October 11, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 3: 14-16, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: The Power to Control

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INTRODUCTION:

An individual was driving rather erratically.

Another screamed at him, "Where did you get your driver's license, anyway, Sears?

Why do we license drivers of automobiles?

  1. We recognize the need of controls.
    1. To drive an automobile you need a license.
      1. You need to know the rules
      2. You need to pass written and driving tests.
      3. There are penalties for violating the rules.
      4. You need to know the penalties for the violations of the rules
  2. Control of life depends on the rules that are used.
    1. We are being influenced today to ignore or to violate the rules.
    2. This is emphasized in a John Leo column from the October 12, 1998 issue of N.S. News and world Report, page 18.
    3. ON SOCIETY BY JOHN LEO The selling of rebellion(1)
      1. "Most TV viewers turn off their brains when the commercials come on. But they're worth paying attention to. Some of the worst cultural propaganda is jammed into those 60-second and 30-second spots.
      2. "Consider the recent ad for the Isuzu Rodeo. A grotesque giant in a business suit stomps into a beautiful field, startling a deer and jamming skyscrapers, factories, and signs into the ground. (I get it: Nature is good; civilization and business are bad.) One of the giant's signs says 'Obey,' but the narrator says, 'The world has boundaries. Ignore them.' Trying to trample the Rodeo, the hapless giant trips over his own fence. The Isuzu zips past him and toppling a huge sign that says 'Rules.'...

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      3. "In his book The Conquest of Cool, Thomas Frank points to the Sixties counterculture. He says it has become 'a more or less permanent part of the American scene, a symbolic and musical language for the endless cycles of rebellion and transgression that make up so much of our mass culture--rebellion is both the high- and mass-cultural motif of the age; order is its great bogeyman.'
      4. "The pollster-analysts at Yankelovich Partners Inc. have a different view. In their book Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing, J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman say rule-breaking is simply a hallmark of the baby boom generation: 'Boomers always have broken the rules. The drugs, sex, and rock 'n roll of the '60s and '70s only foreshadowed the really radical rule-breaking to come in the consumer marketplace of the '80s and '90's.'
    4. We live with two sets of rules.
      1. Don't expect the rules of culture and society to provide controls.
      2. Wehave another and much more potent source.

MAIN BODY:

  1. God knows that we need controls.
    1. Control over thought
    2. Control over morals
    3. Control over activity
  2. We have significant biblical illustrations to demonstrate the lack of controls.
    1. Noah and the Flood
      1. (Genesis 6:5-6 NRSV) The LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. [6] And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.

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    2. Sodom and Gomorrah
      1. (Genesis 13:13 NRSV) Now the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD.
      2. So great that there was no way to save, but only Lot, and his two daughters from the holocaust which came upon it.
    3. Jesus words to the religious leaders of Israel in Matthew 23.
      1. Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
        1. [2] "The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; [3] therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.
        2. [4] They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.
        3. [14] [15] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
        4. [23] "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. [24] You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
      2. James' describes the dangers of the use of the tongue
        1. (James 3:2-9 NRSV) For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle.
        2. [3] If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies.
        3. [4] Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.
        4. [5] So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! [6] And the tongue is a fire.

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      3. Figure of speech
        1. METONYMY is using one word which may be used to represent something else. Sometimes metonymy is used to designate one thing by the name of another with which it may be associated.
        2. The tongue represents total thought and actions of an individual
    4. Moral controls
      1. (Matthew 5:27-30 NRSV) "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' [28] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [29] If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. [30] And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
      2. I once heard it said, that we walk through beautiful gardens of flowers, but we do not have to pick every one.
    5. Thought control
      1. Philippians 4:8
        1. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
      2. Control can truly only be of the person.
      3. When I was younger:
        1. I was going to save the world
        2. The church
        3. The family
        4. Realized only myself
        5. I cannot do this on my own.

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    6. Controls over activities
      1. Philippians 4:9
        1. [9] Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
  1. We are in need of the power to control.
  2. What are we going to control?
    1. I can only control myself.
    2. You can only control yourself.
  3. How are we going to develop the controls that we need?
    1. To what will we appeal.
    2. Paul appeals to strengthening the inner person.
  4. What do we hope to accomplish through the application of controls?
    1. Ephesians 3:14-17
      1. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, I as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
      2. Paul prays that we may be strengthened in our inner being
      3. With power through his Spirit
      4. The Spirit which inhabited Jesus.
      5. This is the Holy Spirit
    2. If we allow the Holy Spirit to help us we can develop what are called the "fruits of the Spirit."
      1. Paul in Galatians 5:19-25, contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruits of the Spirit
        1. Now the works of the flesh
        2. are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
        3. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is
        4. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

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    3. Paul declares that, "those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
      1. And
    4. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

CONLCUSION

  1. When you fly you trust that the pilot of the aircraft is competent to sit at the controls.
    1. Fly with safety
    2. I talked with Larry Walton, who flies for American Airlines about the licensing of pilot's
    3. He have to undergo periodic physical
    4. He has to be constantly checked out to verify their skills and judgement.
      1. Classroom
      2. Simulator
  2. Life is the classroom and the simulator.
    1. We are constantly being checked out to see if our personal controls are working properly.
    2. If we use Paul's counsel in Ephesians 3:14-17, we will be found fit for service
    3. To paraphrase this words we read:
      1. For this reason we bow our knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. We pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that each of us may be strengthened in our inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love.
  3. A shepherd was once asked how a sheep gets lost.
    1. He answered, "One nibble at a time."
    2. We grow one nibble at a time.
    3. But we can grow.

1. John Leo, "The Selling of Rebellion," U. S. News & world Report, vol 125, no.14, (October 12, 1998), 18

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