25 years ago this past fall, I bought my first car. It was a 1976 Chevy Vega. I loved it.
Now my parents had found one of those AMC Pacers in Ohio (remember those, looked like an egg and had lots of glass) but I did not want one of them as unique as they were. So my parents came to Illinois to help me buy a car and I bought this Vega.
Well in early December, I was with a friend of mine driving out on the flat Illinois prairie when I encounter a large pothole out in the middle of nowhere. (The road I was driving on was pretty chewed up with them but this one was unavoidable.) With a loud bang as the front right tire hit it, my car came to an abrupt stop.
We got out and surveyed the damaged. The force of the hit caused one of the front wheel joints to break and the tire folded under the car. So we were forced to walk about 3, maybe 4, miles back to my friend’s house and call a tow truck that took it back to town.
Potholes can do great damage to front ends, can’t they? They are ruts that can cause plans to change quickly when they inflict damage.
Life has potholes, doesn’t it? It has moments when we hit a rut and everything goes out of whack and we are left shaken and hurt and wondering what to do next. Some of these ruts are the result of other’s actions and some of these ruts in life, these potholes, are the result of our own choices. Some of our life ruts are visible to others, fire, accident, layoff, etc., and some are invisible to others but very known to God and, as time goes by, known to us.
Last week I informed you that our initial 2006 series would be entitled, ’12 Steps to a Better Life.’ I have changed it to ’12 Steps to God’s Way of Living’ because I believe that these steps, the 12 steps of AA, are based on Biblical principles and can help us live life God’s way, as He has always wanted us to live.
As we begin this series I must give credit where credit is due. The outline in your bulletin comes from the work of my colleague in Oklahoma City, Marty Grubbs. (I am adapting it for this series so it is not word for word.)
Marty is pastor of a sister congregation in that city and offered his outlines to us during a gathering at Potowanomi Inn almost two years ago. I recall that the series was one that impacted his life as well.
Now as we begin this series, I want to make clear a couple of things to set all of us at ease: (Overhead 1)
First, in using the 12 Steps as part of this series I am using the important principles behind the 12 steps as suggestions to help us make important changes in our lives and to draw closer to the Lord.
Second, I am not implying that all of us are addicts. Addiction is a major problem in our society. And addiction is not just about substance abuse and alcoholism. It is also about things like power, need, and money. But, I bring this series in the hope that I have experienced as I have read and understood classic 12 Step materials and listened to friends who have worked through these 12 steps. There is a great deal of help in them.
Third, this sermon series is not therapy and we are not a therapy group. Each of us may encounter some personal issues as we go through this series that need to be addressed through an actual 12 Step group and/or through some counseling. But, this time is a time to learn, reflect, and pray about the importance and necessity of personal change in our lives that will help us live God’s way.
Now, having said all of this I call your attention to the listing of the 12-steps on the back your bulletin insert before we walk through our main text for this morning.
In his series, Marty began with the illustration of a rut. Now what is a rut? (Overhead 2) A grave with both ends knocked out.
Many of us have experienced being stuck in a snowdrift or a rut filled with snow and or ice this time of year. What are our options when we have those experiences?
Well, for one we can rock the car back and forth back and forth to try to get out. I had to do that a few weeks ago with the church van prior to the teen Christmas party. We had it parked out back and I finally had to shovel some snow out of the way so that I could enough traction to get it out to the street after trying to rock it out. I thought that I would never get it out onto the street.
Another way is to ask for help and several people push and pull to get us out of our rut or snowdrift. 8 years ago, I remember a snowstorm that caught me (and a lot of other people) by surprise in Central Kentucky. I was at the seminary that I attended for a conference and enlisted the help of 6 seminary students to help push me out of a snow-covered parking lot. It took us nearly 30 minutes because the snow was so deep that it almost lifted my car off the ground as I plowed through it!
When you get in a rut of a different kind, when you struggle with attitudes, habits, and behaviors that keep you in a rut, what do you do? Rock harder hoping to get out of it by yourself? Or ask for help?
How do we deal with those things that Paul spoke of, as we heard last week, in Romans 7? Those ruts that tie us up in knots inside and create problems on the outside as well. Who among us this morning has not experienced the agony of Paul as he bears his soul, ‘for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. I do the very thing I hate?’
As you begin 2006, I would like to suggest that we can get, with God’s help, out of our ruts. Now I am saying that it will be easy. The words used by Paul admit that this is an ongoing process and struggle. But, in verse 25 he acknowledges that through Christ, we can overcome the ruts brought about by sin and its power. This brings us to our first step in the process.
