I. Introductory Comments:
From this scripture, we can see that King David marvels at the handy work of God. He sees God’s wonderful creation and asks the question what is man that God is mindful of him. Although this Psalm does not provide us with the answer to the question, the answer is made very clear throughout the Bible. Humanity is God’s most precious creation. In our creation, God provided ten written rules (which you might know as the Ten Commandments) and ten unwritten rules. These unwritten rules apply to everyone, not just the person who has faith. It is these ten rules that I would like to breifly examine.
II. Ten Rules For Being Human
1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for your entire time here on earth.
a. the body each of us receives is a gift from God and is intended to be used.
- the ability to eat chocolate chip cookies and drink ice cold milk.
- we need to take care of our bodies, but not worship them.
- God give us a body to be used wisely while we are waiting for his return.
b. regardless if we like our bodies or not they are only temporary.
- else where in the Bible we are told that we have body a physical and a spiritual body. Although our physical body my not be perfect our spiritual body will be
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
- this is a scary thought… everything in life is a lesson.
a. your marriage
b. your children
c. your finances
d. your friends
e. your job
f. your mother-in-law
g. field exercises
h. everything is a lesson
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error. Experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that “works”
- a. the only time a person truly fails at anything is when they stop trying.
b. when we are going through life we may experience setbacks, but God will always give us another chance, after all we are God’s most prized creation.
- no matter what setback you may experience, be it:
- losing control of your temper
- over eating
- use of foul language
- watching moves of television programs that are inappropriate.
- whatever your setbacks may be
God, loves you and will give you another chance if you ask for it.
4. A lesson is repeated until it is learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then move on to the next lesson.
- I am sure that many of you have heard of remedial classes. You know those classes that are intended for individuals that have difficulty learning for whatever reasons. Well God also offers remedial classes, and all of us, myself included have had to take some of God’s classes over and over again weather we realize it or not. Some of God’s classes include: remedial humility, remedial love, remedial compassion, remedial faith and on and on the list could go.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive there are still lessons to be learned.
When I think about this 5th rule of being human, I am remedied of the poem All I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten. The author of this poem says:
Most of what I really needed to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not found at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox.
Here are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don’t hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess
Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
Say your sorry when you hurt someone.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush
Warm cookies and ice cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life.
Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play a work every day…some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots goe down that the plant goes us and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK.
Everything you need to know is there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and sane living.
Think of what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had a basic policy to always put things back were we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
6. “There” is no better than “here”. When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better that “here”
a. this does not meant that we should not try to better ourselves.
b. this does, however, mean that no matter how much we have or how much we accomplish we will always want more or to do better. We can’t help it, it’s human nature.
- J. P. Morgan once one of the richest men in the world was once asked how much more is enough for him. Morgan replied just a little more.
c. once we have reached a reasonable standard of living we need to learn to be satisfied with what we have and seek the betterment of others. This does not mean that we are to live as if we are poor, nor does it kmean that we are to live beyond means.
i. A.W. Tozer, perhaps one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, once suggested that Jesus is not pro-poverty. In fact he suggest that Jesus is not opposed to people living comfortably, but he does demand that we treat the poor and the social outcasts with the same respect that we would want to be treated with.
ii. Jesus in Matthew 25 says we need to show respect and concern for the poor and the needy by:
- feeding the hungry.
- clothing the poor.
- caring for the sick.
- visiting the imprisoned prisoners.
While many churches do these things many people prefer not to get involved. Many find it easier to give money to a cause than to help out personally.
d. In realizing that “there” is no better than “here” we as human beings must choose to help others.
7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
a. this a difficult, but true rule.
- think about it, do the actions and attitudes of others reflect something you do that you don’t like about yourself?
b. this is a difficult rule because when we think about it, we are give a glimpse of who we truly are as individuals.
8. All the answers for life lie all around you.
All you need to do is ask, look, listen and have faith.
a. when we need answers to the questions of life, all we need do is pray. Trust me God does not give bad advise or directions.
b. after praying we need to ask the advice of Godly council.
1. First and foremost God speaks to us through the Bible. Do you know what the word BIBLE stands for?
B - basic
I - instructions
B - before
L - leaving
E - earth.
2. God speaks to us through his Spirit.
through the scriptures, through Chaplains,
through others,and ceritanly through
“circumstances and situations”
9. You will forget almost all of this Even though you may forget these ten rules, the reality of life is that you will also go through your life using these basic rules regardless of your faith.
10. What you make of your life is up to you.
God gives each one of us all of the tools and resources we need to live the successful Christian life. What we do with them is up to us. The choice is yours.
a. This leads us back to David’s question “what is man that God is mindful of him.” We are God’s most prized creation and he wants only the very best for us. He has given us these ten rules for being human which we all must live by, but even if we follow these rules perfectly without having a relationship with Jesus, we can never as individuals be the persons God wants us to be. We can never be all we can be.
