity He represents. Maybe others are building a material kingdom here on earth, but I'm not going to be trapped in that rat race. I want to set a level at what I need and give the rest away.
You can count on it: the world is speeding away from God's standards, but Ephesians 6:13 is still in the book. And it says, "Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground." Yeah!
So, hold on! Maintain control! Because of your allegiance to Christ's standards, you'll be the one who is under control in an out-of-control world.