This first step is about the importance of admitting that you are in a rut. Step 1 in entering God’s way of life – is to admit we were powerless over our rut that our lives had become unmanageable. This is sometimes the last thing that we want to do. Our pride gets in the way and will challenge our honesty because pride is about image management or, more bluntly, denial. (Overhead 3)
An Old Testament story reminds us how we get in our ‘ruts’ that cause us such pain and turmoil and block God’s path into our lives. It is the story of David and Bathsheba.
David got into his rut because first of all:
He Replaced God.
In 2 Samuel 8:13 we read ‘So David became very famous.’ Fame is a very addictive thing. People will do anything to become famous. Somewhere along the line, this fame got to David and he began to let his guard down. He began to slide downhill away from the commitments and beliefs that he had built his life on; values and commitments that had God at the center of his life.
In his book, Half Time Bob Buford tells the story of meeting a renowned management consultant at a critical point in his life to determine what course the rest of his life would take. The man, named Mike, asked Buford one simple question, ‘What’s in the box?’
The point of this question was to have Buford decide what the most important thing in his life was to be and to place that choice ‘in the box.’ Now Buford was a successful Christian businessperson who found the lure of success (and we can say fame) waning in his life. He was discovering a stronger urge toward significance rather than success. That desire determined his answer to Mike’s question. It was Jesus Christ. As a result Buford started a ministry nearly a decade ago to help larger churches be more effective in their ministry. And Buford has found peace and satisfaction in his life. But David put himself in the box and he began to dig his rut.
As time moves on, David’s internal life switches gears to the point as we read in 2 Samuel 11:1 ‘The following spring, the time of year when kings go to war,’ David sent Joab and the army alone without his leadership and presence. He dug the rut deeper because he failed to do what he need to do – in this case, be a king and go out with the army. It would be a costly mistake.
Control becomes an issue here as David attempts to deal with the ‘rut’ he finds himself in:
We notice in the following verses:
We try to control ourselves. After David notices Bathsheba in verse 2, a battle begins inside of him. He notices a beautiful woman bathing a few doors over and lust kicks in. He asks about her. He becomes obsessed with her. Finally, he cannot control himself any longer and, as we read in verse 4, “Then David sent for her.” The result is adultery and an illegitimate pregnancy. His rut becomes so deep that he cannot control himself anymore. It goes from bad to worse.
David then becomes aware that he is in a very difficult (and disobedient) situation. He then does something that all of us do when we find ourselves in such a situation: We try to control our circumstances. A better term is ‘massive cover-up.’ David decides to cover his tracks and take control the situation.
David calls Bathsheba’s husband home. His name is Uriah and he is a loyal subject and warrior. He does not stay with his wife or eat rich food because his fellow warriors are still on the battlefield. Uriah is a man of honor of integrity. I wonder what David felt at that point. Shame? Guilt? Anger? Fear? All of the above?
We go on to notice in verse 13 that ‘David invited him to dinner and got him drunk.” Here is a man who wrote what we now call the 23rd Psalm getting a man drunk in the hopes that he will sleep with wife and then believe that he got his own wife pregnant.
Can we imagine the desperation in David? Shame and guilt were working him over pretty good and still he was not accomplishing his task of burying them as well as covering his tracks. So he goes to the next step, one that we resort to when life does not go our way and we try to make sure that it does: We try to control others.
One of my favorite lines in the movie Gettysburg is ‘There is nothing so much like God as a general on a battlefield.’ And when we are hurting from the pain of our rut and our equilibrium is out of whack, we often resort to control of others to either cover our own pain and disappointment or pass it onto others and blame them for our situation. David plays general in this situation. He sends Uriah back to the war with an order, as we read in verse 15, ‘Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.’
David has been called ‘A man after God’s own heart.’ We read in the Bible of his passionate pursuit of God and His ways. However, in this case, he is going further and further away from God because the rut that he has gotten himself in continues to become deeper and deeper.
Well, Uriah dies and David probably breathes a sigh of relief. But he is still in a rut. Some scholars suggest that the encounter between David and the prophet Nathan that we read of in the next chapter probably took place a year later because the baby had been born.
I wonder how often David looked over his shoulder and wondered who knew his secret? I wonder if he looked at Bathsheba through eyes of guilt and shame. I wonder how his prayer life was going and whether or not he felt God had suddenly gotten far away.
