ME, MYSELF AND I,or PART OF THE GROUP! #2
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
This is part #2... This is part 2 of a series, this will be taught in several lessons.
TEXT:
PROVERBS 11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat:
AND HE THAT WATERETH SHALL BE WATERED ALSO HIMSELF.
Ephesians 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint
supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love.
Psalms 133: 1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in UNITY!
Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith: that you being ROOTED
and GROUNDED in LOVE!
I start this lesson with an illustration MIXTURE VS. COMPOUND...
I have a hand full of pea sized gravel, and a glass of water. I drop the pea sized gravel into the glass of water,and then I vigorously stir. The rocks remain separated from the water.
I have a packet of salt and I mix the salt into a glass of water. I then observe the different reaction of the stirring. The salt loses itself in the water. (Note: if the water is warm the salt dissolves quicker.)
In one glass the two parts remain two parts. In the other glass the two parts so blend that I cannot see the salt.
I then have a bottle of vinegar and oil. They are separated, the oil is on top. After vigorous shaking the two seemingly come together. After a space of time, the two ingredients begin separating again. Their blending is at best only temporary.
I ask how this illustration might represent the family and the church? Which does the Holy Spirit desire?
If we could reduce all things we would find atoms. The atom is so small that we will never see an atom.
Learn how to split atoms and you will have an atomic or nuclear bomb.
When atoms combine you have molecules. A molecule is the smallest part of a substance that retains all the
properties of the substance. Molecules combine in complex ways and life is formed.
1.THE SIN OF ADAM AND EVE HAS MANY ANGLES TO OBSERVE.
THEY LOST SIGHT OF THE WHOLE, THEY FOCUSED ON INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS?
ADAM AND EVE NEVER REALLY EMBRACED GOD AND WHAT GOD WANTED.
God came down in the cool of the evening and walked and talked with Adam and Eve.
They were personal friends with God, but they never took the time to TRUST God nor to KNOW HIM!
BEFORE YOU CAN TRUST GOD --- YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO HIS WORD!
Adam and Eve seemed to love themselves much more than they loved God.
All Adam and Eve seemed to be interested in was, what is in this for me?
They didn’t care about what God wanted? They didn’t care about their children?
They didn’t care about the group of people that would follow after them.
Seems Adam and Eve didn’t really trust God.
They felt like God was withholding something from them that they deserved?
Instead of trusting God and God’s rules, they were so taken in by themselves they lost sight of the goal.
Adam and Eve became so focused on their "TO BE GOD PROJECT" that they could justify sin.
The enemy came by and sucked them right into their self centeredness, that all they could think about is what they
were doing. They forgot --- God, God’s words, and God’s Promises.
ARE YOU TRUSTING GOD? DO YOU KNOW GOD? WILL YOU CHASE YOUR OWN RAINBOW?
Adam and Eve seemed bent on pursuing their own self interest, not God’s!
2. IT’S MY PARTY AND I CAN CRY IF I WANT TO...? AND I WANT TO...!
Modern Christianity is in danger when we focus on individuals rights and demands. This tends to breed selfishness
and immaturity. We need to focus on God and God’s Word! We must fix our hearts and our minds to trust the Word of God.
The Word of God does the Work of God.
The body has many different parts, yet the different parts all function differently. The body is formed for the whole, not the whole for the part. You can pluck out an eye, and the body can continue to function. But then the plucked out eye will not function.
Selfishness within the body can become a cancer of manipulation and control.
3. WHEN SELF LOVE, SELFISHNESS, DEMANDING YOUR OWN WAY BECOMES THE NORM!
Define:
Norm --- acceptable standard of behavior, average, conforming to a pattern.
PAUL WARNS TIMOTHY OF A DAY COMING WHERE SELFISHNESS, SELF FEEDING, PREFERRING ONE’S
OWN WELFARE WITHOUT REGARD TO THE GROUP OR THE WHOLE NEEDS. THIS SELFISHNESS WILL
BECOME THE ACCEPTED NORM WITHIN AND WITHOUT.
I WANT IT MY WAY!
MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY?
2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (great risk for injury, hard, difficult) times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
(conceited, regard own feelings over other’s feelings, excessive appreciation of own virtue)
covetous (wanting what others have)
boasters (to puff up oneself, be assertive, excessive pride, often exaggeration of self value);
proud (excessive self esteem and self value) ....
4. Traitors (people that betray other’s trust, false or no sense of duty or obligation, to over throw or undermine authority)
Heady (out of control, intoxicated by desires, drugs or power, using the head and ignoring the heart and faith)
highminded (elevated opinions of worth, feelings, being exhalted, to think yourself above others)
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God (looking for self gratification, looking to please the 5 senses, sexual pleasure,
desire to have fun and enjoy, fulfill lust and desires)
5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof,
( traditions, methods, expressions that bypass God, to manipulate, to take control,)
from such turn away.
7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.
(Men are learning more and more about less and less until they finally know everything about nothing!)
