Learn From Your Mistakes
One of the frustrating things about preaching a 20-minute sermon on JosephLet me stop right there. We do try...try...to keep our sermons to 20 minutes. I know that seems far-fetched to some of you, but it's always the goal. And those of us who take the pulpit at the College Church will ALL attest that, even though she is absolutely quiet, we can all feel Sandra looking at us from her praise team seat on stage.
is that there is just so much to cover. Another frustrating thing about it is, just between us, I'd really rather be preaching about Jacob. I think the title of my Jacob sermon would be "How's That Working For You?" What a great example he was of beating your head against the wall, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,
which I've heard used as the definition of insanity
until finally one day God has to literally wrestle him to the ground. And even so, when he was the patriarch of his own family, he still seemed to have missed out on some valuable lessons. Lessons like
DON'T PLAY FAVORITES: Rebekah loved her boy, Jacob, more than her boy, Esau. Jacob was a momma's boy. He took some bad advice and paid for it with 20 years in a foreign land. Later, when his favorite wife gives him his favorite son, he makes sure everybody knows it (to be fair, Joseph didn't do much to hide it either). The result? Joseph spends 20 years in a foreign land.
DON'T BE DECEITFUL: Jacob tricked his father with lies and goatskin. Later, his own sons trick him with lies and goat's blood. As a man reapeth....
LET GOD BE GOD: After Esau foolishly traded his birthright for a bowl of stew, Jacob (and mommy) took matters into his (their) own hands in fooling Isaac. The birthright was his, but only after many years of hard labor and some palpable tension between brothers. God put Jacob's son in a position to give his family food in a time of famine, but only after many years of separation and imprisonment and some palpable tension between brothers. How would God have brought about His will without the help of Jacob and his boys?
Everybody blows it from time to time. We all give in to temptation sometimes. Some of us even cheat on tests! The successful person is the one who doesn't blow it the same way twice.
He's never been able to learn from mistakes,
So he can't understand why his heart always breaks....
-- Billy Joel (Angry Young Man)
posted by Thurman8er @ 8:42 AM
4 Comments:
I hope I don't ever get the idea that I am so good that people will listen to me for more than 20 or 30 minutes. I think I would be fooling myself.
The phrase "falling into temptation" reminds me of a statement that a guy in our church make once. We were talking about "falling in love" and he said that he didn't like that phrase because anything that he "fell into" was not usually a good thing. I thought that was a pretty good saying.
O.K. sweethearts...give Sandra a break!
The same person who brought up the "time issues" is the person who gets very upset if he doesn't have enough time in class to teach his lesson. If worship goes too long, teachers don't have enough time.
Goodness! It's tough keeping everybody happy!
You defended yourself well, Sandra.
Preach as long as you need too, Steve. And if they've got ears, they'll hear.
Bro:
Any time you can mix Jacob with Billy Joel, I'll gladly give you 30 minutes of my time.
I'm sure Sandra's stare is an encouraging kind of stare.
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