Nevertheless, God knew about the rut and he comes to confront David about his choices and knock down the wall of denial for the purpose of restoring David. You see David’s rut, David’s problem, David’s sin created Unbearable pain in his life and the lives of others.
Nathan forces David to admit the truth about what had happen. Ever had to admit the truth? Not easy sometimes is it?
David admits to the existence of the rut that he has dug for himself. But, as with many ruts that we dig for ourselves, there is a price to be paid.
As we read in 2 Samuel 12:15, the baby grows seriously ill and in verse 16 we read, ‘David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare floor.’
The child dies and David is grief stricken. The ruts that we dig sometimes causes us great pain and to get out of them requires us to face that pain that would have been much easier to face if we would have done so in the first place. Our ruts affect others and left unaddressed they create isolation from and anger with God and others. Ruts become a Temporary fix that hold pain at bay for a short time.
So, what do we do when we find ourselves, like David, in a rut and looking up? Two things: 1. Admit that you are in a rut. 2. Determine to get out of the rut.
We need to admit that we have a problem, that our lives are unmanageable, and that there is an area of life that we have no control over. ‘That’s hard, Jim!’ Yes it is! But, it is necessary if we are going to experience God’s way of life.
Then we have to determine that we are going make some changes. This is where the next steps come in. They provide us with a course of action that can help us make changes possible. (Overhead 4) Which brings us to Step 2: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
What do you believe can help you out of your rut? There is only one true answer – God. The Christian faith is not about politics and cultural issues although there are political and cultural implications to our faith. The Christian faith is about change, in us through the power and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ.
This second step is about believing that God can help us out of our ruts and into living the life that He created us to live in the first place.
God, and His power, is the only power that can bring lasting change to our lives. But we have to admit our need and believe that God can help us.
In conclusion, I share five things that Marty Grubbs reminds us that God wants us to know about Him: (Overhead 5)
First, you are not alone. As we read in I Chronicles 28:20, David said to his son Solomon, as he (Solomon) was assigned the task of building the Temple in Jerusalem, ‘Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged by the size of the task, for the Lord God, my God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.’ God is with us when we make the decision to get out of our ruts and move forward!
Second, He cares about you. We read in Psalm 103:13. ‘The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.’ Now the words, ‘father,’ ‘tender,’ and ‘compassionate,’ all in the same sentence may seem to some of us this morning strange and implausible because of our life history. But, God is a perfect father who wants to be (and is) the perfect parent. He does care for you and he wants to help you!
Third, He knows all about your troubles. Psalm 56:8 is a very moving statement in support of this truth. ‘You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.’ In the midst of the night as we lay awake and in tears over our ruts and the pain and loneliness that we are experiencing; during the day as we struggle; God knows about them both. He knows the pain and heartache that we experience and He cares for us!
Fourth, He has the power you need. In Luke 18, we read of Jesus’ encounter with the Rich Young Ruler (who had rut by the way, his wealth, which kept him from living the life that Jesus offered him). After the conversation He made a comment that it was easier for a camel to thread the eye of a needle that for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. This comment prompted a question, ‘Then who in the world can be saved?’ To which Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible from a human perspective is possible with God.’ God’s power can make possible the ability to get out of the ruts in your life!
Fifth, not only is God’s power able to help you, He wants to give you his power! Paul says in Philippians 2:13, ‘For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.’ That urge to get out of the rut? That’s God’s desire! That desire to want to change? That’s God’s desire! That hope that my life can change for the better? That’s God desire! He is at work, nudging you through His Holy Spirit, through others, and through circumstances to help you come to Him so that you might have His power to do what pleases Him and live the life that He has created you to live!
For a moment, I want each of us to imagine Sunday, January 7, 2007, (yes, 2007!) that is one year from now. Imagine that you have put these 12 steps into practice and that you have gotten out of a major rut in your life.
How would that feel? What would be different? What did you do to get there?
That could be a reality for you this time next year because it is God’s will for each of us to get out of our ruts, those habits, attitudes, and even situations that cause us to stumble and fall. Are you willing to do what is necessary to make it happen? It starts with two simple steps: 1. Admit that you have a problem. 2. Believe that God can help you overcome this problem and turn to Him for help. What a great way to start a new year! Are you ready to do it? The Lord stands ready and waiting to do so. Will you let Him in? I pray that each of us will do so, starting today. Amen.
PowerPoints for this sermon is available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for 010806 svgs