4. I DON’T HAVE TO TRUST GOD, I WILL WORK IT OUT? MY FRIENDS CAN HANDLE THIS?
There are several problems with self elevation and focusing on me, or my clique. We must avoid power struggles
and gossips that drain the life blood from within the whole.
CLIQUE: a small exclusive group. Us four and no more!
God has a problem with small cliques that are groups with a self-centered focuses.
Small cliques tend to not include others, especially if they are different.
I see cell groups could become clannish and pose a threat to the church at large.
We must build small groups, but we must demand that each group is inclusive with a healthy loyalty to the whole!
With a wedge division becomes inevitable, we must focus on inclusion, love and unity.
5. DON’T TELL OTHERS ALL THE GARBAGE YOU KNOW.
DAVID WAS A WISE MAN, AND HE HAD LEARNED SOME THINGS MAKE VERY LITTLE PROFIT.
Gossips, idle busybodies, lazy eaters and self feeders are among us.
David was the next anointed King, but there were problems from within and from without!
Saul had turned into selfishness and jealousy against David. Saul had failed the Lord and God’s plan.
Saul had been a disappointment to himself, to his family, and to the group of which he had been appointed to serve.
David ran for his life, and he did not know what might happen.
David had to learn to trust God as an individual and then carry this trust to those that served with him.
After many sleepless nights and a long trail of tears, David finally stepped into victory.
All of Saul’s sons were dead, Saul had committed suicide, and David was elevated to the throne.
David had a strange order that he ordered to all those under his command...
2 Samuel 1:20 TELL IT NOT IN GATH, PUBLISH IT NOT IN THE STREETS...
The order came directly from the King, don’t tell the sad story of Saul’s fall.
It may be true, it may be sad, but keep this defeat to yourself. David was mistreated and threatened by Saul, but David
had learned, some things are left better forgotten.
For the sake of the whole group, for the sake of the Philistine enemies to remember and tell Saul’s story over and
over would be self-defeating.
Forget it! Without this warning the whispers in the tents would not have focused on the victories
David had won, but the defeat of the fallen.
Did you know so-in-so is pregnant? Did you know so-in-so failed their church? Did you know....???
6. IT TAKES THREE PEOPLE TO HURT YOU REAL BAD?
A. THE PERSON OR PERSONS THAT SAID THE NEGATIVE THING ABOUT YOU!
B. THE PERSON THAT WAS SO QUICK TO RUN AND TELL YOU!
C. YOU, TO LET THE WORDS FESTER AND INFECT YOUR SOUL!
7.PASS THE SEDATIVE, PLEASE!
I KNOW HOW TO HELP THE WHOLE, KILL THE LIONS IN THE LIONS’ DEN!
We may be thrown into the lions den, but I have never heard that God throws in a pair of dental pliers and a sedative to
tranquilize and calm the lions, while we pull the lions teeth.
The teeth are still there. We must accept the PROMISE to receive the DIVINE PROVISION!
It is the problem between the promise and the provision that will build the church!
We need more than water and Band-Aids! We need to trust God.
8. WE ARE PART OF A WHOLE!
Romans 12: 4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
5.So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy
according to the proportion of faith;
7. Or ministry; let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, oN teaching;
8. Or he that exhorted, on the exhortation: he that giveth, let him do so with simplicity; he that ruleth, with
diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.
9. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another;
11. Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.
16. be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 14 :1. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
4. Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be
holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
7. For none of us live to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
10. But why does thou judge thy brother? Or why does thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ.
11. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
12. SO THEN EVERY ONE OF US SHALL GIVE AN ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO GOD!
13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put forth a stumbling block
or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
9. OFTEN A FAILING STUDENT WILL EXPECT A SLIDING SCALE?
Sickly oaks from sickly acorns grow.
Weak, anemic Christians make weak, anemic churches. As an individual lacks interest in the whole, there will be a
lacking of force, vitality, and spirit of the whole. Anemic is reflective of blood-deficiency from within.
I know zeal without wisdom can hurt many, but my heart knows that death will be in the camp, as long as there is wisdom
without zeal.
When test scores are low, instead of re-teaching the material, the teacher can add on points and make a
Bell Curve, this way not so many fail!
Some school systems will not allow a teacher to fail a student as this is really bad for the EGO!
JUST LOWER WHAT IS EXPECTED? LOWER EXPECTATIONS?
In recent years the point scale for grades have been lowered:
100 to 95% was an "A", 94 to 85% was a "B," 84 to 76% was a "C," 75 to 70 a "D, 69 and below "F."
Today, 100 to 90% is an "A", 90 to 80% is a "B", 80 to 70% a "C," and 70 to 60% is a "D," 59 and below- "F."
We have lowered the grade standards in most school systems.
This is what is socially acceptable, it is too hard to expect so much.
The star athlete students be exempt from real classes, the school’s record is on the line.
Since 1970, the scores on the A. C. T. and the S.A.T., college entrance exam’s have declined.
The USA children used to surpass the world in testing and education. The students from the USA are now ranked 4th
in the world. We have calculators and computers, that old "Reading, ’Writing and Arithmetic" is out dated.
We are dumping millions of dollars to improve education. The class size has been reduced, better educated teachers,
better lunches, less junk food, more sports programs offered to more students.
We are not allowed to post the "Ten Commandments" in schools or offer prayer from the class room.
Teachers can demand students to read the Koran and the Satanic Verses and Sexual perversions, don’t mention the
Creation or the Creator?
As the standard has lowered, the teen pregnancy, the drugs, the violence, the sexual diseases have ever increased.
The halls of many schools have become war zones.
Others opt out of the public class rooms and opt for home schooling, where children learn to be lazy, and take
every other day as a vacation day. Their social skills are often lacking, and the real world will be a lure. I am not
against home schooling, but I am against the lack of real preparation of students for real life.
10. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN MATURITY AND IMMATURITY?
What is the difference in maturity and immaturity? How can we measure where we are in this scale?
Fix your attention on God. God can change you from the inside out.
Selfishness and jealousy seem to thrive in the hearts of many. We demand entertainment and laughter and applause.
How do you think John the Baptist or Elijah would be accepted on today’s Christian TV?
Are we brandishing the flesh?
I heard a famous TV preacher say, Let’s hurry and the get the Bible message out of the way,
that is not what you came to see or hear? Wow, my gut wretched. This was edited out when the TV ran the program.
What do you think the Bible prophets would say to the vulgar, gyrating and rotating hips with the vibrations of the music,
with clothes as tight as skin, or scantly clothed; choreographed flesh shaking on stages with deafening intensity of
volume that is obtrusive and offensive, with mumbled words, building a confused messages?
The crowds are jumping and dancing and screaming to the flesh! This must be God?
The preacher that voices alarm is made to be a religious fanatic and old timer that is square and out dated.
We have cross over music, that is sung by the world in the world’s language, then sang at church, so we can
take the same smutty words and change the interpretation to mean Godly things?
Where are the hymns and choruses with the message clearly defined --- J-E-S-U-S! REPENTANCE! WORSHIP! PRAISE!
The message is reaching the flesh, but not the spirit man. If we sow to the flesh, of what shall we reap?
We need a standard of measure that is not from a man, but from God, to recognize what God desires in us,
and what God’s real desire is, and then establish a standard of self measurement that promotes what God is looking for in us,
as individuals, and then establish a process that will bring real sustained growth to the body of Jesus Christ!
11. "WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST?" SAID THE PIG TO THE CHICKEN?
We as individuals must see where our real commitments lie?
Recall the story I often use... The pig and a chicken awoke one morning, their sleep had been so refreshing.
The morning’s sun was warming the area around the barn, and the animals were becoming active.
The pig said to the chicken, "WHAT SHALL WE HAVE FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING?"
The chicken scratched in the dirt, and raised her head,
" I KNOW WHAT WE SHALL EAT THIS MORNING, LET’S EAT BACON AND EGGS!"
This meal would require the chicken to give, but the giving would require that the pig pay with it’s life.
Within the church, we have so many chickens giving a sacrificial offering of their one egg.
But, to give bacon, requires a level of commitment to the whole that few will ever learn!
12. BURNED OUT OR BURNED UP? THE LESSON OF THE THORN!
It is so easy to focus on your needs, wants, and desires, that you do not contribute to the whole.
The thorn on a rose is an interesting study. I love to ponder on the rose and the thorn.
A thorn is a specialized leaf. A healthy leaf is green and grows out from the plant.
A leaf manufactures food and sugars by photosynthesis.
A leaf contributes to the general health of the plant.
A thorn does not contribute any food to the plant. The thorn is an involuted leaf. It is wrapped up in itself.
The thorn is curved inwardly, and thus takes and does not give.
Perhaps we can understand the crown of thorns Jesus wore on His Head.
We get so tired. We get tired of working. We get tired of giving. We are so tired after all our giving our dream is
still not achieved and our hopes are dashed in the thickets of pain and disappointments. Others have let us down.
We have let ourselves down. We are burned out, exhausted, worn-out and still we have not attained as a group or as an
individual the recognition we deserve? Are you tired of playing second fiddle?
Not only are we burned out, we are burned up! Irritated! We have been provoked. We are angry! We have impatience!
Our calling and work has become a resentful annoyance. I am tired of people and people problems. I am tired of
repeating kindergarten 100 times. Seems our nerves are well worn by constant bickering and trivial pursuit?
We cannot run and hide. We cannot hit back. We cannot get even. We cannot quit. We cannot look back.
We work with problems and people, we cannot allow our flesh to become tired and irritated and thus become depressed.
We have to continue laughing! Cry and then turn it to laughter.
You are not the BOSS! You are not the JUDGE! Edify others. Encourage.
PROVERBS 11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: AND HE THAT WATERETH SHALL BE WATERED ALSO HIMSELF!
Solomon wrote Vexation, Vexation, all is vexation? I understand his words and works. God grow us! God teach us!
God teach me how to come together in the power of agreement and invest our time, talent and energy wisely.
God teach me to make the decisions and choices to build relationships of trust with You and Your people!
Can you help me? Share this with a friend? Help enlarge my work?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
